(upbeat music) (lively music) (jewelry rattling) (lively music) - [Dancers] Namaste, coming up on today's show.

(upbeat music) (mellow music) - To me is like never-ending fascination.

There's so many different things you can do with it.

There's patterns and texture and color, there's objects.

I love to figure out how to make things.

(mellow music) - This place is a really great example of how communities could move forward and be more connected with each other.

(mellow music) - We can be that hand that reaches out and says, "This is a community for you to be a part of."

(mellow music) (mellow music) (jewelry rattling) (feet tapping) - It's a power of, like, adrenalin, just like rushing through.

It's like when you go on stage, you see everybody, but, like, at the same time, you see nobody, because it's all, like, they're all black and screen, but the adrenalin when the music starts or if someone's singing it, I just can't describe it.

(jewelry rattling) (feet tapping) - There are many different Indian classical dances.

Bharatanatyam originated from the South.

It's from Thanjai.

- [Samyuktha] It's a very traditional Indian classical dance that's been passed down for generations and it's a very beautiful and divine art form.

- 2,000 years back, you know, Bharatanatyam was only coined about seven decades back, that name, it was called a Sadir, is what it was called.

And it was mainly danced by the courtesans or the handmaidens of God who were in the temple.

They were dedicated to the God and there were dancers for each rituals in the temple.

That's how it all started.

It's like ballet, you know, it takes years of rigorous training.

It's huge.

There's so much to learn.

And I find myself in it, which is why I've been doing this for the longest, you know, time and I've been teaching for 40 years, and I think it's only because I have that respect for that art form and I have that passion for the art form and I really teach true to my heart to the students because I want this divine art form to be handed to the next generations.

(lively music) (lively music) I owe it to my mom.

My mom learned Bharatanatyam when she was younger, so she took me to my guru who was a dhwani, who was a dhwani of the Thanjai traditional form of Bharatanatyam.

In those days, even then he had about 200 students.

I was very blessed because I was one of his very rare private students that could have one-on-one class with him.

So it all started there.

So I owe it all to my mom and my dad, to my parents.

For the longest time, I was a solo performer, but then when I had my daughter, there came a time when I had to step back a little bit.

That's when my mother encouraged me to start teaching.

I just love it.

I love performing and now I love teaching as much.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - I got started with dance when I lived in India and I would have friends that used to go to dance and do Bharatanatyam, but once I actually started dancing, I loved dancing.

I really, really enjoyed dancing.

You get to be yourself.

I'll admit, it's hard.

When you first start, it's definitely hard.

It's gonna tire you out and your muscles are gonna be sore, but if you persevere and keep, and go through it, you'll have a good journey in the end, because you will learn a lot more about culture, like different cultures, but you'll also learn a lot about yourself through this journey.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) I think to preserve this dance form is needed because it's a very sacred dance form that I think should be kept in this world, and I think that the better it is if more people learn about it because there's so much to learn about it, so much to explore in it, and it's truly amazing when you actually know how to do the dance and the feel when you dance is really, really awesome.

And second of all, it helps me with my culture.

It helps me connect to my culture a lot more.

As a person who's living in the US and not in India right now, there's so many things that I don't know culturally that people do over there, so I think doing dance helps me, in a form, to connect to my culture and connect to my family back in India, - Every time I teach a student and they dance and they teach others, it's a part of me that they take with them.

You know, I feel like a part of me is kept alive.

Even if I don't dance, somebody else is doing that, and keeping that tradition alive.

You know, the tradition of my guru alive, the tradition of this beautiful, antique divine art form alive.

So I can't talk enough about it.

(chuckles) You know, take the interest to learn it, persevere through it.

Don't give up.

Don't lose sight of the goal.

Keep that in mind and keep going, keep going, keep going.

And the joy that comes from it is something that will be valued and it's a joy that they will find in their life all the time.

Let this art form live forever.

(lively music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (mellow music) (mellow music continues) - Enough Stuff is a free store that is open to the public.

We take in donations of items like household items and then we give all of that stuff away for free in our retail space.

And we're just excited to share with them that, yes, everything is free, and that you can't really take too much because we've got so much stuff coming here every day that we're constantly refilling the shelves.

The racks are filled and the shelves are filled.

But, really, people could take as much as they want, 'cause more stuff is always coming.

This first room has all of our adults' clothing of all sizes.

You can also see in the room behind me, kids clothes and toys.

Everything here is free: the books, the movies, the decorations, everything is open to the public and free for anyone.

So every type of person who can get here physically is able to come to the free store.

You don't need to make an appointment or have an ID or tell us any personal information like your income in order to shop here.

Our goal is to be a space where every person in the community feels connected to the shop, where you can bring and donate your items, and shop for treasures, or you can come here and get warm.

We want people of all income levels and backgrounds to feel like they belong here.

So it's every person can come.

This is our guest area, also open to the public.

Everyone can come in here, get free water, wifi, coffee, and heat up snacks in the microwave.

We also have this small food pantry with food and hygiene products in it so people can get a few things that they need every time they're in the store.

(mellow music) So for a time, I was living in Oregon and the church that was in my local community had a free store room inside the church.

And I was really excited by that idea that people were bringing stuff to give away and people were going to get things.

I found my favorite sweater there of, like, all time, so I was wearing that all the time and excited about it.

But I wondered, and kinda became obsessed with the idea that this little room could be a public space, could actually exist in a retail space with regular business hours.

I really wanted to see if I could make this place a reality.

So I rented this retail space for a year and hoped that the community would support it.

And my faith in the community has been withheld.

They have showed up and donated stuff and donated money, and now it's fully supporting itself with private donations.

(mellow music) So we do take in money donations and often people do donate money while they're here in the store or through our website.

But it's basically people who are voluntarily giving money that offsets the cost of people who shop for free.

Our website has a category called memberships and that's a way to automatically give money every month.

Right now we have over 60 people who have signed up and are automatically donating every month.

This mural was actually put together by our members of Enough Stuff.

We sent each of our members a blank coloring page in the mail and asked them to color it in and send it back to us, and this is what we got.

(inspirational music) - I had looked on websites trying to find different thrift stores and just, you know, different things in the area, and ran across this.

So I came here and came here a few times.

And that's back when the place was really small (chuckles).

And then one day it's like, "Well, if you guys need volunteers, I'd be more than happy to..." So I've been here ever since.

It's been four years ago, so.

And I loved it.

It's just like, it gave me purpose and meaning in my life.

- Several of the people that started coming here just to use, like, our guest area have ultimately volunteered with us many, many times, and become some of our most regular volunteers.

So people that came in and who needed services ultimately become part of the service itself and give back to the community however they can.

We are run almost entirely by volunteer labor.

So the passion and excitement for this community is something people invest their, like, physical ability and their time into.

I'm in awe of the teamwork that it takes to run this place and that we just continue to show up, it's incredible.

(inspirational music) So we started the building fundraiser in 2023 because a couple in Washington, Illinois generously wanted to donate $10,000 to Enough Stuff and we wanted to make sure that we put that money to really good use.

Our goal for buying a building is to be in, like, a more open retail space.

Then we'd also like to customize the space to really fit the needs of our community.

- And it doesn't matter who they are, what they are, how much they have, you know, there's so many people, and even like our houseless friends that come in, you know, it's like your family.

(chuckles) - Enough Stuff is just an expression of my own values and how I think the world could operate.

And I wanted it to be an example of a new system of giving things away for free, of reducing and reusing the things that we no longer want in our homes.

That it's possible, you can totally do it, and that it's not something special that we're doing, because anyone could do it.

So for me, it's like this place is a really great example of how communities could move forward and be more connected with each other.

(inspirational music) (mellow music) (lively music) (shafts rattling) (shafts clicking) - Weaving is the interlacement of threads and the kind of weaving that I do is on looms, but I prefer looms that are, it's called multi shaft looms.

And these looms can pick up and put down threads.

This is a four-shaft and the shaft are these things that go up and down and you can see when they go up and down, they're lifting the threads up and down, okay?

And by doing that then, I can make patterns.

(shaft taps) I'm using my feet, and those are treadles down there.

(shaft taps) and they are what is lifting the threads up and down.

I started weaving in college, and I was in teacher training, and they had us take art classes in college and part of art programs in the colleges at that time, that was in the 70s, were to have looms as part of their curriculum.

Really liked it, and so when I got married and moved to this area, we bought a loom for me to bring with.

(lively music) I belong to the Handweaver's Guild of Peoria.

And that is a group that has met since the 70s when I moved into town.

I didn't start it, but was lucky enough to find it.

And they have had lots of instructors over the years, and so I've had the advantage of learning from them, and going to conferences and learning weaving.

And then I was able, because I was a teacher, to then start teaching on my own or some for my guild.

So the process of weaving, I have a shuttle, and I have yarn within the shuttle.

Here I've got a different kind of shuttle.

This is called a stick shuttle, and it's got a wool yarn on it.

The thicker yarn.

This is called a boat shuttle 'cause it looks like a boat and it's got a bobbin in it that goes around, and I can pull thread off of there.

I prefer to use the bobbin, the boat shuttle if I can just because it's an easier process to weave from that.

So the process of weaving is three steps on this loom.

It is to push down those treadles that lifts the yarn.

So that's step number one.

It is to weave the yarn through.

So that's step number two.

And then I beat it down.

And so this thread then goes right next to the last thread in a straight line.

(lively music) I am a planner.

And so when I started to think about retiring, I thought, I have to have a plan, 'cause I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself.

And so I thought about, that teaching was something I could do, and so I started buying up some older looms in the area.

And so I bought up about 10 looms, and my idea at first was to take my looms on the road.

And I named it looms to go.

And so what I didn't realize was what a lot of work that is.

(chuckles) So we built this cottage and then I was able to teach here.

When I first started it, I think I just hoped for the best.

(chuckles) (mellow music) These are different techniques you can do without weaving back and forth on some of it.

This one is like you'd make a rug.

It's little pieces of yarn that you weave in, and end up with, a nap on it, like you would on your carpet.

It's important to me to keep weaving alive and going.

And it is difficult for people for these bigger looms, because most people don't have access to a bigger loom.

And so I'm able to provide that.

Most of my classes are for beginners or people that want to learn, you know, maybe the next skill.

And so this week, I'm teaching actually a couple of classes over the next couple weeks.

One is, that I'm teaching online, is going to be how to set up your loom.

'Cause sometimes people get looms and they get defeated, because they can't get 'em set up.

(lively music) Weaving, to me, is like never-ending fascination.

There's so many different things you can do with it.

There's patterns and texture and color, there's objects.

I love to figure out how to make things and then to combine it with teaching has just been a joy for me.

It's, weaving can be frustrating sometimes, because it doesn't maybe turn out the way you wanted it to, but it also can be amazing that it turned out better than you wanted it to.

I think the creativity that people can get from these classes, they really enjoy.

And just a new way to experience art.

A lot of times people will knit or crochet, things like that, but they've seen weaving, but they don't really know what it is.

And when they finally find that it is something that they can do, that is kinda the eureka moment.

And I love teaching.

Like, I feel like that's maybe my superpower, I don't know.

But I enjoy bringing people here, having them try out weaving.

People are just fascinated with how quickly and how easily they can weave and make something that looks really beautiful.

(lively music) (mellow music) (mellow music) - Welcome to Friends.

- What is Central Illinois Friends?

We are the friends of those who need it most.

It's that simple.

- What we have always been is an organization that is for and by the community.

We support the community just as much as they support us.

- We were founded back in 1990 to be the friends of those who were dying of AIDS-related complications.

They needed us in that time.

No one else was there: no one in the medical community, nobody else in our community.

As time went on and we progressed as a society, what it meant to be a friend of those who needed it most is change.

I call ourselves a three-pronged organization now.

The one big prong is we provide a lot of programs and services for people living with HIV.

(mellow music) The other prong is sexual health.

We have huge barriers to access to sexual health services around here.

And specifically types of people have high barriers to accessing sexual health services.

We have a completely free sexual health clinic, an array of menu of options for sexual health services now.

And then the third prong is we're the friends of those who are LGBTQ+ and those that are allies and friends of the LGBTQ+ community.

The reason why they need friends is because they too have a hard time accessing places and spaces and services.

They need advocacy and representation, because it doesn't exist in this area.

(mellow music) - We serve gay, straight, bisexual, transgender, we serve people of color, Black, white, we serve people of different immigration statuses, people who have been in jail, all people who, at some point or another, have been disregarded by our society in some aspect of their lives.

(mellow music) - [Deric] This community center came about because a group of individuals said that they needed it.

- It was always that pie in the sky dream, right?

It's like we are gonna open Peoria's first LGBTQ Community Center, that when Deric got hired, he was like- that was the dream- and he was like, "Yeah, that'll be like years from now, right?"

You know, it might even be the next day.

Deric approached the board and, you know, the thought really started, maybe we need to take this from our pie in the sky idea and we need to turn this into a reality.

(mellow music) - We opened the space on January 20th, people came in.

I already have heard people come in and be like, "It's so warm, it's so inviting."

- We wanted a space that our community felt that they could come in, feel comfortable and feel seen.

So the community center is for all folks that, you know, regardless of identity, you can book this community center, use it.

As long as we have the space available, we want folks to be in there.

- We provide a full-fledged clinic that there's gonna be sexual health services, psychiatric care, counseling, general health screening.

- Someone can come here for an appointment.

They can also go to our kitchenette, have a cup of coffee, have a tea.

They can come in, read a book, they can, there's eventually going to be some computers over there.

They can print off a resume.

They can go into one of our community rooms.

We want people to be able to really utilize the space to their needs.

And, you know, whether it is a work meeting or whether you are coming in to play Dungeons & Dragons with your friends, right?

That the space can be what you need it to be.

- This is the Marsha P. Johnson Community Room.

This is one of our rooms that can be rented by the public.

It's also, you can book it for free.

All you have to do is call and book a date and time.

And it's perfect for organizations, meetings or trainings that people may wanna have.

- We came through this project, said, "We're gonna get this done and we... Because Peoria deserves it.

The City of Peoria deserves this.

Central Illinois deserves this.

I think that's a very unique aspect.

Our programming is for all people.

This space, when I say it's a place to fail forward, I mean it.

If you're an individual who is not connected to this in any way, shape or form, you are absolutely 100% welcome.

- The only thing that we are here to do is provide people a space where they belong.

The only hope that, I can guarantee, you speak to any LGBTQ person, we don't care if your kid is gay or not.

We just want them to grow up loved in a way that many of us weren't.

- It's personal for me.

I'm part of the community and if I had this, my life may have been different.

It wasn't easy for me.

And I know there's a lot of folks that it's not easy for them either.

- [Selena] We are here to reach out that open hand to the community, and sometimes the community disagrees with us.

And that's why we, that's why the hand stays open, because we want to be able to provide that love, that acceptance, even if it's not always given in return.

- And there is nothing to fear here and there's nothing but learning opportunities here.

And I would really like it if you came and learned.

(mellow music) (mellow music) - [Announcer] Thank you for joining us on this journey.

If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to explore even more local content.

You can connect with us on our social media channels, visit our website, or download the free app.

We can't wait to see you next time on "You Gotta See This!"

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (lively music) (upbeat music) (lively music)