Everyone could use some more sparkle

My wife Laura is a Silpada Designs independent representative, and she is donating all proceeds from an online sale to OCW. Silpada Jewelry is hand-crafted, .925 solid sterling silver. Some pieces are accented with semi-precious gemstones, leather and pearls. All items are covered by a no-cost lifetime warranty.

New Silpada pieces will debut on Feb. 16. To view the catalog and order online, click here. At checkout, select “Ohio City Writers” as the host for the party.

This online sale will close on February 26. Your jewelry will be shipped directly to your home within a week of that date. Shipping is $5 per order. All purchases can be exchanged or returned for up to 60 days.

Everyone who orders will be entered into a raffle to win an OCW or Cleveland Rock Star Supply Co. t-shirt.

If you have any questions on the jewelry or the ordering process, contact Laura Lewis at lfcd39@gmail.com.

 

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OCW and Happy Dog support your Write to Assemble

When we needed a venue for an event to kick off Cleveland native Scott Raab’s new book, the owners of Happy Dog didn’t hesitate. These, after all, are the guys who embraced Classical Revolution, a monthly show featuring musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra. In a bar. Best known for rocks shows and hot dogs.

“The Derision,” as we called our event, was a great success — every seat was filled and the discussion lively (if raucous at times). As the PD’s Michael Heaton noted, “The place was packed with denizens from Cleveland’s cultural underground.” Clearly we were onto something.

So this month Happy Dog and OCW launch Write to Assemble, a writer-centric evening to be held on the second Tuesday of every month. Most of the time we’ll be in the Underdog, the new downstairs bar. But there’s been so much buzz about the Tuesday, January 10 debut that we’ll hold court in the main bar.

In “A City of Two Tales: Writing About Cleveland,” our panel will tackle the complexities of describing the joys and realities of living in a chronically struggling Rust Belt town. Panelists will include Angie Schmitt, editor of Rustwire.com (and whose post on boosterism inspired the topic); Justin Glanville, author of New To Cleveland; Derf, cartoonist and author; Christine Borne and Kathryn Norris, editors of The Cleveland Review; Afi-Odelia Scruggs, contributor to Patch Beachwood; the editor of UnmiserableCleveland.com; Lee Chilcote of FreshWaterCleveland.com.

At this and all Write to Assemble events, non-writers are welcome. We’ll do our best to involve everyone with a comment or question. Admission is free, but our street team will be working the crowd for donations to OCW.

Plans for the February Write to Assemble will be announced soon.

UPDATE, JAN. 11: “A City of Two Tales” drew a standing-room-only crowd. The discussion was wide-ranging and even heated at times. Read takes on the event from panelists Angie Schmitt, Lee Chilcote and Kate Norris, and observers Bridget Callahan and Tara Sturm.

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May we suggest one more resolution?

One of my favorite quotes about writing comes from journalist and author David Carr: “Writing is less about beckoning the muse than about hanging in until the typing becomes writing.” The same principle applies to launching a nonprofit. It’s less about waiting for some deep-pocketed patron to write a fat check than about hanging in until the persistence yields progress.

And we certainly made progress in 2011. Our first fundraiser — held during a torrential downpour in April — brought in just $60. But our event with author Scott Raab in November — which also coincided with a mini-monsoon, strangely — raised more than $600. In between we gained two terrific new board members, got some love from the local media, started moving into our home on Lorain Avenue, and made lots of new friends (like Prosperity Social Club, Happy Dog, mental_floss, Roots of American Music, St. Ignatius High School, Cleveland Professional 20/30 Club and Teaching Cleveland, to name just a few).

The most encouraging development of the year, however, occurred just before the holidays. That’s when we received news that the George Gund Foundation had approved a $10,000 grant for Ohio City Writers. That made our year.

But as you might guess, it’s not enough. We’re deeply grateful to the folks at Gund, and do not envy them the tough decisions they have to make in this economic climate. And that climate is precisely why Ohio City Writers’ mission will only be possible with the support of people like you. Individual contributions will build the foundation and probably three of the four walls of this project.

In short, I really need your help. Please contribute today, and encourage friends to do the same. Forward our emails and plug OCW through your social media accounts. Greater Cleveland is home to at least 2 million people; if just 2,000 of them (that’s .1 percent) donate $100 each, we’re in business. In the meantime, we’ll keep writing grant proposals and organizing events (like this one).

We’re close to opening the doors. The painting of the workshop room is nearly complete, and Sam Cahill of 2nd Shift Design Studio has been working on some exceedingly cool tables for us (more on that soon). As the space comes together we’ll start scheduling programs. Please help us maintain the momentum. Help us hang in.

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