Friday, July 7, 7pm; Saturday, July 8, 4pm and 7pm; Sunday, July 9, 4pm; Columbus Performing Arts Center [Van Fleet Theater], 549 Franklin Ave.

Join us for the 11th year at the Columbus Black Theatre Festival this July in Central Ohio, downtown Columbus. The three-day theatre festival of short one-act plays returns this year with the theme “The Right to Choose.”

Our readers have selected seven plays:

(1.): “Daidy or Daddy with an I,” by Louis DeVaughn Nelson and directed by Julie Whitney Scott.

(2.): “Cowboy Chuck,” by Robb Willoughby and directed by Stephen Woosley.

(3.): “The Flash,” by Jasmyn Green and directed by Jasmyn Green.

(4.): “Mrs. Dunn,” by Marj O’Neill-Butler and directed by Alan Tyson

(5.): “I’m Not Buying It,” by Vickie G. Hampton and directed by Ariel Wiles.

(6.): “Bed of Rose Thorns,” by Julie Whitney Scott and directed by Julie Whitney Scott.

(7.): “The Wedding Ceremony,” by Marjorie Conn and directed by Ariel Wiles.

The Supreme Court struck a huge blow to the future of higher education in America.

SCOTUS has gutted affirmative action and stopped President Biden’s student debt relief plan in its tracks.

Higher education was meant to be the great equalizer in America, but thanks to rulings like these, our institutions will become more costly, more exclusive, and more out of touch with the general public.

The Supreme Court may be legislating from the bench when it comes to the future of higher education, but legislators have the power to make college accessible for all by passing the College for All Act.

The College for All Act of 2023 would address the growing issue of skyrocketing college tuition and student loan debt, make higher education accessible and affordable to all, and uplift students of all backgrounds.

 “The Fukushima Disaster, The Hidden Side of the Story,” is a just-released film documentary, a powerful, moving, information-full film that is superbly made. Directed and edited by Philippe Carillo, it is among the strongest ever made on the deadly dangers of nuclear technology.
It begins with the words in 1961 of U.S. President John F. Kennedy: “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by an accident, or miscalculation or by madness.”
It then goes to the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plants in Japan after they were struck by a tsunami. Their back-up diesel generators were kicked in but  “did not run for long,” notes the documentary. That led to three of the six plants exploding—and there’s video of this—“releasing an unpreceded amount of nuclear radiation into the air.”