BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JULY 13, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Angela Laakso traces a name etched in stone with the tip of her index finger.
Nearly 200 years ago, Glendale Cemetery was founded in Akron’s West Hill neighborhood. Today, it holds the city’s dead in more than 26,000 graves.
On a humid, summer morning, Glendale’s hills are lush against a gray sky. At the main entrance, a row of elaborate family mausoleums stretch around a curve in the narrow road...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO, ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARCY BONES
JUNE 29, 2021 | THE BUCKEYE FLAME
At the iron gates of Brahamsville Cemetery, Spike McCaulkey brandishes a squirt gun.
The gun — like everything else in the town of White Hill — is slightly unusual.
In fact, Spike says the gun is more like a key than a weapon — a way to open doors and passages between realities by harnessing the energy of emotion...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
OCTOBER 28, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
When D’Andre Pete’s brothers talk about him, they can’t help but grin.
Marquavius Beach, D’Andre’s younger brother, waves his arms to quiet the room.
“We got chased by these Rottweilers,” he says between spoonfuls of soup at the family home on a November afternoon. “It was the funniest thing. D’Andre, I swear to God, he just threw me over the fence. He hopped over the fence and he had..."
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
AUGUST 9, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Rachel Elizabeth Cargle is filled with gratitude.
Behind a table lined with packaged appetizers and bottles of champagne, she pours herself a celebratory glass.
Last year, Cargle opened Elizabeth’s Bookshop and Writing Centre — Akron’s only Black-owned bookstore — in collaboration with The Well and Compass...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
MARCH 11, 2021 | THE AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
On Oct. 12, 2020, a family still lived at 426 McGowan St.
In its final weeks, the house loomed empty, every window an empty socket. On the second floor, a thin curtain waved in the wind, pulled outward through a crack in the glass.
Upstairs, cigarette butts and crayons littered the floor. A note taped to a door...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
FEBRUARY 3, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
In the lobby of Oak Street Health’s newest location in Firestone Park, Dr. Laolu Fayanju sends a quick text, slides his phone into the pocket of his white jacket and joins his colleagues for a group photo at the front desk.
Behind an N95 mask, he flashes a smile for the camera.
A graduate of Harvard University and Tufts University School of Medicine, Dr. Fayanju has spent the last 11 months combating misinformation surrounding both the COVID-19 pandemic...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
OCTOBER 6, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Over the last 18 months, COVID-19 has shaped the way young people experience the world.
Students, in particular, have faced immense uncertainty as adults across the country made important decisions about their health, safety, education and futures. For most, the return to in-person learning is a chance for social and emotional connection. But for students living with disabilities or compromised...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
MARCH 29, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Kenny Lambert didn’t always know who he was. Now, he’s absolutely sure of it.
At his storefront at 937 Kenmore Blvd., Lambert has an open door policy. Behind him, a full-wall mural by 16-year-old Lillian Stover depicts a green alien on the surface of Mars, wearing a shirt stamped with the Just a Dad From Akron logo.
Lambert, 30, is the founder and CEO of Just a Dad From Akron, a clothing brand...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
AUGUST 18, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Rylee Jackson doesn’t go to the hospital. At least, not until a trip to the emergency room seems inevitable.
“It’s scary,” she says. “It’s scary enough knowing that you’re going to have to disclose.”
In 2015, Jackson experienced severe and prolonged abdominal pain, but she...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
DECEMBER 7, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
In 2007, Jackie Pollard watched the beginnings of the nation’s opioid crisis take shape.
“So many of the kids that were dying went to school with my kid and I knew them,” Pollard says. “I used to lose a lot of sleep.”
By 2016, Summit County had reached a peak in devastating, long-term overdose trends. That year, 2,400 people experienced overdoses in Summit County, 296 of which proved fatal...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
APRIL 28, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Jon Malish dreams of trees.
“It’s a passion that I have, with the trees,” Malish says. “And it’s something we’re going to need to have the public buy into.”
As the City of Akron’s arborist, Malish is heading the city’s effort to maintain its tree canopy — the leaves and branches of every tree in the city — which currently covers just under 35% of the nearly 40,000 acres within city limits.
In February, the city released a report on the state of its tree canopy. Performed...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
MARCH 17, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Lavar Jacobs is a man on a mission.
On a bright afternoon in March, he sits at the head of a long conference table, a few dozen T-shirts, hats, hoodies and baby bibs piled in front of him. Across the hall, canned foods line the shelves of a small kitchen.
For more than a decade, this space at 946 Kenmore Blvd. has been part of Jacobs’s vision. In 2009, Jacobs’ mother, Kim, died of breast cancer. Every day...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
AUGUST 30, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Jeremy Ferrato loved blackberries.
Now, they grow rampant near his gravesite at Foxfield Preserve.
“Right around his birthday, it’s just covered in briars,” says Melissa Ferrato, Jeremy’s older sister. “There are so many little coincidences like that. They just let me rest my head a bit more easy.”
At conservation burial grounds across the country, Americans are increasingly embracing natural burials like Jeremy’s. The process — which is often deeply...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
OCTOBER 29, 2020 | USA TODAY
Erika Hood knows a little something about Black joy.
On a bright afternoon in late September, she found it in a pair of roller skates. A dozen kids sat cross-legged on a basketball court in Southeast Cleveland, waiting for directions. After months of social distancing, the kids were restless, and eager to lace up their skates.
Erika’s sister, Ebony, crouched to help a kid fasten his helmet.
“There are cultural barriers that we deal with within our own community that’s...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
FEBRUARY 3, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Diana May spends Monday mornings on the phone.
As an emergency assistance case manager at Catholic Charities Community Services of Summit County, May has spent the last 11 months fielding calls from community members at risk of having the water shut off in their homes.
At the beginning of every week, the organization opens for calls at 9 am sharp...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JUNE 3, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Ericka Malone leans over the edge of a wooden park bench. She loops a finger around the bottom of her shoe and steps into a pair of black, lace-up heels.
Behind her, a few neighborhood kids huddle near the playground. They scatter, laughing in the afternoon sun. The neighborhood is part of the 44320 ZIP code, where infant mortality rates are among the highest in the state...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY SHANE WYNN AND H.L. COMERIATO
Rich Swirsky knew a good thing when he saw one.
Especially when the good thing was simple: his family at the dinner table on an ordinary weeknight, the crack of a bat when the bases are loaded, the way a Dylan record sounds through the perfect set of speakers.
“He was really good at being present,” says Sarah, Swirsky’s oldest. “Even before he got sick,” she adds. “He would just soak it all in.”
On the front porch of his Highland Square home, Swirsky’s family looks out over a lawn planted with milkweed. He and his son, David, designed their devil strip to...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JULY 28, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
PorchRokr — Highland Square’s beloved music and arts festival — will return to the neighborhood August 21.
The Highland Square Neighborhood Association, whose members have organized PorchRokr since it began 2012, opted to host the event virtually last year as COVID-19 cases climbed across Summit County.
To adapt to public health orders and recommendations, organizers rebranded the festival as “CouchRokr,” and offered free, pre-recorded live sets from the bands and artists that typically perform on the porches of private homes across the...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JANUARY 20, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Today, Kate Benson is tired.
For the last 10 months, they’ve worked on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping families make final arrangements for their loved ones.
For Benson, and for death care workers across the country, the second wave of COVID-19 deaths has been difficult, both personally and professionally.
“People just don’t like to think about us, because we do a job they don’t really..."
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY SHANE WYNN
AUGUST, 2019 | EDIBLE CLEVELAND MAGAZINE
Catherine Messner pulls a thigh from the fryer.
She folds it into a paper towel and presses with a firm palm. “If there’s blood,” she says over her shoulder, “then you know it’s not done.”
Messner slides a thermometer through the center of the thigh, just in case. She’s worked in Belgrade Gardens’ kitchen for nearly six years. A relative newcomer, Messner says it wasn’t hard to learn. “I had good teachers,” she says. “It really is like a family here.”Across the kitchen, Rosanada Idanis moves between...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
APRIL 5, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
For more than a century, North Hill Marble & Granite has had the same address.
At the corner of North Howard Street and Frederick Avenue, the company’s showroom overlooks the city’s skyline.
When Fred Giacomini and Gaetano Buzzi founded the company in 1918, Akron was in the midst of the Spanish Flu epidemic, which killed more than 600...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
OCTOBER 22, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Marissa Little’s crew finally takes a well-earned break. They lean against a low chain link fence, shedding their coats in the sun.
The group of volunteers from the Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore spent the morning clearing debris from a vacant lot next to Boss Park in University Park.
The lot is overgrown, dotted by loose trash and packed with unhealthy fill dirt...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
The chocolate milk is a hit.
From kindergarten to senior year, Akron Public Schools students love those little paper cartons. But while onsite learning is on hold, Ellet Community Learning Center kitchen manager Julie Shumaker says the milks have taken on new meaning: 8 ounces of much-needed normalcy...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
OCTOBER 8, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
As a kid, Vinh Nguyen grew up eating his mother’s recipes — Vietnamese dishes that inspired him to explore cultures and cuisines all over the world.
“Growing up, whenever my mom cooked, for instance, a Vietnamese noodle dish, the broth would take all night. It’d have to simmer through,” says Nguyen. “I felt like there’s definitely time involved in that. You’re going to have a product that you feel proud of.”
Nguyen says he’s always had an idea for a coffee shop — a place where students and young people could come to connect, share ideas and build meaningful...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
APRIL 21, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Two days after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, I sat down with Summit County Public Health Commissioner Donna Skoda to learn more about why the vaccine was halted, and what the pause will mean for Summit County’s mass vaccination site.
Because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the only single dose vaccination...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
OCTOBER 12, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Every morning, John Carter looks out over the field behind Betty Jane Community Learning Center and counts the deer.
“It’s pretty amazing,” he says, holding his arms out. “I know there’s no place else in the city that has this.”
Betty Jane’s playground borders Goodyear Heights Metro Park. A foot trail connects the playground to Newton Street, and each morning Carter walks the path to check for trash...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
FEBRUARY 18, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Oak Street Health is humming with excitement. After months of preparation, Jan. 20 is opening day.
In the lobby, staff huddle at the front desk for a group photo. Dr. Laola Fayanju, Oak Street’s senior medical director, takes his place in the back row. His colleagues crouch and smile for the camera, a cluster of blue surgical masks glowing bright in the flash.
Oak Street Health is a network of primary care centers that serves older adults who qualify for Medicare. Since 2012, Oak Street has opened more than 75...
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BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JANUARY 14, 2021 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Hilary Lewis could jump for joy.
“It’s a huge, gigantic relief,” Lewis says, detailing the home repairs that Rebuilding Together has helped her complete over the last three years — new, stable steps outside her back door, a new roof, new kitchen cabinets and countertops, some much needed stripping and painting.
Lewis, 68, never thought she’d own a home. She and her siblings faced a difficult childhood, and the financial stability of owning a home often seemed out of reach. Then Lewis enlisted in the United States Army and served six and a half years...
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JULY 30, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
Dorene Sherman’s phone rings in the middle of the night.
On the other end, someone asks for help. They’ve lost a loved one and don’t have the money to pay for a burial or cremation, let alone funeral services that might cost thousands of dollars.
“We had a lot of people googling us and calling us from around the country..."
BY H.L. COMERIATO
PHOTOS BY H.L. COMERIATO
JULY 2, 2020 | THE DEVIL STRIP
During a June 8 meeting, Akron City Council voted unanimously to approve a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis.
The City Council declaration is an official acknowledgement of the social and systemic inequity Black Americans have faced for centuries; of the local, state and federal government’s role in intentionally upholding and deepening those inequities; and of the city’s intention to directly address racial justice and inequity moving forward.
Though the resolution doesn’t institute immediate policy change, it does call for...