One of Northeast Ohio’s most established musicians opens up about Kenmore, Music, and Recovery

Marc Lee Shannon is a Rustbelt songwriter from Ohio’s “North Coast” with a career that has spanned over 30 years.

After spending the first decade of his career or so in working in Los Angeles and spending much of his time on the road, on the stage, and in the studio with many top country, rock, and soul artists, Marc returned home and was introduced to Michael Stanley. This introduction not only sparked a musical partnership, but a decades-long mentorship and friendship. Marc went on to serve as a member of Michael Stanley & The Resonators –one of Ohio’s largest concert draws, and established himself as well-known solo artist along the way.

Marc has deep familial ties to Kenmore. His parents attended Margaret Park School, and his mother was a proud Kenmore High School Class of 1947 grad. Growing up, Marc was fascinated by stories about how the Kenmore community was so family-friendly, cultural, and diverse, and even today his mother – now 93-years-old – talks about catching the bus on Lakewood Blvd into town to work at the movie theatre.

“What a time that must have been!” Marc muses. “I feel the spirit of those days and can imagine life during those years when I walk the streets of Kenmore. I am a descendant of those people who lived in that little town. Kenmore is woven into the fabric of my family heritage.”

Marc is also a passionate advocate for addiction recovery, he has authored a monthly column, “Sober Chronicles,” for The Devil Strip. His podcast, “Recovery Talks – The Podcast,” features lantern holders and lighthouses that freely share their sobriety and mental health journeys.

We had the chance to talk to Marc about Kenmore, music, and recovery ahead of his headlining performance with his backing band “My Other Brothers” this Friday, Sept. 2 during the final Kenmore First Friday of 2022.

How do you think your family’s background in Kenmore has impacted you as a person?

My family has a strong sense of the working class that runs through the fabric of our Kenmore heritage. Listening to stories of my mom’s journey in high school: being required to watch her younger sibling and working downtown, she had to really lean in and help the family make it. There was not a lot of “fun time” in her life growing up. There was a struggle and a strong need to contribute to the family that was common in that time and place.

Like many places, Kenmore has felt the sting of opiate and other drug addiction. How do these very personal struggles impact an entire community?

We are a village. All of us are impacted by the economic, cultural and unfortunately sometimes the criminal nature of the results of Substance Use Disorder in our community. We can stand together to remove the stigma of Addiction by calling out that this is a disease, an illness not a personality flaw. Treatment and prevention can help us avoid too familiar stories of incarceration and the decimation of families.

So many times we hear stories of musicians falling victim to addition. Why do you think that is, and what can we do better to support them?

I guess we hear more today about the sensationalism of personal tragedy. Face it, there are media headlines that get attention when something bad happens. I will tell you though, that just as often I hear stories of artists that have beaten addiction and other mental health issues. These, often times, do not make headlines. Recovery is possible. I am sober now for 7 years and 10 months.

Having experienced recovery yourself, you are a vocal advocate in the community, particularly with the Summit’s Rock and Recovery radio station. How do you think music supports people in recovery?

Music is uplifting and healing. It helps to convert the emotions that we all feel. It is a language that anyone and everyone can relate to when the right song meets the way we feel. Music is a salve that heals and helps us remember we are not alone.

I’m sure you’ve heard of Kenny Lambert and Just a Dad From Akron, whose shop on the Boulevard offers support groups and an open door to people who are struggling. What are your thoughts on his model of business, and why do you think it is important to have people like him on the Boulevard?

Kenny has been on my podcast Recovery Talks.

We must stand together . We have to show others that recovery is possible and that right there is your own community it is a living example of evidence that people do recover. We must support business’s like JADFA to hold up the lantern to the community and say “Look!, you can do this too!”

You’ve performed on Kenmore Boulevard several times since revitalization efforts started in 2017. Why do you keep coming back?

I keep coming back for a lot to reasons. The number one is Tina [Boyes, Executive Director, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance]. When you see a person that is passionate about right intention and warm hearted purpose… get in that boat and row!

What can people expect to experience at your performance next Friday?

Music from my latest and past records performed my MLS (me!) and My Other Brothers : Angelo Merendino, Kurt Anshutz and Michael Weber. A cool little combo that will rock and play a 60 minute set that will not disappoint. If you like N.E.Ohio made soulful, rock sounds, you will dig it!

Don’t miss your chance to see Marc Lee Shannon & My Other Brothers when they perform this Friday, September 2 at 8pm during the final Kenmore First Friday of 2022!

Neighborhood to celebrate progress during Kenmore First Friday event on Sept. 2

August 25,2022 (Akron, OH) – Five years after Akron’s third Better Block event, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is inviting people back to Kenmore Boulevard to celebrate the permanent changes that have taken shape on Akron’s ‘Music Row.’

Kenmore First Friday: Kenmore Better Block 5th Anniversary will take place Friday, Sept. 2 from 6 to 9 p.m. on Kenmore Boulevard between 13th to 16th St. It will feature live music by Marc Lee Shannon & My Other Brothers, Indre, Minus the Alien, and more, plus a beer garden, children’s activities, pop-up shops and food trucks. The event is free to the public.

According to Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance Executive Director Tina Boyes, 13 additional businesses and organizations have filled Boulevard storefronts since the Kenmore Better Block, which took place Sept. 1-2, 2017. Additionally, 14 of the commercial properties have new facades, and more than $1 million in new physical improvements have happened on Kenmore Boulevard.

“The impact of the Kenmore Better Block cannot be overstated: Not only did we uncover that these three blocks were home to six recording studios, two guitar shops and a live music venue, a ‘Music Row,’ of sorts, we discovered what residents really wanted to see in our neighborhood,” Boyes said. “Those things included a coffee shop, expanded food options, clothing, gifts and more community events, and those are exactly what we’ve attracted.”

On Sept. 2, Crafty Mart will be hosting a range of local artisans along Kenmore Boulevard, and several shops will pop up in leasable storefronts, including Frankenstein Records and Buon Cibo, a restaurant concept by Kenmore resident Michael McElroy, which will be located in The Rialto Theatre’s Living Room area.

In addition, the Buzzbin Art & Music Shop will feature live music by the Honkey Tonk Kid and Donnie Casey next to what will soon be their new home at 952 Kenmore Blvd. Visitors can get a sneak peek of their new space starting at 9 p.m., when Ghost:Hello and Book of Wyrms will take the stage. The Rialto Theatre will also host the band Glenn Lazear’s album release party with special guest Talons’.

”It’s an exciting time on Kenmore Boulevard,” said Corey Jenkins, promoter and experience manager for Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance. “We’re continuing to develop the district’s identity as Akron’s Music Row, and events like this are a great opportunity for people to experience both who we are and where we’re headed.”

For more information about Kenmore First Friday, visit https://www.betterkenmore.org/first-friday.

By Kabir Bhatia Ideastream Public Media

Tina Boyes, head of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, has been working since 2017 to make Kenmore Boulevard exciting again. For every new business, there are still spaces like the former Hairston Appliance store that’s quietly waiting for a new tenant. Boyes began consulting with Dallas-based Better Block five years ago on how to make the boulevard more walkable. They added bike lanes. They filled a vacant lot with art and turned it into a courtyard for community meetings. And then she came to a realization: Kenmore is a music neighborhood.

“We’ve got recording studios, [and] we’ve got the two guitar shops directly across the street,” she said. “The Rialto Theater [is a] regional music venue.”

The neighborhood alliance began hosting music events using nonprofit beer permits.

“Why couldn’t we take a vacant space and every couple weeks have an event that just happens to be two days long and has local artists playing?” Boyes said.

Boyes enlisted volunteers and local musicians for help: Zach Friedhof of Zach & the Bright Lights, Matt Garrett from the neighborhood’s Open Tone Music Academy, recording studio owner Thomas Kincaid and musician Jim Ballard.

Buzzbin presents

One of the spaces they used for the events has a vintage, art deco “Live Music Now” sign out front. When lit, people know to come in. That building will soon be the new home of Buzzbin, a well-known DIY and punk venue that recently closed its doors in Canton. The move is happening with support from another music venue, the Rialto Theatre, just a few blocks away. In 2010, brothers Nate and Seth Vaill began converting the Rialto from a derelict movie house to a music venue.

“I’ve been getting questions, ‘Is this going to be competition?’ No, it’s not going to be competition,” Seth said. “Nashville has got venues everywhere, and they’re all making tons of money with tons of opportunities.”

The Vaills are hosting a benefit for Buzzbin on September 24, and the new club plans to open near Halloween. Vaill says it will be good to have another venue for people to visit after a show at the Rialto, but the neighborhood needs more bars and restaurants.

“I want to walk along this boulevard and see people on Kenmore Boulevard at 10:30 at night,” he said. “I don’t want people to leave our place and then just leave the boulevard.”

Becoming Akron’s Music Row

A few doors down from the Rialto, Dan Shinn owns Lay’s Guitar Shop.

“My gut feeling is, this is going to become Music Row,” he said.

Lay’s was opened by Virgil Lay in 1962. He took on Shinn as an apprentice in 1979, and Lay passed away in 2009.

Behind the shop, a narrow strip of roadway is where guitars are constantly being picked up or dropped off for repair. Earlier this year, the city renamed that street “Virgil Lay Way.”

“I would say the bulk of my customers are probably anywhere from a half-hour to an hour-and-a-half away,” Shinn said. “I have a lot of guys that come from Michigan [and Pennsylvania]. I’d say the largest per-capita group of guys that come in here that are really good guitar players almost always are from Youngstown. It’s something in the water.”

Upstairs from Lay’s is the Loft, run by Steve Givens. It’s a cozy space with enough hardware on the walls that if every member of the Cleveland Orchestra suddenly dropped by and wanted to buy a guitar, they could do so – for a price.

“The Smithsonian recently did an article on the tree mahogany — this is from that tree,” he said. “The next one that I have ordered, I just got the retail price on it, is $22,000. This wood adds about $8,000 to the price of this guitar because it’s so rare.”

While most of Givens’ business is online, he says they still host visiting musicians who sometimes take a piece of Northeast Ohio with them. The Loft has a 1953 Les Paul Gold Top finished with wood from a demolished Goodyear building.

“The wood is older than the rest,” he said. “The wood on the top is from the 1800s.”

The inventory at the Loft complements the shop next door, the Guitar Department, owned by Ed Michalec and run by his son, Quinn.

“Every age group comes in looking for something completely different,” he said. “Teenagers and younger people [have] shifted from guitars a few years ago to now, oddly, bass guitars. And ukulele has taken over a big chunk of the younger sales we do.”

The Guitar Department was originally across the street when it opened in 2009. But they strategically moved next door to Lay’s a few years back.

As Tina Boyes with the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance surveys the street, she notes that some of the guitars from those shops end up in recording studios on the boulevard.

“We have seven down here now, and there’s three or four just in this block,” she said. “On the corner is the former Cook’s Hardware Building. That’s a live room downstairs and the acoustics are amazing. If you’re walking up and down here, you can hear drums being recorded there at all hours.”

Thom Tadsen owns the studio in the former Cook’s building and is currently working with Griphook (and its drummer, Wachovec). Tadsen said the addition of Buzzbin to the boulevard is going to be “huge” and is “exactly what we need.”

From rock to hip-hop

Drums are as essential to rock and jazz as they are to hip-hop – which is also getting its due in Kenmore. Ben White runs hip-hop nights at the First Glance Urban Youth Center in Kenmore and said that in 2019, he “met a group of eight to ten young rappers. We basically had a Wu Tang Clan of Akron. I’m like the Old White Dude: OWD.”

Although he grew up in the ‘90s listening to grunge and classic rock, he sensed there was an opportunity to connect with youth through hip-hop.

“We found out that it was a really therapeutic thing and helpful to kids to come in and just express themselves,” he said. “It’s like music therapy for them.”

White ran a hip-hop camp this summer in conjunction with South Akron Youth Mentoring (SAYM) at the non-profit Akron Dream Center.

Ronald Kent, executive director of SAYM, said this helps teens with expression.

“There’s a lot of social-emotional learning happening,” he said. “Telling people how you’re feeling about something is normally stigmatized. In hip-hop it’s okay to communicate [your heart and mind].”

White is expanding the camp to a weekly, Friday night free-for-all at the Akron Dream Center in Firestone Park, since it received a grant for a state-of-the-art

recording room. Boyes wants to attract those kinds of grants and businesses to Kenmore.

Boyes grew up in Kenmore, where her father owned a dry-cleaning business. She said recent development in Highland Square is an example of what could happen in her neighborhood.

“Think back 25 years ago, Highland Square wasn’t getting a Chipotle. That was a process. I don’t think we want to necessarily mimic what Highland Square did, but that gives us hope that some of these music-oriented businesses [are] going to attract food someday.”

Boyes said the neighborhood wants to stay true to its working-class roots, but her surveys indicate residents also want to see more restaurants and places to eat.

During the pandemic the boulevard has added 12 businesses. Half of them, like Ethicrace clothing store or Srina coffee house, are owned by people of color. And a third of the businesses, such as The Rialto, are owned by Kenmore residents. In the future, she’s also looking to attract more music-related businesses, such as a record store.

Maybe Kenmore Boulevard will someday be as lively as it was when former Kenmore activist Cletus Swords was growing up in the 1940s. He reminisced about it in a 1997 documentary on how to work with young people in an area suffering from economic decline and rising crime.

“Saturday night on Kenmore Boulevard was a big thing,” he said for the doc. “They had the dime store, [a] five-and-10-cent store. That was a big thing [on] Saturday night to go up on the boulevard and hang out.”

That documentary was made 25 years ago by Jim Ballard, one of the musicians who has been working with Tina Boyes. He’s lived in Kenmore since 1977.

“[Boyes] brought in business leaders, political leaders, foundation folks, all the entities you need to make these kinds of things happen,” he said. “Uniquely, she wanted to include artists and musicians from the beginning and take seriously their input. That’s what’s made the things that have been happening in the last five or six years on the boulevard happen.”

The Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is celebrating five years of its work with Better Block on Friday, September 2. It’s part of the neighborhood’s ongoing First Friday series with pop-up shops, visual art, food and of course music. Boyes said they will also have “compare and contrast” demonstrations showing where the boulevard was five years ago.

By Kerry Clawson Akron Beacon Journal

Monaqui Porter Young, owner of the new SRINA Tea House & Cafe on Kenmore Boulevard in Akron, shows art of organic tea products that will be displayed on its walls. (Photo: Karen Schiely, Akron Beacon Journal)

When you walk into the new SRINA Tea House & Cafe in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood, a huge, colorful mural runs down the entire length of the business’s left wall, creating a bright scene of mountainous Sri Lankan tea fields, palm trees and vibrant, native Sri Lankan birds.

The back wall behind the tea counter is a rich green that coordinates with the verdant tea farm mural, which was designed by The Studio in New York.

“We wanted to transport the customer to a space that was green and natural,” said owner Monaqui Porter Young, 50. “It’s upscale but really warm.”

Akron native Porter Young has opened her first brick-and-mortar establishment for SRINA tea, the organic tea company she founded in 2002 that offers 52 varieties of tea from Paradise Farm in the rain forests of Sri Lanka. Porter Young, who moved to New York in 1994, where she lives with husband and three children, developed her business there and has a background in integrative nutrition.

Lee Porter, left, manager of SRINA; Monaqui Porter Young, founder and owner; and tea associates Naomi Boyes and Nina Cameron stand in front of the mural inside the new tea house on Kenmore Boulevard in Akron. (Photo: Karen Schiely, Akron Beacon Journal)

This week, SRINA Tea House will host a public soft opening celebration from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday. A grand opening will take place 4 p.m. Sept. 17.

The neighborhood has been anticipating SRINA’s opening for so long, soft opening hours will continue 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday-Monday and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday as the business finishes up preparations for its grand opening.

Tea has long been Porter Young’s passion. On Wednesday, she showed off some artwork depicting organic cinnamon and hibiscus that will adorn SRINA’s walls, representing the natural, organic products that she’s excited to bring to Kenmore with her teas.

Too many Americans think of tea as just Lipton, she said. All of the SRINA teas are loose-leaf and grown without chemical fertilizers or synthetic pesticides.

SRINA tea associates Naomi Boyes, left, and Nina Cameron work in the Tea Lab that will be available to patrons at the new SRINA Tea House & Cafe on Kenmore Boulevard in Akron. (Photo: Karen Schiely, Akron Beacon Journal)

She’s trained her employees on the history and health benefits of tea. For example, her organic green tea with a ginger-lemongrass-turmeric blend helps with inflammation and joint pain.

“We spend a lot of time telling you to taste the tea,” said Porter Young, who encourages customers to drink the flavorful SRINA teas with no sugar or milk.

“Really good tea needs nothing but leaf and water. It’s very simple,” said Porter Young, a Central Hower High School graduate who earned a theater degree from Wright State University. “Just give us your palate and trust your palate to us. You’re going to drink something you’re not used to but this is tea.”

She serves tea from glass teapots into glass bowls, rather than English-style tea cups with handles, so customers can see the tea they’re enjoying.

“We love drinking tea out of a bowl,” said Porter Young, whose SRINA logo features three tea bowls.

The SRINA property is owned by the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance (KNA), which gutted the space a couple years ago in preparation for a coffee shop tenant that ended up not signing a lease two days into the 2020 pandemic shutdown. The SRINA project was completed by contractor Tucker Building & Design of Wadsworth and AOA architectural firm of Florida, with lantern-type lighting by Lumen Nation in Montrose.

SRINA’s exterior, which formerly had off-white vinyl siding when it was Zoe Ann’s hair salon, now is back to its original brick exterior. The building, estimated to be about 100 years old, also features original hardwood flooring in the back half of the cafe and a refurbished wood counter.

Opening SRINA Tea House & Cafe has been two years in the making, sparked by a Rubber City Match Program grant of $50,000 from the city of Akron that allows small businesses to apply for cash awards, technical assistance, private loans and help finding empty storefronts in need of revitalization.

SRINA had been slated to open in December but the process of gaining additional funding delayed the project, said Porter Young, who needed to raise three times the initial Rubber City Match grant to see the project to fruition.

“Things took forever,” said Porter Young, who said it took some work convincing private business lenders that a tea house would do well in the Kenmore neighborhood.

As the SRINA renovation project continued at 975 Kenmore Blvd., Porter Young started a pop-up cafe 18 months ago across the street inside the Rialto Theatre, which ran for about three months to establish a presence in the neighborhood.

The goal in choosing the predominantly working-class Kenmore neighborhood for the tea house was “to produce a revitalized Kenmore and create a place that would create value ― value to the community, value to the people and value to the other businesses and organizations,” Porter Young said. “We couldn’t do it without KNA.”

The public-private partnership has been the key to bringing the unconventional tea house business to the community, the entrepreneur said, including the active participation and engagement of both the city of Akron and the local community, represented by KNA.

Tina Boyes, executive director of the Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance, said that through the 2017 Kenmore Better Block program, the No. 1 thing residents said they wanted on Kenmore Boulevard was a coffee shop.

“This is the perfect opportunity to give Kenmore what it wants,” said Boyes, who stressed that SRINA is a space where people of all socioeconomic backgrounds can connect.

According to a 2019 market study, the Kenmore Boulevard Retail Revitalization Strategy, a three-block area of Kenmore Boulevard can support up to four additional food and beverage businesses. It now has two, with SRINA as well as The Nite Owl across the street.

“We are hemorrhaging restaurant traffic,” said Boyes. “People are leaving our neighborhood to eat.”

Porter Young saw establishing SRINA Tea House & Cafe in a community underserved by restaurants and cafes as a good opportunity. In addition to serving food and drink in-house, SRINA offers a retail section of Sri Lankan teas and food ingredients, which include ginger, cinnamon honey spread, pineapple coconut chips and coconut chips.

Ginger chips will be sold at SRINA, a new tea house on Kenmore Boulevard in Akron. (Photo: Karen Schiely, Akron Beacon Journal)

Porter Young is focused on hiring primarily women at SRINA. Tea associates are Naomi Boyes, Nina Cameron Jasmine Kirk, Jaquae Blair, Faith Perry and Stephanie Davis, all from Akron. Five of them have trained with the JOBS Culinary Program, a Kenmore nonprofit for at-risk young women ages 16 to 36 that teaches them culinary skills to manage a restaurant.

Lee Porter, Porter Young’s cousin, is the manager of SRINA.

SRINA offers a breakfast and lunch menu, with food prepared off-site by Chef Glenn Gillespie of Edgar’s in Akron. Breakfast items include lox bagel and tea or coffee ($7.90) and quiche with tea or coffee. Lunch choices include jerk chicken finger ($7.75), various salads and pulled pork sandwich ($7.25).

Sides range from vegetarian kale ($4) to quinoa ($4) and sweets include lemon and chocolate croissants ($3) and either champagne raspberry or passion fruit sorbet ($3). The menu is a soft-opening version that Porter Young expects to be tweaked.

Rotating organic coffees will include varieties from Brazil, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and U.S. cities such as Seattle.

One of Porter Young’s goals for her business is to bring in 2,000 subscribers at SRINA Tea House & Cafe by December, a 12-month program that costs $200 per year or $16.75 per month. The subscription makes sense for those who eat and drink at SRINA regularly, she said. It includes special tea gifts, as well as events several times each month with food and drink. Customers can join the Tea Club for free at www.srina.com to receive information on purchasing a subscription, which starts Sept. 17.

Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@kclawson. Photos by Karen Schiely, Akron Beacon Journal.

SRINA Tea House & Cafe

Soft opening event: 4 to 6 p.m. Friday

Location: 975 Kenmore Blvd., Akron

Additional soft opening hours: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday-Monday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday through Sept. 16

Grand opening: 4 p.m. Sept. 17

Information: 234-334-1599, SRINA Tea House & Cafe on Facebook, http://srina.com

It’s a coffee shop. It’s a tea house. It’s a café and a gathering space.

Srina Tea House and Café is finally here on Kenmore Boulevard, and they’re inviting you to test their products and provide feedback during their soft opening, which will run Aug. 12, 4 to 6 p.m., through Sept. 16.

Eclectic and healthy food is on the menu, which was released to the public during the August Kenmore First Friday event. The menu includes quiches, Jerk chicken fingers, street corn, sorbet and, of course, Srina’s organic coffee and teas responsibly grown in the farms of Sri Lanka.

Srina also features a line of pastries that includes Summit Croissants made in Kenmore by Sally Ohle, plus avocado toast, bagels and lox. And you can enjoy your food and beverages either in the cool rainforest décor of the dining room or at Srina’s al fresco streetside tables.

In addition, Srina is partnering with the Jump on Board for Success (JOBS) program, a Kenmore-based culinary training program which gives young and at-risk women a head start in food service, as well as Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance to provide subsidies to employ the young women locally.

“I am looking forward to working with these organizations to make Kenmore one of the best places to visit, eat and shop in Akron,” said Srina owner Monaqui Porter-Young.

Srina Tea House is located at 975 Kenmore Blvd. Starting Aug 12, they will be open Sunday and Monday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Tuesday through Saturday 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. RSVP for their soft launch event.

by Abigail Stopka

After Sharetta Howze suffered a brain injury, she found herself questioning her purpose in life. “When I became disabled, I felt like my life was over because I couldn’t do anything I loved anymore.”

As an African- American woman with a brain injury, Sharetta felt like a member of two underrepresented communities. “I used art through my occupational therapy which helped me heal.” That inspired her to found the nonprofit Hidden Tr3sures. Now, she helps others with disabilities or overwhelming situations heal through creative coping.

“Creative coping to me is an experience. It is a chance for people to just take a second to breathe and write down their thoughts. it is an opportunity to heal,” she explained. It’s this process that led her to create the nonprofit Hidden Tr3sures.

“The meaning behind the name Hidden Tr3ssures is that you are a treasure. Just because you are disabled or are facing struggles doesn’t mean that you are denied. You are still a treasure,” Sharetta said.

Hidden Tr3sures is a support group for people with struggles and disabilities. It is a safe space that provides the opportunity for disabled people to express themselves in a way that is accessible to them. It allows people to express themselves through multiple platforms such as painting, writing, dancing, singing or even just having a shoulder to lean on when times are tough. “It is important for everyone to know that we all have a voice, and every voice is special and unique, and it can make a difference,” she said. “I want everyone to know that they do have a platform for their voice here.”

Hidden Tr3sures will be hosting live poetry during Kenmore First Friday, this Friday August 5th at 6 p.m. in the McCutchan Courtyard. The Black Artist Guild will serve wine and visitors can expect to be encouraged and empowered. A variety of poets will be sharing their own journey of healing. There will also be a chance to participate in open mic. “We are all hidden treasures, and we are here to help bring that out of people. We are working on ourselves in hopes of bringing out the best in others,” said Sharetta.

To learn more about Hidden Tr3sures, visit their Facebook page or website at hiddentr3sures.com. To learn more about Sharetta, www.sharettalatrice.com/blog.