John Lithgow: The man you're looking at is me John Lithgow.
You might know me.
I've spent my career as an actor, but when I was a kid, I wanted to be an artist.
I was constantly drawing, painting, printmaking.
A big reason for this-- my teachers.
I was lucky to have wonderful art teachers in public schools, who fired my imagination and made me a better student.
These days, I've come to see those teachers as my heroes, the people who filled me with confidence, curiosity, and a sense of myself.
In the last few years, an idea has taken hold in my mind, an urge to showcase arts in education, to celebrate great teachers, and to share my belief in the essential role that arts play in educating all young people, so I ventured back to school to experience the power of the arts at 4 locations in Los Angeles.
[Music playing] [School bell ringing] John: I decided early on to venture outside my comfort zone and try things I'd never done before.
In that spirit, I made my first visit to LACHSA, the L.A. County High School of the Arts, and joined a class in vocal jazz ensemble.
I was nervous as a cat.
Thankfully, I met Adam, Natalia, Nate, and Chelsea, 4 class leaders, who took me under their wing.
They prepped me for class and for their formidable teacher Pat Bass, otherwise known as Ms. B.
Is she tough as nails?
Girl: Yes.
Yeah.
John: Is she gonna be tough on me?
That's what I really want to know.
Girl: Yes, I think so.
John: What's the name of the song about boppin?
Girl: "Everybody's Boppin."
John: "Everybody's Boppin."
If I were just to ask you to do that, would you be able to launch right into it now, or if you're-- Girl: Right here?
Girl two: Us?
Kids: ♪ Some cat's saying that bop is dead But that cat done Lost its head Tell that square He's been misled Because everybody's boppin ♪ John: You see?
You see why I wanted to join them.
I am gonna be so terrible at this.
[School bell ringing] I think that's the bell.
Let's go, let's go, let's go to class.
Jeez!
You're taller than I am.
How tall are you?
Boy: I'm 6'8".
John: Oh!
And yet there's no LACHSA basketball team.
[Indistinct chatter] Girl: Hi!
Ms. B: Hi.
How are you?
John: Hi there.
The new kid in school.
Ms. B, how great to see you.
Ms. B: Good to see you.
John: Where do I sit?
Ms. B: Right there.
We're gonna do warmups first.
Girl: You know how babies go, like, "Pbbbb"?
So we do that on the piano.
John: Uh-huh?
Babies?
I do that all the time.
[Laughter] Pbbb.
Girl: Yeah.
♪ Pbbb John: ♪ Pbbb Girl: Yeah.
Yeah.
Boy: Yeah.
There you go.
John: Hey.
I can do this.
[Laughter] [All warming up] Kids: ♪ Ba ba ba Da ba ba ba da ba ba Ba ba ba ♪ Lithgow and Kids: ♪ Ba ba ba Da ba ba ba da ba ba Ba ba ba ♪ Ms. B: Nate, we're gonna go right into the tune.
Nate: "Snowfall"?
Ms. B: Yeah.
Because we've got a part for you.
John: I--Oh, my God.
Ms. B: No, I think you'll like it, and it won't be that complicated.
It'll be your solo, and you're sitting right next to the guy that's gonna help you along.
That's right.
John: I'll be right here.
[Laughter] This is what I'll be looking at the entire time.
Ms. B: Let me, John, explain a little bit about this.
You know, I'm from a town of snow, Buffalo, New York.
John: I know it well.
Ms. B: This tune is about the snow and the falling of the snow and what it's like and what we feel about it.
So here we go from the top.
[Playing piano] Girls: ♪ Ooh, ooh Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ Nate: ♪ Snowflakes Nate and John: ♪ Whisper 'Neath my Window Snowflakes Whisper ♪ John: ♪ Stage fright [Laughter] Nate and John: ♪ 'Neath my Window ♪ Ms. B: Yeah.
Oh, I like it.
You want to do it again, or you want us to go on?
John: Let's have everybody sing.
Ms. B: OK. All right.
[Scat singing] [Cheering] John: That first hour was a revelation.
The class was relaxed and chatty, but when the time came, they were disciplined, expert, and warmly supportive of me.
I saw that among Ms. B's great skills as a teacher was her way of turning her students into teachers, as well.
She was conducting a master class in collaboration.
My next stop was the Community Center in La Cañada Flintridge, home of a nationally renowned studio of ceramics.
All my life, ceramics had been a dark mystery.
I imagined the clay flying in all directions the second the potter's wheel started spinning, but despite my fears of assured failure, I decided to throw myself into it.
Azzah: All right, guys.
Students: Hola!
John: Hi, everybody!
Azzah: Hello.
We have a new student with us.
This is John, everyone.
Today, we are going to be doing a kind of combined project.
I'm gonna do a wheel demo, and then you guys will just kind of circle around, like, right here.
You guys can pull up a chair.
When getting clay, I like to get about a size of my fist to start with.
I could also do this, right, and now I have kind of a nice little cone shape to start.
So I'm gonna take my cone, and I'm just gonna smack it on like that.
Then I can take my finger with some water, and this is gonna seal the clay to the wheel.
Make sure that it's really not going anywhere.
You can see that?
It's kind of moving me around, but if I just tuck and push, then the clay starts to go up, and this is what we call coning the clay up.
And this isn't completely centered.
That's why it's got a bit of a wobble.
John: How hard is this gonna be for me, you think?
Student: Very difficult.
John: I mean, I've literally never done this before.
Girl: My first time, I remember I, like, came in here, and I was nervous because I really didn't know what I was doing, and I was moving a little bit too fast.
Like, my wheel was moving slower than my hands were, so my clay kept, like, breaking off, and, like, eventually--I was trying to make a bowl and it just all, like, collapsed, and then Loren helped me make, like, a little tiny ring dish that I still have.
Azzah: Out of the, like, leftover ring?
Girl: Yeah.
Out of, like, the leftover ring.
Boy: Whoa!
Girl: It's wearing a skirt.
Boy: Yeah.
Azzah: I'm gonna turn it into one of these.
John: That's fantastic.
Girl: It's like a cupcake holder.
Azzah: Let's see if I could do something with this.
John: When you guys first did it, did-- Azzah: Oh!
There we go.
So that part was so thin right there-- John: Oh, I missed that.
Azzah: It just wanted to snap right off.
John: Do it again.
Boy: Do it again.
John: Put it put it back on and then let it flop off again.
Azzah: I can't.
I can't.
And there we go.
That's gonna be what I'm working with today.
This is my masterpiece.
John: Do you feel that teaching itself is a creative act?
Azzah: Yeah, definitely, and I learn more things about myself, too, through teaching.
So you're gonna wrap this left hand... John: Yeah.
Azzah: over.
John: As I suspected, this was proving to be a real challenge, and while I was not about to give up, I did need more guidance, so Azzah took my hands in hers and helped me just as she had helped my classmates.
Azzah: This thumb is gonna get nice and steady before you actually start pressing down.
I'm just gonna get it steady, find the middle, and then you can wrap these fingers around these fingers, and you're gonna kind of bring your thumb up to go straight down.
There you go.
John: And it's just, like, digging-- Azzah: Yeah.
John: digging and-- Azzah: Try to keep in the center and try to just keep your thumb as straight as possible.
John: This is great!
Azzah: Hey!
Not too bad.
All right.
Let's slow it down right there.
John: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Azzah: Ha ha ha!
So when you get to the top there... John: Yeah.
Azzah: try to come off of the pot a little bit instead of following through.
John: Nothing has--nothing has flown off the road yet.
Boy: Which is good.
Better than I can do.
John: Oh, my God.
Boy: You did it!
John: How about that, Walter?
Oh, I was so nervous.
Walter: Yeah.
What were you nervous about?
John: I don't know.
I always imagined that the first 10 times I did this it would all fly up in the air.
Walter: Well, good thing's Azzah's a great teacher.
John: I think I had a very good teacher.
The nice thing about the way Azzah teaches is you don't really feel like you're doing anything wrong, you know, and you can experiment with things and make use of mistakes and everything, and that's great.
You did it in no time.
It's all about the centering of it.
I had wonderful art classes when I was in high school as a teenager, and I think one week we messed around with clay, and I did something in the shape of a giraffe, a little pitcher, which was perfectly hideous, but my mother made sure it was on the mantelpiece of every home they ever had, and they lived in about 10 different homes, and do you remember the first time you did any ceramics at all?
Azzah: Yes.
I was in high school.
I made the world's worst cup.
Um, it was, like, so lumpy.
I feel like it's really easy to be disappointed in yourself with making clay, but I try to tell the students to just, like, be happy that they made anything at all.
John: But I loved the way you dealt with the mistakes here because it is much more valuable to fail than to succeed.
Azzah: Yeah.
John: You learn far more from failure.
Azzah: Yeah.
John: And success sort of leads you in one direction, whereas failure keeps you searching in all directions.
Azzah: Exactly.
I feel like failure, too, is a way to find out, like, what your own personal success means in the first place, right?
Because success isn't universal necessarily.
John: And ceramics is such an interesting version of that because you don't quite know what the result is going to be until it comes out of the kiln.
Azzah: Mm-hmm.
Girl: I want to finish my octopus.
John: Oh, look at that octopus!
That's great.
Girl: No.
It only has 7 legs.
John: Ha ha ha!
Well, that's a septopus.
Girl: Yeah.
John: You're making a difference in these kids' lives.
Azzah: Yeah, I really admire that about this class.
They're always encouraging each other, and I feel like it gives them a lot of confidence.
How do you guys think John did for his first time?
Boy: I think he did really good.
Walter: Really well.
John: I've had such a good time doing this with you.
I let the clay spin and spin and spin in my hands, and before I knew it, a small pot had emerged, not big, not sensational, but for me, a masterpiece.
With a crazy history like mine, I've had the chance to try a lot of things.
Of these, one of the most unlikely was dancing with the New York City Ballet.
That's me as the elephant in "Carnival of the Animals."
To prepare for it, I spent months at the dance academy created and run by my old friend Debbie Allen.
Naturally, I sought out her academy once again.
Meet Ms. Marshall, one of the world's foremost champions of the Katherine Dunham Technique, combining modern dance with the traditional movements of Caribbean and African cultures.
Ms. Marshall: Hi, everyone.
Girl: Hi, Ms. Marshall.
Ms. Marshall: Oh!
John: I'm your newest student.
Ms. Marshall: I hear we have a new student.
How do you do?
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
John: Yeah.
It's so great to meet you.
Ms. Marshall: We normally start at the barre, so they're gonna set the barres out.
We're warming up and getting ready to go across the floor and isolations and all that good stuff.
And 1, flat back, and 2, flat back, and 3 flat back.
Can we do that with rhythm?
Breathe.
Have fun, OK?
Have fun with it.
If you make a mistake, make it a big one, OK?
Ha ha!
And we'll just fix it.
1, up, other side, 2, up, other side.
Now balance.
Both feet on releve.
Find your center.
Good job.
Breathe, everyone.
Yeah.
Make sure--breathing is very important in Dunham or any dance technique.
You have to breathe through all the movement because otherwise you're gonna be gasping for air.
Um, I'd like Estrella to go with John.
John: Mm-hmm.
Estrella: OK. Ms. Marshall: All right.
So isolations.
The head's gonna go right, left, right, left, up, down, up, down.
Here we go.
John: I'm gonna be slightly behind you so I can watch your head.
Ms. Marshall: Ahh.
Go!
Always right, always right.
Very good.
Now we're gonna go to shoulders.
Oh!
[Drums playing] Estrella: Yeah!
[Drums playing] [Drums stop] Ms. Marshall: Very good.
Now I'm gonna tell you a story.
Ms. Dunham fell in love with Haiti, built a home there, built a beautiful center there, and she came up with this walk called the Dunham walk.
She would see women in Haiti with baskets of fruit.
Have you seen an image of women with baskets of fruit and maybe a chicken hanging here, some eggs?
You cannot do this with your head.
You have to keep your head nice and still and strong.
So that's the metaphor I want you to have of these women with their skirts just blowing in the wind, walking to market, so you don't want to lose your produce.
Plie, plie, plie.
Remember, you have a basket on your head.
Keep still and very easy.
Go 1, 2.
2, 3, switch.
1, 2, 3, switch.
Switch, 1, 2, 3, switch.
1, 2, 3, switch.
Breathe.
Get some water, dancers.
John: Yeah, I'm the Energizer bunny.
Need a new battery.
Ms. Marshall: This technique keeps you in good shape.
John: I got to come back.
Ms. Marshall: You have to come back.
Yeah.
This is your first class.
I'd love you to come back and experience the real Dunham Technique.
You know, Ms. Dunham taught us so much.
John: She was interested in so much more than dance.
Ms. Marshall: Oh, absolutely.
John: She was an archeologist, anthropologist.
Ms. Marshall: Yeah, she was an anthropologist.
She created dance anthropology in college at the University of Chicago, and she was a humanitarian.
You know, she cared about people that didn't have anything.
You know, she said to us that dance is a way of life.
John: Yeah.
Ms. Marshall: We should not just take one class.
John: Yeah.
Ms. Marshall: We should just make it part of our lives.
OK, dancers.
Are you ready?
We're gonna close the class with a small combination.
We're gonna add some yanvalou.
Who can tell me what yanvalou is?
Boy: The articulation of your back.
Ms. Marshall: Which means the snake.
Your body moves like a snake.
There's no bones in your body.
You're moving, undulating your body like a snake.
Together.
One, together, together.
Let's go back and try coming forward, OK?
Let's all do it together.
We're a team here.
[Drums playing] Here comes pique.
Go and a pop!
Pop!
Halt.
And that's where we're gonna end for today.
John: Ooh!
Ms. Marshall: OK. Ha ha!
John: I never moved that way before, and several decades in age separated me from my young classmates.
You'll notice me 1, 2, or 3 steps behind them pretty much the whole time, but thankfully, a young dancer named Estrella took me in hand.
It was so much fun.
Ms. Marshall: Say what?
Students: Yellow monkey jungle.
Wow, wow!
Ms. Marshall: All right.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, dancers.
Thank you.
Let's thank the new student.
He did so well!
John: Years ago in my high school days, printmaking was a particular interest of mine.
I did mostly woodcuts, but I had a brief flirtation with silk screen printing, as well.
This was the perfect time to return to it, especially since East Los Angeles was the home of Self Help Graphics, a beacon for L.A.'s printmakers and part of the origin story of California's Chicano movement.
[Mariachi band playing] [Singing in Spanish] I'm John.
Master printmaker Dewey Tafoya was my next teacher.
He and his student Yoli met me in Boyle Heights at Mariachi Plaza, a site bursting with colors and sounds.
[Music continues] Now tell me a little bit about Boyle Heights and what that means to you.
Are you from this area originally?
Dewey: I'm from here.
Growing up around here as a kid, I didn't really know too much about art or artists, but I did have murals, and I think for me that was, like, my art gallery was being able to walk down the street and see murals that depicted culture but history and kind of learning about Cesar Chavez, about civil rights history and social justice history, so I feel like that was a really big influence on just kind of growing up here.
John: Has that had a lot of influence on you?
Yoli: Definitely.
I think, like, especially the Eastside of Los Angeles, it's known for having these murals, like, just behind you, like, looking around.
Yeah.
So I think that definitely inspired me.
John: Tell me where Self Help Graphics fits in with the history of this area.
Dewey: Self Help Graphics was born in Boyle Heights, so it was started in a garage by a Franciscan nun and two queer artists, Carlos Ibanez and Leo Bueno, and they kind of had the idea in the early seventies of just creating a space for folks to come and create art, so their garage turned into a rented building, which eventually turned into, like, a postal truck that would go out and teach people in the community art and then eventually turned into what we have now.
John: Is he a good teacher?
Yoli: Yes, yes.
John: I'm about to find out.
Dewey: Yes.
So the idea is to get you all's creative juices flowing and to create a mashup print, which is basically taking two images and printing them together on one piece of paper.
Just like anything else, the process starts with an idea, and I think, Yoli, you had a really great idea, right?
Yoli: Like, artivism.
Dewey: Artivism.
Yoli: Yeah.
Art and activism.
John: Yes.
Yoli: I think it's just the issues that are worth fighting for in issues that you think affect you and the people around you, so you do something about it, and here, it's make art about it to, like, bring awareness to it.
Yeah.
And also because I am indigenous and, like, a lot of people around me are or, like, we have this whole indigenous community here, so... John: Yeah.
Well, the whole idea is to open rather than close people's minds.
Dewey: The idea of listening, listening to the youth, I think is really important.
John: As an amateur artist, I usually seize on a character.
Just watching those fantastic faces of the mariachi players, does that spark anything in you, Yoli?
Yoli: That sounds cool, and then I was thinking, too, like, with the face, like, maybe it can be made up of other things, like--either, like, motifs or, like, words or, you know, we can incorporate that in there.
Yeah.
John: Great.
This face.
Dewey: It's such a great face.
John: And maybe even getting his fingers on the guitar so that you see that he's singing, and you start riffing on it, too, and let's see what happens, shall we?
Yoli: Sounds good.
John: When Dewey urged Yoli and me to work together on a single image, he was proposing an act of creative collaboration that was becoming a theme of this journey.
Dewey: So once you have your drawing, you're gonna place this over, and you're gonna use either a marker or a china marker, and I feel like this gives you a little bit of texture like crayons.
So once we have our transparency... John: Yeah.
Dewey: we'll create a screen that's coated with a photo emulsion, so it's light sensitive to ultraviolet rays, and then we'll expose this on top of the screen, and after a period of time--I think it's 40 seconds--this will transfer to the screen, and then we have our screen ready to print.
John: You've just covered 60 years of progress.
My time with Dewey and Yoli had been inspiring and eye-opening.
Yoli: I liked what you said about the--like, having his fingers on the strings.
I think you could incorporate that in.
John: And in Yoli, I had gotten to know a young woman wise beyond her years.
In the creative hothouse of Self Help Graphics, she had put to work her youthful commitment to social justice.
She invoked a word I'd never heard before, artivism, expressing the notion that art can be both a reflection and a driver of social change.
Oh, God!
I didn't give myself room for his-- Yoli: And I was sketching out the bow.
John: His bow is the best thing.
Yoli: I think maybe, like the--like, the little motifs and patterns on the, like, rim of the guitar and everything, we could maybe, like, make a frame out of it or-- John: That's a good idea.
Dewey: Coming kind of out and yeah, and it brings them together.
John: Yeah.
Wouldn't that be kind of cool?
Yoli: Yeah.
John: Oh, this is gonna be great.
Dewey: Is there any, like, text you want to add or any other images that you could add?
Yoli: This text.
John: Keep away from her text.
Dewey: OK. John: We even came up with a title for our work that defined the whole project.
"Escucha a otras voces," "Listen to other voices."
Dewey: It's a great message, too.
I think that's something that's needed is lots of listening.
Yoli: Yeah, like, taking a step back.
Dewey: Because you're the present, you're the future.
We're the past.
Wow!
That is an amazing collab.
John: I went to a Elysian Park overlooking Dodger Stadium with the Los Angeles downtown skyline in the distance.
Hey, you guys.
Kids: Hi.
Nate: Hi, John.
John: We sat on rocks on the bluff, and we practiced the song a cappella with no Ms. Bass telling me what to do.
Early in rehearsals, I'm always so uptight and tense, and the voice--the voice just doesn't work.
I tell you, I've done a little work on it so I can sing without the score, but I will get lots wrong, so just be brutal.
Nate: Sure.
John: ♪ Snowflakes Whisper Round my ♪ Whoa, whoa, whoa.
That's a bad.
[Laughter] Nate: ♪ 'Neath my John: ♪ 'Neath my Nate: There you go.
John: ♪ 'Neath How do I find that note?
Nate: You want to, like, kind of support from down here instead of stressing up here.
John: Yeah.
Nate: Because if you support from up here, it's a lot easier to hit that note with precision.
John: Yeah.
Yeah.
And talk to me about the dynamics.
Girl: Yeah.
That's a big part of this song just because a lot of it is, like, held notes, so it's important that we maintain, like, the audience's attention, and the way that we do that is through dynamics, and so we're doing a lot of, like, swells, just growing in volume and, like, starting off smaller so that we have a place to go.
Nate: And I also noticed that, um, your vowels, they're a little, like, harsh, you know what I mean?
Like-- John: Well, imitate me.
"'Neath my, 'Neath my."
Do an imitation of me at my worst.
Nate: ♪ 'Neath my That's, like... John: Horrible.
Nate: No.
John: Now do it well.
Nate: ♪ 'Neath my John: I see.
Nate: Like more--like-- John: ♪ 'Neath Girls: ♪ 'Neath Girl: There's more--more room in your mouth.
Girl two: Yeah, more space.
John: ♪ 'Neath, 'neath, 'neath my ♪ Nate: Like, on your soft palate.
Adam: Taller and, like, round.
Girl: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Very round.
John: ♪ 'Neath my Nate: Better.
John: ♪ 'Neath Girl two: Oh, yeah.
John: ♪ 'Neath Nate: Like, you don't have to do it like not that, but... John: ♪ 'Neath my Girl: Yeah, yeah.
John: OK. All: ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh John: Singing in a vocal jazz ensemble is all about being in close harmony, working together toward a common goal.
It's about collaboration, respecting one another, being a leader, and accepting the leadership of others.
It's about listening to other voices.
All: ♪ Whisper Girls: ♪ 'Neath my Guys: ♪ 'Neath my All: ♪ Window John: Oh, that was wonderful.
Back at Debbie Allen's Academy, I got yet another private coaching session, this one from Estrella, a born dancer and a natural teacher.
Told me I did just fine, but I know I didn't.
Estrella: 1, 2, 3, up.
1, 2, 3, shimmy.
Then we're gonna go 1, 2, 3, 4.
Now we're circling... John: Oh, that's right.
Estrella: to the right.
Back, out, back.
One more to the left, right, and down.
Oh, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Up, down.
Yes.
John: Beginning to warm up.
[Huffing] OK. Debbie Allen: You're ready like Joe Louis.
John: Hey!
Is this who I think it is?
Debbie: Look at you.
Hi, John!
John: Hey!
And who should drop by during our session but Debbie herself?
She was delighted and amused in equal measure.
I was not all that surprised to hear her laugh at me.
I was not good, but I was getting better.
Yeah.
Do you know, Estrella... Debbie: Yes!
John: I took a jazz class with this woman... Debbie: Ha ha ha!
John: when I was your age.
Estrella: Really?
John: Actually, no.
Ha ha!
Debbie: Now, one thing I want you to do is when you hold these arms it's like you're on a table.
Like, if you were sitting right in between two bookshelves in your--right.
John: And this is good Dunham?
Debbie: Yes.
Those arms up, up, up.
Da da da.
Yes!
That's it.
Yes.
Da da da.
Yes!
Look at you!
You're doing so good.
John: Oh, God.
Debbie: I'm proud of you.
I love it!
Ms. Marshall's coming for you.
John: Oh.
Debbie: She's the best.
John: She is fantastic.
Debbie: We love her.
She's one of the real last of the Dunham masters that was trained by Katherine herself.
John: Oh, fantastic.
Debbie: And that means so much to us to have her here.
John: It means so much to these young kids.
Debbie: Yeah.
John: Hey.
Thank you for coming by.
Debbie: I love you.
Go on.
Keep going.
John: OK, OK. Debbie: All right.
I'll see you all later.
John: We're gonna just sit and rest for a second.
Debbie: I know.
I'm gonna go upstairs and finish my homework.
John: Come sit down with me.
Just tell me how it all started.
Estrella: I've been dancing since I was two.
My older brother and my cousin took a class, and my older brother came back and was like, "Hey, Dad.
I think this is something, you know, Estrella would want to do," and he was like, "OK." So then I went, and they were like, "Oh, you can't do it.
The class is only for 4- to 5-year-olds," and my dad was like, "Well, she can do anything, you know.
Have her do a couple steps," and they were still saying no.
My dad was like, "Look.
Just have her do a couple steps.
If she can do it, then, you know, let her take the class," so I was able to do what she was doing.
I did it back, and then they were like, "OK. Well, be here Saturday at 10:00."
John: And how often are you here during the week?
Estrella: Um, right now I'm here every day and Saturday and Sunday.
John: Wow!
Estrella: Yes.
John: Debbie saw this.
You're automatically a wonderful teacher, and I think that's got a lot to do with just feeling in control of your body and just enjoying the process of dance.
Estrella: I feel I take dance very seriously.
I feel like when I was younger maybe it was something that was more fun, but I feel like as I got older it was something that everything kind of surrounded you, and, you know, practice, it's not to be perfect.
Practice is to find out what you need to work on.
Practice is where you get to make a fool of yourself.
My teacher always tells us, like, when we're doing our pirouettes, like, "Fall, and then you'll learn how to not fall"... John: Yeah.
Estrella: "and figure out why you fell."
John: Yeah.
That's great.
Estrella: You ready for class?
John: I'm as ready as I'll ever be.
Returning to La Cañada Flintridge, I learned that years ago ceramicist and educator Helen Jean Taylor had turned this studio into a unique space for creativity and healing through the ancient art of throwing clay.
For my first solo session in ceramics, Azzah had paired me with Rosie, one of her students.
I'm here.
We're gonna--we're gonna throw and, uh, turn again.
Rosie: So what I like to do, what Azzah taught me is you-- John: She said, make a little X. Rosie: Yeah.
John: OK. Rosie: Smack down and just start hitting it and, like, make sure it's really on there good.
Yeah.
And I like to use, like, kind of like the palm.
So-- John: So this first stage is all about centering it.
Rosie: Yeah.
Maybe slow down a little bit.
Making sure the base of it is centered first before you start moving on to the top because if the top is centered and your base isn't, then it's not gonna be centered.
If it feels like you're, like, getting a little out of control, maybe try slowing down your wheel.
John: There's a-- Rosie: You can, um--what you can do-- John: There's a sort of little rim underneath.
Rosie: You can grab--I forget what this is called.
John: Yeah.
Rosie: And just, like, take it, the sharp side like this, and start your wheel slowly and scrape all that clay off... like that.
Then...
I feel like most people see pottery as, like, boring, you know, because it's something that you see almost every day, and I think there's beauty in the fact that it's a little bit mundane and boring.
John: Yeah, and the fact that it's so often of use.
Rosie: It's very, like, real how artists put pieces of themselves into their work.
It reminds me of the Greek mythology story about, I think, it was a Titan.
I don't think it was a god.
He was walking on the beach, and he has clay, and he's shaping these little forms that are based off of things that he's seen, and he makes them, and he breathes life into them,in his stories, and they become humans, and they become an entire civilization, entire race.
I kind of, like, think about that, like, subconsciously whenever I'm making things.
I feel like ceramics is, like, if you put part of yourself into a pot.
John: That's exactly why we are drawn to art.
That is me right there.
Rosie: Yeah.
John: That would not have existed if it weren't for me.
Rosie: Yeah.
John: And that's the whole creative process.
I mean, I remember myself at your age, and I remember that at your age I made a lot of discoveries about my own talents and my own enthusiasm for art, and, you know, I have the feeling that you have skills you were not even aware of, and you should embrace that.
Rosie: Yeah.
John: Back to work.
Now, what do I do now?
Rosie: Um-- John: Can I-- John: if you want, you could take it off if you're done.
John: I think I should swab a little of the water out of it.
Rosie: OK. John: Shouldn't I?
Rosie: What I like to do sometimes is I get... John: While sitting at the wheel, I began to realize I was centering myself as much as I was centering the clay.
In this complicated, post-pandemic digital world, I was working side by side with young kids who themselves were learning how to center their minds and connect to their own bodies.
[Jazz choir warming up] Ms. B: OK. John, did you study?
John: I studied hard.
Ms. B: OK, I'm happy then because this is our last rehearsal before we do the performance for the group, so I'd like to hear what you did.
John: All right.
All: ♪ Snowfall Softly ♪ Ms. B: Your swells.
All: ♪ Gently Drift down ♪ John: ♪ Snowflakes Whisper 'Neath my Window ♪ Ms. B: OK.
Wait a minute.
We're gonna stop.
We're gonna do that again, and you can do it a little bit louder.
John: ♪ Snowflakes Ms. B: Yeah.
So that's that--how'd you feel?
John: Fine.
I'm a little scared of that first note, that little falsetto note.
I've never sung falsetto.
Ms. B: Well, you did it, but I just needed it louder.
John: More courageous.
Ms. B: Yes.
John: OK. All right.
Yeah.
Ms. B: We'll do it again.
All: ♪ Gently Drift down ♪ John: ♪ Snowflakes Whisp--whoa ♪ ♪ Snowflakes Whisper ♪ Ms. B: That one was a little late.
Nate: Yeah.
John: OK. One more time?
Ms. B: Yeah.
Man: 1, 2, right.
John: I'm just screwing up on purpose just... [Laughter] Man: 1, 2.
John: ♪ Snowflakes Whisper 'Neath my Window ♪ Ms. B: That was good.
[Cheering and applause] John: I choose to take that as a compliment.
[Laughter] Girl: I have a question for you, Ms. B. Ms. B: Yes.
Girl: Does he need to use his falsetto for snowflake?
Because he seems more comfortable without it.
Ms. B: When he first did it, he didn't use it.
John: I think I've dropped it the last few times, and it's fine.
Ms. B: I believe it's--like, for everybody here, it's confidence, that you have the confidence because the confidence controls how you perform.
That's all it is.
John: And just what the heck?
It's my voice, so I'll sing in my voice.
Ms. B: Right.
John: And I don't think anybody will be throwing things at me.
Ms. B: No, they better not.
Ha ha ha!
John: I was a shy kid all over again.
When you go into a situation like that, you're vulnerable and nervous, no matter how old you are, but in Ms. B's class, everyone was brimming with confidence, and it was infectious.
I loved hearing and watching the candid and honest feedback that they were giving me.
It was with their collaboration and support that I finally felt part of the ensemble.
Girl: Just, like--just try not to doubt yourself.
Like, that's the best thing.
You just, like, really trust yourself, trust that you've practiced enough, trust the group.
Girl two: Have fun because we like to swing with it, and then when you feel it, you get into the groove more.
Nate: Look at people's mouth shapes and try and mimic that so that we can blend more.
John: All right.
Ms. B: Yeah.
John: You don't feel like I'm dead weight?
Ms. B: No.
Students: No.
John: All right.
Girl: Do you feel like part of the group?
John: Oh, gosh, yes.
[Cheering] You've been so welcoming.
It's really wonderful to be part of the ensemble.
Ms. B: That's wonderful.
Girl: Like, this is our last rehearsal before our show.
Do this.
We go--everyone.
Yes, and we go LACHSA.
We just go VJ.
So... All: 1, 2-- Girl: We whisper it because we're backstage.
All, whispering: 1, 2, 3.
VJ!
[Cheering] Girl two, whispering: VJ!
[Laughter] Ms. B: Tomorrow, tomorrow.
♪ Tomorrow John: Ha ha ha!
Students: ♪ Tomorrow All: ♪ I love you, tomorrow You're only a day ♪ [Laughter] John: This looks great.
Dewey: We're coming up to our exposure unit here, and this is what we use to create our screens.
John: Yeah.
Dewey: So the first step is putting our artwork down on top of our lightbox and then placing a pre coated screen right on top.
John: And is this actually a silk screen?
Dewey: These are referred to as silk screen, but it hasn't been silk for about a couple hundred years.
It's actually just polyester.
John: Now that's--when you say a couple of hundred years, I used silk when I was in high school.
Dewey: Yeah.
John: So thank you so much, Dewey.
Dewey: So--heh--so the screen is coated with a chemical called photo emulsion.
John: Yeah.
Dewey: So the ultraviolet rays from the light is gonna react with the emulsion, causing it to get hard... John: Yeah.
Dewey: and the part that is being blocked out by the opaque part of your drawing is what's going to create the stencil.
Yoli: Wash out.
Dewey: So we're gonna set my little timer here, my expensive egg timer, for 40 seconds.
OK. John: We're getting there.
Dewey: And once it gets to 40, just turn that button off.
John: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Dewey: Mmm!
And we're set.
So right now, I'm gonna wet it, and the water actually is what's gonna stop the light reaction, and if it worked, you could kind of see it on there.
So I don't know if you kind of see it on there, and if you feel it, like, here, it's kind of slimy, and then here the emulsion hardened.
John: Mm-hmm.
Dewey: So the next step would be taking it out to our washout booth and then washing off the stencil with the hose.
John: All those vines.
Dewey: And then it's a good thing to kind of stop and take a look at it, and then that way you could see what you need to-- John: But you just you want to eliminate all of this blue, and it's got to all look yellow.
Dewey: And it has to be all opened up, and it has to look exactly like your drawing.
It looks great!
Yoli: Yeah.
John: Our collaboration.
Yoli: Yeah.
Dewey: What do you think of your design?
Yoli: I love it.
John: I especially like Yoli's work.
Yoli: I love the portrait.
John: Mine, I think-- Dewey: It's gonna be really exciting to see it.
John: There's always room for improvement.
Dewey: What colors do you want to use, Yoli?
Yoli: I'm thinking dark green.
Dewey: Dark green.
I like that.
John: You're gonna pick the color.
Dewey: And it's all water-based, so it comes back to life for the most part with more water.
It's kind of like a Jell-O right now.
We want it more like a pudding.
I think that'll work.
Yoli: Frosting.
John: We're making desserts here.
Puddings.
It's gonna be a really wonderful, unusual color.
Yoli: Yeah.
You could print this on anything.
John: Yeah.
We'll call this Yoli Green.
Dewey: It looks great.
It has a little bit of transparent in there.
John: You good?
Yoli: Yeah, I like it.
John: Great.
Dewey: Ideally, you want to get it in one swipe or two swipes, and I'm gonna put some here on top, like, right here.
So I want you to do a flood stroke.
So pick the screen up and just kind of push the ink across.
You ready to go?
Yoli: Yes.
Dewey: Do it.
Do it.
And after the first few swipes, it becomes natural.
Remember, push with all your force.
What do you think?
Yoli: Excited!
I feel nervous.
John: Wow.
Dewey: And then go ahead and pull it off.
It came out great.
John: Beautiful.
Yoli: The green is so vibrant.
John: Yeah.
Good choice.
Yoli: Thank you.
John: OK. You think we have ink for one more?
Dewey: Yeah, we have ink for a few more.
Have you ever collaborated with someone before on one piece of art, Yoli?
Yoli: I don't really think so.
I think I've always done my own thing.
I wanted, like, nobody else to help.
What's been your favorite part of the silk-screening process?
John: Well, in this case, I think it's been doing something together.
Yoli: Thank you.
John: You know, I--as I--when we were working on it, I said, you know, "I want to do my own art here.
Let Yoli do hers, and I'll do mine," but I love the fact that we did it together.
Yoli: Yeah.
I remember when we were talking about that.
Dewey: That's the--I guess, the situation with collaborations, right, where I think each artist wants to do their own stuff.
John: Yeah.
Dewey: So how do you meet in the middle?
And I feel like y'all did a great job of kind of having equal amounts of artwork on there.
John: Uh-huh.
Yoli: I feel like it's the perfect combination.
John: And the one thing I love about this process is it is such a--it's such a combination of fun and hard work, discipline and recklessness.
I have such happy memories of art classes when I was a kid, particularly when I was about your age, between 14 and 16, 17 years old.
Art in school is what made me want to get to school every day.
Yoli: Dewey had mentioned earlier when you're doing this as like a younger person it translates into, like, almost like critical thinking skills and just, like, real-life problems, I guess.
John: Yeah.
Yoli: Yeah.
John: Are you a good student?
Yoli: Yeah.
I have a 4.0.
Dewey: Wow!
John: 4.--Oh, my God.
Yeah.
I'm absolutely convinced there's a connection between the two.
Yoli: That's why I think it's, like, so important, and what, like, you're doing to, like, push arts programs into schools.
John: Yeah.
Yoli: Yeah.
John: I just think joy has got to be a part of education.
Yoli: Yeah.
John: The day had arrived for our ceramics class to fire our little pots in an enormous outdoor kiln.
Now when I sponge this down... Man: Uh-huh.
John: does it worry you that moisture will get into these little cracks?
Man: No.
No.
So after we do that, I'm actually gonna put these into one of the kilns just to dry them out a little bit.
So I'm just gonna go ahead and just start brushing it on.
So this right here is one coat, right?
You can see how nicely these glazes brush.
John: And that is a color?
Man: Yeah.
So this is gonna turn into--maybe, right--something like this.
John: Uh-huh.
Man: So this is this glaze.
John: Boy, you'd never know this was dynasty blue.
Man: Nope.
John: The great thing about this whole process is not knowing how it's gonna turn out.
Man: Yeah.
John: This is one thing that I just love about ceramics is the combination of kind of rigidity and freedom.
Man: Mm-hmm.
John: Unlike a traditional kiln, this one was outfitted for a technique called raku, a Japanese method of firing clay at extremely high temperatures.
Dangerous?
Oh, yes, but exciting, too.
Man: What is it reading?
1615.
All right.
We're moving.
As soon as I open, start reaching.
Let me get out of the way for those of you on this side.
If anything goes wrong, you guys drop anything, you get uncomfortable, get out of the way, let me know, and I'll get your piece.
John: Oh, my God!
Heartbeats speed up.
Man: Ready?
[Laughter] All right.
Stay calm but move quick.
Walter: Whoa!
Man: Go ahead.
John: The experience of raku was wildly dramatic, and I thought I was in the drama business.
Man: Awesome.
Give it a second.
Give it a second, Rosie.
All right.
Go ahead and cover.
All right.
Everybody done?
John: Yes.
Got it.
Wearing goggles and heavy gloves, we lifted our pieces from the fiery kiln, placed them in cooling cans, smothered them with wet towels, and then revealed them in all their modest glory.
Man: All right.
John: Oh, my God.
It's got a color.
Walter: Whoa!
John: Oh, look at that.
Man: The lines came out.
Cool.
Rosie: Oh, my God, it's beautiful.
Walter: Dude, that's so cool!
John: Oh, my God!
Walter: Beautiful.
Rosie: It's, like, shiny.
Man: That's pretty cool.
John: Fantastic.
Man: All right.
John: The octopus looks fantastic.
Rosie: Thank you.
John: Azzah's classes and especially my one-on-one with Rosie taught me lessons far beyond arts and crafts--persistence, staying in the moment, centering oneself like the clay on a potting wheel, and embracing life's surprises, accidents, and imperfections.
Ms. Marshall: Have you eaten sugarcane?
Yeah?
You have to peel the outside first, right, to get to the soft inside.
So imagine you're holding a sug--a long sugarcane.
You're gonna come here, one.
You're gonna throw it.
You're gonna peel, throw it back.
Front, back.
Front, Back.
Front, back.
Pom pom Pom pom pom.
Mmm.
Let's try that again.
And 2.
[Drums playing] And 3.
And 4.
Boom and hold.
Perfect.
Let's put it together, the first and the second step.
Do it like there's a thousand people out there watching you.
[Drums playing] [Singing in foreign language] 5, 6, prep, go!
And yanvalou!
2 and... turn.
[Drums stop] Perfect.
John: The more I did it, the better I got, which was, for me, hugely encouraging.
The goal here was not perfection but progress, even if only baby steps at a time.
Ms. Marshall: Thank you.
Good job, all of you.
Yes.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
John: My time in the dance studio had turned Estrella and me into great dance partners.
One night, her family invited me to their home for dinner.
Her dad Marcel cooked spaghetti, and her mom Josephine joined us right after work.
Her brother was there, too.
Sitting around their table, I got a sense of where Estrella's drive and sense of purpose came from, and I realized how a family's love and support can make all the difference in a young person's willingness to explore the arts, whether it's family or friends or teachers or anyone else.
It often takes a village to fan a child's flame.
We don't use or understand our bodies enough.
We don't really have a sense of what they're capable of doing.
It's tough.
It's hard work.
You learn discipline and persistence, and you become a better person with a better sense of yourself and of what you can do.
I'm extremely nervous doing this, standing up in front of you guys.
Audiences make me nervous.
That's my confession, especially when I'm doing something that I'm not familiar with at all, and that's singing, particularly one note.
Very anxious that I get this one note just right.
Bear with me, OK, and thanks for coming.
I'll see you in a moment.
[Applause] OK.
I'm right here.
Choir: ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh Snowfall Softly Gently Drift down ♪ John: ♪ Snowflakes Whisper 'Neath my Window ♪ Choir: ♪ Covering trees Misty lights Velvet breeze 'Round my doorstep Gently Softly Silent Snowfall Snowfall Snowfall Snowfall Snowfall Snowfall Snowfall Snowfall ♪ Ms. B: Yeah!
[Cheering and applause] John: They will remember that jazz class the way I remember certain high school classes of mine full of little breakthrough moments when one speaks out for the first time and overcomes shyness.
It was a wonderful experience to see a group of kids work together so beautifully and with such commitment to a common goal.
Education involves much more than just the basic academic subjects preparing kids for being tested and evaluated.
It has to provide life-learning tools and experiences that will prepare a child for the future.
Arts education is an anchor that provides a child emotional and social development and a sense of who they are in the world.
We've seen it here, teachers teaching young people to lead and guide each other, to cooperate and collaborate, and inspiring them to find their voice.
That's what the arts can do.
The arts give young people tools to move through life, even in the other areas of academia.
They teach them discipline and hard work, patience and civility.
They give young people an early sense of empathy.
After all, art is about communicating with other people.
The arts are not only a creative outlet for kids and a chance for them to have fun.
They're essential to their health and well-being and to their future as leaders and problem solvers.
Through the arts, young people find out who they are and where their imagination will lead them.
It happened to me.
[Water splashing] [Music playing]
