You could say she's like a Prairie Fire.

You could say she's like (prairie fire theme) (prairie fire theme) (prairie fire theme) (prairie fire theme) (prairie fire theme) Welcome to a special Mid America Emmys edition of Prairie Fire.

I'm your host, Sarah Edwards, and I'm Tinisha Spain, and I say Mid America Emmys Tinisha because we were recently honored with five Mid America Emmys for our work on this show, including Best Magazine program for a second year in a row.

That's right.

So we're going to spend an extra 30 minutes.

You get a bonus 30 minutes.

This is an hour long show, and we're going to show you some of the stories that won those awards.

Kind of toot our own horn a little bit.

But we're also going to be asking for your support.

Yes, it is really your support and sometimes your story ideas that make this show what it is.

And we have a small but mighty crew that really accomplishes every story.

Yes.

So the first story that we're going to show you is an incredible story about a young man who went through a lot.

He is a really great individual with a really incredible story to tell.

His name is Shannon Voss.

Take a look.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Shannon Voss, and I would like to thank God for blessing me with this wonderful opportunity.

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to commemorate the Parkland graduating class of 2024 Shannon boss is a 90s baby from Chicago, a super smart kid.

He skipped second grade and graduated at the top of his high school class, all while battling poverty and periods of homelessness.

But that's not the tallest mountain he's had to climb.

Shannon has an incredible story to tell, one with highs lows and some life changing chapters.

This is actually the first time I've been able to actually tell my entire story.

I graduated from high school as the valedictorian, and I received the 34 on the A-C-T.

this is when my life changed drastically.

I went to a bar alone and woke up in abandoned house, and I remembered having an excruciating pain coming from my anus.

A week went by and my roommate hadn't seen me, so he broke down my room door and found me unconscious.

I was rushed to Carle Hospital, where they discovered I had HIV and rare case of shingles that had traveled to my brain and caused a series of different problems, like sinus tachycardia, hypomagnesemia, respiratory failure, aspiration pneumonia, Varicella Zoster encephalitis, with disseminated cutaneous Zoster and anoxic brain injury, encephalopathy.

During the beginning of my sickness, I was paralyzed for 95% of my body.

I couldn't walk, talk, eat.

I felt like I was transferred to someone else's body.

His journey to healing started at Carle Hospital in Urbana, he spent five months in the intensive care unit and another year and a half in the hospital.

At times, Shannon's family was told he might not make it.

The attack and subsequent illnesses left Shannon unable to move his first therapy moving his eyes from side to side.

When patients come to the rehab unit, they get assigned a team.

We were the PT ot team assigned to Shannon.

We were his primary therapist when he was in the in-patient rehab unit at Carle.

It's pretty incredible, honestly, because I think it would have been easy for him to give up on himself and say, This is too hard.

I can't do this really.

I feel like his sheer will pushed him through.

And so to get to see somebody that fought so hard to get his life back, he has the he.

A determination to really do whatever he wants.

You're not going to stop him.

He just has that energy of almost excitement positivity, I mean constant positivity, and it's infectious.

What really changed for me was a dream I had.

It was August 12, 2012 I will never forget it.

I had a dream that I was graduating from college.

That dream gave me a vision of what my life could be.

I always said, If you can dream it, you can achieve it.

Two months into my first semester returning back to school, I got the worst phone call ever.

My beloved mother had passed away.

This was a pain that I had never experienced before, the woman who loved me unconditionally, the person who prayed for me every night while in Carle hospital, the person who gave me the strength to keep fighting was gone.

I began writing poetry when my mother died, as a way to process all of my unheard pain, I also put all of my despair, anger, sadness, into my schoolwork and turned something bad into something good.

Shannon Voss on May 9, 2024 Shannon realized that dream he had in his hospital bed he walked across the stage and accepted his diploma from Parkland Community College.

He also gave the commencement speech.

What does it mean to truly live?

I have been thinking about that question a lot lately as I near my graduation and close this chapter of my life, I'm sure a lot of you might be asking the same question yourselves watching him give that speech, was like I was surrounded by people that had no idea why I was there, right?

I didn't know anybody else there, but I was there for seeing it.

And you listen to these people behind you, like, oh my gosh, this is incredible.

And I I was a mess because I was a little teeny piece of that.

But listening to other people that don't know any of that it was, it was incredible.

Down.

I mean, this was a dream that he had, like, literally, a dream that he had, like, I saw myself graduating from college, I'm gonna go do it, and then to see him, you know, accomplish that goal, and knowing the work that he had to put in on so many different levels, that truly was like a culmination of all of his work, and exactly like what he'd been through, and his tenacity working with cartel therapy made me realize that I am someone who has a story to tell.

Whenever I come back to Carle hospital, I feel my mother's presence.

I see a piece of my mother in Rene Sonya and Monica.

When I was walking to receive my diploma, each step I took, I was stepping on all of my insecurities, all the times I felt hopeless.

I was also stepping on the old me who thought suicide was an option.

I even saved my mother a ticket to my graduation ceremony.

It was maybe the best, not maybe it was the best speech I've ever heard my life.

And I shed a tear a little bit, and I was able to see him after the graduation.

We got a nice picture together.

So that was it was it was just amazing.

Much like his therapy team at Carle hospital, Shannon's friends are cheering him on every step of the way as he continues to crush his goals and live a life of purpose and inspiration.

He's goofy.

He's easy to talk to.

He's got great jokes.

He just feels like, like a real, like, genuine, down to earth kind of person.

You really talk to him about anything, I think is a rare quality for a lot of people.

I met Shannon when I was a student at Parkland.

He just, while I was studying, he just came up to me and was really nice and just asked if he could share a poem, and it was really, really good.

He's been through so much, but he still is able to, like, maintain such an optimistic, like, outlook on everything.

When people who who have been in similar circumstances, I could imagine it would be really difficult to still maintain a smile and, like, maintain like, gratitude for life and everything.

The one thing that hasn't changed about myself is the determination I have for making my life the best it can possibly be.

I think I am better not visit.

But mentally today, I can say that I am in a very good place.

I hope my story can be a service to others, as a gesture of hope, healing and courage.

This is my destiny, to show others what they may become if they don't give up.

You.

Gosh, I never get tired of watching that story.

Oh, so good, so good.

All right, welcome back.

Joined now with our director of development, John Steinbacher.

Now, when he comes out of the office, it's business so well.

I mean, I don't like to think it's always business, but if anyone's been paying attention this year?

Of course, in July of this year, the federal government rescinded funding for public media stations across the country, which of course, included Illinois, public media for us, it was a loss of about $1.5 million which is a significant chunk.

I do want to say that so far this year, our community has responded.

We have seen a huge growth year over year in terms of donations, which is fantastic.

Yes.

So thank you to everyone who has made a gift.

If you haven't done so, please consider making gift in support of local programming like prairie fire.

That is what sets this station apart.

Obviously, it's not just us who think so.

We have the Emmys to show that this is a program that is doing something different, and we're able to do that with your support.

So please consider making a gift right now.

You or go online to willgive.org and make it very easy to do if you've never given before, we'd love for you to support this program, particularly tonight, as we're celebrating the accomplishments of the last year.

And you know this Shannon story is so interesting, so unique.

And I think one of the things I like about what you guys did here was you included to staff at Carle got to see his friends.

How do you guys go about that?

And how did you even find out about Shannon the first place?

So the story ideas come from a come from all over the place, but Shannon's particular story started out just as a press release.

It was it was saying that he graduated from college, which sounds pretty standard, right until you see the story, but once you get down to the second paragraph, and it talks about some of the things that he went through, the story just leapt out at us, and so the team, DJ, Taylor and I were just immediately taken with Shannon's story and knew that it could turn into something incredible.

And it really did, really did.

We're putting the community and the people at the forefront, and I think that's really important right now to share stories like this.

So thank you all for doing this, and thanks, of course, to everyone out there who is a friend of wil for sharing your support to enable us to do this kind of thing.

Now is a great time if you're a sustainer, to increase your gift.

That's very easy to do online at will give.org you can give via credit card payroll deduction if you happen to be a University of Illinois employee, or we can take it right out of your bank account via electronic funds transfer, all very easy to do.

And the wonderful thing is tonight, we have some very, very special thank you gifts that you can select when you make a gift.

Right now, with your ongoing monthly gift of $7 or a one time gift of $84 you can select our custom made Prairie Fire candle, exclusively created by fire doll studio in Champaign.

With your ongoing monthly gift of $10 or a one time gift of 120 you can choose between our very popular and limited Prairie Fire tshirt or a paperback book Illinois bucket list adventure guide explore 100 offbeat destinations you must visit by Tim Brown, thank you for tuning in to Prairie Fire.

I'm Amanda Hill membership manager here at Illinois public media, and you're watching one of my favorite locally produced Mid America, Emmy winning programs on WILL-TV.

As you may know, federal funding for public broadcasting has been eliminated.

This loss is real, and it's having a serious impact here at Illinois public media, we were expecting $1.5 million in federal support this year.

That funding helps us purchase PBS programs and produce local content like MidAmerican gardener, Prairie Fire, local news, plus our educational outreach.

While losing those funds is a big challenge, our commitment to this community is stronger than ever, and thanks to supporters like you, we know we're not alone.

Your generosity over the years has always made the difference because of you.

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Go online to willgive.org or call 217-244-9455, to make your gift.

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It includes both the prayer fire T shirts and the Illinois bucket list adventure guide book.

Our next short documentary that won an Emmy Award is about the hip hop camp that happens at the University of Illinois every summer, and it was produced by Taylor planton Taylor, I would say that probably, if I were a judge, I would have nominated this for an Emmy, and it would have won because of the very unique approach that you took to the piece.

Yeah, I wanted to really highlight the kids in this so the camp itself.

The focus is the kids.

When I was talking with Pete and Adam and Lamont before I even interviewed them, their focus was their experience, their talent, what they needed.

And so I knew going into this I wasn't going to focus on, I mean, the camp and the community is part of it, right, and how the teachers and volunteers craft this experience for them, but I wanted to highlight the kids.

I wanted to get to know them, and thankfully, they were able to arrange time within the camp for them to come and speak with me, and we really were able to get to know each other.

There were genuine moments of laughter, and their personality came out right, and all of the questions I asked them were very open ended, and they all gave me a different answer, which was really the beautiful thing about it, and unexpected.

Sometimes yes, unexpected, and they it really showcased the fact that they are unique individuals who have their own story to tell, and that was something I really wanted to highlight in this piece.

And the cinematography for this piece in particular was just stunning, and that's in thanks to DJ Roach helped me with the interviews of the teachers and professors, and then Dan Clark was the one who helped capture the students, and we set up a kind of room and transformed it into a studio, and it was great.

You know, part of what is, I think people are fascinated by, and I've heard from viewers, is a question is, how do you do what you do?

How long does it take?

How many cameras do you use the timeline for creating pieces?

So walk us through that for hip hop camp.

For Hip Hop camp, specifically, it was really just myself and then a cinematographer.

So that was DJ and Dan, and they were never together.

So it was always just two people, and which, when you think about it, is kind of amazing.

James trekler also helped film during the camp, get B roll of the students and during the final performance.

And so it's really kind of spreading people out as much as you can, trying to get different things that were going on.

In terms of editing, we captured a lot of footage for this piece.

So this one took me a little bit longer to put together, but I also, again, wanted to craft it in a different way than what I've done in the past.

And you have, you captured so many beautiful things that the kids said, and I imagine some of the problems in the editing bay was not using some of the beautiful things that some of these kids said in order to meet certain time requirements and that type of thing.

And that type of thing.

And that's always the challenge with the show, right?

We have long interviews.

We generally sit down with people for over an hour, and then we're cutting it down to something that might be five to eight to 10 minutes.

And so it's just trying to really craft that story in a way that's effective, that is genuine to the who the person is and what they have to share with the world.

Enjoy this next short documentary called Illinois Hip Hop camp.

I want to be a role model.

I want to be recognized for my talent.

I want to make it big.

If you want to come to the University of Illinois School of Music, you.

Want to play the euphonium, right?

We already understand what that path looks like for you.

If you want to be a hip hop artist or hip hop producer, where do you start?

The field of music education, historically, has not engaged Well, or even at all, with hip hop musicians.

Music education as a field.

Schools of Music broadly, and colleges of music around the country, and K 12 practices around the country have often not centralized black American musical practices or black American bodies in spaces.

So the hip hop camp was just something we wanted to try.

We had no idea who was going to come out or really what it was going to look like.

It was me and Professor Lamont Holden with a couple of artists and a handful of kids.

And because we were focused on the kids and not a particular product that it had to look like, we had an awesome time, because the kids are amazing and they're brilliant and they're funny and they're weird and, you know, and they can do amazing things when given the space and the opportunity.

A lot of the youth come to camp already with a lot of experiences around hip hop.

So some of them are already wrapped in, some of them are already making beats.

But we meet, you know, students where they're at.

Really, the camp is just focused on original lyric creation.

We work on, like, how do you hold the microphone?

We work on like, you know, stage presence, things of that nature, so that they're really able to understand that hip hop is more than just, like, you know, writing a rhyme and like, spinning it for your friends, but it's also like, yeah, you need to understand how to rock a show, how to interact with the crowd, the producing side of things we focus on, like how to use a doll.

So basically, you know, digital audio, audio workstations, so someone's making a beat, someone else is working on rhymes, and we kind of like collaborate so that they, you know, they can put together a track.

While we're teaching hip hop, we're also teaching students that this is a possible career path, right?

I don't believe that.

Everybody believes that art is a real career, but we need art.

That movie would be really quiet without music.

That drive will be really bad without music, right?

That quinceanera would be mad dry without music.

We need it.

It's a fact, right?

The value of the music is changing.

The music industry is changing, and I want you to face that head on, because now you got to make a decision.

Do you want to be a star, or do you love music?

And once you decide that you love music, you know you're going to make the music anyway.

Now we have to be more creative and think outside the box about how we get that music out, about how we get the attention of people, about how we get people to listen.

I choose to get it and not wait for it to come you.

It.

I choose love over fear.

Hip Hop makes and remakes all the time.

When we have something like a summer camp where kids are coming to make music, I have no idea what they're going to make.

I don't really know until we meet them, their art, their music, their creation, their expression, that is the central focus.

It is them.

We ask them to be 100% themselves, to bring all of who they are and express that there is no expectation for them to recreate a particular style or to speak on a particular topic, or that they're going to even learn a very specific, particular skill set.

They're here to be themselves.

And that is beauty in itself, that is so important, and that is that, I think, is also pretty radical.

I think the most, one of the most special things about hip hop camp is that even though I'm the music educator here, the kids are really the experts.

They're the ones who know the most.

And honestly, I learn more from them throughout this week than they learn from me.

They don't have to know what I know.

I love hip hop, but I'm old, and at this point in hip hop, I'm ancient.

So I think having that mix in our camp of the artists who are practitioners of the culture, and then having educators who know a lot of things about teaching and learning, but maybe not specific to hip hop, working together as a team that brings out the best kind of in everybody.

Community within specifically isym, hip hop is so thick and saturated, we all care for each other so much it's like a family.

So it's like, I'm coming back for, like it feels like a birthday party, for like a cookout, you know, rather than I have to go do a job, I have to come teach.

You know, really, it's an ecosystem that sort of sustains itself, because everybody who's there is empowered to be themselves and to bring what they have, and everybody has cultural wealth to bring it's a different mix, not only of different ethnicities and different ages, but also different genre.

We're doing hip hop.

So we have MCs, but we also have singers, and we're making a big show and including both, and keeping the crowd hype when it needs to be, keeping the crowd mellow when it needs to be.

And.

Creating a space where everybody can have a voice and equally be seen for their music and for who they are.

I am a poet.

I feel welcome.

I'm a producer, I'll say, when I first started my beat, I didn't know what to do at all.

I was just playing with the keyboard, just trying to find something that was like, we started doing this, and I was like, this is hard.

This is really difficult to do.

But like, you know, I had these amazing leaders, these counselors who were by my side, walking me through every step.

They were there for me.

And I appreciate them so much.

It's really great getting to show like rookies the ropes.

And I feel like, I feel it's kind of special.

It's like heartwarming, getting to see them like I was there in their place, like five years ago, but now I'm teaching them how to do it, and it's just it feels really awesome.

Everybody's on their own different type of music journey, and everybody's gonna be a pro at everything, and everybody's nervous at one point.

I'm noticing that this space is teaching kids how to have grace with themselves, with something so vulnerable as music that's their baby, but knowing that sometimes the intent is great, but learning that there is a joy, and having grace with yourself if it's not as perfect as you think, if it's not as finished, and teaching them that it's okay, each part of their journey and each part of their creativity is worthy.

It doesn't matter if it's complete or not.

When I even heard that there was a performance at the end of the week, I was actually begging my mom to unenroll me from the camp.

I'm scared, but you know, it's my first time performing on stage, like it's also really exciting.

So you we promote that we are everybody's number one fan, even if you have experienced artists who are more used to being on stage.

That definitely helps with confidence building.

When people are on the mic, they're testifying, you can't simulate that in any other space.

You have to be together, and you have to share that experience together, because it's not just about you speaking your truth, it's about you speaking your truth in a context of other people who are hearing your truth and receiving that it's really just like a relief, honestly, like I get to showcase all my family and friends.

What I've been learning here, the best part is, when people are singing your lyrics back to you the ones that you wrote, it's the greatest feeling.

It's definitely a lot different when you go to like canopy Club, where all these big people have performed and it's like, wow, someone's actually like taking time out of their day to come here and listen to someone else rap on my beat that I made.

I don't know.

It's just kind of cool to that the community will like, come together for something like this camp.

Maybe more so now than ever, the economic challenges of putting on a camp like this are real and present, and so what's worth it to go through this kind of administrative hurdles and the institutional challenges and the fundraising you know that needs to happen in order to make this accessible and valuable, it's the people.

So if I was to name like, what are the things I'm most excited about and most proud about about the camp I would just give you a list of names of people, and I would point to their albums, and I would point to the work they've done and the people they've become this week.

This is why I'm camp week is quite literally the highlight of my year.

This is the standout week that I look forward to every year.

To the young children take advantage of these opportunities.

This is crucial.

You guys are young.

You guys are still being molded into who you are going to be.

If you guys start now, believe in yourself, be inspired and work you will be great.

I'm a masterpiece mastering piece.

I am enough.

I am talented.

I am worthy.

I am me.

Such a wonderful example of a short documentary produced by a very small but mighty team using resources that our community provides.

I'm joined by John Steinbacher again, who joins us to tell us about the funding situation and how you can help Sure.

You know, as we mentioned earlier, we've talked a little bit throughout the past couple of months, perhaps most of you watching are aware that in July of this year, federal funding for public.

Stations across the country, including right here at Illinois, public media, was rescinded.

They took away previously approved funding, which makes our situation a little difficult for this station, it's again, about $1.5 million a year, which is a very large impact.

The response so far from our community has been amazing.

So thank you so much to everyone who's made a gift or increased your gift.

We've made a huge difference, and we are able to continue to provide shows like Prairie Fire thanks to your support.

But we want to continue that momentum.

Coming up through December 31 we're hoping to raise another $500,000 to ensure that this program, and it's, as you've seen, it's an amazing program with a you know, we don't have a huge staff here.

All the resources that you are providing us are going into the content.

So if you appreciate that, give us a call.

217-244-9455, or go to will give.org.

If you've never given before, please give now.

In support of prairie fire, it's a fantastic show.

And we were talking off air about one of the things I really enjoy about Prairie Fire is, and you kind of talked to Taylor about this previously, but every segment you know, you kind of generally know where you're gonna get great story about either a local person or restaurant or, you know, craft maker, but they're all a little different.

So talk a little bit about the decision to sort of make each one so individualistic.

I think that one of the things, first things we do when we do any kind of story is we walk in and we spend a few minutes talking with the subject of the story that we're covering.

We get a sense of who they are, how they operate, even how the room is for example, in a restaurant, we get the sense of the atmosphere there.

Or with a painter of birds, we we get an idea of what their studio space is like, and we kind of approach the way we film and the way we interview and how even how we set up shots based on the vibe.

For lack of a better word that that person give gives us.

So that really informed, I think, the way in hip hop camp, Taylor chose to film the kids and really focus on the warmth of kids and the creativity that kids bring, and the you know, kind of off the cuff remarks that they made with her.

And so that really informs how we do each piece.

We're not cookie cuttering Every thing we do into a specific segment.

We are listening to the artists and taking it where it takes us.

And we hope you appreciate that if you do again, make a gift tonight, 217-244-9455, go online to will give.org and when you do make a gift, we're going to offer you some very some very cool Prairie Fire themed thank you gifts.

With your ongoing monthly gift of $10 or a one time gift of 120 you can choose between our very popular and limited Prairie Fire t shirt or a paperback book Illinois bucket list adventure guide, explore 100 offbeat destinations you must visit by Tim Brown, and with your ongoing monthly gift of $15 or a one time gift of $180 you can receive our Illinois adventurer combo.

It includes both the prairie fire T shirts and the Illinois bucket list adventure guide book.

We hope you're enjoying this special episode of prairie fire.

When you give now, you're helping to keep inspiring local programming like this on the air.

Your support also ensures continuing access to great children's educational programs, trusted in depth, news and analysis and the arts, culture and history, programming that connects us as a community.

All of this made possible by you is valuable, trusted and essential.

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We can keep WILL-TV strong for the good of all with your ongoing monthly gift of $10 or a one time gift of 120 you can choose between our very popular and limited prayer fire t shirt or a paperback book Illinois bucket list adventure guide, explore 100 offbeat destinations you must visit by Tim Brown with your ongoing monthly gift of $7 or a one time gift.

Gift of $84 you can select our custom made Prairie Fire candle, exclusively created by fire doll studio in Champaign.

You know this candle which was made especially for Prairie Fire by fire doll studios.

It, you know, it smells like a campfire in a good way, not the smoke and that type of thing, but it smells like leaves and autumn and like October, November and December.

Take a smell.

Very appropriate.

We don't have smell o vision, but too bad you guys can't smell this, but you can get your hands on one of your own that is such a good candle.

Great gifts.

And check this out.

I love this, the prairie fire t shirt.

You can't have too many T shirts, and it's a perfect time to be getting your gifts and things in order for the season.

And I've always loved this logo.

What was the inspiration behind this?

Well, we decided early in the development of the show, the second round of the show, that we wanted to highlight the creatives and the inspiration of being in this area, both physically, which is, you know, the state is beautiful.

It might be flat, but it has so much beauty about it.

There are so many creative people in Illinois, innovative people, small business owners.

And so we decided that a flame really embodied the creative spirit and the creative spark of the people of Illinois.

And, you know, prairie fires themselves are good set often to as, you know, as the host of Mid American gardener to burn things down in order to allow new growth.

So we thought a flame really embodies that.

It's taken off.

I've seen folks in the wild in these shirts, and I always get the biggest smile on my face because I'm like, yay.

The other thing that it really focuses on is local storytelling.

So we focus on the stories of this area of Central Illinois and also parts of northern and southern Illinois.

We just have a blast doing it.

Specifically this next one, we're going to talk to you about that one for best instructional and it's, it's called Fresh press, and we went to this place.

It's, it's on the University of Illinois campus, and you make your own paper.

And I mean, from start to finish, it starts with grass clippings, like agricultural waste.

You blend it, you do all these things to it, and then you press it and Bada bing, you've made your own paper.

And it was just such a really cool hands on, tactile experience.

And we even got Taylor and DJ to come out from behind the camera that was in front of the camera.

And we all walked out of there that day with paper.

And Taylor has since gone back to a couple workshops.

So just one of those hidden gems, you know, in central Illinois that you just you don't know they're there until you happen upon them, but it's just such a fun story to tell.

And people can people can go and make their own paper, or anybody can do, oh yes, wow.

That is so cool.

Well, take a look at this special story called Fresh press paper.

You name is Eric Benson.

I'm an associate professor of graphic design here at the School of Art and Design University of Illinois.

And fresh press is a studio I started 12 years ago, and here we make paper by hand out of agricultural waste from the local area.

We don't use trees, that's the big thing.

And instead, we kind of went back in time, right in terms of how people made paper back in the day.

So we're using agriculture.

So we work with a student farm here, and we're getting things like corn, rye, hemp, prairie grass, and we follow very similar process to commercial paper, making right interesting.

And it's on the back wall.

Here you can see the whole way it's done.

It's just as we do it by hand.

You we get the stuff from the field, the harvest, you might want to call it, and we have to chip it down.

Once we chip it, we can cook it, and that makes it, you know, more malleable.

And we can put it in our beater here.

And then we go through the pulling and pressing and drying process.

Okay, so now we're at the third step, which is beading pulp the fibers, and we're here with Meredith and E both studio managers here.

So tell us a little bit about this step and what we're going to be doing and why it's important in the.

Process.

Okay, so we've already chipped and cooked this miscanthus, which is a prairie grass and we're going to use a Hollander beater, which macerates the pulp.

Well, it macerates the fiber and turns it into a pulp.

By using this, it's like a water wheel of blades.

It'll spin around and move the Miscanthus through the machine for about, I think, two hours, gets us a really nice paper.

So what it's doing is opening up the fibers they've already been cooked for three hours.

So that opens up the cellulose fibers and allows the papers to adhere to each other.

And this is going to beat them to a pulp.

Literally, yes, literally, that's what's happening here.

Now it's my turn.

I put on my boots, gloves and apron, and gave it a shot.

You Oh, okay, so we just finished the beading, and now this we're going to actually pull sheets of paper from this.

Yes, so you're going to take a mold and deckle.

You might have heard like fancy paper has a deckled edge.

This is the tool that gives you that deckled edge.

So you'll hold these in your hands and dunk them into the VAT at a 45 degree angle, and then pull it straight up, and you do the little shimmy, kind of like you're planning for yes, but first you want to hog the VAT, so you spread your fingers wide and bring them down to the bottom and shake everything up so that the fibers are evenly suspended.

Now let's see if I can get this one so we're going to scoop toward me, yeah, all right, and just dunk it in and pull it right up and give it a little shake as the water drains.

That was good, nice.

Yeah.

All right, after twisting their arms just a little, Taylor and DJ agreed to step in front of the camera to try their hand at paper, making nice, I don't know.

Tinisha, nice, that looks really good.

Rob, good.

Once you pull your sheet of paper, you can really get creative and make it your own, adding flowers dyed pulp and even a pattern to give it some edge.

Are people surprised with all that you can do?

I think so.

I think so, yeah, there's always gasps of joy that happen in workshops, because I think that we're missing a lot of this analog being in touch with making and slowing down.

So yeah, this is a moment that can bring us back in touch with that.

I also think that it's a very accessible art making technique, because you could do it at home with a dumpy blender from Goodwill, or you could do it here with this Hollander beater, but also you can approach it and never have done it before and succeed in doing something in just one workshop, or you can add a lot more Chemistry and do something very specific.

And now we press.

So Eric, you join us again for the final step.

So after you press all the water out, you bring them back here and then tell us what happens.

So we will take the wet sheets and we will layer them on these blotters and stack them up, and we'll end up putting them into the dry box where there are some fans and that that air, and these cotton blotters will soak the water out, and then you can have finished and that's the finished sheet.

Now, how long does that take once it's in the drying box?

How long does it have to stay in there?

I would say a good average would be like, 12 hours.

How did you what it made you want to get into this?

What brought in the farm waste, the agricultural waste?

How did these two ideas come together for you?

Well, I think it was just living in Illinois, right?

I moved here from Austin, Texas, and how do I adjust to living in the Midwest?

And so driving down the highway, I 57 up to Chicago, where you see corn and soybeans.

And prairie grass, right?

So I just started to embrace the land and that that led me here.

Okay, so this is your studio, right?

Yi, and I'm looking here at all the paper here.

This looks familiar.

Looks like kind of what we just did.

It is the pulp painting.

And you were talking earlier about how you incorporate a lot of this paper, a lot of these elements, into your own art.

So tell us a little bit more about that.

Yes, so this is the pulp painting technique that we were doing earlier, just with a larger grid, and then I bring it into these sculptural collages, and I also incorporate so this is handmade paper and a little bit of pigmented paper from printmaking.

And these scraps that I find, these are like pieces of graffiti I've peeled off of a building other found objects, like rocks.

So I'm really interested in including the found objects with the paper that's also made of all of these other materials.

What is your long term hope for this?

You know?

What do you what's the dream here?

I'd love to replace tree fiber paper with the type of paper that we're making, that's a big goal, but in the meantime, I feel like I'm a community engaged scholar, where I invite the community to the studio and I teach them about land stewardship and paper making.

(music) that was such a fun piece to work on, and we're back with John in the studio, excited to be here.

We talked about that piece.

You guys got to do such hands on stuff, which is really cool.

And I know it's not exactly, but it kind of like, the way you get to see how everything is made, kind of reminds me of, like growing up and watching, like, I don't know Mr.

Rogers, he would go to, like, the cran factory, and you get to see how everything is made.

The behind the scenes stuff is super cool.

And I'm really happy that that's one of the things you guys do as sort of like a little unknown gym.

And then, of course, nobody invited me to go along try and make paper.

You're always up in the office business.

I like to get out and do non business.

Okay, next time.

That sounds good.

But anyway, speaking of business, we are here tonight to help raise funds to make sure that shows like prairie fire can continue to air on Illinois public media.

So we'd love to hear from you.

If you're a fan of the show.

We know there's a lot of you out there.

We hear about the feedback you enjoy each and every of the segments.

We'd love to hear from you.

Give us a call, 217-244-9455, or you can go online to willgive.org It's super easy to do, and you can ensure shows like this.

And this was kind of an interesting episode.

And I think I remember this segment aired also aired on MidAmerican gardener, which you are also the host.

So keep in mind your support is going not only to Prairie Fire, but to MidAmerican gardener, which has been on the air here for more than 30 years, and all the other amazing programs.

So how do you decide, because there's been a few that have gone on both.

How do you cite?

Oh, this seems like it'd be a nice fit for me.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, if there's a crossover there, or there's an environmental appeal, you know, I also work on state of change, so that's kind of my through line here.

So the agricultural waste kind of played into Mid American gardener, because a lot of those papers were made with grass and other things that you would have left over from a garden or farm.

So if it plays well for one or two, then we try to get the most out of that, to maximize that local story appeal.

The more we can share them, the better.

And also, you know, we are very resourceful here.

We don't have, I mean, Tinisha always does a great job, but you would be surprised that we don't have a staff of 440, you know, key grips, or whatever you know to key grip.

No, you're doing great, and your support right now is going to help keep these programs together, keep the crew in place to make sure that prairie fire, Mid American gardener, state of change all continue, and as I mentioned, we're hoping to make up kind of a big chunk of money.

Unfortunately, we've lost our federal funding.

We know the community has stepped up so far.

You can continue to do that through the end of the year.

We're hoping to raise an additional $500,000 go online to willgive.org and one more time, we're going to show you the really cool Prairie Fire thank you gifts we have to offer.

With your ongoing monthly gift of $7 or a one time gift of $84 you can select our custom made Prairie Fire candle at.

Exclusively created by fire doll studio in Champaign, with your ongoing monthly gift of $10 or a one time gift of 120 you can choose between our very popular and limited prayer fire t shirt or a paperback book Illinois bucket list adventure guide, explore 100 offbeat destinations you must visit by Tim Brown, public media has faced its share of challenges over the years, but today, the stakes are higher than ever.

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With your ongoing monthly gift of $10 or a one time gift of 120 you can choose between our very popular and limited Prairie Fire t shirt or a paperback book Illinois bucket list adventure guide, explore 100 offbeat destinations you must visit by Tim Brown and with your ongoing monthly gift of $15 or a one time gift of $180 you can receive our Illinois adventurer combo.

It includes both the prairie fire Tshirts and the Illinois bucket list adventure guide book.

Thanks so much, Amanda.

And now I'm joined in the studio by Graham Edwards, so you co wrote and created the theme for the prairie fire show?

Right?

Yes, I did a hi Denise show.

Yeah, yeah.

We were asked to write a song for Prairie Fire because we had already written a song for one of your earlier shows, Illinois country, which turned out very well.

Yes, it did.

And I went back to my co writer, John Pennell, and we were asked to write a song with the title Prairie Fire, which is, it's kind of an odd title.

We just did a little bit of research and about prairie fire.

And it goes way back to the indigenous people that were here before the Europeans arrived and and, you know, used to set fires for hunting, to cultivate the soil, to grow medicine and plants.

And it was very interesting.

And now the modern day farmers use it for cropping and stuff like that.

So you took those two words that you were given and created an entire song for that.

Yeah, it was, it was kind of a difficult subject matter to write about farmers setting fire to land, we really loved the song.

We got to the bridge of the song, which I think breaks all down, you know, you burn it down to the thirsty ground, and you build up again.

And that's basically what the song is about.

It's about the industrious people of Illinois, small businesses, cottage industries, about the strength of people in Illinois, and the arts, in the food industry, in every kind of industry.

And we tried to keep the song in that kind of genre.

And then, luckily enough, we were introduced to Leah Marlene, yes, who you've had on the show, yes, yes.

And she agreed to sing the song, and she completely brought it to life.

Yes.

Yes.

And I was here actually in the studio when she did her live performance, and sitting in the audience, which I believe you guys won an Emmy, yeah, and the rest is history, yeah.

So let's check that out.

Actually, we're going to go ahead and take a look at that live performance here in the studio, that award winning performance from Leah Marlene.

Take a look.

You.

She grew up beneath the starry Dawn so then scolded she would never make it on her own, fighting fear and doubt most every day, she broke through the smoke and clouds and found her way.

You could say she's like a prairie fire, soaring spirit riding on the flames of her desires.

If you feel a burden deep down in your soul tonight, Prairie Fire is the name you'll know her.

Know weary of the danger and weary of the danger and promise of the dark, searching for her flame, waiting for that spark, for once, the fire was lit, she was not the same, a young and restless heart.

No one could ever say.

You could say she's like a prayer of fire, a soaring spear riding on the flames of her desire.

And if you feel the you feel a burning in your soul tonight, Prairie Fire is the name you'll know her by look how you light the midnight sky prairie fire.

Tell down to the thirsty ground, then it rises up again with the swirling wind, it rises up again.

Rises.

You could say she's like you could say she's like if you feel a burden in your Soul, night prairie fire his name you'll know.

Midnight sky.

You.

Thank you guys, thanks for joining us on this very special MidAmerica Emmys edition of Prairie Fire, and thanks to John and Amanda for telling us how you can support our station and also get your handson some of those great gifts.

Join us on the next edition of Prairie Fire.

(music)