Elissa Yancey

Building Value hosts third ReUse-apalooza

This weekend, upcycling creatives and fans of REM join supporters of Building Value in Northside for the third annual ReUse-apalooza fundraiser, April 27. “We are very excited about this chance to truly engage the community in reuse with ReUse-apalooza!,” says Tina Dyehouse, event volunteer and the chair of the designer challenge contest that rewards creative re-use of building materials. “The real magic of the event is it brings the community together to make a positive impact on our neighborhoods by raising awareness about sustainability and helping those with disabilities and disadvantages.” In the spirit of Building Value's focus on "green" building practices, the event this year includes an after-party at Northside Tavern where  local favorites Messerly and Ewing will perform the entire "Green" album by REM. The band contributed REM memorabilia for the event auction as well, and will entertain the Building Value crowd before heading to the after-party. All proceeds benefit job training program for people with disabilities and disadvantages at Building Value and its parent organization, Easter Seals Work Resource Center. Building Value employs people with disabilities from Easter Seals who staff the reuse center, which sells some of the more than 3,000 tons of building material waste Building Value diverts from landfills each year.  Do Good: • Attend ReUse-apalooza. Tickets are available online. • Find out more about Building Value and its impact on the community. • Donate used building materials to support the nonprofit and its environment-friendly practices. By Elissa Yancey 

My Soapbox: Peggy Shannon, Queen City Cookies

Look for Queen City Cookie's reigning royalty, founder Peggy Shannon, driving a pink, elephant-adorned "schnecken shack" starting next week. The city's newest food truck will house plenty of sweets and lots of new creations, from pig pockets to donut toast. And it will be hard to miss. Shannon gives Soapbox the scoop on truck menus and elephant art, selling to Dean and Deluca and building a new Cincinnati landmark within an historic one.

Russo’s ‘Star’ turn celebrates personal passion, arts in Cincinnati

Regina Russo, the marketing director at the Cincinnati Art Museum, has seen two record-breaking attendance years since she left her post at FOX19 to promote art for a living. Now she's stepping out, literally, for the sixth annual Dancing for the Stars competition and fundraiser. In the process, she's living out "a dream deferred."

Soap Pick: Poetry in motion at CAC

From The Art of Noise to Feist, curator Jonathan Walls appreciates the experimental and the artistic elements of music videos. Next Monday, the curator of the CAC's "Spectacle: The Music Video," comes back to town to interview Feist and the director of her latest music video, Martin De Thurah. He gives Soapbox a close look at "Spectacle" and the promise of a creative surprise.

For second anniversary, Grateful Grahams adds bites

Earth Day next month marks the second anniversary for Rachel DesRochers’ business baby, Grateful Grahams. In honor of the occasion, she has been cooking up a new batch of vegan graham cracker bites, cookies sized to be eaten in just two bites. “We are thrilled to have these bites to add to the grateful grahams family,” says DesRochers. The original “bite” flavor is cinnamon raison, but upcoming flavors include chocolate chocolate chunk, peanut butter and jelly, and peanut butter/peanuts/chocolate chip. After starting with a booth at the 2010 Earth Day festival downtown, DesRochers now sells her vegan edibles in more than 20 stores, from Sacramento, CA, to Rockville, MD. Locally, she stocks Park+Vine on Main Street, Nordstrom’s eBar in Kenwood Towne Centre, the Blue Manatee Bookstore in Oakley and through Green B.E.A.N. Delivery, among others. For more information, visit Grateful Grahams on Facebook. By Elissa Yancey Follow Elissa on Twitter

The Newcomer: Colin Flynn

City Flea sets 2012 sites on Washington Park

City Flea co-founders Nick and Lindsay Dewald are poised to make cool-shopping history again this year, with a new schedule and more venues, including stops in the reopened Washington Park in OTR. “We loved how the flea was jammed into an underutilized lot last year, but feel that being integrated into the park will prove to be a great move for us, the vendors and the shoppers,” the Walnut Hills’ couple writes in an email. “We will be sharing the park with a dog run, a state of the art playground, brand new restroom facilities, a parking garage, fountains, a grassy lawn, shady benches and so on.” Four of the couple’s seven June through December monthly events will be held at the OTR park, with Music Hall as a beautifully historic backdrop. Additional stops are slatted for the original 12th and Vine Street lot and at the American Can Lofts in Northside. They will also be a part of the OTR Summer Celebration, and have a mystery, yet-to-be-announced location for the November Flea. With the application process for vendors open now through May 12, the Dewalds are looking forward to creating even better experiences for vendors and shoppers alike. For now, that means keeping the Fleas monthly instead of making them more often. “We feel like keeping them once a month is a nice frequency and forces people to make sure they definitely go instead of just saying they'll make it next week,” they write. “Lots of the vendors are very small operations and we think that a month in between each event allows them to restock their shelves.” In the future, though, those monthly shopping sprees may not be enough. “We would love to get to a point where The City Flea could be a weekly event that is sustained by a steady combination of tourists and a critical mass of urban residents,” they write. And the entrepreneurial-nurturing entrepreneurs are trailblazers, too. “We have heard of at least four or five other urban flea markets that are about to pop up in other cities, several of which have contacted us for info,” they write. “Hopefully the city will continue to embrace our events and we will be thought of as being a bit ahead of the curve. We would love for The City Flea to gain a reputation that extends outside of Cincinnati and contribute to bringing visitors and import residents.”   By Elissa Yancey Follow Elissa on Twitter

The Insider: Justin Thompson

The Rising Star: Danny Stull

The Upstart: Mike Bott