It is not always easy to fully tell the narrative of a place and its people through words alone. This, I would suspect, is one of the most constant struggles for writers and professional journalists.
Over the past five to seven years, a tremendous amount of progress and change has taken place throughout Cincinnati’s urban core. This progress, however, is not just through bricks and mortar, but also the people who populate those buildings. In fact, those people are the most significant part of the equation. Without their ideas, hard work and passion, none of this would be happening.
Thankfully, Queen City Project has been documenting some of these people and their stories. Their latest video looks at a collection of young entrepreneurs looking to bring their new ideas to Main Street – literally and figuratively.
Cincinnati Growing Cincinnati is a six-and-a-half minute video that breaks down some of these individuals, but also identifies the start-up infrastructure in place that is helping foster their growth and jump start other new ideas with the help of seed money and support networks.
This weekend is poised to be a busy one with a variety of unique events taking place throughout the basin. We do not often plug events nowadays, but this is a weekend where you do not want to be absent from Downtown and Over-the-Rhine.
GoOTR 5k + Summer Celebration
The next big event will take place Saturday morning in historic Over-the-Rhine. The sixth annual GoOTR 5k will begin at 10am, and will raise money for the Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce. While online registration has closed, those interested can still register in person today from 5pm to 7pm, 11am to 7:30pm on Friday, or immediately prior to the race on Saturday starting at 8:30am.
Festival-goers enjoy the 2009 OTR Summer Celebration. Photograph by Randy A. Simes for UrbanCincy.
The race is the first leg of the Cincinnati Triple Crown. The winner will receive a custom trophy from Rookwood Pottery and the rights to continue on their hunt for Triple Crown glory at the Hyde Park Blast and Downtown Dash.
The accompanying OTR Summer Celebration will take place immediately following the completion of the race along Vine Street between 12th and 13th streets. Officially starting at 4pm, the street fair will include local merchants and live music from Wussy, Josh Eagle and the Harvest City, Shiny and the Spoon, The Cincy Brass, Young Professionals Choral Collective, Pones Inc., and a special performance from the Blue Wisp’s Young Lions and their legendary jazz drummer Philip Paul.
Smale Riverfront Park Grand Opening
On Friday evening, city officials and community leaders will celebrate the grand opening of the first phase of the Smale Riverfront Park. The new park is the latest piece of Cincinnati’s central riverfront transformation. The completed first phase includes the area along Mehring Way between the Roebling Suspension Bridge and Great American Ball Park, and includes the Moerlein Lager House, an event lawn, multiple water features, monuments and the new Bike Mobility Visitors Center.
The bike center is seen another step forward for the city’s bike program after recently receiving an award from the League of American Bicyclists. The facility features bike rentals, shower stations, lockers and indoor bicycle parking, along with a knowledgeable staff at the center to perform bicycle repairs.
Music fans will get the chance to see over 90 performances this weekend across five venues in Uptown. The Heights Music Festival, formerly known as the Clifton Heights Music Festival, will return on Friday and Saturday for its sixth installment.
Street musicians, stand-up comedy, and other unique activities will be featured in addition to bands such as The Minor Leagues, Skeetones, State Song, Mad Anthony, Eclipse, The Kickaways, Josh Eagle & The Harvest City, Evans Collective, The Yugos, Sassy Molasses, and The Ohms.
Shows will be held at Rohs Street Cafe, Baba Budan’s, Mac’s Pizza Pub, Christy’s Biergarten, and Roxx Electrocafe. One pass will give attendees access to all venues. A two-day pass is $10 in advance ($12 at the door), and one-day passes are also available for $5 in advance ($8 at the door).
A new addition to the festival is the Day Fest, starting at 3 p.m. on Saturday, when all venues are open to people of all ages. All other shows, starting at 7 p.m. each night, are for ages 21+.
As many of you may know by now, Cincinnati will be hosting the 2012 World Choir Games. It is a marque event for the region, and will mark the first time the international event has been held in North America. Tens of thousands of people from around the world will converge on Cincinnati, and regional leaders are looking to impress.
The ideas have ranged from installing multilingual signs throughout the center city to branding a new city slogan all around town in time for the visitors. What is important is that city leaders do not view this event as a singular excuse to debate these types of improvements, but rather as an event that allows Cincinnati to looks at itself from the outside in and implement new ideas that will leave a lasting impact long after the final choir leaves town.
Cincinnati does in fact have a long history with music and the arts in general. It is one of the major reasons why the World Choir Games selected Cincinnati as its 2012 host, and this fact should be celebrated. Cincinnati leaders should look at ways to engraining more of the arts, and music in particular, into our everyday lives.
ArtsWave does a great job at this, and does so at a regional level. But after a flurry of recent travels I had an idea for Cincinnati that should be put in place in time for the World Choir Games, and stay in effect permanently.
Traveling can often be a stressful experience, especially international travel. On a recent trip to Chicago, I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by violin and guitar musicians after an otherwise unpleasant flight and arrival experience. The moment, while simple, was profound. I felt relaxed and welcomed to Chicago – something all travelers hope to encounter upon their arrival.
To avoid the ‘bum on the street’ perception, airport officials should ask that musicians not leave open their instrument cases for tips, and simply pay the musicians an hourly rate. In my opinion, this would go much farther towards welcoming visitors to the Cincinnati region than any inanimate piece of art could ever do. At the same time, it would provide a reliable opportunity for local musicians to perform and get paid doing it.
Cincinnati should take advantage of the World Choir Games far beyond the immediate $73.5 million economic impact that it is estimated to generate. Most importantly, leaders should not get too caught up in those short-term impacts that they miss out on creating long-term benefits for the region.
DISCLOSURE: Jenny Kessler is a regular contributor to UrbanCincy and serves as the website’s operations manager. Kessler also works professionally for ArtsWave, but had no input or association with this article. The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Randy A. Simes, and do not necessarily represent those of ArtsWave.
Over the past few months there seemingly has been more news about concert venues in the Cincinnati area than concerts themselves. There was of course the drama that has temporarily shuttered The Southgate House in Newport which has plans to reopen the venue in some form or fashion elsewhere during 2012. Then came the news of the loss of The Mad Hatter in Covington which was a small room that hosted many up and coming acts.
Not all news has been bad though, as some of the larger venues in town have booked shows that generally pass by Cincinnati. The newly renovated Taft Theatre will be hosting Ryan Adams at the end of January, and The Black Keys have chosen US Bank Arena as a launching point for their 2012 North American tour with a show on March 3. Additionally, the historic Emery Theatre in Over the Rhine has shown signs of life with a successful fundraiser during November 2011.
While all of that drama has unfolded, MOTR Pub on Main Street has quietly been chugging along during their first 15 months of operation bringing local and national acts to the stage nightly, all the while helping to cultivate the music scene in Cincinnati. Dan McCabe, also known for his leadership with MidPoint Music Festival has breathed life into a bar and brought along with it a venue that showcases up and coming talent all without ever having a cover charge. MOTR also features a free jukebox to keep the music going even when the stage is empty.
The Bright Light Social Hour brings along a sense of self-described “an unabashedly wide-screen rock group, melding fists-up rock and roll with muscular funk, soul, and psychedelia.” Add in heart, soul, and a ton of energy and you may have a sense as to what their live show is like. You can stream their full length album and live EP here and decide for yourself. They will be taking the stage at MOTR around 10pm tonight, with of course no cover charge.
