Cleveland Astra launch video dares you to dream bigger
Women’s pro team launch video features original work from Cleveland Arts Prize-winning poet Ali Black, fields local players and encourages Clevelanders to look up.
Dreams asked our daughters to go farther…
Featuring an original poem by Cleveland Arts Prize-winning poet Ali Black, our launch video captures what this club is already becoming: the place where stars are made. The video was created by local studio Hemlock Films and directed by Kara Martinelli White. Special thanks to Cleveland State University for giving us space to create this experience at Krenzler Field.
We fielded a team of local athletes and filled the stands with you, our amazing fans. And we dreamed up what it looks like for young athletes to have their eyes on something bigger.
Local players included Sofia Cerquera, Adi Cook, Megan Couthino, Sophia Esposito, Jenna Garcia, Harper Hagen, Isla Holeman, Hannah McCray, Colleen Oberle, Anandi Patel, Lauren Smirnov, Kylie Swiantek, Neko Tien and Jordyn Wickes.
Gabriel Pewu, pro player with the Cleveland Crunch, is included as our coach. We also featured youth players and fans from the Girls Scouts, Euclid Youth Soccer, Lakewood, Saint Dominic's, Shaker Heights, Stow, Twinsburg, Woodridge and so many more.
Astra
Dreams asked our daughters
to go farther
as if stars aren’t a part of us.
We have always been bright.
We have always been brave.
We have always wanted to stay.
It feels good to be home.
Time to reinvent this city—
this place where frozen fields
have never stopped us,
where the lake guides us.
WE. MAKE. TIME. ADJUST.
Remember when they mocked us?
Look up. We are the light.
We train, we sweat, we score.
We adore our future.
We bet on us. We bring the trust.
We breathe in:
This is a win-win—
a signal fire in the sky,
a symbol of women who try,
a sign that girls can fly.
We do it for the city.
This team represents
what it means to believe.
— Ali Black
ABOUT ALI BLACK
Ali Black is a writer from Cleveland, Ohio. She is the author of the poetry collection, We Look Better Alive (Burnside Review Press, 2025) and the poetry chapbook, If It Heals At All (Jacar Press, 2020). We Look Better Alive was nominated for a 2026 NAACP Image Award for outstanding work in literature for poetry.
Ali's chapbook was selected by Jaki Shelton Green for the New Voices Series and named a finalist for the 2021 Ohioana Book Award in poetry.
Ali is the winner of the 2025 Cleveland Arts Prize in the emerging artist category. Her poems and essays have appeared in The Atticus Review, jubilat, Literary Hub, The Offing, The Adroit Journal and elsewhere.
