From the Editor - The LocaL

How Do You Build a Man Like Calvin Smyre?

Posted on February 18, 2026February 18, 2026 by Editor - the Local

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…

We Are the Drum and the Scribe

Posted on February 12, 2026February 12, 2026 by Editor - the Local

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…

Stirrup Trouble

Posted on February 6, 2026February 6, 2026 by Editor - the Local

Baddie, Spelled with a V By Monica Jones Some people leave Columbus and never look back. Most of us are not those people. Most of us are boomerangs – we go, we grow, we test ourselves somewhere bigger, louder, faster. Then, one day, we circle back to the place that built us. Not because we failed, but because we finally know what we’re building, and we want to build it here. That’s the energy behind…

From a Mustard Seed

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by Editor - the Local

How Sydney Helms Built a Growing, Glowing Local Empire Rooted in Community By Monica Jones There’s a verse in the Bible about a mustard seed. Tiny. Unassuming. Easy to overlook – and yet, when planted with care, it grows into something far larger than anyone expects. For Sydney Helms, the mustard seed wasn’t just a name for her shop. It was a philosophy. Long before she owned multiple businesses, before her spaces became known for…

Westville, Still Here

Posted on January 13, 2026January 13, 2026 by Editor - the Local

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…

Raise a Glass to 2026

Posted on December 16, 2025December 17, 2025 by Editor - the Local

The 18th Amendment’s Bootlegger’s Ball Is the Place to Be This NYE By Monica Jones There’s something about The 18th Amendment that separates it from every other bar in Columbus—and it’s not just the dim lighting or the polished wood or the fact that it’s a speakeasy hiding in plain sight. It’s the way the place feels when you step inside, like you’ve slipped past the noise of the world and into a pocket of…

Lucky Spider Tattoo

Posted on December 15, 2025December 17, 2025 by Editor - the Local

More Than Just Tradition By Monica Jones Our Chattahoochee flows through a city which is itself built on the movement of people – from the military figures who established Fort Benning to those passing through on their journey. For generations, the body art of the sailors, soldiers, and civilians calling our city home has mirrored Columbus’s history, embedding itself into the local lore. The city’s military foundation and its history as a hard-working mill town…

The Nutcracker 2025

Posted on December 10, 2025December 10, 2025 by Editor - the Local

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…

The Joint Redemption: Ginger

Posted on December 8, 2025December 8, 2025 by Editor - the Local

The Story of Ginger Goolsby Howze: The Hope Dealer By Monica Jones Ginger Goolsby Howze now lives a life of purpose. She has seven years clean, an amazing relationship with her son, and works as a Certified Peer Specialist—a job that allows her to use her painful past to guide others. But the path to this stable, fulfilling life involved losing everything, including her mind. Her journey pulls back the curtain on the real and…

Lights Down, Volume Up

Posted on December 3, 2025December 3, 2025 by Editor - the Local

Gary Mullen & The Works Return to Columbus This Sunday For One Night of Queen By Monica Jones When Gary Mullen answers the phone, he doesn’t sound like a man easing his way to the finish line of a long tour. He sounds wired. Focused. Laughing, he jokes that his recovery playlist has basically been “Eye of the Tiger on repeat,” all in preparation for finally making it to Columbus. After illness forced the postponement…

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