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Nathan Phillips exercises randomness, control in making of new album
When writing the songs for new Big Bend album Last Circle in a Slowdown, out via Shimmy-Disc on Friday, Sept. 13, Nathan Phillips said he initially gravitated toward the sounds of certain words or phrases, working in an initial burst where his language existed somewhat outside of meaning. “With this...
Short-lived Camp Shameless 2 draws attention to the cracks in the shelter system
In early August, Ben Colburn, one of the activists who helped to establish the original Camp Shameless – a tent encampment founded in March 2022 that became a flashpoint in the larger conversation about caring for the unhoused in its five months of existence – helped to erect a handful of tents on an unused parcel off of Mound Street on the Near East Side.
Jason Mann purges the past with collage-like ‘time capsules’
The textured, collage-like paintings created by Jason Mann are so layered, so packed with detail, that the artist said he could spend days unpacking the many stories embedded in each canvas. One painting, for instance, incorporates black serpents – a recurring image that Mann traced to a story told by...
On the anniversary of 9/11, a reminder that tragedy can’t prevent us from showing up
The paper was falling out of the sky. The dust and the smoke had filled the air all day – it seemed to come directly out of the earth where the towers once stood. I watched it accumulate on my windowsill. I breathed it in. At that moment, it seemed to be flowing in a dusty river directly above Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. And in it, scraps of paper, charred around the edges.
What it’s like to have your photo hijacked by a right-wing disinformation campaign
On a Sunday in late July, Gary, a pseudonym, was driving near Cleveland Avenue and Northwold Road on the North Side of Columbus when he spotted a man carrying what he believed to be a goose carcass. Struck by the scene, he stopped and took a photograph, which he later posted to the Ohio subreddit under the header “This Is Ohio.”
Sam Craighead ditches words, finds their voice with ‘Cranbrook Sonata’
Following the release of 2021 album OK Computer Room, musician Sam Craighead began to struggle with the idea that they had nothing more left to say. “At that point in life, I just had this feeling no one was listening to me or understanding me and what I wanted to get across – and not just on the record but in friendships, at work, in our community, in the city,” said Craighead, who traced this nagging sense of disconnect in part to the after effects of Covid. “We had just lived through that early part of the pandemic and there was this collective, like, ‘Well, that was weird. Let’s go back to what things were before.’ And there was this sense we hadn’t learned anything, or we didn’t want to think about everything we had learned and experienced. … I think there were so many opportunities throughout the pandemic, and there continue to be, where we could have done something different, and we could have made it a better world than what we had. And we didn’t do it.”
Artists find ways forward through grief, addiction in ‘Surviving’
It’s often said that grief isn’t a straight line, and that recovering from loss can involve all manner of fits and starts, with stretches of good days followed by lulls during which it can be a challenge to so much as roll out of bed. Artist Emily Strange...
On Development: Here’s the skinny on small-scale development
Columbus planning officials are not too keen on a proposal for a skinny skyscraper on a West Side low-density industrial street. The original proposal was for a 22-story apartment building on a 33-foot-wide lot at 278 S. Glenwood Ave. – later reduced to 11 stories and rejected by the neighborhood and the Columbus Development Commission. Robert Ellis, of Pink Development & Construction, is now pushing an eight-story version. He envisions a building with 62 micro units, including some for residents earning as little as 35 percent of the Area Median Income.
David Butler is okay with the discomfort
Amid the exhausting will he or won’t he media conversations that took place in the weeks before President Joe Biden officially withdrew as the Democratic nominee, Columbus artist David Butler began to revisit the paintings that he created for a couple of earlier exhibitions – “Snowflake for President” and “Whiteland” – both of which explored the intersections of white supremacy and power.
Mona Gazala walks a winding path to ‘Trail Markers’
Mona Gazala said the initial idea for her new film, “Trail Markers,” stemmed from a chance discovery, with the artist happening upon an artifact of cultural significance to Palestine at the Garst Museum in Greenville, Ohio. “I can’t remember how I first discovered the existence of the artifact,...
Ruth Awad centers the painful experiences that exist ‘Outside the Joy’
While modern times can appear unrelentingly dark, with climate change-driven weather systems wreaking increased havoc, a pandemic that refuses to entirely release its grip, and genocides unfolding on multiple continents, poet Ruth Awad refuses to look away. “I don’t want to joy wash things,” said Awad, whose new collection, Outside...
Words live in the air for poet Cynthia Amoah
For Cynthia Amoah, poems are most often born in the air, first arriving as sounds that she can bend and shape, and then later sifting out meaning in the singing collection of syllables. “I need to be convinced of the beauty of the sound of a poem before I can...
Sarah Gormley finds joy in ‘The Order of Things’
One day early in 2020, Sarah Gormley said she awoke struck by a series of revelations. “I’m in Columbus, Ohio – a place I never thought I would live. I own an art gallery. And I’m madly in love with the greatest guy,” said Gormley, the owner of downtown’s Sarah Gormley Gallery. “And I really wanted to answer the question how the fuck did this happen?”
Columbus’ Photo Flood: Recent months give rise to trio of local photo books
Over the course of a couple of months, half a dozen photo books have been published by Ohio photographers – three alone by Columbus-based artists. And while they each take on their own themes, ranging from explorations of queer identity in Appalachia to poetic reflections on the Midwest, all of them also happen to share a number of characteristics. Each incorporates years’ worth of work and emphasizes the significance of place. And all three also happen to be shot primarily on black-and-white medium format film.
Prince Shakur and the lingering impact of the James Baldwin
Prince Shakur first discovered James Baldwin in a college African American literature class, recalling how he connected immediately with the writing style even as the material at times felt distant. “I think I had to go through a few things before I could relate to it more,” said Prince, a...
Luka Weinberger overcomes censorship, celebrates trans bodies with new mural
When Luka Weinberger put the finishing touches on their mural for this year’s Alley Islands festival and stepped back, there might have been a few tears shed. For Weinberger, the completion of the mural, dubbed “We Don’t Wait for the Rain (No Body Is Political),” marked the end of a more than year-long odyssey that began when the image was first proposed for a building in Franklinton. Meant to reflect the importance of self-care, the story-tall painting shows a trans body in peaceful repose, their face at rest and their body dotted with sprouting plants and a pair of golden top-surgery scars. On the whole, the image is warm and serene, alive with sun-kissed colors that evoke an early spring garden.
Ohio State scholar leads research on historic election with The Kamala Harris Project
Last week, the Democratic National Convention in Chicago drew an average of 21.8 million TV viewers, inspiring a deluge of discourse on social media. One viewer commented on Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ use of African American English speech patterns. Another said second gentleman Doug Emhoff had to navigate...
The Columbus Crew are enjoying a (black and) golden era
I thought Crew fans had it good back in 2008, when the team dominated MLS en route to a Supporters Shield win and the franchise’s first MLS Cup. The 2020 MLS Cup win was almost too good to be true, a happy exclamation point at the end of the Save The Crew saga. But what Wilfried Nancy has accomplished in less than two seasons as head coach has been unprecedented. The Crew are playing some of the greatest soccer in the history of this nation – soccer so dominant and aesthetically pleasing that I’m dying to see how they’d fare against the greatest clubs in Europe. They did recently obliterate Aston Villa in an exhibition…
Blockout Bash spreads its wings in year two
When Joel Chastain launched Blockout Bash as a two-day event at Spacebar in 2023, he already had designs on something larger, envisioning the music festival as a more diverse affair staged at the handful of venues clustered together on the same block of High Street in Old North. This year,...
Joshua Clark creates Gravity Film Showcase to celebrate Columbus cinema
Joshua Clark uncovered a passion for filmmaking almost by accident five years ago. At the time, Clark was in the midst of a tough divorce, and the crushing weight of the split turned him toward therapy, where he finally began to confront the generational traumas that he said he had spent much of his existence pushing back beneath the surface.
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