Funding for Colores was provided in part by New Mexico PBS, Great Southwestern Arts and Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

And viewers like you DRAWING FROM HER MEMORIES, CULTURE, AND THE PEOPLE SHE LOVES, ILLUSTRATOR AMY CORDOVA BOONE BRINGS RUDY ANAYA'S THE FAIRY LIGHTS OF CHRISTMAS TO LIFE.

AUTHOR KWAME ALEXANDER TRACES HOW A CHILDHOOD STEEPED IN STORIES, MUSIC AND FAMILY HISTORY SHAPED HIS MISSION TO IGNITE YOUNG IMAGINATIONS RENO'S ARTISTS AND ART LOVERS COME TOGETHER IN ALL IN COMMUNITY DRIVEN EXHIBITION WHERE DONATED ARTWORKS HELP KEEP ARTS AND MUSIC ACCESSIBLE TO EVERYONE IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

LOVE AND LIGHT >>Faith: How did you first become involved with illustrating, The Farolitos of Christmas?

>> Boone: Well, I did many books for Rudy.

I was his illustrator for many years, and I've done six children's books with him over time.

All New Mexico stories.

And then I also did a cover for one of his novels.

It was called Serafina Stories, and it was kind of based on the Shahrazad 1001 Knight's Tales, but it was done New Mexico style.

So I've worked with Rudy for many years and I just really enjoy him.

He had a great sense of humor, and the biggest thing was that he loves New Mexico so much, and the cultural traditions, are very sacred to him.

And I feel the same way.

So it was -- just a great gift for me to have that privilege.

The main character is a little girl.

Her name is Luz And of course that that's another subtlety of Rudy, because her name means the light.

And she's the little girl who, in his story, made the first farolitos because she was lighting the way for people to come on the Christmas Eve.

The cover represents the past stories, which is a New Mexico tale that is produced and played in every village in New Mexico during the holiday season.

And it's about the shepherds who eventually follow the star and find the little Christ child in the manger.

But in between, there's lots of craziness, but in the end, they all end up finding the little Cristo >>Faith: What were the most important themes that you wanted to capture?

The emotions you wanted to capture through the illustrations?

>> Boone: Yeah, the most important themes, I think, in Rudy's stories is the idea of family and faith and the relationship with the earth and the gifts of the land, and the gifts of faith and the gifts of family.

And it's really quite beautiful and precious.

It's something that we don't think about as much these days.

But his stories are pretty much all rooted in that core of the people that have been here for generations.

That have maybe a little different traditions, but they're ever so beautiful.

>> Faith: The characters in the book.

How did you go about designing the characters?

>> Boone: I based them on people that I knew, and the man who is the grandfather is my dad, who has since passed away.

And Luz is kind of based on me and kind of based on other little girls.

When the little Pueblo girl was a friend of mine from Taos.

She's a designer now.

Yeah.

>> Faith: So taking inspiration from your own life?

>> Boone: Yeah, just a lot of things that I recognized that come to mind when I'm painting or when I'm having the conception of it or drawing.

I just think of people I. I'm not intentionally doing people I know, but I'm just thinking it's just like the energy.

Like, who feels like that little girl who feels like her little friend from the pueblo that I know.

>> Faith: What was your favorite part about illustrating this book?

>> Boone: That it was all these New Mexico tales brought together.

They're really Rudy reflecting back on his childhood in New Mexico at Christmas time and, you know, the smells and the Biscochito's and the tamales of red and green and and, just like in preparing for Christmas, where you didn't have a lot of money, people didn't have the ability to give the kind of extravagant gifts that are popular now.

It was this kind of humbleness of the gifts that were presented, but it was beyond gifts, and that it was about the love of family and the community.

>> Faith: So looking back at this project now, what does the Farolitos of Christmas mean to you personally as, as an artist and as a New Mexican?

>> Boone: I would say it means a lot in that it is.

The book is about light, and it's about in the darkest times, the coldest times that we come together to draw in the light.

And the little girl represents the light.

She brings the light to others, to the faralitos, and kind of that is kind of the challenge or the message for for all of us as well.

It's like in these times that may be somewhat dark, and we have to be the ones to hold up the light.

[soulful spanish guitar] >> Pilar: Imagining beauty.

[rock bass guitar] >> Kwame: I believe the books are our amusement parks.

And sometimes we got to let kids choose the rides.

I grew up in a house where books were reward and punishment.

Books were everywhere.

So from the time I was born, my mother was reading me poetry.

Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes.

Doctor.

Suess.

I was reading it by the age of three.

By myself.

My mom made reading fun and cool.

My mother would sing to us in the mornings while we were getting ready for school.

On road trips, she would tell us stories African folktales.

Like she always found a way to make the words come off the page.

She put them on the stage.

When I'm with young people, whether I'm writing or whether I'm presenting or speaking or performing, I'm always trying to bring the words off the page and to make them come alive for young people, much like my mother did for me.

>> We are very pleased to welcome Kwame Alexander grew up in Chesapeake and he is a multi award winning author.

>> Kwame: The first rule for me is when I'm writing something for young people.

I got to love it first.

I'm not talking down to them.

I'm writing something that 12 year old Kwami would have loved and Kwami today would have loved because I figure if I love it, the chances of you loving it are going to increase tremendously.

>> Narrator: This is evident especially when he's sharing his knowledge with young readers.

>> Kwame: So let's take for example, rhyme.

It's rhyme an ingredient that goes into making a poem.

I think so.

I wonder if there was a rhyme that I could give you as an example.

Oh, acoustic rooster sat outside, strumming his bass guitar.

He practiced jazz all summer long so he could be a star.

Exactly.

There is a book that is the most popular and probably the biggest selling book, and the book that got turned into a television show and the book that got turned into a television show that won an Emmy Award.

>> Dribble.

Fake.

Shoot.

Miss.

Dribble.

Fake.

Shoot.

Miss.

Dribble.

Fake to miss.

Shoot.

If you don't keep the ego in check, you can lose yourself.

We go hard.

Just like we always had.

No matter what, you're a net tied together.

So let's rock this.

We got this.

Let's rock this.

We got this, let's rock this.

>> Kwame: And the book that millions of kids around the world have read.

And that's called the Crossover.

And that's the book that sort of changed my life.

That was book number 14.

[applause] >> Kwame: The crossover was published in 2014, and it's about two brothers who are twins, and they play basketball.

And the brothers, one has long locks and the other has no hair like me and the brother with no hair, and he bets his brother he's going to make the last shot in the basketball game.

And if he makes it, he gets to cut off all his brother's hair and his brother responds like this.

If my hair were a tree, I'd climb it.

I kneel down beneath and inshrine it I treat it like gold and then mine it.

Each day before school I unwind it.

And right before games I entwine it.

These locks on my hand, I designed it.

And one last thing.

If you don't mind it.

That bet you just made.

I decline.

>> Kid: Why did you want to still become an author?

>> Kwame: I believe the world is not such a beautiful place all the time.

And I think we want it to be beautiful.

Right, Jackson?

And I feel like in order for it to be beautiful, we have to imagine it beautiful.

And I feel like in order to imagine it beautiful, we have to have some understanding or experience or connection to what's possible.

There's no better way to open up a world of possible than to open up a book.

And so I thought, maybe I can help kids imagine a better world by writing books and feeding your imagination.

The first thing I'd say, the way we become better writers is by reading.

The second thing I would say is probably something that Nikki Giovanni said to me.

at Virginia Tech I was taking an advanced poetry class with her, and I got a C that.

I was kind of upset and I went to talk to her and she said, I can teach you how to write quoting, but I can't teach you how to be interesting.

And of course, that was like I felt a certain kind of way I was in my feelings.

But when I look back on it, what's some of the best advice I've ever gotten as a creative, as a writer?

If you want to write something that's interesting, you have to be interesting.

In order for you to be interesting, you have to be interested in life.

So I try to walk through life as a willing participant.

I recommend it.

Everybody who wants to write, whether it's children's books or novels or whatever walk around, is a willing participant in life.

Pay attention to things and to being, you know, have something worth writing about.

>> Narrator: When he's at home and even when he isn't.

One thing Kwame Alexander enjoys is exploring and sharing his family history.

>> Kwame: So this over here, this used to be the mill.

Oh, get out of here.

Bills mill.

Bills mill.

Got it.

All right.

Okay.

The first Alexander's my namesake to come here was James Henry Alexander.

He brought his family to work in the mill >> Narrator: on this day, joined by his cousin.

He visited the family cemetery.

>> Kwame: These are all soldiers United States Colored Troops.

You can tell a lot about, you know, a family by visiting a cemetery.

You can learn a lot.

That's Aunt Jenny.

I didn't know her first name was Fidella So this got to be Granny and Granddaddy.

I'm afraid of dying.

I'm afraid of that process of it.

But the flip side of that is I'm intrigued by this idea, this spiritual notion that I will be reunited with these folks right.

Because I feel like I got to know them when I was a kid.

I didn't get to really interact with them as an adult.

I got so many questions.

Everything I write is me trying to imagine and reimagine all of their stories.

And so for me, it's the writing.

That's what keeps me sane and gives me hope.

Books are powerful.

In literature can transform you.

It can save you.

It's life giving.

It's life saving.

And whenever I talk about the ancestors and our people, I feel a little bit stronger.

>> Narrator: His time back home also triggered memories surrounding his love for jazz, his music of choice when he's writing.

>> Kwame: I came home on spring breaksophomore year, and I was in my attic at my parents house looking for something, and found this crate of records Nancy Wilson, Cannonball Adderley, Duke Ellington, Ornette Coleman, Ella Fitzgerald live in Berlin.

That was my introduction to jazz music, these jazz records that my father owned when he was in the Air Force that were just sitting in the attic.

Coincidentally, it was also the moment where I realized that my dad is probably more than just an academic.

He's probably kind of cool if you listen to these records, too.

And I kind of fell in love with him in that moment, too.

>> Curtis: I'm still awestruck, even though his mother, I produced him when he was three.

I told her group of students at William Pattison College.

We are trying to prove that we can raise him to be the kind of person to make a difference in this world.

And we plan for him to be different, to be concerned about other people, to be helpful.

>> Narrator: How do you choose what you're going to write next?

>> Kwame: I write what I like and what I'm into in the moment and what I'm what I'm interested in.

Right now, I am writing a movie, but I won't tell you what it's about.

You just have to wait and see.

But I'm writing a movie.

I don't know what it's called yet.

>> Narrator: And with 42 books under his belt, you can bet that number 43 is coming.

>> Kwame: If I was forced into answering what's my favorite book?

my answer is always going to be the next one.

All in.

[guitar music] >> Hey!

>> All In is really significant to our arts community because it shows a really great snapshot of the artists who are in Hollins orbit.

>> It's an exhibition where we have pieces up for sale that artists donate to us.

>> Everybody comes out and they can purchase a piece first come, first serve for 100 to $200.

As like a buyer, you're very lucky to catch a really good piece for a really good price.

>> And all of that money goes towards fundraising for the Holman Project.

>> That's a great idea.

Look at this.

Yeah.

>> Alisha:The Holland Project is an all ages nonprofit art and music initiative based in Reno, Nevada.

Our aim is creating and providing all ages access to arts, music, programing, workshops, skill building opportunities and community based events.

>> Delfin: I'd say the big focus of most of the events are music and concerts.

That gets a lot of people out here.

But it's definitely a notable space for artists locally to be able to show work and to see work and support >> Lavery: the Holland project first and foremost.

To me, it's like just a wonderful community space that is really open to everybody.

The music scene here, we're really lucky.

There's so many venues where it's only 21 and up, but the Harlem Project really gives an opportunity for everyone to be part of that experience.

When I first started becoming an artist, I had my first exhibit at their Yungblud Show.

When I was in high school.

>> Martinez: So at whatever age, if you feel creative, they have space for you.

I am a local shop owner.

I own a toy store and a vintage shop.

My friend volunteered a lot at Holland.

We went to a few shows while I was here and everyone was so nice and welcoming.

I was like, wow, everyone's so sweet and so interested even though I don't know them.

And that was a huge contrast from where I was living at the time.

All in is our biannual fundraiser for the gallery space here.

>> Delfin: It's how the gallery gets most of its funds, other than grants and other support.

>> Alisha: Money that we raise for the event goes back to keeping the lights on doors open in the gallery.

It pays artists to come to the space and have their exhibition.

It funds all of the arts programing that we do here at Holland.

>> Delfin: And Nick Larsen came with the idea for the online exhibition back in 2014.

He was on the gallery committee at the time, and we've done it every two years since.

>> Alisha: This year we had about 140 artists participate, which is like the biggest number that we've ever had.

We, select artists to be an exhibition who have played a role at Holland and some facet.

>> Delfin: It's a huge mix of artists between like younger artists.

We invite folks from our Youngblood exhibition and just young artists that we know around, and also like professional artists that have been in Holland for a decade or more who are like established.

So it's a cool opportunity to have a full, encompassing view of Holland's community and who supports Holland and the wide variety and demographic of folks who come here.

>> Lavery: I was so stoked.

When I got an invitation.

Every time, like I get an opportunity like this, I'm like, oh my God, I just knew this is the one I really wanted to show.

It's actually a portrait of my friend Starla.

This one was aiming towards English and the closeness to nature.

Women inherently have.

It was like November.

Everything was pretty dead.

And then we just shot there and we just like walked around to shot.

And it was just it was beautiful.

She's such a natural model.

It's amazing.

>> Rizzotto: so I was asked to participate and all in.

I've been, coming to Holland for years now, and being an all in was like a goal of mine, like, oh, hope that can be like a real Reno artist.

If I, I get invited to do that.

>> Martinez: I'm usually a textile artist, but I'm doing something different.

Whatever it is I'm thinking, I'm just trying to do it.

I am making a bare bench for all in, And now I'm applying plaster >> Delfin: leading up to the event, seeing all the really amazing artwork that folks donated.

These are things that they put their love and time into.

It was really special.

This was probably the biggest exhibition that I've managed and put together so far, along with the support of everyone here at Holland, everyone at Holland helps coordinating install, helping plan the reception.

So there's months of planning that goes into this event, and the event is just two quick hours, so chaotic.

>> Alisha: It's always a lot of anticipation kind of leading up to the reception.

People start to usually line up because they all are kind of there vying for that piece that they want because like I said, it's first come, first serve.

So they have like their eye on the one piece that they want.

They want to get in the door and get it before anybody else can.

>> Martinez: In line.

I'm stressed out because you're like mentally preparing.

You're trying to get there early, and if you don't and you see them pick up your piece, it hurts.

It's very much like Black Friday too.

Or you're like running in and you're just like trying to grab what you want.

And it's kind of competitive.

>> We are limiting it to three pieces per person.

And then if you remove a tag, we're going to assume you're purchasing it.

So when we tag it's ready to buy.

>> Alisha: I would say we always have around 2 to 300 people that show up throughout the course of the night.

>> Delfin: We give a guess of about 300.

But my guess was between 200 and 1 million.

>> Alisha: There's other activities happening within the space.

We had a fun interactive photo booth this time, next door we have a community printmaking lab.

This year we added a new element to it.

We did a cake walk during the reception.

Not everybody can always have time to make a piece or send us a piece.

And, we have a lot of friend artists who are also great bakers.

So this year we decided to add that >> cake walk people back out here.

All right.

When the music starts, you guys move.

You guys are kind of like musical chairs.

You walk around the square when the music stops, you stand on whatever number is closest to you.

I will pull a number from the bowl, and that person wins the cake.

>> Miller: There's so much stuff happening.

I am excited for the Tattoo I'm not going to lie, >> Rizzotto: I have raffle tickets for sale for $5 a pop.

You get a tattoo of whatever tattoos available on there.

So I've been wanting to get tattoos forever, but maybe this will be a good, first one.

>> That's really cool.

>> Martinez: When someone buys my piece, I feel very like.

Wow, I like someone like something that I made, and it's very sweet.

>> Lavery: And I'm like, I always think where are they that I hope they're going to love it.

And I want to ask them, where are they going to put it?

>> Miller: I feel like Holland is like one of the pillars of the Reno community.

So many cool people put this together.

>> Lavery: My heart wants to come out.

I literally cannot do this without the community I have here.

Plus, like, I've made so many new friends, which is really awesome through the Holland Project.

And it's just something that kind of binds us all together.

At the end of the day, everyone knows at Holland Project is they know it's the spot.

>> Rizzotto: It's important to support these artists, the creators of areas, help make and keep, you know, what it is >> Alisha: all ages.

Programing is really important.

No matter what city you're in.

I think it contributes to, like, a really vibrant arts culture and makes a really vibrant city.

>> Pilar: The award winning arts and culture series Colores is now available on the PBS app, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and at PBS.org.

From classic episodes to brand new shows, Colores is everywhere.

Watch now on your favorite NMPBS platforms Funding for Colores was provided in part by New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts and Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation.

New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

And viewers like you.