FANNING THE ANCESTRAL FLAME
Independent News | September 17, 2026 | Volume 27 | Number 37 | Ericka Streeter / Photo by Geoff Peck (@tinyobservations)
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ERICKA STREETER
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winners & losers
outtakes
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news 6
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buzz
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publisher Rick Outzen
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contributing writers Joshua Encinias, Savannah Evanoff, Jennifer Leigh, Dakota Parks, C.S. Satterwhite, Tom St. Myer
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Celebrating the Wins That Lift Us All
Abigail Spencer Pensacola native Abigail Spencer has built an impressive career in television and film, earning acclaim for memorable roles in series including Mad Men, Suits, Timeless, and Grey’s Anatomy. She is now being recognized for her role in the television series Best Medicine, adding another chapter to an already distinguished career. Spencer remains one of Pensacola’s most successful actors, demonstrating the talent and determination that can take local roots to national audiences.
Pensacola Takes Center Stage Pensacola is known for its beaches, military heritage, and arts community—and for talented entertainers making their mark on the national stage. From television and film to major singing competitions, these hometown stars continue to make Pensacola proud.
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Pensacola’s Erik Stolhanske is best known as a founding member of the comedy troupe Broken Lizard and for his unforgettable performances in the cult comedy classic Super Troopers. The film continues to entertain new generations of fans and remains one of the most recognizable comedy franchises of the past two decades. Stolhanske’s work in writing, acting, and producing has helped establish him as a respected figure in independent comedy.
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winners & losers
Steven Barry / Photo Courtesy of Escambia County
Ashlee Hofberger / Photo Courtesy of Escambia County
winners
losers
STEVEN BARRY The Escambia County com-
missioner deserves a Nobel Peace Prize for securing the four votes needed for a millage rate cut at a contentious budget hearing last week. After an early motion collapsed, Barry withdrew his own second rather than force a losing vote, repeatedly warning colleagues the board had to leave with an adopted rate or risk defaulting to the 6.3807-mill rollback rate. He brokered the deal that won over Commissioner Lumon May, who had opposed any rate cut all night, agreeing to fund an additional 4% raise for county employees earning under $50,000, on top of an already budgeted 2%. With that concession secured, Commissioner Steve Stroberger's motion to cut the countywide rate to 6.571 mills passed 4-1, with Chair Ashlee Hofberger the lone dissent.
MAMIE WEBB HIXON The Ella L. Jordan Afri-
can American Women's Museum inducted Hixon as a "Lady of Distinction," which recognizes African American women who made significant contributions over the years and who have made a difference in the Pensacola community, the Ella Jordan Museum and the lives of those they have taught and mentored. Hixon is the longtime director of the University of West Florida's Writing Lab. Her honors include two UWF Distinguished Faculty Service Awards (1993, 2010), two UWF Excellence in Teaching Awards (1995, 2003), the NAACP Pyramid Builders Award (1994), the UWF President's Award for Leadership in Diversity (2001) and the Champion of Education Award from the Pensacola Chapter of the United Negro College Fund (2014).
PENSACOLA BLUE WAHOOS STAFF The baseball team ranked number one among all Minor League Baseball clubs in staff rating, according to results released from Major League Baseball's annual Voice of the Consumer fan experience survey. The club also placed in the top 10 for gate entry, concessions and Net Promoter Score. The VOC rankings are based on leaguewide surveys that ask fans to rate a variety of touch points, including in-game entertainment, parking, food and beverage, as well as their interactions with game-day staff. 44
ASHLEE HOFBERGER The Escambia Coun-
ty commissioner told the Pensacola News Journal she wanted $1.644 million in budget cuts but never made a motion to enact them at the Sept. 8 budget hearing. The list included $300,000 in grants, $211,000 in aid to private organizations, $83,000 for after-school and summer programs, $450,000 to eliminate the county's summer work program and $600,000 cut from the PensacolaEscambia Development Commission. The closest Hofberger came to acting was saying she would support the budget if commissioners found $1.2 million in cuts plus $200,000 from discretionary funds—a total of $1.4 million, not the $1.644 million she cited. The budget passed 5-0, without any cuts. Hofberger was the lone vote against reducing county property taxes.
PAM CHILDERS The Escambia County Commission voted 3-2 to cut the budget of the Escambia County Clerk by $1 million. Commissioners Ashlee Hofberger and Steve Stroberger voted against the motion. Commissioner Mike Kohler, who made the motion, then moved to cut the clerk's personal legal fund by $100,000. It passed 4-1 with Hofberger as the lone "no" vote. Childers lashed out at Kohler saying, "I understand your animosity. It is noted." She called his behavior "abhorrent." The clerk threatened to talk to the future governor, either Byron Donalds or Doug Jolly, about Kohler. Her previous appeals to Tallahassee have fallen on deaf ears. PRESIDENTIAL SEARCHES The University of North Florida's presidential search produced a familiar outcome: a single finalist. Board of Governors Chairman Alan Levine told fellow board members last week that wasn't the plan. The search committee had six finalists for UNF's top job, but five withdrew before names were released, leaving University of North Georgia President Michael Shannon alone. A 2022 Florida law lets public universities keep presidential candidates confidential until finalists are named. The policy was supposed to garner more applicants but has repeatedly produced lone finalists, most recently at Pensacola State College, the University of Florida, Polk State College, the University of West Florida and Florida International University. inweekly.net
outtakes
By Rick Outzen
UNSUNG PARK HEROES Origin stories need heroes, and the Community Maritime Park origin story usually gives credit to Quint Studer. He put up the money, took the arrows and gave the victory speech at Seville Quarter on election night. That's fair. But spend enough time studying the 2006 Community Maritime Park referendum, and you notice the names of those who did the unglamorous work that won 9,684 votes. As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the vote, six individuals embody the selfless volunteers who helped secure the victory: Jeff DeWeese, Bob Hart, Juanita Scott, Ashley Hodge, Lumon May and Joe Vinson. Jeff DeWeese became the campaign's shoe leather. He sat through Save Our City's weekly meetings at the Bayview Community Park Senior Center so the campaign would know what was coming before it hit. He kept an Excel spreadsheet on every residence in the door-todoor canvass—who was undecided, who needed a follow-up call, where the campaign was losing ground. Bob Hart never gave a rally speech. He was the attorney in the room every Friday morning when Studer's brain trust hashed out the details that made the Community Maritime Park Associates (CMPA) a legally viable entity, one that had to survive council votes, a referendum and years of litigation threats before it ever poured concrete. Hart did the unsexy work of making sure the deal would actually hold together. Juanita Scott was, by Studer's own account, the real MVP of the ground game. She ran the get-out-the-vote effort in Pensacola's Black precincts, understanding—better than any consultant the campaign hired—how to talk to voters that Save Our City had written off. On election night, she tracked precinct-by-precinct returns. When the votes from Mt. Zion Baptist, Macedonia Baptist and Mt. Olive Baptist came in decisively for the park, it wasn't luck. It was Juanita Scott's operation. Ashley Hodge stood up in a packed council chamber as a Pensacola Young Profession-
als board member and spoke for a generation that Pensacola's civic establishment had spent years telling to wait its turn. PYP didn't exist until six months before the vote. PYP members introduced themselves to the council and helped supply the young vote that neutralized Save Our City's older, more reliable base. Lumon May, years before Escambia County voters sent him to the county commission, did the same patient work as Scott in the city's Black neighborhoods— block by block, door by door, making sure supporters actually turned out. It's easy, looking back through the lens of his later political career, to forget he was once just one more volunteer trying to move a needle. Joe Vinson brought something the campaign badly needed: a sense of humor. As the Appleyard Agency's new media director, Vinson turned his boss's idea for a satirical ad into "Chuckie and Donno," the Statler-and-Waldorf-inspired cartoon parody of park opponents Charlie Fairchild and Marty Donovan griping on the empty Trillium site. Nobody in Pensacola had tried an animated attack ad before. It worked. None of these six needed to be the face of the campaign, and none of them are the answer when people ask, years later, who built Maritime Park. That answer defaults to Studer, Adm. Jack Fetterman or Mayor Emeritus Vince Whibbs. However, the referendum was won by dozens who wanted a brighter future for Pensacola, including a lawyer ironing out details, a canvasser with a spreadsheet, an advocate analyzing the precincts, a young professional standing up at a council meeting, a volunteer walking the same blocks twice and a media director willing to try something new. Today, the park stands as a testament to what Pensacola can accomplish when it bets on itself. It's worth remembering that the bet was placed one door, one phone call and one Friday meeting at a time—by people whose names rarely make a plaque. {in} rick@inweekly.net
Today, the park stands as a testament to what Pensacola can accomplish when it bets on itself.
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A NEW VOICE ON THE DIAL Linezo said Pierce left home at 15 and eventually performed at the Belmont Theater with Bessie Smith, who was touring as part of the Chitlin' Circuit. "It was the only safe place for African-Americans to feed, to play, to party, to play music, to do anything," Linezo said. "So it was the only good music in town." The conference's cultural programming is intended to demonstrate that community radio can be more than a place to play records. Linezo said it can become an archive, a gathering place and a way to connect stories that otherwise might disappear.
LEARNING TO MAKE RADIO
By Tom St. Myer As Pensacola prepares to host the national Grassroots Radio Conference, a small group of local musicians and radio enthusiasts will put a new kind of station on air—one built on the idea that radio still belongs to the community. For more than two decades, the idea of a community radio station in Pensacola lived mostly in conversations, sketches and dreams between Sean Linezo and Fred Touchette. This month, it is finally becoming a signal. WPNX 107.7 FM, a do-it-yourself community radio project launched by Free Radio Pensacola, is preparing to debut Sept. 24-26—the same weekend Pensacola hosts the national Grassroots Radio Conference, headquartered downtown at Voices of Pensacola. "We're a really small team, and we will run it and curate it in the beginning and program it, but we're opening it to the community," Linezo said. "We're inviting everybody to learn with us, and we're inviting experts to town to teach people about what's possible, about how to maintain it, sustain it, all of these things." WPNX will operate under an FCC license and follow federal broadcasting requirements. Its signal is expected to reach roughly an 11-mile radius from its antenna and transmitter atop the Studer Community Institute building at 220 W. Garden St. Pete Tridish of the Prometheus Radio Project, an organization closely associated with the grassroots community radio movement, is in charge of installing the antenna. "He is the guy who campaigned and lobbied Congress to allow us to have these community radio stations," Linezo said. "So he doesn't take that much credit because he 66
works in teams. But I mean, he was an iconic figure of this whole movement." The launch marks the culmination of an idea dating back to 2000, when Linezo and fellow local musician Touchette discussed creating a community radio station. "We were talking about making a community radio station, and at the time, it was just expensive and hard to organize as kids, and we wanted to do it, but then I just kept traveling, wasn't in town," Linezo said. "But Fred stayed, and as soon as streaming became a thing, he started Radio Free Pensacola." Now, more than 25 years after the idea first took shape, Linezo, Touchette and artist Coy Glass are preparing to take the project from the internet to the FM dial.
A CONFERENCE BECOMES A LAUNCHPAD
The Grassroots Radio Conference is an annual gathering of community radio station builders, programmers, DJs, engineers, organizers, artists and listeners. The conference focuses on the practical side of building and sustaining community radio—from technical infrastructure and programming to the culture surrounding stations that are operated outside the traditional commercial-radio model. Linezo said the conference will be technically intensive, but he also wants it to reflect the history and culture of Pensacola and the broader role radio can play in preserving stories. The conference will include an exhibition telling the story of Billie Pierce, a local piano player and largely forgotten musical figure whose story Linezo believes connects Pensacola's past to the cultural history the new station hopes to preserve.
For people interested in participating in WPNX, Linezo said the conference will serve as a hands-on introduction to the skills needed to operate a radio station. "If you're into, like, podcasting and DJing and radio production and learning how to do that, we're gonna have workshops on that and how to syndicate your programming, like how to format it and then syndicate it," Linezo said. Linezo plans to premiere a short film, "Free Radio WPNX: Community Radio in Formation 2000-2026," at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 at Voices. The film begins with his trip to California and his introduction to community radio. Later that night, musician Dave Dondero will perform at End of the Line Cafe, the same location where Linezo and Touchette began discussing the possibility of starting a radio station 26 years ago. After conference sessions Friday, the downtown square will become part of the event, with singers, songwriters and DJs performing for several hours as the sun sets. Saturday will feature a small record fair followed by DJs onstage from noon until sunset. The conference will conclude that night with a party at the Bunny Club, a venue that Linezo said connects to Pensacola's musical legacy and the history of the Chitlin' Circuit. Quintron is scheduled to perform, combining music with a puppet show featuring Miss Pussycat. Quintron will share insights on transmission art and his "weather warlock," an installation that WPNX hopes eventually can become part of the station's broadcasts. Quintron has been asked to build a weather warlock for WPNX so the station can activate it during weather reports or periods of dead air.
'WE'RE GOING TO MAKE MISTAKES'
The station has an FCC license, but Linezo said he does not want the station to sound like a polished corporate operation. "We haven't done it before, so we're learning at the same time, and we feel like that's really the voice we want to have out there," Linezo said. "We want the voice. No one's perfect. We're not going to sound like a corporate radio station that has a very firm set of rules or structure, that's well polished. We're going to make mistakes."
Glass sees that imperfection as a perfect remedy for what ails society. "Everyone's lost in this thing, in this rectangle that goes in our pocket, and everyone's tuned into their own algorithm, but what that does over time is it alienates all of us," Glass said as he held up his phone. "In order to get back to a situation where we can communicate properly again, we're going to have to go back to some things that were important that maybe we left along the way. And radio, especially community radio, is one of those things."
"It is your friends and neighbors just playing the records for you." Coy Glass Glass continued, "It's the DIY nature of what we're doing, sort of letting people see the mistakes, letting people hear the mistakes and knowing that it's humans making it," he said. "It's not an algorithm, it's not AI, it's not Silicon Valley, it's not a corporation telling you what you should listen to. It is your friends and neighbors just playing the records for you."
BUILDING SOMETHING THAT LASTS
The immediate challenge is establishing the station on the air. The longer-term challenge may be even more important: getting Pensacola residents involved enough to make it sustainable. Linezo said the conference is intended to accelerate that process by bringing people with experience to Pensacola and giving potential volunteers an opportunity to see what community radio can become. "We will be looking for volunteers to help us and to kind of graduate from the conference with us and become a part of the station," he said. He views the launch and conference as mutually reinforcing. "There's a lot of similar themes, and so we were going to be doing some of this work anyway," Linezo said. "So the idea to sort of pump it up with inviting all of the experts to town, ultimately will prove to be a great decision for us as WPNX because it's really going to give us some legitimacy and some swagger right off the bat and some help." After years of imagining what community radio could look like in Pensacola, Linezo and his collaborators are about to find out. The answer will not arrive in the form of a corporate programming schedule or an algorithm. It will arrive over 107.7 FM—with DJs, musicians, volunteers, community voices and new discoveries. Registration for the conference costs $150 through Sept. 24 and $185 afterwards. To register and for more information about the conference and community radio station, visit freeradiopensacola.com and wpnx.org. {in} inweekly.net
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Photo Courtesy of Escambia County
BUDGET BRAWL The Escambia County Commission adopted a tentative $890,095,709 budget for Fiscal Year 2026/2027 during a contentious Sept. 8 hearing that ran nearly an hour longer than expected, marked by procedural confusion, a sharp public clash between Commissioner Mike Kohler and Clerk of Court Pam Childers and a fight over who benefits from a millage rate cut. The board settled on a $1 million reduction to the countywide millage rate, dropping it to 6.571 mills, with the Library and Sheriff's Law Enforcement MSTUs held steady at 0.359 and 0.685. A mill is a unit of measurement equal to one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value. The motion passed 4-1, with Chair Ashlee Hofberger casting the lone dissenting vote after pushing unsuccessfully for deeper cuts. Before the commissioners reached that compromise, the meeting stalled repeatedly on process. An early motion from Commissioner Steve Stroberger to cut the millage collapsed when Commissioner Steven Barry withdrew his second rather than force a vote he knew would fail. Tempers flared along the way. Stroberger at one point accused Kohler of playing "mean girl" politics after Kohler needled colleagues over county spending on fireworks and Mardi Gras funding. The night's sharpest exchange came when Kohler, following the collapse of the first millage vote, moved to cut Childers' budget by $1 million and eliminate $100,000 from what he called her "legal slush fund." Childers took the floor and accused Kohler directly of orchestrating the ongoing nonprofit 010 1
grant-funds lawsuit against her office, calling his conduct "abhorrent" and raising the possibility of pursuing personal liability against commissioners. She defended maintaining two attorneys—one paid by the commission and one personal outside counsel—and said she would raise the matter with Florida's next governor. Assistant County Attorney Will Nelson told the board it had "great flexibility" to take up such cuts mid-meeting, though neither of Kohler's motions were formally folded into the final budget resolution. Commissioner Lumon May, who held out against any millage reduction for most of the night, ultimately supported the final motion after securing two concessions: a directive that the $1 million shortfall be found through cost savings rather than reserves, and a commitment to fund an additional 4% raise, on top of an already budgeted 2%, for non-union county employees earning under $50,000. May framed the raise as a matter of equity, arguing the county's lowest-paid workers "can't eat" on their current wages while administrators earn six figures. Finance Director Stephan Hall estimated the raise would cost roughly $1 million from the general fund. The board also voted 5-0 to adopt the tentative budget resolution and the non-ad valorem special assessment roll, covering streetlights and other special districts, with no members of the public signed up to speak on either item. Commissioners set the second and final budget public hearing for 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 24 in the Board Chambers of the Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building, where the millage rate and full budget will require final adoption before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
DCF REFORM State Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, and Sen. Jason Pizzo, DSunny Isles Beach, held a press conference outside the Santa Rosa County Courthouse on Sept. 4, announcing plans to file childwelfare reform legislation for the 2027 session. The event coincided with a reunification hearing for Kenley, a Santa Rosa County child removed from her mother, Joy Zuraff, in March 2024. Zuraff, a single mother, was reportedly required to drive six and a half hours each way for visitation after DCF placed Kenley far from home. Pizzo, a former MiamiDade homicide prosecutor, took the case pro bono roughly seven months ago at Gaetz's request; Kenley returned home June 10, and Friday's hearing was described as the second to last before the case closes. Gaetz linked the case to a Fifth Judicial Circuit grand jury report on DCF, filed Aug. 27 in Marion County after a sevenmonth investigation. The jury found that DCF had visited a family 14 times before a child in that family was murdered. Its report documented systemic failures including delayed after-hours response to elder-abuse calls, coached mental capacity evaluations and 12 cases of alleged record falsification by DCF or case-management staff, eight of which produced official misconduct charges. The jury issued 34 recommendations, including a financial audit of DCF Circuit 5 and repeal of contractor sovereign immunity. Gaetz outlined 10 legislative provisions he's drafting with Sens. Jennifer Bradley and Erin Grall, along with Pizzo. Highlights include requiring DCF's secretary to personally approve any move to terminate parental rights, uniform statewide standards regardless of which contractor holds a county's contract, mandatory credential verification for contracted therapists and counselors and repealing sovereign immunity for DCF contractors so they can face civil consequences for negligence or false information. Pizzo, who called the child-welfare system "an absolute mess" built around "a cloaked bubble of confidentiality," said evidence in dependency cases is often hearsay-based, with no video or confession—a contrast, he said, to the standard he worked under as a prosecutor. More than a dozen parents, grandparents and advocates spoke afterward, raising a gag order imposed on Zuraff by Judge J. Scott Duncan, confusion over contractor sovereign immunity, retaliation against people with "verified" DCF findings against them and removals based on hearsay from newly hired investigators.
Gaetz repeatedly noted he has no investigative or prosecutorial authority and directed people with evidence of crimes to the State Attorney's Office or sheriff. Both senators said the legislation is still being drafted and could take the form of one bill or several. They pledged public hearings once bills are filed and are compiling a mailing list to keep supporters updated through the session.
PAID PARKING RETURNING City officials have unveiled a revamped parking plan, with new senior passes, expanded free days and a friendlier enforcement approach. Managed parking returns to downtown Pensacola on Oct. 5, affecting the 1,100 high-demand spaces in the city's inventory, Parking Services Director Lissa Dees announced at a Sept. 8 media briefing at City Hall. Rates hold at $1 an hour Tuesday through Friday until 6 p.m., rising to $1.75 after 6 p.m. Friday and all day Saturday. Jefferson Garage moves to a flat $1.75. Mondays become a new free day, and Gallery Night event parking stays a flat $20. The senior pass expands to anyone 65 or older—not just city residents—and links directly to a license plate instead of a sticker or app. Resident discount permits move to a flat 75cent rate, pending council approval. ExpressPay launches in Jefferson Garage shortly after Oct. 5, letting drivers skip pay stations entirely through the ParkMobile app. During the transition, the city says it will issue warnings before citations, on what Dees called "more of a three-strike deal." The Pensacola City Council approved shortening how often citation escalation fees reset, from 12 months to six, at its Sept. 10 meeting. A new 20% discount applies to citations paid within 72 hours. Other changes require City Council approval at its Sept. 24 meeting. Mayor D.C. Reeves said the new rate structure is designed to be revenue neutral, not a revenue increase, with higher weekend rates aimed at encouraging turnover of parking spaces rather than raising money. He noted that more than 1,600 spaces remain free citywide around the clock, and that 83% of parking transactions come from people who don't live in the city. Council President Allison Patton, who pushed for the changes after years of constituent complaints, called the rollout "a big win." Parking revenue funds downtown lighting, safety, signage and maintenance, including roughly $500,000 in planned repairs to the 42-year-old Jefferson Garage. To learn more, visit parkpensacola.com/ know-before-you-go. PERKINS PASSES Walter "Dale" Perkins, a
fixture on the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority Board for 32 years, died Sunday, Sept. 6, at age 64. First elected in November 1994, Perkins was ECUA's longest-serving board member and one of its most recognizable, known to generations of locals as "Captain Dale" for his years as a fishing boat captain. He had announced in January that he intended to seek another term. inweekly.net
A commemorative plaque unveiled along Pensacola Beach this year, near the ECUA water tanks, honors him as a "fisherman, environmentalist, fierce protector of the people's purse." Before his board service, Perkins earned multiple advanced degrees and worked as a social worker, substance abuse counselor and military and family life counselor. Perkins played a significant role in two of the region's biggest environmental fights, both of which Inweekly pushed to get enacted: relocating the Main Street Sewage Plant out of downtown Pensacola and establishing a countywide curbside recycling program. He and Inweekly did not always align. In 2001, ECUA, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and International Paper negotiated a $92 million project to reroute IP's wastewater away from Eleven Mile Creek through a wetlands filtration system, with ECUA covering roughly 25 percent of the cost. Perkins and other board members nearly rejected the deal over a $1.25 million fee to use IP land for a planned Cantonment treatment plant. The agreement survived only after pressure from then-Pensacola Chamber chair Adm. Jack Fetterman, hundreds of community members, DEP and the Florida Cabinet. In 2009, as Escambia County debated government consolidation, Perkins traveled to Tallahassee to lobby the Florida House to exclude ECUA from the consolidation commission and process entirely. ECUA, in a statement announcing his death, credited Perkins with an "extraordinary commitment" spanning significant growth and change at the Authority, and praised his strength, generosity and quick wit. Perkins is survived by his daughters, Jade Perkins and Stacey Livingston; his mother, Marcia Perkins; and his siblings Bill, Mike, Jeff, Melanie, Libby, Sandi and Patti, along with many other family members and friends.
PUBLIC SAFETY At his Sept. 9 press conference, Mayor D.C. Reeves said Pensacola Police have responded to Vibes and Smoothies on North Ninth Avenue 32 times since March, including an Aug. 29 incident in which a man wanted on a felony child-neglect warrant fled officers into the business, where the owner let him hide until he surrendered. The club was also the site of a drive-by shooting on Sept. 6. A passenger in a white vehicle fired five to eight shots at a crowd that was outside Vibes and Smoothies. A woman was struck by a single round. Her injuries were not life-threatening. At the press conference, Reeves compared the situation to the Club Climax nuisance case the city resolved in 2023. He said, "Public safety is not just an obligation of our officers, of our administration, of Chief Winstrom. There is a business ownership obligation to public safety as well." The mayor said the city has "some legal avenues" available if the owner doesn't cooperate, though no formal request to intervene has come from the Pensacola Police Department yet. September 17, 2026
MATERNAL HEALTH The Florida Blue Foundation, the philanthropic affiliate of Florida Blue and part of the GuideWell portfolio of companies, has opened applications for a new grant program aimed at improving maternal health outcomes across Florida. The foundation is seeking Florida-based nonprofits with innovative, actionable solutions to improve maternal health outcomes and expand access to quality healthcare services and support. The push comes as Florida's maternal health statistics lag the rest of the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state's maternal mortality rate is higher than the national average, and 19.4% of Florida's counties are classified as "maternity care deserts." The gap is starkest in rural areas, where 100% of women live more than 30 minutes from a birthing hospital, compared with 10.7% of women in urban areas. Chronic conditions such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity are also cited as major drivers of severe pregnancy-related complications and maternal morbidity and mortality statewide. The foundation wants to fund solutions that improve maternal health outcomes for people with chronic conditions and/or that provide perinatal and postpartum maternal mental health support. Organizations using AIpowered tools, such as chatbots or predictive analytics, will receive special consideration, as will those serving under-resourced communities and Florida's rural counties. "Every mother and baby in Florida deserves care they can count on, before, during and after birth. That's what drives us," said Susan Towler, vice president of the Florida Blue Foundation. "When we partner with nonprofits doing this work on the ground, we're helping them reach the families who need support the most. Together, we're building a healthier Florida, one family at a time." The foundation has earmarked approximately $3 million for the program, which will be distributed as four-year grants. Recipients will be announced in early 2027. Nonprofit organizations with documented expertise and experience improving maternal health outcomes are encouraged to apply. Applications are due by 2 p.m. on Oct. 5. Prospective applicants can watch an educational webinar and find more information on the application process at floridabluefoundation.com. UPCOMING MEETINGS The Escambia County Commission will meet at 9 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, with the public forum scheduled for 4:30 p.m. The commissioners will hold their second budget hearing at 5:01 p.m. on that same day. Both meetings are in the Commission Chambers, Ernie Lee Magaha Government Building, 211 S. Palafox St. The Pensacola City Council will hold its Agenda Conference at 3:30 p.m., on Monday, Sept. 21, in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room. It will hold its regular meeting at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, in the City Council Chambers. Both meeting spaces are in Pensacola City Hall, 222 W. Main St. {in} 11
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Local Restaurants • 30+ Food Vendors • Kids Zone Cooking Demonstrations • Live Entertainment 140+ Arts & Crafts Vendors • AND Much More! Sponsored by The Pensacola Ice Flyers
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FANNING THE ANCESTRAL FLAME WITH POET
ERICKA STREETER By Dakota Parks
Ericka Streeter / Photos by Geoff Peck (@tinyobservations)
When Erika Streeter writes, she worships. Every stanza is an ancestral thread, every poem an act of devotion. For years, she has nurtured Northwest Florida's literary community, mentoring fellow writers through journaling and writing workshops and serving as the host of Pensacola Poetry for two and a half years. She released her debut collection, "Soul Fire: Prose of Passion and Peace," in 2020. This fall, Streeter returns with her second collection, "Soul Fire: The Warmth of the Ancestral Flame," a deeply personal exploration of ancestry, womanhood, grief and the sacred act of reclaiming oneself. "What drew me to poetry was that it felt natural to create with words," Streeter said. "What keeps me coming back is the realization that it keeps saving my life. Most of my writing comes in floods, rushing out of me." Written in the quiet of her bedroom, Streeter's poems arrive like flash floods, spilling forcefully onto the page. Her work often grapples with heavy themes like slavery and sexual violence. Yet at its heart, the collection is a celebration of Blackness, community, resilience, history and joy. "I love being Black," she said. "This is the language and the visions that come to me that I get to write down. I love getting to show my people themselves—and everyone who is not a part of my culture gets a glimpse of that too." In the poem "Cheetah Coat and Boas," her dynamic words immerse readers in celebration and Black joy: "Cheetah coat and gator shoes pizazz / Loud like big brass / Bold like bourbon / Think feather boas around long necks / Shiny shimmies on big hips." For Streeter, word choice is never incidental. Throughout the collection, she intentionally leans September 17, 2026
into Black vernacular, reclaiming the language she once felt pressured to leave behind. "When we were younger, some of us were bussed to white schools," she explained. "When we came back around others who didn't go, the other Black children would tell us that we talk white. I didn't really understand that, but we learned proper grammar and what's now called code-switching. Now that I'm older, I see so much value in our vernacular. As much as it changes, it's always something worth celebrating because it's so colorful and fun." In poems like "1972" and "Remember," Streeter moves through history with urgency, tracing a lineage that stretches from segregation and billy clubs to all the unique joys and contributions of Black culture. "It is my right and responsibility as a poet to document history," Streeter said. "We like to act like all that was just in the past. Like we don't do that anymore. That it's not so important, when it is. Pay attention to this. Pay attention to us, so we can be okay. So we can be better." Streeter refuses to look away from misogyny and patriarchy, challenging "catcalls and elevator eyes," sexual violence and generational harm. "A comment I often enjoy hearing is, 'I'm glad you said that sis, because I wanted to say something about that, but I've been too afraid,'" she said. For Streeter, that type of conversation falls within a larger personal arc. "It's been a journey learning that I'm beautiful because I'm Black, not in spite of being Black," Streeter said. "It's still an act of rebellion to practice that joy. There were times I was taught to be ashamed of my body, of my hair and hips, and it didn't just come from white culture. It bled into
our communities too. Women have to do so much work to reclaim our bodies, reclaim our beauty." That complexity runs through one of Streeter's favorite and most powerful poems in the collection, "Sexual 'Cause." The poem explores desire, but also the experience of being eroticized and losing ownership of one's body. The poem began, Streeter said, with a question she was tired of being asked: "Why are you so sexual?" "I want to be bold in it. I want it to be as fit for public as it is for private, because my sensuality and sexuality are a part of me, just as they are for anybody else," she said. "And I'm not ashamed of that. So many women go through life not actually experiencing sensual and sexual pleasure. They've been taught it's dirty, it's shameful, that it's not God's way. They've essentially been shunned, and it's not right." Across the collection, Streeter reaches backward and forward through generations, honoring ancestors through eulogies and interweaving poems written by her daughter, Elondrice Hodge, as a reminder that the ancestral flame continues. "I have sat and laid in front of my altar and felt that very flame," Streeter said. "I felt that warmth and safety of what my ancestors bring and have left behind for me. It's safer in this world for me because of them, and I know they didn't leave me here just to figure everything out on my own." She said that connection shapes the way she moves through everyday life. "I'm someone who walks in the house, even though it looks empty, and says 'good morning' or 'good evening' every time, because there might just be somebody sitting at the table. I just can't see them," she said. By bringing together poems written across
decades, Streeter hopes to give her family a record of their ancestors, their stories and the legacy they carry forward. "The collection is curated. It's an intentional offering of me to the world. If there's anything I want readers to know about me, it's that I love who I'm becoming," she said. And in the final words of the collection, Streeter extends that same love outward, offering readers a final piece of wisdom inspired by a story of Iyanla Vanzant licking the doorknobs of her new home as way to claim it as her own: "Be good to yourself and when you find something sweet and safe, lick it and make it yours." {in}
ERICKA STREETER @soulfireprose
"Soul Fire: The Warmth of the Ancestral Flame" is available locally at Perfect Day Books, Open Books and Black Café & Bookstore. 13
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WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 17-23
Arts & Entertainment art, film, music, stage, books and other signs of civilization...
Embracing the Uncomfortable By Savannah Evanoff
Zach Robbins / Zachx
A middle-school Zach Robbins was too afraid to sing for his mother, so instead he played her a recording. He expected the kind of review only a mom could give: best voice she'd ever heard. Instead, she rated him an honest but respectable seven out of 10. "She's like, 'Well, do you want me to lie to you? I want you to improve. I don't want to just tell you you're perfect and then you think that you're amazing and go on "American Idol" and get embarrassed,'" he said. "And I was like, 'OK, that's fair.'" He didn't sing publicly until his senior year of high school. "Some of my classmates and other grades below us just had their jaws on the floor," Robbins said. "They're like, 'We didn't even know you could sing.' I was like, 'Surprise! I have this little dirty secret.'"
Now creating electronic rock music under the moniker Zachx, he's gotten more comfortable in the uncomfortable. He's not running from the cringe (and critique) that come with sharing his music online; he's running toward it. "You really can't get anywhere artistically unless you are willing to make that sacrifice," Zachx said. Performing live is his "next big venture." Mom rates Zachx much higher now. And he still sends demos to his parents before release—most recently the singles "CITRUS" and "POWER : PLANTS." "They have been making comments about how this new direction I'm going is very different than anything I've made, and I'm like, 'Yep, that's the point. I want to keep evolving,'" Zachx said. His new music is more guitar-driven and marks a heavier turn from his past work, borrowing from genres like shoegaze, alt metal and soft rock. But electronic music remains the core of his sound; he grew up admiring Linkin Park and now says you might also like his music if you listen to Charli XCX. Primarily a keyboard player, Zachx said collaborating with Brenden Gillis, the label manager of Cold Soul Records, is what finally gave him the means to marry the genres. "It's cool to be able to mesh genres together like that and get the best of both worlds," Zachx said. He nerds out about the electronic half, sifting through snare and hi-hat sounds until he finds exactly the right one. "I think I'm a little insane with that," he added. Zachx has been producing music since 2013, releasing his debut album "HEART" in 2017. Its
name nods to medical and anatomical themes— with a bit of horror, too. And in the spirit of embracing the cringe, he's intentionally kept it on streaming platforms to show his growth. While his sound has evolved, Zachx still likes a concept album. His latest singles are a taste of the upcoming album "EARTH," a project more than a decade in the making and set to drop April 22, 2027—aka Earth Day. For the "EARTH" universe, Zachx created an alter ego called the Geographer. "It's like a side of me," Zachx said. "His whole role is to observe the world around him and talk about what he gathers from it, which is what I do as a person." Zachx calls himself a "partial tree hugger." He likes traveling and hiking with his wife, Julie Robbins, but is frustrated watching rapid development reshape his home in Milton. "It's just too much, too fast," Zachx said. "It's just sad to see all these trees being torn down for these apartment buildings that look like they're made of cardboard." His tree-hugging half wrote "POWER : PLANTS" out of that frustration, lyrically pitting the natural and industrial worlds against each other in what he calls an "everlasting cycle." "You build a house, people live in it, people abandon it, it overgrows with plants again," Zachx said. "Humans take over, then nature takes back over." In "CITRUS," nature extends from literal to metaphorical. Zachx has always loved the word "citrus"—even if citrus isn't his favorite genre of fruit. And it's Florida, after all. He assigns a second meaning to the word. "In my personal life, I tend to call people that you can't quite figure out—like, they're nice, but my gut is telling me they're probably gonna back-
stab me—I call those people the citrus people," Zachx said. That sweet-and-sour dichotomy informs the lyrics. The citrus theme extends to the album art, which Zachx hired two artists to create: graphic designer Trinity Dennis and local mixed-media artist Chase Colley. "In the day of AI quote-unquote art, I definitely want to lean more into actual artists and really embrace real, true art—human-created art," Zachx said. "My album's called 'EARTH,' and a citrus orange is like a globe shape. I said, 'What if we carved the continents onto it?' ... We opted for painting it." Zachx is hands-on with every part of his music—from the intentional lyrics to the album art he conceptualizes to the music videos he makes with his wife's help. He said his music is a form of therapy for him, but it's starting to have an impact on others, too. One listener reached out to Zachx during an especially difficult year marked by multiple deaths in his family, saying his music helped. "The fact that he found comfort in my art, that really was just mind-blowing to me," Zachx said. "That was always my goal. But to actually see that happen in real time felt very special." Helping people heal is already a big part of his life. He's been a physical therapist assistant since 2020. "I realize there's a lot of parallel between my physical therapy career and my art career, too," Zachx said. "I'm trying to help people heal and inspire them and help them just feel better." {in}
ZACHX
@zachxart
Four local pharmacies, one hometown feel Milton
Pensacola
4350 Bayou Blvd. 850-484-4338 Saturday hours
2315 W. Jackson St. 850-495-3955
1400 N. Palafox St. 850-433-2165 Saturday hours
6671 Caroline St. 850-564-7722
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September 17, 2026
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a&e happenings At noon, political scientist Dr. Paul R. DeHart presents "Is There No Virtue Among Us?: Interest, Ambition and the Common Good in the Framers' Constitutional Design," in the University Commons Conference Ballroom. The conversation continues at 3 p.m. with historian Dr. James Hankins presenting "Federalists or Anti-Federalists: The Verdict After 250 Years," a public forum in the University Commons Conference Ballroom. The day concludes with a lecture from Dr. Hankins, "The Constitution and the Western Republican Tradition," at the Voices of Pensacola Multicultural Center. Registration is requested at events. Details available at uwf.edu/cassh/departments/reubinod-askew-department-of-government/ news-and-events/constitution-day.
GALLERY NIGHT: VIVA PENSACOLA LATINO FESTIVAL Live per-
5TH ANNUAL BREAST CANCER BENEFIT
formances and art vendors take over downtown Pensacola 5-9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 on South Palafox Street. Details available at gallerynightpensacola.org.
A NEW LEASH ON LIFE ADOPTION EVENT
JUKEBOX GALA Pensacola Opera presents a night of music. Opera singers perform requested songs tableside as you dine on a four-course meal. Proceeds benefit Pensacola Opera. The event is 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 19 at Hilton Pensacola Beach, 12 Via de Luna Drive. Details and tickets at pensacolaopera.com.
NONPROFITS & FUNDRAISERS
Jeep's 5th Annual Breast Cancer Benefit is themed Lights for the Fight. Take part in raffles and giveaways, craft beer, contests, photo ops and more. Event is 5-10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 at Gary's Brewery, 208 Newman Ave. Tickets are available at pensacolajeeps.org.
Meet adoptable dogs from local rescues and support their causes 12 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 at Gary's Brewery, 208 Newman Ave. Details available at facebook.com/garysbrew.
ANIMAL ALLIES FLORIDA BINGO Animal Allies Florida hosts bingo twice monthly at Beef 'O' Brady's, 1 New Market St., Cantonment (on Nine Mile Road near Pine Forest Road). The cost is 10 rounds of bingo for $10, with cash prizes for winners. For more information, visit facebook.com/animalalliesflorida. ANIMAL ALLIES CAT AND KITTEN ADOPTION Visit Pet Supermarket 11 a.m.-3 p.m. every
first and third Saturday of the month at 6857 N. Ninth Ave. to meet your furever friend. Visit aaflorida.org for details.
CARING & SHARING MINISTRY FOOD DRIVE The Gloria Green Caring & Sharing Min-
istry is attached to the Historic St. Joseph Catholic Church, 140 W. Government St. The ministry feeds the homeless 10:30 a.m. Tuesdays. The ministry's food pantry opens 10 a.m. and also has clothing. Food donations needed are pop-top canned goods, Beanie Weenies, Vienna sausage, potted meat, cans of tuna and chicken and soups. Clothing donations needed include tennis shoes for men and women, as well as sweatshirts and new underwear for men in sizes small, medium and large. Call DeeDee Green at (850) 723-3390 for details.
ARTS & CULTURE
CONSTITUTION DAY AT UWF UWF will celebrate Constitution Day on Thursday, Sept. 17. 616 1
10TH BI-ANNUAL PLANT-A-PALOOZA EVENT Event is 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at
Gary's Brewery, 208 Newman Ave. Enjoy special drinks, plant sales and more. Details at facebook.com/garysbrew.
THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN Pensacola Little
Theatre production showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 and Sept. 25; Saturday, Sept. 19 and 26; and Thursday, Sept. 24. Also, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 20 and 27. Located at 400 S. Jefferson St. Tickets are $15-$40 and available at pensacolalittletheatre.com.
COLORS OF THE COAST: PAINTING WITH NATURAL WATERCOLORS Join the Pensac-
ola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program (PPBEP) and Artist Angelica Tilton of Possum & Palmetto for an exploration of natural pigments and how to use them to paint your own original artwork inspired by Gulf Coast wildlife. Workshop will occur from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 21 at Bruce Beach, 601 W. Main St. Cost is $25 per person; all materials are included. Sign up at ppbep.org/get-involved.
THE MEMBERS SHOW: OPENING RECEPTION The 72nd Annual Members Show: Small
Works Edition opens with a reception 5-7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 at Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 Jefferson St. Voting for the People's Choice Award closes at 6 p.m. and will be announced at 6:30 p.m.
HEAT PHOTOGRAPHY SHOW The opening night for the exhibit is Friday, Sept. 18 at POP
Studio, 103 W. Intendencia St. Details available at instagram.com/popstudiopcola.
EXTINCT, THREATENED, RESTORED: ARTIST TALK WITH PIPPIN FRISBIE-CALDER Printmaker and environmentalist Pippin FrisbieCalder will lead this talk 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St. Details at pensacolamuseum.org.
TWILIGHT DRAG SHOW Event is 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com. For ages 18 and up. 309 PUNK HOUSE DIY SHORT FILM SCREENING Screening is 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept.
20 at 309 N. Sixth Ave. Details available at 309punkproject.org.
THE THOT FACTORY TIP N' TREAT Drag
show is 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets are $10 and available at thehandlebar850.com.
READ PENSACOLA BOOK CLUB The next
meeting will discuss "This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me" by Ilona Andrews. 5-6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 at Café Single Fin, 380 N. Ninth Ave. For more information, visit instagram.com/readpensacola.
ERASER STAMPS WORKSHOP WITH DRAW TOGETHER PENSACOLA X 309
The free workshop is 5-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 309 N. Sixth Ave. Space and tools are limited. Sign up on the Google Doc. Link available at facebook.com/309punkproject.
THE GULF AT WAR: HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY OF REVOLUTIONARY WEST FLORIDA The University of West Florida Col-
lege of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities and UWF Archaeology Institute will launch the 202627 Gulf Coast Culture Series with "The Gulf at War: History and Archaeology of Revolutionary West Florida" at Voices of Pensacola, 117 E. Government St. on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 5:30 p.m. starting with a reception. At 6 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Jack E. Davis will provide the keynote and moderate a panel of regional experts in archaeology, history and historic preservation. The evening also includes a public reception, educational displays from regional archaeology and heritage organizations, a book signing with Davis, and an after-hours opportunity to visit the Pensacola Museum of History's "Road to Revolution" exhibit. For more information, visit uwf.edu/gulfcoastculture.
CURL UP & READ: SILENT BOOK CLUB Grab your current read and curl up with adoptable cats 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 at Coastal Cat Café, 1508 W. Garden St. Cost is $20 per person and includes on hot drink of your choice. Sign up at coastalcatpcola.com.
FRIENDS OF THE WEST FLORIDA PUBLIC LIBRARIES FALL BOOK SALE The Friends'
Fall Big Book Sale features a wide selection of hardback and softback books across numerous genres—including fiction, mysteries, biographies, young adult, children's literature, cooking and for-
eign language—as well as multimedia items such as CDs, DVDs, vinyl and audiobooks. Located at West Florida Public Library, 239 N. Spring St. Dates are 3-7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 25 (admission is $5 and free to Friends Members), 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 (admission is free; children receive one free book in honor of Dolly Parton) and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 (admission is free; $7 bag sale).
2026 PUMPKIN PARTY The Strong Street Studio Pumpkin Party kicks off with an online sale 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 at strongstreetstudioglass.com. The in-person sale will take place 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3 and Sunday, Oct. 4 at 109 N. A St. GABRIEL IGLESIAS Show is 8 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.) Saturday, Sept. 26 at Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St. Details and tickets available at pensacolabaycenter.com. HOUSE SHOW: 309 ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE This exhibition features artists from the
2025 cohort of the 309 Punk Project Artist in Residence Program. Curated by Valerie George and Christopher Satterwhite, the exhibition brings together works made during each artist's residency alongside select pieces gifted to the 309 Punk Archive, preserving their contributions as part of our community's living history. The exhibit is on view through Nov. 29 at Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St.
ROAD TO REVOLUTION EXHIBIT AT PENSACOLA MUSEUM OF HISTORY "Road to
Revolution: Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the American War for Independence" highlights how Pensacola helped shape the outcome of the American Revolution. Developed in partnership with America250, the exhibit explores how a Gulf Coast port played a pivotal role in a global conflict. The exhibit is on display through May 2027. The museum is located at 330 S. Jefferson St. For more information about the UWF Historic Trust, visit historicpensacola.org.
ALTERED STATE: BFA SUMMER STUDIO EXHIBITION An exhibition from students of the
Department of Art & Design at the University of West Florida. Students are under the mentorship of Marzia Ransom. Exhibit is on view through Oct. 1 at 52 World, 88511 Mysklak Way. View the exhibit Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-6 pm. and Saturdays 10 a.m.-4 p.m. A reception will take place 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17.
STEAM2026 STEAM2026 highlights themes of exploration and wonder through investigative contemporary art, interdisciplinary fields of study and unique collaborations. This national exhibition is a community-centered experience that integrates multifaceted art practices with science, new technologies and thought-provoking research. On view at Pensacola Museum of Art, 407 S. Jefferson St. through Jan. 17. For details, visit pensacolamuseum.org. HUMANISTS OF WEST FLORIDA MONTHLY MEETING The Humanists of West Florida meet at the Ever'man Education Center, 351 W. Garden St. 10:15 a.m. every second Sunday of the
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a&e happenings month. For more information, visit facebook.com/ humanistsofwestflorida.
WEST GARDEN DISTRICT ARTISAN MARKET Shop local vendors and artisans 1-6 p.m. Fri-
days at Del Mar Plaza, 1617 W. Garden St. For more information, contact info@ub-pensacola.com.
TALK TO THE MOON COMEDY CLUB OPEN MIC Weekly comedy open mic is 7 p.m. Wednes-
PALAFOX MARKET Palafox Market is 9 a.m.2 p.m. Saturdays. The event features local farmers, artists and crafters on North and South Palafox Streets at Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza and Plaza Ferdinand. For updates, visit facebook.com/downtownpensacola. SUNDAY MARKET ON PALAFOX Rain-or-
days at Mathison Brewing Co., 500 E. Heinberg St. Signup starts at 6:30 p.m. Hosted by Adam Bowles and Russell Douglas. Details available at talktothemooncomedyclub.com.
shine market is Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Located in downtown Pensacola, between Chase and Gregory Streets in the MLK Plaza. Market features handmade crafts, art, baked goods, international cuisine and fresh produce. Visit smopalafox.com for details.
FIRST FRIDAY AT BLUE MORNING GALLERY Visit Blue Morning Gallery, 21 S. Palafox St.,
CABARET DRAG SHOWCASE AT AMERICAN LEGION POST #193 Don't miss Cabaret
5:30 p.m. every first Friday of the month for a reception with wine, live music and occasional artist demonstrations. Visit bluemorninggallery.com for details.
MOVIE NIGHTS AT MUGS & JUGS Mugs & Jugs, 12080 Scenic Highway, hosts monthly movie nights. Watch their website for dates and movie announcements at mugsjugsbar.com. All movies are screened 9 p.m. on select Saturdays. CLUB 27 COMEDY SHOW Visit Lili Marlene's at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. on the first and third Sundays of the month for a night of comedy. Doors open at 6 p.m. show starts at 7 p.m. Visit sevillequarter.com for details. PENSACOLA HERITAGE FOUNDATION LECTURES Learn Pensacola and Northwest
Florida history through interesting, informal lectures every other Tuesday at The Wright Place, 80 E. Wright St. Doors open at 11 a.m., and lunch is served at 11:30 a.m. The lecture starts at noon and lasts one hour. Lecture cost is $5 for non-members and is free to members. Lunches are $12. For reservations, call (850) 380-7759.
PENSACOLA CINEMA ART FILM SCREENINGS Pensacola Cinema Art will screen films se-
lect weekends during the summer season at 220 W. Garden St. Tickets are $10, and payment is cash only. Visit pensacolacinemaart.com for their complete schedule.
PENSACOLA ROSE SOCIETY Monthly meet-
ings are normally 6 p.m. the second Monday of the month at the Pensacola Garden Center, 1850 N. Ninth Ave. Visit pensacolarosesociety.org for more information.
BTB COMEDY Watch live stand-up comedy in open mic style 7 p.m. Mondays at Odd Colony, 260 N. Palafox St. Follow BTB Comedy on Facebook for updates. STAND UP COMEDY WITH PENSACOLA COMEDY CLUB Join the Pensacola Comedy
Club 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturday at Betty's on Belmont, 506 W. Belmont St. Tickets are $10. For more information, visit Eventbrite.
SCRIPTEASERS Join writers at Pensacola Little
Theatre, 400 S. Jefferson St., for Scripteasers every second Saturday of the month. Visit pensacolalittletheatre.com for details. September 17, 2026
Drag Showcase every second and fourth Saturday at the American Legion Post #193, 2708 N. 12th Ave. Doors open 8 p.m. Showtime is 10 p.m. For more information, contact show director Taize Sinclair-Santi at taizesinclairsanti@gmail.com.
SPIRITS OF SEVILLE QUARTER GHOST TOUR AND LUNCHEON Dine inside Pensac-
ola's oldest and most haunted restaurant and investigate the spirits with actual paranormal equipment at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Tickets are $12 and include a voucher toward Seville Quarter's menu. Tours are 11 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays and 2-4 p.m. Sundays. Make an appointment by calling (850) 941-4321.
AFTER DARK: SEVILLE QUARTER GHOSTS, MURDER, MAYHEM AND MYSTERY TOUR AND DINNER After Dark Paranormal Investigation and Dinner happens inside one of Pensacola's most haunted restaurants with real ghost-hunting equipment 6-8 p.m. Sundays. Listen as your guide weaves tales of ghosts, debauchery, murder, mayhem, paranormal activities, history and more related to Seville Quarter and downtown Historic Pensacola. After your ghost tour, enjoy dinner at Seville Quarter Palace Café, 130 E. Government St. Reservations are required. Call (850) 941-4321. Tickets are available at pensacolaghostevents.com.
LIVE MUSIC
BANDS ON THE BEACH The weekly concert
series takes place 7-9 p.m. every Tuesday through Oct. 27 at the Gulfside Pavilion on Pensacola Beach. Free to attend. Upcoming dates: Knee Deep Band on Sept. 22 and Float like a Buffalo on Sept. 29. For more information, call the SRIA at (850) 932-2257 or go to visitpensacolabeach.com for the latest updates.
LIVE MUSIC AT FIVE SISTERS BLUES CAFÉ Enjoy live music Thursdays through Sundays at Five Sisters, 421 W. Belmont St. Upcoming dates: Michael McCartan 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17; 6-10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 Cat Daddy Blues Band; The Glen Parker Band 6-10 p.m. Saturdays; Curt Bol Band 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays; John Wheeler 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays.
BANDS ON THE BLACKWATER Enjoy live
music along the Blackwater River in downtown Milton 7-9 p.m. Friday nights through Oct. 30. On Sept. 18, the band is Hired Guns and Sept. 25 is Midlife Crisis LA Visit facebook.com/ bandsontheblackwater.
PENSACOLA SONGWRITER ROUNDS
Show is 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com.
JOSH TURNER Show is 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17 at Saenger Theatre, 118 S. Palafox St. Details and tickets available at pensacolasaenger.com.
THE TU MASTERS PIANO DUO Enjoy the
performance of "AS ONE: Celebrating Great Piano Duos of the Past" 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17 at University of West Florida, 11000 University Parkway, Bldg. 82. For tickets, visit uwf.edu/cassh/ departments/theatre/box-office/uwf-box-office.
GULF COAST SUMMER JAM Gates open 1
p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 through Sunday, Sept. 20 at Community Maritime Park, 351 W. Cedar St. Tickets and information at gulfcoastsummerfestjazzedition.com.
GLITTERER Show is 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com.
CAN'T FEEL MY FACE: 2010S DANCE PARTY Event is 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18 at Vinyl Music
Hall, 2 S. Palafox St. Details at vinylmusichall.com.
WHITE TIE ROCK ENSEMBLE Show is 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at Pensacola Bay Center, 201 E. Gregory St. Details and tickets at pensacolabaycenter.com. GASOLINA: REGGAETON PARTY Show is
9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at Vinyl Music Hall, 2 S. Palafox St. Details and tickets available at vinylmusichall.com.
HOUSE OF HEAVY Show is 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com. C YOU AT THE DEN Show is 7 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 19 featuring Bastardson, Rat Daughter and beautysleep at The Den, 9575 Bridlewood Road. Cost is $5; details available at instagram.com/ beulah.den850.
KIMBERLY JAMES: MEZZO-SOPRANO
The University of West Florida Dr. Grier Williams School of Music will present "mezzo-soprano Kimberly Gratland James" 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22. The concert will be held in Rolfs Music Hall at the Center for Fine and Performing Arts, 11000 University Parkway. This event is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. For tickets or more information, visit uwf.edu/cfpa or call (850) 857-6285.
SPORTS. X REMO DRIVE Show is 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com.
DOPETHRONE Show is 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com. DIRTY SOUND MAGNET Show is 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com. 17
a&e happenings CALDER ALLEN Show is 7 p p.m. Friday, Sept.
25 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com.
PANHANDLE SLAM JAM 2 Show is 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com. EYEHATEGOD Show is 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 at The Handlebar, 319 N. Tarragona St. Tickets available at thehandlebar850.com.
OPEN MIC AT ALGA BEER CO. Country Club
is hosted by Brett Patterson of Snake and the Rabbit every Monday night. Sign-ups start at 6 p.m. and music starts at 6:30 p.m. All ages welcome. Visit facebook.com/algabeerco for more details.
MONDAY NIGHT BLUES AT SEVILLE QUARTER The Blues Society of Northwest Florida brings blues to Florida 7 p.m. Mondays at Lili Marlene's in Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Food and drink specials start at 8 p.m. Details are at sevillequarter.com.
PENSACOLA PICK NIGHT AT ODD COLONY Music pickers of all levels are invited to play
7-9 p.m. every last Monday of the month at Odd Colony, 260 N. Palafox St. Bring your acoustic instrument and jam. Visit facebook.com/oddcolony for details.
LIVE MUSIC NIGHTLY AT THE DISTRICT
Enjoy music and fine dining at The District: Seville
818 1
Steak & Seafood, 123 E. Government St., every Tuesday through Thursday starting at 6 p.m. The regular weekly schedule is Tuesday Night Jazz with Love Brynnevere, Wednesdays with Platinum Bones and Thursdays Dan Lovelock on the piano. There is also live music on Fridays and Saturdays during happy hour starting at 4 p.m. Visit facebook.com/districtsteaks for details and updates.
MUSIC RX: JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED Jazz Pensacola and Escambia County
Medical Society present free concerts on the first Wednesday of the month in the cafeteria of Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, 5151 N. Ninth Ave. from 1:30-3:30 p.m. For more information, visit jazzpensacola.com.
ROSIE O'GRADY'S DUELING PIANO SHOW Watch the famous dueling piano show 8 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at Rosie O' Grady's at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Doors open at 7 p.m.
NOCHE TROPICAL: LATIN NIGHT AT SEVILLE QUARTER Presented by Latin Flavor En-
tertainment every Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Phineas Phogg's in Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Visit sevillequarter.com for more information.
OPEN MIC NIGHT AT GARY'S BREWERY
Open mic night is hosted by Renee Amelia 6 p.m. every other Wednesday at Gary's Brewery, 208 Newman Ave. Visit facebook.com/garysbrew for details.
VIBE IRIE REGGAE: LIVE IN THE COURTYARD Enjoy Vibe Irie Reggae band 4-10 p.m.
Sundays at the End O' the Alley Courtyard at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St.
LIVE MUSIC AT CALVERT'S Listen to live music 5-8 p.m. Sundays at Calvert's in the Heights, 670 Scenic Highway. Visit facebook.com/calvertsintheheights for details.
FOOD + DRINKS
LUNCH & LEARN: A MOCKTAIL MASTERCLASS Event is 12-1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17 at Bodacious, 407-D S. Palafox St. Tickets are $47.86 and available on Eventbrite.
THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER Five cours-
es with drink pairings with Executive Chef Jason Hughes and special guest Grayson Bay Oyster Co. and Pensacola & Perdido Bays Estuary. Dinner is 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17 at The Fish House, 600 S. Barracks St. Cost is $65 per person. Reservations are required. Make yours by calling (850) 287-0200 or email taylor@goodgrits.com.
SUSHI SKILLS Cooking class is 6-9 p.m. Fri-
day, Sept. 18 at Pensacola Cooks Classroom, 4051 Barrancas Ave., Ste. C. Sign up at pensacolacooks.com/cooking-classes.
TOTALLY 80S MURDER MYSTERY DINNER THEATRE Event is 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at
Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Tickets are $69 and available at Eventbrite.
ODDTOBERFEST Enjoy a whole day of
events including games and prizes, Oddtoberfest steins, beer releases, authentic German food and more. Event is 12-6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at Odd Colony, 260 N. Palafox St. Details and registration for stein hoist competition at oddcolony.com.
MEXICAN FIESTA: TAMALES Class is 6-9
p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19 at Pensacola Cooks Classroom, 4051 Barrancas Ave., Ste. C. Sign up at pensacolacooks.com/cooking-classes.
PAGES TO PLATES HARVEST SUPPER
Event is 2-5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20 at Pensacola Cooks Classroom, 4051 Barrancas Ave., Ste. C. Sign up at pensacolacooks.com/cooking-classes.
TORTELLINI PASTA CLASS Class is 6-9 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22 at Bodacious 407-D S. Palafox St. Tickets are $99.49 and available at Eventbrite. FALL HOSTING & CHARCUTERIE WORKSHOP Event is 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 24 at Bo-
dacious, 407-D S. Palafox St. Tickets are $70.81 and available on Eventbrite.
FRENCH TOAST & BUBBLY SATURDAY
Event is 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26 at Bodacious, 407-D S. Palafox St. Tickets are $63.61 at Eventbrite.
MURDER MYSTERY DINNER AT THE WELL Event is 5:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27 at
inweekly.net
a&e happenings The Well, 42 E. Garden St. Tickets are $80 and available at perfectplain.com.
7-9 p.m. Tuesdays at 50 E. Garden St. Visit perfectplain.com/upcoming-events for details.
DOWNTOWN HAPPY HOUR AT SEVILLE QUARTER Drink specials and laid-back vibes
SERVICE INDUSTRY NIGHT AT DOROTHY'S Reverse happy hour from 9 p.m.-
are 11 a.m.-7 p.m. every weekday throughout the entire Seville Quarter complex with $2 off all liquor drinks and $1 off all beer and wine. Must be 21 or older. Visit sevillequarter.com for details.
MARTINI MONDAYS AT DOROTHY'S Mar-
tini menu with specialty prices at Dorothy's, 309 S. Reus St. Visit dorothyspensacola.com for details.
MEN'S NIGHT AT WISTERIA From 3 p.m. to
close Mondays, guys can play free darts and enjoy $6 craft tallboys. There are more than 150 craft beers to choose from at Wisteria, 3803 N. 12th Ave. Visit wisteriatavern.com for details.
BAR BINGO AT SEVILLE QUARTER Bar Bingo
is 8 p.m. Mondays at Apple Annie's at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Bingo is free to play with prizes, giveaways and bar tabs up for grabs for winners. Visit sevillequarter.com for details.
FIGHTER GAME NIGHT AT O'RILEY'S
Gamers unite 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Mondays at O'Riley's Irish Pub, 321 S. Palafox St. Visit orileyspub.com for details.
midnight with other specials Wednesdays at Dorothy's, 309 S. Reus St. Visit dorothyspensacola.com for details.
LATIN NIGHT AT SEVILLE QUARTER Get
on your feet with a social Latin dance—no partner required—and Latin music 7-9 p.m. Wednesdays at Phineas Phogg's in Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Drink specials and music from DJ DavidC continue after the dancing. Details are at sevillequarter.com.
TRIVIA WITH JAY AT O'RILEY'S Test your trivia knowledge 8-10 p.m. Wednesdays at O'Riley's Irish Pub, 321 S. Palafox St. Visit orileyspub.com for details.
COLLEGE NIGHT AT O'RILEY'S Specials with your college ID and music from live DJs. 8 p.m.midnight Thursdays at O'Riley's Irish Pub, 321 S. Palafox St. Visit orileyspub.com for details.
KARAOKE THURSDAY AT SIR RICHARD'S Karaoke is 9 p.m. Thursdays at Sir Richard's Public House, 2719 E. Cervantes St. Visit sirrichardslounge.com for details.
BINGO NIGHT AT CALVERT'S IN THE HEIGHTS Play a game (or two) of bingo 6-8 p.m.
TRIVIA AT CALVERT'S IN THE HEIGHTS
Mondays at Calvert's in the Heights, 670 Scenic Highway. For more information, visit calvertsintheheights.com.
Take part in trivia nights 6-8 p.m. Wednesdays at Calvert's in the Heights, 670 Scenic Highway. For more information, visit calvertsintheheights.com.
MONDAY NIGHT SPAGHETTI SESSIONS
KARAOKE AT DOROTHY'S Karaoke begins
Visit V. Paul's Italian Ristorante, 29 S. Palafox St., 5-9 p.m. Mondays for live music and spaghetti and meatballs from the Monday night menu.
MARTINI NIGHT AT THE KENNEDY Every
Tuesday, The Kennedy, 1 S. Palafox St., hosts Martini Night, featuring all martinis from the menu for $10 from open to close (4-11 p.m.).
TRIVIA AT DOROTHY'S Play trivia 8 p.m.
Tuesdays at Dorothy's, 309 S. Reus St. It's free to play, and prizes are up for grabs. Visit dorothyspensacola.com for details.
MUSIC BINGO Test your music knowledge 7-9 p.m. Tuesdays at Wisteria, 3808 N. 12th Ave. Take part in half-price bottles of wine and $5 canned cocktails. Visit wisteriatavern.com for details. POKER NIGHT AND BINGO AT O'RILEY'S
Visit O'Riley's Irish Pub for poker at 6:30 p.m. and bar bingo 8-10 p.m. Tacos are on special Tuesdays at 321 S. Palafox St. Visit orileyspub.com for details.
LUNCH AT THE DISTRICT The District Steakhouse, 130 E. Government St., is open for special lunch seatings the third Friday of the month. Enjoy a $5 martini or house wine. Seatings are 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Reservations are accepted but not necessary. Details are available at districtsteaks.com. TUESDAY TRIVIA AT PERFECT PLAIN
Visit Perfect Plain Brewing Co. for trivia nights September 17, 2026
8 p.m. Thursdays at Dorothy's, 309 S. Reus St. Visit dorothyspensacola.com for details.
COLLEGE NIGHT AT SEVILLE QUARTER
College night is 8 p.m. Thursdays at Seville Quarter, 130 E. Government St. Ages 18 and older are welcome. Free beer pong tournament begins at 10 p.m. Drink specials include $2 bar drinks, $3.50 Fireball shots for ages 21 and older. Cover is $5 for ages 21 and older and $10 for ages 18-20. Details are at sevillequarter.com.
TAVERN TRIVIA Trivia is 9 p.m. Thursdays at
O'Riley's Tavern, 3728 Creighton Road. Visit orileystavern.com for details.
WEEKLY SINGO AT PERFECT PLAIN BREWING CO. Music Bingo Thursdays is 7-9 p.m. at
Perfect Plain Brewing Co., 50 E. Garden St. Details are at facebook.com/perfectplainbrewingco.
TRIVIA UNDER THE TREES Trivia is 6 p.m. Thursdays at Wisteria Tavern, 3808 N. 12th Ave. Visit wisteriatavern.com for details. THURSDAY BIERGARTEN TRIVIA NIGHT
Gary's Brewery Trivia Night is back by popular demand 7-9 p.m. Thursdays at 208 Newman Ave. Test your trivia skills with a glass of beer or wine. Arrive early to grab a spot. For more information, visit facebook.com/garysbrew. for more listings visit inweekly.net 19
••••Dream. Inspire. Remember.••••
Visit Your
NATIONAL NAVAL AVIATION Museum • More than 150 beautifully restored aircraft • Hangar Bay One with an expanded Apollo Space exhibit, Marine One helicopter and F/A-18 Hornet • Giant 4K Screen Digital Theater, cafe’, simulators, museum store and more!
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO: • Access to the museum is through the West Gate on Blue Angel Pkwy. • A REAL ID or valid passport is required for base access • A clear bag policy is in effect.
See free Blue Angels practices most Tuesday and Wednesdays. Scan the QR code for all the details and premium seating options.
NavalAviationMuseum.org
020 2
FREE ADMISSION
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September 17, 2026
21
free will astrology WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 17 ARIES (MARCH 21-APRIL 19): Realities you've been oblivious to will soon pop into view. Hints and signals you've been unconsciously pushing away will start flocking toward you. A lingering emotional numbness will thaw, and surges of feelings will pour into your awareness. Warning! At first, it may feel like an overload: too much sopping wet data arriving too quickly for you to organize or interpret. If you're willing to be patient and focus on slowly metabolizing the influx, though, the apparent chaos will ultimately weave itself into a luminous web of new understanding. TAURUS (APRIL 20-MAY 20): In Peru's
Andean mountains, Indigenous and smallholder farmers cultivate a rich diversity of potato varieties, continuing a farming tradition rooted in the crop's domestication thousands of years ago. Each variety thrives in slightly different soil, altitude and climate. By planting many types at once, the farmers ensure that at least some crops will flourish no matter what conditions arise. I suggest you apply this way of thinking to your own life in the coming weeks, Taurus. Diversify your efforts instead of depending on a single plan or expectation. Plan for multiple small initiatives that will evolve with unique growth patterns.
GEMINI (MAY 21-JUNE 20): In biology, many organisms survive harsh or unpredictable conditions by entering dormancy. This is a reversible state of greatly reduced metabolism and development. Seeds, spores and the dormant stages of some small animals can remain viable for years until cues such as water, temperature, light or nutrients signal that conditions are favorable again. Then they can resume growth, development or activity, often rapidly. I suspect you may experience a comparable upsurge in the coming weeks, Gemini. A project or aspiration that seemed inert may reawaken and reignite. CANCER (JUNE 21-JULY 22): Novelist
Kurt Vonnegut advised us to try some task that scares us every day of our lives. That may be a viable experiment for a Scorpio like him, but is it a wise prescription for us Cancerians, who like to feel secure and protected? Normally, I would say no. I'd recommend that you and I dare ourselves
Adoption • Paternity • Dependency/DCF Hearings Prenuptial Agreements • Postnuptial Agreements Divorce • Child Custody and Timesharing Child Support • Child Support Modifications Alimony • Collaborative Divorce • Divorce Mediation • Pre-Suit Family Law Mediation
127 Palafox Place Suite 100 (850)466-3115 autumnbeckblackledge.com 222 2
By Rob Brezsny
to wrestle with one of our fears no more than once per month. But the coming weeks may warrant a departure from our typical rhythms. I suspect we can fortify our long-term safety and peace through more frequent encounters with unpredictable episodes that rouse our hidden reserves of courage.
LEO (JULY 23-AUG. 22): The ancient Greeks believed that the goddess Harmonia presided over the blending of opposites into balanced beauty. Her dad was the god of war and her mom the goddess of love, so she had a lot of practice. In her line of work, tension between different forces could produce elegant unity rather than conflict. In alignment with astrological omens, I've appointed Harmonia to be your guardian angel in the coming weeks, Leo. I urge you to call on her dynamically and frequently. Rifts and splits and divisions that have never before been possible to heal are now swayable by the collaborative efforts of you and the goddess. VIRGO (AUG. 23-SEPT. 22): If I were writing this horoscope for the Gun Lovers' Gambling Porn website, I might counsel my Virgo readers to maintain strict control over their wickedness, debauchery and decadence. Why? Because now is a time when vices and sins are even more likely than usual to sow chaos and spawn big messes. However, since you are reading my oracle in a more genteel publication and are almost certainly a refined person of high integrity, I'm confident there will be minimal uproar if I dare you to tap into your raw animal energy and unruly instinctual nature. I believe it's time to at least experiment with wilder aspects of your deep self.
Diversify your efforts instead of depending on a single plan or expectation. LIBRA (SEPT. 23-OCT. 22): The Real You
and the Semi-Real You have been embroiled in a showdown with the False You. This is as tough and heroic a struggle as you've had to deal with in quite some time, though it has often been subtle and partially cloaked. I am of course rooting for the Real You and the Semi-Real You
to emerge victorious from the conflict, though I also hope you don't feel the need to humiliate and crush the False You. That part of you has sometimes served a valuable purpose and doesn't deserve to be trashed. And what will become of the Semi-Real You after this drama is finished? I suggest you give it a modest place in your repertoire. Like the False You, it sometimes proves to be useful.
SCORPIO (OCT. 23-NOV. 21): Hummingbirds can fly backward. They're the only birds capable of sustained reverse flight. This requires extraordinary wing flexibility and energy expenditure, but it gives them access to nectar that forward-only fliers have more difficulty sampling. Let's treat this as a useful metaphor for you in the coming weeks, Scorpio. It may be that your progress and success won't always come from advancing. Some rich resources may require the equivalent of reverse flight. Consider returning to conversations you thought were finished, revisiting places you'd mentally filed away as "done," and extracting value from sources you've already passed by. SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21): In chemistry, catalysts are substances that accelerate reactions without being consumed in the process. A tiny amount of catalyst can dramatically transform how quickly elements combine. An example is the enzyme catalase in our cells, which breaks down hydrogen peroxide (a byproduct of our metabolism) into water and oxygen millions of times faster than it would decompose on its own. I believe you are now in a phase when your catalytic powers are at a peak, Sagittarius. Be careful where you point that potency of yours! Make sure you really want to change what you're capable of changing. CAPRICORN (DEC. 22-JAN. 19): Every species adapts to its surroundings. Even harmful microbes evolve over time in order to survive. Syphilis, for instance, was once ferociously swift and deadly, but that intensity limited how far it could spread. So a gentler strain gradually evolved that allowed its hosts to live longer and pass it on more widely. Let this serve as a metaphor for how you handle your dark moods, odd compulsions and brief bouts of craziness. Befriend the mild, manageable
versions of these states and give them space to be felt and understood. Over time, the harsher, more destructive versions will lose ground and fade from power.
What vulnerable projects or relationships deserve to be surrounded and shielded? AQUARIUS (JAN. 20-FEB. 18): Paleon-
tologists know that some dinosaurs traveled in herds with a specific formation: the most vulnerable members gathered in the center, protected by stronger individuals on the perimeter. It was a savvy way to run things, ensuring the group would thrive. I hope you're willing to borrow some dinosaur wisdom, Aquarius. The coming weeks will be a good time to apply it to your own life. Who or what needs protection? What vulnerable projects or relationships deserve to be surrounded and shielded? Are you willing and able to use your strength to guard what's tender and growing? Be a shepherd, a steward, a defender.
PISCES (FEB. 19-MARCH 20): In ancient times, Hawaii's Coconut Island was renowned for its healing powers—but on one condition. Those who sought its medicinal help couldn't just expect the local spirits to do all the work, but had to take part in awakening the magic. Legend tells us that a seeker could be cured by swimming three times around the island. This participatory approach to healing mirrors your current situation, Pisces. You are close to a source of renewal, but if you hope to unlock its full strength, you must coax it out with your ingenuity. HERE'S THE HOMEWORK: What's the most important question for you to answer in the next year? {in}
freewillastrology.com
tinyurl.com/m3m3m3m freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com BrezsnyAstrology@gmail.com © 2026 Rob Brezsny
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news of the weird I DO NOT LIKE IT, NOT ONE LITTLE BIT It started with some posts and AI-made memes. Now authorities are warning of some strange social schemes. Newsweek reported on Sept. 10 that the Cat in the Hat, the character of Dr. Seuss fame, is at the center of a viral social media trend that has made its way around the globe. Images and videos—sometimes AI-generated, sometimes of a real person in costume lurking outside of homes and schools at night—of the Cat in the Hat are accompanied by menacing text warning of where the "Cat" is headed next and listing specific people or schools as its next targets. Students in Kansas, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky have been apprehended and face criminal charges for participating in the hoax, and school districts in Pennsylvania, North Dakota and Minnesota have put their communities on alert. In Canada, the online hoax turned into a real nightmare when a teenage girl in British Columbia was chased by someone wearing a Cat in the Hat costume. She arrived home safely, but authorities are still looking for the perpetrator. "People should understand that behavior intended as a prank can have serious consequences when it causes another person to reasonably fear for their safety," said Corporal Devon Gerrits of West Kelowna RCMP. [Newsweek, 9/10/26] DUMPSTER DIVING GONE AWRY An alleged dumpster diver had to be rescued from a garbage truck on Sept. 2, the LA Times reported. A driver for Recology, a commercial waste collection company, picked up and emptied a dumpster, and then ran the trash compactor before hearing yelling from inside the truck and calling 911. When firefighters arrived, they couldn't just reach in and pull the man out—he might have had crush injuries—or have the driver dump all the trash out, which could have released hazardous material, such as glass, batteries and even vermin. What followed was a two-hour rescue effort. Paramedics were able to get an IV in the man's arm while firefighters carefully removed the trash with pike poles. The man was conscious when firefighters reached him, and he was taken to a local hospital. The extent of his injuries was undisclosed; one firefighter suffered a laceration injury during the rescue but is in stable condition. [LA Times, 9/3/26] THE GOLDEN AGE OF AIR TRAVEL An unnamed Italian man made it all the way from Miami to Turin, Italy, with a dried crocodile head in his luggage, The Guardian reported on Sept. 8. The Turin unit of Italy's financial police squad said in a statement that the man wrapped the head in brown packing paper in an evidently feeble attempt to keep it from the astute eyes of customs officers. The man was swiftly taken into custody upon discovery of the croc, and is accused of smuggling a specimen belonging to a protected species. If convicted, the man could have to pay up to $270,000 USD or face a prison term of up to one year. [The Guardian, 9/8/26] PEOPLE WITH ISSUES "So this is an interesting case, she thinks the neighbor is having relations with her husband so she pushes her way into the victim's house and then throws poop on the victim, a bucket of poop," is an actual thing a
By the Editors at Andrews McMeel
judge said during a recent bond hearing for Yirsi Machado Rivera, 50, of Miami. NBC 6 reported that on Sept. 8, Machado Rivera was arrested on charges of burglary and battery after attacking her neighbor with a bucket of human feces the night before. Machado Rivera told police that she did, in fact, have such a bucket that she was using while her toilet was out of commission; however, she denies dumping the doody, instead claiming that the neighbor attacked her with a bat. Judge Mindy Glazer ordered Machado Rivera to be held without bond and appointed a public defender. Oh, and leave the poor neighbor alone. [NBC 6, 9/9/26] RUBBER DUCKIE, YOU'RE THE ONE Police in Chatham County, Georgia, are looking for an unusual suspect. Among his questionable behavior? "Becoming infatuated" with a rubber duck that he played with for 10 minutes while soaking in a hot tub—uninvited—at someone else's home. According to WOTC, video footage from Sept. 1 shows an unidentified male trespassing on private property and going for a dip in the pool before availing himself of the hot tub sometime between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. He also helped himself to over $1,000 worth of beach towels before riding away on his bicycle. "It's obviously not the biggest crime we've dealt with this month, but it has a lot of ickfactor," the local police department said in a social media post. "So, we'd like to find this guy so he doesn't do this to someone else." [WTOC, 9/9/26] NOT-SO-SPEEDY DELIVERY CBS News reported on Sept. 3 that the City of Denton Animal Services in Texas was contacted by employees at a local FedEx office after they discovered an unusual attempted shipment—191 tortoises and turtles. The shelter took custody of the animals and contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which began an investigation. The turtles and tortoises were then moved to the Dallas Zoo for secure shelter. "This unusual rescue is just one example of how our animal services team supports the community," the animal shelter said. "We're grateful for the strong partnerships with our animal welfare colleagues, who help us coordinate responses in unique situations like this." [CBS News, 9/3/26] PRICE CHECK ON CORN SNAKES Shoppers browsing at the Heron Foods grocery store in Maryport, England, recently got a little more than they bargained for. On Sept. 2, BBC reported that a baby corn snake had been found in the bread aisle. "Crumbs," as the snake was called, was first taken to a local veterinary practice but ended up being put in the care of an animal education organization. Ben Nicholson of Pet Encounter said the organization has rescued more than 20 snakes so far this year. Whether Crumbs had been abandoned in the grocery store or had escaped from somewhere is unclear, but Nicholson said he believes high costs and a lack of education are playing parts in pets being abandoned. [BBC, 9/2/26] {in} From Andrews McMeel Syndication News Of The Weird © 2026 Andrews McMeel
Send your weird news items to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com September 17, 2026
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