Wed 6/7-Fri 6/9
Aha indeed.
That’s the obligatory reaction upon learning about the inaugural Arts and Humanities Alive (AHA!) Festival being presented by Cleveland State University. The imaginative convergence of expression and thought through words, music, theater and dance takes place Wed 6/7-Fri 6/9 around Cleveland State University and PlayhouseSquare.
In terms of cultural diversity, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more eclectic gathering. East Cleveland native and Hollywood actress Yvette Nicole Brown will deliver the keynote address at the Arts Education Day Luncheon. Dancing with the Stars performer Karina Smirnoff will be offering a free dance workshop on the State Theatre stage.
Dr. Lucianne Walkowicz, from Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, is expected to provide an out-of-this-world adventure during a TEDx Salon, while also making appearances are award-winning authors Delia Ephron, Jonathon Safron Foer, Isabel Wilkerson and Jon Meacham.
Kicking off the affair on June 7 is an outdoor Book Fair along Euclid Avenue (14th Street to 17th Street) with a children’s area for storytelling and performances, adult authors and publishers, interactive exhibits, local libraries and bookstores, food trucks and entertainers.
CoolCleveland talked to Arts and Humanities Alive (AHA!) Festival director Katie Shames.
Let’s start with the obvious question, what’s the AHA! Festival?
This is an arts and humanities festival. There are arts festivals in town and there are book festivals throughout the state of Ohio, but as far as we know this is the only arts and book festival in the region. This is a confluence of happy circumstances coming together. At Cleveland State for several years now we’ve had this Power of Three partnership with PlayhouseSquare and Cleveland Play House. This has allowed students unparalleled amount of access to Cleveland Play House and PlayhouseSquare facilities. It’s provided the framework for what we think is a really distinctive and substantial partnership, but it was time to put more programmatic legs on this Power of Three partnership. That combined with President Ronald Berkman’s dream for a book festival here in Cleveland.
Tell us about the connection between the arts and the humanities.
Essentially what they all boil down to is what we’ve named the inaugural theme for the festival — “Storytelling: What Our Stories Tell us About Ourselves.” Both the arts and, of course, books, whether they’re fiction or nonfiction, are telling stories. So what do stories tell us about ourselves? It’s been amazing to see how really disparate threads to science, history, fiction, theater, film, media have all come together around this central theme. And how the sharing of stories takes the otherness out of people that we don’t know in our community. In this day of trying to divide people when we’re increasingly in silos, a festival of this kind shows us that we really share a common humanity and that by sharing these stories we find points of connection.
How cool is it to have Yvette Nicole Brown as the keynote speaker?
The Arts Education Day Luncheon serves a special function throughout the week. It’s meant to be inspirational, it’s meant to showcase process over product in terms of featuring student performances of the arts in education. To get Yvette Nicole Brown would be a great choice regardless of what city she was giving a talk in, but she happens to be Cleveland’s own. She presents a really positive message. She’s very philanthropic, she is all about education, anti-bullying and kindness. The fact that she grew up in East Cleveland and is now that rarest of all birds, a working actress in Hollywood, I think is a wonderful story to share in really what is three days full of storytelling and sharing.
When it came time to program the AHA! Festival, were you cognizant of what you didn’t want the affair to be?
I didn’t want it to be highbrow. I didn’t want it to be elitist. I didn’t want it to be talking heads. I didn’t want it to feel closed to the community. I didn’t want it to feel homogeneous. And I think that our lineup and our programming is really designed to promote just the opposite of those things. The outdoor book festival has over 30 community tents ranging from the largest organizations in town like the Cuyahoga County Public Library to small grassroots organizations like the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers. We are closing off Euclid Avenue and inviting the community to come down and interact with all of these different community groups. We’ll have a stage with nine hours of continuous readings and performances. All of this is free just to make the whole visitor experience as friendly and welcoming as possible. That’s what we’re aiming for.
OK, so the AHA! Festival isn’t elitist. Who would enjoy the affair?
Would an elitist-sounding book festival have a workshop with Karina Smirnoff from Dancing with the Stars? It’s to bring the widest swath of people down to an arts and book festival who might not think they belong there. We’re saying, of course you belong there. All of this is designed to be welcoming, to be multicultural and to really emphasize community and partnership.