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NEWS

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley wants to be Ohio’s next governor.

P H O T O : C R A N L E Y C A M PA I G N WEBSITE

Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley Finally Goes for Governor After longtime speculation, Cranley is officially running — and making legal weed central to his campaign

BY A L L I S O N BA B K A

A

fter months of teasing that he’d make a gubernatorial run, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley is finally doing it.

Cranley announced Aug. 10 that he’s officially entering the race to become Ohio’s next governor in 2022. The Democrat had alluded to a run for more than a year, so the announcement was not surprising for those in Cincinnati’s political circles.

In a video shared to his social media accounts, Cranley, 47, highlighted the years that Republicans have overseen Ohio, saying that the state no longer led the country in robust manufacturing or innovation operations.

“For most of the last 30 years, state government in Ohio has been a rigged

system led by one party,” Cranley said in a video voiceover. “In that system, Republicans get to stay in power as long as they push an agenda that favors the wealthy few. Welfare for big corporations, paid for by tax and energy hikes on you and me. And under that system, Ohio’s gotten worse.”

Cranley’s campaign largely is framed around Cincinnati’s population and civic “comeback,” as he called it. According to the video and his campaign website, Cranley is running on a moderate platform around middleclass job creation, small-business growth, human rights, and education and infrastructure improvements, among other issues.

Key among his issues is criminal

justice reform, which includes addressing wrongful convictions and finding solutions to poverty and mental illness rather than incarcerating individuals. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Cranley co-founded the Ohio Innocence Project in 2002 at the University of Cincinnati, which uses DNA to prove the innocence of wrongfully convicted individuals.

The platform also includes legalizing recreational marijuana to fill Ohio’s tax coffers. Cranley long has been an advocate for weed and recently tweeted that he supported state and national Democrats’ focus on making cannabis a priority.

“If we legalized marijuana, we could invest that tax revenue right back into our communities,” Cranley said on July 15. “We could rebuild our roads and fund public education.

We could expand healthcare for our communities.”

According to an email, Cranley has received endorsements from Ohio state senator Cecil Thomas, former Democratic National Committee Chairman David Wilhelm and Rev. Damon Lynch Jr., pastor at New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Carthage.

Cranley is running against a growing list of opponents, both Democratic and Republican. Mike DeWine, Ohio’s incumbent Republican governor, has

announced his plans to run for a second term, but he’s been attracting negative attention lately due to a former aide’s role in the FirstEnergy bribery scandal.

DeWine has been praised for pushing science-based protective health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but many of his Republican party-mates disavow his actions and are in favor of more personal freedoms.

Cranley also is running against Democrat Nan Whaley, who is currently the mayor of Dayton. Whaley announced her candidacy in April and shares many of Cranley’s platform issues, which makes some Democrats nervous about an expensive primary battle. Whaley was in Cincinnati Aug. 9 as part of her own campaign stop. Both Cranley and Whaley say they are friends.

Cranley’s second and final term as mayor ends this year, and the election of a new mayor for Cincinnati will take place on Nov. 2. Aftab Pureval and David Mann — the top two vote-getters from the May 4 primary — will face off for that position.

This summer, Cincinnati City Council member Liz Keating proposed a city charter amendment that, if passed, would force Cincinnati’s mayor and council members to resign if they wanted to run for another salaried, elected office.

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NEWS

Cincinnati Music Venues Add New Mask, Vaccination Requirements Due to COVID-19 Spread

BY A L L I S O N BA B K A

Multiple Cincinnati music venues have announced new precautions against COVID-19, including those frequented by the biggest stars.

Memorial Hall in Overthe-Rhine announced Aug. 16 that it would require all patrons, staff members, contractors and volunteers to wear masks indoors.

The policy is effective immediately and applies regardless of vaccination status.

“The health and safety of our audiences, artists and staff is our top priority,” an email from Memorial Hall said.

Those within the venue will be required to wear masks at all times when not actively eating or drinking.

Venue representatives said that while there’s no vaccine requirement to enter Memorial Hall, some individual performers may require it for certain shows. Memorial Hall said that ticketholders who are not vaccinated can request PromoWest Pavilion at OVATION is just one of many venues locally that will require proof of COVID vaccination or a negative COVID test before entry. refunds from the box office P H O T O : R O N VA L L E at least 24 hours before a show begins.

Some artists, indeed, Music Center, ICON Festival Stage at Later, on Oct. 1, the venue will accept sharp uptick in cases, hospitalizations are requiring vaccination for entry.

Smale Park and Taft Theatre — will only proof of full vaccination, not recent and deaths, and scientists warn that Maroon 5 recently announced that require concertgoers to show their COVID-19 tests. this strain is much more dangerous those attending the band’s concert at original COVID-19 vaccination card, Live Nation and other large than the original virus. People infected Cincinnati’s Riverbend Music Center a printed copy, or proof of a negative promoters around the country may be with Delta carry 1,000 times more of the on Aug. 28 would need to show proof COVID-19 test no more than 48 hours giving a boost to the nation’s lagging virus, which makes it easier to transmit of full vaccination from COVID-19 or a prior to the show. vaccination rate. Live Nation told among others when speaking, singing, negative COVID-19 test from within 48 For shows before Oct. 4, performers NBC News that 12% of fans who went sneezing or breathing hard, particularly hours prior to the show. will dictate individual safety precauto Lollapalooza in Chicago cited the within indoor areas. Health experts say According to the Centers for Disease tions, MEMI said. The company said it vaccination policy as their reason to get that Delta is more than twice as easy to Control and Prevention (CDC), a fully will send emails with more information the jab. spread as the first strain. vaccinated person is one who is two and options to ticketholders soon.

According to recent numbers, the Unvaccinated individuals are at weeks past their second dose of a twoThe new precautions at local venues Delta variant of the coronavirus is the highest risk for severe infection dose vaccine (Pfizer and Moderna) or follow a nationwide trend. Promoter rampaging through Ohio, with the state and substantial health issues from two weeks after a single-dose vaccine Live Nation recently said that it would reporting 3,272 new cases on Aug. 11 coronavirus, experts say, though some (Johnson & Johnson). require all concertgoers, performers alone. vaccinated individuals have also Maroon 5 also is encouraging and crew to be vaccinated against Perhaps more alarmingly, the become infected due to Delta’s highly concertgoers to remain masked for the COVID-19 or to present proof of a number of cases per 100,000 Ohioans is contagious nature. Symptoms and rates duration of its show. recent negative diagnostic test within approaching 200, after being just under are less severe in individuals who are Some of Cincinnati’s largest venues 72 hours of the start of a show. The 18 on July 7. That’s more than an 11-fold fully vaccinated with a Pfizer, Moderna are requiring proof of vaccination, as policy begins Oct. 4 and will include increase in just five weeks. or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 well. In an Aug. 16 email, Music & Event Live Nation venues nationwide, Things are no better across the vaccine.

Management, Inc. (MEMI) said that it including Bogart’s in Corryville. river. In Kentucky, where on Aug. All major hospital systems in Greater would require vaccinations or negative “Vaccines are going to be your ticket 10 Gov. Andy Beshear instituted a Cincinnati recently announced that COVID-19 tests at all of its venues back to shows, and as of October Commonwealth-wide school masking by fall, they would require COVIDbeginning Oct. 4.

4th we will be following the model mandate, there has been recent 19 vaccinations for all employees, “The policy is being enacted in we developed for Lollapalooza and exponential growth in statewide contractors and volunteers. an effort to safeguard the health of requiring this for artists, fans and COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and Visit coronavirus.ohio.gov to find concertgoers, touring artists and employees at Live Nation venues and ICU admissions.

COVID vaccine providers in Ohio and employees, and to prevent another festivals everywhere possible in the “Without intervention, at the rate we govstatus.egov.com/ky-covid-vaccine shutdown of live music, which U.S.,” Live Nation reps said in a release. are currently at, we expect to have the to find the vaccine in Kentucky. devastated the business amidst the The nationwide AEG also recently most Kentuckians hospitalized due pandemic in 2020 thru May of 2021,” announced that the new PromoWest to COVID in two weeks than we have Vince Grzegorek and Marty Schladen MEMI’s email said.

Pavilion at OVATION in Newport would had at any time during this pandemic,” contributed to this story.

In October, MEMI’s venues — require proof of full vaccination or a Beshear said during an Aug. 10 briefing. including Riverbend Music Center, negative COVID-19 test beginning with The Delta variant of the coronavirus PNC Pavilion, Andrew J Brady ICON its first concert (by Kesha) on Aug. 29. largely has been responsible for the

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T he Lu me a t Ne w f i eld s | | P H O T O : H AI L EY B O L L I N G ER

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VAN GOGH A-GO-GO Digital exhibitions across the country are introducing Vincent van Gogh to new audiences through immersive installations of art, light and sound

BY STEVEN ROSEN

T

hroughout the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have longed for the return of shared public arts experiences that can bring us together.

To that end, Vincent van Gogh is coming to the rescue.

The Dutch-born painter — who changed art with the vividly colorful Post-Impressionist landscapes, still lifes and portraits he created in the late 1880s while living in France — is providing the artistic jolt we need to put a big, art-oriented experience back into our lives. One of the world’s most recognized artists, van Gogh died at age 37 in 1890 by a selfinflicted gunshot wound, long before his fame began.

This year, “immersive” van Gogh exhibits from five international presenters are coming to cities across the United States.

Cincinnati isn’t on the list, but other nearby cities are, including Indianapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville and Pittsburgh.

The exhibitions create all-encompassing, multi-sensory indoor environments by pairing the latest in digital technology with images recreated from van Gogh’s paintings.

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ARTnews traces the sudden U.S. demand for these shows to the inclusion of a van Gogh-themed Parisian extravaganza at Atelier des Lumières in a 2020 episode of Netflix’s Emily in Paris. In Europe especially, light art and digital art have been sources of innovation and spectacle, similar to the way Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil has developed new circuses.

Artnet.com had tracked some 40 cities that were set to see at least one of the van Gogh exhibits as of June 1. Some, like New York and Detroit, will get two.

“Unfortunately, we are not aware of the Vincent van Gogh exhibits coming to the Cincinnati region,” Danielle Wilson, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber’s vice president of strategic marketing and communications, tells CityBeat via email.

The exhibitions have remarkably similar names. According to ARTnews and travel media website afar.com, they are: Immersive Van Gogh, from Toronto-based Lighthouse Immersive and featuring a creative team that includes Massimiliano Siccardi, who has been an artist in residence with Paris’ Atelier des Lumières; Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience, from partners Exhibition Hub and Fever; Beyond Van Gogh: An Immersive Experience, from Montreal’s Normal Studio;

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Imagine Van Gogh: The Immersive Exhibition, from French art directors Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron; and one company with an outlier moniker, Australia-based Grande Experiences, the presenter of Van Gogh Alive.

Perhaps the most ambitious van Gogh exhibition, in terms of a traditional art museum’s embrace of this new technology, is at Newfields, the Indianapolis Museum of Art. It’s also one of the few that’s being held in a museum. The institution has converted its entire fourth floor into The Lume (Newfields stylizes the name in all capital letters), a permanent space for digital art exhibitions. It opened July 27 with an inaugural van Gogh presentation, which will be on display until May 2022, after which The Lume will work on presenting other, similar digital art shows.

To the museum, digital technology is a way to expand its audience and lure nontraditional visitors.

“It is an invitation for people a little intimidated to come into a museum,” Johnathan Berger, deputy director of marketing and external affairs at Newfields, tells CityBeat. “This is a way they can look at art differently. This is just a very engaging way to introduce people to art.”

The museum developed The Lume in partnership with Australia’s Grande Experiences. This is Grande Experience’s first permanent Lume space, but it has another set for a September opening in Melbourne, Australia, and is seeking more.

“The cultural scene is vastly changing as visitors demand new experiences,” Bruce Peterson, founder and CEO of Grande Experiences, says on his company’s website. “We have been at the forefront of this movement globally as our popular exhibitions have quickly moved from artefact-based to multimedia, to multisensory and now to very experiential.”

Newfields’ Berger says that “this is something we’ve been working on for five years, finding the right group to partner with. We’re terribly excited about exploring this way of viewing art.”

On a walk-through preview of the Indianapolis show with Berger ahead of the opening, we quickly entered into an altered environment. Almost 30,000 square feet of space is devoted to 150 high-definition projectors displaying 3,000 images from such van Gogh masterpieces as “The Starry Night,” “Sunflowers,” “Self-Portait,” “Irises,” “Almond Blossoms” and 26 others. Because the

Re n d e r i n g o f T he Lu me a t Ne w f i eld s | | P H O T O : P RO V I D ED

work is in the public domain, Berger explains, The Lume can reproduce images without having to get permission from whomever owns the original paintings, though it does give credit to them.

Gogh’s “Starry Night” swirls, butterflies flutter, water ripples, flowers dramatically bloom and more. There’s a lot going on.

Yet at the same time, the exhibition is telling a story about the artist’s life.

for a group photograph: van Gogh’s 1889 “Landscape at Saint-Remy (Enclosed Field with Peasant),” Paul Gauguin’s 1888 “Landscape near Arles” and Paul Cézanne’s 1885 “House in Provence.”

This is not a static slideshow that you sit and watch in an auditorium while a narrator talks, zooming in and out of overviews and closeups of details as they explain the trajectory of the artist’s career. But it has a visual flow, telling the story of van Gogh’s life in its own way.

Artfully selected Classical music comes out of the approximately 60 speakers, including Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons,” Erik Satie’s “Gnossienne No. 1,” the lovely “Flower Duet” from the opera Lakmé, and 13 more (there’s a Spotify playlist of the musical choices). In a separate room called Gogh Play, you can use a bit of goggle-less virtual reality to learn about the artist’s impasto painting technique.

You can also stop at a van Gogh-themed café for an alcoholic beverage or pose at a replica of his bed (inspired by his paintings) for a selfie.

They compel you to look closely and appreciatively. They also make you think about the enduring power of traditional visual art — paintings. When you’re looking at greatness, there’s nothing like the real thing.

While this exhibition does have areas with traditional interpretative text about the artist, it is also meant to be entertaining and have a 21st-century visual wow-factor. You can set your own pace as you pass through galleries and down corridors as a 40-minute digitized program plays all around you — including on the floor. That is followed by four five-minute commissioned featurettes from contemporary Australian filmmakers influenced by van Gogh, and then the whole loop is repeated.

You’ll want to keep moving, even if it’s just to whirl around at times to catch all the action. Images are projected onto all available surfaces. And by using features such as enlarged close-ups, animationlike elements, music and more, van

There’s even a scent. “It’s kind of an earthy smell, a little bit of floral, and it’s just very subtle and kind of puts you in the space of these van Gogh paintings,” Berger says.

A big surprise awaits toward the end of the exhibition. It’s a concluding gallery with just three oil paintings from the museum’s permanent collection.

Created by giants of French PostImpressionism, they are lined up on a wall like three siblings proudly waiting

“When you come in and see our van Gogh and our Gauguin and Cézanne, all painted around the same time and in the same area, you really start to see the greatness,” Berger says. “So we will have paintings from the museum in these (future) shows. That’s what we do, who we are.”

And, he adds, that makes the Newfields show different from “every warehouse exhibit popping up in Chicago or around the world.”

About halfway through this exhibition’s run, Newfields’ currently displayed van Gogh painting will be swapped out for his “Sheaves of Wheat,” which will arrive from the Dallas Museum of Art as part of a temporary exchange.

Outside the museum, the Garden has special van Gogh floral displays. And 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park, another section of the Newfields campus, is a beautiful and tranquil place to wander through the woods and along the lakeside. It also has a wonderful art installation called “Park of Laments” by Chilean artist Alfredo Jaar. It’s hidden by the park’s greenery, and you have to walk through a short concrete tunnel to reach a quiet, open space shaped by limestone-filled gabion baskets and bordered by trees. It’s every bit as immersive as The Lume, even though it’s a very different experience. It makes a great conclusion, and a lasting memory, for the trip to Newfields.

Because the Indianapolis Museum of Art has The Lume, the immersive exhibition could raise questions within the world of art museums, since the van Gogh images it shows are reproductions. Thinking of this, CityBeat asked if the Cincinnati Art Museum would host such a show. Its director Cameron Kitchin says through a museum spokesperson that it wouldn’t be a good fit.

“Not a fit for the museum because we try to show original artworks whenever possible and reproductions/ representations only in rare

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I ns i d e The Lume | | P HOTO: HA ILEY BO LLINGER

Ne wfiel d s ’ van G ogh e x pe rie nce e x t e n d s t o t he g a rd e n . | | P H O T O : H AI L EY B O L L I N G ER

circumstances,” says Jill Dunne, the museum’s director of marketing and communications, via email. However, Dunne says Kitchin told her that “these experiences (and other inclusions of art in popular culture like in movies, videos, etc.) are good things because they raise awareness of artworks, including those at the Cincinnati Art Museum. Great artworks are powerful and exposure to them, even in non-traditional ways, can add greater gravity and appreciation of the actual artworks.”

In Columbus, this may be playing out in real life — a traditional van Gogh show with original work is coming to the Columbus Museum of Art and will partially overlap with an Immersive Van Gogh one. The latter occurs Oct. 28-Jan. 2 at an as-yet unannounced location.

Meanwhile, Through Vincent’s Eyes: Van Gogh and His Sources will be at the art museum Nov. 12-Feb. 2.

“An exhibition of this size takes multiple years of planning, so this has been part

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of our schedule for quite some time,” Betsy Meacham, Columbus Museum of Art’s director of strategic engagement and communications, says. “The exhibition is organized in partnership with the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. A shared exhibition, it will be presented at each museum with two distinct curatorial perspectives and two accompanying books.

“We only recently became aware of the Immersive Van Gogh show coming to Columbus when it was publicly announced this past spring. We hope that members of the community will want to take advantage of both ways to experience the art of van Gogh in Columbus this fall.”

Not everyone is enthusiastic about this national invasion of the van Goghs.

Some critics who have seen shows outside of Indianapolis have found the whole concept questionable as art.

When Immersive Van Gogh opened in Chicago in February at the Lighthouse

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ArtSpace at Germania Club, Chicago Tribune reviewer Steve Johnson found a surprising precedent.

“It’s an updated version of the 1970s Pink Floyd laser light shows projected onto planetarium ceilings late on weekend nights for audiences of dubious sobriety,” he wrote. “But instead of the borderline skeezy rock culture undertones of a Floyd show, making it about an artist ... puts a veneer of high culture on the whole thing. Tonight’s head trip is being sponsored by your college’s core curriculum requirement in humanities and the arts.”

In fairness, Brown also found qualities to like in the exhibit, ending his review with, “It’s not the same as seeing an actual van Gogh canvas, but it is pretty impressive at starting a kind of dialogue with them.”

Incidentally, if Brown’s reference to those old Pink Floyd laser light shows brings back fond memories, get ready. Like

Vincent van Gogh, the band’s popularity is only growing with time, leading to spin-offs of their original work. The new Vogue Multicultural Museum in Los Angeles will open The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains on Sept. 3, featuring artifacts, stage sets and private collections shipped to the United States from Great Britain.

The Lume’s Vincent van Gogh show at Newfields, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is open now and is scheduled to be on display into May 2022. Timed tickets are required; prices for adults are $25 for the general public and $20 for museum members. The ticket allows access to the entire Newfields campus, which includes other museum areas, the outdoor Gardens and 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park.

For more information about The Lume and its current Vincent van Gogh experience, visit discovernewfields.org.

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treasured, historical painting needs proper care to continue to tell its story sharply and accurately.

A viewer might be attracted to the deep hue of delicate clothing on a famed king or the fine brush strokes of a rolling landscape’s blades of grass. An experienced eye could even note the era in which a work of art was constructed by the medium used — but only if that work is preserved properly and tediously, down to the degrees of temperature and percent of humidity where it lives.

The importance and necessity of art preservation and restoration also extends to environments that house art, places that often are considered works of art themselves.

The Taft Museum of Art fits tightly into this category, as noted by its President/

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CEO Deborah Emont Scott during July’s groundbreaking for its Bicentennial Infrastructure Project. This restoration effort aims to enhance visitor experience, resolve HVAC issues, upgrade security and fire protection and preserve the museum’s 200-year-old house.

Known for its list of prestigious owners, including Martin Baum, Nicholas Longworth, David Sinton, Anna Sinton Taft, and Charles Phelps Taft, the house was registered a National Historic Landmark in 1973 (it became a public museum in 1932). It is Cincinnati’s oldest wooden residence in its original location and holds the celebrated Robert S. Duncanson landscape murals on original plaster in the home’s foyer. Duncanson, a Black artist, was commissioned to complete the works between 1850 and 1852 and they are considered “the most significant pre–Civil War domestic murals in the United States,” says the Taft.

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“A painting is very, very sensitive to a change in climate. Because if it’s hot, the canvas may expand at a different rate than the paint layers on top of it, and then you would have cracking,” Emont Scott says. “That’s why we try and maintain, in the museum profession, 72 degrees Fahrenheit, plus or minus 5 degrees, and 50% humidity, plus or minus 5%. The house has to be treated similarly, especially a house built in 1820.”

“Clearly the house was not built to be a museum. In an ideal world, we need our museum to sort of be hermetically sealed to maintain those conditions for the art,” she continues.

In partnership with GBBN Architects, HGC Construction and historic preservation consulting firm Sullebarger & Associates, the project will address major repairs so the museum can more easily maintain these complex condi-

tions and preserve the house’s iconic, grand facade and original wood siding.

Since its launch last October, the “Love This House’” campaign has reached just over $10 million of its $12.7 million goal to directly benefit the Bicentennial Infrastructure Project.

In 2015, the staff and collaborators decided to assess and make a plan for restoration, looking forward to the museum’s 90th anniversary next year and the historic house’s 2020 bicentennial.

Initial plans for 2020 faced setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous construction bids and fund estimations were significantly affected; $2 million was added to the campaign’s original $10.7 million goal, Emont Scott says.

The July 30 groundbreaking kicked off one of the most important aspects of restoration that involves taking each piece of wood off of the house individually.

About 80%-90% of the wood is original to the structure, Emont Scott says. If it’s not too damaged or warped, it will be put back after proper insulation is in place and vapor barriers are secured.

The Taf t Mu se u m of A rt offic ial l y broke grou n d on t he Bice n t e n n ial In frast ru c t u re P roje c t on Ju l y , 30 2 0 2 1 , w i t h p ro je c t p a r t ne rs a n d le a d e rs . | | P H O T O : P RO V I D ED

“We are going to have to look at every board. And if there’s water damage, we will shave it down, if it can be used,” she says. “We want to use as many as we can. If not, we will find wood that is as close to the kind we are replacing as possible. And then we will have a better environment for the house itself ... and the works on the inside of the museum will be able to be conserved, as well.”

Restorations only apply to the original footprint, leaving special exhibitions, the outdoor garden, Museum Shop and Lindner Family Café open throughout construction, during which guests are invited admission-free with an option to “pay what you wish” for entry. Construction is predicted to finish in spring 2022.

Often deemed the Taft’s largest work of art, the house itself has been emptied of its prized contents. At any one time, Emont Scott says there are about 400 to 500 objects on view there, some of which have gone into storage. About 80 works were carefully selected to be reinterpreted in an exhibit called In a New Light, which can currently be seen in the Fifth Third Gallery at the museum.

“It’s revelatory seeing the collection in a new light,” Emont Scott says. “There are many examples of the way we’ve reinterpreted the collection, trying to make this early-20th-century collection meaningful to a 21st-century audience.”

Among Chinese porcelains, 19th-century American furniture and European and American portraits and landscapes, select works of In a New Light confront centuries-old social concerns such as distribution of wealth, environmental destruction, and gender and racial inequality, according to the museum’s website.

Emont Scott mentions one work in particular, “Portrait of a Man Rising from His Chair,” by Dutch artist Rembrandt.

Painted in 1633, the portrait shows a stop-motion moment with a man gesturing to his left. It was innovative for portraits then to convey expression or motion, she says.

The original label describes Rembrandt’s “magical technique” and signals wealth, whereas the “More to the Story” label — which signifies the reinterpreting aspect of the exhibit — reveals that the coveted black dye of his garb was harvested by enslaved people and his gold-adorned lace collar was made by working-class women.

“This is in a section that we have titled ‘Power and Wealth,’” Emont Scott says.

“And it lets you know that sometimes things that we take for granted have come to be because of things that we might not want to think about or talk about.”

Another select 50 works are on view at the Cincinnati Museum Center in an exhibit titled Borrowed Gems. The show is on view through February and displays Charles Phelps Taft’s and Anna Sinton Taft’s personal collection that was passed on to Cincinnati along with their home to officially become the Taft Museum of Art in 1932.

These new exhibits were endorsed during the groundbreaking event, where donors and supporters were also recognized individually. As the leading donor to the “Love This House” campaign and a longtime partner of the museum, Fifth Third Bank was represented by Heidi Jark, managing director of the Fifth Third Foundation. Jark says the Taft Museum isn’t just a building, but “a living, breathing center for the arts that’s accessible to all people. The question isn’t why would we give this gift, it’s why wouldn’t we?”

Public and private donations have contributed to the “Love This House” campaign, and the museum earned two large grants toward its goal. The Infrastructure and Capacity Building Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the project $750,000, and the National Park Service (as part of Save America’s Treasures) granted $500,000. Both of the grants were allotted in the maximum amounts offered by each organization.

“It’s one thing for me to tell you how wonderful the project is,” Emont Scott says. “But I think it’s even more meaningful when you have a panel of experts at the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Park Service, who manage and run the Landmark Program for the country, to review grant applications. Those applications sort of separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls and everyone in between.”

“They’re not easy to do and I think the fact that we got the maximum amount granted for both of these grants is like a super, super, super ‘Good Housekeeping’ stamp of approval,” Emont Scott adds.

Taft Museum of Art, 316 Pike St., Downtown, taftmuseum.org.

Fifth Third also donated $1 million to the Taft’s 2004 additions and interior renovations, which earned the Fifth Third Gallery namesake.

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OCTOBER 19 - 31, 2021 • ARONOFF CENTER CincinnatiArts.org • 513.621.ARTS

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TREASURES FROM THE TAFT Now on View Assembled nearly 100 years ago, does the Taft’s collection hold relevance today?

Join us as we look at our city’s celebrated art collection through a 21st-century lens.

taftmuseum.org | #TaftHouse200

EXHIBITION SPONSOR

FOUNDATION SUPPORT PROVIDED BY

The H.B., E.W. and F.R. Luther Charitable Foundation, Fifth Third Bank and Narley L. Haley, Co-Trustees

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AUGUST 19-31, 2021

SEASON FUNDERS

OPER ATING SUPPORT

P i p eli ne | | P H O T O : RYAN K URT Z

LIVE AUDIENCES AND MULTIPLE GENRES MARK THEATER’S RETURN TO CINCINNATI THIS FALL

BY RICK PENDER

Mo n g rel | | P H O T O : K N O W T H EAT RE

A

s the fall theater season readies for a start in the weeks ahead, Cincinnati is welcoming audiences back with engaging slates of drama, comedy and music.

These scheduled productions were accurate as of press time, but with the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the region and the uncertainty of live theater performances since March 2020, things may change. CityBeat recommends that theatergoers check with venues about schedules or safety protocols.

KNOW THEATRE OF CINCINNATI Know Theatre has the first production this fall with its premiere of a new work, Mongrel (Aug. 26-Sept. 12), by actor Adam Tran. If you caught pre-pandemic productions at Know, you saw Tran in Whisper House (2018) and The Girl in the Red Corner (2019). His one-man show about Genghis Khan, the Mongol conqueror and charismatic leader, had a reading in April 2020 with the intention of producing the work during the 20202021 season.

Of course COVID-19 prevented Cincinnati’s theaters from staging traditional indoor performances for audiences. Instead, Mongrel will kick off Know’s 20212022 season in an outdoor setting. It will also be available as video-on-demand, a medium Know used successfully during the Cincinnati Fringe Festival in June.

Know describes Mongrel as a chance for audiences to step into the camp of Genghis Khan and meet a young man who defies the destiny of his birth and builds himself a legend. The theater cautions that the show has adult language and situations, including depictions of violence.

Tran is a mixed-race native of Greencastle, Indiana. His father was Vietnamese, and Tran was exposed to racism as a child and teen — experiences that have informed both his career and his new play. He recalls watching The Shadow (1994), a movie that featured John Lone, an actor of Chinese descent, as a villainous descendant of Khan. It awakened in him a sense that Asians are often stereotyped. A fan of the 1990s TV series Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Tran was intrigued that actor Dean Cain, who played Clark/Superman,

was mixed race, opening a door Tran had not considered.

After spending time in New York City, Tran has mostly been acting on stages in Indiana and currently in Indianapolis Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By sheer happenstance in 2018, Tran drove a friend to Cincinnati for an audition with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. While in town, he dropped his head shot at Know Theatre, with little expectation that it would lead to anything.

But Tran was invited to be in the cast of Whisper House, and his acquaintance with Know’s artistic director, Andrew Hungerford, led to an invitation to develop his Genghis Khan script. Tran’s performance is being directed by Rebecca Ware, a young Asian director from Los Angeles.

Know’s 24th season has two more productions scheduled for the fall: SHOCK! The Spine-Tingling Tale of Miss Spidra (Oct. 8-24), a comic drama inspired by 1950s horror movies by Joseph Zettelmaier, followed by Reina Hardy’s Glassheart (Nov. 19-Dec. 12), a latter-day beauty-and-the-beast tale. knowtheatre.com.

ENSEMBLE THEATRE CINCINNATI Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati has a staged reading of The Guys planned for 7:30 p.m. Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 and 2 p.m. Aug. 29 at the Cincinnati Fire Museum (315 W. Court St., Downtown). A show ETC produced 20 years ago, it’s a genuinely moving work about eulogizing firefighters who died on 9/11.

After that, the company gets back to onstage performances where it left off after March 11, 2020, the night it opened Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline. That was the show’s single performance, cut short by COVID-19 restrictions. Its set has remained on ETC’s stage since then.

But on Sept. 22, Pipeline will come back to life with just one cast change, restarting ETC’s season with a four-week run through Oct. 16.

“This will be our big fall opening,” says D. Lynn Meyers, ETC’s producing artistic director. “We are thrilled to start with Pipeline, a play that certainly speaks to the mission of this theater.”

Meyers says that mission is presenting shows that explore compelling social issues. Pipeline is the story of a Black

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The West E nd | | P H OTO: TO NY A RRA SMIT H/A RRA SMIT H & A SSO CIATE S

Rome o & Ju li e t | | P H O T O : CI N CI N N AT I S H AK ES P EARE CO MPAN Y

teacher and divorced mother trying to protect her bright, sensitive son who’s been acting out in high school and is at risk of entering the all-but-inevitable “pipeline” toward crime and incarceration.

ETC will follow Pipeline with its annual holiday fairy tale musical and most popular title, Cinderella (Dec. 1-30). The show has a longer-than-usual run preceded by numerous “Fairy Godmother” previews for school groups.

“This show is who we are,” Meyers says.

“Morisseau is a strong voice for our country right now, and this show is all the more important given events of the past year. It was important in 2020, but I think it’s almost essential now.”

ETC starts 2022 with a regional premiere of Queen (Jan. 26-Feb. 26, 2022), about the vanishing bee population. That is followed by a double bill of Your Negro Tour Guide, a one-woman adaptation of novelist and former CityBeat columnist Kathy Y. Wilson’s book of the same name, and I Shall Not Be Moved, a world premiere by local playwright Isaiah Reaves about his grandmother and Civil Rights icon Betty Daniels Rosemond (March 23-April 23, 2022). ensemblecincinnati.org.

CityBeat said in its review of Pipeline last year: “Morisseau’s play employs naturalistic, vernacular dialogue, and the cast, thoughtfully directed by veteran Ron ‘O. J.’ Parson, rises to the occasion by enacting this powerfully moving and provocative tale. Woven through the narrative is a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks that Nya shares with her students: ‘We Real Cool.’

In two dozen chilling words, it traces the descent from ‘We left school’ to ‘We die soon.’ It’s the nightmare Nya fears Omari is entering.”

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CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE IN THE PARK Back in May, the Playhouse in the Park announced an eight-show season for 2021-2022 that will commence with a pair of world premieres.

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

Up first on the mainstage will be Cincinnati playwright Keith Josef Adkins’ historical play, The West End (Oct. 9-Nov. 7). Set in 1941, the production will shine a light on a transformative chapter in our city’s history, revolving around the play’s titular neighborhood.

CINCINNATI SHAKESPEARE COMPANY At Cincinnati Shakespeare Company, the season will open with a tried-and-true classic, the tragic tale of Romeo and Juliet (Oct. 6-Nov. 13).

The second premiere will be Need Your Love (Oct. 30-Dec. 12) by KJ Sanchez, whose previous show Cincinnati King chronicled King Records. This production on the Shelterhouse stage will focus on the life and times of an underrated King recording star, Little Willie John.

For the holidays the company will offer an extended run of its seasonal favorite, Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and then some) (Nov. 19-Dec. 26), a zany mash-up of holiday stories, movies, poetry and songs told by a very funny trio of well-intended but misguided actors plus a rather inebriated Santa.

The Playhouse’s 2021 schedule wraps up with a return of the Playhouse’s popular adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol (Nov. 24-Dec. 30), a holiday tradition that features a cast of nearly 30 actors, elaborate costumes and thrilling special effects.

Six more productions have been announced for 2022. Tickets for the season went on sale Aug. 17. cincyplay.com.

More good news from Cincinnati Shakespeare Company for early 2022: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a production of August Wilson’s absorbing and powerful play about Black Jazz musicians in 1920s Chicago, will kick off the new year (Jan. 19-Feb. 12). cincyshakes.com.

The Contemporary Dayton

ARTIST TALKS

NINA CHANEL ABNEY September 18, 2021 | 6 pm The Co’s galleries

MYCHAELYN MICHALEC: From A Basement On A Hill October 1, 2021 | 6 pm The Co’s galleries

SARA CWYNAR: Soft Film October 20, 2021 | 6 pm Online Event with Live Q&A thecontemporarydayton.org

Artists give voice to the issues of our world.

Not only through their work, but by simply helping us reflect and communicate about topics that words alone often struggle to convey. In conjunction with our new exhibitions, artists Nina Chanel Abney, Mychaelyn Michalec, and Sara Cwynar will each discuss their work.

In-person and virtual conversations will be moderated by Michael Goodson, Curator & Director of Public Programs. Each event is open to all and you may pay what you wish to attend.

Learn more about the shows, on view August 6–October 24, 2021, get tips for visiting, and more at thecontemporarydayton.org

The Contemporary Dayton receives operational support from Culture Works, the Montgomery County Arts & Cultural District, the Ohio Arts Council, the Virginia W. Kettering Family Foundation, and Members.

Images: (Left to Right) ©Nina Chanel Abney; ©John Sousa; ©Sara Cwynar

25 W 4th Street, Dayton, OH 45402 • 937/224.3822 | thecontemporarydayton.org AUGUST 19-31, 2021

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Rediscover Your

DAYTON ART INSTITUTE Changing Times: Art of the 1960s

Ralston Crawford: Air & Space & War

Norman Rockwell: Stories of Emotion

CLOSING SEPTEMBER 12!

October 30, 2021– Januar y 23, 2022

October 23, 2021– Februar y 13, 2022

James Rosenquist (American, 1933–2017), F-111 (Leo Castelli Gallery poster), 1965, offset lithograph. Gift of Mr. S. Bradley Gillaugh, 2019.20 © 2021 James Rosenquist Foundation, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Ralston Crawford (American, 1906–1978), Bomber, 1944, oil on canvas. Vilcek Collection, VF2016.03.02

Norman Rockwell, Study for Artist Facing Blank Canvas (Deadline), 1938, oil on board. Private collection

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF ART, CHEERS & BEERS! p.m.

September 24 7-11 Preview Party* * Advance ticket reservations are encouraged. Must be 21 with a valid ID to enter.

September 25 September 26

Noon-11:30 p.m.

Noon- 7 p.m.

DON’T MISS THE LEDERHOSEN LUNCH! Friday, September 24 11 a.m. –1:30 p.m. The only FREE admission all weekend!

Go to www.daytonartinstitute.org to plan your visit!

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AUGUST 19-31, 2021

2021-2022

MAINSTAGE SEASON AT THE TAFT THEATRE

OCTOBER 9 - 17, 2021

SINGLE TICKETS

AVAILABLE AUGUST 23

SEASON SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES ALSO AVAILABLE

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.THECHILDRENSTHEATRE.COM December 4 - 13, 2021

February 5 - 14, 2022

April 2 - 11, 2022

TCT Academy Class Registration Closes August 31 To register visit www.thechildrenstheatre.com

SING DANCE ACT PLAY

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

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CURTAIN up at the aronoff center

December 12, 2021

AN EVENING WITH

A

BRAINFOOD BRAI BR AINF AINF AI NFOO OOD OO D EV EVENT EVEN ENTT EN

ALTON A LT BROWN LIVE: BEYOND THE EATS ATS

March 4, 2022 CincinnatiArts.org (513) 621-ARTS (2787)

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AUGUST 19-31, 2021

FRAN LEBOWITZ April 12, 2022

Aronoff Center Ticket Office Groups (10+): (513) 977-4157

ALL SHOWS AT THE ARONOFF CENTER

PHOTO: CYBELE MALINOWSKI-SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE

September 25, 2021

MUSIC AND MOVEMENT

The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music Cincinnati and Cincinnati Ballet have robust fall schedules.

B Y A N N E A R E N S T E I N , V I VA N K O L K S A N D M A I J A Z U M M O C i nc i n n a t i B a lle t ’s Vi c t o r i a Mo rg a n a n d Si r u i L i u | |

Bonny Lig ht Ho rse m an || P HOTO: A NNIE B E E DY

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fter more than a year of virtual performances, outdoor events and scheduling uncertainty, the classical arts are returning to Cincinnati in a big way. Fall promises a mix of old favorites and new endeavors from the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops, Chamber Music Cincinnati and Cincinnati Ballet.

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CINCINNATI POPS The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops return with all-out seasons of performances in Music Hall with full orchestra, including the May Festival Chorus.

The CSO announced its 2021-22 season in June, followed two weeks later by the announcement that music director Louis Langrée will conclude his 11-year tenure with the CSO in 2024.

But there are still another three years to revel in the maestro’s engaging elegance. Langrée has programmed intriguing concerts, internationally renowned soloists, world premieres and an exciting collaboration with MusicNOW in September.

Both the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Pops schedules maintain a commitment to programming and performances by women and artists of colors throughout the year.

The season kicks off Sept. 24 with a celebration of new and Classical music forms as the CSO collaborates with MusicNOW for a weekend featuring Bonny Light Horseman, pianist Daniil Trifonov and the always brilliant Sō Percussion.

The first concert features Bonny Light Horseman: Tony-award winning singersongwriter Anaïs Mitchell, Josh Kaufman and Eric D. Johnson. There is no official setlist yet, but orchestral arrangements will be by MusicNOW founder and member of The National, Bryce Dessner.

Daniil Trifonov joins the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for “Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4” in G major. Stick around for an intimate performance by Sō Percussion in Music Hall’s Harry T. Wilks Studio.

Dessner’s “Patchwork” opens the following evening’s concert. Trifonov returns

for “Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2” in B-flat major. Sō Percussion brings twigs, wine bottles, steel pipes and trash cans for David Lang’s “man made,” a brilliant exploration of found instruments playing along with or sometimes overwhelmed by the orchestra.

The Erika Dohl Trio follows in the Wilks Studio. Dohl is acclaimed for her virtuosity both as a pianist and composer.

Ensemble Intercontemporain makes its Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut on Oct. 1 with artistic director and CSO Creative Partner Matthias Pintscher.

Founded in 1976 by legendary composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, the Ensemble Intercontemporain is recognized for its advocacy, recordings and performances of contemporary works. The program is an intriguing mix of early 20th-century (Scriabin’s “Symphony No. 4,” played during the 2017 opening of renovated Music Hall) and recent compositions, including Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth’s flute concerto “Aello—ballet mécanomorphe,” Pintscher’s “Nur”and a rare U.S. performance of Helmut Lachenmann’s “Tableau,” described as “nonmusic, which is again music.”

The CSO observes the 200th anniversary of Cincinnati’s Jewish community on Oct. 2 with a showing of Hans Werner Breslauer’s 1924 silent film Die Stadt Ohne Juden (The City Without Jews), accompanied by Neuwirth’s score.

Originally intended as a social satire, the film has disturbing prescience about toxic racism that’s still all too present in the world.

The following afternoon, members of the CSO join Ensemble Intercontemporain for a chamber concert at the stunning Plum Street Temple.

Films are a major part of the Cincinnati Pops season. The orchestra accompanies screenings of Pixar’s gorgeously vivid Coco, the 2017 Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature Film. The Nightmare Before Christmas is set for Oct. 23 and 24, and The Return of the Jedi caps 2021 on Dec. 29 and 30.

For information about the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops, visit cincinnatisymphony.org.

P H O T O : JEN N Y D EN H AM

CHAMBER MUSIC CINCINNATI Chamber Music Cincinnati (CMC) marks the return to live concerts with a powerful commitment to highlight composers, performers and communities of color.

Recent CMC seasons have included an ensemble with at least one artist of color, but the 2021-22 lineup goes even further with six groups performing works by Black and Latino composers.

And in addition to Tuesday evening performances at Memorial Hall, all but one concert includes appearances at area Black churches.

The Harlem String Quartet opens the season Oct. 17 and 19. Founded 11 years ago by four winners of the Sphinx Competition held in Detroit, the quartet supports its mission to champion minority artists and composers by featuring major Classical and Jazz ensembles and soloists including Chick Corea, Gary Burton, Jeremy Denk and Itzhak Perlman.

Noted pianist Aldo Gavilán joins the Harlem String Quartet for his arrangements of Cuban folk songs and Duke Ellington standards.

The Thalea String Quartet — composed of Black, Latino, Asian and Caucasian members — will celebrate a homecoming for cellist and Cincinnati native Titilayo Ayangade, a University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) graduate, during November performances.

Pianist Michelle McCann will join Thalea String Quartet to perform the recently discovered “Piano Quintet in A Minor”

by Florence Price, the first Black woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra. McCann performed Price’s “Piano Concerto in One Movement” at the recent Classical Roots concert, and her return is an opportunity to hear another work by an extraordinary composer. The program includes works

by Joseph Boulogne, the 18th-century French-Senegalese composer and conductor, plus additional short pieces

by Price.

Bailey’s extensive performance credits include world premieres, a recurring role in HBO’s Oz and appearances on NPR and Sirius XM. Pratt and Bailey have collaborated on many projects, including a recording of the complete Brahms works for cello.

January marks the return of clarinet phenom and activist Anthony McGill, principal clarinet for the New York Philharmonic and former CSO principal, as well as the CMC debut of pianist Gloria Chien. Their appearances are set for Martin Luther King Weekend (Jan. 16 and 17).

The following week, the brilliant Danish String Quartet returns for one night only at Memorial Hall. The mighty Norsemen’s mastery of Classical forms is matched by their renditions of Norse folk songs.

The Diaz Trio are scheduled for March, and the season concludes with the renowned Juilliard String Quartet in April.

Five of the CMC concerts will be paired with performances at area churches.

Corinthian Baptist Church in Bond Hill hosts the Harlem String Quartet and the Juilliard String Quartet; Pratt and Bailey appear at Word of Deliverance Ministries in Forest Park; and McGill and Chien perform at New Prospect Baptist Church in Roselawn. The location for the Thalea String Quartet is being finalized.

Following each concert, the audience is invited to remain for an interview session with the artists, facilitated by Pratt. CMC artists are also slated to perform at Cincinnati Public Schools and Sycamore Community Schools and to work with the CSO/CCM Diversity Fellowship Program.

One final demonstration of Chamber Music Cincinnati’s commitment to social justice: the season is dedicated to the memories of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other victims of racist violence.

For information about Chamber Music Cincinnati, visit cincychamber.org.

In December, pianist Awadagin Pratt and cellist Zuill Bailey join forces.

An acclaimed pianist, conductor and educator, Pratt is a CCM faculty member and facilitator for the annual Art of the Piano summer festival. Grammy winner

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CINCINNATI BALLET The Cincinnati Ballet has announced its 2021-2022 season, which will be a mix of old favorites and fresh new performances.

This season will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the ballet’s artistic director Victoria Morgan and provide a beautiful send-off when she steps down from her position at the end of the season. Her final bow will include both “ambitious and nostalgic” programming, a recent press release says.

Kaplan New Works in the Park will open the season Sept. 23-26 in the atmospheric Seasongood Pavilion in Eden Park. The free performances will feature “groundbreaking choreography in a welcoming, outdoor space,” a release says.

Beloved classics like King Arthur’s Camelot and Cinderella are both on the slate this year, the world premieres of which Morgan oversaw during her tenure at the Cincinnati Ballet. King Arthur’s Camelot can be seen Nov. 5-7, and Cinderella Feb. 17-27, both at Music Hall.

The Cincinnati Ballet will conclude its season with the Bold Moves Festival May 12-22 at the Aronoff Center. Described as an “immersive dance experience,” six productions will rotate on the mainstage, accompanied by interactive events and elements. Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and Dancing Wheels will perform as guest companies.

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As Morgan prepares to depart the Cincinnati Ballet, she will leave behind a legacy of artistry and engagement.

“I am so proud of this organization and the work we have accomplished and continue to build upon — elevating our artistry, growing a healthy endowment, championing female choreographers, and the imminent opening of the new Cincinnati Ballet Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance,” Morgan said in May upon announcing her retirement.

“I will cherish being with you next season, as I have done so many seasons before.

Nothing will give me greater joy than raising the curtain on this remarkable season together one last time for my grand finale.”

A former principal dancer for the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West, and choreographer for the San Francisco Opera, Morgan started her tenure with the Cincinnati Ballet in 2008 as both artistic director and CEO. When Scott Altman stepped in as president and CEO, she turned her vision to artistic director full-time.

The ballet has said Morgan was “instrumental in fundraising efforts to secure support for the new 57,000-square-foot Cincinnati Ballet Margaret and Michael Valentine Center for Dance,” and helped lead the institution during the pandemic.

For tickets and information, visit cballet.org.

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AUG 14 - 22, 2021 Mason, OH

BUILT FOR CINCINNATI TICKETS ON SALE NOW PURCHASE AT WSOPEN.COM DOWNLOAD THE APP

@CINCYTENNIS Schedule and players subject to change. Past participants shown. © 2021 Western & Southern Open.

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AUGUST 19-31, 2021

8/16/21 11:33 AM

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AUGUST 19-31, 2021

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AUGUST 27, 2021 PURPLE PEOPLE BRIDGE 5:30 - 8:30 p m TICKETS ON SALE NOW! WWW.MARGARITAMADNESSCINCY.COM

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ARTS & CULTURE

Samantha Evans hides books throughout Cincinnati, including at Findlay Market.

P H O T O : FA C E B O O K . C O M / U N D E R C OV E R 5 13

Happy Hunting With the Under Cover Book Club, you never know where in Cincinnati you’ll find your next favorite book

BY SA M I ST E WA RT

I

t’s a Saturday. You’re at Findlay Market with your itemized list and reusable grocery bags, and you’re ready to enter the slipstream of market-goers.

You stop into Madison’s for local veggies, Gibbs Cheese and Sausage for a week’s worth of cheddar and Deeper Roots Coffee for a bag of beans, and then you notice something out of place.

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It’s a book leaning up against the bricks in an alleyway. It looks brand new.

“Who would leave this here?” you think.

Samantha Evans, that’s who, and she left it there for you to find.

Evans created Under Cover Book Club (UCBC) in 2018 “to help people continue to read, to continue to learn,” she tells CityBeat. You could call it guerilla literacy. Evans calls it “glorified

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

littering.” However you classify it, the core purpose of this project is to promote literacy and connect readers in Cincinnati to one another.

And as UCBC continued to grow from a seedling idea, Evans asked herself, “How can I connect with my community within this group of people?”

She moved her idea to Instagram (@undercover513), launched a website (undercover513.com) and created a space where readers and writers can collectively geek-out about literature.

Ever since, she’s been finding new ways to connect her followers with the authors whose books she spotlights each month.

“For book-lovers, authors are celebrities, right?” Evans says. “Talking with them allows us to humanize them,

find similarities with them.”

She interviews authors for UCBC and posts soundbytes of them reading snippets of their books under the tab “Bedtime Stories” — “like a mini audiobook,” she says.

All this leads up to a monthly scavenger hunts in different neighborhoods, where Evans inconspicuously leaves books on windowsills and leans them up against brick walls then drops coordinates to their locations on social media.

“It’s part literacy project, part geocaching,” says Em Meurer, who has attended a handful of Evans’ scavenger hunts, but has struck out each time.

And while she hasn’t found a book, she has connected with a pocket of the reading community in Cincinnati,

which was Evans’ intent for UCBC all along.

“I’ve never actually been able to find (any books). Other people get there first,” Meurer says. “But I’ve met other people looking for them and chatted with them, and now I’m friends with a bunch of people on Instagram from (UCBC).”

As the popularity of Evans’ scavenger hunts has grown, they’ve evolved from casual passersby finding a book resting neatly on a windowsill to mobs of hungry bookworms determined to go home with at least one book.

Those who would prefer not to be rushed in the search for books can skip the hunts and subscribe to a tier of membership through the UCBC Patreon. Five bucks a month gets you a membership card and a sticker.

Twenty bucks a month and you can get all of that plus one book delivered to your doorstep monthly.

For $50, you also get a limited-edition UCBC branded tote.

But people like Tiena Britton Bruner, one of UCBC’s frequent finders, go to great lengths to snatch up books at a scavenger hunt, including roping a partner into driving a getaway car. In some cases, Britton Bruner’s methods still haven’t been stealthy enough to Under Cover Book Club spurs a literary scavenger hunt throughout Cincinnati. get to the books before P H O T O : FA C E B O O K . C O M / U N D E R C OV E R 5 1 3 others did.

“I was hunting with authors who have yet to garner national her uncle’s missing spacecraft. Genres some quick people. I’d get to a spot attention or are just releasing their first run the gamut from memoir and (where) there were supposed to be four novel.

With a few exceptions, Evans adventure stories to subversive modern books — that’s a pretty good number tries to stay away from best-selling fiction and deep fantasy. of books to find — and they’d be gone. popular fiction “unless it’s popular At first, Evans was reluctant to reach There was no one around,” she says. because it’s just that good,” she says. out to publishers to ask if they could Britton Bruner is a Cincinnati transFor example, in May, Evans hid Cryspare some books. When she did, she plant who moved here with her husing in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, who was pleasantly surprised to find that band over a decade ago. Through UCBC, is better known as the lead singer of they were happy to oblige. After all, she’s been able to explore parts of the Indie Rock band Japanese Breakfast.

Evans’ requests are mutually beneficial: city she hadn’t experienced before.

While Zauner didn’t need a boost to she gets to connect with a community “I don’t know much about this city, fame, this was her debut memoir about of fellow book-lovers in her city, and but I’m learning,” she tells CityBeat. “I tapping into her Korean roots through the publishers and authors generate didn’t realize how bookish Cincinnati food as a coping mechanism after her free publicity. is.” mother’s death.

“We all want the same thing,” Evans Britton Bruner has found plenty of “I want to support (debut) authors, says.

“We all want to read books.” fellow avid readers in the city through because I can’t imagine, especially as a The time Evans spends contacting UCBC, the #bookstagram hashtag on first-time author, what it’s like to have publishers, maintaining a social media Instagram (consider it a club for lit fans, (your book) out in the world,” she says. presence, interviewing authors and or a subreddit), and bookstores like “And I want to support small publishers, hiding books is her own. UCBC is an Downbound Books in Northside, which because with technology, people are unpaid labor of love and, as Evans puts specializes in hand-picked titles that straying away from (physical) books.” it, “a capital ‘H’ hobby.” She’s just one are — and aren’t — on The New York Some books Evans hid in August lady with a house filled with teetering Times Best Sellers list. She endearingly include The Savage Instinct by M.M. stacks of tomes and grand plans to refers to Downbound as a “treasure DeLuca, a psychological thriller set in hide them in a neighborhood near trove of independent and local authors,” Victorian England; Animal, the debut book-lovers. with plenty of authorial debuts. novel by journalist Lisa Taddeo, an When Evans is not hiding books or When compiling her monthly exploration of female rage and male reading them, she teaches full-time at scavenger hunt lists, Evans seeks out violence; and In the Quick by Kate Hope the Montessori Lab School at Xavier books from small publishers and Day, about an astronaut trying to locate University, where she’s working toward

her Master’s Degree in education with a concentration in Montessori teaching methods.

“If I have to have a job, if I can’t just fall over on my chaise lounge with a stack of books and a fan, I’d like to potentially make a change in someone’s life,” Evans says.

Without concrete plans for the future of UCBC, Evans dreams of supporting literacy efforts in the city by providing resources to schools, getting free books into low-income neighborhoods and organizing bigger scavenger hunts for kids and young adult readers.

But for now — and possibly forever — Evans strives to always be “making someone’s day a little bit better, changing their perspective, teaching them something.”

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

To learn more about the Under Cover Book Club, upcoming scavenger hunts or to join as a member, visit undercover513.com.

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FOOD & DRINK

A spread of dishes from Metropole P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R

High Standards With new Executive Chef Vanessa Miller at the helm, Metropole maintains its reputation with a fresh, fun menu that won’t disappoint R E V I E W BY PA M A M IT C H E L L

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hat a comfort it is to return, year after year, to a beloved restaurant and not be disappointed. That’s been my experience at Metropole, the flagship restaurant at downtown’s 21c Museum Hotel and a beacon of reliability in Cincinnati.

When I had the chance to check out the cooking of Metropole’s new chef, not yet one year at the helm, downtown was still taking baby steps to recover from the tribulations of 2020.

A Cincinnati native, Vanessa Miller had come on board as executive chef in the fall after more than a decade at restaurant positions in Massachusetts and New York. I’d hoped that she would have the support — and the chops — to maintain the high standards that Metropole has achieved since its opening in 2012.

Miller’s stint at Metropole goes back to August 2020, just over a month after the restaurant reopened from last

spring’s lockdown. With hotel business at a virtual standstill, Metropole no longer served breakfast and lunch upon reopening; more than a year later, the schedule remains at dinner seven nights a week along with weekend brunch.

The reduced meal service reflects an industry-wide struggle to find not only adequate staff but also enough diners to justify three-meal-a-day scheduling. Hotel occupancy determines that breakfast and downtown workers supply the bulk of lunch traffic.

Neither measure has come anywhere near 2019 numbers; for at least the next few months Miller expects the dining schedule will stay as it is.

Another casualty of our stumbling recovery has been 21c’s rooftop cocktail terrace, which reopened in May to a lot of fanfare about its expanded drink and

food menu. That opening coincided with the first rush of newly vaccinated Cincinnatians breaking their cabin fever and inundating some of their old favorite haunts. Cue the hordes flocking to the roof at 21c, and the staff just couldn’t keep up with demand.

For now, Miller said, the team has decided to focus on Metropole. The upstairs bar is closed to the public and, at least for a while, will only be available for private events.

Luckily, the ground-floor Metropole itself has a wonderful bar, even without a city view — the drinks staff is among the most creative and knowledgeable in town. The quality of these libations might merit a strategy to drink cocktails through dinner, skipping wine, in case you want to try several offerings from the current list.

CONTINUES ON PAGE 34

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

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FROM PAGE 33

When I dined with two friends from Chicago recently, we indeed started with something from the bar. The seven-item list of house concoctions included a couple of lighter drinks and a few spirit-forward mixtures, all with made-up names such as Suze-y Q (gin, Suze liqueur, sweet vermouth and bitters; $10) and a vegetal drink called Persephone’s Return (snap-peainfused gin, jasmine and the herbal liqueur Dolin Genepy des Alpes; $13).

I opted for Old French Quarter, a delicious rye-based creation with B&B and three different bitters ($15). My friend ordered one of the lighter combos, called Red Leather, Yellow Leather and made with prosecco, sherry, amaro and strawberry-rhubarb syrup ($13).

Chef Miller’s late-summer menu offered many enticements, with more than a half-dozen appetizers, four salads, three pastas and seven entrees.

Miller said this was the fifth or sixth menu under her supervision and has achieved what she has been striving for.

This menu represents “well-executed food that’s playful and fun without being too fussy,” she said. “And it feels very much like now — like late summer.”

At dinner, my friends and I had to make hard choices and asked our server lots of questions before we could hone in on what to order. Menu discussion, therefore, took up most of our cocktail time, as veteran server Dave Leyton knew every ingredient and flavor laced through each dish and helped steer us right.

What turned out to be our consensus favorite dish of the meal came with the first course: cornmeal-crusted calamari with pickled plums and radish sprouts ($12), which had been one of Leyton’s suggestions as we dithered between it and a couple other starters. The squid itself was first-rate, fresh as could be, and the result of flash-frying produced a dish with perfect crunch and no hint of grease.

Along with the calamari, we shared grilled bread with burrata cheese ($13) and a strawberry and snap pea salad ($11). The bread topping included sliced fresh asparagus and an onion confit, while the salad featured red quinoa, spinach, crumbled goat cheese and balsamic vinaigrette. Longtime fans of this restaurant will be happy to know that you can still get the burnt carrot salad ($10) with avocado and feta.

In a phone interview some days after our dinner, Miller mentioned how satisfied she was with Metropole’s “pasta program,” a comment that made me regret having passed up the tagliatelle carbonara ($29) or the fazzoletti ($25). King crab, sweet corn and other ingredients graced the tagliatelle while the other pasta dish featured smoked tomatoes, black-eyed peas and burrata.

But that evening we settled on salmon, duck and scallops. A lot of care went into the roasted duck breast ($29), meaty slices cooked exactly to order, with nicely browned rims of fat. It was decadent in the best possible way, accompanied by duck-fat-braised wild rice, bits of charred radishes and green

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Cornmeal-crusted calamari with pickled plums and radish sprouts P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R

Seared salmon with green tomatoes, farro, smoked Greek yogurt, cucumbers and hot honey vinaigrette P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R

apple for flavor and texture contrasts. I loved the menu description of seared sea scallops with lentils, fennel, pecan and pickled strawberries ($30), with some of those ingredients among my favorites. But the dish underperformed for me, lacking in any crunchy element, and I couldn’t get into the pickled strawberries.

For dessert, a dish of chocolate ice cream with a scoop of rose sorbet ($8)

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

surprised and delighted us. If you love the scent of roses, then do hope that Metropole keeps making this icy treat.

Each bite floods you with that scent as it tickles your tongue with its flavor.

For me, the sorbet rendered our other chosen dessert an also-ran. Not that there’s anything wrong at all with chocolate coconut crunch ($10), sort of a candy bar on a plate, with chocolate mousse, caramel crunch cake and

coconut caramel sauce.

After dinner, we strolled through the hotel’s adjacent Contemporary art galleries and thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit. Be sure to allow time to enjoy this special feature of a unique Cincinnati dining experience.

Metropole at 21c, 609 Walnut St., Downtown, metropoleonwalnut.com.

THE DISH

Seven Super Cincinnati Sandwiches for a Picnic...or Just Lunch

BY S E A N P E T E RS

Breaking news: Last summer was weird.

Without rehashing 2020’s intricate list of horrors and inconveniences, it’s not a stretch to say that a majority of our lives were greatly altered from the norm for one reason or another. I didn’t eat outside my house for five months — not even delivery or takeout — out of an overabundance of caution and hysterical paranoia. Hypochondriacs do not thrive in such times.

Let’s make the remainder of this summer a pleasant one. And what better way to start than with sandwiches?

Out of a driving desire to make up for last summer’s crazy, mixed-up vibe, CityBeat is touring the most recommended sandwich spots in the city.

Tina Fey’s Liz Lemon character on 30 Rock summed it up best: “Can I share with you my worldview? All of humankind has one thing in common: the sandwich. I believe that all anyone really wants in this life is to sit in peace and eat a sandwich.”

Preach it, Lemon.

There are five caveats to this list: • No hot sandwiches. The world has already been scorched with recordbreaking temperatures this summer, so we’ll stick to food that won’t warm us up even further. These sandwiches also need to travel well, because we are in peak picnic season (in the shade, at least), and hot sandwiches can become soggy in a jiff.

• The sandwich must come from within Cincinnati city limits. There are so many noteworthy delis and restaurants just outside our borders but, alas, this is Cincinnati CityBeat.

• The sandwiches are suggested by fellow local diners and waitstaff alike.

These decisions are based entirely on recommendations from regulars, CityBeat readers and others and they are in no way being ranked against one another.

• No wraps, hot dogs or tacos. Don’t come at me with semantics — those are foods in their own categories. A minimum of two slices of bread is required (or at least a mostly-bisected baguette).

• Locals only. I don’t care how “freaky fast” some of the national chains can deliver a passably adequate sandwich.

Also remember that the selections below aren’t the only beloved sandwich spots in the city, which is testament to how many talented and dedicated sandwich-makers grace Cincinnati.

Carl’s Deli

The Carl’s Country Club: Rotisserie turkey, Swiss cheese and bacon on white toast with lettuce, tomato, onion and mayonnaise - $9.50 Carl’s Deli is a monument to the humble sandwich. By far the most frequently mentioned stop when it comes to essential sandwich destinations, this Hyde Park deli boasts a frenziedly loyal customer base. The sandwich comes

with a generous portion of thinly-cut turkey, savory and tender. The veritable salad packed atop the deli meat makes this sandwich an entire well-balanced meal, with more than acceptable portions of protein, greens and carbs. The only serious crunch comes from bacon, making the sandwich thoroughly easy to devour. It’s a satisfying, well-executed club sandwich that achieves the most one could hope for from its simple ingredients. If you’re going on a picnic, this is a perfect place to get your entire spread: beer and wine are available along with all the expected deli sides (try the broccoli salad, and you’ll be hooked for life). 2836 Observatory Ave., Hyde Park, carlsdeli.com.

Silverglades Deli

The Renaissance: Silverglades’ smoked chicken salad, lettuce, tomato and onion served on a croissant - $6.95 Take a number, because there’s hardly ever a lull in the demand for Silverglades’ sandwiches. Both locations are equipped to serve up the most satisfying of deli sandwiches, including the sando that takes top billing, The Renaissance. A chickensalad sandwich doesn’t usually tip one toward ecstasy, but if you’ve got that particular hankering, go to Silverglades Deli. I recommend the smoked chicken salad above the signature walnut grape option, but only because I don’t care for chopped walnuts on a sandwich and prefer the meatier, less sweet version.

Whichever salad you go for, it will be creamy and savory. My only gripe is the imperfect coverage that a croissant offers its sandwich filling, though it proved satisfactorily flaky and buttery.

236 E. Eighth St., Downtown; 118 W. Elder St., Over-the-Rhine, Findlay Market, silvergladesdeli.com.

The Takeaway Deli & Grocery

Caprese: Tomato, mozzarella, house basil pesto on Allez sourdough - $7.50 (add turkey +$1.50) Not every good sandwich needs cold cuts, and nothing communicates that more than a fresh caprese sandwich from The Takeaway. However, in the shop’s infinite sandwich wisdom, Takeaway knows carnivores always like to be included, which results in an intriguing turkey caprese for those who can’t fathom a sandwich without meat.

The herby housemade basil pesto adds a fragrant and slightly spicy tang that pairs spectacularly with the sliced mozzarella and tomato. Hearty sourdough bread sets a strong foundation to carry all the flavor in this bright, fresh summer sandwich. 1324 Main St., Over-theRhine, takeawayonmain.com.

Carl’s Country Club sandwich from Carl’s Deli P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R

banana peppers and Italian dressing on a Sixteen Bricks roll - $9 The Italian sandwich typically features several cured meats, but by omitting animal by-products completely, Harmony Plant Fare produces a wonderful sandwich in which nothing is compromised in terms of flavor and texture. Give this sandwich to a drunk meat eater, and they won’t even know the difference.

Eating it sober, however, gave me a full appreciation for the housemade seitan ham and pepperoni; there’s a wonderful bite to them that almost approximates the irresistible snap of a good, fatty pepperoni. Take a few of these to your next vegan potluck, and it will be a hit that overshadows everything else on the table. 1801 Race St., Unit 105, Findlay Market, harmonyplantfare.com.

Allez Bakery

Jambon Beurre: Shaved ham, herby butter, gruyere and parmesan on baguette / focaccia - $9 The bakery that provides some of the best bread in America (at least according to Food & Wine magazine) also serves up its own incredible sandwiches. The jambon beurre is a French classic that’s traditionally served on a heartily-buttered baguette, but my most recent pickup used a bisected focaccia. While this might give a Frenchman a heart attack (crise cardiaque, en francais), I was really pleased with the variety. If the bread is good, the sandwich built upon it has all the potential in the world. The herby butter and cheeses are so indulgent, giving the shaved ham a decadent covering that fills every bite with profound happiness.

Allez is a french verb conjugation that encourages you to go. Go where? To this sandwich. Merci, Allez. 1208 Main St., Over-the-Rhine, allezbakery.com.

Scherpie’s Produce and Deli

Ham & Beef Double Decker: Doublelayered ham and roast beef sandwich with three pieces of Klosterman bread, topped with lettuce, tomato, onions and pickles - $7.75 This iconic St. Bernard fixture is old school through and through.

Step up to the deli counter, and your options span the classic go-tos. As long as you want it served between some Klosterman sliced bread, the customization options are limited only by your imagination. I was tipped to go for the double decker because it’s a massive, shareable meal that would hit the spot no matter how hungry you may be. Scherpie’s also has a formidable produce selection alongside a wall of candy, making a perfect blend of health food and sugary treats to pair with your sandwich. 503 E. Ross Ave., St. Bernard, scherpiesproduceanddeli.com.

Caffe Barista & Deli

Chipotle Chicken: Boar’s Head chipotle chicken and gouda cheese, lettuce, tomato and red onion with Cajun or regular mayo on a pretzel bun - $7 This sandwich distinguishes itself from everything else on the list thanks to the pretzel bun, which makes for a nice step outside the norm. There’s a pleasant spice from the chicken and cheese — nothing too severe for delicate eaters, but a slight tingle on the palate. Caffe Barista is a cornerstone of downtown lunch plans. While you wait for your sandwich, it’s not a bad idea to browse the shop’s limited-but-strategic groceries, which could cover dinner later in the evening or at least provide some snacks. Beer is an option, too. 231 W. Fourth St., Downtown, caffebarista.com.

Harmony Plant Fare

Italian: Seitan ham, pepperoni and provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion,

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

Got a favorite we overlooked? Let us know at request@citybeat.com, because there’s always room for more sandwiches.

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MUSIC

The Hiders P H OTO : T H E H I D E RS. C O M

The Hiders Go Seek Without the pandemic, Cincinnati Americana band The Hiders’ new album, Forever at the End, might never have happened at all

BY B R I A N BA K E R

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ith a laugh, Billy Alletzhauser fields the compliment that his band The Hiders’ new album, Forever at the End, will cement his

reputation as a master of mid-tempo, sad-bastard Americana. He then admits to a bit of pre-interview planning prior to our meeting in his studio, dubbed

the Belfry.

“When I brought you up here, I was going to say, ‘This is where the tragic happens,’” he admits.

The Hiders have indeed been making the tragic happen since the band’s spectacular 2004 debut, Valentine.

Alletzhauser and gifted harmony vocalist Beth Harris, the two constant Hiders in a rotating roll call of stellar talent, have assembled an impressive canon over the past decade and a half, and all without the questionable assistance of a label structure.

After Valentine’s release, Alletzhauser adhered to a loose intention of putting out a Hiders album every two years, but 2017’s Unsheltered Storm came after a three-year gap and, at four years, Forever at the End represents the longest wait between studio albums.

It’s natural to assume the new album’s progress and release was slowed by last year’s quarantine, but in fact, the opposite is true.

“Without the pandemic it might have taken longer,” Alletzhauser says.

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SOUND ADVICE Rancid with Dropkick Murphys and The Bronx

Wednesday, Aug. 18 • ICON Festival Stage Rancid celebrates three decades of skank-inducing sonic mayhem with “Boston to Berkeley II,” a co-headlining tour with like-minded Punk lifers Dropkick Murphys. As might be obvious given the title of the tour, Rancid emanated from Berkeley, California in 1991, while Dropkick Murphys rose out of Boston a few years later. The latter championed the former, leading to each being affiliated with Hellcat Records for a period.

Rancid — which currently includes founder and frontman Tim Armstrong, guitarist Lars Frederiksen, bassist Matt Freeman and drummer Branden Steineckert — has dropped nine studio albums since 1993, all teeming with righteous energy and ample hooks.

Long driven by the Ska fervor of Armstrong’s previous band, Operation Ivy, the quartet has incorporated more of its obsession with The Clash on recent albums, the last of which was 2017’s sleekly produced Trouble Maker.

Yet 1995’s … And the Out Come the Wolves, which was released at the height of the mid-’90s Punk revival, remains the band’s finest hour, as a quick revisit of then-MTV staples “Time Bomb,” “Roots Radicals” and “Ruby Soho” attests.

“Looking forward to hitting the road with the Dropkick Murphys again for the second edition of our Boston to Berkeley Tour,” Armstrong said when the tour was announced. “Our good buddies The Bronx will be joining us on tour as well. See ya in the pit!” (Jason Gargano)

Marc Cohn with Randall Bramblett

Thursday, Aug. 19 • Ludlow Garage Loudon Wainwright has “Dead Skunk,” Looking Glass has “Brandy” and Marc Cohn has “Walking in Memphis.”

Although Cohn literally checks the onehit wonder box — “Walking in Memphis” reached No. 13 on Billboard’s Hot 100 Singles in 1991, was his sole commercial success and contributed to his Best New Artist Grammy win — that unfortunate tag casts a shadow over everything he’s subsequently accomplished.

Sadly, Cohn’s bouts of writer’s block have sidelined him for long stretches; his huge hit was actually inspired by his 1985 Memphis trip, undertaken to end a writing drought. His sophomore album, The Rainy Season, featuring cameos from Bonnie Raitt and Graham Nash, appeared just two years after his eponymous debut, but it would be five years before the appearance of 1998’s Burning the Daze — two years after Cohn’s debut album was certified platinum.

In 2005, the horrors of Hurricane

Rancid P H O T O : E P I TA P H R E C O R D S

Katrina and the PTSD Cohn experienced after surviving a bullet to the head in a carjacking attempt led him to write “Dance Back from the Grave,” a track from his great “comeback” album, 2007’s Join the Parade. And Cohn had a major success with his astonishing 2010 covers album, Listening Booth: 1970, which actually charted higher on the Billboard 200 than his platinum debut album.

Thankfully, Cohn’s profile has risen dramatically in recent years. His 2014 song, “The Coldest Corner in the World,” was featured in the Tree Man documentary, plus he released two odds-andsods collections in 2016, Careful What You Dream and Evolution of a Record, featuring unheard songs and demos.

In 2017, Cohn collaborated with Soul legend William Bell on his Grammywinning This is Where I Live, and in 2019, Cohn teamed with the Blind Boys of Alabama for their album Work to Do. And if you appreciate full-circle weirdness, that same year Cohn and Miley Cyrus performed “Walking in Memphis” at the city’s Memphis in May Festival; I’m guessing Miley’s feet were 10 feet off of Beale. (Brian Baker) Marc Cohn P H O T O : M I N T TA L E N T G R O U P

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FROM PAGE 37

Pop Empire P H O T O : R YA N B A C K

Pop Empire with The Harlequins and Slow Glows

Saturday, Aug. 21 • Fountain Square In the Roman Catholic tradition, a novena is a ritual that takes place over nine consecutive days in which participants dedicate prayer to a particular saint or holy figure. If you’re talking about Cincinnati Psych-Rock bands, though, Novena refers to the nine tracks that make up Pop Empire’s most recent LP. Arriving mid-2019, the record signified a sonic breakthrough — and a new lineup — 10 years into the trio’s history.

While founding member and bassist Henry Wilson’s Blues-y undertones and twangy affect are present as ever, Novena’s overarching mood is unusually dark, thanks to a reverb-heavy mix and contributions from the band’s new members. Guitarist (and CityBeat contributor) Katrina Eresman plays her leads with a minimalist, expressive voice that is reminiscent of Television’s Tom Verlaine — albeit much noisier

— while Jake Langknecht’s light touch on the drums keeps the sound cavernous. The instrumentals are distant, yet seem to surround the listener from all angles like a hazy stratosphere.

Disparate musical interests leading up to the release of Novena intersect perfectly to form a spooky atmosphere that sounds like impending doom.

According to a 2019 interview with Audiofemme, Eresman has a penchant for Drone-y riffs, while the subtle influences of Gospel and Boogie Rock on Wilson’s songcraft come from listening to “a lot of ’20s and ’30s” music.

“The songs all have to do with evoking a very calming and reassuring presence that feels very familiar, from like before you were born,” he said.

The Cincinnati show at Fountain Square’s Fifth & Vine Live concert series (with locals The Harlequins and Slow Glows) will mark Pop Empire’s first performance since spring of last year. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more scenic spot to return to the live music circuit. (Jude Noel)

“Seriously, I don’t know if it would even have come out.”

He says he began writing and recording again, grabbing drummer Todd Drake for assistance on the demos.

“During the pandemic, when we felt comfortable getting together, Todd and Jeremy Pitt, who was playing bass with us, and I would get together, with Beth and sometimes without her, just to do basic tracks,” Alletzhauser says. “There wasn’t any big plan.”

Harris seconds that assessment. Her in-demand abilities extend beyond her role in The Hiders, most recently as a backing vocalist on tours for Cincinnati-spawned Rock band Heartless Bastards and for its lead singer Erika Wennerstrom’s solo project. Harris’ frequent absences necessitated a lot of piecemeal recording.

“We’d cram in some recording because we can’t not, and Bill had been getting some bass tracks done while I was gone,” Harris says. “Things were coming together but it was still just a bunch of stuff we’d recorded, and Bill finally said, ‘What are we doing with these songs?’ And I said, ‘We need to finish them and make an album. Put it out digitally, just get them out.’ So finishing them was our pandemic project.”

The album coalesced around Alletzhauser’s songs that dealt with inevitability, destiny and time, particularly the title track “Forever at the End.” It’s one of the oldest Hiders songs, dating back to the sessions that produced Valentine, and somehow it never wound up on an album until this one. The song revealed its perfection in hindsight.

“Beth really liked it. She’s probably responsible for keeping it alive,” Alletzhauser says. “It might have been the patience we had because it’s a more complicated song. It has a lot more layers and curveballs and maybe the extra time we had because of the pandemic let us settle into it. I knew I wanted to title the album Forever at the End, mainly because it’s a cool title, but it’s also the oldest song.”

“After I mastered the album, I was making a folder to send to press people with the bio and stuff, and I abbreviated the name on the folder so I could see it clearly,” he continues. “The acronym for Forever at the End is F.A.T.E.” Fate has played an important part in The Hiders’ history. After his departure from legendary local Indie Rock band Ass Ponys, Alletzhauser organized regular songwriting/performing salons at his basement “Batcave” with local stalwarts like Chuck Cleaver (Ass Ponys, Wussy), Ed Cunningham (Comet Bluegrass All-Stars) and Jeff Roberson, among many others. When The Hiders began to solidify from those informal jam sessions, Alletzhauser realized how much he enjoyed having a singing partner, which had previously included Niki Buerig from Plow on Boy and Lisa Walker from Wussy.

Alletzhauser and Harris had actually met during a local theatrical production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch around 2001, and when he was looking for a regular co-vocalist for The Hiders, he thought of Harris and asked

her to join. Neither one of them points to a specific moment of clarity when they sang together for the first time, but Harris, who grew up in a churchbased atmosphere with a gifted musical family in Arkansas, notes that her first time in the studio with Alletzhauser was a revelation.

“I had a theater background but I always had this secret dream of singing in a Rock band,” she says. “I loved the theater but it wasn’t fulfilling whatever passion I had that I didn’t know what it was yet. When Bill asked me to sing with The Hiders, it took me a minute because I was trying to find my place in the Rock world. When we went to record the first album and I could relax a little, it was my first time in a studio and immediately it was like, ‘Ooh, I could live here.’ Hearing it so close in the headphones, it just hit me that I’m going to sing with this person for the rest of my life.”

The effect of two vocalists achieving a single sonic presence is typically linked by a genetic bond and is often referred to as “blood harmony.” Ironically, Alletzhauser had written a song with that title for this album but it was cut at the last minute. Regardless, he clearly recognizes the rarity of his connection with Harris.

“I never take it for granted,” Alletzhauser says. “I wouldn’t have The Hiders if it wasn’t for Beth. She’s the yin to my yang, and her favorite word is ‘yes’ — sometimes to her detriment.

‘Hey, you want to play a coffeehouse for no money?’ ‘Yes!’ She’ll come back from playing Red Rocks and then play a pizza place with me, and it’s just as cool. She’s been there always, as much a friend as a bandmate. She’s my best friend.”

“I get Bill more than anyone on the planet, and I think vice versa,” Harris agrees. “It just dawned on him recently that The Hiders were me and him, and everyone else changes around us. He said, ‘It really is just me and you, right?’

And I said, ‘Well, yeah. Der. It’s been that way since I joined the band.’ We’re a constant. We always will be.”

That devotion could be viewed through a romantic prism, but there has never been any Fleetwood Maclike drama in The Hiders because Alletzhauser and Harris have never been emotionally involved beyond the music they make. Harris notes that many of Alletzhauser’s previous relationships had been strained by his connection to Harris, but his wife Sarah completely understands what they do and why they’re together.

“Billy is one of my lifelines, as far as people I need in my life,” Harris says. “Thank God he has a wife who understands that. She’s like, ‘Oh, you besties. I’ll leave you to it.’ His relationships before were not so understanding and it made him miserable. You can’t make music as well if you’re miserable. Musicians think they need to be miserable to make music, but they don’t.”

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

Learn more about The Hiders and listen to a song from Forever at the End at thehiders.com.

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C I T Y B E AT. C O M

47

PUZZLE ACROSS

44. Tree-filled spot

7. Mathematical points

1. Apricot leftovers

47. Steering wheel

8. Rescue mission by air

5. Having more skills to pay the bills

49. Grace

9. Turn off

50. Where Roosevelt met Stalin

10. It’s in and out of shops regularly

52. Cuatro estaciones

11. Really terribly

55. Green lights

12. Defang

56. No longer have enough sails?

14. 17th letters

61. D-backs on scoreboards

18. Evansville-to-Bloomington dir.

62. Lack the courage to play Othello?

21. “Omeros” poet Derek

15. Hit the road 16. Constitution, in D.C. 17. Say a few disparaging words about a baseball hat?

19. Place to fill up on grass

64. Excellent score

20. Job that entails informing people that they have overdue library books?

23. National Little League Mo.

65. Fit to be tied 66. Tarred fiber used to seal gaps

28. Chain unit, perhaps

68. Water balloon fight sound

24. Break in the action

69. Small drinks

25. “Like now, srsly”

22. Butterfingers 26. Pepper often stuffed in Manzanilla olives

67. Brian added to this puzzle’s theme answers

22. Streaming service abbr.

DOWN

33. Old law 34. With 36-Down, all collectively

38. “You follow?”

31. City where you’ll find bouchon restaurants

1. Like a rained out game: Abbr.

32. Oversimplified

2. “That was such a bummer”

39. First Japanese player to win a PGA Tour event

35. John Wayne Airport location, for short

3. Fishy Tex-Mex option

40. A pushover

4. Kleenex collection

43. Scoreboard nos.

37. “I need that coiled-wire switch”?

41. Perform extremely well 42. Pulls back a bit

48

C I T Y B E AT. C O M

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5. Commercial script

44. Spin around

6. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Stephens

45. Country singer ___ Alaina

AUGUST 19-31, 2021

29. Seattle Kraken org.

30. Hull piece

36. See 34-Down

27. Quick tug

BY B R EN DA N EM M E T T Q UIG LE Y

13. Clinton’s collective, familiarly

LIFE OF BRIAN

10. Sukkah builder

L AST PUZ ZLE’S ANSWERS:

46. Water-warming phenomenon 48. Attractive item 51. SQ5 and SQ7 53. Fresh start?

54. “___ victory!”

57. Base protection 58. Said out loud 59. Greek omelet ingredient 60. Strait of Hormuz nation 63. VRBO data

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