#kent ohio
@stevebunge asked about the anniversary and about how things are here in Kent, Ohio. Thanks for the question - I’m glad for the reason to share these incredible resources with you all.
Kent State University and the city planned an extensive observance of the 50th Anniversary (that a lot of people feel is a watered-down version of what could and should have been produced.) We were able to have the opening live event on March 8th - a concert at the UCC “We March On! Music of Social Justice” featuring the Cleveland Chamber Choir and my daughter’s Kent Roosevelt High School Choir ChoralWorks.
All of the music was by women composers. One of the pieces had five parts, each a unique composition with lyrics that were the final words of unarmed black men and boys moments before they were killed.
Another, that doesn’t have lyrics, only sounds, was posted to YouTube yesterday. It’s one of the most moving pieces of choral music I’ve experienced live. I am so grateful I was there.
The next day I flew to Vegas and then everything fell apart. None of the other live events happened.
KSU compiled resources here, with a pretty good video below the fold on the home page. The video ends with an incredible performance of Ohio by David Crosby and the Sky Trails Band at the Kent Stage a few years ago. Goosebumps.
My friend David Hassler’s powerful play May 4 Voices was done as a radio play featuring Tina Fey. I can’t recommend listening to this enough - you can listen to it here.
My friend Kabir teaches Pan African Studies and is faculty adviser for Students for a Democratic Society. He and many of the students are featured in this article.
Our 33rd Annual Jawbone Poetry Festival that kicks off the actual May 4th weekend with 3 days and nights of poetry all around Kent was held as a 4 hour open reading that about 50 people tuned into on Zoom. It was strange and left a big gaping poetry shaped hole in our hearts to not be able to stand by the Cuyahoga where it bends by the railroad tracks and shout our poems against the clacking of the train and into the rolling water.
I do know that some people attended the ringing of the bell ceremony and visited Daffodil Hill (where 58,175 bulbs are planted - one for each American life lost in Vietnam). The blooms are something to behold and doubly surreal against the backdrop of the pandemic and the knowledge that more lives have been lost to COVID in only a few months.
Downtown Kent is sparse and quiet except on warm days when everyone is out walking. I avoid it and stick to my neighborhood sidewalks on the west side of town. A few restaurants have managed to stay open doing takeout and many are uncertain how to manage the dine-in experience that is set to begin on May 21. There seems to be a collective “I don’t fucking think so” in the air about reopening now.
KSU announced a $30M budget cut and adjuncts are scrambling to find work. The city is talking major cuts, too. Not sure how that will shake out yet. Nearby Akron University announced a $70M budget cut in the face of ongoing struggles pre-COVID and say they will eliminate 6 of its 11 colleges. I don’t even have words.
Meanwhile my grass is overgrown and my Dogwood and Redbud and tulips are in full glorious bloom. Garden plans are slowly coming together. I have potential work on the horizon. Kent, Ohio is a beautiful place to live but it will never be the same place it was again, just as it was never the same after the day the national guard killed four unarmed students and injured nine others, paralyzing one.
The struggle that caused May 4th continues and I am grateful for all of the people who are working so hard to help shape the new reality in a positive, healthy, equitable way in the face of so much ugliness.
