Ricky Wise, a Ravenna Township resident, had a cookout and pool party at his house for July 4. Wise describes himself as fiercely moderate and independent. “I don’t care [about partisanship] man, Black lives matter, white lives matter — smoke weed and buy a gun.”

Photo essay

Fourth of July in Ravenna Township

Residents mark Independence Day with backyard fireworks, target practice and barbecue.

In Ravenna Township, two groups of friends and neighbors celebrated Independence day in two very different ways:

One with a pool party, cookout and target shooting. The other with lawn chairs, sparklers and a clandestine pyrotechnics show.

I know the people in the first group, having gone to high school with most of them, and having been friends with some of them. They invited me over for a beer and a dip in the pool, and in true documentarian fashion, I brought my camera along.

The second group I met for the first time that evening, and after some introduction, they invited me to take photos of the night’s events, which included many sparklers, ‘oohs,’ ‘ahhs’ and one or two blow torches.

Kyra Sours (right) fires her pistol while her fiancé, John Marshall, plugs her ears at Wise’s cookout. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager

A lone baseball sits in the dirt on the outskirts of Wise’s cookout. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager

(Left) Marshall gathers pallets to put on a bonfire at Wise’s home during their July 4 cookout. (Right) A pro-Trump banner and beach towel hang off Wise’s deck. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager

(Left) Fireworks ignite over a neighborhood in Ravenna Township. (Right) Fireworks ignite over Michael Brooks’ neighborhood in Ravenna Township. Brooks, who organized the clandestine pyrotechnics show, said this was the first year the neighborhood came together for something like this. “Usually we have public options [for fireworks], but we’re without those this year so we decided to do our own,” Brooks said. “Decided to live our own Fourth of July.” Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager

Brayden, 6, of Ravenna Township, poses for a portrait with sparklers. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager

Bunny Brooks, a Ravenna Township resident and Michael Brooks’s mother, watches the finale of her son’s fireworks show. “We don’t need to go to Kent for this,” Bunny Brooks said, referencing the Kent Heritage Festival’s fireworks show which was canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Brooks added that while she loves to see the fireworks in Hudson and Kent, the ones in the neighborhood were very impressive. Carter Eugene Adams/The Portager

(Left) Chad O’Connor, aka “blowtorch man,” quickly moves away after lighting three mortars. (Right) Chad O’Connor, Matt Mitchell and Michael Brooks inspect the remnants of a mortar tube bundle and check for unexploded duds.

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