- Tonight on WPBS Weekly.

Inside the stories discover how Anchor Recovery provides a safe space for those impacted by addiction.

And a Mohawk tradition comes to life at the Akwasasne Cultural Center.

Also, the Melos Choir and period instruments in Kingston brings the sounds of past centuries to today.

Your stories, your region coming up right now on WPBS Weekly.

Inside the stories - WPBS Weekly inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you.

Located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group.

Keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country we're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the north country Strong, at claxtonhepburn.org Today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide Community Regrants program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Good Tuesday evening everyone and welcome to t his edition of WPBS Weekly Inside the Stories, I'm Michael Riecke.

Addiction Recovery has many facets that go beyond just abstinence.

To include hope, resilience, health and Community.

The Anchor Recovery Center of Northern New York helps build a brighter future for those in recovery as well as family members impacted by addiction.

To learn more, we turn to WPBS Producer Guy Carlo.

- When I talk to people about being in recovery, I share a little bit of my experience with it and just let them know that if they really want it, it is possible to get there.

To never lose hope, that no matter what happens in life, like there is a different way to live.

- There are many paths that lead into addiction and luckily there are many paths that lead out of it as well.

We visited Anchor Recovery Center of Northern New York to learn about their services for people in recovery.

People seeking treatment and family members that have been impacted by addiction.

- The general mission of Anchor Recovery Center is to show the community stakeholders and individuals that recovery is possible and that there's multiple pathways to recovery.

So someone might go through treatment, someone might go through just meeting with a recovery coach.

It's all on what they wanna do individualized and how they get to recovery.

- So being a recovery coach at Anchor, we work with people in different stages of recovery.

It could be anyone just coming in that wanted to go to treatment, wanted some information about treatment, wanted to know how the entire recovery process works.

In general.

It it really varies from client to client and what we do on a daily basis.

- Utilizing traditional groups such as Smart Recovery, Narcotics Anonymous, and Drug Court.

Alongside educational services like Naloxone training and Peer recovery coaches, Anchor Recovery can help people create recovery plans suited for their individual needs.

- If someone is contemplating being in recovery, they're more than welcome to come in, ask as many questions as they want, we'll we'll answer them to the best we can get them the information that they're looking for.

- Anchor Recovery Center provides various services for the community.

So here at our Watertown Center we have peer recovery coaches, we have individuals that come in and provide group services.

So we have someone that comes in and facilitates na.

We have someone that facilitates smart recovery.

We also have someone that comes in from the outside and facilitates a drug court group and that is for alumni from drug court.

Our peers, what they are doing is they're working with individuals who are in recovery and would like to improve their lives.

So that might be something such as going to the doctors, they can help that person find the appropriate doctor and do a warm handoff to the doctor.

It could also be someone wants to reduce their use, they're not quite ready to quit and they would help them with that.

They would say, you know, well, where, where do you wanna be?

What does what look like?

And they will help them get to that goal.

- The recovery journey is different for everyone.

So getting as much information as you possibly can on what you want and thinking about it.

I know when I started my journey, there was no education part of it.

It was like walking in blindly.

Inpatient can be a way for some people outpatient can be or just coming to a center like what we offer here.

Doing groups here, engaging with a peer advocate here, it's really different for each individual.

- Additional tools utilized at anchor recovery include musical experiences such as drum circles, arts and crafts, including drawing and painting and other opportunities for fellowship both onsite and in the community.

- At the center here, building around the community, we offer many different groups.

We have a group called Creative Minds where every week we do something different.

It could be painting, building jewelry, making sand art.

We offer groups here for friends and family members of people that are in recovery.

We offer smart recovery, all recovery, a group stepping stones.

Now that it's getting warmer, we have a bicycling group that once a week where we just go out and ride bikes in the community.

So we try to engage with everyone in different things.

Maybe they don't know that they like to do.

Some of the stuff that we offer here.

- Anchor Recovery Center is constantly evaluating the needs of the community and how we can be their best to support our community.

So some new initiatives we're working on is just getting new groups out there, getting a variety of things.

Nobody wants to go to the same old stuff day in and day out.

So we're getting creative, we're doing new groups.

We've also started a monthly meal initiative.

So once a month we provide a warm meal for individuals that want to come in.

We don't ask who you are, we don't ask why you're here.

We just wanna feed you.

We do that the last Tuesday of the month and anybody can come in.

- What I know now in my recovery journey that I didn't know then is that no matter what happens in life, I don't have to use over it.

- From the Anchor Recovery Center in downtown Watertown for WPBS Weekly, I'm Guy Carlo .

- To learn more about Anchor Recovery's programs, visit anchorrecoverycenter.com.

Well, every Thursday in May at the St. Regis Mohawk tribe, the Akwesasne's Task Force on the environment and the Akwesasne Cultural Center bring Mohawk tradition to life with captivating live demonstrations of black ash log pounding.

What is that you ask?

Take a look.

- The St Regis Mohawk tribe in collaboration with the Akwesasne task force on the environment and the Akwesasne Cultural Center held live demonstrations on black ash log pounding every Thursday in May, - The live demonstration was focused on teaching how the black ash is pounded and refined into usable materials.

The splint for the black ash basket making and you know it was an open, open event so anybody driving by could stop in, check it out.

- The current state of the ash trees is under threat from the emerald ash Bre, an invasive species of insect that has a high mortality rate for the trees.

- We have harvested specific basket grade trees that Angelo our technician that he selected and we have pounded them into splint so that way the splint can be used while it still retains its value before it succumbs to the Emerald Ash Borer damage - The situation for the ash is pretty dire and the decline in the trees is happening right now as we speak.

It's just really sad to see that resource kind of disappear from the landscape.

And you know, I'm trying to really push this knowledge out there and get people making baskets so that way you know, these younger generations can actually get a feel for what it's like to take something from the forest and turn it into a basket.

- The ash tree is culturally significant to basket makers who have used the resource for generations.

- Baskets, culturally are used in almost every aspect of our life.

Whether it's going to ceremony at the longhouse in the gardens, planting, picking vegetables, you know, carrying babies, laundry, washing, corn, you know, there's just like an unlimited amount of things you can do with baskets.

- The reaction from those who attended the demonstrations have been quite positive.

- So I think it was really important to have this event and have it very visible so that people who have never seen the log founding could come and see it so that people who theoretically know how the splint is made but have never actually done it, could hold the axe and do it themselves.

And some of my favorite visitors were the community elders who came just because they wanted to listen because they, it's a sound that used to be so common when all of our log pounders would be out first thing in the morning with the sound traveling down the river.

And since that doesn't happen anymore, I'm glad that we were able to provide that to them here.

- Black ash log pounding demonstrations take place every Thursday.

this May from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Akwesasne Cultural Center.

That's at 321 State Route 37 in Akwesasne.

Go to Akwesasneculturalcenter.org for more information.

Well baseball season is in full swing in Ohio.

Students and recent graduates of the Cleveland Institute of Art are being given the exciting opportunity to celebrate America's pastime by creating one of a kind posters for the minor league baseball team, the Lake County Captains Take a look.

- I think one of the things that's so great about minor league baseball is you get to really experience the local culture in ways that you ordinarily wouldn't get to do and bring them all together in a baseball party.

- I think sports is a great form of like storytelling.

Like there's always an arc with every game.

I think that lends itself to art and illustration really well.

- I think bringing art and sports together is very important.

People don't see how much art is interconnected.

Like you know, the logos in our, our mascots, in our merchandise, in our stadium, like it's all over.

- So where the high a affiliate of the guardians, they handle all the players and everything that goes on the field and we handle everything that happens off the field.

Lake County was a really, really great opportunity.

The guardians are a tremendous organization and we've been so proud to be associated with them in the last two years we've really been working with a lot of local artists and trying to build up a whole different element to captain's game that maybe weren't present before.

We came in last year and started working with all the local artists, a lot of the younger artists as well who are still an art school.

I've been really, really excited about the artists and finding a lot of really great gems and brilliant artists in this area.

- When I heard from the Lake County Captains that they were looking for local artists, I actually heard from a few other friends at CIA that also got the email.

- It felt kind of random to me.

I remember I was like sitting in school and I got an email.

At first I was like, is this a scam?

I don't - Know what it is.

We looked more into the Lake County Captains 'cause we were like, oh, isn't this the local baseball, like the minor league team.

I talked to a friend who had done the art program before and we're really excited that they actually reached out to us like seniors in college for a professional gig.

- I decided to do it.

I was really excited about it.

It was my first opportunity of like working with somebody to create something.

- It felt really validating that they chose us to do merchandise to be sold in their stores.

- This is my first time doing any sort of freelance work and it was really great to figure out how that works and especially not being somebody who's too into sports, doing more research with that and figuring out how to make something that is very much me but also represents something else too.

- I graduated CIA in 2023.

I studied illustration.

- I just graduated from CIA, I was an illustration student.

I'm really interested in product and packaging design.

- I didn't watch a lot of baseball, but I did play a lot of softball since I was in third grade.

I think - I've never been a sports person.

I went to a spring training game.

I went there thinking, oh I'm gonna be bored this whole time.

It's not gonna be fun.

I'm just gonna go to be with family or whatever.

And then I ended up having like a really good time.

It was great.

- Posters and artwork makes a game an event and we want every day in Lake County captains to be a vet.

We give the artists all the same brief and we tell them, we want you to express yourself, we want you to tell us what's great, we want you to develop these pieces.

- They just wanted me to choose one of the other teams - Celebrating the game, celebrating like the vibe of what a game is.

It was very open-ended.

- I like the sky carps from Wisconsin because their mascot was a goose, but their name isn't directly geese.

I think it was really creative.

So I wanted to include them in the poster as well with the captain as a battle poster.

So designing the skycar, I wanted to include its wing so it looked like it was in action, ready to go.

Since I know how to play softball, I could make my own reference poses for the captain.

With this batting, he kinda kinda looks like he's gonna hit the guys, but he's ready.

It's a battle back.

You know, - I looked at a lot of like pictures and mascots and they just like made me really happy.

I did a lot of like doodles in my sketchbook of them.

I think I was just looking through and seeing which team seem to have like the most fun name honestly.

And loons are really cool to me.

I think they're really interesting with their like red eyes.

So I thought that would be cool to capture.

So I came up with a concept of the mascot for the Lake County Captains sitting next to the loons from the Great Lake loons.

Like the loon is looking kind of sad because there's a home run hang by from the captains and the mascot from the captains is like really excited about it.

- I am impressed that these are students.

The one that makes me giggle the most is the one that has the captain who looks like he's in a old time bathing suit.

I love the waves and the monster that it's getting split here.

Love that one.

- We want to use this to showcase these great artists.

If, if we can give them a leg up, if this can be an opportunity where someone else sees their work and gives them a great opportunity, that's our goal.

- I've always been taught that like you need to send out a bunch of cold emails and really market yourself to be like good as an artist.

And so to have somebody reach out to me and like see my work and want to work with me for something was really important.

- I was really excited to add it to my portfolio because it gave me a chance to be like, oh, I can do some vector art, I can do some poster designs.

I can make t-shirts.

So it gave me like a chance to have not only like different mediums but also different applied arts.

- It was also my first freelance opportunity, so that meant a lot to me to really start getting out there and doing work for clients.

- I've had some employers and clients ask about this project since it was actually used in stores for merchandise that people purchased.

- I think it was one of the things that made American Greetings look at me for my internship there.

It was definitely a great opportunity.

- It was a really fun - Project.

- Knowing that this is a vehicle that students can use to get exposed their, their craft elsewhere is quite an opportunity.

I think that that's a great thing that they've partnered up.

Like I hope it continues.

- We wanna build art into the stadium, into our program, into our team.

We have plans to create murals throughout the stadium.

So we are here as a resource for artists to be able to expand and we hope that they come to us and we'll continue to outreach to them and we'll build this into something very special - Based in Kingston, Ontario, the Melos Choir and period instruments is a renowned ensemble dedicated to performing early music from the Renaissance.

And Baroque periods founded on a passion for historically informed performance.

The choir collaborates with period instrumentalists to bring the sounds of the past centuries to life.

- In the heart of Kingston, a unique musical ensemble is preserving the rich traditions of early music through the voices of its talented corers, using period instruments that faithfully recreate the sound world of past centuries.

- Music at its best allows us to let down and feel things.

And for me, early music, and I think, you know, it may be to do with certain sensitivities I have, but the acoustic nature of it, the richness of the partials in period instruments, like we get power and brilliance in modern instruments and a certain effects from modern orchestras.

Period.

Instruments add a different ki for me, like a, there's a different tonal quality and for whatever reason that just spoke to me right off the bat.

- The narrative aspect of Melos Choir and period instruments concerts is one of its most captivating features by weaving historical, cultural and emotional threads into their programming.

Melos creates concerts that are more than just musical events.

They become windows into the struggles and celebrations of past eras.

So I usually try to have a - Narrative in the light, in the dark concert, the narrative was this sort of idea that this time of year it's the darkening days we're down, we go into this introspective penitential or depressive mode, depending on your view.

And then there's this, you know, as we all know with, with Solstice or Christmas or Yalda or whatever the seasonal turn is, but it's a point to celebrate the return of light.

So, so that was sort of the shape of the program.

So there was a lot of this repertoire that was very like slow and mournful and you know, we did a lot of penitential chant and laments and then we, so we take the audience to like this down point and then we bring in the up and then by the end it's drums and carols and you know, so there's a kind of, there's, you know, a, an emotional rollercoaster.

- Concerts have incorporated themes that connect the east and the west exploring cross-cultural influences through collaborations with musicians from Kingston's newcomer community.

These narratives enrich the audience experience celebrating universal human expression across cultures and times.

- There's been times when you feel like, wow, like what we're doing here is just a electric and the whole cathedral is alive because people can't believe what they're hearing.

We've taken Western music and the eastern musicians are playing with the violins and the harps accord and they're all playing together and we're singing and it's just like, this is, it's, it's something that no nobody's ever heard before or seems, well, I I think it probably rarely happen, but I've never heard it before.

And it's, and it's exciting because it's new for everybody.

Even if the classical players played the piece before, they've never played it this way.

And so there's an, there's an energy and an excitement that comes from that and the audience gets that.

- The organization has expanded their concert narratives from mostly baroque to cover music from the middle ages and from a focus only on western early music to exploring a variety of Eastern traditions playing a key role in ensuring that the choir continues to thrive within the broader community.

- When I came on board with Melos 10 years ago, the budget was about $30,000 a year, and with some focused fundraising, it's now kicking at around a hundred thousand a year.

So in 10 years there's been a 300% growth in the funds.

We did get some funding a couple of years ago, twice actually from the government of Canada because we're such an inclusive organization.

And that's actually largely due to Hawley, the artistic director.

She's very involved in helping newcomers settle and through her church and has been asking them to join.

It's really quite striking that some of the women, say from Iran, who are not allowed to sing in public at all, wind up singing in a concert.

But it's also brought a lot of newcomers who just come to listen to their own music, which is, which we honor in, in, in encouraging them to join and play.

- I feel happy.

I feel I make something in my life.

I make really the baby dream.

He become true and I become, oh my God, I think in my language in Canada and with, with different language.

It's amazing.

It makes something different in this country because you can, when you hear, you can hear Iranian, Arabic, Jewish, German, all the language in the old world that the music he called the soul for inside the people and it's the people he understand the music.

And when I sing my thing in for the peace, really I want all the world - To - Become - Peace.

Whether it's the personal stories of the corers, the carefully curated repertoire, or the advancing of the choir's mission, each performance reflects a deep commitment to the beauty and authenticity of early music.

- I think there's an inner sense that people have that resonates with early music, even though they would not say, I really like early music, but when they hear it, then there's something inside that sort of says yes.

So I think that a lot of the music that we do has the potential to strike people right in the soul.

- For WPBS Weekly, I'm Gail Paquette.

- That does it for this Tuesday night.

Join us next time for a fresh look inside the stories we'll meet Bill Cullen, a model boat maker behind a 15 foot replica of the Edmund Fitzgerald and animator Jace Wertz explains what it takes to bring life to clay with stop motion animation.

Plus women & veteran owned business, Humblebee Farms in Lions Falls, shares how they brought hydroponics to the North Country.

Meantime, if you have a story idea you'd like us to explore, we would love to learn more.

All you need to do is drop us an email at wpbsweekly@wpbstv.org let's share it with the region.

That's it for now.

Everyone have a safe night.

We'll see you next time.

Take care.

- WPBS weekly.

Inside the stories is brought to you by - When you're unable to see your primary care provider.

The Carthage Walk-in Clinic is here for you, located off Route 26 across from Carthage Middle School.

Comfort and Healing Close to home when you need it most - North Country Orthopedic Group is there for your urgent ortho or sports related injuries.

With our onsite surgical center and same or next day appointments, we're ready to provide care for patients of all ages.

Your health matters to us North Country Orthopedic Group, keeping healthcare local.

- We are the north country.

We're protecting one another like family is who we are and where our tomorrow will always be worth defending.

Find out how we keep the North Country Strong, at claxtonhepburn.org Today.

- Select musical performances are made possible with funds from the statewide community Regrant program, a REGRANT program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York state legislator administered by the St. Lawrence County Arts Council.

- Since I know how to play softball, I could make my own reference poses for the captain.

With this batting, he kinda kinda looks like he's gonna hit the, but he is ready to battle back, you know.