Bella Sin emigrated from Chihuahua, Mexico in 2003 to discover her love for burlesque. Two decades later, she is known as Cleveland's Burlesque Queen, founder of Cleveland Burlesque, and celebrating her 20th anniversary with "Sinfully Yours" at the Beachland Ballroom this weekend.

Fifty “strong, stylish and successful women of Northeast Ohio” gathered inside the Heyday Collective (a sprawling lofted sanctuary of self-care nestled above Forest City Shuffleboard) on Sunday, November 4, to toast the launch of Modern CLE—the new digital magazine created by award-winning journalist Jillian Kramer.

The average distance an Old Brooklyn resident travels to visit a grocery store is 4.2 miles, and Save-a-Lot is the neighborhood’s only true grocery store within boundaries. For these and other reasons, Old Brooklyn is considered a food desert, where one-fifth of the residents report choosing between food and housing in terms of affordability. So beyond the burgeoning dollar menus of the neighborhood's abundant fast fooderies and not-so-abundant grocery stores, how does one navigate this food desert?

Yesterday, a festive ribbon-cutting celebration feted the opening of William Rainey Harper—replete with drum corps, performances by Pre-K students, and an appearance by CMSD CEO Eric Gordon. The school welcomed its inaugural groups of Pre-K to third grade students on August 13, becoming only the third CMSD school to follow the International Baccalaureate model. It's also the first new public school to be constructed from the ground up in Old Brooklyn since the mid-1960s.

At 10:30 a.m. on September 2nd, Gateway Church Old Brooklyn will hold the first service in its brand-new home at 4542 Pearl Rd. in a shared space with Unity Lutheran Church, located on the southeast corner of Behrwald Ave. It's the hard-earned culmination of five years of community building in Old Brooklyn for pastor Tony Loseto and his wife, Beth.

Chefs from Saucisson, Salt, Green City Growers, and more are headed to NYC for a special "Cleveland Rocks" dinner at the James Beard House on Tuesday.

Northeast Ohio’s largest temporary art event will celebrate its fifth year this weekend in Slavic Village. Led by curators Dana Depew, Scott Pickering, and the Visit Arts Collective, Rooms to Let will transform a trio of properties slated for demolition into interactive public art installations—with the intention of lovingly honoring the condemned homes in a creative way before they’re leveled.

In 1969, Cleveland became the butt of jokes when an infamous burning river attracted national attention. Beyond the punchline, the incident on the Cuyahoga became the precipice of the country’s environmental movement—inspiring Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the passage of the Clean Water Act. This is just one example of how Cleveland has impacted the nation, and the first Cleveland History Days celebrates that legacy (and so much more).

While browsing The Wandering Wardrobe's online boutique last spring, Maria LeFebre stumbled upon a shirt screen-printed with the slogan “Support Your Local Girl Gang.” The second-grade teacher had never heard the phrase before, but it resonated with her and she promptly purchased the garment. More than just a style statement, LeFebre took her shirt’s message as a call to action, and a personal mantra that prompted her to create Cleveland’s first online hub of women-owned businesses: Your Local Girl Gang.

After a decade in their space on Starkweather Avenue, Joshua and Amanda Montague—the husband-wife team behind Lilly Handmade Chocolates—will be closing up shop in their Tremont confectionery and cocktail bar on May 25. In July, the couple will reopen in a cozy space at 2032 W. Schaaf Rd. in the South Hills sector of Cleveland’s Old Brooklyn neighborhood.

Following in the footsteps of FirstEnergy Stadium, the Cleveland Indians, and JACK Cleveland Casino, the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland has implemented a large-scale food waste recycling system known as Grind2Energy—becoming the first and only convention center in the country to do so.

Beard balms, sugar scrubs, essential oils and bath bombs — that's just for starters in this go-to roundup of handcrafted personal care products developed, made and sold in Northeast Ohio.
 

The man inside Cleveland Custom Trucks has a story that stretches far beyond the rolling kitchens he creates.
 

This roundup of unique gift shops on the doorsteps of your favorite museums and cultural centers is perfect for those seeking a truly alt-holiday shopping excursion.

Years in the making, plans for La Villa Hispana – a center celebrating Latino heritage and commerce in the Clark Fulton neighborhood – will be unveiled next month at a City Planning Commission meeting.

Handmade sausage returns to Slavic Village, a success story from Guanajuato to Cleveland and the rebirth of the Cleveland Grill's Mediterranean soul round out this plate of local culinary delights.