{"id":109687,"date":"2021-02-24T21:06:31","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T03:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=109687"},"modified":"2021-02-24T21:06:36","modified_gmt":"2021-02-25T03:06:36","slug":"ronzo-forever-yoknapawpha-arts-council-unveils-bronze-memorial-plaque-for-ron-ronzo-shapiro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ronzo-forever-yoknapawpha-arts-council-unveils-bronze-memorial-plaque-for-ron-ronzo-shapiro\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronzo Forever: Yoknapawpha Arts Council Unveils Bronze Memorial Plaque for Ron &#8220;Ronzo&#8221; Shapiro"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In honor of the late \u201cMinister of Culture,\u201d <strong>Ron Shapiro<\/strong>, a.k.a. \u201c<strong>Ronzo<\/strong>,\u201d a new original artwork by <strong>Bill Beckwith<\/strong> has been added to the <strong>Powerhouse Community Arts Center<\/strong>. Originally scheduled for <strong>Mardi Gras<\/strong>, February 16, 2021, but delayed due to the recent snow and ice, a bronze plaque in tribute to Ronzo was unveiled on Tuesday, March 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The artwork is based on a picture taken by local photographer <strong>Bruce Newman<\/strong>, who lovingly referred to it as \u201cThe Bronzo,\u201d and features Shapiro wearing his iconic Mardi Gras-colored jester hat, sunglasses, and his signature grin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is the start. This is not the finish,\u201d said <strong>Mike Mitchell<\/strong>, who collaborated with the artists. \u201cCertainly, this is about the spirit of Ron Shapiro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ron Shapiro, a native of <strong>St. Louis, Missouri<\/strong>, moved to Oxford in the early 1970s when he landed a job at the federally funded marijuana research facility at the University of Mississippi. An avid film buff, Shapiro ran <strong>The Ole Miss Drive-In Theatre<\/strong> and later the legendary <strong>Hoka Theatre &amp; Moonlight Caf\u00e9<\/strong>, which was the center for counterculture in Oxford for two decades. After the Hoka closed, Shapiro went on to open <strong>The Main Squeeze<\/strong> juice bar and caf\u00e9, and finally <strong>The Shelter<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In between his business ventures and world travel, Shapiro ran, albeit unsuccessfully, for Alderman at Large, with the tagline <strong>\u201cThrow the Rascals In.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No doubt a beloved local personality, Shapiro\u2019s memory lives on in many ways. This new sculpture can be viewed, touched, and admired by anyone who visits the Powerhouse, keeping the spirit of Ronzo alive in Oxford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"25\" height=\"16\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14544\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In honor of the late \u201cMinister of Culture,\u201d Ron Shapiro, a.k.a. \u201cRonzo,\u201d a new original artwork by Bill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300],"tags":[9441,13641,11458,165,18206,8591,4685,4684,9069,2396],"class_list":["post-109687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-localart","tag-bill-beckwith","tag-bruce-newman","tag-main-squeeze","tag-mardi-gras","tag-mike-mithcell","tag-powerhouse-community-center","tag-ronzo","tag-the-hoka","tag-the-shelter","tag-yoknapatawpha-arts-council"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/2021-02-24-Ronzo.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}