The Over-the-Rhine Museum is delighted to announce the next installment in our lecture series, “Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine” on Thursday, October 21st at 1816 Race Street (outdoor patio next to Deeper Roots). Event check-in will start at 5:00 pm and the program will begin at 5:30 pm. Enjoy coffee provided by Deeper Roots and light bites during this event. Thank you to Model Group for providing the venue. The discussion will also be available to watch live via facebook.com/OTRmuseum.
Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine: Community Change Through Art & Athletics features Kim Popa, co-founder and Executive Director of Pones, Julie Fay, long-time resident and owner of the Imperial Theatre, and Christina LaRosa, Executive Director of Cincinnati Golden Gloves for Youth. Please join us in celebrating these diverse stories of Over-the-Rhine!
Three Acts in Over-the-Rhine is an innovative lecture 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. All three presenters answer questions together at the end about their talks. Advanced registration is encouraged. Reserve your seat today by clicking the button above. The Over-the-Rhine Museum welcomes your support for these provocative stories. Donate online at otrmuseum.org/donate.
The event photo is from the Pones production, “Graphic,” photographed by Mikki Schaffner.
About the Speakers
Kim Popa
Kim has studied dance for over 34 years, she teaches at The Carnegie, Springer School and Center, the School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and coordinates multiple dance workshops around the tri-state region. Popa has worked internationally at the Sri Lankan Institute for Buddhist Studies in Sri Lanka, the CrisisArt Festival in Arezzo, Italy, and the Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, Romania. In addition to teaching and performing, Popa is the Executive Director, co-founder, and a performing member of Pones.
Pones provides artistic opportunities for community growth by creating engaging new ways for audiences to experience dance. Founded in 2008, the company creates site-specific performances through a fusion of movement and dance with other art forms. Pones’ accessible and participatory performances spark collaboration, connection, and community. Pones performers use their bodies to speak their minds and believe that art creates powerful change. Popa will be discussing their processes and performances involving Over-the-Rhine residents and social justice organizations such as: EndSlavery Cincinnati and the Homeless Coalition.
Julie Fay
Julie Fay’s love of Over-the-Rhine’s italianate architecture began with daily bus rides while on her way to Edgecliff College during the 1960s. Also, seven of her great grandparents, from Germany or of German descent, once lived in the neighborhood. Julie has completed forty-three building renovation and historic tax credit projects throughout Over-the-Rhine. She has started three neighborhood businesses, Iris BookCafe and Gallery, Another Part of the Forest, and Urban Eden, all located on the 1300 block of Main Street. She is the founder and former president of Merchants of Main Street; former project chair for the Main Street streetscape and facade programs; coordinator of the 2002 Over-the-Rhine Comprehensive Plan; has served many terms on the Over-the-Rhine Community Council; and is a founder and co-chair of the Mohawk Neighborhood CDC. Julie holds a BA in Math and Chemistry from Edgecliff College and a MEd in Secondary Education from Xavier. She has 5 children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Julie Fay's current project is the renovation of the historic Imperial Theatre located at 280 West McMicken Avenue. The Imperial is a 1912 concrete and steel vaudeville theatre with a tall fly gallery, decorative plaster trim, molded plywood seats, silk acoustic panels, twin Art Deco projector stands, terrazzo, electric lights and neon, chrome, porcelain enameled steel and the new plastics. Her goal is to transform the now vacant theatre into a cultural catalyst for the Mohawk section of northern Over-the-Rhine.
Christina LaRosa
Christina LaRosa is the Executive Director of Cincinnati Golden Gloves for Youth, a non-profit amateur boxing and at-risk youth development organization founded by her grandfather, Buddy LaRosa, in the 1980s. Christina grew up in Cincinnati and went to high school in Over-the-Rhine at the School for Creative and Performing Arts. She left Cincinnati after high school and was a practicing attorney in Chicago for nearly 10 years before returning home in 2018 to pursue a lifelong dream of running the Golden Gloves organization.
Christina’s talk will include a brief overview of the history of the CGGY organization, including its longtime ties to the Over-the Rhine and West End communities. She will also touch on the storied history of boxing in Over-the-Rhine, the West End, and Cincinnati at-large. Audience members will also learn more about the CGGY organization as it operates today and its vision for the future.