A power outage prevented the City Club forum for Friday, January 31st, from being held at the City Club. The venue consisted of a conversation between William Tarter, Jr., President of the Cleveland Branch of the NAACP, and Mr. Juan Williams, Political Analyst, Author, and Historian.
Most fortunately the forum ended with Mr. Williams taking a question from a young person in which the questioner asked for guidance on how to address the before-mentioned challenges in a positive fashion. Williams advised us all to avoid being focused on one particular polemic but to build coalitions with other concerned people, who we may not agree with on everything, but share a common goal which concerns uplifting our communities through civil discourse and actions that are practical and productive.
FICA Celebration:
The 76th Anniversary Celebration of India Republic Day got off to a great start when Mr. Ameet Bathiya, the Vice President of the Federation of India Community Associations of Northeast Ohio aka FICA.
We loved sharing at table with Purva Chauhan along with her mother and her sister as well as other members of the Margaret W. Wong team.
As we were enjoying tasty appetizers, we conversed with Solon Mayor Ed Krause who estimated that approximately 30% of the local population had immigrated to the United States from the Asian countries or were 1st or 2nd generation.
Lunar New Year:
We spent most of our daytime hours on Saturday and Sunday, February 1st and 2nd, tabling on behalf of Margaret W. Wong & Associates LLC at the Lunar New Year Festival (please note that it is the Year of the Snake) at Asia Plaza.
City Club forum in its “Happy Dog” series titled “Happy Dog:
Takes on the Reimaging of American Theatre” where Cynthia Connelly, City Club Director of Programming, would be conversing with our friend, Raymond Bobgan, Executive Artistic Director at Cleveland Public Theatre, and the multi-talented Ms. Nina Dominque, who is a successful actor, teaching artist, playwright, and intimacy advocate, in addition to other roles.
Before the forum started, we had a moment with a prominent arts person in Cleveland who shared with us his/her discontent with recently enacted federal policies regarding immigration to the United States. As the program notes read, “from Hollywood film and theatre productions-contemporary spins on classics are not a new concept. These reinterpretations often reach new audiences, create new models for artistic production and create space for entire communities.”
