Meet the main characters of Camp '67

In 1967 Cathy Wilkes created Camp Hopenoke, an engaging safe space where children of all races or creeds could come together and learn to be friends in a world that was severely, racially divided. While the camp at large may not have had a lasting impact on all of the campers there were a few who took something away from their time at Camp Hopenoke… 

Nicky was shorter than most of the boys and even some of the girls in his grade. He didn’t care much about his appearance or his hygiene. Mr. Amoretti was a rather large man with a thick mustache and a head full of graying hair that he kept manicured. He owned two small car lots, a smoke shop, and was preparing to open up a bar. Sitting in the passenger seat was his wife and Nicky’s mother, Mrs. Amoretti. She was a very stunning woman for her age with brunette hair and a keen eye for fashion. While her husband worked Mrs. Amoretti played homemaker, happily raising their family in a sumptuous suburban lifestyle.

Nicky’s oldest brother Luca was 25 years old and lived out of town with his wife and newborn son. The Amoretti’s middle child Mike was preparing for his freshman semester at an out of state college in the fall. Nicky was very close to Mike and imitated everything he did. He looked up to his big brother like most boys would. Nicky wore the same jersey number Mike wore during his first year as a member of the town’s junior high football team. Even Nicky’s resemblance to Mike caused many of his teachers to mistakenly address Nicky by his older brother‘s name.

Starry Nights in Heaven by Brendan Whitt

My summer in Cleveland has been full of adventure. I attended my first Parade the Circle, enjoyed the festivities of The Cleveland Museum of Art’s centennial and even flew on a plane for the first time. This past Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the 81st Anisfeld-Wolf Book Awards. The winners included Lillian Faderman (The Gay Revolution: The Story of the Struggle) and Brian Seibert (What the Eye Hears: A History of Tap Dancing) both for nonfiction, Mary Morris (The Jazz Place) for fiction and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Orlando Patterson (The Cultural Matrix Understanding Black Youth).

Although Patterson’s speech personally for me was the most moving moment of the awards it was Rowan Ricardo Phillips who had captured my attention. Rowan was the recipient of the Anisfeld-Wolf Award for Poetry for his second collection titled Heaven published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The first poem of the book titled “The Mind After Everything Has Happened” posed the question “Who in the Hell’s Heaven is this?”

My Truth, My Fiction

Fiction is more than just a genre. It is most often a mirror that reflects the world of which we live in. Sometimes the fictional worlds that we consume can tell us more about reality than we can understand on our own.

Cleveland is the basis for all of my writing. I was born here, raised here and I hope to make a living here. Artists have always reflected on their lives through their work. Picasso’s “Terror and Annihilation” depicted his negative feelings towards WWI and it’s no secret that Spike Lee shares his sociological views through such films as School Daze and Do the Right Thing.

When I first decided to pursue creative writing I had no idea how much of my subconscious and memories would unlock themselves and become exposed on the page. I started off as a hopeful journalist in high school but by college I had figured out that I wanted to become an author and screenwriter because of the power of creativity.

My first short novel, A Summer In Harlem, told the story of 14 year old Beloit, Alabama native Thad as he traveled alone to Harlem during the summer of 1948 to visit his aunt and three cousins. Originally I was trying to create my own Gatsby-esque storyline. The story in turn ended up becoming a representation of the urban life I knew growing up in Cleveland’s east side neighborhood of Hough. Much like a drive from Downtown Cleveland into the upper east side the scenery is telling of Thad’s surroundings.

A Summer In Harlem, Chapter 2:
“In New York the entire street was filled with cars and buses and trucks. And it wasn’t just one street. On every street it seemed like there was traffic from one intersection to the next. Thad hoped the scenery in Harlem was as beautiful as this...

Blought #33: DMCA vs Music Pt. 2

In part 1 of this piece I explored my legal understanding of the DMCA and what it means for the music business. The concerns of piracy and illegal distribution of content has led to the increasingly strong push for digital only music. Streaming also seems to be the industry’s fix a flat approach to curbing piracy.

Personally I believe this is a bit of a twist-arm approach. On one hand subscribers have access to millions of songs by countless artist. On the other hand not all content is available through all services. For example Jay-Z’s debut album Reasonable Doubt is not available on Spotify.

The streaming industry is enjoying exponential growth as competition increases. Companies like Pandora and Spotify have been joined by Apple Music and Tidal as the newest horses to the race.

Blought #32: DMCA vs Music Pt. 1

When Kanye West announced the release of his latest album The Life of Pablo I was ecstatic. Sadly it came with a rather large asterisk. Not only did Yeezy announce that the album would be released exclusively in digital format, but that he was also only releasing it through Tidal. Thankfully the album was made available on Spotify but I’m still not able to complete my collection of Kanye’s physical albums.

Of course this issue is bigger than Kanye. After a bit of digging I’ve drawn the conclusion that the music baseness is moving away from physical music releases. This past spring over 400 musicians, mangers and labels signed a petition urging congress to make changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA.

The DMCA was unanimously passed by congress before being signed into law in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. At the time the internet as we know it was still in its infancy.  The DMCA was created as a provision to protect an artist’s work from being illegally distributed on the internet.

My First Parade the Circle

I have been a resident of the historic Newton Avenue for 21 years. Newton Avenue is just a stones throw from University Circle (UC), the rapidly growing cultural center in Uptown Cleveland. Since my childhood UC has grown exponentially. UC is the home of The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals , Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) as well as the world renowned Severance Hall which houses the Cleveland Orchestra.

One sunny afternoon during the summer of 2014 I went on a museum trip with my girlfriend Laina. On our way through the CMA’s Arts Garden. The arts garden is a beautiful space that overlooks Wade Lagoon, a duck pond that is situated outside of the CMA’s former entrance.

Blought #31: The Lonely Soccer Fan

Whether you call it the world’s game, football, futbol, or simply soccer; one thing stands true. It is a bit lonely being an American soccer fan. The exchanges of goals and saves accompanied by the prideful chants and harmonious cheers of any given club or country's supporters are only matched by those of drunken college American football fans on Saturday afternoon.

I love soccer. Growing up Black in America during the 90’s soccer had no presence. On television even the NHL got more coverage. During the summer of 2006 I had just finished my freshman year of high school. I was laying around the house bored out of my mind when I decided to tune in to a soccer game. It was the Group E matchup between the US and Italy.

America drew 1-1 with Italy that game later failing to make the knockout round of 16. Italy later went on to claim the championship. That day soccer left two impression on me. The first one was seeing Brian McBride’s face covered in blood after a contested header. I remember thinking “Wow, soccer is a lot more physical than I thought.” The second was “I have a new sport to follow.”

'A man on a Mission with his Skateboard' by Brendan Whitt

Ja' Ovvani Garrison

What is passion and how can it contribute to a cause? As America frantically tries to figure out how to enrich and cultivate those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder to keep the country globally competitive, there are hidden gems that are already doing the necessary work to uplift their communities. Ja’Ovvoni Garrison is a 26 year old skater from Cleveland who is carving out his own mold to make things happen.

Ja’Ovvoni started skating around the age of 12 when his mother bought him a cheap Walmart skateboard. Ja’Ovvoni skated with his friends, watched skaters like Rodney Mullen and Kareem Campbell, and frequently played a demo of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater which he had gotten with a pizza from Pizza Hut.

By 16 Ja’Ovvoni had finally gotten his first real deck. “It was really just my grind to learn.” he said when asked what has kept him on a board all of this time. He basked in the challenges that life and skating presented to him. “My aunt inspired me to make a plan for it.”

The sun was shining radiantly over the Cle. I waited anxiously for Ja’Ovvoni to call and tell me that he was out side. We got in his car and talked for a bit as he checked and sent emails. I asked him some follow up questions about Skaters Next Door and Skate RTA, his urban apparel line, before we pulled off to go pick up his friend from work.

Blought #30: Obama's Cookout

In 2008 America elected its first black president, Barack Hussein Obama. He ran a successful campaign and completely obliterated senator John McCain. I remember that historic day like it was yesterday. I didn’t have to go to school because of an allergic reaction to something I ate the night before. I sat at home and watched King of the Hill reruns and Loverboy starring Patrick Dempsey and Kirstie Alley (Don‘t ask why).

When Obama became president every black kid from 17 all the way down to five probably realized it was possible to be or achieve whatever you worked hard for. At 17 years old, Brendan Whitt wanted something sensational. Obama was going to tell us all of the secrets. Why was the FBI stalking MLK right before he got killed?  Did the government create crack? Did American Jews receive reparations? Everything was going to be revealed.

I couldn’t wait to see Jay-Z shoot a video on the White House lawn. Most importantly, I was waiting to hear the first president say “nigga” on live TV. Like in a, “The Republicans still trippin’, so me and Joe said ‘fuck them niggas.’ And we got it done.” kind of way. The entire state house would have erupted in applause and cheers. Of course, I was wishful thinking.

Blought #29: What the 2016 Playoffs Mean to Certain Legacies

Courtesy of ESPN

The Warriors have broken the Bull’s 72-10 record by going 73-9, Kobe Bryant, one of the games all-time greats has finally called it quits and the Playoffs are finally here. Last year’s playoffs seemed to be lacking its usual excitement. The East fielded a sub par list of playoff contenders, half of which missed this year’s playoffs.

The 2014 NBA Playoffs also saw a plethora of Superstars (Kobe, Kevin Durant, Mike Conley, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Kyrie Irving among a few others) who either missed the entire season or significant time during the regular season and\or playoffs. In 2014 the playoffs lasted 89 games and saw 109 man games missed. The 2015 playoffs lasted 78 games with a total of 182 man games missed.

LeBron and the Cavs (or what was left of them after Kevin Love and Kyrie went down with season ending injuries in the playoffs) fought valiantly against the budding legend of the Splash Bros., Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. After a somewhat epic Finals that lasted six games, Golden State captured their second title in the Bay (the franchise also won two titles as the Philadelphia Warriors in 1947 and 1956).

Blought #28: Solving Mysteries to Learn Lessons

From left to right: Eric Anderson, Casey Daniels, Laura Walter,

Kevin Keating and Shelly Costa participate in a panel discussion.

During my final semester at Cleveland State I enrolled into Dr. Anup Kumar’s "Specialized Writing" course focusing on writing narrative long form journalism. One of the most important pieces of advice that I can still remember Dr. Kumar offering the class was learning to have the ability to read a piece on a topic that you may not be familiar with, but one that you can learn from. I personally preferred a good op-ed piece on a pressing sports issue while Dr. Kumar made us read an article about Joan Rivers during the first week of the course.

After taking Dr. Kumar’s class I especially learned to appreciate journalism that focused on technology and science even though I need Wikipedia open to fully understand Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves. When Lee Chilcote, co-counder and cordinator of Lirerary Cleveland invited me to Literary Cleveland’s Winter Fictionfest I was elated.  The workshop and mini-conference took place at Loganberry Books on Larchmere in beautiful Shaker Heights and focused mainly on the elements and style of mystery and suspense fiction.

Why Can't we Quit Reality T.V.

In 1992 MTV premiered their groundbreaking television series The Real World. The brain child of the late Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray placed seven to eight young adults from 18-25 in a house together where their lives would be taped. The show garnered high praise for their discussion and depictions of issues that affected the youth at the time such as sex, AIDS, substance abuse, race and religion.

I can faintly remember when I was in middle school in the early 2000’s when some old British rocker and his family had a show on MTV. The Osbournes continued what the Real World started while ushering in a new age of American television. A year after The Osbourne’s premiered, a group of washed up starts including rapper MC Hammer, Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe and former child star Emmanuel Lewis all moved into a house and lived together while the cameras rolled.

Hipsters, Yuccies and the Black Urban Creative

America loves to bash hipsters

So the end of the hipster has finally arrived, or so they say. The (seemingly exclusive) white kid who attends college for a liberal arts degree of very little merit in this day and age who fashionably wears old dingy and ratty clothes and whose Ipod is filled with obscure indie bands that you never have nor ever will hear of has been replaced.

So I bashed them a little bit, but who doesn’t enjoy taking jabs at hipsters? The hipster has taken a back seat to the new young urban individual known as the “Yuccie”. The offspring of the Yuppie and Hipster cultures, Yuccies combine social awareness and enterprising creativity while tackling the new world around them.

Blought #27: Cable's Deathbed

The model used by Adelphia for my family's cable box from

the late 90's the mid-late 2000's

As far back as I can remember my mom always had a cable subscription. I can remember watching old Nickelodeon shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple, Rugrats and Fox Kids’ X-Men on a black tube TV.

Then came the big clunky cable box. Now I could watch the animation giant Cartoon Network and their Emmy award winning programming (See Blought #11: The Evolution of Cartoon Network) along with a slew of HBO and Starz channels.
I remember sifting through the guide in awe that I didn’t have to watch the TV Guide Channel anymore to find out when something was coming on. Even better, by that time I was 6 and able to read a description about the upcoming episode of Sponge Bob or Dexter’s Lab.

Then 2008 happened. Mom took some employment hits and our cable subscription was severely downgraded, and I’m pretty sure we weren’t the only American family to cut down on our cable during the Financial crisis. It just so happens that around that time my mom began to get these weird red envelopes in the mail and inside would be a DVD. At the time I had no clue what Netflix was.