Northeastern Ohio has produced some amazing art, much of it gritty and raw, a reflection of the region's industrialism and subsequent de-industrialism. I'm thinking of poets like Kenneth Patchen. Sherry Linkon and John Russo write in Steeltown USA: Work and Memory in Youngstown about how writers and thinkers and musicians reflected and responded to the changing face of class in the region, especially in the 70s and early 80s, as mills closed and unemployment lines lengthened.
No artistic movement thrived in the region with as much creative energy as first-wave punk rock. Rocket from the Tombs, the Dead Boys (with Stiv Bators, graduate of Youngstown's fine Catholic school system), Pere Ubu, Devo, The Waitresses, Chrissie Hynde, Rubber City Rebels. All from Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron, or Kent. Robert Christgau's website has in its archives a great piece Christgau wrote in 1978 about this burgeoning scene. Check it out!
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