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The Columbus Black Theatre Festival (CBTF) celebrates its seventh year this July. As an African American playwright myself, my goal for the CBTF is to showcase original plays by other Black playwrights – especially new playwrights – to encourage them and others to tell our stories so that our generation can leave our future generations a blueprint of our lives as we lived them in our time.
When I first started the CBTF there were those who wanted the “Black” removed from the name, said it would be offensive to some races of people. My response was that only Black people were concerned about what others thought when the focus is put on their race. Columbus, Ohio has a wide variety of festivals throughout the summer. We have an Asian Festival, a German Festival, an Italian Festival and so many other festivals. Why can’t we have a Black Festival?
Monday, June 10, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Please join us on Monday, June 10th, at 6:30 p.m. as we continue the conversation on how we can best support Miriam Vargas and her family. Facebook.
Lily Kunning (Columbus, Ohio’s community herbalist) has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund work on a comprehensive online course for girls and young women to learn about their bodies, sexuality, gender, relationships, and more. “It’s the course we all wish we had growing up,” says Kunning.
“As a girl child, I was not taught the name of all my body parts. I had to learn about sex and relationships through (sometimes bad) experiences. In short, I am not prepared for life as an adult.” continues Kunning. “Given the current state of affairs politically- with women losing civil liberties and autonomy over their own bodies under the law- I knew I had to do something! Given my skillset, creating Maiden Voyage was something I was born to do.”
My earliest memory of Comfest was probably the Summer of 2000. I was in the process of wrapping up a degree at Ohio State and living at a place on Tompkins Street. I was sort of dragooned into going by the guys who lived next door, who were more in tune with things. At that point I was unaware that Comfest – or Goodale Park for that matter – even existed.
I remember that we parked illegally in the Big Bear parking lot on Neil Avenue, which made me nervous. I think that it was either dark or getting dark when we arrived, and that I was pretty disoriented. The food stalls on Goodale Street seemed to come out of nowhere. I was fairly quickly pulled over to the main stage to see a band called the Jive Turkeys who were closing out the festival. Despite my bewildered state, the band blew me away. They were truly incredible, ending their set with Sly Stone’s “Hot Fun in the Summertime.”
There are ways for straight and cis people to be supportive to the LGBTQ+ community that are more impactful than attending a Pride parade as an onlooker or marcher:
1. Volunteer with organizations that are putting on Pride events doing the work that is least fun – do trash pick up, help out in the parking lots, do clean up after the event. These roles are often filled by LGBTQ+ people who are missing out on the fun while allies are enjoying the festivities.
2. Offer to watch the children of LGBTQ+ people so they can attend parades and other events without children, if they want a kid-free day. Also, offer to do this for the evening events.
3. Give money to LGBTQ+ organizations, especially those that center trans folks and people of color.
4. Spend your money at LGBTQ+ owned businesses on days Pride isn’t happening.
5. Buy tickets to Pride events and offer them up to LGBTQ+ people. Some events are pricey and not all LGBTQ+ people can afford to go.
6. Drop LGBTQ+ people off and/or pick them up from the Parade. The traffic is wild and rides would be appreciated.
Sunday, June 9, 2019, 2:00 – 4:00 PM
Please just us for a summer celebration! Enjoy food, drink, conversation, and music. See COWC’s new office and participate in the cornhole tournament! Bring the whole family, we will have kids’ activities. $20 suggested donation per person to enter the cornhole tournament. Great prize package for the winner! Location: Central Ohio Worker Center Office, Seafarer’s Union Hall, 2800 S. High St., Columbus 43207. Facebook.
Testimony before the Ohio legislature on House Bill 6, Ohio’s nuclear and coal plant bailout bill which ironically also cuts off funds for renewable energies.
Is Ohio's legislature declaring a state of atomic socialism?
It seems poised for a Soviet gouging of some $3 billion over the next ten years to bail out two dirty, dangerous, decayed Chernobyl-ready atomic reactors that are falling apart. Neither can compete in the free markets so many Buckeyes profess to love.
The legislature proposes this $3 billion bailout while trashing some $4 billion in private capital. That money wants to build thousands of wind turbines and create tens of thousands of jobs, generating safe clean energy far cheaper than those radioactive "mistakes by the lake." The fast-rising turbines would lower electric rates and bring in private development capital, not drain it out of the public pocket.
The astonishing turn to Soviet nuclear economics comes as FirstEnergy's top executives pocket some $25 million in annual "salaries" while they spent $3 million to "lobby" the Legislature.
Sat, June 8, 6:30-11pm
1021 E. Broad St. in the backyard, weather permitting, free, no RSVP required. colsfreepress@gmail.com or 614-253-2571.
Join progressive friends for food, drink, and great music. A presentation by Annie and Jay Warmke, owners of Blue Rock Station on “Living Sustainably in a World that’s Running out of Everything” including how they have managed to make a living by focusing on sustainable practices while living in an Earthship, a comfortable home made of clean trash, designed by architect Michael Reynolds of Taos, NM. Annie and Jay Warmke, owners of Blue Rock Station will speak at the Second Saturday Salon on Living Sustainably in a World that’s Running out of Everything”. The talk will include how they have managed to make a living by focusing on sustainable practices while living in an Earthship, a comfortable home made of clean trash, designed by architect Michael Reynolds of Taos, NM. Annie and Jay started Blue Rock Station after living in Europe and leaving behind their careers in the corporate world.
The March for Reproductive Freedoms
Friday, June 7, 12noon-6pm, beginning at the Ohio Statehouse and then marching to the OSU campus
The government is trying to take away basic human rights and a woman’s choice to have an abortion and to receive adequate birth control is something not to be deemed “unconstitutional.” The three founding principles of this country are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and they are under attack. In light of the government’s actions, the public’s voice needs to be heard. We will be staging a protest in front of the Ohio Statehouse and then marching to the OSU campus. Join us if you believe in the future of our freedoms!
Foghat released its self-titled British boogie debut; T. Rex, its third album, The Slider; and Chicago's V was America's number one thanks to its feelgood hit, Saturday In The Park.
It was also Chicago's last album without a Peter Cetera-written song.
We didn't know it, but our culture was seeing the true end of the visionary '60s and tiny little signs of Seventies Cheese would later be recognized. Cetera was soon going to slime us with his musical mayonnaise like we were French fries at the fair.
Elvis was switching performance residencies in Vegas from the Hilton to the MGM's Grand Hotel (his pay jumping to $200,000 per week from $125K) and prerecorded tape was challenging the primacy of the LP.
And Jimmy Cliff's The Harder They Come was number two in Bangkok.
What magazine would've featured all that jazz on its cover (except for the Bangkok tidbit, which was inside)?
Billboard, from Oct. 7, 1972 – my senior year in high school – and the music industry's main weekly publication. And unintended culture chronicle.