[ TV STATIC ] ♪ NEWS UPBEAT MUSIC (Tom) Hello and welcome to Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

And today we take you someplace very few people have ever seen, AZPM's vault right here.

This room houses media from AZPM's 60 year history, a lot of good stuff.

We're gonna show you what it takes to digitize much of this material and also share some of the best stuff that we've found So please stay tuned.

You'll meet the man responsible for sorting through all this media and see some of his favorite discoveries.

(John Booth) So I returned to Arizona Public Media in 2013 and then retired two years ago.

They keep dragging me back.

(Tom) We'll look back at the life and legacy of reporter, spokeswoman and hip hop artist, Sharon Kha.

(Sharon) I still was alive and kicking, and that's when I decided that I had to change my approach.

(Tom) A new story from the Morley Arts District in Nogales, Arizona.

(Carlos Ibara) I really love the fact that people won't have to walk into a gallery to see, you know, what the artist did.

(Tom) And a never before seen, you'll totally understand why story from our archives.

♪ UPBEAT MUSIC KUAT Channel 6 started broadcasting to Southern Arizona audiences back on March 8th, 1959.

It was the first public station in the state.

And since that time, we have produced thousands and thousands of hours of local productions, documentaries and more.

And most of that footage has ended up right here.

There are all types of media, film, beta tapes, DVC pro and much, much more.

And as AZPM prepares to move to the Baker Center for Public Media in the coming years, the time has come to finally figure out what to do with this archive.

And here to tell us more about the project is the man tasked with sorting through all this video and organizing it, AZPM alum, John Booth.

Good to see you John.

(John) Good to see you too Tom.

(Tom) Since 1983, you've done it all.

You've been a photographer, executive producer.

You hired me.

(John) Yes.

(Tom) And we all make mistakes.

[ LAUGHING ] (Tom) But now you're the archivist.

You have a monumental job in front of you.

Where do you begin?

(John) Well, they were looking for someone that could recognize all the formats, possibly the stories, you know, what was important, Arizona history and through my 40 year career, I bounced into a lot of that.

(Tom) How are you determining the wheat from the chaff What's the criteria?

What's the litmus test?

(John) Well, the grant is a Mellon Foundation grant through GBH and the American Archive for Public Broadcasting.

The reason for the grant is to preserve local and regional stories.

So they want the stories, they want arts, they want politics, and so it's pretty easy to sort out finished stories or shows and all the field tapes.

At the end of the day, the entire collection of 2,000 to 2,500 assets from 16 millimeter film, one inch reel to reel, two inch reel to reel, three quarter inch cassette, beta, all the way to digital files will be uploaded onto a digital asset management system here at the U of A.

Word searchable by anybody on the planet.

You can look at proxy videos and more importantly, word searchable by producers who want to be able to tell the story of, the immigration story, over decades instead of just yesterday.

All of those assets will also be preserved at the Library of Congress.

(Tom) What's been the biggest surprise so far in what you've found?

(John) One general surprise was there's not a new story.

I mean, we have sanctuary stories, dealing with immigrants coming across the border and how do we provide safety and also justice.

And then there's, they're gonna close DM, they're not gonna close DM.

There was the biggest surprise is a story that Peggy Giddings, that was her name back then, Peggy Johnson now, the owner of the Loft, shot.

I shot it, she produced it on a trial against Joe Bonanno, the famed gangster.

Prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, defense attorney William Kunstler, that was the biggest surprise.

(Reporter) After Judge Owen told Bonanno he would be cited for contempt if he did not answer the questions, Bonanno complained of chest pains and asked for nitroglycerin.

(Rudy Giuliani) You saw him on television, I saw him.

The man answered every single question the way he wanted to answer it.

He is perfectly capable of answering questions.

(William Kunstler) I felt kind of ashamed to be in the whole proceeding with this sick and ailing man sitting there, surrounded by blood pressure machines and doctors.

(John) A friend saw these people, these guys that used to lay down cones along Grant and I think it was Sixth.

And so in the morning and in the afternoon, they would close off the center lane so that you could get more traffic going this way or this way And it was just this rhythmic ballet.

So with a three quarter inch camera, I shot these guys doing that and put it to music.

And it's one of my favorite pieces from the archive.

And I would love to find these guys.

I don't have their names.

I wasn't much of a producer, evidently.

I didn't take their names down.

So if you know these people, let's get a hold of them and make sure they know that they're now in the Library of Congress.

(Cone Worker 1) I get up at five.

And would be at work by six.

(Cone Worker 2) Then we leave the shop about 25 after, be out there, get the cones all ready.

Then we start putting them out.

(Cone Worker 1) Quarter to seven, we put them down.

Quarter to nine, we start picking up.

We're usually off the road at nine.

(Cone Worker 2) Or two after.

Usually not nine.

It's timing and rhythm.

The speed on how fast you swing your arm to according how fast you're going.

(Cone Worker 1) He's the best one we've got.

(Cone Worker 2) This is about four and a half miles we've got to do.

And its kind of one of the first time you do it, whether you're going to get it done in 15 minutes.

We had the chair made so we can switch sides, depending on whether we're picking up or putting down.

That way traffic's never behind us.

(Cone Worker 1) There's a lot of people around here that, you know, enjoy us.

(Cone Worker 2) Yeah.

There's a lot of people, when we're putting out the cones, like mainly in the afternoon, they'll say, it's not four o'clock yet.

They'll tell me it's not four o'clock.

I'm like, yeah, but it takes 15 minutes to put these cones on the road.

You can't just start at four o'clock and have them down at four o'clock.

(Cone Worker 1) Also says "no left turns when cones in place."

It doesn't specify what time.

(Cone Worker 2) Yeah.

(Cone Worker 2) I can do it at 30 miles an hour.

(Cone Worker 1) He can.

23 is my top.

30 picking up, 23 is the top for putting down.

(Cone Worker 2) A quarter to four, we start putting them down.

Then a quarter to six, we start picking them up again.

Then we're it for the day until the next day.

♪ SURF ROCK MUSIC (Tom) We wish you the best of luck with the monumental task at least you're in air conditioning all summer as you sort through and get it done.

So good luck (John) Thank you, Tom.

(Tom) And always great to see you.

(John) Good to see you, too.

(Tom) Sharon Kha was a local journalist, also a spokeswoman for the University, turned rapper for Parkinson's.

Sadly, she passed away in June 2024 at the age of 80.

Now this next story from these very archives features Sharon and focuses on the strength and the humor she displayed after being diagnosed with Parkinson's.

(Sharon) I bought some bling and a Flava-Flav clock.

(Producer) Sharon Kha is in her 70s and she's only 4 feet 10 inches tall, but she enjoys performing a musical genre that might surprise you.

(Sharon) Yo homie, listen up, all the Parkies in the room, put your hands up.

(Producer) Kha is a part-time rapper on a mission with thousands of views on YouTube.

(Sharon) Say what, you say kick Parkinson's butt.

Say what, say what.

Kick Parkinson's butt.

(Producer) Her passionate message is about Parkinson's disease.

(Sharon) My brain used the rhythm of rap to build detours around the failed pathways of Parkinson's.

(Producer) Kha was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease more than a decade ago when she was a busy professional at the University of Arizona.

♪ SOFT PIANO MUSIC (Producer) After working as a local radio and television reporter, she had moved on to the University.

(Sharon) I was the director of the News Bureau really for all the 22 years I was there, but every once in a while I would get another assignment like associate vice president for institutional advancement for the University of Arizona.

I needed a card that big.

(Producer) But her career came to a screeching halt when Parkinson's began to show its symptoms.

She had to retire and step away from a familiar world.

She says the disease causes the neurons in the brain to die off at a rapid rate compared to people without Parkinson's.

Those neurons control movement, mood and emotions.

(Sharon) Everybody loses neurons.

That's why Parkinson's looks so much like old age.

It is old age, speeded up.

We have no idea what causes it.

If we did, maybe we could fix it, but we don't.

From the day you're told you have it, from that day forward you can count on it getting worse and worse and worse.

(Producer) But Kha is fighting the disease with different treatments that are showing promise.

She's pounding the pavement and conquering new grounds on a daily basis by focusing on social engagement and physical activity.

(Sharon) Exercising intensely is the one thing that shows a glimmer of hope in Parkinson's disease.

That walk in the morning is as valuable to me as my medication.

And it's not just walking, it's walking intensely, focusing on what I'm doing, not trying to carry on a conversation with somebody.

(Producer) After the initial shock and depression from her newfound circumstances, which included planning her own funeral, Kha shifted her focus from defeat to determination.

(Sharon) I still was alive and kicking, and that's when I decided that I had to change my approach from getting ready for death to insisting on life.

(Producer) She's also a member of a gym for people who are living with Parkinson's.

She enjoys this time with her newfound friends and knowledgeable trainers who push their limits.

Michael Greenbaum was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2012.

If you sort of imagine the hulk, collapsed lung structure, folded shoulders, very stiff and rigid walk, that's very common in Parkinson's, or tremors.

And I had all of those things.

Now I think you can see that in two years' time working here at the gym- (Trainer) Nice Michael, that's it.

That is it, right there sir.

(Michael) I stand straighter and taller.

I can bend my torso, and I have strength and can almost go back to what I was as a soldier and knock out push-ups.

(Sharon) I believe you must not sacrifice your personality to the disease.

And I belive that exercise can change your brain.

And I don't need a business card to tell me who I am.

I know who I am.

I'm the El Dopa Diva.

(Producer) For Sharon Kha, the rapping, the exercise and the medicine are all part of her arsenal in the battle against Parkinson's.

Rapping keeps her on her toes while requiring that she project her voice.

This is vital for people with Parkinson's.

(Sharon) Parkinson's disease is really wack, but you be illin' if you don't fight back.

When I say Parkinson's, you say don't give in.

Parkinson's!

(Crowd) Don't give in!

Parkinson's!

(Crowd) Don't give in!

(Producer) During this event at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Kha is accompanied by another person who has Parkinson's.

Jenny Richardson finds comfort in art to deal with some of her challenges.

(Jenny) I just think that people ought to know more about Parkinson's and know that it's getting more common.

And I'd love to know why I have it.

There is life after Parkinson's.

(Prodcuer) Life after Parkinson's.

This is a message that is there to cause heart and not only because of her present condition.

It is the second time her immediate family has been affected.

(Sharon) In the 10 years that he lived after diagnosis, he went from a cane to a walker to a wheelchair.

At the end, he was isolated.

He couldn't go places.

He couldn't make himself understood.

He had no friends at all.

And I felt so bad for my father, and I still do.

And one day- I looked into- One day, I looked into the mirror, and I could see my dad's face after he had Parkinson's.

(Producer) She resolved it would be different for her, and she's assisting others along the way.

Even if you're not impacted personally, she says "there may be something you can do."

(Sharon) You need to help people be who they're able to be, and that requires supporting them while they do things that are really hard.

And you keep helping them and encouraging them, so that they can maintain the ability to move and to speak and to have a life.

And have that life before death.

(Man) Thank you so much, and we really appreciate you doing what you're doing.

Ain't no thang.

I'm down with that, word.

[ APPLAUSE ] Thank you.

(Tom) Sharon Kha is survived by her son David Kha, and a celebration of her life is being planned for fall of 2024.

This next story is new.

It's not a part of our archives.

And it features Nogales artist, Carlos Ibarra, from what he calls "Scaffold City," where he creates these large scale murals.

It's part of a four part series on the Morley Arts District in Nogales.

These stories were produced outside of AZPM with editorial independence and funding was provided by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Santa Cruz County American Rescue Plan Act.

(Carlos) I've been basically living in what I call Scaffolds Arizona.

It's a little city where I have, you know, my food, my drinks, my paint.

I've even taken naps up there, when I'm very tired.

It's like living up there.

I just come down to visit Nogales for a few hours every night.

♪ UPBEAT VIOLIN MUSIC My name is Carlos Ibarra.

I've been a painter for 28 years.

I started drawing when I was like five years old, four or five years old.

I wanted to be the pope when I was four years old.

And when I learned that, that wasn't gonna happen, for some reason I decided that then I'll just start drawing Jesus on the cross.

And I spent months of my life doing, drawing Jesus.

I still have some of them actually.

I was born in Nogales, Arizona.

My family from Mexico, I was the first one born on this side of the border.

Growing up in Nogales, there wasn't a lot of art around, but my dad had a lot of art books.

And so I spent hours and hours looking at his collection of art books.

And when I started drawing, I would use a lot of the images on the art books to kind of just to learn.

From very early on, my family encouraged my interest in art.

And so yeah, I spent most of my childhood early life just thinking that, that was a road I could take in the future.

The thing that I like about murals is that it's very sort of a blue collar way of working.

With a mural, especially outdoors, it's, I mean, you deal with all the elements from wind and rain and cold and, you know, with pigeons walking next to you and bees flying around and a lot of mosquito bites, a lot of mosquito bites.

And it's also very physical working on a mural.

You have to scale up scaffolds, come down, figure out how to lift heavy boxes of paint, you know, all the way to the top.

In fact, all this while, you know, trying to balance the work, you know, maybe you're tied up with a harness.

From the little things to the big things, it's a lot of logistics, a lot of figuring out how to, just how to get yourself ready to start painting.

I really love the fact that you don't have to, people won't have to walk into a gallery to see, you know, what the artist did.

They can walk down the street and look over.

It's completely free.

They can spend five minutes looking at it or 30 minutes looking at it, and it's there for everybody.

And, you know, I love that part of working on murals.

I think that art is, can be a very accessible way to get to know a culture, a city, a people.

So the reason I think it's so important for people to know about what's happening artistically in Nogales, specifically on Morley, is because it's a counterpoint to the negative stories that we hear in the media about border life.

It's not that dangerous idea that people have of what happens at the border.

It's nothing like that at all.

And for people to see that, you know, there's life happening here, that there are ideas, that there's a lot of positive things happening at the border, is very important, and art is a great way to send that message out and hope that people receive it and take it in.

And it's been proven again and again and again how art revitalizes.

There are areas of cities all over the U.S., the world actually, that have been abandoned for whatever reasons for years.

The artists move in because they can afford the rent.

They turn it into this awesome, cool space.

People start flocking, and eventually, you know, that leads to then retail moving in and restaurants and it just revitalizes a whole area.

And it's very powerful what artists and art can do to bring people together again.

I think, you know, everybody wins at the end if more attention and more funding is given to the arts and art programs.

[ BIRDS CHIRPING ] (Tom) Now we bring you something from our archives that has never been seen before.

Back in the '90s, former producer Ted Robbins went to a meetup of the Canyon State Naturists He and his photographer tried, but they failed to produce the story without showing any nudity, so the piece never aired.

Well, now, thanks to technological advancements, we are able to add blurring in order to share that story with you.

(Ted) What could be more natural than leaving the city to camp under the trees and stars, experiencing nature and relaxing in the nude.

Well, according to some 120 adults and children who did that recently on Saguaro National Parkland in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson, nothing is more natural.

They are some of the members of Canyon State Naturists, an organization dedicated to enjoying everything while wearing nothing.

(Don Titmus) There's that freedom from stress.

When you come to one of our events, there's an equalizing because we're all, most of us, we don't always, but most of us take off our clothes, so there's that equalizer.

(Woman) I don't know, I suppose because everybody's always looking to see if you're wearing the right style jeans or whatever like that and (Man 1) I need another coat.

(Woman) Okay, we have another one.

But here you can just- no one judges you by the way you look.

(Man 1) You could be a lawyer, I could be a laborer, you know.

We're still a family.

We may not be knowing each other all that well, but we're just family.

(Ted) I'm trying, and alas, I am failing to resist the urge to note that this gentleman is checking his dipstick.

But mostly, these Naturists enjoy pretty much what anyone else does in the woods.

Volleyball, hiking, and a game that consists of kicking a little ball around.

There's that urge again.

Hacky sack.

(Man 2) Oh, I love kicking these things.

(Ted) They also have seminars on the environment, and in this case on spirituality.

(Don) You know, there are a lot of things that are unexplained, and do they need to be explained?

(Ted) Don Titmus makes his living as a gardener, and today he has brought penstemon seeds, a native plant for people to scatter in the area.

(Don) Take a pinch, take that with you, find a place around here that you feel that would be nice, that you could come back to in a year's time.

(Janee) Oh, I can be me.

(Ted) Janee Fannin joined Canyon State Naturists a couple of years ago, after four long, stressful years in nursing school.

(Janee) I said, "Okay, it's time to find out who I am again."

And, of course, sometimes we're always so hot in Tucson, and I end up going without my clothes, around the house.

So I got to think, "Well, I wonder if there's any groups that do this anyway as a group thing."

♪ OPERA MUSIC PLAYS (Ted) Now, in case you haven't been listening to a thing I've been saying up till now, it's time to answer some of your practical questions.

Question one, "Does everyone have to take their clothes off?"

No, we did not, and neither did Diane Stapley, even though her husband Tom loves to be nude.

(Tom) With or without clothes, I'm a show-off.

(Diane) That's right.

(Ted) Have you done this, did you do this at home?

(Tom) Yes, all our lives.

Ever since Diane and I have been married, we've gone out to the lake and we sneak around, sneak around, but this is really nice, to not have to sneak around.

(Ted) Question two, "sex."

What you do in your own tent or camper is your own business, but rules here strictly prohibit hanky-panky in the open.

Folks here say because of the nudity, sex is actually less prevalent.

(Don) Because there's nothing hidden, then there's no sexual arousal because, for instance, bikinis are there and they're designed to make those sexual areas become accentuated.

So, and it's hidden, there's a mystery behind it.

And so there is, hard to believe, less sexual activity at a nudist event.

(Ted) Question three, "Isn't it uncomfortable to hike without, well, support?"

(Don) The body has become used to support.

It's a crutch to wear briefs or jock straps.

It's a crutch.

And so what I have experienced is my body, my genitals, have adapted to their natural environment.

(Ted) Question four, "what are these people doing in a national park?"

Well, what they're doing is legal.

And they are very far away from anywhere tourists normally go.

They post signs, clearly warning casual visitors what to expect should they venture in.

There is, however, something of a paradox in people who go out of their way to avoid others and then invite a television camera into their midst.

They are not modest about their lack of modesty.

They want to publicize their cause.

And they don't think they are much different from you or me.

(Don) There are many people that would not consider themselves nudists or naturists because they don't belong to an organized group.

But there are a lot, a lot of skinny dippers in this state.

A lot of backyards that have a swimming pool and a high fence.

(Ted) Historically, in warmer climates, clothing is a relatively recent phenomenon.

Up to about 1,000 years ago, many cultures felt entirely comfortable with nudity.

These people still do.

(Tom) Well, according to their website, Canyon State Naturist is no longer an active club.

Thank you for joining us from the AZPM vault for this episode.

I'm Tom McNamara.

We'll see you next week for more Arizona Illustrated.