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Photo by Mark Oprea

Carlos Williams.

UPFRONT

CLEVELAND PEACEMAKERS ON THE COVID-ERA RISE IN GUN VIOLENCE AS CITY NEARS ANOTHER HOMICIDE RECORD CARLOS WILLIAMS WILL always remember three bullets. The first one entered his hip on June 3, 1992, landing him in the E.R. on his 18th birthday. The second was 28 years later, on the eve of his 46th birthday, which hit Williams while he retrieved his mail at home in Garfield Heights, Ohio—a supposed stray shot. The third one, in June of 2015, took the life of his 16-year-old son Michael. “That’s the one that hurt the most,” he says. Williams, 48, is a veteran violence interrupter with the Cleveland Peacemakers Alliance, a nonprofit violence prevention program born in 2009 to combat the city’s rising homicides, specifically among Black male teens. Localizing a community involvement philosophy rooted in anti-gun advocate Aquil Basheer’s ‘Peace In The Hood,’ Peacemakers’ 16 case managers, staff and outreach workers like Williams spend as many as seven days a week attempting to stymie the city’s staggering homicide rates. The Covid

pandemic has made this nearly impossible: Cleveland’s murder count is set to reach its highest rate since 1972 (when there were 333 killed) at a time when the Peacemakers are at their lowest staffing level: A decade ago, two dozen Peacemakers interrupters patrolled the city’s 72 square miles; today, when there’s nearly 10 shootings per week, they only have six. Cleveland’s not alone. Columbus, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago—pretty much every major American city—all surpassed 2019’s homicide rate numbers in 2020, and are set to do it again in 2021. Spikes are so bad in some cities that activists are pushing for emergency orders. Public safety has become the No. 1 issue for many Cleveland mayoral candidates. On June 15, a week before 11 people were shot in a single day in Cleveland, 28 U.S. mayors wrote to President Biden in a plea for a multifaceted approach to get illegal guns off the streets. A week later, Biden echoed the alarm: $350 million of American Rescue

Plan funds, he said, would be given to cities to hire back desensitized police officers and refund violence interrupters, “to help resolve these issues before they escalate into crime.” But interrupters face a murder epidemic that may not be solved by “positive” loitering, participant house calls or after school visits. Myesha Crowe, the Peacemakers’ executive director, believes that a mixture of Zoom schooling, stimulus check spending, high-stakes unemployment and social media overuse has amplified conflict in low-income Black neighborhoods. Conflicts, essentially, they can’t reach. “It goes right from social media to the blocks,” she said. “It’s cliques that say, ‘Oh you said this on Facebook, so when I see you in the streets, you’re gonna get shot.’” For Williams, the current national 16 percent rise in firearm homicides isn’t an excuse to brandish fear. The son of a G&L steelman originally from Birmingham, Alabama,

Williams escaped the gang life of his teen years after a string of breaking and entering offenses. His youth was a sort of contradiction: “I was a church boy on Sunday, a gangster on Monday,” he says. In 2010, he was hired by the Peacemakers in his mid-thirties, a decade his teenage self never thought he’d live to see. With his shaved head, wide aviators, silver earrings, and graying beard, Williams has the grizzled veteran of Cleveland down to a T. “You have to keep one foot in the street, and one foot in your work,” Williams says. “That’s how I keep kids listening. It’s not, ‘OK man, you been through, get out the way.’ I need some leeway to get to them—or they don’t listen.” But the Catch-22 has tested both Crowe’s leadership and the outreach workers like Williams she’s attempting to run on a shoestring budget, compared to a decade ago: How can we get through to kids, and their guns, when we can’t even get to them in the first place? Ibe Cobbs and Tasha Miles were doing usual outreach rounds in

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

UPFRONT June, hanging up fliers at an American Food Mart on West 80th and Detroit Ave. when they heard a man shouting. Cobbs, a two-year veteran of the Peacemakers and single mother of two, was showing Miles the ropes. Both had sons at home that were always at the forefront in their minds. “My son cried to me the other day. ‘You work so much, all you do is work. And when you come home, you’re tired,’” Cobbs says, sitting on a leather couch inside the locked-in lobby of the Peacemakers’ headquarters on Broadway Avenue. “And I tell him, I’m not physically tired, I’m mentally tired.” At the American Food Mart on Detroit Ave., the two women launched into protocol. They confronted the shouting man who was resisting orders to calm down by Cleveland Police already on the scene. “We were letting him know that we’re not trying to arrest him,” Miles recalled. But the man, who was complaining about the arrest of his girlfriend, wouldn’t stop hollering, Cobbs says, and his unrestrained escalation worried her: Did he have a firearm? Would he be willing to use it? And most importantly, Why did it seem that they were more effective than the police? Fortunately, their training, which has thumbs-up approval from Aquil Basheer himself, proved to be a boon during the CPD’s own year of difficulty. (Cleveland.com reported that detectives had only solved 42 percent of homicides in 2020.) “They do their business, and we do ours,” Cobbs says. “Our goal is to not have anyone go to jail.” “Or get shot,” Miles says. Still, fewer patrol officers and Peacemakers on the streets signals the possibility of immunity for criminals. “They know that certain crimes, they’re not going to get punished for. They’re going to get a slap on the wrist,” Cobbs says, smacking her open forearm. “I feel as though they kinda work the system.” For Myron Phillips, a violence interrupter since 2016, the concern about growing gun ownership among Facebook cliques is a pendulum swing between Gen Z masculinity and social media stiffarming. (The latter, he says, “is a brain of its own, we can’t stop it.”) The social isolation and low school attendance of 2020, to him, was a ticking bomb for boys tempted by

the precarious purpose of ganghood. As he made his rounds checking backpacks or backseats in the past 15 months, Phillips noticed a more intense need for high schoolers or twenty-somethings to out-do others in the realm of firepower. The result is a mutually-assured arming: If he’s strapped, I have to be strapped, too. “Man, I’ve seen AK-47s, I’ve seen AR-15s, I’ve seen .40 cals with 30-round clips on it,” he says. “They got them to have them. All because they saying they got beef, that a lot of blood’s been shed.” Formerly-incarcerated like Williams, Phillips had a similar come-to-Jesus moment in recent years. He made the mistake early on in his Peacemakers career of “wearing his heart on his sleeve,” allowing himself to get too emotionally protective of teens he mentored, what the Peacemakers call “participants.” (Today, they have about 85 open cases, sourced mostly from juvenile or adult court.) In July of 2019, Phillips began mentoring a 16-year-old named Ta’Zhon Greenwood, a baseball and basketball wiz who’d been placed on the Glenville Recreation Center’s banned list after he was caught showing off a handgun to a friend. Phillips was unflappable; he told Glenville Rec employees if he turned Greenwood around, they should allow him to use the facilities. “They said, ‘You have six months.’ I said okay.” Phillips went through the usual Y.M.C.A.-like protocol of Peacemaker outreach: He led Ta’Zhon through deescalation training and even driver’s ed after Greenwood had been taunted by newly formed neighborhood gang, and had been sent to live with his mom Janetta Burkes and brother Ta’Vhon. “I’d take him home with me, introduce him to my wife, my two-year-old daughter, and show him my jail pictures,” Phillips says. “Show him what life could be.” After a year-and-a-half, Phillips’ mentorship proved worthwhile: Not only did Greenwood’s GPA at the Ginn Academy rise to a 4.5, but he had been accepted into a two-year internship at Lincoln Electric, and had been promised a full-time job after his graduation, despite the test of the pandemic’s virtual obstacles. On June 2, 2020, a week before his graduation from Ginn, Greenwood attended a party near East 108th and Elk Ave., a neighborhood his father, Erby Greenwood, said he never permitted Ta’Zhon to go. His curfew was 10 o’clock, Erby said, and Ta’Zhon, being the reformed academic, was used to sticking to it. Instead, at 11:07 that night, Greenwood was

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

found by two Cleveland Police officers unresponsive on the pavement, with three gunshot wounds in his chest and arms. EMS tried to resuscitate him, but to no luck. Twenty-five minutes after officers found him, Greenwood was pronounced dead from an “aggravated murder.” He was one week shy of graduating. Erby, who immediately offered a $8,000 reward for his son’s killer, believes his son’s death is undeniably resemblant of the times. In the past 13 months, he has not received any responses to his reward, nor any leads “or any suitable reply” from Det. Raymond Diaz, the homicide detective assigned to Greenwood’s case. “I get that they’re busy,” he told me, “but at least tell me something.” Though he commends Phillips for his invaluable mentorship through trying times, he’s still uncertain as to what exactly could have prevented his son’s needless death. “Was it over money? Drugs? A girl?” Erby speculates. “Yet, it doesn’t matter: I don’t blame the pandemic, I blame whoever killed my son.” Soon after his 48th birthday, Williams invited me to ride along with him on a weekday drive, a four-hour trip around purported high crime areas of Cleveland, what he calls the heat, as in “wherever we go is the heat.” As we drive down Imperial Ave., near the site of the infamous murders of Anthony Sowell that’s now been turned into greenspace, Williams opens up about the challenges of Covid violence interruption. He stopped watching the news because it’s too depressing; he’s logged about 106,000 miles on his Chevy Equinox, which bumper jumps in disrepair every time he hits a bump in the road. As we enter Luke Easter Park at East 110th and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Williams relays the story of his son Michael’s murder. It was 2015, and he’d saved enough money to relocate from his home on Imperial Ave. to the safer Garfield Heights, wanting “to be in a neighborhood where there wasn’t shooting all night long.” After all, he had seven kids, and wanted to provide them some more semblance of safety than he had growing up. Regardless, a bullet from a drive-by shooting found its way to Michael. Although Carlos is still hesitant to talk about it, I ask him how he’s handling the anniversary of his son’s death. He keeps his eyes on the road, and says, “You know how they say crying is taking the clothes to the laundromat? Well, I took out the laundry last night.” As we drive through Luke Easter,

which is lime-green and spacious as any park in Cleveland, Williams points out the usual spots he pulls up on to say hello to loitering teens, hand out business cards, or catch up with friends barbecuing. For a moment or two, the distraught reality of the pandemic-type gun spike melts away to the picture of a clean summer day in the Midwest. I ask Williams if he’s ever scared, pulling up on unsuspecting teenagers, and he says, “All the time.” “Even in the park?” “Yeah.” “Really?” I say, and ask how many of the park goers around us are carrying. “About 80 percent,” he says, driving past a baseball diamond. After a moment of silence, Williams explains: “It’s cause they scared,” he says. “No one knows who is strapped and who is not.” — Mark Oprea

DIGIT WIDGET 100,000 Tickets sold so far for the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit that debuts in Cleveland on Sept. 22.

$3,596 Amount of bounced checks passed by the Bishop Sycamore “administration” for the football team’s hotel rooms in Canton for the game on ESPN that put the “school” in the national spotlight and prodded Gov. DeWine to call for an investigation.

371,000,000 Polyester-tipped swabs U.S. Cotton, which operates in Bellaire-Puritas, will be making come May next year as it ramps up production to meet demand for at-home Covid-19 testing kits.

9/1 Date by which the Ohio Redistricting Commission was supposed to present to the public its planned redistricting map. It failed to meet the deadline.

Basheer Jones Receives First Dose of Covid Vaccine, Dennis Kucinich Cites Underlying Medical Condition for Not Receiving His Basheer Jones, one of two Cleveland mayoral candidates who as of last week hadn’t received the Covid vaccine, has now gotten his first dose. “I chose to get vaccinated after careful consideration and conversation with my family and health care provider,” Jones said in a statement days after his unvaccinated status became a citywide headline. “The risk-benefit balance led to my decision to get vaccinated. As I’ve said, it’s a choice every person should make on their own that should not be rushed.” Jones initially told WEWS that he hadn’t gotten the vaccine because, “I want to make sure that my elders get it, want to make sure that my children get it. I want to make sure the people of my community had access to it. So it wasn’t something that I wanted to rush and make sure of.” There is an abundant surplus of vaccines. Dennis Kucinich wouldn’t answer whether he was vaccinated when initially asked by WEWS, but in a letter dated Aug. 2 that Kucinich released last week, his physician said that Kucinich has an underlying medical condition “which requires prudent consideration of any potential therapeutic intervention.” Only about 36% of Cleveland residents have been vaccinated. -- Vince Grzegorek

Local Officials, Candidates and Organizations Join in Calling for Cleveland Municipal Bank Exploratory Committee A host of sitting elected officials, candidates for mayor and city council, and local organizations have voiced their support for forming a municpal bank exploratory committee in Cleveland. They include Cleveland city councilmen Charles Slife, Mike

Polensek, Joe Jones and Anthony Brancatelli; Cleveland city council candidates Kate Warren, Rebecca Mauer, Aisia Jones and Ayat Amin; mayoral candidates Ross DiBello and Dennis Kucinich; and local groups such as Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Global Cleveland, the Chandra Law Firm and ThirdSpace. “We are in a unique economic climate right now, with the pandemic still wreaking havoc and significant federal funding on its way to cities around the country,” says Geeta Minocha, who wrote the open letter and sought the commitments of the people and groups who have signed onto the call for action. “It presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine how we engage with our institutions. Public banks offer communities a means of making the most of community dollars: A government depository for taxpayer money makes financing for public projects — infrastructure, transit, education, etc. — cheaper. Moreover, scaled partnerships with regional institutions can bank the unbanked.” The letter calls for a committe of nine members from the public and private sectors representing a diverse group of perspectives and experiences in what would be a local effort similar to exploratory committees in other cities. The Cleveland committee, as its imagined, would advise the mayor and city council on the creation of a public bank. “I wanted a broad coalition of support for the exploratory committee, because the notion of a new institution can understandably be very scary to some,” Michocha tells Scene. “So it was important to me that trusted community groups and more moderate elected officials signed on before the expected progressives. Moreover, a big misconception around public banks is that they would crowd out small and medium-sized private banks. This couldn’t be further from the truth, as public banks would expand the loan portfolios of these private banks. But it’s an intuitive assumption, so I want to combat that by onboarding as many financial institutions as I can. I currently have one, a hedge fund called Steelyard Capital, and am hoping this gives

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

UPFRONT me more credibility as I try to meet with other financial institutions. But overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the traction behind this committee, and public banking in general. It’s clear that people have been viscerally feeling the gaps in our existing systems and institutions and are ready to try something new. She’s been a longtime advocate for public banking, but realizes that while the push in this moment might not make it happen, there are still positive outcomes to be had in bringing together a diverse group to talk about what problems and barriers exist in the community. “It might be that, when all is said and done, the numbers from the exploratory committee don’t support creating a public bank in Cleveland,” she says. “So one of the major goals of this committee would be understanding how that existing infrastructure can be made more efficient in order to meet the community’s needs, with or without a public bank.” — Vince Grzegorek

Hysterical Edgewater Residents Kill Metroparks Plan to Widen Sidewalk on Lake Ave. While public opposition failed to stop Sherwin-Williams’ plans to build two skywalks at its new downtown headquarters, public opposition had a different outcome last week, though the end result of torpedoing public access and pedestrian safety was the same. In a joint letter, the city of Cleveland, the Metroparks and Cuyahoga County announced that the proposed plan to rehabilitate a crumbling, narrow sidewalk on Lake Ave. in the Edgewater neighborhood into a 10-foot-path has been shelved. The collaborative project led by the Metroparks would have built a widened path, suitable for the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists, on cityowned parts of the properties to serve as a connector from Edgewater to Lake Ave. on Lakewood’s side of West 117th, which has dedicated bike paths on both sides of the road. Vociferous, hysterical outcry by residents on the north side of Lake Ave., a cloistered and powerful bunch of NIMBY residents, killed the project. What were their objections? From Cleveland.com’s Steve Litt earlier this year:

“But the Metroparks proposal, a great idea triggered by a city rehab of Lake Avenue that could start this summer, has stirred debate among residents in the well-to-do West Side neighborhood over everything from fears of big government to nitpicky issues of traffic engineering and urban design in which feet and inches count for everything.” Resident complaints also included worries about the danger of more pedestrians traversing their driveways and the prospect of construction bringing down or damaging trees. If those sound like feeble, disingenuous arguments against safer, more equitable connectors in the neighborhood and an effort to design a greener region, it’s because they are. But residents would have sounded even worse if they offered their true reasons for opposition. “An overwhelming majority of residents along the proposed path signed a petition rejecting the plan,” WKYC reported last week. “Forty residents affected by the path opposed it; five residents supported it and seven residents said they were undecided, according to a copy of the petition.” That included Cleveland City Planning Commission chairman Dave Bowen. Again, from Cleveland.com: “David Bowen, the chairman of the Cleveland City Planning Commission and a Lake Avenue resident, said in a June 2 online neighborhood meeting with Metroparks that he ended up with two metal plates in his face after having been jumped by what he called a gang outside his front door in the early 2000s. “He nevertheless stayed in the neighborhood. But he said the Metroparks sidewalk proposal might convince him to leave. “‘It would be a shame that a gang can’t chase me away but the Metroparks can,’’ he said in the meeting.’” How nice. As Litt posited earlier in the summer: “The widening is a test of the idea that Northeast Ohio should connect residents of all physical abilities to regional assets, including Lake Erie, in ways that don’t require ownership of a car.” The city will re-engage with residents to come up with a different possible solution, as the letter states. But for now, Cleveland again failed the test. — Vince Grzegorek

scene@clevescene.com @clevelandscene

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

FEATURE

Know No Boundaries Stories of Immigration in Cleveland

Edited by Literary Cleveland board members and immigrants Lisa Chiu, Jackie Feldman, and Sujata Lakhe GLOBAL CLEVELAND’S UPCOMING Welcoming Week (Sept. 10-19, 2021) consists of a series of events that focus on culture, community, economy, and internationality. The event will bring communities together to celebrate unity and friendship, as well as exhibit the countless benefits of welcoming newcomers to Northeast Ohio. To celebrate Welcoming Week, Literary Cleveland invited local immigrants to share their personal experiences of coming to America and adapting to life in Northeast Ohio. We welcomed stories and poems from people telling us how they came to Cleveland, why they came, what they left behind, and what they found when they arrived. In response to our call, Cleveland immigrants shared recollections of fear and joy, loss and perseverance, trauma and triumph, exclusion and welcoming. Most of all, the submissions challenged assumptions and defied categorization, showing that the stories of immigrants know no boundaries. We are honored to present a select portion of those submissions representing perspectives from South Korea, Kuwait, Germany, Ukraine, and India. The following collection includes a poem about speaking a second language, a story of being detained while watching birds fly free across borders, a prose poem of war-ravaged homelands and a past kept silent, memories of the last moments leaving home, and a series of musings on American culture. Curated by Literary Cleveland, in partnership with Global Cleveland and the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, with gratitude for the many immigrant and refugee service organizations in Cleveland, we are pleased to showcase stories of those from around the world who now call Northeast, Ohio home.

Accent

By Jewon Woo A word is broken into hundreds of pieces to become soundless shriek

JEWON WOO is your ordinary immigrant person who has many stories to tell. She has taught literature, writing, and humanities at Lorain County Community College since 2013. She is a city-lover, as she was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea. She came to the U.S. to pursue her graduate degrees in Iowa and Minnesota, and later moved to Cleveland, which she claims as her chosen home. When she does not teach or research, she enjoys hiking in the Valley, listening to audiobooks, sewing, and cooking Korean food. Above all, she loves to spend time with her partner, daughter, and cat.

In my foreign mouth the pieces fall down like glass shards To speak out that one word loud, my tongue must be scratched This language tastes like a fresh wound from shame scorching Even silence never leaves it scabbed over That’s how I got an accent.

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FATIMA AL MATAR sought asylum in the United States after facing prosecution for her political and social activism in her home country Kuwait. She lives in the Cleveland area with her daughter, Jori, and their cat, Ty. Her writing has appeared in The Wry Ronin, Acumen, The Journal, Angelic Dynamo, Further Monthly, Fleeting Magazine, Bad Language, Staples Magazine, Word, Jaffat El Aqlam, Oyster River Pages, Gordon Square Review, and OffSpring. She is currently querying literary agents for her book Detained, a memoir that relays what happened to her in Kuwait, and inside the Dilley Detention Center in Texas, USA. Learn more at https://fatimaalmatar.com/.

Photos courtesy Lit Cleveland

Geese

By Fatima Al Matar I paint migratory birds: Canada Geese, Snow Geese, ravens, herons, and starlings. I spend hours perfecting their plumage on my canvas. Canada Geese have a special place in my heart. With my fingers curled around the chain link fence, I watched them fly over the Dilley Detention Center, where my daughter and I were detained as refugees in the United States. Always in a V shape, with their comical honking cries, they rushed across the sky above me, the epitome of freedom, knowing no boundaries, accepting no border. My daughter, Jori, and I should not have been held in a detention center. We arrived at O’Hare Airport late December 2018, carrying valid passports and visit visas. The date on our return tickets exceeded the permissible six-month stay, which raised suspicion. Our luggage was searched, and the documents I brought with me proving my prosecution back in Kuwait were found: translated papers detailing that I’m being tried for my political and religious views, and for my social activism. “If you don’t tell me why you’re really here,” the angry officer demanded, “I will put you on the next plane to Kuwait.” Inside the interrogation room of The Department of Homeland Security, under the jeering gaze of five other armed cops in that room, I explained that I came to America seeking asylum. My love for birds, or my hate for oppression, started early. I was 11 years old when I saw a great Golden Eagle in a cage at a local park in Kuwait. Staring in those Herculean eyes, I saw that the cage was too

small for it to spread its six-footlong wings. Enraged, I brought it to my parents’ attention but they just shrugged. At home I looked up the park’s number and phoned them in secrecy, afraid of my parents’ reaction. A woman answered. Breathless and anxious, I explained that I was at the park, and that the cage in which the eagle was detained was too small for it to spread its wings, it needed a bigger cage. First, there was only silence on the line, then the woman let out a snort. In an awkward voice, she muttered something about letting her boss know. The way she said it sounded like, “Who cares! Run along now, girly!” She hung up before I could put in another word, and I remember understanding this, understanding her disdain and her belittlement of what was to me so important and urgent, enough space to spread one’s wings, enough space to fly. My life in Kuwait felt like a tiny room with a very low ceiling. I couldn’t go far; I had to keep my head down and stoop. When you are continuously threatened with “you better not think that, you better not say that,” it terrorizes you. It keeps you small and unsettled. As a girl, I didn’t have feminist terminology. I never heard words like “feminism,” “patriarchy,” “misogyny,” or “sexism.” My feminism was organic; it didn’t come from a book I read, it was a fire that burned within me each time I was subjected to servitude simply because I was a girl. To serve food for men, to clear men’s dirty dishes, to answer men’s angry shouts. I resented that my brother was sent to an expensive private school, while us five girls went to free public schools. I resented that as a woman, I had no autonomy over my body or my mind. Despite the tight control over my life, I did well in college and got a scholarship to do my postgraduates in the United Kingdom, a privilege that few women have where I come from. As a lawyer, a law professor, and a feminist, I strongly believe in democracy, freedom of speech, and gender equality—but I couldn’t live by my beliefs in Kuwait. I spoke up about the human rights violation against the “stateless” (tens of thousands of people who are longtime inhabitants but are deprived of citizenship, health, education, and work). I blamed the Sheikh for their tragedy and was prosecuted for it. I spoke up about the poor treatment of women and the growing problem of honor killings (femicide) in Kuwait and was prosecuted. I called for the rights of the LGBTQ in a country where homosexuality is still illegal,

and I organized protests against the government’s ban of more than 5,000 books. When my imprisonment became imminent in 2018, I fled, knowing that my daughter and I would never be safe in Kuwait. After four days of being detained in a tiny room at O’Hare with access only to a dirty public toilet and no shower, we were flown to the Dilley Detention Center in San Antonio Texas. Our luggage and phones were confiscated, but we had access to showers, we were given clean clothes, comfortable clean beds to sleep in, and food was served three times a day. We had to pass our Credible Fear Interview conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Through this interview ICE agents determine whether or not refugees have enough plausible fear to not be deported back to their homelands. But even if we were released from the center, we would still have to appear in court and convince an immigration judge that we have good reasons to remain in the US. This process can take years to complete. Jori and I passed our interview and were released from the center after two weeks. We took a plane to Akron airport, and settled in North Olmsted. Jori started school right away. I still remember how the city looked in January 2019, coated in thick snow like a wedding cake. Two years later our immigration trial is still pending, but Jori and I remain hopeful. Every March when the Canada Geese migrate back to Ohio, their honking cries remind me to look up, the way I looked up at them everyday inside the Dilley detention center. —————

CLARISSA JAKOBSONS was born in Hildesheim, Germany, during the end of World War II. Her parents escaped Lithuania because the Russian Communists were coming, and “they were worse than the Nazis.” Poet - artist - instructor, Clarissa was a twice featured poet in Paris, France, at The Shakespeare and Co. Bookstore and winner of

the Akron Art Museum New Words Competition. Her work has been featured by The Raven Review, K.S.U. Wick Poetry Center, Blue Nib, Hawaii Pacific Review, Yale Journal for Humanities in Medicine, and Kattywompus Press, among others. She is currently working on a manuscript of poems, The Last Stronghold, and wishes to share her experiences so the past is not repeated. Pranas, her father, was captured by Nazis in Poland and sent to several prison camps. After the Yalta Conference, he was traded like cattle for free labor to Stalingrad’s Gulag. Eventually, after seven years, he was released, and they were miraculously reunited, in Chicago.

Ragged Trail of Bones

By Clarissa Jakobsons —after historical research by Daniel W. Michaels, retired Defense Department analyst and Fulbright Scholar “The last man called to work-detail was always shot.” In articles and firsthand texts I learned that under the Yalta provisions, the U.S., U.K., and Russia, agreed to use German POWs in Gulag reparations. Each laborer received less than a pound of black rye. Productive workers earned a tad of meat, sugar, veggies, or rice. Almost a million POWs died after a decade of forced labor;10,000 men survived. My father lived. In 1945, Brit and U.S. authorities ordered German militia forces to deport thousands of Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians to Soviet camps. Cattle-cars transported nine million prisoners, including my father. Selected women were raped, paraded naked in front of camp officials promising easier workloads for sex. One out of three inmates died the first year. By 1953, 12–20 million perished, succumbing to exposure, hunger, exhaustion, and malnutrition. A wooden marker with the deceased inmate’s identity was affixed to the left leg. Gold fillings were extracted, pried, and cut; skulls hammer-smashed, chests spiked with metal rods. Bodies thrown into unmarked graves. Somehow my father survived Nazi concentration camps and the Stalingrad Gulag. Released beyond reason, he never mentioned the past ordeals harbored in his bones. Without question, silence reigned in our home. He spent days in quiet labor at the Solon office, Bedford and VA hospitals; doctoring patients to bring forth life. I research while the Gulag system disappears from our landscape. What can I do or say? But

remember — to wipe clean the empty shoes lining riverbanks. —————

REEMA SEN is currently working on her doctorate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She has lived in a number of different countries and worked in consulting, financial services and nonprofits with a focus on diversity. She is an avid traveler and blogger who has explored 59 countries. Her first degree was in English Literature, followed by an MBA, MSc in human rights and criminology and an MA in sociology. She continues to gather experiences in her pursuit of learning and writing.

Rolling Stone Gathers Moss By Reema Sen

“They’re Coming to America” played on the radio when I lived in India. I had grown up listening to Neil Diamond, and although it was never the plan, I did end up coming to America! America was the fifth new country I tried to make my home. I am a bit of a rolling stone and accustomed to old-time friends inquiring jokingly, “Where in the world are you now?” It’s also a question I ask myself constantly while also trying to set roots down somewhere desperately. Enrolling oneself in a Ph.D. program in an American university forces you to settle down long term (five years this time). It was nice to be able to speak and understand the language, as opposed to when I was trying to live in Hong Kong and China. I remember having to draw an airplane for the taxi driver in China who was heading to the train station when he saw me with a suitcase. I have to admit it took a little adjusting to get used to the English spoken in the U.S. as opposed to the Queen’s English that I am accustomed to growing up in postcolonial India, educated in an Irish convent school, and then working in a British bank in London. It’s not just the missing ‘u’s (color, labor, neighbor), but the accent and some grammatical quirks are different and thus made it distinctly American. But that would

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

be incorrect since America comprises 35 countries, the U.S. being just one of them. So how then should I describe the U.S. specifically? The country of Hollywood, Starbucks, big bucks, or Black Lives Matter, food desserts and drive by shootings? When I first heard Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” it didn’t really hit home like it did when I got here. I realized it’s all about Black or white (what is brown but a shade of black, and wouldn’t it be nice if we were really color blind?). Race trumps (no pun intended) even class and gender. This pervasive narrative is something I was unprepared for, uncomfortable with, and it is impossible to ignore the history of this country which is more than a mirror of other colonizers. Native Americans tend to get obscured in the fray sometimes and the dynamics for an outsider are fascinating, frustrating, formidable, fractious, and festering (indulge my penchant for alliteration). I have to say I am still trying to understand this country. Where people sit in their cars for hours on end (despite living in large houses compared with the bite-size condos in Hong Kong, Tokyo or Mumbai) doing what exactly? Where there are endless varieties of pet food and fashion in supermarkets (trying not to think of the refugees I had worked with) and the dedication to dogs that locals demonstrate. Where most meetings begin with chit-chat about pets, markedly different from the weather-related chit-chat in Britain or food-related chit-chat in Bangladesh. Where I’m still trying to figure out what soul food really is—just homemade comfort food like mac and cheese, or is it to do with the music genre and its roots that cry out with genuine passion? The outdoor staple is monotonous barbecued meat and corn on the cob, as opposed to the culinary expertise of even the ordinary street chef in Asia. However, only here there’s Mitchell’s ice cream and Mason’s Creamery and some beefy, cheesy soups to die for and Louisiana seafood boil (who would have thought it could be spicier than Shanghainese crawfish!), not to mention a sterling selection of pale ales and stouts freshly brewed every few miles. Here is the Cleveland Museum of Art with its magnificently curated collection and motto of “free for all”, the orchestra at Severance Hall, the variety at Playhouse Square, and the multitude of hiking trails! Here I experience stunning seasonal landscapes faithfully every year. Freezing fairytale snow vistas (just like my childhood storybooks in India), flaming trees in fall, and the

lush green of summer. The pictureperfect tulips in spring and gardens flushed with bergamot geranium lavender or carpets of wildflowers; spectacular sunsets from the Solstice Steps on the sweet water lake that feels like an ocean. Who would have imagined chancing upon myriad mushrooms in all shapes, colors, and sizes as you walk through parks with rabbits and squirrels and deer merrily scampering about and giant turtles ambling along the lakeside with the occasional blue heron majestically taking flight. At the same time, a gaggle of geese squawk their way at dusk in an unerringly straight line, and robins, kingfishers (reminds me of Indian beer), and blue jays flit about happily. I love the space, freedom and privacy here, coming from the world’s most densely populated country. And yes, I have discovered lately, a community of writers/book lovers who make me feel quite at home. The air is clean, the people have voted, the opportunities are immense, and people still read (curl up at Loganberry Books anytime) and write! —————

to take us to the train station. In my most prized clothes, a deep-green coat of rabbit, tall Italian boots, and a black alpaca hat, that made me feel like I might just fit in America, I said goodbyes to a couple of friends and neighbors who gathered around the van. I tried hard to contain both my excitement for the journey ahead and my guilt for leaving them behind in a place that seemed to have no hope. I had taken trains many times before and did not immediately recognize that this was the last train out of my childhood and out of my homeland. We finally found the right platform and were standing there cold and silent, waiting for a train to pull in. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the platform clock. These last minutes must have been agonizing for my mother and my grandparents, Lisa and Semen. For many years, we were one big family, nine in total, bundled together in a small apartment. Nobody questions privacy when your corded telephone (yes, we were lucky to have our own) is in the middle of the hallway and secured to the washroom’s outer wall. Even when my grandfather, a WWII veteran, qualified for a second apartment owing to a growing family, we stayed barely a 10-minute walk apart. An approaching train broke up the awkward silence. We picked up our bags and trotted forth. Suddenly, my grandfather’s weeping cut the dusk, “Goodbye, Zhenechka, we will not see each other again.” •••

JANE MCCOURT was born and raised in Donetsk, Ukraine, and immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 21. She holds a degree in Russian Philology from Donetsk National University and degrees in psychology and human resources from Cleveland State University. In her early days in America, she worked in the Russian Acculturation Department of the Jewish Community Center of Cleveland, assisting new immigrant families and children from the former Soviet Union and teaching English as a Second Language. In her spare time, she writes in Russian and English, gardens, cooks, volunteers, and is always eager to learn something new.

In Search of My Second Home By Jane McCourt

On December 21, 1997, my family loaded four canvas bags, one for each of us, into a minivan that was

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

There were many emigration agencies, all busy calling, processing, and stamping like clockwork. Years later it occurred to me that the country was still missing one most important office that would account for the value of people. Jews became synonymous with the term Soviet emigration, but the brain drain was not limited to Jews. Between 1991 and 2014, nearly a million of ethnic Russians fled Ukraine, and since the outbreak of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, this figure grew by another half a million. As a result of an accelerating down spiral of post-Soviet Ukraine, countless ethnic Ukrainians and other nationalities leave daily to seek living wage and shelter elsewhere. When our train arrived in Kiev the following morning, we were in for a big treat. My uncle Anatoliy who left for America four years prior was on a job assignment in Russia and traveled to Kiev to meet us. The next day, a plane took us from Sheremetyevo to Charles De Gol Airport. This was my first airplane ride and the first time being

outside the Soviet borders. Another plane ride, and a loud cheer of the passengers was followed by the outline of the Hudson River on the horizon. One final plane took us from New York City to Cleveland. My second set of grandparents, Liza and Misha, were anxiously waiting at the end of the terminal. I clearly remember hugs, kisses, and cries of joy coming from my grandmother. But the most amazing sight was the big smile on Grandpa Misha’s face, an ever-emotionless face of a man broken down by Parkinson’s disease. ••• Our entire journey took all but one day. Yet almost a quarter century later, I feel like I am still wedged between the two sides of the world waiting to learn of my true destination. Maybe I feel this way because my story began in Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, and everything is equivocal about this region. A hybrid war in the center of Europe now surpassed seven years and has become a never-ending frozen conflict, with a whole generation of first graders growing up in bomb shelters, elderly collapsing at the block posts on the way to collect their meager pensions, and all the rest aging and dying much faster than their biological clocks summoned them to. By and by, with no progress made toward resolution, the conflict rarely piques anyone’s interest anymore. It seems as if everyone long settled accounts for themselves. When I introduce this topic in a conversation, I receive puzzled looks as if there is no controversy to it whatsoever. Everything published in Russian is pro-Russian. Everything published in Ukrainian is proUkrainian. Nearly everything published in English is anti-Russian. A revised cold war rages on, and we, former Soviets, know too well how swiftly history can be rewritten. I often go back to my last moments in Donetsk, to my prophetic dream where I see bombardiers in a dawn sky and hear people screaming, to the final few days in our empty apartment, with heavyduty canvas bags, thoroughly sewn by my mother, lining the hallway. ••• Suddenly, everything goes dark and quiet in my dream. I’m in America, working at a bookshop, longing for a bibliophile young man to strike a conversation.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

GET OUT

Everything to do in Cleveland for the next two weeks

WED 09/08

MON 09/13

Faye Webster A successful photographer who has shot campaigns for Killer Mike, Offset, D.R.A.M and Nike, indie singer-songwriter Fay Webster sometimes models too. In 2020, Barack Obama included her single “Better Distractions,” on his playlist of favorite songs, and she also released the single “In A Good Way.” Both songs appear on her latest effort, I Know I’m Funny haha. Webster, who plays tonight at 7 at Mahall’s, incorporates her yoyo skills into her live show. 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-521-3280, mahalls20lanes.com.

Cleveland’s Music Industry Conversations Tonight’s Music Industry Conversations event at the Rock Hall will focus on the upcoming Induction Week and opportunities for local musicians. After a short presentation about how locals can participate in the festivities, there will be a Q&A session. It all starts at 6 p.m. Admission is free, but reservations are requested. 1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-5158444, rockhall.com.

TUE

Black Squirrel Winds Named in honor of Kent State University’s unofficial mascot, Black Squirrel Winds, a quintet of faculty members from Kent State University, formed almost ten years ago as a resident faculty ensemble of Kent State University’s Hugh A. Glauser School of Music. The group is dedicated to “performing exceptional wind music, promoting wind chamber music and educating young people.” It performs a free show tonight at 8 at Cain Park. Sept. 14. 14591 Superior Rd., Heights, 216371-3000, cainpark.com.

THU 09/09 The Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival Opening Night GCUFF’s Opening Night will include an evening with producer/actor Michael Jai White with a reception at 6 tonight at Breen Center. A a conversation with Greater Cleveland Association of Black Journalists President Kevin Heard will follow at 7:15 p.m. White will share his expansive career including his martial arts journey and the various roles from playing Mike Tyson in an HBO biopic to Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married and its sequel that paved the way for OWN’s For Better Or Worse with co-host Tasha Smith. During Opening Night, White’s wife Gillian will make a guest appearance to discuss her film, Take Back. Consult the GCUFF website for more info. 2008 W. 30th St., gcuff.org.

FRI

09/10

Monster Jam Billed as “the most action-packed motorsports experience for families in the world today,” Monster Jam returns to Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse today for a full capacity event that will feature giant trucks vying to outdoor each other on a special dirt track that allows them to literally jump into the air. The lineup will feature drivers Elvis Lianez and Krysten Anderson in Grave Digger, a truck that holds the Guinness title for the highest ramp jump in a monster truck. Tonight’s event starts at 7. Consult the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse site for the rest of the weekend’s schedule and for

09/14

The Chalk Festival returns to Cleveland Museum of Art. See: Saturday, Sept. 11. David Brichford, courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art

ticket prices. 1 Center Court, 216-420-2000, rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

SAT

09/11

2021 Chalk Festival The Cleveland Museum of Art will host the 2021 Chalk Festival inperson from noon to 5 p.m. today, rain or shine. The festival features sidewalk paintings by professional chalk artists and local community groups, families and individuals. This year, the community is invited to take part in a featured chalk drawing by artist Bruno Casiano. Participants will have an opportunity to showcase their own art on the museum’s south plaza and throughout the pathways that wind through the Fine Arts Garden and down to Wade Lagoon. Squares and boxes of chalk are available for $10 with on-site, day-of registration (supplies are limited). The Chalk

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

Festival is free to visitors wishing to just check out the artists’ work and listen to live music by the reggae act Outlaws I & I. 11150 East Blvd., 216-421-7350, clevelandart.org.

SUN 09/12 Maker Town Market Maker Town and Saucy Brew Works have teamed up to present free outdoor markets every Sunday at Saucy’s Vibe Garden. The weekly event will feature handmade jewelry, home decor, wall art, fashion, pet products, wellness items, furniture and paper goods. Located at W. 28th St. and Church Ave., Saucy’s Vibe Garden features picnic tables and an outdoor bar. Food can be ordered from the brewery via an app. The event takes place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s free. 2807 Church Avenue, 216-666-2568, makertownusa.com/market/.

WED 09/15 Shit Show Karaoke Local rapper/promoter Dirty Jones and Scene’s own Manny Wallace host Shit Show Karaoke, a weekly event at the B-Side Liquor Lounge wherein patrons choose from “an unlimited selection of jams from hip-hop to hard rock,” and are encouraged to “be as bad as you want.” Fueled by drink and shot specials, it all goes down tonight at 10 p.m. 2785 Euclid Hts. Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com.

THU 09/16 Lewis Black Comedian Lewis Black regularly touches on current events, social media, politics and anything else that “exposes the hypocrisy and madness in the world,” as he puts it. Given everything that’s going on in the world these days, Black’s

GET OUT analysis of the “hypocrisy and madness in the world” seems all the more relevant. He performs tonight at 7 at Hilarities, where he has shows scheduled through Sunday. Check the Hilarities website for ticket prices. Sept. 16. 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

FRI

09/17

Crocker Park Wine Festival A two-day event that takes place today and tomorrow, the Crocker Park Wine Festival will be set up throughout the streets of Crocker Park and feature more than 150 local, national, and international wine producers. There will also be beer, spirits, local vendors, food vendors, casual seating and live music. The event will be located starting at Center Circle between Anthropologie and Altar’d State on Main Street to Gap and Banana Republic, where attendees can stroll and visit different wine vendors to ask questions, sample wine and learn more about various vineyards and producers. Additionally, beer and spirit tents will be available as well as live music and food offerings from several Crocker Park restaurants including Burntwood Tavern & Leo’s Italian Social., The event takes place from 4 to 10 p.m. today and from 2 to 10 p.m. tomorrow. Check the website for ticket prices. 189 Crocker Park Blvd., Westlake, crockerparkwinefestival.com.

SAT

09/18

Pekar Park Comic Book Fest The Pekar Park Comic Book Fest is back for 2021, and the event will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. today throughout the Coventry Village business district with a special free screening of Big Hero 6 at 8 p.m. in the PEACE Park. There will be free face painting, Cosplay/ character costumes, zine-making/ illustration crafts with Lake Erie Ink, free takeaway crafts from Heights Libraries, as sidewalk chalk art competition in Pekar Park, kids carnival games, a bounce house in the PEACE Park, a maker’s market and a fall festival by Made Cleveland, a group of local creators. At 2 p.m., Mac’s Backs will present a special event for the more serious comics fans, Comix Today: A Panel

Discussion with Artists, Writers and Editors will focus on the current state of the comics industry and make recommendations on what comic fans should be reading. The event will take place outdoors in front of the Cleveland Heights library. heightslibrary.org.

SUN 09/19 International Talk Like a Pirate Day It’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and the Greater Cleveland Aquarium encourages guests to come in costume to celebrate the event. In addition, there will be a themed trivia hunt, coloring sheets, temporary tattoos, craft instructions and a short guide to pirate speak. The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (the last ticket is sold at 4 p.m.) during the aquarium’s regular Sunday hours. Due to limited capacity and time entry for social distancing, advance tickets are recommended for non-passholders. 2000 Sycamore Street, 216-862-8803, greaterclevelandaquarium.com.

MON 09/20 Indians vs. Kansas City Royals As the baseball season winds down, the Kansas City Royals return to town to take on the Cleveland Indians today at 5:10 p.m. The early start time allows the teams to play a double header to make up for a game that was cancelled earlier this season. The two teams will face off again tomorrow and Wednesday night at 6:10. Tickets start at $15. It’s one of the last chances to catch the Tribe before the name change kicks in. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, clevelandindians.com.

TUE

09/21

Open Turntable Tuesday Tonight from 6 to 9, the Winchester hosts its weekly Open Turntable Tuesday. Jason Gokorsch will book guest DJs and offer slots to people who want to bring their own vinyl and spin their favorite songs or deep tracks. First time DJs are encouraged, and equipment is provided. Patrons can also bring records for the night’s DJ to add to their set. Sign up on Northeast Ohio Vinyl Club’s Facebook page. (Niesel) 12112 Madison Ave., Lakewood, 216-600-5338, facebook.com/ TheWinchesterMusicTavern.

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

life, connecting with people, talking to them and listening to their stories.”

ARTS

Waterloo Arts Festival Returns Next Weekend

“Pride CLE” by Chuck Fischer

CONVERGE EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS THE VOICES AND WORK OF CLEVELAND’S LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY By Shawn Mishak CONVERGE, A MULTI-VENUE art exhibition made possible through a partnership between Cleveland’s Artists Archives of the Western Reserve, the LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland, Lake Erie College, Judson Manor and MetroHealth, is now on view with work by 71 regional artists across those five venues. CONVERGE brings together the stories of the LGBTQ community, including the historically underrepresented voices of women, transgender people, and people of color. “LGBTQ history is our history, and the story of the community is the story of our region. Behind the jubilant parades and rainbow flags which blossom along porches in June, is a proud and diverse population who live, work, and contribute mightily to the creative culture of Northeast Ohio,” the show’s press release states. Curator Kelly Pontoni and cocuraters Sam Butler, Tony Williams, and Mark Yasenchack selected more than 140 pieces in an array of media including painting, photography,

textiles, glass, fashion, assemblage, and immersive installations. Additional programming includes artist and curator talks, panel discussions, workshops, and exhibitions examining a variety of subject matter. “We looked at age, race, gender, lesbian, gays, bisexual, transgender, non-bianary, the whole spectrum. It was very important to us that we address all of these different identities,” says Pontini. “As a nontraditional student in my late 40s, I found myself surrounded by a new generation of LGBTQ+ students. I wondered where I, as a lesbian, fit into an increasingly non-binary word. But instead of holing up in my comfort zone, I asked questions. I listened. And over many, MANY cups of coffee, I gained perspective.” Pontini, now 52, says she was an older student and felt that CIA offered acceptance for LGBTQ students. She wonders how her life would’ve been different if she were able to be “out” at 18, 19 or 20 instead of in her late 30s. “I started taking my peers over coffee and we had these wonderful,

intimate conversations. I realized that me in my 50s, if I was not able or willing to listen to the younger generation then I was no different than the people that did not accept me as a lesbian when I was 18, 19 or 20.” Pontoni, who works as the collections registrar for the Artists Archives, partnered with the LGBT Community Center and MetroHealth, which always hosts the AIDS quilt on World AIDS Day, to make the exhibition happen. “The purpose of the exhibition is to celebrate and document the legacy and the contributions of these artists to the cultural fabric of the Western Reserve,” says Mindy Tousley, executive director of the AAWR. “I hope the viewer is struck by the creativity, strength, and size of our LGBTQ+ community of artists, by the sincerity of their stories as told through their art, by their struggle for equity and equality under the law, and come away with more tolerance and acceptance.” Pontoni exclaims: “This has been the most amazing experience of my

After being cancelled last year due to Covid concerns, the Waterloo Arts Festival will return next weekend on Sept. 11 from noon to 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Five stages will feature music throughout the afternoon and galleries in the district will be open, including Waterloo Arts and Photocentric which will be featuring works in the Waterloo Arts Juried Exhibition. “Last spring, as the vaccination schedule rolled out, we were optimistic, but things still seemed too uncertain to begin planning a June Waterloo Arts Fest so we made the call to postpone,” says Waterloo Arts Executive Director, Amy Callahan. “We didn’t know then if we would have to cancel again but we wanted to put some sort of community event together because we know how important it is to come together with neighbors and friends, especially in times of uncertainty and stress. It is also important to be mindful of health risks, but because the festival is mostly outdoors, with plenty of room to spread out, and September weather is usually more temperate than June, making mask wearing a viable option for anyone vulnerable.” The fest will feature local bands such as Lea Marra & the Dream Catchers, Super Babes, MuAmin Collective, Sammy Slims, Tischler Klezmer Orchestra and more offering an eclectic mix of musical genres. There will be a host of local handmade art vendors, food trucks, and interactive art experiences for all ages. “I’m looking forward to closing the street down and seeing people relax and enjoy the day with family and friends,” says Callahan. “It will be a full event but I’m not worrying about every nook and cranny of the street being programmed. I think it is ok to give people some space this year and have a more relaxed event. There will still be 5 outdoor stages, street performers, art and community vendors, art exhibits, crazy art installations, and activities for everyone, but there will also be room to spread out so you can choose your level of engagement.”

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September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

EAT

Photo by Nic Paoletta

EASTERN IMPORT

Goma kicks off East 4th Street’s next golden era in style By Douglas Trattner AS WE MADE OUR WAY FROM Progressive Field towards Public Square, the area around East 4th Street and Prospect felt animated in ways that it hasn’t in years. Diners spilled out onto sidewalk patios that snaked up and down and around the block. Through the awning windows of Goma we could see a hopping bar, a buzzing restaurant and even catch glimpses of chef and owner Dante Boccuzzi, the man largely responsible for the street’s presentday excitement. For a moment there it looked like Cleveland’s brightest star had begun to lose its luster. East Fourth Street, home to celebrity chefs like Michael Symon, Zack Bruell and Jonathon Sawyer, was suffering an identity crisis after the rapid-fire closures of Chinato, Greenhouse Tavern and Lola. There was light at the end of the tunnel, but that tunnel felt like it was getting longer and longer, with promised projects continually getting pushed further and further back. Chief among them was Goma, which had been a topic of breathless conversation for two and half years.

But now that it’s finally here, we can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Unlike Ginko, which feels more like a cloistered shrine to raw fish, Goma is more open, inclusive and comprehensive in its offerings. This is the type or place where friends

suffering from a labor shortage, one would be hard pressed to recognize it when visiting Goma. Behind that three-sided bar is a cadre of spirited sushi chefs. In the kitchen is another battalion of cooks. There are even two hosts, for goodness sakes, eager

GOMA BY DANTE 2079 EAST 4TH ST., CLEVELAND 216-274-1200 GOMARESTAURANT.COM

can pop in for a few sushi rolls and cold sake on the way to a baseball or basketball game, yet also would appeal to couples in search of a sweet date-night spot. The construction crews managed to completely transform the former Chinato restaurant into an entirely new environment. Gone is the chopped-up space, hushed tones and peekaboo kitchen, replaced by a boisterous, unified space that is dominated by a large, central cocktail bar slash sushi bar. If Cleveland, like most cities, is

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

to usher guests to tables inside or out. Once seated, diners are guided by servers through the extensive two-sided menu, which is divided, much like the restaurant itself, between raw and cooked food items. What Boccuzzi was looking forward to most, he stated during the lengthy leadup to opening day, was being able to expand the roster of hot Japanese and Japanese-fusion dishes – items like tobanyaki, wokfried rice and noodle soups. Like those served at the famed Nobu, where the chef previously worked,

tobanyaki are elegantly composed meals that are roasted and served in shallow ceramic vessels. Options range from tofu to tenderloin, with the gently cooked proteins joined in a seasoned soy sauce base by asparagus, greens and Japanese mushrooms. The pork belly version ($16) featured a half dozen slabs of tender, succulent meat. Wok-fried noodle and rice dishes like the stir-fried beef ($21) are large enough to share and loaded with juicy meat, snappy vegetables and perfectly cooked rice. If you’ve ever ordered off Dante’s late-night noodle menu in Tremont, then you know about his passion for udon and ramen. Goma offers a concise selection of bowls filled with pork ($15), miso or vegetable broths, a choice of noodle and accompaniments like pork belly, softcooked egg, bok choi, mushrooms and nori. There might be no better place in town to enjoy sushi right now than on East 4th Street. The setting, selection and quality of ingredients and preparation at Goma are stunning. From a flawless slice of yellowtail sashimi ($6) on up to a creative roll featuring crispy tempura-fried shrimp, the options are gloriously boundless. That shrimp roll ($14) contained crispy seafood, asparagus, rice and roe, with the spear and shrimp tail climbing high like a city skyline. Order the botan-ebi ($6) and you’ll enjoy a plump piece of sweet shrimp served raw atop a fistful of vinegared rice. That delectable bite is followed by a delivery from the kitchen of the shrimp head, now lightly battered and fried into a crunchy snack. I savored the best piece of uni ($14) in recent memory as well as firm twists of spicy tuna and egg ($9) and hamachi and scallion ($9). For diehard sushi barflies, specials like steamed abalone ($26), sliced and served in its iridescent shell, are not to be overlooked. Likewise, diners can opt for an omakase tasting of sashimi or nigiri that features the day’s freshest catches. Even today, two months and change after opening day, Goma is an unfinished project. The tables holding the built-in shabu-shabu burners still need tweaking, and the downstairs craft cocktail club, Giappone, also is a work in progress. But as it stands today, Goma already is helping to propel the downtown dining scene into its next golden era.

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

EAT BITES

Felice among first local restaurants to require proof of vaccination or negative Covid test for diners By Douglas Trattner AS COVID MARCHES ON, fueled by the more contagious Delta variant, more and more businesses are requiring proof of vaccination or recent negative COVID-19 tests for entry into their establishments. We can add Felice (12502 Larchmere Blvd., 216-791-0918) on the Cleveland-Shaker border to the list. The 13-year-old restaurant recently announced that in an effort to protect the safety of its staff and guests, would-be diners must show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test. The responses on social media, as one can likely imagine, have been widely mixed. While the majority of people who elected to comment praised the restaurant for its decision while vowing to dine there in support, others were incensed. (Top tip: Never read the comments.) Here is the statement from Felice: “Given the increase in Covid cases we are taking steps to keep our staff and guests safe. Starting on September 1, 2021 we are asking guests for proof of vaccine (photo of your card on the phone will be accepted) or a negative Covid test within 72 hours of your visit. We appreciate your patience and understanding to help protect our community and we are grateful for your continued support of Felice.”

Souper Market Has Closed its E. 6th Location. Will Reopen at The Standard This Fall After a brief two-year run, the Souper Market downtown has closed. Owner Matthew Moore took over the former Tea House Noodles (1900 E. 6th St.) space in 2019 and said that business was good, but he closed yesterday “earlier than anticipated for various reasons.” The good news is that he has secured a new retail space downtown at The Standard (99 W. St. Clair Ave.). His spot will be on St. Clair facing the justice center and should be open before the end of 2021.

Tremont Scoops to Close on September 19 After Nine Years After nine years in the business of making people happy, Tremont Scoops will close for good. That will happen on September 19th. The small, independent ice cream parlor announced today on social media that the building has been sold. Here is the message from the owners: “Hey Tremont. The rumors are true. A guy that lives down the street made us a smoking offer on 2362 Professor Ave and the building is no longer ours. The plan is to close down on September 19th and pack up the coolers. No more Tremont Scoops. “The last nine seasons have gone by in a flash. What started off as six friends from Twitter who didn’t know shit about ice cream has slowly become an ex-husband and wife buddy comedy team who kind of knows shit about ice cream. Ann and I (and Nikki, Adam, Ron, and Ryan) created a ton of great memories and most importantly gave 30+ knucklehead teenagers a chance at their first job. I like to think we created a place where they could make mistakes, show up almost on time and grow into better adults. Yeah making money is great, but making great people is where it is at. If you ever worked for us. Thank you.”

Chef Zachary Bond to Open The Spot on Lakeshore Next Month in Mentor “It’s a really cool story,” promises Zachary Bond, who will open The Spot on Lakeshore (7272 Lakeshore Blvd.) in Mentor in about a month. Bond, who most recently worked at Table 45, says that he returned to Northeast Ohio for family reasons about 15 years ago. When he did, he started working at a great little place called Lakeshore Eatery, where owner John McGlaughlin instilled in the budding cook a passion for the

Photo by Doug Trattner

industry. “John really inspired me to pursue what I had always loved to do since I was a kid, which was cook and work in professional kitchens,” says Bond, who later moved over to John Palmer’s Bistro and then Ballantine and Willoughby Brewing Co. and eventually L’Albatros and Table 45 to work for Zack Bruell. But over the past year and a half, the chef admits, he lost that passion. Working in a restaurant located inside a hotel that is attached to a hospital in the middle of a pandemic was nearly enough for him to reconsider his career path. But then he got a call from his old boss at the Lakeshore Eatery. “John called me and said he was done and that if I wanted the place it was mine,” says Bond. “It couldn’t have come at a better time. To be honest, it was absolutely grueling. I almost left the industry, that’s how downtrodden I was as a chef. It was a rough year.” When it opens in early October, The Spot on Lakeshore will serve breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch. There is a full liquor license, which will clear the way not only for mimosas and bloodies, but also fun events in the private dining room like pop-ups and collaborations with other like-minded chefs. The plan is to open one side of the space at 6 a.m. for premium coffee and grab-and-go items like hot sandwiches, bagels and muffins. The main dining room will open at 7 a.m. and offer scratch-made breakfast and lunch dishes that the chef hopes will appeal to his eastern suburb clientele.

“When I wrote the menu, I went with a balance of the classics to make sure you have those everyday things, but also a list of specialties,” he explains. “The idea is to start small and kind of build off from that; try and create an epicenter over here where we’re doing creative scratch food.” In addition to those classics – items like breakfast sandwiches, eggs Benedict, biscuits and gravy, three-egg omelets and platters containing eggs, meat, home fries and toast – Bond will whip up avocado toast, eggs in purgatory and a half dozen skillets starring redskin potatoes with various toppings. Those will be joined by specialties like steak and eggs and country-fried chicken and waffles with black pepper gravy. When the lunch bell sounds, the menu will flip over to soups, salads and sandwiches like burgers, tuna melts, fried chicken and spiced salmon patties. Bond says that the far-east side communities of Mentor and Willoughby still lack for creative, independent eateries of all kinds, let alone breakfast and lunch places. “With our generation, corporate [places] aren’t going to make it,” he says. “All of the people in our generation want to know who owns the place. We want to know that you’re a scratch kitchen. We want a cool place to go to hang out. It’s more about the entire energy of the place and who else is there.”

dtrattner@clevescene.com t@dougtrattner

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

Courtesy of Columbia Records

MUSIC

Singer-songwriter Quinn XCII.

NOSTALGIA FOR NORMALCY

Singer-songwriter Quinn XCII talks about the importance of getting ‘back to work’ By Halle Weber “I NEVER HAD THIS FEELING of like, ‘Oh, shit. What if music doesn’t work out and I’m stuck working in this cubical for the rest of my life?’” says Mikael Temrowski, known professionally as Quinn XCII, in a recent phone interview. Quinn XCII performs with Chelsea Cutler at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 14, at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica. “I always had this really weird, comfortable feeling that things would work out. It’s always tricky trying to explain that feeling, but I just felt like I was always meant to do what I’m doing.” The 29-year-old singer-songwriter began nurturing his passion for producing music at a young age. In college, he adapted his stage name and started to take his music seriously. The Detroit native’s college mixtapes picked up some traction on SoundCloud, but it wasn’t until he was graduated and working at an insurance company—which he hated—that his big break came. In 2016, Columbia Records signed Quinn XCII as a recording artist, allowing him the creative control to continue producing his upbeat, danceable, rap-infused indie pop with a purpose. “As far as the actual process of making the music, nothing changed. And I think that’s why I respected Columbia Records so much,” says Temrowski. “They didn’t tamper with what I was doing. They just let me steer the ship creatively and continue to do what I was doing, cause it was working.” Once he gained the access to professionally master his music, there was no stopping him. Earlier this year, Quinn XCII released his new album, Change of Scenery II, which he named after his 2015 debut EP. The record was a quick follow-up to his 2020 album, A Letter to My Younger Self. “I was sort of faced with this decision…Am I just gonna sit on my couch and, you know, wait until the world resumes and I can go back to normal, like touring and stuff. Or, am I just going to get back to work

and make another project, and give fans more music during this really weird time,” says Temrowski. “And I decided to do that.” Nostalgia was the tone Quinn XCII wanted Change of Scenery II to evoke. And it was the nostalgia for normalcy from which the lead single “Stay Next to Me (with Chelsea Cutler)” was born. “I think I was saying ‘lay next to me’ initially, and then I thought more about the song, and the times we were in. And I was like, ‘Oh, maybe I call it ‘Stay Next to Me,’ and it’s sort of opposite of what COVID has been preaching about,’” says Temrowski. “Maybe putting out a song that’s opposite of that is kind of what people need right now.” So, the story of fighting through a crowded club, trying to escape with someone you are clicking with was told. Then, he added longtime friend and collaborator Chelsea Cutler to the mix. “The second I wrote ‘Stay Next to Me,’ I kind of felt Chelsea’s presence on it,” says Temrowski, who texted Cutler the song from his Rhode Island writing camp. “The whole process of getting those songs made was just so organic, and you can hear that in the music,” says Temrowski of “Stay Next to Me (with Chelsea Cutler) and “We Don’t Talk Enough (with Alexander 23), which zeros in on the “universally relatable” melancholy feeling of losing touch with your friends as you get older. “It was just like texting a friend something and then them responding. It wasn’t like I had to send it to a label or have my manager reach out to their managers. It wasn’t this weird sort of third-party situation. It was just me going right to the source.” Cutler played her first-ever show as the opening act for Quinn XCII, and they’ve been like family ever since. “Just being with her backstage, and seeing how nervous she was, to now watching her play to thousands of people with just more confidence

and great stage presence — it’s just a really fun thing to see her evolution,” says Temrowski. Cutler and Quinn XCII played a few socially-distanced drive-in shows recently with several of their mutual friends and collaborators such as Alexander 23 and Jeremy Zucker, but Temrowski has “been waiting for the real deal.” And nothing is more real than playing to a sold-out crowd at Red Rocks, the infamous Colorado venue, which is exactly what Quinn XCII and Cutler did, alongside Zucker, last month. “Live shows have become a staple of Quinn and the brand. And I feel like it just elevates the music to a different level when people see it live,” says Temrowski. “To be able to get back on the road and give

fans a face to face experience — to see them smile, cry, sing the lyrics back — that’s just going to be such a gratifying feeling.” Quinn XCII always knew he was meant to be writing and performing music, because his passion for it and dedication to it was unmatched in any other element of his life. “I didn’t want to be 40-something years old, regretting down the line that I never pursued something that I loved,” says Temrowski. “Go for anything you have a passion for. If you have a deep-down intuition about something that makes you feel good — whether it’s a job or a person or whatever — just pursue it. I think life’s too short not to do that.”

scene@clevescene.com t@clevelandscene

September 8-21, 2021 | clevescene.com |

SAVAGE LOVE ON THE DOWN BLOW By Dan Savage Hey, Dan: I’m a gay man. After a decade together and five years of marriage, my husband informed me he wasn’t really interested in sex anymore. That was a year ago and we haven’t had sex since. He told me I should leave him, if regular sex was “really that important” to me, but if I chose to stay, I had to remain “faithful.” To him that means me not having sex with anyone else. I’m 35, he’s 38, and he doesn’t see his unilateral decision to end our sex life as him breaking faith with me. There’s also the issue of financial dependance. I am NOT dependent on him, he is dependent on ME. I didn’t want to abandon him during a pandemic while he’s unemployed, so I stayed. Now he tells me he’s asexual and accuses me of being unsupportive of his sexual identity if I so much as mention missing sex. To make a long story short, three months ago I met a guy at work. We’re the only people on our floor currently coming into the office and we got to talking and it turned out he’s bisexual and married but open. I’ve been blowing him a couple of times a week for the last two months. He’s close to my age, and I really need this. We aren’t in the same department, so I don’t report to him, and he doesn’t report to me. He doesn’t reciprocate, but I don’t care. I wasn’t on Grindr and didn’t go looking for this. Do I need to feel bad about it? Cheating Homo On Knees Eating Dick So, your husband insists you honor the commitment you made to him (not to have other sex partners) but he’s released himself from the commitment he made to you (to be your sex partner) and invited you to divorce him if you didn’t like it. And you didn’t divorce him. You stayed. Not because you wanna stay in this marriage, and not because you’re obligated to stay in this marriage to affirm his sexual identity, but because he’s unemployed and you don’t wanna turn him out on the street during a pandemic. Okay. You don’t need to feel bad about this — you don’t need to feel bad about the dick you’re eating at work — and if you’ve been reading my column for longer than a week, CHOKED, you

knew I was gonna say that. So, you wanted a permission slip and you’ve got it, signed and notarized. And now if you stop giving those hot non-recip blowjobs to the bisexual guy at the office, I’m gonna be pissed at you for wasting my time. So don’t let me down here, CHOKED. Keep eating that dick. Of course, eating that dick isn’t a long-term solution to your problem, CHOKED, but that dick will make your life more bearable in the near-term. (It sounds like it has already.) But ultimately, CHOKED, you’re gonna have to counter your husband’s ridiculous ultimatum with a perfectly reasonable ultimatum of your own: he doesn’t have to be sexual with you — he never has to eat your dick ever again — but he can’t expect you to live a sexless life. Tell him you’re gonna seek dick elsewhere, CHOKED, and if he doesn’t like it, then he can leave.

Hey, Dan: Just wanted to commend you for your advice to “Having A Realistic Discussion On Needs” in last week’s column. I say this as someone who recently went through a similar — though blessedly temporary — situation with my girlfriend. The first time I lost my erection before I came, I was a little bummed, but my attitude was basically, “Dang, well, at least I made her come.” My girlfriend, however, had a mild-to-moderate freak-out: Was everything OK? Was she doing something wrong? Was I not attracted to her anymore? Like HARDON’s partner, I also “got in my own head,” and the same thing kept happening. It got to the point where I was avoiding sex because I didn’t want to deal with the crisis-counseling session that would inevitably ensue if I couldn’t come again. After a few weeks of this I was finally able to get through to her that talking and obsessing about it was only making it worse. She backed off, I got to a point where I could relax again, and it wasn’t long before our happy, healthy, way-hotter-than-you’d-expect-from-acouple-of-divorced-40-year-olds sex life picked up where it left off. As you implied to HARDON, sometimes you just need to STFU and hope for the best. Guys being who we are, nothing sets our deep-seated insecurities ablaze like being pestered about our dick problems, no matter

| clevescene.com | September 8-21, 2021

how well-meaning and sincere the pesterer is. We’re kind of like toddlers who suffer a minor boo-boo: If we see you frantically running toward us waving your hands and asking what’s wrong, we’re going to flip out. But if you don’t make a big deal out of it, we won’t either. Just wanted to share my straight-dude perspective and thank you for your level-headed response. Please End Needless Interrogations Speedily Thanks for sharing, PENIS. And while I sometimes feel like I should say, “Everybody doesn’t always need to come during sex,” I worry about some straight guys reading that and then giving even less of a shit about getting their female partners off than they already do. I don’t want to accidentally widen the orgasm gap: while more than 95% of straight men self-report that they always come during sex, according to the Archives of Sexual Behavior, only 65% of straight women said the same. We should all want our partners to get off and should make a goodfaith effort to get them off, but we shouldn’t make a huge deal out of it if our partner, every once in a while, for whatever reason, doesn’t get off.

Hey, Dan: I just read your reply to HARDON and I think you missed something. (I know, I know! Who am I to tell you anything?!?) I’m a mature woman who had a younger male lover for a while. Same scenario in that he was super fit, had stamina, was eager, etc. All was good — except that he had to finish himself off with a hard and furious handjob every time. I suggested that he go on a masturbation diet: stop jerking off every day and when he did masturbate, use props, e.g., wrap a cloth around his hand, grind against pillows, Fleshlight, whatever he could think of because I had the idea that the intense and hard hold he used when masturbating was the culprit. And I was vindicated! It took a few patient tries, but he got there! Someone In Toronto Thank you for sharing, SIT, and I would’ve addressed the issue you raised — the issue you successfully addressed with your hot young man — if HARDON had mentioned

something similar, i.e. her boyfriend using what I’ve long called the “death grip” to finish himself off. Dive into the Savage Love archives, SIT, and you’ll find tons of advice for guys who used the death grip during masturbation and then couldn’t get off during partnered sex because the inside of a vagina, a mouth, or a butt doesn’t feel like the inside of a bony clenched fist. My advice for guys who suffer from death grip syndrome is the same as yours: stop jacking off like that, use a lighter touch, get some lube and maybe a Fleshlight, and retrain the dick. It doesn’t work in all cases — some guys can’t come back, for other guys that’s just what their dick needs — but I’ve heard from plenty of men over the years who successfully retrained their dicks. TO MY READERS: I want you to know that I’m furious about what happened in Texas last week (a law banning abortion went into effect) and what didn’t happen in the Supreme Court (the Trump-packed court didn’t block that law from going into effect, essentially nullifying Roe v. Wade). Texas’s new anti-abortion law empowers individual citizens to sue anyone they suspect of having helped a woman get an abortion — doctors, clinic staffers, parents, anyone. Lend a friend some money to pay for an abortion? You could be sued. Drive a friend to a clinic? You could be sued. If a lawsuit brought against you is successful, you could be ordered to pay the person who sued you $10,000 and reimburse their legal expenses; if you prevail in court, you get nothing — no damages, none of your legal expenses reimbursed. Women still have a constitutional right to an abortion in the United States, but abortion is effectively illegal now in Texas and will be soon in other states, as GOP legislators and governors drive a truck through the hole the Supreme Court just ripped open in Roe v. Wade. My advice to women and men in Texas: stock up on morning after pills — available over the counter (for now) — and vote every last GOP motherfucker out of office.

mail@savagelove.net t@fakedansavage www.savagelovecast.com

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