So much to tell this week: James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner comes alive at Weathervane, tales of Lake Erie shipwrecks spook Music Box, two new Akron Soul Train shows explore travel, CMNH debuts their new Yoga Under The Stars program, Holden holds a winter landscape hike, and the Chagrin Documentary Festival screens a mini-fest.Raise your sights to the offbeat Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Old Brooklyn. Follow the good advice from CoolCleveland editor Anastasia Pantsios and pick your engagements in the coming months to avoid burnout. Stretch your legs and your mind at Walkabout Tremont.
Vanity Crash are your hosts this weekend as we tell the story of David Bowie’s debut US performance, right here in Cleveland in 1972, with lots of interviews, special guests and rocking live music to celebrate. Opening night is sold out, but tickets are still available for Sat 1/11 at Jilly’s Music Room in Akron and for Sun 1/12 at the Beachland Tavern in N. Collinwood. It’s one thing to have it, but quite another to let the world know.
The backstory of David Bowie’s first U.S. appearance in Cleveland on September 22, 1972 is told on video by local heroes Billy Bass and Denny Sanders of WMMS (who fell in love with the music and promoted it incessantly), members of the Spiders From Mars (who remember their first US gig), and even Sue Schmidt Horning and Chrissie Hynde, (who snuck up from Akron to hear Bowie’s soundcheck, met David & the band, then got invited to NYC)!
Your hosts Vanity Crash welcome special musical guests Ali Garrigan, Chrissy Strong, Meganne Stepka and Kate Hart, a rare photo exhibit and sale by Anastasia Pantsios (photos above), and live original and Bowie music for your new year! Read more.
Join the Maltz Museum on Mon 1/20 for this free, all-day celebration commemorating iconic civil rights leader, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and everyday citizens who fought against discrimination. Kids and families can enjoy fun hands-on activities throughout the day. Everyone is welcome to explore the Maltz Museum’s special exhibition, DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern Art, see the treasures and ritual objects in The Temple-Tifereth Israel Gallery, and share in the Jewish immigrant experience that makes up An American Story.
At 11:30AM, Beverly Lloyd and Kwanza Brewer of the Cleveland Association of Black Storytellers share civil rights stories, then at 1PM, watch filmmaker Larry Dubin’s landmark documentary, A Lawyer Made In Heaven: The Virgil Hawkins Story. Admission is free. Read more.
A new regime is about to take over in Washington D.C., and to many that’s discouraging news. For some people it’s a trigger to drop out of civic engagement and social action, while others are just overwhelmed by all the different things under threat that need advocates.
But don’t make everything your cause, advises CoolCleveland writer Anastasia Pantsios, who recalls activists burning out following the 2004 election by doing that. Instead give yourself time to grieve and recover, and then look around your immediate surroundings for something — and only one or two things — to engage in that’s personal and has a chance for success. For her in 2004/2005 it was a working to oust a homophobic city council member in Cleveland Heights. Read more.
We all know about Cleveland’s big museums. But the area is also teeming with small museums that bite off little pieces of history and culture to share with the public. One of those is the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, located in an Old Brooklyn storefront.
The collection that forms the basis of the museum was started by Ray Buckland, who had a basement museum on Long Island. It travelled around the country before it was acquired by a pair of Ohioans, Steven Intermill and Toni Rotunda, who founded the museum in Cleveland. CoolCleveland contributor Donna Shimko visited the space, packed with intriguing artifacts relating to witchcraft and the occult which educate people about diverse esoteric practices, and shared some of the things you’ll find there. She urges you to take one of their tours if this interests you! Read more.
At the end of last year, Tanya Kaiser sold her Tremont gallery but she’s continuing to support events and projects via her nonprofit Kaiser Studios. This month the first project in her new program, Renaissance Box, launches, bringing artists and scientists together to collaborate. The first project partners upcycle sculptor Jonah Jacobs with neurologist/artist Connie Pieper to ask questions about how waste is created, its environmental impact and what can be done to manage it.Read more.
Trumpet player/composer/arranger Jacob Wynne became widely known in the area music community when he founded the Revolution Brass Band in 2010. That band rocked numerous area clubs and festivals with its lively jazz/ funk/ soul/ Afrobeat/ New Orleans sound created by six horn players and two percussionists. It released self-titled album in 2014. Wynne passed away December 9 at the age 44. Read more.
MON 1/13 Howl at the Moon
Join Summit Metro Parks naturalists for a couple of full moon/wolf moon hikes and educational lore, and at one location, hot chocolate.
The Six Triple Eight is the latest movie from actor, director and playwright Tyler Perry. It deals with a little-known page of World War II history: the story of Major Charity Adams and the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only unit of Black women to serve overseas during World War II. Faced with the seemingly unsurmountable task of delivering millions of pieces of mail to combat troops, the movie demonstrates the determination of a group of women who were initially set up to fail. Like the 2016 movie Hidden Figures,The Six Triple Eight tells the story of racism, sexism, courage and teamwork despite the cards being stacked against the women and their project.
By the end of the war, Adams had earned the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, the highest ranking African American woman in the military. But leaving the military was not the end of the career and service to the community. She returned to Ohio and earned an M.A. degree in psychology from The Ohio State University in 1946. With her military and educational qualifications, she worked at the Veterans Administration right here in Cleveland. Passing away at the age of 83 on January 13, 2002, she was inducted into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in 1993. Read more.
