Author

Amanda Main

Mixing old-school with the REALLY old-school

by Amanda Main November 20, 2018

With the weather getting colder, that means it’s officially “Nutcracker” season.

Colton Ballet Company has their rendition at the Imperial Theatre from Nov. 23 to 25. Columbia County Ballet performs theirs at the same theater on Nov. 29 and 30.

But one hot “Nutcracker” show is coming to Augusta for the first time — “The Hip Hop Nutcracker.”

This traveling show that’s celebrating its fifth anniversary combines the classic sounds of Tchaikovsky’s music with retro hip-hop beats, and lots and lots of breakdancing mixed with ballet.

The Metro Spirit recently spoke to one of the founding fathers of hip-hop, Kurtis Blow, who serves as the New Jersey-based show’s MC.

Kurtis Blow

“So, basically it’s the same story (as the classic ballet) — young people fighting the establishment and two young people who fall in love use the magic of their love to defeat the evil witches and warlocks that are out there,” Blow said. “So we modernized the old story and set it in the 1980s with hip-hop.”

Blow, who at age 20 was the first rapper signed to a major label, with his first hit being “Christmas Rappin,’” released in 1979, seems like a perfect fit for a show swirled up in the holidays and 1980s rap sounds. “The Hip Hop Nutcracker” starts its shows with a short set by the MC — and anyone who’s a fan of ’80s rap won’t want to miss this.

“I’m the first thing you see on stage, and I get everybody ready for the play. I take them back to the old school hip-hop. And of course, my Christmas rap — you know, it’s the holiday season, so we do ‘Christmas Rappin,’’ Blow said. “Then, the last song that I sing is a song called ‘New Year’s Eve,’ and I make everyone in the audience believe it’s New Year’s Eve, because we count down from 10 going all the way down to 1, and when we get to 1, everyone screams ‘Happy New Year!’ They all scream, and then we start to play. And then I come back out at the end, and I sing ”The Breaks,” along with the cast and crew, and we introduce each other, and then do a solo, breakdancing solo, and we’re having fun. Oh, it’s crazy good.”

Hip Hop Nutcracker live at Dolby Theatre on Nov. 17, 2017, in Los Angeles. Photo: Tim Norris

During the show, about a dozen dancers play out the somewhat modern twist on the old “Nutcracker” story, while DJ Boo cuts up the ’80s beats with the sounds of Tchaikovsky. He’s accompanied by a violinist.

Blow said the talented group of hip-hop dancers make the show look fun and easy, but it’s really difficult.

“Of course, you have to audition for the part, and you really have to be good because Jennifer Weber, who is the choreographer, is an excellent artist and dancer herself, so she picks the best beat boys and beat girls around the country who give 110 percent,” he said. “They’re working hard backstage, huffing and puffing — it’s hard, hard work. It may look fun, but believe me, it is hard.”

As the choreographer, Weber tries to improve the show every year.

Hip Hop Nutcracker live at Dolby Theatre on Nov. 17, 2017, in Los Angeles. Photo: Tim Norris

“It’s been exciting to evolve the show over the last five years as audiences continue to come back to see the creative changes we make to the production,” she said in a news release. “The dancers continue to raise the bar each year, which has taken the show to new heights.”

Blow said it’s hard to pinpoint what he loves most about “The Hip Hop Nutcracker.”

“There’s so many things that I enjoy about working with this show, but I think the main thing is the theme of the holiday season and the love that’s in the air. The joy that’s in the air,” Blow said. “The spirit of love from the holiday season, you know, you just want to grab your loved ones, your family and your friends and hug them. And say thank you for putting up with me all year, right, and this is — really, I just love the feeling. Everyone comes in with that holiday cheer, and it’s the theme of love. That’s what I really love about it. We need that now more than ever.”

If you’re into the idea of combining a really old-school Christmas story with the sounds of (less) old-school hip-hop, then you’ll want to check out this one-night-only show, happening Nov. 25 at the Miller Theater.

Hip Hop Nutcracker live at Dolby Theatre on Nov. 17, 2017, in Los Angeles. Photo: Tim Norris

“The Hip Hop Nutcracker”

Miller Theater

7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 25

$35-$75. Visit millertheateraugusta.com or call 800-514-3849.

November 20, 2018

The gift of arts in Augusta

by Amanda Main November 14, 2018

It seems arts budgets are always at a real risk of being cut in public education, but Augusta has a gem of a school that helps keep creative outlets a vital part of students’ lives.

But as valuable as that is, the school means even more to the community.

The Jessye Norman School of the Arts, which celebrated its 15th anniversary this past year, aims to “develop students to become creative, caring, visionary, responsible citizens through the transformative power of the arts.” Kids there are learning dance, drama, music and even photojournalism — picking up valuable skills like graphic artistry and photography, which they eventually might use in their careers once they reach the grown-up world.

Out in the art garden at the Jessye Norman School of the Arts. The garden opened outside the school earlier this year.

Kids learn these skills in the school’s after-school, homeschool and summer camp programs (the after-school and summer camp programs are completely free).

But the school, housed in a building at Eighth and Greene streets in downtown Augusta, is a place that the whole community can use. It’s a space that organizations (like the Augusta Jr. Players) can rent for their own purposes.

The school also regularly holds classes for adults, including writing classes, dance classes, vocal lessons — and even weekly guitar lessons given by local music legend Keith Jenkins, former leader of the James Brown Band. Those group lessons are held at 6 p.m. Thursdays, for a $5 donation.

“Our after-school program and our summer camp programs are completely free, and that’s about 85 percent of our budget,” said the school’s Executive Director Gary Dennis, who has been with the nonprofit organization since he started as a substitute drama teacher in 2006. “The rest of our programming is really trying to be good stewards of an 18,000-square-foot building, that we use in a narrow ribbon of time, so the idea was to create as much community programming as we could. Like, we’ve got Keith Jenkins, the guitarist, giving group lessons. It’s a $5 donation to take a guitar lesson from the former leader of the James Brown Band. So, we’re not making any money on that.”

The Jessye Norman School of the Arts Dance Team poses for a shot at the Junior League Holiday Market.

One of the newer features at the school is the art garden, which opened earlier this year. Because the school is all about the arts, art has been incorporated into this garden outside the building, growing crops like strawberries, melons, tomatoes, basil, oregano and more. It’s accented with the backdrop of a beautiful, 32-foot-tall mural by local artist Jay Jacobs — he said the mural is meant to capture the spirit of the school’s namesake, opera singer Jessye Norman, and he completed the huge painting after he read her memoir, “Stand Up Straight and Sing!”

The art garden started with a local Eagle Scout project, when at first, vertical gardens and raised-bed gardens were installed.

Augusta artist Jay Jacobs painted this mural on the side of the Jessye Norman School of the Arts earlier this year.

“At that point, we said, ‘We’ve got a great opportunity here … gardening is kind of out of the scope of our mission,” Dennis said. “So if we’re gonna do this, we’ll need to incorporate the arts into it somehow. So we said we’d do an art garden — we’d do movies against the wall, build a stage out here so we can have an outdoor venue for the performers and really focus on bringing the arts outside. So the photography students could come out here and practice using their macro lenses. … We really hope for the use of (the garden) to be organic, to have somebody tell me, ‘Hey, we want to use your space,’ and then build an event from the ground up.”

Part of the garden’s use is also to create nutritional snacks for the students at the school. And Dennis said he wants the community to feel welcome to take from the garden.

“We used to keep rosemary in the three planters in front of the building, and nothing tickled me more than seeing somebody walk down the street, pull off a few sprigs of rosemary and then stick it in their purse and keep going,” he said. “I mean, that’s awesome, and I hope the same thing happens here. I hope people come by and take from our garden.”

Along with educating kids and adults in the community, the school also has an art gallery, the Ann & Ellis Johnson Gallery of Art. This gallery regularly shows professional art, as well as college and high school student exhibits. Earlier this year, the gallery held a reception and show for the after-school program’s “Transform” exhibit.

People attend the Westobou and Augusta Photography Festival Gallery Opening last month at the Jessye Norman School of the Arts.

Photojournalism teacher Sarah Pacetti explained that the students were “identifying things about the world that they felt needed to change, and what can they personally do to effect positive change; they’re reaching out and saying, ‘here’s something I’d like to see different in the world.’”

One of those students was 15-year-old Marco Robinson, who did his photography project on the subject of school shootings.

“I asked a group of kids to sit at a table to seem like they were at school, and the school shooter’s coming through the door,” Robinson said. “It was pretend, like a microphone pretend gun. I used a gradient tool to make it seem like it was a suspense in the picture.”

When asked what he thought could be done to help lessen the occurrence of school shootings, one of the things he said was for there to be less hostility between students and teachers.

“Sometimes the teachers, they get stuff wrong, even though the student would be right — they would blame the student for being wrong,” he said.

Other students who worked on projects in that exhibit touched on topics like broken marriages, women’s freedom of speech and race relations.

The teachers that the Jessye Norman School hires tend to have world-class qualifications — and therefore, they often go on to do bigger things. Although the school staff feels bittersweet about their absence, Dennis said it’s a good problem to have.

“It’s pretty cool when you say your ex-faculty members are (gospel singer) Trey McLaughlin and Sharon Mayfield (a dance teacher who formerly worked with the Garth Fagan Dance group) and (AU alumnus and current New England Conservatory student) Daon Drisdom,” he said. “And (jazz artist and Garden City Jazz founder) Karen Gordon. So it’s not so bad, really.”

Augusta artist Jason Craig painted this piano for the Jessye Norman School of the Arts. It now sits outside the Book Tavern downtown.

One of the most visible projects this year has been the painted-pianos project that’s been seen around town — the first ones were outside of the school. Because the school believes in paying artists, that project was funded by a $10,000 grant.

In all, the school’s current operating budget is $381,000, with 80 to 85 percent of that funding the free after-school and summer camp programs. Most of their students come from an economically disadvantaged demographic, so it’s important that the programs be kept free.

The community has a chance to financially support the school, with the annual benefit concert coming up at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18, at Augusta University’s Maxwell Theatre. General admission tickets cost $40 ($25 for students with ID), and this year’s lineup includes sopranos Indra Thomas and Andrea Edith Moore, baritone Tamal Boore, accompanist Rosalyn Floyd, pianist Susan Zhang, as well as the Jessye Norman School Singers and Dancers, students of the school who will be showcasing the talents they’ve developed.

A man plays one of the public pianos that the Jessye Norman School of the Arts commissioned artists to paint.

“The Jessye Norman School of the Arts Annual Benefit Concert does so much more than just raise money for an after-school arts and education program,” Dennis said in a news release. “It also provides an invaluable opportunity for our children and our local artists and teachers to gain exposure, and to have the opportunity to work with some of the best performers in the world.”

Jessye Norman School of the Arts Benefit Concert

AU’s Maxwell Theatre

4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 18

$40, general admission; $25, students with ID.

706-722-8341 or jessyenormanschool.org

The Jessye Norman School of the Arts is now taking applications for the free after-school program’s spring semester. To find out more and how to qualify, visit jessyenormanschool.org/student-applications.

November 14, 2018

Nevermind football — it’s arts season

by Amanda Main September 5, 2018

It might be considered blasphemy to be more excited about the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival being back next week than football season kicking off, but some people in Augusta really do feel that way. (Hey, football season lasts for like four months, so it’s not like this ruins the game.)

This year’s festival, put on each year by the Greater Augusta Arts Council, brings goodies in the form of 26 food booths in the Global Food Village, more than 160 juried booths in the Fine Arts and Crafts Market (the biggest yet), the return of Author’s Alley featuring more local writers and authors, and entertainment on five stages throughout the weekend.

It kicks off in downtown Augusta from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14, and continues from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15, and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16.

CSRA artist Carey Mogianesi is excited to bring her ceramics to the festival for the first time. Working under the name Third Eye Ceramics, she said people tend to have a positive, whimsical experience when they first see the faces she creates.

“I draw a lot of my inspiration, definitely from Southern, folk artists,” Mogianesi said. “I did an internship at the Morris Museum of Art where we had a large

CSRA artist Carey Mogianesi will be selling her pieces at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival for the first time.

exhibition of such artwork, and I just dove really deep into the history of it. And so I drew a lot of my inspiration from that. And I’ve traveled a lot, so I’ve been to Greece and Italy and the Netherlands, and a lot of the sculptural figures inspired me to attach limbs to my face pots.”

Mogianesi, who has known since she was a kid that she would be an artist and got her bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Augusta University, says a couple of things led to her choosing the name “Third Eye Ceramics” for her work. Partially, she says, it was because it’s easier to spell and pronounce than her name.

“The ‘third eye’ is just in regards to enlightenment. So in life, when you’re driving a car at night, it’s like how you have headlights and you can only see 300 feet in front of you,” she said. “That’s how I kind of go in perspective of my life, and the third eye is a way of knowing that there’s something greater out there, and just having a higher sense of being.”

Her functional pottery includes mugs, and everything she makes is safe to use in

CSRA artist Carey Mogianesi, a ceramics artist who will be at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year, created these mugs.

the dishwasher and microwave.

Another artist who will show his work at the festival for the first time is Don Carter, who carves wood into works of art.

“I grew up in Fredericksburg, Va., about eight miles from George Washington’s boyhood home, so we were full of Civil War relics and all kinds of stuff,” Carter said. “And walking through the woods, we always had a walking stick. (I used) a screwdriver, hammer, a pocket knife or whatever to make them unique. So I kept on doing it. When I was in the Army and patrolling and all this, it was like a therapy to me. I’ve always done this since I was 14, 15 years old.”

Like Mogianesi, he’s been an artist pretty much since he can remember.

“I used to paint, draw pictures — I always had a sketchpad laying around somewhere. I’d draw on napkins, paper, paper plates, anything,” he said.

CSRA artist Don Carter will be selling his wood carvings for the first time at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year.

“Doodling or whatever you want to call it. If I could draw it, I could also carve it. So to me, carving was a new medium, and I would pick up lots of wood, like tree stumps or whatever, and I would take chisels or hammers and just put faces in them and all kinds of stuff when I was growing up. I would take them from the backyard and eventually they’d go back to the earth.

As a member of the military, Carter did a lot of traveling. He said he’s been all over Europe, and all sorts of people he’s met have admired his work. People had been telling him he should show his art at the Augusta festival — it’s been piling up in his backyard, and he said he has probably about 100 pieces at his home. Some of his work can be seen downtown inside the Humanitree House.

Jen Ellison is back with her clothing and accessories booth — she’s been showing and selling her “boho-rocker-chic” pieces at the Arts in the Heart festival for about nine years. She has her mom to thank for her talents.

“When I was a little, growing up, my mom made a lot of my clothes. I was an incredibly tall, skinny child. So, nothing was long enough, or it would fall off of me,” Ellison said. “And I just kind of picked it up along the way. She taught me,

Fashion artist Jen Ellison will be back at the Arts in the Heart of
Augusta Festival with her “boho-rocker-chic” clothing and accessory creations.

and she never thought I was paying attention, but I really was.”

Her boutique-like booth is filled with pieces that often start in thrift stores. She’s even been known to use bedsheets, seeing in them a cool fabric, whereas other people would probably just see sheets.

“Right now, I’m working on a lot of stuff that has lace curtains and lace valances as accents or added to other store-found pieces. And then with jewelry, anytime I find leather than can be recycled and reused, I always jump on that,” Ellison said. “Because I like using leather, but don’t necessarily like the idea of some animal getting killed for their hide. But again, I am not one to let it sit there and rot, either.

She works to have a wide range of clothing sizes in her booth — typically, you can find sizes ranging from an extra-small to 3X, but she’s also open to custom-making things in other sizes, if she doesn’t have it available.

“My stuff is a little bit rock ’n’ roll, but then definitely the boho side. I bring in the lace and the pretty florals, but then if I come across a cute band tee, I will take it and cut it up into a cute top,” Ellison said. “So a nice little mix between hard and soft. ‘Cause I’m not girly-girl, but I’m not tomboy either. I like to look like a girl, but I don’t want to be covered in ruffles and frills, but at the same time, I don’t want to look like a boy, either.”

Visit artsintheheartofaugusta.com/fac to get a preview of other artists who will be represented in the arts market.

FOOD FROM AROUND THE WORLD

It’s too bad we don’t have limitless stomachs, because it’s super hard to decide which country’s food to eat at the festival. (Eating deliciously exotic foods all weekend might be the best excuse to use your festival pass to get in every day…)

The India food booth is back with its all-vegetarian fare (vegan options available) — you can’t go wrong with getting the Maharani Platter, featuring Indian bread, rice, lightly spiced veggie curry and chickpeas in curry, veggie fritters and dessert. And they’ll probably talk you into adding a samosa for a dollar — trust them on that, because it’s delicious.

The newest booth this year represents Yemen food and culture — try their Zurbian, made up of chicken, rice, potatoes, onion, tomatoes, vegetable oil and Yemeni spices.

Back for its fifth year is the African-American booth, which is one of the major

More than 25 countries and cultures will be represented at booths serving their delicious dishes in the Global Food Village at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival.

fundraisers for Concerned Women Inc., a nonprofit group that runs a clothing closet and food pantry for people living in poverty in the CSRA. The group’s executive director, Bea Sanders, said they’ve unfortunately seen a growth in people needing their help.

The booth keeps growing in popularity every year, with items like hot wings, pound cake, ribs, collard greens, macaroni and cheese — and barbecue pig’s feet.

The booth’s food prep is headed up by two cooks, Latovia Wright Forbush and Richard Little, who both served as cooks in the military.

Sanders described what it was like to eat pig’s feet for the first time.

“I’d never had them before — the first time I had them was at Arts in the Heart, and they were very tender, and (Latovia) seasons them and makes her own barbecue sauce,” Sanders said. “And so the first time I tried them was at Arts in the Heart. And I just tasted a little bit, but they were very, very delicious. She always had a special touch for whatever she cooks for anybody.”

The Nigeria booth has been at the festival for more than 10 years — Kenneth Erondu is a member of the Augusta Union of Nigeria Indigents, which puts on the booth. A native of Nigeria himself, Erondu has been in the United States for more than 40 years.

At the top of their menu is the Jollof Rice Platter, featuring seasoned rice, fried plantain and beef. He said the group loves to showcase Nigerian culture within the CSRA.

“Nigerians are a hospitable group of people; we are proud of our heritage,” he said. “You’ve heard of Southern hospitality — there’s something called Nigerian hospitality. … We are fun-loving, our booth kind of shows that, too.

“Anyone that has never stopped by, I encourage them to stop by and see and feel the atmosphere in the Nigerian booth. We are basically located close to the Global Village, the stage. So it’s very active, it’s very noisy.”

Other countries represented include Cambodia, China, France, Greece, Sudan and many more.

For the less bold, there’s always the Greater Augusta Arts Council’s hot dog stand. It’s perfect for kids who don’t like to stray far in their flavors.

ENTERTAINMENT THROUGH THE WEEKEND

Entertainment this year includes concerts from Livingroom Legends, Bethany and the Southside Boys, DoloJayy, voxnbass, King Cat & the Elders and more.

One especially exciting show is promised by Soweto Street Beat, a South African world dance theater based in Atlanta and in Soweto, South Africa. As the only professional South African dance and music company in the United States, the

Atlanta- and Soweto, South Africa-based Soweto Street Beat, the only professional South African dance and music company in the United States, will be showing their stuff at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year.

group’s vision aims to educate children and adults about “South Africa’s rich culture and history through dance and music.”

Polly Panic features rockin’ cellist Jenette Mackie (a second cellist in the esteemed and ground-breaking cello rock band Rasputina) and drummer Caleb Beissart. Their sound is described on artsintheheartofaugusta.com as “an assaulting tenderness entangled with dark, odd metered theater.” They’ll be on the Community Stage at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

Voxnbass is a local, minimalist jazz duo featuring bassist Travis Shaw and

The rocking cello-and-drum duo Polly Panic will be on the Community Stage at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year.

vocalist Nefertiti. They’ll be on the Community Stage at 8:30 p.m. Saturday.

Davidson Fine Arts will be showing their stuff on the Family Stage throughout the weekend. Tre Sounds is an Augusta group that brings all genres of music to the Global Stage at 8:30 p.m. Friday.

Visit artsintheheartofaugusta.com/category/performers to find out more about who you can see performing through the weekend, all with the cost of your admission badge.

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

So, the Arts in the Heart Festival couldn’t survive without the work of its hundreds of volunteers — Volunteer Coordinator Jamie Jackson has been working on gathering folks to help out for the past eight years. She said the first year she did it, in 2010, the festival had 500 to 600 volunteers, but these days, the need is up to about 800.

Volunteers do all sorts of things like staff the ticket gates, hand out surveys and clean the streets throughout the weekend.

Jackson remembers when she was a student at Augusta University and convinced

The Davidson Fine Arts school will have their Musical Theatre Performance Ensemble and more at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year.

one of her roommates to go volunteer with her at the festival.

“I had three roommates, and one of them was from out of town. And I said ‘Come on, Maddie, come to this thing and get involved with the community,’” Jackson said. “And so she came, and she looked at me after her first day — she volunteered for almost a full day — and she came back to my tent, and she said, ‘This is like the Epcot of Augusta, and I want to come every year.’ And she faithfully has been at that festival every year for the last eight years. … She came and realized the value of the festival to the community, and she loved it so much that she has stuck around, and she’s involved her whole family.”

Along with the weekend needing volunteers, Jackson said, the festival’s entire

Augusta jazz duo Voxnbass will perform at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year.

steering committee is made up of about 25 to 30 people who begin working on next year’s festival as soon as this year’s ends. She said they’re looking for people who want to commit their time to putting on the festival. Greater Augusta Arts Council Project Manager Pax Bobrow said that looking ahead to 2019 and beyond, they’re looking for people who can take ownership of positions including accessibility manager (ADA compliance, etc.), bar/hospitality manager, social media interns, stage coordinator, sign and banner vice-chairs and an Arts Market and local shops liaison.

“Every time anyone thinks of a great new idea for the festival, it can only ever happen if there is a person who will be responsible for making it happen. (We’re all doing as much as we can do already),” Bobrow wrote in an email. “For example, the Author’s Alley is a relatively new part of the festival; it’s in its second year. We had tried to figure out ways to showcase local authors in the past, but only when David Hutchinson of the Book Tavern agreed to manage a whole new area in the hallway of the JB Whites Building, did Author’s Alley become a fully realized part of the festival.”

As volunteer coordinator, Jackson says she puts in 100 to 200 hours a year, for her part. The steering committee meets about six times a year.

Canton, Ga.-based singer-songwriter Alley Bei will be on the Troubador Stage at the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year.

“This is the only volunteering I do. It is a pretty lofty time commitment,” Jackson said. “And I guess the way that (someone) would get involved (in the steering committee is), I think the first step would be to volunteer at the festival. So that way, you can decide if it’s a really good fit for you.”

Jackson said anyone who wants to volunteer can still put in an application at artsintheheartofaugusta.com/participate through Monday, Sept. 10. She can’t guarantee that there will still be spots open, but volunteer shifts are typically around four hours long, and volunteers get a free T-shirt and entry to the festival.

“I think once you get in and kind of put your boots on the ground, you end up loving it. It’s literally the best time of the year,” Jackson said. “(My family starts)

Visitors to the Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival this year can see artist Jesse Kunerth’s pop art illustrations, on display and for sale.

a savings account in July where we put a little bit of a paycheck away — almost all of the art in my house is from Arts in the Heart. I have multiple pieces of jewelry. We love it. It’s very much like the way people feel about football and how fall football starts — we feel that way about Arts in the Heart in my house. It’s so magical.”

The Arts in the Heart of Augusta Festival will take place from 5 to 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 15; and noon to 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16. Badges cost $7 in advance or $12 at the gate, and kids 10 and younger get in free. For information, call 706-826-4702, visit artsintheheartofaugusta.com or email info@artsintheheart.com. See next week’s Metro Spirit for a full guide to the festival.

September 5, 2018

No rabbit, no hat

by Amanda Main August 14, 2018

Sometimes people’s nice-guy personas are completely phony. But magician Mat Franco, who won season 9 of “America’s Got Talent” in 2014, is genuinely a pleasant guy in conversation.

As a fan of AGT, he’d always wanted a magician to win — then he got his chance on the show. He’s still the only magician ever to win on that show.

We recently caught up with Franco, whose residency at the LINQ Hotel and Casino in a theater named after him is on for 46 weeks out of the year. That leaves him six weeks of time to do what he wishes — but he rarely takes actual time off. You’ll still find him hard at work, taking his show on the road. This Friday, Aug. 17, will be his first time performing in Augusta.

Metro Spirit: You’ll be at the Miller Theater in Augusta (this) week; what kinds of tricks can people expect?

Mat Franco: People can expect the type of magic that’s interactive — it’s the type of magic where people become a part of it. … It’s sort of another version of the show we’ve done in Las Vegas for the past couple of years here, actually winning Best Magic Show in Las Vegas for the past two years. We’re bringing it to Augusta for the first time. But those who have seen the show in Las Vegas will actually see a different setlist. So what I do on the road is a combination of magic I’ve done on television, “America’s Got Talent,” TV specials. Some of my old favorites that I invented years ago, and even some new stuff that I’m working on as well.

Spirit: How is life different before and after your AGT win?

Franco: Well, it was definitely an epiphany. Before “America’s Got Talent,” I was working my little one-man show, traveling around the country performing on college campuses. And since winning “America’s Got Talent,” boy, it’s afforded me so many amazing opportunities, especially being able to tour on a grander scale, being able to perform in Las Vegas at the Mat Franco Theater. I mean, how amazing is that; we just celebrated 1,000 shows, which is outrageous.

Spirit: I read that you’re kind of a magician for the new generation. And you know how millennials get a bad rap lately. Do you think it’s different to market toward millennials, or is it easy or are they harder to fool?

Franco: I think that magic has an appeal that goes across all age ranges, so everyone from kids to grandparents can relate to and enjoy magic and love magic, and I think just, my age demographic and bringing my own brand and style to it, is not something we’re used to. You know, magic has certain connotations and certain stereotypes, and I believe that the style I’ve brought to it has simply made it something that millennials can relate to, as opposed to it being something that’s a little bit dated.

Spirit: How do you try to keep it from being dated?

Mat Franco

Franco: I’m always working on material that feels with the times. You won’t see me wearing a top hat; you won’t see any bunnies; you won’t see women sawed in half. I mean, think about what I just said. How dated is even that concept, putting people in boxes? To me, it’s all about moving things forward, and it’s all about using things that are relevant to people. Borrowing people’s cellphones and doing magic with phones and things like that. Things that are relevant to today, not in the 1950s.

Spirit: I know you’ve been doing magic since you were a kid, basically, but what was it like for you in high school — what kind of kid were you in high school?

Franco: I started to gain a little bit of confidence around that time… you know, I had been really shy kind of growing up, and then magic started to kind of open doors for me and be a little bit of something that helps me feel included, helps me kind of break out of my shell a bit, and I attribute all of that to magic. I attribute a lot of my social skills in general that we all possess, I attribute to performing magic and meeting people. It’s something that helped me — it’s a great ice-breaker. And during my teenage years, I used it as that and tried to take advantage of using it as that.”

Spirit: How many hours of practice a week do you put into magic?

Franco: I put in a lot. It’s one of those things where you have to really love it. You have to practice for the love of practice, because it simply takes that much time. … I’ve never had to tell myself, “Oh, I’d better go in my room and practice for two hours” as a kid growing up — it was more of like, when I was a little kid, my parents would have to be like, “Mat, are you still up there? You know, you have to eat at some point.”

Spirit: What do you miss about Rhode Island since you moved out to Las Vegas in 2015? I know that’s probably quite a different scene.

Franco: Yeah, the answer is the people. The people, the people. Friends, family — being away is not always easy. I miss the people the most, because there’s a certain culture there, there’s a certain energy, certain vibe. Just like in any city, Augusta’s probably different from Atlanta, and Atlanta’s different from New York, and Vegas is different from Chicago. Same thing. Rhode Island is its own unique thing, and boy, I love going up there; I love the people up there. Summers there are beautiful, so I always go back when I can.

Spirit: In your busy life, what are you most grateful for?

Franco: Boy. I think I’m most grateful just for the opportunity to be able to do what I love and share it with people. I mean, that is — I can’t imagine what else I would ask for, really. You know, I’m not a materialistic person — I don’t like things; I like experiences. So for me, just to be able to spend my time doing something I’ve been passionate about since I was 4 years old, and for people to openly express their appreciation for it, and allow me to use that passion to make a living, wow. Like, that’s heavy stuff. It’s so cool. It kind of puts me beside myself when I think about it. So I’m glad you asked that.

Spirit: What are the unexpected benefits of being a magician?

Franco: Unexpected benefits… wow. (laughs) Oh, boy. Unexpected benefits, let me think. See, when I think about it, I always think about the things that come with it that you don’t think of. Unexpected benefits… geez. Well, it’s not the things people always think, people always think “hey, you’re a magician, you can make this disappear” — people love the old joke, “Oh, could you make my wife disappear?” Those things are not actual benefits. I’m not actually a wizard. (laughs) I’m just someone who spends a lot of time practicing my craft, so I suppose the unexpected benefits are uhh… did you stump me, Amanda? Did you stump me?”

Spirit: I think I did!

Franco: How much longer can I ramble before I come up with an answer? What type of unexpected benefit are you looking for here?

Spirit: Well, like finding a date or, I don’t know, anything. Like can you use it to impress people to get a date with them?

Franco: Uh, you can. I would choose not to, because you want someone to like you for you and not because you can make something appear for them. So for me, honestly, truthfully, I know people who have used magic to get dates. I know people who have used magic to get out of speeding tickets. I know people who have used magic to gain access to places that they never would have been able to get into. And those are all wonderful, wonderful things to do with magic, if it’s your hobby. But magic being my job, I like to reserve it for what I really need it for. For me, it’s my livelihood, so I’ve never been one to just bust out a magic trick when people least expect it. I like to kind of keep it contained, when I’m ready to do the show, I’m ready to do the show. But I also like to be Mat Franco the person, the human, offstage. So very seldom will you see me shoving tricks down your throat, outside of the context of when I feel that it’s appropriate. So I guess I’m just not that guy, what can I say?

Spirit: OK, well, that’s a good thing! I like that answer. … Well, it was great to talk to you, Mat, thank you so much.

Franco: Thanks, Amanda — appreciate your time!

Mat Franco

Friday, Aug. 17

Miller Theater

708 Broad St.

millertheateraugusta.com or matfranco.com

800-514-3849

August 14, 2018

Florida singer surfs life with his music

by Amanda Main June 6, 2018

Florida-based Southern rock band JJ Grey & Mofro perfectly fits the description of a “swamp-infused style you would have sworn was from the depths of Louisiana,” as said in a Creative Loafing article.

The band will be playing in Augusta for the second time ever, at Sky City on June 14.

JJ Grey & Mofro’s latest and ninth studio album, “Ol’ Glory,” came out in 2015,

JJ Grey & Mofro – “Ol’ Glory”

and Jacksonville, Fla., native and current resident JJ Grey said he’s waiting until just the right time to make another one. In the meantime, he and his band have been playing a lot of shows over the years.

“I’m slowly but surely working on I guess a new album — I’ve got a bunch of songs. I just, I don’t know; I’m just waiting for it to kind of happen,” the singer-songwriter said. “It’s just something that I’ve never tried to force, and anytime I have — well, let me back up. It’s not that I’ve never tried to force it; I’ve tried to force it, and it’s always sucked, so I just don’t try to force it anymore. Let it happen when it happens, and when I feel like it, I’ll know, ‘OK, it’s time.’ It’s coming; it’s getting close. I’ve got the music and most of the lyrical ideas and stuff, I’ve just got to do the dirty work and get it done.”

JJ Grey & Mofro’s name has somewhat of a funny sound (in case you’re wondering, “Mofro” was originally a nickname that one of Grey’s co-workers had for him, and he used it as the band’s name because it “sounded Southern”). But they’re musicians to be taken seriously. JJ Grey has gone from playing “greasy, local juke joints,” his bio says, to headlining major music festivals. The leader of the band has a fearless way of living life; he says although he’s not sure he stays grounded in this world, he tries to.

“But rule No. 1 for me is, I don’t take none of it too serious. And it seems like fear is a poor motivator — it always has been,” Grey said. “I came to the conclusion that any decision you make out of fear is the wrong decision.”

And that shows in his music and performance. It’s gritty, Southern rock with an increasingly soulful sound over the years, and his bio touts that he delivers his songs with compassion and a relentless honesty.

When asked what he’d likely be doing if he wasn’t making music, he said he really wasn’t sure… but that he’d probably be working for Caterpillar, “on the big stuff.” One of the things that consumes his time when he’s home from the road is rebuilding after Hurricane Matthew flooded his Jacksonville home a couple of years ago.

“It’s still being rebuilt. When I go home, I get a nail gun and do what I can do, the little that I can do,” Grey said. “I’m no pro at it, but I grew up in a house where my dad did everything, and subsequently I was his helper, me and my brother, and sometimes my sister as well, when she was around. But I wound up being my dad’s helper most of the time because my brother and sister were older than me, so they were kind of moving on with their lives when my dad took on lots of projects.”

That includes “pouring concrete driveway, which we swore we’d never try to do again,” he said with a laugh. “But my dad grew up doing everything; he never called anybody for anything, whether it was rebuilding the engine on a tractor or whether it was to do whatever he did… I don’t even think I had the idea of calling an electrician. Now I do.”

Grey acknowledged that he’s mellowed out a lot over the years. He says when he was a younger musician, he had a lot of anger issues, and it showed in his lyrics. Part of that, he says, was growing up in an area of the country where violence was common.

“I was never one to walk around and cry about what went on, but I grew up in a place that was darker than the average bear,” he said. “And I had no idea; I thought everybody was like that, and I was shocked to go out into the rest of the world and see that it wasn’t quite the same, not as — people didn’t get killed as easy as they did where I grew up, and but that was just part of it. And you know, in retrospect, I wonder now how bad it really was and how much it was me just making it out to be so bad. Don’t get me wrong, people got whacked, and people get whacked everywhere, you know? Crazy shit happens, and there’s no way around that.”

He says what changed in his approach to life is learning to “put space between me and all the things that happened in my past.”

One of the ways he unwinds while he’s at home — when he can get time off from fixing up his house — is by surfing. When he talks about being on his board in the ocean, you can just tell his entire being is content when he’s out there. But there’s also a dangerous aspect to it that makes him forget about all his problems.

“It’s awesome. The waves, it’s not the water; it’s the thing in the water,” Grey said. “It’s moving in a circle, a spiral. And when you catch it, I don’t know how to describe it. People say, ‘Oh, you’re just standing on a board,’ but it’s not the same thing as just riding across the water. It’s different. And you sort of negotiate a truce, if you’re in real big waves. But you’ve got this little dance thing going on. And something in that, it takes you away. Especially the bigger it is; it really will take you away. Because when there’s consequences to it, you’ll forget about all the dumb shit you’ve created in your life that you call problems.”

JJ Grey & Mofro w/ The Texas Gentlemen

Sky City

8 p.m. Thursday, June 14

$28, advance; $33, day of show (21+)

Visit skycityaugusta.com or jjgrey.com.

June 6, 2018

Critters in your mouth (no seriously, they’re yummy)

by Amanda Main June 1, 2018

Mudbugs. For some of us, that word conjures up images of creepy-crawlies making tracks through wet soil under our feet.

But these little things are edible — and delicious! The critters are freshwater crustaceans, and depending on where you grew up, you’ve probably heard them called by one of many names — mudbugs in Louisiana, crawfish in the South, crawdads in the Midwest and Southwest, crayfish in the North, and they’re even called “freshwater lobsters” in some places. They do look like miniature lobsters…

You can get your fill of these things in downtown Augusta soon, as French Market Grille West is hosting its 10th annual Mudbugabeaux-N-Brew from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 2. It’s a giant, New Orleans-style crawfish boil, along with plenty of other good food, craft beers and live music.

Jim Beck, the restaurant’s owner and executive chef, said he loves bringing this Cajun-food festival to the area. It seems to grow each year, with about 2,800 people showing up last year to break open crawfish. That’s almost doubled from the amount of people who showed up in one of the first few years.

“It’s fun, just getting people together and exposing them to crawfish,” Beck said. “A lot of people may not have been around them very much. It’ll be a live crawfish boil going, and it’s just something for people to get together, just hang out and have fun.”

In the first few years of the festival, he’d sell off about 1,200 pounds of crawfish. This year, to accommodate more people possibly showing up, he’s planning about 3,000 pounds of mudbugs.

So, just how many of the little guys can one person put away?

“It’s hard to say, because we sell either a pound or two pounds, and it’s cheaper to buy the two pounds,” Beck said. “And I’ve seen guys go up there and get four or five trays of two pounds of crawfish, so some people eat 10 pounds or better.”

It’s a lot to get crackin’. Beck said they’re easy to eat, but it takes a lot to make a good meal. If you’re unfamiliar with eating crustaceans, it’s almost an art to get the meat out. According to cajuncrawfish.com, there’s a certain way to eat crawfish like a true Cajun would in Louisiana.

First, pick up the crawfish you want to tear into. Cajuncrawfish.com says to “grab the head firmly with one hand and grab the tail with the other hand. Twist and pull the tail from the head. Suck the head for a little extra Cajun flavor (optional). Peel off the first two or three rings of the tail, then pinch the tail and pull the meat from it. Dip the meat in your favorite sauce (also optional).” Repeat those steps until you’ve eaten up all your mudbugs.

But honestly, if you’d rather just get in there, then just dig in and craft your own techniques.

Beck got the mudbug bug back in 1992 when he took in a crawfish festival down in New Orleans, and ever since he wanted to bring something like that to Augusta. Finally, a decade ago he did, and Augusta’s summers haven’t been the same since.

Although other times of the year might not be quite so hot, the crawfish season runs from late January through Labor Day, which really leaves only a few dates left that French Market Grille West can host such an event.

Beck has the mudbugs trucked in from Louisiana in the weeks leading up to the event.

“It’s hard to say (how many pounds of crawfish people eat), because we sell either a pound or two pounds, and it’s cheaper to buy the two pounds. And I’ve seen guys go up there and get four or five trays of two pounds of crawfish, so some people eat 10 pounds or better.”

“We freeze them getting ready for the festival, and I’ll have a good many down there live in a tub to let some of the patrons come by and see them,” he said.

As Augusta has been very wet the past couple of weeks, there’s a chance rain will come down on the event. But as always, Beck said, the show goes on, rain or shine.

There will be plenty of other things to eat, including muffaletta sandwiches (another Louisiana favorite), Beck’s famous jambalaya, gumbo and boiled peel-and-eat shrimp, as well as more kid-friendly foods like corn dogs.

The live music, organized by Beasley Broadcasting, will get started soon after gates open, first with Nick and the Nightcrawlers, then Old Man Crazy, and Whole Lotta Soul will play last. Miranda Winter, an Augusta native who got a golden ticket on “American Idol” during the show’s 14th season, will be performing with folk/Americana band AcostA.

Although Winter didn’t make it past the first round’s cut, she recently won a similar, local competition in Statesboro called Statesboro Voice, according to ConnectStatesboro.com. She told the news outlet she started singing as soon as she started talking, and she became serious about it when she was 16, when she started singing in bars and restaurants in Augusta.

The mudbug festival will be complete with a stage on one end and a good-size tent that people can sit under. Then there’s a tent with craft beer, including selections from Riverwatch Brewery and Savannah River Brewing Company, as well as Bud, Bud Light and Michelob Ultra. But if you prefer wine, they’ve got that, too.

Last year, the festival went without an area for kids, but the fun stuff for youngins (including rides and inflatables) will be back this year.

With this being the 10th anniversary, the first 1,000 people to show up will get a commemorative T-shirt, designed by Kruhu. Admission is $10 (free for kids 12 and under), and the food is moderately priced, so you shouldn’t have to break the bank to enjoy the festivities.

Go get a Cajun kick-off to summer — it’s always a good time for the whole family to get out, and hopefully Augusta will actually have some sunshine over the weekend.

10th Annual Mudbugabeaux-N-Brew

Augusta Common

Noon – 6 p.m. Saturday, June 2

$10, general; free, kids 12 and under

frenchmarketwest.com or 706-855-5111

June 1, 2018

Shiny ’n’ sporty, national Mustang show comes back

by Amanda Main May 23, 2018

Car enthusiasts from all over the country will flock to the Augusta area during Memorial Day weekend.

The Mustang Club of America’s Georgia on My Mind National Mustang Show is revving up to bring in about 350 Mustangs on Friday, May 25, to Sunday, May 27, at the Columbia County Exhibition Center in Grovetown.

Show Chairman and CSRA Mustang Club President Mike Anchor said anyone who’s ever wanted to see a particular Mustang likely will get that chance at this free show.

“We have cars coming from as far as California and Washington state; in the past, we’ve had a car or two from Canada, so this is a pretty big show,” Anchor said. “If there’s any Mustang that somebody likes, like there’s some Mustang they’ve always wanted to see but they’ve never seen one because they’re rare — like a Boss 429 — basically, if you like the Mustang, and you want to see a specific Mustang, chances are it’s gonna be at our show.”

Local Mustang clubs — like the CSRA Mustang Club — bid on the chance to host such a show, and the last time it was in this area was in 2015. The national Mustang Club hosts four shows a year, with winning bids happening across the country, including places like McAllen, Texas; Lincoln, Neb., and Topeka, Kan.

Not only is it an opportunity for car fans to see beautifully kept specimens, but it’s also a chance for Mustang owners to have their cars judged.

“There are several different classes of cars,” Anchor said. “My car will be in the Occasional Driven Class, so it’s one that I like to get out and drive. I don’t drive it every day, but I drive it weekends and maybe on weeknights when I want to go out and do something, I’ll jump in the car. Those cars are judged on cleanliness, condition and overall workmanship.”

Other classes include Unrestored (those are usually low on mileage with original factory parts and equipment as ordered, and they’re judged on originality. Reproduction or updated Ford Service Replacement parts are not acceptable). The Thoroughbred Class is designated for restored or unrestored cars that have parts from the correct era (absolutely no reproduction parts are allowed). Concours Class involves cars that have been restored to original or better than original condition, judged for originality (points are deducted for non-original parts). Occasional and Daily Driven cars are not judged on authenticity.

So, why do car owners care if their cars are judged to Mustang Club of America’s standards? One of the benefits, Anchor said, is that their cars can be verified as being correctly restored (for its specific class), which can add value to the vehicle during resale.

Along with the hundreds of cars for patrons to view, there also will be all kinds of vendors — yes, including food — and a Saturday night banquet (catered by Diablo’s Southwest Grill) and casino night. Tickets can be purchased at motosho.com.

Vendors selling Ford and Mustang products also will be at the show.

Like in 2015, proceeds from the show will benefit the Rebecca Erryn Moon Foundation, a charity that helps children in the Georgia Cancer Center. Money is raised primarily through car registration fees and through corporate sponsorships.

“So we have cars that are restored from the ground up, carried in on trailers, and like I said, they look like they’re brand spankin’ new,” Anchor said. “I would just encourage people if they’re not doing anything Memorial Day weekend or if they’ve got a few hours, to come out, look at the cars, spend some money at the vendors, help support our charity and help support the people that have helped put the show on.”

Georgia on My Mind National Mustang Show
Columbia County Exhibition Center
All day Friday, May 25, through Sunday, May 27
Presented by the CSRA Mustang Club and Mustang Club of America. Free.
Visit csramc.org or mustang.org.

May 23, 2018

Still kicking taste buds, 21 years later

by Amanda Main May 9, 2018

When local restaurants first open up, it’s never a sure thing how long they’ll be around. But customers (and employees) have kept French Market Grille West going strong for more than two decades now.

The secret to success is a dedicated owner, Executive Chef Jim Beck. That, and great food, of course.

“I’ve looked at the menu and talked about changing stuff, or we try to run different specials as much as possible,” Beck said, “but there are a lot of people that come to this restaurant, when they pull up in the parking lot, they’ve already got in mind what they want to eat. And if I changed it or take it off the menu, they wouldn’t like it. So it is what it is. You got to run with what you brung, pretty much.”

What he’s “brung” to the Augusta area for years is authentic-tasting New Orleans-style Cajun food. The dishes were first made famous to Augustans at Surrey Center’s French Market Grille, owned by Chuck and Gail Baldwin.

Beck’s background with Cajun and Creole started when he worked with his father and brother at A Taste of New Orleans in Atlanta and brought the concept to Augusta. That Walton Way restaurant closed in 1996, however.

Chuck Baldwin knew Beck liked cooking and that he was good at it, so when Beck was working as a pipe welder, he had him start spending time at the Surrey Center location, simply known as French Market Grille. French Market Grille West opened on Furys Ferry Road with Beck as the kitchen manager in January 1997. The caveat to Beck co-owning the restaurant, which he landed in 2006, was that the two restaurants be kept similar for integrity purposes. That was a smart call, as the food is so good there’s really no reason to change it.

The restaurant is proud to never used canned food and to make everything from scratch. You can taste the freshness in any of their dishes, including crawfish, shrimp, soft-shell crab and oysters.

And in recent years, French Market Grille West has added something unexpected to its menu.

“We’ve been doing sushi about five years, on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights,” Beck said. “We call it Cajun sushi. It’s all your typical sushi, and then we also use crawfish tails, shrimp, catfish, and then the more traditional yellowtail, tuna, salmon sushi rolls.”

Customers fill tables for Crab Leg Night on Tuesdays, or just to get a taste of favorites such as Bourbon Street Duck, Seafood Pasta and the F.C. Philly Cheesesteak, named after former co-owner Frank Chirkinian.

“I have people come in and say we have the best Philly in town,” Beck has said. “We use really good cuts of steak, and if you start out with something good, it’s hard not to end up with something good.”

If you still haven’t thought of a good gift for the mom in your life, not to worry: French Market Grille West is opening on Sunday, May 13, just for Mother’s Day. Normally closed on Sundays, they’ll be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., serving their dinner menu and a special Mother’s Day menu (which was still in the works as of this past week).

No reservations are needed at this holiday special.

If you end up at French Market Grille West, you’ll find yourself in an atmosphere like the kind you’d find in New Orleans. And if you’re unfamiliar with Cajun food and are a little afraid of the spices, just ask for a recommendation once you get in. It’s likely you’ll fall in love with the flavors.

May 9, 2018

A new day for Harry Jacobs’ legacy

by Amanda Main May 5, 2018

A big announcement was made recently that the people involved think is a positive change.

The Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society and Augusta University announced they are officially joining forces. The music society, which has been around for 28 years, now will be housed in the Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

The music society regularly brings to Augusta big names in chamber music, defined as music that is composed for and performed by small ensembles (usually five or fewer people).

Dinara Klinton

“This partnership feels like a homecoming for the society’s namesake, Harry Jacobs,” Elna Green, dean of AU’s Pamplin College, said in a news release. “After all, he designed the university’s Maxwell Theatre, as well as served as the founding chair of the university’s Department of Music. Harry’s legacy continues to impact the quality of musical education we provide at Augusta University. Our actions today both honor that legacy and help to secure its future.”

Jacobs died in 2001, but his family is still involved in the music society. The society’s retiring Executive Director Quentin Kyper said several of Jacobs’ sons and daughters live in town, and the ones he’s spoken to are happy about the change.

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

“(His oldest daughter) has been a member of the society for as long as she’s been in town, and she’s very excited about it,” Kyper said. “We have one of Harry’s granddaughters, Erin Jacobs Dennis, who’s on the board of the society, and as a board member, she was very much in favor of the merger.”

Kyper explained why he thinks having world-class chamber music groups coming to Augusta is so important for the community.

“Chamber music is one of the greatest achievements of the artistic world,” he said. “Every major composer, every major classical music composer of the last 300 years has composed some of their best music for chamber music. We’re talking about Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky … they’ve all composed some of their greatest, most interesting most beautiful music for small ensembles.”

Harry Jacobs

He emphasized that despite the change happening, the Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society is going to continue to offer the same type of program, with about six performances a year. He said what the society looks for is musicians who have played major venues like Carnegie Hall, or places in cities like Paris, Tokyo, London and San Francisco. They also look for winners and runners-up of major music competitions, like the Cleveland International Piano Competition.

The society will remain a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. It will benefit from the merger in that it will have full access to Augusta University’s facilities, including the marketing program, printing services and fundraising. The two entities already had a good relationship, as the society’s performances have been held at the Grover C. Maxwell Performing Arts Theatre and already have been a part of AU’s Lyceum Series.

Kyper and his wife, Linda Banister, announced last year they were retiring from heading up the music society. They had been leading it for the past nine years.

Dali String Quartet

“I think this is one of the greatest assets of the city of Augusta,” Kyper said. “It provides a very highly professional quality of music, and it’s music that you will not find anywhere else in the city. With the other things that are going on here, musical theater organizations and the symphony orchestra and jazz bands, and things like that — there’s a lot of really good ones in the city, but this is the main chamber music organization. … We’ve had major artists over the last 15, 20 years, and it’s a very impressive history.”

On tap for this coming season is a Baroque ensemble known as REBEL with Matthias Maute; the Dali String Quartet, which specializes in Latin American music; and Dinara Klinton, a Ukranian pianist who was a runner-up of the Cleveland International Piano Competition two years ago. Piano trio Trio con Brio Copenhagen will perform, and rounding out the series will be the Silk Road Ensemble, a group that started with famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the helm. (Ma stepped away from the group once they were on the road and let them grow without him.)

Admission to the society’s events will remain the same — full-term membership, which includes access to a full season’s performances, is $150. General admission to each performance will continue to be $40 per person, and AU students, faculty and staff still will be able to get in free with a current ID. Students at other colleges and schools will get in for $5.

For more information, visit augusta.edu/harryjacobs .

May 5, 2018

Artist Doesn’t Stay in the Dark

by Amanda Main May 2, 2018

For a lot of people struggling with mental illness, it’s hard not to want to try to hide it. Even though millions of Americans deal with some sort of mental health issue at some point in their lives, there is still a lot of shame and stigma attached to it.

Laura Greenstein with the National Alliance on Mental Health wrote in 2017 that “most people who live with mental illness have, at some point, been blamed for their condition. They’ve been called names. Their symptoms have been referred to as ‘a phase’ or something they can control ‘if they only tried.’”

An internationally known artist coming to Augusta this month (which is Mental Health Awareness Month) is working to break down the stigma — by being open about his own diagnoses. Now 53, Cleveland artist Derek Hess was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in his 30s. But he learned he was an alcoholic back when he was 18. This means Hess has co-occurring disorders, “the coexistence of both a mental health and a substance-use disorder,” according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Hess’ substance abuse started back in high school.

“I was a big old drunk and drug addict and all that good stuff, and when I turned 18, I continued doing stupid little crimes that I was getting busted for and going to juvenile (detention center),” Hess said.

“And I was given the choice to go to the county or go to rehab. I definitely didn’t want to go to the county jail, so I went to rehab. And I got an education in alcoholism. And so it all made sense then — I understood why I was drinking, you know, I understood what was wrong with me. It took the fun out of drinking, too, because now I knew there was something really wrong with me.”

Later on, in the ’90s, Hess was being treated for depression. But if someone who has bipolar disorder but is diagnosed only as depressed, the treatment for depression will drive out the mania side of the disorder. It wasn’t until Hess told his doctor he was acting “crazy” and told him all the stuff he was doing that the doctor said, “By God, Derek, I think you’re bipolar.”

Hess looks back on his life now and can see evidence of being bipolar way before his diagnosis.

“There were times definitely when I had the mania going on, which I just thought was being happy and being productive,” he said. “Whereas I look back now and it’s like, you know, I’m not getting a lot of sleep, I was talking too fast — all the typical bipolar symptoms I was demonstrating. So yeah, that was probably in my 20s, so I’d been bipolar for a bit before I was diagnosed, definitely.”

The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that one in 25 American adults is living with a serious mental health condition like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or long-term recurring major depression. (One in five American adults experiences some form of mental illness in any given year, which can include anxiety and depression.)

At first, Hess was afraid to be open about his new diagnosis. When he thought he was only depressed, he said it felt socially acceptable to tell people that.

“And then I got diagnosed as bipolar, and (my doctor) was like, ‘Well, why don’t you tell people that?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, no, no, no! It’s not cool to be bipolar. That’s crazy. You can be depressed — that’s socially acceptable. And a few years after that, I realized this is what I am, so I’m not gonna hide behind it. “

“So, I’m bipolar. And the more I talk about it, the more I came across people who were the same and didn’t feel comfortable admitting it, or being open about it, so that’s how that worked.”

Hess has been hospitalized for his disorders more than once, but his first time in a behavioral health hospital wasn’t his own choice.

Derek Hess – Photo by Angelo Merendino

“I was in my alcoholism, I was drinking, and I was really bad,” Hess said. “And I went to see my psychiatrist one day at noon, and she was like, ‘Well, have you been drinking?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been drinking; I’m gonna be sick if I don’t drink.’ I was drinking that much that, where I had to drink, so I wouldn’t get into DT (delirium tremens) and be sick. And she was like, ‘Well, are you suicidal?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, hell yeah, I’m suicidal!’ And I didn’t really have a plan, but I was kind of in that mind frame that I’m definitely not happy. And that was it! I just had to say the word ‘suicidal’ to a psychiatrist; they’re gonna pink-slip your ass and have you taken away, and that’s what they did.”

He said since then, though, he actually enjoys being hospitalized, when he’s had to resort to that.

“I liked it, man, when I was hospitalized… I didn’t have to deal with anything, they gave me my meds on time, you could watch TV, I could wear my pajamas all the time,” he said.

In spite of all Hess’ struggles, he is an internationally known artist who has done all kinds of works drawn in pen and ink, sometimes incorporating pencils, acrylics and crayons. He also does collage work and silk screens.

During his time booking bands for concerts back in the early ’90s, he was discovered as a talented concert poster artist, and he went on to create posters for bands like Pantera, Thursday, Pink Floyd and Pearl Jam. His website bio also says he “has created CD covers for bands like Motion City Soundtrack and Unearth. He has also been featured on television show and in magazines — MTV, Fuse, VH1, Alternative Press and Juxtapose as well as many others.”

Hess is going on a book signing tour and will be in Augusta at 600 Broad from 6:30 to 10 p.m. May 12. During the event, a screening of “Forced Perspective” (a documentary about Hess) will take place at 7 p.m., with a Q&A at 8:30 p.m. and a book signing from 9 to 10 p.m. Hess’ book is called “31 Days in May” — it came about after Hess posted daily images to his social media outlets in May 2017 in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month. The art showcased his ongoing battle with dual diagnosis, and it was turned into the book.

As part of Hess’ tour, each venue will donate to a local charity of their choice. The venue 600 Broad has chosen the Lighthouse Care Center of Augusta.

“They’re a behavioral mental health hospital that focuses on children under the age of 18,” said Regina Brejda with 4P Studios. “They are a for-profit entity, so what we’re donating to is the children’s store that’s inside of the facility, and basically the long-term care patients that are there are rewarded for good behavior by being given what they call Lighthouse Bucks. They’re able to spend that cash in the children’s store to buy new clothes or toiletries, or things that they just need… and books and other materials that I think can help make their stay a little more comfortable. And then, hopefully having that money come from the community as well is showing them that we believe in their healing.”

A suggested $5 donation will be collected at the Hess appearance May 12. However, because of the nature of the event, anyone can show up for free. Brejda said Hess was in Augusta about six years ago, and people from cities across the region traveled to see him back then.

Hess likened having mental illness and addiction to having any other kind of illness.

“It’s something that I have; it’s something that people have,” he said. “It’s like diabetes — people have diabetes, people have cancer. People have things. Everybody’s got something, you know? And you don’t shame people about being diabetic or having cancer. So you shouldn’t really judge and shame people for being mentally ill; it’s a sickness, that’s ill. ‘Illness.’ So that’s what I kind of want people to understand, that’s why I’m doing the book and being open about it. It’s drawing back the curtains and exposing it, that this is not the end of the world, that it can be treated.”

Derek Hess Book Signing and Film Screening
600 Broad
6:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 12
Free, with suggested $5 donation to support Lighthouse Care Center of Augusta. Light refreshments included.
Visit facebook.com/events/2010495022543520 or derekhess.com, or call 706-267-6724 or 706-814-6641. Find out more about substance abuse and mental health by visiting samhsa.gov.

9 WAYS TO FIGHT MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA

This list was published by the National Alliance on Mental Health in October 2017. Read more at nami.org.

Talk openly about mental health: “I fight stigma by talking about what it is like to have bipolar disorder and PTSD on Facebook. Even if this helps just one person, it is worth it for me.” — Angela Christie Roach Taylor

Educate yourself and others: “I take every opportunity to educate people and share my personal story and struggles with mental illness. It doesn’t matter where I am, if I over-hear a conversation or a rude remark being made about mental illness, or anything regarding a similar subject, I always try to use that as a learning opportunity and gently intervene and kindly express how this makes me feel, and how we need to stop this because it only adds to the stigma.” — Sara Bean

Be conscious of language: “I fight stigma by reminding people that their language matters. It is so easy to refrain from using mental health conditions as adjectives and in my experience, most people are willing to replace their usage of it with something else if I explain why their language is problematic.” — Helmi Henkin

Encourage equality between physical and mental illness: “I find that when people understand the true facts of what a mental illness is, being a disease, they think twice about making comments. I also remind them that they wouldn’t make fun of someone with diabetes, heart disease or cancer.” — Megan Dotson

Show compassion for those with mental illness: “I offer free hugs to people living outdoors, and sit right there and talk with them about their lives. I do this in public, and model compassion for others. Since so many of our homeless population are also struggling with mental illness, the simple act of showing affection can make their day but also remind passersby of something so easily forgotten: the humanity of those who are suffering.” — Rachel Wagner

Choose empowerment over shame: “I fight stigma by choosing to live an empowered life. To me, that means owning my life and my story and refusing to allow others to dictate how I view myself or how I feel about myself.” — Val Fletcher

Be honest about treatment: “I fight stigma by saying that I see a therapist and a psychiatrist. Why can people say they have an appointment with their primary care doctor without fear of being judged, but this lack of fear does not apply when it comes to mental health professionals?” —— Ysabel Garcia

Let the media know when they’re being stigmatizing: “If I watch a program on TV that has any negative comments, story lines or characters with a mental illness, I write to the broadcasting company and to the program itself. If Facebook has any stories where people make ignorant comments about mental health, then I write back and fill them in on my son’s journey with schizoaffective disorder.” — Kathy Smith

Don’t harbor self-stigma: “I fight stigma by not having stigma for myself — not hiding from this world in shame, but being a productive member of society. I volunteer at church, have friends, and I’m a peer mentor and a mom. I take my treatment seriously. I’m purpose driven and want to show others they can live a meaningful life even while battling (mental illness).” — Jamie Brown

May 2, 2018