I Am Trans* Films and Arts Exhibit Encourage Self Expression

No matter who you are or where you come from — you should always honor your true self. This lesson comes across brilliantly in I Am, Ohio's first ever transgender art exhibit at Waterloo Arts gallery, open until May 25, where 15 artists from around the country share their experience as transgender individuals. In conjunction with the exhibit, Sistah Sinema is premiering Stealth and Kuma Hina: A Place in the Middle, both of which were previously shown at the Cleveland International Film Festival, that capture the transgender experience through a younger generation.

"It's encouraging and emboldening these young children to be themselves," says Deidre McPherson, founder of the Cleveland chapter of Sistah Sinema. "Both films are positive examples of young people being supported by adults and showing them how we as adults are mentoring and raising the next generation — how we can support them, and love them, and encourage them to be happy and see themselves."

The films will be shown back-to-back Friday, May 1 beginning at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a panel discussion led by activist Zoe Renee Lapin, one of our Most Interesting People of 2015. The event is free, but donations are encouraged to Margie's Hope, a local nonprofit dedicated to helping transgender people find secure housing and employment. Here's a sneak preview of tomorrow night's films.

Stealth follows a young transgender person in her search for acceptance.

Stealth, which won this year's best student short film award at CIFF, stars Kristina Hernandez as an 11-year-old who goes by the name of Sammy. As the new girl at school, she reveals her secret to her closest friends — that she was born a boy but living life as a girl. When she's betrayed and her identity is publicly revealed, she's faced with the decision to stay masked or to live out her true identity. "I actually heard people gasp in the audience [at CIFF] as they watched the film and be surprised, not knowing what the film was going to be about," says McPherson. "It's a reminder of the rejection, the bullying, and the harassment that some people face in school just to be different in any way."

Kuma Hina: A Place in the Middle is a documentary that captures a teacher's journey to educate her students on the acceptance and appreciation of gender fluidity.

An honorable mention for the Spalding and Jackson award at CIFF, Kuma Hina: A Place in the Middle captures the complexity journey of a classroom navigating the thin line of gender expectations. When 11-year-old Ho'onani decides she wants to participate in the traditionally masculine hula troupe, her transgender teacher, Wong Kalu finds a way to make it happen while explaining the importance of embracing the male and female characteristics that reside inside of everyone. "Wong Kalu uses her native Hawaiian culture to empower her young students," says McPherson. "This film brings to life a diverse gender spectrum that challenges people to think about gender identity in a better way."

Market Repair

While the fire that struck the West Side Market Jan. 30 has long been snuffed out, Cash Mob founder Andrew Samtoy is inviting Clevelanders to help him spark an economic boom at the beloved landmark this Saturday.

When Samtoy heard an overnight fire left a trail of smoke damage throughout the market, contributing to thousands of dollars in lost food, he sprung into action. Samtoy and his crew decided to host a cash mob to get the vendors back on their feet after losing out on profits (including major revenues from Super Bowl weekend) while they were closed for a $276,000 cleanup from Jan. 30 to Feb. 17.

Samtoy, who co-engineered the cash mob idea that started an international trend, (read our 2013 Most Interesting People profile on him) welcomes people to come out during all hours the market is open, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., but he recommends coming before 10 a.m. or after 2 p.m.to avoid crowds. He simply asks attendees to spend $20, meet three new people and have fun. Although he is only asking people to spend $20, Samtoy expects many people will drop more cash than that.

“People know this is going towards the vendors and helping them get back on their feet,” he says. “The one concern that we have is that some of these vendors are actually going to run out.”

Although there is still a lot of work to be done before the market completely recovers from the setback, Samtoy believes this cash mob is a starting point. You can find out more information about the cash mob on a Facebook page Samtoy started for the event.

Samtoy's cash mob is one of many efforts to revive the market. Others have jumped on the relief bandwagon, including chef Michael Symon, who announced a national campaign on his television show, The Chew, and is hosting a benefit for the market Feb. 27. To find out more about his efforts and to donate, visit his website marketvendorrelief.org.

We wrote about the market's 100th anniversary in our November 2012 issue. You can read the stories here. (To link to this article on social media, use: http://bit.ly/WyieGD)

'60 Minutes' to feature Cleveland's man who can't forget

Is that tick-tick-tick the stopwatch on CBS' 60 Minutes, counting down the seconds in an hour? Or is it the sound of Rick Baron's brain, flipping through the calendars in his head, the days of each year since 1968?

Baron, one of our Most Interesting People for 2009 (click here, 2nd person down), called yesterday to say he'll be on 60 Minutes this March. He's one of four people in the world known to have hyperthymesia, a super-memory of their own life, day by day, as well as world events.

"It’s like your own private time machine," Baron says.

CBS flew him out to California last month to meet with two other super-memory guys, take quizzes, get MRIs taken of their brains, and be interviewed by 60 Minutes reporter Lesley Stahl. The segment will likely air in March.

Scientists at the University of California-Irvine say Baron's encyclopedic memory comes from his caudate nuclei, a part of his brain that's seven or eight times the size of most people's.

"Anything -- especially numbers and dates -- anything you read, hear, or see just sticks on your head," he says.

Baron, a human almanac, never tires of being tested. Ad-libbing, I ask him the date that the late Alabama governor George Wallace was shot. Arthur Bremer shot him on Monday, May 15, 1972, he says. (Correct.) Who won Super Bowl XVI? The 49ers, he says after a second's pondering: They beat the Bengals, on January 24, 1982, in Detroit, in the first cold-weather Super Bowl.

Ever seen a perpetual calendar, which keeps track of the seven ways a regular year and a leap year can start? Baron has that in his head: 1982 has the same calendar as 2010, he adds after his Super Bowl riff. (Yes, this Jan. 24 is also a Sunday.) It's the template for his memory. (That file-by-date process might also cause an occasional imperfection in his recall. I think I hear him say the Super Bowl XVI score that Jan. 24 was 24-21 -- actually, it was 26-21, Google tells me.)

So far, Baron's talent has earned him an appearance on NBC's Today Show as well as lots of trivia contest victories and free vacations.

"I get paid for some things," he says: "Speaking at medical events, corporate events." He hopes to parlay it into a nightclub act or comedic game show, with prizes based on how many times a contestant can stump him.

"They’ve put me on the Bob Rivers radio show in Seattle," he says: the station offers "a trip anywhere in world if they stump me twice." No one has beaten him.

Most Interesting Contributing Editor: Coondog O'Karma

If you haven't checked out the letters page in January's issue, you missed a great note by Cleveland Magazine contributing editor Dave "Coondog" O'Karma on why he deserves to be named one of Cleveland's Most Interesting People.

Check it out here.

To see who the editors chose instead, click here.