It’s here. CoolCleveland’s most popular post, the first edition of our 2024 Summer Festivals Guide appears in this week’s issue. We’ll update it as necessary, because we still don’t have the deets on a couple dozen dates, but we’re happy to see the return of some festivals, like Veg Fest (after a five-year break), while saying goodbye to others, like the Avon Duck Tape Festival. Open your calendar and start penciling in dates.Other openings include a play on queer love under pressure at CPT, a show of young artists at Valley Art Center, a “bird nerd” evening at Goodyear Park, and an eco-friendly benefit for Akron Soul Train.
It’s all exploding this week: Circus Us brings DreamCycle to Wizbang Theatre, Tri-C Metro brings the Count Basie Orchestra, area jazz musicians bring the Great American Songbook, and GroundWorks Dance Theater brings an interactive evening of music and dance with the Theron Brown Trio.
Robert Lockwood Jr. would be 109, so we’re celebrating at the Beachland this week, and Michael Stanley would be 75, so Anastasia Pantsios offers a remembrance. Open up CoolCleveland and find out for yourself.
The William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series, presented by the Cuyahoga County Public Library Foundation and its academic partner Case Western Reserve University welcomes, Rebecca Makkai to the Maltz Performing Arts Center on Wed 4/10 at 7:30PM. Makkai’s 2018 novel The Great Believers was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and received the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. Her most recent novel, I Have Some Questions for You, spent six weeks on the New York Times bestsellers list.
Coming next to Writers Center Stage on Tue 5/7: Imani Perry (South to America) and Kiese Laymon (Heavy: A Memoir). Read more.
Some days it seems like summer is around the corner. Other days it seems like years away. We had all the weather in one day for the St.Patrick’s Day parade. Damn Cleveland weather! But we’ve started to put together our annual Summer Festivals Guide and maybe it’s time for you to start planning too!
There are a few scattered events in April but things really get rolling in May with the Cleveland Asian Festival, and then they don’t stop until October. Almost every weekend there are multiple festivals, organized around food, art, music, sports and the diverse ethnic cultures that make up northeast Ohio. This isn’t our final version — some festivals haven’t announced dates — but at least you can start penciling things into your calendar. Read more.
Last year, SPACES director Tizziana Baldenebro and moCa curator Lauren Leving were chosen to curate the U.S. Pavilion at 2023 Venice Architettura Biennale. Their show, featuring five artists including Cleveland sculptor Lauren Yeager, was called Everlasting Plastics, and reflected on how plastic impacts our environment. Not too many area art lovers could make the trip to Venice to see what they came up with but now the show is installed in a more accessible location, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, through August 11.Read more.
From now through April 4, local and regional bands in a variety of genres — jazz, R&B, reggae, blues, jam, Latin, gospel and more — can apply to play the big outdoor stage at Tri-C JazzFest June 21 and 22. And if you were planning on catching as much music as possible, you have until April 1 to purchase a pass to hear all the ticketed shows. Read more.
MON 3/25 Gone but Not Forgotten Cleveland’s most beloved rock & roller Michael Stanley would’ve been 75 today if he hadn’t passed away in 2021. His music provided the soundtrack for several generations of Clevelanders.
TUE 3/26 Birds Are Cool Join the Greater Akron Audubon Society for a “Bird Nerd” evening at Goodyear Park, designed to introduced newcomers to birdwatching.
