September 2017
Features
Over-the-Rhine To Debut Three New Arts Upgrades This Fall
Three major arts organizations are opening their 2017–2018 seasons this fall in renovated or completely new buildings, collectively raising OTR’s profile as a national arts destination.
Ubahn Fest Is All About Going Underground
Seeing a void in the music scene that had gone unfilled for years, entrepreneur Josh Heuser started Ubahn Fest, a hip-hop and EDM-centric concert that has regularly attracted a huge crowd to the Second Street Overpass in the Riverfront Transit Center since 2013.
Fall Arts Preview: 16 Things To Do This Season
September starts Cincinnati’s cultural new year, with every outfit in town kicking off new seasons (some debuting new digs), showing white-hot exhibits, and headlining their biggest acts.
Contemporary Arts Center to Exhibit Notable Street Artist Swoon
Born Caledonia Curry in 1977, the artist known as Swoon is getting her first major survey exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center. Like Shepard Fairey and Banksy, Swoon has gained notoriety for her striking and surprising street art.
Cindy Sherman Closes The Wexner Center’s Women-Only Season
In finding an artist to close out its year of showing only women artists—37 in total—the Wexner Center for the Arts could hardly do better than Cindy Sherman, who has spent her decades-long career in photography and film presenting a multitude of women. All of whom are her.
Cincinnati Wildflower Preservation Society Celebrates 100th Anniversary at Lloyd Library
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Cincinnati Wildflower Preservation Society—founded in 1917 by botanist E. Lucy Braun—the Lloyd Library is collaborating with the society and the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden on a special exhibition.
Dracula Flies Into Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s New Theater
Zombies rule on TV, but they’ll never outshine vampires on stage. So Cincinnati Shakespeare Company will celebrate Halloween with the Emperor of Darkness—Dracula.
Ginseng: A New Kind of Cash Crop
Ginseng is a staple of herbal medicine from China to Appalachia. It even grows in Hamilton County. But be careful who you tell. A detour into the world of illegal ginseng poaching.
Cincinnati Art Museum Exhibits The Work of Albrecht Dürer
Don’t miss Dürer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a seminal woodblock print completed in 1497.
Taft Museum of Art Shows 200+ Years of Historic Quilts
Move beyond the basic blanket stitch with The Taft Museum of Art’s autumnal exhibit dedicated to mosaic patchwork quilts.
Mike Brown’s Forgotten Playing Days
How the Bengals owner’s time on the gridiron explains his much-maligned career on the sidelines.
King Records Month Packs A Year’s Worth of Devotion Into A Few Weeks
It will take every day of the month to conjure up the bigness that was “The King of the Independents.”
Seu Jorge Presents: The Life Aquatic, a Tribute to David Bowie
The sets and costumes hark back to the movie, giving this already trippy production another layer of beautiful strangeness.
Zadie Smith To Give The Mercantile’s Annual Niehoff Lecture
Smith’s presence at the Niehoff’s 30th anniversary lecture is a milestone.
Wynton Marsalis Brings Jazz to the Taft Theatre
His trumpet sounds every week on CBS’s Sunday Morning; his New Orleans–inflected lilt is all over Ken Burns’s documentary Jazz. Today he’s the bandleader for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s orchestra.
Music Hall’s Opening Night Is Two Years In The Making
Composer Jonathan Bailey Holland was given free rein from the CSO to create a piece befitting the occasion.
BLINK Will Light Up Downtown Cincinnati
From October 12 to 15, BLINK aims to transform 20 downtown city blocks into one collective walkable, outdoor, interactive art exhibit.
Cincinnati Ballet To Stage Romeo & Juliet
The 2017–2018 season will celebrate its return to the Over-the-Rhine venue with Shakespeare’s classic love story, the first narrative ballet of the season.
“Kegel to the Beat” With Shasta Geaux Pop
Shasta Geaux Pop is both the name of the show and its main character, an emcee of unbridled enthusiasms (and ego) ready to take center stage.
What’s New at Midpoint 2017?
Three of the big names on the bill are Canadian. Has Justin Trudeau secretly been consulting?
Fall Arts Preview: Family Edition
These live shows are the perfect way to introduce your brood to the wide world of theater.
Frontlines
Dr. Know: Extra Street Signs, A “Fifth Third Better,” and Streetcar Mysteries
Ah, yes, the eternal “Why does the city bother with the expense of…” inquiry.
New Coach, Old Dream
Luke Fickell wants to make UC football great again. If he succeeds, will he stick around to enjoy it?
Conversations With American Ninja Warrior’s Nati Ninja
James Wilson, 30, is the Nati Ninja—a four-season American Ninja Warrior competitor shown recently on NBC, leaping across the Razor’s Edge obstacle, landing hard, fracturing a rib, and still muscling across (most) of a suspended ring element.
Blue Manatee Books Is Cincinnati’s Own Children’s Publishing Outfit
When is a kids’ bookstore not just a kids’ bookstore? When it’s also a publishing house.
Patricia Lockwood’s Book Priestdaddy Is As Conflicted As It Sounds
Poet Patricia Lockwood’s dad wasn’t just her dad: He was Father to entire Catholic parishes, including St. Vincent de Paul on River Road. Her memoir Priestdaddy (Riverhead Books) revisits life in the rectory.
Radar
Long Weekend: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Among the banjos, bikes, and chili peppers of a great Tennessee river town.
True Adorn Boutique Puts Down Roots in Kentucky
At this Kentucky boutique, having fun looks good.
Columns
New Artworks Mural Features The Work Of Edie Harper
Edie Harper was the wife of acclaimed illustrator Charley Harper, but she had an artistic life of her own—something the art world is only recently coming around to noticing. To that end, ArtWorks has added an Edie mural, Crazy Cat/Crazy Quilt, to its 2017 lineup.
Celebrating 50 Years of WEBN-FM
A look back at WEBN’s Golden Age, by its longest-employed employee.
Hard Knocks Revisited
A former sports reporter looks back at Bengals training camps of yore.
Swing Shift
Andrew Benintendi’s Not-So-Long Journey From Sellman Field To Fenway Park.
Dine
Jackson Rouse’s Bauer Farm Kitchen Brings Us Back To Our German Roots
Here in Cincinnati, where our brewing heritage has been enthusiastically re-embraced, rustic German cooking is largely absent from the finer dining scene. Rouse decided to fill the gap himself after his former employer, The Rookwood, closed last December.
The Birch Is Terrace Park’s Neighborhood Café
For a casual, high quality supper, go east, young man!
Transparent Pie Is A Thing, And You Should Try It
Not to be confused with that Southern staple chess pie, the transparent pies and tarts from Magee’s Bakery in Maysville feature the addition of milk to their decadent filling.
Chefs From Metropole and Revolution Rotisserie To Create Dinner Events at Carriage House Farm
Revolution Rotisserie’s Dana Adkins and Metropole sous chef Jason Louda have teamed up to create a family-style dinner that highlights produce grown at Carriage House Farm. Their goal: A dinner that’s literally farm-to-table.