Jason Chamberlain is a musician, recording engineer, and artist who has resided in Kenmore for over three decades. Over the years, you may have seen him on stage with a guitar, behind the counter at The Guitar Department and Musician’s Bargain Basement, behind the mixing board at Studio 1008, or behind the lens of his camera during events or out on walk. Jason currently serves as the official house photographer at The Rialto Theatre.

1.) How long have you lived in Kenmore and what brought you here?

I have been here for thirty three years – it has been the most stable thing in my life. I have worked at several locations on the Blvd including the Dairy Queen when I was a teen, The Musician’s Bargain Basement, The Guitar Department, and Studio 1008. I also have family roots in this town as my father and his five sisters grew up here as well.

2.) You’ve been a musician most of your life, what inspired you to pick up the guitar?

I saw Kiss in 1979 when I was six years old. I looked up at that stage and saw the lead guitar player and I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life and I have on a smaller scale. I have been on two different independent record labels and have toured all over the country.

3.) You’re currently working on an album of new music, tell us about that – and do you think Kenmore has any influence on the music you make?

I have begun a recording-only project that I’m doing from home where I – for the first time – have decided to do everything myself. In the past, I have always written with a band where others have contributed.

And yes Kenmore has a huge influence on my musical style. I moved here when I was fifteen and made friends with other guitar players who introduced me to underground metal. I was very impressed by this, seeing these guys in this small town who had their hands on the pulse of underground music.

4.) You’ve also engineered/produced recordings for other musicians – how did you get into that and who are some of the artists you’ve worked with?

It started with me being in a band with two other Kenmore residents (we were in our mid-twenties) and went to studio in Deerfield where I was very intrigued by the whole process and after that I started my own home studio. I have had the pleasure of recording some of Akron’s finest talents such as Angie Haze, Zach, Run Thomas Run, and The Living Deads among others.

5.) You can often be seen around the community with a camera in your hand at The Rialto, during Kenmore First Fridays, or just when you’re out on a walk – when did you begin taking photos and what drew you to photography?

It began when I was in the recording studio (Studio 1008 on Kenmore Blvd.) and the band I was working with asked if I knew of any local photographers. I told them I didn’t, but that my mother had a really nice expensive camera I could borrow. I took a few days to learn the mechanics and we came up with a concept and I took the photos for their album cover and the inner sleeve photos. I was surprised by the results, so I bought my own camera and the rest is history. This was also around the time I got into graphic design and digital art and designed the BLVD logo on the banners that hang from the light poles on the Blvd.

6.) What is your favorite Kenmore memory or story to share with people?

Some of my favorite memories are from high school when I’d spend weekends with my guitar player friends. We would jam, teach each other songs we had learned, and help each other develop. It was pure and wholesome fun and kept us busy and out of trouble. 😂

7.) Favorite Kenmore restaurant and why?

That is easy, it’s Regina’s. Amazing cheesesteak sub.

8.) What concert or event would you love to see at The Rialto Theatre?

I know it’s known for its quality concerts but I would like to see standup comedy. Maybe now with the Living Room at the front of the venue it can be something that would thrive there. We all need a laugh these days.

9.) As a resident, where do you see Kenmore in ten years?

In the past few years I have seen more progress than any point of my thirty three years here. I can only see progress continuing with the right people in place.

10.) What do you want the world to know about Kenmore?

There are good people here, people who are making a difference. They are making the change we want to see for the betterment of our community.

Follow Jason on Instagram @jvc1073.

*All photos were taken by Jason Chamberlain in Kenmore.

The Rialto Theatre to host to Hey Monea, Labra Brothers and 10 other regional favorites April 1-2.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit two years ago, Northeast Ohio’s performance venues went completely dark, leaving local musicians to either hang it up or hunker down.

For Akron-based artist Angie Haze, it was a bit of both.

Now, she and her band are emerging from the pandemic with their first live performance in two years and a new, edgier sound as they headline the Kenmore Spring Break Music Festival April 1-2 at The Rialto Theatre.

“I sort of had a meltdown when COVID-19 hit and my biggest coping mechanism was ripped away. We were faced with a global catastrophe and I had no outlet,” Haze explained. “It really made me question who I was and whether or not I should even continue making music.”

Ultimately, the pandemic forced Haze to look inward, and in May she released “The Great Pause,” an ode to the worldwide shutdown.

Now, Haze said she’s finally feeling relieved and excited to hit the road again.

“I am truly grateful and proud of the community and my band, and it means everything to me to be able to get back on stage.”

The Angie Haze Project is one of 13 artists on the bill for the Kenmore Spring Break music festival, presented by The Summit and The Rialto Theatre in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood.

The music will kick off Friday, April 1 at 6 p.m. featuring full-band performances by Hey Monea, Indre and Shelby Olive on the theatre’s main stage. Alternating between acts in the Rialto’s intimate Living Room will be acoustic performances by Alex Bevan, Charlie Wiener and My Buddy Josh’s Band – all decades-long veterans of Northeast Ohio’s music scene.

Saturday, April 2 will kick off with a special 5 p.m. performance by the young jazz artists from Open Tone Music Academy, followed by Anya Van Rose and Youngstown’s The Labra Brothers. The Angie Haze Project will close the night, but not before Yankee Bravo’s Benjamin Payne, Reed Mitchell and members of Church of the Starry Wisdom fill the Living Room.

Along with the Rialto’s range of alcoholic beverages, organic tea, coffee and pastries will be available in the Living Room from Srina Tea House & Cafe. It’s all part of The Rialto Theatre’s drive to become Northeast Ohio’s most unique venue, which includes live album recording and an onsite recording studio.

“We’ve toured the country and our favorite venues are always the ones that feel intimate and offer that little something extra, something magical,” said Seth Vaill, co-owner of The Rialto Theatre. He and his brother Nate co-founded the venue after spending years as touring musicians. They launched the first Kenmore Break music festival in December featuring Big Pop and J.D. Eicher as a way to showcase the best local artists in one place.

“When it comes to recording and sound, we know what musicians like. And Nate is the best around,” Seth said. “We always pay attention to the room, how it feels, how it sounds, how bands experience the space. And we want the fans who come here to experience the same magic, from the coffee to the coziness and friendliness of the staff. We just want them to feel different and special here.”

Tickets to the Kenmore Spring Break Music Festival are $15 each and are on sale now. For more information or to purchase, visit therialtotheatre.com.

Akron Beacon Journal

Published March 8, 2022

Image credit: Akron Civic Commons/Tim Fitzwater

Akron Promise will host the Kenmore-Summit Lake Rock Me on the Water 7K this spring as part of the 2022 Akron City Race Series.

All proceeds from the race, to be held from 8 to 10 a.m. May 28, will go to the Kenmore-Garfield Stark State Scholarship Fund. The fund is available for up to two years of funding toward tuition and books for graduates of Kenmore-Garfield High School planning to attend Stark State College.

This is the fifth year Akron Promise, a nonprofit that that aims to assist students access educational support, resources and opportunities by facilitating scholarships and enrichment activities, has offered the scholarship for up to ten students.

“For many Akron students, finances are a major barrier to post-secondary education,” Tom Ghinder, Akron Promise’s founder, said in a release. “We believe all students deserve the opportunity for a post-secondary certificate or degree, leading to a satisfying career and quality of life.”

The route will begin outside Kenmore’s Rialto Theatre and circle the entirety of Summit Lake, including past the new Summit Lake Nature Center and through wooded areas of Summit Metro Parks before finishing on Kenmore Boulevard. Participants will receive a medal and enjoy strolling musicians and complimentary coffee, tea and pastries from SRINA Cafe.

Participants can register or make donations at www.raceroster.com/events/2022/58481/rock-me-on-the-water-7k. Participants registering before May 1 will receive a discounted race fee.

This past December, The Rialto Theatre and The Summit FM presented Kenmore Winter Break – a brand new two-day indoor music festival held at The Rialto Theatre.

Hundreds of music lovers flocked to Kenmore Boulevard to attend the event which featured some of the region’s finest musicians and made full use of both the Rialto Theatre stage and the new Rialto Living Room stage.

The Rialto Theatre and The Summit have teamed up once again for Kenmore Spring Break on Friday, April 1, and Saturday, April 2.

“Kenmore Winter Break was such a success we decided to replicate the format in springtime,” Rialto Theatre co-owner Seth Vaill said. “It’s not quite warm enough yet for outdoor festivals to return, but the ice is melting and people are ready to get out of the house again.“

Like its winter counterpart, Kenmore Spring Break boasts an impressive lineup and includes some of Northeast Ohio’s most established musicians as well as some up and comers.

Hey Monea, Indré, Shelby Olive, Alex Bevan, Charlie Wiener, and My Buddy Josh’s Band are all on the roster for Friday, April 1, while Angie Haze, The Labra Brothers, Anya Van Rose, Church of Starry Wisdom Lite, Benjamin Payne (Yankee Bravo), Reed Mitchell, and Open Tone Music Academy are slated to perform Saturday, April 2.

Follow the Rialto Theatre on Facebook and Instagram for updates and visit therialtotheatre.com for tickets.

When Matt Zeiner was busy drinking sodas on the playground at Rimer Elementary School, he could never have dreamed in 30 years he’d be bottling his own beverages or starting a business.

“I first brewed beer in 1998 with relative,” he explained. “I have always enjoyed beer and cooking, so brewing is a no brainer for me.”

For the first decade, it was a hobby. Over the next 10 years, it progressively became something more. But it was when Matt and a small group of Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance volunteers designed, built and operated the beer garden for the Kenmore Better Block that the lightbulb finally went off.

“That Saturday night, I was standing in the beer garden and looked over and saw Mayor Horrigan and my city councilman and I said, “Man, there’s never been a brewery in Kenmore.”

Matt spent the next several years perfecting his craft, joining the craft brewer’s association and learning from others. But Matt soon came to a realization: “I know how to make beer: I don’t know anything about how to run a business,” he explained.

Enter the city’s Rubber City Match program, which provides education, loans and grants, and location matching for Akron’s small business community. “It was great,” Matt explained. “I started at the beginning and learned from the ground up.”

But when it came to location, there never was a question where Matt’s brewery would go.

“The Boulevard is awesome and has a really cool small town Main Street vibe in the middle of the city,” he said. “A brewery can attract people from outside the community and let them see some of the positives of this area.”

It’s an area Matt said he is committed to for the long run: “I grew up in Kenmore and have lived here for 42 years and will most likely be here another 42 or more.”

Matt is currently a finalist in the Rubber City Match cash award program. He said a Kickstarter campaign will follow once that program concludes.

For now, he’s asking people to spread the word that Kenmore Boulevard will finally be getting a brewery.

“In a few years, I see the Boulevard being a great destination for craft beer, craft food and craft music, if that’s such a thing,” he said.

Until then, people can contact kenmorebrewworks@gmail.com for more information and updates.

In January, Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance welcomed four new members to its board of directors.

Derrick Hall is the vice president of the Akron Board of Education. He also works for Summa Health Systems specializing in clinical integration and population health. Derrick said his primary goal for joining the KNA board is to work with the community to ensure Kenmore High School is filled with a community-serving school after the 2022 school year and beyond.

James Hardy is a senior program officer for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he uses his extensive experience in city-wide economic and community development to build healthy, equitable communities. James served six years as the deputy mayor of integrated development for the city of Akron. In his role as board member, James hopes to expand KNA’s economic development and revitalization role in the community. “There’s nowhere in the city like Kenmore Boulevard,” he said. “I want to finish what we’ve started there.”

Laura Smiley is the sales director for The Summit (91.3FM Akron/90.7FM Youngstown/90.1FM Athens Rock and Recovery; The330; KIDJAM! Radio), where she works with with local businesses, organizations, musicians and music-loving patrons to grow the local music economy and community. Laura has served on the KNA Promotion Committee since 2020 and has hosted several The Summit Presents shows at the Rialto Theatre, which she considers “the best venue in Akron.” Laura joined the board to help program and promote Kenmore Boulevard as Akron’s new music row. “At The Summit, I have a microphone, and I want to use it to help,” she said.

Wendy Zarara is the manager of the Kenmore Branch Library, where she has grown music and culture, history and health programming since joining the staff in 2019. Wendy has served on the KNA Events Subcommittee since joining the Kenmore branch’s staff, and she hopes her board service brings even more activity and programming to the neighborhood.

In addition, the board voted in four new officers: Eric Cooper, Kenmore High School graduate, realtor and team leader for RE/MAX Oasis Dream Homes as chair; John Zoilo, a development consultant with the Akron Civic Theater as vice chair; Kyle Julien, community development program officer at the Development and Finance Authority of Summit County as secretary; and Edward Michalec, owner of The Guitar Department as treasurer.

ABOUT KENMORE NEIGHBORHOOD ALLIANCE Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance is a community development corporation formed in 2016 to preserve, enhance, promote and develop the Kenmore neighborhood in southwest Akron by engaging residents and stakeholders in effecting physical, cultural, artistic, recreational and business revitalization. For more information, visit www.betterkenmore.org or follow KNA on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @kenmorehio.

Originally published as “Reflections” in Akron Life Magazine on October 14, 2009

As Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood observes its centennial, current residents and those who used to call Kenmore home are reminiscing. Ruth Zeh dwells in the second group and, at age 96, the granddaughter of local historian P.P. Cherry is savoring memories that date back to 1916, when her parents, Charles and Mamie Cherry, moved to South 13th Street off Kenmore Boulevard.

The Cherry family moved to Kenmore from Bishop Street in Akron. Zeh was born July 9, 1911, and one of her earliest memories is being rescued by boat from Bishop Street during the devastating flood of 1913. She was the youngest of six children, but never knew three brothers who died before her birth.

“I was 5 years old when we moved to Kenmore,” Zeh recalls. “The streets were mud. The house next to us had farm animals. We had a chicken coop. I had to hold the chicken (when it was time for slaughter). At the corner (on the boulevard) was a grocery store with a meat market. It was Ritzman’s grocery.”

The mention of Ritzman’s name triggers a special memory about the grocer, who often gave candy to his customers’ children. “Mr. Ritzman knew I didn’t like candy, so he gave me a dill pickle,” Zeh says.

Across the street from Ritzman’s were a bakery, a flower shop, a milliner and the Ideal Café, a restaurant whose owner also ran a poolroom. Next to the Ideal was the Boulevard, a movie theater, and nearby was McDowell’s Drug Store, a meeting place for teenagers. “That’s where I met Steve,” Zeh says of the man she would later marry. “Steve lived on 15th Street.”

Kenmore also had another movie theater, the Rialto, which Zeh says she didn’t like because the place was crawling with mice that “ran all over our feet.”

Zeh spent many Saturday afternoons at the movies. “We stayed and stayed until my mother came looking for me,” she says, adding that she knew it was time to go when she heard her mother coughing at the back of the theater.

Other pictures from Zeh’s memory book include watching hobos line up for handouts and a vegetable vendor and a ragman who did business from horse-drawn wagons. “I sold aluminum foil balls to him,” she says of the ragman. “Sometimes they’d fall off the wagon, and I’d sell them to him again.”

The Cherrys had the first telephone on 13th Street. “Mom charged 5 cents for the neighbors to use our phone,” Zeh recalls.

Zeh’s father, a volunteer fireman, died when she was 14. After his death, Zeh’s mother drove with her daughters to Palo Alto, Calif., in the family’s Model A Ford in search of employment. When none could be found, she sold the car to raise train fare back to Kenmore.

“The neighbors were very good,” Zeh says of the time after her father’s death. “I knew all of them. I was a busybody. I used to go to the grocery for a lady on our street. My mother asked me what she paid me. I told her 2 cents. She said, ‘No more!’”

Zeh and her sisters, the late Pearl Witwer and the late Bessie Zembrodt, performed around town as the Singing Cherry Sisters. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” was one of Zeh’s favorite songs.

A highlight of Zeh’s teen years was when the bridge over the Ohio & Erie Canal was completed, facilitating traffic to the Northern Ohio Traction & Light car barns. The community celebrated with a parade in which Zeh was crowned Miss Kenmore Car Barns Bridge.

Looking back some 80 years later, she says, “I went to different merchants and asked, ‘Will you vote for me?’ That’s how I got to sit on a cart or something in the parade. It was just very funny. Emma, my friend, was mad at me because I beat her out.”

In 1928, the year Kenmore was annexed to Akron, Zeh was a salutatorian of Kenmore High School’s January graduating class, and her future husband was valedictorian of the June class. Both went to work for Goodyear, she as a secretary for 18 years. The late Steve Zeh enjoyed a 48-year career, rising from stock boy to assistant vice president.

They were married on Feb. 13, 1937, had four children and lived for the next 17 years on 13th Street. In all, Zeh lived 40 years on 13th Street, a vantage point from which she concludes, “I saw Kenmore grow up.”

Freedom Tax Service, which specializes in providing tax and financial services to small and medium sized businesses, musicians, artists and other independent contractors, kicked off 2022 by moving into its new home at 988 Kenmore Boulevard between The Nite Owl and Stone’s Kenmore Mattress & Furniture.

“This [move] gives us a great building that is well suited for our growing business,” Freedom Tax Service owner Jeffrey Vujevich said.

But the move to a new location isn’t the only change at Freedom Tax Service.

Vujevich has merged Freedom Tax Service with Tax Prep Medina, Inc. – a business he co-founded in 2021 in Brunswick, Ohio. The merging of the two businesses has enabled his Kenmore office to offer more financial planning resources to the community than ever before, and Freedom Tax Service has assumed the Tax Prep Medina moniker.

In addition to providing expert personal and business tax preparation, financial planning, payroll, bookkeeping, and accounting services, Vujevich is a licensed insurance agent and Tax Prep Medina offers Medicare supplements and Medicare Advantage plans through United Healthcare.

“Taxes impact everything we do, so it makes sense to plan your finances from a tax perspective,” Vujevich explained. “We now have more financial professionals to serve our client’s tax planning, financial, and other needs. With higher taxes returning in 2026 when the 2017 tax cuts end, it’s important for everyone to know how taxes will impact their incomes both while they are working and as they retire.”

Need help filing your taxes or have questions? Tax Prep Medina is ready to help.

Medina Tax Prep is located at 988 Kenmore Blvd. and is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and other hours by appointment. For information, call 330-753-5000 or visit taxprepmedina.com today!

Akron Black Artist Guild members. Top row: Josy Jones, Bronlynn Thurman, Diane L. Johnson, Dominic Moore-Dunson, Dara Harper, and Kenmore resident Charlee Harris. Seated: Floco Torres and Ashley Pippin [Dara Harper/Ideastream Public Media]

The Akron Black Artist Guild (ABAG) launched in 2021 as a mission-driven and value-centered organization dedicated to fully realizing the shared vision of a more diversified arts and culture scene in Akron. Among those cultivating, amplifying and advocating for the work of Black creatives is Kenmore’s own Charlee Harris.

Harris, co-operator of So Fresh Used Auto Sales, jokes that being surrounded by family members and friends who are artists meant that she had to become an organizer. In 2017, Harris joined her artist mother in leveraging their large commercial space, relationships with creatives, and Harris’s business savvy to create East Ave Flea Market, a small group of traditionally underrepresented makers and entrepreneurs.

Harris’s work was on the leading edge of creating a community for Akron’s underrepresented artists. It is a concept that crystalized in 2020 after the Akron Cultural Plan uncovered a perceived lack of connection and diversity within the arts sector and a sense of isolation among Akron’s Black artists.

As the Black Artist Guild began to form, and after Harris worked on Kenmore First Fridays as an AmeriCorps VISTA, she had the idea to renovate the family’s commercial space to host a full-fledged, multi-media art gallery. That, combined with their makers market, evolved into what is today East Ave Market & Galleries, the first facility of its kind in the Kenmore community.

“We wanted to have an art space where local artists who maybe can’t get into those institutions, or maybe don’t qualify to have a space, that they can use and present their art,” she explained.

On the second Saturday of each month, the space features a new installation by an Akron-area artist, and the market is now open for shopping during business hours and gallery events.

Harris’s ingenuity is one example of what the Black Artist Guild hopes to pass on through their 2022 Reimagine Fellowship, which will commission three local Black artists to create original works that reimagine and investigate the intersection of creativity in Akron’s non-art sectors. The ultimate goal will be to build thriving communities, foster artistic, educational and professional development, and connect Black artists to opportunity and resources.

“I’ve been in Akron my whole life and part of the arts my whole life and there’s never been anything like it” Harris of the Black Artist Guild.

Fellowship staff like Harris will support Reimagine Fellowship artists, who will be paired with mentoring organizations in West Akron, East Akron and Kenmore. Selected artists will create original works that reimagine and investigate the intersection of creativity in non-art sectors through collaborations with residents and organizations like Kenmore Neighborhood Alliance.

“Akron has a past, but it also has a future,” Harris said, “and I think it’s a bright one, especially for young black creatives and young black artists.”

For more information about the Akron Black Artists Guild and the Reimagine Fellowship, visit www.abaguild.org. For more information about the East Ave Market & Galleries, visit www.facebook.com/eastavemarket.