Each year the Columbus Black Theatre Festival deals with topics that pertain not only to the African American community but society at large and this year is no different. The first year of the festival dealt with family themes by playwright Sanika Harris, Tisha Harris and Nanette Hodge. The second year added the struggles of Black business owners and the injustices of African American people with plays by Stefanie Moss, Carol Williams, Tasha Neal and Jasmine Green. The founder of the festival, Julie Whitney Scott, ends each festival on the last day with one of her original plays; 2013 “Secrets of a Dark Skin Sister” which has been accepted in the Silent River Screenplay Competition this year, and in 2014 “The Woes of a Black Race” that dealt with the Zimmerman verdict.

I do like the fact that while we aren’t a media market but we are given the opportunity to see people before they blow up because of Schoolboy Productions, who now goes by Old Boy Pro.
  Tink came to Park Street Columbus, June 20th.

  There was a solid line-up of Dominique LaRue, Nes Wordz, Hodgie IIIV and more

  People who attended the show where mostly ladies. There was a contingent of people that normally go to rock concerts or underground rap events.

  The rock people seemed to have a slight problem with the formatting because they wanted to see Tink and leave.

  Tink is a rapper/r-and-b singer from Chicago who mixes 90’s R-and-B with rap styles that sit somewhere between Nikki Minaj’s cadence and Azalea Banks retro-chic.

  Tink’s version of “One In A Million” by Aaliyah is not to be confused with the racist and xenophobe David Allen Coe-esqe Guns N Roses song of the same title has just hit radio.

  Tink’s version is produced by Timbaland who obviously produced Aaliyah’s original version.

How does one re-acclimate to America after spending time in a lovely war zone like the Helmand Province in Afghanistan? Exactly what is the first step to fitting back in the American comfort zone we all so secretly love?   
  After spending a few weeks a few years ago embedded with Marines in the Taliban's Heart of Dixie, I came home late one hot muggy August night. It was weird. Columbus was dead quiet. My house was fine and apparently hadn't even noticed I was gone. I dumped my gear in the dining room, walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch, feeling inside like a fat old dazed bullfrog staring at his stagnant algae-covered pond, unable to comprehend emotional reality.
  It was like I had gone back in time to the year 1000 and now I was back in the 21st century. Talk about Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'd been a stranger in a strange land and now I felt a stranger in my own country and what's worse, on a couch that didn't seem to have missed me at all.

It has been an interesting month since the last Free Press issue came out.
  Two key Supreme Court decisions have endorsed long-standing Free Press editorial policies. The Free Press proudly was the first newspaper in central Ohio to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights – and the right to marry – as universal human rights. In many ways, the application of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment extending marriage rights to the LGBT community is a monumental and important victory for humankind.
  It is time to celebrate the LGBT community as well as to honor those who fought at Stonewall and resisted police brutality and to mourn the various martyrs, including the 29 who died at the UpStairs Lounge on June 24, 1973 in New Orleans. While homophobia still pervades society, the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision indicates that progressive forces are winning the cultural war.

Cannabis is like our friend the dog. Seriously. It can be bred to produce a variety of species that appear to be quite different from one another. Large Labrador Retrievers may seem to be an entirely different species than tiny Toy Poodles, but they are both canines nonetheless. Such is hemp to its storied cousin, marijuana, better known by its scientific name, Cannabis. It is but one plant with many uses.  
  As a species of the genus Cannabis sativa L, hemp is characterized not only by its tall, strong stalks, but also by its trace amounts of the THC that produces the well-known high. Still, hemp carries much of the same baggage as its well-known cousin, inhibiting development of those many uses. Via the courts, state legislatures and other regulatory bodies, hemp and its constituent products are finally beginning to establish footholds in the global market place.