It’s been 20 years, and CoolCleveland has been watching this region evolve and grow. We’re finally talking about the turmoil facing today’s teens’ mental health as part of the Cleveland Humanities Festival at CWRU. John Gorman reveals the development of broadcasting when he speaks in Mentor. Duo Decibel System rocks the Rialto in Akron. Author Naomi Oreskes connects the dots between capitalism and climate change as she discusses her book in Beachwood, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market.If we’re not careful, and vigilant, many of the rights we’ve taken for granted will be stripped away from us. Ohio’s state legislators are now targeting the trans community, if we let them. And there’s good news if you haven’t yet seen This Light of Ours at the Maltz featuring civil right photography; the show’s been extended. Jazz Appreciation Month is highlighted at Western Reserve Historical Society.
CoolCleveland commentator C. Ellen Connally is on fire with a handful of COMMENTARYS this week: how Idaho is somehow making menstrual cycles “woke,” when Anita Hill lost the battle but won the war, and why Mayor Bibb might still finding his footing as mayor. We’ll stay tuned and see how things unfold.
Ohio’s transgender people aren’t doing anything to bother you, but the state legislators who have decided to use them as punching bags are doing a lot of damage. Photographer/activist Vincent-Natasha Gay is fighting back by showing who trans people really are in an exhibit titled This Is Trans, opening Friday March 31 at Studio West 117.
Appropriately, that’s also Transgender Day of Visibility. The show opening will also feature a transgender wellness fair and drag show. Cue the phony right-wing alarm. “Currently, transgender rights are up for debate within our society; and now more than ever, we need to showcase how beautiful and valid it is to live authentically as transgender,” says Gay. Read more.
The Maltz Museum’s showThis Light of Ours, featuring photography of the 60s Civil Rights Movement and the fight for Black voting rights in the South, is a must-see in this era of renewed Jim Crow-style voter suppression right here in Ohio. It’s been extended through April 9. Don’t miss it! Read more.
Your family and friends will be hitting you up for a place to stay a year from now when the Cleveland area experiences a rare total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024 with four solid minutes of darkness in the middle of the day. The next time this rare event happens in our region will be 2444, so don’t miss it.
To get ready, join the Cleveland Museum of Natural History on Friday, April 7; Saturday, April 8; and Sunday, April 9, 2023, for three full days of eclipse-themed planetarium shows. All planetarium shows are included with general admission, so get your tickets online now and join the CMNH for these exciting programs in preparation for next year’s big event. Read more.
For conservatives, “woke” has become a derogatory term for what they consider to be progressive values. But this week, members of the Republican-controlled Idaho legislature took the use of the term “woke” to new heights. A proposal that would have provided free menstrual products to public school students in grade 6-12 was called “liberal” and “woke.” The bill died one vote short of a majority after a Republican legislator called it a “very liberal policy” and said that terms like “period poverty” and “menstrual equity,” which are used to describe lack of accessibility to menstrual products, were also “woke.” Read more.
Mayor Bibb has two years and nine months left on his term. He needs to change his peripatetic image and do a better job of connecting with Cleveland’s grass roots. That’s where the voters are and those are the people who will decide whether he will be a one term mayor. He has the ability and hopefully the talent around him to be a good mayor. But if he is not careful, he could go the way of Lori Lightfoot and get his walking papers in the next mayoral primary. Read more.
