Aiesha D. Little, Communications Maestro

Visit Robert Porco’s “Bob’s Kitchen” page on the May Festival’s website for his favorite recipes and maybe prepare a dish or two while you listen to this year’s festivities online (starting May 21).

In January, April Carr (a.k.a. DJ Apryl Reign) took over as director of programming and evaluation at Elementz Hip Hop Youth Center. Carr has worked in some capacity with the Over-the-Rhine nonprofit for nearly 20 years, and she’s currently pursuing a graduate degree in mental health counseling while expanding the scope of its Creative Futures program. She discusses her plans to increase Elementz’s outreach and impact.

Covington has a long history of neighborhood markets dating back to the 1800s, when a lack of refrigeration required residents to shop for essentials almost every day. Shelly DeFelice-Nelson and her husband, Patrick Nelson, reignited this trend in the heart of MainStrasse Village with the opening of Dee Felice Market in February.

Next time you visit these cool confectioners, grab some extra non-frozen treats while you’re enjoying a scoop.

Butcher Shelbi Nation serves up prime cuts—and some serious meat knowledge—at Wyoming Meat Market.

Seena Chriti’s Paktli Foods delivers an updated version of algerias, a street snack from her childhood in Mexico.

In some aspects, Cincinnati is a very different place than it was two decades ago. But when it comes to race relations, it’s almost exactly the same. Black people living and working here can attest to the structural racial divide that continues to undergird their experiences. Beneath the city’s shiny new buildings, popular restaurants, and everyday wheeling, dealing, and power brokering lie the ashes of April 2001.

With its mint-green siding, Taste On Elm’s storefront adds to the residential feel of Ludlow’s bustling, eclectic business district. It’s a good fit with the homey vibe that owners and Ludlow residents Lauren and Challis Hodge have created.

“Lens-based” art nonprofit FotoFocus continues its SECOND SCREENS: Foodie Edition series this month with the anime classic Spirited Away by director Hayao Miyazaki. The series pairs a film with a chef recipe for a virtual “dinner and a movie” concept.

Stay-at-home mom Naomi Sams loves converting meat-eaters with her delicious vegan treats at Findlay Market. The North Avondale/Bond Hill entrepreneur runs Like Mom’s Only Vegan bakery with her mother and her four children, all of whom are vegan. When and why did you decide to go vegan? My 23-year-old son was about 1 or 2 when we decided to ditch the animal products. Initially we started with the idea that you are what you eat. That concept evolved into an understanding that we consume the enti

ItiYah Yisrael recalls going out to dinner with her daughter, Jazlyn Mason, and often leaving unsatisfied. “We frequently said, We could have cooked this at home,” she says. “We were never really pleased with our meals.” So when Dan Wells, owner of MixWells, decided to rebrand the LGBTQ-friendly Northside bar last summer, Yisrael jumped at the chance to be on the other side of the table.

Last April, Kira Fluker-Burch decided to make her sweet tooth her business and launched Kandi Artisan Candy Clouds. “I loved cotton candy growing up,” says the preschool teacher and freelance artist. “A memory of sweet cotton candy with family at a fair or circus event is something that stays in your mind forever. I want to be that. I want to give that.”

Cathy Bernardino Bailey started her career at the EPA, and now she keeps our water system clean and safe as the first woman to serve as Executive Director of Greater Cincinnati Water Works. She offers a behind-the-scenes look at her role for our February 2021 Cincinnati At Work issue.

Nathanael Nunemaker’s dreams of being a self-sufficient homesteader recently yielded a “hot” idea. “I started growing fruits and veggies in the middle of Covington, and one thing just led to another,” says the Union, Kentucky, native. “I had bundles of jalapeño peppers that I grew and wanted to find the best way to preserve them, so we decided on hot sauce for our preservation method.” The result is Farmer Nate’s Hot Sauce.

Breathing fire is just part of the gig for Travis and Susan Fessler of PB and J Circus. They share how the pandemic has impacted their work and the worst and best parts of performing for our February 2021 “Cincinnati At Work” issue.

When Rachel DesRochers launched her first company, Grateful Grahams, in 2010, she quickly noticed that she didn’t have a peer group of like-minded business owners that she could tap into to share experiences. “As we kept growing, I saw there was no real space or community for food entrepreneurs,” says DesRochers, who founded the Incubator Kitchen Collective (IKC), a shared-use commercial kitchen space that supports small food businesses, in 2013. “Looking back on the past 11 years, I realize it takes a community of passionate people who show up every day and work hard to make dreams come true.” Kroger helped those dreams along when its Cincinnati/Dayton Division partnered with Incubator Kitchen Collective to offer grants to local food entrepreneurs.

As the pandemic drags on, artists and theatergoers alike are adapting to seeing works of theater produced for their computer screens instead of live audiences. And Roger Collins is in the thick of it. The O’Bryonville resident’s latest play Trading Places premieres this week as part of Gallery Players’ 24th annual Black Box New Play Festival in Brooklyn. It’s the tale of a father and his teenage daughter, separated in cyberspace, debating the merits of bringing a loved one back from the dead.

You may not know the name LifeFormations, but odds are you’ve probably seen the company’s work. From Germany’s Europa Park to the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, this design and fabrication firm has created sculpted and mechanical elements for amusement parks, movie studios, museums, and other themed attractions around the world. “I, like many of our team, came into this business wanting to build experiences that ‘wowed’ visitors as they walked past or through our projects,” says Rodney Heiligmann, the company’s president. “So a maquette in Times Square, a theme park attraction in Asia, a museum here in the Midwest—wherever our work is located, we wanted to engage people in the space so we could entertain or teach them something.”

When Michael Weirich’s research position at Vanderbilt University went belly up last summer because of the pandemic, he had to find something else to do with his time. Knowing of his love of cooking, his mother joked that he should create a “restaurant out of our house,” and the aspiring entrepreneur was off and running. In July, Weirich launched Restaurant Confluence, a month-long pop-up dining experience at his parents’ home. This month, he’s back with a new winter menu and weekly takeout options.

When you think about the smoothest, coolest brass sections of funk and soul bands from the 1970s and ’80s, Ohio shows up front and center. Bands like Ohio Players, Slave, and Lakeside all came out of Dayton while Bootsy’s Rubber Band grew up right here in the Queen City. Trumpeter Mike Wade is continuing that tradition with the debut release of the eponymously titled Mike Wade & the Nasty NATI Brass Band.