African Americans’ contributions to communities in Ohio and nationwide were the focus of The Ohio State University Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center’s fourth annual Juneteenth celebration.

The event was held June 13 on the Columbus campus and featured a panel discussion with Ohio State administrators and central Ohio artists, spoken-word and visual art presentations, a crafting station and food representing African American cultural traditions.

“Here in the Hale Center, we have one of the largest Black art collections in the United States and we’re also recognized by the Association for Black Culture Centers as one of the top [centers of its kind] in the country,” said Summer Luckey, the center’s interim director. “Our panel today serves as a representation of how the Hale Center continually merges the university with the community.”

Juneteenth commemorates June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Grander landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the U.S. Civil War had ended and enslaved people were now free.

The state of Ohio officially recognized Juneteenth in 2006, and the observance became a national holiday in 2021. Cities throughout Ohio have hosted events honoring the historic day for decades, including events at the Hale Black Cultural Center, said Yolanda Zepeda, Ohio State’s interim vice provost for diversity and inclusion.

“Our friends and our partners here at the Hale Black Cultural Center have cooked up a delightful program,” she said, “that includes a freewheeling discussion focused on Black joy and creativity.”

The panel discussion featured Monica Stigler, program manager of Ohio State’s African American and African Studies Community Extension Center; Sherri Neale, Maroon Arts Group president; Marshall Shorts, creative-in-chief of Artfluential design agency; Arris’ J. Cohen, inaugural community artist-in-residence at Ohio State’s Urban Art Space; and Ajanaé Dawkins, the current artist-in-residence at Urban Art Space.

Terron Banner, manager of community learning and experience at Urban Art Space, moderated the discussion. He presented an overview of the Hale Center’s founding in 1989 and its ongoing work of preserving Black culture.

“The Hale Black Cultural Center is one of the few – if not only – freestanding centers in the nation that has both a cultural and an academic side,” he said.

Facilities like the Hale Black Cultural Center, the African American and African Studies Community Extension Center and the recently opened Ohio State Wexner Medical Center Healthy Community Center at 1600 E. Long St. are essential in advancing the university’s community outreach efforts, Stigler said.

“Authentic collaboration really starts with relationship, and there’s no quick way to be in relationship,” she said. “It’s a constant showing up and giving of yourself and your resources and having some integrity in the work that you do.”

View a Yellow Springs growing facility’s inaugural crop of recreational marijuana in the video player above.

POMEROY, Ohio (WCMH) — As an Ohio cannabis festival prepares for launch, it’s also looking to make multiple hires with a high pay grade.

Chad Thompson, the organizer behind the Stargazer Cannabis Festival, told NBC4 that he was planning to hire multiple judges for the event’s joint-rolling contest on July 27. The festival, weeks away from its inaugural three-day run at Wisteria Campground, is taking place in the first full year that Ohio has legalized recreational marijuana, and a little over a month after the state opened applications for sales at dual-use dispensaries. Thompson launched the job posting online late Monday.

“There’s two divisions, a classic division and artistic division,” Thompson said. “And in both of those divisions, one of the criteria is, ‘How does it smoke?’ The potential smokability.”

While the classic division will focus on traditional joints, Thompson said the artistic division could see intricately designed joints shaped like “tanks, cars and birds.” He also broke down several other factors the judges would be expected to review, as well as the eyebrow-raising dollar amount offered for their time.

“We’re going to be checking for the draw of the joint and the joint stability, like checking for runs and so forth and all that’s going to go into the judging process,” Thompson said. “And we’re hoping that the pay will be enough to get a large pool of potential candidates. … We are paying $100 an hour, you know, to just smoke joints.”

That hourly rate won’t be for a short span either, according to Thompson. He estimated the judging would take “a couple hours, if not more,” and for that reason the applicants need to be experienced beyond casual users.

“If they’re somebody who smokes maybe once a month, maybe they might not be the best person,” Thompson said. “But you know, if they’re a pretty regular smoker, I think they’ll be able to handle it.”

Thompson previously clarified that no vendors at the festival — spanning July 26 to 28 — would be selling recreational marijuana, and a farmer’s market at the event would mainly sell hemp-derived products. However, he did note recreational marijuana will still have a presence at Stargazer in other forms. Vendors will be allowed to sell cannabis seeds, legal even at the federal level, and with which Ohioans can grow up to six plants under the state’s current law.

Festival-goers will be allowed to use their homegrown marijuana at the campgrounds as well, including in the joint-rolling contest.

“It’d be completely legal to be homegrown cannabis, or they may roll it with hemp or they may not, I’m not gonna ask,” Thompson said. “I’m sure that there will be attendees that have legal cannabis with THC and will be consuming it, but there’s going to be no person-to-person sales.”

He also noted that while festival tickets are still available online, they have been selling quickly. Thompson told NBC4 that the Stargazer team would have to decide whether to sell tickets on the weekend of the event “based on capacity,” but did say that they are no longer accepting new food vendor applications.

“If you definitely want to get into Stargazer, you definitely should buy your ticket as soon as possible,” Thompson said. “If you wait, there will be a likely chance you will not get in. I’m getting calls from all over the region.”

Thompson said applicants interested in applying to become joint-rolling judges, or just buying standard tickets, should visit the Stargazer festival website, and scroll all the way to the bottom for a link to the event’s job postings.

DEFIANCE, Ohio (WANE) — Two are in serious condition after a flatbed trailer ran a stop sign, hitting another car in Defiance Monday evening.

According to a release from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, at 5:15 p.m. Monday, officers were called to the intersection of Mansfield Road and Schubert Road on calls of an injury crash.

When officers arrived they found a flatbed trailer, driven by 45-year-old, Eugene Anderson of Gary, Ind., traveling westbound had run a stop sign and hit another car. Following the crash, the car, driven by a 17-year-old, caught fire on the side of the roadway.

Anderson was taken to an area hospital with a non-life-threatening condition, while the teen was taken in serious condition. The passenger of the car was flown from the scene with serious injuries.

The crash remains under investigation.