Skrtic's Pics: Gerry Quinn, Matt Fish, J.T. Lynch

John Skrtic has been with the Cleveland Public Library for over 30 years. He now serves as the chief of special projects and collections, which makes him responsible for overseeing the 11 million items in the Library Collection. He holds a master's of library and information science from Kent State University and a master's of public administration from Cleveland State University. Skrtic grew up on East 41st Street in Downtown Cleveland and has lived in the city his entire life. He is father of two children and spends his free time archiving the people and places of Cleveland.

Gerry Quinn

Gerry Quinn’s Cleveland story reaches back to 1961, when he arrived from Garracloon, a small village in County Mayo, Ireland. Sponsored by relatives, he found work as an apprentice pipefitter and later operated his own plumbing business. Now 84, Gerry has spent most of his life in Northeast Ohio. He married his wife, Nellie, in 1967, and they raised six children. Gerry told me he has lived in his Euclid home since 1978. That is where he welcomed me for lunch, Irish tea and a long conversation about the life he built here.

Cleveland has been called the “Most Mayo City in America,” and Gerry has done much to make that description ring true. In 1978, he joined a small group of tradesmen in establishing the Irish American Club East Side. He chaired the organizing effort and became its first president. What began with only a handful of people eventually grew to more than 3,000 members at its peak, and the club remains active today. For generations of local families, Gerry has been Mr. Cleveland Irish, the man who always seemed to know what was happening, who was coming to town and where people would gather.

His long-running Irish radio program, which is still going strong, first aired on Feb. 1, 1980. It traveled through Cleveland’s changing radio stations and call letters and continues today on WHK 1420, where Gerry talks about Irish music, community events, local people and nearly everything in between. He could not have been kinder to me, and I loved meeting his charming wife and daughter. Sitting with Gerry in the home where he has lived for nearly half a century, I understood why Clevelanders have listened to him for so long. He talks to people as neighbors, and he has never forgotten where he came from or the city that welcomed him.

Stamy Paul 

Stamy Paul has spent more than a decade finding Cleveland walls and bringing artists to them. Her professional background is in human resources, but her travels introduced her to graffiti and street art. When she wanted a mural painted inside her Tremont home, she had trouble finding an artist. That experience helped lead her to establish Graffiti HeArt in 2013. The organization connects artists with paid work, produces public art throughout the city and has provided scholarships for more than 70 young people to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Pre-College Program.

I loved getting Stamy’s photograph in downtown Cleveland beside the wall she worked so long to secure. She first contacted internationally known Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra in 2022. The two spent the next four years bringing this project to life. The finished 11,000-square-foot mural depicts Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley and Wanda Jackson in Kobra’s unmistakable style. It covers the K&D Group’s 55 Public Square Garage, but the place to see it is 217 W. St. Clair Ave., near West Third Street.

Graffiti HeArt led the project with key support from Sherwin-Williams, BrandSafway, the National Endowment for the Arts, Benesch Law, Mary and Philip Borba, Parker Hannifin and many other donors. Downtown Cleveland, Inc., the Historic Gateway Neighborhood Corporation and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame served as project partners. Stamy has helped deliver many great works of public art to Cleveland, but this one belongs among the greatest. Get downtown and see it. People are stopping beneath it, taking photographs and looking up at what four years of persistence put on the wall.

Matt Fish

It was great getting a photograph of Matt Fish inside Proof Public House, his new restaurant at 4116 Lorain Ave. Matt grew up near the Cleveland-Parma border, studied culinary arts at Cuyahoga Community College and worked in local kitchens, including Johnny Mango. He also toured with the Cleveland punk band Whatever and later played with the Chargers Street Gang. In 2006, he opened Melt Bar and Grilled in Lakewood. He eventually expanded Melt to 14 locations and gained national attention through several television food programs.

I loved talking with Matt about his long culinary journey and about Speak in Tongues, the old music venue just down Lorain Avenue that meant so much to both of us. Matt played there, and the place remains part of his history. He has carried some of that history into Proof with the old Speak in Tongues sign, concert flyers and music posters from Cleveland clubs and shows. The room also contains original black-and-white murals by the legendary Cleveland artist Jake Kelly that once hung in Melt locations.

I had a great dinner at Proof and enjoyed seeing new life inside a building that once held Nick’s Diner, where I ate many meals back in the day. Proof Bar-BQ later occupied the building before Matt opened Proof Public House in June 2026. It is cool to see the next evolution of Matt’s creativity here. The restaurant remembers what came before while inviting a new generation of Clevelanders to walk through the door, sit down and make their own memories. I look forward to seeing more people discover it.

Christopher Harris Jr. 

It was great meeting Christopher Harris Jr. and photographing him in front of the bar at Black Frog Brewery, located at 1966 E. 66th St. in Cleveland’s Midtown neighborhood. Christopher told me he has worked behind the bar and as a brewer since the Cleveland location opened in May 2025. Black Frog is Cleveland’s first Black-owned brewery and the second location for the business, which opened its original taproom in Holland, Ohio.

Christopher told me he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and has lived in Cleveland since December 2024. Before entering the brewing business, he worked as a live musician at Cedar Point. He later learned to brew from his father, Black Frog founder Christopher Harris. The elder Harris began brewing in his garage in 2014 before opening the Holland taproom in 2016.

The brewery was crowded when I visited, with musicians and local residents enjoying food and excellent beer. Christopher greeted people as they arrived, juggling several tasks at once and doing it all with a smile. I enjoyed meeting this friendly new Clevelander and seeing him at work inside a business his family has spent years building.

Greenhouse on Mars

Mic Fox built a barbershop inside a greenhouse behind a house on Mars Avenue in Lakewood. The Greenhouse on Mars has one chair, operates by appointment only and may well be the tiniest and coolest barbershop in Ohio. It was great visiting Mic there and photographing him inside a place unlike any barbershop I have encountered. Every corner holds some evidence of the person working in it, from books and artwork to the tools of his trade.

Mic grew up in Findlay, Ohio, and told me his life has taken him from Vermont to Tennessee and eventually back to Northeast Ohio. A musician as well as a barber, author and illustrator, he spent about a decade in Tennessee, where he met his wife. He also cut hair inside Nashville’s Elephant Gallery, an art gallery and studio on Buchanan Street. When COVID arrived, Mic and his wife reconsidered how they wanted to raise their family. Looking for greater stability, they moved to Lakewood with their two young sons, Roscoe and Dewey. They were drawn to the city’s walkability and the chance to build a life together in one place.

Mic was endlessly interesting as we talked about music, the local artists he plays alongside and the projects taking shape inside his head. He gave me copies of books he has written that I plan to add to the Cleveland Public Library collection, then showed me new artwork he was developing. As I crisscross Cleveland, people regularly tell me whom I need to meet, and Mic’s name had come up more than once. I am glad I finally found him on Mars Avenue. If you need a barber, text 216-770-7775 for an appointment at his one-chair shop. Come ready for a good cut and the kind of conversation that has always made a great barbershop more than a place to get your hair trimmed.

J.T. Lynch

It was great talking with Cleveland saxophonist J.T. Lynch at the Iconic Music Awards: Celebrating Cleveland’s Jazz Legacy, held at The Sixty6, located at 1966 E. 66th St. in Cleveland. J.T. is a proud graduate of East Technical High School and still lives in Cleveland. For decades, Cleveland audiences have known him through Horns and Things, the contemporary jazz group he founded with fellow saxophonist Ken LeeGrand about 40 years ago.

J.T. has said it was difficult for the group to find work in its early days. Once people heard the musicians play, he said, clubs and promoters across the city began calling. The group’s early lineup also included bassist Derrick James, keyboardist Sakait Baksar and drummer Ray Harvin. Over the years, Horns and Things has appeared on bills with Dexter Gordon, Jimmy Heath, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Sample, Najee, Ronnie Laws and Pieces of a Dream. The group recorded four CDs: Till the Dawn, Northern Wind, Da Boss and Get Your HAT On!

I loved hearing J.T. talk about his friend Kamal Abdul-Alim, the Cleveland-born trumpeter and composer who died in May 2026. We also discussed the many places J.T. has played around Cleveland, his favorite saxophonist, Dexter Gordon, and the musicians and old friends he has known over the years. J.T. has accumulated more stories than one conversation could hold. I wish we could have kept talking for hours.

Jenika May Gonzales

I loved taking a photograph of Jenika May Gonzales in Ohio City this summer. She was relaxing and working on her laptop, and we talked about the Cleveland life she has built since arriving from the Philippines. Jenika was born and raised in Marikina City and moved to Parma in 2006 at age 14, reuniting with her mother after eight years apart. She graduated from Cuyahoga Community College in 2013.

Her resume runs through some familiar Cleveland names. Her design work included DIMIT Architects’ logo rebrand and packaging for Market Garden Brewery’s cans. As Global Cleveland’s first marketing director, she helped create and promote the organization’s 10th-anniversary rebrand. She later worked as a visual and graphic designer at Mitchell’s Ice Cream and as an art director at Arhaus. Today, she is a senior graphic designer at RetailMeNot and operates In the Hyphen, her multidisciplinary creative practice centered on design, food, gatherings and community.

Jenika’s work does not end with a logo or package. In 2017, she organized a Lumpia Po pop-up that raised $6,000 to help her siblings immigrate to the United States. She has contributed to OPAWL, co-chaired AIGA Cleveland’s Women Lead initiative and participated in Global Cleveland’s inaugural Global Rising Leadership Program. Cleveland Magazine named her one of its Most Interesting People of 2022, and Crain’s Cleveland Business recognized her as a Notable Immigrant Leader that year. Jenika has spoken about the people who helped lift her as she found her place here and her belief in returning that help. I saw it in the way she connects Cleveland’s creative people and makes certain that someone else gets an introduction, an opening or a place at the table. I am so glad I was able to spend time with her, and I look forward to our next meeting.

Melody Chu

It was amazing spending time with Melody Chu after she came to hear me speak at Case Western Reserve University about my lifelong project of interviewing Clevelanders. When my talk was finished, I got to sit down and listen to her. Melody told me that her parents emigrated from Taiwan to Cleveland in the 1960s and that her father became a librarian at Cleveland Public Library. She grew up in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood, attended Hathaway Brown, graduated from Princeton University in 2001 and spent a summer studying Chinese in Beijing before earning her law degree from Harvard.

Melody spent 17 years as a finance attorney for an international law firm, practicing in Beijing, Hong Kong and the United States. She lived for five years in Beijing and another five in Hong Kong before returning home to Cleveland with her family. In 2018, while giving birth to her third child, Melody suffered an amniotic fluid embolism. Her heart stopped, and she received more than 40 units of blood as doctors worked to save her. She and her son both required intensive care, and her physical and emotional recovery was long and difficult. She has said that the experience forced her to reconsider how she wanted to spend her life. Melody is ridiculously accomplished, but she spoke about all of it with such humility that she almost made this extraordinary life sound ordinary.

In 2021, Melody left her position at the law firm and gave herself the chance to write. She self-published her debut novel, Mathey Girls, in May 2025. The book found readers through its treatment of friendship, grief, maternal health and Chinese American heritage. It became the first self-published book chosen for the Princeton Alumni Weekly Book Club, was featured during Cleveland Public Library’s One World Day celebration and appeared on Cleveland Magazine’s list of notable local releases from 2025. The magazine later named Melody one of its Most Interesting People of 2026. Her story had enough turns for several afternoons, and I could have listened much longer. I thank Melody for speaking so openly, especially about the day she nearly died, and I look forward to reading everything she writes next.

For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.

Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, featuring immersive stories, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.