Scene September 6, 2023

UPFRONT

NEW LIFE AT CALVARY CHURCH SEEKS HELP WITH $4M TORNADO REPAIR COSTS

ANTONIA MARTIN, A PASTOR at New Life at Calvary Church in Cleveland, received an alarming text message while she was traveling in Jamaica last week. Something, the texts read, had happened to the church.

“Every picture I received just got progressively worse,” Martin said. “Half the roof was gone. You could see the sky! And then, when I got back, it was devastating to see in person.”

Martin is detailing what happened when, at 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 24, an EF-1 tornado touched down in the city limits for the first time in 31 years. For three minutes, wind speeds of 110 miles per hour ripped through structures in Midtown, and crested at East 79th and Euclid Avenue, where Calvary’s been since the late 19th century.

Two Fridays ago, after a day of cleanup, media interviews and a general reassessment, Martin and colleague Kellie Sullivan, the church’s lead pastor, discovered even more pummeling news: Calvary’s roof repair would cost, it’s estimated, $4 million.

“I was hoping they were fluffing the number,” Sullivan told Scene, referring to the roofers’ estimate. “’Lord, please don’t make it that much. Please, don’t let it be...’”

While the city has its own coffers to aid in storm recovery, to clean up cracked tree limbs and blown-out windows, private institutions like Calvary rarely have public assistance to aid in tornado damage.

Shortly after the storm’s wake, Ward 7 Councilwoman Stephanie Howse criticized the city’s meager readiness, arguing that City Hall is not well-equipped to serve residents who, as tens of thousands did, lost power for days, had basements flood, had trees blown into windows and yards.

“Every resident of Ward 7 and in the City of Cleveland deserves to feel safe and protected, especially during times of crisis,” Howse said in a press release, calling for a review of the city’s current response protocol. “The recent events have raised significant

concerns about the city’s emergency preparedness, and we must address these concerns promptly and thoroughly to prevent such devastation from happening again.”

Or, in Calvary’s case, repair plans already in progress: Since last Monday, the East Side congregation has already been asking for help, via a GoFundMe page, funding $105,000 in necessary repairs. Their boiler needed replacing, as did sundry bricks and mortar. Calvary’s Sanctuary building needed a makeover.

“And now we have to raise more,” Martin lamented.

Though Calvary’s Fellowship Hall has a temporary roof put in place—”to prevent the wall from falling,” Sullivan said— the surrounding damage from the EF-1 was quite intense. Debris crowding East 79th had to be shoveled up. Century-old decorative stones shifted. Steps were demolished. “We had our whole entrance in the back destroyed,” Martin said.

An offshoot of Public Square’s Old Stone Church, Calvary was

built in 1880 as a rotational service for traveling ministers. In 1888, its cornerstone had the longest Roman numeral date in history. The 20th century brought a construction of a gym (a rarity in 1900), and reshaping of Calvary as a center for neighborhood service, offering “prayers for peace” during wartime, handing out lunches, even as a beacon for development in the long-neglected, and barren, Midtown neighborhood.

Both pastors confirmed that last week’s tornado damage is the church’s first. Such an act of God, as the pastors see it, has led to a resounding call of support from the community—what has been a pick-me-up amidst a whopping fundraising goal.

“We had people that don’t even attend here, give us calls, prayers, all kinds asking, ‘How can we help?’” Martin said. “Even the mayor’s called. Everyone’s been very supportive.” – Mark Oprea

Ohio Expert: Plateau in Teen HPV Vaccinations Should Be a “Wake-Up Call”

For the first time since 2013, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates in teens have stalled, according to a report released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“I think it’s a call to action, a wake-up call,” OhioHealth Gynecological Oncology Specialist Dr. Kellie Rath told Cleveland Scene.

After nearly a decade of growth, proportions of adolescents aged 13-17 years who have received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine and adolescents who are up-to-date on HPV vaccinations have both stagnated.

Children can start getting HPV vaccinations at age nine but the number of doses required to be considered fully vaccinated against HPV depends on their age. For children under the age of 15, only two vaccinations are needed. For those 15 through 26 years old three shots are required.

“If we recognize it, and providers are able to catch these kids when they’re coming for their well-child checks and catch up their vaccination series, I think that it is something that can be overcome by getting that vaccine as a catch up,” Dr. Rath said. “But if it’s not something that is recognized we could have a gap in kids without the vaccine who will have an increased risk of getting pre cancers and cancers in the future.”

HPV infections are incredibly common and experts agree most people will contract HPV at some point in their lives. However, there are many different strains of HPV and some can cause serious medical issues.

“Almost all of us are exposed to one of the higher risk types of HPV in our lifetime and the highrisk HPV can lead to precancers and cancers of the cervix, vagina, vulva, penis, anus, as well as head and neck cancers,” said Dr. Rath.

The CDC estimates that 14 million Americans contract HPV annually and more than 42 million Americans are infected with types of HPV that cause disease.

Photo by Mark Oprea

Braxton Taylor, 29, in his apartment in New York. Last October, Taylor left Cleveland to pursue Brooklyn’s scene.

SCOTT H. BIRAM•CORY GRINDER (DUO)

“The chance of developing an actual cancer is not large; most people clear the virus on their own,” Dr. Rath said. “However, a lot of people will have precancerous changes on the cervix that can lead to procedures on the cervix that can cause trouble carrying pregnancies in the future.”

The HPV vaccine is overwhelmingly safe. Most side effects, like swelling or fever, clear up within a couple of days and just 0.0018% of doses resulted in reports of serious health issues, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“[Cervical cancer] is an entirely preventable cancer by a very safe vaccine,” said Dr. Rath. “And so, although it is not an incredibly common cancer, by vaccinating early we can prevent these things from happening.”

Because the pandemic caused people to miss regular medical appointments where vaccinations might have been due, researchers theorize that it may have contributed to stagnant HPV vaccination rates.

There was also a noticeable gap between insurance groups. From 2015 through 2021, teens covered by Medicaid insurance had higher vaccination rates against HPV than those covered by private insurance. However, in 2022 HPV vaccination rates among adolescents insured by Medicare

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dropped 3.3% to roughly the same level as those privately insured.

But teenagers not covered by insurance remain the most at-risk, as their HPV vaccination rates are consistently the lowest.

The HPV vaccine is part of the CDC’s federally-funded Vaccinations for Children program, so it’s available free for children and adolescents who are Medicaid eligible, uninsured, underinsured or are defined as American Indian or Alaska Native by the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.

However, accessibility can still be a problem because of complications like transportation and employment hours.

While most cervical cancer is caused by HPV, the idea that only girls should be vaccinated against HPV is a misconception and can hinder vaccinations.

“HPV doesn’t just cause cervical cancer, and actually the most common HPV-related cancer is not cervical cancer,” Dr. Rath said. “Currently, it’s actually head and neck cancer…which are much more common in men and actually are more commonly diagnosed than cervical cancer and there’s not a screening for those cancers.”

Unlike cervical cancer, which has primary prevention through the HPV vaccine and secondary prevention through screening, “head and neck cancer”—or oropharyngeal cancer—only has primary prevention through the vaccine.

“Parents should know that the HPV vaccine is safe and effective and should be given to both male and female children,” said Dr. Rath. “The CDC is advocating starting at age nine, because we know the vaccine works best when kids are younger than before they have any exposures.”

Adolescents and young adults who aren’t protected against HPV can get vaccinated until they are 27 years old, after which point the vaccination isn’t recommended because most people have already been exposed to HPV. – Maria

Elena Scott

Archaeologists Uncovered Tens of Thousands of Historic Artifacts at Irishtown Bend Site

A team of archaeologists hired by the Port Authority have recovered more than 60,000 historical artifacts from the Irishtown Bend site, the firm hired to carry out the dig told Cleveland Scene.

In a 20-person dig orchestrated throughout June and July, a team led by Maumee, Ohio-based archaeologist Robert Chidester uncovered a trove of items pertinent to Irishtown’s original settlement: cultural miscellany that archaeologists involved in the project say date back to the late1800s.

“Everything was where we thought it would be,” Chris Owens, the environmental project manager at Mannik & Smith, the firm that spearheaded the summer-long dig, said. “Home foundations, privies [outhouses], cisterns, some bricks, broken pieces of pottery, dinnerware, glass. An Irish Home Rule pipe even.”

Such a site dig of that scale is required due to Irishtown Bend’s status, since 1990, on the National Register of Historic Places. The artifact recovery had to be swift and far-reaching enough, Owens said, as to wrap up before the Port’s stabilization of the hillside, which began officially on Monday.

Though this summer’s dig was most likely the largest of its kind along the Cuyahoga River, it wasn’t the first. From 1987 to 1989, archaeological teams led by David Brose and Robert Wheeler, researchers at Cleveland State, excavated artifacts in six plots, and were able to piece together the people—the “policemen, dock workers, widows”—that once used them.

Owens told Scene that, following a comprehensive report cataloging every item dug up by Chidester’s team, a bulk of the 60,000 artifacts will make their way over to Phillip Wanyerka at Cleveland State, where they’ll be archived along with the rest of the department’s 1.2 million historic and prehistoric stuff.

Plans for Irishtown Bend Park depict a sort of homage to the Irish shantytown past, before the area was entirely abandoned in the mid-1950s. (It was leveled in 1958 in a second attempt to straighten the Cuyahoga River.) It’s unclear how exactly some of the artifacts recovered in June and July will be used, but Owens suggested LAND Studio, the designers of the park, will decide on curation later in the year.

“Overall these items will give us an indication of these people, their life on the hillside, what their lives were actually like,” Owens said.

Irishtown Bend Park is slated to be completed, and opened to the public, in 2025. Riverbed Road, which snakes down from West 25th

St. to the Flats, will be closed until Irishtown’s reopening starting in September. – Mark Oprea

Union Caregivers and Lutheran Hospital Avoid Strike, Reach Contract

After months of negotiations, SEIU 1199 caregivers at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital reached an agreement for a new contract for union members, voting to support the agreement on Saturday night and avoiding a Labor Day strike.

A joint statement from the hospital and the union said that “the union and the hospital are proud that the new agreement provides fair benefits and greatly improved wages for union members, while allowing the hospital to continue to provide excellent care to the community.”

At the end of July, union caregivers voted to authorize an unfair labor Practice strike against Cleveland Clinic after failing to make progress with hospital leadership in contract negotiations.

A release from the caregivers’ union at the time alleged that working conditions amounted to discrimination from Cleveland Clinic against some of its lowest paid caregivers — who are predominantly women and people of color.

The new three-year agreement will give union caregivers paid maternity and parental leave, employer-paid short-term disability leave, a 50% hospital match on their 403(b) retirement benefit, expanded rights and protections on the job, and an average wage increase of 15.6% for the first year of the agreement, with wage increases each year thereafter as well.

“Union members can rest easily knowing this new agreement finally speaks for them and provides the equity and equality they have been missing– and rightfully deserve,” said SEIU 1199 director Vanessa Dalesandro in an email. “This new agreement is a major victory for all Union caregivers at Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital and a great reminder of the power of labor as we come out of Labor Day!” – Maria Elena Scott

61,000

Number of Ohio children who have lost Medicaid coverage since April.

$568,483

Cost of the City of Cleveland’s new, updated website, which hadn’t received a refresh in more than a decade.

3

Years a Shaker Heights lawyer and Trump supporter was sentenced to prison after being convicted of voter fraud in the last two elections.

4 Decades Cinematheque co-founded John Ewing has been at the institution. He announced he’ll retire next year.

CELEBRATING CLEVELAND BOOK WEEK 2023

By Lit Cleveland

NO OTHER SPOT IN THE country offers literary excellence at no cost better than Cleveland Book Week.

The 2023 Cleveland Book Week, September 22-30, is a collaboration between the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards (AWBA), presented by the Cleveland Foundation, the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (GLAAWC pronounced “glossy”), and Literary Cleveland. All three marquee events are entirely free. And the caliber of the headliners matches other convenings that frequently charge participants hundreds of dollars.

“Cleveland has a spirit – visible in its world-class public libraries –that information and the literary arts want to be free,” said Karen R. Long, manager of the AnisfieldWolf Book Awards for the Cleveland Foundation. “A wonderful group of people and nonprofits work each year to make Cleveland Book Week a destination.”

The goal is to elevate Cleveland as a national center of literary excellence, lift brilliant writers that other places overlook, and sharpen our local literary conversations.

Literary Cleveland will kick off Book Week with the ninth annual Inkubator Writing Conference, the largest free writing conference in the nation. “We’re stepping into a more regional focus with presenters from around the Midwest including Peter Ho Davies, Manuel Iris, and Elissa Washuta,” said Matt Weinkam, executive director of Literary Cleveland. The conference features virtual events September 18-20, 40+ workshops at the downtown Cleveland Public Library on September 22-23, a keynote with author Elizabeth Acevedo, and community programs throughout the month, including a poetry bike ride and a literary pop up at the West Side Market.

Next, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards will honor groundbreaking books that advance our understanding of racism and our appreciation of the rich diversity of human cultures. This year, Anisfield-Wolf events run September 26-30, with the awards ceremony to be held Thursday, September 28 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. The 2023 AWBA winners

coming to Cleveland are Geraldine Brooks for Horse (Fiction), Lan Samantha Chang for The Family Chao (Fiction), Matthew F. Delmont for Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad (Nonfiction), Saeed Jones for Alive at the End of the World (Poetry) and Lifetime Achievement winner Charlayne Hunter-Gault.

Book Week programs will culminate in the Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (GLAAWC) on September

30 at the downtown Cleveland Public Library with a focus on “Black Books, Black Business, Black Excellence.” “GLAAWC’s goal is to expand artistic and business knowledge, skills, and access for aspiring and published writers,” said Dr. Leah Lewis, founder and director of GLAAWC. The 2023 conference will feature Alice Dunbar Nelson Professional Keynote Speaker playwright Janice Lowe, plus panels on playwriting, entrepreneurs, comic books, Divine Nine (Black Sororities and

Fraternities) authors, and much more. The free sessions open to the public will run from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

To celebrate Cleveland Book Week, Scene is featuring poetry by local writers alongside AnisfieldWolf Book Award winners as well as an interview with Janice Lowe, who is a Cleveland native and the 2023 GLAAWC Alice Dunbar-Nelson Professional Keynote Speaker. See the full schedule of book week events at https://www.anisfieldwolf.org/.

Illustration by Thao Nguyen

Five Poems by Local Authors

SIAARA FREEMAN

Siaara Freeman is from Cleveland Ohio, where she is the current Heights Poet Laureate. She is a 2021 Premier Playwright fellow recipient with Cleveland Public Theater, a 2020 WateringHole Manuscript fellow, a 2018 winter tangerine chapbook fellow, and a 2018 Poetry Foundation incubator fellow. Her first collection of poetry is Urbanshee (Button Poetry, 2022). She will be presenting at Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator Writing Conference at the downtown Cleveland Public Library on September 22-23.

The (Urban) Urban Legend

For Jessica

Every time a Black girl in my hood in murdered, the beauty shop becomes who’s next? quiet.

A porch becomes a lifeboat. Ladies & children first.

The men cling to whatever they haven’t destroyed in this state of constant emergency. We huddle like a humming pack of slaves, the names of the unrescued chapping our lips.

Weed sales go up, but most of the corner boys just giving you something for free or close. The corner girls are still comforting survivors. Everbody say they was her cousin or friend or lover or auntie or god-mama or classmate or neighbor or uncle or homegirl

or first kiss or last kiss or crush or worst ass whipping or co-worker or got twerk from her at a house party once or got help on a math

test or owed 40 dollars or loaned 40 dollars or grace or grace or grace & tomorrow was gon’ see her. Or she looked damned

familiar. A Hennessy bottle is passed around, a lil bit of everywhere. The liquor matches the amount of blood spilled from the Black girl’s body. The women & girls on the porch turn into creatures. The creatures are made of many

things but mostly scabs & laughter & get up & go & come back when you can. They eat & drink & make sure someone or something is full. The older ones

brush the younger ones’ naps into merry scowls. The young ones comb the older ones’ scalps into well-worn maps. The creatures,

they have heavy skin of burning photographs, of themselves screaming the murdered woman’s name. The creatures wear gowns & graveyard & lingerie & semiautomatics & Jordans & ridicule & booty shorts & brass & knuckles & sundresses & grit & tuxedos

& glass & boxers & panties & strapons & nothing can completely undress them. The creatures make a music from their bones cause you to cry. Their eyes are each other & each other & each other & each other & their jaws are denials revoked. Their nails are anything they can throw that will stick. & that smile? That smile? It is terror deciding who to save first.

Copyright © 2022 by Siaara Freeman.

Used by permission of the author.

SAEED JONES

Saeed Jones won a Kirkus Prize for his 2019 memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives, and is winner of the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in poetry for his collection Alive at the End of the World. Jones will be reading at Karamu House on Tuesday, September 26 at 7 p.m. as part of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards events (this event is free).

That’s Not Snow, It’s Ash

You are no singer, but one night a song is stolen from you, never to be returned. The loss is like a dream about your lover burned alive.

JASON HARRIS

Jason Harris is an American writer, teaching artist, and the Editor in Chief of Literary Cleveland’s Gordon Square Review literary journal. He is a Poetry Fellow of The Watering Hole and served as the Barbara Smith Writer-in-Residence at Twelve Literary Arts. He will be presenting at Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator Writing Conference at the downtown Cleveland Public Library on September 22-23.

Autoportrait

I never answered to my name before the birth of my son. I prefer the smell of outdoors more than anything else. On second thought, I have survived an earthquake. The pacing, the cadence of a sentence means a lot to me. I like the word spectacle, the images it brings to mind, the way it shatters in my head when I say it. The sensation of sneezing annoys me. I’ve given more thought to the integrity of a sentence than I have to the integrity of my feet. I prefer the word strata over the word layers. If it is too hot in the bedroom I cannot sleep. A punctuation mark set in the perfect place is satisfaction. I like looking up at the sky, at night, and seeing the headlights, the bright red blinking dots, of an airplane flying through clouds and fog. I don’t remember the last time I blew a kiss to anyone. Balloons have never been a real source of joy for me but I do like conjuring up the image of a long white string tied to the neck of an inflated balloon as it floats skyward only to deflate and land in the algae-bloom filled swell of Lake Erie. Blowing my nose after

In the morning, he mumbles making breakfast, favorite mug in hand, fine. But you saw what you saw.

You drink your coffee, pat his thigh and watch the snow fall outside, pretending you don’t smell smoke. He’s fine, you think. We are fine.

At 84 Years Old, Toni Morrison Wonders If She’s Depressed

History pretends to forget itself and memory bruises me back into a burdened blue hour. My god, the ghosts don’t come quietly anymore. Sweet headless laughter

a night’s sleep is a bodily function I appreciate. Where I am in the world determines my outlook on life. I used to be an idealist, a dreamer when it came to romantic love. After having my heart broken twice, I believe now that romance and love are not compatible. I prefer to be dry as opposed to wet. Love is not unconditional but a slow, deliberate choice made daily. If removing clothing is involved, there is a good chance that what comes next involves a state of pleasure or pain. I have never been in a fist fight. After enough heartbreak, love becomes pragmatic. I prefer the sight of debris over abandoned buildings; debris suggests change, hope; abandonment suggests exactly that – abandonment. I prefer the sound of dogs barking over the sound of cars speeding or music blaring from car speakers. I like grass and trees and flowers and dirt and rain and mud and snow and fog and lightning and thunder and the smell of freshly cut grass after rainfall. I have received bad news at a doctor’s office. I have had a doctor’s warm hand cup my testicles and been asked to cough. I owned a cat once but he ran away. I like the word buoy, the way it floats off the tongue, the way it holds the shape of my mouth, as if I were

used to scent my kitchen. Every few moons, I’d find my father made of tobacco smoke, his whisper a guitar strum. A women wrapped in white lace walked out of the water

and waited patiently for her name. But these new ghosts march through me in mud-caked boots and smile without teeth. I tell them to clean up after themselves, and dead girls laugh and leave behind bloody blue eyes.

Copyright © 2022 by Saeed Jones. Used by permission of the author.

Courtesy Jason Harris

blowing puffballs off a dandelion. Every house I have lived in has been close to the street. If I had money I would build a small ranch home – in a rural part of Ohio – with enough space to own a farm of some sort. I have survived a tornado. I have never had to survive a mudslide or tsunami or earthquake or wildfire or volcanic eruption or hurricane. I start journals, fill them, then throw them away. I’ve been visited by bumble bees more times than I can count. I’ve been stalked home for something that was not my fault. I’ve ridden alone in elevators and have had the pleasure of having never been stuck in one. I prefer true crime podcasts to music but I prefer true crime when it’s paired with comedy. It took a lot for me to believe in the narrative of my own life. I know that death is near but I can’t think about that when I have a son to care for, to keep alive. I know two people, personally, serving life sentences for murder. I think best when walking somewhere, though it doesn’t matter where. I’ve pulled parking tickets from my windshield and thus had whatever mood I was in ruined or further ruined. I enjoy the rain when I am not in it. I’ve watched a single rower glide through a sunlit haze atop the water that makes the Cuyahoga River. I have walked past dead bodies and didn’t know it until the news came out the next day. I’ve walked past an old train depot that looks like a castle. I dropped out of an MFA program after realizing one master’s degree was enough. Driving down Kinsman once I saw a White woman on a tall horse trotting down the sidewalk in the middle of an afternoon. Jogging down Euclid in East Cleveland, I had a gun pulled out on me; then again on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland. On hot sunny days I look for sidewalks casting shadows from tree branches thick with leaves sick with black bacterial leaf spots. One of my favorite trees in the world – a Cherrybark Oak –has the outline of a bear’s head on it. Daydreaming incites me though I don’t do it often because I don’t have time. Seeing deer in the middle of the city reminds me of home. I’ve looked off in the distance and saw blue drawbridges, smoke in the air, a few white gulls wading in the water. After the birth of my son most of my time is spent in his bedroom playing with blocks or changing his diaper or co-sleeping with him in a swivel glider. The cat who I owned before the one that ran away died of feline infectious peritonitis; one rainy evening after work I pulled into the driveway and found her

lethargic in the tall uncut grass; her fur matted by rain and mud. If I could I would erase all of my tattoos. Once I stood underneath a Cherry Blossom tree but it didn’t change the way I viewed the world or felt about myself. I believe in magic when it comes to certain things. When I was 15 or 16 I lost my virginity late at night, when the rest of the house was asleep. When I read sentences or passages that move me, I copy them down in a notebook with an intention to use them one day in my own thinking. My memories of childhood contain neither good ones nor bad ones, only formative ones. The internet tells me that people are likely to meet a friendly Jason on their travels in life but I cannot fret over whether people find me friendly or not. The first time I traveled to Oregon, I rode in a car with two of the tallest people I know until we ended up on the shores of Cannon Beach. I was struck by how tall the trees were that lined the long winding stretch of road on our way to the beach. I don’t know if the trees were Redwoods or Douglas Firs. It is safer for me to tell the truth about what I don’t remember. I’ve done things with my body I had no business doing. I believe now that what people find valuable is subjective. After the birth of my son, everyone in my life dropped my name and started referring to me as Dad.

Copyright © 2020 by Jason Harris. Used by permission of the author.

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT

Charlayne Hunter-Gault is the 2023 Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards Lifetime Achievement recipient. Hunter-Gault first made history in 1961 when she desegregated the University of Georgia after she mounted a successful legal challenge that granted her admission. Charlayne has worked for The New Yorker, The New York Times, PBS, NPR, and CNN. She has received multiple awards, including an Emmy and Peabody for her distinguished work covering the Apartheid at PBS NewsHour. In her latest book, My People: Five Decades of Writing About Black Lives, Charlayne chronicles her lifelong commitment to reporting on Black people in their totality, from the Civil Rights Movement to the election of Barack Obama, and beyond. She will be featured at The City Club on Friday, September 29 at 11:30 a.m. as part of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards

events.

An excerpt from “Columbia’s Overdue Apology to Langston Hughes”

On a miserably wet evening seven months after the death of Langston Hughes, we sat, almost comfortably (except for our damp feet), in the cavernous Wollman Auditorium, at Columbia University, and listened to the low, bemused voice of Hughes on tape as, against a taped musical background, it sent his “Weary Blues” floating over a group of people who had assembled to pay tribute to him. The program, “A Langston Hughes Memorial Evening,” was sponsored by The Forum, which is, in the words of its nineteen-year-old president, Bruce Kanze, “a student organization that brings to the University interesting people whom the University itself would never consider bringing, to discuss issues and topics that are important.”

A few minutes after eight, when nearly every seat was filled, three men walked onto the stage: Leon Bibb, the actor and singer; Jonathan Kozol, author of “Death at an Early Age”; and Professor James P. Shenton, of Columbia. (“He teaches a course on Reconstruction—the closest thing to a course on Negro history at Columbia,” Mr. Kanze told us later.)

NOOR HINDI

Noor Hindi is a PalestinianAmerican poet and reporter. She is a 2021 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow. Dear God. Dear Bones. Dear Yellow (Haymarket, 2022) is her debut collection of poems. Hindi grew up in Akron and is currently living in Dearborn.

Broken Light Bulb Flickering Away

Every week I fall in love with a new bad idea. I hope one day to magic my body away. I wish for everyone to leave me alone and talk to me at once. Please, forgive me. All I’ve ever wanted is to be the poet laureate of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. All my desires go unnoticed. On my birthday, I visit a fortune-teller. She tells me beware of the letter J. Jackhammers. Joylessness. Jukeboxes.

They were soon joined by Miss Viveca Lindfors, the actress, who was wearing a pale-gray fur coat but removed it as she was sitting down, and gracefully placed it over her mini-exposed knees.

Professor Shenton, who had to leave early, was introduced, and hurried to the microphone. “I am here partly as a way of saying for Columbia that we owe some apologies,” he said solemnly. “For a while, there lived a poet down the street from Columbia, and Columbia never took the time to find out what he was about.” The Professor paused for a few seconds, and then continued, “For a while, there lived a poet down the street from Columbia, who even attended Columbia for a while, and yet he never received an honorary degree from here. When we buried him, then we gave him a memorial. But, after all, that’s the experience of the black man down the street from Columbia.”

Professor Shenton left the platform, and Mr. Kozol, a slim young man wearing rimless glasses, came to the microphone. In 1965, he was discharged from a ghetto school in Boston, in part because he read Langston Hughes’ poem “Ballad of the Landlord” to his class: Landlord, landlord, My roof has sprung a leak. Don’t you ’member I told you about it

White men named Jason. Jesus, there is so much junk in my brain. My father escaped war, and here I am, the perfect immigrant child. I assimilate so much

I drink Diet Coke at the rate of a middle-aged white woman. My mother wanted to be a writer. I should hold her sacrifices but instead sob into a donut decorated like the US flag at 3 a.m. My cat is tired of my antics.

My parents named me Light because their lives lie in shadow but I’m a poor example of joy. Sometimes I get so sad I think about eating a quesadilla, or assembling a tire swing, or taking off my bra. Instead I dream of the big dumb heart my mother hands me. She tells me to carry it. I drop it every time.

Copyright © 2022 by Noor Hindi. Used by permission of the author.

Way last week?

Landlord, landlord, These steps is broken down. When you come up yourself It’s a wonder you don’t fall down.

Ten bucks you say I owe you?

Ten bucks you say is due? Well, that’s ten bucks more’n I’ll pay you

Till you fix this house up new.

What? You gonna get eviction orders?

You gonna cut off my heat?

You gonna take my furniture and Throw it in the street?

Um-huh! You talking high and mighty.

Talk on—till you get through. You ain’t gonna be able to say a word

If I land my fist on you.

Police! Police!

Come and get this man! He’s trying to ruin the government and overturn the land!

Copper’s whistle! Patrol bell!

Arrest.

Precinct station. Iron cell.

Headlines in press:

man threatens landlord tenant held no bail judge gives negro 90 days in county jail

Mr. Kozol said that he might have avoided some of the trouble that eventually led to his firing if he had chosen to “restrict his reading and reference materials to the list of approved publications”—poetry, for instance, to be read from officially approved selections called “Memory Gems.” He gave the Hughes audience a sample:

“Dare to be right! Dare to be true: The failings of others can never save you.

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith; Stand like a hero, and battle till death.”

And another:

“There is beauty in the sunshine An’ clouds that roam the sky; There is beauty in the Heavens, An’ the stars that shine on high.”

Mr. Kozol said that he had never

met Langston Hughes but that a short while after his much publicized firing he had received a new collection of Hughes’ “Simple” stories from the poet, with these words written on the flyleaf: “I wish the rent / Was heaven sent.”

Leon Bibb, in his turn, rose and thanked Mr. Hughes, whom he called Lang, first by reading the James Weldon Johnson poem “O Black and Unknown Bards” and then by giving a poignant rendering of Mr. Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and the spiritual “I’ve Been ’Buked and I’ve Been Scorned.” He wound up by saying, “Lang had the foresight to stand on his own words.”

Soon Hughes’ own words were being read by Miss Lindfors, who remained seated, and whose Swedish accent was lost in translation as she read from “The Panther and the Lash,” a recent Hughes collection, brought out by Knopf. …She read about the “Dream Deferred.” And she read “Impasse”:

If you want to see me, Come down.”

The memorial to Langston Hughes ended as it had begun, with Langston Hughes’ low, bemused voice—this time telling about how he came from the Midwest to Columbia to go to school, and caused great consternation when he presented himself at Hartley Hall. That was in 1921, and no one of African descent, he says, had ever lived in a dormitory at Columbia. “There are many barriers people try to break down,” he told an audience (which had also been a Columbia audience) when the tape was made, in 1964. “I try to do it with poetry.”

Copyright © 1967 by Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Used by permission of the author.

Interview with Janice Lowe

by Bruce

Morrow

is very much a part of my poetry collection, Leaving CLE: poems of nomadic dispersal, which deals with how my flashbulb memories come from my experience of moving with my family to cities in the northeast, Midwest, mid-Atlantic and south. I have an acutely accurate recall of happenings around the times of most of the moves. I needed to write those poems in order to understand my parents’ dream trajectory and my complicated feelings about the moves. I am most fond of Cleveland, my birth city–where my close-knit family lived longest. We actually lived in Cleveland twice.

How do you approach shifting between different artistic contexts and genres?

Miss Lindfors also read the poem whose first line is “That Justice is a blind goddess” and the poem about “Birmingham Sunday”—September 15, 1963, when four little Negro girls were killed in Sunday school by a bomb thrown from outside the church. Miss Lindfors read several more poems—some bitterly humorous ones, and the one that asks, “What color / Is the face / Of war?,” and one called “Peace,” and, finally, “Down Where I Am”:

“Too many years Beatin’ at the door— I done beat my Both fists sore.

“Too many years Tryin’ to get up there— Done broke my ankles down, Got nowhere.

“Too many years Climbin’ that hill, ’Bout out of breath. I got my fill.

“I’m gonna plant my feet On solid ground.

Janice A. Lowe, a composer-poet and multidisciplinary artist, is the author of Leaving CLE: poems of nomadic dispersal (Miami University Press) and SWAM (Belladonna Collaborative.) A native of Cleveland, she was honored to write the foreword for the anthology World’d Too Much: The Poetry of Russell Atkins (Cleveland State University Press.) With Teri Ellen Cross Davis and Kelly Harris-DeBerry, Lowe was recently a featured speaker/ performer at “Homecoming: Three Black Women Creatives Return to the Land.” Lowe has performed/ recorded with many bands and has composed music for theater and dance companies across the country. The album Leaving CLE Songs of Nomadic Dispersal, performed by Janice Lowe & NAMAROON has been described by The Black Fantastic as a “killer musical offering” and by Helen Young as a “notable...experimental jazz record.” She is a co-founder of the Dark Room Collective.

Attendees of the free Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (GLAAWC) can enjoy Janice Lowe’s Alice Dunbar-Nelson Professional Keynote at the Louis Stokes Wing Main Auditorium of the CPL Main Branch on Saturday, September 30.

Your compositions often explore themes of home, displacement, and cultural identity. How do you translate these themes into your music and poetry?

My parents’ Great Migration story

After writing the manuscript, I composed underscoring for poems, interspersed the poems with instrumental or sung moments, or sometimes set entire poems to music. Pretty soon I shifted to writing arrangements for several instruments, including myself on piano and playing/singing my poetry readings as concerts. While listening to the page, the poems— even the densely-worded ones called to me to play piano and to offer them as singable entities, even though performing them as such was physically demanding. Making music of the poems helped me to resolve the difficulty of that last move from Cleveland—a city I learned to love through my dad, who did community work after coming home from his civil service job and my English teacher mom’s quest to have us partake of the city’s arts offerings. The transformation felt natural to my creative voice as a composer who collaborates with lyricists. I was finally bringing both sides of me together.

Your album Leaving CLE Songs of Nomadic Dispersal is a fusion of your poetry and musical compositions. How did you approach blending these two art forms?

Leaving CLE Songs as a recording came together organically as an evolution of performing the poems with musicians. Accompanying myself on piano while singing poetry of family and place connected me to a griot-inspired calling. These poems needed background singers, as well to function as a Greek chorus, reacting to and commenting on the drama inside the poem’s stories. Even with the numbers of words, I wanted to sing an intimate plaintive story or a kineticallycharged one or one that jumps

“I could tell you, If I wanted to, What makes me What I am.

“But I don’t Really want to— And you don’t Give a damn.”

outside the poem/lyric to dialogue with the audience, or one that has fun performing itself. Some of my early performer influences along those lines were Billie Holiday, Gil Scott-Heron and ParliamentFunkadelic.

How do you approach collaborating with other artists, such as Julie Ezelle Patton and Tyehimba Jess?

In performance, Julie Ezelle Patton blends visual art, music, poetry and improvised text. I’ve joined her as a pianist in co-creating extemporaneous text-soundscapes. When working with Julie, I am attentive to the happy accidents of found sounds, including sounds of spontaneous dance steps on wooden floor, breath, and playing off all that is collected and channeled.

As an improvising pianist, I’ve also performed and recorded with the band Irreversible Entanglements on their latest album, Protect Your Light; on flute and voice with the band Brahja; and on voice and electronics with Anne Waldman and Fast Speaking music.

Tyehimba Jess and I have collaborated on Millie and Christine McKoy Sister’s Syncopated Sonnets in Song, part song cycle, part theater and part visual which incorporates poems from Jess’s Pulitzer Prize-awarded collection, OLIO, about conjoined twin sisters, the performers Millie and Christine McKoy, who were born into slavery in North Carolina. The lines of the poems can be read in multidirections. As a multidisciplinary piece, I’ve set the poems to music in ways that explore the various directions in which a reader can encounter the text. Tyehimba and began working together by asking the question, “What is the sound of being conjoined?” and by exploring the oneness of the sisters, who referred to herself in singular, as well as their separate minds.

Your performances often involve improvisation. Could you discuss your creative process when it comes to balancing composition and improvisation and creating a seamless performance? Do you use improvisation for your musical theater work?

In an improvised music context, I’ll compose a sketch of a tune, loosely organize it into movements and then, together with an ensemble, open things to full improvisation. I’ll spur spontaneous development with words that suggest color, kinetics, place emotion. I have collaborated

as an improvising musician/ composer on several theater pieces–most recently Dream, Girl! (Apollo Theater Salon-Series) and We Are Cambridge (RootUprising Dance Company). The amount of improvisation depends on what’s needed for a particular moment in the scene/story/sound world.

You’ve worked at Rutgers University, Teachers & Writers Collaborative and the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. How do you approach teaching and mentoring emerging artists and writers?

While teaching in the Summer Writing Program at Naropa, which encourages experimental teaching practices, I began developing ideas about teaching interdisciplinary creative writing. At Rutgers, I teach a multi-media writing class—Memoirist’s Mixtape that encourages students to mine, remix and collage their writing sound and video creations in ways that explore writing as an interactive, interdisciplinary entity.

What upcoming projects are you excited about, and how do you see your artistic journey evolving in the coming years? With bookwriter-lyricist Stephanie L. Jones, I’m collaborating as composer on LIL BUDDA (The Sequel), an audience interactive theater performance and multimedia installation that explores the “smack dab in the multiverse of middle age story” of a Black social media personality, performer and influencer at the top of her popularity who quiets the noise in order to prioritize her relationships and work/life balance.

I’m interested in collaborating with neighborhoods, musicians/ poets/artists to create public sound art installations that bring communities and artists together, from planning to implementation.

Bruce Morrow is a multimedia artist whose practice includes writing, filmmaking, and digital artmaking. His first short film, IN DREAMS BEGIN..., earned Best LGBTQ Jury and Audience Awards at the 2023 Paris Short Film Festival. He is a former fiction editor at Callaloo and a co-editor of “Shade: An Anthology of Short Fiction by Gay Men of African Descent.” He’s originally from Cleveland Heights, OH.

scene@clevescene.com

t@clevelandscene

GET OUT Everything to do in Cleveland for the next two weeks

WED 09/06

Six

The six wives of Henry VIII take the mic to remix five hundred years of historical heartbreak into what press materials describe as “an exuberant celebration of 21stcentury girl power.” Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at Connor Palace, where performances continue through Sunday. 1615 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

Walnut Wednesday

Walnut Wednesday is one of summer’s great traditions. Today from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Perk Plaza at Chester Commons — at East 12th and Walnut streets — food trucks gather to serve up lunch to area residents and employees. Follow the Downtown Cleveland Alliance on Facebook for weekly updates on vendors, entertainment offerings and more. Admission is free, but the food will cost you. downtowncleveland.com.

THU 09/07

Michael Blackson

Known as the “African King of Comedy,” Michael Blackson developed his comedic skills with original humor and the ability to be fearless on stage. He jokes about current affairs and takes aim at celebs such as Kim Kardashian and Michael Jordan; however, he also focuses on more serious topics such as race, his love for America and his African descent. He performs at 7:30 tonight at the Improv, where he has shows scheduled through Saturday. 1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

FRI 09/08

Dave Chappelle

During the course of his lengthy career, comedian Dave Chappelle has garnered more than 30 nominations and awards in television and film. Critics consider his Chappelle’s Show a cult classic, and Chappelle has received five Emmy awards, including three for his Netflix comedy specials. He performs tonight at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. One Center Court, 216-420-2000,

rocketmortgagefieldhouse.com.

Cleveland Oktoberfest

The annual Paulaner Cleveland Oktoberfest continues today and tomorrow at Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. The fest features more than 15 different types of Oktoberfest-style beers, German and European restaurants, bands from all over the world, vendors and local artisans, a daily beer stein-holding contest, the largest glockenspiel in the country, wiener dog races, a Miss Oktoberfest contest, a 5-K race and entertainment for all ages. More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the event. Consult the website for a schedule and hours of operation.

19201 East Bagley Rd., Middleburg Heights, 440- 243-0090, clevelandoktoberfest.com.

Jay Pharoah

When Jay Pharaoh was on Saturday Night Live, he did very funny impersonations of President Obama, Jay Z, Denzel Washington, Kanye West and Daniel Frye. At one point, he nailed a sketch impersonating rappers at the “secret rappers meeting” wherein Jay Z consulted friends like 50 Cent, DMX, Lil Wayne and Drake on what to do since Beyoncé aired his dirty laundry on Lemonade. Each impression Pharaoh did was spot-on and hilarious, so you’re not going to want to miss him at Hilarities, where he performs tonight and tomorrow night at 7 and 9:45. 2035 East Fourth St., 216-241-7425, pickwickandfrolic.com.

SAT 09/09

Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy

The Akron Symphony Orchestra plays compositions by many prominent video game composers, including Nobuo Uematsu. The concert begins tonight at 7 at Blossom.

1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, clevelandorchestra.com.

Fresh Fest Cleveland

Fresh Fest Cleveland returns today to Rid-All Farm & Otter Park with headliners KRS-One and DJ Scratch. In addition to the music, the free festival will also feature a full day of unforgettable performances, art installations,

health and wellness activities, a farmer’s market, chef tastings, local vendors, hands-on activities, workshops and a kids zone. The event takes place from 1 to 9 p.m. 8129 Otter Ave., freshfestcleveland. com.

Superior Block Party 2023

Fourteen local acts will perform at today’s Superior Block Party that takes place at Lake Affect Studios. There will also be DJs, art installations, food and drink, and yoga brought to you by, Kat from Rise Yoga Cleveland (bring a mat or one will be provided). The event takes place from 2 to 11 p.m. It’s free.

1615 East 25th St., 216-298-9018, facebook.com/lakeaffectstudios.

Thurgood

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall devoted his life to championing justice and equality for all people, and this biographical play chronicles the man’s many achievements. It stars film, TV and regional theater veteran Lester Purry, Tonight’s performance takes place at 7:30 at the Allen Theatre, where performances continue through Oct. 1.

1407 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

SUN 09/10

Browns vs. Cincinnati Bengals

The Cleveland Browns start the season off against division rivals the Cincinnati Bengals, a team that’s just two years removed from a Super Bowl appearance. This early season matchup against what should be a playoff-caliber Bengals team will give fans a look at how well the Browns might compete this year. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

100 Alfred Lerner Way, 440-8915000, clevelandbrowns.com.

Shining Star CLE 2023

Proceeds from this singing competition provide funding for an array of memory care services and programs. Students from across a ten-county area have the opportunity to showcase their talents and compete for $18,500 in college scholarships. The competition begins at 7 p.m. at the Mimi Ohio Theatre.

1511 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

MON 09/11

Memorial Monday

Every Monday through Sept. 25,

Cleveland Oktoberfest is back at Cuyahoga County Fairgrounds. See: Friday. Courtesy of Courtesy of Cleveland Oktoberfest

Fort Huntington Park hosts food tracks and live music between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. for this special event. Admission is free, but the food will cost you. West 3rd St. and West Lakeside Ave., downtowncleveland.com.

TUE 09/12

Lyrical Rhythms Open Mic and Chill

This long-running open mic night at the B Side allows some of the city’s best rappers and poets to strut their stuff. The event begins at 8 with a comedy session dubbed 2 Drinks & a Joke with host Ant Morrow. The open mic performances begin at 10 p.m. Tickets cost $5 in advance, $10 at the door.

2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-932-1966, bsideliquorlounge.com.

WED 09/13

Midnight Rental Presents Secret Movie Night

Hosted by Lenora from the internet hit-series Midnight Rental, this movie night features what it deems to be the best in VHS horror, thriller and campy classics. The event begins tonight at 8 at the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights, and the club will feature a special movie night menu for the event.

2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, 216-321-5588, grogshop.gs.

THU 09/14

Jim Gaffigan: Barely Alive Tour

The very funny actor and comedian Jim Gaffigan has recorded comedy albums and toured since the 1990s. Famous for his very funny bit about Hot Pockets, he performs at 7 tonight and tomorrow night at the State Theatre.

1519 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

FRI 09/15

Adele Givens

Known as the Queen of Comedy, Adele Givens uses her crass sense of humor to focus on everyday situations such as marriage, going to the gynecologist, and picking baby names. She also examines double standards. She performs tonight at 7:30 and 10 at the Improv, where shows are scheduled through Sunday.

1148 Main Ave., 216-696-IMPROV, clevelandimprov.com.

Guardians vs. Texas Rangers

When the Guardians played the Texas Rangers in Texas earlier this year, the Rangers came away with a sweep. Hopefully, the Guardians will fare better this time around as the two teams start a three-game series today at Progressive Field. Tonight’s game begins at 7:10. 2401 Ontario St., 216-420-4487, mlb. com/guardians.

Third Friday

From 5 to 9 p.m., many of the 78th Street Studios resident artist studios and galleries will be open as part of this monthly event. There will be live music, and Local West, a Gordon Square sandwich shop, will serve food. BARneo will have a selection of adult beverages as well. Admission is free.

1300 West 78th St., 78thstreetstudios.com.

SAT 09/16

The Cleveland Pride Band Presents Legacy

The local symphonic concert group celebrates its 20th anniversary with tonight’s performance at the Mimi Ohio Theatre. The show will feature world class flautist George Pope. The music begins at 7. 1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

Mary Mack

Mary Mack’s story-based comedy comes off as a cross between Gilda Radner and Garrison Keillor. Mack, who’s been a guest on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, The Bob and Tom Show and The Grand Ole Opry, comes to Cain Park in Cleveland Heights tonight at 7. 14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark. com.

SUN 09/17

Herb Alpert and Lani Hall in Concert

More than just a concert, this show featuring veteran jazz acts Herb Alpert and Lani Hall will include a giant video screen that displays hundreds of classic photos, videos and various memorabilia from the two artists’ careers. The event takes place tonight at 7 at the Mimi Ohio Theatre.

1501 Euclid Ave., 216-241-6000, playhousesquare.org.

scene@clevescene.com

t@clevelandscene

MOVIES

NOT JUST ANOTHER TEEN MOVIE

Zany and fearless, Bottoms takes on high school from a raunchy lesbian point of view

By Craig D. Lindsey

IF THIS WAS 20 YEARS AGO, Bottoms would kill on the gay & lesbian film festival circuit.

As someone who has written about LGBTQ film fests in the past, I found this uber-zany, proudly queer, teen burlesque just the kind of fun, frivolous nonsense programmers would look for to balance out the slew of well-meaning dramas and documentaries that would nevertheless bum everyone — gay, straight, whatever — the fuck out. But this is 2023, and queer culture is all over movies, television, streaming, etc. My good friend and fellow film-reviewing colleague Jason Shawhan recently wrote an essay in Nashville Scene breaking down the queerness that’s been infiltrating the multiplexes these days. From Barbie’s homoerotic humor (weren’t those Kens more into each other than the Barbies?) to Jason Momoa being the Fast and Furious franchise’s first sexually ambiguous villain to the alpha-bro in the latest A24 scarefest Talk to Me being played by a trans actor to Disney’s The Haunted Mansion, directed by gay director Justin Simien, quietly hinting that Tiffany Haddish and Jamie Lee Curtis’s psychics could have a wonderful life together, it’s been a, shall we say, fabulous time at the movies this summer.

Bottoms belongs in the more low-budget, indie section of the multiplex (a.k.a. the ones that are bold enough to have screens for queer flicks like Passages and Theater Camp). After giving us the claustrophobic comedy Shiva Baby, director Emma Seligman (who is herself gay) and actress Rachel Sennott once again team up to drop their own take on the raunchy teensex farce. This time, the desperate, virginal protagonists looking to land some tantalizing teenage girls are teenage girls themselves.

Sennott reunites with the ubiquitous Ayo Edebiri (they starred in the very short-lived Comedy Central web series Ayo and Rachel Are Single) to play PJ and Rosie, two high-school seniors/nerdy lesbians who have crushes on the resident popular cheerleaders (models Havana Rose Liu and Kaia

Gerber). When word gets out that their school’s rival football team is attacking students, PJ and Josie set up a self-defense club for the female students. Of course, they don’t know a damn thing about defending themselves. But since the student body thinks PJ and Rosie have been in juvie (a long story) — and their crushes join the club — they run with the lie and basically oversee a fight club for gals.

Bottoms is an hour and 32 minutes of Seligman and Sennott (who both wrote the script) indulging in the same adolescent, horndog fantasies male filmmakers have been slapping on the big screen for generations. Sennott and Edebiri basically play the queer female versions of Jonah Hill and Michael Cera’s lustful teen losers from Superbad. Sennott fearlessly goes into asshole mode at every turn, as her character is so steadfast in her mission to get into a girl’s pants, she doesn’t mind alienating her fellow teenage queer brethren. As for Edebiri, who often acts like a female Donald Glover, she serves

BOTTOMS

as the sheepish straight (pardon the pun) man.

Since this is a comedy written and directed by women, the shenanigans are more satirical — and more feminist. The footballplaying boys (who are constantly in full uniform, all looking like ditzy-ass versions of Kevin from Daria) act more queer than the movie’s actual queer people. In fact, the majority of the male characters are gotdamn fools. Leading the charge is former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, scoring laughs left and right as a false factspewing, going-through-a-divorce teacher who becomes the girls’ club sponsor.

The film’s reckless, absurdist abandon almost brings to mind the blatantly ludicrous, hyper-satirical

style gay screenwriter/playwright/ wicked wit Paul Rudnick brought to such major-studio farces as In and Out, The First Wives Club (for which he did a bitchy, uncredited rewrite) and that much-maligned, batshit culture crash Marci X

As enjoyable as it is watching teen girls be just as horny as the guys, I often felt like the lunacy would get away from Seligman and Sennott. The movie’s such a Mad Magazine-style parody of high school, much of it felt like farce for the sake of farce.

Then again, maybe that’s the point. I’m sure many people will tell you that high school was the most absurd, insane time of their lives. Bottoms makes it known that it was also just as absurd and insane for the queer folk. As far as R-rated teen comedies for the ladies go, Bottoms is certainly a more exuberant — and exuberantly gay (in every sense of the word) — film than Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart

DIRECTED BY EMMA SELIGMAN. WRITTEN BY EMMA SELIGMAN AND RACHEL SENNOTT.

Queer girls Josie (Ayo Edebiri) and PJ (Rachel Sennott), on the far left, cope with the absurdity of high school COURTESY OF ORION PICTURES INC © 2023 ORION RELEASING LLC

ENCORE

After losing a decade-old mainstay, Playhouse Square scores a hit with Sushi En

By Douglas Trattner

LAST SUMMER, theatergoers were crushed to learn that Sung’s House was closing its doors in Playhouse Square after a decade in business. Sandwiched between the Ohio and Allen theaters, the restaurant had cultivated an enthusiastic following for its well-crafted Japanese and Korean cuisine, which it served in a reliably efficient and consistent manner.

Less than six months later, however, Sushi En opened in the same spot. It was a near-seamless transition that presented diners with a similar menu of Japanese and Korean dishes served in a reliably efficient and consistent manner. Downtown Cleveland became location number three for Sushi En, which launched in Columbus nearly 20 years ago.

In 2021, owner Jihyoung Hwang opened a Twinsburg location and later this year he will unveil Gogi En, a Korean barbecue restaurant in Solon.

Presently obscured by scaffolding, Sushi En is a shotgun space with almost zero street presence. But like its predecessor, it is worth seeking out when looking for a casual, enjoyable lunch or dinner option. As is the case at many Playhouse Square spots, the restaurant ebbs and flows depending on the hour and the day. We enjoyed a leisurely midweek lunch when the dining room was approximately one-third full. On a recent Friday evening, when the musical Six was being performed in the Palace Theatre, we snagged one of the last available tables. By the time we were digging into our appetizers, there was only a handful of stragglers remaining in the entire restaurant. Such are the pros and cons of being a “theater restaurant,” says manager Mark Chun.

“Anytime there is a show night, we can guarantee that customers will be walking through the door and we’ll have a pretty decent dinner rush,” he explains. “The only problem with that is everyone will come within an hour, hour-and-ahalf time period. It’s a little hard to maintain a good energy level when there’s a big wave and then nothing, a big wave and then nothing.”

Despite such challenging logistics, Sushi En manages to exceed expectations with respect to food and service. There aren’t many places downtown where a diner can enjoy a sit-down lunch in under an hour while still being waited on by a human being and eating off non-disposable tableware. Even during the peak of a theater-night dinner rush, we never felt ignored or rushed.

At both lunch and dinner, Sushi En delivers an excellent selection of high-quality raw and cooked sushi. From straightforward sashimi and nigiri on up to wildly colorful and creative rolls, the sushi bar offers something for all comfort levels. We skipped the nigiri combo platters in favor of designing our own with pieces of yellowtail ($3.75), mackerel ($2.75), shrimp ($3.00), king salmon ($4.50) and salmon roe ($5.50). Rolls can be as unfussy as the slender

hamachi and scallion ($6.50) or as intricate as the Kinky Eel ($13.45), an inside-out roll stuffed with eel, smoked salmon, crispy salmon skin and cucumber and drizzled with eel sauce. There are literally dozens more rolls from which to choose.

If you do find yourself crunched for time on a theater night, you’ll likely dine quicker if you sidestep the sushi bar for something from the kitchen. Sushi En fries up exceptional shrimp tempura ($8.95), which is paired with sweet potato slices and broccoli florets. The pork gyoza ($6.95) is flash fried rather than pan fried, leaving it crispy all around. I’ve had better, crispier takoyaki ($7.50), but these are appropriately sweet, savory, saucy and studded with bits of octopus.

Because Sushi En blends Korean and Japanese cuisines, diners can elect between dishes like bibimbap ($15.95) and ramen ($14.95). The

former, served in screaming-hot crock, is a comforting medley of rice, tofu, vegetables and a fried egg. A squeeze bottle of spicy gochujangbased bibimbap sauce is on the table for topping. By the time the ramen landed on our table, the seafood –shrimp and squid – was hopelessly overcooked but the bouncy egg noodles in spicy broth still hit the spot. Fans of Korean BBQ can savor the flavor, if not the sizzle and sear, of bulgogi ($24.95) thanks to the kitchen-prepared version offered here. Most entrees include the standard miso soup and gingerdressed iceberg salad combo.

Sushi En offers a decent selection of sake, including warm, dry and unfiltered varieties. The drinks menu also has domestic and Japanese beers, house cocktails, and a handful of red, white and sparkling wines by the glass and bottle.

Josh Long Photography

BITES

Michael Symon’s latest cookbook out this month

By Douglas Trattner

ON TUESDAY, September 12, Michael Symon’s latest cookbook, “Simply Symon Suppers: Recipes and Menus for Every Week of the Year,” will be published. It is the Cleveland native’s eight cookbook and as usual, it is co-authored by Scene dining editor Douglas Trattner.

Symon’s largest collection of recipes to date, “Simply Symon Suppers” (Clarkson Potter) offers readers more than 165 recipes spread across 350 beautiful pages. Many of the recipes were inspired by dishes the chef prepared on “Symon’s Dinners Cooking Out,” his popular Food Network show filmed at his house in New York. Those recipes are illustrated by 150 fullcolor photographs.

Not only is this book Symon’s largest, it is his most personal. Many of the recipes come straight from his childhood dinner table, his festive holiday celebrations, and his and wife Liz’s present-day entertaining repertoire.

“I love every single book that I have written, but if I’m being honest here, this one might be my new favorite,” Symon explains. “Coming up with the recipes was a labor of love that conjured so many amazing memories of growing up, but also the new memories that I’m creating as a grandfather myself. I hope that some of these recipes become a small part of your family traditions as well.”

Trattner, an accomplished home cook himself, has been enjoying many of these recipes for months.

“After a pair of ‘Fix it With Food’ cookbooks focusing on antiinflammation tools, tips, resets and recipes, it was fun to jump back into robust, indulgent and celebratory recipes like American goulash, braciole, corned beef and cabbage, and smoked prime rib. New to this book is a format that puts forward complete meals, such a Symon’s famous Thanksgiving feast starring turkey, corn pudding, gravy and dressing.”

Now Open: Sweet Pork Wilson’s Barbecue on Cleveland-Lakewood Border

After graduating from St. Ignatius, Jason Brooks went on to play college football at University of Michigan and West Virginia University, where tailgating is a way of life. When he wasn’t on the gridiron, he was cooking for large crowds and honing his skills.

“Before pop-ups were cool, there was tailgating,” he explains.

Brooks has taken his lifelong obsession with food and cooking and turned it into a vocation. His barbecue restaurant, Sweet Pork Wilson’s (11634 Madison Ave., 216938-5673), will celebrate its grand opening this weekend. Brooks gutted and rebuilt the former Highland Tavern at the corner of Madison and 117th, which is located across the street from the RTA station.

“I have 26 feet of cooking space outside,” says Brooks. “When you come here, you’re going to smell me before you see me.”

Coming off those wood-fueled pits are barbecue staples like beef brisket, pulled pork, ribs and chicken wings. Brooks describes his style as an amalgamation, much like the city he calls home.

“Cleveland is diverse – it’s everything – and it’s who I am,” he says. “That’s what barbecue should be: it should be a reflection of who you are. I’m not trying to copy anybody. I call our sauce ‘America’s Sauce’ because Cleveland is everywhere and we have everything. It’s what I ate growing up.”

In addition to the classic BBQ platters, Brooks offers Polish Boys, Polish Girls and chicken cheesesteaks made with smoked chicken thighs, peppers and onions, which are a hit with hurried commuters, he adds.

The Village Dog in Slavic Village to Open in September

Announced over a year ago, the Village Dog (7321 Broadway Ave.) in Slavic Village is finally approaching the finish line. Owner Donnie DiGeronimo says that his “cool, trendy” hot dog diner is expected to open by the middle of September.

Located in the former Burger

Haven building at the intersection of Fleet and Broadway, the Village Dog has transformed a longneglected parcel into a hip weenie oasis. DiGeronimo says that the new venture is drive-thru-only, but there is outdoor seating on the newly landscaped plot.

The concise menu offers a variety of hot dog preparartions like Chicago-style, chili-cheese, Rueben dogs and Polish Boys. Customers can also build their own from a selection of toppings. There are vegan dogs and chicken tenders as well.

Sides include tater tots, chilicheese tots, onion rings and fried mac and cheese. For dessert, there is soft-serve ice cream and milkshakes.

“We’re trying to create a nice gathering spot and option for food in that area,” DiGeronimo adds. “This is part of a bigger picture in Slavic Village. We’re participating in a bunch of rejuvenation projects in the area, so this is just another opportunity to get a defunct and destabilized building into a good position for the area.” dtrattner@clevescene.com t

Courtesy ‎Clarkson Potter

MUSIC

A NEW WAVE OF MOMENTUM

Brit rockers Duran Duran come to Blossom in the wake of their Rock Hall induction

By Jeff Niesel

DURAN DURAN, THE British New Wave group that formed in the late ’70s had been eligible for induction into the Rock Hall for several years, before the Rock Hall finally decided the group was worthy of the honor last year in a long overdue gesture from the voting academy. Speaking in a recent phone interview from his Los Angeles home, bassist John Taylor says the band considered it a great honor even if the distinction didn’t come as quickly as it should have.

“Who gets frustrated about stuff like that?” he says when asked if the band was perturbed that it took such a long time to be inducted. Duran Duran performs with Chic on Sunday, Sept. 10, at Blossom. “[The Inductions were] great. Most people who do what I do are outsiders. We’re not part of the union, but we have our little posses. When you come together for an event like that, you realize you’re part of a group that has some power because it’s contemporary music and you have your place in it. It’s invigorating. And I got some humility from it too. We were somewhere between the Eurythmics and Eminem. I can hang there. It works for me.”

Former member Andy Taylor’s announcement that he was battling cancer added a bit of poignancy to the induction.

“He’s undergoing treatment and feeling better today than he was a year ago,” says Taylor when asked about his former bandmate. “We

will raise money for his treatment with a show we’re playing. We’re connected again with him, which is nice. [Singer] Simon [Le Bon] and [drummer] Roger [Taylor] just saw him over the weekend. We’re with him and hoping to pass on his spirit as much as possible. You get to a certain age, and these things happen. Friends are going to get sick.”

Given that the group started way back in 1978, it’s no wonder that aging has become a concern. Band members were still quite young when Duran Duran released its self-titled debut in 1981 and spearheaded what was then called the New Romantic movement. Despite their youth, the guys took a sophisticated approach to making music and drew from an array of musical influences.

“It was an exciting time for young people,” says Taylor. “We had the punk rock explosion with the Sex Pistols and the Clash. It was an incredibly energized era. We all got started in that. [Guitarist] Andy [Taylor] was the only one who came from a different angle and was into hard rock. The rest of us came at it from New Wave. We were unique in so far as we took disco music seriously and were toying with synthesizers and early sequencers and were groove-aware. Punk rock wasn’t a rhythm section’s medium. We were very much about building a rhythm section that would make people wanna dance. That was a big part of what we were about.”

Taylor cites the Beatles and

Bowie as two of the acts he particularly admired.

“My mother loved the Beatles,” he says. “Then, I got into Bowie in my teens. I followed his journey as a teenager more closely than anybody else. I loved Roxy Music as well. I loved the sonic textures they had going with the saxophone and the oboe and the synthesizers and guitar. Bowie was great because he kept changing. He wouldn’t let himself be defined by any one sound or style. At the time, I didn’t realize how unusual that was. Now, I look back and think, ‘Who else did that?’”

Taylor says the Pistols and Clash showed him that he could be a musician even if he didn’t have any formal training. Thanks to some exposure from MTV, the single “Girls on Film” became a major hit, and the group continued delivering hits throughout the late ‘80s and early ’90s.

“I think in terms of breaking America, we could’t have done it without MTV, which carved out a new audience that hadn’t really existed,” he says. “It was like a rallying point for kids who weren’t into the classic rock and the stuff that was the mainstream American music. MTV was this place you could go and hear all sorts of interesting music. It was very unAmerican really, but it was kids looking for something different. I think the LGTBQ movement was moved forward by MTV, which was a very broad church. Duran Duran was just a part of that. We were very fortunate in that we were a strong team, and we were five very ambitious guys.”

While the band’s popularity waned a bit in the ‘90s, since releasing Astronaut in 2004, the group has put out new album every four or five years. The latest

effort, 2021’s Future Past, features introspective songs. Though written before the pandemic, they actually speak to what people felt during the lockdown that took place.

“When you’re working on songs, you don’t know what the fuck you’re doing,” says Taylor. “You just have to show up day in and day out. Musically, we are usually ahead with musical ideas and you have technology on your side. Lyrically, it’s harder. The one time that we really got lucky was with ‘Invisible.’ It was one of the first songs we wrote for the sessions. It was at a point when Simon [Le Bon] was having issues around the home and he was feeling invisible within his marriage. He wrote about that. To come out of lockdown and to pick up the strands of the album, we listened to this song, and it spoke to what people had been feeling.”

With its funky bass riffs, metallic-sounding drums and forlorn vocals, the tune captures Duran Duran at its essence and sounds both retro and contemporary.

The Blossom show appropriately pairs the band with Chic, a ’70s funk band that served as an inspiration.

“I always say to run don’t walk to see Chic,” says Taylor. “It’s magical for us. They were there at the beginning of the band. They are such a big part of Duran Duran’s DNA. To bring them to our audience is great. You will never see another band like them that plays disco and funk and R&B with that level of musicianship. We’re very proud to have them with us.”

DURAN DURAN

CHIC, 7 P.M. SUNDAY, SEPT. 10, BLOSSOM, 1145 W. STEELS CORNERS, CUYAHOGA FALLS, 330-920-8040. TICKETS: $35.50+, LIVENATION.COM.

Duran Duran. | Jonas Åkerlund

LIVEWIRE Real music in the real world

THU 09/07

The Breeders

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of their breakthrough album, Last Splash, this indie rock group out of Dayton, OH will perform the album in its entirety. The group, which just released “Go Man Go,” a careening track from the forthcoming Last Splash (30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition), has been supporting the Foo Fighters on tour, so it should be well-primed for this small hall show at the Rock Hall. The concert begins at 8 p.m.

1100 Rock and Roll Blvd., 216-5158444, rockhall.com.

Old Crow Medicine Show

Old Crow Medicine Show, an Americana string band based in Nashville that has been recording since 1998, brings its latest tour to Cain Park in Cleveland Heights. Most known for the country hit “Wagon Wheel,” the 2014 album Remedy won the Grammy Award for Best Folk Album. The group’s music has been called old-time, folk and alternative country. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs. The band has recently released its eighth studio album, Jubilee, which features the lead single “Miles Away.”

The show begins at 8 p.m.

14591 Superior Rd., Cleveland Heights, 216-371-3000, cainpark.com

Jake Owen

This Florida-born singer-songwriter and actor had a hit right out of the gates with his 2006 debut studio album, Startin’ with Me. The album produced three hit singles, including “Yee Haw,” a twangy tune that shows off Owen’s deep, Johnny Cash-like voice. Owen brings his Loose Cannon tour to the Agora tonight at 6. Tyler Booth and Daves Highway open. 5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.

SAT 09/09

Air Supply

The late ‘80s and early ‘90s were particularly good to this soft rock act out of Australia. During that time period, it delivered eight top-five hits on the U.S., including classic numbers such as “All Out of Love” and “Here I Am.” The group performs tonight at 8 at MGM Northfield Park — Center

Stage. 10705 Northfield Rd., Northfield, 330-908-7793, mgmnorthfieldpark. mgmresorts.com/en.html.

Local Natives

Time Will Wait For No One, the latest effort from this L.A.-based indie rock act, showcases the band’s pristine vocal harmonies. Recorded with Grammywinning producer John Congleton (Angel Olsen, Death Cab For Cutie, St. Vincent, Sharon Van Etten), Michael Harris (Lana Del Rey, Feist) and Danny Reisch (Sun June, Other Lives), it might be the best representation of the group’s classic, ‘70s-inspired sound. On tour in support of the album, the group performs tonight at 8 at House of Blues.

308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

SUN 09/10

Tash Sultana

This tour, singer-multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana’s first visit to the States in three years, will find Sultana performing sophomore album Terra Firma in North America for the first time as well as hits from the Notion EP and Flow State. The show starts tonight at 7 at the Agora. Go-jo opens the show.

5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.

MON 09/11

Everclear

Shortly after forming in Portland, OR in 1991, Everclear found success with its first three albums on Capitol Records. While the band struggled to follow up the success of those early releases, it’s soldiered on under the guidance of singer-songwriter Art Alexakis. It comes to House of Blues tonight at 6 in the wake of the release of Live at the Whisky A Go Go, a celebration of the band’s 30-plus year history that features live versions of the band’s signature songs including “Santa Monica and Heroin Girl,” along with two new tracks.

308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

TUE 09/12

ZZ Ward: One Hell of a Night Tour

An edgy, blues-inspired artist who draws from hip-hop, pop, R&B, neo-

soul and rock, ZZ Ward comes to House of Blues tonight in support of Dirty Shine, an album of carefully crafted songs that draw equally from blues and hip-hop. The concert begins at 7. 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

WED 09/13

Ne-Yo: Champagne and Roses Tour with Robin Thicke and Mario Ne-Yo’s debut studio album, 2006’s In My Own Words was certified platinum in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Australia, helping turn the singer-songwriter and actor into an international star. Ne-Yo, who released his latest album, Self Explanatory, last year, brings his Champagne and Roses tour to Blossom tonight at 7:30. Robin Thicke and Mario open the show.

1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

THU 09/14

Yung Bleu

Last year, this rapper released the hit single “Love in the Way,” a ballad punctuated by fluttering synths and tender vocals, with Nicki Minaj, in advance of dropping his second studio album, Tantra. The album includes guest appearances by Fivio Foreign, Lucky Daye, Ty Dolla $ign, Ne-Yo, Zayn, Kelly Rowland and Lil Wayne. Earlier this year, he followed it up with Love Scars II, and he brings his tour in support of the album to the Agora tonight at 7.

5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.

FRI 09/15

Flogging Molly

Led by singer-songwriter Dave King, this Irish punk band formed some 20 years in Los Angeles. Last year, it went back to its roots for its most recent album, Anthem, which reunited it with engineer Steve Albini (who worked with Flogging Molly on its first two albums, Swagger and Drunken Lullabies). The current tour brings the group to the Agora for a show with the Bronx and Vandoliers. The concert begins at 7 p.m.

5000 Euclid Ave., 216-881-2221, agoracleveland.com.

Drew

Holcomb & the Neighbors

This Nashville-based alt-country act just released Strangers No More, its ninth studio album, and it’s a keeper. Holcomb wrote the tunes with friends such as Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor and Dave Barnes, who contributed his talents to the rousing “All the Money in the World.” The group headlines House of Blues tonight at 7. 308 Euclid Ave., 216-523-2583, houseofblues.com.

SAT 09/16

Cake

Formed in 1991 in Sacramento, CA, of all places, the indie rock act Cake came at rock music from a tangential perspective. The group added trumpet to the mix and would take on tunes such as the disco anthem “I Will Survive” and turn them into sardonic indie rock numbers. The veteran group comes to Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica tonight at 7.

2014 Sycamore St., 216-861-4080, jacobspavilion.com.

Brandi Carlile

The talented singer-songwriter released her latest effort, In these Silent Days, back in 2021. Like the other releases in Carlile’s catalog, it features poetic lyrics as Carlile draws from her pop, country and folk impulses. She comes to Blossom tonight at 7:30.

1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

SUN 09/17

Jason Aldean: Highway Desperado Tour 2023

This country superstar released his 10th studio album, Macon, Georgia, last year. Featuring 20 new songs and an additional 10 live tracks, the album delivered Aldean his 27th No. 1 single in “Trouble with a Heartbreak,” a heavily produced tune that finds Aldean virtually talking his way through the pop/rock anthem. Aldean returns to Blossom tonight at 7:30. 1145 W. Steels Corners Rd., Cuyahoga Falls, 216-231-1111, livenation.com.

SAVAGE LOVE

BLOW OVER

By Dan Savage

Does your standard advice about sexless marriages extend to orally sexless marriages? My wife and I have been together for a couple decades. We met in our late teens, and we are each other’s first and only sexual partners. Oral sex used to be a regular part of our sex life, for the first decade or so, but the BJ frequency has declined to once every couple of years. I’m still game to give and always offer and often go down on my wife as foreplay. But my wife is basically no longer interested in blowing me, even though she’s great at it and I love it. We have a really strong relationship but busy lives with kids and jobs, which definitely impacts her sex drive and energy. It’s not a relationship ending thing for me, but the thought of not getting my duck sucked more than a few more times for the rest of my life, well, that fucking sucks to think about. I’ve raised it with her a number of times, but she just doesn’t think it’s important and, most frustratingly, plainly isn’t interested in trying to get interested again. We’re committed to monogamy, and outside sexual partners just wouldn’t fit in our lives. I’ve got to imagine this is pretty common. Do I just have to resign myself to a fellatio-deprived future? Or should I expect more?

The Headless Husband

You can expect more from the woman you married — you can expect all the blowjobs you want — and that might be a reasonable expectation on your part, THH, considering that blowjobs were once a regular part of your marital sex life. But the woman you’re married to now doesn’t wanna suck your dick anymore and/or doesn’t wanna suck your dick more than biannually.

So, what can you do?

Well, you can do what you’re supposed to do. You can communicate your wants and needs to your wife without pressuring her to do anything she doesn’t wanna do. In other words, THH, you can soft beg your wife for oral sex without being pathetic (no one wants to suck pathetic cock) and without being coercive (no one wants to suck cock under duress, no one should want their cock sucked under duress). But you’ve already tried that — you’ve raised the subject a number of times — and she’s given you her answer: she’s not that interested in sucking your dick anymore and she’s not interested in getting more interested again. And since your wife isn’t Magic Eight Ball, THH, you can’t just turn her over, give her a shake, and get a different answer.

You also have the option of doing what you’re not supposed to do… and I don’t have to tell you what that is. You open by asking if my “standard advice” to people in marriages

that are happy but sexless or inescapable but sexless — do what you need to do to stay married and stay sane — applies in cases of orally sexlessness marriages. But you close by emphasizing your commitment to monogamy before declaring outside sexual contact a bad fit. So, it really doesn’t matter if my “standard advice” for people in sexless marriages applies in a case like yours, THH… which, for the record, it doesn’t, since your marriage isn’t sexless. (Suckless ≠ sexless.)

And as much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news… based on years of listening to straight married men complain about not getting their dicks sucked and straight married women complain about being expected to suck dick… it’s highly likely blowjobs will come further and further apart, THH, and the enthusiasm with which they’re performed to diminish along with their frequency until they stop altogether.

As for how common this is…

It’s so common I honestly think it may not be realistic to expect frequent and/ or enthusiastic oral sex two decades into a marriage — particularly if we’re talking about blowjobs to completion and not a little oral-as-foreplay, which is all the oral your wife gets. Just as the desire for extended make-out sessions seems to fade the longer we’re with someone, the urge to inhale someone’s dick — the desire to do the hard work of getting a guy off with your mouth — seems to fade with time, too. While we can look at that drop and conclude there’s something wrong with our spouses… or something wrong with our marriages… it might be better if we accepted that enthusiastic blowjobs, like those long makeout sessions, come with NRE and fade away along with NRE.

Something else to consider: the longer you’re together, the older you get, the older you get, the longer it takes to get you off. There’s a huge difference between a tenminute blowjob and thirty-minute blowjob — mostly for the giver. The experience of pleasure is roughly the same for the receiver, but the effort required to suck off a man in his forties is exponentially greater than the effort required to suck off a man in his twenties. A man might not realize it’s taking him a lot longer to come from oral as he ages, but the person who blows him is painfully aware of that fact — and may be understandably hesitant to initiate blowjobs when “to completion” is the expectation.

Another thing to consider: If you only go down on your wife as foreplay before pivoting to PIV… you’re probably getting off each time you two have sex. If your wife isn’t getting off every time or as often as she would like

(not everyone needs or wants to get off every time), she may be resent you for ignoring her basic needs and not feel particularly motivated to meet your extra-credit needs.

Anyway, THH, the right thing to do is to soft beg your wife for more frequent oral — and you’re likelier to get oral more frequently if you’re as willing to accept oralas-foreplay as she seems to be and if you’re making sure sex is as pleasurable for her as it is for you. And when you do want a blowjob to completion, you’re likelier to get one those in your forties if you’re willing to help get yourself there, i.e., if you’re willing to work in a little self-stroking to give her breaks and get yourself closer. And just so we’re clear: my standard advice for sexless marriages doesn’t apply in cases like yours, THH, as your marriage isn’t sexless, just suckless.

Dear Readers: I asked the married straight women who follow me on Twitter and Threads why they weren’t sucking their husbands’ dicks anymore. Obvious answers poured in — oral wasn’t reciprocated, poor personal hygiene, no longer in love, guilty admissions that sucking dick was a strategy — so I rephrased the question and asked again. I wanted to hear from women who 1. still loved their husbands and 2. used to love sucking cock and 3. no longer sucked cock to explain what changed. Here are a few of their letters…

My husband and I have been together for twelve years. We have a loving relationship and I’m not looking to go anywhere but have to admit that I would be a bit more excited to suck some new-to-me dick. I’d also wager there’s some fucked up purity culture fallout involved — I was raised in the church and tend to fantasize about the forbidden, and there’s nothing forbidden about sex with your husband.

Blowjobs are fantastic. I love giving them — but at this point, I’d rather give a stranger a blowjob than my husband. I don’t think there is any issue with the act, but with all the cultural bullshit women are exhausted by — blowjobs are something men feel entitled to, yet another act of service women are expected to perform. In reality, a married woman’s entire day is an act of service. I do all of the emotional labor and take on the entire mental load of running a family and household, all while also having a full-time job. I miss giving blow jobs for fun.

My husband got a blowjob on a work trip. He doesn’t know I found out, and I don’t plan to tell him because I don’t feel betrayed. I feel relieved. But I think he would be upset to learn that I’m not upset. I love him (very much!) and I want him to be happy (and I make him happy in lots of ways!), but I

don’t want his penis in my face ever again. Knowing he got a blowjob and could get another sometime makes me feel less guilty. But since I want this to be a very rare thing, I think it’s better he doesn’t know that I know and certainly not that I approve. We still have good and frequent PIV and use toys. Still fantasize about performing oral sex on a man, but it’s never my husband in my fantasies.

I love my husband We’ve been married for a decade, we have two children, and I actually think we are having the best sex of our married lives now. We’ve actually been getting kinkier and more adventurous as we get older. That said, I do not like giving head anymore, not at all. And I know I’m not alone, since many of my married girlfriends have told me they feel the same way. It’s hard to find an angle that doesn’t pinch my neck or hurt my knees, and it’s not fun to be reminded that your body has gotten older and creakier in the middle of sex. And since it’s not very fun for me, I don’t think it’s fun for my husband. Maybe head is just a young person’s game.

My relationship to the almighty BJ has changed. The hubs and I have been married for fifteen years in October. I’m in my late 30s and he’s in his early 40s, and we have four awesome kids. To be honest, I’ve used to enjoy giving head and was pretty good at it. But since giving up alcohol a little over a year ago, I’m less inclined to jump to a BJ. It took me a while to connect the dots, but I realized that alcohol gets me horny and eager and without it I’m a little less motivated. I still do it, but more as a sidebar/treat now, and rarely to completion.

Gay man here with an observation to share. My husband sucked my cock like a madman when we first met. We’ve been together for twelve years now and he doesn’t suck my cock like that anymore — but I’ve watched him suck the cocks of other men like he used to suck mine. I think a desire to show someone how much you want them inspires a person to suck cock like that. Once you’ve got someone, you’re not as inspired. My advice to straight couples: Want to see your wife suck cock like she used to? Watch her suck someone else’s. Want your cock sucked like that? Get someone else to suck it.

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