DON ROBINSON "THE RAPPING BUM"- High St institution, 1989-2012

Don "The Rapping Bum" Robinson worked the block of High St between E 12th and E 13th but the Newport entrance was his homebase.

From 1989-2012, High St fixture, Don Robinson, "The Rapping Bum," used to panhandle and rhyme near The Newport. "Help Is On the Way" was his signature line.

Some of the classics:

According to a 2005 Lantern interview, he was born in Mississippi in 1951. Robinson came to Ohio in 1972 and worked straight jobs before moving to Columbus and starting to work the streets of Columbus after a home football game in 1989. His winning personality, gregariousness, and rhymes endeared him to students for over 20 years and lead to a couple CDs, a side-gig making paintings, and an unfinished book. Robinson was as much a High St institution as the 12th and High UDF or The Newport.

Robinson expressed a recurring ambition to move south to warmer climes in Tennessee but never did.

In February 2012, at the age of 60 , Robinson passed away at his apartment. Almost a decade later, his community still warmly remembers him.