06.13-06.20.2018 Life Matters

06.13-06.20.18
Life Matters

What’s your life all about? Whether it’s celebrating porch life at the Larchmere PorchFest, or helping Cats on Holiday release their new effort, Livin’ Life and Lovin’ It at The Harp, we must remind ourselves to take the time to celebrate the day and the people around us. The Apiary Room in the Hodge School transforms an old classroom into a gallery as comfortable as your living room.

On what would have been his 16th birthday, Tamir Rice’s mother celebrates his life and launches the Tamir Rice Afrocentric Center in a benefit at CMA. Celebrating their 40th season in Wooster is the Ohio Light Opera, kicking off with The Pajama Game. Opening Saturday is Ohio City Farm, tended by CMHA residents, Great Lakes Brewing Company and refugees via Refugee Response.

Here’s almost a hundred things we think are important this week. What matters to you? –Thomas Mulready

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VIDEO: Apiary Room Pollinates Community Through Art

Surrounded by plants and natural light, an inviting new art gallery opens in the old Hodge School. Still filled with artifacts of its former self, Apiary Room pollinates this old classroom with a resurgence of new life. It transforms the idea of the white cube gallery space into a comfortable place like one’s own living room.

Dedicated to exhibiting emerging and underexposed artists, Olga Nazarenko reveals to CoolCleveland’s Stephan Haluska a taste of Apiary Room’s first exhibition, Resurgence. This exhibition features nine local Cleveland artists of various and mixed media as well as live performances during the opening reception.

Making a Life Matter

Some mothers hope their kids become household names. But none wants them to do so the way Samaria Rice’s son Tamir did. Following his death by police shooting the age of 12, she founded the Tamir Rice Foundation and hopes to make a difference in other young lives through the Tamir Rice Afrocentric Center.

She’s bought a building on St. Clair and plans to launch next year. Meanwhile, she’s hosting a benefit event at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Join her, other community leaders and performers as they honor her son’s would-have-been-sweet-16 birthday. We talked to Samaria and director Terrence Spivey, who will design its theater program, about the center’s goals. Thu 6/14.

Time to Party to New Music

Cats on Holiday, led by vocalist/button box player Denis DeVito, has been part of the Cleveland scene for more than two decades, rocking countless parties, clubs and festivals with their energetic blues-, rock- and zydeco-infused “swamp rock. ”

The band has always mixed originals in with their own take on classic tunes but now they’re releasing their fifth album and first in nearly a decade, Livin’ Life & Lovin’ It!, a title reflective of the vibe they create onstage. Join them at the Harp as they celebrate having new music available. Sat 6/16.

SPONSORED: See 7 musical gems in rep thru 8/11 at Ohio Light Opera’s Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster: Adler and Ross’s The Pajama Game, Rodgers and Hart’s Babes in Arms, Cole Porter’s Fifty Million Frenchmen, Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe, Jacques Offenbach’s La Perichole, and Franz Lehar’s Cloclo. Call 330-263-2345 or visit OhioLightOpera.org.

Sounds from the Porches

Larchmere PorchFest started as a low-key even with a few hundred in attendance. Now in its 10th year, it’s a major event on the concert calendar with 30 bands playing on 30 porches as well as at Larchmere Boulevard business establishments, as well as food, drink and the chance to do a little shopping at the street’s many boutiques.

“It’ll be a full neighborhood. Bring your lawn chairs,” says PorchFest president Dawn Arrington. And if you haven’t had enough by the time the last band winds down in the early evening, some of the street’s restaurants and bars will have music until the wee hours. Sat 6/16.

SPONSORED: Lights Out Cleveland Kirtlandia Society members meet monthly and enjoy programs on topics of current interest in natural history given by museum curators and local experts. Lectures are held in the Rare Book Room on the top floor of the museum. Coffee and conversation start at 9:30am. Lecture begins at 10am on Sat 6/16 with speaker Tim Jasinski, Wildlife Rehabilitation Specialist, Lake Erie Nature & Science Center. Free and open to the public. Details.

New Season in Wooster

It’s the 40th season for Ohio Light Opera, based at the University of Wooster. The summer theater does something unique in the region: it stages musicals and operettas in repertory, meaning that the same company performs overlapping shows running in rotation. And many of those shows are rarely seen gems.

It kicks off this week with one of its better-known offerings, The Pajama Game, soon to be followed by Cole Porter’s Fifty Million Frenchmen, Rodgers and Hart’s Babes in Arms and Leonard Bernstein’s Candide and more! Learn about the shows and see what else is on tap in Kelly Ferjutz’s preview of the season. Sat 6/16-Sat 8/11.

We Can Be Everyday Heroes at the Maltz

The Everyday Heroes Activity Center uses the Maltz Museum’s special exhibition space to offer children and families a way to explore the values of everyday heroes, celebrating everyday superpowers within each of us through books, crafts, and movement. Included with regular museum admission.

Make your own masks and capes, zoom around the good mood movement area, paint kindness rocks to give and share, build a better world with jumbo blocks, be the hero of your own story at our puppet theater, and more! Now through Sun 8/12.

Food Is Community

Slavic Village has come up with a pretty cool way to launch its farmers market season. At the location where the market will take place every Monday from 4-7pm – Fleet Avenue at E. 52nd Street, just outside Saucisson – it held a “Village Feast,” a giant community meal to which all were welcome. Saucisson owners Melissa Khoury and Penny Barend took the lead in preparing the free feast.

There were games for kids, music and neighbors meeting neighbors at the event sponsored by multiple local organizations. Our reporter Nicole Hennessy was there and she shares her impressions and her photos. Mon 6/4.

Gourmets in the Garden Features Top Local Chefs in a Beautiful Setting

Pick up cooking tips, watch live demonstrations and sample fine cuisine from a different top chef each week. Whether you’re a foodie, a skilled chef yourself or completely new to the kitchen, Gourmets in the Garden will delight your taste buds and sharpen your culinary skills.

Gourmets in the Garden runs Wed 6/13 through Wed 8/29 at 6PM, and Cocktails in the Garden are also available. Admission is $6 per session for members; $11 per session for nonmembers (which includes Botanical Garden admission). CBGarden.org.

The six-acre Ohio City Farm includes sections farmed by CMHA residents, Great Lakes Brewing Company and refugees via Refugee Response. When its farm stand opens this Saturday you can enjoy some of the bounty, every Saturday “until the snow flies.” Sat 6/16.

* Our career columnist Alex Sukhoy wrote a column a decade ago about her memorable encounter with the late food maven Anthony Bourdain at a conference. We’re sharing again her thoughts on his presentation that, she says, “had us eating out of his hands.”

Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Eats and Drinks.

Taste on the Lake Debuts at Edgewater Park

Taste on the Lake presented by Sprint is coming to Edgewater Park Sat 7/7 and Sun 7/8. Partnering with some of Cleveland’s finest local talent, Cleveland Metroparks will serve up a creative showcase of local food, beverages, arts and music, featuring dishes from a variety of cuisines, local artist demonstrations as well as artwork for retail. Live music from top local bands from the Cleveland music scene will take the iHeartRadio Main Stage each night.

One food and beverage sample is included with admission. Special $20 presale and VIP tickets are available. Benefits the Cleveland Metroparks Trails Fund. Details

For its 7th year, ChamberFest Cleveland’s theme is “In Search of Freedom.” More than two dozen musicians in different configurations will perform nine concerts exploring the concept of freedom through the music of both canonical and contemporary composers. Thu 6/14-Sat 6/30

* Akron’s Chuck Auerbach releases his first album, Remember Me, at age 68. Fri 6/15.

* The North Coast Men’s Chorus close its 30th season with “It’s About Time” at the Hanna Theatre. Sat 6/16-Sun 6/17.

* The Cleveland Opera stages beloved Polish opera The Haunted Manor at Playhouse Square. Sat 6/16.

* Low-key local indie folk performer Mike Uva presents his new album at the Beachland Tavern. Fri 6/15.

Read more of CoolCleveland’s picks for Cool Events.

WED 6/13
Wade Oval Wednesdays in University Circle are one of the most popular of the local free outdoor concert series, with a variety of music, lots of food options, and games and other activities for kids. They start this week with Akron-based old-school soul band Wesley Bright & the Honeytones and take place every Wednesday through 8/22.

* Local poet Steven B. Smith reads from his new book featuring old and new work at Mac’s Backs.

* Two young sister bands – Oklahoma’s Skating Polly and NE Ohio’s ShiSho – play at the Grog Shop.

* Rockin’ quartet the Jack Fords are next up at the oWow Radio Happy Hour series at the Music Box.

Click here for more events on Wed 6/13

THU 6/14
The Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival offers rides, games, food, vendors, a car show, a family film night and a parade. But unlike other festivals, it also provides the chance to make stuff from sticky tape. Through Sat 6/16.

* Writer/musician RA Washington reveals his many faces in a solo performance at the Transformer Station.

* Dr. Malo Hutson speaks at the City Club about preserving existing communities in the face of gentrification.

* Guitarist/vocalist John Pizzarelli brings his Sinatra/Jobim music back to Nighttown. Also tomorrow.

* Memphis The Musical at Cain Park looks at how black and white music came together in the 1950s.Through Sun 7/1.

* Double-Edge Dance closes out Cleveland Public Theatre’s DanceWorks series. Through Sat 6/16.

Click here for more events on Thu 6/14

FRI 6/15
The Cleveland Shakespeare Festival does free outdoor performances all over NE Ohio for a couple of months each summer.The first of their two productions this year, the relatively obscure Troilus and Cressida, will take place from Mentor to Lakewood to Bedford Friday-Saturday for the next three weekends.

* Chef/restaurateur Jill Vedaa Talks about “craft” at Creative Mornings Cleveland in Ohio City.

* Festival of the Fish in Vermilion has a LucasFilm theme. Through Sun 6/17.

* A Civil War diary provides the story for opera Mary Chesnut at Cleveland Public Theatre. Also Sun 6/17.

* Three artists-in-residence at the Morgan Conservatory shares their ideas and work in artist talk.

* Ohio City Theatre Project looks at collision of real estate and civil rights in performances at Mahall’s tonight and tomorrow.

* Take a lunch break to meet some dogs at Playhouse Square’s Pet Day.

* No Exit New Music presents contemporary Chinese and American music at Appletree Books

* The finale concert of the annual Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Camp takes place at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

* Rensonanz Opera, which brings together students and pros, performs tonight at the Mentor Civic Amphitheater.

* Three-day reading of James Joyce’s Ulysses is the centerpiece of Bloomsday at Nighttown, through Sun 6/17.

* Hale Farm starts monthly evenings of live music, food and local shopping at the Marketplace.

* David Mayfield’s Bluegrass Parade gets downhome at Oberlin’s Riverdog Barn.

Click here for more events on Fri 6/15

SAT 6/16
Wind turbines are popping up everywhere including in Euclid along the highway. Now Euclid has its own Wind Festival in Sims Park where it celebrates this clean, renewable resource in a variety of fun ways, with kites, bubbles, music, dance and tours of wind turbine facilities. Go sustainable!

* Ingenuity Fest holds its annual benefit, the Time Traveler’s Bal, at the Hamilton Collaborative.

* Celebrate Latin-American culture at La Sagrada Familia festival in Gordon Square.

* Join the outdoor fun at BAYarts Arts & Music Festival.

* Burlesco returns to the Alex Theatre at the 9 with “Boylesque” and much more.

* Come bounce to southern hip hop with New Orleans’ Big Freedia at the Grog Shop.

* The Clifton Arts & Music Fest is back after a year’s hiatus.

* The Beachland’s Rockin’ Flea Markets begin their season, with vendors, music and food indoors and out.

* Storm drain stenciling in Cleveland Heights is a reminder of the importance of clean water.

* Have a hot dog and a first look at the plans for the new Berea Animal Shelter.

* Lakewood’s Battle of Birdtown brings the community together in a fun way.

* Cleveland Opera Theater offers free music at Medina Square.

Click here for more events on Sat 6/16

SUN 6/17
Dads aren’t as big on brunch as moms are. So for Father’s Day, take him to Stan Hywet Hall & garden where the 61st annual Classic, Antique and Car Collector Show is happening on the grounds with more than 400 vintage cars. Don’t worry – food will be available.

* The Music Box kicks off its Reggae Sunday matinees, starting today and ending Sun 8/26 with Carlos Jones.

* Kirtland’s SNPJ Farm celebrates a polka mass, followed by Slovenian-style food and dancing.

* Spend Father’s Day playing “Catch with Dad” at the Baseball Heritage Museum.

Click here for more events on Sun 6/17

MON 6/18
Gospel’s roots are in the 19th century but the music has been shaped by jazz, blues and soul in the 20th century. Learn all about the music’s history at Nighttown in a multi-media presentation by Dr. David Thomas – and a gospel choir.

* Hear the voices of the 1970s fair housing fight in Cleveland Heights at the Noble Road Presbyterian Church.

* Join a CWRU professor for a presentation about the musical Hamilton at the Beachwood Library.

* Preterm community program explores contraception for the gender-nonconforming.

Click here for more events on Mon 6/18

TUE 6/19
The POETRY + series at Lakewood’s Art on Madison offers people a chance to spend an evening with a writer and do a deep dive into their work. This month, it’s Alex DiFrancesco, who writes fiction and creative nonfiction and is also a published journalist.

* Rebirth Brass Band carries the sound of New Orleans parades into the Beachland Ballroom.

* 1988 classic film Torch Song Trilogy screens at the Capitol Theatre as part of its Pride Month series

Click here for more events on Tue 6/19

WED 6/20
How does a play go from words on a page to a fully staged production that can move an audience? Playwright Les Hunter and stage director Terrence Spivey will share some of their knowledge in a discussion at the Euclid Tavern, moderated by playwright Christopher Johnston.

* The Musical Theater Project takes a look at recent musicals in “For Good” at Cain Park.

Click here for more events on Wed 6/20

Send your cool events to: Events@CoolCleveland.com

Standing Up for Democracy

There should never, ever be an election for any office where there is only one candidate in the race. Never. It’s not only anti-democratic, but smacks of the form of government we see in countries where strong-arm tactics are used against anyone who dares to buck the establishment. And we’d better be careful or we’ll end up…

* The “Qualifications” Game Rarely do I read the “comments” section that follows articles in the PD, but I was curious as to what the reaction from those on the right would be to…

* The President and Pardons Now that Trump has discovered that he can do one thing without asking anyone’s permission, he’s going to fixate on issuing pardons. He’s about to have a field day exercising unchallenged power…

Read other stories from Mansfield Frazier here

The “G” Word

Gentrification has become a hot topic, as affluent people have increasingly looked to return to urban areas with their convenience, amenities and culture. Too often they displace long-time residents and communities who lack their resources.

Dr. Malo Andre Hutson, author of The Urban Struggle for Economic, Environmental, and Social Justice, will address how gentrification can disrupt existing communities and what can be done to protect and preserve them in a program at the City Club of Cleveland. Mansfield Frazier tells us more. Thu 6/14.