Feature

Once upon a time, every medical marijuana ballot issue and legislative bill contained a provision to permit personal cultivation. In 2007, introduced, but long forgotten Ohio House Bill 343 would have allowed patients to possess 12 mature plants. Limits in the Marijuana Policy Project’s 2012 model bill were set at 12 plants AND 12 seedlings. Why then was home growing omitted from Ohio’s new law?

In June 2016, Ohio became a “legal state” with the passage of Ohio House Bill 523. The legislation established a Medical Marijuana Control Program with cultivators, processors and dispensaries, but forbade “home growing,” well, sort of. The bill itself makes just one vague reference, “cultivator license holder shall not cultivate medical marijuana for personal, family, or household use.” I guess the rest of us can? Ah no, for that one must to defer to the Ohio Revised Code where growing marijuana carries the same penalties as possessing equivalent amounts: small means minor misdemeanors, large can lead to felonies and even mandatory minimum sentences.

December 26, 2017 - January 1, 2018
King Arts Complex. 867 Mt. Vernon Ave.
We are excited to announce the 2017 Citywide Kwanzaa Celebration. There will be seven days of activites for everyone to enjoy. It's that time of year when we come together to celebrate the principles of Kwanzaa and our accomplishments this year!

Please visit our website at https://columbuskwanzaa365.com/ to learn about the Pre-Kwanzaa and Kwanzaa events that will be taking place for our children and families. 

The Open Shelter of Columbus has had a year full of changes, and despite the organization’s stormy weather, the shelter will ring in the holidays in style with their annual holiday event “Ho Ho Hope For The Holidays.”

According to a statement from the Shelter’s Development Coordinator, Harry Yeprem Jr., “The event exists to provide Holiday Cheer and Help to those who may not normally able to experience it.” The event, Yeprem added, was “was very near and dear to the heart of Mary (Beittel, the shelter’s late co-founder and Executive Director).”

Approximately 400 men, women and children are expected to attend this year's event at Broad Street United Methodist Church. The event will be held on December 19, the Tuesday before Christmas at the Church, located in the Discovery District at 501 E. Broad Street.

By Andy Hudson, Grge Boas, Jane Ries, A.J. Vanderelli and Michael Kehlmeier

Imagine a time when there was no Short North Arts District, no Short North Gallery Hop, no WexnerCenter for the Arts, no cap over I-670, no not-for-profit art galleries on High Street, no lighted arches, no galleries or coffee shops, no health gyms, no preppy apartment buildings and no fancy restaurants. Rather there was just the Press Grill, Bob’s No-name Bar, PM Gallery, Michaels Goody Boy, the Short North Tavern and some antique stores and other long gone businesses. Thirty years ago that was the situation in 1987 when Geoffrey Taber created the ACME Art Co. (at first named the Geoffrey Taber Gallery).

The historians are coming.

Across the country, untold millions have suddenly awakened to the historical significance of various and sundry statues honoring the great Confederate generals of the Civil War. While their energy is no doubt commendable, their newfound knowledge has not yet permitted them to draw a distinction between education and glorification.

Our newly minted annalists, while wrong-headed, are not necessarily wrong. Although these triumphant monuments are somewhat misleading about the war’s outcome, they are quite informative about the Jim Crow era in which they were built. They also provide renewed motivation for debunking the “lost cause” historical narrative that has convinced generations of schoolchildren that the Civil War was fought by noble southerners over some obscure federalism issue.

Columbus Arts Festival– June 9-11, Friday, June 9 from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., Saturday, June 10 from 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Please note: on Friday and Saturday artist booths close at 9 p.m.)
Between Broad Street and Rich Street along the river

Riverfest – June 10-11
Downtown riverfront, in conjunction with Columbus Arts Festival.

Creekside Blues and Jazz Festival– June 16-18, Friday 5-11pm, Saturday 12:30-11pm, Sunday 12:30-6pm.
Creekside Park & Plaza, 117 Mill Street, Gahanna, OH 43230

Columbus Pride Parade and Festival– June 16-17
Parade June 17 – step-off at 10:30am, Goodale
Festival at Bicentennial and Genoa Parks

Columbus produces influential people for various reasons. One reason is Columbus has major learning institutions which provide an influx of young people looking to ripen, who mix with the civilians who exist. One place that exemplified this pure-of-heart culture incubator was Bernie’s Bagels and Deli (and bar) on the OSU campus. The campus bar combined lifer-anarchists with college kids who, in turn, created experiences that helped develop new energies. They finally removed Bernie’s physically. But with this spirit of internal exploration, here is my incomplete guide to something you could do with your next two months to 75 years.

On the night Hillary Clinton became the first woman to accept a major party’s nomination for president, I was watching a drama about women whose lives are decidedly less fulfilling.

Dancing at Lughnasa is a Tony Award-winning memory play set in a remote Irish village in the summer of 1936. Though it’s narrated by Michael Evans (Brian David Evans), an adult looking back on his childhood, it’s set in a household of women.

Michael’s mother, Christina Mundy (Kat Bramley), shares the home with her four sisters. Together, they eke out a tenuous existence, as only oldest sibling Kate (Katherine Scholl) has a steady job. But economic problems brought on by the Great Depression seem to weigh on them less than their social isolation.

Absolutely fabulous. That’s the only way to describe Bexley’s renovated Drexel Theatre

New décor. New seats. Best of all, new restrooms that are finally worthy of the well-heeled suburb where the landmark cinema sits. Their rundown predecessors were scarier than the average horror flick, but the new ones are so gorgeous that patrons will be tempted to gulp down a super-sized soda just so they’ll have an excuse to visit them.

Overall, the recently reopened Drexel is so posh that Edina Monsoon and Patsy Stone would feel right at home there.

Wait. Who?

For those who don’t recognize those names, Edina “Eddy” Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley) are the anti-heroines of both a film that opens at the Drexel this weekend and the classic British sitcom that spawned it. Both the series and the film are called Absolutely Fabulous.

Everything that was supposed to happen during my trip to Kurdistan, didn't. But what did happen all the time I couldn't have ever predicted happening at all.