JCH Forever Day, a memorial celebration of the life and art of Jim Coleman Howes, will be
hosted at Culture Clash Records, 912 Monroe St., Toledo, in partnership with The Switchboard on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 1-8 p.m.
This free event will feature performances from each of the several bands of which Jim was a member and/or friend (Cobra Pit, Resignation, Hatefiles, Oscar Bait, Take Weight, Family Medicine, and more). Jim’s original artwork will be displayed in The Switchboard’s gallery space, and artwork, memorabilia, and other items associated with Jim will be raffled or sold to benefit the BGSU scholarship fund established in his name.
Community organizations such as National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Greater Toledo and Equality Toledo will be on-site to distribute literature and information. The Switchboard will offer specialty mocktails (along with their typical full bar menu) and food trucks will include Leaf & Seed, Casero Kitchen, and Gram’s Funnel Cakes & Sweet Treats, with coffee from Flying Rhino.
Jim AKA Coleman (he/they), a beloved figure of the local (and regional) music and art scene, left this life on May 7, 2025 at age 36, leaving behind a wide community of bereaved friends and
family. Click to read obituary. Jim struggled publicly and openly with sobriety, mental health, and the existential pain of being alive, while at the same time serving as a consummate pillar of support and inspiration to so many people who experience a similar reality, as well as being the biggest cheerleader for the creative endeavors and life aspirations of everyone they knew and loved.
Jim was esoteric, thoughtful, hilarious, intellectual, grounded, silly, imaginative, exceedingly
loving, and intensely serious all at the same time. He was an approachable enigma who was
impossible not to love, and on September 13th, together we aim to throw a celebration worthy
of everything he was and still is to all of us. While this event is by and for Jim’s community, it is
open to all.
