02.25-03.04.2026 Break Through

 

 

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Break through

02.25-03.04.26

We honor those who work harder than the rest, resisting society’s artificial limitations, allowing their successes and struggles to inspire the community. Period music ensemble Les Delices is expanding their purview with The Mythology Project focusing on Central American women’s symbolism, folklore and legends. The mixed gendered Mourning [A] BLKStar, never sitting still, hosts a benefit for Cleveland Rocks PPF. Short.Sweet.Film Fest screens women & LGBTQ+ films and more. The exhibition From WOMAN 19… closes at the McDonough this week.

Overdue for recognition are the women rock musicians of our region, many of whom pushed against discrimination, misogyny and racism to make their mark. Some are well known, like Chrissie Hynde, Tracy Chapman and Ruby & The Romantics, while others deserve more attention: The Poni-Tails, The Secrets, The Poor Girls, Chi-Pig, Rachel Sweet and more. We’ve assembled seven local women-led bands and solo artists who will cover the legends and then play a couple of their own originals, and we’ll present exclusive interviews exploring their back stories in between acts. Tickets are available now for shows in March at the Music Box Supper Club and the Akron Civic Theatre for Our Day Will Come: NEO Women Rock. What good is breaking through if you don’t celebrate it? 

-Thomas Mulready

CoolCleveland.com 

Photo by Thomas Mulready

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 OUR DAY WILL COME 
HONORS CHRISSIE,
TRACY, RUBY & MORE 

Chrissie Hynde (above), Tracy Chapman, Ruby (Nash) & The Romantics, The Secrets, The Poni-Tails, Chi-Pig, and other women rockers from Northeast Ohio will be honored at Our Day Will Come: NEO Women Rock, featuring exclusive video interviews on March 13 at the Akron Civic Theatre Knight Stage, and on March 19 at the Music Box Supper Club Concert Hall. Tickets are available now.

Each show features live performances by 7 area women-led bands and soloists, each performing an historical gem from one of the artists honored, plus a couple of their own originals: Jackie Popovec of The Vindys, Elliott Carter of Off-Leash (formerly Detention), Ali Garrigan of Queue Up, Time Cat, Jet Star, Brady Lorince and MEDUSA. Part of the NEO Rewind Series, continuing through July 2026, hosted by Vanity Crash. Photo above by Anastasia Pantsios, who will also be honored.

 

 

 EXPLORING MYTHS IN MUSIC 

Cleveland period music ensemble Les Delices is in the middle of a project that expands its reach considerably outside the early music field. The series, called The Mythology Project, began last year with “A Moment’s Oblivion” and continues this weekend with “La Diosa,” which focuses on Central American mythology and symbolism with an emphasis on folklore and legends relating to women.

As with its concert last year, it’s commissioned a new work, the title piece “La Diosa,” written by Gilda Lyons, an American composer with Nicaraguan roots. And the guest vocalist is Esteli Gomez, whose heritage is Nicaraguan and Mexican. The goal was to project the strong, empowered female presence too often lacking on classical music stages.

 

NEWS

 

 VERGE PRIZE WINNERS
ANNOUNCED 

Noted area musician Nathan-Paul is one of five winners of the Cleveland Arts Prize’s VERGE Fellowship, awarded to developing artists “at introductory stages of their career.” He’s actually pretty established, but the other four may be discoveries to most people. They include musician Sierra Delaine, storyteller/educator Avery LaMar Pope, writer/journalist Unity Powell and filmmaker Wayne Smith III.

 WORK OUT YOUR SET
AT JILLY’S OPEN STAGE NIGHT 

Bands and musicians are invited to sign up for Open Stage Night at Jilly’s Music Room in Akron, where each artist gets a 45-minute set to try out new material, get comfortable in front of an audience or get the word out about themselves. In addition to experience, you get a backline, sound, lights and even a little bit of pay!

 

 ROCK HALL NOMINEES
ANNOUNCED 

The nominees for this year’s class of inductees has been announced, and it’s a big, diverse field to choose from: 17 in all, including pop divas such as Mariah Carey and Shakira, heavy metal’s Iron Maiden, hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, and the long-overdue-for-induction Joy Division. Inductees will be announced in April; the induction event takes place in the fall.

 

WEDNESDAY
2/25

 

World-class NEO-based percussionist Jamey Haddad and Brazilian-American guitarist Romero Lubambo are bringing at sextet to EDWINS for two nights of music by legendary Brazilian composers.

 MORE on WEDNESDAY… 

THURSDAY
2/26

 

Ray McNiece is one of the most compelling performance poets in this area. He’s also an experienced host who brings others onstage at events such as his poetry jam tonight at Visible Voice Books, where his band Tongue in Groove will augment the spoken words.

 MORE on THURSDAY… 

 

FRIDAY
2/27

 

August Wilson was one of the giants of American playwriting. His ten-play “Pittsburgh Cycle” used his home town as a stand-in for the issues facing Black people in each decade of the 20th century. His 1960s play, Two Trains Running, opens tonight at the Beck Center.

 MORE on FRIDAY… 

* Ever Green performs the first of 10 gigs over the next month leading up to St. Paddy’s.
* Cleveland Botanical Garden hosts wellness evening for women.
* Play depicts woman senator who stood up to Senator McCarthy in 1950.
* Vocalist Melanie Emig performs avant-garde composer Morton Feldman’s “Three Voices.”
* Comedian/motivational speaker Charleston White headlines benefit for Tamir Rice Foundation.
* “Grown-up recess” raises money for Children’s Museum programs.
* Brazilian father-and-daughter Ella and the Bossa Beat return to the Irishtown Bend Taproom.

SATURDAY
2/28

 

Oberlin-based artist Audra Skuodas was known for her abstract paintings and drawings that displayed a skillful use of color. She passed away in 2019, but her work lives on in shows such as the one opening at Abattoir Gallery today.

 MORE on SATURDAY… 

SUNDAY
3/1

 

The Community of St. Peter is an independent Catholic congregation in Midtown that lives by such commands as Jesus’ “welcome the stranger.” Today it’s hosting a program with immigration judge Tania Nemer who was fired by the current administration which lives by different rules.

 MORE on SUNDAY…

MONDAY
3/2

 

The Short.Sweet.Film Fest is back for its 15th year, with seven days of films, films and more films, all of them short: animated, documentaries, music videos, sci-fi, Asian films, women’s films, LGBTQ+ films, and of course that fave of every novice filmmaker: horror. It runs through 3/8.

 MORE on MONDAY… 

 

TUESDAY
3/3

 

Sax players Branford Marsalis and Timothy McAllister and pianist Liz Ames have backgrounds that cross between jazz and classical music. When they perform for Akron’s Tuesday Musical, they’ll play everything from Debussy to Ennio Morricone, to a piece by Branford’s brother Wynton.

 MORE on TUESDAY…

 

WEDNESDAY
3/4

 

It’s the 18th year for Cleveland Independents Restaurant “Week,” which actually started on Monday March 2 and runs through Saturday March 14. That’s plenty of time for you to haul your taste buds to a couple of those locally owned eateries you’ve been meaning to try. 

 MORE on WEDNESDAY… 

POINT OF ORDER

 

 C. ELLEN CONNALLY 

 

 CLEVELANDERS MOURN
JESSE JACKSON 

The late Rev. Jesse Jackson, who passed away last week at the age of 84, had many Cleveland connections and was a frequent visitor to our city. He was a longtime friend of the Rev. Otis Moss Jr., Pastor Emeritus of the Olivet Baptist Church. Both men developed their ministries under the tutelage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In addition, Rev. Jackson was closely aligned with the Rev. E. T. Caviness, of the Greater Abyssinia Church. When I spoke with Rev. Caviness today, he tearfully reflected that Rev. Jackson “… was a man for the ages whose life was dedicated to the welfare and wellbeing of the least of our brothers and our sisters…”

 

BACKTALK

 

Pushback.-Thomas Mulready
CoolCleveland.com

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