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NEWS

Left to right: Brea Lamb, Darlene Lamb, Brittany Pitts.

Cincinnati Masks Up As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, more and more Cincinnatians are donning masks in an effort to stop the spread of the virus. CityBeat spoke to residents who are wearing them about what is weighing heaviest on their minds during this strange, historic time P H OTO S A N D I N T E RV I E W S BY N I C K S WA RT S E L L

he novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 continues to sweep across the country and, as of May 5, Hamilton County had seen more than 789 confirmed cases resulting in 46 deaths. Nationally, there have been more than 1.1 million confirmed cases and 68,000 deaths due to COVID-19 in that same time period. Health experts and public officials have urged precautionary measures, including wearing masks, to slow the spread of the virus. Many Cincinnatians have done so, and it’s a strong recommendation from Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health to wear one in public as the state moves to reopen a handful of businesses. Some citizens have made their own unique, colorful masks. Others have donned the classic, utilitarian white and blue masks you

usually see medical professionals wear. CityBeat talked to people across a wide array of ages, locations, races and professions who have opted to wear masks about what is foremost on their minds during the historic pandemic. Here are excerpts from those interviews. Brittany Pitts, Kroger employee, with Darlene Lamb and Brea Lamb Brittany Pitts: “I work for Kroger, in customer service. I’m essential.” (Laughs) “I do check cashing and bill payment, so I’m in close contact with people all day. It’s scary, because I deal with a lot of people, and people are still coming to the grocery store. Of course people need food, but I see people coming in every day. It’s become the local hangout. It’s pretty scary. I wish people would stay home and only come out for

Lauren Wade.

what they need.” Darlene Lamb: “I’ve been wearing it ever since it started. It’s kinda irritating, but we have to wear them. I’m kind of scared to go out much, because they say stay in as much as you can.” Brea Lamb: “I’ve been wearing the mask for a couple weeks. But I work from home so I don’t have to wear them too often...Even if they do reopen starting May 1, how are they going to go about that? How do we know it’s safe to be out?”

Lauren Wade, University of Cincinnati Health Emergency Room Nurse “The problem for most of us here is, because of where we work, we’re very worried about bringing this home to our families. I have a mother-in-law currently going through cancer treatments, so she’s at higher risk. My mom, even though she is also a nurse, she’s older. So that’s a concern. It’s a concern for all of us. Of course, we take so many precautions. Nurses are very well

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protected. We have plenty of PPE. The hospital has taken plenty of steps to make sure that we have what we need and that we don’t get exposed. But it’s still a fear, of course. No matter how many steps you take, we’re all human,” says Wade. “It’s a shame that sometimes people think that essential workers are only nurses and doctors. There are so many other people still going to work every day and possibly getting exposed to this virus. I hope people will realize that it’s not just people who work in hospitals. They’re not the only important ones. Places that aren’t health-care related, I just can’t even imagine. It must be scary for them. They may not be trained on wearing PPE. They may not have the actual resources that a health-care facility does. I would probably feel safer here than working at a grocery store or doing food delivery. This is what we plan for.” Molly Sullivan and Peyton Dabney Copes, musicians Molly Sullivan: “I thought at first that I would be more productive making music. But I have so much of an emotional relationship with music that I couldn’t go there for a while, so I was trying baking...The one thing that is probably the most unsettling about all of this to me is that we’re cooped up in these little bubbles with limited exposure to other people. I think that can be really dangerous. The thoughts we manufacture, based on our prescribed social media feed or whatever, that’s not the total reality. I think it’s probably pretty wise to try to diversify who you’re talking to, to try to get an understanding of the collective experience.” Peyton Dabney Copes: “I’m indefinitely unemployed, because I work in music and touring. Certain bands are saying October it’s going to start happening again, but obviously it’s not their call and who knows what is actually going to happen? After the first few weeks I stopped trying to watch the news morning, noon and night. Maybe checking every other day or so instead. There’s only so much you can do...I’m one of the many in the boat that is trying to apply for unemployment. It’s really unclear what’s going on in that department. I’m trying to not check it every day or stress out about it. It’s out of my hands and I’m one of millions in line and I’m fortunate enough to where if it didn’t happen, I would survive.” Tiffany Neri, Brighton Center rapid rehousing specialist (center) “It’s tough. We’re seeing a lot more need as far as people needing shelter. A lot more need as far as people needing resources to pay their bills. A lot more need for people to get connected to unemployment, or figuring out how to

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get their stimulus checks. The first few weeks we were out here, we were seeing 70 to 100 households a day. That’s 300 percent more a day than we were serving out of our building before this. And we’re not getting as much food from the stores that usually donate, because of course people are panic buying more. But we have enough food,” Neri says. “The biggest thing for me is not getting sick. I can’t get sick. I have too many people around me. Not just the people I’m serving, but the staff around me. I don’t want to get any of them sick. My husband has conditions that can make the illness a lot worse for him. So he’s staying in a separate place. So I’m living by myself. It’s really hard. But here at work, these are the people I depend on. And they depend on me. We’re trying to keep everyone safe and healthy. We check in with everyone a lot, make sure we’re trusting each other, trying to see what each other needs. I’m really, really fortunate in that way.” Jerry Davis, janitorial worker, Streetvibes contributing writer and vendor “I can’t sell Streetvibes right now, and I had to leave work for a bit. I was having breathing issues there, and I had to stay in the hospital for a day. They told me I wasn’t in any shape to go to work. I went to a clinic and they told me I have COPD. Work told me they can’t let me come back with everything going on,” Davis says. “Now I have to sit around the house and watch movies, maybe drink a beer. There’s nothing else to do. If I went to work and something happened to me, it’d be on them. I’m not getting paid in the meantime.” “People are waiting on their stimulus checks. I haven’t gotten mine yet, but I’m hoping it comes soon.” Kate Zaidan, operator of Dean’s Mediterranean Imports in Findlay Market “A lot of people who come to Findlay Market seem to be wearing masks. I hear other people say, ‘Oh, I was at other places, and maybe 10 percent of the people have them on.’ I feel like Findlay Market shoppers are a fairly conscientious bunch, and you kind of see that reflected here. I feel like we see maybe 70 to 80 percent of our customers wearing masks. That’s been cool. It’s a good reminder,” Zaidan says. “We walk a fine line between essential and non-essential — you know, we’re a small business, there are other grocery stores available. But we’ve stayed pretty busy. The number of people who use us as a regular grocery store has been striking. People treat this as part of their regular food routine. I feel very happy to be able to be open and keep doing that.” From top: Peyton Dabney Copes and Molly Sullivan; Tiffany Neri and staff from Brighton Center; Jerry Davis; Kate Zaidan.

Clockwise from top left: Jennifer Hester; Alicia Boards and her daughters; Reginald Harris; Jamie Beiser.

Jennifer Hester, Christ Hospital palliative care advanced practice nurse “Palliative care is specialized medical care for patients with a serious illness. We focus on relieving pain — physical, emotional, spiritual — associated with serious illness,” Hester says. “We typically deal with serious illnesses like cancer and heart failure. Now we’re dealing with an infectious disease, so families are often infected together. There’s an emotional component (with COVID-19) where it feels unnatural and different than the other diseases.” “If you’ve not seen someone really sick with COVID, it’s easy to think, ‘Oh, we’re fine, this is all overblown.’ It feels that way because (Ohio) did it right. My worry is that people get a little sense of security and think we can go back to normal. I don’t think there’s a normal for a while. There’s a new normal. It is very real, and that can be lost on people who aren’t working in a situation where you’re seeing it... We agree that this is how we’re living now. We’re all in this together. I know there is a lot of division,

but I’ve also seen a lot of people trying to keep each other safe.” Alicia Boards, mother and Ph.D. student, with daughters Addison (6) and Olivia (15) “They haven’t been out since this happened,” Boards says of her daughters. “Olivia has asthma. I’m not risking it. I’ve read that a lot of the young people who are dying are due to asthma. I have two very different kids. (Olivia) is very content being at home. But Addy is my social butterfly, so I get more worried about what it’s going to do long term. It’s very different for her and I’m seeing signs of anxiety I haven’t seen before. Plus, I think it’s very important for them both to be around their peers. It’s hard to be mom, friend, and mediator between the two all at the same time.” “I still feel privileged because I am in school full time. I get my school stipend. So we’re still here, our bills are still paid. I’m thankful...We multi-task all the time and often put our families last. Now we get to put our families first.”

Jamie Beiser, Rhinegiest employee “Early on, I was filled with a kind of depression and anxiety, which I’d never really had before. But once I started getting into a new normal flow of how things were happening, it started being a little less intense.” Beiser says a steady stream of orders from grocery stores, individual pick-up and delivery orders and establishments that haven’t shuttered have driven enough business to the brewery to keep him working, albeit 32 hours a week instead of 40. “That’s 16 hours a check that I’m missing. But we can deal with that. We can figure that out.” As much as the money, he says, it’s about continuing to feel like a part of something bigger. “It’s weird because I don’t consider myself essential,” he says. “There are so many folks who are out there literally saving lives. But it’s cool that I still get to come in and work and be able to represent my city and do things that are helping people in some capacity at least. I’m definitely glad that I can be here.”

Reginald Harris, director of Community Life for The Community Builders “I work for the Community Builders. We’re a nonprofit real estate development company. We have 320 units of rental housing in Avondale and also did the Avondale Town Center,” says Harris. “I never want to pathologize neighborhoods and identify them just through their deficits, but I also want to acknowledge the reality that Avondale, for a number of reasons, deals with a number of deficits. So when I watch folks in that community navigate a pandemic, there are different factors at play. People have to make really tough choices. I think about the role that luck and income play. You can’t extract this moment in time from larger sociopolitical issues. The ability of someone to endure this pandemic is directly related to their relationship to health care, to education, to employment, to stable housing. When those are unstable, it’s virtually impossible to weather a time that tests the limit of those very things. This magnifies all those issues.”

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hances are, if you are a human on the planet Earth, you’ve recently spent the last four to six weeks (or more) in some type of quarantine — self-imposed, government-mandated or a combination of both. Unless, of course, you’re a health care worker, essential employee or have other extenuating circumstances that meant you couldn’t safely lock yourself away at home while figuring out what household textile to use as makeshift toilet paper or whether to binge Tiger King or Love Is Blind first. So why has the entire world come to a collective halt? Because we have no immunity to the novel coronavirus COVID-19, a highly contagious and what seems to be highly deadly (to certain people) respiratory illness that has overwhelmed hospitals across the world, infecting more than 3.5 million people and killing more than 248,000 globally from January to May, according to Johns Hopkins University. There’s no real treatment (no, you cannot inject yourself with disinfectant or beams of light) and no vaccine, although scientists, medical professionals, researchers and Bill Gates are scrambling to find both. In the meantime, social distancing has been a stop-gap measure to help contain the spread of COVID-19 and “flatten the curve,” everyone’s favorite phrase for using isolation to decrease the amount of humans infected with the virus to avoid inundating the health care system and killing everyone. So, yes, we did acquire a new viral vocabulary during quarantine, but what else have we learned in the midst of this global pause? And what meaningful lessons about empathy, resilience and our shared humanity will we take with us as we move forward — masked and hand-sanitized — into the future? Other than to be a better person and never take restaurants for granted again...

1. What six feet apart actually looks like. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people practice social distancing to help stop the spread of COVID-19, which basically

means standing six feet apart from each other so you can’t spew infected goo droplets onto other people. But “six feet” is a difficult concept to understand for those with no spatial awareness. So here are things that take up six feet: two averaged-sized dogs standing nose to tail, two grocery carts, a dude in a top hat laying on the ground, a dining room table, a bathtub, three arm spans and about one and 1/5ths Danny DeVitos.

2. There are multiple names for the same disease. The novel coronavirus, in the same family as SARS and MERS, goes by COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2. And it went by a third name — the “Chinese virus” — but President Trump decided to stop using the term, which he coined, in late March after many pointed out it was pretty racist. Although, to be fair, the 1918 flu pandemic is still called the “Spanish Flu” and one can imagine several Spanish people took issue with that.

3. The literal shape of COVID-19. Looks like a Koosh ball or the iPhone germ emoji.

4. What a pangolin is. These cute-ass scaly anteaters are thought to have been an intermediate host for COVID-19, which may have jumped from bat to pangolin to human in a wet market in Wuhan, China — where the virus originated. In light of the pandemic, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture recently released a list of approved terrestrial animals that can be

used for food; pangolins did not make an appearance. So it seems best to avoid eating them. Or bats. Or humans.

5. How to not touch our faces. Don’t. That’s how germs get into your body.

6. To always have at least two weeks’ worth of toilet paper. Do. That’s how you clean your butt.

disease and obesity. A disproportionate number of lower-income residents also work in the service industry, where employees are in close contact with the public.

9. The names of so many governors. And the surprising amount of power they wield.

10. All of our friends’ streaming passwords.

7. Every song with a 20-second chorus. “Keeping hands clean is one of the most important steps we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others,” says the CDC. And the best way to keep your digits disease-free is to wash your hands with soap and water for 20 seconds — or the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice — over and over and over again throughout the day. So while the public was discovering the importance of timed hygiene, and the mind-numbing repetition of singing happy birthday to themselves, they also uncovered every other song with a 20-second chorus to break up the monotony of bathroom karaoke. The next time you wash your hands, trying singing the chorus to: Dolly Parton’s “Jolene;” “Queen’s “We Will Rock You;” Beyoncé’s “Love on Top;” Prince’s “Raspberry Beret;” Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide;” Toto’s “Africa;” Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts;” or The Knack’s “My Sharona (Corona).”

8. The virus has exposed racial disparities in the U.S. The coronavirus has had a disproportionate impact on the African-American community. In Michigan, for example, the group makes up 13.6 percent of the population but one-third of the state’s coronavirus cases and 41 percent of its deaths. Generations of discriminatory housing and economic practices have trapped many black people in economically depressed neighborhoods, where residents are far more likely to have preexisting health conditions like diabetes, asthma, high blood pressure, heart

11. How to kill a man using a tiger and sardine oil. Carole.

12. Tigers can catch the coronavirus. So can lions. Eight big cats at the Bronx Zoo tested positive for COVID-19 after contracting it from a zoo staffer.

13. House cats can also catch the coronavirus. Two pet felines in New York state were confirmed to have the coronavirus in late April after most likely getting it from humans. The CDC now recommends the same social distancing protocols for animals as they do for people. No more cat parties.

14. What the inside of every late night show host and TV anchor’s house looks like. Jimmy Fallon has a slide. WCPO Chief Meteorologist Steve Raleigh has one giant-ass TV.

15. WTF Zoom is. And how to turn yourself into a talking potato.

16. Ohioans stock up on liquor in times of distress. The week in March that Gov. DeWine said all bars and restaurants would have to close to in-person service, Ohioans bought 437,507 gallons of liquor or $38.7 million worth — that’s a 63

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percent year-over-year increase.

17. How to make our own cocktails. What to do with all that liquor? Cincinnati bar owner and mixologist Molly Wellmann began hosting a daily “5 O’clocktails” video series on Facebook in March where she showed viewers how to create a cocktail at home and provided a bit of the history behind each drink. Every video includes a link to a virtual tip jar to help support outof-work employees from her bar, Japp’s. And she was just one of many local bartenders digitally showing us how to make a mixed drink.

small businesses started pivoting their production. Home sewers and craft clubs —including Sew Masks 4 Cincy — started making their own cloth masks for people to wear over their medical masks, and textile producers across the U.S. used their resources to make masks as well. Locally, Sew Valley revamped their West End incubator to make cloth masks and protective gowns with Hemmer Design for those on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis.

24. Distilleries can make alcohol for your hands and not just your mouth.

Whether it was Clifton’s Esquire saying, “Could be worse, could be raining,” or Covington’s Madison Theater saying, “Wash your hands y’all,” these signs were put to good use.

When the general public heard the word “pandemic,” they started hoarding toilet paper, guns and hand sanitizer. So when the CDC said, “If you’re going to make your own sanitizer, you need to make sure it uses at least 60 percent alcohol spirits,” distilleries thought: “We can do that.” So thanks New Riff, Brain Brew, Northside Distilling, Karrikin and Northern Row for making boozy hand sanitizer for first responders, health care workers and also general humans.

19. That we will never complain about having to wait two hours for a table at a restaurant again.

25. The Insane Clown Posse cares more for its people than many American politicians.

Remember eating at restaurants?

As the TV airwaves filled with politicians and talking heads from the right side of the aisle clamoring for states to reopen and save the economy regardless of the potential loss of human life, some real leadership emerged: Namely, that of the Insane Clown Posse, two face-painted clowns from Detroit who shut down their annual Gathering of the Juggalos festival months ahead of its planned dates, saying they’re unwilling to risk the life of even one juggalo in the face of a global pandemic. Our government, at the state and federal level, have a lot to learn from these wise men, who once gave speeches about their buttholes during a D.C. civil rights protest on the national mall.

18. Theater marquees make great platforms for public announcements and encouragement.

20. Grocery delivery services are extremely convenient until everyone else also learns they are extremely convenient. Here’s hoping you can survive on peanut butter and cans of tuna until 4 p.m. three weeks from now.

21. Essential workers are heroes. Delivery drivers are heroes. Maildelivery people are heroes. Grocery store employees are heroes. Nurses are heroes. Transit workers are heroes. Frontline workers are heroes. Any essential employee that has continued to go to work to make America move when the rest of us were afraid or hunkered down in our homes is a hero. Thank you. In Ohio, Senator Sherrod Brown has been pushing for a Heroes Fund for hazard pay for those essential workers on the frontline, including those some have rudely called “unskilled,” equivalent to a raise of $13 per hour. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced a first-of-its kind program that would provide tuition-free college education for essential employees working through the coronavirus pandemic, modeled after the G.I. Bill.

22. Every health care worker deserves access to personal protective equipment. 23. Small businesses will step up when the government or supply chain can’t. When America ran out of personal protective equipment for frontline workers,

26. Sweatpants can also just be called “pants.” 27. The reality of food insecurity in America. Nonprofit Feeding America said 98 percent of food banks have seen an increase in demand since March as a result of COVID-19. In mid-April, Mayor John Cranley said the Freestore Foodbank was on pace to give out what they would normally give out in six months in one month.

28. Teachers should be paid 10 times more for dealing with our unteachable heathen offspring. Oh, so you thought teaching was easy, huh? Wrangling a bunch of snot-nosed, mouth-breathing beasts, animals restrained in their behaviors only by their relatively small size, uncaring

creatures hellbent on refusing to learn and continuing to eat crayons. What fools you were. Now you are the one who rations the crayons, you are the one whose lesson plan has devolved to “Please leave mommy alone for a moment for a little cry,” and “Oh, no, don’t drink the ‘juice’ out of mommy’s glass.” Not so easy now, is it? And get this: You even love your children! Imagine if you had to deal with these monsters without the requisite emotional connection. Now, don’t you think teachers should be paid more?

instead of weights. 29. Fran DeWine’s sidewalk chalk recipe. It’s cold water, cornstarch and food coloring.

30. Gov. Andy Beshear is the hot dad we never knew we needed. 31. Tupac Shakur is alive in Kentucky. During a daily COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Beshear said someone in the state had filed a fraudulent unemployment claim under the name Tupac Shakur and was holding up the process for others. Turns out there is a Kentuckian with the same name as the late rapper, but he goes by Malik. Beshear later apologized.

32. Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton has her own catchphrase. “Don your mask. Don your cape.”

33. Even J.K. Rowling is a fan of Ohio’s creative ping pong ball social distance marketing campaign.

Or your cat, a stack of books, a cinder block you found in the backyard...

39. We could scrap cash bail. Pesky social justice types have for years argued it’s not fair to keep poor people locked up because they can’t afford a bondsman while people with more money get to bail out and await trial at home. Such reasoning has traditionally been ignored, but the threat of outbreaks in jails has made more prosecutors and judges willing to rethink stuffing jails with people who could just as easily be let loose — if they had the money to buy their freedom. Bail reform advocates across the country have been frantically raising money to cover bail for inmates, rather than leaving them trapped in a confined space with hundreds of others. And while it’s hard to argue that large swaths of our world are not falling apart these days, it’s not because a bunch of people who haven’t been convicted of anything get to shelter in place with their families.

She said so on Twitter.

40. Social distancing is a human right. 34. Somehow, nitrile gloves don’t biodegrade when left on the ground outside of the grocery store.

35. Meat thermometers can also be human thermometers. When Gov. DeWine told people and businesses they needed to start taking people’s temperatures to check for COVID-19, he overlooked one little thing: America was basically out of thermometers. And the ones you could get were selling online for a huge markup. But — life hack — turns out you can stick a meat thermometer under your tongue to take your temperature. Do not stick a meat thermometer into your skin. You probably can, but it would not be comfortable.

By May 3, 34 inmates and two officers had died from COVID-19 in Ohio prisons, and more than 3,900 had tested positive across the state’s 28 facilities because effectively social distancing in overcrowded institutions is extremely difficult. In Michigan, lawyers filed a federal class action lawsuit against the state department of corrections, arguing their 8th Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment is being violated.

41. We didn’t deserve John Prine, and we didn’t appreciate him enough when he was still here. 42. How to make a no-sew face mask with items you can find around the house.

36. This is what dogs/cats feel like cooped up in the house all the time.

43. Happy hour starts at 2 p.m.

#WinewithDeWine #BeerswithBeshear

37. The benefit of outdoor activity. Whether it be backyard gardening, a walk with your dog or a solo hike, we’ve never appreciated our “outside time” more.

44. Summer music festival season is canceled. Bye, bye Homecoming, Bunbury and

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household, and Cincinnatians stepped up to do just that, clearing out the Animal Friends Humane Society in March.

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Forecastle.

45. How to get refunds for canceled concerts. Ticketmaster found itself in hot water after the company quietly amended its refund policy to no longer offer full refunds for postponed or rescheduled events, only refunding those that had been formally canceled. After an outcry, Ticketmaster’s president Jared Smith said the company “intends to refund as many tickets as possible in as timely a fashion as is feasible.” Once a postponed event announces a new date, ticket-holders will then be notified via email, at which point they can begin the refund process. Upon receiving the notification, ticket-holders will have just 30 days to request a refund — otherwise the ticket will be applied to the rescheduled date. Their plan appears to have a catch, however: Artists whose tours have been postponed, like Billie Eilish and Elton John, have not pulled the plug nor scheduled make-up dates — making those shows potentially ineligible for Ticketmaster’s refund.

46. How to vote by mail. Ohio’s primary election was originally supposed to wrap up with in-person voting March 17, but a last-minute order by Gov. DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health closing polls amid concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an extension of absentee voting until April 28. Which means you had to request an absentee ballot by mail, then receive an absentee ballot by mail, and return an absentee ballot by mail (or dropbox). Sadly, the ballots did not come with an “I voted” sticker.

47. City-wide front porch happy hours are something we could get used to. 48. Drive-by honkings are the new birthday parties.

50. We can learn a lot from the elderly.

51. What a stay at home order means for those experiencing homelessness.

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67. There is an immediate economic fallout that comes from closing restaurants and bars. homelessness were exempt from following Ohio’s multiple stay at home orders, area nonprofits and social service providers were working hard to find solutions to sometimes overcrowded shelters, which weren’t equipped to accommodate social distancing protocols. This meant securing funding and space to help vulnerable people find temporary shelter at Greater Cincinnati hotels to safely social distance from those who may have COVID-19.

52. Even the (state) government agrees that marijuana is essential, finally catching up to what the most stoned among us have known for decades. Most states have allowed their medical marijuana dispensaries to continue to operate during the pandemic, which makes sense: for many, pot is a medicine, and it can reduce anxiety and alleviate pain. In Michigan, the state’s recreational pot shops have also been deemed essential — because if we can’t go on a real trip any time soon, we can least go on a mental one.

53. How to cut our own hair. Jessie Hoffman, owner of East Walnut Hills’ Parlour salon, has produced several Instagram live videos walking Cincinnatians through the painstaking and terrifying task of trimming our own bangs, God bless her.

Hello, quarantine mullet.

They’ve been through it all, and they know how to survive it all. Now with everybody turning to the old ways of baking bread and planting gardens, the best advice you can find is from your elderly loved ones. They’ve survived violent flu seasons and multiple depressions and terrible natural disasters. Not only can they teach you how to cope, they can also tell you where to plant tomatoes in your yard for the highest yield. (Where there is full sun and warm soil.)

We asked a scientist. She said no.

54. That men we know will grow quarantine beards, or will experiment with new cringe-worthy facial hair shapes (and hairstyles).

49. The value of a hug.

While individuals experiencing

66. Inflatable shark/dinosaur/ unicorn suits will not keep you from contracting COVID-19.

55. When industry stopped, global pollution dropped. People in northern India could see the Himalayas for the first time in 30 years, L.A. had some of the cleanest air of any major city in the world in April and jellyfish were seen swimming in the near-clear canals of Venice. Although temporary (pollution will rebound when the global economy restarts), the near immediate impact is a nice reminder of the power humans have over the environment — for both good and bad — especially with the recent 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

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56. That people can successfully work from home in many industries.

57. That the “Reopen” protests are not a spontaneous, grassroots movement. Nationwide, protests have erupted against governors’ stay-at-home orders, arguing they’re excessively hurting the economy. But this is no populist uprising — it’s an astroturf campaign funded by Big Money right-wing agitators like the billionaire Koch and DeVos families to make the working class get back to work (for the billionaires). And it’s funny how when Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the National Anthem to protest police brutality he was a traitor, but when a bunch of white guys storm the Michigan capitol with assault rifles they’re patriots. Hmmm.

58. There’s a chance they make getting unemployment a bureaucratic nightmare on purpose (insert shocked face).

59. Love conquers corona. Some weddings have been rescheduled, others have been held in creative and intimate ways.

60. How to grieve from a distance. 61. All of our favorite brands care about us during These Trying Times, and they will be there for us as soon as These Trying Times are over. We love you too, Totino’s Pizza Rolls.

62. Everyone you know learned how to bake sourdough bread and posted about it on Instagram. 63. The term Cuomo-sexual. Thank you for the Cuomo brothers memes, internet.

64. Staying safe at home isn’t always safe. Especially for victims of domestic violence or children who are suffering from abuse.

More than 30 million Americans applied for unemployment between March 21 and the week ending April 25. According to the National Restaurant Association, two out of three restaurant employees have lost their jobs — that’s more than 8 million of those 30 million people.

68. Local restaurants will step up to support their industry family. Chef Jose Salazar teamed up with chef Edward Lee’s The LEE Initiative to transform his downtown restaurant Mita’s into a relief center for employees in the food and beverage industry affected by coronavirus-related closures. The center provided aid in the form of meals and groceries for restaurant workers who were laid off or experienced a significant pay reduction or reduction in hours.

69. When you can’t go to the music, the music will sometimes come to you. Bellevue-based music teacher Bryan McCartney has been hosting Trunk Bed Sing-Along tours around Northern Kentucky for neighbors to enjoy from their front porches.

70. Maybe spending time with your family isn’t so bad after all. In times of crisis, we often find out who we can really turn to in life, and sometimes you find out that the most reliable people in your life are family. You might not always agree with them on politics or other topics, but when you are sweating out a fever and desperate for a Tylenol delivery, it’s often your family who will step in and save you.

71. If you have good friends, you are rich. Maybe you’ve been laid off. Maybe you’re down to your last $20. Maybe it feels like your walls are closing in on you, and you’re totally freaking out. In these (and all other) situations, having good friends is invaluable. They’d do for you what you’d do for them, and you can watch out for each other. So many people don’t have this. If you do, count your blessings.

65. People cleared out the shelters because dog is man’s best friend.

72. You don’t have to be productive during quarantine.

There’s honestly never been a better time to adopt a furry new friend into your

Sometimes it’s enough to just focus on taking care of yourself and those you love.

Caring For Our Watersheds is a program that empowers students to imagine, develop and create solutions in their local watersheds. The program promotes watershed awareness and stewardship, values student ideas and offers support when turning theoretical ideas into action. Judges in the environmental field score student entries and the top ten projects are selected to compete in the final competition. $10,000 in implementation funding (up to $1,000 per project) is available to all participants, allowing each and every idea to be turned into a reality. This year because of COVID-19 closures, we were unable to hold a final competition, but students were still awarded the final prize money along with awards going to the winning schools as well. It is our hope that these projects will be able to be implemented in the future.

Caring For Our Watersheds is a joint program of the Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District, Nutrien Ltd, and the Nutrients For Life Foundation, with additional funding from the Ohio Soybean Council.

CARING FOR OUR WATERSHEDS FINALISTS

UT OF OVER 130 ENTRIES submitted this year, these teams placed in the top 10 and will equally share the $12,000 in awards for themselves and their schools. Learn more about our top 10 entries below, listed in no particular order: Project: WE NEED A SOLUTION TO WASTE: PERIOD Student: Marianna Dionysiou School: Wyoming High School Description: Realizing the amount of plastic waste generated from feminine hygiene products, Marianna began to investigate reusable solutions. Pairing up with the University of Cincinnati Environmental Club, she began to develop educational outreach programs to engage and encourage women on campus to shift their perception about reusable menstrual cups and pads. Marianna hopes to distribute Dot Cups as part of this programming so that others can begin to reduce their waste without breaking the bank. Project: ELECTRONICS DRIVE TO A HEALTHIER LITTLE MIAMI WATERSHED Students: Mia Prasinos, Rebecca Specht School: Ursuline Academy Description: Mia and Rebecca became aware of the lack of electronics recycled and reused in the Little Miami Watershed. The toxic waste that resulted from this upset them, so they planned to hold an electronics drive at school to benefit the Ohio River Foundation. The electronics collected will be sent to be recycled at EcoPhones, who will send back the money that will ultimately be donated to ORFâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Adopt a Mussel Program. Project: PEE IS NOW FREE Students: Riley Lingen, Eli Meyung, Mason Allen School: Wyoming High School Description: Toilets and urinals, if not efficient, waste a lot of water. Riley, Eli and

Mason wanted to reduce the amount of water used at Wyoming High School and proposed to install waterless urinals. By doing this they would not only be saving water, they would be saving the school money too.

existing greenhouse, adding rain barrels and gutters and planting native species. To extend information outside of just the school, Haomi planned to educate the community about the importance of the new space as well.

Project: HABITATS FOR BATS Student: Clara Conover School: Mount Notre Dame High School Description: Bats are often thought of as pests, but Clara saw the need to protect them. By building small, clean habitats for bats, she is trying to ensure the livelihood of these creatures that increase pollination and reduce harmful insects. Preserving the little brown bats will ensure biodiversity within the Little Miami Watershed with a fairly simple solution.

Project: CARING FOR OUR COSMETICS Students: Lexi Beke, Angelina Tran School: Ursuline Academy Description: Lexi and Angelina saw an opportunity to reduce the amount of cosmetic related waste going into their local landfill. To do this, they would hold a collection for empty skincare, haircare, and cosmetic packaging at their school to see which two homerooms could collect the most waste. The winning groups would receive stainless steel water bottles as a reminder to reduce the amount of plastic used in all aspects of life.

Project: BUCKETS OF BLISS Students: Sydney North, Shelby Kuhn School: Wyoming High School Description: In Cincinnati, there is a large population of people experiencing homelessness and they often use five gallon buckets to carry their items. Sydney and Shelby saw an opportunity to assist this group while also reducing waste, as painters use these same types of buckets yet they frequently end up in landfills. The duo planned to repurpose the old paint buckets, cleaning them out and filling them with small essential items to leave those receiving the buckets with a little more than they started with. Project: BUILDING A SCHOOL RAIN GARDEN TO MANAGE RUNOFF Student: Haomi Lee School: John Marshall School of Engineering (Cleveland) Description: Polluted runoff from parking lots and sidewalks getting into the Lake Erie Watershed is an issue that Haomi felt that she and the sustainability club at her school could begin to address. She planned to build this garden by an already

Project: KEEPING OUR COMMUNITY SAFE FROM LEAD CONTAMINATION Students: Jadiel Perez, Emeraude Katusevanako, Eh Thyu Say, Jasmin Garcia School: John Marshall School of Engineering (Cleveland) Description: Lead is an extremely harmful contaminant that has continued to be a problem for residents along the Cuyahoga River. Jadiel, Emeraude, Eh Thy, and Jasmin had practice testing lead levels in water during their chemistry class and saw an opportunity to help their community. They planned on passing out lead tests to residents in Cleveland with specific instructions to ensure accuracy and then they would double check results in their lab at school. This outreach would also be educational, as many residents may not fully know the impacts lead has on air and water. Project: GOING GREEN WITH GREENER LAWNS Student: Joshua Parker, Elliot WilsonWoodrow, Alex Rhodes

School: Wyoming High School Description: The ideal lawn is thought to be green, short and free from anything besides grass, but Josh, Elliot and Alex saw how harmful this notion was to the environment. They collaborated with their Civic Center to hand out native seed packets and information on how to reduce the environmental footprint of your lawn. Josh, Elliot and Alex found that while they may not be able to convince their neighbors to let their lawns go wild, they could at least persuade them to better strategize fertilizer use and how and when they water them. Project: THE FATBERG PROBLEM Students: Mariah Jackson School: Winton Woods High School Description: When bathrooms at her school became unusable due to peers flushing the wrong things down the drain, Mariah knew she needed to do something. As non-biodegradable solid matter (like wet wipes and grease) are flushed down drains, fatbergs form that result in clogged pipes and floods. By creating an informative ad and collaborating with their surrounding naturalists and school community, Mariah hoped to raise awareness and create action so that the fatberg problem would be reduced.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Hawk Nesting Platform Breanna Bauer Mount Notre Dame High School The Green Dress Project Cameron Coburn and Caroline Walsh Mount Notre Dame High School Garden of Eden Recycling Program Kiana Bernard and Gabby Starks Wyoming High School

Garden of Eden Recycling Project Recycling poses many distinct questions throughout different communities. It raises questions like, “Does it do more harm than good?” and “What even happens once you put everything into a recycling bin?” Gabby Starks and Kiana Bernard from Wyoming High School implemented a project through the Caring for Our Watershed contest to answer questions like these and others. Gabby and Kiana decided to create the Garden of Eden Recycling Program which focuses on teaching young students in low-income communities how to recycle and improve their local watershed overall. The students plan to go to low-income schools in the Avondale and Bond Hill neighborhoods where they believe recycling is not a daily habit. Gabby and Kiana want to teach kids that recycling is one of the best ways to help their local watershed. With the help of their mentor Gwen Roth, Gabby and Kiana came up with a plan and developed an informative PowerPoint, hands-on games, pamphlets and posters that are all designed to advise

students in 1st - 3rd grade about the world of recycling and how they can be a positive advocate for the Ohio River watershed. Their proposal encourages students to be hands on and work productively throughout their sessions so they can use their new skills and abilities outside of the classroom and share with friends and family. This program will be able to give knowledge about recycling to over 200 students and allow them to be more active in helping their communities. Many people ask why they specifically geared their project toward children and families in low-income communities. Gabby and Kiana believe that families in suburban areas already participate in recycling at a higher rate and current recycling statistics in low income communities are fairly low. Reports show that low-income areas like these are not getting the education and informative lectures on recycling that they need. Gabby and Kiana wish to change that and in turn increase recycling rates in these communities.

We Need a Solution to Waste: Period Plastic has become a global problem. It has contaminated the water and it continues to be a menace to wildlife. Menstruation products are essential for women but they do not have to be the plethora of plastic that pads and tampons contain. Not only do these products contain plastic, but they often include cotton. As a water-thirsty crop, cotton can deplete local water supplies and often uses pesticides and insecticides. When it rains, these can run off into the water and cause pollution. One solution to the plastic problem is a reusable silicone cup that significantly reduces plastic waste and can last for ten years. With the average user throwing away 125-150 kg of menstruation products a year, this project would encourage an eco friendly solution for women so they can have the comfort they have with pads and tampons while protecting the environment. Wyoming High School student Marianna Dionysiou developed a plan to target University of Cincinnati stu-

dents. She developed a poster that promoted the reusable menstrual cups and showed the benefits that it provided for the environment. The Dot Cup Company agreed to provide the silicon cups and even offered to reduce the price so that more could be bought. This project would benefit more than UC Students because, for every cup bought, another one is donated to a female in a third world company. Marianna planned to distribute the reusable cups to any interested student. In addition, she planned to email a survey to encourage recipients to describe their experience with the reusable cup. Marianna also planned to record a YouTube video showing the environmental and economic benefits that come with reusable menstruation products. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hindered the ability to implement the project this spring, but she hopes to implement it later this year.

A Solution to Fatbergs Fatbergs are a huge problem in the Mill Creek watershed that many residents don’t know anything about. When people flush or dump the wrong things down the drain, blockages can occur. A fatberg is a congealed mass in a sewer system formed by the combination of flushed non-biodegradable solid matter, such as wet wipes, and congealed grease or cooking fat. Fatbergs are a problem because grease and fat blockages can cause sewer overflows and stoppage resulting in raw sewage being discharged into the environment without treatment. Fatbergs occur around the world and can cost thousands of dollars to clean out and fix. Mariah Jackson, a Winton Woods High School senior, was challenged by her teacher to develop a solution to a local watershed problem. As part of the Caring For Our Watersheds contest, Mariah chose to tackle the fatberg problem in the Mill Creek Watershed. She developed and presented a survey to local residents and found that 53% of respondents said they often put grease in the drain.

Mariah worked to develop a campaign, including flyers and pamphlets, to show local residents the harmful effects of fatbergs and encouraged people to stop flushing improper materials down the drain. She also developed a website with information about fatbergs and ways to help reduce the problem and save local communities money and resources. Mariah believes that once people understand the problem, they will work to implement alternative ways of disposing grease, fats and other items, so that they don’t end up causing issues in our sewer systems. Without fatbergs there will be fewer clogs in drainage pipes. Breaking up a fatberg is like breaking up concrete; it is hard work and it takes time and money to break up. In the span of five years, New York City spent $18 million fighting fatbergs. The education campaign Mariah developed has great potential to educate people on fatbergs and she can’t wait to begin the process.

CARING FOR OUR WATERSHEDS

PARTNERS

PARTNERS IN EDUCATION Organizations dedicated to creating the next generation of land stewards in Ohio

utrien, the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Nutrients for Life Foundation understand the importance of protecting our watersheds and conserving natural resources. But it’s equally important to cultivate future land stewards and tomorrow’s advocates for the environment. That’s why the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Nutrients for Life Foundation have partnered with Nutrien to establish Caring For Our Watersheds, a unique program that enhances classroom learning through the practice of environmental research, writing skills, public speaking and hands-on stewardship. The program asks high school students to propose ideas on how to improve local watersheds. Students with strong proposals will then have the opportunity to put those ideas into action. As projects are planned and implemented, students develop strong leadership skills, learn sustainable practices and contribute to creating a healthier ecosystem. Students also have opportunities to connect with environmental professionals who volunteer and mentor the students as they learn new skills and develop deeper connections with the community in which they live. Caring For Our Watersheds is open to all high school students who live in or go to school in Ohio.

Caring for Our Watersheds is sponsored by Nutrien, a worldwide producer and retailer of fertilizers and other agricultural products and services. As the world’s largest provider of crop inputs and services, Nutrien plays a critical role in Feeding the Future by helping growers increase food production in a sustainable manner. With nearly 20,000 employees, operations and investments in 14 countries, Nutrien’s crop inputs and services reach every major growing region of the world. The Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District (HCSWCD) is responsible for the conservation of natural resources within Hamilton County, Ohio. They have a special emphasis on soil and water with a focus on assisting landowners in planning and applying conservation practices on the land. HCSWCD is dedicated to the sustainable use of our natural resources and to encouraging positive behavioral changes that produce a higher quality of life for our citizens. The District assists all Hamilton County residents, schools, and jurisdictions through their services and dynamic partnerships that continually provide innovative solutions for the challenges of our region. The Nutrients for Life Foundation is a global organization consisting of members and collaborative partners that develops and distributes science-based materials to improve plant nutrient literacy, soil health knowledge and promotes fertilizer’s role in sustaining a growing population. Plant nutrients, especially nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, are also required to keep our parks, gardens, playgrounds, sports fields and golf courses green and healthy in communities from coast to coast.

CARING FOR OUR WATERSHEDS is dependent on community support. Teachers, parents, government, business and non-profits come together to support students in their quest to improve their local watershed. Thank you to everyone who made this contest year successful and for adapting when the unexpected happened! A special thank you to Emma Brandt, Katie Nainiger, Gwen Z Roth and Chloe Sprecker.

PARTICIPATING TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS Deborah Brookbank - Winton Woods High School Mary Brown - John Marshall School of Engineering Sunitha Chiluka - School of One Bill Crow - Perry High School Mary Dennemann - Archbishop McNicholas High School Mary Dudley - James N. Gamble Montessori High School Kelly Dye - West Holmes High School Melissa Harlow - Milton-Union High School Nate Hatton - Miamisburg High School Purnima Jaiswal Cheruvu - Cleveland School of the Arts Dr. Anees Khanam - MC2STEM Melissa Kowalski - Put-In-Bay High School Dr. Vivian Lee - Davis Aerospace & Maritime High School Kirsten Mahovlich - Cleveland Metropolitan School District Tracy Majors - Wyoming High School Monika Nuñez - Ursuline Academy Deep Paul - Max S Hayes High School Mary Beth Rieth - Mount Notre Dame High School Anthony Rodgers - Rhodes School of Environmental Studies Juana Sanchez - Max S Hayes High School Michelle Shafer - Indian Hill High School Kathryn Sickinger - The Summit Country Day School Bridget Sparks - Princeton High School Taylor Richardson - Rhodes School of Environmental Studies Akshayaa Venkatakrishnan - Dater High School

JUDGES AND VOLUNTEERS Cassandra Anderson - Cleveland Metropolitan School District Jim Bader - Case School of Engineering, Case Western Reserve University Chris Cann - TRC Solutions Phil Conley - Greenacres Foundation Rachel Cranmer - Keep Cincinnati Beautiful Rita Duda - Cleveland Metropolitan School District Gayle Gadison - Cleveland Metropolitan School District Nancy Ellwood - CDM Smith Elise Erhart - Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Sara Fehring - Hamilton County SWCD Kevin Harrison - NE Ohio Regional Sewer District Ebony Hood - NE Ohio Regional Sewer District Sarah Kitsinis - TRC Solutions Adam Lehmann - Hamilton County SWCD Christen Lubbers - Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati Kara Luggen - Keep Cincinnati Beautiful Dr. Terri Lyles - Cleveland Metropolitan School District Anne Lyon - The Mill Creek Alliance Heather Mayfield - FORE Sarah Orlando - OH Sea Grant Brad Owens - Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati Emily Pickett - Greenacres Foundation Samantha Plante - Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Marcia Roach - Cleveland Metropolitan School District Francine Scharver - Chagrin Valley Engineering Ella Sedacca - Greenacres Foundation Dorothy Smith - Robert Bosch Automotive Steering Emily Spooner - Architectural Foundation of Cincinnati Mike Sustin - West Geaugua Local Schools Dr. Dennis Taylor - Learning Streams International, Professor Emeritus Hiram College

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C I T Y B E AT. C O M

ARTS & CULTURE

Petunia and Chicken by Animal Engine P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY T H E C I N C I N N AT I F R I N G E F E S I T VA L

The Digital Fringe The 17th-annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival goes online only as a result of COVID-19 BY R I C K P E N D E R

hen word came down from the state of Ohio in midMarch that mass gatherings were to be banned — in auditoriums, stadiums, arenas, meeting rooms, theaters, even outdoors — to help control the spread of COVID-19, a lot of scrambling began in the arts world, especially at Know Theatre. Know is the producer of Cincinnati’s annual Fringe Festival and its 17th incarnation had been announced for May 29-June 13. But just what could be presented in the midst of a pandemic? With limitations on gatherings, expectations about social distancing and concerns about protecting performers, some serious reconsideration was required. By the end of March, Know came forward with a creatively conceived plan. The 2020 Cincy Fringe will be “an all-digital, totally online, 100% ata-safe-distance, for 2020-only” affair with the same date range that had been previously announced. Performances will be available via online streaming, accessible by anyone with a computer, tablet, smartphone or smart TV. Tickets will still be required to view shows.

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All-access passes cost $200 and cover all performances; individual show tickets can be purchased for $11 a piece. If you can show additional support for performers, you can also buy a “Love Your Artist” ticket for $16 per show. “Because one of the best parts of Fringe is the sense of community that arises between audiences, staff and artists,” the Know Team stated in its announcement, the goal for 2020 is “creating ways for people to connect at a distance.” There will still be voting for the “Pick of the Fringe” awards, using online polls instead of paper ballots. Fringe-hosted digital hangouts and streaming segments will replace the popular nightly Bar Series events, still featuring the zany Fringe newscast. The Fringe production team has scrambled throughout April to identify artists whose performances can be made available via high-quality videoon-demand. There was a lot to consider, given a record-breaking number of 127 applicants. There won’t be as many offerings as in past festivals, which have topped 40 in recent years, and the happy mingling that’s been a big

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attraction over the years can’t happen. But there are numerous positives. Production costs will be lower, since venues don’t need to be rented, outfitted and managed. There will be broader availability, since there will be no limitations on how many people can view each performance or when they can tune in (aka no sold-out events). It will be easier for people to sample the Fringe, since performances can be observed using internetequipped devices. Fringe aficionados will appreciate the opportunity to binge as many shows as they wish, if they purchase an all-access pass. No one will have to hustle from one venue to another with narrow windows of time between presentations. Fringe virgins, who might have been hesitant to dive in, will have the opportunity to tune in show-by-show. That seems likely to give more Cincinnati theater lovers the opportunity to find out what Fringe is all about, exposure that surely bodes well for future years. So what’s going to be made available? Nearly 20 shows will be streamed online. Some are work by locals, including veterans who return annually with work that’s eagerly received. A few others are pulling something together for the first time. There will also be a sampling of out-of-town performers who have spent summers touring the fringe festival circuit across the U.S. and Canada. We’ll also have several

opportunities to see recorded reprises of shows that were hits in the past. Here are a dozen shows that you might want to consider adding to your Cincy Fringe schedule:

Shows from Fringe Vets It wouldn’t be a Cincy Fringe without the presence of Performance Gallery, a Cincinnati-based company that has produced wildly varied works in every Fringe since the beginning. For 2020 they have assembled a 21st-century fable, Hive Mind, featuring a diverse cast of bees, humans and puppets. They’ll ask big questions and provide whimsical fun. What do you do when the hive is in danger? Swarm? Dance? Buzz? It’s billed as an exploration of the nature and behavior of social creatures. Erika Kate MacDonald and Paul Strickland have a strong track record as performers in Cincinnati and beyond. They relocated to Cincinnati because they loved the Fringe scene here, but they are well known for shows presented at top-notch festivals across North America. For Paul and Erika’s HOUSE SHOW, streamed from their own couch, they’ll bring household objects to life using stories, songs, digital puppetry and more. Strickland’s monologues about Ain’t True and Uncle False at the Big Fib Trailer Park have been local Fringe favorites annually; last year’s 90 Lies an Hour was a sold-out hit.

Trey Tatum is a non-stop creator of offbeat theater who has partnered with the aforementioned Strickland on several occasions, including for Andyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s House of [blank] at Know. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a regular Fringe presence since his 2014 production of Slut Shaming. A year ago, Zoinks! sold out all of its Fringe performances. For 2020, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s assembled A New Play by Queen City Flash, a series of comically disturbing tales to kiss and make the hurt go away. Working with director Bridget Leak and performer Jordan Trovillion, Tatumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fevered imagination will surely run rampant again. Dr. Dour and Peach from Washington, D.C. presented The Monster Songs at the 2017 Cincy Fringe. For 2020, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;horror comedy clown duoâ&#x20AC;? will offer Love and Other Lures, another set of songs about monsters: vampires, sirens and giant alligators. They both sing â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Dr. Dour plays guitar while Peach, billed as â&#x20AC;&#x153;cute,â&#x20AC;? takes up the banjo and cello. Their musical styles range from Southern Rock to Tin Pan Alley. The inventive local dance company Pones Inc. has offered fascinating and evocative movement pieces in recent Fringes. Kim Popaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s online contribution for 2020 will be Proximity, rooted in the experience of what is lost and what can be found in our city. Based on crowdsourced suggestions, this will be a dance video using site-specificity to uncover the duet of beauty and grief we are currently experiencing.

Returning Fringe Favorites Katie Hartman and Nick Ryan from Brooklyn make up the Coldharts, whose shows in Cincinnati have drawn a crowd every time theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve come to town with their Punk Rock musicals inspired by the American Gothic and Edgar Allan Poe. Perhaps the creepiest of these was Unrepentant Necrophile from 2016, and thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the one theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll provide via video. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the story of a mortician who falls in love with a man as she prepares his corpse for burial. She has three days until the funeralâ&#x20AC;Ś but three days just isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enough. Another â&#x20AC;&#x153;returnâ&#x20AC;? will feature a streaming presentation of Petunia and Chicken by Animal Engine from New York City. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a heartwarming prairie love story, told with folk music and inspired by the writings of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather. Carrie Brown and Karim Muasher portray a Czech immigrant girl and a Nebraska farm boy, respectively, who fall in love and struggle to stay together in the face of the harsh realities of adulthood. They use their bodies and a few simple props â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a hat, a scarf â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to create fields of wheat, train stations and more. This charming

show won a â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pick of the Cincinnati Fringeâ&#x20AC;? award in 2013 and has been a standout at other festivals from New York to Orlando. Comedian Megan Gogerty from Iowa earned the Audience Pick of the Fringe here in 2017 with her show, Lady Macbeth And Her Pal, Megan. Informed that sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not suited to play Lady Macbeth, a tragic figure of powerful darkness, Megan sets out to prove everyone wrong â&#x20AC;&#x201D; despite her resemblance to a loveable golden retriever.

Productions from Locals Alexx Rouse performed as a stewardess in her memorable one-woman show, Stow Your Baggage, in the 2019 Cincy Fringe. Her new piece, Quit While Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re Ahead, riffs on the thrill of high school graduation: bonfires, partiesâ&#x20AC;Śand suicide charts. Say what? Well, Rouseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pair of characters, Janie and Jason do, to the dismay of their bewildered friend Chad. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a hilarious attempt to find something to live for once the graduation gowns are off. Sarah Willis will present an alternate-reality musical journey through isolation and community, Dream. When Iz gets assigned to Emmaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s case in a mission to save the multiverse, they embark on an interdimensional journey through wonder, heartache, temptation and self-discovery. Willis calls her show a queer, quirky musical with an electronic-meets-acoustic sound. Rory Sheridan is a newcomer to the Fringe, but heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been acting on numerous stages around town for several years. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conceived m-o-u-s-e, in which an archaeologist from the future unearths the autobiography of Walt Disneyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pet mouse, the inspiration for the Disney empireâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s corporate mascot. The archaeologistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s challenge: Relaying the mouseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life story to his virtual AI assistant. Sean Mette is a familiar, ebullient face on Cincinnati stages. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s written The Bassoonist. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about Johann Geyersbach, who dreamed of becoming a renowned musician. He was a student of young Johann Sebastian Bach at a church in Arnstadt, Germany. Unfortunately, Geyersbach wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t a very good musician, and Bach cruelly called him a â&#x20AC;&#x153;nanny-goat bassoonistâ&#x20AC;? in front of the student orchestra. This led to a legendary brawl involving a walking stick and a dagger. All in all, the 2020 Cincy Fringe should, as in the past, be â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kinda Weird. Like You.â&#x20AC;? Additional shows will be streamed online. The Cincinnati Fringe Festival takes place May 29-June 13. A list of show descriptions and tickets is available at cincyfringe.com.

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MUSIC

Sudan Archives P H OTO : A L E X B L AC K

Sudan Archives’ ‘Athena’ Melds Future and Past After her appearance at Homecoming — and the rest of her tour — was canceled because of COVID19, the native Cincinnatian has some unexpected downtime to experiment with new music BY JAS O N GA R GA N O

incinnati native and current Los Angeleno Brittney Denise Parks records music under the moniker Sudan Archives. The cover art for the vinyl version of her full-length debut, 2019’s Athena, finds Parks posing nude on a pedestal, bronzed like an old-school Greek statue in a nod to the album’s goddess namesake. Parks is holding a violin in her left hand, the backdrop engulfed in a plaintive shade of gray. The back cover is the same image from the reverse side. It’s a striking visual scheme and an apt introduction to an artist with rare aesthetic savvy and presence to spare. Parks, who grew up on the northeast side of Cincinnati, rechristened herself Sudan Archives — a reference to

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her still-evolving interest in melding contemporary musical techniques with African musical traditions — after moving to Los Angeles at age 19. Following a period of artistic and personal gestation, she signed to esteemed indie label Stones Throw Records and dropped a pair of wellreceived EPs (2017’s Sudan Archives and 2018’s Sink), both of which burrow in one’s consciousness via Parks’ atmospheric vocals, expressive violin and eclectic beats inspired equally by slanted R&B and experimental EDM. Then there’s the aforementioned visual acumen. The video for “Time,” a brief Folk-informed tone poem from the first EP, features Parks clad in colorful African garb as she traverses a timelessly

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barren desert setting. Conversely, “Nont For Sale,” a playful empowerment ditty from the second EP, is set in modern-day urban L.A. and features an impressively afroed Parks as she informs a self-involved acquaintance at the song’s opening, “I need to be free / Time to spread my wings” — sentiments that have long been at the forefront of Parks’ mind. “I think moving to Los Angeles was a goal of mine all along,” Parks says in a recent phone interview. “I just never really thought of staying in Cincinnati. I was always thinking that there is something more. I guess I just wanted to live in a city city, like a bigger city maybe. Now I’m just starting to realize I was kind of like a weirdo and I’m never really going to fit in anywhere. It didn’t really matter where I live.” Parks was immersed in music from an early age. She played violin in church as often as three times a week as a child. Her stepdad was involved in the music business through LaFace Records; he helped guide one of her first forays in “professional” music: a teenage Pop project with her twin sister that Parks eventually found creatively unsatisfying. Her mother’s and her big sister’s music had a lasting impact as well. “I was listening to a lot of Erykah Badu and Sade and Jazz, because that was what my mom was listening to,” she says. “And then I was listening to what my big sister was listening to, which was sexy black boy bands like B2K. She

loved Usher. She liked girl bands, too, like Destiny’s Child, so I was listening to stuff like that.” The mixing of genres is readily apparent in what she does as Sudan Archives. If the EPs were a nice appetizer, Athena is a full buffet. Executive produced by Parks (with help from some savvy engineers), the album’s 14 songs range from the jaunty “Glorious,” which sounds like Sade by way of M.I.A., to slow-burning album-closer “Pelicans in Summer,” which wouldn’t be out of place on a classic ’90s Trip Hop record. Athena’s production is simultaneously stripped back and richly layered. It moves from Avant Pop to classical African and Middle Eastern elements to saucy R&B with surprising dexterity, no doubt inspired by Parks’ various overseas travels in recent years and a decade of self-described “YouTube research.” She took violin lessons, but the rest is the result of an endlessly curious, autodidactic mind. The album credits “violin and violin arrangements, bass, mandolin, synth, drum programming, percussion & vocals by Sudan Archives.” “Nothing has ever really made sense for me,” Parks says when asked about her various influences, musically or otherwise. “I’m really philosophical and questioning of societal things. I remember being really young and being really curious. I was about battling the normal. I was over high school and its CONTINUES ON PAGE 20

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SPILL IT

Sudan Archives P H OTO : A L E X B L AC K

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cliques right away. I was not trying to be a regular girl. I was trying to grow up fast.” Parks was part of a small underground EDM scene in Cincinnati (she says her first paid gig was at Skylab Gallery in Columbus) but she never really found what she was looking for. Restless, she moved to Los Angeles to study music production at a community college. “I realized I wanted to pursue music in some type of way,” Parks says. “I didn’t know what. Maybe I thought I would pursue music technology and be behind the scenes. And then I thought maybe I should be a session player. A lot of violinists are cover artists on YouTube and do cool stuff like that. But that wasn’t really working out because I wasn’t the type of girl who could just do a cover. I always did a flip, like totally remade the song and everybody was like, ‘What song is this?’ ” Sudan Archives’ early home recordings eventually drew the attention of Stones Throw Records founder Peanut Butter Wolf, a longtime champion of experimental Hip Hop and Electronic music. He was eager to back her unique blend of elements. “My approach has evolved over time to get the sound that I want,” Parks says. “I feel like I always knew that I wanted an organic sound ever since I started playing violin. It was hard to explain, but I knew I wanted to kind of like incorporate gear and electronics but I wanted it to be natural and organic at the same time.”

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She was set to take part in the second Homecoming, the festival curated by fellow Cincinnati natives The National. But the festival (originally scheduled for May 8 and 9), along with the rest of Sudan Archives’ tour, was canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis. That leaves a lot of down time for writing and recording a new record, which she says should be out by next year. “I want to experiment more with my voice and the capabilities of where that can go,” Parks says of the new material. “I feel like whenever I’m singing, I’m always singing in my safe spot. I call it my Sade safe spot, because I don’t really consider myself a singer. I kind of feel like I have to. But now I feel like I’m a little more confident in that. I’m ready to experiment with different textures in my voice and different levels of loudness and softness. Every day I’ve been like, ‘What can I do with my voice that is different than what I normally would do?’ ” She’s also digging into more African music and obscure stuff from previous eras. “I don’t like to listen to music that’s currently out right now for some reason,” Parks says. “I’m more naturally drawn to something that was archived from the 1970s. I love to find stuff from that era that I’m into now because I want to make music like that. I want people in the future to pick up Athena and be like, ‘Oh, wow, this still sounds cool to me.’ ”

For more on Sudan Archives, visit sudanarchives.com.

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Automagik Returns with ‘Fluorescent Nights’ BY B R I A N BA K E R

The COVID-19 quarantine has not hindered Zach Evans and Devin Williams, Automagik’s songwriting brain trust. In fact, except for the lack of toilet paper and restaurant Automagik seating, the last P H OTO : T Y L E R I SA AC S six weeks could have been just another incredibly productive period for the duo, who are currently working remotely — Evans from his Newport home and Williams from his parents’ Florida residence. “Honestly, I feel like I’ve never been more creative. I don’t know if it’s partial insanity inspiring that or what,” Williams says. “We’re going into overdrive with the lockdown.” Automagik’s new album, Fluorescent Nights, drops May 15. The band initially planned to preview it when they opened for of Montreal at the Woodward Theater just prior to the original April album release date; the show was an early pandemic casualty and has been postponed until September. Evans actually began work on material for Fluorescent Nights just days after Automagik’s stunning December 2018 headlining release show at the Woodward for their last album, Goldmine. Still buzzing from the overwhelmingly positive response, Evans began building new tracks, first at his parents’ home, where the album had been conceived; then at a noisy apartment in Covington (a slamming car door was captured for the song “Buick”); then at the studio he constructed in the Northern Kentucky home he and his fiance purchased. “We were riding the high of that show, and I think that was reflected in the next few songs,” Evans says. Oddly enough, Fluorescent Nights and Goldmine both began with tracks that Automagik had shelved. Goldmine’s Glam-meets-Indie-Rock dance-off was inspired by the death of Prince, but the band had doubts about translating the instrumentation and arrangements live. Similarly, Fluorescent Nights was seeded by the tracks “Buick” and “I Hope It Works,” which Evans and Williams had written for a karaoke spoof idea they intended as the Goldmine show’s opening act. When the clock ran out to develop the concept, they set the

tracks aside. “We don’t ever want to box ourselves into a particular sound or approach to making songs,” Evans says. “We always do these one-offs, then time passes and we keep bringing that song back up and we realize that we found our springboard into a new batch of songs.” After their post-Goldmine success, Automagik is completely confident in their ability to play Fluorescent Nights live, due in large part to the chemistry Evans and Williams have with their stellar rhythm section, bassist Jamie Rasmussen and drummer Andy Cluxton. Although Rasmussen and Cluxton aren’t involved in the writing or recording of the songs, they’re absolutely essential in translating them live. “In the live setting, our songs become more bombastic,” Evans says. “The band chemistry is just as strong as the chemistry that Devin and I have on the writing side. The live side is the most important — well, not now since everybody can’t leave their damn house — but we have the most fun when we’re onstage. That’s where the magic happens.” As with Goldmine, Fluorescent Nights’ only physical release will be its vinyl pressing on the local Soul Step label; the digital release will be promoted via a vanilla-scented car freshener featuring a printed link to the album. Throughout the band’s studio and stage evolution, Evans’ and Williams’ bond has remained a consistent quality. “Apart from the scenery changing, ever since we initially found our groove, the partnership has operated the same way,” Williams says. “We always have fun and I think that shines through,” Evans adds. “We’re having fun as we’re making it therefore the record is fun to listen to.” Automagik’s new Fluorescent Nights, drops May 15. More info: facebook.com/automagik.

FOOD & DRINK

The exterior of Please P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY P L E A S E

The Road to Reopening How owners from three Cincinnati restaurants and bars are navigating safety, hospitality and uncertainty in new coronavirus culture BY L E Y L A S H O KO O H E

he communal experience of dining, post-pandemic, is going to look different. We’re no longer going to be rubbing elbows with strangers at a crowded bar, or standing 10 deep in hopes of being called next on an hour-long waitlist. Those days are gone — for now. So what will the restaurants and bars of the near-future look like? “It’s not even just about reopening and opening back up with whatever safety and health precautions there (are),” says Ryan Santos, owner and chef of Please in Over-the-Rhine. “It’s, ‘What sort of restaurant are we when we come back?’ I don’t think we’re the same restaurant, with the same menu and the same format that we were before.” Please, a close-quartered restaurant on the corner of Clay and E. 14th streets, thrives on intimacy. It’s baked into its operational model, with an expansive tasting menu, 30-person capacity, tiny back bar and a lean staff of 12. In this new era of social distancing, though,

coupled with Santos’ Crohn’s disease (which puts him in the high-risk category), that layout will have to shift. “I think with so much uncertainty, and the likelihood that we’re going to be taking out 50 percent of our tables inside, you probably can’t have such an expanded menu as we did before,” he says. “Most of the dining we do already is tasting-menu focused, so to abandon that is very scary, especially after spending the last three-and-a-half years building that format for ourselves and being successful in it.” Santos has applied for a permit to allow some outside seating to mitigate the loss of tables inside. HomeMaker’s Bar in Over-the-Rhine is practically new — their one-year anniversary is this June. They started strong, but predicting bar-going postpandemic is just as uncertain as dining out. In the interim, co-founders and owners Julia Petiprin and Catherine Manabat quickly moved to offering carry-out of their light bites bar menu, and offering alcohol as well when

Governor Mike DeWine announced booze sales to-go were allowed in April. “We had a feeling things were going to change, so we started to think about what we could do for carry-out before we even knew we were going to be shut down,” says Petiprin. “In our minds, we had a game plan.” She and Manabat are the only employees currently working to move to that model. They’re taking it day by day, planning to hire some employees back to work alone on a project-needs basis in the coming weeks. “We were trying to accommodate the neighborhood because we were noticing that a lot of our regulars weren’t coming as much, so we wanted to make sure we were set-up to do carry-out,” Manabat says. “We started small. Just having those seeds planted helped us make the big transition over. I would say we’re doing fine.” “We’ve been working really hard to let people know that we’re here and we’re open and we’re doing things and that we’re there for them,” adds Petiprin. “And it is growing, which is good.” But can it be sustained? And what after? An added bitter note for Please is the loss of momentum following Santos’ James Beard Award nomination earlier this year for Best Chef: Great Lakes. Santos was one of 20 semifinalists named in February. “It was terrible,” he says. “We got

named No. 1 restaurant in Cincinnati Magazine and a week later, I got the nomination for Best Chef from James Beard. That kind of press, it takes the three years we’ve been open to work hard and push to get those things, and we only got to see about three or four weeks of the benefit from that. Coming back, I don’t think that energy will be there anymore.” Bars might have it worse when it comes to recapturing energy and the proverbial “vibe” of “going out.” To that end, at least, Petiprin and Manabat have found a novel (if short-term) solution. “Friday nights we do a live Tip Your Bartender series (on Instagram), so we introduce different members of our team. And it’s just a way for us to hang out with our friends — like when people come into the bar and stop in,” Manabat says. “Engaging with the community is so important to us. We can’t do it in the traditional way, so we’re thinking of different ways we can do it. And it helps support our GoFundMe, 100 percent of which goes toward our staff.” The financial losses are another consideration. Many restaurants turned to crowdfunding and other stop-gap funding. Please has a private dinner option available on their website, which will feature Santos cooking in the buyer’s

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home for up to 10 people. And while several restaurants moved swiftly to a take-out model to salvage some revenue, Santos chose not to. “It just didn’t seem like the right pivot for us,” he says. “To actually make to-go successful, you have to be doing a pretty decent clip of volume to make it work, and we didn’t Catherine Manabat and Julia Petiprin at HomeMakers know that that was P H OTO : H A I L E Y B O L L I N G E R something that would happen if we pivoted. were processing this information that With so much of the future unanswered there was a lot of fear surrounding the at that time, it didn’t seem like the right situation. ‘Am I going to get sick? Is this way to spend the reserves that we had.” safe? Is it socially responsible to even To support staff and pay bills, Santos be asking our team to do this, asking applied for the Paycheck Protection our customers to come here?’ There Program, an emergency loan created were no practices at that point.” by the U.S. Small Business AdministraIn the ensuing six weeks, Thuntion (as did each proprietor interviewed derdome regrouped, working with for this article. All three restaurants the Ohio Restaurant Association and received PPP funding). The SBA will National Restaurant Association for forgive loans if all employees are kept guidance. Lanni says they reopened on the payroll for eight weeks and the not just to do carry-out business, but money is used for rent, mortgage interto turn their supply-chain back on and est, payroll or utilities. But he found the re-employ staff. cost might outweigh the benefits in the “(We wanted) to get the machine long run. rolling again, with the hopes that being “Navigating that is really scary, to be able to serve customers in the dining honest,” Santos says. “It’s a blessing, room is on the horizon, and we feel that and we’re very fortunate to have gotten it is,” Lanni says. “We also feel the safety in on the first round and gotten some factor has dramatically changed. We money out of it, but the Treasury and decided to get it cranked back up and SBA’s guidelines on it are vague, at best. get ready for when we can welcome We’re not open, and it’s still meant guests back inside the restaurant.” to be used if you’re not open to pay COVID-19 cases in Ohio totaled more employees, but without some clearer than 18,000 at the end of April. On April guidelines, it feels really risky to use it, 27, Governor Mike DeWine announced because what if after eight weeks, we three key dates for reopening the state: did one thing wrong, we missed one May 1, some medical services that don’t of the little details on how it should be require an overnight stay will resume; executed, that’s tens of thousands of May 4, construction, manufacturing, dollars we have to pay back.” distribution and general offices will Larger operations, like the Thunderreopen; and May 12, consumer, retail dome Restaurant Group, also shutand some services will reopen, protered entirely, only recently moving to vided they can meet mandatory safety carry-out options. The entity includes requirements. No provisions have yet Bakersfield, The Eagle, Pepp & Dolores, been announced for restaurants. Krueger’s, Maplewood, Currito and “Are people going to be comfortable CityBird. On April 27, Thunderdome coming out, even if we’re allowed announced Currito and CityBird would to?” asks Santos. “We can probably reopen for carry-out and delivery, offerafford to open up again, but probably ing their full menus. Pepp & Dolores only once. So if we open in August, reopened May 1 for carry-out and and October we have to close down delivery, and the rest of the restaurants again for an unforeseeable amount will open for carry-out over the next of months, that’s when things start to several weeks. get tough. If a second wave of closures “Initially, we did carry-out for about comes down, that’s when things get a a week,” says co-founder Joe Lanni. “It little scarier. It feels like such a vortex quickly became apparent that, for us, of ideas and then wrong answers, and this wasn’t going to be a situation that then who knows? No one can see the was something we could maintain for a future, so it’s hard to guess what this long, long period of time. Sales volumes is really going to look like once it gets just weren’t there. More importantly, going.” the team members, myself included,

THE DISH

COVID Continues, Greater Cincinnati Farmers Pivot BY M AC K E N Z I E M A N L E Y

Dark Wood Farm P H O T O : S TA C Y W E G L E Y W I T H W O M E N O F C I N C Y

Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky businesses are caught in a collective pivot as they grapple with ever-evolving news related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the local food chain, this impact is felt all the way from the restaurants, groceries and markets to — the root of it all — farms. Deemed essential workers, farmers have continued to supply their communities with food and tend to livestock. “They’re going to go on no matter what’s going on in the human world,” Annie Woods of Boone County, Kentucky’s Dark Wood Farm says of crops and animals. “They’re going to be alive and (the chickens will continue) producing eggs and plants are going to keep growing.” Woods adds that the past month has been hectic as her staff has tried to adjust to changes that will linger on indefinitely. Pre-coronavirus social distancing measures, Dark Wood acquired a second growing space in Campbell County. Nestled in the Ohio River’s floodplain, this brought the hope of selling more product to restaurants, alongside an expansion in their CSA, or Community-Supported Agriculture program. (CSA is a communal model of farming in which people buy a share of a farm’s harvest at the start of their season and receive weekly portions. Farms who provide CSAs are often small and local.) “When all this happened back in mid-March, we had to really sit down

and assess, ‘OK, we’re going to be growing more food this year. We’re already planning to do that. It’s a good thing, right? Because everybody’s gonna need food no matter what.’ But we were sort of thinking it would go to restaurants,” Woods says. “What we decided to do to adjust and adapt a little bit is to expand our CSA program to more members.” In the last couple of years, Woods says CSA membership has increased from 50 to 75, with 25 slots added this year. In a similar move, Richard Stewart of Carriage House Farm in North Bend, Ohio says they’ve increased their CSA shares to account for possible drops in sales with local restaurants, some of which have closed their doors with no set date of return. He says restaurants represented about 65 to 70 percent of their business. For many small-scale farms, that number is even higher. Following Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s order for all bars and restaurants to end dine-in options in March, Stewart recalls gathering his staff over text/ email and making the decision to open a farmstand. They are open five days a week, Wednesday through Sunday. “We just started racing to get more products on our shelves,” Stewart says, adding that, alongside their own in-season produce and eggs, customers are able to purchase other locally sourced products: Sixteen Bricks bread, Grateful Grahams, Hen of the Woods Chips, Deeper Roots

Coffee, Rising Sun ground beef, Woodland Pork and more. “By the end of that first week, I was exhausted,” Stewart says. “I think my whole crew was exhausted mentally, emotionally… but I mean, we were seeing everybody that we grew up with as a business — because we’ve been doing this, the local food scene, since 2005 — and every single one of these chefs had become friends of ours.” At that point, they had sold about half of their CSA shares. They added more slots, posted the announcement on their social pages, and are now sold out. The irony of moving to full-retail mode? Carriage House has slowly been inching toward a more retail-focused model over the past year and a half — a plan that was meant to unfold over three years. They also made the decision to take half of the fields that would normally be used for commodity crops and prepare it for potatoes, winter squash, cucumbers and other shelf-stable products. Part of this reasoning was to account for possible gaps in the food network that he says may develop in the next two months or so. Stewart says they’ve been taking

Tricia Watts, executive director of Gorman Heritage Farm, noted similar precautions. Gorman’s plant sale on May 7 operated as a pre-order drivethru. Dark Wood’s recently wrapped plant sale did the same, with customers pre-ordering items, pulling up and staff placing their items in their car. Farmers markets — like Northside’s and Hyde Park’s — have also moved to pre-order, curbside pick-up and drive-thru models. Michael Hass of Melbourne, Kentucky’s Idyllwild Farm is a vendor at both markets who says the pre-order and prepay online system means that customers don’t even need to leave their cars. “What the crisis has done is sort of dragged farmers’ markets into the 21st century,” Hass says, adding that Northside has partnered with web platform Farmnivorous. (Each vendor at Hyde Park has its own online store from which customers can select goods.) One spot of light? Each farmer spoke to the support they’ve felt from the community. Beyond the crisis, Woods wonders if those turning to local farms or joining CSAs for the first time will change the way people buy — and eat

Carriage House Farm P H O T O : P R O V I D E D BY C A R R I A G E H O U S E FA R M

preventive measures seriously from the start. All employees wear masks, they sanitize with isopropyl alcohol and by the time new requirements came about regarding population density and social distancing in buildings, Carriage House was already meeting them. Woods says her staff has also been wearing masks, maintaining social distancing from one another and sanitizing as needed.

— food for a longer period of time. “When I look out at the world and at our business, in some ways I’m a little hopeful in the way that I see people altering their behavior to support local businesses — to support local food, especially,” she says. Stewart says if people want to support the farm, after the crisis is over and things normalize, remember: “We’re still here.”

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CityBeat | May 6, 2020

Articles inside

COVID Continues, Greater Cincinnati Farmers Pivot

The Road to Reopening

Automagik Returns with ‘Fluorescent Nights’

Sudan Archives’ ‘Athena’ Melds Future and Past

The Digital Fringe

CARING FOR OUR WATERSHEDS FINALISTS

72 Things We've Learned During Quarantine (& Hope to Remember Afterward)

Cincinnati Masks Up