Cover Story: All Talk, Then Action
Cameron Knight Interactivity with visitors helps make the Freedom Center's message contemporary. In the Freedom Center's final exhibit, people unsatisfied with the museum's programming verbally create their own. Those fed up with forever talk, talk, talk find ways to act on the verbiage — not alone but in "cross-cultural collaboration," a phrase Cathy McDaniels Wilson…
Cover Story: Inclusion from the Ground Up
Matt Borgerding Alphonzo Wesson waged war to make a film about the Underground Railroad Since its inception, the mission of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center has been to highlight the city's history of interracial cooperation and foster these kinds of relationships in the present. A key factor in bringing this concept to fruition has…
News to Use
Apologizing for the American Holocaust Reparations "NOW," a Town Hall-style community forum and discussion about making reparations to former American slaves, takes place 6:30-9 p.m. Thursday at the Lincoln Community Center, 1027 Linn St., West End. Presented by the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, the program features local speakers, visual exhibits, books…
News: Before It’s Too Late
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com Lerenda Sims (left) and Jasmine Black volunteer at the Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Program's "Summer Breeze" fund-raising event in Burnett Woods on Aug. 15 At one point in Sedara Burson's life, she found herself a young computer programmer working in corporate America. But that all changed when she left her…
Upcoming concerts with Warsaw Poland Bros and Otis gibbs
Otis Gibbs Warsaw poland bros. Thursday · Stanley's Pub If you haven't heard of Arizona's Warsaw Poland Bros. (aka Warsaw), it's not from lack of effort on their part. In the past decade, the band claims an average of 300 shows a year. With a sonic adventurousness that is as transient as their touring habits,…
Every Freedom Picture Tells a Story
Secretary of State Colin Powell stops at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center before delivering his vote-for-President Bush speech to veterans gathered at the Cincinnati Convention Center, and he gives the Freedom Center a thumbs up. It's a welcome plug from a very public figure. Of course, no one bothered to ask Powell what the…
That’s Soooo Cincinnati
To move or not to move, that is the question facing the bronze lady downtown. Smack dab in the central business district's epicenter, the Tyler Davidson Fountain and the square in which it resides is currently the subject of much debate. Fountain Square was officially born in 1871 when the "Genius of Water" sculpture was…
Delta Airlines
Vol. 1 Issue 40 Then: In 1995, Greater Cincinnatians were mumbling and grumbling about the alleged "monopoly" that Delta Airlines held over the Tristate area. CityBeat reported that despite rebuilding Terminal 3 at the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Regional Airport and expanding the Delta hub, many Cincinnatians were driving to other cities in favor of cheaper…
Plantation Lullabies
The slave pen has been Swiffered®. The cleanliness of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center's centerpiece, an 1830 slave pen salvaged from a Northern Kentucky farm, transcends "company's coming" tidiness. The spirits of slaves who feared and died in that wooden structure fly today among us. They're disappointed at our politeness. "Don't clean that shit…
Diner: Blind Ambition
The owners of Café St. George must be filled with blind ambition. In their first run at owning and operating a restaurant (the family business is Thoma Opticians), they have opened with a busy, upscale menu that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week. And that might be part of the problem. Although…
News: Square Deal
David Sorcher Stephen Leeper, president of Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation, and Marie Gemelli-Carroll, who facilitated a public input meeting, discuss proposed changes to Fountain Square. The inner fears, dreams and hopes of the city have burst out this summer in discussions over Cincinnati Center City Development Corporation's (3CDC) plan to renovate Fountain Square. From…
CineX kicks off
Sometimes the political scene offers the best in human drama, so it's only appropriate that an organization with theater at its core should be offering political commentary. The new CINCINNATI EXPERIMENTAL ARTS (CineX), dedicated to the development, expansion and innovation of the performing arts, will present the second Cincinnati Fringe Festival next June. But this…
Music: Notes For Votes
Bill Bullock/TinctCreative In fine Rock & Roll tradition, several local artists are looking to stick it to "The Man" this upcoming presidential election. As I write this, one of the biggest pieces of entertainment news is about the "Vote For Change" tour, which will hit America's swing states this fall encouraging people to vote —…
Break out that peanut butter and let the sunshine in
I'm a 26-year-old gay guy with a strange fetish. Mine feels like it's the strangest one out there because I've never read anything about it anywhere. Consequently, I've always felt the embarrassed and ashamed. Even before I was consciously aware of my attractions to guys, I've been aroused by bread. My sexual attraction to men…
Cover Story: Tell It Like It T-I-S
Sean Hughes/photopresse.com Why not put the Freedom Center in Over-the-Rhine, asks the Rev. Damon Lynch III. Complexities of race, class, presentation and accuracy not only describe Cincinnati's new icon, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, but the skepticism about it as well. Local and national political leaders and social activists have concerns that range from…
Who Picks the Freedom Center’s Cotton?
It started innocently enough, as a list of questions I couldn't find or get answers to by press time. Then the questions just kept coming…. How many people will return to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center after seeing it once? How does the center plan to lure back repeat business? How much repeat business…
Where was I?
If It Walks Like a Duck and Quacks Like a Duck Your recent issue devoted to our mayor prematurely withdrawing himself due to lack of passion ("Life After Luken," issue of Aug. 11-17) has prompted these lame musings of mine. "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Everybody talks politics, and…
The search for the affordable wine
When shopping for wine, "affordable" and "good" are an oxymoron when perusing the pinot noir bins. Part of the joy of wine is discovering those wines that buck against the common notions and rules of wine. Finding a good, affordable pinot noir provides exactly one of those experiences. While many high quality pinot noirs will…
Locals Only: : SynthPopFauxFrenchTechnoRock
Dale M. Johnson Le TechnoPuss13s Le TechnoPuss13s are reality terrorists that bomb the federal building of your expectations with a wink and a groove. Jamie Thorman (aka Dr. Meow Meow) is "the brain." He does the sequencing, the guitars … basically, all of the music. Vinnie Williams (aka Warrior Burlesque) is the "attitude guy" and…
Cover Story: What I Saw at the Freedom Center
Cameron Knight Aminah Robinson's "Journeys" tells of travels that range from Africa to Puerto Rico and Israel to Georgia. I've walked through the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center twice, once on an impromptu tour with an acquaintance who works there and a second time just before it opened in early August, when media were ushered…
Second Chakra: Sacral
This column is part of a series to help understand the Chakra system, the seven energy centers in the body. An overview of each was described in the column of July 21-27, which can be viewed on citybeat.com or cincyoga.com. Sanskrit Name: Svadisthana Location: Two inches below the navel in the reproductive organs, where our…
