(upbeat music) - Hey, out there, Akronites.

welcome once again to "Around Akron with Blue Green."

And wow, do we have a great show ahead of us today.

We're gonna learn some history about Akron.

We're gonna learn about a new plaza going down in Akron.

We're gonna learn about table tennis.

And to kick this show off today, we're headed over to the west side of Akron to learn all about an Akron-centric branding T-shirt company.

They're gonna have something you can nostalgically remember.

Let's go see what Rubber City Clothing is all about.

(mellow guitar music) - I've had the entrepreneurial bug for quite some time.

I've tried to start a couple of websites.

I've worked with a bunch of different companies in the renewable energy area trying to help them raise money to lower carbon emissions, that kind of thing.

And so, yeah, I've always had this kind of interest in running my own business, incorporating my philosophies about life and management and how you treat people and employees and that kind of thing.

And being able to collaborate and do my own stuff.

And so this opportunity came up.

I knew the previous owners they were looking to sell.

I think COVID took a lot of energy out of them.

I felt like it was a really great way to kind of tie those things together, my photography, my artistic side, and my entrepreneurial, and try and create something that I could be proud of and hopefully do some good as well.

(mellow guitar music continues) I don't know the names of the people that started it.

I know they were four artists that lived in Highland Square.

I think officially they started in 2004 and came up with, I don't know, they probably had 20 designs in that first couple of years.

And they were selling 'em out of a little shop I think right there in Highland Square.

And then in '06 it was purchased by Ed Gaffney and Ed moved it to High Street, kind of up by where well Crave used to be and the movie theater and Akron Coffee Roasters along that strip of High Street.

He was there I think until around 2014 is when I think he sold it to Greg Kiskadden and Keeven White.

Keeven used to run White Space and Greg was his partner in that.

They then took that business over to Northside Marketplace when it opened up, which I think was 2015 or something, 2016.

And they added a whole bunch of designs and a lot of different colors and really ramped up the business.

But even I think at one time they had a direct to garment printer which would allow you to do one off really high quality designs.

And so, but COVID hit and shut.

They were shut down for six months, ended up ruining the printer.

They recovered from that, but they just didn't seem to have the energy and the focus, it never kind of got to the top of their pile.

So that's when Greg approached me last June, took six months to get it closed and I moved it here actually in October.

I had been down there kind of running the business at Northside since July.

And it's a wonderful place, but just parking it's too far out of the way.

There wasn't enough traffic.

And I knew Liz, who owns Eye Opener, which is in front of this building, a little breakfast lunch place that's wonderful.

And she told me about this, and I live across the street so it just seemed like a no-brainer to take this on, you know, it's in the back here but it has good exposure to Swensons and people are starting to get used to it.

Being here, it just takes a little while.

So that's the history as I know it.

So it's been around since '04.

(mellow music) All of the businesses, corporations that started here and ultimately tires were an international product, all these companies started sending in people from Akron to go work in these other locations.

And then, you know some people can't take the winter weather and they move south or west or that kind of thing.

And I do see orders from all over the country that come through our website.

It's been under construction, so it hasn't been robust yet but we're in the process of getting it upgraded and optimized so that there's a lot more choices you can pick from.

We've got about 25 designs on there now.

Yeah, it's really cool.

And you know, there'll be people that come in to the store, they have moved to England or Los Angeles and that kind of thing.

They all come home for Christmas and they always come here and talk about the shirts they got from here or that kind of thing or get stuff to take back for friends.

And you know, people in these other states or, oh, whenever I go out down in Naples and I have my Akron shirt on, everybody asks me about it.

And yeah, so, and it's kind of a famous small city, in a way, a couple hundred, 300,000 people, whatever it is.

But its reach is much further.

And hopefully that's gonna be part of our marketing strategy is trying to get those people that are watching your show and you know, live away so that they can enjoy all these designs and share in spreading the love of Akron all over.

(mellow music continues) - Next up is to the south side of Akron.

Let's go see what Samson Dubina Educational Table Tennis Academy is all about.

- Well, I first picked up a paddle when I was six and I really loved it.

I wasn't that talented, but I really enjoyed the sport.

My parents were going on a cruise and my sisters and I were going along as well.

And on the cruise it was advertised that there was a ping pong tournament.

So my mom said, okay, Sampson, if you play every day going up to that cruise then we'll let you play in the tournament.

So I practiced every day for a few months before the cruise.

We went on the cruise, no ping pong tables in sight, no tournament, but it got me started just playing recreationally just for fun.

Pinging around in the basement with my parents.

(upbeat music) So it was just recreational until 12 years old.

I got a flyer in the mail from a local church saying they were giving free ping pong lessons.

So I went there, I met Terri Weaver, and then she introduced me to the people at the Canton Table Tennis Club, which is at the YWCA.

I went there and then I played, you know once or twice a week there for a while.

And I started entering some tournaments when I was 12.

So I didn't get that much professional training and coaching until I was 21.

I was a hard worker but I really wasn't having that good a result playing locally here in Ohio.

So I got an invitation to play with the Olympic team of Canada as a practice partner.

So I moved to Canada and I played professional for three years in Canada.

And then 15 years ago I transitioned from full-time player to full-time coach and that's when I started coaching.

So I've been coaching full-time for the last 15 years.

(upbeat music continues) This is really a great space.

We have a great landlord, it's The K Company.

And before we've moved in, it was vacant for a while, but before that it was a flea market and it was a carpet store.

So it's 15,000 square feet.

We can set up up to 32 tables.

So we're having a training camp or whatever.

We'll have 64 people at the same time training here, 2262 South Arlington Road.

It's really conveniently located really close to 77.

So it's convenient for people all around the Akron area as well as people from out of town and even out of state that come here and practice.

This is the third largest in the whole country, 15,000 square feet.

So it's the third largest in the country.

There are smaller ones in Canton and Cleveland and other locations but this is really the only one in the Akron area.

And like I said, it's third largest in the US.

(upbeat music continues) First time is actually free, if anybody wants to come for a group class on Wednesdays, we have beginner kids classes.

And then later in the evening we have beginner adult classes.

So if you wanna come for a free class just to check it out, Wednesday night and Friday night.

So Wednesday night and Friday night's the best time to come.

If you want a private lesson, we have four coaches here that give private lessons, myself, coach Chance, coach Jeff, and coach Centra.

So we do private lessons.

We usually recommend starting with a 30-minute private lesson.

So it's kind of depending on what you want.

If you want a group playing with another eight to 10 other people or if you want it more individualized for yourself.

(upbeat music continues) Our academy is sponsored by Nittoku, Paddle Palace, and Power Pong.

So Nittoku and Paddle Palace are equipment sponsored for our tables and barriers and balls.

And then Power Pong is our robot sponsor.

We actually have table tennis robots set up over there and people can play with it.

It's kind of like a batting cage for baseball.

So we've got robots set up that people can come practice.

So people actually do that from the community.

They come and play with other people but they'll also come just to play with the robot.

(upbeat music continues) So we have players from around the country and even around the world that come here and train.

We've got one of the top players from Japan who's actually living here right now playing and the Sri Lankan Men's Singles National champion, he lives in Ohio as well.

And he trains here every day.

So we really have people from all over the world coming here for the training, but I don't wanna scare away people that are from Akron as well.

So we welcome beginners but we have really all the building blocks from the first time you walk in and learn how to hold the paddle to progressing through the stages, to getting to more of the advanced level all the way up to the Olympic level.

(upbeat music continues) It really is accessible to everybody.

We've got one of the best wheelchair players in the country but it is a sport that disabled people can actually play.

It's a really good sport for people who are seniors.

It's really low injury on the joints.

I actually wrote a book called "Why Table Tennis?".

And it's 100 reasons.

We've narrowed it down to 10 reasons why we think table tennis is the best sport.

It's good for the mind, it's good for the body, it's good for the social aspect.

And you can play at any age.

Even my six-year-old daughter, she plays regularly.

And then we've got people here in their 60s and 70s that are also playing.

(upbeat music continues) - Next up we're gonna learn about "Ain't I A Woman?".

Let's go see what Sojourner Truth is all about.

(light piano music) - Sojourner Truth was born in Ulster County, New York in the 1790s.

We don't know the exact date, unfortunately, it's very true of many individuals of African descent that were born into slavery.

Her name at the time was Isabella Baumfree, and she lived with her family and she was part of a slave community at a home.

And unfortunately when that gentleman passed away, then a lot of things started to change for their family.

She was bought and sold four times.

She watched also as her siblings were taken away, she watched as she was forced to marry and have children and those children be taken away.

But in 1826, she walked to freedom.

She took her youngest child and she walked to freedom.

In 1843, she had a religious conversion and changed her name to Sojourner Truth.

And from that point that she began to preach the word.

The word wasn't just God's Word, but that of the abolitionist cause and the women's rights cause.

And that's how she ended up in Akron.

(light piano music continues) In 1851, Sojourner Truth came to Akron, Ohio for the second Ohio Women's Rights Convention because she was part of a speaker's bureau and she wanted to sell her book.

That book option was her way to purchase her own home like Frederick Douglass.

And so on the second day of this convention at the Universalist Old Stone Church in downtown Akron on May 29th, 1851, she could no longer contain herself.

And she asked to approach the crowd and many people said no but she was allowed to speak.

And from that speech, she expressed the most famous abolitionist and women's rights speech ever given.

And we know that as "Ain't I A Woman?".

- I want to say a few words about this matter.

I am a woman's right.

I have as much muscle as any man and can do as much work as any man.

I have ploughed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed.

And can any man do more than that?

I can carry as much as any man, and eat as much too, if I can get it.

I am as strong as any man there is now.

As for intellect, I say, if a woman has a pint and a man a quart, why can't she have her little pint full?

And you need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we can only take as much as our pint will hold.

The poor man seems to be all in confusion and don't know what to do.

Why children, if you have woman's rights, give it to her and you will feel better.

You will have your rights and they won't be so much trouble.

I can't read, but I can hear, and I heard the Bible, and I learned that Eve caused man to sin.

If woman upset the world, do give her a chance to get it right side up again.

The lady spoke about Jesus and how He never spurd woman away from Him.

And she was right.

When Lazarus died, Mary and Martha came to Jesus with faith and love and besought Him to raise their brother.

Jesus wept and Lazarus came forth.

And how came your Jesus into the world?

Through God who created Him and woman who bore Him.

Man, where is your part?

But the women are coming up, blessed be God, and a few of the men are coming up with them.

But man is in a tight place.

The poor slave is on him, the woman coming on him.

He is surely between a hawk and a buzzard.

(soft piano music) - What we do here in Akron is talk about the speech that she gave and the relationships that she made and why she was here.

With fellow abolitionists.

We stand on the shoulders of Sojourner Truth.

She was not asked to speak, but she did anyway.

She wasn't really invited to convention but she made a space for herself.

And what she did is she set the pace for the next 100 years, next 200 years.

And we are very excited to be able to tell the world that she made that famous speech right here in Akron.

This really has been the hotbed of abolitionism and we wanna make sure that others know about it so that they can sojourn here and learn the truth.

- Next up, I'm gonna meet up with a Sojourner Truth project and learn all about the new plaza and statue that's going into honor Sojourner Truth.

Let's go see what they're all about.

- A group of volunteers from nonprofit, for-profit, individual businesses of the like, came together and really convened after we had a 2019 Sojourner Truth Suffrage March, a reenactment, if you will.

And at that time, discussions flourished.

And we were convened by our county executive Ilene Shapiro.

And she allowed us to use her chambers.

And at that time we just had fluid discussions.

Fluid discussions in relation to reinvent this project.

We were not the first pioneers.

We actually stand on the shoulders of our group of individuals from 20 years ago who were led by a leader, Faye Hersh Dambrot, she's no longer with us, but it was her initial idea 20 years ago to begin the discussions for a Sojourner Truth statue.

And so the project sat literally, it was abandoned.

And as we continued to meet, we decided that we were going to pursue this opportunity.

It was deemed appropriate due to the fact that Sojourner Truth was here, we know in May, 1851.

And that her courage in her speech led to a movement in the women's suffrage as well as the civil rights.

Now the speech was coined "Ain't I A Woman?"

with a question mark.

So behind that, the Summit Suffrage Centennial Committee was formed.

(heartfelt piano music) Over the last four plus years, we were able to identify committees and what was the location committee, the educational committee, the fundraising committee, which was very important.

And from those discussions and meetings, it led our location to partner with the United Way of Summit and Medina County.

And with this partnership flourished the idea of where she will now be seated, not just a statue, but a plaza.

And we partnered with a wonderful individual Dion Harris of Summit Metro Parks who actually is a landscape architect.

He sketched the actual plaza and the committees just flourished and began sharing this news with our community and making sure our community knows the awareness behind Sojourner Truth.

She was here.

And Akron is the place in which that famous speech changed the identity of individuals.

Although many women did get the right to vote in 1920, we know that the 100th anniversary would've been 2020, African Americans were not granted that same right until the 1960s.

So that awareness too in education is very important for our committee.

Due to the fact that we stand on the shoulders of those pioneers from 20 years ago they tapped an international sculptor, Woodrow Nash.

And he's Akron's own.

Woodrow has a sense of art that speaks to no boundaries.

So we're very fortunate to work with Woodrow who actually sculpted the statue 20 years ago.

And then the prototype is shown here in the photo along with Woodrow.

And that will be the statue that will be seated outside of the United Way.

(soft piano music) - Well, I wanna talk about the efforts that the education Committee has made over the course of the last few years.

A group of us has pulled together of volunteers that just kind of coalesced.

And it's representative of many well-known organizations in the Akron area, including the Akron Public Schools, the Summit County Historical Society, the Akron Summit County Public Library, and County executive Ilene Shapiro's office pulled together and began to create material to teach the city of Akron about the importance of Sojourner Truth and the importance of her impact on the Akron area.

I was born in Northeast Ohio and I never learned as a young person about her or about her speech or about the important things that she represents in terms of women's rights.

And not just for white women but especially for women of color.

I never learned about any of that when I was growing up.

And it became very important to me and to the committee as a whole that Akron adopt the statue as their own.

That we not just have a statue sitting on the corner that nobody can relate to or knows what it's about.

And so towards that end, we've begun a series of steps.

The first thing we did was create educational materials that could be used in the schools.

And these have been professionally curated and they can actually be plugged into software that's used in the schools currently and be used right now in any classroom.

It was prepared, it was primarily prepared for Akron Public schools but they've generously made it available for use in any educational institution in the county, and for any of the community people, homeschoolers, anyone can use this material.

And it's all available on the web.

Thanks to Ilene Shapiro's office.

So that's the first thing we did.

The second thing we did was we created a short video which is available on YouTube that is about Sojourner Truth and her contributions to our rights as citizens and about the project itself.

And the third thing we're doing is we're doing another little short video that's just a reenactment of the speech, and that's currently in project.

There's material available on social media and on the webpage.

(poignant piano music) If you are interested in connecting to the project in any way, just send a message to the email address on the screen and someone will be in connection with you.

If you wanna volunteer, if you want to have us come out and speak to you, that is something we are doing a great deal of, we're talking to all kinds of organizations in the community to try to educate people not just about Sojourner Truth and how we stand on her shoulders, but the project itself.

- Thank you once again for watching this episode of "Around Akron with Blue Green."

If you have any questions or comments, you can find me on social media.

Thank you and have an amazing day.

Next up is to the south side of Akron.

Let's go see what Samson Dubina's, Samson Dubina (stutters).

Let's go see what the Samson Dubina Educational Table Tennis Academy is all about.

Next up, it's to the south side of Akron.

Let's go see what Sam, Samson.

Good, good (scat singing).

Say Akron.

You can't see the rest of it.

It says where the weak are killed and eaten.

(evil laughs) (upbeat music)