Local
Monday, November 4, 2019
Ace of Cups, 2619 N. High St. (one block north of Hudson)
No one turned away for lack of funds / donation at the door
Doors open 5:30pm with music and refreshments
Awards ceremony 7pm
Tribute to longtime Free Press graphic designer Charlie Einhorn
Honoring:
Free Press Libby Award for Community Activism - Mary Jane Borden
Free Press Volunteer Award - Jaime Pardo
Free Press Outstanding Community Organization - Black, Queer and Intersectional Collective
Bill Moss Award for Outstanding African American Artists - Tony and Aziza West
Music by:
Donna Mogavero
DJ laChewlla
Brian Clash
Dan Dougan and the Little Bothers
Donation at the door
Keep Austin Weird has done wonders for Central Texas. Those three words have inspired that city’s leadership to propel Austin into one of the most soulful and successful American cities of the 21st century.
For the most part, Austin is unified between rich and poor, and the city protects it’s independent and inclusive flavor by keeping high-end developers and corporate influence in check.
Can we capture that here?
It may very well depend on who wins the City Council race on November 5th.
Yet the last time a Columbus City Council incumbent lost was 24 years ago. The city’s appointment process after council member step down is partially to blame for keeping the status quo in place. And over this 24 years Columbus has morphed into something that is too exclusive, too corporate and too lame.
High-end developers drunk with City Council-approved tax abatements have played a huge role behind this change.
Without question Columbus has moved forward, and the incumbents on City Council, the endorsed Democrats, are urging voters to keep it that way.
Everyday People for Positive Change, a citizen ballot issue committee, announces that yesterday (October 30th) the group submitted a certified pre-circulation petition to the City Clerk for a proposed ballot issue to reform Columbus City Council. The proposed charter amendment would continue the effort to bring Columbus’s antiquated council make-up up to date to fully and unquestionably comply with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its prohibitions against “minority voter dilution,” which question was raised to Columbus leaders by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in a series of communications in 2017.
The proposed charter amendment would:
1. Create a 9 member council effective January 2020 (2021 elections)
2. Require each member to live in one of the districts and be elected by the voters of the district in which each resides.
3. Establish the initial apportionment plan, outlining the 9 districts.
Damon Krane has been involved in politics since age 16, starting in high school with a public access magazine Free Head. Since then, Krane has worked in grassroots politics against Ohio University administration, bigotry, and war, and in favor of student journalism, labor organizing, and tenant’s rights. It is this last issue which is the greatest in Athens, Ohio. Krane is now running for mayor of Athens.
Athens is a deeply divided city. 80% of residents live in rental housing while all city officeholders own homes, and several are landlords themselves. 80% of residents are under the age of 45, while all but one officeholder are over 45. According to an October 2, 2016 article in Athens News by Conor Morris, 30% of Athens County residents live in poverty, the top 20% of household incomes is 6.9 times greater than that of the bottom 20%, and women in Athens County earn a median income of $15,496, just over half of the average for men.
The march is November 2nd, 2019 at 5:30. We will be meeting at the intersection of North High St and West Poplar before marching north. Route details and more detailed schedule at Facebook Event.
Let’s imagine that we’re buying a house for $100,000 with all pennies. That’s 10 million pennies. We begin saving them one at a time, picking up every penny we can. At the same time, another person wants the home and is taking action to stop our dream from coming true. They spend millions of pennies and every $10 they spend could prevent us from collecting one more penny. They enact new laws and another 2.5 million of our pennies no longer qualify. New lines on the map drawn by our opponent disqualify 10% of more of our pennies. Another 250 thousand cannot be used because they made poor spending choices previously. A quarter million pennies are ‘accidentally’ not counted. Our competitor uses media ads to boost their appeal and to falsely undermine ours. Finally, a foreign supporter of our opponent sways another 10% of our pennies away from us.
Thursday, October 31, 2019, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
In light of TransOhio’s recent decision to sever all ties with Stonewall Columbus (SWC), I would like to add a few comments.
And while I was not part of SWC’s executive leadership or a member of their Board... I was obviously close enough to that organization to see very intimately all of the events that happened before and after Pride 2017 and the brutal mistreatment of the Black Pride 4 AND the lack of a meaningful, apologetic response that still, after 2 years, was the impetus for TransOhio’s departure from a relationship with SWC. And kudos to them. It’s about time. And other Columbus LGBTQ organizations should gather up their courage and follow suit and cut off ties with SWC.
There is a very simple reason that SWC has become irrelevant and part of the problem instead of a solution to the intolerable treatment of our trans community and particularly our transPOC community...
Pride. Not the celebration. But the state of being enamored by one’s own opinion of the self/itself. “pride” lowercase.
Herbalists are often frustrated by not only the system we all live under (that devalues human life, is indifferent to suffering, and only supplies quality care to those that can pay) but also frustrated how that system has slowly indoctrinated us in how we think about “medicine.” The biomedical-pharmaceutical model has convinced us there is a magic bullet for each “diagnosis.” That’s marketing, not good medicine. That is not how herbalism works, either. Herbalism treats people, not conditions.
Herbalists hear it all the time, even from some of our beginner students: “What herb is good for depression?” or “What should I use for this eczema?” The implication in these questions is that there is an herb that is a plug-and-play, one-size-fits-all prescription for an umbrella diagnosis. However, folks are asking the wrong questions and don’t even know it.
Never been prouder of Columbus thanks to a spontaneous moment of dance at Bruce Nutt's Crazy Mama's 40th Anniversary shindig starring the indefatigable Fleshtones at Skully's, Friday, October 4.
Deep in their super-rock garage soul show, lead singer Peter Zaremba, guitarist Keith Streng and bassist Ken Fox began doing a 'boogaloo' line dance onstage to the catchiest stripper/tiki/funk beat I've ever heard compliments of drummer Bill Milhizer.
The lanky Zaremba and his fellow super-rock skinnies urged the audience to join them and 'boogaloo down High Street/c'mawn, c'mawn.'
With no further prompting almost the entire dance floor crowd did exactly that. Eight lines or so, each roughly a dozen people, instantly and joyfully in sync with the band began marching back and forth, like the best New Orleans' New Year's party you've never been to.
An already-hot Fleshtones show/special anniversary show kicked into ultra-high gear, spirits levitating, middle-aging bodies gyrating, the night now a happening and not just a remembrance of youth crazily spent.