Whether our unseasonably mild weather is caused by climate change (it is) or just our compensation for finding ourselves at the wrong end of economic globalization, this is the time of year to raise our eyes and look ahead to the brilliant local culture on offer, regardless of the temperature or precipitation.Ballet Excel Ohio is back in full flight as a pre-professional youth ballet company, with a new production of Snow White this weekend at the Akron Civic. CoolCleveland’s dance writers Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas get the full story with multiple interviews of a couple of young dancers and their artistic director.
CoolCleveland columnist C. Ellen Connally honors Cleveland’s longest-serving public defender Keevin Berman along with the Academy Award-nominated film American Fiction, based on a 2001 novel by Percival Everett, who himself is traveling to Cleveland soon. The Rock Hall launches a program on revolutionary women rockers, Art House raises funds with a chili cook-off, CPT’s Test Flight incubator takes off, Dobama and Karamu open new shows, CVNP hosts a Low Power Happy Hour, and Cleveland Restaurant Week runs through the middle of the month with deals and delicacies and dozens of dining options. Sometimes it seems that everything is just waiting in the wings for you.
The prolific author and professor Percival Everett, who has written over 24 novels plus collections of short stories and poetry, will appear at the Cuyahoga County Public Library Parma-Snow branch on Tue 3/26 at 7PM to discuss his latest novel, James, a brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn told from the enslaved character Jim’s point of view. At the end of the evening, he will announce the winners of the 89th Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards.
Among his many works, his 2021 book, Trees, won the Anisfield-Wolf award, and his2001 book, Erasure, was adapted into the acclaimed 2023 film American Fiction. Registration is required to attend. Read more.
Cuyahoga Falls-based pre-professional ballet company Ballet Excel Ohio went through some tough times post-pandemic, but it’s righted the ship to continue its mission to offer opportunities to minority and underserved youth and it’s about to present its version of Snow White at the Akron Civic Theatre’s Knight Stage.
CoolCleveland’s dance writers Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas visited the company in rehearsal for the production, which takes place Saturday March 9 and Sunday March 10. In addition to watching the dancers prepare, they spoke with BXO artistic director Mia Klinger,Rebecca Bang who dances the role of Snow White, and “Evil Queen” Megan Murphy. Read more.
In late 2022, City Goods opened in a cluster of silver hangar buildings in Ohio City’s Hingetown neighborhood to provide incubator spaces for small entrepreneurs. Early this year, while exploring the idea of becoming a nonprofit, it struck a deal with the Ohio City Inc CDC to acquire the business, which will continue with the same mix of shops and the Hangar cocktail bar.Read more.
Philadelpia poet/spoken word artist Moor Mother made quite a splash when she performed at the Cleveland Museum of Art last year. Her newly released album features one of the artists who performed with her at that show, vocalist Kyle Kidd, well known in this area for their work with Mourning [A] BLKStar. Oberlin-based experimental noise artist Aaron Dilloway also makes a guest appearance. Read more.
Once again, the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District (CSWCD) is offering native plants, shrubs, trees and seeds for sale, so you can landscape with plants that help create a healthier ecosystem. Deadline for ordering plants, trees and shrubs is March 11 for delivery in early April. Read more.
MON 3/11 Eat Out This Week The 40 members of Cleveland Independents who are taking part in its Restaurant Week will be offering special fixed-price meals through Saturday March 16. And some of them are even open on Monday! Check their listings.
If you are a connoisseur of American fiction and try to keep up with the latest books on the best-seller list, especially those with an African-American perspective, I would urge you to see the movie American Fiction – the directorial debut of Cord Jefferson, starring Jeffrey Wright. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, the movie tells the story of a Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who is Black. Raised in Boston and a graduate of an Ivy League school, Monk, is the scion of a well-to-do and highly educated Black family. His life experience is as far removed as it comes from an underprivileged person living in the inner city of Cleveland, New York or Chicago. Read more.
Public defender and appointed counsel, terms largely unknown in legal circles before the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Gideon vs. Wainwright guaranteeing the right to counsel,are now the common parlance in courthouses all over the nation. In 1963, 12-year-old Cleveland Heights resident Keevin Berman had no idea that the decision made in the Gideon case would change his life. Keevin’s father was a pharmacist. His younger brother would go on to become a prominent dentist and oral surgeon. But Keevin chose the law. Read more.
