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GET FREE: Join the Criminal Justice Ballot Fight

Young black woman with long brown hair and a long sleeved black shirt pointing to a sign up on a wall with lots of black writing on it

Wednesday, Jan 31, 7-9pm
Summit on 16th United Methodist Church, 82 E 16th Ave.
You don't set 10,000 people free without training a few volunteers. If you're ready to stop ~talking~ about making change and start taking ACTION, this is for you. 

The Ohio Student Association and partners are launching a ballot initiative that would change felony drug possession charges to misdemeanors and make it possible for thousands to apply for release from prison, get their records expunged, and return to their jobs and families. The savings from not locking up people who are addicted to drugs will be invested in drug rehab programs that are actually proven to work. 

We want a criminal justice system that is aligned with our values and ACTUALLY rehabilitates people into society, but we're not going to get that without a fight. 

We need 600,000 signatures across the state to get the Safe and Healthy Communities Initiative on the ballot in November 2018, and we can't do it without you. 

Socially Just Dining: Trattoria Roma

A piece of food on a plate with other similar items, looks like a baked potato with lots of greens, tomatoes, other brownish things on top.

Trattoria Roma, located in the main downtown artery of Grandview, has a vegan friendly staff and excellent service level. They surprised me with their very tasty and robust veganized bruschetta (cashews) and a hearty farro dish. When you are looking for a romantic, fine dining atmosphere for Valentines Day, or any other celebratory occasion, they have great vegan eats. I highly recommend them. They are happy to accommodate special menu requests, you should ideally let them know you are vegan when making your reservation.  
 

An exclusive, local, vegan food dining experience by Griffeth Events, in partnership with Sobremesa Street Kitchen and Simple Times Mixers, are again delivering an “out of sight” opportunity you may want to consider this month: Dining in the Dark on Feb 10th at 1400 Food Lab (formerly known as The Commissary).

Painting the City Red

Black and white photo with people in winter coats outside gathered in a group behind a white banner with black letters saying The Whole Damn System is Guilty as Hell

Who knew there were so many socialists and anti-capitalists in Columbus, Ohio?

If you go to rallies and demonstrations and meetings across this city, you’re sure to see the participation or leadership of one socialist group or another.

 Indeed, the general interest in socialist ideas includes a wider pool of people than those who are formally members of socialist organizations.

Talk to activists in the burgeoning social justice communities in our city and you’ll see much criticism of capitalist greed and stark inequality. Many consider themselves socialists of one kind or another. Certainly not what the mainstream media means when it calls Ohio a “red state.”

Nevertheless, the explosion of interest in organized socialist groups right now is remarkable in a time when there are many other avenues for expressing resistance to the atrocities and inequalities of society, from non-government organizations to electoral campaigns to service-oriented groups. And at a time when the far-right has seen resurgence, encouraged by Trump’s campaign and presidency.

By all accounts, the reds are thriving.

Worshiping Power - a book talk by Peter Gelderloos

Cover of a book, the background is like a sun with rays spreading out but is black and gray. Words in white say Worshipping Power, an anarachist view of early state formation

Tuesday, Jan 30, 6-9pm
Northwood-High building, 2231 N. High St. room 100
Worshiping Power surveys a wide range of research responding to the question of where states came from, looking at the causes of politogenesis and tracing different pathways of state development. How did the State co-evolve with different models of the family, religion, warfare, commerce, and economic production?

Multiple theories of state formation are reviewed and contested in order to offer a multilineal framework in which emergent states may follow a variety of models depending on interpolity relations within regional systems, institutional "handles" that permit greater development of hierarchy within local religious and kinship systems, and the presence of interregional networks of material and spiritual commerce. 

The book also explores successive generations of state formation, as emergent states seek leverage over changing popular values that experience an "anti-authoritarian shift" in the course of rebellions against prior, despotic states, leading to the development of democratic or egalitarian states.

About the Author:

C.O.L.A. Fizzles Out

A beige background shaped like the state of Ohio and the words Frack Free Ohio in Red white and blue

Background: Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation is a petroleum, natural gas, and natural gas liquids exploration and production company based in Houston, Texas. Cabot is interested in drilling exploratory horizontal hydraulic wells in Holmes, Richland and Ashland counties. Cabot has entered into a sublease agreement with Columbia Gas Transmission L.L.C. to explore below the gas storage fields located in these areas. Cabot has contracted with Western Land Services to go door to door to convince landowners to lease their land to Cabot Oil & Gas to give them the ability  to drill extraction wells. Landowner groups like C.O.L.A. form to deal with the offers made by companies such as Western Land Services under the premise of obtaining the ‘best deal’.

Shadowbox show to honor ’60s struggles for freedom, equality

Middle aged white man with balding head wearing a blousy tie-front white shirt with tight shiny dark pants with a woman dancing sideways wearing a red bikini top and low-rider black pants and others dancing behind

It’s been nearly nine years since Shadowbox Live time-traveled to the 1960s with Back to the Garden. The music-filled re-creation of the Woodstock Festival was such a success that the troupe has restaged it multiple times in multiple locations.

Now the troupe is returning to the rebellious decade with a new show called The Dream. Though the name comes from Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech—excerpts from which will be heard throughout—the show itself is not based on a specific event. Instead, it will focus on 1960s efforts to advance the causes of freedom and equality for underprivileged segments of the population.

“The Dream celebrates the unsung heroes and the triumphant stories of those who stood up (for) African-Americans, women and the LGBTQ community,” Shadowbox executive director Stacie Boord explained during a Jan. 24 preview event.

Damn The Witch Siren: Let's Make Love

A woman looking like she's painted red, nude with her arms up across her breasts and hands with fingers spread near her throat. Her face is painted pure white and she has on a lot of makeup. Her hair is blonde, short and curly and the background is red.

If I were to give a Damn the Witch Siren a Rorschach test to enable my intro paragraph description; I might show them clips of Lady Gaga, a drag queen dancing, Grimes, and Tracy and the Plastics.

According to their social media: they are witch rock. Left to my devices they would end up either covering the Tucker Carlson “Eyes of Newt Conversation,” talking about Kendrick Lamar's “Damn” Album,  Aaron Hall and their current home Marion's haunted tourist sites.

However, people don't do interviews just so I can have conversations; they do interviews so humans can find their music.

Damn The Witch Siren has a new album called “Red Magic” which is having a release party at the Spacebar February 10th, and a subsequent tour. We discussed “Red Magic,” iTunes rejecting their initial album cover, the impact of participating in the boycott of R. Kelly's Fashion Meets Music Festival, and Z-Wolf's dad.

What is “Red Magic?”

7 days in … Resignation

Cartoon of older man with fluffy yellow hair and a blue suit with red tie holding his thumb up, but the look on his face is a big frown

Bruce Hornsby was right: things will never change. The Republicans will continue to refuse to negotiate with anyone, and the Democrats will not change their MO of doing nothing. The far-right will keep on pushing legislation that aims to keep America in the Dark Ages. The ultimately pointless Russia investigation is going to grind on while billionaires maintain their grip on global power.

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