Yoly's Akron; 18th, 19th, & 20th of April, 2016

This is how I see my neighborhood; expansive yet intimate, lively yet quiet, vibrant yet subdued.

Yes, at times it seems like you aren't welcomed here.

This town is full of attitude,

tempered with a touch of hunger for changing the status quo.

It is a cool mix of new and old, the inviting and the foreboding. 

It is an architectural wonder for the eyes.

Just don't feed the pigeons, although the pigeons will argue otherwise, they are fed well enough already.

We bridge bad weather with good company when we can, and however we can.

We may go a little overboard with the bristling personalities, but those are the people who will do the most for you, go the further for you, and take care of you without condition.

You can find beauty in everything here, but only if you are looking for it.

Akron is a city where we create art to stun and confuse, to make you wonder and make you want to play. We don't follow the crowds, we incite them. Here we make our own superheroes, forge them in our own image with our weaknesses as their folly and our strengths as their essence.

Akron is as sweet as you want it to be, and as hard as you make it for yourself.

Akron is transformation.

Akron is welcoming to those who chose to come here and swift to divest itself of anything that would make it seem as anything else.

We truly are a city of bridges, those you cross on foot and those you cross with a handshake.

The views are always worth stopping for.

Every streets leads to something wonderful, whether it's a view, a jazz joint, a plate full of hot food, or home.

Our best and brightest gems are not  baubles, they are our people.

Our knowledge isn't hidden in books, in Akron we write our own story.

We are eccentric and contradictory, but we are good people at heart.

Akronites care about their city like they care about their homes, they care about their neighbors like they care about family.

We don't encounter strangers when we walk down the street, we find new neighbors and future friends.

It may seem at times that there is no hope, no way through or onwards, but we try our hardest to take care of our own. "If I can't help you I will find someone who can" should be our motto.

We can be a little squirrely about things at times. We can get distracted by our visions, our goals, our muses, but we are creators. All the best creators have been a little nuts.

Akron, it's nature, it's nurture, it's home.

How do you see your Akron?

Fire by the River

Dear Friends

     Everyone wants to be happy, make and keep good friends, and live in a place where it is possible to not only dream but to make those dreams come true. All of us want a little bit of heaven in our lives, even if it can only be found in one deep breath at the end of a long shift. For me, you are that bit of heaven. I was honored to have you in my home last weekend. Each and every one of you is an example of how wonderful Akronites are and how great Akron is: masons and metalsmiths, illustrators and photographers, curators and decorators, musicians and promoter, actors and writers.
     Thank you for taking time off from your hectic lives to celebrate with me.
     You impress upon me how hard you work at your craft, without prompting and with high dedication. Without your creations we might not wander far from our path of subsistence. The poets and writers who bring wisdom to our minds and rhythm to our emotions, the recyclers and the naturalists who keep us honest, the conservationists and the advocates of peace who shows us how well we fit in with our surroundings and with each other, you are all amazing. Without you we might not ever notice the beauty that is found in the mundane, or hear the wisdom hidden in your creations.
     We can't hold a song in our hands and attach a price tag to it. We can't run our fingers though a poem and gage how finely it has been crafted. We can't take a fired piece of clay and nibble on it to taste it (at least we shouldn't). What you do and what you provide isn't always tangible, but it is all just as important to our lives as food and shelter. Art doesn't fill our bellies or clothe our bodies, but it sure does make us whole. Art goes a long way to help us find our happiness and our individual peace.
     Together we are moving in the right direction. The goals we have set for ourselves as a city and the dreams we have dared to hold in our hearts are all possible. You make it possible.
     Thank you for helping me celebrate being an Akronism. Your love is greatly appreciated. I only hope I can do more for you as time goes on.

     Sincerely and with much love,

     Yoly
 
     @Yolyinbetween

     yolylifeinbetween.blogspot.com  

   

     

Sweet Mary's Taste Temptress on Mill Street

     Being new to downtown living, the idea that I can walk down the street to buy freshly baked pastries and a hot cup of coffee early on a Saturday morning is truly wonderful. Sweet Mary's Bakery opened shop right on time for this city dweller.
     It was so easy to get to, especially since I was able to park right across the street from the bakery. The whole shop was warm, clean, and brightly lit. Cheerful Christmas music played overhead in a room that could easily seat thirty people. It made for a fun brunch adventure.
     I ordered the quiche lorraine. I have to tell you, it was the best quiche lorraine I have had in a long time. The crust was super flaky, there were generous cuts of real bacon, sweet onions, and just enough spices to make this savory dish feel habit forming. I was lucky to get the last serving. They had already sold out of all their other quiches.
     To round my meal off I also bought one of each cookie on display. The Russian tea cakes were perfect. Seriously. Try one, they are perfect. This round mound of butter, nuts, and flour rolled in confectioner's sugar was so good I did a double take. Which is to say I ate the whole cookie as opposed to taking a small bite and then putting it back in the box as I had intended to do.
     The rugelach was also delicious; small cream cheese dough rolled into miniature croissant shaped cookies filled with nuts and sprinkled with a proprietary mixture of spice. Perfect for tea time.
     Being tempted by their golden beauty, I ate a whole peanut butter cookie: crunchy on the outer rim, chewy without being under-baked in the middle, with chunks of peanuts throughout. It wasn't overly sweet, which made it the perfect companion to my cup of Black Squirrel coffee.
     There were some hidden perks to my downtown brunch at Sweet Mary's. I was able to pick up a jar of honey from Akron Honey Company for my tea later, and maybe come Monday I can also snag myself a bottle of Norka ginger ale to take to my son when I pick him up from school.
     I have a feeling that Sweet Mary's and I are going to be really good neighbors, especially if she keeps making those pecan pies.

Sweet Mary's is located at 76 E. Mill Street, across from the John S. Knight Center, between Broadway and South High Street.

www.sweetmarysbakery.com

www.norkabeverage.com

www.akronhoney.com

Devil's Milk Trilogy Continues with Industrial Valley

http://akronist.com/devils-milk-trilogy-takes-turn-to-industrial-valley/

New World Performance Lab hosts open rehearsal in third part of trilogy

— Industrial Valley is the third installment in the series titled Devil’s Milk Trilogy, presented at The Balch Street Theater by New World Performance Laboratory, and is based on the book “Industrial Valley” by Ruth McKenny.

The setting is a familiar one, minimalist, to the point, and stripped of anything not essential to the storytelling: this was Akron during The Depression.

Headline after headline was acted, sung, danced and whispered. The cast drew you in and kept the script tight so you had no choice but to hang on and follow them through a decade of lows so low you could almost feel the hunger and desperation of the times. Their timing was impeccable, from the first word and the first snap of the fingers, to the last song of desperation and the last shout of celebration.

Under the direction of University of Akron’s Theater professor and Center for Applied Theater and Active Culture President and NWPL Co-Aristic Director James Slowiak, the cast took each headline assigned to them and formed their own script, effectively creating a historical ensemble that moved quickly from year to year through the 1930s. The actors did an impressive job of reformulating those headlines to craft their own lines, songs and music using 90- to 95-percent of McKenny’s own words.

The refrain “prohibition” was passed around like a quiet game of telephone, and the circumstances that led to a child’s gruesome death was acted out without being overtly dramatic. The light touch used to relate the harder moments of Akron’s history made for excellent theater.

(Photo: Yoly Glez M Heisler)

The song refrain “Have another cup of coffee, have another piece of pie” was effectively used as irony to highlight how hard everyone, from manufacturers to the Beacon Journal reporters and editors to advertisers, tried to make light of the dire financial straits the city found itself in that.

If there is a best way to teach Akron’s history effectively than this is most certainly it.

The Devil’s Milk Trilogy is in part funded by The Knight Foundation. The first two parts to the trilogy were “Death of a Man,” which tells the story of genocide in the 1900s, and “Goosetown,” a tragic musical set in 1913, and written and composed by playwright JT Buck.  Ruth McKenny was a full-time reporter for The Akron Beacon Journal during the years 1933 and 1934 and wrote “My Sister Eileen,” a memoir that was later adapted as the musical “Wonderful Town.”

Cast includes:

Robert Keith

Debora Totti

Rosilyn Jentner

Chris Buck

Justin Hale

Jairo Cuesta

Kyra Kelly

Lighting by Kirsten Nicole

With special thanks to Jamie Hale

For info, visit about the Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture/New World Performance Lab, visithttps://www.facebook.com/catacnwpl/?fref=photo.