Event: OTR Performs/Hip Art in the Park
In promotion of street art that’s also street smart, Elementz Urban Arts Center is presenting a Hip Hop and R&B concert by Elementz artists and the Cincinnati Boychoir. The event will feature DJ Apryl Reign, the Studio Kre8v Hip Hop Dance Team and live music by Jskillz and Off Key, plus concessions. Dancing is expected…
Event: Sayler Park Sustains
Cincinnati’s “Western gateway” park is hosting another kid-friendly, mother-earth-approved celebration of sustainability and conscious living. Event visitors can participate in hands-on demonstrations of urban bee and chicken keeping while learning about solar power, permaculture and composting. Local musicians like The Tillers, Rob Fetters and Josh Eagle & the Harvest City will provide the entertainment, and…
Event: Mud-Stash
Perfect North joins the likes of Tough Mudder courses with the Mud-Stash on Saturday. Choose either the five-mile Mud-Stash or the mile-and-a-half Mini Mud-Stash and run and walk the Perfect North course with mud-crawls, wall rappels and a swinging bridge. Courses designed as fun for all fitness levels and ages. Participants wear a time chip…
Event: NKY Incubator Kitchen Open House
The Northern Kentucky Incubator Kitchen opens its doors to the public this weekend with promised treats and cooking demonstrations from incubator members. The Incubator Kitchen, located in the basement of Senior Services of Northern Kentucky, is a shared space for women with food-based businesses. Celebrate the achievements of the incubator and check out the premises…
Art: red, black & GREEN: a blues
The Contemporary Arts Center is ending its successful third performance season with an ambitious and highly praised theater piece/performance work called red, black & GREEN: a blues, in which Marc Bamuthi Joseph and his fellow cast members bring stories of black America to the stage through narratives set in summer in Chicago, fall in Houston,…
Onstage: Monty Python’s Spamalot
If you’re a fan of the zany humor of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you probably love the musical Monty Python’s Spamalot, which proclaims proudly that it’s “lovingly ripped off” from the 1975 film. It’s a hilarious tongue-in-cheek spoof of a spoof, with dancing girls, King Arthur, Knights of the Round Table, cows, killer…
Art: Thank You Lily, Part II
Over the course of nearly a decade, gallery owner Lily Mulberry exhibited the artwork of dozens of artists at her 1305 Gallery on Main Street in Over-the-Rhine before she passed away this past April from complications of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. And except for her very first show at the gallery (and despite being a working artist…
Event: Summerfair
More than 300 fine artists and craftspeople take over Coney Island this weekend during Cincinnati’s fine arts fair, Summerfair. In its 47th year, Summerfair brings together artists and performers from across the United States and Canada, drawing crowds of 20,000 people. See artists display their work in 10 categories from photography to ceramics to printmaking.…
Literary: Kimberly A. Hamlin
How’s this for a conversation starter: Kimberly A. Hamlin’s new book, From Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women’s Rights in Gilded Age America, argues, as its title might suggest, that “rather than being the passive victims of scientific studies of female inferiority, women welcomed the entrance of evolutionary science into discussions of sex differences…
Music: Annie Sellick
Talented Jazz vocalist Annie Sellick returns to Cincinnati this week for three shows at the Blue Wisp with her trio (drummer Chris Brown, bassist Jerry Navarro and pianist Chris Walters). The Nashville singer’s wide-ranging projects — which include a Gypsy Jazz-inspired album, a full-length with famed Jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco and an excellent 2013 Christmas…
Event: German Day Weekend
The 119th Deutscher Tag officially kicks off this week, starting with a keg tapping at Hofbräuhaus Wednesday. Saturday brings a parade and opening ceremonies at Findlay Market, featuring performances by German dance and music groups. The festivities continue on Sunday back at Hofbräuhaus with food, beer, German music, hourly raffle prizes throughout the day and…
Comedy: Eddie Izzard
As a Briton who has performed for audiences all over the world, Eddie Izzard has discovered that no country has a national sense of humor. “Humor is human, that’s my theory,” he says. “It’s not national. There is no American, British or German sense of humor. It just doesn’t exist. But what there is, and…
Your Long Weekend To Do List: 5/23-5/26
The 36th annual Taste of Cincinnati takes over six blocks downtown this weekend. The annual food festival includes more than 100 dishes from 40-plus restaurants and 70 live music performances Saturday through Monday. Features this year include four music stages; tappings, tastings and a meet-the-brewers with Christian Moerlein Brewing Co., official beer of the Taste;…
CityBeat Wins Mad Awards 2014
Last year, CityBeat won several local and statewide awards for journalism produced in 2012, which we celebrated by drinking a lot and breaking a couple easily replaceable objects. (Someone also stole some coasters from a law office, but we’re not as proud of that.) This year we did pretty OK again, receiving six first-place and…
Stage Door: Fringe and More
The really big show this weekend happens tonight when the The Cappies of Greater Cincinnati present their eighth annual awards for high school theater productions and performers. Our local program is one of the most established, right up there with programs in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and beyond. Our local awards are presented at the Aronoff…
I Just Can’t Get Enough
When Catfish The TV Show premiered in 2012, I was less than impressed. While I enjoyed the original documentary film about a man’s (the filmmaker’s brother, Nev Schulman) online relationship-gone-wrong, Nev’s MTV version lacked the same authenticity and felt rather exploitative. But when Schulman tweeted about being in the Cincinnati area (Findlay Market, specifically) this…
Non-Streamer Shaming?
HOT: Don't Stream Me, Bro Two of the biggest albums out right now are not available on the popular streaming site Spotify. And Spotify, vilified by many artists for low payouts yet boycotted by very few, wants you to know it’s all the bands’ fault. Once again, The Black Keys and Coldplay have held back…
Top Chefs Take Manhattan
When acclaimed culinarian, cookbook author and teacher James Beard died in 1985, he left behind a three-story red brick brownstone in New York City’s tony West Greenwich Village. Shortly after Beard’s passing, a group of his friends and colleagues, led by cooking school founder Peter Kump, were prompted by the legendary Julia Child to do…
Taste of the City
D uring its 35 years, Taste of Cincinnati has become not only the nation’s longest running culinary festival, but also the best. As the story goes, Karen Maier, vice president of Frisch’s marketing and the Godmother of the Taste, during the late ’70s read about New York City’s Taste of the Big Apple food festival,…
Media Musings from Cincinnati and Beyond
Give the New York Times a C+ for candor after it fired Executive Editor Jill Abramson. The story started on Page 1 the next day with photos and more text inside. There were references to her combative relations with the subordinate who succeeded her and with her bosses, including NYT company CEO Mark Thompson. Thompson…
Contract Controversy
R ichard Hague planned to teach in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati schools for 50 years, but the literature and writing teacher at Purcell Marian is retiring early after 45 years because he thinks church authority has crossed a line. Hague is leaving his students because he refuses to sign the new teacher contract. The contract,…
The Words of Aaron
It’s not surprising that Aaron Collins chose to conduct our recent interview in a coffee shop. Given the entries in his planning calendar, which include juggling his work schedule, two bands and all the activities related to his debut solo album, Godlessly Oscillating, one wouldn’t be surprised if Collins were taking his caffeine intravenously these…
Cincinnati Fringe From A to Z
It’s almost here for the 11th consecutive year. That’s right, it’s just about time for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, our annual dose of creativity and zaniness that might move you to laughter or tears. The Fringe offers a breathtaking array of productions — more than 30, plus a lot of special events — between May…
Worst Week Ever!: May 14-20
Local Religious Man Tries New Method of Tricking Kids into Forgetting How Boring Church Is Religion is growing more and more obsolete and irrelevant each day. Our technology-driven interface makes life gadget- and tool-oriented, and people don’t really care about what will happen when they die anymore because, after all, they’ll be dead. Cincinnati.com’s recent…
Introductions and Returns
Some faces that should be familiar to die-hard local music fans will be returning to the stage in the next week. • Local singer/songwriter Matt Mooney has been hard at work on his latest project since the end of his great Indie Rock band The Koala Fires, and next Wednesday, May 28, he’ll be debuting…
The Low Lifes in The Heights
The thugs and drug dealers in and around Lincoln Heights have long had Lincoln Heights Police in a reverse pat down. It’s the cops who are up against the wall, spread eagle and seemingly defenseless. This is a sad and scary state for the first all-black, self-governing community in America north of the Mason-Dixon Line.…
Glue with Durazzo and AF the Naysayer
Indie Hip Hop supergroup Glue hasn’t performed in more than five years, but on Friday two-thirds of the crew will reassemble for a Glue reunion show in Northside. Glue began in the early ’00s as a long-distance recording project/collaboration between New Hampshire-based MC Adeem, Chicago producer Maker and Cincinnati’s djdq of legendary local turntablist group…
Dawes with Conor Oberst
Dawes is back! Why? I’m sure there are legitimate reasons for their tour, but I’m going to wager that it’s mostly just because they love Cincinnati so much. (Oh, and they're backing tourmate Conor Oberst during his headlining set.) Though the California boys haven’t “technically” put out any new music since last spring, they’re staying…
Conor Oberst with Dawes
Conor Oberst burst out of his Omaha, Neb., bedroom seemingly fully formed, a precocious teen armed with a verbose vocabulary and enough emotion to make The Cure look stoic by comparison. His first big artistic statement — 2002’s Lifted, or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground, released under the…
What the Heart Wants
As social dialogue about the HIV/AIDS epidemic opens up, more stories about the disease are finding their way into the media spotlight. Dallas Buyers Club, a film in the works for two decades before its 2013 premiere, gained critical and commercial success last year. Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for his performance as Ron Woodroof,…
Royal Southern Brotherhood with The Dallas Moore Band
Supergroups are problematic in that egos and talent levels tend to cancel each other out, and musical combinations that sound good in theory often implode in the execution phase. The other musical construct that can be fraught with its own particular series of pitfalls is the musician-carrying-on-the-family-name scenario, where history and DNA can present almost…
Change the World ‘For No Good Reason’
How often do we forget the real connection between journalism and art? The thread stitching the two together is honesty, and that is what documentary director Charlie Paul aims to capture in his first feature effort: the seams between world-changing reportage and the creative spirit unleashed. Aided and abetted by Johnny Depp, the actor best…
Godzilla Is Coming! Run for the Theaters!
C incinnati, we need to have a long overdue discussion. What do we do if Godzilla rampages through our city? Would the streetcar help in this scenario? Sure, a bit. Maybe it could stub Godzilla’s toe. Standing 150 meters high in the reboot of the 60-year-old film franchise, Godzilla could do a lot of damage…
Whitney Biennial Focuses on the Art of Curation
The Whitney Biennial is a bellwether of new trends in the contemporary art world. Or, at least, on what is most important in the eyes of the curators charged with choosing a particular year’s participating artists — and what’s important to those artists, themselves. And this year’s Whitney Biennial signaled, to me at least, that…
Cincy’s Beautiful Game
C incinnati has a rich and proud history when it comes to sports. With the Reds and Bengals being the most recognized teams in the immediate area, it’s hard for others to make a name for themselves. Now, there is a new chapter being written by the most unlikely of organizations — the Cincinnati Saints,…
Grieves with SonReal
The cover of Grieves’ fourth full-length album, Winter & the Wolves, features the Seattle-based rapper standing in a wintery landscape, his black-clad frame engulfed by snow and ice. He’s holding a pickaxe, as if ready to take on whatever challenge might come his way. It’s a curious cover art choice in a Hip Hop world…
Event: Mount Auburn Tours
Every Sunday in May, park rangers have led 90-minute guided walks through Mount Auburn’s National Historic District to introduce visitors to the history and architectural variety that make Mount Auburn one of Cincinnati’s core communities. This Sunday’s final tour will start at the William Howard Taft National Historic Site and continue along Auburn Avenue for…
Event: Bike Prom
The Cincinnati Hardcourt Bike Polo players are asking you to prom, so prepare to ride in formal style. Leaving from Hoffner Park in Northside at 8 p.m. Saturday, attendees will cruise downtown on a bicycle ride, swing by the riverfront and then head back. The “real” prom will happen at Hoffner Lodge (4120 Hamilton Ave.,…
Event: Taste of Cincinnati
The nation’s longest-running culinary arts festival returns this weekend with the Taste of Cincinnati. Join 500,000 others for the 36th edition of this Cincinnati street festival and sample dishes from more than 40 local restaurants. There will be 70 live music performances on four stages throughout the weekend. Back for the second year is the…
Event: Local Fest
In celebration of green grass, good food and the Cincinnati community, the Grailville Retreat and Program Center is hosting its second annual Local Fest — a day marked by the artwork, food and music of the city’s inhabitants. MadTree brews will pair well with Bones Burgers’ grass-fed patties while fest-goers shop artisan wares and enjoy…
Attractions: Opening Day at The Beach
The Beach Waterpark returns from its offseason with more improvements, boasting a brand new zip line and new kids play areas. In addition to refurbished slides and attractions like the heated wave pool, The Beach hosts “Dive-in Movies” and “Reggae Sundays.” For the less active, new cabanas and an indoor arcade are on hand for…
