Kent Artist to Create Memorial at Transit Center

George Danhires' proposal for a veterans memorial at the Kent Central Gateway will be built and installed at the site this year

A Kent artist whose work already has a prominent place downtown has been chosen to create a veterans memorial at PARTA's Kent Central Gateway transit center, which opened this month on Erie Street. Danhires, who created the Bicentennial Sculpture that stands on Franklin Avenue near the gazebo, was selected from three finalists to create a bronze sculpture on a site at the eastern end of the transit center property. His creation for the Bicentennial Sculpture, dedicated in September 2011, was developed via a lost-wax procedure that will be used again to create the veterans memorial. PARTA's selection committee chose Danhires' proposal in December. His contract stipulates the sculpture will be delivered in time for Veterans Day on Nov. 11. …

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POPs Concert Marks 43rd Year at Kent Roosevelt

120 students in high school choir to perform 32 songs

Anticipation is brewing for the 43rd Annual POPs Concert at Theodore Roosevelt High School on May 17. Corey Fowler, director of choirs at Kent Roosevelt, will lead the show for the first time after taking over the program from Donna Crews. Fowler said all 32 songs that will be performed were chosen by the students. "It’s an interesting way how it’s set up," Fowler said. First, seniors in the high school choir choose 20 songs from material performed throughout the course of the year. Then, the seniors create a ballot that the entire choral ensemble votes on to whittle the selection down to eight songs that will be sung by the entire chorus. "This is a great way for the students to have their say because the rest of the year the normal choir…

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Jon Ridinger

12:52 am on Saturday, May 18, 2013

Just FYI, this was the 44th annual concert, not the 43rd. The first one was in 1970 and the 40th was celebrated in 2009. It's the 43rd *anniversary* of the first one, but the 44th in order.   more ›

Photos: Annual Jawbone Gathering of Poets

Blogger Brad Bolton shares photos from the event where poets get together to read original or otherwise poems.

'Lincoln' Most Watched DVD at Kent Library

See what Kent folks are reading and watching the most at the Kent Free Library

Looking for a good movie or book? Look no further than the Kent Free Library, which this week starts a new feature on Kent Patch in which the library shares with us the most-read and most-watched books and DVDs checked out by library patrons. Here are the top 10 books and DVDs for the last week of April. BOOKS DVDs MUSIC As always, all of these items may be requested online at www.kentfreelibrary.org or by calling the information desk at 330-673-4414.

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Stone on May 4 Film: 'I Can't Make Them All'

Acclaimed director, creator of "The Untold History of the United States" hedges answer on question of May 4 movie.

Award-winning director Oliver Stone, speaking to journalists before his presentation this evening at Kent State University's 43rd commemoration of the May 4, 1970 shootings, would not say if he's interested in making a movie about the Vietnam war protests that ended in tragedy. Instead, when asked whether he was considering such a project, Stone repeated a line he told a Plain Dealer reporter this week when asked about a possible movie about the shootings that killed four and wounded nine on campus. "I can't make them all," Stone said. The acclaimed director was one of two big-name speakers who visited Kent this weekend for the annual commemoration, which this year included the formal dedication of the May 4 Visitors Center. Stone said he …

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'May 4th Voices' Movie to Premiere at Kent Stage Thursday

Filmed version of play adapted from oral histories to be broadcast locally on Western Reserve Media television

The voices of Kentites who experienced the May 4, 1970 shootings on the Kent State University campus and its encompassing turmoil will premiere on the big screen for the first time in downtown Kent Thursday. The Kent Stage will premiere the filmed version of the 2010 play May 4th Voices, which was written by David Hassler, director of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State. The play is based on oral histories collected from those who experienced the shootings and the events during the days prior and afterward. The oral histories were organized throughout several years by Kent Historical Society board president Sandra Halem. Hassler said the filmed version of the play is an outgrowth of the original production that was staged in 2010 for the …

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Kent Artist Featured on Western Reserve PBS May 3

The production showcases the remarkable life of the 94-year-old artist Joseph O'Sickey, who will receive the 2013 Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts on May 15.

Photos: A Welcomed Spring in Downtown Kent

Blogger Brad Bolton welcomes spring by sharing gorgeous photos of blooms in downtown Kent.

Graphic Novelist Tells 'Only Human' Tale from Kent

Dan Gorman launches campaign to fund publication of comic

Dan Gorman needs your help to publish a graphic novel, Only Human, born and bred right here in Kent. Gorman, 37, illustrates the comic and, with his partners, has launched an IndieGoGo online fundraising campaign to publish the seven issues of their comic, which is set to be released this August. The Kent resident is quietly building an audience for their story, which follows two very different people faced with similar challenges amidst society's crumbling foundations. "Our characters have an awakening ... that lets them step outside this bubble they're living in," Gorman, a freelance graphic artist, said. He described their genre as an emerging one: intellectual horror. The comic isn't necessarily filled with super heroes performing …

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PatchU

Kent Stage Quietly Growing its Music Audience

Big-name acts draw crowds from afar

Since the Kent Stage opened in 2002, it has brought in a variety of well-known folk musicians to Kent. Booking acts from folk singer Joan Baez to musician Stephen Stills, the Kent Stage has become known among the folk circuit, Kent Stage booking agent Tom Simpson said. "We’re probably more famous in Nashville than we are in Kent,” Simpson said. “Within the music industry in New York and L.A., the major agencies all know who we are.” Folk music has become a focus for the venue because of its relationship with WKSU 89.7 FM, Kent State University’s local National Public Radio station, Simpson said. “WKSU had such a folk presence and they just fit naturally, that they were here and we were here and we could work together,” Simpson said. The …

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