TUESDAY: UC Kicks Off "Enjoy the Arts" Celebration

Music, art and poetry take center stage at the University of Cincinnati as UC kicks off the second annual 20/20 Enjoy the Arts/START festival. The celebration, free and open to the public, will begin at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23, on the main stage of Sigma Sigma Commons. The rain location will be at the UC Event Pavilion across from the Alumni Center.

National headliners such as Malcolm-Jamal Warner, who played Theo on NBC’s “The Cosby Show,” will be featured in one of his new creative ventures – Spoken Word poetry – a new age poetry movement that blends rhythm and words. He is scheduled to take the main stage at 7 p.m. A poetry slam, or performance competition, will be held between actress/writer C.C. Carter, an adjunct professor at Columbia College in Chicago, and poet Kalimah Johnson of Detroit. UC program coordinator Brad Balser explains that one well-known example of a poetry slam was the competition featured in the Eminem movie, “8 Mile.” The poetry slam at UC will lead into Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s presentation.

Local acts will include The Lucky 13 Band, of which all four members are UC students. Jessie, an up-and-coming R&B performer who’s a Boone County High School senior from Florence, Ky., will kick off the festival by singing the national anthem.

Other performances will showcase the Black Arts Collaborative, a UC student creative and performing arts group. The festival also will feature caricature artists, Frisbee spin art, and art printmaking techniques that will be demonstrated by faculty and students from the College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning.

UC kicked off the very first 20/20 Enjoy the Arts/START festival last year as part of UC’s Welcome Week. Representing more than 200 arts organizations in the Cincinnati area, Enjoy the Arts/START connects audiences to the arts through year-round memberships that provide free and discounted tickets, arts information and social events to 30 Greater Cincinnati arts organizations and venues. Enjoy the Arts/START executive director Lisa Mullins says the organization was founded at UC in the 1960s as a student-run club by Patricia Corbett, Phyllis Weston and the late Irma Lazarus. “So the kickoff at UC with its diverse student population is strategic as well as symbolic,” she said.

The UC celebration is sponsored by UC’s MainStreet project, the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development and Enjoy the Arts/START.

The 20/20 II festival runs through Oct. 12. Nearly 60 high-energy arts events throughout the 20 days and 20 nights offer the opportunity to get plugged into the arts scene. Enjoy the Arts and START memberships allow students and adults to experience the arts in a whole new way. Members get discounts on 20/20 II events, as do Enjoy the Arts Passport Cardholders, so there’s something for everyone. For more information about the 20/20 II festival, Enjoy the Arts, START or Passport Cards, visit www.cincinnatiarts.com or call 513-621-4700.