We’re on the street. Which becomes a festival. Last week, the Asian Festival, this week, the Tremont Greek Festival. We’re in the garden, which for Rachel & Tyler Shoemaker, became a farm. We are in a museum that’s turning into a massive party. We’re at a church in Ohio City that was a key stop on the Underground Railroad with 200 artists, dancers, actors, musicians & storytellers.We’re at the Akron Soul Train witnessing the end of a 100-day dance and writing performance. We’re in Chagrin Falls, where four days of fun kicks off with a hot air balloon glow. We’re at a studio theatre in Lakewood putting on a play that won the Pulitzer. We’re at Loganberry listening to a voting rights activist. We’re in Mentor swing dancing with Red Light Roxy, and we’re dancing on the bar with Crazy Marvin. We are marveling at the Rube Goldberg contraption at the Maltz.
We’ve been at this over 20 years and this much is for sure: your VOTE NO on August 8 can literally save democracy in Ohio. Put it on your calendar. It’s a Tuesday. We haven’t seen anything like this. But we know where we are. And we know what we stand for.
When Rachel & Tyler Shoemaker were laid off at the beginning of the pandemic, like so many people, they started looking around for their next act. Rachel had done some work designing vegetable gardens so they leased a fifth of an acre of land in Elyria and Fifth Acre Farms was born.
The couple’s vision for their business is clearly stated on their homepage: “We believe that sustainable farming practices are crucial to creating a brighter future for our environment and the people who live in it.” With fields now full of lettuce, bok choy and other Asian greens, they’re looking ahead to buying their own land next year. Read more.
The Cleveland Museum of Art’s signature Solstice party skipped a couple of years and scaled down last year. But this year it’s huge, with global bands and projected art outside and a club-style dance party in the Atrium, plus open galleries, and food and drink included with all tickets. Read more.
Cleveland Heights’ booming Cedar Fairmount neighborhood brings back its SummerFest concert series in Thursday evenings with kids activities as well, plus neighborhood tours on Wednesdays. Read more.
You have only about a month to sign the reproductive rights petition, so do it now! Look for petitions at upcoming events such as Pride in the CLE. And mark Tuesday August 8 on your calendar and get to the polls to vote NO on the Republican attempt to enact new rules that would make passing reproductive rights in November and all future ballot issues — raising the minimum wage, legalizing recreational marijuana, reversing gerrymandering — almost impossible. Read more.
MON 5/29 Eat & Drink Greek-Style The Tremont Greek Festival is the first ethnic church festival of the summer & one of the biggest. Today’s the last day to get your moussaka and spanikopita.
TUE 5/30 Healing Art The Cleveland Arts Prize is hosting a series of tours of local institution/oganization art collections & today they’ll be going to MetroHealth where art is viewed as an asset for health.
During the 55 years since his death, the question is whether historians have discovered the real Martin Luther King Jr. This is the question that author Jonathan Eig seeks to answer in his new biography King — A Life. Based on recently released White House telephone transcripts, F.B.I. documents, letters, oral histories and other newly released materials, this new work updates David J. Garrow’s 1986 seminal biography Bearing the Cross.
When I first read a review of King – A Life and realized that it covered some 668 pages, I was not inclined to tackle a subject that I felt very confident about. How much more could I learn about Dr. King? I know it’s a cliché to say that “I couldn’t put it down” but honestly, I couldn’t. This is a readable, engaging and exceedingly informative work that tells not only the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but also of America of the 1950s and 60s. Read more.
