Fri 7/11-Sun 7/13
Vince Robinson is a well-known local artist, a photographer who has had a space on Larchmere Boulevard for almost a decade. He’s also known for his involvement in the city’s arts and culture scene. And now he’s one of the drivers of a new event called the Larchmere Cultural Arts Festival that he hopes will become a permanent fixture on the calendar.
He says the ball got rolling when playwright Dr. Mary E. Weems reached out to him. “She just had this idea for doing an event. I looked at what some of the possibilities could be and expanded it to more than one event. I thought this could be a springboard to share the spotlight with a lot more people.” He shares that artists Bonnie Venable and Rodney Carpenter joined the planning team as well.
“We all came together and then I started thinking about more possibilities,” he says.
The event snowballed. Soon they were bringing together a variety of creators — performers, writers, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists — and enlisting other venues on Larchmere Boulevard, including Literary Cleveland, UnBar, Adun Spice Company, Kings and Queens Cultural Village, The Spot Youth and Crosby’s Corn. Among the events are an art exhibition and reception, a digital photography exhibition and artist talk, spoken word and music performances, a gallery crawl, an African drumming class at Kings and Queens Cultural Village, a writer’s workshop hosted by author Nicole D. Miller, a poetry slam at Literary Cleveland, a shorts film festival, and an Ekphrastic art and poetry event. Weems has also donated a quilt she knitted for a raffle. It closes with a performance by the Hue People Vocal Ensemble.
The participant list includes a wide range of area creatives, including well-known, established artists such as Weems and Robinson, photographer Mychal Lilly; visual artist Gwendolyn Garth; former Jet/Ebony photography Jeff Lawson, who will show his work and talk about his career; playwright/director/filmmaker Michael Oatman; and director/playwright/ filmmaker Terrence Spivey. But it also offers opportunities for up-and-comers, especially in its poetry slam, presented in partnership with its Larchmere neighbor, Literary Cleveland.
“[This event] is a good starting point,” says Robinson, who says he’s already looking at ways to expand the event, such as having the shorts film festival at Shaker Square’s Atlas Theatre next year. “It’s necessary because a lot of artists get overlooked in this city. This is one way people can get exposed to them, and support them, empower them. I always say artists are the problem solvers. We come up with solutions to issues we are dealing with in this city. The more we can be factored into the economics, the better things will get.”
And talk about accessible! A $20 pass gives you access to all events for all three days. Go here to get them, along with a full schedule of events.
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