Earlier this month, I had the honor of being part of a Making Black America panel discussion in Cleveland at the historic Karamu House. The conversation was sponsored by Bank of America and, in addition to me, featured Dr. Roland Anglin of Cleveland State University, Ebony Thomas, president of the Bank of American Foundation, and Aseelah Shareef, Karamu’s COO, who moderated.
Karamu was one of those places I heard about growing up in Cleveland, but I never visited. My working-class family didn’t do culture like that. In fact, it wasn’t until I came back to Cleveland in the 90s with Bridgett and her film Naked Acts that I found out that Cleveland had an international film festival that was, at that time, nearly 40 years old!
At any rate, it was such a pleasure to visit this 108-year-old institution and meet its current leaders, including its president Tony Sias.
Something came up during the Q&A that’s important for everyone to remember. An audience member asked the panel how we could drive more/better community development (this was really directed, if I recall, at Ebony because, well, BofA is doing a lot in this regard). When it was my turn, I made the point that if we want to ensure strong, thriving communities, we have to talk about making sure the arts are an integral part of community development efforts. After all, we’ve tried broadband and building tech innovation centers. Those are well and good, but we have the data that the arts are major drivers of economic growth and overall community well-being. Let’s get serious, y’all.
Here are some additional photos:
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