Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival
The annual Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival gets going Thursday night, centering on the contemporary Black experience with shorts, documentaries and feature films by independent directors and producers. Most screenings are at Atlas Cinemas in Cleveland’s Shaker Square district. However, the closing night film, “Luther: Never Too Much,” a documentary about the late R&B legend Luther Vandross, screens Friday, Sept. 27, at 7 p.m. at Atlas Cinemas Lakeshore in Euclid.
Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival
Since the 1990s, the Cleveland neighborhood of Tremont has been known for its artistic community, trendy restaurants and cultural diversity. The Tremont Arts & Cultural Festival honors that heritage Saturday and Sunday beginning at noon. Tremont’s historic Lincoln Park along West 14th Street is divided into five festival villages for children, merchants, food, art and a farmers market.
Wick Poetry Center 40th anniversary
It’s a poetry reunion this week in honor of Kent State University’s poetic respite of four decades at the Wick Poetry Center. To celebrate, the school invites back more than 40 poets who’ve won awards either from KSU or Wick. Featured poets include Maggie Anderson who founded the center, Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye and Irish poet and theologian Padraig Ó Tuama. Wick’s anniversary starts Thursday and continues through Saturday.
Kimberly Chapman’s ‘Through the Looking Glass’
The Massillon Museum opens a new exhibition featuring a Moreland Hills artist who focuses on women’s issues as a proud feminist. Cleveland Institute of Art graduate Kimberly Chapman admits to an obsession for porcelain, which dominates her show, “Through the Looking Glass.” Chapman explores the lives of independent women who lived on the fringes of respectable society. It opens in Downtown Massillon Saturday with a run through Nov. 3.
The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra plays Sinatra
Not to be outdone by our other celebrants, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra has its own 40th anniversary season to kick off this weekend, and Ol’ Blue Eyes is in the house. Frank Sinatra tribute performer Lou Armagno joins the CJO to harken back to an iconic performance by the Chairman of the Board. Sinatra at the Coliseum pays tribute to the night he opened the Richfield Coliseum in 1974. The Music Box on the West Side of Cleveland’s Flats hosts this Swoonatra Saturday, at 7:30 p.m.
