Act 1: The Rothenberg Rooftop Garden and Imani Family Center
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Act 2: Imagination Alley by June P. Alexander and June Albright-Captain
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Act 3: Forty Years of Community Gardening in Over-the-Rhine by Greg Potter
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Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine: Outside in the City, the next installment in our quarterly lecture series, “Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine,” will take place virtually in December, 2020. Three short video presentations will be released at 6:00 pm on the following three Thursdays: December 3rd, 10th, and 17th. Please join us right here, we will post the videos at those times.
As Covid-19 keeps us from gathering inside, the Over-the-Rhine Museum will be highlighting three of the innovating outdoor gathering spaces that serve the Over-the-Rhine community. On December 3, we will hear from Bryna Bass and LaTasha Kimbro who will share what all takes place atop Rothenberg Preparatory Academy in the Rothenberg Rooftop Garden and the academy’s Imani Family Center. December 10 will feature June P. Alexander and Janet Albright-Captain discussing a community-based re-imagining of Imagination Alley and what that space has meant to Over-the-Rhine residents. Finally, on December 17, Greg Potter will dive into the 40-year history of the Civic Garden Center’s involvement in supporting community gardens, which all began with the collaborative construction of the Over-the-Rhine People’s Garden.
December 3, 2020
Bryna Bass and LaTasha Kimbro
Bryna Bass is the Education Coordinator for the Rothenberg Rooftop Garden. Ms. Bass grew up in Cincinnati with a mother who loved to garden, learning from an early age with her hands in the dirt. Upon graduating from The Ohio State University with a degree in agriculture and plant science, Bass spent many years working as a landscaper in plant nurseries, botanical gardens, and community farms. While living in Boston, Ms. Bass earned a graduate degree in education, and started teaching middle school science. She moved back to Cincinnati in 2000 and continued teaching. Teaching science was a perfect opportunity for her to weave her passion for plants and nature into the curriculum. She came to the Rothenberg project in 2013. Working in a school garden has been a dream come true.
LaTasha Kimbro
LaTasha Kimbro is the Resource Coordinator for Rothenberg Preparatory Academy. Ms. Kimbro has worked in this role for the Imani Family Center and Cincinnati Public Schools for two years. She is the proud Mother of two daughters, Zuri and Skylar Davis. LaTasha has always had a passion for mentoring young kids. Working as a resource coordination has provided her the opportunity to engage with the youth and their families on a level that has left her feeling truly blessed.
Bass and Kimbro will share the story of the Rothenberg Rooftop Garden and its connection with Rothenberg Academy’s Imani Community Learning Center. We will explore the programs they run and the reach they’ve had with the school’s families - especially now, as they’ve been able to come together to help one another during these difficult times due to the pandemic.
December 10, 2020
June P. Alexander and Janet Albright-Captain
June Alexander is a long-time community activist who holds a Masters of Fine Arts in Education, a Masters of Arts in Alabama Black Woman Wisdom and a Ph.D. in Ancestor Studies (she says those two degrees are from the University of Life). Alexander came to Cincinnati by way of Alabama and North Carolina and has lived in Over-the-Rhine for eighteen years. She has been involved in social justice since childhood and has supported the work of Tender Mercies, the Storefronts Project here in Over-the-Rhine, and is a newly elected board member at the Homeless Coalition.
Janet Albright-Captain has been a resident of the Over-the-Rhine Community for four years. She has worked in the community for nine years as a teacher at Rothenberg Preparatory Academy. Albright-Captain has also been active in the community as part of Storefronts, located at Buddy’s Place, and at the Peaslee Neighborhood Center.
As members of the Storefronts 2020 team, Alexander and Albright-Captain were two of the residents involved in leading a community engagement process to re-imagine Imagination Alley, a through-block pocket park between Vine and Republic Streets. Together they will share how the creative engagement allowed community members to re-imagine this contested green space which is also home to important community art works. The input they collected will direct the park’s redesign, renovation, and future management.
December 17, 2020
Greg Potter
Greg Potter is the Community Gardens Coordinator for Cincinnati’s Civic Garden Center. He is responsible for supporting the community gardens in the Civic Garden Center’s Community Garden Network with services including training for garden start-up and maintenance. Greg has a diverse background including a Master of Fine Arts from Miami University, university teaching, working in museums, and supervising residential and commercial construction. He found his true calling when he began volunteering at the Civic Garden Center and working with garden education. Greg’s goal is to connect the community gardens and gardeners together as a way to root people to what is important - their food and each other.
Greg’s talk will dive into the history of the neighborhood gardening effort to create urban oases in Over-the-Rhine. For forty years, the Civic Garden Center has been working alongside community members to help nature reemerge in the city while empowering people to grow their own food. The Over-the-Rhine neighborhood has been a focal point of community gardening in the Cincinnati region since 1980 and it all started with Over-the-Rhine’s People’s Garden, located at 49 East McMicken Avenue.
The Museum suggests a $5 donation for these provocative stories. We encourage you to donate online at http://otrmuseum.org/donate.
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Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine is an innovative series designed to expose attendees to stories of the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. Each event features three fifteen-minute talks on the history of Over-the-Rhine.
The Over-the-Rhine Museum inspires understanding and respect for the people who have created and lived in Cincinnati’s historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood by working with visitors and community members to uncover, present, and preserve their stories in an immersive experience.