Saturday, July 14, 2018

Glenville: Bullets and Artists


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CORRECTION: today’s event @ MLK LIBRARY IS NOON-4:30pm. 

THEN and NOW: Glenville at the hub

Two nights ago, at that place of joyful gathering known as Karamu House, the only white person in a room full of mostly elderly but extraordinarily alert African Americans, spoke an obvious but too little appreciated truth when he said, “Black History is American history.”

Nine days from now will be the 50th anniversary of one of the most epic days in the history of a neighborhood, a community, and a city. As darkness enveloped a few tightly woven streets on the outskirts of Cleveland’s sprawling yet overcrowded Glenville neighborhood, a small but heavily armed band of black men and boys opened fire upon several unsuspecting isolated white policemen on nighttime patrol.

What happened next has perhaps never been told as grippingly in minute by minute detail as in Ballots and Bullets, a book published only days ago. While our review will be published here tomorrow, may it suffice to say now that the Glenville shootout still reverberates today, from Lake Erie to Kinsman, from the East Cleveland schoolyard to Cudell Recreation Center to West Park. Beyond its tragic human toll, it trumpeted the end of the Honeymoon of Carl Stokes administration’s honeymoon, the death of Cleveland NOW, and gave birth to the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association.[1]

Today and tomorrow, several generations of activists will share memories and perspectives of what some describe as the Glenville Uprising. Presenters will represent many disciplines and perspectives. Among them will be Dr. Raymond Winbush, Don and Norma Freeman, Mississippi Charles Bevel, Joan Southgate, Khalid Samad, Sherrie Tolliver, Christin Farmer, and many more.

Today’s program runs from noon until 4:30pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the Cleveland Public Library, 1962 Stokes Blvd. tomorrow’s event will occur from 2pm-5pm in Case Western University’s Harkness Chapel, 11200 Bellflower Rd.
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Glenville will perhaps be undergoing a uniquely double collective Sankofa moment this weekend. Even as people address what happened fifty years ago in a spirit of “Where do we Go from here — Community or Chaos?”, another event will be taking place within walking distance of MLK Library and Harkness Chapel, celebrating what some interpret as harbinger of a New Glenville.

Today is the inaugural edition of “FRONT, An American City”, which is comprised of artist commissions, films, and public performances. FRONT will showcase the work of local, national and international artists from today through September 30, radiating out from a hub on East 105 Street just north of Wade Park Avenue to collaborating museums, civic institutions and public spaces throughout Northeast Ohio.

Details can be found here and here.

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[1] The 2012 murderous 137-bullet rampage by Cleveland police officers that took the lives of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams ended on an East Cleveland public school playground. The November 2014 killing of Tamir Rice occurred on the playground of Cudell Rec Center. Carl Stokes’ plan to rebuild Cleveland through the multi-million dollar Cleveland NOW program went up in flames the instant it was discovered that a small portion of NOW proceeds had been misdirected towards the purchase of weapons used in the shootout. The CPPA was born in the wake of Stokes’ decision to withdraw white policemen from patrolling Glenville in the immediate aftermath of the Glenville shooting until the area had been pacified, owing to Stokes’ concern, supported by evidence, that some police officers were bent on exacting revenge for the murder of three of their colleagues.  

Thursday, July 12, 2018

Cleveland Black History spotlighted today thru Saturday


Nation's Largest African American Video Oral History Archive Honors Cleveland Area HistoryMakers

Cleveland will play host and homage over the next three days to a set of highly accomplished Cleveland citizens, as part of The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive. The celebration and recognition begin tonight with a reception at Karamu, with more than one hundred guests expected, including area business, civic and community leaders.

Those honored include living legends architects Robert Madison and James Whitley and William Whitley; physicist Julian Earls, aerospace engineer Woodrow Whitlow Jr., Albert Antoine, and Ralph Gardner-Chavis; astronaut Guion Bluford; and foundation executives Steven A. Minter and Margot Copeland.

Others to be honored include clergymen Joseph EvansOtis Moss, Jr. and E. T. Caviness; civic activists Leatrice Madison and Paul Hill Jr.; and educators June Sallee Antoine and Anthony Jackson.

The arts community is well represented by a host of performers, artists, musicians, and educators, and gallery owners, including A. Grace Lee MimsJeffrey Mumford, Leslie AdamsDianne McIntyreMarjorie Witt JohnsonWendell LoganJohnny ColemanLouise HopeDonald WhiteRobert Lockwood Jr., Wadsworth A. Jarrell Sr., Ed ParkerErnestine Brown, and Malcolm Brown.

Also recognized will be members of the legal and business communities, including C. Ellen ConnallyLillian BurkeStanley TolliverMarcella Boyd Cox and Dominic Ozanne; and television journalists Leon BibbHarry Boomer, and Russ Mitchell.

Rounding out the list are the unique Dorothy McIntyre, a pioneering air pilot, and the renowned motivational speaker George Fraser.

Case Western Reserve University will license The HistoryMakers Digital Archive making it available for faculty and student classroom instruction and research. In doing so, Case Western joins forty other universities, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, Emory, Northwestern, Ohio State and three public libraries and one private school.

During its three-day visit, The HistoryMakers will seek partnerships with other local civic, educational and cultural institutions.

The HistoryMakersa national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, is dedicated to recording and preserving the personal histories of well-known and unsung African-Americans.   It is the largest video oral history archive of its kind, and the only massive attempt, since the WPA Slave Narratives of the 1930s, to record the African American experience by the first voice. In 2014, the Library of Congress became its permanent repository. Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has said, “The HistoryMakers archive provides invaluable first-person accounts of both well-known and unsung African-Americans, detailing their hopes, dreams and accomplishments—often in the face of adversity, this culturally important collection is a rich and diverse resource for scholars, teachers, students and documentarians seeking a more complete record of our nation’s history and its people.”

The HistoryMakers Collection now numbers over 10,000 hours (3100 interviews) of first person testimony recorded in over 200 cities and towns including international locations like Norway, the Caribbean and Mexico. The earliest memory in the collection dates to the 1700s.

The HistoryMakers wants to help elevate the black experience in Cleveland as well as ensure that Cleveland’s African American history is properly represented in this internationally significant Collection. To do so, more prominent African American Cleveland area leaders will be interviewed for inclusion in the Collection once appropriate funding is secured.