- In this edition of Artistic Horizons, honoring ancestral traditions through mural making, - We survive and we support each other to thrive.

Even throughout all that we have to go through - Drag in the spotlight.

Whether it's a king or a queen, we're definitely changing and morphing ourselves from our, our natural selves to something totally different.

- Teaching the art of movement.

- Dancing to me has been my identity.

It's my purpose.

I always tell people once you find your purpose, life is great.

You know, I'm doing what I love doing and getting paid for it.

And my life is an adventure.

- A documentary about Elizabeth Taylor.

- I am very interested in making films about women that defy culture.

And Elizabeth was someone that defied culture.

- It's all ahead on this edition of Artistic Horizons.

Hello, I'm Mark Ro and this is Artistic Horizons based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Three Sisters Collective is a Pueblo indigenous woman-led grassroots organization focused on art, education, community, and advocacy.

We speak to one of the group's co-founders, to learn more about the safe spaces created through mural making.

- So three sisters Collective.

The three sisters are a form of crop and of planting that begin with indigenous tribes like on the East Coast.

And that would be corn, beans and squash and all these crops support each other nutritionally, like the beans will climb on the corn and the squash will protect the ground from weeds and other things so that the beans and corn can grow.

So it's really like a symbiotic relationship.

And when we were forming our collective, there were three of us from Taos Pueblo who were living in Ogo, Pogue or Santa Fe at the time.

And that idea of a symbiotic relationship is what kept coming up and that there were three of us and it seemed to be the perfect name and the perfect fit for what started out as an art project but has grown into something new and something that stands on its own.

Our mission is to create community in Oga, Pogue or Santa Fe and in Northern New Mexico where indigenous women and their families can come to feel safe, to reconnect with the land, to reconnect with themselves, to have a healing space and above all to create community.

And why murals?

So I didn't start out wanting or knowing that I would like to be a muralist, but being able to communicate messages about the land, about our history and about our current selves that are often overlooked.

And also to remind indigenous and pueblo people of how beautiful our reality is, how beautiful our practices are and our world outlook is, are my main goals.

- Can you tell me about the mural?

I am live creator of worlds.

- Yes.

So that is our latest piece.

It's our most monumental piece.

It's on Gina Street and second in OG Pogue Santa Fe.

And that piece is in conversation with another mural on that wall by trip Thomas who did an anti-nuclear message about the plutonium pits and how the creation of the bomb that goes on in Los Alamos is not much more than a spectacle for the people who have created it.

So in conversation with that piece, we created, I am life creator of worlds in which we flip the Bhava Gita quote that Oppenheimer famously used.

Now I am deaf destroyer of worlds and I wanted to flip that because being a creator of worlds as a feminine person, as a birth worker, as a daughter, as a granddaughter, as a human person, it's so important.

The main focus image is of a pregnant Pueblo person and there's corn inside them and it's radiating out, which is kind of a play on the word, a notion of radiation.

So like life is coming from them, life is in them, life is radiating from them.

And the corn, we treat them as our own family members.

And when you meet our farmers for three sisters collective, you'll see how well that they treat the corn.

So that's the focus image.

And next to that person are three grandmothers who represent different people in my community whose work has inspired me and is very dear to my heart.

And then next to that, it's a very long wall.

We have a bowl of water and the seeds of hope which lead to the different directions.

And for me that's hope that we'll continue to plant seeds, to have clean water and air, to really become people who protect water and think about the land and the air and the water before they make decisions.

Every work I do is a little bit of a prayer in my own way.

- Can you tell me about the mural water protectors?

- So water protectors is done on a literal water tank.

It's at Santa Fe Children's Museum and what it is is different animals representing the different seasons and it is directional.

So in the springtime the butterflies come out and the plants begin to grow.

The summer there's pictures of the garden that they have there at the Children's museum as well as some more summertime animals like the fall is like the changing aspens and bears.

And then the north is a cold elk and some buffalo.

And I thought that it would be beautiful to have like younger kids be able to go right up to these animals and be able to interact with them and for them to be a part, become a part of their imaginative play.

And also for them to begin to understand that the yearly cycle holds so much importance and not only in like indigenous lives but in everybody's life.

- So what message do you hope to leave for future generations through the work that you're doing with the three sisters Collective?

- Perseverance.

Definitely.

We've come from such a line, such a long line of people who have been put down repeatedly by different government.

There has been so much harm done to indigenous people for the past five centuries and counting.

And I love to show them that we survive and we support each other to thrive even throughout all that we have to go through, even in the day to day, we preserve seeds in hopes that our children or our children's children will be able to plant the grandchildren of the seeds that we planted.

- And now for the artist quote of the week next we head to northeast Ohio to meet a group of drag queens and kings who love to express themselves.

Take a look.

- Drag is one of the most creative art forms in the world.

First off makeup.

I mean we have a blank slate with our face to create whatever look that we're trying to go for.

Whether it's a character, whether it's something theme specific, it allows us to be that creative.

Obviously different colored hair and different styles, different costuming.

So whether it's a king or a queen, we're definitely changing and morphing ourselves from our, our natural selves to something totally different.

Please put your have do there for mahara, - I'm an artist at heart.

I make clothes, I style hair, I do my own makeup.

And just being able to be a multifaceted artist in a, in a sense is what keeps me in like a busy mode, in a happy busy mode with drag and the art of drag, - I've been in this for 35 years because I was strong ladies and gentlemen, I'm America Martinez and I'm so proud it takes a lot of work and dedication and it takes a lot of money.

It's expensive to look this cheap, it takes a lot of money to do drag.

I've spent thousands and thousands of dollars.

But if it's something that you love and you're passionate about, I love this and this is my life, it always will be.

- I was a frustrated actor inside and it allows me to just do the things I probably wouldn't normally do in my normal life.

This is allows me to kind of expand my creativity, - Being able to go from sewing a costume, to making a prop, to mixing music together, to Rhine stoning, things like all those little things that just like make one big performance is what makes the art aspect of drag such a, such a wonderful thing.

- I tend to find that occasionally I am the only king.

I won't say it's a scarcity thing anymore.

I think there is a dramatic increase in kings in Cleveland.

I think that we bring an entire different gender perspective.

We just need a space to perform.

- And I could write a book.

When I first started, I lived with my grandmother and she didn't know I was an entertainer.

And one day I was sneaking out of the house and she's like, who's that girl leaving?

And I ended up telling my grandmother, she's a short Italian woman and until the day she died in 1995, she was my biggest fan.

She'd help me do my costume, she would him my costume, she would dress me, help me with my hair.

And I was so lucky because a lot of people don't get to experience that love from their family.

Like I was able to experience - Some Cleveland drag legends kind of noticed me and said, I, you would be good at doing drag, why don't you give it a shot?

And it took a while.

I got to my first drag show and boy, I didn't look like this back then.

That's for certain.

That was 14 years ago.

It was scary and it was just, you know, why am I doing this?

A couple times I just thought to myself, why am I getting myself into this?

But the more I kept doing it and the more I realized I was able to lend a voice to those who didn't have a voice and I was able to take on a part of my community as a visible personality.

Why not?

- I found a sense of community.

I found a sense of purpose for myself as well as for others.

I found friends, I found my partner through drag and I can't be thankful enough for drag.

Giving me more than a college degree could give me.

- I love the glitz and glamor.

I love the people, I love the excitement and I think that's what has kept me going all of these years now.

It's not been easy.

We've had, it was a very different time.

Back in the eighties when I started, there was a lot of hatred.

I remember I used to work for a club called Uncle Vinny's Cabaret and the bar across the street, they would run at us with bar beer bottles and they would throw beer bottles at us, bring Switchblades out.

So we had a lot of situations like that.

A lot of people calling, yelling out the window, calling us names, laughing at us, calling us freaks.

- Back in the day, it was a matter of, you know, L-G-B-T-Q venues, mainly bars were safe havens for our brothers and sisters to go and enjoy themselves.

And we've lost a lot of that around us.

So now we're in more allied spaces to be able to perform.

But there's still that in the back of your mind, you're thinking about those angry individuals who don't understand and don't care for the art of drag and what's gonna happen around you.

So yeah, you should be careful.

- Each song that I perform like means something to me in my current life or something that affected me in life.

Being able to share that moment with other people, a crowd of people, it makes it seem like there's a sense of community and just sharing that moment is very important to me.

- We all tend to work with each other and care for each other and and we help out and we uplift from the performance style to even your personal life.

We're a big family.

She - Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

Up next we traveled to Norfolk, Virginia to meet Albert Watson, a former principal dancer for the Alvin Alley American Dance Theater.

Today one will find him sharing his love of dance with others through choreography and education.

Here's his story.

- It is the best freedom to be on stage performing like taking flight Here at Norfolk Academy.

I'm the dance master, this is my title.

One of my goals when I first came here was to make dance an integral part of life.

And so I've made dance a corporate part of the whole lifestyle of the school.

I teach grades one through 12, creative dance, classical ballet, modern dance, hip hop, ballroom, musical theater.

I'm also the wellness coach for some adults here.

I do private lessons.

I'm pliability coach for every team on campus.

I think for the children's point of view to see a dance teacher and a football coach together in the same room communicating for the same thing says a lot about education.

You see a leap on stage, it takes hours to practice.

How can I make that leap apply to your track team As a little kid, I always loved dancing.

I loved moving.

And I remember my parents whenever a guest to come over to say, junior, come on, come on, show them the ladies dance, whatever.

So dance was always a part of my life, but more as a hobby kind of thing.

I know that you could dance professionally.

So we're doing my late teens, early twenties at Epiphany.

I'd heard these elderly people say, if I could do it all over again, I wish I could have done this.

And I said, I don't ever once.

I wish I had a done.

What do you really want to do?

You should really go to New York.

And the first time I did it, they said to me, you're really, really good but you need some ballet class.

You have no technique.

So okay I, I went home and studied for two years.

Take as many ballet classes as I can and and get ready, which paid off my second audition.

I made it.

One thing my parents gave me was good work ethic.

They weren't like college professors.

There's regular people who say you gotta do your ver best.

You go do your best, be the best garbage man.

Be the verb best at it At rehearsal finish at 12.

I was gonna go back two more and really work on it.

And I found that it had benefits and the benefits were that you became more acute, but your technique but also sharper, more confident from that kind of consistency.

Alvin Ailey knew that I wanted it.

I could depend on me and became a principal dance within a year, which is unheard of.

And they worked me incredibly.

I mean I was rehearsing all night long days to put my standard up to the level.

Now it wasn't fun, but it was good 'cause I realized this principal, Dan said, you are representing the company.

You're just the person in the back.

You're the person who is like the brand name.

What what was always exciting was every season I got a new part, but then you sort of get typecast and then suddenly it wasn't exciting anymore.

Give that to El but he can do that.

And I thought what that means, I didn't have to work for it.

I felt like time was going by and I was like locked.

So I went to a place called New York Conservatory is Russian teacher.

He saw me totally different, which was great.

Then I left there and went to Germany and he saw me totally different, which is great.

He said I would be in all these parts wouldn't normally do.

The company in Germany was very unique in that you had a ballet company that was separate from the theater and opera.

That particular theater decided that they wanted to get rid of the ballet company and only have the opera only I decided to come home.

I was here for about a year and a half waiting.

And in that time I was teaching the Richmond Dance Center and then won in North Academy summer camp.

And when the letter finally came for me to go back to Germany, I realized I was a different person.

I really liked teaching children.

Dancing can be a very sort of self-absorbed kind of career 'cause you're really working on your body and yourself personally.

And suddenly I was giving back to children.

That was a exciting thing for me.

So then I told myself, if you go back to Germany, you wanna be a dancer only.

But what about the teaching part?

What about the choreography part?

What about the directing part?

So I decided not to go back.

So that's how I wound up in Norfolk.

Went over a person in class and they have like no idea about what to do.

Me trying to find that way to communicate does a lot for me.

And everybody's different.

And we come from different backgrounds.

I mean some people are more visual learners, some are much more images, whatever.

Once they get it, I've empowered them.

You become a role model.

And with that comes responsibility.

Do you do what you say you do?

Are you personally integrity?

Are you gonna do that?

And they sort of expect something from you.

They expect if I do something, they expect a certain quality.

Just teaching the good students is not there.

It's the ones who were like introverted who just these raw material and all they need is somebody to say you can do it.

I think I was just sort of awkward.

I always loved reading.

You know, I'm the kind of guy who sit up in the tree and watch birds or would be catching bugs all day.

I told myself every day I wanna, I see something beautiful, I learn something new.

It keeps life fresh and exciting.

There to be old guy at my church.

He said, when you're green you grow.

When you rip you down from off the tree.

Tree dance to me has been my identity.

It's my purpose.

I always tell people, once you find your purpose, life is great.

You know I'm doing what I love doing and getting paid for it.

And my life is an adventure.

When it's time to move on, I'll do something serving somebody somewhere.

Always know when the season's over that much I do know.

- And now here's a look at a few notable dates in art history.

A discovery of audio tapes.

In journalist Richard Merriman's archive has allowed famed actress Elizabeth Taylor to narrate her own story.

The documentary Elizabeth Taylor, the Lost Tapes had its North American premier at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.

We hear more from the films director, Nanette Bernstein.

- I am very interested in making films about women that defy culture.

And Elizabeth was someone that defy culture.

- Things killed.

I would never become an actress because I was so concerned, was being pretty.

I'd fought against Theios, started to make my own deals.

I was quite good business woman.

- She was the first modern celebrity.

We didn't have the paparazzi following everyone to the point where their life was under a microscope and she was the first, I mean, in fact, the word paparazzi came about from her, her experience Italy, making Cleopatra.

- I don't like fame.

I don like belonging to the public.

People have a set image they want to believe, and if you try and explain, you lose yourself a long way.

- She lived big and she lived hard and she did a lot of incredible things and she broke barriers.

And so I think that's what makes people so obsessed with her.

What's very special about this film is you have a legendary star being more candid than one has ever been because she wasn't expecting these tapes to be heard by other people.

I think one of the surprising things was to listen to such a famous person and hear about their insecurity.

She admits so much of her flaws, her anxieties, her worries, her ambitions.

So I think it's very special film.

You know, I do one project at a time.

I may able to obsess and focus on it.

I'm able to do things that I care deeply about.

One of the things I care deeply about is the arc of women's history and how we've evolved and how we end up having power in the world and how that image has changed over time.

So I think you know, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Taylor have both shown us that we can reach for the stars.

- And that wraps it up for this edition of Artistic Horizons.

For more arts and culture, visit wpbs tv.org.

Until next time, I'm Mark Ro.

Thanks for watching.