Rita On The Road

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RITA PARDUE ON 91.5 KUNV, JAZZ AND MORE. ON TODAY'S EPISODE, WE TRAVEL TO SPRINGS PRESERVE TO SPEAK WITH COREY ENOS, THE EVENT COORDINATOR, TO TALK ABOUT UPCOMING BLACK HISTORY MONTH ACTIVITIES IN FEBRUARY. Black History Month activities in February. And in Part 2, vocalist Hunter Rose joins us in the KUNV studio to give us an exclusive listen to her new single, White Lies, dropping to everyone else on February 1st. And now, Part 1. 91.5 Jazz and more, this is Rita on the Road. And today, I'm at Springs Preserve. And I'm speaking with Corey Enos, who's the event coordinator. Hi, Corey.

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Hi, how are you, Rita?

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I'm doing very well. And I have to tell you, before we get started on this, I am the number one fan for the Springs Preserve. I love this place.

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It's magnificent.

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There's so much going on. But right now, we're going to focus on your upcoming Black History Month. I see that you've got a lot of activities planned, so if you could share that with our listeners, what's going to be happening and when's it all going to start?

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This is our 14th or 15th annual event. We have a Black History Month event every February. This year's event is on February 18th. It's hosted by the Springs Preserve, but it really does belong to the entire community. I consider it an opportunity for us to entertain, to educate, and to celebrate the contributions of African Americans, not just nationally, but right here locally in our community. African American contributions have helped shape the trajectory of one of the most vibrant and unique cities in all the world.

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Most definitely. And I'm seeing here, we're actually sitting in a meeting room here at Springs Preserve and you have all these fabulous pictures. So where do you want to start? Is there, I guess these are photos from last year's event and maybe share with our listeners what, and let's just go from left to right. Folks, I'll be taking some pictures of these, and you'll be able to see some of them on my social media pages on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. And so I'll take pictures of these to share with everyone. So let's describe for the listeners what these pictures are all about.

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The event in itself is really all-encompassing. Like I said, it belongs to our community. It's one of the things that we wanted to have from day one, a sense of community, a sense of belonging. There is something for every single person from age 8 to age 88 here to do. My daughters love to come to the event. My mom loves to come to the event. My grandparents have come to the event before. And so from the time the event starts at 10 a.m. all the way through 5 p.m. There's entertainment on the main stage and the amphitheater. It's very interactive. We have groups that are performed on the voice before and we have local groups involving children that sing, that dance, step performances, spoken word performances. It really is something that's unique here. It's the largest one-day Black History Month festival in our community, but there's entertainment from the time that you get here until the time that you leave. What would a Black History Month festival be without food? We all have seven food vendors, everything from Mario's Market serving catfish, quality food service, Southern Barbecue Pit, and funnel cake for people that like funnel cake. But when I mention entertain, educate, and celebrate, there's an educational component as well. We have a myriad of photos of past, present, and future contributors that are African American here in our community. In order to get where you're going, it's easier to see where the places that you have been. So we have community members that have contributed from back in the 60s all the way through now. And so being able to look at those pictures and say, oh, you know what, I can do that. It's really inspiring to the people who attend the event.

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Well I'm seeing that as I'm looking at this first picture I'm holding up. I see the children and a little girl with face painting and flowers in her hair. So it looks like they're watching a performance. Another photo here, there's like you were saying, photos that are displayed, so I guess it's people like you described that have contributed to the community, and so they're not forgotten. The children learn about who were some of the important people that made contributions here in Las Vegas. Well let's give that website address, because folks, if you want more information and find out about tickets and all that sort of thing, springspreserve.org. Is that correct, Corey? That's correct. Okay, we'll give that out several times during this interview. But let's keep going. What are some of the ones over here? It says, Dr. Charles West, Nevada's first African-American physician and his wife, Dorothy Dorothy Greed President Lyndon Johnson. What an honor that must have been and you all are documenting it here. That's correct. We have a series of posters that are

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dedicated to those events. Each year we honor a specific contributor in our community that has contributed greatly to African-American causes or the community in general. Last year it was Dr. John Creer, and years past we've had Dr. McMillan. This year, as opposed to selecting somebody specific, we selected an event. There was an event called the Moulin Rouge Agreement in the early 60s. There was a time here in our community where African Americans, even though they performed on the strip, they weren't allowed to stay at those hotels. So we enter those hotels through the front door.

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Mm-hmm. I was familiar with that. I actually, back in the day, I knew Sammy Davis Jr. and had a friendship, and I learned that he was not allowed to stay at the hotel that he was performing at, so we stayed at the Harrison House, which is another historical place. I've been to the Harrison House. So I'm glad we've come a long way. I think we still have a long way to go. We've got things, but we're working towards having more equity.

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And so this agreement specifically was aimed at potentially the NAACP got together and And they said, enough is enough, and they were thinking about boycotting the strip. And so community members came together to create this agreement, and they didn't end up needing to boycott the strip, but because of the pressure that they were going to put on those strip owners, they acquiesced and made an agreement to allow access to those venues. And so we're celebrating that agreement this year, the Moulin Rouge agreement. And all of those families and members who had contributing partners or family members that were in that will be recognizing that and acknowledging that, again, as our way of educating our community on what it's taken to get to where we are and what it's going to take to continue to move us forward.

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This sounds like a wonderful event that not only, like you mentioned about the entertainment, I'm seeing another photo of the audience just locked in on the stage. It must have really captured their attention. But the other aspect of, like we were mentioning, documenting all the different things that have happened leading us up now to 2023 and where we are now and hopefully that will inspire young people that wow you know I'd like to be involved in this and and carry on the traditions maybe get involved in the community in government and making differences you know and making changes

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you mentioned face painting we have we have face painting that will be here. We have caricature, sketch artists. We will have a cooking demo. Oh, I love it. Showing people how to cook and make. I think the cooking demo this year may be by somebody who's vegan. So healthy vegan foods. We will have arts and crafts, carnival games for kids. There really is something for every single person to do here in our community at this event. Last year we had about 4,000 people, a little less than 4,000 people at the event. So get your tickets early. It's a really reasonable priced event. $5 for children, $10 for adults, and kids under the age of 3 are free. Let's get the website. Get your tickets early on springspreserve.org and show up. The weather is typically very nice here in Southern Nevada in early February, mid-February. So last year we had a 65 to 70 degree day. It's a beautiful day to come out and commemorate with the folks

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in our community. And you know we're focusing on Black History Month, but I would think once they pay that admission price to get in, there's the other things they can do.

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They do. They have access to all the exhibits, including the Nevada State Museum will have a special presentation geared towards Black History Month available that day, but they'll have

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access to the entirety of the Preserve. Well let me give you that website again folks springspreserve.org and when you check it out for this interview we're focusing on Black History Month but let me just tell you some of the other things happening here and you'll see why I'm the number one fan. There's Jump the Ultimate Dog Show and I'm a dog lover. I just recently rescued little Roxy who's got her problems but I'm not giving up on that dog. The Springs Cafe is opened up.

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That's right.

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Wonderful. And the cool thing about this restaurant, you can overlook. You can sit out on the balcony. Is it still set up that way?

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It's beautiful. You can overlook the entirety of the whole city.

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And then there's trails and the train ride. Will the train be running that day?

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I believe so. I have to check to make sure, but I think it has in the past.

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Okay, and then, oh my gosh, there's so many things about this place. I want to just mention like, Leave a Legacy, if that's something to commemorate a loved one. They've got that. Gardening classes, yeah, and let's see, what else? Well, we mentioned the Nevada State Museum, and oh, school group tours. Absolutely. I mean, what you see at this Black History Month event, maybe if you're an educator and you think, oh, I'd like to be able to bring my class, you can do things like that.

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It really is a gem of the city, the Spring Preserve. It's 180 acres hiking trails, like you mentioned. Las Vegas means the meadow, and this is where those springs and those meadows were. This is the birthplace of Las Vegas. Those springs were here on site at this property. There's a gentleman named John Howell, who was the first African American landowner in the state of Nevada. He had a house that was located here on this property. We give a walking tour of the Howell House during the Black History Month festival event. So there's something here to see and do

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every single day of the year that we are open. Well, you know, as we're winding up our conversation, you know, we always think of, oh, I wish I would have said that. And you know, it just came into my thoughts, Boomtown. There's Boomtown. So folks, if I'm crossing my fingers that this tram, the train, as I'm referring to it, is open on that day and being able to check out Boomtown, because that is a recreation of what, a 1905, I think, I'm trying to remember what, I might have the year incorrect.

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That era, and actually some of those houses that populate Boomtown, those are refurbished houses that actually existed in that time that were moved here to the preserved property that we refurbished and made part of that Boomtown exhibit or presentation. So there's, again, something to see, learn, and enjoy.

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Exactly, and we're just focusing on Black History Month. That would be one day, but it's well worthwhile coming back again and again, because you have exhibits and like the butterfly habitat. We're not focusing on that right now, but that was very, very cool. And I brought my granddaughter and she just was so fascinated watching the butterflies flit around in the habitat that you offer. So folks, this is, I wanna say it's been the best kept secret in Las Vegas, but let's not keep it a secret anymore. That's why we're focusing on all the cool things at Springs Preserve. So once again, that website, let's offer that, Corey. Springspreserve.org. And get your tickets.

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February 18th, Black History Month Festival. I would be remiss if I didn't mention our community partners that are helping making this possible. MGM Resorts, Southwest Medical Associates, Cox Communications, Bank of America, Nevada Health Link arm-in-arm campaign with the Southern Nevada Health District and the Nevada State's Treasurer's Office. One of our goals is to make this a community-oriented event and our community has responded wholeheartedly with support for the event. So we want to thank them

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for helping make this all possible. And at KUNV 91.5 Jazz and More we want to help as well. And that's why we're letting everybody know this is a wonderful event to come out to. Well, Corey Enos, the event coordinator from Springs Preserve, thank you so much for coming on, Rita, on the road today.

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No, Rita, thank you so much for coming here and shining your light on this event and the Springs Preserve.

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My pleasure. This is 91.5 Jazz and More. We're with Hunter Rose here at the KUNV Studios. Hunter, and I understand your new single, White Lies, is going to drop on February 1st.

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Yes, it is. I'm so excited.

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It really is a wonderful time and we are so happy that you have given us permission before it drops that we will be airing that. So for our listeners, this is what you call the tease. You're going to be hearing this song in its entirety. But we want to know more behind the scenes and I understand, Hunter, that you were actually a, you graduated from UNLV.

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So tell us a little bit about that since you're an alum. Oh absolutely. I actually had transferred from University of Oregon. I went to just a little bit after graduating high school from in Hanford, California. Went to University of Oregon and then I quickly transferred to UNLV in my undergrad. This was back in 2014. My stepmom, Marcia Turner, she actually works for, and she at the time, she was the Vice Chancellor of Health Sciences, and so my brother and I ended up coming from different colleges to UNLV and we just loved it. And he majored in history, I majored in music, and we kind of got our stride in the things that we love to do. I graduated undergrad in 2018, went right into my master's degree because I had a really good relationship with Dr. Alphonse Anderson. He was the voice department director at the time and we just really dove into my operatic singing voice at the time and we had a good thing going in undergrad so I wanted a couple more years with him and just stuck around UNLV and I'm so happy I did because Dr. Lister, the opera director, gave me many opera opportunities while I was here and it was just my big happy family.

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Well, and that's what it takes a lot of times. It's not just one person, it's a village as they say. And that's kind of what UNLV has become for many people. And I'm glad that you're still showing your support for singers and the music department here. That is amazing. And in fact, why don't we kind of talk about the musical journey that you've been on for White Lies because there's people here that have shown you support and you were mentioning about pictures and recording sessions. And so explain to our listeners about the process

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as you've produced White Lies? Absolutely. So I wrote the song and myself, lyrics, music, and everything, but of course I needed a producer to help me get a really good recording of it because that's not in my skill set. So I asked my friend Carlos Mata. He's a working saxophonist here in Las Vegas, a good friend of mine. He also went to UNLV, and he has a little recording studio in his apartment. And so we recorded it and he produced it and really amazingly interpreted my song for me in the ways, little subtle ways that he added the instrumentation for my song. And he even took some of my lyrics and part of it references the show Stranger Things that's on Netflix and he even used that to put in like a little noise that sounds kind of like the show. Just little touches like that that I was so appreciative of. And then when I needed the icon art for the release, I asked my friend Chase Gutierrez. He's an opera singer. He goes to UMLB currently and he also has his own recording studio that he opened in the pandemic for podcasts and also does photography. He's multi-talented. And so he did a photo shoot with me and our other friend and we went out into the cold red rock to get these really cool shots for the press release photos and the icon that

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will be with White Lies on the streaming platforms. I love how a plan comes together and it's people that you've worked with and studied with over the years and then now in your professional life it all comes together. Yes. And speaking of coming together and now it's it's going to be released February 1st, where can people find it? You'll be able to find it on Spotify,

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iTunes, YouTube music, pretty much anywhere that you can stream music it will be.

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And then you'll also find it on the KUNV podcasting page because our interview that we're doing today it will be a compilation on the Rita on the Road and you'll find it at KUNV.org and it will live there archived.

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Perfect.

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Yes, indeed. Well, I also would like to touch on about Well your current gigs Anything that we can let the public know where they can come see you live. Sure

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So a group just took over at the Gatsby Supper Club it in Gambit Henderson It used to have the East Ring if you remember that venue back in the day and now it has Gatsby's Supper Club. I just did a show just last month and we premiered the acoustic version of White Lies there and my husband Gary Fowler, he sang background vocals with me and the new management loved us singing together so much that they have asked us to kind of put a duet show in the works. So you can look to AE group or Gatsby supper club and follow them and or me on Instagram at hunty rose and I'm soon going to be advertising another show there with my

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husband Gary Fowler. Well you both are wonderful singers I've heard you both in fact you were my Christmas present being able to hear you both perform at a church service on Christmas and lovely, lovely voices. And now since we've mentioned about your husband and another new addition to your family, a little one.

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Yes, Eden, our daughter.

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So how is it juggling your career and being mom? Is there gonna be any touring happening or you're gonna stay in town while she's this young?

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You know, Gary and I just visited San Diego with her and we really loved it there and we were kind of talking about the future and we're open to moving places or touring or performing on a cruise ship and whatever life takes us. And really, I think the deciding factor will be the opportunities that come up and we're putting ourselves out there as much as we can and praying and hoping that something will come up and we'll go where opportunity takes us.

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It sounds wonderful. Well, as I was researching some of the things that you've been involved in, I came across your favorite quote, and I'm going to share that with our listeners. The terror of performing never goes away. Instead, you get very comfortable being terrified." And that was composer Eric Whitaker.

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Is that how? Yes, and it's a fun fact. Eric Whitaker is an alumni of UNLV as well. He's a famous choral composer, like very famous within the choir community, and he actually did his undergrad at UNLV. And so I know some people who went to school with him. But yeah, I just love that quote. It's so true. I think that we develop skills of knowing what to expect when the stage fright comes up, and instead of letting it consume us, just kind of acknowledging it and putting it to the side and just channeling and doing your thing.

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Exactly. It gets that adrenaline going. I thought that was a great quote. Well, Iz, our time is kind of getting away from us now, unfortunately. But Iz, do you have any advice for singers just starting out? Because I guess this quote would maybe be applicable that if a young singer felt kind of nervous, just go with it.

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Yeah, absolutely. I'd say just know that the fear is going to be there and the more you put yourself out there, you'll get more and more comfortable with it. It'll quiet itself in the background as you just do your thing. Also, especially with writing music, I would say to never limit yourself. I used to say, I'm not a writer, I can't write music. Then last year around this time, I made a New Year's resolution to release a single by the end of the year, and it kind of spilled over, but I wrote the song, and here we are. So really just knowing that the sky's the limit, and you can do whatever you want to

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do.

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Well, thank you so much for giving us this exclusive opportunity to share your music, White Lies. It's going to drop on February 1st, and it'll be available on all streaming platforms. So Hunter Rose, thank you so much.

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Thank you so much, Rita.

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I had so much fun with you today.

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Every time you let me just go, I'm teleported back when I was young.

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But you do it so pretentious, that's understood. Nothing's like a white or bad or good.

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These white lies, they've got us in gray areas.

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These white lies, left black not in my head.

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These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, left black not in my head. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, left black not in my head. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, left black not in my head. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas.

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These white lies, they've got us in gray areas.

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These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies, they've got us in gray areas. These white lies Left Vekna in my head These white lies They've got us in gray areas These white lies Left Vekna in my head La la la la la La la la la la La la la la la La la la la la The palaces galore, my sword and my shield Perpetuating you to stay concealed But once upon a time we made a truce The past is the past, no excuse These white lies, they've got us in grey areas These white lies, left Vecna in my head These white lies, they've got us in grey areas These white lines, look back now in my head Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Oh Much thanks to our guests in part one, Corey Enos, the VIMC coordinator for Springs Preserve, and Hunter Rose. Thank you for letting us share your music, White Lies. Tune in Monday night at 6 for The State of the State.

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It's Governor Joe Lombardo's first, and we are carrying it live from Carson City keeping you in the know for 42 years. It's Governor Joe Lombardo's first, and we are carrying it live from Carson City keeping you in the know for 42 years. This is your host Rita Pardue on 91.5 Jazz and More.

Transcribed with Cockatoo