"Hey, Fred!" 09/04-09/10/2024
Goings On in Columbus, OH: Rhapsody and Refrain | Hot Times Festival | Melvin Cortez Jackson | I Was Here Opening | Matt Sharrock
When we get into autumn, I start rubbing my palms together. Some of that’s historical - the cultural scene traditionally goes Fall-Spring. That calendar’s exacerbated by so much of the cultural life here in Columbus having been informed by the various colleges, especially as a kid. I remember poring over the papers’ Fall Arts Guides, and still do with the New York Times and various medium-specific outlets like Frieze.
Last weekend was a prime example: everywhere I turned was someone I wanted to hug and catch up with, every room I walked into was full of art that surprised me, delighted me, or both.
While everything I recommended lived up to my pretty high expectations, the single thing I want to babble about to anyone reading this is Skylab Gallery’s dazzling group show Clouds Are So Beautiful That I Can Bite My Toes. Curated with a delicate but not precious hand by Baltimore/NYC-based Amari-Grey (excellent interview with her in Bold Journey) and featuring five artists I wasn’t familiar with, Lilliana Buckman, Soraya Fuentes, Danny Gurung, Jaleel Marques Porcha, Qualeasha Wood; this was the best group show I think I’ve seen all year.
Themed around BIPOC queer voices and coming of age, each of these pieces approached the material in such a fresh, vibrant way, sometimes more directly programmatic or narrative and sometimes in a burst of images I could barely keep up with. This simultaneously reminded me of what’s kept me going to Skylab for a quarter century, reaffirmed the essentialness of its kind of DIY space, and provided a plethora of voices I’d never heard before. My absolute highest recommendation.
Literary
09/04/2024
Rhapsody & Refrain 2024
Streetlight Guild, 1367 E Main
September 1 through 15, Sundays at 5 pm, all other days at 8 pm
Free
Might be my favorite week of this stacked lineup of Streetlight Guild’s Rhapsody and Refrain. As Scott Woods said introducing the inaugural evening, the roster this year is sick, and while I think I’ve got a good chance of hitting three nights of these seven - also reviewing two plays, hosting a party, and having concert tickets in Dayton, plus whatever else the world throws at me - everyone I’m not making has one or both poets I can wholeheartedly vouch for.
4 WED – Ajanaé Dawkins & Cynthia Amoah - I saw this particular double-bill open for the great British poet Robert Robinson at Urban Arts Space and it was the most stimulating evening of poetry I’d had all year - maybe only matched by the Sidney Jones/Kim Brazell first night of this year’s R&R. Dawkins has been all over this year, curating at Urban Arts Space, supporting at other people’s gigs, and digging into her work. On the shortlist of 2024 cultural MVPs in my town, she’s high up there. Amoah’s also crushing this year - I knew a little of her work previously but this year has thrown it into focus for me. Two of the best working right now.
5 THU – Darren C. Demaree & Zach Hannah - I write about Zach Hannah (he didn’t seem to have a web page, so here’s an article in Matter News about him, and my Writer’s Block retro he features heavily in, especially this extended cut) quite a bit. He personifies (and that’s saying something because damn near every poet in this slate makes things better behind the scenes) the artist who puts his community at the center of his art, who treasures bringing people together, and who keeps showing up. But I don’t mean that praise to diminish his poetry; I’ve never heard a bullshit line from him, I’ve never heard a syllable he didn’t throw his whole self into. Darren Demaree’s work I don’t know quite as well, but the examples on his site are stunning, and he’s publishing in some top-notch markets; at first glance, this seems like a fascinating contrast in style and approach between the two poets, which makes for a fun evening.
6 FRI – Ruth Awad & Travis McClerking - Ruth Awad has been high on the list - though, like asking my favorite record or my favorite movie, it shifts based on my mood, she’s always up there in contention for the number one spot - of my favorite poets in town since first reading her work. Hearing her read many times since - at Streetlight Guild, Kafe Kerouac, Wild Goose - only cemented my admiration for her as one of our finest voices. Her first book, Set to Music a Wildfire, is a masterpiece, and this one should be doubly exciting because her new book comes out the same week. Travis McClerking is one of the organizers of the exciting Poetry Cauldron night (and featured in this terrific article from Black x Bold magazine) that’s kept Wednesdays at Kafe Kerouac the best bet for poetry in town week after week and run exciting, inclusive events outside of that Wednesday that are preaching the word of poetry. And what I’ve read of his own work lives up to that first impression).
7 SAT – Christina Szuch & Sayuri Ayers - I had one of the best writing workshops in my life led by Sayuri Ayers (and I’ve studied with people who’ve won some heavy awards), which made me a little ashamed I didn’t know her work. That was in 2018; I still think about the teaching - and go back to those notes - and I’ve caught up with as much of her writing as I can get my hands on. Incisive, empathetic, and fresh. Christina Szuch is also involved in the Poetry Cauldron scene. I hear good things, but full disclosure, I don’t know the work yet - if I weren’t seeing Jason Isbell an hour away, you can be damn sure I’d be rectifying that; as it stands, I hope one of you fine people tells me about it, and I’ll keep trying to catch a set.
8 SUN – Sara Abou Rashed & Valerie Boyer (5:00) - Sara About Rashed has published at the highest levels of this work in America, like Poetry Magazine, and penetrated the wider world with things like a University of Michigan commencement speech and her touring one-woman show A Map of Myself. Valerie Boyer was featured in a beautiful and personally inspiring interview with Matter News for last year’s Rhapsody and Refrain, talking about the value of processing an individual reality with art and finding a place for optimism. Two vital voices on a must-see Sunday.
9 MON – Maggie Smith & Louise Robertson - It almost seems unfair for the inner-ring suburb of Bexley to have such towering poets in its borders. Maggie Smith, I doubt, needs much introduction - one of two New York Times bestsellers in this year’s lineup, with “Good Bones” reverberating beyond any poem I can recall in my lifetime, and whose memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful I devoured in less than a week and couldn’t stop talking about. Louise Robertson is not only a treasured friend and a mentor of mine, I’ve been watching her read for many years, and I still remember fragments of “She Watches Clock” and the poem that included the lines “I learned to lie from my Mother. It’s like breaking asparagus: snap. Pop. Done,” from the very first time. Her monthly boot camp style workshops MetaFactory at Steetlight Guild are essential, and her Patreon is one of the best values for your inspiration-dollar in town.
10 TUE – Amy T. Sharp & Su Flatt - Another two poets I doubt need much introduction in my town. Amy Turn Sharp’s workshops, her zines, her own work, and her organizing with Secret Studio - alongside her partner Keith Hanlon, one of the most vital hubs of creativity of the last five years - are all essential and edifying. Su Flatt (recently featured in Matter News for the exciting Weirding Shakespeare project) is pound-for-pound the poet I’m most likely to see and text someone minutes later, or the first person I see at the next bar I walk into will pigeonhole with an excited torrent of “Holy shit, Su did it again.” Most recently for me with an introductory poem at the restaurant plas’ for a Caidyn Bearfield chapbook release, but I’m sure they’ve done it a dozen times in the intervening months when I wasn’t in the room. Any feature set is essential.
Visual Art
09/05/2024
FotoFocus Biennial: I Was Here
Beeler Gallery at CCAD, 60 Cleveland Ave
September 5 through November 2
Opening September 5: 5 pm-8 pm
Free
The FotoFocus Biennial, started in Cincinnati and spread to give more of Ohio a taste - the two Wexner exhibits opening I’ll talk about in a few weeks are also under its umbrella - is the kind of big-swing work I always crave. And it’s so well executed, using local curators - in this case April Sunami and Marcus Morris - so each show meets a quality standard while having its own flavor. The Beeler has been killing it for a few years, and this looks to be no exception, with a mix of artists I’ve been following closely, like Deijah Archie-Davis, Tariq Tarey, and Alexis McCrimmon, and a slew I’m excited to discover.
Music
09/06/2024
Hot Times Festival
Hamilton Park, Between Long and Broad
September 6 through 8, full schedule at https://hottimesfestival.com/
Hot Times is the longest-running festival that still feels like the Columbus I want to be part of, like it did when I first went as a teenager. It moves around the corner this year to the smaller footprint of Hamilton Park but still has one of the best slates of local food, including personal favorites Flavor 91 Bistro, Komodo Loco, Queen’s Table, and Willowbeez. And still has two shows of some of the best music our town has to offer, with a special focus on some heritage acts who might not get the appropriate amount of love these days, with Friday highlights including The Mendelsonics, Shaun Booker, and the traditional closing set of Willie Phoenix (always worth checking, but the concentrated blast of his closing sets at Hot Times are special). Saturday, I’d specifically recommend the Charles Grace Band, Billy Zenn and the Beatdowns, Bobby Floyd leading a jazz jam, Funk City Show Band 2.0, and Sara Cooperider. Sunday, I’d draw attention toward Black Book, The Four Mints, and Chief Johnny Lonesome.
Melvin Cortez Jackson with Kunkler/Miller/Weckman/Cox
Old First Presbyterian, 1101 Bryden Rd
September 6: Doors at 8 pm.
Donation at the door
Gerard Cox continues to bring artists who wouldn’t come to town in surprising contexts, going back to bringing Tom Abbs, Mary Halvorson, Ingrid Laubrock, Jessica Pavone, and so many others who’ve gone on to massive acclaim. This Friday’s is a doozy - french horn player Melvin Cortez Jackson who works as adeptly in chamber or symphonic contexts, vintage hard-bop, and out blowing - paired with a sympathetic quartet that teams Cox with Troy Kunkler and Caleb Miller (who recently blew me away as 2/3 of pincer) and Nick Weckman (who I became a fan of with his band Sun Trash).
09/10/2024
Matt Sharrock, Time-lapse, featuring Zach Hannah
Short North Stage, 1187 N High St
September 10: Show at 7 pm
Free
I always love the Johnstone Foundation chamber music series; they’re a great use of the Short North Stage space and really fill a gap that existed in our music scene before. This kickoff of the 2024-25 season - which also features Zach Hannah as the introductory poet - brings percussionist Matt Sharrock with a program called Time-lapse. The program includes pieces by Sharrock’s Hinge Quartet compatriots pianist Keith Kirchoff and guitarist Dan VanHassell, along with Elainie Lillios (the title piece, the only piece I could confirm is on the program), and downtown/mixed media legend Pamela Z.