Circles, Color, and a Space to Discover

Circles, Color, and a Space to Discover

Carol John’s Sunshine, Happiness, & Joy fills The Do Good Fund Gallery with color, curiosity, and possibility, offering visitors of every age the chance to discover something unexpected. By Monica Jones There is something wonderfully disarming about walking into a gallery filled with bright colors, playful shapes, and thousands upon thousands of painted circles. At first glance, Carol John’s work feels joyful. Her exhibition, Sunshine, Happiness, & Joy, now on view at The Do Good…

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More Than a Choir

More Than a Choir

On July 17, a room full of people will gather at The Pearl in downtown Columbus to sing. By Monica Jones Some will be experienced musicians. Some will be former choir kids. Some will know exactly what they’re doing. Others may be stepping into a choir for the first time. There will be food, drinks, laughter, a little friendly competition, and a room full of people making a case for their favorite song in this…

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Springer Gets on the Good Foot for Juneteenth

Springer Gets on the Good Foot for Juneteenth

I Feel Good: An Homage to James Brown brings soul, swagger, and Southern music history to the Springer stage By Monica Jones The Springer Opera House is bringing the funk to Juneteenth. This year, the theater’s annual Juneteenth celebration turns its spotlight toward one of the most electrifying performers American music has ever produced with I Feel Good: An Homage to James Brown, a high-energy tribute to the Godfather of Soul. For audiences who moved…

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‘Chicken & Biscuits’ Serves Up Big Laughs at the Springer Opera House

‘Chicken & Biscuits’ Serves Up Big Laughs at the Springer Opera House

A Funeral, A Family, and No Filter By Jhai JamesContributor It can be argued that Southern culture is the cornerstone of civilization, and families are the backbone of its society. Southerners have perfected the art of emotional warfare. (“Bless your heart,” anyone?) Food equals love and fellowship. And church is more than an expression of faith. Combine those traditions with a family that puts the fun in dysfunction, and you’ve got the premise for the…

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Mixed Doubles

Mixed Doubles

A Portrait of Connection at The Do Good Fund By Monica Jones There’s something powerful about walking into a gallery and realizing you might be part of what hangs on the walls. So this March, The Do Good Fund isn’t just presenting an exhibition — it’s inviting Columbus to step into it. From March 3–11, The Do Good Fund Gallery will transform into a portrait studio for Mixed Doubles, an ongoing photographic series by New…

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How Do You Build a Man Like Calvin Smyre?

How Do You Build a Man Like Calvin Smyre?

By Monica Jones I caught him in the car. Between stops. Between obligations. Between fifty years of service and a television crew waiting downstairs. And somehow, in that in-between space, Calvin Smyre was calm. Grateful. Reflective. The Columbus Museum is currently presenting The Puzzle of Politics: Calvin Smyre in Service, 1975–2025, honoring fifty years of public service. Forty of those years were spent in the Georgia Legislature. He later served at the United Nations General…

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We Are the Drum and the Scribe

We Are the Drum and the Scribe

By Monica Jones You don’t have to know much about art to recognize when something is worth your time. You feel it when a room slows you down. When the work asks you to stand still. When beauty, history, and craft meet you without explanation and quietly say, stay with this. That’s what happens inside We Are the Drum and the Scribe, now on view at the Bo Bartlett Center. Drawn from the Black Art…

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Choose Wonder. Choose Joy.

Choose Wonder. Choose Joy.

A Night Out with Riverdance By Monica Jones There are moments when we don’t need another obligation, another errand, or another item on the calendar. What we need instead is to step outside of our routine and into something that reminds us why we love being here at all. On February 10, Riverdance will arrive at RiverCenter with exactly that kind of invitation. For some, the name Riverdance brings up a set of familiar images:…

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Westville, Still Here

Westville, Still Here

Why an Old Place Is Quietly Opening Its Doors Again By Monica Jones For a while, it felt like Westville existed mostly in memory. People spoke about it in the past tense. School trips. Blacksmith forges. Quilts, looms, and the smell of iron and wood smoke clinging to a warm afternoon. Then the pandemic came, and like so many cultural spaces built on shared presence, Westville went quiet.  Now, quietly and deliberately, Historic Westville Village…

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The Nutcracker 2025

The Nutcracker 2025

Inside Columbus Ballet’s 29th Year of Holiday Magic Images provided by the Columbus Ballet (@braxleestudios) By Monica Jones Each December, just as Columbus starts to glow with lights and wreaths, another kind of magic begins to stir at RiverCenter for the Performing Arts. Backstage, pointe shoes are being broken in, tutus sewn and resewn, and young dancers run their variations again and again until the counts live in their bones. This year, that familiar ritual…

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