11 08, 2026

Information gets cheaper each day, but perspective doesn’t

By |2026-08-11T21:13:03+00:00August 11th, 2026|Commentary, Politics, Race, Gender and Class|

Everyone’s an expert now. Ain’t that so? Well, at least everyone has an expert sitting in his cellphone. Ask a question. Any question, really. What team won the 1946 Negro Leagues World Series? What led to the 1915 war in Gallipoli? Where’s Gallipoli anyway? How do I shed 10 pounds of blubber around my waistline? How do I save for

2 08, 2026

Wrong Fight: As HBCUs face fiscal crisis, we’re arguing about du-rags

By |2026-08-04T00:35:42+00:00August 2nd, 2026|Commentary, Politics, Race, Gender and Class|

It’s good to make some noise now and then, but what noise you make ought to be worth people’s time to hear. And there has been a lot of the latter about Tuskegee University and its decision to reset policies about a couple of matters, which include how students dress. Tuskegee President Mark A. Brown declared bonnets, du-rags and pajamas

3 06, 2026

From Cleveland to Taipei: A journey through Taiwan’s vibrant streets and cultural wealth

By |2026-06-20T23:46:39+00:00June 3rd, 2026|Commentary, Sports, Travel|

TAIPEI, Taiwan — The second I stepped onto Flight DL69 for what would turn into an exhausting trip here — first, I had hours-long layovers in Seattle and Minneapolis — I kept thinking about what awaited me. I was leaving staid Cleveland for a bustling metropolis with a loose understanding of how dissimilar this island nation was from anywhere else I’d

30 05, 2026

Soul’s last stand: Real music’s left the building

By |2026-06-02T03:30:29+00:00May 30th, 2026|Commentary, Entertainment, Race, Gender and Class|

I suspect cultural anthropologists of a certain age look back now and swear something awful happened to their music. They probably say their tastes got hijacked between the 1970s and the millennium. But I can tell them precisely what was taken: real voices, real instruments and, well, real talent. More than 50 years ago, Baby Boomers turned up the volume on

27 05, 2026

Finding Kansas City-quality ribs in the last place I expected

By |2026-06-20T23:45:28+00:00May 27th, 2026|Commentary, Food, Travel|

FRANKFURT, Germany — I was starving. I’d been in this business-centric city about eight hours, and I hadn’t eaten since dinner on the jetliner six hours earlier. I’d opted to skip the breakfast I had available to me. So, by 7:15 p.m., I’d already scouted various places that seemed tempting to a foodie — or, as nobody else calls me,

22 05, 2026

‘Almost ready’ for a decade, does League Park really need three more years?

By |2026-06-03T00:56:03+00:00May 22nd, 2026|Commentary, Politics, Uncategorized|

I think historic League Park has no future as long as Councilwoman Stephanie Howse-Jones has a say. What Howse-Jones knows about ballparks and baseball can’t fill a thimble. She made that fact plain to me last month at a community meeting in her ward. I asked her point blank what Parks and Recreation, the city department that runs League Park,

13 05, 2026

They offered partnerships, but what they gave was silence

By |2026-06-20T23:47:59+00:00May 13th, 2026|Commentary, Politics, Race, Gender and Class|

I always think it's unwise to put too high an expectation on others, because when I do, I’ll often come away disappointed. I made that mistake with the Poetry Slam, which I teamed with my brother and nephew to hold at John Hay High School last month. Now, others played a role in supporting the spoken-word skills of 10 teenagers,

5 05, 2026

Ask Black athletes to sacrifice but shouldn’t we ask them to commit too

By |2026-06-20T23:47:16+00:00May 5th, 2026|Commentary, Politics|

I'd call it easy to tell somebody else what to do with his life, because the advice brings no consequences to you. Then again, the person you’re telling what to do has zero obligation to heed you. That’s the case with Black athletes whom the NAACP and high-profile activists like Dr. Harry Edwards are urging to boycott football programs in

18 04, 2026

Bulldozers or baseball? Cleveland must choose what League Park is worth

By |2026-04-18T13:08:05+00:00April 18th, 2026|Commentary, Politics, Sports|

I hate waste, particularly when the waste is the result of governmental indifference. In Cleveland, the best example of that waste is League Park, which the city used over $6.3 million to save from demolition. The ballpark would be history like Shibe Park, Ebbets Field and Crosley Field if not for the hardheadedness of Councilwoman Fannie Lewis, who dreamed of

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