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Y S I 2011 NC t DECEMBER www.encorekala www.encorekalamazoo.com rekala amazoo.c

LY S C E 1 9 IN

A Luminous Season for Joy

t r u e s t o ry

We got the call after hours: there was a leak in the 401(k).

After three attempts with three different providers, the CEO had finally had it with the banks and financial service firms who’d mismanaged her plumbing business’s participant-directed 401(k) fund.

It wasn’t just the high fees. It wasn’t just the poor service from providers who were too large and inattentive, or too small and inexperienced. And it wasn’t just the investment options that benefitted the provider more than the employees. No, it was something of even greater concern: workplace rumblings that the plan was less and less a generous and reliable benefit, and more and more a costly, unfair waste of their hard-earned savings.

Greenleaf Trust got the call and our hands-on approach took hold. Employee participation increased, contributions rose and morale steadily improved. The only thing that went down, all the way to zero, was the number of employee complaints.

We’re the first to say not every 401(k) plan has such a storybook ending. But with client satisfaction rates approaching 100%, and our unwavering focus on integrity and trust, it is safe to say that grateful employees appear to work happily ever after. If you’d like to learn more about how we help clients achieve financial security from generation to generation, call us. It’s not just a pipe dream.

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2 1 1 s o u t h ro s e s t r e e t k a l a m a z o o , m i 4 9 0 0 7 2 6 9. 3 8 8 . 9 8 0 0 8 0 0 . 4 1 6 . 4 5 5 5

YOUR HEART

IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE. Most of the time I live my life at 72 beats per minute. That wasn’t the case the day my heart stopped. Fortunately those around me jumped into action. I arrived at Bronson where a top team of cardiac specialists put my future back into motion. Three days later I was up and about, feeling better than my old self. I can say with certainty my heart was in the right place then as sure as it is today. My son knows that, too. He also knows that ball isn’t getting past me. And you know what, neither is the rest of my life.

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KALAMAZOO was a pit stop. Krieg’s company moved us here from Virginia for a “short bit” before we were to be transferred to the West Coast and closer to my family. That short bit has lasted nearly 15 years, despite repeated attempts by his employer and recruiters to lure us away. As improbable as it seemed to our far-flung friends who’d ask, “You live where?” Kalamazoo has become home.

Staying here came with sacrifices. Krieg was a road warrior for the last half decade, spending innumerable hours flying the often not-so-friendly skies and getting to know the local TSA agents by first name. A writer by trade, I held down the home front, keeping tabs on our son and working when time allowed.

When we were together we reveled in our surroundings — walking the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail, playing in Milham Park, enjoying Art Hops and festivals, going to the Big Lake, watching shows at Miller Auditorium, the Civic and other venues; and taking long drives through the lush, green farmland that surrounds our city.

We became friends with many wonderful people — some natives, some transplants. We constantly looked at one another and said, “How did we ever land in such a great place?”

That’s why we are so excited to be at the helm of Encore. For 39 years, this magazine has told the stories of the good things, good works and great people of this unique community. It is a fixture of Kalamazoo as much as is the fountain in Bronson Park or the water tower on Oakland Drive. We are the third owners of this publication — taking the reins from Rick and Penny Briscoe who have for the past 15 years continued the wonderful work begun by Phil Schubert.

Just as we were astounded at our great luck to have landed in Kalamazoo, we are equally thrilled to be the ones to fill the Briscoes’ shoes as the new owners of Encore Publications, Inc. The Briscoes took great

Photo: Penny Briscoe

Editor’s Note

Krieg and Marie Lee

care in finding new owners for Encore and we are thankful to have made the grade. They are good stewards, spending the next several months by our sides to ensure the transition is seamless and transparent to our readers. Both Rick and Penny have “other gigs” — Rick is now CEO of Heritage Community of Kalamazoo and Penny is a financial services representative for MEA Financial Services, so they are quite busy in careers, especially for grandparents of six grandchildren.

We are also grateful to Dennis Richards who served as Encore’s managing editor for the past few months and contributed to the publication’s continuity. We feel the same way about our new roles at Encore as we did when we bought our 80-year-old house last year (incidentally, the same house that belonged to Rick and Penny more than a decade ago) — we are honored to be the ones to maintain such a wonderful piece of the community we love.

— Marie Lee

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Advertising Sales/ Business Manager Krieg Lee Office Manager Ronald Dundon Copy Editor Cherri Glowe Poetry Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil Feature Photographer A.J. LeMay Contributing Writers Kit Almy Kaye Bennett Theresa Coty O’Neil Brian Lam Larry Massie Maureen Massie

Photo: Brian Lam

Consulting Editor Penny Briscoe

6 SAAD MANDWEE’s joy is bringing fine food and wine to Kalamazoo.

12 Encounters with the homeless inspire poet MARIANNE NOVAK HOUSTON.

Photo: Kit Almy

Editor Marie Lee

7PMVNF *TTVF t %FDFNCFS

Publisher Encore Publications, Inc.

We publish stories of success!

MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

16

4 FROM THE EDITOR 8 TRIVIA PURZOOT

Contributing Poet Marianne Novak Houston

Beautiful bells are just one of

Designer Brakeman

JEFF SMITH’s

Photography Way Back When 22 SPIRIT OF KALAMAZOO

People Doing Good Things

interests.

23 CREATIVE KIDS

Every Day Is Photographer’s Focus

32

24 FOTO STOP

Creations by

Iceberries

MAGGIE JACKSON

are a perfect knit.

26 EVENTS OF NOTE

Photo: Kit Almy

28 MASSIE’S MICHIGAN

Maize & Blue & Poetry, Too

POETRY

36 Photo: Bill Krasean

Encore magazine is published nine times yearly, September through May. Copyright 2011, Encore Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising correspondence should be sent to 350 S. Burdick, Suite 214, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. Telephone: (269) 383-4433. Fax number: (269) 383-9767. Email: Publisher@Encorekalamazoo.com. The staff at Encore welcomes written comment from readers, and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to print or return them.

To learn more about us or to comment, you may visit www.encorekalamazoo.com.

Encore subscription rates: one year $27.00, two years $53.00, three years $78.00.

Current single issue and newsstand $4.00, $10.00 by mail. Back issues $6.00, $12.00 by mail. Advertising rates on request. Closing date for space is 28 days prior to publication date. Final date for print-ready copy is 21 days prior to publication date.

SPECIALS

Chef SHAWN HAGEN’s classes

cook up fabulous fare.

13 Stephen 15 Junie

Cover Art: Painter Suzanne B. Siegel has captured a luminous holiday image of a carriage awaiting riders near Bronson Park in downtown Kalamazoo. A Grand Rapids native, Suzanne spent time in California and Indiana before returning to Michigan in 2003. Now residing in Kalamazoo, she teaches privately and exhibits her paintings in venues across West Michigan.

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From Kirkuk to Main Street Saad Mandwee is on a gourmet mission.

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HEN SAAD MANDWEE opens a bottle of wine at Rustica, helps compare olive oils at Tiffany’s Wine and Spirits or serves grilled lamb with tahini sauce at Zooroona, he’s putting a lifetime of culinary passion on display.

He comes by his love honestly. The “foodie” in a family of 11, he learned from his mother, Sahbin, how to bake bread and cook from scratch in his homeland of Iraq. But his passion flourished over the past three decades in Kalamazoo, where he has become increasingly recognized and associated with fine food, wine and Middle Eastern delicacies.

Greeted by devotees and casual customers by his first name — like a local Bono or Cher — Saad is the “face” of the three popular businesses in which he has ownership interest.

With the 30-year anniversary of Tiffany’s on the horizon, much of Saad’s high profile has blossomed in recent years, not only with the opening of two restaurants, but also with his involvement in wine tastings, fund raisers and community events, where he serves up expertise with products from around the world.

The middle child among nine siblings who grew up on a farm outside of Kirkuk, Iraq, Saad remembers just how time consuming food preparation was for his brothers and sisters. “We had a simple farm life, with gardens and animals,” he recalls, “and I took an interest in helping my mom cook for all of us.” He credits his mother with showing him how to balance the preparation of simple foods “cooked in a very primitive way” with originality, creativity and flair.

In Saad’s youth, Kirkuk was a city known for its cultural and ethnic diversity, serving as a window on the world. But when Saad was in his teens, the political climate changed under Saddam Hussein’s

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Photo: Brian Lam

Saad Mandwee is captured in a shot outside the store his brother Habib and he have turned into a gourmet mecca.

dictatorship. “We never felt safe. We were in the religious minority, and the conflict with Iran started to feel like a religious war.”

Iraq invaded Iran in September 1980 and for Saad and his siblings, the danger became very real.

According to Saad, the nation’s young men were being pulled into the war, by force if necessary. “It was happening right around us. We’d see people leaving and never come back. We’d see people being taken away.” All of 17 at the time, he was worried he and his brothers would be drawn into the war.

Saad’s oldest brother, Samir, was the first to emigrate, ending up in Kalamazoo and enrolling at Western Michigan University. Saad followed less than a year later, and his brother, Habib, left right after him. “Eventually, we all escaped,” Saad says of his parents and siblings. “I was able to get a tourist visa, but was questioned thoroughly at the airport.”

Saad hid just $300 in his clothes and headed to Detroit via multiple stops in Europe.

“The first thing I did was get a job,” he says, noting that his passion for food directed his employment opportunities. “I started working in a bakery my first day here and shortly after, I took a second job at a restaurant.”

Saad was only in Detroit for a few months before he moved to Chicago, where he enrolled at

By Brian Lam

Illinois University and once again found restaurant work. This, too, was short lived, and Saad made his way to Kalamazoo, where his brother was taking classes. He remembers when he first walked into the store he would eventually come to own. “I was working a few odd jobs when somebody told me that they needed help at Tiffany’s.

At the time, the store was very small, but they needed somebody to take returned empty bottles.

I took the job.”

At about the time that Saad’s younger brother, Habib, moved to the Kalamazoo area, Saad discovered that the owners of Tiffany’s were looking to sell. The Mandwee brothers discussed the possibility of purchasing the store for themselves. “We gathered all the information we could and started researching how to raise the money,” says Saad. “At that time, for a store of that size, we realized the amount of money we’d need was attainable.”

Saad and Habib purchased Tiffany’s in June 1982. They didn’t close the doors for even one day.

“The day after we bought the store, we just started introducing ourselves as the owners,” he remembers. “The previous owners were very helpful, and the transition was smooth.”

Saad recalls that the store he and his brother purchased was quite different from what exists now.

“It was more of a party store. Just some beer, chips, kegs and liquors. We did a lot of work. Every three or four years, we’d reflect on ways we could try to improve the store.”

The best way to improve, he says, was to get in touch with his customer base. As he learned about his customers’ interests, Saad began to see a parallel with his childhood loves. “We constantly tried to educate ourselves, and re-evaluate,” he says. “We’d

say, ‘Well, maybe if we drop the chips, we can get some gourmet foods in here.’ We’d try this or that, listening to what the customer was looking for.”

Saad constantly read up on wine and spirits. He began to bring in higher-end wines and worked with distributors to improve his palate.

Eventually, Saad’s passion for food resulted in the addition of the deli now found at Tiffany’s. “We’d try to find items that were unique and different,” he says. “Our vision for Tiffany’s was a very classy shop with gourmet wines and foods.”

This wasn’t an overnight process, because the plaza where Tiffany’s and Zooroona are located wasn’t always a destination location. They remained resilient. “A lot of people told us that there was no way our location would work for the kinds of products we were trying to bring in, but we did, and we built a good clientele and good customers.”

A turning point in the development of Tiffany’s deli was Saad’s trip to Lebanon with a close friend. “He told me he had an olive orchard back home that I needed to see.

I went to his orchard and tasted the olives and was amazed.” Saad told his friend he just had to sell the family-owned orchard’s olive oil at Tiffany’s.

Inspired by the product he had found in Lebanon, Saad reached out to a friend in Turkey who also owned a small olive orchard and to a commercial olive grower in Greece. These orchards are the same three that produce the olive oil Saad sells today. He has been back many times to visit the orchards.

“A lot of people told us that there was no way our location would work for the kinds of products we were trying to bring in, but we did, and we built a good clientele and good customers.”

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Mandwee

“I literally work with the people in the orchards. I harvest with them,” he says. “It’s not just cold-pressed; it’s kosher, organic and comes from trees that are hundreds of years old.”

Saad uses the olive oil as an anchor when educating customers about his gourmet items. “If people taste the difference in the olive oil, they might say, ‘if there’s this kind of a difference in the olive oil, imagine the wine, imagine the pasta, imagine the bread.’”

Soon he found that his customers were showing more interest in higherend wines. Saad began to work with his distributors to procure hard-to-get wines and established in-store tastings to promote them. The more he learned about

Saad stands before inventory shortly after the Mandwees bought Tiffany’s Wine and Spirits in 1982.

Visiting olive orchards in the Baqaa Valley in Lebanon is one way Saad ensures the quality of the olive oils he sells.

fine wines, the better a resource he was to his patrons.

“I believe in this: As much as you educate yourself about wine, you have to educate your customer,” he says.

As Tiffany’s reputation began to shift to being known as a wine boutique and deli, the idea of opening a restaurant began to surface. “Opening a restaurant was always on my mind, of course, but Tiffany’s was taking so much time.”

The Mandwee brothers decided to move forward, and opened Zooroona in October 2009. Their vision was a twist on traditional Middle Eastern flair, allowing them to showcase some of the dishes they had enjoyed growing up in Kirkuk. Saad admits that the family member who was the most excited about

Q: What long-standing Kalamazoo establishment nt was destroyed by fire in 1909?

(Answer on page 44)

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the opening of the restaurant was his mother, who now lives in Detroit.

Just two months after opening Zooroona, Saad and Habib opened their second restaurant. Teaming up with Bill Weier, formerly of Millenium Restaurant Group, Webster’s, and The Park Club, they opened Rustica on the Kalamazoo Mall. “Rustica features European-influenced fare sourced largely from local farmers and other sustainable sources,” says Bill. “And the wine list is a snapshot into the many styles and varied origins of wines.”

Saad is proud of the wine list that he and Bill have put together, and believes it to be an important part of the dining experience.

“When I open a bottle of wine at the restaurant, it gives me joy to see the smile on the face of my customers,” says Saad. “This is what I live for.”

Both Saad and Habib see Tiffany’s as their home base during the day, though Habib generally oversees operations at Zooroona, and Saad heads to Rustica to run the floor with Bill Weier. Between all three ventures, there is little time for recreation.

“You won’t often find me out on the golf course. I don’t know where the time goes,” he says with a shrug. “A week feels like a day, and a month feels like a week.”

For the energetic wine enthusiast, his work is his hobby. “If I felt bored, or didn’t have passion for what I do, it would just seem hectic and I’d burn myself out,� he says. “But, it’s fun. It’s a lot of work, but it’s my joy.�

Saad’s proďŹ le and reputation have earned him a seat at the table with community leaders and he often facilitates wine tastings as charity events for important causes. “I always want to be involved in helping these causes,â€? he says. “In a town this size, you have to get involved.

At Tiffany’s, we’re proud of what we’ve done in the community.�

There are still more changes in the works for the shop. The space above Tiffany’s has been developed into a kitchenette for cooking classes and a separate tasting room. “In addition to the upstairs, we’re trying to get more gourmet food into our deli,� says Saad. “We’ve hired a chef and are working on getting our customers

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more of what they are asking for.� Just as Tiffany’s wines are separated by region, Saad hopes to have French, Spanish, and Italian food sections as well.

Describing the future, Saad stops short of tipping his hand about the event wine lovers across the region look forward to each December: Tiffany’s Wine of the Year. Over the years, customers have come to trust Saad’s selection.

When he recommends a wine as the best value of the year, his customers take him at his word. “This program is huge for us,â€? says Saad. “We don’t tell anyone what the next one will be. It’s very personal. It’s a reection of my store, so I work hard to pick a unique wine that hopefully everyone will like.â€?

Saad is preparing for the busy holiday season, both at his shop and restaurants. He loves the busy times, but is grateful for the lull shortly after when he can regroup or travel, sometimes for wine education and sometimes to see family. (continued on page 41) Saad engages in his passion for cooking in 1981, decades before his dream of having a restaurant became a reality.

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Marianne Houston Turns Life “On the Street” Into Poetry

psalm for a class, prompting her teacher and mentor Mother Luke to declare that Marianne was a poet. “That named me!”

Marianne says. “I thought, ‘Yes, I am a poet.’ I won’t say I started writing more poetry, but that thought was planted in my head in a new way.”

In a sense, she started writing On the Street 45 years ago. Marianne taught in the St. Louis parochial schools and then at Webster University and Kenrick Seminary there. “In the truest sense, I started this project when I lived in St. Louis. I was teaching at Webster and I took my young college students down to the inner city to work in the Pruitt Igoe housing project.” At least two of the poems in the book draw inspiration from that time.

Marianne has Marianne would have regiven numerous mained a nun but at age 31 she readings of her book On the felt a strong pull to have children Street, including of her own and opted to leave the this one at the order. “I loved the work. It was a Kalamazoo Public Library. marvelous group of women and continues to be so,” she says. The Loretto Community is active in the social justice and peace community worldwide, and Marianne remains connected to it as a co-member.

She and husband Jim Houston moved to the Kalamazoo area in 1970. Jim interrupted his education at Western Michigan University when he joined the Air Force, and after four years of military service, he returned to complete it.

Marianne encountered Ministry with Community when her sales of the book will go to Ministry with sons Jamie and Ben were small. “Jim and Community, a daytime shelter that proI took them to Ministry to serve lunch, vides food and other services to people and so I knew the work of Ministry and struggling with homelessness, poverty, I knew what it provided for people. So I mental illness and other challenges. The thought, ‘When I do get time I’m going to book is illustrated with photographs by go back and I’m going to do some of this Anthony Graves, a member of Ministry work,’” she says. with Community.

Marianne taught in the Vicksburg Marianne Novak grew up in a small public schools, primarily at the middle town on the Rock River in Illinois. At age school level — an age group she loves — 18 she left home to become a nun, joinuntil she retired in 1998. ing the Sisters of Loretto in Nerinx, Ky. In 1995, Marianne began working As a 19-year-old novice, she interpreted a with educator Dr. Parker Palmer and a

People tell her “What I love most is that I see myself in their stories.”

M

ARIANNE Novak Houston comes from a family of writers, including both parents as well as her siblings. “None of us have really made a living writing, but all six of us were quite competent writers,” she says. Although she has written poetry most of her life and has had poems published in journals, she still feels surprised when others refer to her as a poet.

Now that she has published a book of poetry the moniker is pretty undeniable.

The poems in On the Street are based on Marianne’s experiences as a volunteer working with the homeless. Profits from

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Photo: Kit Almy

By Kit Almy

Photo: Kit Almy

group of colleagues to develop a program called “Courage to Teach,” a multi-retreat series for K-12 teachers, focusing on personal — and by extension professional — renewal.

The program, funded by the Fetzer Institute Photographer Anthony Graves, at right, drew and developed in upon his own experiences living on the street Kalamazoo, has to shoot photos illustrating the book. now prepared almost 200 facilitators working throughout the United States and around the world. It has also expanded to provide similar programs for educators at all levels and for other professions including clergy, doctors, lawyers, counselors and civic leaders.

Marianne has facilitated and co-facilitated retreats for 16 years, working in many parts of the world, including Singapore, Haiti, Australia, Costa Rica, and Canada. She cut back on traveling a couple of years ago in order to have more time for volunteering, although she still offers two series of retreats each year at Transformations Spirituality Center on the Nazareth campus. “After years of travel,” she says, “I became overwhelmed and needed to regain control of my life and time.” In addition to Ministry with Community, she volunteers at the Literacy Council and the new Lifelong Learning The photos used inside the book were shot by Anthony Graves, including the two shown here.

Stephen

By Marianne Novak Houston This is my shoe collection.

Maybe it’s my hobby.

Maybe it’s my passion or maybe just my insurance.

My collection of shoes.

I keep ‘em here at the bottom of my cart in a big green plastic bag stained with who-knows-what (now this is some insurance, a bag too dirty for others to investigate, you understand) and they form a great foundation for my home on wheels, my shoes.

Look here, this is what I have: Running shoes with no laces (someone swiped ‘em when I took off my shoes to wade in the park fountain. No class!)

My brogans.

A little large but if I wear three pair of socks they’re just right my three-season shoes, I call ‘em.

My burkensox.

These are very cool.

Once a man asked me how could I afford burkensox and I just laughed and he turned away.

My boots.

Well, not exactly mine.

I’m holdin’ ‘em for James ‘til he gets out of prison.

And my slippers.

I love these slippers.

My little boy gave ‘em to me for Christmas the year I came home from Vietnam.

And now my snow boots.

Heavy things to carry around all summer but great for winter wear, as they say!

When I get to feelin’ bad feelin’ sorry for myself I think of my shoes.

Sometimes I feel them through the plastic and I think how bad can things really be?

W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

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Houston

Academy at Western Michigan University.

As a new volunteer at Ministry, Marianne was initially disappointed with her assignment answering phones, because it seemed she wouldn’t get to meet people.

However, she says, “I was surprised by how the telephone was the link between family and some of our members, one member and another, and members seeking help and not knowing where to turn. So I felt as I talked to people on the phone that I was doing just what I really hoped to do, and that was just to be with the people.”

In the process, while talking to people or overhearing members on the phones made available for their use in an adjoining room, Marianne found herself picking up — and writing down — snippets of conversations or situations. “As time went on, kind of without my realizing it, I was writing their stories, I was writing poems,” she says. “Your imagination goes to work. You see just a scene,

A young Marianne as a teacher in Vicksburg.

hear their words, and all of a sudden you build that story…. You know the whole story in your head.”

Although some readers say they

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recognize people in the poems, all names have been changed, and many of the characters are composites of people Marianne has encountered around the world.

Eventually she shared some of her poems with Ministry with Community’s development director, Monika Trahe, who asked what she planned to do with them. Marianne thought she’d like to put together a book and donate the profits — if any — to Ministry.

Monika arranged for her to attend a Kalamazoo Community Foundation ChangeMakers program. ChangeMakers gives small grants to people with ideas for projects that bring people together or provide a service to make a positive change in the community. Marianne got positive feedback from other workshop participants, and with the “mustard seed” of a grant, she was ready to go — sort of. She knew what she wanted the book to be, but she had no idea how to go about publishing one.

Fortunately she has many friends who are as giving as she is. Several people read the book and made suggestions.

Caren Dybek proposed titles for the book’s two sections: “Voices,” in which individual characters speak, and “Encounters,” in which Marianne recounts her own interactions and observations.

After reading the manuscript, Marianne’s sister suggested illustrating the book, which had not occurred to Marianne.

At ChangeMakers she had met Anthony Graves, an aspiring photographer and a Ministry member who was in recovery. Marianne realized his photographs would be perfect for the book, and they agreed to collaborate. “Now I was in hip deep,” she says, “I couldn’t back out once the Foundation and Anthony were involved.”

Tim Wojtyniak, a professional photographer, mentored Anthony, and with Mary Beth Thomas lent technical expertise to format the book. Others helped in various ways. Marianne says, “Everyone was giving their time to Ministry,” through their contributions to the

book project. She attributes the aid she received to serendipity, “but also I just think the basic goodness of people.”

Marianne paid for an initial printing of 250 copies, although she didn’t know if she’d be able to sell anywhere near that many. She shouldn’t have worried.

She has presented readings of her book at libraries, churches, civic clubs, and other venues around the area. Initially, she was astonished by how well the book was being received.

“As I’ve been reading to people, and they respond to the stories and poems, now I’m not as stunned, because I’m seeing that in these poems, people find themselves,” she says. “I cannot tell you how many folks have said to me, ‘You know, now as I walk the streets of Kalamazoo, I see them (people on the street) differently.’”

People tell her “What I love most is that I see myself in their stories.”

The book is being read by book clubs and used in college courses, and word of On the Street has spread far beyond Kalamazoo. Marianne took it to a gathering of the Loretto Community in St. Louis, and another friend took it to a conference in California. Those events have generated requests for the book from across the country. Subsequently, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation has awarded her a grant to print 500 more copies.

Marianne’s next goal is to teach a poetry class to Ministry members and to create On the Street II, a collection of their writings. “Many people on the street have artistic sensibilities,” she says. “When I hear them speaking to each other, I hear metaphor and art, I hear music. That needs to be tapped.

Their own voices need to be heard.”

Copies of On the Street are available at Ministry with Community, Michigan News Agency, the Eclectic Corner in Crossroads Mall and at Confections with Convictions. Marianne will have a book signing at Confections with Convictions, 116 Crosstown Parkway. Ste. 101, during the Dec. 2 Art Hop.

Junie

By Marianne Novak Houston My sixth grade teacher she’s the friend I’ve never forgotten.

She could see through me but she never LOOKED through me.

When I didn’t finish my work — because I hardly ever did — she would stay after school with me and she would say “Junie, what were you thinking about when you weren’t doing your math today?”

And I would tell her what was in my head and she would say “Well. You were taking a bird walk, weren’t you?”

And we would walk a while together right then and there down that path of my distraction and then she would say, “Well, That was interesting.

Now I want you to do this math.”

And darned if I didn’t.

And when sixth grade was done and I had to move on she wrote me a note that said, “Junie, you are a very creative thinker.”

And I felt like I was ten feet tall.

But then I got Mr. Thompson in seventh and he realized what a lazy boy I was — that’s what he told my mother — and at night when my mind won’t go to sleep I wonder: “Who am I then?”

And I sleep better when I picture Mrs. Chambers’ face.

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Bells Will Be Ringing Pleasant pealing from Stetson Chapel is just one of Jeff Smithâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accomplishments.

Photo: Kit Almy

Jeff Smith holds a miniature version of the bells he helped bring to Kalamazoo Collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Stetson Chapel more than 25 years ago.

By Kit Almy 16

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W

H IS FOUND in HAT Kalamazoo but nowhere else K in Michigan, yet exists in aalmost every town in England?

The answer is the set of eight church bells in Kalamazoo College’s Stetson Chapel, which are hung for a special type of ringing called change ringing. Developed about 400 years ago in England, bells in change ringing are rung one after the other in continuously changing sequences, producing a cascading sound rather than traditional tunes. Such bells are found in the United Kingdom and in former British colonies.

While there are more than 5,000 sets, called rings, in the U.K., there are only about 45 in North America.

Jeff Smith’s introduction to change ringing was through Dorothy Sayers’ mystery novel, The Nine Tailors, in which much of the plot revolves around a bell tower. Unlike most people, Jeff’s involvement has gone far beyond reading. Not only does he ring, but he was instrumental in bringing these unique bells to Kalamazoo.

Jeff grew up in rural Georgia and graduated from Emory University in Atlanta. He served four years in the Navy during the Korean War, and after his discharge he worked for a summer as a camp counselor in Maine. There he met his future wife, “a really nifty Bryn Mawr girl named Carol Parker.”

He enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned a doctorate in mathematics. In 1961, Jeff joined Kalamazoo College’s mathematics faculty.

A little over a year later, a friend from the University of Wisconsin recruited him to take a research position at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. “Even though we came to Kalamazoo thinking we’d like it and did like it, I’d never done anything but go to school my entire life and I thought it might be nice to get my hands a little bit dirty, and so we decided we’d go off for a year or two and see what it was like,” Jeff says.

This bell is “rung up” and ready for change ringing, where it will swing back and forth in a nearly 360-degree arc.

A year or two turned into five, and during that time, the Washington National Cathedral dedicated a ring of 10 change ringing bells. The cathedral was recruiting new ringers and Jeff thought, “Sure I’d like to learn to ring, whatever the heck that is.” Jeff was bitten by the ringing bug.

While Jeff was in Washington, Kalamazoo College’s Larry Barrett persistently urged him to return to the college. In 1967, with one child in tow and another on the way, Jeff and Carol moved back to Kalamazoo, and for about a decade, Jeff didn’t give bell ringing much thought.

In 1977, trying to come up with a Change ringing is a feature of weddings at Stetson Chapel.

fun, yet challenging subject for a two-week freshman orientation course, he decided on a study of mathematical group theory that focused on change ringing.

Although change ringing originated on tower bells, it can also be practiced on handbells, a much more portable and inexpensive alternative.

Jeff persuaded chapel dean Robert Dewey to buy a set of handbells and visited ringing friends in Washington for a crash course in change ringing on handbells.

The students in that freshman class enjoyed it but few stuck with ringing for long. “But what they did do was recruit other people, because they were talking about it or sitting fumbling around on campus, (and) naturally curious people would come up and ask,” Jeff says.

Over the next several years the course continued to be offered, and a number of students — including the naturally curious passersby — became serious ringers. The handbell band soon became a fixture on campus.

Due to the high visibility of change ringing at the time, when college officials began looking for a gift to celebrate the school’s upcoming 150th anniversary, Jeff had a lot of support for his proposal to install a set of bells in Stetson Chapel’s empty tower. The college funded a study to determine if the tower was architecturally sound enough to support eight bells weighing several hundred pounds each. After experts gave the approval, it was a matter of raising funds to purchase and install the bells. Board of Trustees Finance Chair and Anglophile Dr. Maynard Conrad made it his personal mission to raise

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Smith

a large portion of the needed amount. In 1983, the college’s sesquicentennial year, new president David Breneman gave the project the final go-ahead.

Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London cast the bells that year, but they were not installed until the following spring. The college held a festival, organized by Conrad’s wife Gene, celebrating the event with many English details such as double-decker buses and morris dancers. Meanwhile, a band of seasoned change ringers were ringing a peal (about three hours worth of ringing) to dedicate the bells. Jeff says, “A grand

time was had by all. The dedication itself was — people who were around still talk about it — one of the nicest that ever happened on the college campus.”

Since then, the bells have faded somewhat from public view, but the ringing tradition has thrived. Altogether, more than 100 people have learned to ring at Kalamazoo College, including many students, as well as faculty and staff, alumni and area residents.

Change ringing is just one of many activities Jeff has pursued over the years, “at various levels of intensity,” as he puts it. He has taken up such diverse pursuits

Confessions of a Change Ringer I DON’T TELL EVERYONE this, but I ringer pulls the rope, the wheel turns, am a change ringer. It’s not that I’m causing the bell to swing and the clapper embarrassed; change ringing is just to strike the side of the bell. not easy to explain.

It takes about two seconds for each You may not have heard of change bell to strike once because it swings full ringing, but you probably have heard circle, so we can’t play ordinary music, it if you watch much PBS or tuned into unlike on a carillon or chime. Instead, the recent royal wedding on television. the bells are rung in a different order each It sounds like random chiming of bells time, starting from a descending scale. but is actually an intricate and everThe sound produced when each bell has changing sequence of notes. been struck once is called a “change.”

I had never heard of change The most basic form of change ringing before I came to Kalamazoo ringing involves one of the ringers, College, but it seemed worth checkthe conductor, directing pairs of bells ing out. By the time I graduated I was to change position. We primarily ring hooked for life. I felt like I was contrib“methods,” defined sequences of nonuting to an important, historic part repeating changes. A method is a set of of campus life — Kalamazoo College rules that determine which bells change has the only change ringing tower The author, far right, practices handbells in Michigan. More than that, the with other ringers. activity is at once physical, mental and social — and it’s fun.

Almost anyone can learn to ring, from pre-teens to senior citizens. Still, it’s not as easy as it looks: it takes several lessons to be able to control a bell safely.

Briefly, this is how it works: Each bell is mounted on a wheel attached to a rope which passes through the belfry floor to the ringing room below. As the

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as bicycle racing, ďŹ&#x201A;ying model airplanes, and throwing yo-yos and tops. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Some people would say I have a very short attention span,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;(But) I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see myself as skimming the top off of these things especially, and I try to stay with stuff long enough that I can actually get involved and ďŹ gure it out.â&#x20AC;?

Jeff observes that many of his activities restrict the participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; possible actions, yet result in the creation of something beautiful or complex.

Not surprisingly for a mathematician, Jeff loves formal structures. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I realized that one of my favorite courses in

By Kit Almy place each time. Ringers use squiggly diagrams called â&#x20AC;&#x153;blue linesâ&#x20AC;? to learn methods, which vary widely in complexity.

Despite the fact that each bell weighs hundreds of pounds, the momentum of the bell does most of the work. The ringer just needs to make small adjustments to the speed in which the bell is ringing.

You donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to be a weight lifter or a math whiz to ring bells, but you do need patience and concentration. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s like meditation â&#x20AC;&#x201D; you forget about everything else when youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re ringing.

When I ring I feel like Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m part of a machine that is half human, half mechanical. My bell and I are one component of the machine working in synchronization with the other ringers and bells to produce a unique, mesmerizing sound. As it is for Jeff Smith, this intense cooperation is a large part of what I enjoy about ringing. Since other ringers are key to being able to ring at all, we always welcome new learners.

If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re interested in learning more about change ringing, visit www.kzoo. edu/ringers where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll also ďŹ nd practice times and contact information.

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Smith

high school apart from geometry … was Latin,” he says. “It is a beautiful formal structure. You can predict how things are going to come out, but you can still have a lot of creativity and explore things within these very severe restraints.”

In change ringing mathematical rules determine how the bells are allowed to change order. Still, despite these restrictions, composers of change ringing — though they have nothing like the freedom of musical composers — choose pleasant sounding sequences of changes and discover how to achieve them.

While in Washington, Jeff also discovered Indian fighting kites, which he describes as a simple, single-string kite that “operates by magic.” Although he never fought his kites, he was intrigued by the challenge of first making one fly and then constructing his own. Like change ringing, he says, “It’s a very primitive structure within which people are doing amazing things.”

Jeff’s deepest passions seem to be musical. “The viola was a very big part of my life for a very long time — from when I was in college up to basically when the bells came,” he says. During his stint in the Navy he played with the Honolulu Symphony. In Kalamazoo he was a fill-in violist with the Kalamazoo Symphony

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when he had been hired to play viola in the orchestra for a visiting Polish dance troupe. At the rehearsal the dancers came out with an accordion accompanist. “He had a pipe in his mouth, was wearing a smoking jacket, and had this accordion about this big. And he could just turn Miller Auditorium upside down with that damn little thing,” Jeff says.

One of Jeff’s recent pursuits is competitive top throwing.

“I thought … it would be Orchestra and played regularly with the wonderful to be able to make that kind Bach Festival orchestra. However, he of music all by yourself.” really lived for string quartets and claims The button accordion is bi-sonoric, he mostly played with orchestras to which means each button plays a difrecruit quartet players. ferent note depending on whether it’s Both change ringing and playing being pushed or released — yet anwith a quartet share an aspect of teamother example of the interplay between work and congeniality. “It takes a kind limitation and creativity which Jeff finds of intense cooperation that is difficult to captivating. experience, I think,” he says. “It’s not a “This notion of a lot springing from common thing to be able to feel that you a little, being able to operate creatively are so totally involved in other people’s within severe structures, severe restricactivities, so completely dependent on tions, that has a lot of appeal for me, and them, so desperately wanting yourself I think I’m not unusual in that regard. not to be the one that causes it to crash.”

I think a lot of people have admiration Most recently, Jeff has been abfor that kind of economy, that kind of sorbed with playing the button accorelegant structure that gets erected on a dion. He first encountered one years ago very slim foundation.”

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Spirit of Kalamazoo

People Doing Good Things

By Dr. Barry Ross

that one should spend one’s time wisely, accomplish what one could, work hard, and strive to undertake efforts that would lead toward … well … improvements.

It was not until I moved to Kalamazoo to become professor of music at Kalamazoo College and concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony that I was in a position to begin thinking that I could contribute to my environment. In time I realized that this community is loaded with people dedicated to just that: doing good things, building rich relationships, evolving them into institutions and creating a rare community of arts, education, opportunities and support. I realized that good ideas that benefit others and ignite passions emerge here all the time. I had found a place where even I could make a difference. I became a Kalamazooan!

Unlike most other cities our size, we have a legacy of people whose efforts continually enrich our lives. The cultural and educational institutions we treasure were the Barry Ross is blissful when conducting the brainchild of people whose names I learned KSO’s youth concerts. as I built my life here. Each institution has a special story, like that of the Kalamazoo Symphony whose founder, Leta Snow, walked the streets listening — who was practicing the violin, the trumpet, the oboe and could be part of an orchestra? — for she believed that every great town needed an orchestra.

Others worked to create the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the Civic Theatre (Dorothy Dalton), The Nature Center (Louis Batts), I HAD A HISTORY PROFESSOR who often would end our class Fontana Chamber Arts (Dorothy Connable and Neill Saunders), by saying in a low, dramatic voice, “Do good things.” It was the Gilmore Keyboard Festival (The Irving S. Gilmore Foundaa simple but serious admonition, encouraging us wide-eyed tion in honor of Irving), the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony, our undergrads to engage in activities that would benefit others and hospitals, colleges and university, and so many other cultural and ourselves. But what good things, and how should we do them? civic organizations that enrich our lives.

At that stage of life I had little idea of what I could possibly do (continued on page 42) that might be considered “good” for others. I took it to mean Photo: John Lacko

If someone were to ask you to describe the essence of the spirit of Kalamazoo, how would you respond? Following is the answer from Barry Ross, assistant conductor for the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra.

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Every Day Is Photographer’s Focus

By Theresa Coty O’Neil THERE ARE FEW SKILLS that can’t be improved by regular practice. That’s a lesson one local young photographer learned when she took up the challenge of taking a photo every day for one year.

Morgan King, 16, a junior at Mattawan High School, has been interested in photography since she was 13 and began taking photos of her friends, shots she calls “model-ly type stuff.”

“I was at the age when you’re always taking pictures of your girlfriends,” she says.

While glamour shots might be enough for many teenagers, Morgan’s interest was fanned. Sensing this, her father found out about a semi-professional camera someone was selling at work.

He offered to pay half.

“I played around with that camera for a year without knowing anything about it,” she says.

Her parents introduced her to man who knew a lot about photography and he taught her how to use it. “That’s when I started having a lot of fun with it.”

Soon she was editing photos on Photoshop and looking for other ways to explore using her camera, including taking summer photography courses at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

During her freshman year, Morgan was getting more serious and posting a lot of pictures on the Flickr website when she became interested in Project 365, a challenge to photographers to take one photo daily for a full year. Morgan decided to give it a shot — well, actually, 365 shots.

“It was a huge accomplishment for me,” Morgan says. “I didn’t necessarily notice any improvement while I was doing it, but looking at the photos now, it’s crazy to see how much it did improve me.”

Creative Kids For one thing, Morgan found she had to be more inventive.

As a busy teenager who participates in cross country, ski team and track and field, Morgan had little time to plan out elaborate shoots.

“I definitely was forced to be more creative, because some days I didn’t feel like taking a picture, but I had to take one anyway,” she says. “Most of the time, I was at my house so I had to find things that weren’t normally interesting to me and make them interesting.

“In the winter, I would get home late after Morgan King, a high school junior, hopes to turn her interest in photography into a career. ski team so it was dark out, which meant I had to experiment with different types of lighting, including artificial light. I often took photos in my backyard, which has a lot of woods, but I had to find new spots in the yard.”

Despite liking to experiment with different subjects, including nature and landscapes, Morgan remains true to her (continued on page 43)

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See page 46 to learn more about this photo and the photographer.

Performing Arts

Chamber, Jazz, Orchestra & Bands

Musicals & Opera “A Christmas Carol” — The New Vic presents their annual production of this Christmas favorite. Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 8:30 p.m. New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St. 381-3328.

“Irving Berlin’s White Christmas” — The heartwarming film classic comes to the stage. Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10, 8 p.m.; Dec. 4 & 11, 2 p.m.; Dec. 1 & 8, 7:30 p.m. Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

“Winter Wonderettes” — The Marvelous Wonderettes are back to entertain at the Harper’s Hardware Holiday party. Dec. 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 14–17, 21–23, 28–31, 8 p.m.; Dec. 4, 11, 18, 2 p.m.; Dec. 11, 18, 7 p.m.

Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley.

343-2727.

Dance Orchesis Dance Concert — A dance concert by WMU dance majors. Nov. 30– Dec. 3, 8 p.m.; Dec. 3 & 4, 2 p.m.; Dec. 4, 7 p.m. Dance Studio B, Dalton Center, WMU. Christmas waves a magic wand over 387-2300. this world, and “The Nutcracker” — behold, everything The Ballet Arts Ensemis softer and more ble and the KSO led by beautiful.

Barry Ross present this fully-staged production Norman Vincent Peale as part of the Family Discovery series. Dec. 10, 2 & 7 p.m.; Dec. 11, 2 p.m. Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 349-7759.

Symphony University Symphony Orchestra — A free concert conducted by Bruce Uchimura. Dec. 2, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

“Messiah” — A special KSO presentation of Handel’s iconic holiday composition with special guests, the Kalamazoo Singers.

Dec. 17, 8 p.m. Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 349-7759.

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“Home for Christmas” — The Kalamazoo Concert Band presents its holiday concert with guests Rich Ridenour, pianist, and Kathy Wagner, singer. Dec. 2, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. Information at www. kalamazooconcertband.org.

“Jazz for the Holidays” — A concert featuring the university big bands, both Gold Companies, and faculty and student performances. Dec. 4, 3 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

“White Nights” — Fontana Chamber Arts presents Cleveland Orchestra principal cellist Mark Kosower and pianist Jee-Won Oh. Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m. Wellspring Theatre, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 382-7774.

Rising Stars Recital — 2009 London International Piano Competition winner Behzod Abduraimov will perform. Dec. 11, 4 p.m. Wellspring Theatre, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 342-1166.

“A Brass Celebration of Christmas” — The annual celebration of the season by the Western Brass Quintet and Friends.

Dec. 18, 3 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Vocal “Late Night Broadway” — Join the graduating seniors of the WMU Musical Theatre Performance program for a cabaret evening of New York show tunes with special Broadway guest star Michael Gruber. Dec. 1 & 2, 9 p.m.; Dec. 3, 2 p.m. & 9 p.m. Williams Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.

“A Choral Christmas” — WMU vocal groups, University Chorale, Cantus Femina and the Collegiate Singers will perform a holiday program. Dec. 3 & 4, 7:30 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church, 321 W. South St. 387-2300.

“Winter, Fire, and Snow” — Early Music Michigan presents a concert of Celtic and Appalachian music for wintertime with special guests, EMBARR. Dec. 3, 8 p.m.

Holy Family Chapel at Nazareth, 3427 Gull Rd. 387-2300.

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“BachFest Christmas” — Jim Turner will lead the Kalamazoo Bach Festival Chorus in their annual holiday concert. Dec. 4, 4 p.m. Stetson Chapel, Kalamazoo College.

337-7407.

“Celtic Thunder Christmas” — Celebrate the musical culture of Ireland and the Christmas holiday season with this famous vocal group. Dec. 9, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Miscellaneous “Cirque Dreams Holidaze” — An international cast of performers will dazzle the senses with this larger-than-life holiday extravaganza. Nov. 29 & 30, 7:30 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Visual Arts WMU Richmond Center for Visual Arts (RCVA) 387-2455 Gwen Frostic School of Art Faculty Exhibition — A showing of the latest works from faculty members. Through Dec. 16.

Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery.

Prints from the Permanent Collection — a special exhibition curated by Nichole Maury. Through Feb. 17. Netzorg/Kerr Gallery.

“Jöns and the Spider” — A cut-out puppet stop-frame animation video by MarieMargaux Tsakiri-Scanatovits and Soyoung Hyun. Dec. 1–16. Atrium Gallery.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 349-7775 Turning Point: Japanese Studio Ceramics in the Mid-20th Century — An exhibition exploring a crucial period of contemporary ceramic art in Japan, during which the form went from craft to artistic expression. Through Dec. 4.

Off the Wall: Art in Three Dimensions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition of free-standing sculptures and wall reliefs from the 1950s to the present. Through Dec. 4.

Infrared Photography â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Prints by Christopher Light, Kalamazoo resident, are featured. Dec. 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;March 18.

The Strange Life of Objects: The Art of Annette Lemieux â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The artist works in multiple media and covers many themes with her work. Dec. 17â&#x20AC;&#x201C;March 4.

ARTbreak â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Informal free presentations on art-related topics. Artist Stuart Gibson, the new chair of the Kirk Newman Art Schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 2-D Department, Dec. 6; Between the Folds: Origami, Dec. 13. Bring a lunch to these 12:15 p.m. sessions.

Miscellaneous Saniwax Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Exclusively Realityâ&#x20AC;? featuring photography from the WMU Photography and Intermedia Collective. Through Dec. 15.

Opening reception during Art Hop, Dec. 2, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m.

Midtown Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Big Holiday Show featuring the work of over 30 local and Michigan artists. 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall.

372-0134.

Art Hop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; View the works of local artists.

Local venues/galleries in downtown Kalamazoo. Dec. 2, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m. 342-5059.

Museums Portage District Library 329-4544

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 373-7990

Solo Exhibit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This new art exhibit features watercolors and mixed media work from Randall Bonzo. Through Dec. 31.

Great Books Reading and Discussion Group â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Join to discuss The Seven Deadly Sins, a collection of short stories. Dec. 4 & 18, 2 p.m.

Investing Fundamentals â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mark Robinson will be the speaker. Dec. 6, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m.

From Kindle to the Nook â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A discussion of the variety of e-readers available and which make the best gifts. Dec. 8, 6:30 p.m.

Fractals: Mathematics and Science as Art â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Fractals are based on mathematical equations that result in fantastic 2-dimensional images; they are sure to inspire your imagination and curiosity! Through Jan. 22.

CSI: Crime Scene Insects â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This exhibit dives into forensic entomology, the use of insects such as ďŹ&#x201A;ies, maggots and beetles, to reveal critical details of a crime scene.

Through Jan. 1. (continued on page 45)

Miscellaneous Gwen Frostic Reading Series â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A series of visits by outstanding writers sponsored by the WMU English Department. Elizabeth Knapp, Melinda Moustakis and Jason Skipper, Dec. 1, 8 p.m. WMU Bernhard Center, Rooms 157â&#x20AC;&#x201C;158.

Please send notiďŹ cation of activities to: Encore â&#x20AC;&#x153;Events of Noteâ&#x20AC;?

350 South Burdick St., Suite 214 0HONE s &AX % MAIL EVENTS ENCOREKALAMAZOO COM

Literary Events Kalamazoo Public Library 553-7809 Art Attack Holiday Style â&#x20AC;&#x201D; KPL supplies materials, you supply creativity to make ornaments and gifts. Ornaments, Dec. 6, 4â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 p.m. Eastwood Branch; Gifts, Dec. 20, 6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;7:30 p.m. Central Library.

Register online.

Movie and Popcorn â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Come and enjoy! â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cars 2,â&#x20AC;? Dec. 27, 2 p.m. Eastwood Branch; â&#x20AC;&#x153;Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One,â&#x20AC;? Dec. 29, 2 p.m. Powell Branch; â&#x20AC;&#x153;Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part Two,â&#x20AC;? Dec. 30, 2 p.m.

Powell Branch.

Aerial Angels â&#x20AC;&#x201D; See feats of grace and beauty as the performers ďŹ&#x201A;y through the air while telling the story, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Under the Sea.â&#x20AC;? Dec. 28, 11 a.m. Central Library.

Caring & Friendship Need a little extra help during the holidays?

Call us or stop in to learn how

Adult Day Services at Oakland Centre can help you care for your loved one at this busy time of year.

Providing professional care and loving companionship for adults who need assistance or supervision during the day, in a home-like setting where friendships blossom.

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Massie’s Michigan About the Author Larry B. Massie is a Michigan product and proud of it. Born in Grand Rapids, he grew up in Allegan. Following a tour of duty in Vietnam as a U.S. Army paratrooper, he worked as a telephone lineman, construction laborer, bartender, pickle meister and archivist, before earning three degrees in history from Western Michigan University.

Massie was recently awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Historical Society of Michigan.

Massie’s activities range from historic research and writing, old book appraisals, museum consultations and displays, historic walkways and Michigan history storytelling. He travels both peninsulas of his beloved state to share his enthusiasm for Michigan’s colorful heritage with conferences, school assemblies, libraries, community groups and festivals.

A former Booth newspaper columnist and a frequent contributor to numerous magazines, his recently published TwoTracks To Michigan’s Past is his 20th book about Michigan history.

An avid book collector, he lives with wife and workmate Priscilla, their daughters Maureen and Autumn, as well as their 35,000-volume reference library in a rambling 1880 schoolhouse nestled in the Allegan State Forest.

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Maize & Blue & Poetry, Too

T

HE WEST WIND whistled and whirred, whirling winter whiteness about the old house on Pontiac Road. Within, the shivering poet staggered to the fireplace, threw on a couple of black walnut logs and slumped back down to the sofa before the fire. Sick with the flu, he nonetheless could not help working on a poem that had seized his mind. It was mid-winter in 1926 and Robert Frost thought of something that many another chilled soul yearned for: spring. He wrote: “These pools that, though in forests, still reflect The total sky almost without defect, And like the flowers beside them, chill and shiver, Will like the flowers beside them soon be gone, And yet not out by any brook or river, But up by roots to bring dark foliage on … ” Frost’s “Spring Pools” first appeared in the Dearborn Independent the following year. By then, he had made the decision that life on the campus of the University of Michigan was not in his best interests, although he did return for occasional lectures and appearances. Yet, beginning in 1921 the man recognized as one of America’s greatest poets of the 20th century would enrich the cultural life of that campus and leave a lasting tradition of literary sponsorship.

Born March 26, 1874, in San Francisco, the child of a father from New England and a Scottish mother, his full name, Robert Lee Frost, revealed his father’s Confederate sympathies. His newspaperman father died when Frost was 11, and his mother moved the family back to the Frost grandparents’ Poet Robert Frost. home in Lawrence, Mass. At Lawrence High School he became entranced with the Latin verses of Virgil, and realized he, himself, was a poet. His first poem appeared in the school journal, the Bulletin.

Following graduation from high school, he enrolled in Dartmouth College, but finding the course of study too academic for his taste, he dropped out and went to work as a bobbin boy in a local mill. At the age of 20 he married Elinor Miriam White, a high school classmate who bore him three daughters and a son, and their happy marriage lasted until her death in 1938.

When he was 22 he tried college again, this time Harvard. He stuck it out for two years but never earned a regular college degree. However, by 1942 he had received honorary degrees from at least 16 colleges, including the two from which he had quit.

To support his growing family, Frost tried his hand at various pursuits, including as a cobbler, country school teacher, and editor of a small-town newspaper, until he found the occupation that brought him the most satisfaction, that of a farmer. He purchased an isolated farm near Derry, N.H., and remained there for 11 years.

Robert Frost leaves legacy of time spent in Michigan.

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Frost and family in Bridgewater, N.H., a few years before moving to Ann Arbor.

The Frost family lived in this home on Ann Arbor’s Pontiac Road in 1926. The house was later relocated to Greenfield Village.

But making a living from farming proved another matter. By 1912 the farm had failed. Elinor suggested, “Let’s go to England and live under thatch.” And so they did. Arriving in 1912, they settled in a cottage in Beaconsfield. There Frost met English poets, including Rupert Brooke and Wilfrid Gibson, and his real career took off. At the age of 39, his first collection of poetry, A Boy’s Will, was published in London in 1913. North of Boston appeared the following year.

The Frosts returned to America in 1915 where Robert found fame had preceded him. The year 1916 saw publication of Mountain Interval containing one of his most popular poems, “The Road Not Taken.” Despite his growing following, T.E. Rankin, a professor of rhetoric at the University of Michigan, noted in his textbook, American Writers of the Present Day, (Ann Arbor: 1920) that “if Frost is in the future to be known as a poet of eminence, it will be for what his work now gives promise that he will accomplish rather than for what has yet been produced.”

That opinion was not shared by U of M president Marion LeRoy Burton who, in 1920, launched a

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coal. That left Frost with a stipend of $350 ($3,850) a month and he immediately wired back his acceptance.

Frost would have no regular teaching duties but be free to set his own schedule of writing and participating in campus activities. He looked forward to the experience and wrote a friend: “It will be a year-long picnic … There’ll be music and dancing and college yelling.”

He arrived in Ann Arbor in October and was soon immersed in the rhythm of the semester. English Professor Roy Cowden, faculty adviser of the student literary journal, Whimsies, invited Frost to attend staff meetings at Cowden’s home. Among the first students he met was Stella Brunt, a Canadian poet who published her verse in Whimsies and who all but worshiped the ground Frost walked on.

An interesting romance was ensured as an indirect result of Frost’s Michigan sojourn. When Brunt had earlier learned of Osborn’s role in bringing Frost to Ann Arbor, she wrote the ex-governor an effusive thank you letter.

He responded in kind, and Brunt sent him a copy of “Whimsies” that contained some of her poetry. Their correspondence continued and blossomed into a friendship. After Osborn separated from his wife

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in 1923, the rough and gruff outdoorsman in his 60s and the petite student 40 years younger grew even closer. In 1929 she worked briefly for him and four years later became his full-time secretary.

To make their relationship appear less unseemly, he formally adopted her that year and renamed her Stellanova (new star). Just prior to his death in 1949, Osborn annulled the adoption and married her. Within a matter of days she was his daughter, wife and widow. Until her death in 1988 she devoted her life to poetry and to perpetuating the governor’s memory.

The student magazine Whimsies, which first contained Stellanova’s verse, also included a Frost poem, “Evening in a Sugar Orchard” in the November 1921 issue. Within his first three months in Ann Arbor, Frost also wrote a long dramatic piece in blank verse, “The Witch of Coos,” considered by a contemporary critic as “the finest poem of its kind since Chaucer.” In 1922 it won the coveted Levinson Prize as the best poem of the year.

In addition to Frost’s presence on

Photo: Bentley Historical Library

campaign to establish a fellowship in the creative arts. He had settled on Frost as the ideal candidate. When he brought up the idea to the university’s board of regents, they agreed that the pioneering effort would be good, but that it ought to be funded through a private gift.

Burton contacted Frost through a mutual friend, Percy MacKaye, and broached the subject of his coming to Michigan. Frost, who was then struggling to make ends meet on a hardscrabble Vermont farm and by poetry readings, responded favorably. In addition to housing for his family of six, he would need a stipend of $2,500 to $3,000 ($32,750–$39,300 in today’s terms).

Burton, who had proved himself an effective fund-raiser had not yet, however, determined how he was going to raise the estimated $5,000 ($65,500) needed for the fellowship. But in December 1920, he met a prospective candidate, Chase S. Osborn.

One of the state’s most colorful personalities, Osborn had been a newspaperman in Sault Ste. Marie, made a fortune prospecting for iron in Canada, served as governor in 1911–1912, and had been named a regent of the U of M in 1908, through which he became a lifelong friend and benefactor to the university.

Burton and Osborn formed a friendship almost immediately, and by May 1921 Burton brought up the subject of the $5,000 needed for Frost’s fellowship.

Since Osborn had already recently donated $5,000 for a geological expedition sponsored by the university, he agreed to give only $1,000 because of “his current difficult financial position.” But a month later he wrote Burton that he had decided to subscribe the full amount in installments because, “I want the satisfaction and the happiness of it.”

Burton wired Frost to officially make the offer of the fellowship at a rate even higher than he had requested. A large house was secured on Washtenaw Avenue, a fashionable neighborhood, at a rent of $150 ($1,650) a month for nine months. Five hundred dollars ($5,500) was allotted for the winter’s supply of

FFrost was indirectly responsible for the romance between Stella Brunt and Chase Osborn (above). Nicknamed S ‘‘Stellanova’ by Osborn, the woman 40 years his junior was aat one time his daughter, wife and widow.

University of Michigan president Marion LeRoy Burton brought Frost to the Ann Arbor campus.

campus, a highlight of the year was the series of poetry readings that he negotiated with fellow writers. Irish poet Padraic Colum gave the first presentation in Hill Auditorium. Others included Amy Lowell, Louis Untermeyer and Vachel Lindsay, the tramp poet. Although Frost thoroughly detested him, Carl Sandburg stayed at his home during his visit to the campus.

Another he hated was Michigan poet Edgar Allen Guest, who daily churned out a few lines of sentimental doggerel for the Detroit Free Press.

While he was not required to teach, Frost frequently met with students and offered advice. Early in the term he told a gathering at Cowden’s home: “Don’t write for A’s. Athletics are more terribly real than anything else in education because they are for keeps, for blood, and that is the way I want you to write. Studies are done just for practice. Write only when you have something to say.”

By the end of the school year in 1922, Frost felt he, himself, had not had enough to say. Campus activities had impacted his writing time, and he had not completed as many poems as he wanted. Nevertheless, when the wealthy philanthropist, Horace Rackham, funded the fellowship for 1922–1923, Frost reluctantly accepted for another year. But because he had committed to speaking elsewhere, he split his time on campus with travels around the country. Instead of the opulent mansion on Washtenaw Avenue, during his second year’s stay in Ann Arbor, the Frost family lived in a smaller, more home-like house across the street.

Frost left Ann Arbor in June 1923 and went back to his farm where he completed a new book, New Hampshire.

That fall he accepted a faculty position at Amherst College. He dedicated New Hampshire to his favorite states, “Vermont and Michigan.” Frost received

the Pulitzer Prize for the volume, the first of four Pulitzers he would earn.

Burton had not given up on getting Frost to continue his relationship with the university.

He had in place the groundwork for a permanent appointment for Frost when Burton died in February 1925. Frost returned to Ann Arbor that May to speak at the memorial service for his friend. And he accepted an appointment intended to be a permanent one at a salary of $6,000 ($79,000) a year beginning in the fall term of 1925. The Frosts rented a pristine Greek-revival home on Pontiac Road for the year. Illnesses of several of his children, wife and himself kept Frost scurrying back

and forth from New Hampshire and Michigan most of the year.

At the end of the first year of his permanent appointment, he resigned.

Although he wrote to a friend, “I like Michigan people and I like Michigan,” the allure of his New England farm proved too keen. Yet the impact of the bucolic bard’s three years at the U of M, according to historian and former archivist of the United States, Robert M. Warner, was to make the university “equally well known for its cultural significance as it already was for its athletic prowess.”

The year following his memorable recitation at President John F. Kennedy’s cold and windy inaugural, the first time a poet did so, Frost returned to Ann Arbor for the last time — to be awarded an honorary degree in June 1962. The man who shares, with someone he could not abide, Carl Sandburg, the distinction as, arguably, the greatest American male poet of the 20th century died January 29, 1963.

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I

N AN EARLY, if inauspicious, b beginning to a long and successful c career, Maggie Jackson learned to k from her mother at the age of knit six. “I had so many dropped stitches I don’t think she ever believed I would become an international, award-winning, knitwear designer,” Maggie says.

Now the Kalamazoo resident has a stamp on her passport that she is an “alien of extraordinary ability,” a designation for foreign professionals who are at the top of their field. Maggie’s company, Maggiknits, which sells her own yarns and knitwear patterns, has been in business for 34 years Maggie Jackson’s and recently opened a showroom features her exclusive yarns showroom in downtown and knit-covered Kalamazoo. chairs.

Growing up on a dairy farm in Northern Ireland, Maggie began designing her own sweater patterns by the time she was 12. She had no inclination to a life on the farm, so when she graduated from high school, she entered a fashiondesign program at an art college in Belfast. At the time, Northern Ireland was at the height of “the troubles,” she says, and, “my father obviously didn’t want me to go there.” He worried about her safety

Farmer’s Daughter Knits Career as and that she’d never be able to make a career in fashion. He wanted her to get a more secure job as a teacher instead.

Her father’s worries did not come to pass, and Maggie graduated at the top of her class. When she won a national design award judged by Vogue and other fashion magazines, the local media capitalized on her award—a bit of “local girl makes good” news in the midst of a difficult time. However, her down-toearth parents helped keep her feet on the ground. When Maggie came home with the big news, she recalls her father saying, “That’s great Margaret, but can you put on your wellie boots, because we need to move these pigs.”

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Maggie started Maggiknits in Belfast in 1977, and for nearly 25 years she designed ready-to-wear fashions. “I also did Irish-linen trousers and skirts to go with the knitwear,” she says.

Eventually she employed 45 knitters in Belfast and also had an office and showroom in New York City. Her clothes were sold in high-end stores like Nordstrom and Nieman Marcus, with sweaters selling for $600 to $800 apiece.

She continued to win awards, and one of her highest achievements was having the opportunity to design the evening dress worn by Miss Ireland in the Miss World

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Competition five years in a row. In the second year, her dress took second place out of 100 in a dress-design contest that was part of the pageant.

But it almost didn’t happen. The judges weren’t going to allow a knitted dress in the evening wear competition, but Miss Ireland insisted that she would wear the dress Maggie had made for her. Maggie was thrilled to see “dress by Maggie Jackson” displayed on a television program broadcast worldwide.

About 10 years ago, demand for ready-to-wear knits was fading in the United States as a knitting craze was

Photos: Maggie Jackson

Photo: Kit Almy

Two of Maggie’s creations are showcased on the catwalk at the Vogue Knitting Live Show in New York last January.

a Fashion Designer beginning. Maggie links this change to a yearning for comfort after Sept. 11, and knitting was seen as a relaxation craft. It was also becoming trendy, with celebrities like Julia Roberts and others taking it up.

To meet the new demands, Maggie changed her focus from ready-to-wear pieces to patterns and kits for people to create her asymmetrical, loose-knit designs themselves. Knitting Fever, Inc., a major yarn distributor in New York City, hired her to design a line of yarns.

Sticking with mostly natural fibers, she carefully coordinates colors and

By Kit Almy

selects different textures, deciding what different types of yarns will go into each sweater or shawl. She has also published 16 books of patterns and a hardcover book, Maggie’s Ireland, which includes photos of the Irish countryside, recipes, and stories.

Maggie’s garments are simple and comfortable because she wants people to enjoy wearing them. Throughout her career, her greatest satisfaction has been seeing people wearing her designs — whether they knit them themselves or purchased them ready-to-wear — and knowing how pleased and proud they

are to wear them. “I’m thrilled to see that and to know that they’re excited,” she says.

Maggie wants the knitting process to be enjoyable and relaxing, too. She points out a cape made of squares sewn together and says, “I say to people, ‘You can have a glass of wine (while knitting). It doesn’t matter if one square’s bigger than another.’” Other inventive features of Maggie’s fashions include knots on the outside of the fabric, holes, and uneven hemlines, which she says make a garment look good on people of different sizes.

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Jackson

feature of her kits.

When she started producing the kits, with yarns imported from Spain, Members of a retreat group knit on the Giant’s Causeway on the northeast Italy, and Ireland, coast of Northern Ireland. they retailed for $350 and up. Maggie remembers her industry and was conceived in an effort mother’s reaction when she first saw one to meet customer demands. It’s not a of the kits. “My mother said, looking at retail store but a venue for special events, the box, ‘That’s very nice, Margaret … including fashion shows and knitting but how much is it?’ I told her the price, workshops on Maggie’s signature stitches and she said, ‘You should be ashamed of where she is finally doing what her father yourself that people still have to knit it!’” wanted — teaching.

Maggie says, laughing.

Primarily, the showroom exhibits Three years ago Maggie was offered the distinctive Maggiknits style. It is full a buyout by Knitting Fever, and she and of colorful, highly textured pieces of fiber her friend, Mary Bell, from Kalamazoo, art and décor from covered chairs and took the offer. Maggie moved to Kalamalamps to wall hangings and well-dressed zoo and has run Maggiknits indepenmannequins. Some of these displays have dently from here generated demand for special classes With their triangular boxes, Maggie’s knitting since then.

— Maggie received so many comments kits are as distinctive Her new showabout her knit-covered chairs that she as the garments made room is unique in the now offers a workshop in chair covering. from them.

Maggie is bemused by the turns her career keeps taking. Now that the showroom is open, she finds herself NOW doing things she never expected, such ONLY as hosting knitting murder-mystery weekends and Irish tea parties. She’s amazed by the enthusiastic response to these new events. She has busloads of people scheduled to come from Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis and Minneapolis. “Knitters are like golfers — they become addicted to it,” Maggie says.

“People would not believe what the knitting craze is like. It’s very exciting to be part of that.” mpg/city She appreciates the help she’s received in getting established in this country. “Americans have really taken TRACTION/STABILITY CONTROL FOLD FLAT STORAGE PROVEN HYBRID TECHNOLOGY GREAT TOYOTA QUALITY & RESALE me under their wing and helped me 5-STAR SAFETY RATING TEST-DRIVE ONE TODAY! from all sides of the industry, and I 8 YR/100,000 MILE WARRANTY ON HYBRID SYSTEM/BATTERIES think that’s important being an outsider coming here,” Maggie says. On the other LZo^ Hg ma^ Ar[kb] E^Z]^k hand, she thinks being an outsider has conferred on her a “rock star” status in the knitting industry, which she struggles to come to terms with. “I think it’s … because I’m Irish, and Americans love the Irish,” she says.

Photo: Kit Almy

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Look and Feel Your Best For her most hard-core fans, Maggiknits has a VIP club that provides members with limited edition kits and memorabilia. She also offers occasional knitting retreats to Ireland, which combine sightseeing and learning about Irish history with workshops and visits to places of interest to knitters, such as a flax farm and a lace museum.

Maggie generally travels two to three times a month for business, attending fiber festivals and putting on knitting workshops and fashion shows at some of the 250 yarn shops nationwide that sell her products —including Stitching Memories in Portage. The Maggiknits showroom is partly intended to reduce her travel time by having her customers come to her.

The space also serves as the Maggiknits distribution center, with a room in the back stacked floor-to-ceiling with boxes of yarn. Maggie employs one full-time and four part-time staff, in addition to three traveling sales representatives.

Maggie also gets back to Ireland whenever she can to visit her mother, three children and four grandchildren.

When she travels, she gets comments about her “alien of extraordinary ability” stamp and surprised reactions when she says she lives in Kalamazoo.

She says that since she began visiting the United States 26 years ago, she has always loved the Midwest.

Maggie is happy to be a part of the downtown business community. She plans to network with other businesses and believes she has something to contribute to the economy by bringing in out-of-town visitors for events at her showroom.

She also lives downtown now, and in her spare time, Maggie enjoys concerts and eating out, a more popular activity in this country than in Ireland, where restaurants are more expensive, she says.

She likes being close to the action, both professionally and personally.

“Downtown Kalamazoo is wonderful; (there are) lots of changes and lots of things happening. It’s very exciting,” she says.

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People

Bravo!

say to Restaurant’s Cooking Classes

W

By Kaye Bennett

“ … a feast, more wine and the smug feeling of success.”

36

HEN YOU TAKE a cooking class at Bravo!

Restaurant, remember one thing: Don’t eat (or drink) beforehand.

From the time you walk through the door of the restaurant’s Primo Room and are offered glasses of wine chosen to complement the evening’s recipes until you pass through the buffet of dish after dish of food your class has just prepared, you will be fulfilled and full. And you’ll have a great deal of fun in the process.

Shawn Hagen, co-owner and chef of Bravo!, says that the restaurant has been offering cooking classes for the last 23 years. Class capacity is 24 and they are always filled.

Shawn says the classes usually include a range of students from true hard-core foodies to those who just want to try some new recipes.

Others view the sessions as a social event and a chance to meet new people or run into old friends.

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Though classes are hands-on experiences, Shawn says “you can work as much or as little as you like.” When I admitted to him that throughout my own experiences in his classes I usually want to be sous-chef, chopping and stirring and letting others tell me what to do, he laughed and said that’s fine, because some other people “just want to be the bartender.”

Four or five classes are taught each year, with each session held on a Tuesday, and then repeated the next night. Over the years, more than 4,000 students have taken classes. Many are repeat customers, says Shawn, since a lot of people

Krasean All Photos: Bill

Kaye Bennett, at right, and Rachel Freeman, left, proudly show a tray of their Polenta Tartlets while classmate Norm Goodling, center, seems to be contemplating reaching over to take one.

The fruits of the class’s labor: Beautiful to see, even better to eat.

The cooking classes give Shawn a different way to interact with customers.

consider the classes a regular part of their social lives each year.

Recipes are chosen based on whatever seems like a good idea to Shawn. In the past, he’s concentrated on such topics as regional cooking (such as Italian, Cajun and French), courses or techniques such as grilling or knife skills. For 2011 and 2012, however, his themes have turned to famous chefs and their TV shows and best-selling cookbooks.

Classes begin with a quick overview of the layout from Shawn. The night’s eight or so recipes are assigned to four or five cooking stations set up around the room, most with portable propane gas stoves. All ingredients, most of them premeasured, are laid out at each station.

Bus tubs are provided, as are handand dish-cleaning stations.

Then Shawn introduces the evening’s recipes, providing a short description of each. After about a half-hour, the students divide themselves into teams, claiming a workstation based on recipes that are of interest to them (or, in some cases, based on nearness to the wine table) and get to work.

Shawn sees the classes as a chance to interact with Bravo!’s customers in a different way and enjoys the evenings as much as the students do. “It’s fun to watch the reaction from the guests,” he says. “Sometimes they like the flavor and sometimes the unique techniques.”

He looks for recipes that people will

be able to reproduce at home, as well as sizes that will work in a home kitchen or that can be doubled or tripled in the class so that everyone gets a sample of the end products.

Another consideration in his recipe selection is timing. The goal in class is to spend 45 minutes cooking, and then to get to the even more important business of eating. Sometimes this involves such things as pans of polenta, which need to chill, disappearing into the Bravo! kitchen, only to re-emerge moments later magically much colder. The Bravo! kitchen also comes into play in the rare event that something goes wrong or simply does not work out for the student team. Again, as if by magic, perfect platefuls will always show up on the buffet table at the end of the class. “I just want to cover my bases,” says Shawn, “so I’ll have extra in the kitchen. We want it to be a success story.”

W W W . E N C O R E K A L A M A Z O O . C O M

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Polenta and Chicken Tartlets From Giada De Laurentiis 4 to 6 servings

Bravo!

Shawn says that guests always have a good time, laughing with him or, in some cases, at him, such as the time he had included an ingredient in a recipe spelled “tobacco sauce,” rather than Tabasco sauce. Then, he remembers, there was the time he grabbed the blade of a brand-new food processor, cut his finger, bled onto the food, and after securing a bandage, started over with new ingredients.

Bravo! staff gets involved with the classes, too, running back and forth to

Bravo!

Classes 2012 Cooking 18 January 17 or on hef Michael Sym C Recipes from March 6 or 7 uelsson hef Marcus Sam Recipes from C May 15 or 16 hef Tim Love Recipes from C or 19 September 18 ard hef Daniel Boul Recipes from C 17 October 16 or r f Thomas Kelle he C Recipes from $55 9 p.m. and cost Classes are 7– n is ance registratio per person. Adv at o av Br gister, call required. To re .

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For the tartlets: 1 lb. instant polenta 1 c. heav y cream 1 tsp. salt ½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

the kitchen as needed and, of course, refilling wine glasses.

October’s classes offered Shawn’s pick of recipes For the filling: chicken from Giada De Laurentiis, 2 c. shredded store-bought roasted ) good is host of the Food Network’s zen (fro ½ c. store-bought pesto Giada at Home. Shawn ¼ tsp. salt admits to being somewhat ¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper surprised by that chef’s freFor the topping: quent use of packaged foods ½ c. dried cranberries (such as the polenta mix and Special equipment: the store-bought pesto in the er 2-inch diameter scalloped cookie cutt recipe included here). That rding to night, he even overrode the For the tartlets: Make the polenta acco nta is pole the re celebrity’s instructions for package instructions. Just befo per. pep and using packaged mushroom finished thickening, add cream, salt med baking ravioli for one recipe, providPour the polenta onto a greased, rim about 30 ing students with pasta sheets sheet. Set aside to cool and firm up, and a pasta machine so they minutes. o, salt and could experience making and For the topping: Place chicken, pest bine. filling their own ravioli. pepper in medium bowl. Stir to com Each class ends with er, cut the To assemble: Using the cookie cutt a feast, more wine and the and place polenta into tartlet shapes, about 24, smug feeling of success. Stutartlet with them on a serving platter. Top each dents take home the evening’s with a ken chic a spoonful of chicken. Top the recipes. Shawn says that the few dried cranberries. Serve. way to make cooking fun is to make each recipe three times: The first time, you should follow the recwill be easier. But it’s the third time, he ipe verbatim, he says. The second time, believes, when the cook gets creative and you’ll be more confident and the process starts to make the recipe even better.

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The Document Solutions People

Photo: Bill Krasean

Wine in hand, students prepare to feast on their hard work at the end of class.

In addition to the classes, which are open to the public, Bravo! offers private cooking classes, which Shawn says are ideal for team building with work groups or parties with friends.

Shawn and his brother, Terry, are from Cleveland. Terry, older by three years, attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. For a while,

both brothers worked in New York and then they both relocated to Nashville, Tenn., where Terry worked at a restaurant and Shawn served an apprenticeship at the Opryland Hotel. While the Hagens were in Nashville, they heard that Don and Ann Parfet were looking for a partner to open a new fine-dining restaurant in Kalamazoo. The brothers

arrived in Michigan in the early ‘80s and, with the Parfets, launched Oakley’s. After seven years with Oakley’s, the Hagen-Parfet partnership turned its interest to the Portage Road building that housed Corsiglia’s and Win Shuler’s. Bravo! opened there 24 years ago and introduced its first cooking classes soon after.

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Keystone’s Mortgage Loan Officers (Left to right) Cindy Mount | Derek Naylor | Jeff Stoops | Kristen Weimer

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Tips to Enjoy Wine With Confidence By Brian Lam crystalizes and gathers on the cork. It usually means that the wine’s been stored properly. I like to see that.”

Even in the event of a bad bottle, all is not lost.

Injecting a bit of culinary expertise, Craig says spoiled wines with too much of a vinegary notation are “great to cook with.”

“You can also make vinegar with it. Pour a little apple cider vinegar into it and let it sit. It doesn’t take too long.”

THE HOLIDAYS are upon us, which means wine consumption is going up across the country. Just as with retail stores, this is a busy season for local wine shops and wine-driven restaurants.

Saad Mandwee, owner of Tiffany’s Wine & Spirits, sees this is an excellent time for people to educate themselves about wine. Saad holds regular wine tastings at Tiffany’s to teach customers about different styles and regions and “demystify” the beverage.

“You can read and talk about wine,” he says, “but there’s nothing like when you taste it, and people are going to be tasting a lot of wine soon.”

Taking the pretention out of wine enjoyment is also the goal of local wine aficionado Craig Girolami.

Craig is the executive chef and COO at The Park Club of Kalamazoo and, like Saad, is preparing for the holiday-related upswing in wine sales. A former wine salesman and student of the Court of Master Sommeliers program, Craig offers some tips to enhance wine enjoyment this holiday season.

A bit of bubbly

Photo: Penny Briscoe

a sweet wine. Or you pair something rich and creamy with something light and refreshing.”

Feel, not smell, the cork

How to pair wine and food “Sometimes when folks try to pair food and wine, they’re looking for extensions of food, rather than complements,” the veteran chef says.

Craig mentions the classic pairing of a big, bold cabernet with steak. “It’s hard to beat that,” he acknowledges.

“But with more subtle foods, like spicy ethnic dishes or something like poultry that can be highly influenced, I like to do complementary pairings, where you take something hot and sour and pair it with 40

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New Year’s Eve is inching closer, and Craig acknowledges that sparkling wine tends to be the “go-to” celebratory beverage even though not everyone is a fan.

For people who feel that sparkling wine is a little too dry, he suggests two alternatives.

“People love Moscato d’Asti. It has a little residual sugar, and tons of fruit, but still has the bubbles.”

“Champagne cocktails are coming back,” he says, suggesting a trip to the produce aisle. “A lot of cocktails are made with prosecco and a touch of fruit or fruit concentrate. Pomegranate is great because it’s very festive.”

The longtime Southwest Michigan resident is a fan of local wines and wineries, pointing out cabernet franc as a varietal that Michigan is having a lot of success with. He is also a big fan of the syrahs coming out of the Rhone region in France.

Craig insists that enjoying wine is “more of an art than a science,” and enjoying wine really comes down to personal taste and enjoyment, saying, “Put aside the pretention; drink what you like.”

When it comes to tasting, Craig addresses a common misconception.

“There’s no need to smell the cork,” he says, adding that feeling the cork is the one of the ways to detect whether or not a wine has been stored properly.

“A cracked or crumbly cork may be an indication that the wine is flawed,” he says, suggesting that a disintegrating cork may have allowed too much oxygen to get into a bottle and ruin the wine.

Some cork abnormalities are actually quite harmless, however, and even beneficial. “Crystals on the cork are fine,” he says. “Sometimes tartaric acid

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Mandwee (continued from page 10) None of Saadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s immediate family lives in Iraq anymore. Outside of Kalamazoo, he has siblings in Detroit, Arizona, California, the Middle East and Australia.

Saad has not been back to his hometown of Kirkuk, or even to Iraq. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have fond memories of the country where I grew up,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I have a picture in my head of Iraq as a youth. I have a feeling that picture wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be the same.â&#x20AC;?

The selections of wines found at Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s are examples of Saadâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discerning palate.

Saad acknowledges that a return visit isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t out of the realm of possibility, but with little time for travel, he insists it isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t on the agenda. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I travel to educate myself about wine or to visit the olive orchards and to see family,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Other than that, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll ďŹ nd me at Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, or one of the restaurants.â&#x20AC;?

A native of Kalamazoo, Brian Lam is a freelance writer and owner of Lam Creative Solutions. The Michigan State University graduate lives with his wife, Melissa, and daughter, Sienna, in Kalamazooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Winchell neighborhood.

Photo: Brian Lam

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Spirit of Kalamazoo Dedicated to providing innovative solutions through sound, expert accounting, tax, and ďŹ nancial advice.

(continued from page 22) Add to this the activities supported by our great foundations: the Kalamazoo Foundation started by W.E. Upjohn, the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, the BurdickThorne Foundation (Jim and Mary Thorne), Monroe-Brown Foundation, and more, as well as individuals who have created funds and family foundations. Helping to support our economic base, provide leadership and offer philanthropic support are the Stryker Corporation (Homer Stryker) with its cutting-edge products, the former Upjohn Company (W.E. Upjohn), the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, and our banks and many businesses. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no wonder that Kalamazoo has become known as an arts and education community, with its commitment to early childhood education, its vibrant arts activities and the phenomenal, groundbreaking Kalamazoo Promise!

The cornerstones laid by early visionaries and their cohorts have fostered a cultural community that enriches and inspires us, giving rise to new visionaries, talented and generous individuals and business leaders of today, supported by countless community members.

How did all this happen? The wonderful environment of this community did not just spring from the earth. It originated from individual residents, people like you and me, who live here and love it; people with an idea, a vision, and a commitment to beneďŹ t society. With considerable effort they made good things happen, and inspire us to do the same. As I look around, Kalamazoo is still doing good things! To me, that is the spirit of Kalamazoo.

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Barry rises to the occasion as a convincing vampire at the KSOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Spooktacular.

Creative Kids (continued from page 23) beginnings with those first photos of her girlfriends in seventh grade.

“My favorite subjects are people,” she says. “It’s easier for me to be creative with people. I think about the most interesting angle or how the photo is framed.”

Morgan also thinks of concepts and how to incorporate them into photos, as she did with a prize-winning photo of sister, Alex, where she painted a map of the world on her face.

“I really like globes,” says Morgan. “They are really interesting to look at. Another time I had drawn a map on a friend’s back and took a picture of it and I thought I’d like to try it on a face and my sister agreed.”

A first-time entry into the juried 2011 KIA Teen Area Art Show, the photo was awarded an honorable mention. “I was thrilled because I wasn’t even sure I would make it in the show,” Morgan says.

Morgan’s photo of sister Alex won an Honorable Mention in the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 2011 Teen Area Arts Show.

W

A travel enthusiast, Morgan captured this sunset while on vacation in Siesta Key, Fla.

For someone who loves both globes and cameras, travel photography is a natural marriage and part of Morgan’s future plans.

“I definitely want to travel and take pictures. I have only been to Mexico and Canada. I would really like to go take pictures in Alaska.”

Presently Morgan finds she takes less random and candid photos, instead carefully planning her shoots. “Now I often have an idea and develop it,” she says. She likes to experiment with composition and focus, usually by changing the camera’s aperture.

“I really like the subjects that I choose to photograph,” Morgan says. It’s an added bonus, she says, when someone else sees her photo and comments, ‘I would never have thought to take a picture of that.’

“I like to help people see things they haven’t seen before,” says Morgan, who plans to study photography in college. “It’s cool for me to think that by taking a photo, I can show someone else something that I saw and they might think it’s cool, too.”

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Think Global, Print Local

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS Absolute Homecare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 AlďŹ eri Jewelers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

As your local printer, we keep an eye on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening in the world of printing.

We know our industryâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and we love it. We work hard to keep up to date with the latest in products, technology, and design.

Bellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Betzler Life Story Funeral Homes . . . . . . . 18 Borgess Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Bronson Healthcare Group . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

We believe that even though you might live in a small town, you still should have the variety youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d expect from a faceless Internet printing firm. In fact, we know that we can offer you excellence and variety that no Internet-run printing firm can compete with.

Cornerstone OfďŹ ce Systems . . . . . . . . . . 38 CTS Communications, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Data Constructs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Daveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Glass Service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 DeMent & Marquardt, PLC . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s another thing we keep an eye on: our customers.

Sue Dennis, DDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 First National Bank of Michigan . . . . . . . . 31

You are important to us, and we know you expect the same kind of excellence from us that you demand from yourself.

Flipse, Meyer, Allwardt . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Gilmore Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Great Lakes Shipping Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

We do this so we can offer you the best the world has to offerâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even though weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re just down the street.

Greenleaf Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Heilmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Hospice Care of SW Michigan . . . . . . . . . 14 Jansen Valk Thompson & Reahm . . . . . . . 42 Jeff K. Ross Financial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Kalamazoo/BC Airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Kalamazoo Foot Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

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KNI/Southwest Michigan Imaging . . . . . . . 48 Keystone Community Bank. . . . . . . . . . . 39 LaCantina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Langeland Family Funeral Homes . . . . . . . 10

Answer!

Photography Way Back When

(question on page 8)

Lewis, Reed, Allen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Mangia Mangia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Metro Toyota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Midtown Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Oakland Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

On the night of December 8, 1909, a ďŹ re began in the basement of the Burdick House, a popular hotel of the time. Even though the outside temperature was a frigid minus eight degrees, the ďŹ re quickly spread, and by the time it was over, the entire block was reduced to glowing embers. Built around 1850 by the wealthy Burdick family, the Burdick House stood strong at the corner of Michigan Ave. and Rose St. until that fateful night in 1909. Fortunately, the Burdick was rebuilt in 1911 on the same plot and remained until the 1970s, when it was torn down to make room for the Radisson Plaza Hotel complex.

The Park Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Paw Paw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Portage Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Sharp Smile Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 WMUK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 YMCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d love to share your poetry with Kalamazoo-area readers. Please submit a short personal proďŹ le to accompany it. ,UJVYL 4HNHaPUL J V 7VL[Y` ,KP[VY : )\YKPJR :[ :\P[L 2HSHTHaVV 40 LKP[VY'LUJVYLRHSHTHaVV JVT

Trivia Column by Maureen Massie 44

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(continued from page 27) Holiday Hands-on Happenings: Who Done It? — Be a sleuth and uncover evidence each day of the week; attend all five days to solve the crime! Monday, The Big Cover-Up: Create disguises of all kinds; Tuesday, A Clean Get-Away: Design items of transport; Wednesday, Sound the Alarm: Make noise makers galore; Thursday, Deciphering Codes: Solve a variety of codes; Friday, The Secret Weapon: Discover unique items of protection.

Dec. 26–30, 4 p.m.

Planetarium Programs — The DigiStar planetarium presents various programs.

“Mayan Prophesies,” Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. at 3 p.m.; “Season of Light,” Weekdays, 11 a.m., Sat., 1 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m.; “Starry Messenger,” Tues. & Thur., 3 p.m., Sat., 2 p.m.

W.K. Kellogg Manor House 671-2416 Holiday Walks — Guided and self-guided tours available. See the decorations, artisan gifts, and an Art Prize surprise with refreshments following. Dec. 3, 10, 16, 17, 19, 21, 12–5 p.m.

STEPPING BACK WITH THE ARTS In 1940, Irving Berlin composed one of the most popular Christmas songs ever written. He later called it an “amusing little number.” It debuted on the NBC radio show “Kraft Music Hall” in 1941, and Bing Crosby recorded it for Decca Records in May 1942. It was August of that same year when the song “White Christmas,” was featured in the movie Holiday Inn starring Crosby, Fred Astaire and Marjorie Reynolds. Almost overnight it became a hit. It won an Oscar for Best Song in 1942 and topped the charts for many weeks. The song became so popular that it inspired a movie of the same name. The film White Christmas starred Bing Crosby, of course, this time joined

by Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney.

Even in the digital age, the Bing Crosby version of this standard remains relevant.

It is currently the third most-downloaded digital Christmas song.

Nature Kalamazoo Nature Center 381-1574

Kellogg Biological Station 671-2510

Buy Local Art & Gift Fair — The KNC hosts artists and craftsmen with special gifts for sale. Dec. 10, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

Birds & Beans — Join a bird walk followed by coffee and discussion. Dec. 14, 8:30–10 a.m. 12685 E. C Ave. near Gull Lake.

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Foto Stop

Profile

Entries Wanted!

While many people hunkered down in their powerless homes during last February’s ice storm, A.J. LEMAY grabbed her camera and headed out to Fred McLinden Trails in Comstock to capture a world seemingly encased in glass.

A.J. grew up in Wyandotte, Mich., and has been a photographer for 12 years. She graduated from Western Michigan University in 2005 with bachelor’s degrees in fine arts (with an emphasis in photography) and broadcast cable production.

Her extensive collection of vintage cameras, some dating as far back as the 1920s, inspired A.J.’s most recent exhibition, “The Archeological Finds of Modern Man,” at Studio/haus in South Haven.

The show included Polaroid Emulsion Transfer images of her vintage cameras as well as other fleamarket finds.

“I shoot almost entirely on 35mm slide film and transform these images into Polaroid emulsion

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transfers. I love working on film because it has a permanence,” A.J. says. “The image is forever held in its original state.”

A.J. currently lives in the Vine Neighborhood in Kalamazoo with her husband Adam Householder, two dogs and two tanks of fish.

When not behind the lens, she works part time at the People’s Food Co-op. She has also worked as a preschool photographer for Lifetouch.

She captured her ‘Iceberries’ image using a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS Digital ELPH camera using the flash and macro settings.

To see more images by A.J., visit her website, www.ajleMay.com.

Photographers! Please submit your favorite photograph to Encore for consideration in the photo centerfold feature.

Be it the wonders of the natural world in our area, a local cityscape that causes fond memories, or an individual or group activity that seems to speak of Kalamazoo-area living, we’d like to see it.

We invite photographers of all ages and abilities to submit photos for publication. Please e-mail editor@ encorekalamazoo.com or contact Midtown Gallery’s Terry Nihart (midtownkalamazoo@ yahoo.com), who is assisting with this photography feature. Please provide a short rationale detailing why your photo is representative of living here, along with personal profile information and the technical specifics of taking the image you submit.

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