Los Angeles Museum of Ohio
We established the Los Angeles Museum of Ohio (LA MOO) at Grand Arts High School in deep-blue Los Angeles to learn what caused the swing state of Ohio to turn red.
We established the Los Angeles Museum of Ohio (LA MOO) at Grand Arts High School in deep-blue Los Angeles to learn what caused the swing state of Ohio to turn red.
People from Ohio have a special name. This is one of the first things we learned in our inquiry into why this swing state turned red in the 2016 presidential election.
photo: Jocelyn Z.
We used live chat to interview many Buckeyes, including a reporter, historian, lawyer, poet and the politics and government club at Lordstown High School.
Sieara and T talking politics with Buckeye peers. Here's an article from their local paper about our connection.
Her report for Weekend Edition about layoffs planned for Inauguration Day at the GM plant in Lordstown was the starting point for our inquiry into Ohio. Ms. Schultze has been wonderfully generous both in speaking with us and connecting us with other insightful, articulate and friendly Buckeyes.
Co-author of Ohio: A History of the Buckeye State, Dr. Kern graciously addressed our questions about how Ohio came to be considered as the state most representative of America.
Regis chatted amiably with us about winter, open-mindedness, and about the work the Wicks Poetry Center does in nurturing poetry among Akron's diverse refugee population.
The first question most of us asked about Ohio is, "How is the food?"
photo: Jocelyn Z.
Directions: Discover a poem that speaks to you written by a Buckeye poet. Find a word in the poem that stands out. Illustrate the word big and bold, give its meaning, include some lines of the poem for context, and write about your choices.
We read eight Buckeye books: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison; American Splendor by Harvey Pekar; Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson; Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Ron Chernow; Reckless by Chrissie Hynde; Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman; Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance; and Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Addiction by Sam Quinones -- who visited and galvanized us.
Matthew's video installation compared roads in LA/SoCal and Lordstown/NE Ohio.
photo: Oliver Shipley
photo: Oliver Shipley
photo: Oliver Shipley
Thanks to Steve Biel for the reading list and Cleveland Stadium mustard; ML Shultze, WKSU in Kent, Ohio for taking us to downtown Akron and explaining so much, so well; Terry Armstrong, Courtney Gibson and the Politics and Government Club at Lordstown (OH) High for cultural exchange and friendship crossing state lines; Sam Quinones for fearless journalism; Bill Dever, Portsmouth (OH) attorney, for taking us to the heart of Ohio and our country's struggle to overcome opioid addiction; Kevin Kern, University of Akron, for condensing much of the Ohio history textbook he co-authored into a 20 minute Skype; Kristen Hayashi of the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Cris McCall of McCall Art Advisory, and Paul Kopeikin of the Kopeikin Gallery -- each for priceless curatorial consulting; Chiquita Mullins-Lee of the Ohio Arts Council and Matt Hart, editor of Forklift, Ohio, for annotated bibliographies of Ohio poets; Regis Coustillac of the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State for bardic telling of Ohio winters and of adventuring beyond the bubble; Curt LeMieux and David Moran for keeping the pedagogy going; Oliver Shipley for the Nikon Camera; Ken Martinez, Victoria Vickers and all staff and students -- especially Brianna S. for the chiwowcow -- at Grand Arts HS who make it a great place to be; and finally to Girls Build LA for letting us use their room.
