It’s our one chance to rethink just about everything.
If you’re vaxxed, our community is opening up their doors once again, for the first time in a long time. If you’re not, please stay home until you are. And what’s cool is that groups are not just blindly going back to how things were. Many are taking this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a re-think, a reset, a reboot.
Rooms to Let is back, but this time around, they are turning artists loose on storefronts along Broadway instead of abandoned buildings. Lakewood Arts Fest will be back in August, stronger than ever. And one of our region’s best listening spaces, Jilly’s Music Room, is back with live music. Cain Park Arts Fest is now free, and Fairport Harbor’s Fill The Hill is now Live@The Lighthouse. Even the Zoo’s Asian Lantern Festival is all new.
Education, health care, equity concerns, even our arts and culture presentations; everything deserves some serious rethinking and updating. We deserve it.
The idea behind Rooms to Let Cleveland was to unleash artists on houses slated for demolition to comment on vacancy abandonment and (hopefully) rebirth.After last year’s event was cancelled, organizers came up with a new idea: teams of artists will be temporarily beautifying spaces, mostly storefronts, along Broadway. There’ll also be music, food & on Sunday, GardenWalk will overlap it. Read More
If not for Dave Smeltz, there would’ve been no Cleveland reggae scene to speak of. In 1978, when he formed the band I-Tal, that was the first the rock community knew about reggae. Previously it was heard only in the city’s tiny Jamaican community.”Papa Dave,” as he was called in the scene he spawned, went through some hard times with substance abuse, but in the early ’00s he came out on the other side and started Clean House to help other men take that step. He was making slow but steady progress on his facility on Buckeye when he passed away in June, after a long illness complicated by COVID. Read More
The latest small independent music venue to schedule its re-opening is Jilly’s Music Room in Akron, which will open its doors starting Wednesday July 14, with live music that weekend. Read More
More than 130 local and national artists and makers will converge on downtown Lakewood on Saturday August 7 for this annual event, which also features live music and a food truck court. Read More
It’s been a few years since we heard from dark, drone-y Cleveland band Flowers in Flames. But they’ve just dropped a new four-song EP titled West of Eden. Read More
THIS WEEK
WED 7/7 Feast on Food
Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Gordon Square brings its five-day Italian festival back with everything you love about church festivals: games, live and DJ music, kids’ activities, and lots and lots of food.* Maltz virtual tour spotlights women’s advocacy.
The work of noted local painter Eileen Dorsey is featured in the Feinberg Gallery at the Cain Park Arts Fest, some of which deviates from her familiar landscapes.
After the criticism of Rashad erupted, Howard University stated its disproval for the support she showed for Cosby. “Survivors of sexual assault will always be our first priority,” read the posting on Howard University’s social media account. “While Dean Rashad has acknowledged in her follow-up tweet that victims must be heard and believed, her initial tweet lacked sensitivity… Read More
While I’m a bit conflicted in regards to the court’s ruling, I’m satisfied that Cosby’s conviction — the first of a high profile, wealthy individual — got the ball rolling for the #MeToo movement. Harvey Weinstein was convicted for his misdeeds not long after and was sentenced to 23 years behind bars by a New York court. Murderers receive less time. He also is facing additional charges… Read More
