Greyt Big Talk w/ Nwaka Onwusa
Greyt Big Talk is a multi-disciplinary creative lecture & podcast series for inspiring the next generation of artists and entrepreneurs.
Watching
Nwaka Onwusa | Greyt Big Talk
Who was in the room
80attended
Were you there? Log in with the email you registered with to see the guest list.
Sponsors & partners
Support the gatherings
Help keep Cleveland’s creative community meeting.
Sponsors and partners make these community gatherings possible. Want your business or organization to be one?
Nwaka Onwusa
Music historian and curator
Nwaka Onwusa is a music historian and curator who builds exhibitions around storytelling. She served as Chief Curator and Vice President of Curatorial Affairs at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the first Black woman to hold the post. She joined the Rock Hall in 2019 as director of curatorial affairs after about ten years at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles, where she began her career as an educator and rose to curator.
Her Rock Hall exhibits include It's Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope, and Empowerment, which opened in June 2020 as the museum's first pairing of a traditional exhibit with a full virtual experience and won the Ohio Museums Association's award for Best Exhibition of 2020, along with Legends of Rock and Woodstock at 50. At the GRAMMY Museum she created All Eyez on Me: The Writings of Tupac Shakur, Jenni Rivera: La Gran Señora and Ringo: Peace and Love, and developed The Music of the Civil Rights Movement, introduced at the White House in 2010. She also curated Tupac: Wake Me When I'm Free with the Shakur estate.
Her exhibits have reached audiences across the United States, in the UK and online. A graduate of UC Riverside, she spoke at Greyt Big Talk in February 2022.
Greyt Quote
“If I have goosebumps, then I know someone else will be feeling it in that moment”
Designed by Mac Love
Playlist
Location
The Beachland Ballroom
15711 Waterloo Rd, Cleveland, OH, 44110
The Beachland Ballroom & Tavern is an independent live music venue on Waterloo Road in Collinwood. Cindy Barber and Mark Leddy opened it on March 2, 2000, converting the old Croatian Liberty Hall and keeping its vintage details. It has two stages under one roof, the 500-capacity Ballroom and the intimate 148-capacity Tavern, plus a full kitchen, a patio, Sunday brunch and a vintage shop called This Way Out in the basement. The Black Keys, The Cramps, Guided by Voices and The White Stripes have all played there. Barber was one of the founders of the Lakeshore Neighbors effort of the late 1980s that led to the Waterloo Arts District, and the Beachland still takes part in the district's flea markets and the Waterloo Arts Festival. In February 2022 Rock Hall chief curator Nwaka Onwusa spoke at Greyt Big Talk at the Beachland.
About this event
GREYT BIG TALK is a multi-disciplinary creative lecture & podcast series for inspiring the next generation of artists and entrepreneurs.
Live Audience Podcast Recordings Feature: • local culinary artisan breakfast and coffee, • live music performances • original art by local designers • startup pitches for anything our community is making • a short talk from a successful creative person • all filmed to share with our community online. (interested in a feature, artisan maker space, company recruiting tabletop space, or other placement within the program? email us at omg@thatsgreyt.com) Since our founding in January of 2015, we’ve hosted nearly 10,000 attendees in pop-up locations all over the city of Cleveland. ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Nwaka Onwusa is Vice President of Curatorial Affairs and Chief Curator for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to joining the Rock Hall, she was a curator at The GRAMMY Museum at L.A. Nwaka has developed and executed numerous original and memorial exhibits, including It’s Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage Hope and Empowerment, Legends of Rock, Woodstock at 50, All Eyes on Me: The Writings of Tupac Shakur, Jenni Rivera: La Gran Señora; Ringo: Peace and Love, and Bruce W. Talamon: Soul, R&B, And Funk Photographs 1972-1982: A Love Letter to the Music to name a few. Her exhibits have been experienced by museum audiences across the U.S., in the UK, and in the digital space. She began her career as an educator and has maintained a commitment to the museum as an inspiring, informative, and interactive environment. Her exhibits have explored a great diversity of musical genres and talent and have examined their roles in social, cultural, and historical change. It’s Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope, and Empowerment was developed in response to heightened social unrest and the recent conversation over equality. It opened at the Rock Hall in June 2020 as the museum’s first coupling of a traditional exhibit with a comprehensive virtual experience. The GRAMMY’s The Music of the Civil Rights Movement was the first in a national music and education series introduced at the White House in February 2010. Recently her latest exhibit, It’s Been Said All Along: Voices of Rage, Hope, and Empowerment received an award from the Ohio Museum Association for Best Exhibition of 2020.