Matter

During the first Trump administration’s wave of deportations, a Black Mauritanian named Birane Wane saw the writing on the wall. Despite having lived in Ohio for more than two decades, he knew what his status as a non-citizen would lead to, so he decided to move to Senegal to avoid being sent back to a country rife with apartheid and slavery. “Almost 22 years living all set in one place,” Wane told a reporter at the Ohio Newsroom. “Almost half of your life. I miss a lot of things. Ohio is my second country.”.

This is exactly how Sarr feels about Columbus, describing the city as “home for me.” It’s where his family still lives. It’s the place where he began performing music, first rapping and then singing. “In 2016, that’s when I started singing,” he said. “Really, really, really started singing. That’s when I started my career.”

Here's Jonathan Russell Clark with Salif Sarr ahead of the musician's performance at Arts Fest this weekend.

Salif Sarr finds a second home in Ohio – Matter News The Columbus-based Fulani singer will perform as part of ‘Ohio Is My Second Country,’ taking place at Arts Fest on Saturday, June 13.

Williamson recorded Nightmares almost two years ago, and he said revisiting it now can feel like watching a disaster movie where you already know the ending but are powerless to stop what is coming. “You’re just like, God, don’t let the plane crash, but you know it’s going to,” said Williamson, who will host a dual art exhibition and album release listening party at Rehab Tavern beginning at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 5. “It’s very much like looking at your life and wishing you had a time machine.”

The first time Williamson rebuilt his life, he relied heavily on religion as an anchoring point. This time around, that hold has become more slippery, his relationship to the church having shifted in the wake of a larger crisis of faith. “My relationship with it is so different, and a central theme of the record and a lot of the art I’ve been doing is wrestling with God,” said Williamson, who described himself as “a crazy atheist” turned devotee turned believer with more questions than answers. “And in trying to get on my feet now, recovery and faith are still the anchors, but … where the first time I was really gung-ho [about religion], now it’s more contentious. And I would argue that’s what faith is, where if you wrestle long enough and honestly enough with these questions, what you get on the other side is something better and deeper, but it’s less clear.”

Johnny Williamson finds himself on the other side of ‘Nightmares’ – Matter News In the midst of rebuilding his life for the second time, the Columbus artist and musician will host a dual album listening party and exhibition at Rehab Tavern in Franklinton on Friday, June 5.

“With my own work, I’m always willing to destroy something to get it back to a place where I’m happy and excited and it feels fresh. … There’s a boldness, or a willingness to trash a piece in the pursuit of something better,” said Mark, who compared his approach to a gorilla armed with a marker who makes wild, gesticular marks to see what sticks. “And Anne, in my assessment, proceeds a little more cautiously, where she’s looking at nuanced things. … And one of the biggest learning things for me was figuring how to let go of that, and to step back and begin to propose smaller things, like giving a gorilla a smaller crayon.”

Anne, in turn, said she gradually found herself mirroring Mark’s bolder strokes, adding expressive streaks of pink in one painting that trace an arc alongside his turquoise markings. “And I started almost shadowing him in places,” she said. “And even some of the drips. I think you started letting [the paint] drip in places, and then I homed in on that at some point and started using it. And it was interesting, some of that visual language you were laying down, I started speaking myself.”

Mark and Anne Spurgeon embrace their familial bond with ‘Blood Harmonies’ – Matter News The new exhibition from the Spurgeon siblings kicks off at the downtown gallery Blockfort with an opening reception on Friday, June 5.

It’s very easy for property owners to pay low taxes on decaying properties while waiting for somebody else to begin a resurgence. Maybe it shouldn’t be so easy to wait.

Property tax is based on two things: the value of the land and the value of any structures on the land. If you build an addition or make any other improvements, you add value and your tax assessment will increase. A cynic might say you’re being punished for making improvements. Conversely, if you raze a building on your property, or just let the building decay, your property value – and assessment – goes down. And the cynic says you’re being rewarded for creating an eyesore.

The cynic is Henry George, who 150 years ago began to push the “land-value tax” (sometimes called the “single tax”), which assessed the underlying land but not the improvements that generate profits. His 1879 book, “Progress and Poverty,” was a late 1800s best seller. Because landowners would be taxed on the full value of their land, it would be very costly to keep the property vacant. But they would have leeway to generate profits on their use of that land. And while other forms of wealth can flee across the sea to tax havens, land can’t be moved.

New from Brian Williams.

On Development: Progressive tax policy in Ohio?!? Maybe – Matter News It’s very easy for owners to pay low taxes on decaying properties while waiting for somebody else to begin a resurgence. A proposed move to a land tax would make it harder for these squatters to wait.