Thu 3/28 @ 7PM
Cleveland’s 1970s underground music scene has, over the years, received international attention and acclaim far out of proportion to its popularity during its lifetime, as anyone who saw Mirrors perform to 12 people at the Clockwork Orange (19th and Payne) will attest. A lot of that is due to the long afterlife of Pere Ubu, the best-known band to emerge from that scene, which brought attention to its other bands and personalities.
Mac’s Backs and the Coventry branch of the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library have brought together writers and artists who have depicted that scene for a program on Cleveland Underground, called “Cleveland Undergraphics,” taking place at the library.
Poster/flyer artist/muralist and author Jake Kelly and author Aaron Lange are the principals of Stone Church Press, which recently published Lange’s illustrated history of that underground scene titled Ain’t It Fun: Peter Laughner and Proto-Punk in the Secret City, are two of the participants. It revolves around Laughner, who died in 1977 at the age of 24, who was one of that scene’s prime catalysts and promoters: there might not have even been a Pere Ubu without his encouragement and drive.
They’ll be joined by veteran graphic artist Gary Dumm, who worked with author Harvey Pekar, among others, and who with his wife Laura, also an artist, has recently been doing arts about social and environmental issues. He also illustrated the book Drugs and Other Things to Do in Cleveland by Francis Elizabeth, and while that book is about outlaw behavior in the 80s, Elizabeth is also part of the panel.
The event is free and open to the public. One presumes Mac’s Backs will have books available for purchase.
.macsbacks.com/event/cleveland-undergraphics