NOVEMBER EVENT PHOTOS
November’s global theme: Rhythm
Columbus speaker: Dr. Mark Lomax
Dr. Mark Lomax, II, is a critically acclaimed composer, recording artist, drummer, activist, educator, and author of the forthcoming book, Toward a Politics of Humanity. A highly sought-after lecturer, Lomax specializes in the socio-political, and spiritual aspects of African-American art music, race, and using the arts to build community.
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OCTOBER EVENT PHOTOS
October global theme: Endurance
Columbus speaker: Mandi Caskey aka Miss Birdy
Mandi Caskey aka Miss Birdy is an internationally recognized muralist, gallery artist and community activist living in Columbus Ohio. Birdy has been painting murals full time for 10 years. Having exhibited work in numerous cities from around the world she invites the viewers to reimagine our perceptions, find beauty in the unconventional and celebrate the boundless possibilities of activating your public spaces.
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SEPTEMBER EVENT PHOTOS
September’s global theme: Simplicity
Columbus speaker: Maggie Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful and six other books of poetry and prose: Goldenrod, Keep Moving, Good Bones, The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, Lamp of the Body, and a forthcoming illustrated picture book for children, My Thoughts Have Wings, out in February 2024. Her poems and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The Best American Poetry, and more. A lifelong resident of the Columbus area, she now lives in Bexley with her two children.
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AUGUST EVENT PHOTOS
August’s global theme: Pride
Columbus speaker: Attorney, entrepreneur, facilitator, and speaker, Jamie “Christian Family” Campbell is a twice-divorced, adult child of divorce, and co-parenting mother of three. Drawing on personal life experience and 20 years as a practicing family lawyer, Jamie shifts paradigms around divorce, co-parenting, and healthy relationships. Her transparency and vulnerability inspire the kind of introspection that creates change.
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JULY EVENT PHOTOS
July’s global theme: Treasure
Columbus speaker: James Mann
Growing up in Appalachia, I always felt at home in the forest. Although I didn’t t realize it at the time, I would have to move away from it to really appreciate it. For almost 10 years I thought I wanted to be a chef, and while cooking will always be a big part of my life, there was always something missing. While a chef, I rediscovered my woodland roots by going out to the woods to find edible mushrooms to bring to the restaurants for special dishes, and that lit the fire in my heart to get back out into the forest and pick up where my childhood left off. By 2022, I was working on a mushroom farm and going out into the woods any chance I could get, learning more and more every day about how the mushrooms work with the trees, how the trees work with the plants. I started to understand how this seemingly random, and chaotic ecosystem works.
After many years of going into nature and learning about its inter-workings, I realized that not many people knew what was going on out in the hardwood forests—treating nature as a museum that cannot be explored, touched, smelled or tasted. My goal is to change peoples’ minds and try to take back our role in the environment through learning, stewardship and understanding.
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JUNE EVENT PHOTOS
June’s global theme: Reverie
Columbus speaker: Karen Hewitt
Karen Hewitt is a Culture Creator. Community Builder. Artist. Poet. Writer. Rest Advocate. They are committed to doing the work of creating experiences that connect, foster belonging, and create community.
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MAY EVENT PHOTOS
May’s global theme: Acceptance
Columbus Speaker: Bela Koe-Krompecher
In the early 1990’s while working at Used Kids Records, Bela Koe-Krompecher partnered with Jerry Wick to create the independent record label Anyway Records. During the following decade, Bela was involved in Columbus’ underground music scene as a writer, concert promoter, and continued his role as the head of Anyway Records. In 2009, he began a popular blog chronicling his involvement in the burgeoning midwestern music scene and the characters who inhabited much of the national underground music world. He has since written three graphic comics based on his stories and experiences, which have been compared to the likes of Harvey Pekar, Nate Powell, and John Porcellino.
In addition, his writing has appeared in the awarding winning book Malls Across America, as well as the publications Shredding Paper, Raygun, Dagger, and 614. Bela continues to champion new artists through Anyway while working as a social worker, professor, and guest lecturer in Columbus, Ohio.
Bela’s gets some of his inspiration from the work he does as a therapist and social worker, with the idea that transformation is an ongoing process; that no matter what somebody is feeling they are always in the midst of change.
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April’s global theme: Movement
Columbus speaker: LC Johnson
LC Johnson is an award-winning writer, entrepreneur, and activist with a passion for uplifting and empowering women and communities of color. In addition to over ten years of experience developing and facilitating entrepreneurship, economic development, and social justice initiatives, she is the founder of Zora’s House – a coworking and community space whose mission is to provide women of color with the clarity, confidence, and connections they need to amplify their authentic voices; grow and contribute their talents; and powerfully transform their lives, careers, and communities.
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MARCH EVENT PHOTOS
March’s global theme: Corruption
Columbus speaker: Stephen Snyder-Hill
When “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell;’ the official U.S. policy on gays serving in the military, was repealed in September 2011, soldier Stephen Snyder-Hill (then Captain Hill) was serving in Iraq. Having endured years of this policy, which passively encouraged a culture of fear and secrecy for gay soldiers, Snyder-Hill submitted a video to a Republican primary debate held two days after the repeal. In the video, he asked for the Republicans’ thoughts regarding the repeal and their plans, if any to extend spousal benefits to legally married gay and lesbian soldiers.
His video was booed by the audience on national television.
Stephen wrote the book: Soldier of Change: From the Closet to the Forefront of the Gay Rights Movement. Snyder- Hill and has traveled the country with his husband, giving interviews on major news networks and speaking at universities, community centers, and pride parades, a champion of LGBT equality.
In 2015 The Ohio State University asked Steve Snyder-Hill, an activist and author to come and be the main headliner for their TedX event. His speech on the theme of the Human Narrative was powerful and his talk was titled Trust the Power of Your Voice. OSU celebrated the use of his voice to evoke change…until they realized that he was one of the hundreds of students who were sexually abused at the hands of Richard Strauss, their employee. Once Steve made this connection and realized OSU was trying to silence him, he stayed true to his spirit and used the power of his voice, this time to fight them.
Steve’s incredible story as a survivor of sexual assault and advocate for truth is being made into a documentary for HBO, produced by George Clooney’s production company.
We’re honored he’ll be sharing this story with us, first.
Stephen Snyder-Hill joined the military in 1988 and was deployed in 1990 for Operation Desert Storm. He went into the US Army reserves and was redeployed twenty years later in 2010 for Operation New Dawn. Throughout his military career Snyder-Hill received numerous awards and decorations, including the Meritorious Service Medal.
Steve eventually earned a Master’s Degree in Dietetics, and minored in Exercise Physiology at The Ohio State University. He retired in 2019 as a Major in the US Army Reserve and works as a Dietitian at Columbus Public Health in Columbus, Ohio.
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FEBRUARY EVENT PHOTOS
February’s global theme: Touch
Columbus speaker: Kim Leddy
I hail from a small, not-so-quaint, town in Massachusetts best known for gifting President Jefferson with 1,400-pound wheel of cheddar — known as the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese. Which was prophetic since the teenagers I teach undoubtedly see me as cheesy. Case in point: the entirety of that prior “hook.”
As an educator, I work with high school juniors and seniors in a program called Mosaic. I bring the same overstuffed backpack of experiences to the classroom as I bring to the stage today —ballet dancer to journalist, restaurant sever to deli cashier, writer, reader, photographer, traveler, sister, friend … Dig deep in that knapsack you’ll find my professional toolbox stuffed with accolades like fellowships from Columbia University Teacher’s College, the Moth, the Pulitzer Center, diplomas from The Ohio State University, Otterbein College, and Lesley University, and even, close to the very bottom of the stack, a handful of awards from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.
Yes, I am proud of all those moments, all those pieces of paper that probably deserve to be framed and hung on a wall, but it is my refrigerator door that is true “this is your life” summary. Notes from former students, poems that refer to me as everything from a flower to an onion to pseudo-mom, tiny sketches and doodles, and endless photos of my family and my dog.
Every day, I try to find a moment of awe, a moment worthy of the fridge, as all touch my heart. And every day, I try to touch the hearts of my students.
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