Nate’s North Coast Notes • Six Scintillating Sisters Shine in PBS’ ‘How It Feels to Be Free’ • Peter Lawson Jones hits ‘Chicago Fire’, ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’ • Tommy Davidson at Cleveland Improv • MIX returns to art museum

By Nathan E. Paige

“How It Feels To Be Free” the latest PBS “American Masters” documentary, features clockwise from top left,
Lena Horne, Cicely Tyson, Pam Grier, Nina Simone, Abbey Lincoln, and Diahann Carroll.  

‘How It Feels to Be Free’ – ‘American Masters’ on PBS

PBS’ “American Masters” series presents the new documentary, “How It Feels to Be Free,” highlighting six prominent black women artists — Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier — who became game changers in the entertainment industry. Celebrity interviews include Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Samuel L. Jackson, as well as Horne’s daughter Gail Lumet Buckley. Alicia Keys narrates and serves as executive producer.  

 “I am proud to be a part of such a meaningful, important project,” says Keys. “Art is the most powerful medium on the planet, and I continue to be inspired by and learn from these powerful, brave and stereotype-shattering women who leveraged their success as artists to fearlessly stand up against racism, sexism, exclusion and harassment. I honor their courage by celebrating their stories and continuing the work they started.”

The documentary is based on the book “How It Feels To Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement” by Ruth Feldstein. The video link above is accessible on pbs.org until February 16.

Local politician-turned-actor Peter Lawson Jones appears in the January 27 episode of “Chicago Fire” on NBC.

Peter Lawson Jones on NBC’s “Chicago Fire” - January 27

Local politician-turned-actor Peter Lawson Jones can be seen in the Wednesday, January 27 episode of the NBC drama “Chicago Fire,” airing at 9PM ET. He also has a role in the upcoming “Judas and the Black Messiah,” starring Daniel Kaluuya and LaKeith Stanfield, which is scheduled for a February 12 release. 

Comedian Tommy Davidson will do five shows at the Cleveland Improv January 29-31.

Comedian Tommy Davidson at Cleveland Improv – January 29-31

Comedian Tommy Davidson comes to town for 5 shows Jan. 29-31 at the Cleveland Improv, 1148 Main Avenue in the Flats. Tickets $20. In recent years, Davidson has been seen in the 2020 Netflix special “Sarah Cooper: Everything’s Fine,” and heard as the voice of Oscar Proud on The Disney Channel’s “The Proud Family.” He also had a small role in the fourth installment of the “Sharknado” franchise. 

The film noir classic “The Maltese Falcon” returns to theaters to mark the 80^th anniversary of its release.
[Photo courtesy of Fathom Events]

Fathom Events presents 80th anniversary screenings of ‘The Maltese Falcon’ – January 24, 27

Fathom Events will re-release “The Maltese Falcon” in select theaters January 24 and 27 in conjunction with the 80^th anniversary of the film noir classic. Based on the short story by Dashiel Hammett, the film stars Humphrey Bogart — one of the prototypes for what a cinematic private detective should be — who portrays hard-boiled gumshoe Sam Spade. Also starring Sidney Greenstreet, Mary Astor and Peter Lorre.  Don’t try to follow the story, just go along for the ride.  

A virtual version of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s MIX event takes place Friday, February 5 at 8PM.

MIX: Move at The Cleveland Museum of Art – February 5

The Cleveland Museum of Art reopened to the public on the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. Come February 5 at 8PM, the MIX event returns with “MOVE” featuring movement and performance artist Marcia Custer who will take the audience on a virtual dancing tour through the galleries, accompanied by  visuals from artist Ben Oblivion. DJ Haley Himiko Morris provides the tunes. Free.  Colorful attire encouraged. 

Is there an upcoming event you’d like included in this column? Please send the details, along with a high-resolution photo/graphic, to northcoastnotes@therealdealpress.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

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OHIO POLITICS | Dem. lawmakers want newly-enacted ‘Stand Your Ground’ law repealed

By Tyler Buchanan

State Reps. Thomas West, D-Canton, and Adam Miller, D-Columbus

Just two weeks after Gov. Mike DeWine reluctantly signed a so-called “Stand Your Ground” bill into law, two Democratic legislators are pushing in the new Ohio General Assembly term to have it repealed.

The passage of Senate Bill 175 during a lame-duck session last month marked a significant policy victory for Ohio gun advocates. The bill removed from state law a person’s “duty to retreat” from a confrontation before using deadly force against a perceived threat. 

The bill passed along mostly party lines, with all Democrats voting against and just four Republicans in the Ohio Senate joining them.

Democratic Reps. Adam Miller of Columbus and Thomas West of Canton plan to introduce legislation to repeal SB 175, which they refer to as a “Shoot First” law. In a provided statement, the two claimed this new law could allow minor conflicts to escalate into deadly violence.

“One of our most important responsibilities as elected officials is to ensure the safety and security of those we serve, those who sent us to Columbus,” stated West, who serves as president of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus. “This law did the opposite — quite simply, its passage made us less safe, especially Black Ohioans and other Ohioans of color.”

With Republicans still holding supermajorities in both legislative chambers, this repeal effort is unlikely to be successful. But the two noted public pressure to reform Ohio’s gun laws following the 2019 Dayton shooting as well as DeWine’s own calls for reform.

In signing SB175 into law, DeWine stated he was “very disappointed … that the legislature did not include in this bill the essential provisions that I proposed to make it harder for dangerous criminals to illegally possess and use guns.”

West added, “When the people of Dayton and others across our state issued us a call to ‘do something’ following the horrific tragedy in that city, this is not at all what they meant. We hope our colleagues will join us in restoring our neighbors’ safety by repealing this dangerous law.”

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This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.

Op Ed • Police should be a part of the community they serve

 By David Niven

It was a tiny detail in another devastating story of police use of force. Seeking comment from the Columbus police officer involved in the most recent killing of a civilian, the Columbus Dispatch described the “No Trespassing” sign tacked to the front door of the officer’s house in Union County.

There is a crisis in American policing today, a disconnection between those who police and the people they are meant to serve. Much of this crisis can be understood from the commonplace practice of employing people to police a diverse city who would choose to live in a county where whites outnumber African Americans 33 to 1.

A Census report revealed that in nearly every big city in America — including Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Toledo — African American police officers are more likely to live in the city they serve than their white peers. The nation recoiled at the police strangulation of George Floyd in Minneapolis — a city where 19 in every 20 white officers live out of town.

Cities in Ohio once had the ability to combat this problem. In fact, twenty years ago more than 100 Ohio cities had employee residency requirements that made living within city limits a condition of continued employment. In 2006, however, the Republican legislature and Gov. Bob Taft set out to end residency requirements. They spoke of personal freedom imperiled by residency requirements as if cities were storming into people’s homes and forcing them to move.

But residency requirements no more forced someone to move than education requirements force someone to attend college. It was, rather, a job qualification like any other — something city leaders saw as making their employees better at their work.

The city of Lima unsuccessfully challenged the residency ban as an affront to home rule. The Republican-dominated state supreme court upheld the law. But the city’s argument still rings true today. Lima outlined the advantages of city employees living in town, including their knowledge of the city and their commitment to it. More to the point, Lima asserted that its residency requirement “promotes the employment of individuals with a greater empathy for the real and long term concerns and problems of the people of Lima.”

Empathy. The ability to understand the feelings of another. The quality so obviously lacking when a Columbus police officer investigating a noise complaint shot Andre Hill within ten seconds of seeing him. 

This summer the Dispatch reported on a zoning meeting in Licking County in which several local residents vociferously opposed plans to build a group home for young people with disabilities. One opponent said he was a Columbus firefighter with a Columbus police officer fiancée. He told the zoning board, “We’ve dealt with this stuff a lot. It’s not something that we want to be around.” He said they “want to leave everything in the city” when they come home.

As if Columbus was a foreign land, a place to be reviled, filled with people one must escape from. Escape from the people they people are supposed to serve, from the people who pay their salaries. Empathy, or more aptly its total absence, on display in a residency choice at odds with the very nature of public service. 

A residency requirement might actually make some public servants more empathetic — but just as importantly, it would weed out people who have no business serving the city, indeed have no capability to truly serve the city, because they view its residents as unworthy of them.

A 2015 U.S. Department of Justice taskforce on 21st-century policing recommended that police departments institute “residency incentive programs.” It’s past time for Ohio legislators to embrace the future of policing by reviving our policies of the past. Admit the folly of residency requirement bans and let cities build police forces from people who actually want to be there.

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David Niven is a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati.

This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.

HEALTH • Slavic Village effort takes HIV prevention to the neighborhood level in hopes of reversing trend

By Rachel Dissell

Cleveland’s Slavic Village neighborhood has seen an increase in new HIV diagnoses since 2015, according to state health officials. A project there aims to learn more about how the virus is being transmitted, to step up prevention and treatment, and to distribute condoms and other safer-sex products. (Tim Harrison for ideastream)

On a crisp fall day, a small group of masked community researchers fanned out on the streets of Slavic Village to ask residents a few questions about their sex lives. 

The effort was one part of a plan to understand why the Cleveland neighborhood has seen higher levels of new HIV cases diagnosed over the past five years, despite an overall downward trend in Cuyahoga County. The clipboard-toting volunteers also popped into local stores to record condom prices and availability. 

The Slavic Village ZIP code, which also includes the Union-Miles neighborhood, was one of two in the county to report 50 or more new HIV diagnoses between 2015 and 2019, according to the most recent Ohio’s HIV Surveillance program. (The other ZIP code, 44102, includes the Detroit Shoreway and Edgewater neighborhoods.) 

Two Cleveland ZIP codes have the most new reported diagnoses of HIV between 2015 and 2019. 

Ohio Department of Health HIV Surveillance program

Slavic Village’s hyperlocal response to the rise in cases, aided by a $25,000 AIDS Funding Collaborative grant, mirrors a national trend in prevention and treatment efforts, which until recently were orchestrated at the city or metro level. 

It also means combatting two viruses at once: HIV, which has lingered stubbornly for decades, and the coronavirus that has ripped through a neighborhood already exhausted from efforts to tackle cycles of generational poverty, food insecurity and low literacy. 

“I felt kicked in the stomach with another reality about Slavic Village,” said Earl Pike, who for about a decade headed the AIDS Task Force of Greater Cleveland but had heard little discussion about the issue since taking the helm of University Settlement, a social services agency, in 2017. 

 

One more challenge

Viruses don’t respect neighborhood boundaries but learning more about how HIV is being transmitted in Slavic Village is key to tailoring a prevention strategy, said Bob Eckhart, a public health practitioner who has worked on HIV prevention and treatment and AIDS services since the 1980s, when he helped catalyze the local and national response. 

In recent years, new diagnoses of HIV in Cuyahoga County have overwhelmingly been among men who had sex with men and who were black and under the age of 35. (Note: HIV infections among transgender women are counted based on their assigned sex at birth.)

But the full picture of what is happening with HIV countywide is murky because of a shift to “priority-based testing,” which requires a focus on the most at-risk populations that can also be harder to reach. The new protocols and organizational problems within the Cleveland Department of Public Health, which until last year was responsible for testing, led to a steep drop in HIV tests countywide from more than 10,000 in 2018 to about 3,000 in 2019.

County health officials are still trying to get a sense of what the infection numbers mean, said Melissa Rodrigo, deputy director of prevention and wellness at the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, which took over testing for a six-county region in 2020. 

The pandemic created more obstacles for community partners, though most have adjusted, meeting people at their homes to administer HIV tests. Still, Rodrigo said, it will take a little time to understand whether the reported infection numbers are low because of the reduced amount of testing.  

“It’s hard to know exactly where we are at,” Rodrigo said. 

There are other issues to untangle, as well, to understand how the virus is spreading. 

For instance, ZIP codes with the highest number of emergency room visits related to opioids and the distribution of naloxone, which reverses overdoses, overlap with the greatest number of HIV diagnoses, according to a county epidemiological profile published in August. But the number of newly diagnosed patients linked to needle sharing or drug use is low, possibly because Cleveland supports one of the largest free clean needle exchange programs in the state.

 Cleveland's Slavic Village neighborhood is working on a strategy to combat an uptick in new HIV diagnoses in the
past five years. University Settlement, a neighborhood anchor, makes free condoms available at its front desk.

Hearing from the community

Though it can be awkward to ask questions about a person’s sex life or what protection they use, hearing directly from residents helps to avoid assumptions, said Autumn Franz, a recent John Carroll University graduate who helped to organize the community “research mob” and collect surveys from about 50 residents to learn more about how often they use protection during sex. 

It’s particularly important in black communities, where it can be harder to come out as gay or bisexual, or where transgender women of color are not always part of the conversation, Franz said. 

Another challenge is figuring out who can help pay for and deliver prevention messages and services to the neighborhood's 22,000 or so residents, many of whom are low income. 

When Eckhart started reaching out to interview community leaders, most were surprised to hear HIV infections were on the rise. 

“People haven’t thought about AIDS and HIV in a long time,” he said. What he heard was ‘we just didn’t know.’” 

One thing, though, was clear: Residents don’t want people to come in from outside the neighborhood to address the issue. 

That makes sense to Gary Scofinsky, who has called Slavic Village home since 1995. Despite all of its pressing problems, it’s a place that has a strong network of neighbors who take care of their own, he said.

Scofinsky is known for his massive garden operation, which provides vegetables like kohlrabi and eggplant for neighbors, and jalapenos for employees at the nearby Dollar General, where he often shops. 

The 54-year-old, who has lived with HIV for more than two decades, believes one way to raise awareness might be to use neighbor networks to pass out literature and condoms, particularly to younger residents who might be harder to reach or who aren’t openly gay or bisexual and have concerns about people passing judgment on them.

“A lot of teenagers and young adults don’t seem to care about [the virus] anymore,” he said. “It will be tough to reach them.”

Scofinsky also thinks there should be more outreach at local drug rehabilitation centers. Often, he said, people are careful about needle sharing but not as cautious about unprotected sex when drinking and using drugs. 

Scofinsky, who is partially paralyzed due to a violent physical attack decades ago, says he has mostly stayed inside during the pandemic. But once it is safe, he’d volunteer to hand out condoms or answer questions at community events. 

“There’s a lot of people who know me,” he said. “They might hear it coming from me.”

Local voices key

Information gleaned from community research can be invaluable, said John Barnes, executive director of Funders Concerned About AIDS.

For a variety of reasons it is harder to give federal money to small neighborhood groups. The formulas used to measure the problem and dole out the money have also disadvantaged communities with new or emerging outbreaks, he said. 

In some ways, the work to eradicate HIV has been hampered by strides in treating the virus. “The success of treatments and prevention strategies have lessened the sense of urgency,” Barnes said, though the people currently at the highest risk for infection are among the most marginalized. 

In 2019, the Trump administration announced it would direct the majority of HIV/AIDS-related funding to 57 communities with the goals of diagnosing infections and identifying outbreaks more quickly, stepping up the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medications and allowing communities to locally design treatment and prevention initiatives. 

The grant to University Settlement was one of the first the Cleveland AIDS Funding Collaborative gave for a “neighborhood deep dive,” said Julie Patterson, director of the collaborative.

It has since awarded “catalyst” grants to several other community or neighborhood organizations that might not qualify for larger federal grants with more rules and restrictions, Patterson said.

Brainstorming solutions

COVID-19 halted the door-to-door part of the community research as infections climbed this fall and winter, so the group went virtual, organizing a Zoom call recently with nearly a dozen residents: mothers, artists, health care workers, a young couple with a chubby-cheeked baby.

From their couches and kitchens, they brainstormed potential places where free condoms could be distributed in the community, such as the rapid transit station on East 55^th Street or a blood plasma donation center on Broadway Ave. They also discussed how to best weave conversations about sexual health into the fabric of neighborhood events that already exist. 

While most agreed free condoms should be widely available, they also thought opportunities for discreet testing would be helpful for those unwilling to get tested at a doctor’s office or at the AIDS Task Force office, which features its name on a large sign over the door. 

It’s also essential to acknowledge  men are in relationships with women and have sex with other men on the “down low” because it is not culturally acceptable, said Mimi, 41, who runs a church-based group for mothers of all ages. (She asked that only her first name be used.)

Sign up here to get free condoms mailed to your home. https://ohiv.org/positive/free-condoms/

The place to start, most agreed, was to raise awareness about how to prevent HIV and reduce the stigma of talking openly about it.

“People that I know have shut down and they have feared for their lives because people may get angry and treat them a certain way, and so they are scared to let people know what is going on,” Tyra Jackson, 44, told the group. 

“We know everybody is not going to be accepting,” said Jackson, who last year started an outreach organization called “The Caring.” 

“But if we can get more people to be a little more welcoming, she said, “maybe we can make a difference and make people feel like they can come out and say, ‘Hey, I have HIV.’”

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This story is provided by ideastream as part of special community coverage of COVID-19 and funded by Third Federal Foundation and University Settlement.

OHIO POLITICS | Non-violent, heavily armed demonstration forms at Statehouse

 By Jake Zuckerman

Armed men stand outside the Ohio Capitol Jan. 17.

A cohort of armed men stood at the Statehouse steps calling for unity yesterday.

A conspiracy theorist with a megaphone yelled about dangerous vaccines, 9/11 and the 2020 election.

A Black Lives Matter activist simply waved a flag in celebration of the looming inauguration of a new president.

The entire Sunday crowd of roughly 100 stood, braving a sometimes-heavy snowfall, outside a Statehouse fortified with Humvees, National Guardsmen, and police barriers.

Exactly who came out for what reason is unclear. Despite stark warnings from Gov. Mike DeWine and a coterie of state and local officials, there was no violence on display Sunday. There were, however, dozens of armed, masked civilians in combat fatigues with assault rifles. A crowd forcefully shouted down an interview between a reporter and a man in a “Make America Great Again” hat.

The gathering formed in the context of two related events; Biden’s inauguration scheduled for Jan. 20, and a violent mob raid at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 as part of a last-ditch effort to force Congress to overturn the results of the presidential election. The raid came after months of President Donald Trump and his allies baselessly claiming the election was fraudulent.

Around 11:30 a.m., more than 15 men with assault rifles (many had holstered pistols as well) arrived identifying themselves as members of the Boogaloo Movement — an anti-government group focused on gun rights and civil liberties, some of whom anticipate an incipient civil war. More joined them later in the day.

A group of Boogalu Bois staging before the Jan. 17 demonstration. Several officers on horseback stopped by. Source: Jake Zuckerman.

Despite the weaponry and facial coverings, one man with the group who declined to provide his name said they were there for what he called a “unity rally.”
“If we look at the unarmed completely peaceful protests that have happened across America in this recent year, a majority of them get shut down by police force — brutal police force,” he said. “If you look at your armed marches, they last all day. Everybody gets to speak, and everybody gets to ensure they have a platform, and they are heard.”
Sitting in a lawn chair outside, Dan Wertz said he came out with a megaphone to counter-protest an expected pro-Donald Trump crowd that never materialized. He wound up in an amplified, public debate with another man with a megaphone.
The other man offered a torrent of baseless conspiracies: debunked claims that vaccines cause autism, that elections infrastructure companies rigged the presidential contest, that 9/11 was an inside job, and similar ideas.
Wertz said despite officials’ concerns about an armed and possibly violent protest, he didn’t want to let right-wing extremists chill his free speech rights.
“If I chose not to come out here because they’re armed, that would give them everything they want,” he said.
The conspiracy theorist then hurled a number of anti-trans insults at Wertz, prompting many of the Boogaloo Bois to stand with Wertz and distance themselves from the conspiracy theorist.
One man wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat would only identify himself as “Todd” and said he came out to stand up for Trump, repeating the lie that Trump won the election. Variations of this claim have been dismissed by dozens of courts, elections officials from both parties around the country, and the Trump administration’s ranking elections security chief (who Trump later fired).
A crowd slowly gathered around the man and a reporter, accusing the man of being a racist and the reporter of giving him a platform.
“Stop giving racists platforms! Stop giving racists platforms! Stop giving racists platforms!” they chanted, seeking to overpower a voice recorder and derail the interview.
The relative peace of the day came in contrast to warnings from DeWine, based on evidence he declined to make public, of threats of violence Sunday.
Alongside the violence in Washington D.C., several fights including a full-fledged brawl broke out Jan. 6 in Columbus between BLM activists and members of the Proud Boys — a group of all male, right-wing extremists known for engaging in fistfights with liberal groups.

A Black Lives Matter flag furls outside the Ohio Statehouse Jan. 17. Source: Jake Zuckerman.

Other factors may have worked against the violence: The day proved cold and wet; a rare Cleveland Browns playoff game kicked off at 3 p.m.; the robust security acted as a deterrence; and a sweeping prosecutorial effort related to the Jan. 6 raid may have weighed down any would-be instigators.

Maurice Carpenter of Columbus avoided the thick of the crowd and waved a Black Lives Matter flag at passing traffic.

“I’m just here ‘cause we’re celebrating, our president just won, we’ve been fighting all year,” he said. “They’re the ones who are sore losers. So hey, you lost, get over it. He had four years.”

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This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.