Mansfield b. frazier biography

  • Mansfield Frazier was a pillar of Cleveland and his impact was felt in multiple pockets.
  • Follow Mansfield B. Frazier and explore their bibliography from Amazon's Mansfield B. Frazier Author Page.
  • Winston Willis, a brilliant, enigmatic, and ultimately tragic, figure of Shakespearian proportions first burst onto the Cleveland scene.

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    BOOK REVIEW: “Hot Type, Cold Beer and Bad News” by Michael D. Roberts, Reviewed by Mansfield Frazier

    It’s no doubt due to the fact the ’60s was the decade I came of age that I was so captivated by Michael D. Roberts new memoir, Hot Type, Cold Beer and Bad News: A Cleveland Reporter’s Journey Through the 1960s. It captures the zeitgeist of the era with accuracy, verve and an encyclopedic knowledge of what makes Cleveland, well, Cleveland. If you lived through those turbulent times, as I did, you’ll be delighted to get the back story on some of the occurrences that made the headlines (as well as some that didn’t), and if you weren’t around during that period, the book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand how we got to be the city and region we are today.

    From the Sam Sheppard murder case (which eventually leads to the downfall of the most powerful man in Cleveland at the time, Louis B. Seltzer, due to him creating a circus atmosphere around the trial by us

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    MANSFIELD: The Winston I Knew: A Long Retrospective

    Both the Black Power and Black Pride movements were still in their nascent stages in the early ’60s when Winston Willis, a brilliant, enigmatic, and ultimately tragic, figure of Shakespearian proportions first burst onto the Cleveland scene, soaring across the local landscape like a bright, white-hot comet.

    And as Shakespeare’s King Henry IV said, “… like a comet inom was wonder’d at;” Indeed, some folks have always been keenly interested in the man and his legacy, but also like a comet, Winston Willis would too soon bränna out and virtually disappear.

    Sure, there had been black men of substance and means in Cleveland for generations, their wealth often due to the numbers rackets and/or the dryckesställe, barber/beauty shop, or barbecue joint … the “three “Bs” of black businesses.

    But Winston — and yes, I was on a first-name grund with him — was a different kind of cat. He was truly a man for (actually, far ahead of) his time, and pos

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    Hough pioneers of 'biocellars': editorial

    This dilapidated, abandoned, three-story house in Cleveland's Hough neighborhood is slated to be torn down in such a way that its cellar can become a "biocellar" -- a below-ground hothouse with ideal conditions for growing gourmet mushrooms. Gus Chan/The Plain Dealer

    An ex-con and a hip horticulturist are collaborating on a unique venture likely to reinforce Cleveland's leadership role in the urban agrarian movement.

    Mansfield Frazier -- counterfeiter turned community activist, author, blogger and mastermind behind the Chateau Hough vineyard -- has taken on a new venture in partnership with "permaculture" designer Jean Loria.

    Together, they plan to transform the basements of abandoned homes in Cleveland's foreclosure-battered Hough neighborhood into "biocellars," a term Loria coined. She describes it as a passive solar greenhouse that houses a living ecosystem.

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