Photograph by Carla Starr
Funeral homes. High school gymnasiums. Hair stores. Brewpubs. Coffeeshops. These are the “parallel places” that juniors and seniors in Carla Sarr’s creative writing class at the School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) chose to explore after reading my story in the December issue of Cincinnati Magazine, “The Reading Rooms of Cincinnati.”
“You gave us a whole new genre!” Sarr texted when she told me she was going to use my story as a model for a new writing assignment. Her prompt for the students was simple:
Using “Reading Rooms of Cincinnati” by Kelly Blewett as a literary model, draft your essay in five sections. Note the similarities across Blewett’s sections, her consistency of tone, and other features. If you have photos, include these in the submission. Your essay should be a very different experience to write and to read than any other that you’ve created.
The students were off and running. The places that came immediately to mind were, of course, connected to the lives they’re living. Annabel Aust’s grandmother passed away in the fall, and Annabel found herself reflecting on specific details of the funeral home where her grandmother’s service took place—how small items, such as a lamps, provided a sense of calm and assisted in the delicate presentation of her loved one.
Mia Watka, a junior who works at a coffeeshop in Oakley, reflected on her favorite drinks and the vibes at the coffee places she visits near SCPA every week, including one drink she could never quite recreate on her own—an iced matcha infused with watermelon soda. Sarai Logan, a member of SCPA’s basketball team, reflected on her experience playing ball in gyms at other schools and looking at their lobby trophy cases.
For these students and their peers, this assignment was different from anything they’d ever written. It presented an opportunity to investigate their city, to name their own parallel places, and to share those places with readers.
Sharing new views of our community is core to the mission of Cincinnati Magazine, which offers a healthy does of service journalism, a genre better known as “news you can use.” The idea is for readers to be able to do something with the information they read, whether that means visiting new restaurants or shopping spots, attending unique community events, or learning the deeper story behind something they encounter every day.
While writing a genre that was new to them, the SCPA students were also participating in a beloved and widely read form of writing that readers of Cincinnati Magazine experience each day. Here’s a glimpse into their experiences writing about parallel places:
Annabel Aust, a senior who explored funeral homes, recalled having an impromptu interview with Peter Gilligan Sr., a funeral director at Gilligan’s in Kenwood and grandson of one of the company’s earliest directors. His son also works in same business today. “A true family affair,” Aust wrote. She reflected that the story helped her glimpse a world that she’d recently experienced as a mourner. “I think doing this assignment right after the passing of a loved one helped me process my experiences,” she says.
Maleah Conley, a junior, says she’s a regular at hair supply stores and that’s part of why she wanted to write about them, saying, “Every time I see a new hair store, I have to go inside.” In her piece, titled “Cincinnati Beauty Supply,” she wrote, “Time moves differently inside a hair store. You come in to grab one thing and leave with a collection of roll-on perfumes or a wig instead of that one comb.”
Sarai Logan, a junior, was drawn to her experiences on the SCPA basketball team, and her piece explored the athletic history of programs in the Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference, the league for Cincinnati Public Schools. “I played on all the courts, and that’s what helped me figure out the piece,” she says. She describes Gamble Montessori’s gym as similar to a castle. “That building is so vintage. I love that building.”
Desmond Reeder, a junior, chose brewpub food in part because he was “practically raised in The Comet” in Northside. He had no idea that brewpubs used to be illegal or that they encompassed such a range of sites in Cincinnati, with the Oakley MadTree housed in an old paperboard plant and the newest High Grain in Finneytown housed in a repurposed bowling alley. Reeder described the food, from a buffalo chicken sandwich at High Grain to the Colorado-style burger at Fifty West, in mouth-watering detail.
Mia Watka, a junior, explored coffeeshops because she works at Biggby in Oakley. Ultimately, she focused on her favorite coffeeshops in Northside (Sidewinder) and Over-the-Rhine (Redtree and Coffee Emporium), opting not to write about Biggby because she didn’t think she could be objective. “I love coffee,” she says. “It’s actually a problem.”
Reading these student stories, I certainly found “news I could use.” And I found myself wanting to go back to Fifty West and figure out more about the connection to George Remus; to try banana pudding from The Pitt Stop on a Saturday night in High Grain Tap Room; to browse Amazon Beauty Supply, which I pass all the time but have never stopped into; to smell the woodsy scent of the Clark Montessori gymnasium; and to try a watermelon soda from Redtree.
On a deeper level, Aust’s piece about funeral homes made me reflect on services I’ve been to, one of which took place at a funeral parlor she profiled, the Willow Room at Spring Grove Cemetery.
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