Weekend reading: September 3 edition

Around Columbus

• Lots of options for your Labor Day weekend. First, early Saturday evening brings the We the Peaceful Festival to Franklin Park Conservatory, presented by Creative Women of Color and featuring music, food, and a community art project.
• Gallery Hop is Saturday night with new shows by Alissa Head at Sean Christopher Gallery, and Melissa Vogley Woods at Hammond Harkins Galleries in the mix. It’s also Greek Festival weekend, so expect the ‘hood to be hopping.
• Sunday, Maroon Arts is opening a retrospective of the work of local mural legend Walt “Wali” Neil and hosting a set by Flex Crew as part of the Sound Therapy Concert Series at MPACC BoxPark.
• Over in Clintonville, the Bird Tunnel Party is an outdoor dance party this Sunday to raise funds to maintain the tunnel mural painted by Clint Davidson at the Glen Echo Ravine. 
• And Sunday’s Shine On Festival & Flea will fill a block of Indianola Ave with art, music, and food.
• Monday, Blockfort has Comics Block Party, an outdoor vendor fair featuring artists from five states, including Caroline Cash, Evan Salazar, and the guys behind The Gutter Boys podcast.
• Also Monday, Lost Weekend Records is hosting a Labor Day Record Swap.
• In other art participation happenings, the Greater Columbus Arts Council has launched the Columbus Makes Art Passport program, through which you can collect stickers designed by local artists by attending arts events at participating presenters, which you can redeem for prizes starting September 28. The Wex is a partner venue and you can earn a sticker for any event we present on site.
• Thursday brings a new show to Capital University’s Schumacher Gallery—A Requiem: Tribute to the Spiritual Space at Auschwitz by Susan May Tell.
• And looking ahead to next weekend, make sure to pencil in Hot Times 2021, three days of activities and live music including a Saturday showcase for the great Willie Phoenix, plus an option to livestream if you’re avoiding crowds.
• Looking even further ahead than that, COSI will bring a huge Marvel superheroes exhibition to town in November.
• Ohio native E.J. Westlake has been named the first chair of Ohio State’s newly renamed Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts.
• The university’s Office of International Affairs is once again hosting a photography competition open to anyone with Ohio State connections; the deadline to enter is September 22.
• Wex projectionist Rachael Barbash shows off her camera skills with this entry in a series on central Ohio’s concert photographers focused on Rick Carr.
• And writer Scott Woods shared some advice for artists: think about your legacy now.

Around the globe

• Got some spare time with your phone this weekend? A show of work by Simon Fujiwara at Fondazione Prada in Milan can be experienced online via QR code.
• The Telluride Film Festival just launched; among the premieres is The Village Detective: A Song Cycle, the new feature-length work by Bill Morrison made with support from a Wex Artist Residency Award, and Procession, the latest from Bisbee ’17 creator Robert Greene. Here’s a look at some early reviews. 
• The fabulous actor and martial artist Michelle Yeoh spilled some tea on her Supercop costar Jackie Chan.
• As women’s rights advocates around the world are watching with horror while the Supreme Court ignores the Equal Protection Clause in the Constitution, reps from Texas art institutions like the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum are focused on the potential impact of the state’s new law allowing for permitless carry of handguns.
• Here’s an update on how artists and cultural workers are facing life in Afghanistan now.
• Theaster Gates has partnered with Prada on an incubator program for emerging designers of color.
• The collective Artnoir is working to reclaim the Black history of New York City's Meatpacking District.
• Carolyn Lazard is among the artists featured in this piece on using art to chronicle illness.
• Comic artists such as Senegal’s Juni Ba are exploring folklore to expand the superhero canon. 
• Here are the prizewinners in architecture at the 2021 Venice Biennale.
• Here’s the latest cautionary tale related to the current state of NFT art.
• Here’s an argument for why poetry is crucial right now.
• Some good news in higher ed this week: the federal government has expanded the Pell Grant program for inmates working on college degrees.
• And in bad news, beloved actor and longtime activist Ed Asner passed away at the age of 91.