Daniel J. Herda

            By Daniel Herda

            On Thursday, March 21, the Michael Schwartz Library presented a lively conversation about Mary Doria Russell’s latest novel called “Doc” as part of its Brown Bag Book Discussion Series and Local Author Book Talk for 2013.

            The book centers around on the later years of John Henry Holiday, the protagonist—a gambler, gunfighter and dentist in the American Old West—when her arrives in Texas looking for work and with the hope that the warm air will cure is tuberculosis. 

            Holiday’s profession as a dentist gave him the nickname “Doc” Holiday. His alliance with Wyatt Earp, one of the toughest sheriffs in the Old West, against the murdering-gang of cowboys earned him his fame. Doc and Wyatt’s famous showdown at the OK Corral has been fictionalized in feature films like “Tombstone,” “Wyatt Earp,” and “The Gunfight at the OK Corral.”  

            All three films have a focus on the famous gunfight, while Doria’s novel focuses on the lighter side of Doc’s life and uses the character as an eye into the west to give her readers the experience of being with Doc.

            Glenda Thornton, director of the Michael Schwartz Library, led the book discussion by asking those in attendance their thoughts on the novel.

            Thornton opened the discussion by revealing a connection with Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone With The Wind,” and “Doc” Holiday. She talked about how Mitchell fashioned some of her characters from Holiday’s family members.

After the introductory remarks, Thornton turned the floor to over to Professor Jane Dugan of the English Department. Dugan started by saying that everyone in her book club liked the novel.

            “Describing Doc’s relationship to his illness, sense of depression and money problems presented a more off-stage glance at Doc, which was wonderful,” said Dugan.

            A topic that led to animated discussion was about how Doc was able to be such a skilled gunfighter and what about his upbringing was able to make that possible for him.

            Barb Gauthrer, a brown bag book club member, mentioned that Holiday was very talented with his hands because he used them constantly through most of his professions.

            “He was a dentist, a piano player, a card player and a gunfighter, practicing all of those things daily probably made him extremely coordinated,” Gauthrer said.

            Holiday’s physical descriptions were fictionalized well by Russell in the novel, according to Thornton. Thornton asked the club members what they thought about the choice of a male protagonist by a female author.

            Professor Dugan mentioned how she analyzes this issue in her English classes in her response to a female writing about a male protagonist.

            “You need to have an authenticity in your main character and writers like Russell can go a little beyond what they know and it feels right to the reader,” Dugan said.

            Professor Michael Wells, president of the Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library, spoke to the group about why he thinks Russell’s description of the Old West feels so authentic.

            He mentioned how research was combined with creativity to write the novel.

            “This is imagination rooted in American history,” Wells says.

            Wells said he stresses research from multiple sources in his assigned papers to his students and is curious about the amount of research in the creation of “Doc.”

            Mary Doria Russell is scheduled to attend the next Brown Bag Book Discussion series on April 18, at noon, in room 503 of Rhodes tower, where audience members can ask her questions about her past and present novels.

            Thornton said that all Brown Bag Book Club meetings are open to the public, Cleveland State students and all fans of literature.

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By Daniel Herda

On Saturday, March 16, the Jazz Heritage Orchestra and high school jazz bands from across the country performed the “Jazz at Lincoln Center Essentially Ellington Regional High School Jazz Band and Festival” inside the Main Classroom Auditorium.

The late Dr. Howard A. Mims, former director of the Black Studies Program at Cleveland State, founded JHO in 1998. His goal was to preserve the great jazz masters who were the original innovators in the art form of jazz.

Dr. Michael Williams, director of the Black Studies Department, hosted the event. Williams opened with a speech on the importance of engaging the youth into culture and jazz, speaking to a crowded room and a nearly sold out auditorium.

            “Nowhere else in the city of Cleveland will you get a collaboration of talented youngsters like you have tonight performing here at Cleveland State,” said Williams.

The bands were from Shaw High School, Cleveland School of the Arts, Cleveland Music Settlement and the Creative Arts Morgan Village Academy in Camden, NJ.

The auditorium remained filled as the four schools played jazz music for nearly two hours. All of the high schools received standing ovations when they were finished, especially “Young Jams” from Cleveland Musical Settlement directed by Ken LeGrande.

The high school that received the longest standing ovation was Camden New Jersey, directed by Jamal Dickerson. Dickerson said his musicians traveled hundreds of miles to perform at the “Jazz at Lincoln Center” concert and stayed long after their performance. They played music by Miles Davis and featured a long bongo solo that fired up the crowd and received a long applause. The audience cheered the Camden school on for two encores after they were finished.

          “We’re going to play one last tune because were excited to see the Jazz Heritage Orchestra play,” Dickerson said as he heard cheers for more songs.

During the set changes, Williams humored the audience with jokes while musicians set up their saxophones, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, drums, xylophones, keyboards and guitars. He also spoke about JHO and the talent they have.

            “We have the best big band in the country,” he said. 

JHO is considered one of the top orchestras in the U.S. and was chosen to host the site because of its work with young musicians.

Under the leadership of JHO band director Dennis Reynolds, JHO has performed with jazz legends like Benny Golson, Clark Terry, Nancy Wilson and Vanessa Rubin.

Reynolds spoke about Dr. Howard A. Mims and his dream to take outstanding musicians and create a jazz program that would continue to become popular.

            “I’ve had many conversations with Dr. Mims, and this is what he wanted, and I do believe we pulled it off,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds plays the trumpet for JHO and introduced the other band members as the concert continued. JHO played pieces titled “Shiny Stockings” and “Fried Buzzard.”

JHO has recorded two CDs, “Steppin Out” and “Bouncing with Benny,” and the Cleveland State Black Studies Program holds the copyright to both.

The high school bands from Saturday’s performance will be recommended to participate in a national competition in New York, NY.

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By Daniel Herda

On Friday, March 8, inside the Student Center, Bernie Moreno, newly appointed board of trustee member at Cleveland State and President of the Collection Auto Group, spoke to an audience of students and businesses men and women about his own experiences and how someone can be successful in the business world.

Governor John R. Kasich appointed Moreno to the Cleveland State Board of Trustees from June 2011 to May 2018.  Prior to being appointed to the University’s Governing Board, Moreno was on the Board of Directors of the Cleveland State University Foundation, Inc.                                                                                               

Moreno opened the lecture with a history lesson about his past and his life-changing experiences that put him on a course to the auto business. Moreno was born in Bogotá, Columbia and moved to the U.S. at age five.                                                               

 When Moreno was 14 he wrote a letter to the hiring chairman of General Motors about wanting to become chairman of the board of GM when he grows up. Weeks later, the chairman wrote Moreno back and answered his questions in a long letter.                   

Moreno’s passion for cars eventually drove him to the University of Michigan where he studied cars and business in the heart of Detroit.                                                            

After college, Moreno worked for a major Saturn and Mercedes Benz dealership for twelve years, which is now ranked number six in the nation. He spoke about how his work led him on a pathway to Cleveland, Ohio.                                                                     

“You have these intersections in life and you have to make a good decision, sometimes not knowing where it will take you,” said Moreno.                                                

On May 12, 2005, Moreno bought a struggling Mercedes-Benz dealership in Cleveland and turned it to the largest Mercedes-Benz dealership in the Central U.S. Moreno said the previous owner was selling 25 cars every four months and his company turned it to 60 cars every three weeks. Moreno mentioned that his car company does not have his name on it. 

“We are not a car company, we are a customer service organization,” Moreno said.

While answering questions from audience members, Moreno spoke about the future for automobiles. He said the robotic car has been tested and works, but there are no highway structures to support it and is still many decades from becoming a reality.        

He also mentioned hydrogen fuel cell technology that powers cars on water and hydrogen and could be available within in the next ten years.                                      

 “Technology is the future and cars are getting smarter,” said Moreno.                     

Moreno said the key to a successful career is making consistent decisions and to lead by example. He said job applicants who have positive personalities and a college degree have a better chance of being hired than those who do not.                                             

“If your goal is to make money you won’t succeed, you have to have passion,” said Moreno.                                                                                                                                 

June Taylor, Cleveland State board member and the board’s only woman and minority, was in charge of organizing the event. She said that it is the responsibility of every Cleveland State student to meet and network with someone like Bernie Moreno.

 She had a specific message to help students succeed in the real world.

“Put in time to access events where you can learn about success from the stories of someone who has experienced it,” Taylor said.

Moreno said he is proud to be a trustee and a board member at Cleveland State and feels that the city of Cleveland is growing with the future of education. He said that companies will come to Cleveland if there is a growing educational work force and stressed the importance of knowledge and engaged learning.

 “If it means pain and misery, get the degree,” said Moreno.

Moreno has added 24 luxury car brands since his 2005 Mercedes-Benz purchase and is planning on opening a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Kentucky next year.

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By Daniel J. Herda

Cleveland State Atrium hosted Africa Day and Remembering My Roots Celebration with presentations from professors and African culture.

The African Students Association helped decorate the event, covering the tables with red, green and yellow tablecloths, representing the colors of many African flags, including Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Cameroon and the Congo.

The event opened with a humorous and sensitive movie about relationships, with the people on the screen confessing to the audience about how their culture affects those they love and what they have learned from their own experiences. 

Professor Abu Nasara, Director for Educational Technologies, gave a slideshow presentation on his most recent trip to his homeland of Nigeria and spoke about the importance of connecting cultures.

“I teach technology classes here, and when I visit Nigeria I fix the technological issues at my old school, I try to stress the message that we are all the same,” said Nasara.

Nasara’s slideshow featured pictures of his large family (called a clan), children at his school and anthills that reached over fifteen feet from the ground.

Anthropology Associate Professor Barbara Hoffman spoke about the history of African culture with a lecture on African families and how deep their roots are.

“Western ideas about kin and love are very different in Africa, a clan of family members can last for generations because so many people are in it,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman mentioned that the sizeable gathering inside the Student Atrium lacked a larger number of Cleveland State students, and she was expecting a more diverse crowd.  

“I wish more people had invested some of their educational energy in learning about Africa because it is the motherland of us all,” said Hoffman.

The ASA plans to host African Nights, an evening of music and dancing, on April 5, 2013, and encourages Cleveland State students to get involved in the upcoming event.

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By Daniel J. Herda

Amplified Wind Solutions of Cleveland State has won a $10,000 award from the 2013 Ohio Clean Energy Challenge with a new wind turbine system. The system directs a higher concentration of air molecules into turbines, increasing the density and velocity of the wind stream and producing six times more electricity than traditional turbines. It was the most promising technology at the OCEC.

CEO Niki Zmij, an MBA candidate at Cleveland State’s Monte Ahuja College of Business, led the AWS team and developed the new turbine system, which is unlike anything sold on the market.

“It is low cost, uses less space, and because it can operate in low wind speeds, it can make wind power economically viable in previously non-viable locations,” Zmij said.

Dr. Majid Rashidi, chair of the engineering technology department at Cleveland State, co-founded AWS and helped develop the new wind turbine system.

“Every aspect of clean and renewable energy must be explored and researched, with the goal of developing safe and economically viable new energy technologies,” said Dr. Rashidi.

Cleveland State’s wind amplified turbine system was made possible by donations from Betty L. Gordon and grants from the U.S. Department of Energy and the State of Ohio to the Fenn College of Engineering. 

In addition to the $10,000 award, AWS won a place in the Midwest regional competition, hosted by Clean Energy Trust in Chicago on April 4. The winner of the Chicago event will receive a $100,000 grand prize and a place in the DOE’s national competition in Washington D.C. this summer.

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By Daniel J. Herda

On Saturday, Feb. 9, The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Cleveland Public Library hosted an event honoring Black History Month by displaying photographs and portraits of African-American leaders, history and culture.

The library collaborated with the Cleveland Memory Project/Cleveland Press Collection at Cleveland State in organizing the event and donating the archive photos.
The black and white photographs ranged from Dr. King speaking to a crowd of lively followers, former Cleveland Mayor Stokes sitting behind his desk and other leaders and activists who helped pave the way for equality during the Civil Rights Movement.

Artistic paintings of African-American culture were mixed with the archive photos, with patrons able to purchase the paintings.

An acrylic painting of Dr. King titled “Blue King” by artist Ricardo Jackson attracted a lot of attention from the patrons browsing the exhibit.

Dr. Regennia Williams, associate professor of History and Cleveland State Alumni, was the key speaker of the event. Williams spoke to a crowded room about her life experiences, published works and historical research in relation to black history.

“Any man or woman can be their own historian,” Williams said.

The centerpiece of her presentation revolved around her late father Nathaniel Williams, and how he helped desegregate the U.S. Military in 1951.

Prester Pickett, coordinator of the Howard A. Mims African American Cultural Center, set up the event and spoke about the intentions of the AACC.

“One of our goals is to connect, correspond and communicate with other groups and to walk with our alumnus by having a conversation in engaged learning,” Pickett said.

Patrons stayed after the presentation and discussed the photos, reacted to the artworks and conversed with each other on the importance of Black History Month.