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"Chevalier" is the story of composer Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) The illegitimate son of an African slave and a French plantation owner, Bologne rises to improbable heights in French society as a celebrated violinist-composer and fencer, complete with an ill-fated love affair and a falling out with Marie Antoinette (Lucy Boynton) herself and her court.
As a man of mixed race, Joseph Bologne is, during his time, undeniably shackled by French laws and by social conventions. He comes to defy the aristocracy he once moved within and is changed by a love made impossible by his race. And he rediscovered his heritage, bringing Creole influences to his music and fighting for his people. And yet, is remarkable virtuosity and persona allowed him to enter, however precariously, the circle of elites enjoying wealth, power, and the outrageous excesses of the age.
The war in Ukraine has taken hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives, uprooted millions, contaminated land, air and water and worsened the climate crisis. The longer the war goes on, the greater the danger of spiraling escalation which can lead to a wider war, environmental devastation, and nuclear annihilation. The war diverts billions that could be addressing urgent human needs. Total military victory cannot be achieved by either Russia or Ukraine.
It is time to support the calls by Pope Francis, United Nations Secretary-General Guterres, Presidents Lula de Silva of Brazil, Erdoğan of Turkey, Xi of China, and others for a ceasefire and a negotiated end to this calamitous war.
Stop the killing, agree to a ceasefire and begin negotiations! Sign the petition here.
The Waldos, the 1970s, Lobby Day, Adult Use
Happy 4/20 or 420, as it is known!! The famed cannaholiday is upon us once again! It’s been over 50 years since five Southern California teens coined the term. While it is ubiquitous today – a codeword for friendship and fun – 420 was a product of its times, a tactic to evade parents, police, and prohibition. Read more below.
Don’t forget The People’s Cannabis Lobby Day at the Ohio Statehouse on Thursday, 4/20. Find out more here.
FOUNDERS of 420 – the WALDOS!
SPAN Ohio's Lobby/Advocacy Day in Columbus is Wednesday, April 19th, 8:30AM to 5PM.
We are extending this opportunity again so you can sign up to attend our in-person meetings with legislators on that day!
You do not need to be experienced in lobbying. You will be paired up with other experienced lobbyists from SPAN.
Dee Chavez
Chair Lobby Committee
513-413-1178
This isn’t your Crazy Mama’s off-campus anymore. Nor is it your Papa Joe’s or Mean Mr. Mustard’s.
Above on left is a picture sent to us by an Ohio State student of a marker board from an off-campus “House Ministry” of roommates letting everyone know how long they’ve self-restrained from watching porn (i.e., “Flogging your dolphin”).
The image on the right is a show poster from last year promoting a concert to raise awareness of “cult activity on campus.” Kool-Aid Man wrapped with a snake is a nice touch.
There are still pockets of cool campus, but those halcyon days (sorta) of the late 1980s and early 1990s are long gone. Replaced of course by the corporate-lame South Campus Gateway mixed-use complex.
Yet what also is a headscratcher is how Christian youth ministries have gained a startling foothold around OSU over the previous two decades. First was Xenos, which began in Columbus in the 1970s, and rebranded recently as “Dwell.” Xenos, as many are aware, is known for its off-campus group homes or “House Ministries.”
Monday, April 17, 2023, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Over the past two years, the No Death Penalty Ohio Coalition built a movement that saw historic legislative progress. Though the legislation that would end Ohio’s death penalty did not pass, we are determined to keep pushing for repeal.
It’s a new session and new bills ending Ohio’s death penalty are poised for introduction. Join us at a statewide grassroots meeting to learn about the campaign, ignite or reignite the spark for abolishing the death penalty, and to learn how you can play a role.
We need people like you to join the bipartisan movement to end the death penalty.
Register for the meeting here.
Germany has shut its last three commercial atomic reactors.
Thus Satrday, April 15, 2023, marks a day that will live in joy and promise.
The world’s fourth-largest economy has gone post-nuclear.
While the conjoined atomic power and weapons industry wastes uncounted millions pushing yet another doomed-to-fail “nuclear renaissance,” Europe’s biggest economy has steered itself toward a sustainable green-powered future.
For more than a half-century, a powerful Solartopian movement has fought reactor construction in Germany.
A key early uprising came in the rural community of Wyhl, where thousands of No Nukers physically occupied the site of a proposed radioactive waste dump. Films of the action circulated worldwide, helping to inspire mass non-violent occupations at Seabrook, New Hampshire, Diablo Canyon in California, and dozens of other reactor sites around the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Germany’s Green movement achieved significant parliamentary clout. In early 2011, it set a massive national demonstration to shut the nation’s 19 reactors.
Saturday, April 15, 10 am to 1:15 pm
913 E Mound Street
Sunday, April 16, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Behind Old First Presbyterian Church, 1101 Bryden Rd.
We will be planting spring crops, clearing out debris, setting a compost bin, trim bushes/trees, turning soil, prepping beds and grab litter from the surrounding nkighborhood. We will also go into the neighborhood to recruit people to help us this year and set plans for what to plant where and figure out how many plots can go to individuals to use. Bring gloves, sunscreen and garden wear that can take some dirt on them. We'll provide tools, beverages, pizzas from Donatos at 1:15 . Many hands make less work and we look forward to a great bounty this year to share.
Detested by most residents, “hated” to use the word regularly repeated by Columbus Police, and used without obeying the law by relatively few, the plague of unregulated electric scooters is one of Columbus’ few marks of distinction. With almost all other distinctions, this is another grade of F for failure; P for profiteering; C for corruption; V for the City’s violation of its own laws and its residents’ rights. This is The Columbus Way.
Columbus is the largest US city with no policy for regulating electric scooters. See, for example, John Seabrook, “The E-Scooters Loved by Silicon Valley Roll into New York” (The New Yorker, Apr. 19, 2021; for related humor, Fred Noland, “The Scooter Menace,” Sept. 19, 2022). /Other cities pursue a variety of means of regulating scooters—with more or less success—especially for safety and the physical environment.
The slogans that scooters benefit the physical environment or “enhance mobility” (one of the Division of Public (aka Private) Service’s favorite self-promotional terms) are shown over and over to have no merit. That never matters to the City of Columbus.
Thursday, April 13, 7pm, Enarson Classroom Building [Rm. 214], 2009 Millikin Rd., and online at tinyurl.com/CORSMeeting
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” — Marx and Engels
Join Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists on Thursday, April 13 to discuss the history of revolutions and the meaning of revolution for us today.
In recent years, we have seen the reemergence of mass struggles across the world. Yet rarely have we seen real improvements in what people have been fighting for, let alone an end to the oppression and exploitation that are the norm under world capitalism.
This presentation and discussion will consider the importance of revolution for achieving real social change and what core lessons we have to learn from the long history of revolutionary struggle by the lower classes.