Local

In honor of last week's Trans Day of Rememberance and Trans Awareness Week, I asked International Dancer and Burlesque Performer, Fonda Lingue some questions. I follow her on Facebook and we have become friends, meeting at burlesque festivals. She has been extraordinarily forthcoming about her journey coming out as a woman, including taking hormones, battling cancer and getting surgery. Please take a moment to learn more, feel the love that pours out of this incredible person, and think about others who either have or want to make this journey. Fonda Lingue traveled the world as a professional ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer for twenty years and now travels the world as a burlesque performer and instructor. LM: What is your history as a performer? When did you become Fonda Lingue? Fonda Lingue: Fonda Started as a drag performer in Atlanta back in 2006. After doing drag for a while I was tired of the lip syncing and standing there and decided to use my dance training in my numbers. These numbers evolved into burlesque numbers. Vagina Jenkins saw me perform and asked me to perform in one of her shows.

Should Mayor Michael Coleman run for re-election and win in 2015, he will be the longest serving mayor in Columbus history. He has not announced his intentions for the 2015 general election at this time and it is far too early for a candidate to file. These tiny details have not stopped Coleman from raising bundles of cash through his campaign committee, Coleman for Columbus. It appears to be a standing committee for a candidate permanently on trail, with records of contributions stretching back nearly as far as the Ohio Secretary of State's website records go. The contributions continued to roll in after Coleman's re-election in 2011. So far in 2013 he's received over $75,000 in contributions, topping his previous year's fund-raising for his unannounced campaign. During three days in late June this year, immediately following his junket to Las Vegas for the annual meeting of the US Conference of Mayors, Coleman's treasurer made many trips to the bank. Those three days of handshakes and backslapping seemed to have garnered the mayor over $11,000. A significant portion of these contributions came from firms in the construction industry.

I can't tell you how upset I am to even be writing this column. It's Hate Michigan Week, I was going to insult the state and defend Detroit #atthesamedamntime. But when chicanery in the state legislature is afoot, Ain't No Love In The Heart shall ride. HB 203, aka the Stand Your Ground bill, passed the House last Wednesday. The chances of it becoming law are high (I mean, can you really count on Kasich doing something that resembles the actions of a caring, humane individual TWICE?), but there' still time, and if we raise enough hell, then maybe, just maybe, because on the real y'all, Stand Your Ground laws are the embodiment of everything that prevents us from actually living together in peace. Most of the arguments against Stand Your Ground are about the ways in which it disproportionately affects black and brown youths, that people's latent racism can now serve as a justifiable reason for killing another human being, that black and brown people must live in constant fear that their actions will be misconstrued by some angry (almost always a) dude and the result will be their death.

History has been made in our lifetime. When President Obama came to office in 2009, he had a progressive agenda that included implementing a national high speed rail plan. Many of his platforms became unsuccessful bargaining chips and the high speed rail plan was hardly popular on both sides of the isle. Three Republican governors effectively halted the plan by rescinding astronomical amounts of money that would have improved high speed travel in their respective states. People from Wisconsin, Florida and, of course, Ohio have lost opportunities to move around their states without disrupting the climate on the road or frequently paying more for airfare. Ohio is vying for high-speed rail yet again though. Columbus is situated in a central position relative to cities in Ohio and across state lines. The third largest city in the country, Chicago, is only 350 miles away. While in the air, these cities seem worlds away, and their communities become completely disconnected. And although the road can be exhilarating- and other times exhausting- an identified high speed rail line could get passengers to their destination in only three and a half hours.

This past summer two busloads of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma hit the road to pay a visit to the Ohio Historical Society at its headquarters adjacent to the state fairgrounds. The Oklahoma Shawnee were not on vacation mind you, but on a mission: to give the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) a history lesson. And as one OHS employee recalled in a diplomatic tone, “We’ve learned from our past.” The Oklahoma Shawnee had gotten wind that the Serpent Mound in southern Ohio – the world’s largest effigy mound and recently named by National Geographic as one of “Great Wonders of the Ancient World” – was becoming a popular destination for New Agers. Indeed, over the past three years at certain New Age-themed events the mound was surrounded by hundreds of admirers as their reverence for the mound was clearly on display.

For several years now the United Food and Commercial Union (UFCW) has financially backed a drive to organize Walmart’s low-wage workers and target Black Friday for a day of protests and strikes. The UFCW has quietly convinced a small number of Walmart associates across the nation to form a non-union organization called OUR Walmart, or Organization United for Respect at Walmart. OUR Walmart members feel their cause to be historic as they speak out for a living wage and greater benefits. But they seek an even bigger concession, and it won’t cost the Waltons, the family that owns Walmart, or their stockholders a cent – greater respect. Two Black Friday protests are planned for Columbus and its suburbs beginning at 9 am at the Walmart at 3657 E. Main in Whitehall and the Walmart at 6674 Canal Winchester Blvd.

Just about everyone seems to love Pope Francis. By presenting a face of humility and innate decency to the world, he’s done wonders for the Catholic Church’s tarnished image. But now we have Philomena on the silver screen to remind us of just how much the church has to atone for. Decades before abusive priests became an international scandal, Irish girls who became pregnant out of wedlock were forced to pay for their indiscretion by laboring in convents. That was the easy part of their penance. The hard part was that church officials demanded the right to give their babies up for adoption. Philomena, based on actual events, shows what happened when one of those girls refused to forget the son who’d been taken away from her. Judi Dench plays Philomena Lee, a devout Catholic who has borne her loss in silence for decades. But she’s never stopped wondering what became of the boy she named Anthony. Through a lucky set of circumstances, she’s introduced to Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a former journalist who’s just been kicked out of a position with the British government.

Peter Max is an art icon. He literally painted the backdrop for the psychedelic 60s. His work has inspired a couple of generations of artists and that same work is perhaps the most imitated style since that time. His artwork now hangs in 1,123 museums around the world. He has painted and rubbed shoulders with presidents and rock stars. And on Tuesday his latest book, The Universe of Peter Max (published by Harper/Collins), was released to the public. The Free Press was given an advance copy of the book and HarperCollins arranged an interview with Max on the day it was officially released. With a forward written by famed astronomer Neil DeGrasse Tyson, one might expect The Universe of Peter Max to soar into the cosmos. It does not disappoint. Stunning both visually and in its anecdotal revelations, Max's latest work contains a treasure on every page. Think that's hyperboly? Well, I started my conversation with Max explaining the Free Press and the artist shared an interest in environmental issues. Many here in Ohio may recall the 2002 incident in which a cow escaped a slaughter house near Cincinnati and remained on the lam for several days.

One man's overthrow of a democratically elected government is another man's fodder for a TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk. Key in white and Western colonial projects is a sovereign nation all too willing to play host. Since 2009, Honduras has been that nation. Its story is a tragedy that even Shakespeare would have deemed as too emo, the bad old days of imperial neoliberalism in Latin America all over again. Honduras's presidential elections are Saturday, and its people, and the Libre party, no matter what deity, algorithm or currency system you happen to worship, need you to pray for them. On June 28, 2009, six months after Obama's inauguration and two months after his supposed apology tour, President Manuel Zelaya was woken up in his pajamas by the military and forcibly removed from the country. Every country in the world except the United States and Israel called it for what it was, a military coup, which conveniently allowed the US to continue to provide. In the sham elections that followed, the Dynamic Duo were the only countries to recognize the new government. For the right, even this wasn't enough.

It’s not too late to offer employee giving at your workplace through Community Shares of Mid Ohio. During workplace giving campaigns, Community Shares collects donations for its coalition of more than 50 nonprofits. Each individual donor selects a charity or group of charities to receive their donation based on which organization is working on the issues and causes they care about most in their community. These donations have been beneficial to many of the member nonprofits of Community Shares. Contributions from employees at workplaces across Columbus and Central Ohio have allowed: NNEMAP Food Pantry and Neighborhood Services to purchase food for local residents in need, Habitat for Humanity – MidOhio to acquire supplies to build homes for families in need and to revitalize neighborhoods, WrightChoice prepare students with a disability for internships and employment and many more services from great local nonprofits. “Employee contributions through our workplace giving campaigns are a great way to connect individuals to their community,” Teresa Trost, Executive Director of Community Shares of Mid Ohio explained. “It really is like a layaway program for giving back.