New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Doctor’s in the house
Danbury’s ‘Dr. Ian’ hosts a reformatted show, produced in Stamford studio
From growing up in Danbury to traveling the world as a trusted medical expert, Harvard grad/TV host and best-selling author Dr. Ian Smith knows what it means to work hard to be your best self.
Smith, known to fans as Dr. Ian, will share medical knowledge and great storytelling in his new gig as host of the Emmywinning CBS series, “The Doctors,”
when it premieres Sept. 21. The married father of two, who lives in Chicago but has been filming the show’s 13th season in Stamford, spoke about it in a recent phone interview.
Q:
“Take Your Power Back” is the show’s theme. Why is that? Have we lost our power?
A lot of us have lost our power because of the uncertainty and unpredictability of the times we’re in and the challenges we’re
A:
facing. So many people are feeling hopeless and confused; so many are depressed and so we’ve lost a lot of our power.
But also we are living in a world where the information is constantly changing. There’s a lot of misinformation and so we really want to create a show that first of all is positive. We want to encourage and support people and nurture their ability to stay positive, but we also want to bring people scientifically-based information that will help them better understand this global pandemic, which scientists and researchers and doctors are still trying to fully understand.
Q:
The series will provide tips/solutions to “get Americans into fighting shape physically, mentally and emotionally.” Can you give an example?
neighborhood pride and presenting opportunities for local artists. Late-summer murals in the Ninth Square are involving passsersby and honoring Dave Higgins and Dr. Michelle Salazar, a CT Transit driver and surgery resident at Yale New Haven Hospital, respectively.
A Black Lives Matter mural, meanwhile, has been proposed for West Haven, after street versions in New York and Washington, D.C.
Eight years ago, we were intrigued by the work of an anonymous muralist who called himself BiP (for Believe in People), who made lovely art on New Haven buildings in 2012-13 before he moved out West.
New Haven artist and muralist Kwadwo Adae said BiP “was never identified, but he made a magnificent Baby Cop piece and quit making murals when a (San Francisco) journalist leaked the location of his studio.”
We asked the talented Adae, who has a mural along the Farmington Canal Trail in New Haven, about this form of art. He said he’s inspired to contribute to “the discourse of public art in our community ... In cities all around the world, public art is the collective visual voice of a community, and that community must not only be able to speak for itself, but must do so in a language that cannot be ignored.
“Too often,” said Adae, “the interpretations of academic museums and art galleries either completely ignore, or intentionally silence, the artistic voices of black and brown culture in underserved communities. Art is a powerful tool of language that allows people to be heard. I am drawn to create public art because it allows me to amplify the voices and beauty that already reside in these spaces.”
Next for Adae, who has done 10 indoor and six outdoor murals on three continents: He will be completing the Sparrow Squadron Mural on Dixwell Avenue and Division Street, and after that will be a mural coming to Bassett Street in September, working in collaboration with Black Lives Matter and the New Haven Departments of Culture & Tourism, Public Works and Traffic & Parking, he said.
Artspace of New Haven Executive Director Lisa Dent said she was happy to hear that the Ninth Square Merchants Association accepted the mural proposal to honor health care workers.
“For me, what murals do best is kind of capture our current moment in time for posterity,” said Dent. “So as long as we can keep them engaged, they can kind of quickly elevate the people and things that are happening around us so that other people can see them.”