Bare Feet With Mickela Mallozzi

Both: ...The funniest looks from Mickela Mallozzi: Everyone you meet Mickela: Hey, hey, we're the Monkees!

Mickela: I'm a dancer, and I'm a traveler.

And wherever I go, I experience the world one dance at a time.

I'm Mickela Mallozzi, and this is "Bare Feet."

"Bare Feet" is supported in part by... Announcer: Bloomberg Connects gives you a way to experience the arts from your mobile phone.

You can explore hundreds of cultural organizations from around the world anytime, anywhere.

Learn more at bloombergconnects.org or wherever you find your apps.

Announcer: Additional funding was provided by Koo and Patricia Yuen through The Yuen Foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by the Ann H. Symington Foundation.

Announcer: The island of Ireland.

You should always listen to your heart.

Fill your heart with Ireland.

Mickela: Welcome back to Northern Ireland.

My first trip here took me from Derry's Walled City through the legends of the Giant's Causeway to the capital city of Belfast, dancing with Celtic warrior queens.

Northern Ireland was created after 700 years of British rule on the island of Ireland.

The six counties of Northern Ireland were partitioned off in 1921 to remain part of the United Kingdom.

About 50 years later came the Troubles, the 30-plus years of unrest in Northern Ireland that took place starting in the 1960s, ending with the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

It's a complicated, multifaceted, and violent history, and one of the epicenters of the Troubles was Belfast.

Now, almost three decades after the peace process began, Belfast and all of Northern Ireland have changed dramatically.

On this "Bare Feet" adventure, I'll dig deeper into the ever-evolving landscape of life with the next generation of Northern Irish here in Belfast.

Belfast is the second-largest city on the island of Ireland next to Dublin, and it is the capital of Northern Ireland.

The River Lagan runs right through the middle of the city, with the Belfast docks on the east side, now known as Belfast Harbour.

This was the home to the "Titanic," and it is still Northern Ireland's main maritime gateway.

West Belfast is known for its political murals and the Peace Wall, a temporary structure built to maintain peace within these neighborhoods, especially during the Troubles of fighting and violence between Irish Catholic and Unionist Protestant neighbors.

My first stop here takes me to the Vault Artist Studios.

I'm here to see firsthand the incredible change that Northern Ireland's young artists have contributed to this city.

Jacob: We are a multidisciplinary artist collective with 100 artists.

We are trying to turn this into, like, a multifunctional, multidisciplinary art space.

This building we're in right now is the Shankill Road Mission building, which was built, I think, in, like, 1896, and it was built as, like, a Christian organization that was going to feed the young people of the Shankill Road, because it was an area of extreme poverty in that period of time.

Now, this part of Belfast is, like, the second-most impoverished part of Belfast.

It has no cultural provision whatsoever.

For, like, 15 years, it was derelict.

We took over it about a year ago.

We want to make sure that we integrate with the community and make it something that they can enjoy, be part of, and also take part in.

Mickela: The Vault's cooperative artists include musicians, circus performers, and dancers, including Eileen McClory.

Eileen: I set up Off the Rails Dance up in 2010 to create works that explore topical issues, but more importantly, that explore human characters and the human condition.

I just like taking big topics, big juicy topics, and making a show out of them... Mickela: Yeah, yeah.

Mickela, voice-over: Eileen is the artistic director of Off the Rails Dance Company, and she was kind enough to let me join in on a rehearsal of her piece "ROOTS."

Eileen: Nice.

"ROOTS" is a large-scale dance and gardening project.

We're building a brand-new garden in a new building called Black Mountain Shared Space.

And that new building is adjacent to the million-brick Peace Wall, inspired by stories of native fauna and the history that inspires a new future.

Mickela: Eileen's choreography for "ROOTS," inspired by the rebirth and resilience of plants and life in spaces that may seem unlikely, is a beautiful parallel of the Vault's own story and the story of Belfast itself.

Eileen: And find the widths.

Fwaahp.

Lovely.

And break, break, break, break.

Yes, that's much better.

Nice.

It was lovely.

Rosie.

Mickela: Nice to meet you.

Eileen: And Clara.

Mickela: Hi, Clara.

Nice to meet you.

I'm gonna stand behind you.

Eileen: Yeah.

Mickela: I'm not a contemporary dancer.

I'm just putting that out.

But it's just feels like this beautiful storytelling that you guys are doing.

Eileen: Yeah, and that's what it is.

It's just storytelling with the body.

So with this, it's almost like you're a vine and you're finding the light.

So as it comes out, it's really like as if somebody's pulling the fingers.

Lovely.

Hand comes out...

Dancer: And then we take it with us.

Mickela: Nice.

Clara: So you're gonna thrash to your right.

Rosie: Yeah.

Eileen: Nice.

Rosie: And then the lower you are to your thighs, the easier it gets.

Mickela: Ooh!

Jeez.

[Laughter] Eileen: This is a wee movement.

So you just place your hand nice and delicately here.

Let go, almost like's somebody saying "It's OK." Mickela: Ah.

Eileen: So that's kind of here.

And you're like, and then you kind of see the lightness comes in.

You've been in the dark, and the light's coming in.

Mickela: I feel like I'm really stepping out of my comfort zone, because I usually am not inserting myself too much in the dance, and this is one where I feel like I have to insert Mickela in the dance.

- Mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

Mickela: So this is really-- it's hard for me.

Eileen: There's something about contemporary dance.

It's not like coming in and learning a piece of material.

Mickela: You have to be naked in front of people.

Clara: Yes.

Mickela: Like, I want to cry right now.

Eileen: Aw.

Mickela: No, no, no.

And not in a bad way.

Like, I want to cry because, like, I don't like showing that side of myself.

Eileen: Real vulnerability.

Mickela: Yeah.

It's really hard.

Like, I just want to, like, run out of this room and hide.

Eileen: That's so beautiful.

Tip a little bit, catch yourself, and then you're going to do a little broken-- our little broken-- Rosie: Ice skater turn... Eileen: Yeah.

Broken ice skater.

Mickela: Ah.

Eileen: Yes.

Rosie: Yes!

Eileen: Yes.

And then find this moment of real sorrow.

Mickela, voice-over: The generation of Northern Irish growing up and born after the peace process, also known as the peace babies, are really leading the way in positive change through the arts here in Belfast.

They are breathing new life into buildings and spaces like the Vault.

Eileen: I think it's really, really crucial that we have more artist's spaces in the city.

The talent in Belfast and Northern Ireland is huge.

The vibrancy.

People are just, like, taking risks.

They're going out there, they're making it happen.

They've got a lot to say.

We've lived through a lot.

Mickela: Yeah.

Eileen: We're so lucky.

In the past 26 years, we've had this peace, but it's something that we can't take as a privilege or as a luxury.

It's something that we still have to work on... Mickela: Yeah.

Eileen: you know, and still acknowledge that there was... there was a dark history here, but there was also a history of really brilliant, amazing people and really brilliant and resilient people.

Mickela: Well, just being in Belfast, you feel that energy.

The second you step into the city, there is this self-initiative of like, "We're going to work with what we got "and make something gorgeous and beautiful and brilliant "and still a little bit gritty, a little bit rough around the edges."

Eileen: A bit of grit.

That's how you make it perfect, isn't it?

Mickela: Yeah, exactly.

Eileen: Isn't it?

Eileen: Yes.

Yes!

Nice.

Yes!

Rosie: Good!

Mickela: That was amazing.

[Excited chatter] Mickela, voice-over: Just up the road from the Vault is McConnell's Distillery housed in the old Crumlin Road Gaol.

I'm here to meet with McConnell's CEO, John Kelly, to not only get a tour of the distillery but to also learn about the rebirth of this space and this whiskey.

John: McConnell's was born in Belfast in 1776.

That makes us just about as old as the great United States of America, right?

Mickela: Yeah.

True.

Yeah.

John: To make Irish whiskey, it takes about 750 grams of malt... Mickela: Yeah.

John: to produce a 750-mil bottle.

Mickela: Wow.

John: It's quite amazing, huh?

Mickela: Yeah.

John: And this is our mill here.

The barley goes through the mill, and then it comes into this mash tun.

And this is the first stage of our triple-distilled single malt Irish whiskey.

Mickela: Wow.

John: After that, it comes across to the fermentation, and the liquid spends about 60 hours in these fermentation tanks.

Here, we've got a little wiper here.

Mickela: Oh, my gosh.

John: Because when fermentation is in process, you get condensation on the glass.

So now we go into the still house.

Mickela: Oh, my gosh.

It smells like beer a little bit.

John: Right.

Mickela: Yeah.

John: But it's beer moving into that next stage in the process.

So the alcohol evaporates quicker than the water.

And what that creates is, like, a condensation that moves from the first pot still into the second pot still and then from the second pot still into the third pot still.

This is Eleanor McConnell.

She's the matriarch of our business.

Unfortunately, her husband died when she was pregnant and had two young boys, James and John McConnell, who were the founders with her of our business.

Back then in the 1700s, 1800s, women weren't even allowed to be in the pubs, and yet here she was blending and bottling her own whiskey.

Mickela: Wow.

John: And the other really interesting thing about, you know, this connection with women and whiskey is that this prison, and a wing specifically, actually held the suffragettes.

So back in the early 1900s, those wonderful women who were fighting for the vote and for recognition in life, they were actually imprisoned here.

Mickela: Wow.

John: These are the old iron staircase of the Crumlin Road Gaol.

Mickela: Wow.

John: We've kept as much of the look and feel of the jail as possible.

You see the military doors here.

Mickela: Yeah.

John: These were the original doors.

Mickela: Oh, my goodness.

Mickela, voice-over: The jail was built in 1848 and closed in 1996, towards the end of the Troubles here in Northern Ireland.

John takes me to a jail cell that the distillery left intact to remind visitors of the history of this building.

John: Well, in the 1800s, this is what it would have been like.

Tiny, tiny, small cell.

Mickela: It really brings it back to the true history of this space.

John: Right.

McConnell's was the big Irish whiskey in Belfast through the 1700s and 1800s.

And McConnell's closed back in 1938.

There was, uh, you know, a crash in the Irish whiskey market.

And McConnell's kind of fell victim of that, like many, many other Irish whiskeys.

And it was, you know, it lay dormant until our company relaunched the brand in 2019.

And we've now opened our beautiful distillery here in North Belfast.

I grew up around this area in the '80s.

It was a very tough place to live.

I went to school just over the prison wall.

There was a British Army barracks on one side of the school and the prison on the other side of the school, so it was a tough time back then.

And I like to think that we have breathed new life and warmth into this building.

And we're very determined to employ people from both sides of the community here.

Mickela: We're talking about this whiskey.

It's sitting right in front of us.

I mean, I need to taste this whiskey.

John: You do.

Mickela: Yeah.

John: This is our beautiful five-year-old Irish whiskey.

It's a blend of grain and malt whiskey.

Don't take it straight to your nose.

If you hold it just below your chin and then gradually bring it up to your nose... Mickela: Mmm!

John: And you should get some of those great aromas.

Mickela: Yes.

John: All right.

I'm actually twisting and I'm smelling from each nostril.

A lot of people don't know this, but what you actually get is kind of different smells... Mickela: Yeah.

John: from each nostril.

Mickela: You're right.

Each nostril is a little... John: Each nostril is different.

Mickela: a little different.

John: Now a little taste.

Mickela: That's smooth.

Mickela: West Belfast is also significant for its Irish language, culture, and music.

To learn more, I head to Cultrlann McAdam Fiaich, an Irish arts, language, and cultural center located on Falls Road in the heart of West Belfast.

Caoimhn: The whole idea of this place was to create a center where people could live their lives through Irish.

What we do here is we promote the language through the arts, and we promote the arts through the language.

People come here from all over Ireland, hoping to establish something like this in their own part of the world.

Mickela: Yeah.

You've set an example for other communities in Ireland.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Caoimhn: It gives a sense of belonging to people in the Irish language community.

Mickela: The center was founded in 1991 as an Irish language secondary school, or high school, here in West Belfast, but now it includes a caf, bookshop, art gallery, an Irish language theater company, a radio station, art studios, continuing education classes, and so much more.

Caoimhn: This started from nothing.

It was an old derelict church.

We started off with nine pupils here, and bit by bit, the numbers grew and grew and grew.

Today there are more than a thousand pupils in the school.

Mickela: Oh, my gosh!

How do you say congratulations in Irish?

Caoimhn: Comhghairdeachas.

Mickela: Comhghairdeachas.

Caoimhn: That's brilliant.

Mickela: Comhghairdeachas... Caoimhn: Yeah.

Mickela: One of the programs offered at Cultrlann is their monthly all-female Irish trad session, or traditional Irish music session.

I meet with Catriona and Mia, musicians in the session and Irish language speakers.

Do other places have female trad sessions or does Cultrlann, is it one of the... Catriona: No.

I think it's one of the only places.

It's empowering.

Mia: A safe space as well for people that don't really like to go out to the sessions for one reason or another, any women that don't feel like they have a place or if they're just learning music, even.

Catriona: We call it the Gaeltacht Quarter of Belfast, or the Irish language-speaking quarter, to strengthen the language here and making a passion for it.

Just really, like, you never want to leave.

Mia: I've been coming here since I was a kid.

It's just amazing to have a hub in Belfast where there's music, there's Irish language classes.

There's so many activities on here.

Catriona: Even when I was growing up in Donegal, we would take school trips here.

Mickela: Oh, really?

Catriona: Yeah.

Mickela: Wow.

I was just following you the same rhythm you were doing.

Musician: So it pretty much is the same thing.

Mickela: Like strumming the guitar.

Musician: It is, but you're just, yeah, using it this way.

In traditional music, the bodhran and the guitars will kind of stick together.

Mickela: Yeah!

Musician: They'll kind of be locked in.

Kind of like if you think of drum and bass, the drum and the bass lock together in a band.

Mickela: Gotcha.

Mia: Well, I got my music from my mum.

She's a flute player and a singer as well.

She grew up during the Troubles, the '70s, '80s, '90s.

And, as well, there was a bit more sexism in music back then, and she had to put up with a lot of stuff.

Mickela: I bet.

Mia: It takes women like that to kind of not put up with stuff for us to have a better life.

Mickela: Mia, Catriona, and their bandmate Stofn, who is a DJ, founded Huartan, a band combining Irish trad music and electronic music with pagan and Celtic influences.

Catriona: We try to make it more accessible to the people.

Like, this is your ancestors' music, your ancestors' language.

So to provide it to them through the medium of dance music, we feel like that's a good way to spread it to a wider audience.

Mickela: It's just like every other way that this music has adapted and evolved in what was happening in the world.

This is the next step of it.

Catriona: You have to evolve to stay alive.

Mickela: Right?

Mia: Yeah.

Mia: In Ireland, whenever Oliver Cromwell was ruling here, he actually got rid of all our traditional Irish instruments.

And that's where lilting was started.

Have you heard of lilting before?

Mickela: No, I haven't.

Mia: Like... Di den do dee le ang do clo Mickela: Oh, yeah.

It sounds like a fiddle or a little flute.

Mia: So that's what happened.

Lilting was born out of all of the instruments being taken away from everybody.

Catriona: Yeah.

Giving a voice literally to oppression.

Mia: Yes.

It shows how strong-willed Irish people are that they won't let anything ruin their spirits.

Mickela: Yeah.

There's a real urgency of the culture of the people-- and you're both very young-- and to have this passion to preserve the language through the music is inspiring.

[Cheering] Mickela: Belfast is officially designated as a UNESCO City of Music.

To learn more about the city's rich musical heritage, I head to the Oh Yeah Music Centre to meet with my guide and music enthusiast Stephen Loughins.

Stephen: This afternoon we're going to go for a walk and see some of the iconic punk and rock scenes around Belfast.

Mickela: I love that.

Stephen: Good.

Let's go.

Mickela: Let's go!

Stephen: Here we are now on Hyndford Street, which is a sort of typical working-class area of East Belfast.

So you can see they're sort of small, two-up, two-down houses.

Um, but what's unusual about this street is that this is the birthplace of Van Morrison.

Mickela: Oh, wow.

Stephen: Here we are, number 125 Hyndford Street, where Van Morrison lived from 1945 until 1961, and immortalized Hyndford Street in the song of the same name.

Half a mile away, you have a beautiful tree-lined street, which he immortalized in the song "Cypress Avenue."

Lots of songs from this area.

Mickela: So he puts these little Easter eggs of talking about Belfast and growing up here in all of his songs.

Stephen: Yeah.

He still references Belfast, and he still comes back to Belfast.

And he's never really left Belfast and Northern Ireland.

And I think we feel a particular attachment to him.

Mickela: Stephen, what is this?

Stephen: So this is the Ulster Hall in Belfast, built in 1862, to bring popular entertainment to the masses.

November 1977, the Clash are due to play a concert here.

All the punks are gathered outside.

About an hour before the show, an arm comes around the door and puts a sign on the door saying that the show has been canceled.

Mickela: Ah!

So they didn't want all these punks outside of Ulster Hall?

Stephen: No, they didn't want the punks outside or inside, thinking that they would wreck the place.

Mickela: Right.

Stephen: So for the first time in probably Northern Ireland's history, we had the first cross-community riot, and that all the Catholic punks and the Protestant punks, who were all just punks anyway, uh, they got together and that was very much the beginning of the Northern Ireland punk scene.

[music playing, women cheer nearby] Stephen: Mid-1970s, five guys walk into Terri Hooley's Good Vibrations record store, a record store in Belfast which gave the punks a real focus, and they record "Teenage Kicks."

Terri then manages to sneak a copy of "Teenage Kicks" into John Peel's cubbyhole.

John Peel is the most influential DJ on the BBC.

He takes the record, plays it on his show, and liked it so much that for the first time ever, he played a song twice in a row... Mickela: Ever on his radio show.

Stephen: Ever on his radio show.

Mickela: Wow.

Stephen: And John Peel, unfortunately, died a few years ago, and the quote from the song is on his headstone: "Teenage dreams so hard to beat."

Undertones on recording: Are teenage dreams so... Stephen with recording: Hard to beat?

Every time she walks Both with recording: Down the street I wanna hold her, wanna hold her tight Get teenage kicks right through the night Oh, yeah Mickela: After my punk and rock and roll tour with Stephen, I head back to the Oh Yeah Music Centre to learn more about the impact that this organization has on the local community and in Northern Ireland.

Charlotte Dryden: We're a dedicated music hub for Belfast.

We've been around 17 years now.

Set up as a charity because we believe that music can be a catalyst for change.

We tell the story of Northern Irish music and the impact it's had globally.

Mickela: You just won a massive award.

Charlotte: We did.

We did.

I'm glad you asked me that... Mickela: Congratulations.

Charlotte: Thank you very much.

we got shortlisted for Grassroots Venue of the Year.

Mickela: Wow.

Charlotte: First venue from Northern Ireland to win it.

We are about the future and the music of the present.

So our remit is very much about, How do we foster, develop, support, and nurture local talent?

Mickela: This is a huge asset for artists in the community.

I mean, I commend you.

It's really wonderful.

Charlotte: Thank you.

Yeah, I'm very lucky to be in this job.

I feel very privileged, and I really enjoy it.

Enjoy seeing the joy that comes with music.

[Choir singing] Mickela: One of the emerging artists supported in the Oh Yeah Music Centre is musician, composer, and choir director Katie Richardson.

Katie was kind enough to let me join in on today's rehearsal with her Cathedral Quarter Choir in preparation of tonight's performance at the Oh Yeah Music Centre.

Katie: So we're going to learn "Look Up to the Wonder."

So we'll start with the lows.

Um... Look up to the wonder Look into the night Sing that.

All: Look up to the wonder Look into the night Katie: I love singing with other people, and I love harmony, so starting the choir was kind of a no-brainer.

It's a very Irish thing to sing, you know, and to tell stories through song.

So, you know, I don't really-- Like, we don't hold auditions for the choir.

Everybody's welcome.

[Choir sings] Katie: Stunning.

Then we'll faff around and sing the next verse.

Boring, boring.

And then you all come back in with "Look up to the wonder" the second time.

So let's start from there.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Katie, voice-over: I wanted to empower people through being able to use their voices, because I think that, you know, when you use your voices in that way, you can use your voice in other ways as well.

Mickela: Yes.

Katie: So I think it's powerful to sing.

And, I mean, who cares what anyone else thinks?

All: Oh oh Oh oh... Katie: Good.

All: Oh oh Mickela, voice-over: I'm not a singer, but I couldn't help but feel connected to every single person in that room.

Katie: Yeah.

Mickela: It was super powerful.

Katie: It is powerful, and it's such a human thing to sing.

We're not looking for perfection.

We're looking for expression.

Like, we're looking, um, for people to, yeah, just get it out of them.

All: It's mine Katie: Beautiful.

Mickela: Yay!

Katie: Well done.

[Cheering and applause] Mickela: Whatever that expression is-- through visual art, through music, through dance, whatever that may be, it's happening here in Belfast.

Katie: Oh, yeah.

For sure.

We have such an amazing, powerful, resilient creative community here.

And, you know, it's just about creating space for people to express themselves.

Like, it's literally as simple as that.

Katie and choir: Look up to the wonder Look into the night Face on Till dawn Right to one's friend in life... Singer: This choir has done so much for me.

I live with hearing loss.

I wear two hearing aids, and I have tinnitus as well.

Katie is so inclusive.

It doesn't matter what you look like, what you sound like, what age you are.

You're welcome to sing in Katie's choir.

Different singer: You're singing as a group, and you're with a team of people that love music.

Different singer: We have music from here and Oh Yeah.

We have so many things happening around the city and the tourists coming in, we're seeing them, and it's great to show off our country for something else that's not negative.

Katie and the singer: Bask in the moment The scars are away Reachin' and reelin' Rising on top of it all... Katie: People do really incredible, beautiful things here despite the challenges that we face as an artistic community, sometimes living in this post-conflict society as well.

Like, we have so much, you know, historically pent-up emotion.

So we need art and we need creativity all the more.

It's about expression.

It's about joy.

It's about connection.

I'm just--I love our little creative world here.

Katie and choir: Something is coming Rushing towards the glow Something is coming... Mickela: My musical journey here in Belfast has shown that there is light after darkness, inspiring resilience after the Troubles through the arts, from creative ingenuity to the preservation and rebirth of spaces and places, to the resilience of culture with the Northern Irish people.

And with that, they have all shared with me their joy.

Katie and choir: It's mine [Cheering and applause] Mickela: And I'll see you on my next "Bare Feet adventure," wherever it may take me.

[Cheering] You can stay connected with us at travelbarefeet.com where you'll find extra bonus videos, join our "Bare Feet" series conversations through social media, and stay updated with our newsletter.

Stephen: Which is a sort of typical working-class, uh, street in Belfast... Mickela: Yeah.

Stephen: of just general working-class.

Ehh... [Stephen scatting, people laughing] Mia: Ay din do In diddly ay ten ditten do Skiddly ay ten ditten dun Diddly ay ten day Eee ay ten doten ditten diddly ay ten day [Chuckles] Mickela: "Bare Feet" is supported in part by... Announcer: Bloomberg Connects gives you a way to experience the arts from your mobile phone.

You can explore hundreds of cultural organizations from around the world anytime, anywhere.

Learn more at bloombergconnects.org or wherever you find your apps.

Announcer: Additional funding was provided by Koo and Patricia Yuen through The Yuen Foundation, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

And by the Ann H. Symington Foundation.

Announcer: The island of Ireland.

You should always listen to your heart.

Fill your heart with Ireland.

[Baby talk]