Calls for social and racial justice continued to echo throughout 2021 in many facets of American society, including in the arts. As part of WKSU's Shuffle, our regular music feature covering Northeast Ohio's music scene, Amanda Rabinowitz regularly talked with and reported on musicians about their craft and their continuing push for diversity, equity and inclusion.
The three stories included in this entry are compiled in the audio player at the top of this page. Links to each individual story follow below.
Free Black!, the hip-hop collective developed by Floco Torres and Holbrook Riles III (HR3), released its third album, Black Tuesday! in October. The album explores themes around the economy and working class and includes an assortment of features from Akron-based musicians.
Cleveland nonprofit Twelve Literary Arts will release its debut album, “In Search of the Land,” June 19. The release, which includes contributions from more than 40 Black artists in Cleveland, will fall on Juneteenth.
!['UPFRNT' is a virtual variety show created to elevate Cleveland’s Black performers. Mourning [A] BLKstar, a multi-generational, gender and genre non-conforming band from the region, performed on episode one of the series.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9300743/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1280x713+0+0/resize/560x312!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F2c%2F73%2Fae7ceb8f46118db1ff75cb76c655%2Fupfrnt4deannajones.jpeg)
Cleveland filmmaker Zoë Mountain and musician TJ Maclin came up with the idea of the virtual series that spotlights and supports Black artists during the COVID-19 pandemic and puts the racial justice movement on center stage.