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LY S C E 1 I 2011 N $4 • November www.encorekalamazoo.com

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chauffeurs in the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music Nov. 9-20

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I WASN’T GOING TO SIT AROUND

WAITING FOR MY

BACK TO HEAL. SITTING WAS JUST TOO PAINFUL. The act of lifting a bale of hay was merely the trigger. My doctor said the disc was already herniated.

Time would determine if rest and physical therapy would take care of it. Six painful weeks went by.

Then twelve. Finally, I’d had enough. I went to Bronson to talk about the one thing that pained me more than the pain itself: surgery. My fears went away when I learned minimally invasive back surgery is not like traditional back surgery. The incision was less than an inch. Amazingly I went from flat on my back to back on my feet in less than three hours. For that I’m thankful to my surgeon — and to Bronson, where Positivity is always part of the healing process.

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From the Managing Editor YEARS AGO, my Sundays jump-started with a standing racquetball match with a couple of buddies of mine. We’d play “cutthroatâ€?, a game where one person would see how many welts he could inict upon the other two players. You’d think that our locker room banter would center on sports or other typical man cave talk, but more often than it would drift in the direction of our collective four teenage sons’ latest escapades. Our focus was always on what infuriatingly strange, crazy, and, OK, dumb things they did, and like every parent of a teenager, we wondered how they’d turn out, if we all survived to see the day.

Three of the four boys had the opportunity to discover their parents weren’t as insensitive and ignorant as they had thought during those teen years, and grew into successful men, husbands and parents. My two boys are amazing men, hardly scarred by those early years of living with me.

Unfortunately one of our problem children, my friend’s son, never had that chance. A couple of years later he was lost due to a car accident.

Dennis Richards Surely I’m not alone in thinking that all too often we focus on the negatives each day dumps on our doorstep or the petty things people unwittingly do. I’m betting my friend would give anything to have one day back to enjoy his son

and tell him how terriďŹ c he was, just as I would to tell my kids. In this month where we celebrate Thanksgiving, maybe it’s a good time to do just that. It seems we get so wrapped up in the problems and challenges of day-to-day life that we forget just how great our lives are.

Most of us take for granted that we sleep indoors, have access to all we care to eat, live in a country that allows us the freedom to come and go as we please, and, with a little creative brain power and work, can achieve whatever lifestyle we chose. But all too often we forget that we’re healthy, hopefully have wonderful relationships with friends and family, and that with a tad of effort can make life even better.

My wife and I once heard a motivational speaker say that to have a successful relationship, you need to choose to focus on a person’s positive traits and ignore the negative. That’s something we have striven for, albeit it’s a bigger challenge for her than for me because I seem to have a lot for her to ignore. Isn’t it so true that the people we like can do no wrong while those we don’t care for can do nothing right?

My friend Phil was an accountant for United Airlines until September 12, 2001 when United downsized thousands because of 9/11. He lost his pension when United’s stock was devalued, and lost his wife to cancer a couple of years later. Phil always ends his voicemail and conversations with the phrase, “Life is good.� Maybe this Thanksgiving we all should look around our dinner tables one more time and realize how much abundance we have and just who and how much we should be thankful for. Life is good!

— Dennis Richards, Managing Editor

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Office Manager and Advertising Assistant Ronald Dundon Copy Editor Cherri Glowe Poetry Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil Feature Photographer Fran Dwight Contributing Writers Kit Almy Kaye Bennett Theresa Coty O’Neil Ilse Gebhard Larry Massie Maureen Massie Patrice L. Mindock Robert M. Weir

Photo: Penny Briscoe

Managing Editor and Advertising Sales Dennis Richards

6 BETSY START is the driver for the Festival of Sacred Music.

14 For the JAMISONs, an audience with the Dalai Lama was a travel highlight when in Tibet.

Contributing Poets Marion Boyer Hedy Habra

15 Photo: Ivy Lim Meei Jiuan

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4 MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTES 8 TRIVIA PURZOOT

Photography Way Back When 22 SPIRIT OF KALAMAZOO

The DALAI LAMA’s sense of humor is a crowd pleaser at public events.

Vision and Determination 23 CREATIVE KIDS

It’s Tradition!

24 FOTO STOP

An Autumn Moment

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26 EVENTS OF NOTE

Chef Andy Havey (l) is just one of SHANE SHELDON’s many valued employees at BOLD restaurant.

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28 MASSIE’S MICHIGAN

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Rattle Snakes, Bug Bread, and Greedy Men

POETRY 21 The World Memory Champion

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Encore magazine is published nine times yearly, September through May. Copyright 2011, Encore Publishing Group, 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) 3839767. E-mail: 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.

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MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

make the impossible seem easy.

39 Mother’s Amber Daum

Cover photos: Penny Briscoe 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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By Kit Almy

Betsy Start Just Won’t Stop

Photo: Tom Hansen

Photo: Courtesy Rush Hour Concerts

Betsy Start performs at a Rush Hour concert, one of a series of free, 30-minute concerts at St. James Cathedral in Chicago.

Betsy Start, Director of the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music, which is celebrating a 10-year presence in Kalamazoo this November 9-20.

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High-energy from the beginning, this musician makes living fun.

ALAMAZOO NATIVE Elizabeth Start, also known as Betsy, is aptly named, because any one term used to describe her is just the beginning of who she is. She is not only a professional cellist with a busy performance schedule but a prolific composer as well. She enjoys playing and composing traditional orchestral music, and she has also worked in jazz, rock, and electronic music.

She directs the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music, where she’s responsible for finding sacred music performers from various cultures, faiths, and musical traditions, and she enjoys any opportunity to work with secular music, too.

The list of experience on her resume also includes work as a recording engineer, math teacher, grant writer, and orchestra librarian. On top of that, she is talented in visual art forms and she is almost as comfortable with a fly-fishing rod in her hands as she is with a bow.

Betsy’s musical career began in the third grade with piano lessons. After taking up the violin for a while—“I simply hated it,” she says—she switched to her father’s instrument, the cello. Lester Start, a Kalamazoo College philosophy professor, was a talented cellist and frequently played in the home with a string quartet, whose members included Voldemars Rushevics, the concertmaster of the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra at the time.

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and the Elgin (Illinois) Symphony, and she makes solo appearances in a variety of venues. These days Betsy primarily plays orchestral music, but as a free-lance musician, she has played in bars and coffeehouses with singer-songwriters and has played back-up with rock bands and jazz groups. She also plays the viola da gamba and the electric cello.

This musical variety has fed into

on a Princeton, N.J., radio station and streamed worldwide during a 24-hour marathon on September 11. Betsy created the music in memory of the victims of the 2001 attacks. Entitled “How It Comes,” the piece accompanies text written and read by Kalamazoo College English professor and writer Gail Griffin.

When Betsy first became interested in writing music to accompany words, she

Photo: Kit Almy

Betsy continued playing throughout her school years and was a member of the Junior Symphony by the time she was in the ninth grade, but she had self-doubts.

As a high school senior, she remembers thinking, “Here I am third-chair cello in the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony; why would I go into music?” Being good in math, she received a Heyl Scholarship and a National Merit Scholarship to attend Kalamazoo College, and she began studying math there.

After a while, Betsy realized that what she really wanted was to be playing cello. She transferred to Oberlin College and Conservatory where she finished her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and earned a degree in cello performance at the same time.

Betsy started composing while attending a graduate program in cello at Northern Illinois University (NIU).

Initially, she took it up to avoid taking the final exam for a class on 20th-century compositional techniques. In lieu of the exam, students could submit a composition of their own each week. “I thought, ‘I don’t have to be good, I just have to show I understand the techniques,’” she says. But after a few weeks, her professor suggested she really ought to be studying composition.

Betsy earned a master’s degree from NIU in cello and theory/composition, and then earned a doctorate in composition from the University of Chicago. She spent the next 10 years in the Chicago area as a free-lance cellist, composer, and teacher. In addition to cello and composition, she has taught music history, theory, and appreciation; acoustics; and basic mathematics. While in Illinois she taught at several area colleges, universities, and music schools. She has also taught at Kalamazoo College and Grand Valley State University.

In 2001 Betsy moved back to Kalamazoo, and in 2004 she took the position of executive director for the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music. She currently performs with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic,

Music is always on Betsy’s mind, even when she is tending her small vegetable garden and enjoying some of the results in BLTs every other day in the summer’s peak season.

Betsy’s work as a composer. “I draw so much on the music I know—that I know because I’ve played all different styles of music,” she says, explaining that performing and composing have always been interrelated for her.

She always composes with some sort of purpose in mind, either for a commission or a specific occasion or in tribute to someone important in her life. “For me music is so much a living entity,” she says. “Unless I know I’m writing it for this group (or) for this reason … it just doesn’t feel like it has a life to me.”

Recently, a cello composition of Betsy’s was selected to be broadcast

thought, “I know it’s tricky to get rights to poetry, so who do I know?” The first person who came to mind was local poet Conrad Hilberry, a colleague of Betsy’s father at Kalamazoo College as well as a family friend and neighbor whom Betsy had known most of her life. His house was on her route when she was one of the first girls to deliver newspapers in Kalamazoo.

“I find his poetry just incredibly evocative, and when I read one of his poems, it gives me musical images,” she says. “A word or a phrase can have so many connotations, and your mind just (continued on page 10)

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Celebrating 10 Years of Sacred Music THE BIENNIAL Michigan Festival of Sacred Music (MFSM), which runs this year from November 10–20, is intended to expose local audiences to sacred music from different faiths and cultural traditions and to promote understanding and respect of these different traditions.

Another primary goal of the festival is to make this music accessible to all segments of the population. The festival reaches out to Ministry With Community, the Ecumenical Senior Center, and the Commission for the Blind, as well as many other local organizations, to provide comp tickets to their constituencies, people who might not come to performances otherwise.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Start, executive director of the festival, said, “One of the things that’s very special about it is that we seem to be able to connect a lot of our programs with different organizations and groups in town. So not only is it … a sampling of world music in different faiths, but it’s also tying back into the community in different ways.”

She said this year’s opening performance by the MusicAEterna trio epitomizes the festival’s mission because it merges spiritual traditions and world philosophies. “They’ve drawn music from different sources as well as original music to represent these different ideas.”

The festival will feature appearances by several artists who have performed here before or who have local connections. The all-female vocal quartet Tapestry has become an audience favorite

in Kalamazoo, having performed here several times. Tapestry is making its third MFSM appearance with a new piece based on Tibetan folklore and music.

Another festival veteran is Yale Strom, an expert in Jewish klezmer music. He will present a piece he composed based on hand-written fragments of music he found in an abandoned building, used as a synagogue in the 1930s, in Romania. He will introduce the piece and play and sing the original fragments on which it is based, and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s Burdick-Thorne String Quartet will perform his composition. “(It’s) nice to have artists … who’ve established a following, coming back and doing something different,” Start said.

Some performers have even stronger ties to Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo native Rohan Krishnamurthy is a virtuoso on the South Indian mridangam, known as one of the world’s most complex drums. He will perform with South Indian musician and vocalist Chitravina Ravikiran.

Noted Baroque violinist Edith Hines grew up in Kalamazoo and was performing with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra by age 9. Now with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, she will perform twice during the festival. The second of the two concerts in which she will appear, with Western Michigan University’s Collegium Musicum, will also include the premiere of a new work for viol consort composed by Elizabeth Start.

The festival will feature performances by current local musicians as well, and,

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The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra’s Burdick Thorne String Quartet will perform a new work

by Yale Strom, based on music he discovered in an abandoned synagogue in Eastern Europe.

Pictured clockwise from top: David Peshlakai, cello; Lisa A. Williams, violin; Julia Stoltie Neckermann, violin; and Grace Byrd, viola.

Start added, “As a composer I should not overlook that we commissioned a piece from David Colson (WMU School of Music director) to be premiered by a graduate ensemble over there, ‘Birds on a Wire.’” At the same concert, Start herself will play new pieces by two female composers.

Other highlights include appearances by co-founder of the Indigo Girls, Emily Saliers, with her father, a church musician and theologian. They will explore the crossover between the sacred and secular in music. A concert of sacred jazz by vocalist and pianist Deanna Witkowski and her trio will be held at the Union Cabaret.

In addition to concerts, the festival includes many free events, such as talks and workshops by performers. Some artists will also visit local schools to perform for and work with students.

The origins of the festival date back to 1998, when the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Kalamazoo wanted to explore the desirability and feasibility of holding a festival of sacred music in the Kalamazoo area. With input from area religious and community leaders, a survey funded by the Irving S. Gilmore and Kalamazoo Community Foundations had a positive response, and planning began in 2000, with the first Michigan Festival of Sacred Music occurring in November 2001.

The festival is observing its 10th anniversary this year, and Start said, “We want to make sure that we’re really celebrating that we’ve been around for 10

LISZT BICENTENNIAL Friday, November 11, 2011 · 8 PM Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU $35, $25, $15 ADVANCE STUDENT

Kalamazoo native Rohan Krishnamurthy, virtuoso on the South Indian mridangam, will perform with South Indian musician and vocalist Chitravina Ravikiran.

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years and that it is a fun event.”

Initially the festival took place over one long weekend, with about four ticketed events. It has grown greatly in that time, and now it is spread over two weekends, allowing more people to find at least one performance they can attend.

The biennial festival is not silent during the off years, although it was initially.

Start said, “When I came in 2004 the mood was we should be doing something in the off years so that people remember us.”

One event was held that year, and each subsequent season a few more have been added, including an annual Messiah Sing in collaboration with the First Congregational Church of Kalamazoo.

The 2010–11 season featured five events, two of which were planned on the spur of the moment, including a fundraiser for Pakistani flood relief. “One nice thing about our organization—we’re kind of small and nimble,” Start said.

She said awareness of the festival is getting stronger all the time. “I think there can be an issue with the name— that people at first glance think, ‘Well, that’s Sunday morning;’ but it’s so much more than that, and I think people are beginning to notice that.”

Occupying the small niche of sacred music festivals, the MFSM is drawing attention from around the world, and musicians are starting to seek it out, including two of this year’s acts: Iraqi oud player and composer Rahim AlHaj and Kurdish tanbur player AliAkbar Moradi.

As the festival is becoming better known, the board of directors is starting strategic planning and looking into fund development for further expansion. “We’re poised for more growth,” Start said.

For more information, visit the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music on the Web at www.mfsm.us.

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Start (continued from page 7) goes off in these different areas. Also, how he structures a poem gives a sense to me of how to structure the music.”

Although Betsy has composed several pieces based on Hilberry’s existing poetry, some works have been collaborative. After hearing the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra rehearsing, Hilberry was moved to write a series of poems he called “Water Music,” which he intended to be set to Betsy’s music.

Betsy recalls noticing the rhythm, contour, and inflection of the first poem, and as she started to translate that into music, she realized it was a French overture. And since Handel’s “Water Music” is a suite of dances with a French overture, she decided all the other movements would be dances. “They all fit into some sort of dance form to me, and, of course, I’m not following strict dance forms, but the mood or rhythms,” she explains.

Betsy has had numerous commissions. Over 100 of her works have been

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performed across the United States and abroad. She has received a Creative Artist Grant from ArtServe Michigan, a Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant, and an Arts Outreach Grant from the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. The Arts Council has also awarded her two Artist Development Initiative grants—the first to compose works for the Kalamazoo Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra and the second a concerto for Italian mandolin virtuoso Carlo Aonzo.

The current grant enabled Betsy to attend Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute and to write two compositions she is working on now: a viol consort piece and a work for bass viola da gamba and keyboard, which will be premiered at Western Michigan University on an organ that resided in the Start family’s attic when Betsy was growing up.

“My family was always interested in interesting treasures,” she says, so when they found an organ discarded outside a

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recently sold house, they got the family station wagon and brought the instrument home in several trips. Bill Mollema, who restored the State Theatre organ, taught her father how to put the organ together.

When WMU was building the Dalton Center, the Starts decided they wanted to get the organ out of the attic, so they donated it to the university. The organ was restored, and, “It turns out it’s a fairly significantly interesting musical instrument,” she says. “I just thought it would be really cool to write a piece and use that organ.”

Much of Betsy’s time is spent on her work as director of the biennial Michigan Festival of Sacred Music. It is technically a half-time job, but she spends far more time than that in festival years. “I write all the grants; I contact the artists. We do have committees, but a lot of the nitty gritty is me—the planning, finding venues, and doing most of the contracts and overseeing the marketing,” she says.

Fly-fishing in a pristine setting is one of Betsy’s newest passions, saying the rod has the rhythm of the (cello) bow. The Au Sable River near Grayling is her favorite place for this pastime.

Betsy loves the way the festival connects her to the local community and the larger world. When she was “just being a cellist” early on in her career, she felt she occupied a rather narrow segment of society. Now, by bringing diverse acts from

around the world to Kalamazoo and introducing them to diverse audiences, she feels more connected. “To find that what I do musically does reach out into the whole world is really neat,” she says.

Betsy also connects to the community by serving on the boards of the Stulberg International String Competition and the Kalamazoo New Year’s Fest, which she especially enjoys because it gives her the opportunity to book interesting secular musical acts.

Betsy’s artistic ability extends beyond music to the visual arts. While at Northern Illinois University, she took classes in film and slide montage. One of her

favorite assignments was “three minutes of reality” for which she made a silent film of the wheels of a passing freight train. When she crouched next to the tracks, it turned out the train was coming on a nearer track than she expected.

“I’m lucky to be alive,” she says. “But the image is incredible, and you don’t know what it is immediately because you’re just seeing this rush of stuff coming by, and it was very rhythmic.” In addition, the gaps between train cars created breaks in the rhythm, and the rush of air from the train caused camera movement. “By the end of this film you think you’re hearing something,” she says.

Betsy also got up close to see things from an unusual perspective in a piece called “Landscrapes.” She filmed a cello and a piano using a macro focus, so that the subject matter became almost unrecognizable—even a pianist didn’t realize the monoliths he was watching were piano keys.

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Start

For the past few years, Betsy has been making fused-glass jewelry, a skill she learned from a class at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. Her pieces have been sold in the Elgin Symphony gift shop, and she has made thank-you pins for Michigan Festival of Sacred Music volunteers.

She has even tried her hand at flytying, receiving praise from her instructor that with a few more lessons she could tie flies professionally. This came about because Betsy has recently taken up fly fishing with her boyfriend, Pete, who lives in Illinois.

As soon as Pete introduced Betsy to the sport, she was—pun intended— hooked. “I could be in a stream for six hours, and I’m not hungry, I’m not thirsty,” she says. “It’s so absorbing.” The movement of the sport fascinates her as well. “There’s just something about the casting itself and how the line behaves; it’s almost like ballet. It’s just such a calm, graceful thing.” She adds, “I think

Totally breaking the image of a classical musician, Betsy has also taken up motorcycling with her boyfriend, Pete, who owns multiple bikes, one of which is this BMW. Always having been interested in sports and the outdoors, she was a high jumper and track standout at Kalamazoo Central in high school during the early 70s, excelling in long-distance running — even competing on the boys’ cross-country team at first because there wasn’t a girls’ team.

because as a cellist I’m used to feeling the behavior of a piece of wood, of a stick, to me it just feels right. You can tell when it’s time to move.”

Betsy and Pete also ride his motorcycles and attend rallies for aficionados of the Italian Moto Guzzi brand. So far, Betsy has gone along for the ride, but she plans to take a motorcycle safety class so she can drive, too.

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She treasures these activities, which force her to set her work aside for a while. “It’s great to have something like that because there’ve been many years when I really wouldn’t do anything recreational because I just always had something to do. And still I always have something to do, but now fishing draws me. It makes me find a few days here and there,” she says.

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T WAS a miracle,” says Frank and Paula Jamison, recalling their experience of videotaping the Dalai Lama and including his comments in a documentary about the Tibetan community in exile.

Kalamazooans Frank and Paula Jamison were on a 10-week project in India in 1992. Frank had taken a sabbatical from his work as Professor of Instructional Media and Head of Media Services at Western Michigan University. And Paula, as owner of Wissing Words and a freelance editor and translator of scholarly books, had a flexible schedule.

As practicing Buddhists, their rinpoche (teacher) helped them arrange for an extended stay at Drepung-Gomang, a monastic university in rural southern India. “I was one of two women at the monastery,” Paula recalls. “The other was a French woman married to a Tibetan.”

Frank seized the opportunity to capture unique video footage of the lives of these politically displaced Tibetans, but their movements were limited due to complications with permits issued by local authorities. “For many days, we were under house arrest,” Paula explains. Resolving that problem, without resorting to bribery, a common practice, was the first miracle.

That second miracle came via a phone call. “We had a telephone number for His Holiness’ office,” Frank recalls. “We went to a travel agent who dialed the number and handed the phone to me. His Holiness’s secretary was on the line. In those days in India, you couldn’t make a quality phone call across the street, and here I had an immediate connection with the man I needed to speak with 1,200 miles away. A good connection.”

The secretary remembered their previous correspondence and requests for an audience but stated the Dalai Lama was “very, very busy.” Yet, offering no guarantees, the secretary suggested that the Jamisons immediately come to Dharamsala, the Himalayan village where the Dalai Lama lived and the Tibetan governmentin-exile was located.

Monks drove Paula and Frank to a railroad station. They caught an overnight 14

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A Visit With the Dalai Lama

By Robert Weir Kalamazoo residents Paula and Frank Jamison make the most of a photographic moment with the Dalai Lama.

At her side, Paula Jamison displays a chuba she purchased in Tibet. This traditional garment is worn by both men and women, but married women always add an apron.

Photo: Penny Briscoe

“

Frank’s mala (prayer) beads came from Lhasa, Tibet. He considers them one of his most prized possessions.

train to Bangalore. From there, they flew to Delhi. Then they traveled by bus for 14 hours, overnight, to Dharamsala. Frank describes this bus as “semi-deluxe, with animals on board.”

The couple registered in a Tibetanowned hotel and then went immediately to the Dalai Lama’s office. The same secretary said, “There is no chance you can see His Holiness. He’s not well and has many appointments.”

Frank remembers politely asserting,

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“We’ve come half way around the world.

We’ve been working for an appointment for a year through correspondence. You’ve encouraged us to come here. And even though we understand the complications, we’re very disappointed. If it can’t be, it can’t be. But here’s our hotel card. We’re in room 201. If there’s any chance that His Holiness’ schedule opens up, we’ll be available.”

Disappointed but not daunted, they occupied their time by interviewing (continued on page 19)

By Robert Weir

I

Dalai Lama Attracts Many Photo: Robert Weir

N HIS teachings, the Dalai Lama expresses his belief in “compassion for all sentient beings” from which “we develop respect, admiration, and freedom of gratitude.” His Holiness delivers this message in numerous venues around the world.

Recently, I had the privilege of being in his presence twice: at a 10-day Buddhist Kalachakra initiation in Washington, D.C., in July; and, in August/September, at public teachings in Dharamsala, the Himalayan village that is the Dalai Lama’s residence and site of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Previously, I had seen and heard the Dalai Lama at a PeaceJam youth conference in Denver, Colo., in 2006 (see Encore, February 2007).

Kalachakra means “time wheel” and honors all life cycles: cycles of nature, cycles of breath, and, according to the International Kalachakra Network, “the practice of controlling the most subtle energies within one’s body on the path to enlightenment.”

Many of the people at the Kalachakra in D.C. — 6,000 to 14,000, depending on the day — came to state or restate vows to Bud-

Photo: Robert Weir

The event shown here on July 9, 2011, was a rally for world peace, an adjunct to the Kalachakra Buddhist initiation ceremony at the Verizon Center in the U.S. capital. His Holiness celebrated his 76th birthday while in Washington, D.C.

The Dalai Lama is surrounded by security guards as he approaches the Anacostia River, a tributary of the Potomac, for a ceremony that will return the remnants of the Kalachakra sand mandala back to nature. Guards consisted of men and women from the U.S. State Department as well as members of the Dalai Lama’s personal security staff, such as the man pictured to his right.

dhist spiritual practices.

The Kalachakra ritual was initially taught by The Buddha 2,600 years ago. The initiation in D.C. was the 31st conducted

by His Holiness, the current (Fourteenth) Dalai Lama, since 1954. The first two were

in Tibet, many have been in India, and this was the fifth in the United States.

The program consisted of chanted prayers, dances, and ritual — with monks attired in red- and gold-brocade vestments — and His Holiness’s teachings. A Long-Life Ceremony was part of a celebration for the Dalai Lama’s 76th birthday on July 6.

A key visual component of the Kalachakra is the Full Body, Speech, and Mind Mandala, a temporary work of detailed art that denotes impermanence, a tenet of the Buddhist faith. The mandala is composed of individual grains of colored sand — white, red, black, green, yellow, and others — arranged to convey symbolism, including the individuality of all sentient beings. When dismantled on the last day, the colors blend and become, collectively, gray, a representation of universal connectivity. The sand is then ceremoniously returned to nature to depict the perfect peace of Kalachakra flowing in the everyday world.

I found the ceremony and grandeur of the Kalachakra to be an ironic contrast to the venue: the Verizon Center, a sterile, concrete sports arena with five levels of plastic seats, a huge, four-sided, overhead monitor and two projection screens above the stage, and frigid air conditioning.

The Dalai Lama was accompanied by a few of his personal body guards, but security fell primarily to the U.S. State

Department — and it was super-strict. To carry a camera into the arena, those of us in the media corps were required to arrive at a pre-announced time that varied from day to day. Our bodies and our bags were visually and electronically checked upon entrance.

Then we assembled in a screening room and waited … and waited and waited until a K-9 handler and his German shepherd arrived to sniff our bags for bombs.

Then, we waited again to be escorted — in small groups — onto the main floor where the day’s designated photo-op was occurring. We were given precisely five minutes to capture close-ups at the base of the main stage and another 10 or 15 minutes to capture long-shots from the sound booth at the far end of the main floor. Then we were escorted completely out of the building and were not allowed to return unless we came back sans cameras.

Of the 10 days of the Kalachakra, I carried my camera three times, choosing on the other days to listen to His Holiness’s wisdom, delivered with humor, from the media section on the arena’s sixth level. For me, a few photos were enough, but his message of compassion could go on forever.

A

t the teachings at the Buddhist Main Temple in Dharamsala, August 30 through September 1, His Holiness began with these words: “The purpose of this gathering is to achieve

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Dalai Lama (continued from page 15) happy life, bountiful life. The proper way to achieve happy life, bountiful life, is … much development on the heart to the enlightened state. … With more compassion, you feel more people are friends.”

The Dalai Lama applied this theme to the world’s major religions, saying, “All teach love, compassion, forgiveness, tolerance, self discipline. These are the basis of moral ethics. … The real troublemaker is too much self-centered attitude. … You totally give yourself to God to reduce a self-centered attitude.”

The environment of the teachings in Dharamsala was casual, with security provided by His Holiness’s personal body

guards and a few Indian army officers, some unarmed. Most of the 5,000 to 6,000 people in attendance sat semi-lotus fashion on colorful floor cushions. Everyone was close, a gelatinous mass that stretched and adjusted to accommodate neighborly requests to straighten legs.

While the majority of attendees dressed and expressed physical features of Tibetan Buddhists, many others, of various skin tone and countenance, also wore the attire and facial markings of Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, and Christians. Tenzin Taklha, the Dalai Lama’s joint secretary, said that approximately 35 nations were represented at the teachings.

Who Are the Tibetans?

L

ARGER THAN Western Europe, the nation of Tibet is home to six million people. Known as “the roof of the world,” the country has an average elevation of 13,000 feet. Five of Asia’s great rivers originate in Tibet, and nearly half of the world’s population lives downstream.

The history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism includes political and spiritual association with the Manchurians, the Mongols, and historical figures such as Genghis Khan. Yet, today, Tibet is not recognized as a nation by the world’s political powers.

In 1949 the People’s Liberation Army of Communist China invaded Tibet. After negotiations with the Chinese leader

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Photo: Robert Weir

Buddhist monks, dressed in high ceremonial attire, participate in the Ritual Offering Dance at the Kalachakra in Washington, D.C., on July 12, 2011.

Young monks passed through the crowd distributing tea and bread. At noon, they fed rice, dal, and chai tea to everyone who brought their own bowl and spoon.

Elders sat and children roamed freely yet silently in a tent-covered courtyard. Those outside the tent scurried in when monsoon rains made their daily appearance.

The Dalai Lama spoke primarily in Tibetan, his words carried over loudspeakers.

Translators who spoke English, Spanish, Korean, and other languages sat with micro-

Mao Tse Tung failed, the Dalai Lama fled from his palatial home in Lhasa, Tibet, to Dharamsala, India, in 1959.

The Tibetan government-in-exile is comprised of democratically elected legislative, judicial, and executive bodies.

Tibetan Buddhism teaches how to achieve deep and abiding happiness, free from suffering, with an emphasis on spiritual rather than material development.

Numerous nongovernment organizations, many of them headquartered in Dharamsala, strive to keep the Tibetan identity alive. But Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) has been, perhaps, the most successful. Having started in one location with 51 students in 1960, TCV now houses and provides quality education to 17,000 young people — some of them orphans — at 20 schools in India.

In Dharamsala, India, dozens of Buddhist monks prepared and served a meal of rice, dal, and chai tea to over 5,000 people who attended the teachings of the Dalai Lama at the Buddhist Main Temple, Aug. 30 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sept. 1.

phones among the crowd, and their words were broadcast over FM frequencies to which people listened through ear phones attached to radios, iPhones, and iPods.

On my ďŹ rst day, I sat on a mat, cozily close to others, and slightly out of sight of the Dalai Lama. The Spanish translator was four people to my left, her voice soft

but audible. For the second and third days, I chose the courtyard, leaning against a tree, with room to stretch my legs and an umbrella close at hand.

In all, it was an idyllic mountain setting. No matter where I sat or roamed, I felt kinship among these people.

On August 8, 2011, the Dalai Lama relinquished half of his dual role as both the spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people by turning the temporal responsibility over to Lobsang Sangay, who was democratically elected to ďŹ ll that position by Tibetans around the world.

On the surface, this is a practical political move for a man of 76 who is much in

Photo: Ivy Lim Meei Jiuan

Photo: Robert Weir

The Dalai Lama delivers a blessing at the closing of the teachings in Dharamsala, India, on Sept. 1, 2011.

demand to speak about Buddhist compassion and world peace. Yet, the action impacts a 350-year tradition.

In 1653, the Great Fifth Dalai Lama was the ďŹ rst to become the spiritual and temporal leader of the Buddhist Tibetan people.

Every Dalai Lama since, including this one, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, has held this theocratic power. Yet, the change conďŹ rms His Holinessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; belief that restoring a purely spiritual role to the ofďŹ ce of the Dalai Lama will â&#x20AC;&#x153;beneďŹ t Tibetans in the long run.â&#x20AC;?

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Jamison (continued from page 14) Tibetans who had just crossed from Tibet to India, a Himalayan journey of many days on foot in freezing temperatures.

One signiďŹ cant person was the Venerable Palden Gyatso, a monk who, at that time, was the longest-documented surviving Tibetan prisoner to be released from a Chinese gulag. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gyatso came out of Tibet the day before we interviewed him, and he was raw,â&#x20AC;? Frank emphasizes. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He looked like he was on deathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s door. Thin. Gaunt.

Biographies have been written about him.

He has since managed to have friends smuggle out Chinese instruments of torture that were used in the gulags â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thumb screws, cattle prods â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that he carries with him for his talks today.â&#x20AC;? Frank and Paula later distributed the edited version of this interview on public TV stations and community access networks across the United States.

And while this was good, the cornerstone of their project still eluded them. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t recall feeling hopeless about an audience with His Holiness, but I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have any real expectations,â&#x20AC;? Paula says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We would like for the interview to happen. But if it didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t â&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;We were following the Buddhist tradition that says â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Let go of all fruition,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

Frank interjects. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do everything you can, then let go â&#x20AC;Śâ&#x20AC;?

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n the fourth day after their meeting with the secretary, the Jamisons were eating breakfast in their hotel when, as Paula describes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Somebody came running in. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Jamisons.

Jamisons. Phone call. His Holinessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ofďŹ ce.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; It was the secretary on the phone. He said, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;One oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;clock today. Come at this time.

Bring your things. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have 15 minutes.

Bring three questions for our approval.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;?

The questions were generic: The Dalai Lamaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s view of religious education among Tibetans in exile, his opinion of future relations between Tibet and China, and his thoughts about the future of the Tibetan nation. All were approved.

The secretary brought the couple to the audience room and ďŹ rmly stated, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Fif-

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teen minutes. No more. He’s very tired.”

Paula relates, “We had our camera set up. His Holiness came in, and he looked exhausted, like he had a nasty cold.”

After formalities, Frank began by stating that he and Paula were Buddhists, supporters of the Tibetan cause for freedom, and doing the project to help people in the United States understand more about the Tibetan situation. “His Holiness asked, ‘You’re not trying to make money (from this interview)?’ And I replied, ‘No, we’re doing this at our own expense.’ ” The Jamisons then mentioned friends in common. One was Kuno Narkyid, who had obtained his master’s degree in linguistics from Western Michigan University where he later taught the Tibetan language; at the time of the interview, he was the Dalai Lama’s official biographer.

Another was the late WMU Professor Robert Shafer, who had lived with his family in Dharamsala in the 1960s and was well acquainted with His Holiness.

“With that, his energy shifted,” Paula adds. “The minute he started answering our questions, all his tiredness went away.

He was gregarious, warm, generous, talking about what’s important to him.”

So much, in fact, that he took 20 minutes to answer the first question. Then another 20 minutes to answer the second question, and nearly another 20 minutes for the third. “By this time, the secretary had a ‘How do I get rid of these people?’ look. But it wasn’t our fault. His Holiness wanted to talk,” Frank states.

When finished, he asked Frank and Paula to sit beside him. An attendant brought a book of the Dalai Lama’s writing, which he inscribed to them. Then His Holiness said something in Tibetan that caused the attendant to scurry away and return with two small statues of the Buddha, which the Dalai Lama gave to Paula and Frank. Later, the Jamisons learned these were specially consecrated, with relics permanently encased in the base, that are typically given only to monks who are ordained by the Dalai Lama. These are among the Jamisons’ most prized possessions.

His Holiness blessed their prayer

This book of the Dalai Lama’s writing, personally inscribed by him, was gifted to the Jamisons at the end of their meeting. In addition, His Holiness presented them with the two small Buddha statues shown here.

Typically given only to monks ordained by the Dalai Lama, they are specially consecrated, with relics permanently encased in the base.

beads. Then the secretary took a photograph of the three of them in an outdoor garden.

Then came the climactic moment — the ultimate miracle. Frank recalls, “His Holiness said, ‘I must go, but I know I will see you again.’ And I — I don’t know what made me say this except it’s true. I said, ‘Your Holiness, the next time we see each other will be in a free Lhasa, a free Tibet.’ And he grabbed me by both shoulders and brought me to him and ducked his head so that we touched foreheads.”

“That was really special,” Paula comments with emotion.

Frank, unsuccessfully holding back tears as he explains, adds, “That still gets me, thinking about it now. That was a remarkable thing for him to do. It’s not a common gesture but the ultimate display of respect and affection between Tibetans.”

Escorted out of the garden, Frank and Paula entered a large courtyard and sat down on a bench. “Paula and I wept with joy and awe. It was one of those moments when words fail.”

Postscript: Frank and Paula Jamison did see the Dalai Lama again — but not in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region within China and the site of the famous Potala Palace, which was the Dalai Lama’s residence prior to fleeing from the Chinese in 1959.

They took teachings from His Holiness in Ann Arbor and Houston.

They attended a ceremony in Ann Arbor in 1994 when His Holiness received the Raoul Wallenberg Medal, a tribute to honor Wallenberg’s efforts to save the lives of Hungarian Jews in the 1940s. And Frank videotaped the Dalai Lama again in Bloomington, Ind., where His Holiness’ brother was on the faculty at the Indiana University.

Of the teachings and award ceremony, Paula states, “That was such a big shift from Dharamsala. Paid Chinese students were following him around, calling him a ‘splitist,’ telling people not to believe him. Tensions ran high.

Everybody had to go through a metal detector.”

Likewise, Frank returned to Dharamsala in 2006. “But it’s very much changed,” he says. “Modernized. Commercialized.”

And His Holiness is far less accessible now than even a few years ago when he hosted audiences and individually greeted thousands of people each month. This is due to his growing renown as a Nobel Peace Laureate (awarded in 1989), his advancing age (he celebrated his 76th birthday in Washington, D.C., on July 6, 2011), and public demand for him to speak at events around the world. He also maintains a disciplined, spiritual regimen of rising each morning at 3 a.m., followed by several hours of prayer and meditation.

Of the footage that Frank shot on that memorable, miraculous day in 1992, he says, “The quality of the recording was not as good as I would have liked. But we used a few good, relevant excerpts in other documentaries that have been distributed throughout the U.S.”

The World Memory Champion knows every ZIP code in the United States, can memorize ten decks of playing cards in less than an hour and is practicing for a 30-second deck. He remembers number strings with stories. 9 is Francine, that woman living in a refrigerator box under a viaduct in Gary, Indiana. 12 dunks Oreos in chocolate milk, 7’s zebra.

He wakes up sheet-tangled, worried about photographic memory, the naturalists with snap-click eyes, winning over strategy. Faces are easy Names have their own colors. Violet laced with copper comes up for Marilyn.

Words have distinctive flavors.

“Freedom” is butternut squash. Reading while eating is tricky, the taste of the food crowds out meaning. His greatest challenge is learning to forget. He’s tried writing down names and stories, images he needs to shake from his mind, and burning the papers, but still sees them, hovering in the embers.

By Marion Boyer

Marion Boyer is a professor emeritus of communication courses at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Her poetry book, “The Clock of the Long Now,” was published in 2009

by Mayapple Press. She is always delighted to have her work appear on the pages of Encore.

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Spirit of Kalamazoo

Vision and Determination

By Ilse Gebhard

If someone were to ask you to describe the essence of the spirit of Kalamazoo, how would you respond? Following is the answer from Ilse Gebhard, local environmentalist and monarch butterfly expert.

Photo: Theresa Coty O’Neil

ships for all high-school graduates, ” replacing the “I’ve got a gal in Kalamazoo” comments.

But a vision does not have to be famous to serve a community. I could fill this whole article and more with a list of visions come true in Kalamazoo in the last 50 years. And sometimes it takes many years and much hard work by many people for a vision to become reality. One such vision is the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail, a fantastic recreational resource in our community.

I first became interested in rail-to-trail conversions when, about 25 years ago, friends invited us for a two-day bike ride on the Elroy-Sparta Trail in Wisconsin, considered to be the first rails-to-trails hiking and biking trail in the nation. When the idea of the Kal-Haven Trail was first announced, I became an early supporter. We spent years looking for the right home near the trail so I could ride my bike in a beautiIlse Gebhard points to a map of the Kalamazoo ful setting and without cars zooming past.

River Valley Trail.

The Kalamazoo River Valley Trail first came to my attention about 20 years ago when it was in the very early visioning stage under the Kalamazoo Forum headed at the time by Pat Adams. The vision was a 50–60 mile trail along or near the Kalamazoo River from Battle Creek to Allegan. I attended a few early meetings of the Friends of the Kalamazoo River Valley Trailway, but I’m not a visioning person. Give me SPIRIT OF KALAMAZOO – what does it mean to me? It means some garlic mustard to pull, a bird to count, or a nature walk to a citizenry with visions and the determination to make their lead—and so I pursued other volunteer opportunities. visions come true. These visions, affecting many or just a few, But I’m sure glad that the visioning and hard work of make Kalamazoo such a desirable place to live. The Kalamazoo people came to fruition, people like Toni Thompson, president Promise is probably the most famous vision nationwide. In the of the Friends, and Jerry Albertson, president of the Parks last few years when traveling and people ask where I’m from, (Continued on page 42) they often say “Oh, yes, that’s the place with college scholar-

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It’s Tradition!

By Theresa Coty O’Neil

A TRIO OF LOCAL GIRLS, two of them sisters, came together three years ago to study Bharatanatyam, a form of southern classical Indian dance. Kathleen D’Souza, 14, a freshman at Portage Northern High School and the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center, her sister, Alyssa, 10, a fifth grader at Angling Road Elementary School, and Pavitra Attanayake, 11, a sixth grader at Portage West Middle School, were fortunate to find a local teacher, Susan Iervolina, who holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in dance and also studied Bharatanatyam in Chennai, India.

All three of the girls were motivated by their familiarity with Bharatanatyam. Pavitra had previously taken classical Indian dance with some of her friends, but their teacher had moved away. The D’Souzas had been introduced to the dance form through the annual Kalamazoo Diwali festival where they learned some of the movements.

“I always performed at the Diwali festival, but I wanted to improve my dance skills,” said Kathleen. “The dancing always looked wonderful, and the dresses were beautiful. I never thought I was capable of learning it because it looked so complicated.”

But it was Alyssa who initially signed up for a dance class with “Ms. Susan,” and Kathleen tagged along. “When I saw them practice, I got interested and wanted to join the class, too,” Kathleen said.

Southern classical Indian dance is one of the world’s oldest living dance forms. Dance postures, many that include symbolic hand gestures called mudras, can be seen in artwork throughout India and Africa. The dance, originally performed in temples, is marked by its elaborate costumes and slow, rhythmic, frontal movements meant for a defined space.

Creative Kids

Dancers Alyssa D’Souza, Pavitra Attanayake, and Kathleen D’Souza.

The Natya Shastra, reputed to be the oldest surviving text on stagecraft in the world, provides an explanation for the purpose of this dance form: “When the world had become steeped in greed and desire, in jealousy and anger, in pleasure and pain, the Supreme One (Brahma) was asked by the people to create an entertainment which could be seen and heard by all, for the scriptures were not enjoyed by the masses, being too learned and ambiguous.”

(Continued on page 43)

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

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Balch Playhouse, K-College. 337-7333.

“August: Osage County” — WMU Theatre Department presents this Pulitzer and Tony Award-winner from Tracy Letts. Nov. 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 8 p.m., Nov. 20, 2 p.m. Shaw Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.

Musicals & Opera “A Salute to the Red, White and Blue” — Senior Class Reader’s Theatre presents a stirring musical revue of American music.

Nov. 4 & 6, 2 p.m., Nov. 5, 11, 12, 7 p.m.

Carver Center, 426 S. Park St. 343-1313.

“A Christmas Carol” — The New Vic presents this annual Christmas favorite.

Opens Nov. 18, 19, 25, 26, Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 8:30 p.m. New Harness your power to Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine your passion. Honor St. 381-3328. your calling. Everybody “Irving Berlin’s White has one. Trust your Christmas” — A dazheart, and success will zling stage adaptation of come to you. the heart-warming film classic that is sure to be Oprah Winfrey a holiday treat for the entire family. Nov. 25, 26, Dec. 2, 3, 9, 10, 8 p.m., Nov. 27, Dec. 4 & 11, 2 p.m., Dec. 1 & 8, 7:30 p.m. Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

“Rennie Harris Puremovement” — After 15 seasons, this hip-hop dance troupe has emerged as the senior member of hip-hop dance theater. Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Fall Concert of Dance — Wellspring/ Cori Terry & Dancers present their annual event. Nov. 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 8 p.m., Nov. 13, 2 p.m. Wellspring Theatre, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 342-4354. & / $ 0 3 & t N O V E M B E R

Symphony University Symphony Orchestra — Bruce Uchimura will conduct this free concert.

Nov. 6, 3 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

“The Music of Billy Joel and More!” — The original star of Broadway’s Movin’ Out, Michael Cavanaugh, will join the KSO for a Pops concert. Nov. 18, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 349-7759.

Chamber, Jazz, Orchestra & Bands

Dance

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Noon Dance Showing — An informal showing of dances by faculty and students for upcoming competitions that arre free and open to the public. Nov. 18, 12 p.m.

Dance Studio B, Dalton Center, WMU. 387-5830.

Orchesis Dance Concert — A dance concert by WMU dance majors. Nov. 30 & Dec. 1, 8 p.m. Dance Studio B, Dalton Center, WMU. 387-5830.

“The World of …” — KSO music director Raymond Harvey will guide you through the life, times and music of Bartok. Nov. 6, 3 p.m. Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 349-7759.

Rising Stars Recital — 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Ivan Moshchuk returns for a special concert featuring works by Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninoff.

Nov. 6, 4 p.m. Wellspring Theatre, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 342-1166.

“Liszt Bicentennial” — Fontana Chamber Arts presents Adam Neiman, 1995 Gilmore Young Artist, in a tribute to Liszt with Lina Tetriani, soprano, performing selected songs, as well. Nov. 11, 8 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 382-7774.

Bronco Marching Band in Concert — Director David Montgomery will lead this special indoor concert. Nov. 13, 3 p.m.

Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Free Concert — The WMU University Symphonic Band and University Concert Band will perform. Nov. 20, 3 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-4667.

2 0 1 1

“Strings Around the World” — The Stulberg Competition presents cellist Richard Narroway performing with desserts to follow. Nov. 20, 6:30 p.m. Wellspring Theater, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 343-2776.

Vocal Gold Company Sneak Preview — WMU’s vocal jazz group and GCII will perform.

Nov. 10, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Vocal Workshop with Tapestry — A collaboration with the Bach Festival and the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music brings this ensemble for an open workshop. Nov. 12, 2 p.m. Light Fine Arts Bldg., Kalamazoo College. 337-7407.

“A Harvest of Song” — The Kalamazoo Singers presents a concert featuring works

by American choral composers. Nov. 14, 3 p.m. Holy Family Chapel at Nazareth, 3427 Gull Rd. 387-2300.

Collegium Musicum — This early music vocal group will perform a free concert.

Nov. 17, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

“Tribute to the Great Swing Bands” — This 29th annual concert will be presented by the University Jazz Orchestra and the Jazz Lab Band. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

“Kenny Rogers Christmas & Hits” — The musical legend will perform many of his hits as well as some heartwarming holiday classics. Nov. 26, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Miscellaneous Michigan Festival of Sacred Music — The 10th anniversary festival will present vocal and instrumental music of many faiths and cultures at various venues. Nov. 10–20. For a complete schedule of events visit www. mfsm.us or call 382-2910.

“An Evening with Baddy Valastro: The Cake Boss” — A live interactive event with the star of the TLC series sharing stories and demonstrations of baking artistry. Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Cirque Dreams Holidazeâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An international cast of performers will dazzle your 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 Animal Logic: Jennifer Catron & Paul Outlaw, Paul Sydorenko, Squeak Carnwath â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibit of photographic narratives, paintings and sculptural installations. Through Nov. 11, Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery.

Gwen Frostic School of Art Faculty Exhibition â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A showing of the latest works from faculty members. Nov. 17â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Dec. 16.

Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery.

Prints from the Permanent Collection â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a special exhibition curated by Nichole Maury. Nov. 17â&#x20AC;&#x201C;Feb. 17. Netzorg/Kerr Gallery.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 349-7775 Shimmerings of Light, Mysteries of Shadow: The Etching Revival of the 19th Century â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition of prints

by Whistler, Meryon, Palmer and more.

Through Nov. 27.

Turning Point: Japanese Studio Ceramics in the Mid-20th Century â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition that explores a crucial period of contemporary ceramic art in Japan.

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.

ARTbreak â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Free presentations on artrelated topics. Betsy Start â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The Cello as Muse, Nov. 8; Charles BurchďŹ eld: Realist Mystic or Mystical Realist?, Nov. 15; Color and Fire: DeďŹ ning Moments in Studio Ceramics, Nov. 22; Art of the Potter, Nov. 29.

Bring a lunch to these 12:15 p.m. sessions.

STEPPING BACK WITH THE ARTS How can a book save a life? Just barely, in the case of one French legionnaire who was the last survivor of a battle near Verdun in the First World War. When he regained consciousness on the battleďŹ eld hours later, he found that a pocket edition of Rudyard Kiplingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Kimâ&#x20AC;? had stopped a bullet a mere 20 pages from his heart.

When the soldier, Maurice Hamonneau, later learned of the passing of Kiplingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son, John, he sent the author the medal he won in the battle and the copy of the damaged, life-saving book. Kipling was touched and promised to return both if the soldier ever had a son. Hamonneau did, and named him after Kiplingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son.

Art & All That Jazz â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An evening of art and music with refreshments. Musical guest, Embarr. Nov. 18, 5:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;7:30 p.m.

The author returned the items, along with a charming letter to the young son advising him to always carry a book of at least 350 pages in his left breast pocket. More sound advice has never been given.

Literary Events Kalamazoo Public Library 553-7809

Park Trades Center 345-3311 Bi-Annual Open Studio Tour â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Visit approximately 50 Park Trades Center artists in their studios. Nov. 4, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m.

Miscellaneous Saniwax Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition called â&#x20AC;&#x153;Renew, Restore, Refreshâ&#x20AC;? featuring works from the Christian Artist Co-op. Opening reception during Art Hop, Nov. 4, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9.

Midtown Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Featured are Dan Marek, watercolors and Ramiro Estrada, jewelry. 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall.

372-0134.

Art Hop â&#x20AC;&#x201D; View the works of local artists. Local venues/galleries in downtown Kalamazoo. Nov. 4, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m. 342-5059.

Weavers and Fiber Artists Sale â&#x20AC;&#x201D; See demonstrations and browse handmade items by members of the Weavers Guild of Kalamazoo. Nov. 17, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8 p.m., Nov. 18, 9 a.m.â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8 p.m., Nov. 19, 9 a.m.â&#x20AC;&#x201C;4 p.m.

Kalamazoo County Expo Center and Fairgrounds, 2900 Lake St. 375-1375.

Reading with Bailey â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Come in and read to Bailey, the loveable Schnoodle dog.

Reservation required, call 553-7804. Nov. 9, 16 & 30, 3:30â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5:30 p.m., Washington Square Branch.

Great Grown-Up Spelling Bee â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The KPL hosts this 11th annual beneďŹ t for the Ready to Read program. Nov. 16, 6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m.

Bernhard Center, WMU. Thanksgiving Crafts â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Come in and make fun crafts to take home. Nov. 21 & 22, 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;5 p.m. Eastwood Branch.

Movie and Popcorn â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Join us for a showing of the ďŹ lm, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mars Needs Moms.â&#x20AC;? Nov. 25, 2 p.m. Powell Branch.

(Continued on page 45)

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

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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Massie’s C 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 Viet Nam 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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Rattlesnakes, Bug Bread, and Greedy Men

YRUS P. BRADLEY, a 16-year-old Dartmouth College student visiting Detroit in June 1835, walked up dusty Griswold Street and entered the Michigan Territorial Capitol building.

On the ground floor of the Greek Revival structure, whose massive cupola soared 140 feet over the “City of the Straits,” the convention to establish the incipient state’s original constitution was in session.

Bradley saw about 70 members at work, and he thought them “as a whole, a body of fine-looking men far superior in One gentleman rose to say that it deexternal appearance to the Ohio Legispended on where the money came from. If lature,” which he had also visited earlier the federal government paid, then it should that month. Unfortunately, their way of be $3, but if fellow citizens of the territory doing business seemed “careless, hasty were to be taxed for it, then he was in favor and full of mistakes—each engaged of the lower figure. Another in correcting his legislator replied that if their neighbor, and services were worth $3 of making himself Uncle Sam’s money, then they blunders enough should be valued the same for the criticism if the territory paid. The of the next who deliberation ended with a arose.” vote to go with the higher The president figure without settling the of the constituquestion of whom they were tional convention, working for.

John Biddle, Bradley Hmm, lawmakers decided, was not a squabbling over pay and very good presiding benefits while citizens’ officer. He described issues go unresolved. him in the detailed Sound familiar?

The only known journal he kept durThe teenager who portrait of Cyrus ing his western travels that June as “a Bradley. recorded the lawmaker’s gouty old don, of good height, fleshy and money grab in 1835 was born December 8, slow in motion and speech, with a high, 1818, in Canterbury, N.H. Eleven years latretracting forehead, sandy hair and comer Bradley’s father received an appointment plexion, deep blue eyes and a voice slow as state librarian, and the family moved to of utterance and very feminine.”

Concord. That gave the youth access to the Bradley found the convention deep books he hungered for, and he devoured in deliberation, not over the provisions of them omnivorously. After completing a the constitution or over the Toledo Strip preparatory course at Exeter Academy squabble that would keep Michigan out in one year, he enrolled at Dartmouth of the Union for two more years, but on a College. Two years of rigorous study wore matter seemingly of more paramount imdown his health, and he was forced to drop portance—their own salaries. The debate out for a year. In an attempt to restore his centered around the issue of whether the health, a Mr. Fletcher, a trustee of the colmembers should receive $3 a day or but lege, offered to take the lad with him on a $2, in an era when a laborer considered trip to the west, in part to visit his brother, himself lucky to receive 50 cents for a full William A. Fletcher, then serving as the 10-hour work day. circuit judge covering the entire Territory

By Larry Massie

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Michigan’s territorial capitol building was first occupied in 1828.

outside of Wayne County. After traveling down the Ohio River to Cincinnati and then overland via Columbus to Sandusky, Ohio, they boarded the steamer, “Michigan,” for Detroit.

Knowing Detroit to be an ancient city founded in 1701, Bradley expected to see “a small, dirty, Frenchified town, with a sprinkling of soldiers, Indians, Irish and Yankees.” Instead, he was “favorably disappointed” to find a bustling, modern city with Jefferson Avenue “a perfect epitome of Broadway, a picture of business, a condensation of life, hurry and tumult.” Rows of brick stores lined the streets of the city that had grown to have a population of more than 7,000. An average of six boats a day during the shipping season docked at Detroit, the jumping-off place for the Michigan frontier where an estimated 200,000 settlers from Western New York and New England arrived each year to start a new life in “Michigania.”

B

radley secured a room in the Mansion House where he chanced upon a “slave catcher” he had met earlier on his journey. One of a party of three professional slave hunters from Virginia, he had bragged about his occupation to Bradley on board a boat on the Ohio River. They were in pursuit of three

The steamboat “Michigan” as seen in the Detroit River in 1836, with Detroit in the background.

runaway slaves who, they figured, would wind up in Detroit prior to crossing the river to Canada and freedom. When Bradley boldly told them he hoped the blacks would get away, the Virginians grinned and replied that if they didn’t catch the ones they were looking for, they’d be satisfied to kidnap three free blacks and take them back instead, and that they had done that often before.

On the second day of their Detroit sojourn, Bradley and Fletcher boarded a stage, merely a long, open wagon, to travel the 25 wilderness miles to Pontiac where Fletcher’s brother was holding court. The stage clattered through the thick forest over a “corduroy turnpike” consisting of logs laid side by side. Once Bradley got out to walk for a while and spotted an interesting wild flower. Reaching for it, he found a snake coiled at his feet.

After killing it with a stick, he learned from the stage driver that it was a Michigan rattlesnake called massasauga. By 1982, the massasauga that abounded in wilderness Michigan had, because of loss of habitat, been reduced to a candidate for endangered species protection, where it remains. Later, in crossing a swampy place where some of the logs floated on the surface, every

one was covered with rattlesnakes.

The short, thick reptiles had fangs not as long as other venomous snakes and could not bite through a boot or the heavy sack cloth leggings worn by frontiersmen. But barefooted children picking berries often died when bitten.

Bradley found the little village on the Clinton River that had been founded in 1818 by town site promoters from Detroit to be a “neat, New England like” community with “handsome painted houses with green blinds.” Pontiac’s stores, shops, two taverns and courthouse gave it a “distinctive character.”

Within the courtroom, “a little crowded hole” packed with judges, jury, lawyers, a sheriff, criminals and spectators, Bradley noticed a number suffering from the ague, the bane of pioneer life in early Michigan. Although the pioneers did not know it, the disease was actually malaria caused by the bite of anopheles

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mosquitoes so abundant in the swampy terrain. Few early Michigan residents escaped the alternating fever and chill of the ague. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The poor fellows look miserable,â&#x20AC;? Bradley wrote, â&#x20AC;&#x153;just sick enough to make themselves and everyone near them uncomfortableâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;wrapped up in overcoats and ďŹ&#x201A;annels, with the thermometer at 90â&#x20AC;&#x201D;sweltering over the kitchen ďŹ re and growling and swearing at everything that crosses their path.â&#x20AC;?

The following day Bradley accompanied a Pontiac teenager on a ďŹ shing expedition to nearby Williams Lake.

Along the way he marveled at the oak openings they traversed, consisting of great oaks that â&#x20AC;&#x153;stand like apple trees in an orchard, from one to four rods asunder.â&#x20AC;? Judge Fletcher told him that he had driven his two-horse carriage 40 miles through the openings, where there existed no path or trace of wheels.

They encountered a large party of Indiansâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;men, women and children of the Shiawassee bandâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;on their way to Detroit and Fort Malden across the Detroit River to receive their annual payments â&#x20AC;&#x153;from the federal government at Detroit for their ancestral land they had surrendered and from the British for their loyalty during the War of 1812. They were not paid in cash but in commodities such as blankets or trinkets which, Bradley learned, â&#x20AC;&#x153;they will often pawn for a canteen of grog â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;more â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wiskiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is the invariable demand.â&#x20AC;?

It rained hard the following day.

Bradley clambered aboard the stage, without springs and the seats merely wooden boards, for a miserable jolting ride back to Detroit. At the ďŹ&#x201A;ats he needed to climb down and wade alongside the wagon through two feet of standing water for over a mile. About midday they stopped for lunch at one of the taverns that stood along the road every four miles or so. Ordering a dish of bread and milk. Bradley found the milk to be sweet enough but the bread was dry and stale and â&#x20AC;&#x153;as it began to saturate the little red bugs rose, kicking most lustily to the surface, where they were immediately skimmed off and most barbarously committed to the ďŹ&#x201A;ames.â&#x20AC;?

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The “boy governor,” Stephens T. Mason

Back in Detroit, Bradley met Territorial Gov. Stevens T. Mason, who had become acting governor in 1831 at the age of 19 and was elected governor in 1835. Bradley expected to see a young man, “but not such a boy in appearance.” He described him as “short and thick set, of dark complexion, handsome square features, high forehead and large head.” He also had a brief interview with Lewis Cass, distinguished War of 1812 veteran and governor of Michigan Territory from 1813–31, who he found not so physically attractive. “He has a red face and blue eyes,” he wrote, “his cheeks are low and his face is widest at the mouth, it is large and stolid and a large mole at the left of his mouth gives it a rather singular appearance.” Despite his illustrious career, which in the future would include service as U.S. senator from 1845–57, and three times as a presidential candidate, Bradley concluded, “He has not the appearance of a man of great talents.”

Bradley would never know of Cass’s later achievements. After he returned to New Hampshire from Detroit, he reentered Dartmouth, “greatly improved in health and spirits” and graduated in 1837.

Sadly, his unnamed illness returned, and he died a year later.

Bradley’s fine accounts of pioneer Michigan survived in the hands of family members and later book collectors. In 1906, portions of his Michigan and Ohio journal were printed in the “Ohio Archeological and Historical Publications.”

A diligent search of Michigan’s historical literature reveals that for some inexplicable reason Bradley’s excellent primary source has not heretofore been utilized by any Michigan historian.

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S

HANE SHELDON has moved from pitching steaming baseballs across home plate to serving steaming plates of big-flavor food at BOLD, a striking, newish restaurant in Texas Corners. And BOLD aficionados — of whom there are many — are really happy with his change-up.

Sheldon’s journey from pitcher’s mound to the upscale food industry started in Portage.

Born and raised in south Portage, Sheldon, 39, graduated from Portage Central High School (PCHS) in 1991. He’d always been a multi-sport athlete, playing football, baseball and basketball. The 6-foot-3-inch Sheldon was a tight end, strong safety and kicker/punter on the PCHS football team. He was selected second team all state and was invited to play in the Michigan High School All-Stars football game his senior year. But, according to Sheldon’s mother, Marlene Sheldon of Portage, though Sheldon was an excellent kicker and “played everything,” his true love was always baseball.

However, Marlene Sheldon also says that she detected an interest in food preparation while her son was just a toddler. “I had a drawer with all the pots and pans, and those were always Shane’s favorite things to play with,” she remembers.

After graduating from Portage Central, Sheldon spent a year at Hillsdale College, where he played football and baseball. A fractured ankle during football season caused him to rethink his academic and athletic options, and he transferred to Gordon Junior College in Barnesville, Ga., where the weather allowed for a longer baseball season and he’d been told that the coach, Tom Clark, “could always use a good arm.”

In addition to playing more ball in Georgia, Sheldon also got the chance to prepare —

From Baseball to %2/' Owner Shane Sheldon has hit a home run with his BOLD restaurant.

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Photos: Penny Briscoe

By Kaye Bennett even though he didn’t know it at the time — for his post-baseball career. As he found out, the South takes its food very seriously.

It was hard to get back to Michigan from Georgia for all the holidays, remembers Sheldon, so a catcher on his team often invited Sheldon to join him in Savannah, at the home of his uncle, who was Cajun. “I never understood a word he said,” recalls Sheldon. “I just watched how he made the gumbo and the jambalaya and the alligator.”

After a year at Gordon, Sheldon was a fourth-round draft choice for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1993. For the next three years, he pitched for Brewers minor league teams in Chandler, Ariz., and Helena, Mont. Those years provided lots of good family vacations, says Marlene Sheldon, since Sheldon always encouraged family members to come watch him play.

The years also provided still more background for a food industry career. His salary in the minors, says Sheldon, was just $850 a month, so “my three roommates and I learned to make incredible dinners on a small budget.”

On the mound, Shane Sheldon could throw hard (95 mph and up), but he says his control wasn’t where it needed to be for the big leagues. “I was as wild as you could be when it came to throwing strikes,” he laughs.

After three years with Brewers’ teams, he spent a year in the independent Prairie League, playing in Brandon, Manitoba. That season he tore his rotator cuff, an injury that would send him home to Michigan for shoulder surgery and ultimately launch his new career.

Sheldon says that, his professional baseball career behind him, he “thought bartending would be cool.” So he got himself hired as Bravo’s daytime bartender and, “After two weeks, I knew this was the business I was going to be in,” he says.

A bartender at a restaurant isn’t all that busy during the day, Sheldon says, so he “bothered Terry and Shawn” (Hagen brothers, owners of Bravo) and in so doing learned a lot about the restaurant business.

O

ver the next three years plus, Sheldon learned the ropes from the experts at Bravo, where, in addition to tending bar, he also served, hosted (with his arm in a sling following his surgery) and managed a little.

At the same time, Sheldon says he was tending bar at the Hideaway, a bar in Vicksburg. He remembers that patrons and other staffers at the Hideaway laughed at his work clothes: khakis and golf shirts.

“I haven’t owned any jeans since high school,” he confesses.

From Bravo, Sheldon moved on to the University Roadhouse, where he met another pair of brothers who would hugely influence his life, Chris and Tim Housler.

Tim Housler had started the Main Street Pub on West Main in Kalamazoo in 1990, and the University Roadhouse had opened in 1991. By the time Shane came their way in the early 2000s, the Houslers had already opened a string of Main Street Pubs and Fletchers Pubs. So Sheldon found his niche in the Housler empire.

Chris Housler, Sheldon says, gave him the opportunity to do some managing, and from him, the ex-pitcher learned about the business side of food service. His Roadhouse days were also the first time Sheldon “got to see some action in the kitchen,” he says, since the managers in all the Main Street restaurants were expected to jump in when things got busy.

Sheldon then spent five years or so learning about all aspects of the business by serving as general manager at the Grill at the Moors, where he had his first opportunity to create the menu — as district manager for all the Housler restaurants, and as manager of the Beacon Club.

All this experience helped Sheldon learn more about himself, too, including what he really wanted to do (run a restaurant of his own) and what his food passions were (casual fine dining).

About that time, the Houslers had decided to close their Main Street Pub in Texas Corners. They offered the site to Sheldon to see what he could do with it, and told him they would back him.

His family thought he was crazy. As his mother puts it, “. . . in this economy, on a site where three other restaurants hadn’t made it (Bud’s Bar, Cork at the Corner, and Main Street Pub), and orange and purple!?!?”

But Sheldon had made up his mind: “We were bringing a concept that had never been done in Texas Corners, (an upscale restaurant) focused solely on dinner.”

And yes, he wanted the color scheme to be orange (he prefers calling it burnt sienna) and purple.

Step one was to renovate the Housler’s facility to match his vision. Actually, much of it was, by necessity, the vision of Sheldon’s girlfriend, Jeanne Peltier, who holds a degree in interior design from Western Michigan University.

“Shane has always loved orange,” she says, “and he picked the faux finish.”

Peltier then designed around those two choices, layering textures by use of patterned glass, wood, tile and carpet, and dramatic lighting. The result is an urban, contemporary look that melds comfort and sophistication.

The new restaurant had just a small budget to work with. “Shane had to make a go of it with what he had,” says Marlene Sheldon. Fortunately, what he had included a lot of supportive friends and family members, not to mention a local high-school football team.

With help from cousins, aunts and uncles (especially Uncle Jon Richards), Sheldon and Peltier changed the building’s entry way, restored the flooring, redesigned the bar area, scrubbed, tiled, painted, reupholstered and stained. One of the biggest challenges in the remodel was removing the old carpeting, with glue that seemed to have been designed to last for centuries. But Sheldon has friends with sons who play on the Portage Central High School football team. Players tackled the sticky problem and eventually scored a

clean floor for the new restaurant.

Sheldon consistently tries to patronize local vendors and merchants as much as possible.

He buys produce at the Texas Township Farmers Market, conveniently located just kitty-corner from BOLD. The wine list is 100 percent American, points out Sheldon, with all wines coming from Michigan, California, Oregon and Washington State. Even the restaurant’s artwork has Michigan roots. Grand Rapids-based artist Deborah Hoover, long a favorite of Sheldon’s, was commissioned to do several pieces for the project.

B

OLD’s head chef is Andy Havey. A Kalamazoo native, Havey earned a culinary arts degree from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, S.C. He worked in restaurants and private clubs in Colorado and California before returning to Kalamazoo, where he was at Mangia Top to bottom: BOLD bartender Mangia before Sheldon Michael Sansone, hired him at BOLD, just hostess Meaghan Lamb, server Chris Fish. days before its grand opening in November 2009.

“I got lucky,” says Sheldon. “Andy came into a restaurant where the menu was in place … and put his touch on things.”

Sheldon says it was like the items on BOLD’s menu “ … were my kids and Andy adopted them and made them better.”

BOLD’s menu comprises “simple food with big flavors,” says Sheldon, also crediting that concept with the name he chose for the restaurant. The theme is regional American cuisine, and the regions

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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Sheldon Family has %LJ OHDJXH &RQQHFWLRQV

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HE SHELDON family and the Jeters from Kalamazoo became bleacher friends when their sons, Shane and Derek (you may have heard of him), were in middle school, Marlene Sheldon says.

Both Shane and Derek played baseball and basketball while they were in school, so the two frequently played against each other.

During the summers, Shaneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family watched him pitch and Dr. Charles and Dot Jeter watched Derek play shortstop in the Kabaseba trainingg academy. lamazoo Maroons baseball

B Baseball was king in Shaneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life for many years.

Here he is pictured as a youngster (left) and when he pitched for a Milwaukee Brewers minor-league team.

The Sheldons and the Jeters drove to Detroit together when young Shane and Derek attended a work-out camp at Tiger Stadium, designed to give the young men a chance to do drills in the big league venue, while the league had a chance to scope out young talent. â&#x20AC;&#x153;My mom and dad will never forget that,â&#x20AC;? says Marlene.

Derek Jeter was drafted by the Yankees organization in 1992 and made his major league debut in 1995. During his rookie year with the Yankees, Derek told his dad that he felt it was time for him to start a foundation. Soon after, Jeterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Turn 2 Foundation was born.

Named for Jeterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s uniform number, as well as a dramatic double play made by inďŹ elders, the Foundation also aimed to give young people a group they could â&#x20AC;&#x153;turn to.â&#x20AC;?

The mission of the Turn 2 Foundation has from its inception been to promote healthy lifestyles among young people and to help them avoid drugs and alcohol. Since its launch, the Turn 2 Foundation has awarded more than $12 million in grants to promote healthy lifestyles for thousands

of young people.

Marlene Sheldon happened to be living in Manhattan at the time Jeter was launching his foundation. Shortly after it started, she began volunteering, and then, after moving back to Michigan in 2002, she joined the Turn 2 staff. For the next ďŹ ve years, she was its program specialist, visiting and helping with all the programs funded by the Foundation, including Jeterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Leaders, baseball clinics, Proud to Be Me Programs, Girls on the Run, after-school programs and scholarships.

Marlene Sheldon retired from the Turn 2 Foundation in 2011.

The Sheldons maintain their friendship with the Jeters, and Marlene Sheldon says that fame and success have not changed Derek Jeter. â&#x20AC;&#x153;He is everything they say he is. The minute I see Derek, he always asks, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;How are Shane and Josh and Melissa?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; He still remembers everybody and is curious about how weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re doing.â&#x20AC;?

For more information about Derek Jeterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Turn 2 Foundation, visit http://derekjeter.mlb. com/players/jeter_derek/turn2.

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Sheldon

represented are primarily those Sheldon and Havey like the best. Their years in the South show up in the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Southern dishes, such as shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes, and bread pudding. Both like southwest cooking, so thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s there, too, in such plates as crispy chicken ďŹ&#x201A;autas, seared scallops, and ancho portabella sauce. Sheldon, harking back to holidays in Savanna, prefers Cajun, so BOLD tenderloin and roasted corn and crab dip are also prominent. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I took all the food I was passionate about,â&#x20AC;? says Sheldon, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and I kept my family members and friends in mind for every dish.â&#x20AC;? Sheldon says his grandfather, Abe Ryskamp, loves whiteďŹ sh, so thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on the menu. (Sheldon does point out, however, patting his smooth and shiny head, that the name of his restaurant is BOLD, not BALD, which was what his grandfather originally thought the name was to be.)

From its earliest days, BOLD has been an active player in local charity events. Its chef and staff participate in events that beneďŹ t local ďŹ re and police departments; Ministry With Community (Havey won that organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s annual Chefs Against Hunger competition the ďŹ rst year he entered; BOLD is also a regular at its annual Gumbo Fest); the March of Dimes (BOLD was voted best overall in its Signature Chefâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Auction); local high schools; and the Portage Community Outreach Center.

Sheldon says that such events give him and Havey a chance to meet people, to showcase their skills and to help local causes.

Sheldon credits his staff with much of the success BOLD is enjoying. Turnover has been very low (rare in the restaurant business). A Sheldon cousin, Jaymie Richards, is the restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bartender and manager. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the only family member who can stand working for me,â&#x20AC;? says Sheldon ruefully.

Shane Sheldon says his vision for BOLD is to have it become a dining destination and, he says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re getting there.â&#x20AC;?

More and more people are coming to Texas Corners from all over southern Michigan to see what Shane Sheldon is putting over the plate today.

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rd Photo: Russ Offo

Aerial Angel Zay “Spike” Weaver performs at the Sault St. Marie, Mich., Busker Festival, doing the splits in aerial silks.

“She floats through the air with the greatest of ease, that daring young woman on the flying trapeze.

Her moves are so graceful, the crowd it doth please and my heart she has stolen away … ”

Flying High: The Aerial Angels

P

ARAPHRASING a popular Walter O’Keefe song from the 1930s, those soaring lyrics embody the agility and grace of the Aerial Angels. Primarily woman aerialists, the Kalamazoobased troupe does have male members in its growing rank of 11 high-flying performers who range in age from an intern who is 16 to those in their late 30s. Several of the key women in the company have ties to Kalamazoo and met while attending or teaching at Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College.

“In 2003 I was a professor at WMU, teaching acting, voice and movement in the theater department. I also worked with contact improvisational dance, and one of my students had studied some aerial and circus arts,” founder and artistic director Allison “Isabella” Williams explains (Isabella is her stage name). “We began practicing and performing together outside of the classroom, and incorporating some basic aerial skills in our contact improv.

“The Aerial Angels company was formed in my backyard with just me and two of the Western students. In the first year, we began performing at Renaissance festivals, outdoor events, and in shopping malls. Both of those original girls have moved on. One joined the Peace Corps and the other went on to graduate school, so I went in search of other members to add to the troupe.”

From that humble beginning, Williams — who also has an MFA degree in Playwriting — now teams up as a trio with other “Angels” to tour all over the world. “I like to say that we are the hardest working company in Kalamazoo that is almost never actually IN Kalamazoo,” she quips.

Not exclusively trapeze artists, the Angels have a list of aerial skills that include the use of hoops or silk/fabric, and the solo and duo trapeze. They also perform partner acrobatics and balancing, suspended straitjacket escape stunts, fire-eating, and whip-cracking with targets, all mixed in with plenty of comedy and audience participation.

Their busy 2011 summer tour schedule began in Alaska, then continued on to Canada and Germany. Allison and two other Angels recently attended the International Busker Festival in Victoria, British Columbia, where they played for appreciative local audiences and the tourists from cruise ships docked in the popular 36

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By Patrice Mindock resort region.

What’s a busker? To “busk” is to play music or perform entertainment in a public place, usually while soliciting money. The term refers to an itinerant performer and comes from the archaic French “busquer,” which means “to prowl” mixed with the Spanish “buscar,” which means “to seek.”

“Every year, we make it a point to do one event in our hometown of Kalamazoo,” Williams stresses. “Usually, it’s a free performance at the main branch of the Kalamazoo Public Library, in their atrium. I do own a home in Kalamazoo and perform in a few shows in west Michigan, but I am primarily on the road except for a few weeks per year.”

Since its inception, the Aerial Angels troupe has appeared in 28 U.S. states, seven Canadian provinces, and 19 countries, including Macedonia, Serbia, Singapore and Dubai.

Lest you think that a performance art that incorporates elements of circus, ballet, gymnastics and yoga is not successful, the Aerial Angels note that every year they’ve been in business they’ve doubled their revenue from the previous year. “Circus is now considered hot,” says Zay “Spike” Weaver, an Angel since 2004. “It’s the hip thing; all the cool kids are doing it, and you will often find aerial silk classes at fitness centers or other community outreach programs. The popularity of the concept is building awareness and respect for professional aerialists like us.”

In recent years, there has been a trend toward what Williams calls “the democratization” of circus. “In past history, you had to be born into or married into a trapeze artist group or a circusoriented family to be legitimate,” Williams notes. “The shift in this form of entertainment option dates back to the early 1980s with the advent of the original Canadian Cirque de Soleil, created by Montreal street performers.

They really opened the door for new and different types of circus-style acts and apparatus. When you don’t need a giant net, it’s much easier to do aerial work. None of the acts we do require a net, so we are able to be portable and set up wherever we want.”

Another current Angel, M.A. “Mimi” Harrison, says they of-

ten drive to gigs all over the United States in their “official tour vehicle” — a Toyota Camry with 361,000 miles — that carries their 24-foot, adjustable, free-standing, tripod, aerial rig strapped to the top. “The car is crammed with other pieces of the rig, our props and us, so in such close quarters, we girls have to get along,” Harrison adds. “We are mostly women in the company, but there are two guys working for us right now. One is based in Texas and does mostly trapeze and aerial straps, and the other is located in Alaska and specializes in partner acrobatics.”

A

Photo: Dan Lines

Photo: Fehmi Comert

Allisa “Isabella” Williams whips celery from an audience member’s mouth at Covent Garden, London. Look closely and you can see the piece that’s been severed from the stalk.

ll performers have “signature” moves that they consider their specialty. “Mine is the splits, in many different positions,” Harrison notes. For Williams, it’s a fast upside-down slide at the end of her act. Her head comes within 12 inches of the ground before she stops.

“My favorite move is what we call the star fall,” adds Weaver.

“I wrap myself up in the silk in such a way that it creates a full forward dive rotation with a lateral rotation like a cartwheel. It feels like I’m riding a roller coaster.”

They bill their shows as “zany, sassy and fun.” Depending on the venue and the type of audience, their comedy and stunts can range from G-rated to “naughty.”

While it wasn’t the intention of the Angels to become female role models, Williams says their shows tend to “send a positive message” to women of all ages. “We are not stick thin,

we have normal, real women’s body types,” she notes.

The aerial silks act using colorful fabric is very visually appealing, graceful, and blends different styles of movement. “The impetus for using the silks in performance is based on an idea created by a woman performer attending circus school in France,” she explains. “For their graduating show, students were asked to create an act using skills they already had, but with a new apparatus. This performer went to a flea market, bought 25 yards of fabric, and put Aerial Angel Zay “Spike” Weaver A escapes from chains, rope, and together the very first aerial silks act. handcuffs in an indoor touring Scouts from Cirque de Soleil saw the show, titled “Stand Up 8.” final exam show and hired her. That’s what popularized the use of aerial silks.”

Williams notes that she enjoys having random audience members come up to her to tell of their experiences trying out the silks in classes at their local gyms.

“We encourage interested people to come to our teaching workshops while we are on tour,” Harrison adds. “Anyone can do this if they are willing to take the time and effort to learn the skills. So many people think they are not agile or strong enough, and I get a real kick out of getting participants of all ages up in the air.”

Tongue in cheek, Harrison also admits to being a “total adrenaline and endorphin rush junkie.” The women aerialists also describe 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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Aerial Angels

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the end of their performance workdays as a combination of â&#x20AC;&#x153;incredible exhilarationâ&#x20AC;? and â&#x20AC;&#x153;total exhaustion.â&#x20AC;?

The Aerial Angels appear at corporate events, outdoor festivals, private parties or conventions, school assemblies and community events. Some of their clients include the Atlanta Aquarium, Chrysler Corporation, the Ritz-Carlton Reynolds Plantation, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Comcast Cable. While the troupe prefers to do paid work, the members also embrace a mission of performing regardless of the audienceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to pay.

The proďŹ tability of their street performances â&#x20AC;&#x201D; busking â&#x20AC;&#x201D; varies based on country. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In places like Macedonia, Kosovo, Serbia and Croatia, the audiences are generous by local standards, but their currency just isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t worth very much. We do those shows because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meaningful to us to act as ambassadors, especially in countries like Serbia where there are long-standing stereotypes about the U.S.,â&#x20AC;? says Williams. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In street theater, we are accessible to everyone who passes by,â&#x20AC;? says Weaver. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a venue where you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to buy an expensive ticket, go indoors to sit quietly in a dark room, or get dressed up to watch a performance.â&#x20AC;?

The Angels also say they make it a point to thank their audiences for coming outdoors to actively watch something â&#x20AC;&#x153;realâ&#x20AC;? happening â&#x20AC;&#x153;liveâ&#x20AC;? instead of passively sitting home watching recorded events being shown on a glowing TV or computer screen.

Some of the adverse weather conditions the troupe has had to perform under include extreme heat and the polar opposite â&#x20AC;&#x201D; walking barefoot on the snow with freezing rain falling during one Winterfest show in Ontario, Canada. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The audiences and cultural confusion can also be a challenge,â&#x20AC;? reports Weaver. â&#x20AC;&#x153;In Dubai, we were doing our tricks and moves and were expecting the typical applause during our act, but it was completely silent. We received only a polite clapping at the end. We thought they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t enjoy it, but then we had a huge line of people lined up afterward, waiting to shake our hands and take our photos. They were only being extremely respectful, reserving their applause for the end of the show.â&#x20AC;?

Spike, Isabella and Mimi in the desert in Dubai.

T

he physical demands of being an aerialist take their toll in strained muscles and minor injuries, so staying fit and strong is vital to the performers. Weaver, while now very physically active, admits she was not always in such great shape.

Photo: Dragan

Photo: Courtesy

Aerial Angels

Along with outdoor venues, the Aerial Angels have a large-scale indoor touring show called Stand Up 8, which features an Olympic trampoline, aerial acts and comedy. “It’s a reality circus,” explains Williams. “The audience gets to know the personal stories behind the glamour. We began touring this year and will do so through 2012, funded by winning a quarter-million dollar investment in a competition in October 2008 on a Canadian reality TV show called ‘Dragons’ Den.’ ” The reality circus began rehearsals and development in 2009 and is currently booked across the United States and Canada. Most recently, Stand Up 8 brought that show ‘home’ to GVSU in Grand Rapids.” One other special aspect of the Angels is Starfish Circus, a residency program for students in grades K–12, held in schools, theaters or camp programs. The program is billed as a team-building effort, “helping young people develop skills for team work, communication and social interaction, work ethics, and a strong, positive self-image.”

“I was a couch potato,” she laughs. “I graduated from WMU with a degree in theater performance and that’s where I met Allison. I was occasionally active but I didn’t have a dance background or any real athletic tendencies.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Harrison was a typical female jock. “I grew up extremely active in sports, participating in soccer, softball, hockey, figure skating and anything that kept me moving,” she states.

“I was training to be a professional ballerina, but when I met Allison at Kalamazoo College and got an Angels ‘externship’ through a K College program, I fell in love with the aerial aspects. I started in her

Isabella eats fire in Budva, Montenegro, at the Buskers Bash.

backyard and never really left.” Harrison graduated with an honors B.A. in French language, literature and music. She has lived in Kalamazoo for over seven years.

“Even though we are not home that often, we love being a part of the arts community in Kalamazoo,” Williams stresses.

“It does indeed benefit us to be part of a community where the arts are valued and seen as a major contribution to the civic discourse. Comparing Kalamazoo to many cities on our travels, there is so much available in this region that is not often found

Mother’s Amber Daum An opalescent Daum vase she placed on a pedestal stand in a lighted corner, its wider base covered with overlapping silver vine leaves from which it rose like a tree trunk, translucent as a vertical flame when it caught the sunlight. Carved into crystal, a silvery leafed elm trapped like an insect or a mote of dust inside amber resin, a tree within a tree-shaped vase. One could almost feel the wind blowing through its dark veined branches, sense the rustle of leaves that would never fall, flying like petals as in Corot’s landscapes, the same landscapes she loved to reproduce, bent hours long over an easel till she’d enter the scene. Her brush would rearrange dot by dot the red scarf of the woman resting under the arching elm in Mortefontaine, highlight with one stroke the cap of the boatman anchoring his skiff alongside the riverbank.

By Hedy Habra Hedy Habra received her MFA and a PhD in Spanish Literature from Western Michigan University where she currently teaches. Her poetry and fiction in French, Spanish and English have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including “Parting Gifts,” “Puerto del Sol,” “The New York Quarterly,” “Cider Press Review,” “Nimrod and Poet Lore.” This poem, “Mother’s Amber Daum,” was published in “Museum Views: Art Info.”

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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in much larger urban areas.”

One of the biggest challenges for the performers is being on the road constantly in close quarters. “We are almost a family, like sisters,” Weaver says.

Williams says the constant travel can wear on the nerves. “We are careful not to hire anyone unless we can imagine spending 14 hours in a car with them,” she says.

“We deal with that in the hiring process.

If we have someone new possibly coming into the group, they are invited along on a shorter trip to ‘audition.’ While aerial skill is very important to us, with the popular aerial trend there are enough talented, charismatic and personable aerialists out there that we can have our pick of which ones to hire. They must be a good fit.”

The Angels currently receive about three videos or resumes each month from aerial applicants interested in a full-time job or an internship. Rather than invest immediately in a new troupe member, the applicants are booked into shows on a trial basis. The potential performers then audition in small parts as part of a tour when the Angels are scheduled to be in or near their geographic location. They may continue to be pulled in as “guest artists” on occasion or eventually be hired as part of the full troupe. “That full inclusion into the Aerial Angels company happens when we really bond with a performer or they bring something new and amazing to our mix of performance skills,” Williams stresses.

An Aerial Angel has to be flexible in mind and spirit as well as body. Of their most recent Michigan gigs, Williams says, “One day, we may be staying in a fancy hotel room in the Detroit area so we can perform for thousands of people, and the next day we’re on a street corner in Holland thrilling a handful of people outside the Coldstone Creamery.”

A love of travel is a must. Harrison says, “If this wasn’t my job, I’d still probably save up every penny I made just so I could travel and see new places. Everywhere I go, I get excited about connecting with the people, trying different foods, viewing the art, architecture and the natural landscapes.

I feel at home no matter if I am in Macedonia, New Zealand, Mexico or Iceland.”

The women consider themselves travelers, not tourists. “We embrace the

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local cultures, meet up with friends in different countries and stay in private homes when we can,” Harrison notes.

“We buy food from local markets and do normal behind-the-scenes living as opposed to running around to see the museums and attractions.”

In coordinating a recent corporate event for Chrysler at the automaker’s headquarters in Auburn Hills, Williams had the opportunity to hire a large group of performers. “This was Chrysler’s family day with 42,000 guests,” she points out.

“We provided them with 44 entertainers, 12 crew members and six hours of continuous entertainment. There were two huge circus tents and roving entertainers on the company’s grounds. We brought together people from the Renaissance festivals, the street performer and busker circuits, all mixed with older, seasoned, circus performers and new circus-school graduates.”

In the future, Williams sees the Aerial Angels spinning off into event management. “We love performing, and we intend to continue our own shows, but I also really enjoy the detail-oriented challenge of event management,” she stresses. We’ll get the chance to connect our fellow talented performers with grateful clients. The clients enjoy quality entertainment and, in turn, they pay the performers well and appreciate the performances. It is extremely satisfying to be able to make that match happen.”

Visit the Aerial Angels online at angelsintheair.com, or visit their fast-moving Facebook page.

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Spirit of Kalamazoo (continued from page 22)

Photo: Theresa Coty O’Neil

Foundation of Kalamazoo County, the lead organization in raising funds from public and private sources for the construction of the trail.

And now, after 20 years, I’ve come full circle and have become involved with the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail (KRVT), doing what I’m passionate about. Since 1995 I had been leading bird and nature walks on the Kal-Haven Trail for the Audubon Society of Kalamazoo (ASK). Kyle Lewis, KRVT program coordinator, heard of these and asked if ASK would be An autumn golf cart tour on the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail is both beautiful and educational. Here Ilse Gebhard instructs on leaves to be found along the way. willing to do some interpretative nature walks for the KRVT as well. A couple of members agreed Because we live so close to the Kal-Haven Trail, I will conto help me, and we’ve learned, at least somewhat, what interests tinue to use it for most of my personal day-to-day recreational the general public—wildflowers, a resounding yes; birds, nah; activities. While the familiar is comforting, sometimes it’s just fall colors, yes. nice to have a change of scenery, which the KRVT now provides The most popular, and to me most satisfying, nature walks/ me—say, the stretch along the Kalamazoo River or the uprides have been the golf-cart tours for senior citizens. I’m getand-down topography north of the Kalamazoo Nature Center. ting to an age where I can envision going on a golf-cart tour Volunteer opportunities for the KRVT also abound, like the two more readily than running a 10k or biking to South Haven. garlic-mustard-pulling events I helped with last spring—and Starting a couple of years ago with one tour each in spring and planting native wildflowers this fall. fall, four tours now fill up both spring and fall. The Senior Golf So consider taking a walk or bike ride on the KRVT, or join Cart Tours were selected as the “Best Senior Program” at the one of the many organized recreational events, or even help Michigan Recreation and Parks Association annual conference, with a workday. which was held in Traverse City this past February. The award Check the Web site at http://www.kalcounty.com/parks/krvt is called “Pro-Grammy,” a kind of play on words for the “Gramor Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kalamazoo-Rivermys,” the musical awards.

Valley-Trail/364506328664.

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here Business Meets Pleasure . . . he Blue Room . . .

just one of the beautifully decorated dining rooms.

Private dining . . . one of the many benefits of Park Club membership.

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Creative Kids

In Pavitra’s basement on a recent Sunday, the girls gathered for class. They were barefoot, clad in comfortable clothes and wore ankle bells that tinkled each time they jumped or stomped. As they moved, they chanted the verses and names: Ramayana. He’s a warrior. He is great. He wears a sacred dress. He’s a king.

The movements were measured and graceful, Traditional dancers Pavitra Attanayake, Kathleen D’Souza, and Alyssa D’Souza interact including rhythmic head and hand gestures. Unlike many forms of western dance that seek to defy gravity, with Collette Gillette, a resident of Wyndham West at Heritage Community.

Susan explained, dancers of Bharatanatyam employ gravity.

Janice D’Souza were born and raised in India; The Attanayake “When we jump, we jump down because the dancer originally parents, Upul and Sanjeewani, while of Indian descent, were performed in a temple. In Bharatanatyam, we love the energy of born and raised in Sri Lanka. Their girls say they are learning the ground.” about their ancestral culture and mythology through the dance.

Susan, who also teaches ballet and jazz locally, is pleased to All three of these young performers would eventually like work with such dedicated students. to achieve Arangetram, a special graduation ceremony marked “These girls do everything at the top of their class,” said with the first solo public performance of Bharatanatyam. PrepaSusan. “They play instruments. They are very busy. They only ration for Arangetram usually takes eight to 10 years and signihave Sundays, so they make time on Sundays.” fies that the dancer has achieved a high level of mastery.

As the girls learned more dances, they began to feel ready Meanwhile, they are quite happy learning new dances and to perform. Under Susan’s guidance, they formed the Hindu performing together. “After learning all the movements, when Devotional Dancers, and over the past couple of years they you perform, you can show what you’ve learned, so it feels like have appeared at Peace Pizzazz, a multi-denominational peace a reward,” said Pavitra. “I like sharing what we’ve learned with festival held in Bronson Park in May; at the Michigan Festival people and seeing their responses.” of Sacred Music; and at other local gatherings, including camps “I also like showing other people how to do some of the and nursing homes throughout the area. movements,” said Alyssa.

Pavitra’s mother, Sanjeewani, hand sews the elaborate and Their next scheduled public performance will be on colorful silk costumes, which are stitched with gold-colored November 18 at the Michigan Festival of Sacred Music in a thread. Because of the numerous buttons, dressing for a perpre-concert program with Rohan Krishnamurthy, who will formance takes close to an hour. The jewelry and ornamentabe performing classical Indian music on the mridangam with tion suits the ideals of Hindu design, dress and beauty, while South Indian vina and vocalist Chitravina Ravikiran. complementing the grace of the dance, explained Susan.

For more information on their performance, please see www.

While neither of the families is Hindu, parents Lorenzo and mfsm.us.

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Photo: Courtesy Susan Iervolina

(continued from page 23)

If You Think It, We Can Ink It!

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Bellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Borgess Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of catchy, isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t it? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s kind of inspiring. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how we feel every day when we see the new batch of projects we get to help nurture and grow.

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Greenleaf Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Heilmanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

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(question on page 8)

Michigan Lifestyle Properties . . . . . . . . . 19 Midtown Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Miller Auditorium. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Miller Davis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 The Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Oakland Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The Park Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Paw Paw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Portage Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Rogers Refrigeration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Sharp Smile Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 South Street Cigars & Spirits . . . . . . . . . . 35 What A Do Theatre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 WMUK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 YMCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

In 1883, Moses Lane, one of the proprietors of the Kalamazoo Wagon Company, partnered with his brother-in-law, Frank Lay, to set up the Michigan Buggy Company.

It produced 19,000 vehicles in 30 styles: â&#x20AC;&#x153;a full line of buggies, cabriolets, phaetons, surreys, spring wagons, etc.â&#x20AC;? In 1909, with horseless-carriages becoming rapidly popular, the Kalamazoo Wagon Co. released â&#x20AC;&#x153;another Michigan automobileâ&#x20AC;? instead of their usual â&#x20AC;&#x153;Tony Ponyâ&#x20AC;? line. This caused revenue to pour in, and the labor force rose tremendously. In 1913, the company launched a $350,000 campaign (nearly $9,000,000 in current currency) for their automobile, the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Mighty Michigan.â&#x20AC;?

Unfortunately, due to embezzlement, the Kalamazoo Wagon Company went bankrupt by the end of the year.

Trivia Column by Maureen Massie 44

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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

(continued from page 27)

Portage District Library 329-4544

Museums

Air Zoo 382-6555

Solo Exhibit — This new art exhibit features watercolors and mixed media work from Randall Bonzo. Nov. 18–Dec. 31.

Great Books Reading and Discussion Group — Join to discuss “The Seven Deadly Sins” a collection of short stories.

Nov. 6 & 20, 2 p.m.

The Journey of Grief: Coping with the Holidays — A presentation on grief and the loss cycle by Layla Jabboori of Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan. Includes a tour of the facility. Nov. 10, 6:30 p.m.

Oakland Center, 2255 West Centre Ave. The Fire and the Gold: Marie Thompson Stoline — A reading, reception and book signing by the author of this study of the people affected by the Chernobyl tragedy.

This event is a kickoff to the Russian Festival. Nov. 13, 2 p.m.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 373-7990

Boy Scout Aviation Day — Scouts can earn a badge while they learn about the forces of flight, preflight inspections, and how to build a glider. Nov. 19, 9:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.

Miscellaneous Gwen Frostic Reading Series — A series of visits by outstanding writers sponsored by the WMU English Department. Carlos Murillo, Nov. 17, 8 p.m.; Elizabeth Knapp, Melinda Moustakis and Jason Skipper, Dec. 1, 8 p.m. WMU Bernhard Center, Rooms 157–158.

Fractals: Mathematics and Science as Art — 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, 2012.

CSI: Crime Scene Insects — This exhibit dives into forensic entomology, the use of insects such as flies, maggots and beetles, to reveal critical details of a crime scene.

Through Jan. 1.

Sunday History Series — Tom Dietz, Curator of Research, and guest speakers will discuss various topics. “The Big Village,” Nov. 13, 1:30 p.m.

Planetarium Programs — The following programs are planned. “Mayan Prophesies,” Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. at 3 p.m.; “Big,” Weekdays, 11 a.m., Sat., 1 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m.; “Starry Messenger,” Tues. & Thur., 3 p.m., Sat., 2 p.m.

Nature Kalamazoo Nature Center 381-1574 Creature Feature — See some of KNC’s animals out from behind the glass with handlers to answer your questions. Nov. 5 & 19, 12–1 p.m.

Fall Color Hike — Enjoy the colors of fall during an educational hike in the woods.

Nov. 6, 2 p.m.

Kellogg Biological Station 671-2510 Birds & Beans — Join a bird walk followed by coffee and discussion. Nov. 9, 8:30–10 a.m. 12685 E. C Ave. near Gull Lake.

Low rates. Local decisions.

There’s a lot to like about refinancing with Keystone.

If you’re looking to refinance, look to us. At Keystone, we want to help you refinance now while rates are low. And as a local community bank, we service our own loans and our experienced lending staff is personally committed to assisting you with every aspect of your mortgage. Your community is our community.

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

Visit us anytime at keystonebank.com, or just stop by your local branch.

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Foto Stop

Profile

Entries Wanted!

Photographer FRAN DWIGHT says she sometimes just has to get to nature — fast!

“A morning fog or winter hoar frost waits for no photographer,” she says. And such was the case when she shot this scene at Milham Park on an October morning in 2007. One autumn early morning at her home in the Edison neighborhood Fran looked outside to see heavy fog with the sun slicing sideways through the mist.

“I grabbed my camera, jumped in the car and headed to the park, a quick five minutes away.”

Fran describes her walk along the north side of the creek that day as becoming increasingly more beautiful, with magic light and incredible colors.

Fran, a Kalamazoo native, is employed at the accounting firm BDO USA located in the beautifully restored Globe Building. “The walls

of our office serve as my permanent gallery,” she says. Currently Fran is in a photography partnership with Brian Powers under the name Kalamazoo Photo Works, shooting engagements, weddings, senior portraits, and other occasions. She says Kalamazoo Photo Works offers a journalistic story-telling approach to its wedding photography, and the partnership has produced photos for brides and grooms in Savannah, Ga., Estes Park, Colo., and Florida, as well as locally.

To capture this landscape in one of Kalamazoo’s best-known parks, Fran used a Nikon D80 with an 18-135 Nikor lens and a focal length of 80 mm. Her shutter speed was 1/80th with an aperture of F-13 and ISO of 160.

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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 your 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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