Charm Warren-Celestine Interview 2009

Charm Warren-Celestine was born in Cleveland in 1950 and grew up in the Wade Park neighborhood. Her parents owned several record stores from the 1960s through the 1990s, Dean's House of Jazz. She worked for her parents and continued her love of music with a career in radio sales and artist promotions. This 2009 interview opens Warren-Celestine sharing childhood memories of her parents' store, the radio stations she listened to, and the venues around Cleveland at which she saw concerts. She also talks about racial issues in Cleveland, describing a personal experience with racism and reminiscing about the 1966 Hough Riots. The interview closes with Warren-Celestine commenting on rap musicians, comparing them to the artists of previous generations and noting their positive contributions to African-American communities.

Participants: Warren-Celestine, Charm (interviewee) / Aritonovich, Dana (interviewer)
Collection: Rock and Roll
Institutional Repository: Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection

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Rock and Roll

Rock and Roll

This collection of interviews covers topics of race relations and rock and roll music in Cleveland between 1952 and 1966. The interviews were conducted by Dana Aritonovich as she researched her thesis – The Only Common Thread: Race, Youth, and the Everyday Rebellion of Rock and Roll, Cleveland, Ohio, 1952-1966 – in pursuit of a Master of Arts in History at Cleveland State University, which was successfully completed in 2010. Interview subjects are music fans, musicians, and disc jockeys from…