Movie poster

Monday, March 2, 2020, 7:00 PM
This award-winning documentary, executive produced by the Anthony Bourdain, aims to change the way people buy, cook, recycle, and eat food. Through the eyes of chef-heroes like Bourdain, Dan Barber, Mario Batali, Massimo Bottura, and Danny Bowien, audiences will see how the world’s most influential chefs make the most of every kind of food, transforming what most people consider scraps into incredible dishes that create a more secure food system. Location:  Drexel Theater, 2254 East Main St., Columbus 43209.  Sponsored by Green Bexley. 

Indies, Inclusivity, Equality

While addressing the press after winning the Best Supporting Male accolade for The Lighthouse Willem Dafoe epitomized the philosophy of the Film Independent Spirit Awards vis-à-vis big budget Hollywood studio productions. In the ceremony’s media tent, when a British reporter seized on the opportunity to ask the quirky actor about superhero flicks - because Lighthouse co-star Robert Pattinson is playing The Batman in the 2021 epic and Dafoe had portrayed the Green Goblin in 2007’s Spider-Man 3 and Vulko in 2018’s Aquaman - the thespian shut the brash Brit down.

 

What I loved about playwright Willard Manus’ Show Me a Hero is that it introduced me to Greek freedom fighter Alexandros Panagoulis, a significant historical figure I’d never heard of, and brought back to life the legendary journalist Oriana Fallaci, whom I was somewhat familiar with. The UK’s Independent dubbed her “arguably the most extraordinary journalist Italy has ever produced.” The fabled Fallaci (here called Luisa and played with feisty fire by Lisa Robins) joined the Italian anti-Mussolini resistance when she was only 14.

 

Presumably due to her early participation in the anti-fascist movement when the college dropout became a journalist Fallaci specialized in interviews with controversial political leaders, often revolutionaries like Vietnam’s Giap, Palestine’s Arafat, Libya’s Qaddafi and Cuba’s Fidel. She also interviewed reactionaries, such as mass murderer Henry Kissinger, who later rued their interaction. (Like Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller, Kissinger’s existential angst is that he wanted to be a Nazi - but was born a Jew.)

 

Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign coincided with explosive growth in the American Left. Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) surged from 6,500 members in 2012 to 24,000 members in 2017. The trend is continuing in the run up to the 2020 election. DSA had 56,794 members in November 2019, Democratic Left reported.

The Columbus DSA chapter is showing the same trend. “We’ve been doing weekly canvasses to door knock for Bernie,” said organizer Kristin Porter. “We’ve been setting records in turnout for canvasses, regularly getting between 30 and 50 people. Previously we would have struggled to get 15 people to turn out.”

Porter said that attendance at Columbus chapter meetings has also increased from people who are interested in DSA’s other work in organizing tenants and transit riders, defending reproductive rights, etc.

Thursday yet another mass shooting was committed by a military veteran, this one in Milwaukee. Virtually all military veterans are not mass shooters. Many peace activists are veterans. Many everything under the sun are veterans. But mass shooters are very disproportionately military veterans.

Some mass shooters who are not veterans are acting out a pretense of being in the military and/or are using military weapons. Militarism impacts a society in many ways. But one of them is through the violence of veterans, people who have been trained and conditioned to engage in violence but not always guided successfully into nonviolent post-military life.

Among males aged 18-59 in the United States, 15% are veterans.

Among male mass-shooters aged 18-59 in the United States, 36% are veterans.

A mass shooter is well over twice as likely to be a veteran.

Julius Tate

On Friday, February 28th, representatives from the Columbus Freedom Coalition, including Julius Tate Jr.’s parents and sibling, met with mayor Andrew Ginther at the MLK Branch Library to discuss the mayor’s complicity and role in Columbus Police Department’s (CPD) continued terrorism of Black communities. Ultimately the disingenuous nature displayed by city officials made the meeting a waste of time for the family, putting the coalition in a position where it was impossible to hold a conversation about what justice looks like. 

Details of event

Friday, February 28, 4-6pm
Community Grounds, 1134 Parsons
Join BQIC for our monthly community outreach program, Free Resource Fridays!
Free Resource Friday is a monthly, donation-based initiative to provide free resources like food, clothes, and hygiene items to folks living in predominantly Black, low income neighborhoods. On the last Friday of the month, volunteers distribute items, share information, and provide support for local communities in need.
All are welcome, but QTPOC take priority within the space.

If you'd like to support Free Resource Fridays by donating materials, or if you'd like to get involved by offering a skill-share, mini-workshop or educational class, contact us! We are always looking to foster and strengthen our partnerships in the Central Ohio community.

Location and times for goods drop-off TBD

If you would like to volunteer your time by passing out event flyers in the community, send us a message and we will get you added to the volunteer list! Stay posted here for more updates about group flyering days prior to the event.

Equality Ohio logo

There is another bill aimed squarely at making things harder for transgender youth in Ohio.

Ohio Representatives Jena Powell and Reggie Stolzfus announced today that they will try to pass a law that would exclude transgender students from participating in sports that match their gender identity.

There is no bill number yet, and we won’t know who will sign on to co-sponsor for awhile.

“Excuse me, occasionally it might be a good idea to be honest about American foreign policy.”

I don’t think I’ve heard that much honesty from a mainstream-party presidential candidate in virtually half a century. And suddenly this race begins to matter in a way that seems like . . . oh my God, a return of democracy? Suddenly I don’t feel utterly marginalized as a voter, as an American, left with nothing but cynical despair as I wait to learn which “lesser evil” the Dems will serve up for me as a candidate.

The words are those of Bernie Sanders, of course, standing up to the red-baiting the moderators and some of the other candidates were slinging at him during the latest debate, trying their best to bring him down.

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