WOMEN WITH ISSUES’ IS A

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

REPORTING AND WRITING BY ALLYSON SMITH

Think 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 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. 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 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.

‘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

When 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. 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 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?”

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.

Finally, Fricker says some grant funding that had been allocated specifically to subsidize officer salaries ran out in recent years, so money from the city’s general fund needed to go to the department to continue paying those officers.

Fricker says the police department has been understaffed in recent years, so while service calls may be decreasing, the budget is growing alongside units the department is trying to develop. 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.

How the police department is funded

Approximately 83% of the Akron Police Department’s funding comes from the city’s general revenue fund. Another 16% comes from the “special revenue fund,” which includes income sources like Issue 4, which voters passed to increase taxes for public safety and infrastructure. The remaining 0.7% comes primarily from cash or property confiscated by police.

The city has wide latitude over how to spend the general fund. That money comes from taxpayers, through income and property taxes, as well as court revenues and some funding from the State of Ohio.

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 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 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

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.

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 “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.”

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?”

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.)

“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.”

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.”

“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 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

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.

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.

“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.”

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.” 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.

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On the Record

LONGTIME ROCKER HARVEY GOLD IS ‘ALL THE VERSIONS’ OF HIMSELF ON NEW ALBUM

REPORTING AND WRITING BY KYLE COCHRUN

We’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.

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

“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

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

Owners 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.

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.

Meet Charr ish11, a bou tique for cur vy, petite wom en

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

REPORTING AND WRITING BY JILLIAN HOLNESS

Being a petite woman can come with a tall list of problems. One: It’s nearly impossible to fi nd 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. 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 fi nd trendy and cute clothes that fi t, 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 offi cially 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 fi nally launch Charrish11.

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

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

“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 fi nd bottoms and jumpsuits that are the perfect length for petite women.

“I would buy a pair of pants or a 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 outfi t [for],” Harris says.

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

“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 infl uencers. 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 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.

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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 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.

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

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

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

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.

$1 ,000

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

Grand Prize!

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

REPORTING AND WRITING BY NOOR HINDI

This 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.

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

“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.”

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

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

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.

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.

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)

“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. 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

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.” 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.

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

Rachel 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 fi rst 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. 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 fi nding 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 nonprofi t 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,” 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 refl ected 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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

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

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.

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

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.

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%

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.

Alongside “calm” and “peaceful”, dangerous words for Eddie appear in this letter: “separated,” “lonesome,” and “used to be.” Such fl irtations 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

This is rushing letters, one this morning and one tonight—but oh I was so happy to fi nd 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 fi fteen 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. 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 fi fteen. 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 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 fi nished 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 fi xed 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 confl ation 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 defi nes “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 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.”

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.

Eddie to Miss Margaret Willmott 3 1/4 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 fi nger 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 fi nd 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 fi nd 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 certifi cate, 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 fi nish reading it. I’ve got the ‘jitters.’ Now you can see why I’ve been so lax in 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 fi nger 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 O’DONNELL FOR Ohio Supreme Court Justice

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

JENNIFER BRUNNER FOR Ohio Supreme Court Justice

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

BETTY SUTTON FOR Court of Appeals, 9th Dist.

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

KANI HIGHTOWER FOR Domestic Relations Court

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

Essays & Humor

Dear Akron: Invite young people to the table

WRITING BY IMOKHAI OKOLO

The 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. 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.

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 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.