MVP Cocktail Showdown

By: Tanya Busby

Kansas City Chiefs or Tampa Bay Buccaneers?

Patrick Mahomes or Tom Brady?

Pick your MVP and represent Sunday from your jersey to your cocktail. Our resident bartender Tanya Busby is back with a cocktail for both team’s fans.

Kansas City Tap Water

• 1.25 oz vodka

• 1.25 oz gin

• 3-4 oz Sprite

• A lime

Tampa Bay Hurricane

• 1 oz dark rum

• 1 oz white rum

• 3 oz passionfruit puree

• 3 oz orange juice

• 1/2 a lime

• Splash of grenadine

From Maria to Alice to Eleanor: Extraordinary Women in Extraordinary Times

By: Stephanie Denzel

Eleanor Roosevelt: Wife of President Franklin Roosevelt and the longest-serving First Lady of the United States

Maria Longworth Storer: The founder of Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati and granddaughter of Cincinnati businessman Nicholas Longworth

What do these two women have in common? One shared family member- Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

Join in on the virtual conversation Tuesday, January 26 at 7 p.m. with D. Lynn Meyers, the Producing Artistic Director at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, and historians Nancy Broermann and Constance Moore as The Mercantile Library takes you inside the lives of these three extraordinary women. Save your spot here.

They will explore the challenging circumstances they faced - world wars, a pandemic, social upheaval - and the contributions each made all while in the glare of the public spotlight.

This program is presented by The Mercantile Library and Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati. It is free and open to the public via Crowdcast.

Shop unique new merchandise online to support the arts through Monday

Prior to Thanksgiving, ArtsWave, the engine for the arts, announced the launch of an online store at ArtsWave.org/POWERmerch to provide POWER OF HER merchandise now through early December as a holiday fundraiser and capstone to the 18-month initiative, celebrating women in the arts, presented by Procter & Gamble with support from the Charlotte R. Schmidlapp Fund, Fifth Third Bank, Trustee, LPK and various community leaders. 

The new merchandise line celebrates women in the arts and women throughout the Cincinnati region. The store includes something for everyone – from onsies and youth t-shirts, to adult shirts, masks, mugs, postcards and more. The store will be online from now through December 7.

Three of the items have been created by local artists and entrepreneurs. Erikka Gray, owner of District 78, a lifestyle brand and vendor of handcrafted candles and part owner of Pause, a MOTAR-created alternative wellness venture on Short Vine Street, has developed a special POWER OF HER candle. The new soy-based, long-burning candle scent is as bold as Gray is and it is her reflection of the daring, inclusive, celebratory and declarative strength of Cincinnati’s women artists, entrepreneurs and leaders.

Dawn Grady, owner of Junebug Jewelry Designs, a pop-up store on Vine Street and also a MOTAR graduate, has created a limited edition pair of POWER OF HER earrings that are made of Argentium silver, which is tarnish-resistant, hypoallergenic and responsibly resourced. Grady combines this brilliant metal with three semi-precious gemstones – citrine, rhodonite and turquoise – each with energies reflective of the POWER OF HER concept. Grady mentions, “Each stone was chosen to reflect a woman’s ascension to her own personal royalty.” For instance, the turquoise used is meant “as a symbol of wisdom, nobility and power” says Grady.

In addition, ArtsWave’s “Imagineers, Impresarios, Inventors: Cincinnati’s Arts and the POWER OF HER,” will be featured on the merchandise website. This book, released in summer 2020 and edited by Kathy Merchant, former President/CEO of Greater Cincinnati Foundation and ArtsWave Women’s Leadership Roundtable member, celebrates nearly 200 women who have shaped Greater Cincinnati’s arts. The book includes 120 essays in total told by 34 journalists, freelance writers and authors. 

The POWER OF HER brand concept was created by globally recognized and local brand design and innovation marketing agency LPK on a pro bono basis and as a reflection of its longtime work with ArtsWave and so many Cincinnati cultural institutions. LKP Creative Director Jessica Owens Stephens has volunteered additional time beyond her role at LPK to design the branded merchandise in the store.

Over the last 18 months through the POWER OF HER, the arts sector has come together through hundreds of female-centric works and an array of events to celebrate women in the arts. POWER OF HER salutes and honors female leadership with woman-centric works of all kinds, underscoring creativity as the vehicle for inclusion and equality. Inspired by the many Cincinnati cultural and civic organizations which were founded by women and have celebrated anniversaries over the past year,* POWER OF HER encompasses art forms of all types. Here are the remaining POWER OF HER events presently on the schedule.

Shop Summerfair artists this Holiday Season

Summerfair Cincinnati is excited to announce its new Holiday Virtual Event. This event will showcase 45 Summerfair 2020 artists and their work online at Summerfair.org starting Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2020.

These 45 artists represent 13 different art categories - 2D/3D, ceramics, digital art, drawing, fiber, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, painting, photography, printmaking and wood - from 15 different states. 28 artists are either local or regional artists.

“We are thrilled to be able to give some of our beloved Summerfair artists a platform to showcase their work,” said Jayne Utter, Executive Director of Summerfair Cincinnati. “It’s been a tough year for many of them. We hope this will give them an opportunity to display their exceptional work and give Summerfair guests the chance to shop their favorite artists.”

The Summerfair Holiday Virtual Event will begin Thursday, November 26 and can be found at Summerfair.org.

Registration is now open for 2021 Pig Works events

Registration for the 2021 Flying Pig weekend powered by P&G, Queen Bee weekend empowered by P&G and Kroger and TQL Beer Series events will open on Monday, October 12. All events will be offered for virtual registration at first, with special pricing and incentives for early registrants. 

As government approval and health protocols are adjusted in the coming months for in-person events, Pig Works will be adjusting its registration policies as well. Virtual participants already signed up will have first choice, when guidelines allow, to stay virtual or to transfer to in-person registration. 

“We remain hopeful and optimistic that we will be able to host you in-person and are preparing for that,” said Iris Simpson Bush, president and CEO of Pig Works, “but we feel that this is the most transparent and fair way to move forward at this time.”

The first event in the 2021 Pig Works schedule is the Bockfest 5K, part of the TQL Beer Series, on Saturday, March 6, 2021. Learn more about each event and register here.

Patty Brisben Foundation to Hold Virtual Annual Gala Saturday

The Patty Brisben Foundation, serving to enhance women’s sexual health and well-being through research and education, is going worldwide with its 15th annual Gala as the party goes virtual this Saturday, October 3, starting at 8 p.m. EDT.

Consultants and supporters are the hosts for parties around the world as the Gala will be streamed live to homes throughout the U.S. and abroad. More than 200 hosts and their guests across 42 states, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, and Japan, have already signed up to participate.

“We are so excited to be able to take our annual Gala virtually to Consultants and their guests this year,” said Patty Brisben, founder of Pure Romance. “We wish we could all be together, but this way we can stay safe and connect virtually to raise money for women’s sexual health.”

Music, special guests and auctions will be part of the Virtual Gala, which raises funds for grants given by the Foundation to researchers and clinics around the world. Nearly half of all women experience sexual difficulties at some point in life. Despite this, most healthcare providers receive very little training when it comes to sexuality, and even less in the area of female sexual health.

The Patty Brisben Foundation for Women’s Sexual Health aims to change that by directing resources and funding research to advocate for women’s sexual health, and advance the understanding of the issues facing women’s sexuality.

Individual tickets to the Gala are still available at http://pattybrisbenfoundation.org/pbf-gala/.