BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:1730@coolcleveland.com DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York;VALUE=DATE:20250711 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York;VALUE=DATE:20250714 DTSTAMP:20260402T075100Z URL:https://coolcleveland.com/events/larchmere-cultural-arts-festival-make s-its-debut-this-weekend/ SUMMARY:Larchmere Cultural Arts Festival Makes Its Debut This Weekend DESCRIPTION:\nFri 7/11-Sun 7/13\nVince Robinson is a well-known local artis t\, a photographer who has had a space on Larchmere Boulevard for almost a decade. He’s also known for his involvement in the city’s arts and cu lture scene. And now he’s one of the drivers of a new event called the L archmere Cultural Arts Festival that he hopes will become a permanent fixt ure on the calendar.\nHe says the ball got rolling when playwright Dr. Mar y E. Weems reached out to him. “She just had this idea for doing an even t. I looked at what some of the possibilities could be and expanded it to more than one event.  I thought this could be a springboard to share the spotlight with a lot more people.” He shares that artists Bonnie Venable and Rodney Carpenter joined the planning team as well.\n“We all came to gether and then I started thinking about more possibilities\,” he says.\ nThe event snowballed. Soon they were bringing together a variety of creat ors — performers\, writers\, musicians\, filmmakers\, visual artists — and enlisting other venues on Larchmere Boulevard\, including Literary Cl eveland\, UnBar\, Adun Spice Company\, Kings and Queens Cultural Village\, The Spot Youth and Crosby’s Corn. Among the events are an art exhibitio n and reception\, a digital photography exhibition and artist talk\, spoke n word and music performances\, a gallery crawl\, an African drumming clas s at Kings and Queens Cultural Village\, a writer’s workshop hosted by a uthor Nicole D. Miller\, a poetry slam at Literary Cleveland\, a shorts fi lm festival\, and an Ekphrastic art and poetry event.  Weems has also don ated a quilt she knitted for a raffle. It closes with a performance by the Hue People Vocal Ensemble.\nThe participant list includes a wide range of area creatives\, including well-known\, established artists such as Weems and Robinson\, photographer Mychal Lilly\; visual artist Gwendolyn Garth\ ; former Jet/Ebony photography Jeff Lawson\, who will show his work and ta lk about his career\; playwright/director/filmmaker Michael Oatman\; and d irector/playwright/ filmmaker Terrence Spivey. But it also offers opportun ities for up-and-comers\, especially in its poetry slam\, presented in par tnership with its Larchmere neighbor\, Literary Cleveland.\n“[This event ] is a good starting point\,” says  Robinson\, who says he’s already looking at ways to expand the event\, such as having the shorts film festi val at Shaker Square’s Atlas Theatre next year. “It’s necessary beca use a lot of artists get overlooked in this city. This is one way people c an get exposed to them\, and support them\, empower them. I always say art ists are the problem solvers. We come up with solutions to issues we are d ealing with in this city. The more we can be factored into the economics\, the better things will get.”\nAnd talk about accessible! A $20 pass giv es you access to all events for all three days. Go here to get them\, alon g with a full schedule of events.\nlarchmere-arts-presents-the-larchmere-c ultural-arts-festival-tickets\n[mappress mapid="3652"]\n\n \; ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://coolcleveland.com/wp-content/uploads/202 5/07/Larchmere.jpeg CATEGORIES:Performance,Literary,RSS,Preview,Anastasia Pantsios,Music: Popular,----WRITERS----,Visual Arts,Theatre,Dance,Film,Drinks,Festival,Eats,History,Entrepreneurialism,Ed ucation,Culture,Photography,Teen,college END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR