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…
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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 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…
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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…
Read MoreThe Astrological Alchemy on 6th Street By Monica Jones The Vibe on 6th is a quantum leap for Columbus culture, forged in the fires of entrepreneurial necessity and guided by the lunar glow of the Full Moon Market. It’s a story the city needs right now—three titans of local hustle, each a veteran in the high-stakes game of keeping things interesting, finally joining forces to create a space so undeniably cool, it’s practically vibrating. Forget…
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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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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…
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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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Jerry Farber Lights Up Thanksgiving Eve By Monica Jones There are certain people in this world who don’t just walk into a room — they slide in like a spark on dry tinder and suddenly everyone’s ten degrees warmer. Jerry Farber is one of those people. If you’ve ever seen him onstage, in a coffee shop, in a Kroger aisle, or in the middle of a heartfelt ramble that somehow ends in a joke about…
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Three Dog Night and 50 Million Records at the RiverCenter By Monica Jones Forget what you thought you knew about classic rock; when a legendary band that literally invented the arena tour rolls into town, you stop scrolling. Three Dog Night is about to descend on the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts, and this isn’t some dusty nostalgia act—it’s a vibrant, decades-deep journey through the very DNA of pop music, a sound that defined radio…
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