Update #5b, Cleveland / Ron Fuqua & Leo’s Casino
Poems come out of wonder, not out of knowing.
—Lucille Clifton
The OctoGenarian Tour 24-25—September & November, Fort Wayne IN; March, Ithaca NY; April, Boston, Framingham MA, & Cleveland OH; May, Comer, GA, & Washington DC; June, Fort Wayne IN; July, the Pacific Northwest—Olympia, Tacoma, Bellingham, Port Townsend, San Juan Island, Washington. Why?
The OctoGenarian Tour ’25 is not a detailed plan but an organic approach that values individual participants perspective & lived experience. It develops by building relationships. Friends connecct us to Poetz & Activists. We outline the tour’s collaborative & collective process. Together, we build out from there, one relationship at a time. All change begins with conversation.
We’re identifying people to call together at year’s end with the intention of connecting & expanding relationships toward collective voice & practical agency. The work centers community interests, & Poetz & Activists as its agents. In Cleveland individuals are working in their silos & reaching beyond them in meaningful collaborations. Ideas are important but more so are the crossroads—the intersectional work where mis-steps & successes can be identified, analyzied & evaluated, corrected, learned from for next steps. OGT25 takes the longview moving one day, one relationship at a time, to galvanize elders & youth to a common view that they can take up to run the next leg of this race toward liberation’s freedomline.
Robin put me in touch with Ron Fuqua. OGT25’s last Cleveland presentation (& the first one planned) took place at Ron’s home. The house is at the center of his vision for the revitalization of an historic MidTown entertainment district. For more than 3 decades Ron Fuqua has been a founding agitator, programmer, & champion for MidTown development. MidTown is being gentrified. A vibrant, centrally located neighborhood situated between Downtown & University Circle, which anchors the 105th Street development corridor is home to the city’s medical industry complex.
The suits, investors, & foundations say MidTown is a place for everyone. Ron’s working to ensure that the cultural history, character, & legacy of this once Afrikan American neighborhood doesn’t get lost in the gentrification.
Ron’s building on the rich cultural history of Leo’s Casino on Euclid Avenue. Leo’s closed in Motown’s finest—the Temptations, Four Tops, Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, & many more. Jazz icons like John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, & Nina Simone all appeared at Leo’s; & the audiences weren’t segregated. But integration or social justicce wasn’t Leo Frank’s intention: It was to make money. Ron Fuqua wants to bring back to Euclid Avenue an Arts & Cultural Complex that centers the Afrikan American cultural experience community. He launched Community Listening Parties to rekindle the memory’s flame & reengender that remembered sense of community. Then he launched Leo’s Casino Radio in honour of the origrinal Leo’s & its place of inclusivity & first-class entertainment in the Hough neighborhood during the turbulent 1960s. The internet station gives young people a sense of the 1960s vibe, & the power to connect thru music & community.
Historic Leo’s Casino has been memorialized as Leo’s Casino Arts & Music Collaboratory, led by Ron and Maria Fuqua & Dr. Fred Wheatt, who was a band member at Leo’s Casino. Bootsy and Patti Collins kicked off their national Funk Not Fight Movement in Cleveland in May of 2023. Funk Not Fight has become a strong national message with a mission to calm the violence with the power of music. The Funk Not Fight Movement has been adopted in several major cities across the nation with a focus on bringing communities & cultures together through compassion, understanding, positive experiences and a shared love for music. Leo’s Casino Arts & Music Collaboratory is officially designated Cleveland’s Funk Not Fight Safe Space and hosts a variety of programs for young people designed to escape the violence and explore their passions, from art therapy and mental health services to sports, music, writing and more. Leo’s also connects with senior area organizations to provide music and entertainment by the Collaboratory’s artists.