Arts + Culture
'prodigal son' and award-winning director comes home to find revitalized cleveland
Antwone Fisher began life in Cleveland as a Ward of the State, raised in foster care until the ripe-old age of 18. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy and ended up in Los Angeles.
Twenty four years later, he returned to Cleveland to film “Finding Fish,” the story of his life along with director Denzel Washington, cast and crew.
“My hometown welcomed me back with all the ceremony of a much-loved native son. Each day of filming brought out bigger and bigger crowds,” he writes.
“Clearly, the city was moving into the future, readying for a big comeback. This was evident when I arrived at the city's theater district that's now revitalized with businesses, restaurants, shops and boutiques. The old buildings that I remember have been sandblasted, steamed clean and remodeled as apartments and condominiums for downtown living.”
“LeBron will only add to this revival,” he notes.
“The truth is Cleveland belongs to all of us who have ever had roots there. I know that every city has its issues, but this great American city has given the world so much from the Industrial Revolution to this brand new age and it's still ‘the best location in the nation.’”
Read the rest right here.
Twenty four years later, he returned to Cleveland to film “Finding Fish,” the story of his life along with director Denzel Washington, cast and crew.
“My hometown welcomed me back with all the ceremony of a much-loved native son. Each day of filming brought out bigger and bigger crowds,” he writes.
“Clearly, the city was moving into the future, readying for a big comeback. This was evident when I arrived at the city's theater district that's now revitalized with businesses, restaurants, shops and boutiques. The old buildings that I remember have been sandblasted, steamed clean and remodeled as apartments and condominiums for downtown living.”
“LeBron will only add to this revival,” he notes.
“The truth is Cleveland belongs to all of us who have ever had roots there. I know that every city has its issues, but this great American city has given the world so much from the Industrial Revolution to this brand new age and it's still ‘the best location in the nation.’”
Read the rest right here.
Since launching Discover My Cleveland in November 2012, owner Lynde Vespoli has seen tourism in the city grow substantially. “There are exciting changes in Cleveland and the tourism business,” says Vespoli. “We’re getting more multi-day events -- groups coming for four-, five-, six-day events. Our company has seen significant growth in the past year as the number of tourists to the Cleveland area has increased.”
Business has increased so much that Vespoli recently hired two additional tour guides and predicts that she’ll again increase staff in the coming year.
Last summer, the destination management company hosted tours for the Senior Games. Next week, Discover My Cleveland will host unique tours for the Gay Games 9 as the exclusive tour and activates provider for the marquee event.
Tours are designed for every taste. The Beer and Bourbon tour includes a pub dinner and libations at places such as Cleveland Whiskey, Market Garden Brewery and Indigo Imp Brewery. The Out on the Town tour, billed as “an open bar on the open seas,” features a dinner cruise on the Nautica Queen and an after party at Bounce Nightclub, Cleveland’s largest LGBT club. Vespoli also has more traditional city tours planned.
All of the events are open to the public. “The tours are open to everybody and I really hope the people of Cleveland come and join us,” she says. “These people are coming from all over the world. When they are here they want to experience everything, not just participate in the athletics, but experience all the wonderful things we have here. In addition to coming here as athletes, they’re coming here for the activities, events, tours and fun.”
Business has increased so much that Vespoli recently hired two additional tour guides and predicts that she’ll again increase staff in the coming year.
Last summer, the destination management company hosted tours for the Senior Games. Next week, Discover My Cleveland will host unique tours for the Gay Games 9 as the exclusive tour and activates provider for the marquee event.
Tours are designed for every taste. The Beer and Bourbon tour includes a pub dinner and libations at places such as Cleveland Whiskey, Market Garden Brewery and Indigo Imp Brewery. The Out on the Town tour, billed as “an open bar on the open seas,” features a dinner cruise on the Nautica Queen and an after party at Bounce Nightclub, Cleveland’s largest LGBT club. Vespoli also has more traditional city tours planned.
All of the events are open to the public. “The tours are open to everybody and I really hope the people of Cleveland come and join us,” she says. “These people are coming from all over the world. When they are here they want to experience everything, not just participate in the athletics, but experience all the wonderful things we have here. In addition to coming here as athletes, they’re coming here for the activities, events, tours and fun.”
cleveland museum of art enjoys most visitors in years
On the heels of its multiyear, $320 million renovation and expansion project, the Cleveland Museum of Art is already reaping big gains. Nearly 600,000 visitors came to the museum between July 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, which was the highest in over a decade and represented a 19% increase over the previous fiscal year.
Museum membership, meanwhile, increased 18% to 23,094, with more than 3,300 new introductory-level members.More than $46 million was raised to support museum operations and programs.
“We are gratified by the continued growth in attendance and membership support, which clearly reflects the excitement being generated by our outstanding new facilities and programming,” said Fred Bidwell, the museum’s interim director.
Read all about the good news here.
Museum membership, meanwhile, increased 18% to 23,094, with more than 3,300 new introductory-level members.More than $46 million was raised to support museum operations and programs.
“We are gratified by the continued growth in attendance and membership support, which clearly reflects the excitement being generated by our outstanding new facilities and programming,” said Fred Bidwell, the museum’s interim director.
Read all about the good news here.
When the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission began looking at creating a new event a few years ago, cycling soon rose to the top of the list. Leaders knew that a premiere cycling event in Northeast Ohio would prove popular well beyond Cleveland, attracting visitors from other cities. Then they refined the idea into a weekend of races, offering multiple rides from which to choose, coupled with a lifestyle festival at Edgewater Park. They had a winner.
The result is NEOCycle, "an urban cycling festival consisting of competitive races and unique rides, connected by live entertainment and an interactive, action-filled festival at Edgewater Park on the shores of Lake Erie," according to the website. The event takes place September 26th-28th, and organizers say it could attract 1,000 people from other cities and generate $250,000 in economic impact.
NEOCycle will feature five rides: Night Ride, which will leave from Edgewater Park and offer views of the sunset and downtown skyline; Forest City Fundo, an untimed, mass ride with lengths ranging from 10 to 62 miles and benefitting Bike Cleveland; Cyclocross, a race through Edgewater Park with natural and manmade obstacles; Criterium, a lapped race through University Circle and surrounding neighborhoods; and a velodrome race in Slavic Village.
Whether you're a competitive cyclist or not, the unique new event holds many charms. The Fundo and Night Rides are geared to both casual and serious riders. Spectators will enjoy heading over to Edgewater Park to watch the races, drink beer, hang out by the beach and listen to music.
Speaking of music, organizers recently announced that Cloud Nothings and Jessica Lea Mayfield would headline the event. Other bands include Ohio Sky, Captain Kidd, Cities & Coast, Ottawa, Muamin Collective & Neil Chastain Trio, Silent Lions, Village Bicycle, JP & the Chatfield Boys and the Luckey Ones.
"The idea is, 'How do you take 1 plus 1 plus 1 and equal a whole lot more than three?'" says David Gilbert, President of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. "How do you take grassroots events and put them in one large festival? You’re going to get an experience here that you're just not going to get at any other event."
The result is NEOCycle, "an urban cycling festival consisting of competitive races and unique rides, connected by live entertainment and an interactive, action-filled festival at Edgewater Park on the shores of Lake Erie," according to the website. The event takes place September 26th-28th, and organizers say it could attract 1,000 people from other cities and generate $250,000 in economic impact.
NEOCycle will feature five rides: Night Ride, which will leave from Edgewater Park and offer views of the sunset and downtown skyline; Forest City Fundo, an untimed, mass ride with lengths ranging from 10 to 62 miles and benefitting Bike Cleveland; Cyclocross, a race through Edgewater Park with natural and manmade obstacles; Criterium, a lapped race through University Circle and surrounding neighborhoods; and a velodrome race in Slavic Village.
Whether you're a competitive cyclist or not, the unique new event holds many charms. The Fundo and Night Rides are geared to both casual and serious riders. Spectators will enjoy heading over to Edgewater Park to watch the races, drink beer, hang out by the beach and listen to music.
Speaking of music, organizers recently announced that Cloud Nothings and Jessica Lea Mayfield would headline the event. Other bands include Ohio Sky, Captain Kidd, Cities & Coast, Ottawa, Muamin Collective & Neil Chastain Trio, Silent Lions, Village Bicycle, JP & the Chatfield Boys and the Luckey Ones.
"The idea is, 'How do you take 1 plus 1 plus 1 and equal a whole lot more than three?'" says David Gilbert, President of the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission. "How do you take grassroots events and put them in one large festival? You’re going to get an experience here that you're just not going to get at any other event."
Getting out of Dodge? Need a good page-turner for the flight or beach? Don’t grab the latest bestseller from the rack of overpriced paperbacks at the airport. Instead, check out Fresh Water’s local-author reading list. Here are 5 sizzling summer reads that we invite you to check out.
After decades of population loss, cities like Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Pittsburgh are now growing faster than the rest of their metro areas. Urban developers are trying to attract the right amenities to support the new wave of urbanites. So what’s needed to sustain a dense and vibrant city? The answers might surprise you.
Any teenager with a smartphone and some ingenuity can record a song and download it to SoundCloud or YouTube. But Cuyahoga Community College’s recording arts and technology program prepares students for all types of positions within the audio industry.
Burning River Foundation and Fresh Water are sponsoring a photo contest in honor of the 45th Anniversary of the last burning of the Cuyahoga River. In anticipation of the upcoming Burning River Fest, we want to see your best water-themed photos -- from the winding Cuyahoga River to majestic Lake Erie -- that show how far we’ve come since that fateful summer of 1969.
Graphic design is a form of visual storytelling, where a few well-crafted images can speak to the viewer in a language more powerful than words. Cuyahoga Community College's graphic design program helps students to harness that power for themselves, with the story they're telling going straight into their portfolios.
Terri Pontremoli has a vision for the Tri-C JazzFest's first foray into summer. The event director imagines thousands of Clevelanders gathered in the newly chandeliered U.S. Bank Plaza, enjoying the early evening sunshine and a host of free outdoor music events. Close by, Playhouse Square's multiple indoor venues are packed with genre enthusiasts whose finger-snapping exuberance has helped make JazzFest the must-attend extravaganza that it has been for the last 34 years.
Whether this vision comes to life or not will be determined when the festival's 35th installment hits its first note later this week, marking an official shift from an annual 10-day event in April to a single summer weekend, June 26-28.
The new schedule is an experiment for the annual affair by Cuyahoga Community College, one made necessary by practical reasons and a desire to help transform downtown into a warm weather music destination.
"We think Cleveland is ready for it," says Pontremoli.
Read the rest of the JazzFest feature here.
Whether this vision comes to life or not will be determined when the festival's 35th installment hits its first note later this week, marking an official shift from an annual 10-day event in April to a single summer weekend, June 26-28.
The new schedule is an experiment for the annual affair by Cuyahoga Community College, one made necessary by practical reasons and a desire to help transform downtown into a warm weather music destination.
"We think Cleveland is ready for it," says Pontremoli.
Read the rest of the JazzFest feature here.
Artists are often the first to move into urban neighborhoods, and also the first to move out when rents escalate. Yet in the post-recession landscape, many communities are working with artists to transform blight, engage residents and reimagine their neighborhoods.
There has been a flood of new businesses that tout the city through an assortment of Cleveland-themed apparel and products or by integrating the city name right into the company’s branding. Many point to the recent recession as the dawn of this entrepreneurial movement, which coincided with a newfound pride of place.
Issue Media Group publications such as 83 Degrees in Tampa, Confluence in Denver and Model D in Detroit cover "what's next" for urban centers. In this recurring feature, we highlight the top stories in urban innovation from across our national network of publications.
Jodi Rae Santosuosso grew up in the restaurant business, working in her parents' Italian restaurant. She later moved to California for 10 years, where she grew enamored of the healthy living movement and got into cold-pressed juices. When she returned to Cleveland to join the revitalization of her hometown, she discovered that there weren’t many juice bars in the city, so she decided to launch her own.
If all goes as planned, Daily Press, a juice bar and vegan café, will open next month in the Gordon Square Arts District (6604 Detroit Ave.). The cafe will serve cold-pressed juices and vegan menu items that include raw sandwiches, soups and salads. Daily Press will open at 7 a.m., with evening hours yet to be determined.
"I want to help people be healthy and feel good, and to make it easy and convenient for people to do that," says Santosuosso. "This is new to Cleveland, but the market is here; people are just not aware of the benefits of juicing this way."
Cold-press juicing is different from tossing fruit in a blender and grinding it up, she explains. The heat from a centrifugal juicer can destroy natural enzymes in the drink, making it less nutritious. There are two steps in the cold-pressing process: First, you turn the produce into pulp so that the vitamins and other good stuff stays intact. Second, you put the pulp into a bag and place it in a hydraulic press, where 2,000 pounds of pressure releases all that sweet goodness.
"The result is delicious juice that has all kinds of good things for your body," she says.
Some of Daily Press's offerings will include the Johnny Apple Manziel (apple, ginger and lemon), Greenest Cleanse (kale, spinach, chard, parsley, cucumber, ginger and turmeric) and Water You Doing? (watermelon). A 16-ounce juice in a glass jar will sell for $7-9. If you bring back the jar, you get $1 off your next juice.
The 800-square-foot storefront will have a bar that seats five to six people, additional window seating and some outside tables. There will be Wi-Fi access for anyone who wants to work at the cafe. Santosuosso is looking forward to joining the neighborhood.
"I love the neighborhood and the arts district, and Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization was really excited about having me come to this space," she says. "It helped that the neighborhood wants me here."
If you're interested in checking out Daily Press before the cafe opens, Santosuosso will be at the Gordon Square Farmers Market for the next few weeks, and she invites you to come by and learn more about juicing.
If all goes as planned, Daily Press, a juice bar and vegan café, will open next month in the Gordon Square Arts District (6604 Detroit Ave.). The cafe will serve cold-pressed juices and vegan menu items that include raw sandwiches, soups and salads. Daily Press will open at 7 a.m., with evening hours yet to be determined.
"I want to help people be healthy and feel good, and to make it easy and convenient for people to do that," says Santosuosso. "This is new to Cleveland, but the market is here; people are just not aware of the benefits of juicing this way."
Cold-press juicing is different from tossing fruit in a blender and grinding it up, she explains. The heat from a centrifugal juicer can destroy natural enzymes in the drink, making it less nutritious. There are two steps in the cold-pressing process: First, you turn the produce into pulp so that the vitamins and other good stuff stays intact. Second, you put the pulp into a bag and place it in a hydraulic press, where 2,000 pounds of pressure releases all that sweet goodness.
"The result is delicious juice that has all kinds of good things for your body," she says.
Some of Daily Press's offerings will include the Johnny Apple Manziel (apple, ginger and lemon), Greenest Cleanse (kale, spinach, chard, parsley, cucumber, ginger and turmeric) and Water You Doing? (watermelon). A 16-ounce juice in a glass jar will sell for $7-9. If you bring back the jar, you get $1 off your next juice.
The 800-square-foot storefront will have a bar that seats five to six people, additional window seating and some outside tables. There will be Wi-Fi access for anyone who wants to work at the cafe. Santosuosso is looking forward to joining the neighborhood.
"I love the neighborhood and the arts district, and Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization was really excited about having me come to this space," she says. "It helped that the neighborhood wants me here."
If you're interested in checking out Daily Press before the cafe opens, Santosuosso will be at the Gordon Square Farmers Market for the next few weeks, and she invites you to come by and learn more about juicing.
