Sarah Trombetti

Episcopal News Service

Young adults engage with faith, build community outside church walls

[Episcopal News Service] When sisters Annie Hodges and Kate Greer decided during college that they wanted to be confirmed together, they started to talk about faith. They didn’t stop after confirmation.

“We talked on the phone a lot during COVID when we couldn’t be together or at church in person,” Greer said.

Between heavy and light-hearted conversations, “We would crack each other up and be like ‘People need to hear this,’” Hodges said.

Although she originally meant that jokingly, Hodges al

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Van Gogh comes back to life in Columbus exhibitions

The work and inspirations of impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh will come to Columbus in two exhibitions this fall –– one showing life-size, digital works, and another with some of his original paintings.

Beginning in October, Columbus will take part in the digital reconstruction of Van Gogh’s 19th-century art, according to the “Immersive Van Gogh” exhibition’s website. The installment, which will be open Oct. 28 through Feb. 6, 2022, uses digital technology to project moving images of the

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Student organization with historical impact at Ohio State and across nation resurfaces on campus more than a half-century after founding

In the 1960s, a national organization of leftist student activists called Students for a Democratic Society stood out as advocates who protested socio-political events in American history — both on large scales and on college campuses.

However, more than 60 years after the founding of SDS in 1959, its name — and the historical significance it carries — has resurfaced on campus. On March 5, New Students for a Democratic Society developed from the historical organization and formed an official ch

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International student sells art on campus street corner to add a positive voice to community

Bruno Martin is a familiar face to many on- and off-campus residents — and yet, his identity is largely unknown.

Although he stands at the corner of High Street and Lane Avenue most afternoons selling acrylic paintings of nature and other subjects, Martin, a graduate student pursuing a master’s in business administration at Franklin University, doesn’t necessarily consider himself to be an artist.

“I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself an artist. It was meant to be something like a side hustl

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Students find companionship in adopted pets amid global pandemic

As isolation begs for companionship, more and more people — including students — have adopted four-legged friends to foster their own wellbeing.

Shelter Animals Count, a nonprofit organization that runs a database of statistics about sheltered animals, reported that the number of pet adoptions across the U.S. increased by about 15 percent in 2020.

Claire Weiper, a third-year in English, integrated language arts and English education, joined 4 Paws for Ability at Ohio State — an organization th

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Columbus’ Own: DJ YAMi works to make electronic scene more inclusive for people of color

Justin Yamamoto, also known as YAMi, an Ohio State alumnus, sticks to his roots as he works to make the DJing scene more inclusive for people of color.

YAMi, who graduated in 2019, said he uses advice from his former golf coach about navigating through predominantly white industries and applies it to his musical endeavors in the Columbus DJing scene.

“My swing coach was also Black, and he kind of instilled this fire in me, that no matter what you do, you have to try and try and be the best tha

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Percolation in a pandemic: The changing culture and business of coffee in Columbus

As people spend more time at home and less time in public with friends and family due to the pandemic, coffee shops across the U.S. have revised their businesses to survive a period in which customers lack the traditional experience of sitting in shops.

Although many coffee shops used to rely on drinks as a primary source of revenue, especially as some customers sat for long periods of time and ordered multiple drinks, both national lockdowns and state stay-at-home orders have cut retail signif

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Art for change: Public art grows as a means of activism against police brutality and racial injustice

From the plywood of the Ohio Theatre in downtown Columbus to brick walls in Clintonville, Ohio, public art mourned the loss of Black lives to police brutality and racial violence this summer. Almost a year later, local artists continue to transform public spaces into art that cries for justice and systemic change.

The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts and the Greater Columbus Arts Council facilitated the beginning of the movement in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death last summer t

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Racial justice protesters postpone weekend events ahead of pro-Trump ‘armed march’

Organizers have canceled Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend of Action of safety concerns ahead of armed, pro-Trump marches in Columbus this weekend.

The People’s Justice Project, which organized a rally and march along with the Black Abolitionist Collective of Ohio, Central Ohio Freedom Fund and Showing up for Racial Justice, announced on its social media the postponement of its demonstrations “due to the recent developments and increasing tension from reactionary forces.”

Gov. Mike DeWine and May

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Local bed and breakfast fights to survive COVID-19

For Lynn Varney, taking care of people has always been inherent, and in 2006, she made her hospitable nature into a career by taking over the Harrison House Bed & Breakfast.

“I sold everything I had to buy this place,” Varney said.

Following financial devastation in the wake of COVID-19, her guests are now returning the favor.

The six-bedroom Harrison House was originally built in 1890 in Columbus’ Victorian Village, according to the bed and breakfast’s website. Surviving events such as world

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COVID causes closures for small businesses in the Short North

The words, “This was preventable,” written on mask-shaped signs covered the glass storefront of Tigertree, a gift shop in the Short North Arts District, in July and have since been replaced with a “for rent” placard.

After nearly 14 years of service, the shop is one of many local small businesses in the Arts District that has been forced to close its doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite owners’ efforts, both restaurant and retail businesses have seen their time come to an end after spen