Local
Sunday, March 8, 9am-4pm
Strongwater Food and Spirits, 401 W. Town St.
We couldn’t think of a better day to get the Columbus community together to celebrate women of color. In 2020, we are determined to Take Up Space. This International Women’s Day attendees can look forward to a day full of motivating words from community leaders, thought leadership on how to be a good ally, explore the work of local artists, and more.
For the full agenda and tickets, please visit:
https://creatingsafe.space/events/takeupspace-2020
Just say no. It had such a quaint ring to it, hearkening back to a simpler time when some thought that binary choices – black and white – could be applied to substance use. In today’s political climate, no has switched to yes, as illustrated by a majority of presidential candidates who now support a spectrum of cannabis legalization policies. Some, though, like Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Republicans and the Trump administration are stuck in another time. Their supposed concern? Research, or a perceived lack thereof.
Planning for ComFest 2020 is in full stride. It’s almost spring and before long the community’s greatest event will return to Goodale Park showcasing Columbus’ rich cultural, music and arts scene. And of course, ComFest promotes and celebrates the city’s thriving and influential progressive community. Education, organizing, activism and community involvement are vital components of ComFest during the three days in June, as well as throughout the year. “Living Every Day the ComFest Way” guides ComFesters and has positively impacted the open, welcoming, tolerant and progressive city Columbus is today.
ComFest is guided by its Statement of Principles and Mission Statement:
ComFest Statement of Principles
The Community Festival is guided by its Principles. The Principles are statements of what the members believe is basically important. They are:
We think that people ought to work for the collective good of all people rather than for personal gain. We support cooperation and collective activity rather than competition and individual profit.
Friday, March 6, Drop-off: 4:30 – 8:00 PM and Saturday, March 7, The Swap, 11:00 AM – 8:00 FRIDAY March 6, 2020, 4:30 – 8:00 PM. 8th Annual WHO/O Solidarity Clothing Swap
Our closets are overflowing with awesome clothes that no longer bring us joy, accessories bought on a whim, shoes that have only been worn once (or sometimes twice), so much feminist swag, and all this has much more life left. Let’s put those items to use, be green, save some green, and give some green! How it works:
Well, the Democratic Party machine in Franklin County is delivering the primary vote this year as if it was Tammany Hall. Instead of the mantra “Vote early – vote often” it’s “Vote early – and vote our sample ballot.”
I got a call from a Bernie Sanders field rep who witnessed Somalians being disenfranchised at the Franklin County Board of Elections during the first week of early voting. He said the poll workers weren’t letting elderly Somali women vote. Their big sin seemed to be they refused the sample ballot.
Despite their names being in the poll book, the Somali women were told they couldn’t vote unless they pronounced their address correctly in perfect English. The Bernie rep had noticed that all the Somali voters in question had rejected to take the sample ballot a Democratic operative tried to hand to them on their way in. The Bernie rep had asked the poll workers if there were translators present and was told they could help translate at the voting machines but not at the poll book area. The three Somali women were turned away.
In August of 2011, the usually boring world of guitar production was jolted by the arrival of federal agents at three Gibson guitar facilities in Tennessee. The agents executed a search warrant and seized large quantities of Madagascar Ebony and Indian Rosewood thought to have been imported by Gibson in violation of a United States law known as the Lacey Act.
In some respects a law ahead of its time, the Lacey Act was signed into effect by President William McKinley in 1900. The Act prohibited the transfer of illegally captured or prohibited animals across state lines, meaning that you can’t poach animals in one state and sell them in a state where they are legal. The law was intended to stop the over hunting of birds for hat plumes and prevent the introduction of invasive species into native ecosystems.
Thursday, March 5, 7-9pm
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 30 W. Woodruff
In the 2020 elections we’ve seen a racist billionaire attempt to buy the Democratic Party nomination, a racist billionaire president attempt to whip up his oppressive record to get re-elected, and a self-proclaimed democratic socialist gain mass popular support, and everything in behind.
Join Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists to discuss questions such as:
Can we transform society through elections?
What position do we take on the various candidates?
How do we build a mass socialist movement to win universal healthcare, free college tuition, an end to police brutality, and other progressive demands?
How can we organize the working class to take power for the vast majority?
Julie Whitney Scott – Free Presscolumnist, radio producer, actor and theater festival director – was honored with the Harold Award at the 20th Annual Central Ohio Theatre Roundtable Theater Awards Celebration show on February 16. Scott founded the Columbus Black Theatre Festival and received the award for her Mine 4 God Productions and for and presenting the annual Festival for eight years. The Harold Award is named for the late Harold Eisenstein the long-time theater director for the Gallery Players.
“I am honored, grateful, humbled, privileged and in awe of what God is doing and has done for me. What he is doing for me has blessed others and I will continue to pay it forward,” Scott said after receiving the award, “I was being recognized for something I had and was doing to serve others in my community, of my race, for the unity of all people, to ensure our stories, the here and now stories, the ‘we are no longer slaves’ stories were being told, under the title of Mine 4 GOD Productions. A title that from the beginning had to fight and preserver through the naysayers because I dared to use ‘God’ in my Theatre production company.”