The Rust Belt Humanities Lab

This Sunday the Rust Belt Humanities Lab is partnering with the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, @literarycleveland , @ohiohumanities , and @ohiocelebratesmorrison for a discussion of the film adaptation of Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved! Vera Camden, Emerita Professor of English at Kent State University and Supervising and Training Analyst at the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center, will lead our discussion. See you there! Register here: /events/analytic-flicks-eyeswideshut-eh484-cesrn @katie.trostel @matt.weinkam @beelovett

Are you ready for Supergirl? Make plans to see the movie in Cleveland with us at the @capitolw65th on June 26! We’ll be giving out an original poster, we’ll host a talk back with Supergirl writer, @marikotamaki after the movie, and more. Stay tuned for a link to get your ticket. More info on the weekend’s events soon. We’ve got fun stuff happening with @literarycleveland @maltzmuseum @superscriptohio @rustbeltlab and more!

Our work at the Rust Belt Humanities Lab was featured in @clevelandmagazine … “Ursuline College Rust Belt Humanities Lab Reframes Northeast Ohio’s Future: The program is reshaping perceptions of Northeast Ohio through humanities-driven storytelling and civic engagement.” Read more here: /articles/ursuline-college-rust-belt-humanities-lab-reframes-northeast-ohio-s-future/

The exhibition “Icons in Ink: The Jewish Comics Experience” is opening May 7 at the @maltzmuseum Featuring over 100 artifacts of original art, rare comics, and historical items, the exhibit’s “Cleveland: Home of Heroes!” section is, among other things, the most significant Superman exhibit since the Smithsonian one in 1987! Some highlights include: - Tons of historic Golden and Silver Age comics, including the earliest issues of Superman! - Jerry Siegel’s writing desk! - The famed, long-lost H.J. Ward lifesize oil painting of Superman that hung in DC’s offices in 1930s-1960s! - 1940s Superman newspaper strips! - The famous 1940s Fleischer Superman cartoons remastered in HD, shown publicly for the first time ever! - And MUCH more!

Each month for the next year, the @clereviewbooks and @rustbeltlab will publish an essay as a part of @ohiocelebratesmorrison --a statewide project led by @literarycleveland and in partnership with @ohiohumanities . This month's piece is entitled, "Water’s Perfect Memory: What Wetlands Can Teach Us About Rebuilding the Rust Belt" and was penned by the co-founder of @rustbeltfibershed , Jess Boeke. It's a meditation on the region's potential as it is encapsulated by the very contours of our natural world right here in the Rust Belt--from the vastness of the marks left behind by glacial activity, to the small-ness of a spore of bluefern. Read this absolutely beautiful piece here: /waters-perfect-memory-what-wetlands-can-teach-us-about-rebuilding-the-rust-belt/ "Spores of bluefern growing in the hollows along the riverbank float toward the water in silver-blue lines hard to see unless you are in or near them, lying right at the river’s edge when the sunshots are low and drained. Often they are mistook for insects — but they are seeds in which the whole generation sleeps confident of a future. And for a moment it is easy to believe each one has one — will become all of what is contained in the spore: will live out its days as planned. This moment of certainty lasts no longer than that; longer, perhaps, than the spore itself." —Toni Morrison, Beloved ... "To help us answer this question [of regional potential], who better to guide us than Toni Morrison? She grew up on the lip of Lake Erie in Lorain, Ohio in this same glacially-shaped, industrially-scarred landscape in which we live. She wrote about its waters, its divisions, and its people carrying futures inside of them towards freedom. To consider the potential of this region through Morrison’s language is more than just a literary exercise; it can help us continue to construct the story of our place. Water is what moves this story forward. It has always been the carrier character in this Great Lakes region. It is the flow that moves the spores that hold the future."

In the mid-1800s, an historic event took place in Northwestern Ohio: Humans who had long ago disconnected from the land decided they could make this “vacant” land more “usable” – no matter that wetland ecosystems harbor the most populated and diverse life in our bioregion. The internal compass of these developers and investors had been duped by the new, flattened narrative of fast money.  They believed the stories they heard of progress, and felt that the wetland was “vacant” and “unusable” as is because the wetland was unpredictable, its boundaries hard to work with, its water not well-contained.  And so they drained the swamp, all 1500 square miles of what-was-once-wetland,  rerouting water to the nearby Maumee River, backfilling the lakes, creeks, tributaries, and ponds, and building roadways that could now move industry and people so much faster.  And just like the flow of water in a river rather than a swamp, everything seemed to speed up.  The speeding up of “progress” left massive consequences in its wake.  As short term gains were prioritized over long term gains, investors made long shots, bringing in industry without thinking through pollutants.  The gameplan of paving over wetlands to create a direct channel or flow was a blueprint that many Ohio cities followed.  As Akron and Cleveland paved over more than 90% of their wetlands along the Cuyahoga River, industry could now be built directly on the banks of the river, drawing from the water, and pumping the contaminated water back into the fast moving river. Eventually, as the momentum built, so did the toxins in the river, and in 1969 the Cuyahoga River caught fire. This stark moment helped spark the modern environmental movement. One year later in 1970, Toni Morrison published The Bluest Eye, set in the landscape that produced that fire. She was writing about this place in the immediate aftermath of another infamous wound. Morrison understood the blueprint long before most were willing to name it. - Jess Boeke (@rustbeltfibershed ), Water’s Perfect Memory: What Wetlands Can Teach Us About Rebuilding the Rust Belt

We're partnering with the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center for a discussion of the film adaptation of Toni Morrison's Beloved as a part of @ohiocelebratesmorrison ! Vera Camden, Emerita Professor of English at @kentstate and Supervising and Training Analyst at the Cleveland Psychoanalytic Center will lead our discussion. See you there!

This Friday—and all weekend—we celebrated our region @ursulinecollege with our third annual Rust Belt Symposium—“The Regenerative Rust Belt.” As Toni Morrison once said, “In my work, no matter where it’s set, the imaginative process always starts right here on the lip of Lake Erie.” 🌊 📚 We spent the weekend meditating on these words in honor of the spirit of Morrison @ohiocelebratesmorrison @beelovett 📖 We gave away free books @westsidemarket with @literarycleveland and @clevelandpubliclibrary . 🌿 We ate wild ramps and poke weed with @blackforager and imagined a future where access to foraged food sustains us all. Thanks @c_kassor , for making this dream come true. 🌾 @iamkortney helped us to bring the luminous @anisfieldwolf award-winning poet, Janice Harrington, whose words re-connected us with land and place, rooting us to region. “I am grass and root and loam.” 🌼 We experimented with natural pigments with @maggie.latham —marigold, red earth, zinnia, osage orange ... and learned about our fibershed with @rustbeltfibershed . @jampackedpaper brought us handmade paper made from corn husks and cotton, which we cut and shaped into quilt patterns like windmills and Ohio stars. 🍀 We immersed ourselves in regional storytelling with @macs_backs , @kentstateuniversitypress , and @ohiocenterforthebook , including new #AWBA winners @sarahazizawrites and Carrie R. Moore. 🦋 We experienced the possibilities of dwelling in this place we call home together. Love to my colleagues @valentinolzullo and Hayley Verdi who believe in the power of collaboration, poetry, and storytelling. I am renewed.

We gave away 500 free Toni Morrison books at the West Side Market yesterday! We bonded with longtime Morrison fans, introduced unfamiliar readers to her work, met visitors from around the country, and gave a book to a months old baby named—coincidentally—Chloe (she’s a big reader!). Thanks to our many volunteers, to our partners @clevelandpubliclibrary @rustbeltlab @westsidemarket and especially our sponsors @ireadvintage and Penguin Random House for providing free books! Follow @ohiocelebratesmorrison and head to OhioCelebratesToniMorrison.org for more events all across Ohio this whole year!

500 books. 500 people. Right in the middle of @westsidemarket We showed up. You showed up. And just like that, stories found their way into people’s hands. Thank you to everyone who stopped, reached, and took a piece of Toni Morrison with you. And thank you to the joyful volunteers and partners who made it possible. @ohiocelebratesmorrison @literarycleveland @ohiohumanities @clevelandpubliclibrary @rustbeltlab Every time her words reach someone new or welcomes someone back, our community grows. 🧡

#RustBeltKids enjoying the beautiful spring day @ursulinecollege . Today was a joy--Looking forward to sharing more highlights from our spring symposium soon. 🍄🌻🍀

Free giveaway of Toni Morrison books in Cleveland at the West Side Market tomorrow, April 18 from 10am-2pm while supplies last! Literary Cleveland is teaming up with the Cleveland Public Library and the Rust Belt Humanities Lab to give away 500 books thanks to sponsorship from Vintage Books and Penguin Random House. This is part of our yearlong Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison program. Spread the word! See you there! #tonimorrison #free #freebooks #community #ohio