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What appears to be a phony 911 emergency medical call was used as a pretense for Columbus Police to forcibly evict and arrest wheelchair-bound Medicaid recipients in a building that houses Senator Rob Portman’s office.

July 6 was a national day of action to sit in at Senate home offices across the country to protest cuts to Medicaid as the U.S. Senate seeks to roll back the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Five activists peacefully occupied Portman’s Senate office at 37 West Broad, where they remained overnight. The next day activists from ADAPT, a disability rights organization, joined members of local groups Junto Unsilenced, Socialist Alternative, and Yes We Can.

Kelly Weber, who organized the sit-in along with John Shade and Bilal El-Yousseph and with support from UltraViolet and Planned Parenthood, said the original demands were for Senator Portman to vote no on the bill to repeal the ACA and to hold a town hall meeting in the district.

Saturday, July 8, 10-11am
Facebook Event - RSVP on the site
It’s working! Now we need you to bring this home and protect our care.

We’ve delayed a vote on the disastrous health care bill in the Senate. Combined, our calls, letters and protests are being heard. Now, we can do something to stop Trumpcare altogether. Come knock on doors to build our power and mobilize fellow Ohioans to take action against this dreadful bill.

TRISM, a fresh, new concept by the Growing Collective, located in the South Campus Gateway, much like their Alchemy concept, also happens to be one of the most healthy, nutrient dense, vegan friendly establishments to open recently. They have also honed in on a particularly unusual item (what??? a vegan poptart, no-bake bites and superfood gluten-free vegan donuts?!?!?) amidst their healthier fresh smoothies and smoothie bowl options that are currently available. Trism’s to-go utensils and packaging products are also environmentally low-impact. 

The vegan community had an exciting opportunity to educate and empower everyone for a socially just future with VeganShift and the Columbus Vegan Meetup’s 5th Annual 300 Vegans 4 Independence campaign in the Columbus Doo Dah Parade on July 4. Vegan Outreach is also introducing a Vegan Mac Down on Saturday, July 15th, and we are hosting a bon-fire, volleyball, and potluck on July 22. Check out the Columbus Vegan Meetup group for more details on getting connected to the vegan community.  

In 1926, W.E.B. Du Bois said “The Plays of a real Negro theatre must be…About us…By us…For us…Near us.” 

This is the philosophy that is behind the 5th Annual Columbus Black Theatre Festival (CBTF).  The CBTF event is organized to support, encourage and recognize Black Theatre playwrights who tell the stories of being Black, living Black, working Black, raising Black, dying Black and loving Black people.

The CBTF is an opportunity to celebrate the production of plays about the Black experience written by new and seasoned playwrights.

When asked “what is the most important aspect of having a Black Theatre Festival to you?” returning playwright, Charlay Marie (The Bet), states “With Black on Black crime, police brutality and all other aspects of violence at an all-time high, Columbus, Ohio needs a comic relief in the form of entertainment and enlightenment. Theater gives playwrights a chance to fix what’s wrong in the community by tackling tough subjects and introducing our audience to a better way of thinking. Black theatre brings the community together to celebrate our differences, understand our strengths, and grow as a unit.”

"Without music, life would be a mistake."--Friedrich Nietzsche

Would the occasionally fantastically misunderstood German philosopher have understood the massive appeal of super-energetic sing-along songs of teen-angst? Or a free festival's fear of the riot potential of a band playing N.W.A.'s "Fuck the Police" on a Saturday night?

Yes, because he understood power.

Consider what went down the last full week in June here in our little nest-egg of an American dream town.

21 Pilots, two twenty-something Columbus musicians who were America's biggest breakout act in 2016, sold out two arenas and an outdoor amphitheater, plus the Newport and a small basement club the last full week of June. That's about 45,000 people, from near and far coming to see a two-man band--a drummer and a front man who played ukelele or bass part of the time.

"That's power, Oskar," as Amon Goeth, SS commandant, said in 'Schindler's List.' "That's power."

Perhaps we can say music has the power of life and maybe the power of death and destruction. Again, consider the latter at of all places, ComFest on its Saturday night.

Leftist black activists don’t get represented in Hollywood productions much, unless they represent the more mainstream Civil Rights movement. All Eyez On Me gives the radical leftist angle on rap icon Tupac Shakur’s family, upbringing, and his little-known political activism. Despite some of the movie’s small departures from eyewitness accounts, it surprisingly creates a pretty close approximation of Tupac, and the U.S. intelligence apparatus that murderously targeted him and his Black Panther family.

The movie opens with a filmed interview that Vibe magazine conducted with Tupac in prison. This interview frames the first two thirds of the film, until it reaches the point when Tupac is recalling the reason he ended up there.

Thursday, July 6, 12noon-3pm
Senator Portman's office, 37 W. Broad St.
Activists are mobilizing across the country to stop the GOP healthcare bill in its tracks. On Thursday, July 6th—during the 4th of July recess when Senators return to their home states—there will be sit-ins at Senate offices across the country demanding Republican Senators vote NO on the bill.

The so-called “Better Care Reconciliation Act” introduced in the Senate would take away health insurance from 22 million working, poor, and disabled Americans, gut Medicaid by almost $800 billion, and provide a massive tax cut for the wealthiest 2% of the population. The passage of this bill means that thousands of middle-class and poor people will die so that the rich can get richer.

Inspired by ADAPT’s courageous nonviolent sit-ins last week targeting Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, we believe greater nonviolent direct action is called for to elevate the impact and unpopularity of the healthcare bill within the media and to pressure Republican Senators to vote NO on the bill. 

Prodigy of Mobb Deep died June 20th from sickle cell. The QBoro rapper’s value to Hip Hop can be illustrated by oversimplifying statements like: Prodigy is more influential than Rakim because he helped Rakim become 90’s New York Hip Hop form. 

Nas, OC, Wu and others also helped Prodigy make Rakim resonate in the 90’s New York akin to 2pac popularizing Scarface’s rapping style everywhere.

Prodigy, Like Rakim, utilized his speaking voice in a cool, calm manner with controlled patterns creating the embodiment of the New York contrast between Hip Hop’s clean and dapper presentation and the grittiness of a gothic industrialization. Rakim’s 1992 song “Causalities of War” depicted a Desert Storm veteran who loses his mind because of PTSD that humanized the channel change from BET and CNN when people got bored of watching play by play of scud missiles.

The PTSD in Queensbridge from neighborhood violence during Mobb Deep’s rise had everyone speaking in the “dun” language while the East Coast adopted gulf-war names like CNN, Desert Storm and labeled neighborhoods Kuwait.

On May 1st COTA overhauled its transit system by increasing routes and connections, including to more jobs, such as at Rickenbacker on the far southeast side, which has an estimated 21,000 warehouse-related positions.

But more routes and increased frequency for those without their own transportation to an expanding Central Ohio and to more jobs apparently wasn’t the only improvement in mind for the transit authority. COTA also boosted the number of routes and frequencies to a place fueling an increasing addictive form of entertainment in our community – gambling.

COTA has two lines going to Rickenbacker, but four lines going to Hollywood Casino on the west side. Keep in mind there are jobs at Hollywood, but the majority of people taking these lines are going there to gamble.

What’s more, the four lines to Hollywood travel through some of Columbus’s poorest neighborhoods where the last thing these people need is a place where they lose what little money they have.

“During the lifetime of great revolutionaries, the oppressing classes constantly hounded them, received their theories with the most savage malice, the most furious hatred and the most unscrupulous campaigns of lies and slander.” - V. Lenin

In the comments of the Columbus Underground article, the #BlackPride4 were called left-wing terrorists. I guess if the shoe fits, though anyone who would suggest that is clearly way too easily frightened, but when not busy terrorizing the sacred corporate fun that is Columbus Pride, they are also organizers, volunteers, lawyers, or in other words, exactly the kind of people that “should” be protesting. Their moniker is apt then, because for once in a long time, I am truly proud of Don’t Call It Arawak City.