18 things to do in fall 2021 and winter 2022 in Greater Cleveland

Compiled by Amanda Koehn, McKenna Corson and Sammi Fremont

Editor’s note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, events are subject to change or require specified health and safety protocols. Visit their corresponding websites for updated information regarding visitation prior to attending.


Cleveland Jewish FilmFest

If you’re looking for new movies, look no further than the Mandel Jewish Community Center’s Cleveland Jewish FilmFest now through Oct. 24. This year, the film fest hosted by the JCC located in Beachwood will include both in-person limited capacity and virtual programs to showcase Jewish films from around the world. The fest is also expected to include online Q&A sessions. mandeljcc.org/filmfest


Not My Burden, 2019. Titus Kaphar (American, b. 1976). Oil on canvas; 167.6 x 153 cm. © Titus Kaphar. Image courtesy of the artist and Gagosian. Collection of Ellen Susman, Houston, Texas. Photo: Rob McKeever

‘Picturing Motherhood Now’ 

The exhibition “Picturing Motherhood Now” at the Cleveland Museum of Art responds to our present day by bringing together works by a diverse array of contemporary artists who reimagine the possibilities for representing motherhood. The exhibition, showcased from Oct. 16 to March 13 in the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Gallery at CMA in the University Circle area of Cleveland, draws on a range of feminisms challenging familiar archetypes of motherhood, construing it as a wide-ranging term. The artists use motherhood as a lens through which to examine contemporary social issues such as the changing definitions of family and gender, the histories and afterlives of slavery, the legacies of migration and the preservation of matrilineal Indigenous cultures. clevelandart.org


New Image Photography

‘Don Quixote’ 

The Cleveland Ballet will present “Don Quixote” Oct. 15 and 16 at the Mimi Ohio Theatre in downtown Cleveland. The local ballet company will interpret the story in a less traditional way with artistic director Gladisa Guadalupe making the story unravel in a more realistic way than it has in the past. The Cleveland Ballet’s rendition of the classic story will show that we all have a little Don Quixote in us. clevelandballet.org


The Cleveland Shabbos Project

Pull up your sleeves and start flouring your kitchen surfaces, the 2021 Cleveland Shabbos Project is making its annual return Oct. 21-23.  The annual bread baking event will feature “challah bake pods” simultaneously running throughout the Cleveland area. The project will also provide everything participants need to bake delicious loaves, including a team member to help facilitate each pod. shabbosprojectcle.com 


AP Photo / Brandon Wade, File

Cavs home opener

Join the Cleveland Cavaliers for the team’s home opener Oct. 22 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in downtown Cleveland. Wear your wine and gold to watch your favorite hometown team take on the Charlotte Hornets, followed by a home game against the Atlanta Hawks Oct. 23. nba.com/cavaliers


Cleveland Marathon

Lace up your running shoes for whatever race matches your endurance and interest for the Union Home Mortgage Cleveland Marathon. This year’s races offered are a 5K, 10K, half marathon, full marathon and “challenge series,” where runners or walkers compete in two different races. The event kicks off Oct. 22 with its health and fitness expo, where participants can pick up their bibs and visit vendors at the Huntington Convention Center
in downtown Cleveland. The races take place from Oct. 23-24, starting and finishing at Public Square. clevelandmarathon.com


‘Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory’

The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood is presenting more than 60 never-before-seen personal items brought to America by survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides in its new exhibit “Stories of Survival: Object. Image. Memory” on view starting Oct. 27. Each artifact is dramatically showcased alongside oversized photographs by renowned documentarian Jim Lommasson with handwritten responses by survivors or their family members. The objects are as everyday as a baby doll and a black suitcase, and as symbolic as a young mother’s cookbook and a wedding announcement– saved by local survivors from genocides around the world, including in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, South Sudan and Syria. A project of the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in Skokie, the objects and memories depicted are a reflection of their owners’ journeys and family histories. maltzmuseum.org


‘One Year, One Outfit’ 

Interested in slow, sustainable fashion with a local twist? Praxis Fiber Workshop and Rust Belt Fibershed are hosting an exhibition of outfits created by local design teams and individuals over the course of a year. It serves the purpose of better understanding the resources and labor that go into making clothes, as well as what our region offers in terms of local materials to create clothing. The exhibit opens Nov. 5 at the Praxis Gallery in the Waterloo Arts District of Cleveland, and is on view through January. praxisfiberworkshop.com


‘The Exonerated’

Through Nov. 7, Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood will present “The Exonerated,” a docu-drama recounting first-person narratives in dramatic form through the legal records of six wrongly convicted inmates. Written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the Beck Center rendition is directed by Colleen Longshaw Jackson. The accounts of the wrongly accused explore the characters’ lives after being sentenced to death, and the legal proceedings that gained their exoneration. beckcenter.org


Cleveland Pizza Week

Share a pizza pie  – or several – for Cleveland Pizza Week. From Nov. 8-14, some of Cleveland’s top pizzerias will serve $8 pizzas to try out all kinds of cheesy and saucy options. And there’s a Pizza Week Passport to keep track of your food adventures. clevelandpizzaweek.com


Photo / Jane Kaufman

Chanukah 

Chag sameach! Jstyle wishes you a Happy Chanukah. In between frying up latkes and spinning the dreidel, visit Jstyle’s sister publication, the Cleveland Jewish News, for coverage of what’s happening locally for Chanukah (from Nov. 28 through Dec. 6). cjn.org/holidays


Federation Campaign Closing Celebration

Join the Jewish Federation of Cleveland in Beachwood and the local Jewish community Dec. 8 to celebrate what it accomplished together as far as fundraising for the Federation’s 2022 Campaign for Jewish Needs. The annual campaign raises funds for Jewish needs locally, nationally and internationally. jewishcleveland.org


CJN 18 Difference Makers 

The Cleveland Jewish News will host its seventh annual 18 Difference Makers event at 6 p.m. Dec. 9 at Landerhaven in Mayfield Heights. The honorees, to be revealed in the CJN, consist of Northeast Ohioans who are using their skills and time to give back to the Jewish community. cjn.org/18DM


NBA All-Star Game 2022

Cleveland sports fans won’t have to go far to watch one of basketball’s biggest events of the year. The 71st NBA All-Star Weekend will return to Cleveland from Feb. 18-20, 2022, at the newly remodeled Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. The weekend will feature events hosted by surrounding downtown Cleveland districts and venues. The NBA All-Star Game, the weekend’s finale, is set for Feb. 20, 2022, where the sport’s best like former Cavs LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are expected in town to go head-to-head. The event will also commemorate the NBA’s 75th anniversary. NBA.com


Cleveland Auto Show

Marking the start of Northeast Ohio’s spring automotive selling season, the Cleveland Auto Show will make its I-X Center return in 2022 from Feb. 25 through March 6. The show had originally been scheduled for December 2021 at the Huntington Convention Center, but was changed when Industrial Realty Group LLC announced plans to reopen the I-X Center after the 2.2-million-square-foot facility shut its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The 2022 auto show will feature Millionaire’s Row, Ride N’Drives and the Classic Car Show. clevelandautoshow.com


‘Wicked’

Find out what happened in Oz long before Dorothy arrived. “Wicked,” the Broadway sensation, returns to Playhouse Square at KeyBank State Theatre in downtown Cleveland for a month-long run from Dec. 8 through Jan. 2, 2022. playhousesquare.org


Tu b’Shevat

The birthday of the trees begins at sundown Jan. 16. Celebrate by hosting a seder, eating different kinds of fruits and considering the ecological issues of our time and how to address them. Enjoy the foliage at the Cleveland Botanical Garden or the Holden Arboretum, or make a donation to the Jewish National Fund to plant a tree in Israel. jnf.org


Photo / Alyssa Schmitt

Brite Winter

Brite Winter will return to its regularly scheduled live music programming after canceling last year’s event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Feb. 26, 2022, head to the West Bank of the Flats for the nonprofit festival that brings together Northeast Ohioans on a chilly evening to experience new music, art and other fun programming. britewinter.com

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