Cover Story: With Eyes That See
Wendy Uhlman Tamara Harkavy believes young artists deserve a chance to make art for a living. Tamara Harkavy works deep in the ghetto. She knows it, and now I do too. "You're in the ghetto, girl," she says, after hearing I've gotten lost in Over-the-Rhine en route to our first meeting at the Pendleton…
Cover Story: To Be Young, Gifted and Black
Wendy Uhlman Vice Mayor Alicia Reece is committed to a bright political future. The halls of City Hall are rife with estrogen. Cincinnati's city manager, vice mayor and clerk of council are all women. The presence of the Pumps of Authority isn't lost on Vice Mayor Alicia Reece. They've come a long way, baby.…
Cover Story: Quitters Never Prosper
Wendy Uhlman To D. Lynn Meyers, theater is a metaphor for social change. "Power is about not quitting. You can't quit in the theater, and you can't quit on 12th and Vine." In the context of theater in Cincinnati and the realities of theater in general, that's brutally honest. Coming from D. Lynn Meyers,…
Cover Story: The Mother of All Miracles
Lisa Bialac Jackie Gruer made a home-like environment at Northside's Midwives Care. At the very source of female power is the power of birth. Like goddess/protectors of an ancient rite, modern midwives represent female power incarnate. With strong hands, silver hair and a throaty chuckle, Jackie Gruer is one such icon of the postmodern…
Cover Story: Can You Feel Her Art Beat?
Wendy Uhlman To Suzanna Terrill, power is knowledge. "Art is an effort to create, besides the real world, a more human world." — Andre Maurois Art is rough business. Making art is hard, and so is showing it. After the artistic showcase, there are bills to pay and the cycle of engaging the buying…
Art Club 2002
Walking into the student gallery of the University of Cincinnati's DAAP building is an arresting experience. The re-created graffiti there is shocking and disturbing. Sprayed onto the walls are 52 scribbles of hatred, re-creations of graffiti found throughout UC's campus. One phrase says it all: "Way to go Bill Cosby. All blacks should boycott Cincinnati.…
Cover Story: Voicing Power
Wendy Uhlman Twenty-six years later, Catherine Roma is still teaching Cincinnati to sing. Risk-taker, outspoken and courageous. They are fully loaded words used by Catherine Roma to describe the characteristics of a powerful person. And when taken in context, Roma herself is powerful. She's the founder of MUSE Cincinnati Women's Choir, now in its…
‘Intelligent Design’ Is Religion Masking as Science
What should the 1.8 million children who attend Ohio public schools be taught about the origin of life? On March 11 four panelists — two proponents of evolutionary biology and two proponents of intelligent design — presented the state board of education answers to this question. The theory of evolution contends all species evolved from…
801 Mt. Hope Ave.
Address: 801 Mt. Hope Ave., Price Hill Owner: Kristen and Daniel Pessell of Westwood Current Property Value: $32,900 Year Built: 1892 Comments: This building, located at the edge of Price Hill, once housed a Masonic society, a meat store and possibly a drug store. For the past 12 years, however, it's been vacant and…
News: Roach Problem
Jymi Bolden Mary Weertz (left), Lynn Watts of Evendale (center) and Judi King discuss the conflict over Stephen Roach's hiring. The Ku Klux Klan wants the people of Evendale to stand up for the "interests and values of the white majority." The Klan's leaflet drops are just one side effect of the hiring of…
Cover Story: All Rise
Lisa Bialac Judge Nadine Allen envisions one standard of justice. In 1987, Judge Nadine Allen became the first black woman to hold a countywide judicial office when she was elected to the Hamilton County Municipal Court. During her tenure on the bench, Allen has maintained a court that doles out fair treatment to all…
The Mighty Diamonds
Not only have Jamaica's The Mighty Diamonds been hailed as the best Reggae vocal group of all time, but some have gone so far as to call them the greatest harmony vocalists in the world. The trio emerged in the '70s, riding the buzz created by their innovative, breakthrough debut, Right Time, in 1977.…
Bearing Witness
In my weariness I can see it. Things are soon to get ugly. Attorney Kenneth Lawson and Angela Leisure filed a federal lawsuit April 30 against Steve Reece, Vice Mayor Alicia Reece and James Washington, owner of Washington Limousine Service. The suit claims the vice mayor and her father illegally conspired to intimidate political foes…
Cover Story: Smoke This
Lisa Bialac Amy Steffen's back is rarely ever against the wall. Amy Steffen is an easy-going giggler. Despite her grassroots successes, the owner of The Smoke Shop in Clifton, Hemptations in O'Bryonville and Hemptations Too in Pierce Township doesn't feel all that powerful. And for such a driven and successful woman, Steffen isn't what…
Cover Story: Cell Phones, Selling Out and Spongy the Bunny
Wendy Uhlman Eschewing questions of racial identity, Amanda Mayes speaks loud and carries a well-charged cell phone. "she don't seem afrikan enuf to know bt seems she's dabblin in ghetto-life" — "Nappy Edges" by Ntozake Shange A light-skinned, loudmouthed troublemaker is what some on either side of the economic boycott think of Amanda Mayes,…
Whirlygig: 25
Edited by Rebecca Lomax Raw Material I don't know why, but I always get so excited when I see local celebrities around the city. I guess it's because, growing up, I lived about an hour outside of Pittsburgh. Since I didn't spend much time in the city, the people I saw on TV always seemed…
Cover Story: Jazzed in a Perfect World
Lisa Bialac Patti Giliese started waiting tables for tips and now co-owns a Jazz bar. If Chez Nora co-owner Patti Giliese ruled the world, people would communicate better and be more aware of how their actions affect others. And only nurses would sport white stockings. Lightheartedness aside, Giliese takes seriously her charge of co-owning…
News: No New Hooters
Jymi Bolden Zoo Director Gregg Hudson is luring back key supporters. The Cincinnati Zoo has apparently learned what it can and can't bill to Hamilton County taxpayers. A January 2001 report found the zoo had improperly spent more than $13,000 in tax funds. But the Hamilton County Department of Administrative Services says the zoo…
Cover Story: Balancing Act
Spend some time with Dr. Myrtis Powell, and race will matter. "There are just some things you can't change," according to Miami University's vice president of student affairs. Among the unchangeable? Age, race and origin. Powell grew up in the South, and she admits she never truly forgot where she came from or how hard…
Cover Story: A Movement of One
Wendy Uhlman Dianna Brewer now does the work she was meant to do — helping kids. "White racists, black racists, they're all the same," Dianna Brewer says under her breath. She's on the phone responding to a caller looking for a woman of color to hire. When Brewer instead offers the name of a…
Cover Story: Lemmie at ‘Em
Rebecca Lomax Valerie Lemmie settles in as Cincinnati's new city manager. Valerie Lemmie is among the first generation of African Americans walking through a door opened by civil rights pioneers. "I am who I am, and I've been a woman of color all my life," she says. According to Lemmie, who began her job…
Cover Story: Power to the People
Karen Kahle is the stuff movements are made of. Some people wait for change and others go out and do it their way, and Kahle is doing just that. She works for the Children's Defense Fund of Cincinnati (CDFC) and is responsible for the Kentucky Welfare Reform Act. But CDFC does more than get abused…
Will Covington Upstage Cincinnati by Protecting Gays from Discrimination?
Will Covington provide equal rights to all its citizens before Cincinnati does? Neither city currently offers protection to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) community. Cincinnati made sure of that when voters passed Issue 3 in 1993 by a 68-32 percent margin. The subsequent Article 12, becoming part of the city charter in 1998,…
Diner: Kansas City Quest
Frau Bluecher I love humorist Calvin Trillin. He doesn't give a damn about what people say when he visits small South American countries just to sample the fish. The rest of us have to make excuses for our excesses. For example, I recently spent two days in Kansas locked in a room with a…
Cover Story: How Does Your Garden Grow?
Lisa Bialac In Deane Blaise's Indian Hill classroom, Abercrombie and Fitch are not British novelists. When most people think of women teachers, they see another woman forced into the pink-collar ghetto. Despite progress, women often still are seen as childcare providers, domestics and nursemaids. Teachers, however, are no longer "classroom moms" or glorified babysitters.…
Cover Story: And Miles to Go Before I Brew
Lisa Bialac Lisa Storie's movielike life brought her back home and now Sitwell's is reminiscent of the exotic coffeehouses from her travels. Lisa Storie can't define power, except to say it's a feeling. "It's doing something that you love, and believing in it," says the owner of Sitwell's Coffeehouse in Clifton. "(It's) building relationships…
