Jesse Owens was a true hero disproving Hitler’s Aryan myth and one of the greatest athletes of all time. Not only the 4 golds in Berlin but perhaps the best 45 minutes in history when he set 4 world records at a track meet in Ann Arbor in that short time frame.
Cleveland played an important part of Jesse's life. At the age of nine, Jesse and his family moved to Cleveland from Alabama and first came to national attention when he was a student of East Tech and practiced at Rhodes High Schools in Cleveland and later attended Ohio State University.
How far could you jump? In this video we see Jesse Owens’ Gold Medal, world –record long jump length of 26 feet and 5” marked on the track. It’s amazing to think he jumped/flew that far.
Over 45,000 people attended the Cleveland Asian Festival (CAF) on Saturday May 20 and Sunday May 21, 2023. The AsiaTown neighborhood was packed with families and people of all ages to enjoy the annual festival that kicks off summer in Cleveland.
Since inception in 2010 the Cleveland Asian Festival highlights Cleveland’s AsiaTown, Diversity, and Asian Culture in Northeast Ohio. It was organized in 2010 by volunteer community leaders to celebrate Cleveland’s diversity and Asian Pacific American Heritage month (May). This signature event defines AsiaTown and brings tens of thousands, including many first-timers, to the neighborhood.
Surveys show that a large percentage of visitors will return to AsiaTown to shop, dine and enjoy the neighborhood. By being in AsiaTown, CAF has led to the creation of new businesses in the area as well as neighborhood beautification with arts and cultural displays and decorations throughout the district.
Attendees enjoyed two stages of performances that featured traditional and modern music and dance as well as martial arts. The Asian Pop Dance competition was especially popular with the younger attendees. The Trivia Contest had an Asian theme.
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is an important recognition of the contributions of the AAPI community and a chance to stand together against recent anti-Asian sentiments. CAF attracts the Asian community but also groups representing the numerous diverse ethnic heritages of Cleveland.
The CAF team is already working on plans to celebrate Asian Pacific
American Heritage Month at the Cleveland Asian Festival next May 18 and 19,
2024.
Here is our coverage of CAF in case you missed any.
This was a very intersting exhibit. As a mathematician (and geek), I was very interested in theAstronomicum Caesareumbooks. Henry VIII had a large and impressive book collection
International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on February 21 to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh.
A ceremony was held in the Rotunda of Cleveland City Hall on February 24, 2023 to commemorate and educate.
We have coverage (video and pictures) of the entire event spread over 3 pages
The Cleveland Museum of Art opened a new exhibit - The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England - which is the first exhibition in the US to trace the transformation of the arts in Tudor England.
It includes huge tapestries that fill entire walls, suits of armor, sculptures, portraits and more.
The Tudor dynasty ruled for only three generations but it transformed England from a land devastated by the War of the Roses to a major player in Europe and eventually the rest of the world. This exhibit covers the larger than life personas of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
As of February 21, more than 50,000 deaths had been reported and hundreds of thousands displaced and injured. It is a tragedy of immense proportion. As a gesture of support and reflection, the Board of the Syrian Cultural Garden endorsed holding a vigil event at the Garden on February 19, 2023. A list of active civic organizations that are involved in humanitarian relief efforts were provided to the attendees.
Ceata Romanian Folk Ensemble is a cultural dance group led by founder and director Mariana Somogyi and dance instructor and choreographer Ovidiu Ghioda. They performed three dances from the Fagaraa region in Transylvania Romania at the annual Slovenian Kurentovanje Festival in the Slovenian National Home in Cleveland Ohio.
Ceata Romanian Folk Ensemble dancers at Kurentovanje
The annual Cleveland version of the most popular carnival in Slovenia - Kurentovanje - was a week long event featuring cooking demos, language instruction, a dance party, fun run and more. But the highlight was the annual Kurentovanje Parade followed by the festival celebration on Saturday February 18, 2023.
Kurentovanje Queen Eva Ozbolt Kisley (born in 1921!) and Prince Blaz Vavpetic
Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent which is 40 days of fasting. That used to mean only one meal a day and full fasting on Friday. (It's been greatly relaxed in modern times but Fridays are still meat-free). Rich foods were not allowed. So the Tuesday before Lent, people of Poland used up their eggs, butter, sugar and fruit by treating themselves one last time before Lent began. Ash Wednesday is on February 22 this year. That means February 21st is Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday - and Paczki Day! Another popular Polish-American tradition is celebrated the week before (February 16 this year) with Fat Thursday or Tlusty Czwartek (pronounced Twoosti Chvartek).
But Paczki (punch-key) Day has become much more than a Polish-American tradition. And nobody does it better than Rudy's Strudel in Parma where lines will form early and continue all day. People will ask for paczkis, not realizing that paczki is already the plural of paczek (punch-ek).
Our website visitors voted for Rudy's Strudel as having their Favorite Paczki in Cleveland.
The annual Slovenian Kurentovanje Parade in Cleveland Ohio was held Saturday February 18, 2023. The large Kurents (kurenti) are there to scare away winter and usher in spring. Thousands lined the street near the Slovenian National Home at 64th and St. Clair to watch the Parade and then have music, food, dancing, drinks and lots of fun with the Kurents and thousands of people of Slovenian heritage - at least for the day.
Members of the Turkish and Syrian communities in Cleveland Ohio gathered with family, friends and supporters in the Syrian Cultural Garden on MLK Blvd. on the evening of Friday February 10, 2023. Leena Zahra from the Syrian community and Mehmet Gencer from the Turkish community spoke at a prayer vigil lit by candles.
One young lady holding a picture of her best friend who was killed in the earthquake told how her friends and family back in Syria were reporting that dozens of family members had been killed. The crowd learned of suggested places to donate funds and foods and prayed for the victims.
In this episode of Fun with Maps, host Dan Hanson looks at the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathian Mountains are in Eastern Europe and form an arc through several countries including Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Czech Republic, Austria, and Serbia. Important cities such as Kraków (Poland), Bratislava (Slovakia) and Cluj-Napoca (Romania) are in or near the Carpathians.
What is most interesting about the Carpathians are the people who come from there. You may hear them called Rusyns, Rutheni, Ruthenes, Carpatho-Rusyns or another variation but basically they are an East Slavic ethnic group from the Eastern Carpathians in Central Europe. They speak Rusyn, an East Slavic language variety, treated variously as either a distinct language or a dialect of the Ukrainian language.
The Rusyns are inexorably linked to the Carpathian Mountains and vice versa. The Rusyns do not have a specific country to call home. The traditional homeland of the Rusyn people, Carpathian Rus', lies in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, on the borders of modern-day Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia. Today, approximately three-quarters of Rusyns reside within Ukraine, specifically the geographic region known as Transcarpathia (historic Subcarpathian Rus') The United States holds the largest population of Rusyns outside of Carpathian Rus', mostly within the former industrial centers of the Northeastern and Midwestern United States like Ohio and Pennsylvania. At the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, approximately 225,000 Rusyns immigrated to the US. This video also covers Aleksander Dukhnovich who is a sort of 'George Washington' of the Rusyns. He is famous for saying "I was, am, and always will be a Rusyn."
This part of Europe has had tremendous geopolitical changes over the years even through the 20th century with the world wars and the forming of Czechoslovakia and dissolution of Yugoslavia and other factors. You will see why Carpatho-Ukraine has been called The One Day Republic. The Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine existed for just one day on March 15, 1939, before it was occupied and annexed by Hungary. The most famous Carpatho-Ukrainian might be Andy Warhol, the pop artist who pioneered the concept of 'fifteen minutes of fame'.
For 50 years the City of Cleveland has celebrated Black History Month with a Flag Raising Celebration.
African Flag over Cleveland City Hall
Despite brutally cold temperatures the crowd marched outside singing and chanting "Ashay". Joining in were Mayor Justin Bibb, Community Relations leader Angela Shute-Woodson and Khalid Samad from Peace in the Hood. After witnessing the flag raised above Cleveland City Hall the crowd went back inside for the rest of the program which included music, speeches, poems, food, community resources and more.
Khalid Samad speaks at Flag Raising
Mayor Justin Bibb with Buffalo Soldiers MC members
