The Update | Brier Hill Festival Returns; Sauce Showdown at DeBartolo Commons
YOUNGSTOWN – Brier Hill Italian Festival will return Thursday, Aug. 18, and run through Sunday. Admission is free.
The annual event takes place around the intersection of Calvin and Victoria streets in the Brier Hill neighborhood, on the North Side.
Hours are 4 p.m. to midnight Thursday and Friday; 2 p.m. to midnight Saturday; and 1 p.m. to midnight Sunday.
The event includes plenty of Italian food vendors, a morra tournament at 7 p.m. Friday; a hot pepper contest at 5:30 p.m. Saturday; and a wine contest at 3 p.m. Sunday.
There will be live music in the pavilion each day.
Sunday Sauce Showdown at Mall
BOARDMAN, Ohio – Local Italian restaurants will compete at the second annual Sunday Sauce Showdown at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, at DeBartolo Commons at Southern Park Mall.
Guests are invited to bring their appetite and cast a vote for their favorite pasta.
Vying for the title will berCarchedi’s Café, Combine Brothers, Double Bogey’s Bar and Grill, PaPa GeGe’s Italian Villa, Papa’s Italian Specialties, Tino’s Italian Kitchen and Woodland Cellars.
A panel of celebrity judges including U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, WKBN-TV anchor Stan Boney, Kelly Warren of Kelly Warren & Associates, Jim Taylor of the Western Reserve Building Trades and Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti will determine best Alfredo, Bolognese, Specialty, Traditional and Vodka sauces. WYTV’s Jim Loboy will be the emcee.
Greene Eagle Winery, L’Uva Bella and Woodland Cellars will offer wine samples.
Tickets are $25 per person and include a sample of each restaurant’s pasta, three samples of wine from each winery and other refreshments. Proceeds from ticket sales will benefit Potential Development School for Students with Autism. Guests can purchase tickets through Eventbrite.com. Tickets will not be available at the door.
The Avanti Band from Cleveland will perform and there will be a basket raffle.
Literary Festival Receives $5K Grant
YOUNGSTOWN – Lit Youngstown will receive $5,000 in grant funding from the Ohio Humanities Council to support the group’s Fall Literary Festival.
The event will feature poet Joy Priest, screenwriter and film scholar Laura Beadling, fiction writer Kelly Fordon, middle grade author Candace Fleming and filmmaker Karla Murthy, who released Youngstown documentary “The Place That Makes Us” in 2021.
The Fall Literary Festival is an annual conference on contemporary literature that features prominent humanities professionals. Writers, educators and editors host over 80 sessions on reading, writing, teaching, and publishing literary works — allowing attendees to learn and connect with others over their literary passions.
The 2022 Festival will center around the theme The Places that Make Us, inspired by Murthy’s film, which will be screened for the first time in the community and will be followed by panel discussion.
Three short films funded by YSU endowed professor Laura Beadling will also be screened at the festival.
“Proud Citizen,” written by Katerina Stoykova, is about a fictional Bulgarian writer who wins a contest and travels to the United States to receive it. “Exact Change,” written by Christine Howey, is a humorous and poignant film memoir on her transition to a woman.
And “Peerless City,” directed and produced by Amanda Page, founder of Scioto Literary, is a documentary about Portsmouth, Ohio.
After each screening, Beadling will lead a Q&A with the filmmakers.
Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
