Local librarian, DJ, artist and game developer Nukes de Almeida Nuku-Graves is making waves in the city’s art scene by teaching others how to make video games while telling the stories they’re passionate about.

The American-born Brazilian-Ghanaian artist is hosting a free-to-attend panel at the Contemporary Arts Center this Sunday afternoon, where her students will present the video games they’ve made as part of a seven-week ‘game jam’ class every Friday. During the panel, three games will be presented for audiences to play, discuss, and enjoy.

For Nuku-Graves, who uses she/they pronouns, storytelling is a lifelong obsession. Coming from a rural Indiana town, she didn’t know many people growing up who looked like her or shared her same interests, so she spent the majority of her time creating her own fantastical universes.

“I spent all my time growing up on the Internet, writing stories I came up with in my head, because the idea of creating a story that could impact somebody else’s life was such a beautiful concept,” they said. “There have been so many books or movies where I was like ‘wow, I’m gonna hold this with me in my heart,’ and the intrigue of being able to write a story myself that people still think about is… my dream.”

In her childhood, she eventually discovered visual novels, the video game genre she’d go on to work in as an adult. As the name implies, the genre primarily involves reading text on a screen with visual and gameplay accompaniments. (Notable examples of visual novel-esque games are the wildly popular Persona and Ace Attorney franchises.)

“My parents were really strict, so we didn’t have a lot of video games at home. And so I’d get online and find—wait, you know that website GirlsGoGames? With the really shity romance games? Yeah, that was my introduction to visual novels,” they said. “I was like, ‘whoa, I can experience all these stories about people who are different than me, and I can access them for free on the web without having to download anything.’ It was really fascinating.”

Fast forward to college, and Nuku-Graves planned to be a software engineer—and “then I took one JavaScript class and realized ‘this is the worst shit I’ve ever done in my whole life.'” She transitioned to UC’s DAAP school with plans of becoming an animator, and then took “the class that changed my life.”

During her time at DAAP, she took an “Intro to Video Game Design” class, attempting to expand her horizons and take a peek behind the curtain of game development. Her final class project paired her with a group that made a game called ‘Hot Monsters,’ a dating simulator about Bigfoot and Mothman.

“The game was like 15 minutes long, I didn’t even care about Bigfoot or cryptids, that was all my groupmates. And I did the art and developed [the game] and I was like,” she said, pausing, “‘Why is this literally, like, so lit?’ I was shocked because I had played so many games like this growing up, and it was like, ‘Wait, I could do this myself?'”

Their professor, Katherine Castiello Jones, “loved the game so much” and encouraged her to pursue game development. She eventually signed up to do an independent study, where she’d have her own game to showcase by the end of the semester.

“I went home for the summer and played a ton of [games], trying to figure out what I’d do for my own,” they said. Over time, however, they became frustrated with video game storytelling in general, saying that “a lot of video games, regardless of genre, are not for black people, not for queer people, not for immigrant children. They’re for straight white guys.”

With her final project, they set out to change that and make a game that reflected the diversity in their real life. “And I was like, ‘well, what if I just did ‘Hot Monsters’ again but bigger?’ I really, really liked the design I created for the Mothman character. So what if I just made a game featuring them?”

Three months later, work on Cryptid Coffeehouse was completed. Set in an alternate-universe Cincinnati, the player spends time in a local coffee shop romancing the famous mythical creature Mothman while interacting with a wide array of colorful characters. It was developed in a Python-based programming language called Ren’Py.

Nuku-Graves posted the game on the website itch.io, which allows people to upload and distribute independent games for free, “just to have somewhere to easily host it and distribute it to my classmates.” But hours later, the game already had 1000 players. “I was like, what the hell is happening here?”

Four years later, Cryptid Coffeehouse has tens of thousands of players and still receives updates adding to the game’s story. It’s been published on Xbox and Steam, which makes her “a chunk of change every so often” as new people discover and purchase the game. (There’s even a spin-off game, titled Kurou Connect.) But what’s really impacted her life is the game’s rabid fanbase.

Fans of the game are writing fanfiction, drawing fan art, and creating new projects based on Cryptid Coffeehouse—in exactly the same way Nuku-Graves did with their favorite works of art when they were a child.

“People will tell me, ‘I’ve experienced something here that I’ve never experienced with another game, and these characters, I see myself in them and feel validated.’ And that’s what I make games for,” she said. “I wanted to feel that way while gaming [as a child], and now… I get to meet people who were just like me, in another state or even across the world, who feel seen. I was alone, but these people aren’t alone because of my game, and now I’m not alone either because I have these people, too.”

This past winter, the Contemporary Arts Center asked Nuku-Graves to headline the winter edition of their Co-LAB series, a quarterly class that is “designed to collaborate with the public, create change, alter perspectives, and think creatively.” She’s now hosting her own introductory game design class at one of the biggest art showcases in the city.

It’s a full-circle moment for her, as she’s achieved her childhood dream of creating a story that tons of people enjoy and is now inspiring that same dream for those in her class.

“I feel a sense of pride with [my students] because little Nukes, growing up in middle-of-nowhere Indiana, felt all alone,” they said. “Now, [my students] want to learn, and want to tell stories, and want to make games, and want to make a statement in their art… I’m living out my dream, and I feel like this is what I want to do forever.”

The post Local developer teaches students how to tell their stories through gaming appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Popular manga café pop-up CinSei is expanding from their two-car-garage-wide space to a full-service location in the heart of Over-the-Rhine.

The café, which serves matcha (a Japanese caffeinated beverage made from green tea leaves) and sells manga (Japanese comics), is the only Black-owned manga café in the United States.

Owners Kendall and Jaleesa Ross have no experience running a store, but the two have had a lifelong passion for manga and anime, and knew there was an untapped market for others in the Cincinnati area who share the same interests.

“We’ve never ran a café before,” Kendall said. “She’s a nurse. I’m a graphic designer. We both have zero barista experience. And on top of that, we don’t go to cafés because we don’t drink coffee. So when we started, we had no idea what to do. But… we knew this was needed in the community, and we wanted to create a third space for people to hang out. The Black community, especially, is extremely underrepresented in this space and is a lot bigger than what people believe it is.”

Their instincts were correct: When they opened last August, hundreds of people showed up, and they even sold out of matcha the first few days they were open.

“We thought people were just gonna come and see the books and leave. But we didn’t expect the matcha to fly,” Jaleesa said. “Not only did we sell out of our matcha quickly, but everyone still seems to love it, and they come back regularly.”

Their lease in the pop-up space at OTR design firm Yard & Co was supposed to end in October 2025, but the outpouring of community support has allowed them to keep the shop open. It’s a bit ironic that the café has become well-known for having some of the best matcha in the Cincinnati area, given that the two initially didn’t like the drink when they first tried it last April.

“At one point, I was like ‘This is disgusting, we’re just gonna have hot chocolate, screw this,'” Jaleesa said. “But once we found a kind [of matcha] we liked, I was like ‘OK, this is gold.’ And we realized Japanese tea obviously pairs really well with manga.”

Two recent additions that will now be menu mainstays are pistachio-infused matcha and hojicha, where a matcha leaf is torched over high heat and gains a natural caramelization (similar to the “roasted” feel of coffee) before a pinch of brown sugar is added to the drink. Kendall said it’s his favorite drink in their shop, and usually what he recommends to coffee drinkers trying to ease their way into the tea-heavy flavor of matcha.

But despite the city’s love for its matcha, CinSei is “a manga shop first and foremost,” Kendall said. Unlike most American comic books, which primarily feature superheroes and are generally marketed toward children, manga is considered an art form in Japan and there are series of every genre—from sci-fi to horror to romance—intended for adults.

Jaleesa hand-picked every single book in the store and has read nearly everything on the shelves. For manga newcomers, she usually recommends action series Kagurabachi (“it’s like Kill Bill mixed with Demon Slayer,” Kendall said) and the high-fantasy series Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Vinland Saga, which are comparable to adults-only Western fantasy fare like Game of Thrones.

For experienced manga readers, she usually recommends her favorite series, Fire Punch by Tatsuki Fujimoto, “as long as they’re OK with some messed up stuff,” as the series is well-known for its mature and depressing themes. “I tell them, ‘Hey, just read this, Fujimoto is a genius.’ I can go on and on about him.”

Initially, they planned to open CinSei for three months, but the café’s resounding success has kept it open much longer; eventually, 3CDC approached the two about moving into the former home of Coffia on E 3rd Street in Over-the-Rhine, next to the popular restaurant Wildweed.

Now, Kendall and Jaleesa’s short-term hobby has become a full-time project. Not much will change after moving into the bigger space (“the number one question we get is ‘When are you going to do coffee?’ and the answer is ‘never,'” Kendall said, laughing), but the relocation will allow them to hone in on their true focus: community building.

The name of the café—a play on words combining Cincy and sensei, which is Japanese for teacher—speaks to their goal for the space. The shop is littered with educational information about manga and Japanese culture, and the owners often host events at other venues that they pay out of pocket for and make no profit from, all in the name of growing their local scene.

“Over in Japan, there’s manga cafés everywhere,” Kendall said. “But in the United States, they don’t exist at all. I feel like [this café] is not even necessarily about a dollar for us… this is really for our community.”

Jaleesa agreed, saying the shop is creating “the community [her and Kendall] wished we would’ve had” growing up, and that “we’ve always loved anime and manga, and we always wanted to see a space where you can hang out and find friends who share the same interest.”

Specifically, the two are interested in creating a space where Black people feel welcome, as the larger manga/anime community online tends to be the opposite of inclusive.

“To be frank and honest with you, Black people are usually shunned and looked down upon by anime fans online. Just recently, there was a Black teenage cosplayer who committed suicide because of the harassment and hate they were receiving for dressing up as characters who don’t look like them. For us, this kind of space just doesn’t exist,” Kendall said. “We have customers that are grown adults in their 40s and for the first time, when they come in… they feel seen and welcomed.”

A majority of manga stories revolve around underdogs cast out by society and faced with impossible challenges, which Jaleesa feels is relatable to “how African-Americans feel.”

“I feel like the challenges they go through are similar to how African-Americans live, how America is, and how our society is set up—which is sad to say, but it’s true,” she said. “I feel like it’s easy to connect to and resonate with these underdog characters, and we can see ourselves in them and relate to the strife and difficulty they face when they’re trying to achieve their goals.”

Now that they’re finally able to have a larger space to find the community they’ve been searching for, it feels like a dream come true.

“It’s so funny, I go to work and they’re like ‘What are you still here for? [The café] is your get rich card!’ I tell them this is supposed to be just for fun and then I realize ‘Oh, we’re about to have a whole business,'” Jaleesa said, laughing. “We thought this wasn’t gonna last very long. Now we’re realizing we have a lot of work ahead. But it’s fun work. Like, way fun work… Customers don’t even have to come in and buy a drink or a book. We just want a truly cool space where everyone can enjoy themselves.”

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This story is from our latest print edition. Find a paper near you here.

In photography, the phrase “long view” serves two primary functions: long-distance vision and long-duration viewing. 

But it also implies a broader perspective, one that places emphasis on distance, duration and how we should consider both past and present. It’s a type of thinking that can be brought into different facets of life, whether you’re simply viewing a work of art, or even creating a community space that allows for forward-thinking while paying homage to the artists and craftspeople who came before us.

For FotoFocus, a lens-based art nonprofit in Cincinnati, “The Long View” is the theme of its upcoming Biennial, a month-long series of exhibitions that take place across dozens of venues throughout the region every other October. But the theme could also apply to the organization’s latest and biggest project: the FotoFocus Center, a community-based gallery, exhibition hall and artistic hub that will open on Liberty Street in Over-the-Rhine this spring.

“As we’ve gotten larger, as the Biennial has occurred, I think something that we realized was lacking was a place to call home and a place for people to visit us outside of that programming, to know that we’re truly a year-round staple in this community,” FotoFocus Executive Director Katherine Ryckman Siegwarth told CityBeat. “And I think that was really what started the idea of how do we cement that?” 

The opening of the FotoFocus Center marks the first time the nonprofit will have its own space for the Biennial, now in its eighth iteration. But the center will also allow the nonprofit to offer year-round programming, like exhibits, educational events, artist talks and film screenings — all for free — and a chance to expand its reach into the community and center photography in Cincinnati’s arts landscape.

“I think the Biennial and being able to have our own space, it just helps us really ground the organization while still being able to provide more to the community,” said Emily Akil, FotoFocus’ communications and outreach manager. “We’re hoping that having this space will allow us to connect with more people and allow more people to understand what FotoFocus is and what we do.”  

Past and future through a viewfinder

Good art takes time, and the FotoFocus Center is a work of art in its own right. 

The project will be over four years in the making from the time it was announced to the public in 2022 to its opening, projected for May 29 this year. But now that it’s nearing completion, you can see the vision that has taken place: both an homage to photography (as well as the people who built Over-the-Rhine nearly 200 years ago) and a place where everyone is welcome to explore art through a lens. 

The building, located at 228 E. Liberty St., is two stories and around 14,700 square feet, with an enormous lobby and two spacious galleries, as well as an office space and conference room for the FotoFocus team. The exterior mimics photography’s gray scale: an ebonized black brick on the lower level that moves to a steel terrace and then white Travertine stone, which sits on a custom gridded steel frame that resembles a viewfinder of a camera when you look at it head-on from Sycamore Street. 

“These are little details that people may or may not pick up on, but photo enthusiasts will likely see some of it and think, ‘That’s super cool,’” Akil said. 

Initially, more of the building was going to be made of steel, but prices for the material skyrocketed as the project began. Project architect Jose Garcia of local firm Jose Garcia Design decided to replace that steel with Cross-Laminated Timber, a light and sustainable engineered wood that is both fire-resistant and strong enough to use as an alternative to concrete and steel.

And while the FotoFocus Center was the first construction project in the area to utilize Cross-Laminated Timber, it wasn’t the first project completed that used it. That honor belongs to Cincinnati Public Radio’s new building in Evanston, which finished construction last spring. 

But the pivot from steel to Cross-Laminate Timber only added to the FotoFocus Center’s photography-inspired exterior aesthetic.

“The warmth of the wood, along with the white of the stone, is really supposed to reflect the warmth of photography and the different scales and colors within images,” Akil said. 

The large windows on the front of the building, while offering tons of natural light, also play into the history of photography, as early studios had to have a bank of windows for exposures, Siegwarth said. 

The windows, as well as some of the building’s other architectural elements, also represent the industrial architecture of historic places in Over-the-Rhine, like Findlay Market — buildings that made the community what it is today. While the FotoFocus Center is a new and shiny building, Garcia wanted to ensure it also fit cohesively into the community’s mix of Italianate and industrial architecture. 

The black brick of the lower level is also a nod to the German and Italian masons who built the neighborhood in the 19th century, as is the corbeling (a shifting layout for the bricks) design of those bricks. If you stand at the corner of the building opposite of Sycamore, you’ll see how prominent that corbeling design is. Siegwarth anticipates a lot of Instagram selfies to be taken at that corner.

“They didn’t have luxurious material, so they used just humble brick,” Garcia said. “And with the few means that they had, they managed to create this beautiful neighborhood. If you look at all the details on the brick, you see the care that they put in, making the brick something extraordinary … So all the corbeling is a reference to that. It’s a reference to cornices — [the builders’] understanding [of] decoration and elevating the building just by using a very simple thing. I always loved the neighborhood, and this is basically a tribute to that.”

Ensuring the building merges cohesively with the neighborhood isn’t just a fun design choice; it also signals that it’s a place meant for the community. Not a place of pretension or exclusion, but somewhere everyone can come and appreciate lens-based art. 

“We want the community to know that [the FotoFocus Center] is a space for them,” Akil said. “We truly want everyone to feel welcome and like the FotoFocus Center is accessible to the entire community.”

“And I hope — to anybody and everybody who drives by or walks by — I hope it feels exactly like a friendly and open, welcoming [space],” Garcia added. 

As you move into the lobby of the building, you’re greeted by soaring ceilings and spacious galleries — a 3,000 square-foot one on the first floor and another 1,500 square-foot one on the second — but the airiness and the white walls ideal for exhibiting artwork don’t detract from its warmth; instead, the knotty pine ceilings and red oak trim complement the space and turn it into an invitation — an artsy retreat in the middle of the city. 

“It feels tall, but warm, with the wood up and down,” Garcia said, gesturing to the pine ceiling in the lobby. “That was something that we love, how wood is [implemented] throughout the building and makes you feel at home.”

While the aesthetics themselves are impressive, so is how they were maintained from concept to reality. Garcia said that when they had to pivot from using mainly steel, they opted for this alternative structure, which was designed here in Cincinnati in conjunction with a Canadian company. The building came to Cincinnati in pre-cut and pre-finished pieces and had to be assembled on-site, with very little room for error — 4 millimeters, said Siegwarth. 

With so little wiggle room, Garcia had to figure out how to conceal the components of the building that make it function — the HVAC system, electric, plumbing, the duct work — without compromising on the aesthetic of the FotoFocus Center. Normally, those parts would be hidden in the floor or ceiling, but that wouldn’t work in this space if they wanted to keep the pine ceiling, Garcia said.

“Normally, you hide all the guts of the building above the ceiling, below the floor. There’s no space in here for that. That wood up there,” he said, pointing to the pine ceiling, “that’s the floor, and we don’t want to cover it because it’s beautiful … So we didn’t want to cover all this beauty with drywall or floating ceiling or anything like that. So we had to plan very carefully: How [do] we [install] all the guts that make the building work without exposing them?”

The answer: behind a very thick wall. A wall at the back of the first-floor gallery hides all those components, with just some round, metal HVAC vents at the top of the wall hinting at the heavy lifting happening out of sight, allowing the space to focus solely on the design and art, as intended. 

As you move throughout the galleries, you’ll notice the exhibit walls jut up from the floor and out into the space, like they’re their own canvases waiting to be decorated. The galleries are flexible too, offering the ability to switch from one kind of exhibit to another, or to add more components like wall builds, Siegwarth said. And while the galleries are spacious, the lighting system offers the potential for more intimate exhibits, and the building has been wired so FotoFocus can lean into other forms of lens-based art, not solely photography.

“We have the ability to wire projections to multi-video, multi-channel installations. We want to play with what photography can be,” Siegwarth said.

What’s coming to the FotoFocus Center

Walking through the galleries, Siegwarth pointed out how each has its own personality. The first-floor gallery is double the size of the one on the second-floor, with slightly higher ceilings, offering for more flexibility in programming. But the second-floor gallery feels cozier and more intimate and can serve as either an addendum to an exhibit on the first floor or host its own.

“It’ll make it easier for us to kind of consider how programming fits in each one,” Siegwarth said.  “Our first exhibition will be on both floors, but this allows us also the ability to have two exhibitions simultaneously, to stagger our schedule. Those are things we’ll figure out in the first couple of years — what makes the most sense for us.” 

The FotoFocus Center is projected to open May 29, kicking off programming with its inaugural exhibit, the details of which FotoFocus will announce in the coming months. Siegwarth sees this first year and the inaugural exhibit as a chance to experiment, with programming becoming more robust in 2027. Akil said they foresee having between three to six exhibits a year, depending on how they decide to use the two gallery spaces and what the curatorial process will end up looking like.

Programming itself will focus on community and accessibility, as well as being able to appeal to a broader audience. But Siegwarth said FotoFocus has also always considered its programming to be interdisciplinary and at the forefront of conversations about the world through photography as well. They also won’t try to reinvent wheel when it comes to arts programming in the city.

“We’re a nice equidistance between the Contemporary Arts Center and Cincinnati Art Museum, and our programming has always complemented, not competed, with them,” Siegwarth says. “So I really see this as an exciting moment for Cincinnati at large.” 

“We want it to be a place to collaborate,” Akil added. “We still anticipate working with other venues and having guest lectures and bringing students into the space. So really, we want to make it a place for everybody, where people feel comfortable and can learn about photography, whether they are brand new to it or seasoned patrons of ours.”

The Long View

Following FotoFocus’ inaugural exhibit, which will run through August, the team will begin prepping the new center for its 2026 Biennial. While the center will offer a home for the nonprofit’s own Biennial exhibit this year, the FotoFocus team said the event’s overall structure will not change, with other exhibits on display at around 70 different venues, like museums, galleries, universities and public spaces, throughout Greater Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus and Northern Kentucky.

FotoFocus artistic director Kevin Moore is curating the works that will make up this year’s event. All works will fit into the theme of “The Long View,” with selected art focusing on the aspects of time and perspective in photography and film and how these media shape our understanding of the world. While the theme fits with the opening of the center, it also coincides with the United States’ 250th anniversary, offering attendees the opportunity to reflect on the country’s history, as well as its future.

“Our country is undergoing a lot of turbulence as it approaches its 250th anniversary, and a lot of us are anxiously caught up in the moment, worried about what the future holds,” Moore said in a previous press release. “The Long View suggests we might benefit from gaining a broader perspective by looking to the past to better imagine a future.”

FotoFocus will announce more Biennial details, including programming, in June, but Siegwarth said, like previous years, it will balance both emerging artists and established voices.

“Our Biennial system, in and of itself, is a way of balancing that,” Siegwarth told CityBeat. “It’s been very democratic. We do bring in international artists, nationally recognized artists, but we also have our own call for entry. We’re working with artists directly here, regionally, to produce exhibitions and support their work. And through the Biennial at large, we’re providing grants to local institutions to create programming that fits their mission, and much of that then goes toward local artist support. This building will continue that too.”

Since its inception in 2012, FotoFocus’ Biennial has attracted over 1 million visitors. The Opening Weekend will be held on Oct. 1-3 and include programming like talks, tours, panel discussions, and receptions, with the rest of the Biennial running through October.

To stay updated on the FotoFocus Center and Biennial, visit fotofocus.org.

The post FotoFocus’ new center turns the lens on community appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Feeling lucky? The 58th annual Cincinnati St. Patrick’s Day Parade returns on Saturday, March 14, with a familiar face at the helm.

Former University of Cincinnati quarterback and current Cincinnati sports broadcaster Tony Pike will serve as this year’s Grand Marshal. Beloved by former Bearcats everywhere for leading the team to an undefeated season in 2009, Pike brings hometown pride and leadership to this year’s celebration, embodying the spirit of community that defines the event.

The parade will begin at 11:45 a.m. along Mehring Way near Paycor Stadium, turn north on Joe Nuxhall Way, and conclude at The Banks. It celebrates nearly six decades of Irish heritage, culture and community pride. 

“The St. Patrick’s Day Parade is a treasured Cincinnati tradition,” said Chris Schulte, parade organizer. “For 58 years, it has brought our community together to celebrate Irish heritage, support local organizations, and share in a day of joy and connection.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be St. Patrick’s Day without Guinness. The Irish beer brand is sponsoring the entire parade, and will be kicking off the city’s shamrock-themed festivities with Cincinnati’s Official Guinness Keg Tapping at the popular downtown sports bar Holy Grail on Wednesday, March 11 at 6 p.m.

For those who can’t make the parade, FOX19 will broadcast the parade live across the Cincinnati area. FOX19 reporter Betsy Ross, who served as 2024’s Grand Marshal, will co-host parade coverage with Kathrine Nero, the Vice President of Media at Game Day.

The post Cincinnati’s St. Patrick’s Parade returns, adds local sports icon as Grand Marshal appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

If you’re a Love Is Blind fan, you probably already have Wednesday marked on your calendar.

That is, assuming you watched the first six episodes, during which contestant Elissa Finley accidentally put nail glue in her eye instead of eye drops — prompting a trip to the emergency room and a lot of jokes about whether love is, well, half blind anyway.

Finley was able to return to the experiment after a trip to the hospital, but she had to don an eye patch on the way home, according to an interview with Netflix.

“Did you know that eyes heal the fastest?” she said in the interview. “By day two, it was just a little blurry and not irritating. I just couldn’t wear my contacts, so I was in the pods half blind. I mean, I was really committed to this.”

Finley made a full recovery, and she’ll be in Norwood on Wednesday at Aces Bar & Grill in for a Love is Blind watch party.

This season, the show was filmed in Ohio’s capital, with singles from Cincinnati to Columbus looking to find love.

The event starts with a meet and greet with Finley at 6:30, followed by episodes 7 and 8 at 7 p.m., shown across more than 10 TVs with sound on, according to Aces’ Instagram post.

Aces is even serving special Nail Glue shots.

“Come early,” the post reads, “Grab a drink, and settle in… things are about to get messy 👀”

Aces Bar & Grill is located at 2730 Maverick Drive in Norwood.

The post Take a ‘Nail Glue’ shot with Love is Blind’s Elissa Finley at Aces in Norwood appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

The state of Ohio is kicking off its Ohio Goes to the Movies initiative today, a series of film screenings over 250 days that will showcase the state’s contributions to American filmmaking.

It’s all part of America 250-Ohio, a series of events the state is putting on in 2026 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Cincinnati’s first screening will be the 1966 screwball comedy Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, starring the Ohio-born actress and comedian Phyllis Diller.

It will be hosted at the Kenwood Theatre on February 15 and be presented like a red-carpet premiere, with “step-and-repeat photo opportunities, themed concessions, film facts pre-show, themed pre-film introduction and post-film discussions.” This is the first of three screenings held by the theater group that owns the Esquire, Kenwood and Mariemont Theatres, the region’s largest independently-owned theater group.

Each screening will have a meaningful connection to Ohio in some regard, whether it’s a main actor, director, or a filming location.

“Ohio Goes to the Movies is about celebrating how film connects communities,” said Molly Kreuzman, Ohio Goes to the Movies program director. “Cincinnati’s strong film culture and creative history make it a natural place to launch this celebration and invite audiences to experience these stories together.”

Here’s the full list of screenings in Cincinnati for the year:

Kenwood Theatre: “Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number” 2/15/26
Cinemark Western Hills: “A.I. Artifical Intelligence” 3/1/26
Cinemark Oakley Station “The Color Purple” 3/1/26
Miami Vital Society of Whitewater Township “History in Your Own Backyard” 3/25/26
Mariemont Theatre “Lover Come Back” 4/5/26
Miami Historical Society of Whitewater Township “History in Your Own Backyard – Whitewater Township Videos” 4/22/26
Contemporary Arts Center “The Best Years of Our Lives” 5/15/26
Colerain Park Amphitheater “Little Giants” 7/17/26
Cincinnati Museum Center “Apollo 11: First Steps Edition” 7/18/26
Esquire Theatre “A Raisin in the Sun” 8/14/26
RJ Cinema Distillery and Taproom “Rain Man” 9/21/26
AMC Anderson Towne Center “Jurassic Park” 10/2/26

The post Ohio launches state-wide movie screening initiative appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

In an effort to spread the joy of cinema to the public, the Cincinnati Public Library is beginning a new series of film screenings at the library’s Downtown location.

The series will be hosted by various local film curators in the city, which library specialist and event organizer Fritz Pape said is “in the spirit of continuing to foster the incredible grassroots homegrown community of film curators we have in Cincinnati.”

Local film organization Leontine Cinema Collective, which primarily screens women-directed films focused on social issues, will helm the first screening. In the library’s south atrium, they will show the classic 1997 Southern Gothic horror film Eve’s Bayou, which follows 10-year-old Eve Batiste as she navigates the unraveling of her affluent family in 1960s Louisiana. Jurnee Smollett and Samuel L. Jackson star.

According to Pape, the screenings are an “evolution” of a similar series the library put on last year.

“Last year, they were all movies picked by library staff—those were fun, but coming in to the new year I wanted to expand the reach,” Pape said. “At the library we’re always focused on collaborating with community partners across the city, so it made sense to reach out to the plethora of film curators in town who’ve been showing films at the Esquire, Mariemont and elsewhere to pick a movie to show in our space.”

Screenings will occur on the second Thursday of every month, and will bring in film organizations from all over the city to collaborate. April will see Open Source Cinema take over the library, a local collective that screens independent or underseen films every Tuesday in Northside.

It’s even more proof that Cincinnati’s film community is exploding in popularity, with organizations like Outer Cinema Cincinnati and Secret Base Cinema regularly drawing massive crowds of people that want to watch films they’ll never see anywhere else on the big screen.

“Since reopening the Downtown Library back in 2024, we’ve been expanding our music & film programing,” Pape said. “We’re so lucky to have such a fervent community of film watchers in Cincinnati, so I’m really excited to help provide a space for that community to blossom.”

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Yes, it’s a run. Yes, it’s in your underwear. And yes, it’s for a great cause.

Every February, thousands of undie runners in cities across the U.S. come together to support those affected by Neurofibromatosis, a group of genetic conditions that cause tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body.

Cupid’s Undie Run kicked off on Saturday with drinking and dancing, then participants jogged it out with a mile(ish) run and ended with a dance party.

CityBeat contributor Martin Lopez Isidro shot photos of the event – check out his photos below.

The post Everything we saw at the Cincinnati Cupid’s Undie Run appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

A University of Cincinnati aerospace organization is making history as it partners with NASA to launch its first fully student-led satellite mission, per the university.

The organization, CubeCats, recently completed and handed off the university’s first satellite, LEOPARDSat-1. The satellite has been transferred to NASA and Voyager and is set to launch from the International Space Station this spring.

Once in orbit, the satellite will test lightweight material designed to shield people from space radiation as an alternative to other materials like water or lead.

UC says this milestone marks its expanding role in space exploration. 

“This moment represents years of engineering, persistence, redesigns, testing cycles and unwavering belief from generations of students, faculty and partners,” Nathan Nguyen, president of CubeCats, told UC. “The mission also highlights UC’s growing aerospace and innovation ecosystem. What began as a student-driven vision has become a flight-ready spacecraft.”

LEOPARDSat-1 is short for “Low Earth Orbit Platform for Aerospace Research and Development Satellite-1.” The satellite includes an antenna made in UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub’s makerspace, and it was designed, built and tested by generations of UC undergraduates. CubeCat leaders Nguyen, program manager Samuel Kohls and chief engineer Matthew Verbryke led the final phase under the guidance of faculty advisor Donghoon Kim, says the school.

“We’re honored to carry the spirit of Ohio’s deep legacy of aerospace innovation forward and prove what’s possible when students are trusted and empowered to build something meaningful,” Kohls said.

To celebrate the milestone, the UC 1819 Innovation Hub held an appreciation event where guests could see an exact replica of the satellite and participate in a digital time capsule, which had them leave messages that could be transmitted once LEOPARDSat-1 goes into orbit. Members of CubeCats were also recognized during the event.

CubeCats says it’s already working on its next satellite, HABSat-1, which is expected to be twice the size of LEOPARDSat-1. UC students interested in joining CubeCats can email uccubecats@gmail.com. 

More info: uccubecats.github.io.

The post University of Cincinnati students build satellite for NASA mission appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.

Mr. Monopoly will be in the Queen City this October, so be on the lookout for his signature handlebar moustache.

Top Trumps USA, the American division of Winning Moves International, announced the debut of MONOPOLY: Cincinnati Edition in late October, under a license from Hasbro. The company is still seeking partnerships with established Cincinnati businesses and nonprofits to participate in the effort.

“Cincinnati is a proud community full of iconic landmarks and traditions,” Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Kearney said in a news release. “Celebrating this city through such a famous gameboard is an exciting opportunity for Cincinnatians.”

MONOPOLY Cincinnati Edition will replace the board game’s iconic squares, such as Boardwalk and Park Place, with Cincinnati-based businesses, nonprofits and landmarks. In addition, the Cincinnati board will also include a customized Community Chest, Chance playing cards and MONOPOLY Money.

Top Trumps USA is currently seeking public input on which locations should be included as squares on the board.

Public submissions and business inquiries can be sent to cincinnati@toptrumps.com for consideration.

MONOPOLY: Cincinnati Edition will debut in October 2026 and will be available in stores and online through retail partners, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and select local Cincinnati retailers.

The post MONOPOLY: Cincinnati Edition to launch this October appeared first on Cincinnati CityBeat.