1 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:11,900 [MUSIC PLAYING] 2 00:03:26,580 --> 00:03:30,200 hi everyone I'm Jim Ryan let me begin by wishing all of you a Happy Mother's Day 3 00:03:30,209 --> 00:03:35,790 and welcome to episode 7 of digital Arts on the Hill we are now almost two months 4 00:03:35,790 --> 00:03:39,480 into this and I hope you've been enjoying it as much as I have the 5 00:03:39,480 --> 00:03:44,760 opening piece was a quartet that featured among others our very own Dan Sender 6 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:48,080 a member of our music faculty coming up you're going to hear some 7 00:03:48,090 --> 00:03:52,260 firsts on the show a rock and roll performance an organ piece and a 8 00:03:52,260 --> 00:03:57,900 dramatic reading by UVA alum and actor Jason George of Grey's Anatomy and 9 00:03:57,900 --> 00:04:01,829 one quick note we'll be taking a break next week because we're hosting a 10 00:04:01,829 --> 00:04:05,760 virtual celebration of the class of 2020 but I will tell you that that 11 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:09,720 celebration will feature a couple of musical pieces that you will not want to 12 00:04:09,720 --> 00:04:15,380 miss until then happy Mother's Day again be well and I hope you enjoy the show 13 00:04:19,540 --> 00:04:22,220 [MUSIC PLAYING] 14 00:07:44,260 --> 00:07:50,400 Thank You Virginia Women's Chorus by the way do you guys all know who rocks? Moms 15 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:55,600 moms totally rock but for purposes of this show do you guys know who rocks and 16 00:07:55,600 --> 00:08:00,920 rolls? Free Union next on Arts on the Hill 17 00:08:02,660 --> 00:08:04,660 [MUSIC PLAYING] 18 00:08:04,660 --> 00:08:10,780 ‘Freedom ain’t free’ Is that what you meant When you said ‘nothin comes easy?’ 19 00:08:10,780 --> 00:08:16,900 I’m a little lost, I thought that I I was out fightin for a little piece 20 00:08:16,900 --> 00:08:23,480 I was out workin all night To one day have it all in the Free World 21 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:31,880 Watch what you do, where you step, they’re listening Watch where you go, who you meet, they’re judging 22 00:08:31,880 --> 00:08:39,500 If it’s all a dream, why am I not awake? This reality is so hard to take 23 00:08:39,500 --> 00:08:47,820 In the free world, free world 24 00:08:47,820 --> 00:08:56,320 We’re living in the free world Free world 25 00:08:58,920 --> 00:09:02,600 Elaborate illusion Is that what you meant when you said 26 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:07,140 ‘Everyone’s included?’ Well We’re a little lost I think that 27 00:09:07,140 --> 00:09:13,500 We gave up our values for a little piece Now we’re out marching all day 28 00:09:13,500 --> 00:09:17,540 For a chance to get it back in the free world 29 00:09:17,540 --> 00:09:25,640 Watch what you do, where you step, they’re listening Watch where you go, who you meet, they’re judging 30 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:33,060 If it’s not a dream, why are we not awake? This reality is so hard to take 31 00:09:33,060 --> 00:09:44,460 In the free world, free world We’re living in the free world 32 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:48,800 Free world 33 00:09:49,340 --> 00:09:53,300 [MUSIC PLAYING] 34 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:30,860 It's a Free world 35 00:10:31,800 --> 00:10:33,800 Free world 36 00:10:35,220 --> 00:10:42,640 We’re living in the free world Free world 37 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:42,240 wahoowa what's up y'all it's Jason George College class of 94 I was honored 38 00:11:42,250 --> 00:11:46,180 to be asked to be part of UVA Arts on the Hill and in thinking about what I 39 00:11:46,180 --> 00:11:51,610 was going to perform or recite it occurred to me that I play a doctor on 40 00:11:51,610 --> 00:11:56,050 TV I actually play doctor who became a firefighter on Grey's Anatomy in station 41 00:11:56,050 --> 00:12:01,300 19 and I wanted to do something that would honor the bravery of those people 42 00:12:01,300 --> 00:12:05,980 out in the streets who are taking care of the rest of us but I also wanted to 43 00:12:05,980 --> 00:12:10,959 honor the fact that those people those brave souls are well it's more than just 44 00:12:10,959 --> 00:12:15,399 the doctors and firefighters it's also the the nurses the lab technicians the 45 00:12:15,399 --> 00:12:19,240 people who volunteer and come in and help flip people who have COVID-19 if 46 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,060 you know anything about the disease that's a really essential part of the 47 00:12:22,060 --> 00:12:26,410 process for people who are very far gone it's the grocery store workers 48 00:12:26,410 --> 00:12:30,310 it's the people who deliver our groceries and deliver our food from 49 00:12:30,310 --> 00:12:35,500 restaurants it's well you know it's the janitor who has to clean up after 50 00:12:35,500 --> 00:12:39,310 all of this and when you hear the story I think you you'll understand why I 51 00:12:39,310 --> 00:12:43,540 chose it it's an article from the Washingtonian from August of 1989 by 52 00:12:43,540 --> 00:12:48,160 Katie McCabe and eventually it was turned into a movie of the same title as 53 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:54,610 the article which is Like Something the Lord Made: Vivien Thomas was paid a 54 00:12:54,610 --> 00:13:01,089 janitor's wage never went to college and still became a legend in the field of 55 00:13:01,089 --> 00:13:07,000 heart surgery say his name and the busiest heart surgeons in the world will 56 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:12,490 stop and talk for an hour of course they have time they'll say these men who count 57 00:13:12,490 --> 00:13:18,430 time in seconds who race against the clock this is about Vivien Thomas for 58 00:13:18,430 --> 00:13:23,800 Vivien they'll make time Dr. Denton Cooley has just come out of surgery and 59 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:28,540 he has 47 minutes between operations no you don't need an appointment his 60 00:13:28,540 --> 00:13:34,820 secretary is saying Dr. Cooley's right here he wants to talk to you now Cooley 61 00:13:34,820 --> 00:13:38,810 suddenly is on the line from his Texas Heart Institute in Houston in a slow 62 00:13:38,810 --> 00:13:44,180 Texas drawl he says he just loves being bothered about Vivien 63 00:13:44,180 --> 00:13:49,480 and then in 47 minutes just about the time it takes him to do a triple bypass he tells you 64 00:13:49,500 --> 00:13:55,280 about the man who taught him that kind of speed no Vivien Thomas 65 00:13:55,280 --> 00:14:00,640 wasn't a doctor says Cooley he wasn't even a college graduate he was just so 66 00:14:00,640 --> 00:14:08,040 smart and so skilled and so much his own man that it didn't matter 67 00:14:08,040 --> 00:14:13,080 and could he operate even if you've never seen surgery before Cooley says 68 00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:19,600 you could do it because Vivien made it look so simple Vivien Thomas and 69 00:14:19,610 --> 00:14:23,209 Denton Cooley both arrived at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital in 70 00:14:23,209 --> 00:14:28,550 1941 Cooley to begin working on his medical degree Thomas to run the 71 00:14:28,550 --> 00:14:33,860 hospital surgical lab under Dr. Alfred Blalock in 1941 the only other black 72 00:14:33,860 --> 00:14:39,949 employees at the Johns Hopkins Hospital were janitors people stopped and stared 73 00:14:39,949 --> 00:14:44,959 at Thomas flying down corridors in his white lab coat visitors eyes widened at 74 00:14:44,959 --> 00:14:49,819 the sight of a black man running the lab but ultimately the fact that Thomas was 75 00:14:49,819 --> 00:14:54,319 black didn't matter either what mattered was that Alfred Blalock 76 00:14:54,319 --> 00:14:59,420 and Vivien Thomas could do historic things together that neither could do 77 00:14:59,420 --> 00:15:05,660 alone together they devised an operation to save blue babies infants born with a 78 00:15:05,660 --> 00:15:10,730 heart defect that sends blood past their lungs and Cooley was there as an intern 79 00:15:10,730 --> 00:15:14,779 for the first one he remembers the tension in the operating room that 80 00:15:14,779 --> 00:15:20,870 November morning in 1944 as Dr. Blalock rebuilt a little girl's tiny twisted 81 00:15:20,870 --> 00:15:26,360 heart he remembers how that baby went from blue to pink the minute Dr. 82 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:29,750 Blalock removed the clamps and her arteries began to function and he 83 00:15:29,750 --> 00:15:34,490 remembers where Thomas stood on a little step stool looking over Dr. Blalock's 84 00:15:34,490 --> 00:15:39,840 right shoulder answering questions and coaching every move 85 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:44,230 you see explains Cooley it was Vivien who had worked it all out 86 00:15:44,230 --> 00:15:49,600 in the lab in the canine heart long before Dr. Blalock did Eileen the first 87 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:56,819 blue baby there were no cardiac experts then that was the beginning a 88 00:15:56,819 --> 00:16:01,179 loudspeakers summons Cooley to surgery he says he's on his way to do a tech 89 00:16:01,179 --> 00:16:04,299 case right now that's tetralogy of Fallot the 90 00:16:04,299 --> 00:16:07,239 congenital heart defect that causes blue baby syndrome 91 00:16:07,239 --> 00:16:11,470 they say that Cooley does them faster than anyone that he can make a tetralogy 92 00:16:11,470 --> 00:16:15,639 operation look so simply doesn't even look like surgery that's what I took 93 00:16:15,639 --> 00:16:21,129 from Vivien he says simplicity there wasn't a false move not a wasted motion 94 00:16:21,129 --> 00:16:26,739 when he operated but in the medical world of the 1940s that chose and trained 95 00:16:26,739 --> 00:16:30,699 men like Denton Cooley there wasn't supposed to be a place for a black man 96 00:16:30,699 --> 00:16:36,939 with or without a degree still Vivien Thomas made a place for himself he was a 97 00:16:36,939 --> 00:16:41,199 teacher to surgeons at a time when he could not become one he was a cardiac 98 00:16:41,199 --> 00:16:46,240 pioneer 30 years before Hopkins opened its doors to the first black surgical 99 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:51,069 resident those are the facts that Cooley has laid out as swiftly and efficiently 100 00:16:51,069 --> 00:16:58,119 as he operates and yet history argues that the Vivien Thomas story could never 101 00:16:58,120 --> 00:16:59,620 have happened 102 00:17:00,980 --> 00:17:05,340 Thank You Jason a beautiful story and we really appreciate you taking the time to 103 00:17:05,350 --> 00:17:09,010 participate and share your amazing skills with us on digital Arts on the 104 00:17:09,010 --> 00:17:14,559 Hill as one of our wonderful UVA arts alumni speaking of amazing and wonderful 105 00:17:14,559 --> 00:17:21,130 our next performer takes her artistry to a bridge outside perhaps somewhere over 106 00:17:21,130 --> 00:17:22,540 the rainbow 107 00:17:24,220 --> 00:17:26,220 [MUSIC PLAYING] 108 00:20:05,240 --> 00:20:10,320 hello I'm Andie Weaver I am the senior administrative assistant in the arts and 109 00:20:10,330 --> 00:20:14,980 sciences dean's office here at UVA I'm going to be reading my poem burnweed 110 00:20:14,980 --> 00:20:19,840 which is about the COVID-19 pandemic among other things if you don't know 111 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:23,830 what burnweed is it's a plant that I first saw after moving here to 112 00:20:23,830 --> 00:20:28,059 Charlottesville about a year ago it has fluffy white seed pods that float 113 00:20:28,059 --> 00:20:31,720 on the wind and when it all starts to bloom in the later summer months it's 114 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:36,860 really beautiful and captivating to watch so that's part of what inspired this poem 115 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:46,440 Burnweed, April 2020: In spring we can't breathe and the crown is heavy 116 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:53,679 burnweed drifts from the tracks in CVS I hunt germ-X for the homeless man so long 117 00:20:53,679 --> 00:21:00,270 when I emerge empty-handed he's already left burnweed drifts from the tracks 118 00:21:00,270 --> 00:21:07,120 there's a house for sale room enough for each dwarfs own bed and bath fairies 119 00:21:07,120 --> 00:21:14,620 guard the gardens where Snow White sings to flowers or birds or bats the barn is 120 00:21:14,620 --> 00:21:22,419 flecked with lights tables far away burnweed drifts from the tracks do Royals 121 00:21:22,419 --> 00:21:28,809 dance here and in their towers vomit wine into gold toilets die in glass 122 00:21:28,809 --> 00:21:35,860 caskets burnweed drifts from the tracks in the forests of my home state mobile 123 00:21:35,860 --> 00:21:44,620 morgues devoured 419 each corpse could own 1.2 acres of Snow White's farm how 124 00:21:44,620 --> 00:21:51,010 grim that in the year of perfect vision our hindsight is failing as I walk home 125 00:21:51,010 --> 00:21:58,210 mask damp burnweed drifts from the tracks like fairies like pathogens 126 00:21:58,210 --> 00:22:00,300 like it did last spring 127 00:22:02,620 --> 00:22:06,420 thank you so much love that poem I think poetry is gonna get us all really 128 00:22:06,429 --> 00:22:11,290 through this as will music music for the Soul from sacred places 129 00:22:11,290 --> 00:22:16,540 this from fourth-year student Chelsea Holt on the organ playing a song of solace 130 00:22:18,820 --> 00:22:20,820 [MUSIC PLAYING] 131 00:25:02,060 --> 00:25:05,800 that's our show folks thanks for watching a special shout out to my 132 00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:11,200 mother and my wife my two favorite Mother's a big fan of mother nature too 133 00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:17,000 but she gets her own day Earth Day. In two weeks we'll be coming back to you 134 00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:21,600 with another episode of Arts on the Hill next Saturday be sure to tune in at 1pm 135 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:25,540 for the virtual celebration and conferral of degrees which is going to 136 00:25:25,540 --> 00:25:29,590 include some pretty amazing arts as well and some great music folks these are 137 00:25:29,590 --> 00:25:35,220 crazy times hang in there and just know that with each day there is progress and 138 00:25:35,220 --> 00:25:39,700 hope be well and see you in a couple weeks