It was 6 degrees above zero when we started the 30 minute drive from Cincinnati to Dark Wood Farm. It was 3 degrees by the time we arrived. We knocked on the door of the small cabin set back along the treeline, hoping for a quick reply and shelter from the cold. The door swung open immediately, and we were greeted with the ready smile of Annie Woods, along with the much appreciated sound of soup bubbling on the stove.
Read MoreOne drizzly Monday in December, we sat down with Nancy Yerian. We drank coffee, ate muffins, and talked about Nancy’s journey to becoming a public historian. She shared her experiences finding a sense of community in the Ohio Lesbian Archives, managing heavy workloads, and the creation of the Vibrant Kin exhibit.
Read MoreAbigail Murrish is Hoosier turned Ohioan, a born and bred Midwesterner. A year ago, she started a podcast, “Our Midwestern Life,” to tell the stories and share the wisdom of all the people around her. Women of Cincy sat down with Murrish to talk about the podcast, life in Cincinnati, and the differences between the national idea of the Midwest and real life here in the center of the United States.
Read MoreWe chatted with Lourdes Ward on a drizzly Saturday morning in her office in West Chester. The Director Emeritus of Reach Out Lakota sits at her desk, “a nice one from Costco” that she says is a bit of an improvement over the green metal table in between clothing racks that she used when she first became director of the pantry 25 years ago.
Read MoreWalking into the Wave Pool art gallery, temporary home for The Welcome Project, I was greeted by a flurry of activity. Sheryl Rajbhandari, her mother Shirley Richards, volunteers, and a group of refugee women meet there every Monday through Thursday for what they call “girl time.” Everyone is happy, laughing, and smiling as they participate in the week’s sewing project, creating passport covers for the Pasaporte Program, which processes passport applications for children who are unable to do so themselves. You can feel the camaraderie, even though many of the women don’t speak English.
Read MoreSometimes the best things happen by accident.
Around 6 a.m. on January 20, 2017, I woke up feeling unsettled. A divisive election had come and gone, but it felt like an unprecedented cloud of negativity was only just starting to gather. Even friends and families who would usually put their differences aside were attacking one another. What ever happened to simply seeing one another as people?
Read MoreOn the first day of the Applehead City Pet’s holiday pop-up shop in Crafts and Vines in Mainstrasse, we met up with the business’s creator, Desh Rain. We learned a little more about the woman behind this holistic, vegan dog brand that is all over Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati.
Read MoreAs the first real snowflakes of the year float down from the sky, I hurry through the overcast cold to the warmth of Northside’s The Listing Loon. Kate Wakefield, a local musician specializing in operatic vocals and haunting cello chords, is at the bar chatting with the bartender, who also happens to be her bandmate in her punk electric cello duo, Lung.
Read MoreWhen we arrived at The Wheel, Chrissy Antenucci was spreading graham cracker batter into a sheet pan. You’re likely to find her cooking any time you stop by her carryout spot in Oakley, which is also the hub for private dinners a few times a month. The pop-up dinners offer 20 people the chance to enjoy five made-from-scratch courses, with a mix of seasonal vegetables, handmade pasta and bread, and dessert. After stints at some of the country’s finest restaurants, Antenucci has returned to her hometown of Cincinnati, where she’s creating a new kind of culinary path.
Read More“Where is she?!” a small child shouts while pushing her face against the exhibit glass at the Cincinnati Zoo’s Hippo Cove. It’s a sunny September afternoon, and crowds of people are anxiously waiting for a glimpse of Fiona. Everyone’s cameras and smartphones are at the ready, hoping to glimpse one of the hippo family members in the water. Eventually, Fiona and her mom, Bibi, appear. The fans are elated. Fiona’s caretaker and Africa zookeeper, Wendy Rice, lets us watch as she feeds Fiona and Bibi lettuce. The mother-daughter duo emerges from the water together, first poking their ears out, then their nostrils, and eventually opening their gigantic mouths. Everyone seems starstruck. Wendy is equally excited to talk about her own role in Fiona’s story.
Read MoreKatie Nzekwu joined us at Crossroads Church with stories to tell, from her grandmother’s favorite piece of advice to the discovery of personal superpowers. Amid the sounds of children playing and entrepreneurs typing on their laptops, free coffee in hand, we heard more about her experiences as founder of the local nonprofit, Villedge, and how she’s learned to look at herself as an equally important project.
Read MoreSt. Monica’s Recreation Center in Lincoln Heights is quiet. It’s early on Friday afternoon and school hasn’t let out yet, but in just an hour or so, local kids will be filling the halls, starting games of ping-pong, and climbing on the enormous indoor playground that makes us want to put down our cameras and notebooks and just play. But Yvette Simpson, city councilwoman and candidate for mayor, is here to tell us her story. She opens a soda – a “pick-me-up,” she says, after a long day of meetings running over. I tell her we’re excited to get to know Yvette – the woman, not just the candidate – and she laughs. “You mean you’re interested in me?”
Read MoreWest Chester and Liberty Townships are north of Cincinnati, but that doesn’t mean things are slow around here. We met Erin Clemons, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of West Chester/Liberty in her office, where things were still bustling at 5:30 in the evening.
Read MoreWe met Dr. Ashley Jordan at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. She gave us a mini tour of the building and its three floors of exhibits. The Freedom Center’s exhibits examine America’s history of slavery, as well as modern day slavery. On the third floor balcony, we paused next to the Freedom Center’s Eternal Flame and looked down at the glistening Ohio River.
Read MoreOn a drizzly Wednesday afternoon, Women of Cincy met up with Rachelle Caplan, founder of Ladyfest Cincinnati, in her “second living room”: Northside’s The Listing Loon (coincidentally, the same location as Women of Cincy’s first-ever happy hour). We grabbed some beers while Rachelle chatted with other regulars. “It’s like the living room everyone wants in their home,” she comments, looking around at the dark but cozy bar with patrons scattered around the tables and stools. “But, there’s usually more people than you would ever want in your own living room. So this works out.”
Read MoreMegan Park is a producer and storyteller. She’s the founder of Little Sprig Productions, the creator of Putting Women In Their Place, and a board member of Women in Film’s Cincinnati chapter. We interviewed her at her home, where she served fresh fruit and homemade tea on her back porch.
Read MoreAs we step out of our cars in the front circle of Aiken High School, a young woman on the opposite side is belting out the national anthem. Her peers are astonishingly quiet. We pause, and across the way, Tamaya Dennard, candidate for city council and innovation specialist at Design Impact, does the same, leaning against her car to listen. The anthem draws to a close and, just as we’re about to clap, the girl’s friends break up the silence, laughing and yelling along with her, “the home of the brave.” “Aw, guys!” she yells.
We meet Tamaya – red folding chair in tow – and her communications director, Tara Keesling, at the front of the school. “Man, she was killing it,” she says.
Read MoreIn less than three years, Calcagno Cullen has transformed an old Camp Washington building into an art gallery and a thriving, vibrant corner of the neighborhood.
Read MoreRohs Street Café is busy on a Wednesday afternoon. Some are enjoying their final homework-free days, chatting about the Target that just opened down the street and recalling the parties of the past weekend. Others are bent over laptops and notebooks. We wave as Grace Cunningham – clearly a regular here – walks in, and she greets us with a bright smile.
Read MoreIt takes us a few minutes to find the working entrance to the Ensemble Theatre office; construction warnings and orange cones crowd the scenery up and down the 1100 block of Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine. The street is quiet, but behind the door, the air fills with the sounds of a $7 million dream being built. The noise of drilling and hammering is slightly dulled as Artistic Director D. Lynn Meyers leads us to a fluorescent breakroom. On the table is a pile of programs for the theater’s new 2017-18 season and a bag of mini M&Ms.
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