The Devil Strip October 2020 Digital Issue

October 2020 · Vol 6 · Issue #10 · thedevilstrip.com

PAGE 10: ‘Updates from lunch lady land’ as APS feeds its students

PAGE 17: Understanding the Akron Police Department’s Funding

FREE

PAGE 23: Ellet’s Artisan Coffee Celebrates 5 years

NOV. 2020

WE CAN’T SHOW YOU any more of

THIS PAINTING. IT HASN’T BEEN EXHIBITED I N N E AR LY 1 5 Y E A R S .

You can’t see it until November 27. When you do, you’ll never forget it.

Dancing in the Light is an original exhibition of outstanding American Impressionist oil and watercolor paintings, capturing the brilliant effects of light and color in everyday scenes. Many of these paintings are rarely exhibited anywhere — because they’re in private collections.

See renowned masters such as Robert Blum, Ralph Curtis, Childe Hassam, Edward Potthast, John Singer Sargent and more. All too vivid … too spirited … too important to try to describe.

O N L Y A T C M A and O N L Y I F Y O U GET TIMED-ENTRY TICK ETS Drifting with the Tide, Venice, 1884

by Ralph Wormeley Curtis.

This painting is rarely exhibited (but has been seen in Paris, London, Boston, and New York).

C A N T O NA R T. O R G

T h i s e x h i b i t i o n i s p r e s e n t e d w i t h g e n e r o u s s u p p o r t i n p a r t f r o m ...

SEE DOWNTOWN CANTON IN A WHOLE NEW LIGHT! An animated, immersive light show exhibition presented by ArtsinStark and Visit Canton Coming this January – February 2021 • GET ENLIGHTENED AT CANTONLIGHTFESTIVAL.COM

© 2020 Canton Museum of Art

(o n s a l e Oc t o b e r 26 )

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In This Issue

Summit Artspace 140 East Market Street Akron, Ohio 44308

How to Akron: 5 VOTING IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTION, INCLUDING A GUIDE TO COUNTY AND STATE SEATS

Board of Directors: Philathia Bolton, April Couch, Emily Dressler, Sharetta Howze, Rita Kelly Madick, Dominic Moore-Dunson, Bhakta Rizal, Hillary Stewart, Audrey Worthington directors@thedevilstrip.com

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Publisher: Chris Horne chris@thedevilstrip.com Editor-in-Chief: Rosalie Murphy rosalie@thedevilstrip.com Reporters: Public Health: H.L. Comeriato HL@thedevilstrip.com Equity and Inclusion: Noor Hindi noor@thedevilstrip.com Economic Development: Abbey Marshall abbey@thedevilstrip.com

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Art Director: Chris Harvey harvey@thedevilstrip.com Community Outreach Director: Floco Torres floco@thedevilstrip.com Director of Membership: Jessica Goldbourn jessica@thedevilstrip.com

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Client Solutions Manager: Anna Adelman anna@thedevilstrip.com Digital Manager: Sonia Potter sonia@thedevilstrip.com Distribution Manager: Derek Kreider derek@thedevilstrip.com Copy Editors: Megan Combs, Dave Daly, Emily Dressler, Shannon Wasie Freelance Contributors: Emly Anderson, Angie Agnoni, Nahla Bendefaa, Debra Calhoun, Kyle Cochrun, Lauren Dangel, Zaïré Talon Daniels, Nic deCourville, Ace Epps, Ken Evans, Charlotte Gintert, Aja Hannah, Charlee Harris, Matthew Hogan, Jillian Holness, Todd Jakubisin, Jamie Keaton, Laura Lakins, Ted Lehr, Marissa Marangoni, Sandy Maxwell, Brandon Meola, Vanessa Michelle, Yoly Miller, Brittany Nader, Susan Pappas, Ilenia Pezzaniti, Arrye Rosser, Mark Schweitzer, Marc Lee Shannon, Allyson Smith, Karla Tipton, Paul Treen, Steve Van Auken, Pat Worden. Want to help make The Devil Strip? Write to the editor-in-chief!

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Akron News, Art & Culture: 8 HAL SCROGGY’S WATERCOLORS DISPLAYED POSTHUMOUSLY 9 NEW IN SUMMIT LAKE: INTERNATIONAL JERK 10 ‘UPDATES FROM LUNCH LADY LAND’ 12 VINTAGE STRUCTURES: THE WAKR-TV STUDIO 13 DAVID GIFFELS EXPLORES OHIO TO UNDERSTAND AMERICA 15 NEW MURALS IN SUMMIT LAKE 16 ‘WOMEN WITH ISSUES’ IS A NEW PODCAST FOR WOMEN 50+ 17 THE AKRON POLICE DEPARTMENT’S BUDGET WAS $70 MILLION LAST YEAR. WILL THAT CHANGE AS AKRON ‘REIMAGINES PUBLIC SAFETY?’ 22 LONGTIME ROCKER HARVEY GOLD’S LATEST ALBUM 23 ARTISAN COFFEE TURNS 5 24 CHARRISH11, A BOUTIQUE FOR CURVY PETITE WOMEN 26 AKRON WILL NOT CELEBRATE COLUMBUS DAY THIS YEAR 28 ELIZABETH’S BOOKSHOP 30 LOVE LETTERS FROM AKRON IN THE 1930S Essays & Humor: 34 IMOKHAI OKOLO: INVITE YOUNG PEOPLE TO THE TABLE 35 SOBER CHRONICLES 36 CROOKED RIVER REFLECTIONS 37 UNENCRYPTED

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Find us online: www.thedevilstrip.com facebook.com/thedevilstrip @akrondevilstrip @thedevilstrip

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

Our Mission: The Devil Strip connects Akronites to their neighbors, our city and a stronger sense of purpose by sharing stories about the people who make this place unique.

The Devil Strip is published monthly by Random Family LLC. Distribution: The Devil Strip is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Copyright: The entire contents of The Devil Strip are copyright 2020 by Random Family LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials or other content. All editorial, advertising and business correspondence should be sent to the addresses listed above.

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EDITOR’S NOTE Do what you can where you are.

It’s difficult to feel like we can have an impact on our world. The forces that shape it often seem far off, always moving around places like Akron, yet seldom passing through it – that is, unless the president calls out a corporation whose name is tied to your city’s identity. It’s natural to feel like the decisions we make and the values we hold have little weight when faced by national politics.

But this belies the reality of the power we have here at home.

Adapting to climate change will be a global challenge, but a carbonneutral Summit County will be part of the solution. We may not be able to alter the national policing landscape, but certainly, we can help to improve the APD. Many Akronites live in poverty, yet we have some of the cheapest homes in the country.

So how do we create the change we wish to see?

Having a more open and inclusive society will require a deeply personal transformation for many. How can we help ourselves and others begin that journey?

It starts by doing what we can where we are.

On the Cover:

be complicated under the best of circumstances, and 2020 is not anywhere close to the best of circumstances. But these uncertain times give us all a chance to have a larger impact than we normally could. By participating in this election through voting, encouraging others to vote, and especially by signing up to be a poll worker, you are working to secure this election.

Not everywhere, no — just here in Summit County. But by doing what we can where we are, we are ensuring that our neighbors and our communities will be heard and counted. If you have been asking what you can do to help, then this election is what you can do to help.

To start learning more about how our county and state government work, visit our voter guide on Page 6.

2020 is just a moment, and while that means it will pass, it also means you can only affect it now. Much will be decided in November. But while the outcome is still in the future, we must do what we can to shape it now.

On the October cover: An untitled watercolor work by Hal Scroggy Hal Scroggy’s work is currently on display in Peninsula. Learn more on Page 8.

So vote — please vote — and encourage your neighbors do the same.

— Ken Evans

The 2020 general election would

What we believe:

STORIES MATTER. We believe the most important stories are the ones we tell ourselves about ourselves, and that this is as true for cities as it is for individuals. For better or worse, every city’s chief storyteller is its media. We take responsibility for our work because we know it shapes the way Akronites see each other, and the way we see each other influences how we treat one another.

OUR WORK IS FOR AKRON. This is our reason for existing, not merely our editorial angle for stories. We are advocates for the city of Akron and allies to its people, so we may be cheerleaders, but that won’t keep us from challenging the city’s flaws. What’s the point of being part of the community if we can’t help make it a better place to live?

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OUR WORK SHOULD BE DONE WITH AKRON. We would rather build trust through cooperation and collaboration than authority. Our place in the community is alongside it, not standing outside looking in or standing above it looking down.

WE CARE ABOUT YOU, NOT JUST YOUR EYEBALLS. Sometimes, we love a good fight with the status quo. But conflict and antagonism will never be a way of life for us, especially not to boost clicks, views, comments, shares and “eyeballs.” We are watchdogs to hold our leaders accountable, not to keep the neighbors up all night with our barking.

WE LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS. Our stories humanize the people in our city. We not only want to counter sensationalized

and alarmist reporting but to eventually render it obsolete. We advocate for justice, freedom and equality because those qualities make this city, and our lives, better.

JOURNALISM SHOULD LIVE BEYOND THE PAGE. Information without context or connection is inert. We believe journalism can connect people to each other, our city and even a sense of purpose. Though our work begins on the page, both printed and web, we promote and plan events so people can meet faceto-face where real life still happens.

PEOPLE OVER PROFITS. The local businesses, nonprofits and civic organizations who support The Devil Strip are part of our community and are as vital to our culture as our artists and musicians. That’s why we don’t accept ads for national chains, things in large metros outside Summit County or businesses that profit from the exploitation of women.

We are not a coat hanger for advertising.

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

WE GET ONE SHOT AT LIFE, SO LET’S HAVE FUN. We want our readers to fall in love with Akron (again and again and again), to buck the temptation to only live vicariously through the people they follow online. One thing that makes art, dance, theatre, music, film, food, civic engagement, biking, hiking, and public space so great is that all these things can bring us together, helping us find new friends and have fun with the ones we already have. That makes us all a little happier. That’s what it’s all about.

What is a devil strip?

The “devil strip” is the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. The precise origins of the term are unknown, but it’s only used in Akron. Today, the devil strip is what connects residents to the city — its public space, its people and its challenges. The Devil Strip seeks to do the same thing.

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How To Akron It’s time to vote!

Tips, tricks, resources & funding for good neighbors

REPORTING AND WRITING

BY STEVE VAN AUKEN

O

ctober is a critically important month. We continue to struggle in a national health crisis that has become an economic crisis. We recoil from recent killings of fellow citizens by some who are sworn to protect and serve us.

Meanwhile some of our leaders work to undermine the science that is the only antidote to our health crisis, as they do everything they can to limit citizens’ ability to vote them out of office.

The Devil Strip urges you to act now to make sure your voice is heard in the Nov. 3 election.

The first step for each of us is to make sure we are registered to vote. Thousands of people every election assume they are, only to be unpleasantly surprised. The last day to register is Oct. 5.

can still do this if you act quickly.

After you have made sure you are registered, you can download an application at VoteOhio.gov. This begins a two-step process. You fill out the application and mail it to your local Board of Elections. The board mails you an actual ballot.

You mark your choices and get it back to them.

You can mail your ballot back to the board. It must be postmarked by the day before Election Day. But the closer it gets to Election Day, the more you may want to consider going there and dropping it off yourself. The ballot return box for Summit County will be located at 470 Grant St., Akron.

If you have requested an absentee ballot, you cannot go to the polls to vote in person.

You can check your registration status by visiting VoteOhio. gov. Click on “Check My Voter Registration.”

The third method of voting is the old-fashioned way: go to your designated polling place on Nov. 3. If you intend to do this, you can find your polling place at VoteOhio. gov. Bring your identification with you.

The second step is to choose a method of voting. The closer to Election Day it gets, the more it makes sense to choose a method that requires few moving parts.

Many people use a current driver’s license as their voting identification.

Don’t have one? Go to VoteOhio.gov to learn your other ID options.

Between Oct. 6 and Nov. 2, you can take part in early in-person voting.

If you live in Summit County, go to 500 Grant St., Akron, Monday through Friday. Be sure to bring your identification. You vote right there, at the Board of Elections.

In Ohio, you can vote if you have been convicted of a felony and/ or if you are on probation or parole. If you are currently in jail convicted of a misdemeanor, not a felony, you can also vote.

Another method is to vote by mail using an absentee ballot. You

Your vote is your voice. Spread the word!

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

All of the information and links below are available at TheDevilStrip.com/category/voting.

BECOME A POLL WORKER: If you are 17 or older, registered to vote in Summit County, and have never been convicted of a felony, you can sign up to be a poll worker.

This is a paid position! Visit www.summitcountyboe.gov for more information.

ABSENTEE VOTING/VOTING BY MAIL: You can request a mail-in ballot until three days before the election, but the sooner, the better.

To request an absentee ballot online, visit www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/absentee-request. The ballot will be mailed to you.

When you receive your ballot, fill it out. Sign it when you’re finished.

Drop off your completed ballot at the Summit County Board of Elections (470 Grant St., Akron) or mail it to the same address. Mailed ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 2.

EARLY VOTING: You can vote in person at the Summit County Board of Elections (500 Grant St., Akron) beginning Oct. 6.

Early voting is available: Oct. 6-17: Monday-Friday 8 am-5 pm Week of Oct. 19: Monday-Friday 8 am-6 pm Saturday, Oct. 24: 8 am-4 pm Sunday, Oct. 25: 1-5 pm Week of Oct. 26: Monday-Friday 8 am-7 pm Saturday, Oct. 31: 8 am-4 pm Sunday, Nov. 1: 1-5 pm Monday, Nov. 2: 8 am-2 pm VOTING ON ELECTION DAY: Find your polling place at VoteOhio.Gov. Polls will be open 6:30 am-7:30 pm.

ACCEPTABLE VOTER ID DOCUMENTS: An Ohio drivers license, utility bill, recent pay stub or military ID can confirm your identity at the polls. For a detailed list of identification documents that polls will accept, visit www.ohiosos.gov/elections/ voters/id-requirements.

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Understanding the Summit County and Ohio races on your 2020 ballot REPORTING AND WRITING

BY KEN EVANS

W

hen compared to national races, especially the 2020 presidential race, county elections can seem a little, well, inconsequential. However, local governments arguably have more influence over our day-to-day lives than other levels of government and hold primary authority over a number of important issues facing Americans.

Below is a brief voter guide to inform you about what Summit County offices will appear on your November 2020 General Election Ballot and what role each position plays. These are not comprehensive reviews, but a simple summary of responsibilities to help you better evaluate the candidates.

If you’d like to see the names and issues that will appear on your ballot, check here: lookup.boe.ohio.gov/ vtrapp/summit/pollfinder.aspx This information was referenced from the 2020 Summit County budget, various county websites, and the County Charter.

Summit County Legislative Roles County Council: The county council consists of 11 elected members: Eight representing geographic districts and three “at-large,” or county-wide, seats. Only the district seats are on the 2020 ballot, meaning Summit County residents in each district will vote for one council member.

The council acts similarly to a city council and holds all legislative and policy-making authority within the county government. Each council member serves a four-year term and serves on a number of committees pertaining to county issues.

Most other counties in Ohio have three commissioners instead of councils.

Summit County Executive Roles The officials in these positions don’t set policy but are more like administrators, overseeing career professional staff and ensuring the quality of their office’s work. County offices are governed by ordinances set by the County Council and the federal and state governments.

However, like all administrators, they have leeway in implementing their authority. This leeway can have a huge impact on local priorities and on how laws are enacted.

All six executive positions are on the November ballot and each will each serve a four-year term.

County Executive: The county executive acts as the CEO of Summit County. The office oversees a wide range of county programs, from animal control to emergency planning to job and family services. Basically, all responsibility not delegated to the positions below falls to the county executive.

The county executive can also veto legislation passed by the county council.

County Fiscal Officer: Think of this person as the CFO of Summit County.

This office is responsible for collecting county taxes, managing the county’s payroll, appraising properties, maintaining property records, and issuing dog licenses, among other responsibilities. They also manage the county’s investment portfolio.

County Engineer: The county engineer is responsible for overseeing the infrastructure of Summit County, especially the roads. Basically, their jurisdiction is anywhere outside of incorporated cities and towns, though there are exceptions. The engineer oversees common tasks like filling potholes and plowing snow, along with highway design, bridge maintenance and stormwater management.

While the Summit County Engineer does aid in the mission of other engineering offices, it should be noted that Akron and many other

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cities have their own offices with unique responsibilities.

County Sheriff: The sheriff is responsible for everything from deploying Summit County’s mounted patrol to ensuring mental health services for inmates at Summit County Jail. In fact, overseeing all aspects of Summit County Jail operations is one the office’s most important roles. The sheriff’s department also acts as the police force in unincorporated communities as well as cities that sign special contracts for law enforcement, including Green.

The sheriff is also responsible for court security, training for multiple departments, managing county dispatch operations, issuing concealed carry permits, overseeing the bomb squad, policing maritime areas (including on the Portage Lakes) and managing the county drug unit. The sheriff’s department also manages the sale of foreclosed properties.

Clerk of Courts: The clerk of courts is responsible for everything the court does that is not directly related to trying cases. That includes maintaining files of cases, fee collection, vehicle titles and boat titles. You can even get a passport from the clerk of courts office. The clerk of courts is typically seen as the person responsible for efficiency, customer service, innovation and staff morale among non-judicial staff at the court.

County Prosecutor: The county prosecutor is responsible for prosecuting those who have been charged with a felony within Summit County, whether via arrest or indictment. The importance of this position has gained attention in recent years because of the prosecutor’s discretion in determining what charges are pursued and whether and how defendants are offered plea deals.

The office also oversees support for crime victims during trials. It provides civil legal advice to local governments, represents the county if it is sued, provides support to

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neglected and abused children, enforces child support orders and reviews the use of deadly force by police.

Summit County Judges The election of judges is a key difference between local and federal governments. At the federal level, they’re appointed for life. In Ohio courts, they’re elected. This means it is up to the citizens of Summit County to ask, “What makes a good judge?”

This process is highly subjective.

Judges are required to have spent at least six years as lawyers before running. Although judges will say they can only campaign on their personal qualities, this is not technically true. What they are not allowed to do is to make promises, pre-judge a case or indicate how they will rule in a specific kind of case.

Voting based on political affiliation can be tricky because of the judicial system’s non-partisan nature. While judges run in their party’s primaries, they are not listed by party on the November general election ballots.

To evaluate judicial candidates, voters can review a judge’s past experience, current performance (if they are running for reelection), and their response to new approaches like recovery courts and other special court dockets. It is also important to gauge their understanding of the issues faced by the court they are hoping to serve, their knowledge of laws they will be ruling on and whether they will approach their position with your desired combination of sternness and empathy.

On the 2020 general election ballot there are nine local judgeships. Those elected will serve six-year terms.

There are six Common Pleas General Division positions on the ballot and one position open in each remaining division.

The Ninth District Court of Appeals covers other counties in thedevilstrip.com

Addiction Recovery Through a Continuum of Care addition to Summit, so voters in multiple counties elect its judges.

The Summit County Court of Common Pleas – General Division: The General Division takes both civil and criminal cases, including civil lawsuits, felony crimes, alternative dispute resolutions and foreclosures.

The General Division also has seven “problem-solving courts,” referred to as specialty dockets, that focus on groups like veterans and people recovering from addiction. Ten judges serve under the General Division, with six seats determined by the 2020 election.

The Summit County Court of Common Pleas – Domestic Relations: The Domestic Relations Division has authority over domestic violence cases, child support cases and parental issues like custody or visitation. This court also has exclusive jurisdiction over ending marriages through dissolution or divorce.

The Summit County Court of Common Pleas – Juvenile: The juvenile court deals with cases involving people younger than 18.

That includes minors who have been charged with crimes, abuse and neglect cases, and custody cases involving people who are not a child’s biological parents. People convicted in juvenile court may enter the juvenile detention system.

The Summit County Court of Common Pleas – Probate: The probate court oversees wills and estates, guardianships, trusts, involuntary mental health commitments, adoptions, name changes and marriage licenses.

Judge of the Court of Appeals (Ninth District): The Ninth District Court of Appeals reviews decisions from Akron and Summit County, as well as other cases that originate in county, municipal, and common pleas courts in Wayne, Medina and Lorain counties. Either side of a legal case can file an appeal, and if the court of appeals agrees to hear it, the lower court’s decision can be upheld or overturned.

Ohio State Government Roles Ohio House of Representatives and State Senate: These positions operate similarly to Congress and have similar roles. Everyone in Ohio is represented by two people in the state legislature: a state representative and a state senator.

There are 99 Ohio House districts and 33 Ohio Senate districts. House members serve two-year terms before facing re-election; senators serve four-year terms. Officials can only serve for eight consecutive years in each chamber.

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For Akron, all Ohio House of Representatives seats are up for a vote in November. However, only Senate District 28, which covers most of Akron and southern Summit County, will be on the ballot.

Ohio Supreme Court: The Ohio Supreme Court acts as the court of last resort for the State of Ohio. This means that it has final authority in cases involving state laws and has the ability to intervene in certain cases in lower courts, including both municipal and county courts. The Supreme Court also has the authority to set rules that govern becoming — and remaining — a lawyer in Ohio.

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The court consists of seven justices, including a chief justice, who each serve a six-year term.

Like county judges, these candidates are selected in party primaries but run as nonpartisan candidates with no party by their name in the November General Election ballot. However, candidates can be backed by a political party. Currently, there are two judges backed by the Democratic Party on the court and five backed by the Republican Party. Two of the seven justices are up for reelection in November, making this a “supremely” important race for both of Ohio’s major political parties. // Ken Evans finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

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News, ARTS & Culture was able to develop it more fully than he might have otherwise. At the same time, I think for Hal, art was a strong component of a well-rounded childhood and teenage time. He had a normal variety of interest, and lots of friends. So if being a prodigy conjures up an image of a youngster focused solely on art, obsessed by it, then that wasn’t Dad. “But to say that his talent was recognized early is true,” David adds. “Wilhelm knew a special talent when he saw one, and helped bring it forward. Wilhelm provided a recommendation that helped Hal gain admission at the Cleveland School of Art, now the Cleveland Institute of Art.”

On the Cover HAL SCROGGY’S WATERCOLORS DEPICT AKRON IN TIMES GONE BY

REPORTING AND WRITING

BY YOLY MILLER

D

avid Scroggy is a former Akronite living in Scotland and trying to host an art exhibit at the Peninsula Art Academy for his late father, award-winning watercolorist Hal Scroggy — during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unable to do any international traveling, and with much of Hal’s work still in storage, David has had to lean on his brother Jim and local photographer Beth Becker for help.

Jim brought the artwork out of storage while Beth agreed to take on the bulk of the work for setting up the show. David joined via Skype to help them sifted through four boxes and three large portfolios full of art.

In addition to choosing which art pieces to use for the show, the paintings had to be resized, matted and framed.

“With ‘The Invisible Man,’ that was a much larger piece of paper. I had

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to make some decisions as far as to how to maintain the quality in the cropping. Then there are some that Hal, bless his heart, he had done the picture and then he drew where he should want to crop it,” Beth says.

People find Hal’s work so captivating they are buying it up almost as fast as Beth can put it on display, she says. Much of what Hal left behind is so well-executed and so soughtafter, one is left to wonder why his name is not better known in his own hometown.

As a young boy, Hal liked to draw and paint. He had raw talent and, thanks to an introduction from one of his parents’ acquaintances, prominent watercolorist Roy Wilhelm cheering him on as both a mentor and teacher.

When asked if Hal was a prodigy, his son David shies away from the label, preferring a more conservative description: “Whether you could call Hal a prodigy or not is somewhat subjective. I am sure it is fair to say that he showed artistic talent at an early age, and thanks to Mr. Wilhelm

It’s quite possible that Hal would have graduated from art school and gone on to have an average artist life of drawing, painting and trying to make a living out of his craft. He might have lived on or near Crosby Street in West Hill, like his parents, and gone on to enjoy his slice of the American Dream. Instead, Hal joined the United States Army and was shipped out as part of the 104th Infantry Division to fight in World War II. Even as he made his way through Belgium and Germany, Hal continued to sketch and draw. Most of his war sketchbooks were either destroyed in action or were lost in the chaos of war. A watercolor painting he did of a church in France did survive. Hal had rolled it up and sent it to his parents in Akron, where they kept it safe.

Upon his return to the states, Hal took on several jobs, working as a fashion illustrator and a photographer as well as in television and film. His careers in the military and public sectors allowed for much travel. At one point, Hal took a job with Kevin Donovan Films in Glastonbury, CT. David remembers his dad working on films and commuting between Glastonbury and New York City.

“I recall my dad was working on a film for the U.S. Air Force on the DEW Line radar installations in the Arctic. Hal spent a few months up there, very close to the North Pole.

He grew a beard on the trip and said that when he returned home that I did not recognize him at first, which really bothered him.”

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Journalism about Akron, by Akronties

As David recalls, “something went south” for the film company, and his father wanted to spend more time with his children. He could have gone anywhere, but ultimately it was Akron where he chose to raise his family.

It was this move back to Akron that landed Hal at B.F. Goodrich as a photographer and Art Director of Publications. He spent 20 years working for Goodrich before taking early retirement to work full-time on his art.

In the treasure trove of paintings and sketches that he left behind are hundreds of photographs of iconic Akron places and institutions, as well as the people who helped to make Akron the place we know today. There are sketches of houses in Akron that are still standing, a painting of a house that was featured as an architectural magazine cover, and some nearly finished pieces. The nearly done look is an aesthetically pleasing quality. The art looks fresh, and the colors are modern.

Perhaps this is why collectors and art dealers from all over the world take pleasure in the finding and acquiring of an original and complete piece

by Hal Scroggy. Perhaps, but that is speculation. The truth is this: Hal was born in 1921. He drew things. He fought in the war to end all wars. He worked for the man, he made good art, and then he died. He left behind a cache of art that we as Akronites can find pleasure in.

Hal wanted his art to be accessible to everyone because it was his truest form of expression. David remembers that Hal used to say “I paint adjectives rather than nouns,” and that is exactly what he left behind: art by which we can describe how we wish to see this world.

To see Hal’s show, “RetroRenown Watercolorist Hal Scroggy,” visit the Peninsula Art Academy, 1600 Mill St West., Peninsula. The show runs through Oct. 18. // Yoly Miller is writing poetry, dancing salsa, and talking people into sharing their stories.

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'We were meant for each other' CURTIS AND CHANELL HUMPHREYS SELL TACOS A BLOCK FROM WHERE THEY WERE MARRIED REPORTING, WRITING AND PHOTOS

BY CHARLEE HARRIS

H

ave you been to Summit Lake lately? It is becoming the goto for fun new activities and adventures. And since International Jerk has opened, it’s now the new taco spot! Let’s face it, we can always use a new taco spot.

International Jerk is a food truck with the perfect fusion of Caribbean spice and Latin flavors. Their menu consists of jerk chicken tacos and nachos.

Owners Curtis and Chanell Humphreys wanted to bring the popular Chicago jerk taco to Akron, but with a soulful twist.

“My husband spent a lot of time researching his sauce and marinade,” Chanell says. “We wanted to infuse different nations and kind of be diverse culturally.”

The husband-and-wife duo opened their food truck during a very difficult time and say they have had a lot of success in spite of the pandemic.

“It’s been a blessing, we have been

able to operate our business without real issues and having a food truck helps,” Chanell says. The Humphreys closely follow the social distancing guidelines: “We wear proper PPE, which is something we would do regardless of there being a pandemic or not just for safety precautions.”

International Jerk is located on the corner of Old Main Street and Miller Road across from the Akron Masjid.

This location is significant because it’s the neighborhood where Curtis Humphreys spent his childhood. The couple was married at the mosque almost three years ago.

“We had both prayed specifically for qualities and attributes we wanted in a mate,” Chanell says. After being introduced by mutual friends, she says they found the qualities they prayed for in each other. “It was plain as day: We were meant for each other.”

“I’ve been blessed ever since I meant her,” Curtis says.

The pair started their journey together at the Akron Masjid, so it

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

was only right that their food truck be located directly across the street as they embark on this new journey together. The Humphreys have a strong sense of community and hope to be an inspiration to Summit Lake.

“I grew up in Summit Lake and I never seen anyone from here become an entrepreneur,” Curtis says. “For me, it’s about showing the kids here that they can do it to and there is more than one way to make a dollar.”

The couple also hopes to grow their business so that they can hire disenfranchised individuals who can’t otherwise find work.

“I’ve gotten second chances in life.

It’s important to give people the opportunity to grow and blossom just like a rose from the concrete,” Curtis says. “Everybody’s turning point happens at different times. Just never give up and stay positive.”

Talking with the Humphrey family was truly delightful, and it was made better when the jerk chicken tacos filled my mouth. The jerk

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sauce is strong yet flavorful and perfectly complements all of the fresh toppings. If spicy isn’t your thing, don’t worry; you can get it without jerk sauce. I, on the other hand, got extra sauce and jalapenos (I was feeling spicy). The portion size was large and the price was even better.

International Jerk is open on Saturday and Sunday from 11-7 pm. A word to the wise: Get there early because they can sell out.

International Jerk 1147 S Main St., Akron Facebook.com/ InternationalJerk330 Instagram: @international_jerk330 internationaljerk330@gmail.com (234) 237-4742 // Charlee Harris was born and raised in Akron. She loves her family, her community and has a passion for creative expression. As an avid arts advocate, she is the creative director for the East Ave. Flea Market and an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.

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“Updates from Lunch Lady Land” CHILD NUTRITION WORKERS MAKE SURE AKRON STUDENTS EAT, EVEN WHEN THE JOB PUTS THEM AT RISK REPORTING, WRITING AND PHOTOS

BY H.L. COMERIATO

T

he chocolate milk is a hit.

From kindergarten to senior year, Akron Public Schools students love those little paper cartons. But while on-site learning is on hold, Ellet Community Learning Center kitchen manager Julie Shumaker says the milks have taken on new meaning: 8 ounces of much-needed normalcy.

This year will mark Shumaker’s 28th as an Akron Public Schools child nutrition worker. On the Ellet Orangemen Cafeteria Facebook page she runs, Shumaker offers “updates from Lunch Lady Land,” posting news about the district’s summer meal distribution program, photos of puppies and congratulatory notes to Ellet’s 2020 graduates.

“When [students] come through our line and back out through the door, we’re the five minutes of the day that [no one] is harping on them,” says Shumaker. “We get to know the kids more on a personal, friendly basis than just as students.”

Shumaker worries about the students she no longer sees every day. She’s afraid virtual learning won’t fulfill one of students’ most basic needs: food.

“There was already this talk [about being] closed for a long period of time,” explains child nutrition coordinator Laura Kepler. “And schools — not just here in Akron, or Ohio, but across the country — they’re going to have to need to keep feeding meals because too many kids

10 | The Devil Strip

will be going without.”

When Akron announced on March 16 that schools would close for three weeks, APS child nutrition workers rushed to prepare for a meal distribution program designed to adhere to social distancing and public health standards while getting students free and dependable breakfast and lunch every day of the week.

“We really stopped serving in school on Friday, and by Tuesday, we were doing grab-and-go [meals],” Kepler says Since then, child nutrition workers have continued staffing meal distribution sites through the summer months, serving bagged, nutritious breakfasts and lunches for families to take home — complete with those 8-ounce cartons of chocolate milk.

During an ordinary school year, Kepler says child nutrition workers serve 27,000 meals per day. Now, they’re serving around 6,000 per day. “It seems lower,” explains Kepler, “but that’s almost three times as much as we [normally] do in the summer.”

Kepler says the district has distributed nearly 800,000 meals via 37 meal distribution sites at neighborhood schools across the city since schools closed. Even at distribution sites located in neighborhoods where families don’t typically face high rates of food insecurity, Kepler says the district has seen active participation in the program.

“Had we picked just schools in

certain areas that we thought would get high participation,” says Kepler, “we would have been completely wrong.”

below 130% of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, that’s a monthly gross income under $3,000 — around $34,000 per year.

Shumaker, who’s been working meal distribution sites since March, says she now has a different insight into the families APS serves. Instead of working exclusively with students, Shumaker says child nutrition workers are now interacting with parents, grandparents and caregivers at meal distribution sites. “We’ve come to know people,” she says. “And they are just so grateful for the service we’re providing.”

Because Akron Public Schools’ poverty rate is so high, the district qualifies for the Community Eligibility Provision, a federally funded program designed to help high-poverty school districts feed students at no cost.

Families living in school districts with high poverty rates don’t have to apply to receive school lunches for free or at reduced cost. Instead, districts that qualify are reimbursed by the USDA based on the percentage of families already participating in other food assistance programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Sometimes, the gratitude Shumaker receives from families is overwhelming. “It’s kind of weird, because they’re thanking us, but this isn’t coming out of my pocket.”

“I’m not doing anything extraordinary,” Shumaker says. “I’m just doing my job.”

Every APS student can eat for free at school. What about remotely?

On July 27, the Akron Public Schools Board of Education announced that students would not be returning to school for on-site learning at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year. Instead, students will learn from home. But online learning could mean losing access to many of the resources Akron Public Schools provides — including food.

Mark Williamson, director of communications and news for Akron Public Schools, says that just under 97% of students in the district live

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The Community Eligibility Provision reimburses the district for every meal served, which means all APS students can eat breakfast and lunch every day at no cost — eliminating a major barrier to food access for students who may already be struggling to access nutritious foods at home.

But in a city where at least 90% of students and their families live below the federal poverty level, the need for accessible, nutritious foods has only become more necessary during the pandemic. One way to further reduce barriers to accessibility is to create spaces where students and their families feel safe, rather than judged.

When parents and caregivers arrive at a meal distribution site, child nutrition workers hope they’ll encounter an environment free from judgment.

Adults aren’t required to show ID, or thedevilstrip.com

Left to right: Child nutrition workers Heather Hillenbrand and Diana Stone promote social distancing at Firestone CLC’s meal distribution site.

Hillenbrand prepares meals at one of 37 APS meal distribution sites.

Hillenbrand disinfects a table at Firestone CLC’s meal distribution site.

(Photos: H.L. Comeriato)

provide proof that they have a child in the school system. Any child from ages 1 to 18 is eligible to receive a meal, regardless of which school they attend.

“We’re not asking questions,” says Shumaker. “We’re not here to pass judgment. We just want to make sure these kids are taken care of in some way. Because who knows? Parents may not know when their next check is coming.”

For Heather Hillenbrand, a child nutrition worker at Firestone Community Learning Center, it’s important that APS families utilizing the meal distribution program are treated with dignity.

Rock,” reads the text above the image. “Feeding kids. Whatever it takes.”

A car pulls up to the entrance, and Hillenbrand clicks a small counter with her thumb. Over the last few months, she’s gotten to know the families at her distribution site. She recognizes the car, and already knows how many meals the family needs.

Child nutrition workers take great pride in the services they provide for students and their families. But Hillenbrand says she’s worried — not only for students and their families, but for her own health and safety, and the health and safety of her coworkers.

After years of unfulfilling work in the food service and hospitality industries, Hillenbrand says landing a position with the Child Nutrition Department last year was a welcome change. “I’m really proud to work for child nutrition… I really think we do something awesome. [Students] can come to school and eat and they’re going to be OK. I like being a part of that.”

“I love my job. I want to keep working. I want to work on-site.”

Hillenbrand pauses.”I don’t want to get sick, and I don’t want to bring something home to my partner that they might not be able to recover from.”

Child nutrition workers are doing ‘whatever it takes’ — including taking risks themselves

According to Kepler, around 85% of child nutrition workers live in Akron, and often serve their own communities. But many only work part-time and aren’t eligible to receive benefits through the district.

Outside the front doors of Firestone Community Learning Center, Hillenbrand wipes down a collapsable table with disinfectant. The rims of her glasses dip below a pink and purple face covering. Hillenbrand’s co-worker, Diana Stone, wears a T-shirt with an image of a masked Rosie the Riveter. “Lunch Ladies

Hillenbrand, who is insured through her partner, says many APS support staff aren’t so lucky.

“At my level, I don’t have health insurance through my job that is exposing me to a pandemic on a daily basis. And that feels bad,” Hillenbrand says. “I assumed a great risk here — particularly when we

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

had no idea what we were supposed to be doing to stay safe — and I don’t feel we were appropriately compensated for the amount of risk that we took.”

In March, when Akron Public Schools first began to address concerns related to COVID-19, there was a lot of uncertainty for child nutrition workers. “I think very early on we realized that we had to follow recommendations for the safety of our employees,” says Kepler. But in the beginning, masks and sanitizers were difficult to come by. “It was scary there for a period of time,” Kepler says. “There was so much uncertainty in the beginning.”

“One of my supervisors [was] purchasing masks on her own on the weekends, trying to get them where she could to make sure we had enough of what we needed.

We literally had to go out and buy tape for the floor. Now you can find all the nice signs and footprints and ‘stay apart,’” says Kepler. “But we were trying to, every day, stay abreast of what was necessary to keep our employees safe.”

Still, Hillenbrand says she’s worried for her co-workers who are older, immunocompromised or otherwise at-risk.

“I’m very afraid of actual loss of life,” Hillenbrand adds. “How do we deal with staff death? How do we explain to kids that their teacher is never coming back to school? What do we do?”

workers’ safety. “It’s going to be scary to go back. As much as we want to be back and see everybody and see our kids, it’s going to be scary,” Shumaker says. “I mean, there’s concerns all around. We’re concerned for our health. A lot of my crew either falls into a risk category, or they have a family member who does. So we worry about interactions.

We worry about how we’re going to pull things together once we do go back.”

In the face of such uncertainty, Shumaker says the gratitude she receives from students and their families has kept her focused and committed. She hopes to provide at least some kind of support and consistency for families who might be struggling.

“If a parent has to make a decision between paying the water bill and buying food for their kid? I just can’t imagine having to decide something like that,” says Shumaker.

She says she wants parents, kids, and caregivers to know that someone cares.

“We’re here for you,” Shumaker says. “We’re here for your kids, and we’re doing the best that we can to keep those little bellies full and keep smiles on kids’ faces. And if a peanut butter and jelly sandwich does that, then we’re doing our job.” // H.L. Comeriato covers public health at The Devil Strip via Report for America. Reach them at HL@ thedevilstrip.com.

Shumaker, too, has concerns about

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

The Devil Strip

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WAKR-TV

Top and left: The Copley Theater and former WAKR-TV studio on Copley Road. Center: The original glass brick set above the front entrance was once lit by neon. Right: A theater poster light box with the WAKC branding, the call letters the station took on in 1986. (Photos: Charlotte Gintert/ Captured Glimpses)

REPORTING AND WRITING

BY CHARLOTTE GINTERT

I

f you ever noticed what looks like an old movie theater on Copley Road and didn’t know the story behind it, well, I have some fun Akron trivia for you!

The original operation in the Art Deco style building was the Copley Theater, a short-lived venture that opened in 1947. The new theater boasted air conditioning, a marble foyer, and a neon marquee. Neon lights also illuminated the glass brick set above the front entrance. Its grand opening event featured two showings of the Bette Davis and Claude Rains

12 | The Devil Strip

melodrama Deception.

The theater suffered from regular turnover of management and stopped showing films in September 1952. For a time, it was rented to Alpha Rex Emmanuel Humbard, better known as Rex Humbard.

He and his family broadcast their Pentacostal programming every Saturday night until 1953.

After the Humbards’ departure, the theater became home to Akron’s first and only television station, WAKRTV. That’s right, kids, Akron used to have a television station! The station was founded by S. Bernard Berk and started broadcasting from the First National Tower downtown on July 16, 1953. It moved into its official home at the former theater that fall.

Humbard is famous locally for founding the Cathedral of Tomorrow.

He also constructed Cuyahoga Falls’ highest and most unique landmark, a never-completed rotating tower restaurant that is visible for miles around.

WAKR-TV was an ABC affiliate and broadcast to the ultra-high frequency (UHF) Channel 49. Thanks to its ABC affiliation, it secured the rights to about 275 films. It also hosted local news. Its first remote broadcast was of Akron’s Sesquicentennial Parade.

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From its home at Copley Road, it broadcast the news, children’s programming, talk shows, and cooking shows.

Many of WAKR Radio’s announcers made the switch to TV. For unknown reasons, it was decided that meteorologist Jo Anne Ybarra needed to wear a bathing suit for her segment, while her male colleagues were able to keep the dress code from their radio days.

One of the most popular shows was The Professor Jack Show, a children’s entertainment show that filmed in front of a live studio audience.

Professor Jack was Jack Bennett, a thedevilstrip.com

Buchtel High School and University of Akron graduate. His regular guests were children, often representing Girl Scout or Boy Scout troops. He also hosted Jungle Larry, an animal act from Chippewa Lake Park in Medina County.

In 1965, the station began transmitting in color and broadcasting University of Akron football and basketball games. In 1967, it switched over to Channel 23. Programming continued to be locally focused with such shows as Sports View and Civic Forum of the Air. The station broadcast in a 60-mile radius around Akron. Many Cleveland news anchors received their training at WAKR-TV including recognizable names Eric Mansfield and Mark Nolan. Former CNN Newsroom host Carol Costello got her start at WAKRTV too.

In an effort to clarify its identity from Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS, WAKR-TV changed its call letters to WAKC in 1986. In 1993, ValueVision bought the station. Three years after that, Paxson Communication purchased it. The new owners immediately dropped all local programming, ended the station’s ABC affiliation, and moved the operation to Warrensville Heights.

That marked the official end of Akron’s one and only TV station.

The former theater and TV studio passed to a new owner in 1997, Good Shepherd Baptist Church. The church moved to a new location on South Hawkins Avenue around 2015.

Today, 853 Copley Rd. is for sale. It is in a severe state of disrepair. The Howard Hanna listing states, “Don’t miss this opportunity to rehab this historic building (former WAKR [TV] station) or demo the building and build to suit... Sold as is, building needs lots of work. Much of the value is in the land.”

While that may be true in the real estate context, there is more value to 853 Copley Rd. than the land.

The old theater that hosted regional celebrities and brought local TV to almost a million Akron area homes is an important landmark of Northeast Ohio’s media heritage.

were actively happening and listen to people and understand what is going on.”

David’s travels took him through what he describes as the five Ohios —Northeast, Northwest, Central, Southwest, and Southeast — each reflecting different aspects of American society. Having worked on a similar, albeit less extensive, project in the past, David had a chance to deepen his understanding of certain aspects of the Ohioan community, such as the farming culture in the western part of the state.

David Giffels wanders Ohio to understand the U.S. REPORTING AND WRITING

BY NAHLA BENDEFAA

A

n annual festival in a city recovering from a mass shooting. A small locally owned bookstore. A craft brewery set in an old funeral home. Abandoned malls all across the state. These are only some of the places that David Giffels visits in his new book Barnstorming Ohio to Understand America as he presents an insider’s look into Ohio communities.

David Giffels released his sixth book on Aug. 25. A lifelong Akronite, David traveled around the state of Ohio between March 2019 and March 2020 to get a sense of what it really means to be American at the dawn of the 2020 presidential election.

He describes this book as the culmination of his previous works and the authority they have given him over Ohio as a subject — including books about the rubber industry and Devo and The Hard Way on Purpose: Essays and Dispatches from the Rust Belt.

“My last book came out in 2018 and I was casting about for a new idea. My main goal was to get away from the ‘Ohio guy pigeonhole’ that I seemed to have gotten myself in,” says David, “Lo and behold, I wrote a book with Ohio in the title — // Charlotte Gintert is an archaeologist probably the most Ohio book I have and a photographer. You can written.” check out her photos at www. capturedglimpses.com and follow her Ohio offers a distinctive look into on Instagram at @capturedglimpses.

American politics and society at She encourages everyone to keep on this time. In fact, out of the last 31 wearing masks and washing hands! presidential elections, Ohio aligned itself with the winning campaign Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

in 29 of them. Additionally, no Republican has ever won the presidential election without winning Ohio.

“We’re in a moment where, you know, we can’t not write about the condition of the country,” says David, “It just seemed like Ohio is at the center of a lot of things. It’s always a reliable reflection of the national story and psyche.”

David drew inspiration for this book not only from the broader state of the country but also from a deep concern over the future that young people in the United States will face, particularly his children, to whom he dedicated the book.

“When I revised the book, I kind of deepened this question. It seemed to be on the mind of everybody and everything in the book. ‘Who will listen to me? And what do they want in return?’” says David.

The question is not only that of politicians and voters, but also of the whole state. Ohio is often misunderstood and forgotten, three years out of four until it is time for a presidential election. Then statisticians and reporters come to find out what this swing state is saying. In reality, Ohio is the tales of Leonte Cooper, an Akron native and political science student at The Ohio State University; Llallan Fowler, a bookstore owner in Mansfield; Bret Davis, a sixth-generation farmer in Delaware; Lacie Cheuvront, a single mother and activist from Hillard; and countless others who put a face to the narratives of what it means to be an Ohioan and American in these times.

The writing process was particularly intense for David, he says.

Barnstorming Ohio is based around Ohioan cities and regions that David deemed reflective of the national story and represented the themes that he wanted to address. The travels he undertook around the state were marked by the breaking news, such as the Lordstown plant closing, Tim Ryan’s brief bid for the Democratic nomination for president, and the 2019 mass shooting in Dayton.

By providing an Ohioan’s view on these questions, David presents a human, empathetic and holistic take on the stories that reflect the state’s, and by extension America’s, identity.

“Some of it was following things as they were happening, and some of it was going places that I knew I wanted to write about,” says David, “It was exciting. I was a daily journalist for a long time.

There are some things I don’t miss about deadlines and reacting in the moment. But I liked doing the journalistic work. Even though a lot of these things were tragic, I liked being able to go to where things

// Nahla Bendefaa is a writer, photographer and content creator from Akron by way of Kenitra, Morocco. She enjoys re-watching Friday Night Lights, painting and confusing Spotify’s algorithm while making her way through a seemingly never-ending tea collection.

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‘Barnstorming Ohio to Understand America’ is available at most local independent bookstores and national retailers.

Limited signed bookplates are available at The Learned Owl in Hudson and Main Street Books in Mansfield.

Images: Used with permission from David Giffels.

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Brian Lisik’s ‘Gudbye Stoopid Whirled’ wasn’t supposed to be about the pandemic — but it is REPORTING AND WRITING

BY KARLA TIPTON

I

t’s not the way things were supposed to go.

Brian Lisik’s new album Gudbye Stoopid Whirled, his first since 2015, was supposed to come out in the spring.

“By March we’re ramping up the publicity campaign, and the record’s going to come out in May. We’re going to hit the road and play a few different states here and there, line some things up for a tour, and then whammo,” Brian says.

The rest is history.

But the songs and even the title existed pre-COVID-19.

“The album was titled months before the pandemic; it was not intended at all to be prophetic,” Brian says.

“If COVID-19 has done anything, it’s given me a better story to tell about these songs. My tongue’s in my cheek as I say this — they’re all about COVID, but none of them are.”

The record, a cross between power pop and folky alternative, was pushed back to an Oct. 2 release. A livestream replaced the release party.

“I’m looking at it like, make lemonade out of lemons kind of a thing,” Brian says. “We couldn’t have

14 | The Devil Strip

a live CD show, but this is like being on Austin City Limits.”

Backing him up will be bassist Steve Norgrove, guitarist Robb Myers and drummer Martyn Flunoy of the seminal Akron Sound band, The Bizarros.

“I brought Steve out of retirement for one hour of livestream,” Brian says. His longtime writing partner had transitioned into producing full time, after building Bass Mint Studio, where Gudbye Stoopid Whirled was recorded.

Legendary producer and Canton resident Don Dixon (R.E.M., Counting Crows, Smithereens, Gin Blossoms) came in to mix the songs.

“Steve and I had some good recordings, but Don really put it over the edge,” Brian says. “He really took it from ‘hey, this is a pretty good record’ to ‘wow, this is a really good record.’”

Brian’s band, The Unfortunates, disbanded in 2019. The new 10-song, 33-minute record has a strippeddown basement vibe. “There’s barely three instruments on most of the stuff,” Brian says.

The lyrics fall against a backdrop of crunchy guitar-powered melodies that stick in your head. Drummer/guitarist Chad Jenson of Hillbilly Savant contributed to the album’s style.

The songs’ subject matter could easily have been rooted in pandemic angst.

“All the songs are about isolation and irrelevance and trying to find your place in the world, about getting old and switching gears,” Brian says. “I could be very opportunistic and say they’re all about COVID. Thank you, pandemic, for making me relevant again.”

On Gudbye Stooped Whirled, lyrical topics run the gamut from sex-as-selfmedication (“Mindship”); addiction and suicide (“Death of a Broken Heart”); and the obsession with chasing fame in the social media age (“Junior High School”).

While the words are dark, the music is not. The album builds classic sounds into a fresh, concise package of hummable tunes.

Brian cites diverse influences, from Big Star (think the That ‘70s Show theme song), John Mellencamp and the Replacements, country influences such as Waylon Jennings, as well as ‘60s girl groups. Closerto-home inspiration comes from the Raspberries and Cleveland’s Peter Laughner of Rocket From The Tombs fame.

Now living in Canton, Brian grew up in Ellet, near the border with Goodyear Heights. “You had kids whose dads were machinists and

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long-distance truck drivers on the normal side of Ellet, and then all our dads worked in the rubber shops. If there was a seedy side, that was us.”

As far as the future of music, he is a little worried.

“I’ve heard these horror stories that if this goes another two months that 90% of the clubs in Nashville are going to close. I can’t get my head around that,” he says. “You wonder how much of it is permanent, how much of it’s not.”

While Brian embraces new methods of getting his music out, he says he’s “hopeful that one of these days that Zoom meetings and livestream shows go the way of the Furby.”

He laughs. “What I need to find out is how they did livestreams in 1918.” // A native of Barberton, Karla Tipton earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and spent 14 years as a staff reporter and editor at the Antelope Valley Press in California before returning home. She is the author of two time travel romantic fantasy novels.

She keeps busy writing, working in the IT field, playing rock guitar, photographing urban settings and enjoying the local arts and music scene.

Images: Used with permission from Brian Lisik.

thedevilstrip.com

Muralist Caleb Aronhalt brings ‘minions’ to surprising places REPORTING AND WRITING

BY ZAÏRÉ TALON DANIELS

P

ublic artwork has historically been understood as a way for humans to beautify and place value on the landscapes around us.

Art helps the community remember the past and build a launch point to the future. Graffiti, on the other hand, is typically associated with vandalism and urban decay.

the underpass of Kenmore Boulevard and the Towpath beside Summit Lake. Although the Towpath’s bridge across Summit Lake is widely beloved, the underpass is, well, an underpass.

Aronhalt is not new to this task — he has worked on several other murals in the city, following a unique motif of characterized creatures he calls his “minions.”

Local artist Caleb Aronhalt has a different opinion.

“Painting murals is one of those hobbies that makes me feel alive,” Aronhalt says.

Aronhalt was commissioned by Summit Metro Parks to paint a mural on its walking path that is located at

Aronhalt got his start in the arts at Firestone High School under the leadership of his teacher

James Dauphin. “He pushed me and allowed me the freedom to experiment and grow with my art,” Aronhalt says.

Aronhalt has worked with mixed media, screen printing and spray paint. “[Graffiti] and cartoons have been a huge inspiration for me,” says Aronhalt. “There’s a huge difference between vandalism and graffiti.

Putting art in public rejuvenates the community. Bright colors bring people, and art on walls is better than ad space.”

its debut at the end of August. He also painted murals at the north and south corners of Kenmore Blvd and 15th Street and on the side of Kenmore Automotive at 1554 Kenmore Boulevard.

You can find more of Caleb’s work on Instagram @caleb_aronhalt_art . // Zaïré Talon Daniels is a recent graduate of the University of Akron and a summer intern at The Devil Strip.

Photos: Photos by Andy Harris. Used with permission from Caleb Aronhalt.

Aronhalt’s 27-figure mural made

The very best care – now under one roof.

Visit our new health center in Boston Heights.

Every child is unique. Their care should be too. At our new health center, you’ll find a wide range of pediatric offerings, from wellness visits to specialized care – all in one convenient location.

To see all the services offered, visit akronchildrens.org/healthcenters.

Akron Children’s Health Center 328 E. Hines Hill Road Boston Heights, Ohio 44236

Akron Children’s is committed to your entire family’s safety. To learn how we’re safeguarding your health, visit akronchildrens.org/COVID19.

‘Women With Issues’ aims to remind women over 50 of their political power REPORTING AND WRITING

BY ALLYSON SMITH

T

hink of your favorite podcast.

What is about? Politics? Movies?

TV show rewatch? Now, think of the hosts. How old are they?

What’s the demographic they aim for? Young adults, right? Someone between 18 and 35? You’ve probably thought of dozens of podcasts that fit that description, and let’s be honest, at a point, they all start to get redundant.

That’s where Women With Issues comes into play.

Hosted by Tracy Maxwell Heard and Diane Kilivris, Women With Issues is one of few podcasts geared toward women over 50 that discusses political and current event topics — particularly those that matter to women over 50, as established by an AARP Harris poll.

Tracy and Diane met each other as communication majors at the University of Akron decades ago, but they drifted apart when Tracy pursued a career in politics and Diane went into advertising.

“Tracy and I had reconnected a couple years ago after losing touch in college — we met in college at the University of Akron. We really wanted to do something together, and I had been thinking about doing a podcast.

And I came across an AARP article that said… in this upcoming election

16 | The Devil Strip

cycle, 95% of women over 50 will vote,” Diane says. At the time the poll was conducted, the majority of women were undecided as well.

“I said, ‘Hey Tracy, look at this, this is our podcast right here,” Diane says.

After planning for months, they launched their first episode in April, which was recorded together in person weeks before. Since the COVID-19 pandemic reached the U.S., they have recorded all of their episodes via Zoom, including episodes with guests.

The podcast was not only inspired by the rate at which women were voting, but also the issues that women said were important to them in this upcoming election. The top issue was healthcare, followed by the economy and ethics.

Tracy, who served in the Ohio House of Representatives as the minority leader, majority leader, minority whip and in other roles, noted that this would be an incredible turnout. “I know the demographics for all the different categories and never ever had there been any category that performed at 95% percent in any election cycle. That was just unheard of. So the potential for that, it was just really empowering for us, so let’s gin this up and make sure we show up and deliver, and impact this opportunity,” she says.

“How many women, how many of

our peers, know the power they were sitting on right now?” she adds.

Tracy acknowledges that this data doesn’t mean all women will be voting the same way, “and that’s not required for me to deem this a successful venture,” she says.

“There’s nothing that’s not on the table for women to have conversation or discussion, from healthcare — because we’re not just managing ourselves, but our parents and our children, so we’re 100% involved in that — [to] the economy, because we’re working and then the challenges that we have around the economy, being underpaid, being in and out of the workforce because we’re raising children and things.”

While they have been covering information found in the Harris poll, Diane, who is white, and Tracy, who is Black, cover other topics as well, such as race. They found that while race wasn’t something that was ranked as an important issue in the poll, their listeners deemed it an extremely important issue.

“We did two race episodes, and those are by far our most listened-to episodes. I’ve seen people sharing those episodes with friends,” Diane says.

Women With Issues is a podcast for women that stands out. While most podcasts for women discuss beauty, self-help or sex, Diane and Tracy say

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

their podcast isn’t “fluff.”

“It’s not fluff. We’re not fluff. We try to make it entertaining, but we’re talking about what’s important.

I really did research and I didn’t find anyone else doing this type of podcast,” Diane says.

Even though the poll that inspired the podcast was about the 2020 presidential election, Tracy and Diane have no intention of ending Women With Issues after the election. In fact, they think the end of the election cycle could breathe some new life into the project.

“Beyond the election, I would like to see us continue to address women’s issues, in general. Maybe not over 50, but women’s issues in general,” Diane says.

“Nov. 3 isn’t at all intended to be an end. We’ll look back and see what happened, what we did right, what we did wrong, and continue to adjust and move forward,” Tracy says.

To listen to ‘Women With Issues,’ go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Anchor FM or wherever you listen to podcasts. // Allyson’s background is in media production and anthropology. Her hobbies include coffee, traveling and taking months to read a single book.

Photos: Used with permission from Tracy and Diane.

thedevilstrip.com

‘What is the best way to create public safety?’

AS AKRON CONVENES A GROUP TO “REIMAGINE PUBLIC SAFETY,” WE EXAMINED HOW THE AKRON POLICE DEPARTMENT IS FUNDED, HOW MANY CALLS FOR SERVICE OFFICERS RESPOND TO, AND PROPOSALS TO SPEND SOME OF THAT FUNDING ELSEWHERE. HERE’S WHAT WE LEARNED. REPORTING, WRITING AND GRAPHICS BY ABBEY MARSHALL; ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS HARVEY

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hen activists marched in the streets in June demanding racial justice after the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, people across the country united under a demand to elected officials: “Defund the police.”

The specifics of that demand run the gamut, from full-fledged police abolition to revoking a small percentage of the police budget and reallocating it to other city departments.

In the heat of protests against police brutality in June, Akron’s Freedom Black-Led Organizing Collaborative, or BLOC, sent a letter to local elected officials with a list of demands, including a call to reduce the police budget by 25% and use those funds instead for crime prevention and community health programs.

“We need to invest in people and

invest in our schools as opposed to investing in law and order,” says Ray Greene, executive director of the organization. “If you couple that 25% with asset forfeiture money and put it into nonprofit organizations and community projects, you’ll see changes in the community.” (On top of reducing the budget, Greene has called for asset forfeiture money to be used to fund community projects.)

To gain better insight into the distribution of city resources, The Devil Strip analyzed public records, including service call logs and the city budget reports and talked to local activists and the Akron Police Department.

In brief, we learned: • The Akron Police Department’s budget grew 30% between 2015 and 2020.

• Calls for service have decreased by about 5% each year since 2016, with a larger dropoff of 8.9% between 2018 and 2019.

• Based on a sample police log from July 2019, out of 17,820 calls for

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

service, only 13.8% of incidents (2,466) warranted written police reports. Of those reports, 26.3% — or 3.6% of calls overall for the month — were for violent crimes, including forcible rape, robbery, assault, intimidation, arson and other crimes.

• Activists say other professionals, such as social workers or mental health professionals, are better equipped to handle some of the situations police commonly deal with.

The department insists its officers are best positioned to respond.

The Freedom BLOC’s list of demands have been in place since 2004, Greene says, but they have gotten little to no traction over the past decade and a half. He believes it’s time for activists to take matters into their own hands by training and supporting elected officials who will propose and implement policy changes.

Some local elected officials have expressed openness to reallocating some police funding and redirecting certain calls for service to other

agencies.

City Council will convene a special committee that reimagines public safety and policing, with groups focused on personnel and culture, accountability and transparency, and technology and equipment.

The committee will present concrete recommendations on Dec. 7.

Shammas Malik, who represents Ward 8 and serves on the city’s Budget and Finance and Public Safety Committees, said in a July 7 Freedom BLOC town hall that he is “absolutely” willing to reassess the budget.

“It’s not the most radical ask in the world,” he expressed then. “What we are talking about now in the country and here locally is, what is the best way to create public safety?

We certainly have things we need the police for, but we have a quarter million calls for service a year. What percentage of those could be done other ways?”

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APD’s budget continues to increase, despite calls for service decreasing

form of grant money specific to police or special levies. For example, Issue 4, passed in 2017, increased income taxes to generate about $15 million each year, split evenly between police, fire and infrastructure.

Fricker says most of this fund is used for capital needs, like replacing old patrol cars. The special revenue fund is the money that is likely unable to be diverted from the police department.

The recently released 2020 budget surpassed $70 million.

The amount of money allocated to the police department continues to increase, despite the police department receiving fewer calls for service every year since 2016.

Calls for service represent all calls except station calls, which are created when police are performing non-patrol tasks like filing paperwork or tagging evidence; out-ofservice calls, which are created when an officer is unable to answer service calls, such as when they’ve recently ended a shift or have a flat tire; and meal breaks.

The primary reason for the 30% budget increase in the past five years is labor costs, City of Akron Finance Director Steve Fricker says.

Salaries and overtime pay make up about 54% of the total costs to the department.

The current count of uniformed officers is 458, including supervisors and the 45 new recruits hired in late 2019. Since their hire, about 10 officers have retired. The 2020 budget allows for 468 officers and 31 additional police personnel.

Base salary for a new police officer is currently $66,768.

Additionally, those rising labor costs include a 2.75% cost of living adjustment to all city employee salaries, as well as incremental pay increases for police officers according to experience, longevity and promotions.

They are asking for more traffic enforcement, and we haven’t been able to do it to the level they would like to do,” he says. “Because of our low staffing levels, there’s not really a working vice unit like they used to have. There’s areas like that where they haven’t been able to staff functions typical to police departments.”

According to data from Governing, a nonpartisan publication that analyzes state and local government and policy, cities with a population between 100,000 and 200,000 have an average of 15.9 officers per 10,000 people.

Akron, a city with a population of 197,000, averages 23 officers for every 10,000 people.

The city decides how to divvy up the general fund almost a year in advance, led by Fricker and the finance department. That department passes a temporary budget to cover the first quarter of the year while the proposals are pending. Then the finance department prepares a budget and presents their recommendations to city council over several days in the spring. City council members can propose changes, though Fricker doesn’t recall any alterations being made this year, and it is adopted at the end of March as law, effective immediately.

The special revenue fund is an account established by the city government to collect funds that must be used for a specific purpose or project. This may come in the

How the police department is funded

Approximately 83% of the Akron Police Department’s funding comes Finally, Fricker says some grant from the city’s general revenue funding that had been allocated fund. Another 16% comes from specifically to subsidize officer salaries the “special revenue fund,” which ran out in recent years, so money includes income sources like Issue 4, from the city’s general fund needed which voters passed to increase taxes to go to the department to continue for public safety and infrastructure. paying those officers.

The remaining 0.7% comes primarily from cash or property confiscated by Fricker says the police department has police. been understaffed in recent years, so while service calls may be decreasing, The city has wide latitude over the budget is growing alongside units how to spend the general fund. the department is trying to develop.

That money comes from taxpayers, through income and property taxes, “That’s a big complaint that the city as well as court revenues and some council members get from citizens. funding from the State of Ohio.

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The trust and agency fund, which only generates $501,000 of the $71.1 million budget, is hardly used, Fricker says. It is mostly funded through civil asset forfeiture, which is money and property confiscated when someone is arrested. As their case works its way through the justice system, the judge decides based on court proceedings if the money will be returned to the person or remitted to the city.

Typically, the city has to give a portion of that money to federal, state and county governments as well.

Because so much of police funding comes from the aforementioned general revenue fund — which is essentially the big pot of cash the city divvies up when they create and approve the budget — it could theoretically be moved to any other department, Fricker says.

“In theory, there’s really nothing that is [untouchable],” Fricker says. “Other than the existing staffing that we’re trying to maintain in the police and fire departments — there’s nothing dictating how we allocate the money to go in the general fund.”

The service runs patrol officers make The Devil Strip obtained public records of all service calls made in July 2019 to sample what incidents patrol officers face on each run. The log reflects any patrol officer activities during the month, whether it is responding to a call or self-generated, meaning an officer initiates an activity without a citizen call. (We selected July 2019 because summer months are typically when crime reports peak, and 2020 months are likely to be skewed due to shelter-inplace orders during the thedevilstrip.com

programs to combat specific problems police may not be thoroughly trained to handle.

“W.O.M.B. already deals with most of those issues,” Greene says. “W.O.M.B, Freedom BLOC, Harmony House — if they had money, would be able to deal with and prevent some of these issues like disorderly conduct, vagrancy, trespassing.”

COVID-19 pandemic.)

Nearly 9% of calls for service are created when officers call the station to report off-duty extra jobs, such as working security for an event outside of their police duties, as required by department policy. Approximately 8% are people calling and requesting to meet with an officer, for anything from a civil complaint to a vehicle failure. Another 6.8% are traffic stops, and 5.9% are police checking in on specific locations, either at the owners’ request or because they’re the sites of previous problems.

The duties above, which are the most frequent calls for that month, comprise about a third of the call activity log. The rest include at least 170 other tasks, including responding to security alarms, verbal fights, drug offenses, shots fired and burglary, but those calls are far fewer than those listed above.

Of those 17,820 service calls, only 13.8% of incidents warranted written police reports (2,466), according to the city’s database of reports made during the same time frame. Of those written reports, 26.3% — or 3.6% of calls overall — were considered violent crimes, including forcible rape, robbery, assault, intimidation and arson.

In all of 2019, Akron police received and responded to a total of 182,260 calls, resulting in 33,536 reports throughout the year.

The station averages about 500 calls for service per day and between

12,000 and 13,000 calls per month, APD spokesperson Lt. Michael Miller estimates. He says a “large percentage” of people call 911 for non-emergency issues. (911 calls are initiated by members of the public.

Calls for service include 911 calls as well as activity initiated by police officers themselves.)

“As a patrol officer, you have to stay dialed in and focused or in a condition to go up or down, left or right,” says Miller, who worked as a patrol officer 18 of his 21 years at the Akron Police Department. “It varies a lot. You could be not very busy three or four hours straight, or it could get very rough. Anything from low-level calls, civil disputes, property crimes with no victims to a homicide or death call.”

‘Investing in the community:’ Activists say some police duties can be reallocated Nationally, lots of communities are talking about taking some responsibilities away from the police and ceding them to organizations who specialize in working with vulnerable populations, including homeless people and people experiencing domestic violence, for example. Some activists are calling for total abolition of police forces. Others are pushing for police departments to shrink, but not disappear.

When we asked who was best equipped to handle various service calls, activists offered a variety of solutions. Greene recommends investments in already-existing

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

Activists suggest investments in other organizations that could respond to calls related to their area of specialization, as well as prevention initiatives.

Instead of police responding to someone having a mental health incident, Greene says, a mental health worker could be funded and trained to deescalate the situation and provide proper medical care to assist that person and prevent any future issues. In the case of a domestic dispute, a battered women’s shelter could intervene.

“When we think of community safety, what would it look like when we invest in community counselors?”

DaMareo Cooper, BlackPAC’s national field director, said at a July 7 virtual town hall hosted by Freedom BLOC to discuss policy changes to protect Black Akronites. “Police officers have been trained to stop the threat, but what if the threat isn’t violent?”

next Tuesday? Their crisis is right now.

The degree we can go listen, offer resources; that’s all in our toolbox to do.”

Activists counter that, if social service providers had more resources, they could help prevent the occurrence of incidents, and respond more effectively when incidents do occur.

“Stop thinking about it as defunding the police, and think about it as investing in the community,” Cooper says. “We need to spend money on what makes communities thrive and invest in people.”

A 2011 study by the Police Executive Research Forum, mandated by the City of Akron to assess the effectiveness of APD, analyzed the amount of time tasks such as calls for service, self-initiated activities, meal breaks and administrative tasks took up, and called that amount of time “higher than some comparable agencies.”

The report recommended that “the Department should initiate alternative methods for responding to service demands” to give patrol officers more time to engage with the community.

“We wear a lot of hats and handle a lot of non-police related things,” Miller acknowledges. Still, he says, “police officers are the best equipped to handle those dynamic situations.”

Some local officials are open to reallocating police funds

Miller, on the other hand, says he believes police officers are in fact the best department to handle what he labels as “non-police activities,” such as responding to calls about child welfare and mental health incidents.

(Welfare checks make up roughly 3.8% of calls for service in the log from July 2019.)

As calls to defund the police grow more widespread and detailed, some local officials are ready to listen to constituents. Others have already prepared proposals for changes to the department.

“People will say ‘defund, defund, defund,’ but based on the dynamics of situations, we might argue the police are best suited to handle a very combative, aggressive person experiencing a mental health crisis,” he says. “A counseling agency wouldn’t be the first agency for a situation like that.”

Russ Neal, the city council member for Ward 4, contacted The Devil Strip about a plan to reallocate $5 million from the police budget to other means of community investment. He said this discussion had been taking place long before the protests, but current events are an impetus for others getting on board.

Miller argues a lot of calls are timesensitive and come in a way “where there would be no realistic timeframe to refer to another agency.”

“I’d like to look at how we could better utilize resources regarding community policing,” he says.

“When people have a need, the only place they call are the police. We are looking at diversifying that and how to better utilize those dollars.”

“When people call the police, they want an immediate police response,” he says. “Is it even practical on a Wednesday afternoon to tell this family not to expect a response from child services or the hospital until

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

Neal’s first proposal would be to hire at least four community liaisons for each of the 10 wards, be they The Devil Strip

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social workers or mental health workers, at a salary of $40,000 each. Those 40 jobs would cost the city $1.6 million and provide people with the professional skills to deal with social work situations and mental health crises as an alternative to the police.

Next, he says, each ward should receive $250,000 for community wraparound support dollars for organizations and programs that uplift and support those who live there, such as after-school programs.

“We’re all pretty cash-strapped,” he says. “Last year, I requested a grant for over $140,000 for my entire ward. I only got $8,000. Every ward did.”

Finally, he suggests hiring two additional parttime community ambassadors per ward, paid $25,000 per year, to engage with youth in the community.

All of his proposed programming amounts to $4.6 million, leaving a surplus of $400,000 that he says could be invested back in the police if need be, as some of those calls will likely still go back to the police.

“You save money, and you’re better able to service the community,” he says. “The idea would be to create a community network working with the police officers so you could more intimately serve the community.”

Neal says he is waiting on updated statistics and information to come through from the police department before he makes solid proposals in council.

“Our police officers and our police department have been taking a beating for stuff they haven’t done that is happening across the nation,” Neal says. “We want to make sure they’re part of conversation on how to better utilize resources, actually saving them money and freeing up their time to do more police work.”

Two other elected officials — Veronica Sims of Summit County Council and Shammas Malik of Ward 8 — joined Freedom BLOC’s July 7 virtual town hall to express their openness to advocate for altering the police budget and have conversations with constituents about what future policing looks like in the city.

“It’s government by the people for the people,” Sims said on July 7. “It’s not what we want to do with the budget; it’s what the people want to do with the budget. I’m open to doing whatever we need to do to address the myriad issues, but people keep needing to speak out.”

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October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

In July, city council announced a special committee that will reimagine public safety and policing, including four groups: personnel and culture, accountability and transparency, prevention, and technology and equipment. Each city council member will serve on a committee in the fall with the intent of proposing concrete recommendations in a report scheduled to be released to the public on Dec. 7.

None of the committees focus explicitly on the police department budget. Some possible reform initiatives, such as expanding police training, will likely require additional funding.

Police abolitionists want investments to prevent crime for a future without officers Greene argues that police are ineffective in that they are a band-aid: a response once damage has already been done and a crime is already committed.

“I want to see the police go away. I know that’s not a conversation we’re ready to have,” says Greene, who is one of the growing number of activists calling on a total abolition of a police force.

The key to a successful society, he says, is prevention.

Each crime boils down to a fundamental need not being met in underfunded Black communities, he says. Economic crimes such as burglary and theft could be prevented with the implementation of a living wage of $15 per hour and the implementation of entrepreneurship instruction in public schools. Assault and intimidation, both behavioral crimes, could be curbed through investment in school counselors that work on communication skills and de-escalation tactics at a young age. Destruction of property could be stopped through after-school and community outreach programs.

“It’s about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: giving people affordable housing, living wage, childcare, healthcare,” he says. “You do those things, you’re looking at a different Akron in 10 years.”

“These things are going to continue to happen for sure,” Greene says. “Let’s not create a false narrative to think that once we get rid of 25% of the budget that everything is going to be peaches and cream. When it fails, they want to go back to the norm. We can’t let it. This is 400 years in the making. 10 years is going to just be the foundation to change the thinking of the government and our people.” // Abbey Marshall covers economic development for The Devil Strip via Report for America. Reach her at abbey@thedevilstrip.com.

thedevilstrip.com

POE’S

OC 9OCT NOV 7 NO

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overshadows oddball innocuousness.

“Eidola” is dedicated to Harvey’s old Tin Huey bandmate, saxophonist Ralph Carney, who died in 2017 before getting to make the collaborative album the two had been discussing.

“It’s a song about the gathering of ghosts in my life,” Harvey says. “This happens with greater frequency as we get older.”

Carney’s ghost is there in “Eidola,” which includes a half-measure spattering of crisscrossed saxophones in his honor. “You will see your time passing,” Harvey sings. “So many ghosts now.”

“I believe we are all the versions of us that we’ve ever been,” Harvey says, “so a lot of different Harveys came to play [on It’s Messy Vol. 1].”

Which is to say Harvey Gold has lived a lot of life. Which is to say that, in some respects, this is an album about growing older. But Gold disagrees.

On the Record LONGTIME ROCKER HARVEY GOLD IS ‘ALL THE VERSIONS’ OF HIMSELF ON NEW ALBUM REPORTING AND WRITING

BY KYLE COCHRUN

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e’re over four decades removed from when Harvey Gold bellowed in “Puppet Wipes” — Tin Huey’s avant-punk evocation of b-grade horror flicks — that his car was filled with tons of puppet heads. Earlier this summer, the founding member of Tin Huey released the single “Eidola: Inadvertently for Ralph” in anticipation of his first solo album, It’s Messy Vol. 1.

If you were hoping this guy was still making weird music, you’ll be relieved to learn that “Eidola” resembles a conventional pop song about as much as a splattering of egg yolk dripping from the kitchen ceiling resembles an omelet.

fades to post-apocalyptic smolder.

Harvey does not implore you to eat a dead armadillo this time around.

Nevertheless, It’s Messy Vol. 1 packs plenty of musical and lyrical quirks into songs about subjects as wide-ranging as crazed exes, Joe Strummer, codependency, tenant/ landlord squabbles in the old west, growing older and “how the way one is addressed as a child profoundly influences the resultant adult.”

“Then there’s the Music Hall tune to my ophthalmologist who provided an odd method for dealing with a sty on my eye,” Harvey says.

The aforementioned ditty, “Song for Joanna,” closes the album with a cutesy piano melody fit for a cereal jingle. Harvey’s lyrics complete the joke before turning into a register of The song features a burping guitar the different ways he’s working to loop and a barrage of keyboard stay healthy: “Corn Flakes, Shredded tones obdurately dinging past Wheat, Farina and Maypo / Cocoa the tambourine’s faint rhythmic Crispies were my fave, by the way, suggestion. The bass froths up from but this is the dawn of another day the left channel before plunging back / I’ve been through the yogurts and under the slathering of synthesizers the quinoa cups / Ran a mile and a and guitar. The lyrics are a reverse quarter before you even got up.” The haiku, which Gold wrote to piss off a treatment for his sty: “A hard-boiled friend who challenged him to write egg pressed up against [his] eye.” a haiku. Harvey describes the song’s dismal second half as an “RM-20 This seems a suitable cure for experiment in terror.” Fever dream the man who recorded “March

22 | The Devil Strip

of the Elephants,” a dissonant discombobulate of Korg X-3 tones that Harvey credits to “spontaneous eruption onto a Boss RC-20 Loop Station.” The sketch sounds like it was generated from a child’s nightmarish songmaker, held together with Elmer’s and duct-tape and programmed to score stopmotion animation of an elephant pack’s trudge through hellfire.

Despite Harvey’s trademark eccentricities on display, the songwriting is more straightforward and a few shades bleaker than it was back when Tin Huey was searching out what rock critic Robert Christgau termed “the eternal secret of the whoopee cushion.” Harvey’s voice, which has acquired more gravel and low-end since the days of pink berets, magnifies the unease in the lyrics.

On album opener “Your Side of the Room,” he claims he’s “never felt quite so alone,” and the no-frills drum-and-bass palette suggests he’s serious. On the autobiographical “Lazy Boy,” he sings, “As I write this there’s a purpose / Starts with art and ends with pain.” On “In a Very Good Place” he repeats the lines “Am I always gonna worry about you?” and “Don’t think I’m gonna find a cure,” repeatedly dipping into a minor key.

Throughout the album, discontent

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

“If I had put the album together in the chronological order of writing the songs, maybe it would appear to have a story of the passage of time as a theme,” he says. “Aging itself, always in motion, is messy, with a lot of voices to it, so certainly part of the album’s theme, but not the theme.”

“One song goes back 20 years, another even longer in its inception, though it ended up very, very different. One chunk of songs [is from] almost ten years ago, another grouping a couple years back, and a few more tracks are quite recent. But everything older got revisited, had tracks added, subtracted, remixed, and mastered for the album.”

Now that It’s Messy Vol. 1 is out in the world, Harvey is focused on his roles in other rock bands, playing keys for The HiFis and guitar for Golems of the Red Planet.

“I’m at a point in my musical life that is unique and personally fascinating,” he says. “So maybe a more boring narrative, but actually, in some ways, just as adventurous for me as a musician.”

But Harvey’s career narrative as a musician has always been complicated. His Wikipedia page includes a section titled “Bands Involved With Harvey Gold,” which lists 11 groups. He’s a serial collaborator. Case in point: One day in 1979, him and his bandmates thedevilstrip.com

in Tin Huey convinced the office workers at Warner Brothers Studios to stop into the sessions for Contents Dislodged During Shipment and shout a chorus about mutilated puppet heads between exhortations from a galaxy-traversing mad scientist (played by Harvey). They credited the impromptu group of backup singers on the album credits as “Face Lining Choir.”

“If they were free, they passed the audition,” Harvey says.

It’s Messy Vol. 1 features contributions from a slew of musicians, including drummer Bob Ethington, bassist Debbie Smith Cahan, Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, Chris Hillman of the Byrds, the original lineup of Tin Huey and the band Half Cleveland. The result, when listened to all the way through, suits the title.

The harmonica-doused blues romp “Lemon Beazly,” which jocularly lifts a line from Tommy James and the Shondells, has little in common with the upbeat power-pop of “Silly Idea.”

Songs like “March of the Elephants” and “Song for Joanne” exist in sonic worlds of their own. “Eidola” is fully fleshed out and distinct enough to suggest an album direction not taken.

Though the lyrics focus inward, Harvey’s musical interests extend in several directions.

“One of the very few benefits of being really eclectic is that you can play with different folks at different times under wildly different circumstances,” Harvey says, “as there’s no specific sound or style your audience has as an expectation.

Of course, that often also yields a small audience with no expectations whatsoever, my lot in life.”

With It’s Messy Vol. 1, Harvey embraces his lot in life. The album represents his disparate musical interests, his collaborative approach and his oddball charm. It’s not definitive, but Harvey could never record anything definitive of his career in music, nor would he probably care to.

For this reason, he remains fascinating. // Kyle Cochrun is a writer from Akron, Ohio. Contact him at kylecochrun@gmail.com.

Artisan Coffee turns five REPORTING AND WRITING

BY LAURA LAKINS

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wners Tim and Emily Bechtel opened the doors to Artisan Coffee back on Oct. 1, 2015. What had started as a hobby of home-roasting coffee and creating syrups turned into what is now one of the toprated coffee shops in Northeast Ohio. Situated in the heart of Ellet, Artisan is known for its delicious coffee and food, cozy setting, and friendly staff.

“About 3 years before we opened here, my wife said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy doing a free class at the library on roasting coffee at home. I think you’d be interested,’” Tim says.

From there, he fell in love with the process. Tim would roast coffee for their family on the back patio of their home. Soon enough it became more than a hobby. One summer, Tim roasted coffee beans to continually contribute to fundraisers for the nonprofit organization Emily was working with at the time.

“We did that for a summer, and then at that point, how could we stop?

People loved it, and from then on we started having regular buyers,” Tim says.

The Bechtels continued to sell their coffee from their home, but the time demand between that and their full-time jobs became a lot to handle. It was at that point in time that Artisan Coffee came to life. They took a leap of faith in starting their own business, something they had been conceptualizing for more than a decade.

Initially, Tim and Emily looked to build Artisan in downtown Akron. They then realized that the type of place they were looking to build — one where you can gather with friends and family, study for school or work, or simply relax — was lacking in their own neighborhood.

Album cover: Used with permission from Harvey Gold.

They began to look in the Ellet area, and found their current building on Canton Road up for auction. Now,

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

what was once Tim and Emily’s vision of their ideal coffee shop is a reality close to home.

Artisan has something for everyone.

Whether you are in the mood for coffee, pastries or a hot meal, you can find it on their menu that they update regularly. They make everything in-house and are allergyfriendly, providing a handful of gluten-free and dairy-free options.

They rolled out their fall flavors on Sept. 1, which consists of a delicious pumpkin spice latte, apple pie latte, and a salted caramel mocha to get you in the cozy autumn spirit. Be sure to keep an eye out for their famous “Cotton Headed Ninny Muggins,” a cotton candy-flavored latte inspired by the movie Elf, that makes an appearance every holiday season.

Typically, Artisan also provides various forms of entertainment for their customers through live music, pop-up shops, board games and the like, but the pandemic has put a hold on most of those. Customers are able to dine in at Artisan as they have rearranged the seating to allow for

social distancing.

Tim and Emily are looking forward to the new normal that we will all find post-COVID-19, but they also extend their gratitude to the community for their support through it all, and also to their staff for the hard work they have put in to keep Artisan moving forward.

If you have yet to try Artisan, you can visit them at their main location in Ellet at 662 Canton Rd. You can also visit their location at Whole Foods in West Akron, or find them at the Hudson Farmers Market every Saturday from June to October.

You can keep up with Artisan Coffee on Instagram @ artisancoffeeshop or Facebook at Artisan Coffee. To find their food and drink menus, visit www. artisancoffeeshop.com. // Laura Lakins is an educator and freelance writer from Akron, OH. Photos: Used with permission from Tim and Emily Bechtel.

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Meet Charrish11, a boutique for curvy, petite women

TASHA HARRIS’S BOUTIQUE IS CATERED TOWARD WOMEN WHO ARE UNDER 5’4” AND HAVE CURVES REPORTING AND WRITING

BY JILLIAN HOLNESS

B

eing a petite woman can come with a tall list of problems.

One: It’s nearly impossible to find pants that are the perfect length.

Two: People think that you’re younger than you actually are and treat you like a kid.

And three: People assume that just because you’re short you should have a tiny body and weigh less than 115 pounds.

At 5’2 and 153 pounds, Tasha Harris knows this all too well.

“I get a lot of people on social media that say, ‘you don’t look petite to me,’” Harris says.

Harris then has to explain to them that, according to the fashion industry, she’s considered petite because she’s under 5’3.

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Harris also considers herself to be curvy because of her pear-shaped body that has blessed her with thick thighs, wide hips and a large, natural backside that would make the Kardashians jealous.

Unfortunately, it seems like the fashion industry is oblivious to curvy petite women, and considers petite and curvy to be on opposite sides of the body type spectrum.

Struggling to find trendy and cute clothes that fit, and hearing from other petite women who have had similar shopping issues, inspired Harris to launch her own online boutique, Charrish11.

Harris had been working on her business for about two years before officially launching her boutique on June 29.

“My oldest son told me to stop procrastinating and just launch,” Harris says. “When the pandemic happened, I was like, ‘whoa, I don’t know if I should do it because all this

stuff is happening. It’s probably going to be hard for me to launch.’”

Harris’s doubts disappeared after seeing how other online boutiques continued to bring in revenue despite COVID-19. Harris also noticed that since we were staying at home, a lot of people, including herself, have been doing more online shopping.

“I’m always online looking at Amazon, Pretty Little Things and Fashion Nova,” Harris says. “I’ve spent a lot of money during this quarantine because I’ve been at home.”

Following her son’s advice and feeling more optimistic about ecommerce, Harris decided to take the plunge and finally launch Charrish11.

Having a business that represented her as the owner was an important factor for Harris.

When coming up with names, Harris said she likes the name “cherish” because of its meaning. She then

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

had an ‘Aha’ moment and discovered that if she put a C in front of her last name, it would be “Charrish.”

Harris says that she came up with 11 because her and her husband’s birthdays are in November and that 11 is a highly spiritual number. Harris says that 11 means high energy, enthusiasm and creative energy.

As a self-proclaimed engineer by day and fashionista by night, Harris has always loved fashion and working with her hands.

As a kid, Harris asked for a sewing machine for Christmas. “Most kids want toys, but I’m like ‘l want a sewing machine,’” Harris laughs.

Once Harris received her Singer sewing machine, she began making her own clothes.

Charrish11’s clothing is not designed

by Harris due to the high costs of manufacturing, but Harris plans on designing her clothes in the future.

In the meantime, Harris pays close thedevilstrip.com

Left and right: Lawanda, a professional petite model who is 4’11”, modeling for Charrish11. (Photos: Used with permission from Tasha Harris.)

Center: Tasha Harris is 5’2” and describes herself

jumpsuit and then I would have to get it altered, and it ended up costing me more money to get it altered than what I bought the outfit [for],” Harris says.

Instagram for at least a year now and that The Petite Pear Project has featured Harris on her blog and has become a loyal customer to Charrish11.

Harris describes her personal style as trendy and sexy, but classy.

“She really has been on my team in really helping me get my name out there and to get exposure,” Harris says. “It really has helped my brand and helped me get more exposure then I think I would have got.”

as pear-shaped. (Photo: Used with permission from Tasha Harris.)

attention to the type of clothing she buys from wholesalers.

“I try to look for items that I think will look good on the majority of body types,” Harris says.

Charrish11 specializes in clothing for petite women but also carries clothes for average-height and plus-size women, with sizes running from size small, or 4-6, to 3X, 22-24.

Wrap dresses, Harris says, are universally flattering.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re tall or short. The wrap dress works well because it accentuates your waist,” Harris says. “It’s just like one big piece of cloth. So it will adjust to whatever body shape that you have.”

Harris can also find bottoms and jumpsuits that are the perfect length for petite women.

“I would buy a pair of pants or a

“I don’t like to look thotish,” Harris laughs. “I don’t like the trashy look, but I like to show off my curves.”

Harris has learned what looks good on her and other body types through research and trial and error.

I’ve been doing a lot of research for several years about different body types,” Harris says. “If you have a rectangle shape, wear this. If you’re an apple, wear this.”

Harris shares her style tips on her fashionista Instagram page, @TashBoog.

Harris’s Instagram has also played a huge role in helping her engage with customers and connect with influencers. One of her biggest supporters has been Kristin Ulmer, aka The Petite Pear Project.

Harris says that they have been communicating back and forth on

store and branch out to an accessory and men’s line.

Harris says that her husband has experience with owning a business and would take over the men’s division. The men’s line will include suits, ties, watches and other formal wear, and will not cater to a particular height or body type.

With COVID-19 still active, the future feels uncertain, but Harris isn’t letting the unknown hold her back from growing her business.

“My husband is more on the bigger side, like the 3X, 4X, and I know he struggles finding clothes too,” Harris says. “I’m sure he’ll incorporate something like that into the men’s side as well.”

Since Charrish11 is still a new business, Harris’s main goal is to continue to increase her brand awareness.

Harris’s advice to other women looking to start their own boutiques is to stop procrastinating and just do it.

“People have to be able to trust you before they will buy from you,” Harris explains. “For the next three months I’m really working on getting my name out there, being engaged on social media, so that I can build that trust factor.”

“You’re going to learn through trials and errors. So just get out there and do it,” Harris says.

Harris is also researching manufacturers so that she can one day design her own clothes for the boutique. She also wants to eventually have a brick-and-mortar

Visit Charrish11 at charrisheleven. com, on Instagram at @charrish11 or on Facebook at facebook.com/ charrisheleven. // Jillian Holness is a graduate of Kent State University.

This year's Highland Square Film Festival is going virtual in December! The screen may be smaller, but our scope will be larger than ever.

2020 has been quite the year. What has it looked like from your perspective? Show us in your own original film of five minutes or less.

FILM SUBMISSIONS: Submissions will close on November 20, 2020 at midnight. Please send your submissions to us at highlandsquarefilmfest@gmail.com as a YouTube/Vimeo link and pay the 25 dollar submission fee via our Paypal (www.paypal.com/paypalme2/highlandsquare) with a note stating it is for 2020's Film Festival.

Films should be 5 minutes or less. Films with an Akron connection may be prioritized.

For more information, visit highlandsquareakron.org

$1,000 Grand Prize!

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

The Devil Strip

| 25

After years of debate, Akron will not celebrate Columbus Day this fall

Students from the Northern Cheyenne Nation and The Lippman School lead participants in walking the Portage Path in Akron on Oct. 1, 2018. (Photo: Portage Path Collaborative)

REPORTING AND WRITING

BY NOOR HINDI

T

his fall, Akron will celebrate its newest holiday — ItalianAmerican Heritage and Culture Day — on Oct. 12. The holiday replaces Columbus Day after three years of contentious debate.

In 2017, Ward 4 councilmember Russ Neal introduced legislation to replace the holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day. After vociferous pushback from Akron’s Italian-American community, council reached a compromise: The first Monday in October would become North American First Peoples Day and the second Monday in October would remain Columbus Day. In June, city council voted to rename Columbus Day. The city also declared September “Welcoming Month,” to celebrate the influx of immigrants to Akron in the last 10 years.

no on the compromise in June, he argued that the only way to right the wrongs of what that day represents to Black and Indigenous people is to name it Indigenous Peoples Day. “That day is tainted. It’s stained with the blood of my ancestors and of indigenous folk,” Neal says.

Sundance, a Muskogee Creek person and the executive director of the Cleveland American Indian Movement, which advocates for Indigenous people in Northeast Ohio, says “the wrong compromises were made.”

“To have Welcoming Month in September and continue to ignore the history of Columbus in October doesn’t seem very welcoming,” Sundance says. “Even to call it Italian [American] Heritage Day does not take away that it’s a day of genocide for us that Italian-Americans have now put their name on.”

‘It’s harmful and painful’

Most Akron officials consider the new resolution a success. All but one councilmember — Neal — voted in favor of it.

The impact of the violence that followed Columbus’s arrival in the Americas continues to be felt in Native communities.

“There isn’t a population of Native Americans in our city, but we went through the extraordinary step of creating an Indigenous Peoples Day three years ago,” says Ward 1 Councilman Rich Swirsky. “We dropped [Columbus Day] in June. It’s not appropriate to celebrate him. It’s very difficult to change a national holiday, but we do what we can do to separate ourselves from it.”

Akronite LaDonna Jessie BlueEye, a Choctaw person, remembers her mother speaking Choctaw to her growing up. BlueEye says her mother didn’t learn English until she was 5 after she was sent to a governmentrun boarding school as a means to assimilate her to American culture.

Neal continues to argue that declaring Columbus Day as ItalianAmerican Heritage Day is ineffective and misleading. When he voted

26 | The Devil Strip

Growing up, BlueEye remembers her mother applying for her Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood, a U.S. document that verifies that a person possesses a degree of Native American blood.

“I don’t know of any other people in the U.S who are forced to go back to a family tree to prove they belong here,” she says.

Today, BlueEye has forgotten much of the Choctaw language but continues to hold on to her heritage through song and dance. She currently works at the Summit County Board of Elections and says Native communities continue to face voter suppression.

Sundance adds that Native Americans do not control “the image of everyday life of Native people.” “[Our images] are owned by sports teams, they’re owned by high school mascots, they’re owned by corporate brands. Even some of our supporters, when they come to our demonstrations, [they] drive home with their Jeep Cherokees. You have Omaha Insurance.”

For Sundance, the “rewritten narrative surrounding Columbus” covers up the reality of Native life: Native Americans are still here, but centuries of systemic oppression have created a nation in which “we are not being seen as people.”

“We have an astounding rate, a shameful rate, of murdered and missing Indigenous women in North America…. We have an astounding rate of missing children. We have the highest rate of teenage suicide in the country. We have the shortest life expectancy. We have the least purchase power. We have the least education, the least healthcare, least quality of healthcare in the country.

We represent the poorest segment of the country and we represent 2% of the population.

“So, again, the question remains as

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

to whether or not we’re being seen as people.”

In Akron, BlueEye is part of the Portage Path Collaborative, which seeks to educate the public about the portage path, which was used by Indigenous people before Ohio was colonized.

Each year, the Portage Path Collaborative, in partnership with the Lippman School, hosts a weekend of walks and programs to commemorate Native people who lived in the Akron area. They also invite members of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana to visit Akron. The effort was created in 2017 after debate over Neal’s resolution to smooth tension.

It is currently the only effort in Akron to educate the public about Native populations, organizers say, and is sponsored by The Lippman School, Summit Metro Parks and the University of Akron Cummings Center for the History of Psychology.

Matt Russ, Curriculum and Student Affairs Director at Lippman, believes the June 2020 resolution is “a step in the right direction,” but would like to see Italian-American Heritage and Culture Day changed to Indigenous Peoples Day. “If we are going to call ourselves a progressive city, then we should go all the way there,” he says.

But BlueEye says she doesn’t see the point in going further. She loves living in a city that does not recognize Christopher Columbus.

“I think it’s a very strong statement by the city government and the council to really support taking away that name of Columbus because it really is harmful. It’s harmful and painful to thedevilstrip.com

see Native American children dress up as Columbus and pilgrims and some of this history that helped wipe us out.”

What Columbus Day means to Italian-Americans in Akron Columbus Day became a national holiday in 1937. At that time, ItalianAmerican immigrants were being persecuted in the United States.

According to the Library of Congress, about 4 million Italians immigrated to the U.S. from 1880 to 1920, and upon arrival, many faced religious discrimination, anti-Italian sentiment and harsh working conditions.

But in recent decades, Christopher Columbus’s legacy has been recast as one that sparked the genocide of Indigenous people and the transAtlantic slave trade.

Italian-American Tom Cardone says his family “never celebrated Christopher Columbus,” but only “Italian-American heritage and culture.” He believes the June 2020 resolution was a “good compromise.”

Akronite John Vallilo, a longtime member of the Italian-American Professional Business Club, has been in conversation with council since 2017 and calls their changes an “assault on Columbus Day and the Italian-American community.”

In 2017, Vallilo advocated against Neal’s resolution. In 2020, he helped draft the resolution to change Columbus Day to Italian American Culture and Heritage Day. “We feel as a community that Columbus, and Columbus Day, is our celebration,” Vallilo says. “This is our holiday. What right does anyone have to tell an entire community that they cannot celebrate Columbus Day?” When asked how he reconciles the violence Christopher Columbus inflicted on Native populations, he says he denies those accusations against Columbus.

“Now you have the counter-narrative that Columbus started the slave trade, he was responsible for millions of deaths by bringing disease, and in general, yes, I disagree with those accusations. There’s always nuance.

Columbus himself, he may not have been involved in these activities. But could it have been crew members, could it have been his son who later became involved? Maybe.”

Moving forward Neal is working on a resolution to introduce to council within the next month to make Election Day a paid holiday in Akron in place of Italian-American Heritage Day, which continues to be a paid day off.

The law department is drafting the resolution for Neal.

“We can all see right now one of our most precious rights in this country is under attack. This would be a way for our city to lead,” Neal says.

Sandusky made national headlines in 2019 for swapping Columbus Day for a paid day off for Election Day. They also changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Sandusky City Manager Eric Wobser says the resolution did not create much tension within the ItalianAmerican community in Sandusky. He says city leaders were able to work on other ways for the Italian-Americans to celebrate their culture, including forming a sister city relationship in Sicily, where many of the ItalianAmericans living in Sandusky came from.

Wobser says the resolution created more space for the city to “make Election Day a bigger priority” by offering free rides to polling places.

Summit County also offers free rides on Election Day through METRO RTA. “Eliminating Columbus Day was something that was very well received by our Black community,” Wobser says. “Historically there’s a long history of the United States denying access to the polls and there’s a disproportionate impact on how it affects Black communities in the United States. On a larger basis, from a social justice standpoint, it just made sense.”

This year, North American First Peoples Day will be celebrated Oct. 5. The event will kick off that evening with a livestream on the Akron-Summit County Public Library Facebook page, featuring organizer Matt Russ and a conversation with Ladonna BlueEye. Information and programming about the celebration can be found at walkportagepath.com. // Noor Hindi is The Devil Strip’s equity and inclusion reporter. Email her at noor@thedevilstrip.com.

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

Rachel Cargle comes home AKRON-BORN WRITER, LECTURER AND PUBLIC ACADEMIC OPENS ELIZABETH’S BOOKSHOP & WRITING CENTRE IN COLLABORATION WITH THE WELL REPORTING, WRITING AND PHOTOS

BY H.L. COMERIATO

R

achel Cargle knows exactly how she caught the spark.

“I think my mother grew it in me,” she says. “My mom always made reading a celebration. It was never a punishment. It was never just part of school. It was part of life.”

Those first glimmers of joy Cargle found in books stayed with her forever. She nurtured them, turned them into a career. They took her all over the country and landed her right back here.

Cargle was born and raised in Akron, and she says the Rust Belt’s scrappiness and grit prepared her for life in New York City, where she lived and worked for six years before moving back to Akron last winter.

Cargle is a writer, lecturer, activist and public academic. She has nearly two million followers on Instagram — 1.6 million of whom began following Cargle this year, seeking to learn about racial justice — and has built accessible, educational antiracism tools into her social media presence.

The Great Unlearn, Cargle’s “selfpaced and self-priced learning collective,” offers reading lists, syllabi and live lectures that help participants engage with and celebrate the work of academics of color.

Now, Cargle is bringing elements of that work to a physical space.

In collaboration with The Well Community Development Corporation, Cargle is back home

28 | The Devil Strip

to launch her newest and most ambitious endeavor: Elizabeth’s Bookshop and Writing Centre.

Elizabeth’s, which opened online in May, is “equal parts bookshop and writing center,” Cargle says. The space is designed to center and uplift the voices of marginalized writers and provide Akronites with tools for community and creativity.

Cargle has curated Elizabeth’s from her own collection, with much love.

“I have hundreds and hundreds of books in my home, so I was really just going through my personal shelf and finding things that were meaningful to me,” she says. That includes writers Cargle calls her literary ancestors — Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison — “The people I know I would be a different person if I hadn’t read their work,” Cargle says.

Elizabeth’s is part of a much larger effort to build community among Akron’s readers, writers and dreamers. In 2018, Cargle founded The Loveland Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping Black women and girls access mental healthcare. Ten percent of Elizabeth’s book sale proceeds go directly to The Loveland Foundation.

On Sept. 19, Elizabeth’s opened as a pop-up bookstore inside Compass Coffee. Cargle’s childhood friend, Curtis Minter Jr., is operations director at The Well Community Development Corporation, which operates Compass and works to renovate homes and foster economic development in Middlebury.

“I’m all for boomerangs,” Minter says, nodding toward Cargle. He means young people who leave Akron to live and work in bigger cities and then choose to come home. “We need to retain talent in the City of Akron as much as possible. However you go about perpetuating the idea that, you know, we can dream big here. I think that could start with Elizabeth’s.”

Black-owned bookstores have long served as creative spaces for shaping and sharing ideas. Cargle says Elizabeth’s exists within that same tradition and hopes to build community among readers and writers through a shared set of values: community, curiosity, justice and joy.

“I hope that the writing center aspect of Elizabeth’s really taps into the deep creativity and genius that I know is existing here in Akron, as well as online with the workshops we’ll do in many different ways. And I’m excited for people to connect the meaningfulness of Elizabeth’s to Akron, Ohio,” says Cargle. “Even though it will have customers and people taking writing workshops all over the world, I’m sure.”

Cargle and Minter hope Elizabeth’s will inspire new versions of success for Black Akronites in particular.

“There’s so much simplicity in Elizabeth’s, even within the greater meaning of it. And I hope that something as simple as walking into a place and having a cup of coffee and reading can make someone feel whole and inspired as much seeing LeBron win the championship,”

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

Cargle says.

Minter nods in agreement. He says he hopes that Elizabeth’s will give Black youth permission to dream their own futures and successes — to see themselves reflected outside of sports and entertainment.

As more and more Americans seek to learn about racial justice from contemporary Black thinkers, Cargle’s audience continues to grow.

Elizabeth’s itself already has more than 85,000 Instagram followers.

But as Cargle’s platform expands, her vision for Elizabeth’s has only become more focused.

“I hope that Elizabeth’s is a love letter to Akron, that it’s a space for [people] to be able to come in and say, ‘I feel seen. I feel heard. I feel celebrated.

And I feel like I’m part of something that’s really important,’” Cargle says.

“There’s a deep pride and celebration and joy in having a place to feel seen and heard and celebrated,” Cargle adds — a pride and celebration that belongs and begins right here at home.

The Elizabeth’s Bookshop pop-up shelves are open to the public inside Compass Coffee at The Well CDC, 647 E Market St., Akron. Visit Wednesday-Thursday 12-6 pm, Friday 10 am-4 pm and Saturday 10 am-2 pm. // H.L. Comeriato covers public health at The Devil Strip via Report for America. Reach them at HL@ thedevilstrip.com.

thedevilstrip.com

AN AKRON LOVE STORY WRITNG BY JAMI MEEKER Editor’s note: This is the third chapter in a shortened version of a much longer work by Jami Meeker, which the writer hopes to publish in the future. It is appearing in the print edition of The Devil Strip in five chapters between August and December 2020. For previous chapters, visit thedevilstrip.com and search for “Margaret” or “Eddie.”

These letters illustrate the reality of the Great Depression as it touched Eddie and Margaret while they dated in 1932 and 1933. After they married in 1934, they had only one car, as was normal for the time. When it came time for grocery shopping, Eddie would drop Margaret off at the market and return in an hour or so to pick her up. One day she finished the shopping early enough to warrant calling his office to let him know he could come fetch her sooner than planned. The secretary informed her that Eddie had not been working there for six months.

Margaret had her own job and handled the family finances. She knew how much money came into the household each month. I can see her hanging up the phone at the grocery store with a puzzled look for the bags of groceries at her feet.

It turned out that, during his halfyear search for a new job, Eddie had been borrowing money from one friend after another to help put food on the table and pay bills. With such episodes in mind, Margaret was savvy enough not to trust him with money to pay the gas, electric or phone bill. She learned to send one of her eldest daughters, Mary Ann or Susan, to pay the bill instead.

Eddie’s children meant the world to him, but he was a poor provider for their needs. Mary Ann and Susan waited after school for the other students to leave, after which the nuns would give them the cafeteria leftovers to take home for dinner.

But no one remembered Eddie as a struggling man who couldn’t hold onto a job. His wealth of friendship placed him among the richest men in town. The receiving line for Eddie’s funeral stretched out the door of their home, down the sidewalk and around the corner. My mother and her sisters stood for

30 | The Devil Strip

so long listening to condolences that they had to take breaks and went into the kitchen to sit for a while before returning to the open front door. Some mourners expressed their regrets along with mild recrimination that they had to find out about Eddie’s death on the radio.

We have omitted some letters from this section for brevity.

*** Eddie to Miss Margaret Willmott from Ravenna, OH – Tues. Evening, 12/20/32 Dear Marg.— It seems so long since I wrote this salutation, and for a while I tho’t I would never have the chance to write it again. I tho’t I was all washed up, out. It was a actual surprise tonight when Anna Belle said, “There’s a letter for you on the desk from Marg.” You see she has been kidding me for quite a while & I gave her the usual Oh yeah grunt.

But this time it is real & when I stop to think about it I truthfully don’t feel it is true.

Your letter has braced me up somewhat. In the last three years of this slump I have managed to keep busy about half or better of the time. But everything has seemed so futile. No schedule to keep to, no systematic arrangement to look forward to, no steady income, all have combined to make me feel very depressed at times. I’ve done a bit of reading mostly non-fiction & have found quite a bit of consolation & help and now I have a better outlook on life. Don’t get the idea from the above that I’ve given up the ship. I’ve just got a hunch that everything’s going to be alright.

Those two people can be wonderful pals and understand each other if they make up their minds to. There was a great ship that arrived in New York a couple of weeks ago. Maybe you saw it in the newsreels—The Conte de Savoia. There were three parabola-shaped doohickeys on it called stabilizers. I’d guess you’d call them balancers. Anyhow they make the going easy, prevent seasickness & everything in general is peaceful riding. I’ve installed some in this ship. Of course once in

a while they may get out of working order but the original idea is always in mind and repairs can be made.

How have you been anyway? I suppose you are wondering what I am doing in Ravenna. I’ve been over here for pretty close to six weeks now. Isabel & Leo & the children have gone to Florida for the winter. My aunt & uncle of Baltimore are with them. Uncle Billy works for John Charles Thomas, the Metropolitan Opera singer.

You’ve probably heard him over the radio. He, Uncle Billy, is a carpenter and has worked for Thomas and his in-laws for a number of years.

Incidentally, Thomas is a native of Baltimore. When Isabel came back from her trip she was telling me she had a surprise. That Uncle Billy had been working for Thomas, and he being her favorite male singer, she got quite a kick out of it. Uncle Billy told her that Thomas was thinking of building a house-boat in Florida this winter and that he, Uncle Billy, was to go there. It seems that this has all materialized & that’s why I’m in Ravenna. I’ve been working two days a week since being here.

It’s not much but I keep out of mischief.

PART III so little of you but I always like to see the sunshine after the storm. So a very Merry Christmas to you and your family and the best of wishes for a New Year.

Eddie Given the economic times, Eddie was not the only person to fall prey to “No schedule to keep to, no systematic arrangement to look forward to, no steady income.” The three-year slump he mentions is likely a reference to the downturn that began with the 1929 stock market crash. Although he expresses some measure of optimism with his “hunch that everything’s going to be alright,” the years of futility have begun to take their toll on Eddie’s confidence.

The Conte di Savoia was an ocean liner commissioned by Italia Flotte Riunite. The company brought their new ship into service in the fall of 1932. A British Pathé newsreel from 1932 shows the stabilizers at work on the ship’s maiden voyage. *** Margaret to Mr. Edward Beeman from Akron, OH – Monday, 1/02/33

I’ve been in Akron two or three times. Just to go to a show. But that was all. I saw Mary Louise every time I was there. I would have called you but I tho’t it wasn’t quite the right thing to do when I hadn’t heard from you. I inquired about you of Mary Louise. She said she hadn’t seen you but that she had seen Agnes & Helen at different times. She was over here about two weeks ago & said you had been in the store that Sat. afternoon.

B.F. Goodrich Co. Monday JAN. 2, 1933

Anna Belle was over to see Marie last Sat. I had been working Fri. & Sat. and didn’t find out she was sick until last Fri. morning. Else I would have gone too. Anna Belle said she was feeling somewhat better, but I intend to get over to see her within the week. I’m glad they will be closer to town. They tell me they lived quite a distance out.

It will seem strange to walk down Glendora Ave. once more.

Had bad news to start the New Year with another 10% cut in salary. Soon it won’t even be a salary. Just ten cents a day. I shouldn’t complain maybe but it seems a crime to have to work 10 and 12 hours a day for nothing. Thursday I worked for 12 hrs. Friday it was work for 12:45 to 8:00 with no supper or no rest. The other comptometer operator left so it was up to me to do enough work to keep the others busy. Then Sat brought another 10 hrs. of work.

You know how icy it was Sat. On the way home I either went down to meet the sidewalk or the sidewalk came to meet me. However I managed to get home finding myself

I’m going to do as you say & try to make each other appreciate life & what God has in store for us. I’ve tho’t about you & dreamed about you all summer & fall & still I see

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

Dear Eddie; Here it is Monday, January 2, 1933.

I’m at work but it seems they haven’t got going for I’m sitting here waiting for something to do.

So with pencil in hand (if you’ll excuse it please) I’ll write till the boss comes with work.

thedevilstrip.com

with bruised leg, knee, hip and shoulder—right side.

About 7:00 o’clock I felt a headache coming on. I had a fever and was afraid it was the flu. But I doped myself and went to bed. In bed I spent New Year’s eve, although it was just another Saturday night for me. I was too sick to care if it was New Year’s or Fourth of July. I feel better to-day and think I chased the flu away.

Did you have a nice New Year’s eve and day? Everyone at home celebrated. Helen & Francis left Sat. nite, didn’t come home till 5:00 P.M. Sunday. Mary Mekeal is just getting over the flu, so she and Leo spent the evening at her house. Agnes & Mac entertained friends at home.

We’ll have to celebrate on January 12th. Anyway we’ll be together and that’s a celebration all of its own.

I see the Boss in her office—so bye till I have time to finish this letter.

Wed. 9:10 Work again—and no work so I have a chance to add a little more to this letter. I wanted to finish it Monday nite but worked till 8 o’clock. Went

home and straight to bed. Tuesday I worked till 7 o’clock going without supper. All I’ve been doing the last week is work and sleep.

Every night before I go to sleep I talk to you. I wonder if you hear me.

You are so nice, you kiss me and tell me to rest. That’s just what seems to happen. Then I realize I’m only dreaming and go to sleep with a smile knowing that it’s only a few more days till I’ll see you.

Eddie, on the 12th come early—I mean, have supper with us. I’m going to call Jake and ask him to come and bring Helen, his girlfriend.

I haven’t seen or talked to Mary Louise since Xmas Monday—due to this dammmmm work. Also haven’t heard how Marie is. I bet she thinks I’m a fine one, promised to visit her often and haven’t seen her since Christmas. Business before pleasure, now.

The Christmas tree came down yesterday—a shame too, because it was still very beautiful. I think it’s the nicest tree we ever had.

I haven’t had time to look for a blue dress yet, but I hope to have it before the 12th. I really should

bank the money I’ve been saving but what the heck it would go someplace else and I’d be out a dress. How have you been since I last seen you? And Anna Belle and Jimmie, tell them I said “Hello.” I think, my dear, I’ll end this letter now and I send it—if I have anymore time at work I’ll start another.

Write soon. I’m anxious to hear from you. The biggest pleasure I can have these days is to go home and find a letter from you.

With Love, I’m yours Margaret Excuse all errors, I’m watching the boss’ office and writing at same time.

Margaret’s workplace experience illustrates the harshness of the Depression. With the other comptometer operator leaving, she is left to pick up the slack, work faster over longer hours to keep the rest of the employees occupied with their own tasks. An honest observer would conclude that she had become somewhat indispensable to B.F. Goodrich at the start of 1933.

Instead she receives a 10% pay cut four months after absorbing a 12.5%

reduction. Thursday, Jan. 12 can’t come soon enough for her. *** Eddie to Miss Margaret Willmott from Ravenna, OH – Tuesday, 1/03/33 Dear Margaret:— You should have received this letter this morning but again I’ve slipped up. We had a pretty busy weekend.

I was going to write you yesterday but were invited out to dinner and we didn’t get up until ten o’clock. So by the time I was ready it was time to leave. Thanks for the Greetings and note. I suppose you’re pretty tired after all your work. Companies such as yours ought to be publicly exposed. In short I think they’re a bunch of petty swindlers. Maybe that sounds like a radical or narrowminded statement but it seems they rush the work the first half of the month and when the last half comes along they give you a short vacation (without pay) to rest up from the overtime you have put in (without pay). I better stop writing like this or you’ll think I’m old man gloom gone sour on the world.

Now for a subject real pleasurable.

You. I’m counting the days until I see you again. And I’ll pray every night that your dance will be a success. Did I tell you how glad I was to see you last week?

Everything seemed so calm and peaceful. Not that I don’t feel that way here, but it’s a different kind of peace. You know when your people are all separated and you don’t see them often you get kind of lonesome and wish you were all near each other. I know I should have gotten over this long ago but seeing you all together made me think of how happy we used to be at home. I’m getting the “jitters” again.

Do you ever listen to Red Nichols’ Orchestra over WTAM. They’ve got the meanest theme song of any I’ve heard so far. I don’t think I’ll listen to the radio tonight. I’m going to the library instead. And so my dear, my darling, my love, my etc, my etc.

(Golly when a guy gets like that. Are you there?) I’ll mail this note to you so that the 7 P.M. collection will get it to you tomorrow. So until I hear from you or see you again, GoodEvening my Margaret.

Eddie Alongside “calm” and “peaceful”, dangerous words for Eddie appear in this letter: “separated,” “lonesome,” and “used to be.” Such flirtations with nostalgia have led to gloominess, or “the jitters,” as Eddie names them here. Aunt Mary Ann recalled, “I remember hearing that word around the house. ‘The jitters,’ Mom would say whenever he got that way.” Eddie is already using the word to describe his bouts of depression. *** Margaret to Mr. Edward Beeman from Akron, OH – Wed. night, 1/4/33 Dear Eddie, This is rushing letters, one this morning and one tonight—but oh I was so happy to find your letter waiting for me. Worked till 7 o’clock tonight. Don’t go crazy when you read all of the time I‘ve worked. I’m so nearly crazy now that it would not do for both of us to be that way or aren’t we anyway crazy about each other. I’m listening to Bing Crosby. I like him, do you? In fifteen minutes Guy Lombardo will be on.

Will you be listening? I’ve heard Red Nichols but don’t recall his theme song. Mary Louise was telling me how nice it was.

32 | The Devil Strip

I know how you feel about your family. We’re as happy here. I hate to think of the time when we’ll be separate. I pray, God keeps my dear Mother and Father with us for years & years.

I wonder if this letter will cross, like the our others. Agnes has her sewing club here tonight and such a business. You know her husband, did you here that too—I don’t believe it? etc. So far, far into the night.

But I’m taking myself to bed soon and I won’t here anymore gossip.

Darling I’m so very tired to-night so except accept this short note—I’ll write you a long, long letter when I’m not tired. But I’ll see you before then. For I have to work every night till the fifteen. I think I get off early the night of the dance.

It’s ten o’clock—time for me to turn out the lights and go to sleep. I’ll tell you all that’s in my heart before though, but it won’t be on paper. I told you in my letter this morning— remember.

Good night my very own Eddie— Margaret *** Eddie to Miss Margaret Willmott from Ravenna, OH – Monday, 1/09/33 Dear Margaret: Have you been calling me a lot of nice names for not having answered before this? Well I’ll try to make up for it now. I was so glad to get your nice long letter Thur. morn. & gladder on Fri. morning. If I were to begin again & tell you what I think of that company you work for, you would probably give me the air. Anyhow I think their heads are a pack of those small animals we associate with the summer night country air & whom children sometimes mistake as pretty kitties.

Golly you got an awful spill didn’t you. Honest honey I felt sorry for you. I know how miserable you must have felt, having to put in all those long hours, feel a cold coming on & getting a fall to climax it all. You’ll probably remember the coming of 1933 for a long while.

Yes I had a real nice time. Anna Belle & Jimmie had some of their friends over for New Years & we were away for dinner the following

Monday. But I was wishing I was with you. Some day you & I will celebrate our New Years.

I think I’m beginning to learn mental-telepathy. How come sezu?

Well you remember in your note Wed. morn. about you talking to me every night before you go to sleep.

I’ve heard you many a time & I’ve kissed you to sleep every night.

Then I would go to sleep & dream of you. Just last week I finished a book, in it was a side-note which said, “You are what you dream.”

You’ve got me dreaming of you and thinking of you thru the day.

You see, what is indelibly fixed in your mind thru your waking hours constitutes your dream. And you are mostly my dream. The night is beautiful with its peace and its thousand and one thoughts, but when morning comes it’s like sticking a pen in a balloon.

About seeing you Thurs. evening.

Thanx for the invitation to supper, but I don’t think I can get over much before 8 o’clock. Anyhow I’ll come to your house but if I’m late I’ll see you at the dance. I suppose you’ll have to be there ahead of time since you are promoting this.

Anna Belle, Jimmie & I were over to see Marie last evening. She looks pretty good but said she doesn’t feel as well as the last time I saw her. I pray every night that she will get her strength back & I also pray for the success of your dance. So until then Ba—beecue. This is the Beeman lad signing off for the 7 P.M. collection.

With love Eddie Eddie admits he is slacking and peppers the letter with humor to make up for it, such as the conflation of “says you” into “sezu” and his noxious description of the execs at B.F. Goodrich, who are now skunks in his estimation.

He includes a couple of bygone expressions in this letter. The Free Dictionary defines “give me the air” as “to spurn, jilt, or reject someone, especially a lover or romantic interest.” As for “Ba—beecue,” I have no idea. *** Eddie to Miss Margaret Willmott from Ravenna, OH – Friday, 1/20/33 Dear Margaret:

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

Here’s my third letter of the week.

Don’t know any news, so I’ll just ramble along. I was up to the Library last evening & I found a dandy book. One of the best I have read so far. Some day you must read some of them. I was going to the Library the night that I wrote your last letter but I put it off until last night as the books I already had weren’t due back until the nineteenth.

Maybe you wouldn’t enjoy these kinds of books. But I have a better outlook on life since reading them.

You might think me radical or going goofy, but honestly I’ve felt a lot better since reading them. Well so much for that.

How are you these days and how are the rubber barons treating you?

Do they give you lots of nice little over-time work to make you think they are the best little old company a person ever worked for? You know they all say nowadays they are getting their share of the business & they can’t take care of it in the regular eight hour day.

Did you hear the Baron last evening? Ask Leo for me, if he heard him a couple of months ago. Or was it that long. Have you seen Mary Louise or Marie lately? And by the way do you realize that winter is more than half over and that in two months it will be spring and we’ve only had one good snowfall (Thank God) and I’m getting to be an old man and a bore?

Too many ands in that last paragraph. I’ll have to watch my composition more closely. Was that last sentence correct?

Well, my darling, you’re probably tired of reading this Arabic and such, but what I would like to write to you I can’t. That’s only for your ears. And so my sweetheart (don’t you like all those pretty names) I’m hoping you’ll get this note tomorrow.

With all my love Eddie Eddie cannot resist getting his hackles up once again against B.F. Goodrich, which he denigrates with the pun “rubber barons.” Nineteenth-century captains of industry made millions for themselves by exploiting nearly everyone else. The popular title given to them in their day was “robber barons.”

Everyone listened to The Baron on the radio. Jack Pearl, a Broadway thedevilstrip.com

and vaudeville showman from the 1920’s became one of America’s earliest radio stars. The show that Eddie, Margaret and Leo heard, the Lucky Strike Hour (sponsored by Lucky Strike cigarettes), featured Jack Pearl’s character based on “The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen.”

Jack Pearl did the comedy bits while his partner, Charlie Hall, played the straight man. Whenever the Baron’s tales became too wild to believe Charlie would question whether or not they really happened. The Baron responded, “Vas you dere, Sharlie?”

The catch-phrase became a household question across the nation. *** 1/4Miss Margaret Willmott Eddie3to from Ravenna, OH – Monday, 2/13/33

Dear Margaret: I intended answering your letters Fri. but it seems I just couldn’t get to it. I’m sorry to hear your finger has gone back on you again. Maybe you took the bandage off too soon.

Is it feeling any better now?

I’m so sorry to hear you were so restless after not having heard from me for a while. I know that

you know I have plenty of time on my hands & that the least I could do is to answer your letters within a reasonable time after I receive yours. But as I told you in my last letter, I never have any news to tell you & it seems I have to depend on you for news & then consult your last letter & add a few comments.

It would be different if I were in Akron or Yo. I would have friends there. Would be able to carry on conversation with them & not feel so dull. As it is, all the news I get is out of the newspapers & at times I can’t stand them. I haven’t made many friends here because I don’t feel like going out. They have church dances here every two weeks. Several times I have tho’t of going to them but when you can only work one day a week you don’t feel that you can afford to go to those places. If anybody told me three years ago that I would find myself in such a condition, I would have laughed at them, because I would have had more faith in my ability. I still have, but I can’t find any place where it is workable. That is, for material gain.

It doesn’t seem fair to you to write such letters with all this gloom, when things might have been better when I might have been more

cheerful. (I mean to say cheerful.)

But it is a great thing to say to another human soul, that in this life we have to live, your joys shall be mine and your sorrows shall be my sorrows. You are a short distance away, yet you are near. You are never so far away but that I can hear your voice in the night, and tho we are divided by a short stretch of land, we shall walk side by side & kneel together in prayer. Your letters shall make me strong & glad.

You see, I have not been too greatly reserved. I think this letter shows it, so I am saying to you, “Here am I, an undisguised human being. Some people may know me in one mood, but you know me in a few more.”

Sometimes I feel that I have lost all interest in life. When I think of day after day going by, time past, time wasted, time lost, & no prospects of a bright future time, I feel like what’s the use. To you or anyone else I might seem like a failure signing my own death certificate, but I’d like to get hold of the guy that said, “Progress is fascinating.”

Here I’ve been rambling off like some half-baked cuckoo. I can’t even write plain. I don’t blame you if you tear this up before you finish reading it. I’ve got the ‘jitters.’ Now you can see why I’ve been so lax in

answering your letters.

You were writing about Mary Louise.

Isn’t she in the Art Dep’t any more?

And how is Leo’s ear? Did you know that Wagner fellow that drowned?

The last time I saw him was when he passed us on the road when we were going to Canal Fulton last summer.

Do you remember? Well Margaret I’m going to end this letter before long & you ought to be glad of that.

In the meantime enjoy yourself & if this guy doesn’t answer your letters promptly tell him to take a jump in the lake. Maybe that’s what he needs. And in the next letter I will try to be as I said before, cheerful.

So I’ll get this in the seven o’clock collection and don’t use that finger unnecessarily, until it is well healed.

Until I hear from you, this is your country correspondent, The old man of the mountain Eddie After two more missives from Margaret, we have no more letters over the next 24 months. We know that, at some point, Eddie moved to Akron. The next letter is from Eddie to Mrs. E. J. Beeman with a postmark of March 7, 1935.

More Than Ever, VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS For Judge

JOHN

JENNIFER

FOR Ohio Supreme Court Justice

Has served as judge on the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court since 2002

O’DONNELL

BETTY

KANI

FOR Ohio Supreme Court Justice

FOR Court of Appeals, 9th Dist.

FOR Domestic Relations Court

Tenth District Court of Appeals Judge, formerly Ohio’s first woman Secretary of State

30+ years in law, representing teachers, first responders, and many other Ohioans

Magistrate, Akron Municipal Court, excellent experience in domestic relations law

BRUNNER

SUTTON

HIGHTOWER

VOTE EARLY! Request your ballot at summitcountyboe.gov Paid for by the Summit County Democratic Party

Essays & Humor

Dear Akron: Invite young people to the table WRITING BY IMOKHAI OKOLO

T

he youth in the city of Akron have been vocal in demanding real change as a result of all the police violence, civil unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic for the past several months. We have been organizing, studying, and strategizing ways in which we can be involved in bringing about much-needed change, not only in Akron but across the United States. We understand that the systems set up to bring us justice, organize our economy, and provide for the health of communities are not working for everyone. We are dissatisfied with the leadership we currently have, in all levels of government, who are tasked with remedying these ongoing issues.

In response to this youth activism and demands to improve public safety, address racial equity, and to defund broken institutions while investing in communities, the City of Akron announced yet another task force geared towards racial equity and social justice.

After reading the announcement of the task force and seeing the voices who were brought to the table, I found myself frustrated, conflicted, discouraged, and confused. Although young people have been driving change and innovation in Akron, we were once again not invited to the table. Our voices were once again not respected. We were ignored.

34 | The Devil Strip

Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend in Akron. Across the board, young people are not invited into the rooms in which decisions are being made that affect the everyday lives of young people in our communities. This problem has not just found a home in our city government — it’s a problem that has plagued the nonprofit community, our public education institutions, and corporate boards. Despite having the credentials, passion, and experience, young people are often kept in low-level administrative positions, told to “wait your turn” or are required to prove themselves before being trusted with formal leadership. And far too often, the experience young people do bring to the table is often overlooked because it happened while obtaining a degree in higher education, was not in a “professional” setting, or is misunderstood due to generational differences.

As it sunk in that the youth in our community were not invited to the table to help strategize and organize, I couldn’t help but wonder where the United States would be if young people in our communities were not included. There would be no American Revolution, Bill of Rights, Civil Rights Movement, or Black Power Movement. There would be no Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or the countless other innovations that play an integral role in society. There would be no hiphop, jazz, or, quite frankly, a music industry had young people not been given a seat at the table to use their voice to share their perspectives and life experiences.

First-person essays and columns plus horoscopes, comics & games

people have adopted and developed radical views on political and economic institutions largely due to the fact that we grew up in our own ecosystem of conversation that was partly influenced by our elders, but also influenced by readily accessible knowledge and larger communities created with the advancement of technology. This new generation of young people are inspired by cooperative economics, communitybased public safety, healthcare systems void of profit motives, and renewable energy models that will preserve this earth for future generations to come. This generation of youth have a vision for the future that only works if we fix, reform, or even destroy the current systems that value private interest and stand in the way of a community we all can be proud of.

Maybe this vision is too idealistic or unattainable — or maybe it’s profoundly genius. Regardless, the only way we move forward as a society is building power in our communities intergenerationally.

That can’t happen if we let this trend of ignoring the voices of young Akronites continue.

With young professional organizations spanning from the Akron Urban League Young Professionals, Torchbearers, Junior Leadership Akron, and the Young Professionals Network, there are plenty of dynamic youth ready and eager to pull up a chair, roll up their sleeves, and get to work on building a better Akron. And while these

formal pipelines are easily accessible and visible, there is an overwhelming amount of knowledge, passion, and talent unaffiliated with these groups. They are the party promoters, marketing associates, small business entrepreneurs, mentors to Akron Public School kids, yoga instructors, DJs, fashion designers, political field organizers, and the list goes on.

There is a great deal of untapped potential in this city, and if we want to Elevate Akron, that needs to change Luckily, this is a struggle young people have been in for generations.

Generation Z and Millennials were not the first generations to be ignored or excluded as young people.

We can learn from our ancestors who paved the way and passed the torch to continue the fight. This roadblock didn’t stop Fred Hampton or Angela Davis in the ‘60s. It didn’t stop Muhammad Ali or Shirley Chisholm in the ‘70s. And it certainly has not stopped people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Noname from making their voices heard today.

While young voices have not been included to the degree needed on this task force, this will not stop the passion and fire that young people have for our visions of a better Akron and a better country. If we don’t have a seat at that table, we will certainly build our own, and make things happen, one way or another. // Imokhai Okolo is a 2020 graduate of the University of Akron School of Law.

Our communities have only grown into what they are today because young people fought to be included.

But if we know this, why does this problem seem to have such a stronghold in Akron?

Our current generation of young

Right: Ghost Note Comic is a series by Nick Muffet.

View more works at ghostcomics.limitedrun.com. Nick is donating all proceeds from prints purchased to the Movement for Black Lives.

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

thedevilstrip.com

Top: In Feb. 2019, an excavator cut through the Towpath Trail north of Boston to install a new culvert.

(Photo: NPS/D.J. Reiser)

STANFORD RUN

D

espite all its challenges, 2020 is shaping up as a banner year for river restoration in Cuyahoga Valley. The dams in Brecksville were removed. Check. The work to reconnect Stanford Run to the Cuyahoga River wrapped up. Check.

Both projects were complex and took decades to move from vision through planning, funding, and then implementation. Both contribute to the larger effort to restore the Great Lakes by removing barriers to flow.

For Stanford Run, the “dam” was our beloved Towpath Trail.

If you have ever hiked from Boston to Brandywine Falls, you may have explored the closed section of Stanford Road just north of Stanford House. Stanford Run is the stream that “runs” under the road bridge.

Historically, it continued west, passing under the towpath through a canalera culvert into the Cuyahoga River near today’s Boston Mills Ski Resort.

By the 1980s, when the Towpath Trail planning began, the culvert was so clogged that a large wetland had formed. When moving water slows, it drops what it is carrying. In this case, it dropped so much dirt that the floodplain has risen 5 FEET in the past 50 to 60 years, judging from the age of partially buried trees!

Invasive plants took over the wetland, fish disappeared from lower Stanford Run, and Stanford Road regularly

flooded. In short, it was a mess.

So the national park called in the troops: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

During winter and spring 2019, the Corps’ contractor installed a larger culvert under the Towpath Trail and began digging about 2,300 linear feet of stream channel. This involved engineering the water’s new curved path and hauling away a huge amount of sediment.

Meanwhile, over 300 national park volunteers planted about 1,000 native trees. In time, their leaves will cool the stream, improving the habitat for fish. Stones from upstream will build up on the mud bottom, creating homes for the aquatic insects that fish eat. When I was out photographing this site with the project leaders, we spotted schools of darters already exploring their new home.

The cost to fix the environmental damage caused by this clogged pipe: roughly $1.5 million. The benefits to our national park and the largest freshwater system in the world: priceless. // Arrye Rosser is an interpretive and education specialist at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

Second: In Aug. 2020, the restored Stanford Run flows under the Towpath to the Cuyahoga River. (Photo: NPS)

Third: In Feb. 2019, the project team on the flooded Stanford Road. Notice the tree at the far left and the telephone pole at the far right. (Photo: NPS/D.J. Reiser)

Fourth: Team members stand in roughly the same location, on the bridge between the left tree and right pole, after the habitat restoration. In the background, white tubes protect native tree saplings planted by volunteers. (Photo: NPS/Arrye Rosser) Bottom: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed the new stream channel with curves and pools so the stream now has a more natural flow. More than 5 feet of soil built up when the stream was blocked, burying tree trunks. (Photo: NPS/Arrye Rosser)

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| 35

YOU JUST NEVER KNOW

S

ix years ago, if I were to wager that I would be sober, healthy, and solvent, writing this column about sobriety, I would have probably bet against that possibility. I had lost all hope, required medical attention, and had tried everything to turn my life around.

Fast forward to now and, well, I guess you just never know.

Everything has changed. Today I am alive and surviving as a performing music artist and instructor, writer, columnist and podcaster (more on that later). The changes and promises of a better world have come about.

Everything is more OK in my world because of my sobriety, even during a freaking pandemic.

I am especially thrilled to have the opportunity to do this monthly column. I so dig the comments that readers send to me; they make me feel I am helping folks understand this journey or maybe answers their questions about living sober. All of that is meaningful and important to me in ways that I can not express. My life has come through in these pages, and I have told stories and shared secrets that have lived in the back

of the closet, on that hard-to-reach corner of a private shelf in my heart.

It has been healing for me, and I think sharing these tales of my struggle with addiction to substances and alcohol helped me be a better person now than when I started this project 15+ months ago. But it’s not always easy. This month, after three false starts, I realized that I have run out of pretty things to hold up to you all like a grown-up show-and-tell moment, with my solemn wisdom or stunning revelations born from the pain of my oh-so-important life.

I got nothing. Zero. That voice in my head is saying I’m sucking as a writer, guitar guru, former-minor-rock-starturned-folksy-worldly-wise-guy, ideasharing Yoda.

With the deadline looming, I am starting all over one more time.

When I look around the landscape of my life, it is full of earnest crazy personalities, good and kind friends, genuinely inspiring recovery stories, and the tales of those who have tried time and again, failed, and somehow resurrected and made it back from the darkness that the demons haunt.

It’s all here for me, and it’s all right in

front of my face hiding in full view. I just need to look up and write about it.

I will embark now on a series of columns about these outstanding soldiers of strength, examples of the endurance, and testimonials of courage that wander across my trail and are my beacons in the sober community. I will also stretch for a greater reach into the mental health community that is such an essential component to folks like me, who had to deal with other underlying issues. There is much to talk about here. Recovery from substance abuse often lays bare emotional and other problems that must be addressed for full and sustained healing and transition into healthier living.

So, help me. If you are reading this now and know of a superhuman in the trenches thriving and or doing the work of helping others in recovery, please let me know by way of my email address marcleeshanon@gmail. com. Come on; let’s shine the light on the badasses.

I would like to share one last thing that I have been working on: A new podcast called Recovery Talks - The

Podcast. It is curated by Rock and Recovery at 91.3 the Summit. I am sure that I do not know what I am doing, but I will learn as I go. What else is new? I hope to have a safe and stigma-free space to share stories on how people are thriving and striving in modern recovery.

Here is a link to the first episodes: rockandrecoveryrecoverytalks. podbean.com Things may seem unbearable and difficult during these extraordinary times in which we are living. But together, we are always better.

No matter how impossible it may seem, things always somehow sort themselves and work out when we join to help others together. When it appears that there is no way to solve a problem, a solution shows up with flashing lights and sirens just in time.

As I watch people serve each other in the recovery community, I have faith that replaces my old cynical doubts, and fears. That is something I would not have wagered would ever be a part of my story.

I guess you just never know.

Steady on. // Reach Marc Lee Shannon at marcleeshannon@gmail.com. Marc also hosts “Recovery Talks: The Podcast” from 91.3 The Summit. Tune in at rockandrecoveryrecoverytalks. podbean.com.

Tarot reading: Libra & Scorpio LIBRA (SEPT. 23 - OCT. 22): IX OF WANDS REVERSED

SCORPIO (OCT. 23 - NOV. 21): THE STAR REVERSED

Something will cause you to go into full-on protection mode, possibly heartbreak or some sort of betrayal. You’re going to want to close yourself off and be inaccessible. That’s OK, especially if you’re hurting. Vulnerability can be scary. Give yourself time to nurse your wounds and find peace before getting back out there.

Don’t bleed on those who didn’t cut you. — Allyson Smith

Things may not be what they seem, but as a Scorpio, you will likely be able to see through the facade. Hold your cards close and read things carefully.

You may find yourself slowly stepping into your power. It may not happen as quickly as you like or think it should, but have patience with yourself. It will happen. Look for double meanings this month. Look for the lessons in all your experiences, as you will learn a lot this month as well. — Allyson Smith

TAROT CARDS: These cards are from the Rust Belt Arcana tarot deck, released in 2018 by Belt Publishing. Each card in the deck features a creature from Northeast Ohio, illustrated by David Wilson. To purchase a copy of the deck and its companion book, Rust Belt Arcana: Tarot and Natural History in the Exburban Wilds by Matt Stansberry, visit beltpublishing.com.

36 | The Devil Strip

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

thedevilstrip.com

WHAT ARE “DEEPFAKES” AND HOW CAN YOU SPOT THEM?

D

eepfakes, or deep fakes, are manipulated videos, images or audio produced by sophisticated artificial intelligence.

They use falsified images and sounds that appear to be real. But don’t be fooled: Deepfakes are the result of AI. The term deepfake combines the terms “deep learning” and “fake.”

“Deep learning” is a set of algorithms that can learn and make intelligent decisions on their own. This is a dangerous new twist in the world of “fake news” and misinformation.

Deep learning programs produce very

real-looking counterfeits by studying photographs and videos of a target person from multiple angles. Then these programs can copycat behavior and speech patterns to make a video look like it has not been altered.

Deepfakes are by known foreign influence campaigns using social media to polarize our dialogue and to defame people. According to The Guardian, about 26% of these campaigns targeted the U.S. and 74% obscured readily verifiable facts.

But deepfakes go beyond hitting

public figures. They can be — and often are — pornographic, taking revenge porn to a new level.

Sensity AI estimates that 96% of all of the deepfakes in 2019 were pornographic. Almost all of those mapped faces from female celebrities on to porn stars.

And as always, if you are viewing a video on social media or a website that is pushing a political agenda, be suspicious. If you are not seeing the video on media that is widely accepted as credible, it may well be a deepfake.

How to Identify deepfakes:

Several tech companies, such as Facebook and Microsoft, have taken initiatives to detect and remove deepfake videos. But we must all remain vigilant in detecting them ourselves. There are some clues in the videos that can tip us off.

Look closer at the video or photo.

Look for any slight visual aspects that are off — anything from the ears or eyes not matching to fuzzy borders (Continued on page 30)

OCTOBER LUNAR READING ‘Spot little sparks of magic in your life’

W

e begin and end October in the same way: Through the energy of a full moon. Our first full moon occurs on the first and is named the Harvest Moon, located in the fiery sign of Aries. Aries are known to have short fuses and full moons are times when emotions run high so if you find yourself in a tense situation, do what you can to find compromise.

A little boost of compromise can be found now because the sun is located in the balanced sign of Libra. Libras are known for their beauty, elegance and charm. They are known to make fair decisions because they can see both sides of a coin. Sometimes they go back and forth too much in their minds, weighing the pros and cons over and

over so much that they end up doing nothing. Trust your decision-making, Libra!

This month we get a Mercury in retrograde, which begins on Oct. 13 and lasts about 3 weeks. When Mercury is retrograde, there tend to be mix-ups in communication and setbacks with technology. Mercury will begin retrograding in the sign of Scorpio. This time will be best to reevaluate our circumstances from the deepest levels of our being. It’s a time to acknowledge wounds from our past so they can be brought to the surface, healed and released.

Oct. 16 brings in the energy of a Libra new moon just in time for Sweetest Day which can provide a new cycle in romance for those looking for love. If

Akron’s Community-Owned Magazine

you aren’t in a relationship and want to be, this is a good time to set your intentions toward finding new love in your life.

The cosmos this year may help Halloween feel especially spooky.

A rare Blue, Hunter, Full Moon will light the night sky. This full moon will be located in Taurus while the sun is in Scorpio at a time in our year when, it is said, the veils between dimensions run thin, because it’s the time of the year that deals with the transformation of life to death and back to life.

As chaotic as the world has become, use the energy of this full moon to spot little sparks of magic in your life.

And when thinking of all the ghouls that may surround you, I will leave

October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

you with a quote by novelist Rainer Maria Rilke: “Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” // Angie Agnoni is a local astrologer and graduate of the International Academy of Astrology (IAA). She is Vice President of Lake County Astrological Association (LCAA) out of Willoughby Hills, which is one of the longest running astrology groups in the country. Angie can be reached and booked for personal astrology consultation at www.calendly.com/ angieagnoni.

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reputable sources, then it is likely a deepfake. Verify what you see in a source like the Associated Press or Reuters.

of the face to too-smooth skin to lighting and shadows. Watch the lips and listen to the words. If it looks slightly out of sync or the mouth does The “tells” of deepfakes are getting not quite fit the word, then it has harder and harder to detect. As likely been altered. deepfake technology improves, these videos look more realistic, but it can Don’t blink. Human beings have be done. A little research and some a specific blink pattern that is common sense will serve you well. consistent. Watch the blink of the When in doubt, do not believe the eyes in the video. Then look for other video or picture in question. videos of that individual that you know has not been altered or watch // Dr. John B. Nicholas is a Professor the individual on live television to see of Computer Information Systems if the patterns match. and Co-Founder of the Cybersecurity Degree Track at The University of Use your natural human intuition. Akron. Dr. Nicholas has over 30 We all have built-in nonsense years experience in the technology detectors of which we are not always field in both the private sector and conscious. It’s the feeling you get higher education. Reach him at when you think someone is lying or jbnicholasphd@gmail.com. you get “creeped out” by someone.

If something doesn’t feel quite right about the video, your intuition may be cluing you in.

Trust but verify. Determine whether other outlets are reporting the same news. If the video appears only on news outlets that have a specific political bias but cannot be found in

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October 2020 · vol 6 · Issue #10

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