Arts
Have you noticed those cool ComFest T-shirts the volunteers are rocking? Well, guess what? You could be the one designing this year's logo! ComFest is reaching out to all creative minds to submit their logo ideas! #ComFest2025
Requirements:
Incorporate the dates: June 27, 28, & 29, 2025
Include "Community Festival" and "Goodale Park"
Integrate the Hopewell symbol
Your design should be entirely original - no clip art, copyrighted, or AI generated material allowed. Keep it simple: one-color designs only, and make sure it's print-ready.
Send your entry to logo@comfest.com by March 4th to be considered OR bring your entry directly to the contest on March 6th
This article first appeard on the Buckeye Flame
At the Contemporary Theatre of Ohio in downtown Columbus, a busy cast and crew are preparing to open the 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fat Ham.”
Early this year, the theater was awarded a $10,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to produce James Ijames’ overtly Black and queer adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
Friday, February 28, 2025, 5:30 PM.
Film Noir Theatre with St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, St. Paul A.M.E. Church 639 E. Long St. Columbus, 43215
Black History Month Event. Screening “Black Panther” (2018) and Wakanda Forever” (2022).
Two films starring, written by, produced by, and or directed by African Americans. Before the screening there will be a brief intro and vintage cartoons. Hot dogs, popcorn, pop and hot chocolate will be available for purchase.All are welcome! However, in general these films are not for children under 14. The films will be shown at The Annex directly across the street from the church.
Admission and parking are free.
Patricia Ryan Nixon has been repeatedly described as the most enigmatic of the post-World War II First Ladies. Preternaturally poised, attractively dressed and coiffed, relentlessly cheerful, and an indefatigable campaigner, she appears to have never put a foot wrong in her public life. For all these things, she earned the sobriquet “Plastic Pat.” Even as her heart must have been shattered, she stoically stood by as her husband endured the humiliation of being forced to resign the office of the President of the United States – an office she had been so instrumental in his winning twice. Since she was almost pathologically private, it’s good to see a modern biography of her.
A new book of essays written by a trailblazer in the Rights of Nature movement tackles the enduring myths behind the environmental crisis.
Wouldn’t You Say? A Collection of Essays About Environment and Community was written by Ben Price and published by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) in November.
Price was a central force behind the first-ever law to recognize the Rights of Nature in the United States, back in 2006. He has been a grassroots organizer for twenty years with CELDF, assisting dozens of communities to pass laws restricting corporate power and recognizing nature’s rights.
A 6-week series of African Americans in cinema. Beginning Friday January 24, 2025
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 639 E. Long St. Columbus, 43215
The films will be screened at The Annex directly across the street from the church
FREE ADMISSION – FREE PARKING
Show time 6pm Doors open at 5:30
Each week will be a double feature. Two films starring, written by, produced by, and or directed by African Americans. Before the screening there will be a brief intro and vintage cartoons. Hot dogs, popcorn, pop and hot chocolate will be available for purchase.
All are welcome! However, in general these films are not for children under 14
1/24 - “The Birth of a Nation” (1915), “Black Klansman” (1966)
1/31 – “The Birth of a Nation” (2016), “Harriet” (2019)
2/7 – “The Emperor Jones” (1933), “Voodoo Macbeth” (2021)
2/14 – “BlackkKlansman” (2018), “Judas and the Black Messiah” (2021)
2/21 – “The Butler” (2013), “Green Book” (2018)
2/28 – “Black Panther” (2018), “Wakanda Forever’ (2022)
Sunday, January 26, 12noon
Studio 35 Cinema & Drafthouse, 3055 Indianola Ave., Columbus
Experience the power of We Are Guardians, an award-winning documentary exploring the fight to protect the Brazilian Amazon. Follow Indigenous forest guardian Marçal Guajajara and leader Puyr Tembé as they risk their lives defending ancestral lands from deforestation, while illegal logger Valdir faces a moral and economic dilemma. Directed by Indigenous activist Edivan Guajajara alongside environmental filmmakers Chelsea Greene and Rob Grobman, and executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, this film is a compelling story of resilience amidst crisis.
We're pleased to announce that Jeffrey Wilson, president of Friends of Serpent Mound, will be a distinguished speaker for the Q&A following the screening this Sunday.
This article first appeared on Reel Time with Richard Ades.
This is the time of year when critics get a chance to catch up on recent flicks they might have missed, courtesy of studios in search of buzz and, hopefully, award nominations. While I don’t claim to be clairvoyant when it comes to the latter, I can confidently say this: If the Oscars and other competitions gave out prizes for bravery, these three films and their creators would win hands down.
One filmmaker displays creative courage by breaking the mold in a familiar genre, while the others put their liberty and even their lives at risk in order to bring their truths to the screen.
Let’s look at them one by one.
Biopic with a difference
By now, we all know the drill when it comes to film biopics: The would-be celeb claws his or her way to the top, but success comes at a steep cost. Friends are abandoned, spouses are cheated on, and alcohol and/or drugs are abused.
I’m personally honored to inform you that Palestine’s entry to this year’s Academy Awards, the brilliant film FROM GROUND ZERO, has recently been voted by the members of the Motion Picture Academy — one of only 15 films worldwide — for this year’s Oscar shortlist for BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE. I am a proud Executive Producer of this acclaimed movie — AND IT OPENED TODAY in theaters across America.
FROM GROUND ZERO, the first film ever from Gaza to be elected to the shortlist for the Oscar in the category that honors what used to be known as the Best Foreign Film of the Year, is unlike any movie you’ve ever seen — filmed during a mass slaughter of over 50,000 civilians, the vast majority of them children, women and the elderly. In a brisk and powerful one hour and fifty-two minutes, it weaves together 22 short films made by 22 courageous Palestinian filmmakers living and surviving in Gaza over this past year — all of it told in under 2 hours!
Last week, Amazon workers made history by launching the largest strike at Amazon in American history. And this movement is just getting started.
Meanwhile, the documentary film UNION, which depicts the organizing efforts that led to the formation of Amazon Labor Union in Staten Island, New York, has been short-listed for an Academy Award! This means that out of more than 14,000 films made last year, UNION is now one of just 15 finalists in contention for a nomination for Best Documentary Feature.
We’re not surprised. The film is incredible, giving a rarely-seen window into what on-the-ground organizing at Amazon is really like.