CityBeat | Sept. 18, 2019

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youth.

TRAUMA. trials.

TIME. Hamilton County’s juvenile justice system has been in the background of some of this summer’s most intense news. A close look at the system reveals big disparities — but also efforts to change outcomes.

BY NICK SWARTSELL

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Will Co-op Market Be Part of a Coming Northside Development?

NEWS

After Apple Street Market hit funding snags, Northside’s community development corporation says it had to tap another developer — but there may be hope for the grocery initiative

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

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fter an effort to establish a cooperatively owned grocery store in Northside hit major funding hurdles earlier this year, a new plan for the store’s potential site is coming together.

Whether or not that larger development will have space for the grocery, however, is still up in the air.

Officials with Northside community development corporation Northsiders Engaged in Sustainable Transformation (NEST) say they will soon announce the developer chosen for the site.

NEST also says that developer and organizers for the Apple Street Market are meeting to discuss the feasibility of a grocery store as part of a larger development that NEST hopes will include affordable housing funded via Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

“Our goal is affordable housing development on the site,” says NEST Executive Director Sarah Thomas. “We’re going to have to meet all sorts of qualifications. We have the simultaneous goal of food access in the neighborhood, so it is a dream to incorporate them into the site.”

Apple Street Market Board President Kristen Barker says the grocery initiative is hopeful about the potential partnership.

“What I think what everyone wants is for this joint project to work,” she says. “There are a variety of challenges around it in terms of the size of space, and pricing. But I feel like we’re all going to bring all the creativity.”

NEST received more than $500,000 from the City of Cincinnati last year to purchase the former Save A Lot at 4145 Apple St. that has been floated as the market’s home since the low-cost grocer pulled out of the building in 2013.

As part of that funding agreement, it must be in development on a project at the site within 24 months. Organizers with Apple Street played a big role in lobbying the city for that money under the assumption the site would be used for the grocery.

Some political aversion to co-op grocery models — and struggles with The former Save A Lot in Northside Clifton Market, PH OTO: NIC K SWARTSELL another co-op grocery up the road in Clifton — made some members of that tax allocation is a very big deal.

Cincinnati City Grocery stores in low- to moderate-income Council and Mayor John Cranley reluctant neighborhoods — while they can be very to give the funding to Apple Street directly. successful long-term — they need subsidy Last year, however, it seemed as though in the short term.”

Apple Street was making strides toward The loss of funding came after the maropening in the market with NEST serving ket spent $377,000 between June 2014 and as the owners of the building. Then, a January of this year on expenses like paynumber of cards fell out of Apple Street’s ing three employees (including $130,000 financing deck. to a general manager over that time); conAt a February emergency meeting in ducting outreach efforts, a market study South Cumminsville, members of the and retail planning; paying for design and Apple Street Market board told more than engineering costs; and paying member70 of the project’s 1,279 shareholders that a ship dues to Associated Wholesale Grocers, large chunk of the project’s financing had a major cooperative food wholesaler. fallen apart just before implementation.

The loss of funding from the tax credits In late January, the Columbus-based toppled another domino. NEST said the Finance Fund withdrew $900,000 in seed lost financing forced its hand to release a financing from the project because Apple request for qualifications for other develStreet had not yet raised enough operating opers interested in the building. capital. But that was just the start of the NEST will announce the developer it bad news. selected in the coming days, Thomas says, The market this month was supposed and is focused on developing affordable to close on New Market Tax Credits worth housing at the site using LIHTC credits. $1.5 million in financing for development That too could be difficult, however. Last costs. But PNC, the investor in those year, Cincinnati opted into a program credits, is withdrawing from many of through the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, its 2019 new market projects due to which administers the federal credits, devaluation in the credits caused by tax called FHAct50, which allowed the city reforms passed by Congress in 2017. to choose a single neighborhood — OverThe Cincinnati Development Fund holds the-Rhine — to receive LIHTC subsidies the credits. Because of the financing difoutside the state’s normal competitive ficulties, CDF must allocate them to other process. In return, it gave up scoring projects, though Apple Street organizers advantages afforded Ohio’s largest cities in say CDF now has a new round of credits that process. available.

In recent years, Cincinnati has lagged “We’re in a totally new situation at this behind Ohio’s other major cities when moment,” Barker said at the time. “Losing

it comes to applying for and winning the credits, and its participation in the FHAct50 program could make it more difficult for developers outside of OTR to win the credits.

Thomas, however, says NEST is committed to pursuing the credits.

“It’s no secret that LIHTC is highly competitive,” she says. “That’s why we’re pushing for a 2020 application.

That remains the focus. We have a lot of work to do along the way… community engagement, design. Everyone’s goal is the highest subsidy possible, because we know that’s what the neighborhood needs.

We selected our co-developer based on our notion of wanting a true community partner. We’re prepared for what we have to do to make the right thing for the site, even if it’s not on the first attempt.”

She said that NEST, Apple Street and the developer should know in two to four weeks whether it will be feasible to incorporate the projects.

Meanwhile, Apple Street says it is bouncing back from its funding fallout and securing contributions that will help it put financing back together.

“The financial picture is pretty positive overall,” Barker said last month. “We had a goal to get to a million dollars (raised from members) by September. We’re close to $800,000.”

Last month, organizers announced the market effort had been tapped for CONTINUES ON PAGE 09

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CITY DESK

Facing Cancer Battle, Todd Portune Won’t Seek Reelection

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L L

At an emotional news conference on Sept.

12, Hamilton County Commission member Todd Portune announced he won’t run for reelection next year as he battles cancer again.

Portune, a Democrat and former president of the commission, has long battled health challenges during his five terms on the board. Over the past two decades, the 61-year-old has powered through bouts with cancer that included the amputation of part of his left leg and spinal issues. Now, however, he says it is time to retire.

“The fact of the matter is chemotherapy has not worked and my cancer has spread,” he said. “And so having learned that I’m now in a spot where I’ve got the biggest fight of my life ahead of me, that’s not going to allow me to do the things I want to do the same way I want to do them.”

Prior to his stint on the county commission, Portune served eight years on Cincinnati City Council beginning with an appointment in 1993 and continuing through four reelections. He has also chaired or been president of a number of other governmental bodies, including the Hamilton County Transportation Improvement District, the Hamilton

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

County Homeland Security Commission, the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments and more.

Portune first won election to the commission in 2000, when he was the first Democrat in 35 years to grab a seat on the county commission. Times have changed since then — he now serves with two other Democrats, Commission President Denise Driehaus and Stephanie Summerow Dumas.

During his time on the board, he has pushed to trim the county’s budget during lean years while at times dueling with the Cincinnati Bengals over the county’s stadium deal with the team. He also helped find funding for Cradle Cincinnati, an effort launched in 2012 to fight the county’s high infant mortality rate.

Portune faced a challenge from Republican Andy Black this time around.

It is likely his announcement today will open up the field to other Democratic and Republican hopefuls.

“Hamilton County has become a reliably blue county, in both local and statewide elections, and the Democrat who started it all was Todd Portune, running a courageous and gutsy race to win a county commission seat in 2000,” the Ohio

Democratic Party Chair David Pepper said in a statement. “Ever since, he’s been a mentor to an entire generation of Hamilton County Democrats, blazing the path for others to succeed. I was fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of his generous support, wise guidance and warm friendship.”

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley also lauded Portune.

“In addition to improving our community in thousands of ways, the eternal values of human rights Commissioner Portune has fought for will be the most important and enduring of his legacy,” Cranley said in a statement. “He fought for gay rights before it was popular, against police brutality before it was popular, for disability inclusion before it was popular, for harm reduction and addiction help before it was popular, for all minorities and for those who had no voice. That’s the legacy his kids will know and I will trumpet. It’s the legacy that has inspired all of us, myself included.”

Portune fought back tears as he reflected on retiring from a job he relishes.

“There’s no job that I love more than the job I have now,” he said. “It’s what I am, it’s what I’ve been about.”

Chabot Campaign Treasurer Says He Didn’t Know He Was Campaign Treasurer

BY N I C K SWA R T S EL L

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The man listed for years on campaign finance filings for 12-term Republican congressman Steve Chabot released a statement on Sept. 9 disavowing any major involvement with Chabot’s campaign, claiming he had no idea he was listed as its treasurer.

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An attorney for Jim Schwartz, Sr. issued the statement, deepening a mystery surrounding a more than $120,000 gap the Federal Elections Commission found in financial disclosure statements submitted by Chabot’s campaign. The investigation into that unexplained gap is believed to center around Schwartz’s son, prominent Republican consultant and longtime Chabot staffer Jamie Schwartz.

The FEC sent a letter addressed to “Jim Schwartz” late last month asking questions about the gap, and a review of filings with the FEC shows that Jim Schwartz,

Sr. was listed as the Chabot campaign’s treasurer as early as 2011. But the elder Schwartz said he was unaware of that.

“I am not now, nor have I ever been, the treasurer of the Steve Chabot for Congress campaign,” the statement from his attorney Daniel J. McCarthy reads. “I have never served the campaign in any official capacity, including as treasurer, at any time. I played no role in the campaign other than as an occasional volunteer. I had no knowledge of the use of my name on any campaign documents or filings until recent reports.”

That was news to Chabot’s campaign, which has said it thought the elder Schwartz had been its treasurer since 2011.

Mark Braden, an attorney for Chabot’s campaign, said in a statement that Chabot

Planned Parenthood to Shutter Two Local Clinics

is the victim of “financial malfeasance.”

“Congressman Chabot was shocked and deeply disappointed to be informed… that his campaign committee may be the victim of financial malfeasance and misappropriation of funds,” the statement reads. “Unfortunately, the misappropriation of funds by some campaign treasurers has been far too common an occurrence over the years.”

Chabot handily beat Democratic challenger Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval last year, netting 51 percent of the vote in a district that includes both blueing Hamilton County and deepred Warren County. One of the more dramatic issues in that campaign hinged on questions around Pureval’s use of money from his Clerk of Courts campaign account for his congressional run.

The Ohio Elections Commission eventually dropped most of the charges against Pureval, who was fined $100 for paying a photographer who captured his congressional bid announcement from his Clerk of Courts campaign account.

In the aftermath of the FEC’s letter, Fountain Square Group, a campaign strategy firm run by the younger Schwartz, abruptly deleted its Facebook page. Schwartz has been a longtime high-level campaign staff member for Chabot, as well as an employee in his congressional office, and Fountain Square Group has a number of contracts with other local Republican campaigns, including Hamilton County Commission candidate Andy Black.

The younger Schwartz has not released a statement yet.

The FEC has asked Chabot to respond to its questions by Oct. 1.

Officials with Planned Parenthood Southwestern Ohio announced on Sept.

9 that the organization will close two area clinics in Springdale and Western Hills that provide birth control, sexually transmitted infection (STI) screenings and cancer tests due to state and federal regulations.

The two locations slated for closure do not provide abortions. Their final day of operations will be Sept. 20. There are five other Planned Parenthood clinics in the region.

According to Planned Parenthood, the closures are due to a series of state and federal laws aimed at wresting public funding for health services away from organizations that also provide abortions.

Those include a 2016 law signed by then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich that stripped such state funding for STI and HIV testing and training for women about healthy relationships and infant mortality reduction measures from Planned Parenthood. A three-judge panel on the federal Sixth Circuit Court declared that law unconstitutional, but the full court in March reversed that decision.

Another blow came in August when the federal government began enforcing new rules for its so-called Title X funds, which provide money for birth control and other reproductive health care. Those rules include stipulations that providers using the funds cannot discuss abortion with patients and that clinics receiving the funds have to be in separate facilities from those providing abortions. That has hit Planned Parenthood hard, the organization says, despite the fact that it serves roughly 40 percent of the patients who receive services through Title X. Planned Parenthood has indicated it will drop out of the Title X program over the rules.

Conservatives in the Ohio General Assembly and officials in the Trump administration say the respective rules are meant to keep public dollars from funding abortion. Officials with Planned Parenthood, meanwhile, say they are about blocking women’s access to the procedure.

“Cincinnati is the last place politicians should be forcing health centers to close,” Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio President and CEO Kersha Deibel said in a statement. “While we’ve been battling sky-high STI rates, politicians like Sen. Rob Portman, Rep. Steve Chabot, and Govs. Mike DeWine and John Kasich have spent years relentlessly working to chip away at Ohioans’ reproductive health care. This is the world they want to see: one where women lose CONTINUES ON PAGE 09

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FROM PAGE 04

an $80,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Health Food Financing Initiative.

The co-op effort is one of 23 initiatives receiving an inaugural round of funding from the USDA program, which is aimed at expanding access to fresh food in areas where its availability is limited. Ten of those projects, including Apple Street, will receive financial help totaling $1.4 million.

More than 240 applicants from 46 states were vying for the grants.

Reinvestment Fund, a national financial institution that administered the grants, says they’re about revitalizing communities in an equitable way.

“Access to healthy food is about more than making sure all Americans have easy access to nutritious, affordable food — it is also about strengthening local economies and community infrastructure,” said Reinvestment Fund President and CEO Don Hinkle-Brown in a news release. “The response to this funding opportunity is indicative of the immense need and the innovative approaches communities are undertaking to support equitable access to fresh, healthy food for everyone.”

The former Save A Lot location is more or less the only place available in Northside right now that would work for the market, Barker says, since getting supply agreements with the market’s choice wholesaler

AWG requires a larger building than most other locations would allow.

“We’ve looked at a lot of spaces,” she says. “There is not another adequate space in Northside at this time. That’s not to say nothing would open up in some period of time. We also did market studies in some other areas that didn’t work out as well as this site.”

The grocery initiative’s last market study, conducted about a year ago, also led Apple Street to revise its business plan somewhat, Barker says. Boosters say the market’s conservative sales projections set it apart from Clifton Market, which struggled with sluggish sales.

“As a result of that particular study, we reduced our projections slightly,” she says.

“They’re even more conservative now. The Save A Lot made $65,000 a week. We’ve reduced our projections to less than that — $61,000.”

Apple Street still faces hurdles, however, including raising enough money to unlock the financing it will need to move forward.

That’s a bit of a moving target, Barker says, since the market doesn’t know exactly how much its portion of a shared project could cost yet.

In the meantime, all parties are trying to see how the pieces could fit together.

“They have wonderful momentum,” Thomas says of Apple Street. “It’s amazing to see people rally around this. But a ton of work remains.”

FROM PAGE 06

access to birth control, where information about how to access abortion is held hostage, and where, if you don’t have money, it’s almost impossible to access an STI test or a cancer screening.”

First Downtown Kroger in Decades Gets Opening Date

BY N I C K SWA R T S E L L Cincinnati’s new Kroger location at Court and Walnut streets will open Sept. 25, company officials have announced.

It will be Kroger’s first downtown grocery store since a location on Race Street closed in 1969. The store will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, the company says.

Urbanists and elected city leaders have salivated at the idea of a downtown store for years, but before 2017 — when the project on Walnut was announced — the pieces had never come together.

A second-floor food court featuring Eli’s BBQ, Django Western Taco, Dope Asian Street Fare, Queen City Whip and

Kroger’s own Kitchen 1883 Cafe & Bar will also open Sept. 25.

The Cincinnati-based grocer partnered with the city to build a 45,000-square-foot, two-story store as part of a mixed-used development. That project also includes an 18-story, 139-unit market-rate apartment tower and a 550-space parking garage.

North American Properties, NorthPointe Group and Rookwood Properties are developers on the project, GBBN serves as the architect and Turner Construction is the development’s general contractor.

Kroger says the store is meant to serve customers living in downtown, Over-theRhine, the West End and other nearby neighborhoods. The store will have a bar, the aforementioned food court and other novel amenities. Among the perks: a walkup Starbucks window for pedestrians on the Court Street side of the store.

The almost $91 million project received an $8.5 million grant from a city fund that must be used for downtown development, $4 million from the Ohio Development Services Agency, $2.5 million in state and federal New Market Tax Credits, about $7 million from 3CDC, $19 million from Kroger and $42 million in private investment.

A nearby store in Over-the-Rhine on Vine Street will be torn down after the coming downtown store opens.

Upcoming shows

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Sublime with Rome Tropidelic and The Expendables October 4 Anders Osborne October 11 Ballyhoo October 13 All That Remains & Lacuna Coil October 15 Michael Franti & Spearhead October 30 California Honeydrops November 6 Bone Thugs-NHarmony Novmeber 16

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youth.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

BY NICK SWARTSELL

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Hamilton County’s juvenile justice system has been in the background of some of this summer’s most intense news. A close look at the system reveals big disparities — but also efforts to change outcomes.

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TRAUMA. trials.

TIME.

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he late afternoon sun is streaming into the windows of the Clifton Mosque’s lobby by the time Abdul Kabir Muhammad walks in, a coral shirt to match the sunset stretched across broad shoulders, a big smile pulling his black beard upward.

Muhammad’s shirt is flecked with grass from the mowing he’s been doing that day— and most days, all day, for the last couple years.

The 35-year-old started his own landscaping business that now takes him across the city and into tony suburbs like Indian Hill as a way to support his three children after he spent more than nine years in a state prison in Madison County.

Muhammad is very open about his past, but isn’t here to talk about that particular incident, necessarily. He’s here to talk about a time before that; before he went to prison and discovered Islam and a sense of stability, before the whirlwind of adult court appearances, a time when he was still a kid with a single mom trying to navigate the quickly-draining environs of Cincinnati’s near West Side. When the trouble started.

“I can look back and see and admit that a lot of what I was doing was reactionary,” he says. “At the time, I didn’t want to see it that way — I was still in war mode. When you’re young and you experience and witness violence from the first, it makes you a certain way. My home wasn’t bad. My mom was on top of everything. But my environment outside of that — Westwood, Price Hill, those areas — you had things like someone throwing a rock and hitting you in the head and taking your bookbag. Those kinds of things affect you.”

Muhammad’s experience isn’t unique.

Hamilton County’s lower-income neighborhoods and schools like the ones he grew up in — many of them predominantly black, thanks to decades of government policies and market forces that wrought intense economic segregation — feed a highly disproportionate number of AfricanAmerican youth into the county’s juvenile justice system.

That system has been in the background of local conversations about crime, justice and race lately. In the midst of a sweltering summer during which gun violence claimed the lives of multiple minors as young as 14, the saga of Democratic former Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge

Tracie Hunter reached a furious coda when she was dragged out of a Hamilton County courtroom to serve a six-month sentence. Hunter ran on promises to reform the county’s juvenile system, and, her supporters say, paid a political price for trying to do so. Others, however, say Hunter fell behind on her job, didn’t work with other judges and broke the law.

Whether or not Hunter was treated justly, the racial disparities she campaigned on fixing are real, viewable in black and white in the form of Hamilton County Juvenile Court data and Cincinnati Police arrest records.

In a county where Census data says 30.3 percent of people under 18 are AfricanAmerican, 81 percent of the more than 2,000 minors issued warrants through the Hamilton County Juvenile Court last year were black, according to data CityBeat obtained from the court — up from 75 percent in 2015. And 75 percent of the 930 young people admitted to the county’s youth detention center in 2018 were black — though that’s down from 80 percent in 2015.

Those disparities also exist on the front lines of the juvenile justice system: select streets and schools in Cincinnati and its poorer suburbs, most predominantly black, where police make the most juvenile arrests.

In Cincinnati, which is about 43 percent black, 85 to 90 percent of juveniles arrested

by Cincinnati Police have been black in recent years, arrest data from the city shows.

Few dispute the clear overrepresentation of black youth in the county’s juvenile justice system. But that is just the start of a vast, complicated conversation. Why are so many more black youth arrested in Hamilton County, either in schools or in neighborhoods? What happens to them when they enter the juvenile system? What roles do racial bias, socioeconomic factors and the trauma that can come with growing up without resources play?

Pushing against these questions are still more numbers: police are arresting far fewer youth than they used to — part of a national trend in falling crime rates — and Hamilton County Juvenile Court is locking up or sending away far fewer of them to state juvenile detention centers thanks in part to a series of diversion programs, court officials say. In the last five years, the number of youth detained in Hamilton County has dropped nearly 20 percent.

In 1995, Hamilton County Juvenile Court sent 440 young people, most of them African-American, to detention facilities run by Ohio’s Department of Youth Services.

Last year, it sent just 60. It also transferred 130 young people to the adult justice system via a process known as “bind-over” in 1995; last year, it bound over 33 youth. Of those, however, 30 were black.

Hamilton County Juvenile Court Judge John Williams, a Republican and former juvenile prosecutor, ran against Hunter and was later appointed and then elected judge in 2012. He acknowledges the disparities in terms of the youth who come through his doors, but defends the court’s treatment of them.

For him, it boils down to economics.

“The reason we’re having so many more minority kids is that there is not as much opportunity in those areas (where they live),” Williams says. “If the family is being pulled apart, if mom’s working maybe two jobs or more, the young ones are left to be taking care of themselves. Now, these numbers are the vast minority of people. Criminal complaints are down by half from their peak (in the 1990s). And we’ve also taken a different path here in the court.”

Even with fewer arrests, detentions and bind-overs, however, the disparities persist.

Some activists say that police shouldn’t be arresting kids in schools and neighborhoods at all and that children shouldn’t be subjected to courts. Others, including legal advocates, say that police and courts still need to do a better job offering communitybased means by which to deal with young people.

The Northern Kentucky-based Children’s Law Center advocates for young people caught up in Hamilton County’s juvenile justice system and other courts throughout the region. CLC reentry attorney Carrie Gilbert says the drivers of the large racial disparities in the county’s juvenile justice system are complex.

“I don’t think it’s coming from any single source,” she says. “I don’t think we will ever be able to just point and say, ‘It’s the police,’ or, ‘It’s the county.’ I think it’s white supremacy that is ingrained in our systems and our institutions. I think it’s very difficult for institutions to have conversations about that.”

Abdul Kabir Muhammad | Photo: Nick Swartsell

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Data shows most of the roughly 1,800 juvenile arrests in Cincinnati that happened in 2016 occurred in neighborhoods like the ones Muhammad grew up in.

In 2016, Westwood saw almost 150 juvenile arrests — 85 percent of them black youth. The West End saw more than 160 juvenile arrests that year, all but a handful of them black youth. College Hill saw roughly 200 juvenile arrests — more than 90 percent of them black youth.

Meanwhile, predominantly white, higher-income neighborhoods had far fewer arrests of young people. Hyde Park saw fewer than 30. Mount Lookout had just a few.

But the pattern isn’t always clear-cut: Some lowerincome, majority black neighborhoods like Millvale and South Cumminsville also had very few juvenile arrests, even when controlling for the size of the populations there.

The disparities go beyond arrests.

In connection with a lawsuit last year over the tasing of an 11-year-old girl by an off-duty CPD officer at a Kroger, attorneys with Cincinnati law firm Gerhardstein & Branch analyzed taser use by CPD from 2013 to 2018. They found that all but six of the 110 minors tased by CPD were black, and that 48 of those youth were under the age of 15.

Not all of that legal trouble for young people starts in schools, but there are hundreds of arrests at districts like Cincinnati Public Schools every year. And data obtained via a public records request by CityBeat shows big disparities in arrests between 2011 and 2015 in CPS. CityBeat has requested more recent data but has yet to receive it from Cincinnati Police.

In 2015, 595 of the 670 arrests of minors on CPS property were of black youth — 89 percent. That’s well above the 63 percent of district students who are black. Data for the four previous years — representing more than 3,700 arrests when including 2015 data — show similar disparities.

Not surprisingly, those arrests tend to happen in the district’s larger high schools, but not all of them. Western Hills High School in Westwood, which has a student body of just over 1,000, saw more than 1,000 arrests between 2011 and 2015, according to the data. Aiken High School in College Hill, which has about 650 students, saw 540 arrests over those five years. Withrow High School, which hosts roughly 1,200 students, saw roughly 500 in that time period. All are predominantly black.

Predominantly white Walnut Hills, meanwhile, CPS’ flagship magnet school with an enrollment of almost 3,000, saw roughly 20 arrests from 2011 to 2015, according to the data.

Some of the arrests at CPS were for fighting, weapons possession or other serious safety concerns. Others, however, are harder to ascribe to safety.

Between 2011 and 2015, three 8-year-olds, three 9-yearolds, 18 10-year-olds, 27 11-year-olds and 66 12-year-olds were arrested at CPS elementary schools.

Some of those incidents were also intense; for example, a 2015 fight in which one 9-year-old was arrested for repeatedly kicking and punching another young student with a group of other students until the victim had a broken elbow and bruised spine. Others, however, were seemingly minor, sometimes stemming from events like throwing things in a school cafeteria or pranks.

In one 2014 case, police reports reveal that a white school

staff member called officers on an 8-year-old student for making a lewd phone call over a school telephone. That student ended up with a written citation from officers and a call home to his parents, though no further action seems to have been taken following the arrest.

CPS did not respond to two emails seeking details about the district’s policies around law enforcement. Cincinnati Police Schools Resource Officers, however, were happy to talk about their work in CPS. SROs have been somewhat controversial in Cincinnati, with some activist groups saying they represent an inappropriate law enforcement presence in places that should be dedicated to learning. Before changing its name to Cincinnati Mass Action for Black Liberation, Cincinnati Black Lives Matter mounted a relatively popular and longrunning “CPD Out of CPS” campaign protesting police presence in local public schools.

But Cincinnati Police School Resource Officer Eddie Hawkins says SROs work hard to build rapport with students precisely so they can head off problems and avoid arrests — an assessment even some police accountability advocates like the Black United Front’s Iris Roley and attorney Al Gerhardstein of Gerhardstein & Branch generally agree with.

Hawkins grew up in Avondale and readily admits he questioned some of the things he saw from police when he was younger. He also acknowledges there is some racial bias in policing and in the arrest disparities both in the juvenile and adult justice systems.

But for Hawkins, the main drivers are a mix of readily available, sometimes-violent social media, the crumbling of low-income families and the tightly wound issues of race and poverty that sometimes come to a boiling point in some public schools and neighborhoods with lowerincome youth. Add to the mix the fact that most students in those situations don’t have the resources to mount a legal defense or the networks to keep an incident out of the courts the way more affluent families might, and that some officers patrolling those areas don’t have much exposure to minority communities, and you’ve got a recipe for the kinds of disparities shown in the data, he says.

“I don’t think anyone says racism doesn’t exist,” he says.

“Are we really willing to have the tough conversations about it? I can show you the disparities when it comes to African-Americans and arrests. But let’s talk about the intangibles that are happening that get those kids in trouble. Are some kids in the suburbs doing acid, doing dope, stealing their parents’ credit cards? They’re up to a lot of the same things, but it’s a different environment.”

Trauma around violence in some communities also plays a big role, Hawkins says.

“When you have a third of fourth grader who is losing classmates to violence, stray bullets, or they’re losing their 14- or 15-year-old siblings to violent crimes — that’s very traumatic,” Hawkins says. “I hear young people say they’re not going to live to 18. That’s their reality.

“We also have a lot of families that are experiencing homelessness. Some of these folks have jobs. The American dream sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. You’re out here, you’re working and, yeah, maybe you had kids younger than you should have, but you’re trying to make ends meet,

and it gets stressful. And then maybe you’re living out of a car, and the kids see their parents are doing what they can, but they don’t have the best clothes at school and they get ragged on — all those things wear on the psyche of a young person. When you’re young, your brain isn’t developed enough to take on all of that. So, a lot of young people crack and lash out.”

Against that backdrop, the role SROs play isn’t wellunderstood, he says. They’re there to mediate conflicts and to connect students with things like CPD’s Summer Cadet Program and to mental health services that schools and outside providers offer.

“For us it’s an opportunity to engage young people a little more in-depth,” he says. “With your normal officer on the street, the interactions they’re having with young people are generally negative, because they’re responding to a crime. Yes, ultimately, our job is to police. If there is a criminal infraction, we’ll handle it like a criminal infraction. However, we have the ability to be flexible. We can take into consideration if a young person has a lot going on. What can we do before we get to the justice system, before we take this person to jail?”

CPD has 14 SROs responsible for 112 public, charter and private schools. Each SRO is based at one of CPS’ high schools. From those schools, each also covers middle and elementary schools in the general geographic area, as well as covering for neighboring SROs when they’re busy or off duty.

It’s a lot different from other departments across the country, says CPD Youth Services Unit Supervisor Cassandra Tucker.

“In most cities, it’s two SROs in a high school, one in the middle school, one in the elementary,” she says. “One SRO here could have a high school plus 12 to 14 other schools.”

A few CPS teachers, speaking off the record, have said they generally don’t worry about SROs, but expressed concerns about drug sweeps and locker searches by CPD at schools like Aiken.

Hamilton County Public Defender Juvenile Division Director Alison Hatheway echoes those concerns and adds that she has seen video of at least two cases in which officers in schools used force against youth that she felt was “disturbing” and wasn’t warranted.

“They do go in and do random searches,” she says. “I know that happens. And it may happen more regularly at some schools than others.”

Despite those concerns, Hatheway acknowledges she’s seen fewer youth coming to the court from CPS in recent years, even before the Ohio General Assembly effectively decriminalized truancy in 2017. But there is still work to be done, she says.

“I think Cincinnati Public Schools have been less quick to bring kids in,” she says. “It’s less of a problem now, but it’s still happening. I feel like if it happens once, that’s too many times, but I’m admittedly on the other side of the fence. School isn’t the place where you should go expecting to be arrested. Now, if blood is being shed or things like that, that’s different. But generally, the stuff we see, the little fights and theft… no.”

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Those held in the Youth Center are offered programs like chess and gardening. | Photo: Nick Swartsell

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Central Fairmount Elementary, where Abdul Kabir Muhammad went to school, closed in 2008. | Photo: Nick Swartsell

First Signs of Trouble

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These days, the experience might be somewhat different.

Young people picked up by police or brought by guardians enter the large, angular Hamilton County Youth Center in Mount Auburn from a lower level and take Elevator 4 to the first floor, where they are booked into the facility’s secure northern side.

On the southern side, there are two courtrooms and a battery of psychological assessment units where court clinicians and others work to keep some family behavioral issues from hitting court dockets and assess young people already there for competency to stand trial and mental health issues.

In many ways, the secure side of the facility is much like you would expect a detention facility to be. Guards in a central security kiosk monitor video feeds from across the huge facility and buzz staff and visitors through double sets of locked doors.

The construction is cinder block, the interior spartan and white.

Brian Bell is the director of detention here.

He wears a crisp suit, sports neatly cropped hair and has just a hint of a twang when he speaks.

On a recent tour of the facility, Bell runs through the procedure when a young person is brought in.

First, a county clerk — one of several working at cinder block cubicles here on the first floor — will review police reports and determine whether the county has probable cause to hold the young person. The youth is also asked whether they are injured, ill, under the influence or pregnant — all conditions that could result in being taken to the hospital instead of held in the Youth Center.

Youth are also assessed for risk of suicide — the last at the Youth Center was in 1985 — and if they are found to be at high risk, they are monitored by detention facility staff every four or five minutes via a system where guards must push a button just outside the window into a youth’s cell. If the button isn’t pushed within that time frame, the central security kiosk is alerted. Lower-risk youth are monitored in person every 14 to 15 minutes.

The probable cause determination that happens early in the intake process is important. In 2014, the Children’s Law Center sued Hamilton County over

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Behavior problems began surfacing as he struggled to fit in, and within a year, he was placed in a special education class.

“They didn’t have a system in place to deal with that at the time,” he says. “They had not dealt with children who came from the inner city who had problems with violence because we came from a violent environment. So they isolated you. It turned into, ‘How did this kid get in here?’ I felt like. It was confusion on top of confusion.

And just to protect my sanity, I had to make myself not care about things. And that’s when your behavior becomes risky.”

The family continued to move around, landing in Mount Healthy when Muhammad was in his teens. He wasn’t the only one coming from a rough environment to the suburban community at the time.

“All of my friends who came out there came from the inner city,” he says.

“Some from Winton Terrace, some from downtown, some from Bond Hill. Their moms flocked out to Mount Healthy. Certain neighborhoods have their gangs and their rivalries. And in those neighborhoods, it was contained. But in Mount Healthy, all those kids who came from all those rival neighborhoods, rival streets, now we’re all in one neighborhood.”

At 14, a group mistook Muhammad for a member of a rival gang, he says, because they knew where he had moved from. They started to jump him, but a group from another gang stepped in and fought for him.

“That hit my heart,” he says. “So, I started to run with them for awhile. That’s when everything avalanched.”

Muhammad had a few run-ins with the law as a fledgling gang member that didn’t amount to much, but at 16 he was arrested during a large fight between rival groups at Mount Healthy High School. He was charged with assault and spent several days in 2020 — the Hamilton County Youth Center, nicknamed “2020” for its address at 2020 Auburn Ave. in Mount Auburn — before he was released.

The experience marked another turning point for him, he says.

“It was weird,” he says. “Very weird, because it was my first time in the system.

After that, it was nonstop.”

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The links between school, neighborhood and the justice system aren’t new.

Back when he was growing up around Westwood, Price Hill and South Fairmount in the 1990s, Muhammad went by the name on his birth certificate — Romyl Williams.

His neighborhood was tough. South Fairmount, where Central Fairmount School was located, had an unemployment rate of 16 percent in 1990, when Muhammad would have been preparing to start school there, and more than a quarter of people in the neighborhood lived below the poverty line.

His mother was single, and by the age of 9, he had experienced things that would put him in what he calls “a constant state of fight-or-flight” — including a brawl starting from a friendly game of football that at one point seemed to bring out most of the people living in his apartment complex.

That year, he says he was kicked out of Central Fairmount after a fight with a white student who was pulling on Muhammad’s sister’s hair and pushing her. Muhammad stepped in, he says, leading the other student to call him the n-word. The resulting altercation left the other child with a concussion. Muhammad soon found himself in the principal’s office with his mother, who argued to keep Muhammad in school as the other child’s mother was calling for him to be expelled. The principal decided Muhammad should go.

“In that moment, I felt like something was wrong with the world,” he says. “Because my mom was my world. She wasn’t on drugs.

I never saw her drink. I never saw her lift a cigarette to her face. She was just a single black woman who had children young and could only afford a place in the ghetto. I saw this person who was the world for me, who was my source of power, be overpowered.

And I gave up on the world a little after that, I think. I began to see that I had to find power for myself.”

Looking to keep him in school, Muhammad’s mother shifted him to his grandmother’s house, just across the city line in Colerain. School there was easier in some ways, and harder in others.

While he enjoyed the calmer atmosphere, Muhammad says it was hard to adjust to a predominantly white school after having attended one that was mostly black.

Going to ‘2020’

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allegations it was holding young people in violation of their constitutional rights to due process. The suit cited two particular cases in which juveniles were held for more than 20 days in the Youth Center without probable cause determinations, but the CLC also sought to make the legal challenge a class-action suit, citing the 2,340 youth detained at the center the prior year.

The suit also cited statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention that suggested that black children in Hamilton County were almost 10 times more likely to be arrested in 2013 than white children and more than two times as likely to be placed in detention.

As a result of the lawsuit, the county juvenile court agreed to make significant changes in its intake processes, including new processes for warrants issued for youth, more training for clerks at the Youth Center, the creation of an on-duty magistrate position available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to weigh in on probable cause and other changes.

The county also has a new risk-assessment tool called RAI developed last year in collaboration with youth advocates, nonprofits, the prosecutor’s office and others to better determine when a child can be safely diverted from detention. That computerized assessment tool considers age, offense history, seriousness of the current alleged offense, whether parents or guardians are available, whether there are diversion options open and a number of other details.

“We try to divert and cite as often as possible,” Bell says.

“Twenty years ago, you’d have a high percentage (of kids staying here). We had 200 kids as our everyday population.

Now, based on movements to not detain low-level offenders, we have 82 people here today.”

County officials can choose to override the RAI — either in favor of diversion, or the other way around — holding youth they believe pose too steep a risk to release.

If there is probable cause to hold someone, the youth will be cited and given a plea hearing date. They are then admitted, given jumpsuits and slippers issued by the Youth Center, searched fully and given the opportunity to shower.

There are also myriad health care options available at the Youth Center, including two nurses from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital available 24 hours a day, a part-time dental clinic and mental health care. All youth held in the Youth Center also attend classes instructed by CPS teachers from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. each day.

Bell stresses that the Youth Center is focused on programming that can help provide therapeutic activities — 22 different offerings that range from art to yoga to gardening in an area outside the center’s gym — plus a variety of other programs offered by faith-based groups.

“I learned how to play chess in here,” Youth Center Housing Director Will Allen says of one of those programs as he stands outside an austere, green-and-white painted “pod” where the kids live. “One of the kids taught me. It used to be every time I came in for my shift — his name was Ron, I still remember him — we’d sit down and play.”

The average stay in the Youth Center — before young people go to a state-run facility, a placement or 30 days probation on an electronic monitoring unit — is roughly 27 days, a number that has gotten higher since 2015, when it was just 18 days. But the numbers are slightly deceptive, court administrators say.

When young adults over 18 held in a separate part of the Youth Center thanks to the passage of a 2012 law are taken out of the equation, the average stay drops to 18 days. That’s still up from almost 12 days in 2015, however.

Most are awaiting hearings before one of the court system’s 22 magistrates or one of its two judges for serious, felony-level offenses.

Multiple Roads from the Court

Those hearings mostly happen downtown at the former headquarters of the defunct Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper. The towering, Gotham City-style Art Deco tower was built in 1933, when journalism still made money, and looms over Broadway Street.

Judge Williams hears cases in the Times-Star’s woodpaneled former boardroom on the 14th floor, and his chambers are next door in the former president’s office.

That’s poetic, Williams says — his great-grandfather once worked as a landscaper for Hulbert Taft, who ran the TimesStar and sat in the same office.

One of Williams’ cases on a recent August morning involves Kevin*, a 16-year-old being tried on charges related to attempted grand theft. He had been in what is called a “placement” — a residential alternative to a detention facility — called Hillcrest just north of Cincinnati in Wyoming. But he’s walked out twice, and now prosecutors want to send him to a state juvenile detention center.

Kevin’s attorney wants him to get one more chance at Hillcrest, saying despite his attempts to leave he has made progress there.

Williams splits the difference, sending Kevin to a different placement outside Columbus called Abraxas. That facility has somewhat more intensive drug addiction and mental health programs, though public defenders note its distance from Cincinnati — more than three hours — often makes family therapy sessions and visits difficult for some.

Kevin has seen a lot, Williams notes. He knows that from disposition reports he receives — confidential histories of each youth printed on green paper. Kevin’s mother has struggled mightily with addiction and his father is absent.

Kevin himself has faced challenges with mental illness.

“I know you’ve faced terrible things in your life,” Williams tells him. “But you don’t have the right to take other people’s things.”

Williams says many of the youth he sees come through his court are struggling like Kevin with various forms of trauma. It’s his job, he says, to balance that with the risks of keeping a young person from being detained.

“We’re all learning more about the impacts of trauma,” he says. “But it’s how you treat it and move forward with it.

It’s amazing how many of these kids have not only friends but immediate family who have been shot, for example.”

done like that.’ So that deep insecurity, you know, the defensiveness, set in, and I went out and got a gun.”

Not long after, Muhammad found himself in a gun battle of his own when a younger cousin got caught up in a fight at a run-down motel near Springdale. It was another in a growing line of brushes with the law. A young woman was shot, but the bullets that injured her weren’t from Muhammad’s .38 caliber handgun, so he got off with felony probation.

But the die was cast. Over time, Muhammad moved from selling a little weed into harder drugs. In 2005, he was caught selling heroin in a drug bust that aired on the TV show COPS. A stint in jail for that offense introduced him to the men with whom he would eventually catch the burglary case that netted him almost a decade in prison.

“I was 22 years old facing a nine-year sentence,” he says.

“I had to figure out how I got there. And I really think it was that environment during those developmental years of my life. That survival, defensive mentality came early. You’re not looking toward when you get to high school, you’re trying to get through this day.”

These days, court administrators say, there are a number of diversion programs that might help young people stay off that particular path.

According to court data, roughly 60 percent of the youth who come to the Youth Center end up in some kind of diversion program — though attorneys who represent those youth say the programs aren’t always successful and question whether they do enough to keep kids out of detention facilities.

“What we’ve been finding is that the court has these kind of catch-all programs that they utilize,” says juvenile public defender Hatheway. “But that program may not meet that kid’s needs. We’ve been working to find more community resources. Sometimes we might advocate that placement isn’t warranted — you shouldn’t be pulling kids out of their homes.”

The public defender’s office this year received a U.S. Department of Justice grant to develop more individualized ways to advocate for and legally represent youth caught up in the juvenile justice system, Hatheway says.

The court does have a series of community diversion dockets based in Avondale, Price Hill and other communities that have seen large numbers of juvenile arrests.

Those community courts served about 300 people last year, according to court data. The aim, court administrators say, is to keep kids out of actual court and to keep their records clean while solving community problems.

There is also an option available to a handful of qualified youth each year: highly individualized, therapy-intensive dockets for those suffering specific mental health challenges.

Guns, Fear and the Law

The Mental Health Docket

Muhammad knows all about that. Just a couple years after his first brush with the juvenile system, as he was on the cusp of legal adulthood, two things happened: first, three brothers from Evanston Muhammad knew well were gunned down in their home for money they had made selling drugs; only one narrowly survived by playing dead.

“He was my friend,” Muhammad says of the survivor.

“That turned me into a soldier. I was like, ‘I’m not getting

In a mint-green room in the lower level of Lighthouse Youth & Family Service’s enormous, Swiss chalet-like building in Walnut Hills, a team of the nonprofit’s therapists, case managers and education specialists as well as court employees sit around a table hashing out cases on the county’s Individualized Disposition Docket, which was created in 2004. Another docket for lower-level offenders, the Pretrial Diversion Docket, was created in 2007. Between

A social worker and parole officer sit in the courtroom of Hamilton County Juvenile Court Magistrate David Kelley | Photo: Nick Swartsell

*CityBeat has changed the names of minors currently under adjudication

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detention centers by an average of 40 percent, and decreased detention of minority youth by an average of 44 percent.

“I think our biggest focus is on the racial and ethnic disparities,” Beck says. “It’s at every point of contact that these disparities exist. That’s why we need to be a JDAI county. It won’t solve all the problems, but we’ll at least start reflecting on this data.”

In the meantime, outside Magistrate Kelley’s courtroom, Darren and his mother say they feel somewhat optimistic.

“I feel like it helps a lot,” he says of the mental health docket. “I would have been locked up a while ago without it. But I have a habit — well, not a habit. But it’s hard for me to stop. Marijuana use helps me, but at the same time, they’re trying to get me to stop. I have too much on my mind and don’t know how to cope with it all.”

Darren says he loves to cook and would eventually like to be a chef. He’s eying a program at Cincinnati State that teaches culinary arts.

His mother generally agrees the docket has been good for Darren’s depression and ADHD. “He does have aggression problems, and he used to cope in bad ways,” she says. “The program definitely helps. It gives him something to do that’s positive. I’m glad he got the positive side of it, and not the other side of the system.”

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The day after the meeting at Lighthouse, back at the Youth Center’s non-secure side, Magistrate Kelley hears the half-dozen or so cases on his docket, including Darren’s.

Lighthouse Intake Coordinator Amy Duwell tells Magistrate Kelley that Darren is doing well in his group therapy sessions when he applies himself.

“In group, he has such positive leadership skills when he uses them for that,” she says. “Good, bad or otherwise, the other guys really look up to him. He has a lot of potential.”

Kelley praises Darren for not picking up new charges and for his positive progress, including earning some school credits in math. He gives a three-week continuance for Darren’s case pending a drug test.

Not everyone caught up in the juvenile courts gets such individualized treatment, some attorneys point out. While more than 80 percent of youths receiving warrants in Hamilton County are black, only 56 percent of the youths in county diversion programs are.

CLC Executive Director Acena Beck says Hamilton County could do more to address racial disparities by adopting policies developed 20 years ago by the Annie E. Casey Foundation called Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. Some 300 counties across the country use JDAI, including Cuyahoga, Franklin, Montgomery, Lucas, Summit and other counties in Ohio. The approach pushes even further toward reducing the number of youths detained by the juvenile system by engaging law enforcement agencies and increasing options for community-based programs, expanded shelter care and home detention. Those efforts have reduced daily populations in participating counties’

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the two, they served 57 youth last year, roughly 60 percent of whom successfully completed the program.

Information for each case — and recommendations for the docket’s magistrate, David Kelley — are projected large on the wall.

One case involves a 17-year-old named Darren* facing a felony assault charge. He’s also struggling with substance abuse issues, but his case worker and Hamilton County probation officer James Mack explain that he’s recently had several of his friends die and has been using marijuana to cope. Mack says the young man shows charisma in his group therapy sessions and believes he could tap into those skills in a positive way. But he’s insecure about his intelligence and acts out sometimes during therapy.

Youth legal advocates say such dockets are helpful, but question why they serve such a small number of youth and also point out they place a large onus on the families of the youth involved.

“Many of our kids have troubles that circle back to trauma and mental health issues,” says Kelsey Vice, a social worker with the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Juvenile Division. “I think a lot of our kids could benefit from programs like (IDD). But at the same time, those programs also require a lot of parental involvement and a lot of court involvement. I had a case recently where the kid was a perfect fit for the program, but the guardian wanted no part of it. She didn’t want it normalized for him to be in front of a court on a bi-weekly or weekly basis. Parents have the right to say no to these programs. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want help of some kind.”

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(excluding alcohol, tax & gratuity)

Book your holiday party with us this season!

22

Make your reservation at FirebirdsRestaurants.com or call 513-234-9032 Deerfield Town Center | 5075 Deerfield Boulevard, Mason, OH

MONDAY - THURSDAY | 5PM - 10PM

FRIDAY & SATURDAY | 5PM - 11PM

SUNDAY | 5PM- 10PM

36 E. 4TH STREET, CINCINNATI, OHIO 45202 | 513-455-6406 FOR RESERVATIONS

3 Courses for $36 GCRW Special Doors Open at 4:30 Monday-Saturday

Handcut Steaks | Local Produce| Craft Cocktails | 100+ Wines

513.321.0555

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

Join us for our daily Specials: Monday~Half Price Empanadas Tuesday~ Half Price Ravioli Wednesday~ Half Price Wines

| C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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HANDCRAFTED

WINES

MODERN CASUAL

DINING

4200 COOPER ROAD CINCINNATI, OHIO 45242 513.891.8300

Visit us at our Greater Cincinnati locations: 8080 MONTGOMERY RD CINCINNATI, OH

7490 BALES ST LIBERTY TOWNSHIP, OH

513.488.1110

513.463.9463

CHWINERY.COM

www.parkersblueash.com Follow us on facebook and twitter

AMERICAN FARE, BOURBON, CRAFT BEER, AWARD WINNING WINE LIST IN A WARM AND HOSPITABLE ENVIRONMENT. JOIN US FOR LUNCH, DINNER, SUNDAY BRUNCH, DAILY HAPPY HOUR OR PRIVATE DINING.

what are you doing for

Now located in Summit Park Blue Ash!

4335 Glendale-Milford Rd. Cincinnati, OH 45242

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

lunch?

24

Stop by for gourmet sustainably sourced wild game & seafood dishes. Gluten Free & Vegan options available

Join us for

Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week !

MENU PRESENTED BY EXECUTIVE CHEF AND CO-OWNER ALFIO GULISANO

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

| C I T Y B E AT. C O M

M E N U A N D R E S E R V AT I O N S A V A I L A B L E O N L I N E : G R E AT E R C I N C I N N AT I R E S TA U R A N T W E E K . C O M / R E S TA U R A N T / B U TC H E R - A N D - B A R R E L /

25

Seasonal Seafood & Craft Cocktails FRESH FISH I PRIME RIB HOT CHOCOLATE LAVA CAKE SPECTACULAR WATERFRONT DINING

Free admission on the Ohio River next to Moerlein Lager House THURSDAY 9/19 6PM - 10PM • FRIDAY 9/20 5PM - 11PM SATURDAY 9/21 12PM - 11PM ADVANCED PURCHASES ONLY

OKTOBERFEST

Chicken Dinner Tickets $25 ($39 Value) moerleinlh.com/events

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

TAXES & FEES NOT INCLUDED

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

|

Book Your Next Event

26

405 Riverboat Row I 856.261.0300 Chart-House.com

FROM

25-250

PEOPLE

CALL 513.445.4637

NOW TO BOOK TODAY

5650 Tylersville Rd. | Mason, OH 45040 | BasilsOnMarket.com

CHÉ

ARGENTINE RESTAURANT RESTAURANT WEEK MENU PRESENTED

BY CHEF MANDY CARLOS Menu and Reservations Online: greatercincinnatirestaurantweek.com /restaurant/che/

CHÉ - $36 Dinner FIRST COURSE Choose One: Fig and Herbed Goat Cheese Empanada Mandy's Ché Chili Honey Marscapone & Roasted Fall Veggie Bruschetta

1342 Walnut Street Cincinnati, Ohio Over-The-Rhine CHECINCINNATI.COM

SECOND COURSE

Choose One: Old World Slow-Braised Short Rib served with Herbed Truffle Mac n Cheese Lamb Skewers with Rosemary Chili, and Bacon & Brussels Sprouts Ché Grill Trio with 5 oz. Skirt Steak, Beef Tip Skewer, and Authentic Argentine Sausage topped with House Chimichurri and our Roasted Red Pepper Relish

THIRD COURSE

Choose One: Raspberry Cheesecake House-made Cinnamon Donut with Mixed Berries and a Drizzle of Honey

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

| C I T Y B E AT. C O M

27

AN UPSCALE TAVERN EXPERIENCE

MADE FROM SCRATCH, INSPIRED BY NEW ORLEANS 4632 EASTERN AVENUE | BREWRIVERCREOLEKITCHEN.COM | 513-861-2484

Dinner 5 OFF 2ndEntree

$ 00

$5 Off Carryout Entree. Good Only at Ambar India.

Only 2 Coupons Per Party, Per Table.

Featuring a menu of gourmet flatbreads, burgers, fresh seafood, steaks, and more!

Expires 6/23/19

Lunch 3 OFF 2ndEntree

$ 00 Voted BEST INDIAN for 18 Years

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

350 Ludlow Ave • 513-281-7000

28

HAPPY HOUR M-F 3-6 on the patio, 3-7 in the bar MONDAY Fish and Chips 3-10 (dine in only) TUESDAY Steak Night 4-10 (dine in only) WEDNESDAY Wine Down Wednesday THURSDAY Ladies Night 4-9 SUNDAY FUNDAY Brunch 10-2:30 / Burger Night 4-9 (dine in only) KENWOOD | 5901 E GALBRAITH RD #212, CINCINNATI, OH 45236 513-914-4903

WEST CHESTER | 9558 CIVIC CENTRE BLVD, WEST CHESTER TOWNSHIP, OH 45069 513-298-4050 MTMTAVERN.COM

$3 Off Carryout Entree. Good Only at Ambar India.

Only 2 Coupons Per Party, Per Table.

Expires 6/23/19

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

| C I T Y B E AT. C O M

29

TAPROOM HOURS TUESDAY - THURSDAY: 3PM - 11PM FRIDAY - SATURDAY: 11AM - 12AM

TAPROOM ADDRESS 1727 LOGAN ST, CINCINNATI, OH 45202

©2019 THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY, BOSTON, MA SAVOR THE FLAVOR RESPONSIBLY.®

RESTAURANTS EST 2016

L I V E M U S I C E V E R Y W E D N E S D AY, F R I D AY A N D S AT U R D AY N A M E D T O P 1 0 N E W R E S TA U R A N T B Y C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

EAT, DRINK & BE COZY

INVENTIVE, FARM-TO-FORK, GOURMET COMFORT FOOD DEEP SELECTION OF CRAFT BEERS & CLASSIC COCKTAILS

30

C O Z Y ’ S C A F E & P U B | 6 4 4 0 C I N - D AY R O A D | L I B E R T Y T O W N S H I P W W W. C O Z Y S C A F E A N D P U B . C O M | 5 1 3 . 6 4 4 . 9 3 6 5 | @COZYSCAFEANDPUB

ALFIO’S BUON CIBO 2724 Erie Ave. | 513-321-0555 alfios-cincy.com

BASIL’S ON MARKET

5650 Tylersville Road | 513-445-4637 basilsonmarket.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

$36 Dinner

Spinach and Cheese Empanada Cup of Smoked Filet Mignon Chili Spiced Goat Cheese & Apple Salad

FIR ST COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

House Salad

Veal Short Rib Ravioli Harvest Duck Ravioli 4 oz. Filet Pistachio Crusted Salmon

Boneless Short Rib Mushroom Zusketti Pesto Chicken

THIR D COUR SE

Seasonal Crisp House Crème Brûlée Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding

THIR D COUR SE

Brown Sugar Goat Cheese Cheesecake Frangelico Toffee Tiramisu Cinnamon Apple Bread Pudding

BREWRIVER CREOLE KITCHEN

4632 Eastern Ave. | 513-861-2484 brewrivercreolekitchen.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Smoked Gouda Pimento Cheese Gumbo BrewRiver Salad SECOND COUR SE

Creole Jambalaya Pasta Monica Buttermilk Crispy Chicken SAM’ich Streetcar Burger THIR D COUR SE

Dark Chococlate “Beer”Brownie Bananas Foster Bread Pudding

CHART HOUSE

405 Riverboat Row | 859-261-0300 chart-house.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Caesar Salad New England Clam Chowder Prime Rib Grilled Pork Ribeye Shrimp Fresca Pasta Cedar-Wrapped Salmon THIR D COUR SE

Soup du Jour Buffalo Shrimp Cocktail Game Slider Local Wild Mushroom Turnover SECOND COUR SE

Soup du Jour Bacon Tomato Caesar Salad Brown Dog House Salad Ceviche Taco Salad THIR D COUR SE

Caribbean Grouper Grilled Loin of Lamb Wild Boar Scallopini

CHÉ

3821 Edwards Road | 513-351-0814 thecapitalgrille.com

FIR ST COUR SE

FIR ST COUR SE

$36 Dinner

Crab Cake Empanada Goat Cheese Bruschetta Mixed Greens Salad Roasted Tomatoes and Marinated Eggplant Provoleta SECOND COUR SE

Grilled 5 oz. Prime New York Strip Grilled 4 oz. Bacon-Wrapped Filet Braised Lamb Shank Grilled Lamb Chops THIR D COUR SE

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Chocolate Old Fashioned Cake Cinnamon Roll Bread Pudding

COOPER’S HAWK WINERY AND RESTAURANT

1342 Walnut St. | 513-345-8838 checincinnati.com

8080 Montgomery Road | 513-488-1110 7490 Bales St. | 513-463-9463 coopershawkwinery.com

FIR ST COUR SE

FIR ST COUR SE

$36 Dinner

$36 Dinner

Fig and Herbed Goat Cheese Empanada Mandy’s Ché Chili Honey Mascarpone and Roasted Fall Veggie Bruschetta

Over the Border Eggrolls Asian Ahi Tuna Sashimi Chopped Deviled Eggs & Toast

SECOND COUR SE

Old World Slow-Braised Short Rib Lamb Skewers Ché Grill Trio

Chicken Madeira Gnocchi Carbonara Jambalaya Crispy Asian Pork

THIR D COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

S’more Budino Cooper’s Hawk Chocolate Cake Salted Caramel Crème Brûlée

$36 Dinner

Wedge Salad Field Greens Salad New England Clam Chowder SECOND COUR SE

8 oz. Filet Mignon, Bone-In Dry Aged 14 oz. New York Strip Herb-Roasted Chicken TA B L E A C C O M PA N I M E N T S

Sam’s Mashed Potatoes French Beans with Heirloom Tomatoes THIR D COUR SE

Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake Crème Brûlée

COPPIN’S

638 Madison Ave. | 859-905-6800 hotelcovington.com/dining/coppins

$26 Lunch / $36 Dinner FIR ST COUR SE

Crawfish Hushpuppies Crab and Corn Bisque Mirliton Salad SECOND COUR SE

Blackened Catfish Red Beans & Rice Fried Green Tomato Po’Boy THIR D COUR SE

Café Au Lait Cheesecake Beignets Blueberry Bread Pudding

Restaurants with more than one option in the courses listed will give guests a choice on selection. Menus are subject to change.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

Raspberry Cheesecake Housemade Cinnamon Donut

CAPITAL GRILLE

700 Race St. | 513-954-8974 thebutcherbarrel.com

|

Chocolate Lava Cake Strawberry Sundae

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

BUTCHER AND BARREL

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

SECOND COUR SE

BROWN DOG CAFÉ

1000 Summit Place | 513-794-1610 browndogcafe.com

31

EIGHTEEN AT THE RADISSON

COZY’S CAFE + PUB

6440 Cincinnati Dayton Road 513-644-9365 | cozyscafeandpub.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Choice of Soup or Salad SECOND COUR SE

Miso Soy Seabass Chimichurri Bison Strip Steak Chipotle Pesto Pasta THIR D COUR SE

Lemon Raspberry Cheesecake Gluten-Free Mocha Torte

D BURNHAM’S AT THE RENAISSANCE 36 E. Fourth St. | 513-455-6406 dburnhams.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Late Summer Gazpacho Baby Greens SECOND COUR SE

Chili-Rubbed Flat Iron Steak Potato-Wrapped Norwegian Salmon THIR D COUR SE

Madagascar Vanilla Gelato “S’more” Dulce de Leche Crème Brûlée

FIREBIRDS WOOD FIRED GRILL 5075 Deerfield Blvd. | 513-234-9032 mason.firebirdsrestaurants.com

$26 Lunch

FIR ST COUR SE

Soup of the Day, Chicken Tortilla Soup, BLT Salad, Mixed Green Salad or Caesar Salad SECOND COUR SE

Grilled Peruvian Pesto Salmon, Grilled Steak Tacos or Crispy Bourbon Chicken Sandwich THIR D COUR SE

Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Squares, Warm Carrot Cake, Chocolate Brownie or Lemon Cake

$36 Lunch

GOLDEN LAMB

27 S. Broadway St. | 513-932-5065 goldenlamb.com

$36 Lunch & Dinner FIR ST COUR SE

Grilled Warren County Honeycrisp Apple Salad Golden Lamb Farms Butternut Squash Bisque SECOND COUR SE

Honey-Jalapeño Smoked Chicken Wings, Soup of the Day, Chicken Tortilla Soup, BLT Salad, Mixed Green Salad or Caesar Salad

Crispy Jumbo Lump Crap Cakes Carved Certified Angus Beef Tenderloin Berkshire French-Cut Pork Chop

SECOND COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Tomato Bisque Fresh Greens Salad Caesar Salad SECOND COUR SE

Penne Carbonara Atlantic Salmon 1/2 Rack Baby Back Ribs 10 oz. Angus Reserve New York Strip S E C O N D C O U R S E A C C O M PA N I M E N T S

Brussels Sprouts Broccolini Whipped Potatoes Steak Fries THIR D COUR SE

7165 Liberty Centre Drive | 513-777-7800 indianspicetrain.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Paneer Afghani or Chicken Afghani Pappadi Chaat Potato Cheese Cakes SECOND COUR SE All entrées are paired with rice and plain or garlic naan

Chicken Makhani Shrimp Chili Saag Paneer Lamb Rogan Josh THIR D COUR SE

Shaker-Style Apple Crumb Cobbler Crème Brûlée

Gulab Jamun Cheesecake Mango Mint Ice Cream Pistachio Ice Cream

MATT THE MILLER’S TAVERN

MCCORMICK & SCHMICK’S

Crème Brûlée Cheesecake Squares, Warm Carrot Cake, Chocolate Brownie or Lemon Cake

LOUVINO

1142 Main St. | 513-813-3350 louvino.com/otr

$36 Dinner

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

FIR ST COUR SE: CHOOSE THR EE

32

Warm Brussels Sprouts Salad Loaded Baked Potato Tots Buttermilk Drop Biscuits Fried Chicken Tacos Caprese (GF) Seared Scallops Steak Frites Risotto (GF) Bison Stuffed Peppers SECOND COUR SE

Chocolate-Chip-Cookie-Dough-Stuffed Beignets

5901 E. Galbraith Road | 513-914-4903 9558 Civic Centre Blvd. | 513-298-4050 mtmtavern.com

$26 Lunch & Dinner FIR ST COUR SE

The Miller Salad Bowl Of Soup Bavarian Pretzel Bites Loaded Tavern Chips SECOND COUR SE

8 oz. Top Sirloin Asian Salmon Chicken Banh Mi Flatbread Shrimp Buddha Bowl THIR D COUR SE

Chocolate Mousse Mini Carrot Cake Mini

EMBERS

8170 Montgomery Road | 513-984-8090 embersrestaurant.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Spicy Tuna Maki Roll Caesar Salad SECOND COUR SE

Braised Short Ribs Amish Chicken Breast Scottish Salmon THIR D COUR SE

Crème Brûlée Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake Bourbon Butter Cake NY Cheese Cake

INDIAN SPICE TRAIN

FIR ST COUR SE

Slow-Roasted Prime Rib, Grilled Chairman’s Reserve Prime Pork Chop or Grilled Striped Bass

668 W. Fifth St. | 859-491-5300 restaurantcovingtonky.com

21 E. Fifth St. | 513-721-9339 mccormickandschmicks.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Baby Spinach Salad Chef’s Garden Gazpacho Hawaiian Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl SECOND COUR SE

Grilled Salmon Succotash BBQ-Bacon-Wrapped Shrimp & Grits Ancho Chile Beef Medallions Chicken Francaise THIR D COUR SE

Peanut Butter Pie Peach Cobbler

JAG’S STEAK & SEAFOOD 5980 West Chester Road 513-860-5353 | jags.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Delicata Squash East Coast Oysters Gnocchi and Creamed Chard Camelot Chicken SECOND COUR SE

Harvest Salad Cranberry Walnut Salad Sweet Potato Soup THIR D COUR SE

Filet Mignon Pecan Scallops Grilled Pork Chop

MERITAGE RESTAURANT 40 Village Square | 513-376-8134 meritagecincy.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Brussels Sprouts Meritage Salad Baked Brie French Onion Soup SECOND COUR SE

Asian Glazed Salmon Braised Lamb Shank 8 oz. Prime Rib THIR D COUR SE

Blueberry New York Cheesecake Vanilla Bourbon Crème Brûlée Dark Chocolate Ganache Torte

VISIT GREATERCINCINNATIRESTAURANTWEEK.COM

Restaurants with more than one option in the courses listed will give guests a choice on selection. Menus are subject to change.

METROPOLE

609 Walnut St. | 513-578-6660 metropoleonwalnut.com

$36 Dinner

MITA’S

501 Race St. | 513-421-6482 mitas.co

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

FIR ST COUR SE

Tostones y Guacamole Ensalada de Jicama y Mango

SECOND COUR SE

Tacos de Calamares Ceviches de Camarones

Burnt Carrot Salad Mushroom Soup Vegetable Dumplings Confit Chicken Thighs Tomato Braised Shortrib THIR D COUR SE

Gingerbread Semifreddo Metropole Candy Bar

MUSE MT. LOOKOUT 1000 Delta Ave. | 513-620-8777 musemtlookout.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Cyprus Grain Salad (V/GF) Confit Chicken Wings (GF) Heirloom Tomato Toast (VGT) SECOND COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

Arepa con Queso Fresco y Chorizo Empanadas de Res con Pique FOURTH COUR SE

Seasonal Sorbet Panna Cotta de Vanilla

THE NATIONAL EXEMPLAR 6880 Wooster Pike | 513-271-2103 nationalexemplar.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Smoked Salmon Nicoise French “Five Onion” Soup Grilled Caesar Salad

Vegan Mac and Cheese (V) Shrimp and Grits (GF) Roasted Chicken Sea Bass (GF)

Shrimp & Polenta Shepard’s Pie Butternut Squash Ravioli

THIR D COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

Vegan Donuts (V) Pot de Creme (GF) Warm Banana Pudding

SECOND COUR SE

MITCHELL’S FISH MARKET

MORTON’S THE STEAKHOUSE

9456 Water Front Drive | 513-779-5292 mitchellsfishmarket.com

441 Vine St. | 513-621-3111 | mortons.com

FIR ST COUR SE

FIR ST COUR SE

$26 Lunch & $36 Dinner

Mitchell’s House Salad Classic Caesar New England Clam Chowder SECOND COUR SE

Lobster + Shrimp Stuffed Cod Seafood Paella Blacked Chicken Pasta (Lunch) Crab Cake + Shrimp (Lunch) Bourbon Glazed Pork Chop (Dinner) Salmon Crab Oscar (Dinner) THIR D COUR SE

Mini Sharkfin Pie Crème Brûlée

NICOLA’S

1420 Sycamore St. | 513-721-6200 nicolasotr.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Caesar Salad Prosciutto Salad Rhubarb Salad SECOND COUR SE

Tagliatelle alla Bolognese Crispy Potato Gnocchi Spaghetti alla Chitarra THIR D COUR SE

NE Carrot Cake Chocolate Pots de Creme

Arctic Char Pork Tenderloin Chicken Saltimbocca

PRIMAVISTA

580 Walnut St., Suite 100 513-579-0720 | primecincinnati.com

$36 Dinner

Beefsteak Tomato & Mozzarella Salad Onion Soup Chopped House Salad Caesar Salad

SECOND COUR SE

Chicken Piccata Grilled Bistro Filet Pork Chop Atlantic Broiled Salmon Shrimp Scampi Capellini

THIR D COUR SE

Cheesecake Chocolate Mousse Mixed Berries & Whipped Cream Crème Brûlée

PARKERS BLUE ASH TAVERN

4200 Cooper Road | 513-891-8300 parkersblueash.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Firecracker Shrimp Crab Cake Garlic Cheese Bread SECOND COUR SE

Amish Airline Chicken Breast 12 oz. Slow Roasted Prime Rib or Beef 7 oz. Filet Mignon Seared Jumbo Sea Scallops THIR D COUR SE

Brûlée Cheesecake Godiva Chocolate Ganache Cake

PRIME

PLEASANTRY OTR 118 W. 15th St. | 513-381-1969 pleasantryotr.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

Pan Seared Ora King Salmon Cacio e Pepe Pork Tenderloin THIR D COUR SE

Bruschetta Arugula Salad Potato Gnocchi SECOND COUR SE

Grilled Pork Chop Seared Sea Scallops Crab and Fettuccine THIR D COUR SE

Bread Pudding Tiramisu Cannoli’s

FIR ST COUR SE

POMPILIO’S

600 Washington Ave. | 859-581-3065 pompilios.com

$36 Dinner For Two

Hazelnut Salad Fall Apple Salad Deviled Eggs

F I R ST COU R SE : I NCLU DE S T WO

SECOND COUR SE

SECON D COU R SE : CHOOSE T WO

6 oz. Certified Angus Beef Filet Oscar Loch Duart Scottish Salmon Seafood Pappardelle Joyce Farms Chicken THIR D COUR SE

Key Lime Pie Deconstructed Banana Cream Pie Fretboard Peanut-Butter-Cup Chocolate Cake

Meat Lasagna Chicken Alfredo Meat or Cheese Ravioli Eggplant Parmigiana Italian Sampler

THIR D COUR SE : CHOOSE ONE

Cannoli Sea Salt and Caramel Cheesecake Tiramisu

Restaurants with more than one option in the courses listed will give guests a choice on selection. Menus are subject to change.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS AND SPECIAL OFFERS

Tossed Salad

|

Olivie Oil Cake Chocolate Buttermilk Truffles

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

$36 Lunch & Dinner

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

Chicory Salad Fried Rice Beef Tartare

810 Matson Place | 513-251-6467 pvista.com

33

QUARTER BISTRO

6904 Wooster Pike | 513-271-5400 thequarterbistro.com

100 E. Freedom Way | 513-381-0491 ruthschris.com

SALAZAR

F I R ST COU R SE : SH A R A BL E FOR T WO

FIR ST COUR SE

1401 Republic St. | 513-621-7000 salazarcincinnati.com

SECOND COUR SE

FIR ST COUR SE

$36 Dinner

SECOND COUR SE

Petite Filet 8 oz.

Atlantic Salmon Filet Stuffed Chicken Breast

Mixed Apple Salad

Curried Watermelon & Fennel Salad

SECOND COUR SE

S E C O N D C O U R S E A C C O M PA N I M E N T S

Cornmeal Cavatelli

Short Rib Lasagna Warm Salad of Vegetables

THIR D COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

Horseradish-Dijon-Encrusted Scottish Salmon Ancho Maple Glazed Gerber Chicken 8 oz. House Cut Wagyu Sirloin

SOMM WINE BAR

3105 Price Ave. | 513-244-5843 sommwinebarcincinnati.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Inslata Caprese Black Bean Chorizo Soup House-Cured Salmon SECOND COUR SE

Coq Au Vin Grilled Mahi-Mahi Beef Tenderloin THIR D COUR SE

Peanut Butter Mousse Pie Molten Chocolate Lava Cake

THE MERCER

1324 Vine St. | 513-421-5111 themercerotr.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

Grilled Peach Salad Carpaccio Carrot Gazpacho

|

SARTRE OTR

1910 Elm St. | 513-579-1910 sartreotr.com

Caesar Salad Steakhouse Salad

THIR D COUR SE

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

$36 Dinner

Guacamole Calamari Fritto Mac & Cheese

Tomato Basil Bisque Quarter Salad Caesar Salad

34

RUTH’S CHRIS STEAK HOUSE

SECOND COUR SE

Mashed Potatoes Creamed Spinach Sweet Potato Casserole | $5 Upgrade Grilled Asparagus | $5 Upgrade

Cider Poached Pear

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

Eclair

THIR D COUR SE

Mini Cheesecake Upgrade Your Dessert | $4 Upgrade

SORRENTO’S

5143 Montgomery Road | 513-531-5070 sorrentosnorwood.com

$36 Dinner for Two FIR ST COUR SE

Mama T’s Italian Sausage Dip Crispy Ravioli SECOND COUR SE

House Salad Caesar Salad

STREET CITY PUB

580 Walnut St. | 513-873-7529 streetcity.pub

$26 Lunch & Dinner FIR ST COUR SE

309 Vine St. | 513-407-7501 theviewatshiresgarden.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Cup of Roasted Corn Veloute Heirloom Carrot Salad Vegetarian Kibbeh SECOND COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

THIR D COUR SE

Tuna Nicoise Roasted Chicken Porkopolis

Spice Cake Flourless Chocolate Torte Trio of Beignets

FIR ST COUR SE

SECOND COUR SE

FOURTH COUR SE

THE VIEW AT SHIRES’ GARDEN

$26 Lunch & Dinner

SECOND COUR SE

Irish Bread Pudding Molten Chocolate Cake Irish Cream Cheesecake

Cannoli

1135 Vine St. | 2845 Vine St. 3825 Edwards Road | 16 W. Freedom Way 513-396-5800 | authenticwaffle.com

Beer Cheese & Housemade Pretzels Mac & Cheese Liégeoise Escargots

THIR D COUR SE

Spaghetti and Meatballs Chicken Alfredo One Large Pizza

TASTE OF BELGIUM

Reuben Roll Cheese Curds Soup of the Day Casablanca Street Corn 10 oz. C.A.B. New York Strip Scottish Salmon Fretboard Beer Battered Cod Shepard’s Pie

Chicken Risotto Porchetta Spaghetti

Assorted Gelatos and Sorbets Budino Apple Crostata

$36 Dinner

THIR D COUR SE

TRIO BISTRO

7565 Kenwood Road | 513-984-1905 triobistro.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Caesar Salad Chopped House Salad Lobster Bisque SECOND COUR SE

6 oz. Filet Mignon Lemon Chicken Miso Glazed Halibut Truffled Potato Ravioli THIR D COUR SE

Molten Chocolate Cake Lemon Cheesecake Vanilla Ice Cream “Sundae”

Mussels & Frites B3 Burger & Frites Meatballs Carbonnades Poutine Mushroom Galette THIR D COUR SE

Strawberries & Creme Waffle Seasonal Waffle Banana & Nutella Crêpe Blueberry Ricotta Cheesecake Crêpe

VIA VITE

502 Vine St. | 513-721-8483 viaviterestaurant.com

$36 Dinner

FIR ST COUR SE

Potato Mascarpone Ricotta Sformato Burrata & Prosciutto SECOND COUR SE

Handmade Crispy Gnocchi Farfalle Smoked Salmon & Mascarpone THIR D COUR SE

Lamb Shank Atlantic Cod

Restaurants with more than one option in the courses listed will give guests a choice on selection. Menus are subject to change.

MITA'S RESTAURANT Eclectic, farm inspired Spanish and Latin American Tapas

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

| C I T Y B E AT. C O M

501 RACE STREET // CINCINNATI, OH 513.421.6482

35

PRIME

TIME all the time.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

|

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

Cincinnati | 441 Vine Street | 513.621.3111 | mortons.com

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STUFF TO DO

Ongoing Shows ART: The Clubhouse Pique, Covington (through Sept. 18)

WEDNESDAY 18

ART: People’s Liberty’s final exhibition, Advice for Future Homecomers, runs through Nov. 10. See review on page 50.

ONSTAGE: The Absentee at Know Theatre is a play about casting your vote no matter where you are — even if you’re in outer space.

See review on page 51.

DANCE: Cincinnati Ballet’s Kaplan New Works Series features multi-layered premieres of pure magic. See review on page 52.

The Running of the Wieners PHOTO: EMERSON SWOGER

Sept. 29. Tickets start at $30. Aronoff Center for the Arts, 650 Walnut St., Downtown, cincinnatiarts. org. — RICK PENDER

THURSDAY 19

MUSIC: Folk Rock duo Indigo Girls play the Taft Theatre. See Sound Advice on page 60.

a month after the original Ludlow Garage opened and, oh yeah, Dweezil was born just two weeks before that first Garage concert. That’s a lot of 50th birthday parties in one night. 8:30 p.m.

Thursday. $30-$90. Ludlow Garage, 342 Ludlow Ave., Clifton, ludlowgaragecincinnati.com. — MIKE BREEN

FRIDAY 20

EVENT: Oktoberfest Zinzinnati Call your boss, call your friends and steam your lederhosen: Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is kicking off early this year and Mayor John Cranley has officially declared it a citywide halfday holiday. “Oktoberfest Zinzinnati is one of our most important traditions,” Cranley said in a press release.

“And it’s time we recognize it as the holiday it is!” Instead of the usual 5 p.m. Friday start time, work is canceled starting at 11 a.m. and the drinking can begin. As North America’s largest Oktoberfest — second

only to the Munich original — things kick off with the Gemuetlichkeit Games (beer stein races and beer barrel rolls) followed by the official Oktoberfest keg tapping at noon. The festivities continue through the weekend with bratwursteating contests, the “World’s Largest Chicken Dance” (taking place on all nine stages), German music and thousands of pounds of sauerkraut balls, goetta, cream puffs, bratwurst, pretzels and limburger cheese. 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Sunday. Free admission.

Second and Third streets between Walnut and Elm streets, Downtown, oktoberfestzinzinnati.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO COMEDY: Tacarra Williams Stand-up comedian is just but one vocation at which Tacarra Williams is adept.

Born in Belize and raised in the Bronx, she is also an CONTINUES ON PAGE 4 6

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MUSIC: Dweezil Zappa A month after Woodstock, on Sept. 19, 1969, Jim Tarbell opened The Ludlow Garage in Clifton with a Grand Funk Railroad concert. The Ludlow Avenue venue would attract some of the biggest and most influential Rock acts of the era to Cincinnati, including Santana, The Kinks, Humble Pie, James Gang, Alice Cooper, Iggy and the Stooges and MC5.

The Allman Brothers also famously played the club a few times — the band’s Live at Ludlow Garage (recorded before their breakthrough live at the Fillmore set)

became a hugely popular bootleg recording before Polydor released it officially in the early ’90s. The Garage burned bright and left a big impact on Cincinnati in its short lifespan — it closed in 1971. This year marks the 50th anniversary of that first Ludlow Garage concert and there have been myriad celebrations, including an all-day concert in Eden Park and a forthcoming mural in Clifton featuring depictions of BB King, Judy Collins, Captain Beefheart and others who played the club that will be unveiled in October at Cliftonfest. The venue’s current owners are celebrating with a special concert event this week. Using several “50th anniversary” angles, the club will host Rock legend Frank Zappa’s son Dweezil Zappa Thursday. On his tour that kicked off on Sept. 3, Dweezil is playing Frank’s seminal album Hot Rats in full (plus “other hot stuff,” the tour’s title promises). Hot Rats was released about

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EVENT: The Running of the Wieners If you can hardly wait to see dachshunds in hot dog outfits using their teeny, tiny legs to run as fast as they can from one side of the street to the other, good news: Your wait time just got shorter. The wieners are running one day early to kick off Oktoberfest Zinzinnati.

Instead of its traditional Friday race time — the unofficial launch to the Oktoberfest festivities — the race will now take place at 1 p.m. Thursday. The race will feature 100 wieners running 75 feet down Freedom Way between Walnut and Rosa Parks streets. Oktoberfest

provides a hot dog bun costume for each dog, and the race will take place in heats of 10 dogs. The winner of each heat will compete in a final race to crown the first, second and third place winning wieners. The event is free — and very fun — to watch. 1 p.m. Thursday.

Free. Freedom Way, Downtown, oktoberfestzinzinnati. com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

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ONSTAGE: Come From Away In mid-September 2001, 38 planes with over 6,500 passengers landed unexpectedly in Gander, Newfoundland, a remote island off Canada’s east coast. U.S. airspace had been shut down in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The town’s 10,000 residents hosted people from all over the world for nearly a week. The “guests” spoke more than 100 languages. Meals were served, shelter and medications were provided, friends were made and lasting relationships were formed.

The hospitality of Gander and the connections made there has been captured and recreated in the awardwinning musical, Come From Away. It’s been a hit on Broadway and in Toronto, London and Australia. And its touring production will land in Cincinnati for two weeks. Assembled by Tony nominees Irene Sankoff and David Hein, the show distills events experienced by more than 16,000 people into 100 minutes that portray the innate goodness of humankind. A dozen actors play numerous passengers and locals, recreating people who met and embraced one another during the emotional moment. Through

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FROM PAGE 45

Is Amos Otis a mad man or savior of the world?

You’ll be the judge in this searing new play that confronts today’s political climate head-on. Trial begins Sept. 27 at Memorial Hall.

Three performances only!

actress, model, motivational speaker, teacher and life skills coach. The latter takes her to prisons, primarily in Southern California, where she works with inmates. “I teach them everything they need to start rehabilitation now,” she tells an audience.

“It’s hard working in a jail full of male inmates, cause I’m cute.” In addition to her on-the-job experiences, she also jokes about being the third oldest of eight kids and a twin. She also talks about her kids. “My oldest is 18,” she says. “I didn’t realize how much him dating was going to cost me. I have a 14-year-old girl, and I’ve never fought anyone, but I’m ready to go. I’ve checked the jail time.” 7:30 and 10 p.m. Friday; 7 and 10 p.m.

Saturday. $20-$52. Liberty Funny Bone, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township, liberty. funnybone.com. — P.F. WILSON EVENT: Cincinnati Comic Expo Cincinnati’s largest comic con and pop culture expo is back for its 10th-annual show and features artists, publishers, authors, cosplayers and fans from around the globe including slated guests Morena Baccarin (Deadpool, Gotham), Kathy

Najimy (Hocus Pocus), Jewel Staite (Firefly), Alan Tudyk (A Knight’s Tale) and Will Wheaton (basically everything). 3-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. $25$55 adult; $5 kids; meet and greets and photo ops cost extra. Duke Energy Convention Center, 525 Elm St., Downtown, cincinnaticomicexpo.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

SATURDAY 21

MUSIC: Country star Miranda Lambert plays the BB&T Arena with Elle King. See Sound Advice on page 60.

ONSTAGE: Suffragettes: With Liberty and Voting for All Help your kids get excited for the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote by taking them to this musical performance from The Children’s Theatre of Cincinnati. The 45-minute play teaches viewers about the empowering heritage of the women’s suffrage movement, which successfully won the 1920 constitutional amendment that extended the vote to females. The show, which is intended for children ages 8 and older, features four local actors and was written and scored

by local artists. 2-3 p.m. and 5-6 p.m. Saturday; 2-3 p.m. Sunday. $10 tickets, $7 mainstage subscribers.

Ralph and Patricia Corbett Showtime Stage, 4015 Red Bank Road, Madisonville, thechildrenstheatre.com.

— EMMA STIEFEL EVENT: High Five Fiesta!

In 2014, Wave Pool, the community-driven, artist-led experimental art gallery, was one of the first generation of new artistic outposts to stake a claim in Camp Washington. Situated in a repurposed firehouse, Wave Pool has become a burgeoning force for change and action in the small community, like its work co-helming The Welcome Project to engage and assist recent immigrants and refugees to the area and more. It also acts as a haven for artists-inresidence and niche exhibitions. Wave Pool is turning five with a big fiesta and fundraiser. Tickets to the party include food from The Welcome Project chefs, live music, a silent art auction, a live auction and “a variety of libations.” Proceeds will go to assist the gallery and social enterprise with its next steps. According to an event release, “Over the next year Wave Pool will open a food market and teaching kitchen for and by

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Join the jury. Tickets at MemorialHallOTR.com

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PHOTO: JOHN KL ARE

SEND RESTAURANT TIPS, NEWS AND PRESS RELEASES TO

FRIDAY 20

MUSIC: Bogart’s Birthday Bash with Catalina Wine Mixer Band Bogart’s — which has hosted some of the biggest acts in music, including U2, R.E.M., Prince and Bob Dylan — is celebrating its 44th birthday this month. For its birthday bash, the club is flashing back to the mid-’70s, when it first opened, bringing in Catalina Wine Mixer Band to play the soothing Soft Rock hits of the era. CWMB (which recently changed its name to Yacht Rock America) is a six-piece group featuring several local music veterans, including Sean McGary, Jimmy Lee King and Larry Feldner. The ensemble performs smooth classics from the likes of Little River Band, Steely Dan, Hall & Oates and many others. Also helping Bogart’s celebrate are local Power Pop legends the Roger Klug Power Trio and Girl Pop, which covers “female hits from the ’80s ’90s, ’00s and today.” 7:30 p.m. Friday. $7; $10 day of. Bogart’s, 2621 Vine St., Corryville, bogarts.com. — MIKE BREEN

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY CONEY ISL AND

SATURDAY 21

EVENT: Fire Up the Night International teams of pyrotechnic experts will head to Coney Island to compete in a fireworks face-off for the eighth-annual Fire Up the Night. The three countries competing — Belgium, Vietnam and Russia — will go head to head in a sparkling showdown for international bragging rights. The winner will be determined by a panel of judges. And fans can spend the start of the day riding rides, canoeing in Lake Como, partying in the empty Sunlite Pool or exploring the cultures of each participating country in Moonlite Pavilion via music, dancing and other educational fun. 4 p.m. gates; 8:30 p.m. fireworks Saturday. $25 per carload.

Coney Island, 6201 Kellogg Ave., California, coneyislandpark.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

refugees and immigrants, host a world-renowned artist group to do a soil remediation project in our post-industrial neighborhood, and continue to support artists and curators through our rigorous exhibitions and residency programs.” 6-11 p.m. Saturday. $100; $50 artists; $150 per couple. The Factory, 1546 Knowlton St., Northside, wavepoolgallery. org. — LEYLA SHOKOOHE

SUNDAY 22

MUSIC: Willie Nelson headlines the sold-out Outlaw Music Festival. See Sound Advice on page 61.

MONDAY 23

YOUR WEEKEND TO DO LIST: LOCAL.CITYBEAT.COM

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

EVENT: Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week CityBeat’s Greater

WWW.CINCINNATIENTERTAINMENTAWARDS.COM

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MUSIC: The Zombies play Odessey and Oracle at the Taft Theatre. See an interview on page 58.

Cincinnati Restaurant Week takes over area eateries through Sunday with $26 and $36 prix fixe specialty menus. The chef-driven dinners (and sometimes lunches) offer diners a chance to sample multicourse meals at a reduced rate from restaurants they might not typically frequent — or be able to afford. There are 40-plus participating eateries including Alfio’s Buon Cibo, Nicola’s, Taste of Belgium, Pleasantry, Salazar, Sartre, Jag’s Steak & Seafood, Coppin’s and more.

This past spring, Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week partnered with Cincinnati Children’s to donate $1 from every meal purchased throughout the event to the hospital’s Greatest Needs program. Participating restaurants and patrons raised more than $23,000 And we’re doing it again this fall.

Through Sept. 29. $26-$36.

Visit greatercincinnatirestaurantweek.com for a full list of participating restaurants and menus. — MAIJA ZUMMO

MEMORIAL HALL

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EVENT: ish Festival Launched in 2017, the ish Festival is back this year, exploring the spectrum of Jewish and Israeli arts and cultural traditions through art, food and music for all ages via the theme “to welcome the stranger.” The goal is to deepen the understanding of what it means to be human.

There will be both traditional and contemporary, secular and religious, Jewish and non-Jewish vendors, events and artisans participating in the fest in Washington Park — a location selected for its proximity to the historic Plum Street Temple

and Old Jewish Cemetery.

New this year is Jewish Cincinnati: A Walk Through History, a walking tour that features stops at four to six former and currently active sites of worship which correspond to photographs from J. Miles Wolf’s Jewish Cincinnati: A Photographic History, previously on view at the Skirball Museum; the images will be on display at the park during the fest.

According to organizers, “ish Festival is a non-political celebration of arts and cultural heritage. We aim to celebrate the diversity and difference of many identities, beliefs, cultural heritages and experiences.” 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Free.

Washington Park, 1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine, ishfestival.com. — MAIJA ZUMMO

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 24

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ROBERT COLESCOTT Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott

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Opening Celebration: SEP 20 • 8–11PM

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Robert Colescott, Interior II – Homage to Roy Lichtenstein, 1991, Acrylic on Canvas, 16 x 18 inches. © 2019 Estate of Robert Colescott / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Private Collection.

ARTS & CULTURE Buddy Comedy Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen take their longtime friendship on the road for intimate live show AC2

BY JAC K ER N

B

Andy Cohen (left) and Anderson Cooper PHOTO: GLENN KULBAKO

via Instagram after their show — but often head back to their hotel to unwind before jetting off to the next stop.

Which brings us to their jackholes.

For Cohen, it has to do with late-night munchies.

“My jackhole is how long room service takes at midnight when we get back to the hotel and we’re so hungry,” Cohen says.

“Somehow there’s always a very long delay.”

Cooper confirms this, recalling a time when Cohen repeatedly called room service to check on an order, claiming it was a “double rush” — “Which isn’t even a thing. What is a double rush?” he asks — only to reveal that they were actually calling from Cooper’s room all along.

“They thought it was me!” Cooper recalls, pausing to contemplate his own jackhole.

“Well, I guess there was the guy that punched me,” Cooper offers nonchalantly, reserving any juicy details.

Perhaps they’ll regale us with the full story at the show.

AC2 Live: An Intimate Evening With Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen takes place 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 4, at the Aronoff Center’s Procter & Gamble Hall. Tickets/ more info: cincinnatiarts.org.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

that’s a huge surprise for people. I think people expect me to be kind of silly, but they see a totally different side of Anderson and they love it.”

As is tradition on WWHL, the duo offers their “mazel” and “jackhole” of touring experiences (their most and least favorite aspect — think the rose/thorn, peak/ pit sharing exercise). Both agree that traveling the country with a close friend is a highlight.

“When we first met each other, neither of us were well known to other people,” Cooper says. “Andy was working behind the scenes at CBS News as a producer and I had just started traveling around the world, covering wars and trying to become a correspondent. So it’s great to have a friendship where your careers have evolved together.

“To end up in this interesting, strange place in terms of our careers and to have somebody else to share that with — and then to be able to share it in a funny way and give a whole different perspective on it to audiences — it’s just a delight.”

They’re excited to bring their show to the Queen City for the first time (Cohen is set on trying Graeter’s while he’s here). When they have time, they explore new cities together — they even once showed up at a house party after someone invited Cohen

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controversy,” though they both insist that AC2 is not political.

“There’s so much division, so much politics now,” Cooper says, “we just want it to be a night where anybody can come and just enjoy themselves.”

While neither are strangers to being on camera or in the public eye, the idea of “performing” in front of a large, often sold-out audience is still new and exciting to both of them.

“For me, it’s a huge change,” Cooper, who hosts CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360°, says. “Usually I’m either on location, just talking to a camera, or I’m in a studio that’s essentially a dark room with a lot of lights. So to have a live audience and get their instant reaction, to get them to laugh and respond to certain stories is unlike anything else.

“Learning and developing that skill in front of an audience is really cool. I can understand why stand-up comedians or people in Broadway shows love it so much, because it’s incredible.”

While many are quick to peg Cohen as the comedian and Cooper as the straight man, they say fans will be surprised to see the newsman’s more humorous side, which is typically reserved for his friends.

“I’ve learned how loose and funny Anderson is,” Cohen says, “and I think

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ack when there was a more prominent distinction between news and entertainment, it might have seemed like the worlds of Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen would hardly intersect. Cooper is a veteran journalist, CNN anchor and 60 Minutes correspondent. Cohen is best known as the face of TV network Bravo, popularizing The Real Housewives franchise and hosting his boozy late-night talk show, Watch What Happens Live (WWHL).

But much like the ever-changing worlds of politics and pop culture, the two have plenty in common. They have both won an Emmy Award, written bestselling books and look really good with gray hair. And then there’s reality television — lest we forget Cooper’s brief stint as host of The Mole.

Cohen and Cooper met on a blind date more than 25 years ago and have been close pals ever since. Their comedic chemistry has been on display on social media, WWHL and CNN’s New Year’s Eve Live, which the pair has hosted since 2017-18.

Over the past four years they’ve taken their friendship and all its stories on the road as part of their show, AC2 Live: An Intimate Evening with Anderson Cooper & Andy Cohen, which makes a stop in Cincinnati Friday, Oct. 4.

The tour offers an unscripted, unfiltered, informal and intimate fireside chat with the two silver foxes, complete with an audience-engaged Q&A portion and embarrassing old video clips to boot.

“It’s like going out to a bar with us and hearing our stories,” Cohen says, evoking a similar vibe to WWHL. Each show is unique, with topics changing depending on what’s happening in their lives and around the world, Cooper explains, “whether it’s a presidential debate or a Housewives reunion — which Andy now feels are pretty much the same thing.”

Cohen chimes in that he’s “always in the middle of some piece of pop culture nonsense and Anderson’s always in the middle of some world event or crisis or

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VISUAL ART

People’s Liberty Looks to the Future

BY L E Y L A S H O KO O H E

People’s Liberty’s final installation opened at their Over-the-Rhine Globefront gallery location on Sept. 13. Staying true to that organization’s five years of forwardthinking projects, an exhibition curated

by Wave Pool entitled Advice for Future Homecomers is posited at looking ahead in anticipation.

“They wanted to go out with a really beautiful, thoughtful show,” says Cal Cullen, executive director of Wave Pool. “They didn’t want a recap of all of what People’s Liberty had done in the past. They didn’t want some sort of time capsule, yearbook, but they wanted something that summarized the feel of People’s Liberty, and their community engagement, but almost was a call-to-action for the community to step up and fill in their place.”

The term “homecomers” is one used by prominent Kentucky writer Wendell Berry.

A homecomer is one who leaves their home, believing they must travel far and wide to make their difference in the world, returning home only upon the realization that everything they sought was there all along.

“This happens in Cincinnati all the time,” Cullen says. “People call us ‘boomerangs’...

It’s (about) coming back to your roots (and) has to do with the Cincinnati phenomenon

of homecoming. But also this idea of seeing the future by returning back.”

To achieve that end, Cullen enlisted several artists, both local and beyond: Elese Daniels, Lizzy DuQuette, Llewellyn Fletcher, Catherine Whithead, the Archive of Creative Culture and Christian Schmit.

Schmit’s practice is primarily focused on small-scale sculpture making, but for this installation, Cullen asked him to marry his practice with another, perhaps unexpected passion of his: bread-making. “(Bread is) this very fundamental and universal thing of sustenance. You’re handing it to people; the gesture of that I think is really powerful,” Schmit says. “It’s hard to really over-complicate it; it’s not something that needs to be overanalyzed. It’s just a gesture of warmth and community.”

From 9 to 11 a.m. every Friday and Saturday through the end of the exhibition, Schmit will host pretzel-making workshops in the Globefront. Starting at noon on those days, he’ll take a pretzel cart through Findlay Market and neighboring streets to dispense pretzels to anyone in exchange for one thing: advice.

“My thinking is there’s been a lot of people moving into the community and

setting up new businesses; companies will build luxury apartments and they don’t really ever talk to people on the street,” Schmit says.

“I think there are a lot of very invasive species that Christian Schmit at his pretzel stand enter into communities and don’t really consider P H OTO : C O U R T E SY CA L C U L L E N / WAV E P O O L the needs of that community. What do they need? on display in the gallery, and after the The pretzels will be a gesture of saying, ‘I exhibition closes, People’s Liberty staff will come in peace, and then if you have the create a compilation of the advice to be time, could you trade me some advice?’ ” made available online. Over the last four Schmit’s bread-making business, Tall’s Fridays of the exhibition, artist DuQuette Bread, operates out of Trinity Episcopal will take some of the advice and turn it Church’s basement in Covington. A into a shadow-puppet show on display former member of the Covington outpost in the window of the Globefront. A panel of FreshLo (a program that supports discussion on Oct. 19 will extrapolate on food-related initiatives across the the notion of being a homecomer. country), Schmit has been baking since “We all find a community in whatever the ’90s. Tall’s Bread focuses on smallway that we do,” Schmit says. “Sometimes batch sourdough bread and bread-related it isn’t in one geographic place. Sometimes products, including pretzels. it’s through the connection of people.”

“It’s hard. It’s almost like alchemy. (It Advice for Future Homecomers runs requires) a lot of intuition and that’s through Nov. 10 at the People’s Liberty why it’s hard to learn,” he says of the Globefront (1805 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine). breadmaking process.

More info: wavepoolgallery.org.

The advice Schmit gathers will be

FOTOFOCUS PRESENTS AUTO//UPDATE AutoUpdate, a regional juried exhibition presented in partnership with The Carnegie, Covington, features 44 artists from Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana who work at the intersection of photography and new media.

September 14–November 16, 2019 Reception: October 4, 5–8pm

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FOTOFOCUS REGIONAL JURIED EXHIBITION

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RECEPTION on Oct 4, 5–8pm PERFORMANCE at 7pm AUTO//UPDATE: PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE SYMPOSIUM October 5, 2019, 9am–6pm

Anna Christine Sands, Lonely, 2018. Digital video still. Courtesy of the artist

The accompanying FotoFocus day-long symposium will examine photography and film in today’s artistic and political climate. Participants will address digital technology’s impact on photography and video, and its disruption of art-making and news cycles in a media obsessed world.

For complete details, visit All events will be at The Carnegie, 1028 Scott Blvd, Cov. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

FOTOFOCUS.ORG

Space-Set ‘Absentee’ is Clever, Relatable R E V I E W BY JAC K I E M U L AY

CRITIC’S PICK

ONSTAGE

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2019 – 2020 SEASON SEASON

SEX AND EDUCATION

by Lissa Levin

OCT 15– 26

THE FROG PRINCESS

by Joseph McDonough & David Kisor

DEC 4– JAN 4

FORTUNE

by Deborah Zoe Laufer

JAN 18 – FEB 15

PIPELINE

by Dominique Morisseau

MARCH 7 – APRIL 4

PHOTOGRAPH 51

by Anna Ziegler

APRIL 18 – MAY 16

20TH CENTURY BLUES

by Susan Miller

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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Know Theatre’s current production is about absentee voting. In space.

The year is 2088 and the Operator of a Beacon — a sort of lighthouse-slashair-traffic-controller for warping spaceships — finds herself stranded and alone following the mysterious explosion of a U.S. Space Force airship.

Her only companionship comes in the form of her ship’s A.I. Alone, that is, until a persistent and Jordan Trovillion (left) as the Operator and A.J. Baldwin as Beacon unyieldingly positive campaign canvasser calls PHOTO: DAN R. WINTERS PHOTOGR APHY her ship, desperate to convince the Operator of the importance of her absentee vote.

And, yes, it matters.) In the center of the That’s right, even on a spaceship in the stage sits a gaming chair, repurposed and year 2088, playwright Julia Doolittle knows transformed into a captain’s chair that also we won’t be free of political canvassers handily functions as a bed. during an election year.

Though mostly gray and utilitarian, What follows is a hilarious, emotional scenic and lighting designer Andrew and surprisingly poignant look at Hungerford utilizes light to add splashes democracy and the power of relationships of color to the set that helps create a more that drive a person’s choices, both rounded atmosphere, as well as aids in politically and personally. tonal changes as the production’s action Director Kate Bergstrom and Jordan shifts.

Trovillion, as the Operator, have created Hungerford also employs ingenious such a genuine, charming, lovable prolighting tactics that create a delightful tagonist for this story. The script trusts the cosmic atmosphere. Old CRT televisions actor who plays this role to drive the story (the ones that still have backs) display in unspoken moments — or via thoughts information that work seamlessly with the spoken only to an A.I. unit or even just into script and emit an eerie glow in times of the void. Without an exceptionally strong darkness. Several walls are punctured with lead at the helm, the entire production specks of light that mimic stars, functionwould fall apart. ing as windows into the infinite cosmos It’s so delightful to watch Trovillion scatthat surround the stranded hero. ter futuristic beer containers across her livThe Absentee is the kind of play that has ing space and attempt new and astounding a perfect home in a theater like Know. A contortionist acts, or any other solo activity blend of experimental sci-fi and social she can think of to stave off boredom durcommentary, Know provides ample opporing her unending tenure in space. It’s real, tunities to dive into the material at hand. relatable and heartbreaking all at once.

It’s in those small windows into what That makes Trovillion’s interactions the future may hold that Doolittle’s with her co-stars even better. There is work shines. The Absentee, running at 80 incredible chemistry between Trovillion minutes with no intermission, creates a and A.J. Baldwin — the actor who plays the universe that cleverly integrates the familA.I. unit, Beacon — that feels like excellent iar technology of today with extraordinary fodder for a spin-off of The Odd Couple set imagination of how that tech could expand in space. beyond our experiences on Earth. But It should be noted as well that Baldwin instead of honing in on the new technology makes exceptional choices when it comes or expanded fantasy universe, Doolittle to her character’s physicality. Jerky, robotic focuses on the deeply human aspects of movements and a monotonous automated relationships. She examines how techvoice make this quirky, futuristic character nology augments the human experience pop. rather than eclipsing it.

And Nathan Tubbs, who plays the relentThis is the key to what makes the work less political canvasser, Glenn, is contaso prescient and touching, even as it is set giously positive and just plain sweet. He entirely in space. The issues relevant to us brings life to the perfect optimistic foil to today are very much the same as those that the Operator’s angst and feigned apathy. are relevant to the characters in the show.

The set looks spectacularly like the Know Theatre’s The Absentee runs product of a fateful collision between a through Oct. 5. More info/tickets: laser tag course and an episode of Star knowtheatre.com.

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DANCE

Kaplan New Works Stacked with Premieres R E V I E W BY L E Y L A S H O KO O H E

The Kaplan New Works Series, Cincinnati A response to the loss of her father and Ballet’s annual season opener, kicked grandmother, Clockwise is a brief but off on Sept. 12 at the Aronoff Center for powerful meditation on the passage of the Arts. The program is stacked with six time. Clad in black, Amador feels like the world premieres from a variety of artists, physical embodiment of death. Though it’s including three of the Cincinnati Ballet’s a fairly literal representation, Gelfin’s fleetown dancers. footed, nuanced choreography fleshes it Corps de ballet dancer Taylor out. Apprentice Amanda Valentino and Carrasco’s Neat opened the evening. His Liu are wonderful, as are soloists Marcus music is a medley of plaintive and folksy Romeo and Mengden. odes to alcohol, specifically whiskey, hence Morse’s As I Stare at Dust comes next, a the title of his piece (a reference to a serving of the spirit sans ice).

It could also reference his even-paced, fluid choreography. Every gesture, twist and bend felt as carefree, confident and sensual as you might after, say, a few shots.

Carrasco’s cast of four includes ray-ofsunshine Samantha Riester, who dances Melissa Gelfin’s Clockwise with exuberance and PHOTO: PETER MUELLER precision. Michael Mengden makes masterful emotional and physical work ruminative piece with a backstory about as someone with an addiction who just spiritual grieving. It opens on an older can’t quit its seductive routine. Kudos to woman in a chair, sipping tea, putting on Carrasco for the 1930s-esque costuming, an album and being taken away in a visual too, and the moments of silence that reverie. Riester and LaForgia Morse are connect each segment. paired with Carrasco and new dancer Skylight came next, from choreographer Daniel Baldwin. Morse is a fan of hand Sarah Van Patten, a principal dancer with gestures, which can be slightly redundant, San Francisco Ballet. The tightly executed but his meta message about the many ways work opens on corps de ballet dancer death silences rings true. The choreograChristina LaForgia Morse, who looks phy feels like a compelling, urgent converforlorn. Soloist David Morse joins her for a sation between the living and the dead. lovely pas de deux full of beautiful lifts and Closing out the production is beloved fraught gestures. Two more pairs of dancchoreographer Heather Britt’s increders eventually join; principal dancer Sirui ible When I Still Needed You. This is Britt’s Liu was particularly emotive and graceful.

10th New Works contribution, and they just By the third sequence, I felt that each pair keep getting better. This year’s ensemble was a shadow of the original, reflecting work focuses on the concept of loss, openpast iterations of themselves and their ing with a genuinely gorgeous pas between relationships.

Amador and Gelfin. Britt is particularly Closing the first half of New Works adept at maneuvering large groups of was Swivet, a frenetic, exciting work from dancers without anyone feeling superfluchoreographer Andrea Schermoly, who ous, whether in a pile of writhing bodies on has danced for the Boston Ballet Company the floor or executing turns in tandem. and the Netherlands Dance Theater. The Propulsive and primal, the music’s music begins with an alien-like drone as urgency radiates through the choreogprincipal dancers Melissa Gelfin and Cerraphy. Sakita is fantastic here, as is corps vilio Miguel Amador take the stage for an dancer Matthew Griffin; new corps dancer angular, complex pas de deux, showcasing Arcadian Broad steals several moments their individual talents and paired chemof the show with incredible leaps and istry. Senior soloist Maizyalet Velázquez turns. When I Still Needed You is the kind and corps dancer Joshua Stayton were of inquisitive, smart and deftly rendered strong, and new soloist Minori Sakita was work that defines the ethos of New Works. particularly controlled and expressive. The Britt etches the outline of a story before work ends with a coda-like pas that slightly allowing the dancers to infuse it with their lessened the impact of the rest of the turown emotions and the audience to add bulent piece. But overall, Swivet sticks with theirs, too, leaving us with a multi-layered you long after the curtains close. piece of pure magic.

Following intermission can be intimiThe Kaplan New Works Series runs through dating, but Clockwise, Gelfin’s debut choSept. 22. Tickets/more info: cballet.org. reographic work, lived up to the challenge.

FILM

Jennifer Lopez Mesmerizes in ‘Hustlers’ R E V I E W BY T T S T ER N - EN ZI

Bourbon & Bacon Wednesday, December 4th New Riff Distilling 5:30-8:30 P.M.

tickets available at www.bourbonandbaconcincy.com

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With the body and stamina of a peakperformance dancer, Hollywood movie star charisma and the will to overcome any obstacle in her path, Jennifer Lopez is a highly underrated talent. But that talent is commandingly on display in her latest film, Hustlers.

By my estimation, her best acting performance was in Steven Soderbergh’s comedic crime Jennifer Lopez (left) and Constance Wu in Hustlers drama Out of Sight, starring opposite PHOTO: COURTESY MOTION PICTURE ART WORK George Clooney at his dreamiest. Part of hasn’t quite run dry. what made Clooney as a career criminal so These women, like Destiny and Ramona, damned sexy in that film was his sensual were single mothers doing the only thing interplay with Lopez, a fiercely dedicated they knew how to provide for their families U.S. Marshal with a thing for bad boys. I and to maintain a sense of independence have two Lopez guilty pleasures — the (or interdependence, since they relied on first is Enough, where she plays an abused each other over men). woman who finally builds herself up and Ramona was the kingpin of the scheme. fights back to save herself and her young She was the best dancer, the one who knew daughter, followed closely by The Wedding how to tease in just the right way to get Planner, her 2001 deliriously fluffy romwhat she wanted without surrendering to com with Matthew McConaughey. I’ll the whims of clients. She had the plucky watch them anytime they pop up on cable hustle needed to adapt, and the heart and on a Saturday afternoon and she’s the innate leadership qualities (like loyalty) to primary reason why. inspire others to join her.

That level of watchability defines the In Ramona, Lopez has found a role that opening sequence in Hustlers, which I feels like a summation of her onscreen caught at the Toronto International Film career as well as her life outside film.

Festival, written and directed by Lorene Let’s not forget, Lopez kicked things off Scafaria (Seeking a Friend for the End of the in the early 1990s as one of the Fly Girls World). In that scene, Lopez’s character is on Keenen Ivory Wayans’ sketch comedy unveiled. series In Living Color before transitioning Constance Wu, playing a relative newbie to music videos (Janet Jackson’s “That’s the in the seedy underworld of strip clubs is Way Love Goes”) and then making her own our stand-in, strutting through a club with music and landing acting parts. fake steel in her stride. But when she turns Each achievement is a testament to her to the stage and catches sight of the dancer talent and killer resolve. working the pole, she’s transfixed. And so When we watch Lopez saunter through are we. the frames in Hustlers, we’re cataloguing Ramona (Lopez) is a goddess, alone a career, a life in the public sphere that is a on that pedestal, mostly unaware of the whole and living thing. She, like every one adoring eyes on her. When she deigns of her characters, is the result of hard work, to pay attention to the men out there, beauty and a never-say-die spirit.

Ramona lets us know that she’s in control; In Ramona, we don’t get the sense that she’s the one being worshipped and when her private life had the same dark roots as the dance is over, she scoops up the cash say Lopez’s character in Enough, but we and prowls off like a panther after the hunt. understand that somewhere in Ramona, Wu’s Destiny girl-crushes hard over there is the willingness to punch and Ramona, which begins a relationship that gouge to survive. underlines the narrative.

The romantic side of Ramona isn’t On the surface, Hustlers is about the dependent upon a man; she’s far happier evolution of a criminal enterprise. Female standing by Destiny and the girls in this strip club employees — which include crew, her new Fly Girls. That’s what makes Rapper and former stripper Cardi B and Lopez the hustler that she is. Simply the Pop superstar Lizzo — hit hard by the best. (In theaters) (R) Grade: A economic downturn in 2008 (when their Contact tt stern-enzi: Wall Street clients scaled back on their request@citybeat.com lavish bad-boy parties) figure out new ways to suck money from a wellspring that

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AT T H E P H O E N IX 11 :3 0 AM - 2 :3 0 PM

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FOOD & DRINK

Contemporary Cuisine Fausto brings locally sourced, California-style fare, coffee and cocktails to the CAC café space

BY L E Y L A S H O KO O H E

F

Fausto is located in the lobby of the Contemporary Arts Center PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

Fausto 44 E. Sixth St., Downtown, faustoatthecac.com

FIND MORE RESTAURANT NEWS AND REVIEWS AT CITYBEAT.COM/ FOOD-DRINK

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

through the crates, they’re sustainable and they were used to build a wine station and a host stand. Even the dishware has been carefully considered.

“All our plateware is custom. We have a custom Ferrari brothers plate line you can get it for your home (or restaurant),” Tony says. “We partnered up with Breakfront Pottery, amazing people in Price Hill, and we worked with them for a couple months designing the plateware, the color, the feel.”

If it feels like Fausto is essentially a onestop shop, well, that was intentional, too.

“We think of Fausto as kind of like a factory, or a manufactory. We’re here for all your needs throughout the entire day,” Austin says.

“You can come here at 8 a.m., get a cup of coffee, and a croissant or egg sandwich.

You can come at 10:30 (a.m.), get an elegant lunch with your family, get some roasted chicken, side of potatoes. You can come for a very quick lunch. You can take it to your office — you can get your office catered by us. You can come at 4 o’clock for a bottle of wine, some cheese, charcuterie. You can come at 5 or 6 o’clock for a beautiful tasting menu. It’s really leaving it up to the customer to make it happen for themselves.”

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“That stuff weighs you down. We want people to leave here energized. It feels good to take beautiful produce from someone, cook it well, and give it to people who actually care about it,” he says.

Breakfast features several egg and toast options, a chia seed pudding and that aforementioned trout roe, which is served on the cleverly named “potatoes and eggs” crème fraîche.

For patrons familiar with the Ferrari brothers’ Camp Washington joint, Mom ‘n ‘em, you’ll be pleased to know they serve Deeper Roots coffee here, too.

The lunch menu has plenty of light and crisp salads and sandwiches. But dinner offerings feel more involved. There is a three-course selection for $39, or several individual entrées (called “attractions” on their menu), appetizers (“beginnings”), pasta and dessert (“endings”).

The chicken salad is perhaps the best of the salads and sandwiches, at least in my pragmatic mind, because it marries the two in one great offering. “The tarragon really changed the game here” is an actual note I wrote down on my phone after I bit into the sandwich and tried to pinpoint the sharp, fresh herbiness that elevated the whole shebang. It’s served on Allez bread, with, as I also noted, “Really nice butter lettuce.” (Though a side dish of some kind

would have been nice.)

On another visit, I took a server’s hearty recommendation and tried the grain salad.

The server also suggested I add bacon.

She was right. The bacon was chopped in what my notes call “nice little chunky, fatty squishes,” and the contrast between its warmth and the cold grain was very enjoyable. Hunks of fresh corn kernels, a smattering of pickled red onions, a few heirloom tomatoes and a tarragon-y dressing rounded out the very filling salad.

Local really is the name of the game for most of Fausto’s offerings. Suppliers include Dogwood Farm for most of Fausto’s greens and vegetables, pastries from North South Baking Co. in Covington and Allez for all the bread except the English muffins, which are from Sixteen Bricks. Even the decor is local.

Fausto at the CAC is delineated from the rest of the lobby by a sculptural installation of sorts, composed of black milk crates. It hovers on the edge of twee, but the earnestness with which Tony and Austin describe the project softened even my skeptical eyes.

The brothers took the issue of making the distinction between what a lobby café is and what Fausto is — a separate restaurant entity altogether — to some artist pals.

Joe Girandola and Robert Probst came up with the crate solution, one that works particularly well because you can see

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austo, a new restaurant in the lobby of the Contemporary Arts Center, is the latest offering from the Ferrari brothers — Tony and Austin Ferrari — and their expanding local food service empire.

The California-meets-Queen City outlet opened in July, fresh on the heels of their Camp Washington coffee shop, Mom ‘n ‘em; though the timing was unintentional.

“It’s been nuts,” Tony says. “We’ve been nonstop the last couple months — all day, every day, basically.”

The magnetic cult of personality Tony and Austin have in town is, luckily, warranted; their passion for food and hospitality is the real thing. The brothers love people. Patrons float in and out of the lobby at the CAC regularly, sometimes in groups, sometimes individually. The brothers engage fully, because Fausto, for them, is about more than just being a restaurant.

“For us, it’s not about making money,” Austin says. “It’s about serving a perfect product, having great service, hospitality, good mood, you get this great meal and ambiance and people are like, ‘I’ve never had this before. I’m going to come back.

And I’m going to tell my friends.’ ” The attention to detail on the Fausto menu is impeccable. The brothers use only locally sourced products — Austin says Tony will visit local farmers’ markets personally, two or three times a week, to get the freshest ingredients — and they recycle and partner with GoZERO, a local food compost courier, so no scrap of food left on a plate goes to waste.

The menu is contemporary and upbeat and honestly feels like the culinary equivalent of the light that streams into Fausto’s seating area through the CAC’s massive panes of glass. A heightened brunch, lunch or dinner experience, for sure — not many places are serving trout roe on potatoes — but one that safely resists pretension.

“We’re in a contemporary art museum.

We have to do something that matches that concept. Fortunately, we were actually excited because we want to do that type of food anyway,” Tony says. “Clean lines, clean food, clean design; same has to happen with your food.”

Tony describes Fausto’s food as “California cuisine” with splashes of citrus and extra-virgin olive oil, not full of fat or butter.

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THE DISH

OTR’s Lost & Found Slings Botanical Cocktails and Seasonal Bites in an Art-Filled Former Garage

BY S E A N M . PE T ER S

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Lost & Found is Over-the-Rhine’s newest bar, complete with an adventurous cocktail menu, farm-fresh light bites and local artwork that makes for a funky, psychedelic atmosphere.

Helmed by Steven Clement and Camilo Otalora, Lost & Found first opened its doors for a “family day” Aug. 17. Since then, it’s already become a favorite neighborhood hangout. For opening day, Otalora’s family flew in from Los Angeles and Clement’s family came to visit from his hometown of LaGrange, Ohio which, as he describes, is a small village that has no traffic lights and three sports bars.

“When I was first opening Lost & Found, I was trying to conceptualize this idea to my family at home,” Clement says. “They were like, is it a sports bar? Are you going have TVs and have the games on?”

Not quite.

The space was formerly a four-to-five car garage, which was attached to a three-bedroom home purchased by Otalora in 2013.

And the transformation is astounding.

Walk into the bar and you’re transported to what seems like a magical underground hideaway. The artwork above the bar is reminiscent of the album cover of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a soulful collage of pop culture icons and gigantic flowers — engrossing to observe and almost as stimulating as your cocktail.

Nearly everything you see throughout the bar was made by local artists. The murals are by Cody Gunningham, there are ceramics by Taylor Carter of CKTC and the upholstery is by Helen Smith of Helltown Workshop.

Clement moved out of LaGrange in 2005 to head to Columbus, then to Greater Cincinnati in 2007. He’s lived in Over-theRhine since 2013. He says that when he was younger, he had aspirations of retiring young, maybe by creating a moneymaking machine of a business that didn’t require his direct involvement after opening. That changed when he started working in the hospitality industry, specifically at Salazar as the bar manager shortly after it

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opened in 2014, where the care for ingredients, their origins and their farmers was a top priority. He credits Salazar’s owner/ chef Jose Salazar for encouraging him in his pursuit to open his own bar.

“It wasn’t until then that I became super passionate about the food and drink industry. In 2014 I started thinking that maybe I can do this,” Clement says.

During this time, Clement was working on organic produce farms in and around Cincinnati. He worked in exchange for produce, happy to learn the skill and get his hands dirty. Much of the produce now served at Lost & Found is sourced from the same farmers with whom he’d acquainted himself during this time.

“I didn’t realize until I started getting outside the city itself how many people actually make this city run. The produce, the people that care for it, it’s really amazing.

I was part of a co-op for a little farm. I did that for three years until I started focusing more on this project,” he says. “If you’re just willing to learn, there are people out there willing to teach you.”

On the food menu, try the crudités ($7), comprised of roasted, pickled and blanched seasonal vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, green beans, radishes and cucumbers paired with romesco and bagna cauda sauces.

A popular choice is “Chips & Dips” ($5) — the russet potato chips are fried at the Findlay Kitchen, as there’s no fryer in Lost & Found’s efficient and compact kitchen behind the bar. The kitchen is impressive to those who care for the art of ergonomics, seeing how they’ve built it up instead of out; a ladder system will soon be installed to aid in accessing the items.

The dips served with your spuds are a Basque tomato sauce in one dish and minted yogurt in the other, making for a nice variety of tangy and acidic in the tomato sauce and creamy and herbaceous in the yogurt.

There is also crostini ($7) made with an Allez baguette and served with Leonora cheese and pickled Michigan blueberries

Lost & Found serves farm-inspired snacks, including crudités with romesco and bagna cauda sauces.

PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER

(Clement originally served this with mulberries that he harvested in OTR, but they shortly ran out), savory oat crumbles and micro greens. The menu will change based on seasonal availability, so the bar is going to focus on pickling lots of vegetables for the winter months.

Melissa Mileto, former owner of Take the Cake, was consulted on the menu.

Niall Wright, former sous chef at Nada, heads the kitchen as chef at Lost & Found.

Every employee is cross-trained on kitchen and bar items, which rings true with Lost & Found’s communal environment: several employees and Clement live together.

The drink menu spans wine, cocktails and draft beer. Aiming to be an easy choice for locals to enjoy any given evening, the

price points are accessible, with a $3 pint of Short’s Local’s Light, a Michigan-made lager that’s crisp and flavorful and tastes way above the price tag.

The Jazz Buddy cocktail ($10) is a great last taste of summer: tequila poured over a large frozen watermelon juice ice cube with Cocchi Americano, lime and cinnamon. It gets sweeter the more the watermelon melts into your drink, so give it a few swirls after your first sips to get things moving. The Betelgeuse ($9) is also a favorite, made with gin, beets, dill, lemon and Dijon — likely not something you’d see at any sports bar in LaGrange.

Lost & Found, 22 E. 14th St., Over-theRhine, lostandfoundotr.com.

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Aronoff Center for the Arts

Visit CityBeat.com/win-stuff to enter for a chance to win tickets to this upcoming show!

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MUSIC

Right Time of the Season Recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Zombies return to celebrate their landmark album Odessey and Oracle

BY S T E V EN R O S EN

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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hen The Zombies perform their 1968 album Odessey and Oracle in its entirety at the Taft Theatre on Sept. 23, there will be many fans excited to hear live what they consider one of the classic Rock albums of the 1960s. The band’s four surviving original members — primary lead singer Colin Blunstone, keyboardist Rod Argent, bassist Chris White and drummer Hugh Grundy — will perform the influential LP with additional musicians.

But there will be others at the Taft — perhaps those attracted by the show’s co-headliner, Brian Wilson of Beach Boys fame, rather than The Zombies — who will wonder just what Odessey and Oracle is.

They may well have never heard it. Some may not even have heard of it.

That’s because the album was not a hit in its day, either in The Zombies’ native England or the U.S. After their then-new British record company released two flop singles from the album in 1967, the band didn’t even wait for the album’s 1968 release before calling it quits. Blunstone went on to a notable solo career in England and Europe; Argent and White formed the band Argent.

The Zombies’ U.S. label, Columbia Records, had to be convinced to even release Odessey and Oracle here. When the album’s striking “Time of the Season” became a surprise U.S. hit in 1969, the band was not around to capitalize on it.

Without live support, Odessey and Oracle only made it to No. 95 on the U.S. album charts and was quickly forgotten.

“Everybody did feel committed to other projects,” says Blunstone in a phone interview from a tour stop in Phoenix.

“There was never one discussion about reforming the band.”

But gradually the album got rediscovered. The enduring popularity of Odessey and Oracle’s “Time of the Season” helped.

With the resurgence, esteem grew for The Zombies, who also had two memorable British Invasion hits, 1964’s “She’s Not There” and 1965’s “Tell Her No.” This year, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The belated attention for Odessey and Oracle is deserved. Its songs have the ornate melodic and harmonic flourish of the best of what’s now called Psych Pop, with vivid lyrical imagery and condensed, compelling narratives on songs like “A Rose for Emily,” “Care of Cell 44,” “I Want Her, She Wants Me” and “Changes.”

Recorded mostly at London’s Abbey Road Studios immediately after The Beatles finished Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band there, Odessey and Oracle used multi-track recording techniques to layer the vocals like a choir. Blunstone’s breathy, effervescent voice is both sweet and slightly fragile; Argent’s keyboard work and use of the Mellotron give the whole album an orchestral sweep.

In the 2000s, Blunstone and Argent reunited as The Zombies, with new members, and did shows spotlighting the album. For its 40th anniversary, White and Grundy rejoined to play Odessey and Oracle. The Zombies have been featuring it in concert off and on ever since, even while releasing their new album, Still Got That Hunger, in 2015 — though they swear this tour will be the last one on which they’ll play the album in its entirety.

“The fact it has taken nearly 50 years to get the recognition it now has is genuinely mystifying to me,” Blunstone says. “It was virtually ignored when released; certainly it was never a commercial success. But it’s been word of mouth. In the U.K., (The Jam’s) Paul Weller — a huge star — has never stopped talking about Odessey and Oracle as his favorite album. In America, the late, great Tom Petty, Dave Grohl and many other high-profile Rock artists and a lot of young independent bands have been promoting it as a Rock classic. It’s eventually getting the recognition we all hoped it would have.”

Argent, also speaking from Phoenix, says self-producing Odessey and Oracle for a new label not set in its ways gave the band the chance to be heard on record the way they always wanted. But they couldn’t be indulgent.

“We didn’t have a lot of money to produce it, which meant we really had to rehearse it before we went into studio,” he says. “So we were very practiced up and knew what we were doing, because technology was evolving at Abbey Road.”

With extra recording tracks available, The Zombies could also add sounds that occurred to them on the spur of the moment. That allowed for the now-famous rhythmically riveting start to “Time of the Season,” where the instrumental music is punctuated by claps and breathy “aahs.”

“I said to Hugh (Grundy), ‘What if I put a clap just before the backbeat and then do a mouth sound afterward, as sort of a percussion thing?’ And he said to try it,” Argent says.

The Zombies P H O T O : P AY L E Y P H O T O G R A P H Y

It worked.

By the way, by now you’ve probably noticed that the word “odyssey” is misspelled in the title, as it is within the wildly colorful psychedelic artwork on the album’s cover. The artist Terry Quirk showed Argent and White a sketch of the cover just before The Zombies left on tour.

“We loved it and said just do it, then went off on tour,” Argent says. “When we got back, we were presented by the record company with the finished cover.

“We thought it was brilliant and then suddenly looked at each other and said, ‘Terry spelled the word “odyssey” wrong.’

We told the record company they had to change the spelling and they said, ‘No, it’s all set to go and can’t be changed.’ ” Argent’s solution was to make up a story that the misspelling was intentional, a play

on words to make people think each song was an ode.

“It was a bit sketchy, but I told everyone that, and everyone accepted that,” he says.

Even Blunstone long believed the story that it was intentional.

“The amazing thing to me is that I was in the band and he never told me that Terry made the mistake,” Blunstone says. “He told me this ingenuous story that it was done on purpose. Only a couple years ago, we were doing a live radio interview and he told the whole story to a DJ. I’m sitting next to him and said, ‘You’ve been telling me for 50 years this was done on purpose!’ It was quite eye opening for me.”

The Zombies perform with Brian Wilson at the Taft Theatre on Mnoday, Sept. 23.

Tickets/more info: tafttheatre.org.

SPILL IT

Overcast Hip Hop Festival Returns

BY M I K E B R EEN

BY M I K E B R EE N

Sam Smith’s Pronouns

After coming out as non-binary in an interview earlier this year, Pop star Sam Smith recently announced that they were officially changing their pronouns from “he/him” to “they/them,” becoming one of the highest profile artists to make such a change public. Smith wrote on Instagram, “after a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.” Smith thanked high-profile LGBTQ activists like Laverne Cox and Munroe Bergdorf for giving them the “clarity and understanding” to recognize their gender identity and what it means to be nonbinary. Weirdly, the Associated Press then repeatedly misgendered Smith in a story about the pronoun change.

Kanye G?

Kanye West’s “collaboration” with Donald Trump is probably the most baffling of the 21st century, but a just announced Kanye pairing (this one musical) may soon rival it. Apparently on a mission to work with the most maligned representatives in their respective fields, West has allegedly done some recording with saxophonist Kenny G. The Easy Listening superstar told The Dallas Observer he had been in a recording studio with West, but wouldn’t specify the project, saying “he doesn’t really want anyone to talk about music before he releases it.” A new Watch the Throne album with Mr. G replacing Mr. Z?

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It has long been believed that The Beatles reconvened to record Abbey Road knowing it was their last hurrah. But Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn recently shared a tape with The Guardian from 1969 recorded after the Abbey Road sessions in which the group members are heard plotting another album. John Lennon is heard on the tape proposing that the album feature four songs each from him, Paul McCartney and George Harrison, plus two from Ringo Starr. The album never materialized; the cobbled-together Let It Be (recorded before Abbey Road) was released in 1970, a month after the group’s break-up was announced. Lewisohn is using the tape (and others he’s collected, along with rare video, photos and music) to create the forthcoming stage show Hornsey Road, which chronicles the band’s final stage.

S E P T. 18 - 2 4 , 2 0 19

The Overcast Hip Hop Festival is returning for a second year this weekend. Showcasing local and out-of-town underground Hip Hop artists, DJs and dancers, the event debuted in 2018 at Urban Artifact in Northside.

Presented by local independent label Grasshopper Juice Records (which also hosts the Northsidebased, multi-venue Adjust Your Eyes music and arts festival annually), Overcast was inspired by Scribble Jam, which was cofounded by last year’s Triiibe co-headliner — and a PHOTO: HAILEY BOLLINGER Cincinnati Hip Hop DJ legend — Mr. Dibbs. other elements of Hip Hop culture with One of the most storied Hip Hop festia B-Boy/B-Girl dance battle and an MC vals in the country, Scribble Jam began battle. in the mid-’90s and featured artists like The dance battles will begin on Saturday KRS-One, Little Brother, Atmosphere, around 5 p.m. in the Thompson House’s Lyrics Born, Sage Francis, Rhymefest and ballroom. Hosted by DJs Topspeed, Juan Eminem, who famously competed in (and Cosby and NoahIMean, the Rap battles get lost) one of Scribble’s legendary MC battles, going in the ballroom on Saturday at 8 p.m. a cornerstone of the Marshall Mathers On Friday, music begins in the ballroom origin story. at 8 p.m. with Cosby, Haskell, AP CounThis year’s Overcast fest was initially terfeit, WeirDose and Kill Bill performing intended to take place at Top Cats, which with a live band that features local musiwould have been another nice nod to cians Nick Baverman, Chris Barlow and the Queen City’s Hip Hop history. The Dan Dickerscheid. Other local acts perCorryville club, which was one of the top forming on Friday (in both the ballroom spots in the city in the late ’90s/’00s for live and on the venue’s lounge stage) include Hip Hop, reopened last year under new Sons of Silverton, Raised x Wolves, Audmanagement. The club’s opening weekend ley, Lionesque and Trademark Aaron. featured live sets from various classic and Friday also sees the return of Ill Poetic, current local artists, like Dibbs and the the onetime Cincinnati-based MC and acclaimed trio Triiibe, who are returning producer (and CityBeat columnist) who to co-headline 2019’s Overcast. now resides in California. The Friday night But the festival, it turns out, won’t be Overcast headliners are Vast Aire (half of held at Top Cats after all. the renowned duo Cannibal Ox) and ChiOvercast organizers recently sent out a cago twosome The Palmer Squares, who’ve press release saying the venue informed amassed a huge online following since them they were canceling the booking just releasing their debut, Finna, in 2013. two weeks ahead of the second-annual Triiibe headlines Saturday’s Overcast event. On its Facebook page, Top Cats said festivities on the ballroom stage. On it had to cancel because of construction at the Thompson House’s “parlor” stage, the club. (“We apologize for the inconvethe lineup (which gets rolling at 4 p.m.) nience and wish the organizers and artists includes a slew of solid local artists, includa successful event,” the post said.) ing Bla’szé, Roberto, Xzela, CJ the Cynic, Organizers acted quickly to secure Frank McQueen, Blakhí, Vibe One and a new location and now Overcast is set Patterns of Chaos. to take place just across the river at the An all-ages event, admission is $15 for Thompson House (24 E. Third St., Newsingle-day tickets or $25 for a two-day port, thompsonhousenewport.com) this pass. Tickets are available in advance via Friday and Saturday, Sept. 20 and 21. “A big ticketweb.com. thanks to the new venue for coming to our For the full festival schedule and more aid in this bizarre turn of events,” the latest info, visit overcastfest.com.

Overcast press release said.

Contact Mike Breen: Along with live music from area and mbreen@citybeat.com touring independent artists, like Scribble Jam, Overcast also spotlights some of the

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Indigo Girls with Lucy Wainwright Roche

Thursday • Taft Theatre

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers — bka influential Folk Rock duo Indigo Girls — were elementary school acquaintances in Georgia who began performing together after high school in the mid-’80s.

In the wake of the success of Folk-tinged singer/songwriter acts like Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman, Epic Records signed Indigo Girls in 1988 and released their selftitled album, which was boosted by college radio support and contained the duo’s enduring classic “Closer to Fine.”

In 1990, Indigo Girls were nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy, “losing” to another duo, Milli Vanilli, who famously had the award rescinded after it emerged that the two singers didn’t actually sing on their breakthrough album.

Ray and Saliers definitely sang and wrote their own material, a distinctive brand of highly melodic and richly emotive Folk Pop that has been both commercially successful and widely acclaimed by critics.

The pair was a cornerstone of Lilith Fair, the groundbreaking touring festival that spotlighted women in music. Indigo Girls were featured on all three tours (1997-1999), helping to cement their status as 1990s pop culture icons.

Ray and Saliers are also icons of the LGBTQ community, having been longtime high-profile, vocal supporters of many causes and organizations over the years.

After a one-album stint with Hollywood Records, Indigo Girls returned to their early independent roots in 2007 (with distribution through Vanguard Records).

The duo’s last studio album was 2015’s One Lost Day. They’ve performed with orchestras across the country and released

Miranda Lambert PHOTO: ELLEN VON UNWERTH

a live album recorded with the University of Colorado Symphony Orchestra last year.

(Mike Breen)

Miranda Lambert with Elle King, Caylee Hammack and Pistol Annies Saturday • BB&T Arena

Bold statement time: Miranda Lambert is the single best, most relatable artist making Country music today. I, for one, would be lost without her. In any debate, any ranking system, any chance to choose sides, I will always choose Miranda.

To a certain extent, I feel like we grew up together. Each of her albums has hit at just the right moment, each song reverberating through my life.

Lambert broke onto Country radio in 2004 with her first big single, “Me and Charlie Talking,” off of her debut fulllength, Kerosene. That album found me during my first years in Cincinnati, 1,000 miles from my parents in Florida. Lambert was 22 years old then and I was 21. I played “Mama, I’m Alright” on repeat so much that

wondering. I say, “Never enough.” (Deirdre Kaye)

Willie Nelson with Luke Combs, Bonnie Raitt, Brothers Osborne and Derek Alan Band at the Outlaw Music Festival

MUSIC EDITOR MIKE BREEN KNOWS MUSIC.

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my neighbor actually asked me to give the song a rest.

A couple years later, while debating whether or not to file for divorce, it was “New Strings” that toughened me up. Just like Lambert, I knew I had everything I needed to make it on my own. It was “Gunpowder & Lead,” off of 2007’s Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, that helped me explain my decision to outsiders.

“The House That Built Me” has meant the most to me, though. The 2010 single felt like it’d been written about the Lebanon farmhouse my mom grew up in and that we left when I was 5. The song stuck in my heart the same way that house did, with duct tape, Gorilla glue and a five-point safety harness, simultaneously breaking my heart and then healing it, again. Every.

Single. Rotation.

As much as all of her songs have meant to me, no album hits like her sixth, 2016’s The Weight of These Wings. The first crackle of “Vice” sent me spiraling to a time when I was both lonely and OK with it… kind of.

The rest of that double album was just as powerful.

“I’ve Got Wheels” felt like the perfect summation of how I felt with my current lot in life. I sang it over and over to my growing baby bump. I wanted Mathilda to know that I wasn’t perfect, my life wasn’t perfect and her life wouldn’t be perfect, either, but we’d keep rolling on. “Highway Vagabond” felt like an ode to my days of chasing after Mumford & Sons. And “For The Birds” was like a happy little three-minute vacation.

And — yeah, girl — we should be friends.

Lambert’s “It All Comes Out in the Wash,” off of her upcoming album Wildcard (due Nov. 1), fits just the same as all the others. It’s witty, irreverent and relatable. Aside from Wildcard, Lambert’s group, Pistol Annies, released a new album last November.

When Lambert rolls through Northern Kentucky this weekend, she’ll be doing double duty. Not only will she headline, but Pistol Annies is an opening act.

“Too much Miranda Lambert?” you’re

Willie Nelson’s career is kind of mind-boggling.

Born in Abbott, Texas at the height of the Great Depression, he started playing music when his grandfather gave him a guitar at age 6. Eighty years later, Nelson is still immersed in the Country-based music that captured his imagination when he joined his first band, a local outfit curiously dubbed Bohemian Polka.

Nelson initially made his name as a songwriter for the likes of Ray Price and Patsy Cline in the 1960s. He broke through as the guy we know today via a series of singer/songwriter albums in the mid-1970s (many consider the somber, sometimes harrowing Red Headed Stranger Nelson’s masterpiece), and he crested commercially in 1982 with his cover version of “Always on My Mind,” which won a Grammy.

Then there’s his unabashed love of marijuana — Nelson is perhaps the world’s most famous pothead and he’s been a fervent supporter of legalization long before that was something most envisioned as even remotely possible.

Nelson has toured extensively over the last 40 years, each excursion highlighting a variation of the Texas-flavored Country & Western music he grew up on — an approach that incorporates elements of Folk, Rock, Bluegrass, Jazz and even Pop standards, always anchored by his weathered, ever-expressive voice.

Nelson’s 69th and latest studio album, this year’s Ride Me Back Home, is classic Willie, a timeless mix of cover tunes and originals. It includes a version of Mac Davis’ “It’s Hard to Be Humble,” which finds Willie, aided by sons Lukas and Micah, delivering the lines, “Lord it’s hard to be humble/But I’m doing the best that I can.”

“I think God is love, period,” Nelson said in a recent cover-story interview with Rolling Stone. “There’s love in everything out there — trees, grass, air, water. Love is the one thing that runs through every living thing.

“Everybody loves something: The grass loves the water. That’s the one thing that we all have in common, that we all love and like to be loved. That’s God.” Amen, Willie. (Jason Gargano)

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LISTINGS

CityBeat’s music listings are free. Send info to Mike Breen at mbreen@citybeat.com. Listings are subject to change.

See CityBeat.com for full music listings and all club locations. H is CityBeat staff’s stamp of approval.

WEDNESDAY 18

BRICKHOUSE PUB & GRUB - Bam Powell and the Troublemakers. 7 p.m.

Rock/R&B. Free.

H

THE LISTING LOON - Ricky Nye. 8 p.m. Blues/Boogie Woogie. Free.

THOMPSON HOUSE BUKU, Esseks and Frq Ncy. 8:30 p.m. EDM/Bass. $20.

LUDLOW GARAGE - Tyler Hilton. 8:30 p.m. Pop. $15-$50.

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Grassroots Ramble. 8 p.m.

Bluegrass. $10 (food/drink minimum).

H H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Soften, Cross Record and Sungaze. 9 p.m. Indie Rock. Free.

STANLEY’S PUB - El Ritmo Del Manana. 9 p.m. Latin Jazz. $5.

THURSDAY 19

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Philip Paul Trio.

7:30 p.m. Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Braza Trio.

7:30 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

FOUNTAIN SQUARE Salsa on the Square with Afinca’o with Atrevidos. 7 p.m. Salsa/Latin/Dance.

Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Brad Myers Trio. 8 p.m. Jazz. Free.

H H

LUDLOW GARAGE Dweezil Zappa. 8:30 p.m. Rock. Sold out.

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MEMORIAL HALL - No Promises (EP release show). 8 p.m. Vocal Jazz. $16-$18.

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

STANLEY’S PUB - Maritime Law. 10 p.m. Jam/Acoustic.

Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Phil DeGreg Trio. 6 p.m. Jazz.

Free.

MOTR PUB - Surfer Joe with The Ampfibians. 10 p.m. Surf Rock. Free.

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p.m. Bluegrass/Americana.

Free.

H

MOTR PUB - All Seeing Eyes and catl. 10 p.m.

Rock. Free.

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - MeatWound, Thunderclap, Ball Of Light and Sleepcrawler. 9 p.m. Metal/ Hardcore/Various SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Brazilian Commusications with Marcelo Silviera & Friends. 8 p.m. Jazz. Cover.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) Mt. Pleasant String Band. 8

TAFT THEATRE Indigo Girls with Lucy Wainwright Roche. 8 p.m.

Folk/Rock/Pop. $35-$75.

FRIDAY 20

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Chelsea Ford and the Trouble. 8 p.m. Americana. Free.

BLIND LEMON - Tallant & Harmony. 9 p.m. Acoustic.

Free.

H

BOGART’S - Bogart’s Birthday Bash with Catalina Mixer, Roger Klug and Girl Pop. 8 p.m. Rock/ Pop. $7.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - Rusty Burge with The Phil DeGreg Trio. 9 p.m.

Jazz. Free.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - Queen City Cabaret. 7:30 p.m.

Cabaret/Jazz/Pop. Cover.

H

THE COMET - Bat House with Brooklyn Rae. 10 p.m. Indie Rock.

Free.

FOUNTAIN SQUARE - 2nd Wind. 7 p.m. Jazz/R&B/Pop/ Dance. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Marc Fields Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - Airwave Band. 9:30 p.m. R&B/Pop/Dance/Various. Cover.

JERZEES PUB & GRUB Pandora Effect. 9 p.m. Rock JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Amy Sailor Band. 9 p.m. Country. Free.

H

THE LISTING LOON - The Singer & The Songwriter, Annie Bacon and Sarah Asher. 8 p.m.

Folk/Jazz/Various.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE Steel Pulse. 8:30 p.m.

Reggae. $25-$30.

MANSION HILL TAVERN - The Blue Ravens. 9 p.m.

Blues. Cover.

H

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Western & The Rodeo Clowns with Captain Culpepper. 9 p.m. Acoustic/Various.

Free.

SATURDAY 21

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Water Witches, The Grotesque Brooms and Spacer.

10 p.m. Rock. Free.

H

WOODWARD THEATER - Murder By Death with The Midwesterns. 9 p.m. Alt/Rock/Roots. $20-$25.

MOTR PUB - Ghost Wolves with Still Witches and Dead Man String Band. 10 p.m. Rock.

Free.

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H

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NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Wonky Tonk. 10 p.m.

Indie/Rock/Roots/Various.

Free.

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Krystal Peterson and the Queen City Band. 8 p.m. R&B/ Roots. Free.

BB&T ARENA Miranda Lambert with Elle King, Caylee Hammack and Pistol Annies. 7 p.m.

Country. $79.75-$89.75.

MOTR PUB - Super City with Beloved Youth and Smart Objects. 10 p.m.

Indie Rock. Free.

NORTHSIDE YACHT CLUB - Agnostic Front with Prong and Spear. 8 p.m. Hardcore. $18, $22 day of show.

H

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - The Shivers with The New Van Goghs. 8 p.m.

Indie Rock. Free.

RIVERFRONT LIVE - Cold.

6:30 p.m. Rock. $20-$65.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Hot Club of Milford. 6 p.m. Gypsy Jazz.

BLIND LEMON - Jake Walz.

9 p.m. Acoustic. Free.

RIVERFRONT LIVE - Horns For Heroes featuring The Filthy, War Hammer, Evil X, Antic Terror, Black Tractor and Blood on the Blade. 7 p.m. Hard Rock/Metal. $15.

RADISSON CINCINNATI RIVERFRONT - Basic Truth.

8 p.m. R&B/Soul/Funk. Free.

BROMWELL’S HÄRTH LOUNGE - The Dixie Karas Group. 9 p.m. Jazz. Free.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT Erwin Stuckey Trio. 8:30 p.m.

Jazz. Cover.

THE REDMOOR - The Ark Band. 8 p.m. Reggae. $10.

CAFFÈ VIVACE - John Fedchock with Scott Belck Quartet. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Cincinnati Noir.

10 p.m. Classic Alternative/ Dance/DJ/Various. $5.

H

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Unknown Hinson with Vincent Neal Emerson.

9 p.m. Rockabilly. $15. $18 day of show.

H

H

ARNOLD’S BAR AND GRILL - Diamond Jim Dews.

7 p.m. Blues. Free.

PLAIN FOLK CAFE - Root Cellar Xtract. 7:30 p.m.

Country Rock. Free.

RICK’S TAVERN - Devils Due. 10 p.m. Metal. Cover.

RIVERFRONT LIVE - Kataklysm with Exhorder, Krisiun, Hatchet, Engraved Darkness. 7 p.m. Metal. $13.

SCHWARTZ’S POINT - Pat Kelly Trio. 8:30 p.m. Jazz.

Cover.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (LOUNGE) - The Truehearts. 9:30 p.m. Americana. Free.

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (REVIVAL ROOM) - Jason Eady with Caleb Caudle. 8 p.m. Country/Americana. $12, $15 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Suede Jackets. 10 p.m. Rock. Free.

H

TAFT THEATRE - The Mavericks. 8 p.m.

Country/Western/Roots. $48-$58.

H

THOMPSON HOUSE - Overcast Hip Hop Festival. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $15 ($25 for two-day pass).

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Eric Lechtliter, EWI & George Simon Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Crosstown. 7:30 p.m. Blues/ Rock/R&B. Free.

DESHA’S - The Pandora Project. 8 p.m. Rock. Free.

FOUNTAIN SQUARE - Soul Pocket Band. 7 p.m. R&B/ Pop/Dance. Free.

HILTON NETHERLAND PALM COURT - Gary Gorrell/Jim Connerley Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz/Blues. Free.

H

IRISH HERITAGE CENTER - Billow Wood.

7 p.m. Irish Folk. $20-$27.

JACK CINCINNATI CASINO - Clint Black. 8 p.m. Country.

Sold out.

JAG’S STEAK AND SEAFOOD - 3 Piece Revival.

9:30 p.m. Rock/Pop/Various.

Cover.

STANLEY’S PUB Solar Disco Force and Ample Parking. 10 p.m. Funk.

Cover.

H

THOMPSON HOUSE - Overcast Hip Hop Festival. 8 p.m. Hip Hop. $15 ($25 for two-day pass).

WASHINGTON PLATFORM - Options Jazz Quartet. 9 p.m. Jazz. $10 (food/drink minimum).

JIM AND JACK’S ON THE RIVER - Gen X Band. 9 p.m.

Rock/Pop/Country. Free.

WIEDEMANN BREWERY AND TAPROOM - Liz & the Perfectly Adequate Trio.

7:30 p.m. Rock. Free.

KNOTTY PINE - Bad Habit.

10 p.m. Rock. Cover.

H

LUDLOW GARAGE - Frank Gambale. 8:30 p.m. Jazz. $15-$30.

H

MANSION HILL TAVERN - Troubled Waters, Lil Red and the Rooster and Sean Carney. 9 p.m. Blues.

Cover.

MEMORIAL HALL - Crash Test Dummies with Mo Kenney. 8 p.m. Pop Rock. $32-$48.

YORK STREET CAFÉ - Dan Bern. 8 p.m. Folk/ Rock. $20, $25 day of show.

SUNDAY 22

H

FRETBOARD BREWING COMPANY - BIG Something. 9 p.m. Funk/ Rock/Various. $15, $20 day of show.

LUDLOW GARAGE - Jimmy Herring and The 5 of 7. 8:30 p.m. Rock. $25-$50.

MOTR PUB - Mickey

MONDAY 23

H

BOGART’S - Bad Religion with Dave Hause & The Mermaid and Emily Davis. 6:30 p.m. Punk/ Rock. $35.

MOTR PUB - Video Age with J. Fernandez and Quotah. 9 p.m. Indie Pop. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN - Pout, Tina Panic Noise and Paige Beller. 9 p.m.

Indie Punk. Free.

TAFT THEATRE Brian Wilson and The Zombies. 7:30 p.m. Rock. $49.50-$79.50.

TUESDAY 24

BOGART’S - Scott Stapp with Messer, Sunflower Dead and Brett James. 8 p.m. Rock.

H

THE COMET - Sylmar with up+dn, FLOCKS and sugadaisy. 10 p.m. Alt/ Indie/Various. Free.

NORTHSIDE TAVERN Roselit Bone with Still Witches. 9 p.m. Indie/Rock/ Roots/Various. Free.

H

SOUTHGATE HOUSE REVIVAL (SANCTUARY) - Jesse Dayton with Taylor Shannon Band and Mike Stinson. 7 p.m.

Country/Rock. $12, $15 day of show.

STANLEY’S PUB - Trashgrass Troubadours with Controversy For Breakfast.

9 p.m. Bluegrass/Outlaw Country. $5.

H

TOP CATS - Broadside with Telltale, You vs Yesterday and Mascots. 7:30 p.m. Pop Punk. $13.

PUZZLE

Cancel Culture

AC R O S S

6. Nocturnal mammal with a flexible snout

1. Doorknob metal

11. “nice 1!�

15. Atlanta campus 16. One: Prefix

17. Record producer born Brian Burton

19. Bring home

20. Minor hiccup

45. Day when people talk about dieting tomorrow, briefly 46. Half of a Wimbledon win for Serena, e.g.

48. WWII stalker 50. Baby carrier brand with an aptsounding name 52. “Didn’t mean that�

54. Superfluity 55. Female red deer 57. MMA star Holly 62. Sudden surge of companies joining forces 65. Tpke.

66. Sketchy dude

69. “There ___ coincidences�

70. British racetrack locale DOWN

CASH FOR CARS!

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1. Tophatter actions

37. Foreign: Prefix

of it was El Capitan

2. Brown shade

38. Ireland’s second-bestselling musical artist (behind U2)

54. Culture that has been canceled in the long theme answers

39. Leave in command

56. Cart-pulling beasts

41. Cancels, as this puzzle’s theme answers

58. Major burden

3. 2019 Luc Besson thriller 4. Western shooter 5. Kamasi Washington’s instrument 6. Oil 7. Love of Spain 8. Attack, like a cat 9. Agcy. with a Taxpayer Advocate Service 10. Healthy bread choice 11. Relating to the moon 12. Topsy-turvy 13. See 34-Across 18. “Making Plans For Nigel� band 22. Old “American Top 40� DJ 24. Yellow sign with a silhouette 26. Kind of orange 27. Used a paper towel, say 28. Spoils 29. Brown bagger on the streets 30. “Listen Like Thieves� band 32. Starting now 35. Kick out

42. Model show?

59. Elective surgery that sucks, briefly 60. “Milady�

47. “Yes ___!�

62. ___ Nashville (country record label)

49. C, another way 50. Epitome of laziness

63. Go wrong

51. Oscar of “The Office�

64. Jaguar of the ‘60-’70s

53. The last version L AST WEEK’S ANSWERS:

7 8 % $ $ + $ % - 8 - 8 + $ 6 ) ( 3 2 5 6 + 5 ( , 7 6 $ 6 + ( 2 ' 2 : 1 , 3 $ ' ( 6 2 8 1 + 2 3 6 < 2

7 < 3 1 2 % & + % = 2 $ 3 ( % 7 2 7 2 2 .

3 6

+ 2 % 2 ( / 2 / % 2

( .

1 $ 5 2 0 3 < $ 2 2 9 7 2 8 7 5 = $ , ' 4 2 % 9 3 ( $ + $ 0 6 8 3

8 : $ , 7 7 2 1 & ( $ 1 * ( ' + / $ ' % 2 ; < $ / ) $ . ( 7 + ( 5 ( 3 , 1 ( $ 7 ( ' 3 ' 4 , 2 8 6 5 , 2 7 1 ( 0 2 6 7 ( 0

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