CityBeat | Jan. 12-25, 2022

The New Normal Is More Normalized Censorship Project Censored’s top 10 stories show old patterns are alive and well

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The New Normal Is More Normalized Censorship Project Censored’s top 10 stories show old patterns are alive and well

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NEWS

“This pandemic is not over,” one local medical expert said in early January.

P H OTO : M U F I D M A J N U N , UNSPLASH

Local COVID-19 Cases Doubling Every Few Days Hamilton County had more than 11,000 active COVID-19 cases as of Jan. 5

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

D

uring a Jan. 5 media briefing, three local officials loudly sounded the alarm that COVID19 still is a major problem within the region and is actually getting worse.

“We are certainly at a time when we are seeing more cases than ever,” Hamilton County Public Health Commissioner Greg Kesterman said.

Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Driehaus said that positive COVID-19 cases within the county have been rising significantly in recent weeks (charts show new increases in November as people gathered indoors).

And while the numbers themselves are notable, Driehaus pointed out that the current figures are part of an

alarming trend.

“This number of positive cases in Hamilton County week over week is about 11,000. 11,000! We’ve never been anywhere near 11,000 positive cases in Hamilton County. I had to go way back to December (of 2020) to even get anywhere near it, and that was only like 5,800 (cases),” Driehaus said. “It’s an astounding number.”

Driehaus said that the spike partly is due to more people getting tested for COVID-19, but the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus also has been rapidly spreading throughout the region.

“I checked the numbers twice because I was so shocked by that high

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number,” Driehaus said. “But I do think it’s astounding, and it’s a wake-up call for the community to try to do all we can to keep the spread of this disease as low as possible in Hamilton County.”

Kesterman said that from week to week, Hamilton County nearly doubled its number of active COVID-19 cases, from 11,700 cases to 20,141 cases. He added that in December of 2020, when much of the country shut down due to a spike in cases and hospitalizations and healthcare workers were pleading for relief and equipment, the county had 716 daily cases. But now, things are worse.

“We’ve kind of used that (December 2020) as the benchmark for what is bad as far as caseload,” Kesterman explained. “Unfortunately, today we are on Mount Everest with (a seven-day average of ) 1,472 cases of COVID-19 within our community without a top of the mountain in sight. We continue to grow day after day.”

Kesterman said that the virus’s reproductive value within the region is “extremely high,” at 1.65 for Hamilton County and 1.66 for the 14-county region (the reproductive value indicates how contagious a virus is; it’s the average number of people who will contract the virus from an infected person).

Kesterman also said that both the region’s positivity rate (the number of people who test positive out of all coronavirus tests performed) and confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations are at “all-time highs,” at 27% and 825, respectively. Of those hospitalized with the coronavirus, 177 are in the intensive care unit, and 128 are on ventilators.

Kesterman said that COVID-19 vaccines are key to avoiding severe medical complications or death from the virus, with 95% of locally hospitalized individuals being unvaccinated. Although breakthrough COVID cases do occur in people who have been vaccinated — largely due to the virus’s high transmissibility within communities — the FDA- and CDC-authorized Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines lessen the severity of COVID symptoms.

“The No. 1 way to stay out of the hospital is to get vaccinated. The vaccine is extremely effective and an amazing tool,” Kesterman said. “Most people who get COVID if they are vaccinated are having minor cases (and) minor symptoms.”

Dr. Richard Lofgren, UC Health’s president and CEO, said that Greater Cincinnati hospitals continue to be strained by a virus that keeps changing.

“This pandemic is not over,” Lofgren said, echoing what he had told the commissioners in December. “In fact, it’s heating up more and more intense than it ever has been in the entire almost two years that we’ve been wrestling with this. And I’m the first to tell you that all of us, we’re tired of it.”

Lofgren said that the contagiousness of the Omicron variant, which has largely taken over as the dominant variant within the United States, is “just stunning.” He said that Omicron is not causing “quite the intensity of the disease” as the recent Delta variant

had, but it spreads much more quickly within communities, commanding healthcare workers’ attention.

“It truly doubles the number of cases every two to three days,” Lofgren said.

“It’s a math problem. And though a smaller number of people require hospitalization, a small number on a large number is (still) a very large number of individuals. We are in the process of overwhelming our healthcare systems.”

As he did in December, Lofgren referred to Cleveland being overrun with coronavirus patients and hospital staff there being stretched to the brink.

At the end of December, Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located, experienced a 37% positivity rate with a COVID-19 case rate more than 17 times greater than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s threshold for high transmission, according to CityBeat sister newspaper Cleveland Scene. Lofgren said that the staff shortages and postponing of procedures that are occurring up north are also happening here.

“There’s no question that this surge of (COVID) cases, though less of them are translating into hospitalizations, there’s just so many more of those that the hospitals are, in fact, getting overwhelmed,” Lofgren said. “And it does squeeze our ability to take care of non-COVID patients, as well.”

Lofgren said that healthcare workers are exhausted from a pandemic that won’t stop, and many have left the industry.

“We are also facing a tremendous labor shortage. This pandemic has sort of been marked by various shortages,” Lofgren said. “When we were first introduced to this virus, we didn’t have enough PPE (personal protective equipment) to protect our staff. And then we didn’t have enough testing.

And then we didn’t have enough vaccines. And at this point in time, we just don’t have enough staff. “ “The staff and the frontline nurses and care providers have just done heroic work throughout this pandemic.

They can’t maintain the idea of doing double shifts and overtime in the way that they have,” he continued.

Lofgren, Kesterman and Driehaus all stressed the importance of COVID19 vaccines, masking and physically distancing to stay safer, as these methods were effective in helping to “flatten the curve” in 2020. Hamilton County provides free COVID-19 vaccinations and at-home testing kits.

Though the county ran out of kits in December, officials said more are on the way.

Learn more and find locations at testandprotectcincy.com.

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The New Normal Is More Normalized Censorship Project Censored’s top 10 stories show old patterns are alive and well

BY PAU L RO S E N B E R G , S E N I O R E D ITO R

Since 1976, Project Censored has identified the most important stories of each year on the basis of the exposure that was denied to them by forces beyond the First Amendment. Its goal is to educate students and the public about the importance of a truly free press for democratic self-government. This list covers the most under-reported stories of the year, as compiled by the project. Capsules have been edited for space. More details and a full book, State of the Free Press, are available at projectcensored.org.

P

roject Censored’s co-directors Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth title their introduction to this year’s edition of State of the Free Press, “A Return to News Normalcy?” drawing a direct parallel between our world today to that of post-World War I America, “When the United States faced another raging pandemic and economic recession,” with other sources of tumult as well: “The United States then had experienced a crackdown on civil liberties and free speech in the form of Espionage and Sedition Acts; racial tensions flared during the Red Summer of 1919 as violence erupted from Chicago to Tulsa; Prohibition was the law of the land; and the first wave of US feminism ended with the passage of the 19th Amendment.”

Project Censored isn’t alone in drawing parallels to a century ago, of course. The pandemic above all has expanded journalistic horizons, as a matter of necessity. To a lesser extent, the threat to American democracy — part of a worldwide trend of democratic backsliding — has done so as well. But though some have expanded their horizons, many more continue as if little or nothing has fundamentally changed. Dayto-day news stories perpetuate the fantasy that normal has already returned. And in one sense they’re right: The normal patterns of exclusion and suppression that Project Censored has been tracking for over 40 years continue to dominate, with even the latest wrinkles fitting into well-established, if evolving, broad patterns that are depressingly familiar.

These patterns are reflected in Project Censored’s top 10 list, with stories about labor struggles, racism, threats to health, the environment and free speech.

The point of Project Censored has never been just to expose significant stories that have been ignored, but rather to expose them as portals to a wider landscape of understanding and action.

In that spirit, here is a summary of 2021’s top 10 censored stories:

Prescription Drug Costs Set to Become a Leading Cause of Death for Elderly Americans “Soaring prescription drug costs have been widely reported by corporate news outlets,” Project Censored notes, but they’ve utterly ignored the staggering resulting cost in human lives. More than 1.1 million seniors enrolled in Medicare programs could die prematurely in the next decade due to unaffordable prescription drugs, according to a November 2020 study reported on by Kenny Stancil for Common Dreams.

“As medicines become increasingly expensive, patients skip doses, ration prescriptions, or quit treatment altogether,” Project Censored explains, a phenomenon known as “cost-related nonadherence,” which will become “a leading cause of death in the U.S., ahead of diabetes, influenza, pneumonia, and kidney disease” by 2030, according to the study by the nonprofit West Health Policy Center and Xcenda, the research arm of AmerisourceBergen, a drug distributor. “(E)ven with Medicare insurance, what seniors pay is linked to a drug’s price,” the study explained, which allowed them to “model how cost-related nonadherence would change under policies that would reduce drug prices, such as Medicare negotiation.” The study

focused on five medical conditions that “significantly affect seniors and for which effective pharmaceutical treatments are available,” including three types of heart disease, chronic kidney disease and type B diabetes.

“The good news is that policy changes can curb the power of Big Pharma, resulting in far fewer avoidable deaths,” Stancil reported. “Medicare negotiation is projected to reduce drug prices and seniors’ cost-sharing, which could prevent nearly 94,000 seniors’ deaths annually and save $475.9 billion,” the study stated as one of its key findings.

“As a model for policymakers, the study pointed specifically to the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act (H.R. 3),” which passed the House in December 2019, but died in the Senate. It’s been reintroduced after Joe Biden “declined to include Medicare negotiation in his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan proposal.”

Journalists Investigating Financial Crimes Threatened by Global Elites Financial crimes of global elites, involving the flow of dirty money through some of the world’s most powerful banks, have made major headlines in recent years, most notably with the Panama Papers in 2016 and the FinSen Files in 2020. But we’d know a great deal more if not for the flood of threats faced

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by journalists doing this work — a major story that hasn’t been told in America’s corporate media, despite a detailed report from Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), “Unsafe for Scrutiny,” released in November 2020.

The report was based on a survey of 63 investigative journalists from 41 countries, which found that 71% had experienced threats and/or harassment while doing their investigations, with a large portion of those (73%) experiencing legal threats as well. Its findings were described by Spencer Woodman in an article for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

“The report found that legal threats are chief among the types of harassment facing journalists conducting financial investigations, and often seek to exploit a skewed balance of power between oftenunderfunded reporting enterprises and the legal might of attorneys hired by the world’s wealthiest people and corporations,” Woodman wrote. “Focusing on frivolous cases known as ‘strategic lawsuits against public participation,’ or SLAPPs, the report asserts that such actions ‘can create a similar chilling effect on media freedom to more overt violence or attack.’” Legal threats are often communicated via private letters, “and, if successful in achieving their aim, the public will never know,” the report said.

Physical threats and online harassment were also a grave concern, but they were geographically uneven.

“While no journalists surveyed in North America reported physical threats, 60% of respondents working in sub-Saharan Africa, and 50% of respondents from North Africa and the Middle East region reported threats of physical attack,” Woodman noted.

The silence about this silencing has been deafening.

There has been some coverage overseas, but Project Censored says to date “no major commercial newspaper or broadcast outlet in the United States has so much as mentioned the FPC’s report.”

Historic Wave of Wildcat Strikes for Workers Rights After millions of people were designated ‘essential workers’ when the U.S. went into lockdown in March 2020, thousands of wildcat strikes erupted to challenge dangerous working conditions and chronic low wages, exacerbated by refusal to protect against COVID-19 and cutting or sharply increasing the cost of medical insurance for those who had it. A further strike surge was driven by “Black and Brown workers using digital technologies to organize collective actions as a way to press some of the demands for racial justice raised

by Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protestors,” Project Censored notes. The nation’s fourth busiest port, Charleston, South Carolina, shut down during George Floyd’s funeral on June 9, for example.

At the labor news website Payday Report, Mike Elk created a continuously updated COVID-19 Strike

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Wave Interactive Map, which had identified “1,100 wildcat strikes as of March 24, 2021, many of which the corporate media have chosen to ignore,” according to Project Censored, including “more than 600 strikes or work stoppages by workers in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement,” in June 2020 alone, according to Elk. “While local and regional newspapers and broadcast news outlets have reported on particular local actions, corporate news coverage has failed to report the strike wave as a wave, at no time connecting the dots of all the individual, seemingly isolated work stoppages and walkouts to create a picture of the overarching trend,” Project Censored reports.

The sole exception where there was national coverage was in August 2020 when highly-paid baseball and basketball pro athletes walked out in violation of their contracts to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake by Wisconsin police. The coverage ended quickly once they returned a few days later.

Wildcat strikes occur when workers simply stop working, often in response to a specific incident, such as employer actions putting lives at risk by skimping on protective gear or attempting to cut workers’ healthcare.

Climate Debtor Nations Have Colonized the Atmosphere The United States and other developed countries in the global north are responsible for 92% of all the excess carbon dioxide emissions driving global warming, according to a study in the September issue of The Lancet Planetary Health. The U.S. alone was responsible for 40%, followed by Russia and Germany (8% each), the United Kingdom (7%), and Japan (5%).

The study’s author, economic anthropologist Jason Hickel, told Sarah Lazare of In These Times that his research began from the premises that “the atmosphere is a common resource” and that “all people should have equal access” to a fair share of it.

He calculated each nation’s fair share of a sustainable global carbon budget, based on population, along with an analysis of “territorial emissions from 1850 to 1969, and consumption-based emissions from 1970 to 2015.” In turn, this was used to calculate “the extent to which each country has overshot or undershot its fair share,” according to the study. Thus the above list of the largest climate debtors.

The results, he told In These Times, show that “the countries of the Global North have ‘stolen’ a big chunk of the atmospheric fair-shares of poorer countries, and on top of that are responsible for the vast majority of excess emissions… (T)hey have effectively colonized the global atmospheric commons for the sake of their own industrial growth.”

In contrast, the study found that “most countries in the Global South were within their boundary fair

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

shares, including India and China (although China will overshoot soon).” The leading climate creditors to date are India (34% of global “undershoots”), China (11%), Bangladesh and Indonesia (5% each) and Nigeria (4%).

“High-income countries must not only reduce emissions to zero more quickly than other countries, but they must also pay down their climate debts,” the study said. “Just as many of these countries have relied on the appropriation of labour and resources from the Global South for their own economic growth, they have also relied on the appropriation of global atmospheric commons, with consequences that harm the Global South disproportionately.”

Microplastics and Toxic Chemicals Increasingly Prevalent in World s Oceans According to a pair of scientific studies published in the summer of 2020, microplastic particles and a family of toxic chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have become more widespread in the world’s oceans than previously realized and have begun to contaminate the global seafood supply. The two problems are related because PFAS — a family of highly stable “forever chemicals” with more than 4,700 known members — can occur as microplastics, they can stick to microplastic particles in water, and are involved in the production of plastics.

In July 2020, a German-American study published in the scholarly journal Environmental Science & Technology revealed that PFAS — which are used in a range of products including carpets, furniture, clothing, food packaging and nonstick coatings — have now been found in the Arctic Ocean.

“This discovery worries scientists,” Project Censored explains, “because it means that PFAS can reach any body of water anywhere in the world and that such chemicals are likely present in our water supply.”

This is concerning because, as Daniel Ross reported for Truthout, PFAS can cause certain cancers, liver damage, thyroid problems and increase the risk of asthma. “As endocrine disruptors, these chemicals have been linked to increased risk of severe COVID19,” Ross wrote.

“PFASs are probably detectable in ‘all major water supplies’ in the U.S.,” according to an Environmental Working Group study, Ross reported. “What’s more, over 200 million Americans could be drinking water containing PFAS above a level EWG scientists believe is safe, according to the organization’s most recent findings.”

The second study, in August 2020, also published in Environmental Science & Technology, came from researchers at the QUEX Institute, a partnership between the University of Exeter and the University of Queensland. They looked for and found microplastics in five seafood products sold in Australian markets: crabs, oysters, prawns, squid and sardines — which

had the highest concentration.

Aside from the Guardian, “no major news outlet has paid attention to the topic of microplastics in seafood,” Project Censored notes, referring to an October 2020 story by Graham Readfearn.

“Leaders from more than 70 countries signed a voluntary pledge in September to reverse biodiversity loss which included a goal to stop plastic entering the ocean by 2050,” Readfearn noted, but major countries including the United States, Brazil, China, Russia, India, and Australia had not signed on.

Canary Mission Blacklists ProPalestinian Activists, Chilling Free Speech Rights Before the “critical race theory” moral panic fueled a nationwide uprising to censor discussions of race in education, there was an opposite moral panic decrying “cancel culture” stifling certain people — especially in education. But even at the peak of the cancel culture panic, perhaps the most canceled people anywhere in America — pro-Palestinian activists and sympathizers — got virtually no attention. Even though a well-funded, secretly run blacklist website, known as Canary Mission, explicitly targeted thousands of individuals — overwhelmingly students — with dossiers expressly intended to ruin their careers before they even began, and which “have been used in interrogations by Israeli security officials,” according to the Forward, a Jewish publication. They’ve also been used by the FBI, as reported by The Intercept.

The website, established in 2015, “seeks to publicly discredit critics of Israel as ‘terrorists’ and ‘anti-Semites,’” Project Censored notes, but its careless style of accusation has caused a backlash, even among proIsraeli Jews. “While some of those listed on the site are prominent activists, others are students who attended a single event, or even student government representatives suspected of voting for resolutions that are critical of Israel,” the Forward reported. More than that, it reported three examples when Canary Mission was apparently retaliating against critics, including Jews.

But by far, its main targets are Palestinians, particularly activists involved with the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement that works to peacefully pressure Israel — similarly to South Africa in the 1980s — to obey international law and respect Palestinians’ human rights.

“Heightened violence in Israel/Palestine in May 2021 has focused attention on powerful pro-Israel media biases in U.S. news coverage, but Canary Mission and legal efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian activism have nonetheless received minimal corporate news coverage,” Project Censored says. “Aside from this coverage, major establishment news outlets have provided no substantive reports on the role played by Canary Mission and other pro-Israel organizations in stifling the First Amendment rights of pro-Palestinian activists.”

Google s Union-Busting Methods Revealed In 2018, Google dropped its long-time slogan, “Don’t be evil,” from its code of conduct. In 2019, Google hired IRI Consultants, a union avoidance firm, “amid a wave of unprecedented worker organizing at the company,” as Vice’s Motherboard put it in January 2021, while reporting on leaked files from IRI that provided a disturbing picture of how far Google may have strayed in its willingness to sabotage its workers’ rights.

The 1935 National Labor Relations Act makes it illegal for companies to spy on employees and guarantees workers the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining. “Nevertheless,” Project Censored notes, “companies like Google attempt to circumvent the law by hiring union avoidance firms like IRI Consultants as independent contractors to engage in surveillance and intimidation on their behalf.”

“Google is not the only Big Tech company to enlist union avoidance consultants in recent years. In fall 2020 and spring 2021, employees at Amazon’s massive fulfillment center in Bessemer, Alabama launched a much-publicized unionization effort,” Project Censored notes. “As John Logan detailed in a lengthy article for LaborOnline, Amazon responded to the Bessemer drive by spending at least $3,200 per day on anti-union consultants Russ Brown and Rebecca Smith and by bringing in a second union-busting consulting firm,” as well as hiring “one of the largest law firms in the country specializing in union avoidance.” Employees voted more than 2-1 against joining the union, but the election was overturned for a set of eight labor law violations after Project Censored’s book went to the publisher — a decision that Amazon is appealing.

“There has been no corporate news coverage whatsoever of the sensational leaks that Motherboard released in January, and there has been very little indepth corporate media reporting on the use of unionbusting consultants in general,” Project Censored says. “The documents leaked to Motherboard confirm and greatly elaborate upon what labor organizers and educators have suspected of the specific tactics the union-busting firms employ.”

Pfizer Bullies South American Governments over COVID-19 Vaccine “Pfizer has essentially held Latin American governments to ransom for access to its lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine,” Project Censored reports, the latest example of how it’s exerted undue influence to enrich itself at the expense of low- and middle-income nations going back to the 1980s, when it helped shape the intellectual property rules it’s now taking advantage of.

“Pfizer has been accused of ‘bullying’ Latin American governments in COVID vaccine negotiations and has asked some countries to put up sovereign assets, such as embassy buildings and military bases, as a guarantee against the cost of any future legal cases,” according to reporters at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

In one case it resulted in a three-month delay in reaching a deal. “For Argentina and Brazil, no national deals were agreed at all,” BIJ reported. “Any hold-up in countries receiving vaccines means more people contracting COVID-19 and potentially dying.”

It’s normal for governments to provide some indemnity. But, “Pfizer asked for additional indemnity from civil cases, meaning that the company would not be held liable for rare adverse effects or for its own acts of negligence, fraud or malice,” BIJ reported. “This includes those linked to company practices — say if Pfizer sent the wrong vaccine or made errors during manufacturing.”

“Some liability protection is warranted, but certainly not for fraud, gross negligence, mismanagement, failure to follow good manufacturing practices,” the World Health Organization’s director of the Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, Lawrence Gostin, told BIJ. “Companies have no right to ask for indemnity for these things.”

During negotiations, which began in June 2020, “the Argentinian government believed that, at the least, Pfizer ought to be accountable for acts of negligence on its part in the delivery and distribution of the vaccine, but, instead of offering any compromise, Pfizer ‘demanded more and more,’ according to one government negotiator,” Project Censored summarizes. “That was when Pfizer called for Argentina to put up sovereign assets as collateral.

Argentina broke off negotiations with Pfizer, leaving the nation’s leaders at that time without a vaccine supply for its people,” in December.

“It was an extreme demand that I had only heard when the foreign debt had to be negotiated, but both in that case and in this one, we rejected it immediately,” an Argentine official told BIJ. That same month, “just after the United States approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, In These Times’ Sarah Lazare filed a detailed report on the history of the pharmaceutical giant’s opposition to expanding vaccine access to poor countries, beginning in the mid-1980s during the negotiations that eventually resulted in the establishment of the WTO in 1995.

“Big Pharma has a long, underreported track record of leaving developing nations’ medical needs unfulfilled,” says Project Censored.

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JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

Police Use Dogs as Instruments of Violence, Targeting People of Color The use of vicious dogs to control Black people dates back to slavery, but it’s not ancient history according to an investigative series of 13 linked reports, titled “Mauled: When Police Dogs are Weapons,” coordinated by the Marshall Project in partnership with AL.com, IndyStar and the Invisible Institute.

They found evidence that the pattern continues to this day, with disproportionate use of police dogs against people of color, often resulting in serious injury, with little or no justification.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a majorityBlack city of 220,000, is the dog-bite capital of America, with a bite rate more than double the next-ranked city, Indianapolis. According to Bryn Stole and Grace Toohey’s February 2021 report: Between 2017 and 2019, Baton Rouge police dogs bit at least 146 people, records show. Of those, 53 were 17 years old or younger; the youngest were just 13. Almost all of the people bitten were Black, and most were unarmed and suspected by police of nonviolent crimes like driving a stolen vehicle or burglary.

But Baton Rouge is hardly alone.

Approximately 3,600 Americans annually are sent to the emergency room for severe bite injuries resulting from police dog attacks. These dog bites “can be more like shark attacks than nips from a family pet, according to experts and medical researchers,” a team of five reporters wrote in October 2020, as part of a summary of the main finding of their research.

Though the Black Lives Matter movement has significantly raised public awareness of police using disproportionate force against people of color, police “K-9 violence has received strikingly little attention from corporate news media.”

Activists Call Out Legacy of Racism and Sexism in Forced Sterilization Forced sterilization was deemed constitutional in a 1927 Supreme Court decision, Buck v. Bell, after which forced sterilizations increased dramatically, to at least 60,000 forced sterilizations in some 32 states during the 20th Century, predominantly targeting women of color. And while state laws have been changed, it’s still constitutional, and still going on today — with at least five cases of women in ICE custody in Georgia in 2019 — while thousands of victims await restitution, as reports from the Conversation and YES! Magazine have documented.

“Organizations such as Project South, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, and the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab are actively working to document the extent of this underreported problem — and to bring an end to it.” Project Censored notes. But their work is even more underreported than the problem itself.

“The history of eugenics has been thoroughly researched and criticized by scholars and human rights activists, but coverage by the corporate media of the U.S. practice of forced sterilization throughout the 20th century and into the 21st has tended to be limited and narrowly focused,” Project Censored says. There was some corporate news coverage after the ICE forced sterilization stories emerged, but generally without “any mention of the activists resisting the practice…Some establishment press articles on the topic of forced sterilization include comments from members of these organizations to provide context on the issue, but few spotlight the groups’ tireless organizing and record of accomplishments.”

This only began to change in July 2021, as Project Censored’s book was going to print, “with the Associated Press and other establishment news outlets reporting that California is preparing to approve reparations of up to $25,000 per person to women who had been sterilized without consent.”

Season presented by SCHUELER GROUP and HEIDELBERG DISTRIBUTING CO.

Season Sponsor of New Work: THE ROSENTHAL FAMILY FOUNDATION

Visuals by Tony Arrasmith/Arrasmith & Associates.

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022 |

CITYBEAT.COM

13

ARTS & CULTURE

A rendering of the inside of Volkshaus, an upcoming community center P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY A C T I O N TA N K

The Volkshaus Takes Shape for a Projected 2023 Launch Organizers behind the center in Over-the-Rhine hope to create a new era of active community engagement

BY K AT R I N A E R E S M A N

T

he building at 123 E. McMicken Ave. sits at the north end of Over-the-Rhine, gutted and ready for big change. The charming structure is easy to miss if you’re

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just cruising by.

But not long from now, this humble, historic space — once an 1850s butcher shop — will enter a new chapter as The Volkshaus, a community center for events,

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

coworking and learning. The space will also become the headquarters for Action Tank, a local nonprofit that centers on civic engagement.

Action Tank and OTR A.D.O.P.T. are at the helm of the renovation, with both nonprofits committed to preserving Cincinnati’s history while supporting its long-term residents. OTR A.D.O.P.T. has been doing historic preservation work since 2010 and finds caring, thoughtful occupants for vacant buildings.

Just as Action Tank began looking for a space, 123 E. McMicken Ave. became available from OTR A.D.O.P.T. through request for

proposal. It was the perfect fit, and the perfect timing for both nonprofits.

Action Tank Executive Director Ioanna Paraskevopoulos says that even though “trust in government is at an all-time low,” people are still investing time and energy in community engagement. Volkshaus will be a powerful resource for organizing and educating, she says.

“We feel like we want to take advantage of that momentum while people are still willing to actually talk and engage in local government issues,” Paraskevopoulos says.

The Volkshaus renovation is being supported, in part, by highly

A rendering of the courtyard at Volkshaus P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY A C T I O N TA N K

competitive state and federal historic tax credits. It’s the vision of OTR A.D.O.P.T. and Action Tank that Volkshaus will be accessible to anyone.

Volkshaus — German for “people’s house” — will open its doors to all neighbors and Cincinnati residents as a space to gather and work. The first floor will be available for community events, and the first and second floors and patios will serve as slidingscale coworking spaces. There also will be a quiet conference room on the second floor that opens to a cast-iron balcony overlooking McMicken. Action Tank’s offices will be on the third floor.

“The goal is to recapture the traditional conviviality of Overthe-Rhine in a comfortable space that cuts across lines of race and class,” says OTR A.D.O.P.T. Executive Director Danny Klingler on the Volkshaus website. “Think of it as Kaldi’s revival, with a social mission.”

Renderings for Volkshaus look something like a cozy space from Harry Potter’s Hogwarts campus, complete with antique banquet tables, fireplaces, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and an owl mascot.

And the goal is to renovate this historic building while protecting the community from high costs associated with gentrification.

“So much of Action Tank’s work and my personal interests are focused on promoting investment without displacing existing residents,” Paraskevopoulos says.

Action Tank has a diverse equity advisory board and has developed both a historic preservation action plan and a community benefits agreements tool kit. Both Action Tank and OTR A.D.O.P.T. are committed to keeping the residents involved and are taking their needs and input to heart not just now, but in the years to come.

“We’re actually right in the middle of a formal community engagement plan,” says Ashley Feist, Community Liaison for OTR A.D.O.P.T. “It’s something that’s going to be a part of the process the entire time — not just once or twice, and not after it’s already built.”

Community engagement also comes in the form of getting to know the neighbors. Feist, Paraskevopoulos and their colleagues spend time introducing themselves to local residents and

gathering feedback about how people from the area could actually use the space. Their community engagement strategy for Volkshaus is planned into 2022 and will continue to develop. They’ll start by going door-to-door to connect with neighbors personally, and when the weather warms up, Feist and Paraskevopoulos will begin hosting neighborhood gatherings like cookouts, block parties and focus groups.

The events will “solicit feedback and input on our programming choices for Volkshaus, build relationships with residents, and raise awareness about Action Tank and Volkshaus’ mission and services,” Paraskevopoulos says.

“We never pretend to be able to prescribe a just world or what an ideal landscape would be on any block that we’re working on,” Feist says. “But we do know who we want to be involved in the process, and we do know that we want that to show on the landscape. We would like the residents to be involved in whatever this particular portion of OTR becomes.”

Keeping residents involved means both talking with individual neighbors of Volkshaus and

addressing community groups like the Over-the-Rhine Community Council. Both OTR A.D.O.P.T. and Action Tank have met with the community council’s housing and economic development committee, which voted to support the project.

(Those who are not members of the OTR community council or the neighborhood but want to contribute to the conversation can connect with OTR A.D.O.P.T. by emailing ashley@otradopt.com).

Volkshaus is projected to be operational by the second quarter of 2023, depending on contractors, supply chain issues and the city’s permitting processes. In the meantime, organizers are planning fundraisers to help lower the mortgage payments. They’re already selling a special Volkshaus coffee blend through a partnership with La Terza, with proceeds supporting Volkshaus operations.

There’s also an ongoing fundraiser through ioby.org that provides a discounted membership to Volkshaus.

Follow Volkshaus’ development progress and find ways to donate to the project at actiontankusa.org.

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022 |

CITYBEAT.COM

15

FOOD & DRINK

Hello Honey’s new location in East Walnut Hills features roll cakes and baked goods in addition to ice cream.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY H E L L O HONEY

Hello Again Hello Honey artisan ice cream shop and bakery opens a new storefront in East Walnut Hills

BY M A I JA Z U M M O

C

incinnati has an almost gratuitous number of gourmet ice cream and gelato options in which to indulge: Graeter’s, Aglamesis Bro’s, Dojo Gelato.

But one of them really takes the cake (or the cream): Hello Honey.

Husband-and-wife team Nitima and Brian Nicely have been serving their homemade, small-batch desserts on Vine Street downtown since 2012. And in great news for fans of excellent ice cream, the duo has recently opened a new storefront in East Walnut Hills.

“We had been thinking about a second location for a long time but

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having trouble finding the right neighborhood that was a good fit for us, would reach new customers and was in need of some local ice cream,” Brian tells CityBeat. “The good people from East Walnut Hills actually approached us a couple of times about this space that was being developed and eventually we took a look at it and gave the neighborhood a little walk around and we really liked the community of small businesses that is growing there and felt like it was the right spot.”

The doors are now open to Hello

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

Honey at 1530 Madison Road, located near Cafe Mochiko and Branch. While this space is a bit smaller than the downtown spot, Brian says they still offer indoor seating and, obviously, their same delicious ice cream, made with fresh ingredients and free from artificial flavors and coloring.

“The big difference is that we are heavily featuring our cakes and bakery items that you would not have found at our previous location,” he says.

That includes a rotating selection of roll cakes, cheesecakes, brownies and cookies with fun flavor profiles.

Think chocolate peanut butter and jelly roll cake or ube (sweet purple yam) cheesecake.

Those same creative flavor combos are what sets Hello Honey’s ice cream apart from the rest of the pack.

“We are always playing with the flavors and having fun with them,” Brian says.

Current ice cream options — which can change seasonally and week-toweek — include banana honeycomb, brown butter caramel, chocolate rootbeer, espresso chocolate chip and Thai iced tea. There are also vegan flavors, like cookies and cream (made with coconut milk) and mixed berry sorbet.

While neither Brian or Nitima went to culinary school — they started Hello Honey “armed with little more than a countertop ice cream maker and sheer determination,” Brian says — Nitima is the driving force behind their stand-out offerings.

“She is so creative and fearless in everything she does,” Brian says. “All of these recipes are her own and she is

Editor

$20/MO. OR $200 ONE-TIME DONATION Amanda Parker-Wolery Anne Arenstein Anne Mitchell Anthony Johnson Anthony Verticchio Barrett Smith Bavi Rivera Bethe Goldenfield Bill Rinehart Brandon Harris Brent Patterson Casey Titschinger Charles Green Connie Hinitz Cynthia Duval

Hello Honey fans will find new and old favorites in East Walnut Hills.

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Hello Honey’s ice creams feature creative flavor combinations.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY H E L L O H O N E Y

Amanda Parker-Wolery

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To celebrate one of the most coveted and enduring arts grants in the region, the Weston Art Gallery presents twelve Cincinnati-area artists who received Aid to Bie Peg Moertl SummerfairStacey Individual from Peter Rother Artists Awards Stephanie Barnard Rachael Katz Participating Suzana Waterhlus 2016-18. artists Rachel Colyer Suzanne Sifri include Christina Baitz-Brandewie, Randall Reese Tana Weingartner Richard SarasonCurreri, Stacey Tim Breen Amanda Dolen, Richard Wills Tim Spence Tyler Griese, Michelle Heimann, Robert Coats Tim Strom Robin Tricia Bath AnneIgney Huddleston, Marsha Russell Hausfeld Valerie Zummo Karagheusian, Lisa Merida-Paytes, S. Bradley Gillaugh Vicky Mary Sarah Miller, KevinWilliam Muente, Mark Sandra Stratton Hoppenjans Sarah Lautar and Alice Pixley Young.

Wiesner,

an expanded HelloHeather Honey always fine-tuning them and helping Anne Arenstein to allow forDeirdre Kaye Barber Kathryn Wallace Mason Cook Anne Mitchell concept, including Diane Stempera large amount Jane Simon Kathy Cunningham Micah Paldino them evolve.”

Anthony Johnson Donna Dee Snyder Jason Martin Ken Laube Michael Howard all Hester If you’ve never paid a visit to Hello Anthony Verticchioof outdoor seating Earl Apel — which we Jennifer Kendra Krietsch Michael Mclarty Smith learned over Elissathe Yancey Jennifer— Schneider Kristina Kew Michelemarie Merritt last couple years is Honey before, it’s imperative you Barrett Bavi Rivera Ellen Boyne Jenny Watters Lauaren Worley Morgan Rigaud incredibly important.” top your ice cream with one of their Bethe Goldenfield Emily Jobe Jess Linz Laura Jenkins Nancy Sullivan Bill Rinehart Emma Tillman Jim Caskey Leif Fairfield Pa Bosley are working to getJohn that homemade, vegetarian marshmallows Brandon Harris He says they Eric Urbas Fox Linda Phillips Pam Farrish Evan Millward Lisa Olson Pat Shaw as possible. Jonathan Neal (yes, standard marshmallows areBrent Patterson open as quickly Casey Titschinger Fred Yaeger Joseph Schwering Lisa Witte Patricia Newberry What’s next for Hello Honey?

Brian made with gelatin and therefore not Charles Green Fritz Holznagel Karen Lane Margie Breen Paul Ingram Sarah Thomas Connie Hinitz says maybe Garry Binegar outpost, but Karen Maria Seda-Reeder Paul Whitlatch another forLuken vegetarian-friendly). They’re “torched Saundra Regan Cynthia Duval Gerald Sullivan Exhibition Sponsor now, they’re happy with their new to order,” as Brian says, directly on top Joyce and Roger Howe neighborhood. of your dessert. They also make their Additional Support Patricia and Jim King “The real attention is always on the own ice cream cones. product and the customers,” he says.

And the only place to get them right $5/MO OR $50 ONE-TIME DONATION *See Weston Art Gallery’s website for “We want to be sure that you can get COVID-19 health and safety guidelines. now is at the East Walnut Hills shop.

Alice Pixley Young, Pitch, 2019, roofing paper, cast glass & salt, 108 x 90 x 24 in.

Bob Driehaus Dennis Pattinson Aaron Sharpe Jared Newman Katie Barrier Manos Semertzides Pam Collins Shari Kelly-Burrows the same cream experience across Hello Honey is currently relocating Bobice Schute Denny Gibson Aaron Slovin Jason Gargano Katie Brown Margaret Mcgurk Parker Cohen Shelly Woodward Bobby Straka but thatDorcas Jeanne Fisher Katie Niemeyer Margy Waller Patricia Wegman Sherrie Kinderdine both locations, youWashington can also their original downtown storefrontAdam to Doty Adrick Hawley Brad Gibson Dot Crane Jeff Brinkman Keith Pandolfi Mariann Quinn Paul Slater Sophie Wean find something 725 Race St. Aine Baldwin Brandi Ballou unique and Eira rewarding Tansey Jeff Mellott Ken Katkin Mark Jeffreys Penny Rose Stephen Kuntz Alan Sunderman at eachBrent Stroud Elizabeth Brown Jennifer Mastrorocco Kenzie Borgmann Mark Mahoney Phil Carver Stephen Sauer one.”

“It was a hard decision because Vine and open to Magas the public Alana Jenkins Brian Boyer Elizabeth Stockton Jill Dunne Kevin Clarisey Mary Burton Phil Clark Steven Street was our first home and thereAlex are Parks Brian Boyer Ella Mulford Jill Dunne Kevin Cole Mary Manera Rachel Szeles Stu 10am-5:30pm Mcculloch Tue-Sat Arts /Necessary 650 Walnut St., Cincinnati, OH 45202 / www.WestonArtGallery.com Alexander Wolf Carol Honey Horn Ellenopen Schmidtat 1530 Jill Aronoff Morenz Center for the Kevin Mary Uetrecht Randall Smith Tammy Richardson Sun noon-5pm lots of memories there, but the new Hello is now Charles Curran Elliott Liddle Alison Hayfer Jim Nolan Kevin Reynolds Mary Woodconstable Rhonda Dossenbach Tara Keesling Chas WiederholdRoad, East EricWalnut Palmer Hills.

Joan Smith Kevin Shaw Mary-Elizabeth Keefe Rich Richmond Teresa Brolley space and opportunity came alongAly atGomez Madison 2021-22 Season Sponsor: Dee Wones and Tom Stegman Matthew Jent Chet Closson Erin Duffy Amanda Lee Anderson Joe Rosemeyer Kiersten Richard Emery Thomas Hastings the right time,” Brian says. “The new Get or orderBauerle online at John Alberti Chris And Emilymore Dobbs info Evangeline Amy Elder Kristi Jones MatthewTheLong Rick Baker Thomas Scanlon Alpaugh Foundation Chris Bennington Frederick Warren Amy Purcell John Bealle Kristin Wilson Matthew Regnold Rigel Behrens Tiffany Vitagliano Race Street location has more space hellohoneyicecream.com.

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17

Restaurant Roundup: Recent and Closings THE DISH Openings

BY M A I JA Z U M M O A N D M AG G Y M C D O N E L

Quan Hapa announced the restaurant will be closing indefinitely.

P H O T O : C AT I E V I OX

The OTR Stillhouse opened in December.

P H O T O : FA C E B O O K . C O M / O T R S T I L L H O U S E

As per usual, the restaurant world is always changing — and with COVID and the new year, 2022 is no exception. Here are some recent openings and closings.

Openings OTR Stillhouse The OTR Stillhouse is a distillery, winery and brewery in one. Located in a former 1890s ice manufacturing warehouse, it’s also home to an entertainment venue with indoor and outdoor space. From entrepreneur Michele Hobbs (who launched PetWants) and partners including Master Distiller Chris Mitchell, a founder and former head brewer of Woodburn Brewing, and Dr. Tom Asquith, who worked as a whiskey scientist for Brown Forman, the in-house Knox Joseph Distillery produces award-winning gin, bourbon and blended whiskey. Describing itself as a “half-acre of relaxation within OTR,” the Stillhouse opened in December. In addition to cocktails, beer and housemade rootbeer and cream soda, the kitchen serves a small menu of smoked and grilled food, including smoked ramen, wagyu burgers and dashi boiled peanuts. 2017 Branch St., Over-the-Rhine, otrstillhouse.com.

Bandito Food Park + Cantina Bandito Food Park + Cantina, developed

by Yolo Restaurant Group, opened in December. Yolo — made up of Ed Biery and local restaurateurs Trang Vo and Tobias Harris (of Lalo) — calls Bandito a “one-of-a-kind restaurant and event venue featuring an atmosphere that expresses an outer parklike celebration complete with fun food and beverages offered to match.”

To accomplish that vibe, the interior of Bandito features a bar, a “containerlike counter” and vintage trailer where guests can order food, picnic tables, fake turf floors and string lights. The menu includes tacos, burgers, chicken, hot dogs, salads, bowls and homemade salsas

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and sauces served up by executive chef Antonio Anaya. 3543 Columbia Parkway, Columbia Tusculum, banditocinci.com.

Green District Louisville-based build-your-own salad chain Green District is jumping into the Cincinnati market with a splash (or a crunch — whatever sound salads make).

In July, Green District announced they would be setting up shop on Fountain Square — their first location in Ohio.

That restaurant opened Jan. 11. But the company has also signed leases to open storefronts in two other area neighborhoods in 2022: Clifton and Blue Ash. The chain’s menu includes a handful of signature salads, plus wraps and bowls.

You can also build your own from a selection of more than 50 ingredients and 12 Green District dressings. The menu also features salads with a local lean, like the 513, made with Grippo’s-spiced barbecue chicken, romaine, red cabbage, carrot, tomato, pickled jalapeno, cheddar, crispy onions, a barbecue drizzle and ranch dressing. 33 E. Sixth St. (in the Fifth Third Center lobby), Downtown, gdsalads.com.

Fuel Taste of Belgium founder Jean-François Flechet has another restaurant concept up his sleeve, and this one doesn’t involve waffles. Flechet’s new eatery Fuel is aimed at providing “meals for healthy lifestyles that are nutritionally inspired,” per its description.

Flechet launched Fuel this past spring as a ghost kitchen operating out of his Taste of Belgium bistro in Over-the-Rhine.

Now, he’s secured a brick-and-mortar spot in the former location of Off the Vine juice bar that is slated to open soon.

“We’re very excited to bring Fuel out of the ghost kitchen world and into life with a brick-and-mortar location,” Flechet says in a release. “Our goal was to create a new lifestyle restaurant where customers can

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

choose healthier food options without a bunch of fillers like rice. At Fuel, the entire menu is inspired by nutrition and full of delicious Fuel for your body.”

Patrons can order from digital kiosks and build a custom bowl from the ground up using bases like lentils, quinoa or baby kale. According to the menu, proteins include tofu, grilled chicken or poached salmon. Add veggies — caramelized, roasted and/or fresh — and sauces or dressings, including harissa, coconut curry or apple-and-pear vinaigrette.

Fuel will offer carry-out/grab-and-go and will also provide catering. Flechet hopes to get a liquor license to provide alcohol to go as well. 1218 Vine St., Overthe-Rhine, eatatfuel.com.

Lobsta Bakes of Maine Lobsta Bakes of Maine owner Kevin Smith told the Cincinnati Enquirer in December that he was ready to retire and the seafood spot would be closing in the new year.

However, in a happy turn of events, Smith wrote in a post on the shop’s website that Lobsta Bakes would be getting a new start with new owners, catering manager Jim Radcliffe as well as Phillip and Emma Jones.

Smith says Radcliffe not only manages the catering side of things but also has been supplying the seafood sold at Lobsta Bakes for 15 years.

Husband-and-wife-duo Phillip and Emma Jones are originally from the United Kingdom but have been living in Cincinnati for three years. “I am excited that they have the expertise & passion to bring the British ‘fish & chips’ cultural tradition to complement the current Lobsta Bakes offering,” Smith writes on the website.

Lobsta Bakes will be closed for the first few weeks of the year. Smith says the place will be fully in the new owners’ hands by March. The reopening date is tentatively set for Jan. 18. 3533 Church St., Newtown, lobstabakes.com.

Closings Quan Hapa After completing renovations and reopening at the end of last year, Quan Hapa in Over-the-Rhine announced on Facebook that the restaurant will be closing for the moment to “re-staff and adjust some food/ service/operations items to make Quan Hapa even better when we can re-open.”

They said they do not have a timeline for reopening, but will be moving current staff to their other restaurant, Pho Lang Thang. Pho Lang Thang will be extending hours to include dinner Thursday through Saturday.

Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey Chef Christian Gill announced on his personal social media that the flagship Pendleton location of Boomtown Biscuits & Whiskey would be closing Jan. 23.

In a Facebook post, Gill said the closure was a result of fallout from the pandemic.

“Due to all of the surrounding circumstances that have plagued the industry over the last two years, it is untenable for us to continue in this environment,” Gill wrote.

Gill says Boomtown’s Union, Kentucky location will remain open “to provide 24k gold service and the consistency and high quality of the food we create.”

He ended his post saying, “There’s a lot to unpack with this closing and I ask that y’all come see us in these last few weeks.

Share a biscuit and bourbon with us.

Enjoy the Yukon and Grahams of Gold.

Stake Your Claim while the gold is still here in Cincinnati.”

Angilo’s Pizza Angilo’s Pizza, at 329 W. Pike St., announced before the new year that they would be ceasing operations on Jan. 5.

“Due to unforseen (sic) circumstances with the economy and distribution we regret to inform you that after 60 years and 4 Generations we are closing our doors,” the pizzeria wrote in a Facebook post.

“We’ve made so many customers over the years that have turned into friends and mostly family to us.”

Grand Finale The Grand Finale restaurant in Glendale announced on Facebook that they are permanently closing. Known for its delicious desserts, among other fare, the Cincinnati staple has been operating for 46 years.

“It is with a heavy heart that I announce, Grand Finale Restaurant has permanently closed,” owner Virginia Chambers wrote in the post. Chambers did not provide a reason for the restaurant’s closure. She says they are grateful for all the support they have received, ending the note with “Through our generational friendship, you are family and we will miss you!”

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022 | CITYBEAT.COM 19 NOVEMBER 10 - NOVEMBER 23, 2021 | CITYBEAT.COM 23

MUSIC

Cincinnati Black Music Walk of Fame inductees Otis Williams (second from left) an Bootsy Collins (second from right) P H O T O : K AT I E G R I F F I T H

Stars of the Queen City Progress continues on downtown Cincinnati’s forthcoming Black Music Walk of Fame, with the first four stars on temporary display at CVG

BY K AT I E G R I F F IT H

M

ajor chapters in Cincinnati’s unsung Black music history now are being spotlighted and celebrated in a permanent way.

Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece is heading successful efforts to install a Black Music Walk of Fame in front of the Andrew J. Brady Music Center downtown, the first

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four stars of which were revealed in November at their temporary home, the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG). Among the inductees are Bootsy Collins, Otis Williams, The Isley Brothers and Charles Fold, who are also recognized as founding members of the Walk of Fame in conjunction with Reece and her team.

“I had heard from a lot of people

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

who were in the industry and were questioning how can we capture the history of African American artists that are from this area,” Reece tells CityBeat.

“And it really sparked me.”

Reece credits her parents’ musical nature for her piqued interest and knowledge of rare and lesser-known facts about Black music history in Cincinnati. Her father, Steve Reece, started an independent record label in Cincinnati called S.R. Records in the late ’60s, which recorded his future wife and Alicia Reece’s mother, Barbara Howard’s album On The Rise. The record was granted a reissue in 2019 by local record company Colemine Records.

“Growing up, I would hear the stories. (My parents) knew Bootsy and just different stories about different

people,” Reece says. “And I said, wow I know these stories but where can I find these stories? So I was really interested in capturing the history of music. And then what really sparked me was that I was at a press conference event with Otis Williams from Otis Williams and The Charms and he pointed over at the (Andrew J. Brady Music Center) — we were at the Freedom Center — and he said, how do we become included, our stories included, and he cried.

“And that’s when I said man, I gotta figure this out because we have this great music venue on The Banks. We have the Paul Brown Stadium that hosts the Cincinnati Music Festival, which is the oldest African American music festival in the country. And we bring all of these artists to town and we have this eyesore on the corner that was just

A close-up of Otis Williams’ Walk of Fame star P H O T O : K AT I E G R I F F I T H

Commissioner Alicia Reece and Bootsy Collins (seated) at the CVG unveiling

Inductee Otis Williams (left) with his star

P H O T O : K AT I E G R I F F I T H

P H O T O : K AT I E G R I F F I T H

gravel. It just became the missing link that we needed to the puzzle.”

The Walk of Fame’s grand opening is on track to debut during the 2022 Cincinnati Music Festival in July.

But the stars honoring the inaugural inductees aren’t intended to be the only attraction. Reece says she’s most excited for the interactive portion of the park, which will include QR codes that lead to in-development avenues of sharing music history and stories.

The interactive storytelling aims to unveil Cincinnati’s rich Black music history and the impact it has had on music globally. Reece says she particularly enjoys revealing that Prince once recorded a song here in Cincinnati — something most people don’t know — and she was also surprised to learn that Collins is responsible for naming superduo Silk Sonic, a new R&B project

by Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak.

Collins also gave Kenny Edmonds of The Deele the name Babyface. The Deele was a post-Disco and R&B band that originated in Cincinnati in the ’80s.

Reece envisions videos, livestreams, articles and interviews among other innovative tools as a means to honor inductees specifically while

incorporating information on the subject as a whole. That way, even if an artist doesn’t have a star, it doesn’t necessarily mean their story won’t be included. It was important for the Walk of Fame to evolve into a technologybased encounter, Reece says, to allow for continual updates so visitors can always expect something new.

“I’m excited about the interactive aspect overall, allowing it to be an experience,” she says. “And I’m told that there’s nowhere in the country that has anything like this. It is a tourism infrastructure project that will bring people from all over the world to come out and see the music but it also creates a music corridor on The Banks.”

The Cincinnati Music Festival generates Hamilton County’s largest economic impact when it comes to annual events of its kind, Reece says, raking in $107 million on average.

The exposure of the grand opening is projected to be major, especially because the festival has been on pandemic-hold for the past two years.

For now, the stars’ temporary residency at CVG is earning the Black Music Walk of Fame a considerable amount of inceptive attention.

Mindy Kershner, CVG spokesperson, says the airport anticipates seeing travelers arrive in numbers closer to those in pre-pandemic times. In 2019, CVG served 9.1 million passengers, Kershner says. The airport is a “front door to our region,” she adds, saying the baggage claim level is a prime spot for the stars, as people have a lot of downtime in this area. Airport officials are projecting 75% of those 9.1 million passengers to travel in 2022. With the Walk of Fame living there for about half the year, one could estimate the stars could be exposed to as many as 3-4 million airportgoers.

“To be able to have a semipermanent display where people can learn about music history in our region, I think, this is the first of its kind,” Kershner says. “I think it’s just a good way to tell that larger story of Cincinnati, what we are. About the fact that we are a diverse, inclusive, unique culture or region and we want to be able to portray that to our travelers.”

The sentiment of Black music history being untold or overlooked, and the emphasis on its lasting importance and impact is echoed throughout the creators of the Black Music Walk of

Fame and in a 1993 book titled Going to Cincinnati, A History of Blues in the Queen City by Steven C. Tracy.

An excerpt from the introduction reads: “Of course, the history of Cincinnati’s Blues is not distinguished because it had its odd or outlandish moments. Rather, it is a history of fine and interesting, and sometimes outstanding, performers, recordings, and occasionally record labels that has sadly not been reported in any detail — in fact, rarely mentioned at all — in most accounts of the city. And if many Cincinnatians are not aware of the significant recordings made by performers resident in their city through the years, if they undervalue the contributions of African-Americans living in Cincinnati, they might take some lessons from Blues historians …”

For the future of the permanent yet ever-changing installment, the Walk of Fame will see one class of inductees each year. The attraction is being constructed to fit a total of 200 stars.

“That’s a lot of years,” Reece says.

Hamilton County set aside $9 million of its budget for the project. P&G also made a private donation. It will be free for visitors.

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022 |

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Cincinnati Music Accelerator’s Music Business Academy Aims to ‘End the Cycle of Starving Artists’

SPILL IT

BY N ATA L I E C L A R E

Participants in Cincinnati Music Accelerator’s Music Business Academy learn about licensing, entertainment law, marketing and more.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY K I C K L E E

Cincinnati Music Accelerator (CMA) has expanded its educational offerings for musicians through a reboot of its business program.

The new program is officially called the Music Business Academy. In it, artists learn how to strengthen their careers through classes in finance, monetization, music licensing, entertainment law, marketing and branding and other skills.

The program is made possible by a Black Empowerment Works grant of $25,000, which was awarded to CMA through United Way. CMA was founded in 2017 by Kick Lee, a music producer who now serves as CMA’s executive and creative director. The nonprofit organization provides essential tools and resources to help independent musicians jumpstart and sustain creative careers.

Businesses and individuals can book talent through CMA, and CMA artists have performed at a variety of public events. Their goal is to “end the cycle of starving artists,” and their mission is to “establish Cincinnati as a music city,” according to the organization’s website.

The first iteration of CMA’s music business program featured regular, twohour classroom instruction. When the COVID-19 pandemic affected in-person programming, CMA offered virtual classes for free. But Lee says the course lost some of its value this way, prompting CMA to reflect on the program’s

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direction. The Music Business Academy now provides enhanced instruction that artists can put to immediate use. The re-branded name is inspired by another Queen City educational institution.

“I befriended the leaders of the Art Academy (of Cincinnati),” Lee tells CityBeat. “Seeing how they’re structured and how they operate really inspired me to say, ‘Damn, I want to mirror our organization and this program like that.’ I want it to be freethinking and open but also inviting for all that are in the music arts.”

Lee and CMA have partnered with the Art Academy in the past for workshops about the music industry and for other multidisciplinary arts initiatives.

CMA serves about 300 musicians and compensates about 180 artists every year through bookings and events. As an educational institution, it aims to enable students to become entrepreneurs in the music industry.

“We’re providing you resources and educating you on those resources, how they work and operate. We take things that you use in everyday life, like your finances, trying to promote yourself, bringing in clientele,” says Lee. “We teach you how those subjects function and operate so that you better understand, ‘if I do this, I can apply that here’ and vice versa.”

A key component to CMA’s philosophy, Lee says, is that it’s not enough for artists to be talented enough

JANUARY 12, 2022 - JANUARY 25, 2022

Through the Cincinnati Music Accelerator, musicians can jumpstart their careers.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY K I C K L E E

to book gigs — they need to be able to handle their business as professionals.

That means keeping track of capital, having business and savings accounts, sending invoices and maintaining a knowledgeable and professional demeanor when working with clients.

Sam Martin, CMA’s director of operations, says the Music Business Academy falls right in line with their mission to help musicians sustain careers.

“I think the Business Academy takes that to the next level and helps artists become ‘self-sufficient,’” Martin says.

Martin oversees the organization’s daily operations, onboards and books

talent, and interacts with CMA clients regarding current and future bookings, which he calls “activation.” Some of CMA’s recurring clients include Coffee Emporium, Cobblestone, Findlay Market and CVG Airport where CMA artists perform.

“I value helping Cincinnati artists and providing the platform to cultivate their passion into a career,” Martin says.

Emily Ward, a CMA regional ambassador in Columbus, shares a similar desire: to help artists succeed by providing an educational toolkit. She assists Martin with daily operations while also planning and structuring the

CMA’s Music Business Academy helps local musicians become knowledgeable beyond the stage.

P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY K I C K L E E

Music Business Academy, recruiting prospective musicians and maintaining communication with artists and CMA staff.

“This intense, immersive program is a streamlined version of all information one needs in order to be successful in their artistic endeavors,” Ward says of the Music Business Academy. “I hope that our CMA students will learn about the supporting activities that are necessary to push their music and following to the next level.”

Local musical artist Deuces is a CMA alumnus. He says the education he received “still holds great weight and value” upon his current career, describing how vital it is to understand the business side of the music industry.

“I’ve basically learned the handbook of being a successful creative and entrepreneur,” Deuces says. “I’ve learned a lot from CMA, from how the entertainment world works, how to make money multiple ways, how to run a business as a creative, understanding how to navigate my way through the entertainment industry, communication (which is critical), workflow, cooperation, urgency, patience and, most importantly, self value.”

Through CMA, Deuces has performed consistently at live events, worked as a sound technician, toured in Memphis and created a Hip Hop pod play with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park titled The Edge of Town.

Another program CMA offers is called the Street Stage Project in which students busk on the streets downtown and in Over-the-Rhine, every single day, during the spring and summer. A cornerstone of that project — which is a partnership between CMA and 3CDC — is that students receive compensation through tips and a small stipend provided by CMA. “Something that someone told me that I’m going to keep saying is, ‘We’re working to put a song to every street because we’re dubbed the city that sings,’” Lee says. “It kind of mirrors ArtWorks’ initiative of having a mural in 52 neighborhoods. If we can do that, if we can build that, we can have a sustainable system for musicians to have recurring gigs and sustain a living for themselves and their families.”

Lee says CMA is working with the Playhouse to develop performance workshops that are framed around stage presence. Artists will learn proper techniques and practices related to lighting, cabling, microphone positioning and sound engineering — detailed habits that set amateurs apart from professionals.

“As a performer, you need to know these things. We see the front end of performance but we never see the back end,” Lee says. “That’s the premise of CMA. We’re the back end of it, teaching you the things so that when you go somewhere, you don’t look confused or caught off-guard and people look at you like, ‘I can manipulate you. You’re a professional, you should know this.’ It’s to help prevent that. That’s what a lot of the musicians that we work with go through.”

Additionally, CMA plans to expand its touring program to other cities. It completed the pilot phase of the tour, transporting the CMA stage trailer and performing in Memphis and Detroit.

The team is planning to go to Chicago and potentially Austin next. The goal of these tours, Lee says, is to partner with similar organizations in other cities to establish a cross-collaborative exchange. They connect with organizations to embed themselves in events so that CMA artists are part of the performance lineup, alongside that city’s own artists.

Ideally, the tour attracts new talent and business leaders in the music industry so that they count the Queen City among go-to industry towns.

“Cincinnati has a strong potential to be a music city,” Lee says. “I’m going to everything I can to see us get to that point and to build a sustainable music ecosystem here.”

The program fee for CMA’s Music Business Academy is $150. Prospective students can add their name to the waitlist online to be notified about availability.

Learn more about the CMA’s Music Business Academy at cincinnatimusicaccelerator.org.

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BONES DAYS CROSSWORD

BY B R EN DA N E M M E T T Q U I G L E Y W W W. B R E N DA N E M M E T TQ U I G L E Y.C O M

ACROSS

35. Hydrocarbon suffix

1. Easy basket

36. Country that is over 66% Buddhist

6. Song bird

60. Nina Arianda’s role with a role in “Being the Ricardos”

11. Hero’s cry to a trapped group

61. Ways to go: Abbr.

13. Way off in the distance

37. Big name in luxury hotels

62. Scoop

38. Banks on TV 39. Heartland’s old name

63. It might be thrown as an insult

16. Chancellor Scholz

40. Perfected

DOWN

17. “This week sucked!” [forearm]

41. “Move over”

1. Mini hash browns

42. Every way imaginable [shin]

2. “How I feel ...”, online

20. “I’m drowning here, people!”

45. Blank space

3. Easter dye company

21. Wipe out

46. Pop singer/actress Michalka

22. Older but ___

47. It might give you a leg up

4. It might be rented for a wedding

23. [The opening band just canceled, watch this space]

49. Hungry stomach sound

10. YouTube star Koshy 14. Sultanate citizen 15. Put on staff

24. City in Tuscany 25. Film with the second-bestselling soundtrack of all-time [shin] 33. Like some discounted mdse.

34. Dude from Dubrovnik

52. Org. that covers calculus 55. Classic second-guesser [hips] 58. Spinning wheel part 59. Green served with goddess dressing

12. Billy of “MacGruber” 18. Pop-pop’s spouse 19. “All Too Well” singer 23. No-win situations?

24. Organizers of sch. International Nights 25. Leans to one side

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26. Shiraz native 27. Village roughly 15 miles north of Midtown Manhattan 28. Greats 29. Say “hello”

7. Removes (of) 8. Northwestern Pennsylvania city 9. Butterfly catcher 10. Literature Nobelist Glück

30. Folksy “hello” 31. Sign up: Var. 32. Vaquero’s gear 37. Two-time WNBA champ Jewell ___ 38. Cappuccino Chillers chain

43. Pack animals 44. Baby deer 47. Go at it 48. Message from another Galaxy?

49. Govt. agent

51. Cookie sometimes dipped in mayo 53. Eliminated from the competition, informally 54. Can do

50. Deep knead

52. Turkish military man

40. Its busiest airport is Toussaint Louverture International Airport 41. Fruit loops

56. Fly though powder 57. Last in the series

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