Cleveland Voices is a project of the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University Department of History. Audio is housed in the Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection, an archive of more than one thousand interviews collected since 2002. Content presented on this site represents the labor of students, faculty, and staff in the CSU Department of History and the perspectives of individual interviewees. Listeners are encouraged to verify stories through additional research.
Each in Their Own Voice: African American Artists in Cleveland, 1970-2005
The first generations of African American artists who were active in the Cleveland region were showcased in the 1993 exhibition Yet Still We Rise: African American Artists in Cleveland 1930-1970. In 2005, a second exhibition was organized. In addition to gallery shows, this exhibit – titled Each in Their Own Voice: African American Artists in Cleveland, 1970-2005 – documented subsequent generations of African American artists through oral history interviews, which were incorporated into the opening of the gallery show. The interviews for the project were collected by students and staff at the CSU Center for Public History and Digital Humanities.
Michaelangelo Lovelace Interview, 28 October 2008
Artist Michaelangelo Lovelace (b. Michael Anthony Lovelace) discusses his personal background and career; including details on his family and art education, and insights on the intersection of art and race. Lovelace, a native Clevelander, describes…
Anthony Mahone Interview, 13 January 2009
Photographer Anthony Mahone discusses his life and art. Born and raised Cleveland, Ohio, Mahone spent much of his early adulthood elsewhere; first, while attending a military academy in North Dakota, and later traveling to Europe and Africa. The bulk…
Kevin Snipes Interview, 13 January 2009
Artist Kevin Snipes discusses his life and art. Born in Philadelphia, PA, Snipes and his family moved to Cleveland, OH in the 1960s. Snipes distinguished himself as an artist at an early age in the public schools of Cleveland and Shaker Heights.…
Moe Brooker Interview, 13 January 2009
Artist Moe Brooker discusses his life and career. A native of Philadelphia, PA, Brooker came to Cleveland in 1979 to teach at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he became that school's first full-time African-American instructor. Shortly after…
Kevin Everson Interview, 13 January 2009
Mansfield native, Kevin Everson, talks about discovering his artistic ability in college and his interest in photography and film. Everson admired the discipline and creativity of his art professors, and decided that he wanted to earn a living by…
Cushmere Bell Interview, 24 December 2008
Artist Cushmere Bell describes his life and career. Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Bell knew he wanted to be an artist at an early age. An early interest in comics and a "part-time job" of drawing commissioned sports scenes from the covers of Sports…