Culture of Akron, Ohio facts for kids
The culture of Akron is shaped by the rubber industry, immigration, factory work, unions, the city's location, history, and notable natives.
As a northern state with abolitionist leanings, Akron became home to freed and emancipated slaves. In the early part of the 20th century many European immigrants traveled westward to Akron, because of the thriving rubber industry. Most of the major U.S. tire brands began in Akron: Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, General Tire, Firestone, and BFGoodrich.
Aside from the North Hill neighborhood of Akron's history in jazz during the early 1900s, for decades Akron has produced musicians in many of genres. Major artists from Akron include Howard Hewett, Chrissie Hynde, Devo, James Ingram, Buckner & Garcia, Rubber City Rebels, and The Black Keys.
The city is home to LeBron James, the Akron Art Museum, the Akron RubberDucks, and the All-American Soap Box Derby.
Major venues for music in Akron include the Akron Civic Theatre, E.J. Thomas Hall, and Blossom Music Center. Residents and fans of alternative music still miss the Lime Spider, but continue to appreciate new bands and live poetry at Annabelle's and Paolo's.
Urban farming and healthy, flavorful cuisine are part of Akron's cultural landscape. The City of Akron has provided many places to grow food, and has also supported many new and praiseworthy restaurants: Bricco, Cilantro, Crave, and Lockview. In Akron, you can find some of the best independent grocery stores in Northeast Ohio: Krieger's, Mustard Seed Market, Seven Grain Market, and West Point Market.
While the city originally had German roots, the influx of immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s brought Jewish, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Slovenian and Ukrainian food to the table. While pastrami, pierogis, pizza, and sauerkraut balls will always be in the hearts of Akronites, residents are thankful that continued immigration has brought an even greater variety of cuisine to Akron. Nowadays, it is not impossible to find reasonably good African, Asian, Middle-Eastern, and Mexican restaurants in the Akron area.
Literature
The award-winning Knight-Ridder newspaper chain began in Akron Ohio as two separate companies, the Akron Beacon Journal and the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung.
The city is the birthplace of Rita Dove, former Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress.
Sojourner Truth gave her famous Ain't I A Woman speech in Akron at the Ohio Women's Rights Convention in 1851.
The city is and has been home to award-winning writers David Auburn, Terry Pluto and Rachel Sweet.
The suburbs of Akron and decades of industrial prosperity spawned former literary editor of Esquire, Adrienne Miller, who wrote the novel, The Coast of Akron.
Comic books
The local pizza shop in Akron, Luigi's, is the inspiration for the pizza shop, Montoni's, in the comic strip Funky Winkerbean, written by native comic strip creator Tom Batiuk.
In the Flaming Carrot Comics, Iron City, where the Carrot lives, was made similar to Akron and another working-stiff town, Pittsburgh.
Writer and illustrator Bill Watterson has also lived in the county.
Popular music
Akron has also produced a diverse range of popular musical artists, such as:
- rock singer/guitarist/songwriter Chrissie Hynde, lead singer for The Pretenders
- blues rock band The Black Keys
- soul singer James Ingram
- country singer David Allan Coe
- new wave band Devo
- post-rock band If These Trees Could Talk
- rock bands Chi-Pig and Hammer Damage
- rock and roll artists Robert Quine, Glen Buxton, Rick Renstrom, Lux Interior, Tin Huey, and Jani Lane
- rhythm and blues singers Howard Hewett, James Ingram, and Ruby Nash Curtis
- protopunk band Rubber City Rebels
- heavy metal singer Tim "Ripper" Owens
- jazz musician Jeff Golub
- folk musician Len Chandler
- guitarist Dominic Frasca
- drummer Neal Smith
- baroque pop songwriter Pete Nischt
- singer-songwriters Joseph Arthur, Roger Hoover, Jen Maurer, and Brian Lisik
- vocalist Helen Jepson
- various artists Ralph Carney, Buckner & Garcia, Harvey Gold, Rachel Sweet, Vaughn Monroe, Liam Lynch, Russell Oberlin, Nikola Resanovic, Mike Lenz, The Waitresses, and Mo' Mojo
Indie rock band Trouble Books
Sports and recreation
The city is home to basketball superstar LeBron James, and renamed part of its Main Street to "King James Way" in his honor. The city hosts a Minor League Baseball team, the Akron RubberDucks, who play in Canal Park. The World Championship finals of Soap Box Derby are held annually at Derby Downs.
Hikers and bikers have long enjoyed the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, which runs through Akron and on to Cleveland.
