SMARTS hosts First Fridays Youngstown

First Fridays Youngstown moves to SMARTS, 25 E. Boardman St., for its March edition.

SMARTS will have hands-on arts activities for children of all ages in visual art, music, dance, theater and creative writing with a focus on family-oriented creations. Live music will be provided at SMARTS by Larry Elefante, and the Avalon, Twisted Roots and Penguin City Brewing Company will host performers through the Live Music Initiative.

Admission is free. For more information, go to firstfridaysyoungstown.org.

Campbell grad displays art at Westminster

Alexa Tovarnak, a Campbell Memorial High School graduate, will display her senior capstone exhibition at Westminster College’s Foster Art Gallery in New Wilmington, Pa.

“Makeup as Modern Art” features a series of photographs documenting her original face paintings. Using makeup as her primary medium, she transforms the human face into a canvas, translating recognizable works and artistic styles onto a living subject. The series includes pieces inspired by famous paintings as well as original compositions.

Tovarnak is a business administration and fine art double major. The exhibition runs through April 3 and a reception is planned 5 to 6 p.m. Friday.

Livestreamed reading by Lit Youngstown

Lit Youngstown will present a free livestreamed reading by two writers who have called Youngstown home at 7 p.m. Wednesday at www.youtube.com/@LitYoungstown/streams.

Nin Andrews’s poetry has appeared in many reviews and anthologies, including four editions of Best American Poetry. Her work has been translated into Turkish, performed in Prague and anthologized in England, Australia and Mongolia.

Her memoir, “Son of a Bird,” was published in 2025.

Nancy Krygowski’s first book of poems, “Velocity,” won the University of Pittsburgh Press’s Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Her second book, “The Woman in the Corner,” was chosen as one of top 100 books of the year by Library Journal.

Program on abolitionists planned for Salem

The Salem Preservation Society, in conjunction with America250-Salem, presents “An Evening With abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Daniel Howell Hise” at 7 p.m. March 24 at First Friends Church, 1028 Jennings Ave., Salem.

Nathan M. Richardson is a published author, performance poet and Douglass historian and is in his 14th year doing living history presentations that capture the physical, spiritual and intellectual essence of the writer and abolitionist. George W.S. Hays, former Salem Public Library director, will portray Hise, a staunch Quaker abolitionist from Salem.

Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for youths ages 18 and younger are available by cash or check at the Salem Area Chamber of Commerce or Salem Computer Center. Tickets are available online at salempreservationsociety.org or Eventbright.com. Those who purchase tickets by March 15 will receive reserved seats and a program listing if desired. For more information call 330-540-1874.