Encore-2012-003

t MARCH 2012 www.encorekalamazoo.com www.encorekala

Glass Art Center

is a clear success

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

3WEET $REAMS "EHIND THE #UPCAKE :OO s 4IM 4ERRENTINE Ladies’ Library Association at 160 Years

t r u e s t o ry

He made it first. We made it last.

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We’ll give you the full story.

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

YOUR HEART

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

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Little Collisions I THINK we take each other for granted.

I mean we, as in the human race.

Poet Czelaw Milosz wrote, “Every day is precious because this earth goes through its seasons, and every season might be our last; every moment of meeting an earthly creature is unique, unrepeatable.”

I know that he was referring to all of earth’s creatures, particularly a salamander, but his words are an affirmation of just how irreplaceable a “moment of meeting” with another human being can be.

It’s what happens because of those “moments of meeting” between people, when our small worlds collide with another’s, that is so intriguing. These little collisions happen to us dozens of times each day, with friends, family, co-workers or complete strangers. Like the moon’ s surface pelted by meteors and asteroids all these years, many of these encounters — whether it was something said or done (or not) — leave indelible impressions and change us in small, or sometimes, large ways.

And we may not realize it for years after it’s happened.

Lindsey Pompileo, the owner of the Cupcake Zoo, knows something about that. She didn’t know as a kid that the pesky younger girl who was always around would one day give up a year of her life to become the Pompelio family’s “everything” when Lindsey underwent nine months of weekly chemotherapy. And when Lindsey worked as a server at the Epic Bistro, she had no idea that her bosses and customers would become her biggest supporters in a new business venture.

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It’s the same with Tim Terrentine. His adoption at the age of two altered the course of his life. Coaches and teachers he encountered in school further shaped the young man’s personal philosophies. The result? Since his very first job working with kids in the public schools to his current position at Southwest Michigan First, he has worked to better the lives of others and his community. There is no doubt that someone out there, who has been fortunate enough to collide with Tim at some point, is different because of it.

Truly, where would we be without each other? Alone, we are unique, but collectively, we are powerful, like the clusters of stars that illuminate a galaxy.

The West Michigan Glass Art Center, our cover story, is testament to that. Four glass artists passionate about their art, got together to promote their craft. A decade later, the West Michigan Glass Art Center offers state-of-the-art studios, classes and events that promote glass art.

This facility is unrivaled by anything else in the state. It was people who built this amazing center for other people to learn and enjoy.

The Ladies Library Association is another fantastic example. This year is its 160th year of doing good works in Kalamazoo. Who are behind those good works? Hundreds of people, particularly women.

People. They are truly the best part of being at the helm of Encore Magazine. I don’t always get to personally collide with all the individuals we write about, but I feel as if I do through our articles. I believe that every story we run is like one of those small collisions — it can leave an indelible mark and somehow change us just for having read it.

— Marie Lee, Editor

Editor Marie Lee Advertising Sales/ Business Manager Krieg Lee Office Manager Ronald Dundon Feature Artist Suzanne Blaine Siegel

6 A decade old, WEST MICHIGAN GLASS ART CENTER is thriving.

Poetry Editor Theresa Coty O’Neil Contributing Writers Kit Almy Tom Chmielewski Theresa Coty O’Neil Brian Lam Larry Massie Maureen Massie

Photo: Dawn Bennett-Dailey

Publisher Encore Publications, Inc.

7PMVNF *TTVF t .BSDI

MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

12 LINDSEY POMPILEO’s

sweet dreams come true with the Cupcake Zoo.

Contributing Poets Ann Chestnut Larry Massie

18

SPECIALS

Emerging leader

4 FROM THE EDITOR

TIM TERRENTINE

is an advocate for all.

Photo: Courtesy Southwest Michigan First

22 SPIRIT OF KALAMAZOO

Big Leap From a (Not So Little) Hop 23 CREATIVE KIDS

So Many Talents, So Little Time 24 Foto STOP

Michigan News Agency, Facing West

30 At 160 years, LADIES’ LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

26 MASSIE’S MICHIGAN

Blue Water Grave

is proud of its age.

36 EVENTS OF NOTE 42 TRIVIA PURZOOT Photo: Kit Almy

Encore magazine is published nine times yearly, September through May. Copyright 2012, Encore Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising correspondence should be sent to 350 S. Burdick, Suite 214, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. Telephone: (269) 383-4433. Fax number: (269) 383-9767. Email: Publisher@Encorekalamazoo.com. The staff at Encore welcomes written comment from readers, and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to print or return them. To learn more about us or to comment, you may visit www. encorekalamazoo.com. Encore subscription rates: one year $27.00, two years $53.00, three years $78.00. Current single issue and newsstand $4.00, $10.00 by mail. Back issues $6.00, $12.00 by mail.

Advertising rates on request.

Closing date for space is 28 days prior to publication date.

Final date for print-ready copy is 21 days prior to publication date.

Photo: Erik Holladay

Designer Brakeman

Cover art: Calming, yet beautiful, Ellen Kohler’s stained glass creation, Waterlily, captures one of the most loved of summer scenes. Ellen has been working in glass for 15 years and teaches stained glass at the West Michigan Glass Art Center. She and Larry Hewartson own By the Waters Studio in Delton.

POETRY 38 It 38 Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 2011

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WMGAC has made glass art hot in Southwest Michigan.

By Tom Chmielewski 6

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G

LA IS A FRAGILE ART. Paint fades, sculptures chip, LASS photography yellows, ceramics crack. p Glass, however, shatters.

G A glass blower may work painstakingly to shape a “gather” of molten l glass l at the end of a blowpipe into an intricate translucent sculpture, only to see its cohesion to the pipe weaken. In a fluid motion slow enough to make achingly clear the impending disaster, yet too fast to do anything about it, the heated glass stretches like bubble gum and breaks free. The delicate sculpture drops to the floor, shattering into a splay of glittering rubble.

Judith Konesni, a glass artist and teacher with more than 30 years of experience, just shrugs her shoulders and laughs. “It happens,” she says.

“It happens to everybody,” agrees Frank Meints, a scientific glass blower by trade who, in recent years, has moved into artistic glass. When it does happen, Frank explains, the artist needs to try to understand why and adjust his or her technique to lessen the chance of it happening again — though it will.

“You don’t get too attached to it,” Judith says of glass work in progress. When an artistic crash happens, she just encourages the artist, or herself, to “try it again. Do it some more.”

Glass artists are made of sturdier stuff than their work.

Arts organizations can be just as fragile. Begun with the hope and vision of a few adept artists and the dedication and enthusiasm of volunteers, arts groups can begin with a rush.

But that initial energy can dissipate, and the organization disintegrates.

The West Michigan Glass Art Center that Judith and Frank helped found, however, has had no such experience, proving as resilient as the glass artists who make up its membership. The WMGAC celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and shows no signs of fading — or shattering.

The organization began when a visiting artist at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Dante Marioni, needed a hot glass studio for demonstrations. Judith just happened to have her own hot glass studio at the Park Trades Center.

The WMGAC attracts nationally “He’s a very famous glass blower from the Seattle region,” renowned artists such as Emilio Santini, shown here demonstrating Judith says of Marioni. “I said, ‘Sure, his lampworking skills. he can use mine.’”

At about the same time, Judith and Frank, who had a scientific glass blowing studio near Judith’s, and stained glass artists Anne Anson and Ann Wittenkeller banded together to show their work, forming the West Michigan Glass Society, forerunner of the WMGAC. Visitors to Glass Society shows during Art Hops had to wind their way through narrow hallways and back stairwells to find the society’s shows and activities scattered among several studios tucked into the northwest corner of the Park Trades Center.

The fledgling group elected its first board of directors and was Murrini Vase, blown glass classified as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in early 2004 with a roster of just vase by Judith Konesni.

13 members. Summer Glass Camp, an education program begun

Photos: Erik Holladay

Photo: Dawn Bennett-Dailey

Among those who laid the foundation for today’s West Michigan Glass Art Center are original founders (counterclockwise from right): Frank Meints, Judith Konesni, Ann Wittenkeller and Anne Anson. Standing next to Anne Anson is Rebecca Boase, WMGAC executive director.

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Glass Center

Dichroic fused glass pendants by WMGAC member Linda Kekic.

for her studio, Avolio Glasswerks, Judith describes “the drama of working with molten glass, creating unusual shapes and working with different tools of the glass world” as a “life-changing experience.”

Frank Meints learned glass blowing while working for the Upjohn Co. He began work there repairing calculators but transferred to research equipment maintenance in the early 1970s.

The company was expanding that department and needed an additional glass blower to make laboratory apparatus. Frank learned the trade of blowing and shaping scientific glass, spending 25 years with Upjohn and its successor Pharmacia before taking an early retirement in 1996.

Frank still works with scientific glass with his own company, Meints Glassblowing, producing and repairing glass lab equipment and glass art.

“We’re starting to run out of scientific glass blowers,” he says.

“They’re getting older and retiring.”

People in the Pacific Rim and China are trying to break into the market, he

says, though he considers the quality of their work inferior.

While the market for laboratory glass apparatus is still strong for his independent company, the introduction of colors into scientific-grade glass has made it more attractive for artistic Photo: Dawn Bennett-Dailey

A Tale of Two Founders The Glass Society had a true student and teacher of glass art in Judith. She had earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Toledo/Toledo Museum of Art, where the contemporary movement in studio blown glass art began in 1962.

Judith talks eagerly about her art and the origins of the studio movement in Ohio. Before then, blown glass was made in factories, and the Toledo factories for Libbey Glass, Owens-Illinois and Johns Manville led the world in glass production. These industry leaders helped sponsor the Toledo Museum of Art’s first glass workshop in 1961. The following year experimentation began there on techniques of creating art from glass melted in small furnaces. The studio glass art movement spread from there.

Judith moved from Toledo to Kalamazoo in 1997 and opened her studio shortly thereafter. She’s now a part-time instructor at the WMGAC. She specializes in hand-blown glass vessels and sculptured sea life. On the website

Photo: Erik Holladay

the previous year, expanded to three sessions in 2004. The group added more classes, workshops and community events to increase its visibility. By the end of the year, membership had grown to 20. It hasn’t stopped growing since.

A close up view of the decorative work on a glass goblet being created during a Battle of the Glassblowers competition.

design, and Frank has moved into that arena as well.

Scientific glass “is more forgiving” than the glass that artists normally use, Frank says. He readily shares his knowledge and experience by teaching lampworking glasses for the WMGAC.

Photo: Sherry Trautman

Photo: Dawn Bennett-Dailey

Sam Brown dons chainmail and faces a fierce flame during a recent Battle of the Glassblowers competition.

Judith Konesni (right) coaches a student on when to cut the molten glass during a sandcasting class.

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Photo: Erik Holladay

Events abound to discover Glass Art Heart paperweights

by Judith Konesni.

studios to compete for prizes in timed competition before a cheering, standingroom-only crowd, as if the flaming furnaces didn’t throw off enough heat in the highly charged atmosphere. Unlike the artists, the crowd groans loudly and sympathetically when a nearly complete work of glass sinks from an artist’s blowpipe and crashes to the floor.

By 2009, the growth in classes and in the sizes of crowds attending the society’s shows during Art Hops and special events convinced the group’s directors and members, at that time numbering about 150, to raise funds and find new space. The society considered moving out of the Park Trades Center, despite the synergy they enjoyed with the other artists and creative companies occupying offices and studios in the old building.

WMGAC instructor Mike Fortin works on a goblet during a Battle of the Glassblowers competition.

Above, a close-up view shows Fortin’s intricate work.

Photos: Dawn Bennett-Dailey

Glass Society Evolves The Glass Society’s founders and then its board of directors guided the growth of the organization to ever more educational pursuits, including masterlevel workshops for regional glass artists in 2005. These master-level classes have featured such world-renowned artists as Emilio Santini and Loren Stump and have drawn participants from beyond West Michigan.

In more recent years, with the support of the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, the society began a school outreach program to bring students ages 10 and up to its studios on field trips and launched its educational program, “Fire Works!”

In 2007, the society found a way to make glass blowing a spectator event through the creation of its “Battle of the Glassblowers” competition. Glass blowers from around the state and region converge on the organization’s

From dueling glassblowers to “speed dating” all types of glass art, the West Michigan Glass Art Center offers a number of events this spring.

March 2 Art Hop: “Spring into the Arts,” 5-9 p.m., includes demonstrations in the Hot Shop and Flame Shop.

April 6 Art Hop: member exhibit, “Through the Looking Glass,” reception and vote for People’s Choice Award, 5-9 p.m.

April 13-14 Battle of the Glassblowers & Flame Off The sixth annual sports-style competition draws artists from around the region to demonstrate their skills in timed contests before cheering crowds. Friday 5-10 p.m., Saturday, Noon-6 p.m.

Photo: Erik Holladay

April 28 Glass Art Center Auction, 6-9 p.m.

If you saw the artists sweat through the Glass Art Center’s competition two weeks before, come back to bid on the artwork they produced.

On Fire for You, fused and assembled glass Many other items and

by Julie Taborn. fun packages will also be up for bid in the Glass Center’s Reflections Gallery.

May 19 EGAD: Explore Glass Art Day 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

It’s like speed-dating glass art — Explore Glass Art Day provides hands-on opportunities for people to learn the different facets of glass art. Projects start every hour, so participants can experience one art form or all of them.

Registration required, and charge depends on the number of projects selected.

Visit www.wmglass.org for more information on these and other events.

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But they didn’t have to. The society’s solution appeared when a martial arts studio left the building, leaving behind a large open space on the first floor.

Judith saw the potential right away. “I said, ‘Hey, we should check this out.’� The advantage of remaining in the Park Trades Center was obvious, as was the benefit of having a front door that opened onto West Michigan. “Having street access is really nice,� she says.

Nevertheless, a great deal of convincing had to be done before the society accepted the idea of the new location. “All the members had to be sold on this,� Judith says.

The members eventually responded favorably, and money raised from the Gilmore Foundation and other local sources financed the move. It didn’t happen, however, without a lot of sweat equity. “It took a lot of volunteers to get this off the ground,�

Judith says. Volunteers provided labor to prepare the space by building interior walls and painting, moving and setting up equipment, and even creating the glass knobs that grace the cabinets and drawers in a small kitchen area.

The move also prompted the organization’s name change to the West Michigan Glass Art Center, now that it had a central facility rather than a disparate group of studios. The center includes a hot shop with kilns for glass blowing, a flame shop with tabletop mixed-fuel torches for working on smaller pieces, a fusing studio where layers of glass are kiln-fired until they partially melt and fuse together, a stained glass studio, a sandblasting space and a cold working studio, all available for rent to experienced artists and members.

But even with the space the center has, Frank admits, “We’re already busting at the seams� and thinking about renting more space in the Park Trades Center for storage. (continued on page 44)

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INDSEY POMPILEO had been healthy for six months when she had her epiphany.

The 29-year-old was finally back on her feet after nine months of grueling chemotherapy for stage 4 lymphoma. She had been sick in bed when she should have been playing with her 4-year-old and 6-month-old boys. She had given up control of her life, relying on friends, family and co-workers to help her survive.

Now that the worst was over, she wasn’t going to waste one more minute.

Lindsey Pompileo was going to become a baker.

“I had always wanted to open a bakery,” says Lindsey, who grew up in Plainwell. “I used to take cake decorating classes for fun, and it was really just a hobby. So when I approached Chris (her husband) with my desire to do this, he said, ‘Let’s make it a web-based business.’”

Thanks to Michigan’s “cottage laws,” a web-based enterprise was more feasible for the young couple because Lindsey could work out of her home kitchen. To keep things simple, she started with cupcakes.

Cupcake Zoo creator is living her dream after defying cancer.

The Pompileo family: Chris, holding Gage, and Lindsey, holding Luca.

The cupcake craze had just taken off across the nation, but Lindsey found that the popularity of this diminutive treat was still in its infancy in West Michigan. It seemed like the right idea at the right time.

Working as a server at Epic Bistro, she tried out her recipes on co-workers, getting their opinions and suggestions.

For six months, Lindsey gave away everything she made. She’d drop a box of cupcakes off at a school, a salon or a local business, asking only for feedback in return.

With a menu of just five flavors, she officially began taking orders on her

website. Most were just small, personal orders, but word spread. Chris, who has many talents including website design and photography, kept her site updated with delicious images of her products. In just two months, business doubled.

“The web-based business was absolutely the right approach,” she says.

“When a bakery has a physical location, it has to look full, with a lot of products out for customers to see. You worry because if these products don’t sell, they go to waste. On the web, I don’t have those worries.”

Younger brother Andre isn’t afraid to get dirty as Lindsey’s right-hand man in the kitchen.

Photo: Erik Holladay

L

By Marie Lee

Photo: Courtesy Lindsey Pompelio

Life Is Sweet

Accessible Treats for All But it wasn’t just cupcakes that set Lindsey’s enterprise apart. It was her determination to make cupcake varieties that are allergen-free, dairy-free, egg-free and gluten-free.

The inspiration for this effort is Gage, her 8-year-old son with autism.

“In order to control Gage’s autism, he has to eat food that is free of dairy, gluten and processed sugar,” Lindsey explains. “Have you ever tried to find a treat that is all of those?”

She started playing around with allergen-free recipes and found ways to make the cupcakes taste, well, like real cupcakes. She bought organic and natural ingredients from local Amish farmers. And as the number of children and adults with food sensitivities has exploded, Lindsey has found

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Pompileo herself filling another unique niche in Southwest Michigan.

“This is where I am able to stand out,” she says. “In smaller towns like ours, it is almost impossible to find fresh products that don’t have wheat, eggs, nuts or dairy. Almost everything on my regular menu can be made allergen-free.”

Lindsey became busier than ever.

She cut back her hours at the Epic Bistro, which was a difficult decision.

During her illness, Millennium Restaurant Group, her customers and her co-workers had rallied around her.

“They held a benefit party for me with hundreds of people and an auction of stuff businesses had donated. It was

absolutely mind-boggling. They let me come and go and work sporadically but made it clear I could always come back.”

Even though she ultimately left her job there, Millennium didn’t forget about her. In early 2011, as the restaurant group began to ramp up plans for purchasing the Wine Loft and taking it to the next level as a wine and dessert bar, Millennium Managing Partner Shelly Pastor thought of Lindsey.

Again, it was the right idea at the right time.

Lindsey needed to expand; juggling her business and her family’s needs from her home kitchen had become hard to manage. “I had started getting calls for big

orders — weddings, corporate functions — and I came to the realization that I couldn’t work from home anymore.

“A domestic kitchen is chaotic.

There’s no separation between the business and the family. There would be cupcakes everywhere. On the counters, in the fridge. There was just no end to it.”

Moving Out and Up A deal was struck — Lindsey would “rent” the Wine Loft’s kitchen in the mornings in return for serving as the restaurant’s pastry chef and dessert maker. Because the Wine Loft is only open in the evenings and closed on

Lindsey Pompileo Gives as Good as She Gets

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Brooke ratcheted her duties up a notch. She moved in with them, serving as nanny, nurse, chief cook and bottle washer.

“She was our everything,” Lindsey says of Brooke. “She stopped her life and moved in with us for an entire year.”

Meanwhile, fundraisers for Lindsey at the Epic Bistro and at her brother’s Chicago restaurant raised $14,000.

“That money really got us through the worst time. It paid for medical bills and in-home care,” Lindsey says. “It lasted right up until the last chemo.”

Brooke Burdo-Judson (left) with Lindsey at Brooke’s wedding celebration.

Lindsey has had a clean bill of health for three years.

“She lived with us for a year while With lymphoma, there’s a 50 percent she recovered,” Lindsey says. “There just chance of recurrence in the five years wasn’t any question about it.” after treatment; after that, it drops to 25 In comparison, that Lindsey gives percent. away her delicious creations seems like a But she hasn’t had time to think little thing. about those odds. A year after she “Chris and I really believe that recovered, Brooke became ill. Diagnosed giving is as important as succeeding,” with rheumatoid arthritis at 7, Brooke’s she says. “We may never be disease came out of remission and she millionaires, but we’re fine with that. entered a severely painful, debilitating We have a pleasant life. And there are period. It was the Pompileos’ turn to care so many people who helped us make for the caretaker. that happen.”

Photo: Courtesy Lindsey Pompelio

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INDSEY spent a very early morning baking and decorating several dozen cupcakes, cake truffles and other treats to be photographed. When the shoot was done, she boxed up the goodies, giving them to the photographer and his assistant and then delivering the rest to various organizations around town, gratis.

“My life would not be what it is if it weren’t for what others have done for me,” Lindsey says. “ That generosity began with the co-workers who found a weak and sick Lindsey in the Epic Bistro’s basement three years ago and insisted on taking her to the emergency room. They rallied around her when she was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma and began chemotherapy three days later.

With 6-month-old Luca and 4-yearold Gage, Lindsey had no idea how she was going to manage motherhood and nine months of weekly chemotherapy treatments.

Enter Brooke Burdo-Judson. Brooke and Lindsey had grown up together in Plainwell, and their parents were best friends. Brooke had been doing some part-time childcare for the Pompileos, but when Lindsey began treatment,

Lady in Red Cupcakes

Allergen-Free Lady in Red Cupcakes

2½ c. unbleached all-purpose flour 1½ c. granulated sugar 1 tsp. baking soda 1 tsp salt 2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder 1½ c. vegetable or canola oil 1 c. low-fat or regular buttermilk, at room temperature 2 eggs, at room temperature 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 1 tsp. white vinegar 2 to 4 Tbsp. red dye (liquid or gel)

(Gluten-, dairy-, egg- and nut-free) 2¾ c. + 2 tsp. gluten-free all-purpose flour mix such as Bob’s Red Mill 2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder ¾ tsp. xanthan gum 1½ tsp. baking powder 1½ tsp. baking soda 1½ tsp. salt 1½ c. rice or soy milk 1½ tsp. cider vinegar ¾ c. vegetable shortening (use Spectrum Organic to avoid soy) 1½ c. granulated sugar 4½ tsp. Ener-G egg replacer mixed with 6 Tbsp. rice or soy milk 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 2 to 4 Tbsp. red dye (gel or liquid)

Preheat oven to 350º for at Photo: Erik Holladay least 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, blend dry ingredients (flour through cocoa powder) with a whisk.

In another bowl, combine remaining ingredients (oil through red dye). Blend with mixer, scraping sides of bowl with spatula as needed.

Add dry ingredients to second mixture in two batches, blending and scraping sides of bowl with spatula after each batch is added.

Line cupcake pans (size of your choice) with baking liners. Fill each cup ¾ full, using an ice cream scoop for consistency Bake for 18-20 minutes for regular-size cupcakes; 10-12 minutes for mini-cupcakes. Cupcakes are done if they spring back slightly when touched. If any liquid batter remains on top, cook 1-2 minutes longer.

Cool in pans for 5 minutes; transfer cupcakes to wire rack to cool.

Preheat oven to 350º for at least 30 minutes.

In a large bowl, blend dry ingredients (flour through cocoa powder) with a whisk.

In another bowl, combine rice or soy milk and vinegar. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine shortening, sugar, egg replacer and milk mixture, and vanilla. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Add food coloring and mix until combined, scraping sides with a spatula as needed. Add dry ingredients and milk/vinegar mixture to the batter, alternating in batches, starting and ending with dry ingredients.

Beat until completely blended.

Line cupcake pans (size of your choice) with paper baking cups. Fill each cup ¾ full with the batter. Bake 18-20 minutes for regular-size cupcakes; 10-12 minutes for mini-cupcakes. Cool in pans for 5 minutes; transfer cupcakes to wire rack to continue cooling.

Cream Cheese Frosting 1 stick unsalted butter, softened to room temperature 8 oz. cream cheese (chilled for piping or softened for spreading) 1½ tsp. pure vanilla or almond extract 4 c. powdered sugar

Frosting ½ c. Earth Balance regular or soy-free “butter” blend ½ c. Spectrum Organic shortening 2 tsp. pure vanilla or almond extract 4 to 5 c. powdered sugar

In a large bowl, blend butter and cream cheese with mixer until smooth.

Take care not to over-beat if you plan to pipe the frosting. Add vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar in batches, blending slowly at first. Beat until creamy.

In a large bowl, use mixer to quickly combine the butter blend and shortening until smooth. Take care not to over-beat if you plan to pipe the frosting. Add vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar in batches, blending slowly at first. Beat until creamy.

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Sunday and Monday, Lindsey could come in as early as 3 a.m. and bake her heart out in its well-appointed stainlesssteel kitchen. She’d wrap up shortly after noon, when the Wine Loft’s chef would begin prepping for evening meals.

Once she was working from the Wine Loft, she says, “it blew up� — her business, that is, not the kitchen. She had no problem filling big orders for Kalamazoo College’s graduation and Bronson Hospital events. Millennium’s Cityscape Events Center began referring customers to the Cupcake Zoo. Brides from Chicago and Ann Arbor were calling. “When I started the business, I thought if I made enough to pay for the groceries, I’d be good,� she recalls. “But it happened so fast. I wanted to plan a vacation for the summer, but I was so busy I couldn’t.�

It was that summer without a vacation when she concluded that she couldn’t do it alone anymore. She knew just who to call.

Andre Arguijo, Lindsey’s brother, was managing a restaurant in Chicago.

The two, just three years apart, are close, as siblings go. During Lindsey’s illness, Andre’s restaurant held a fundraiser to help his ailing sister.

At first, Lindsey and Chris shared Andre’s time. When Andre wasn’t baking, he was helping out at his brother-in-law’s Otsego-based boatlift and dock company. “We lured him here to work for both of us,� she says, “but by September I took him all for myself.�

That sibling relationship is a huge boon in the kitchen. Because Andre shares his sister’s attention to detail and has known her for 30 years, they usually work well together. “You know, there are times when we don’t get along, but we don’t have to walk away worried about how it’ll affect our working relationship,� she says. “Andre can kind of gauge when I’m going to lose it, but he’s not afraid to say something’s not good or doesn’t work. It’s just a really easy situation.�

Photo: Erik Holladay

With Andre in place, the Cupcake Zoo keeps growing. Like a gangly teen whose jeans fit last month but not this, Lindsey’s business again needs bigger digs.

This month, the Cupcake Zoo will move to the refurbished former post office on Otsego’s Farmer Street. The Pompileos bought the building a few years ago for Chris’ business. He outgrew it and moved on. She laughs about her move there, saying, “I just follow him into the spaces he used to have.”

“He first ran his website design business from our home office,” she explains. “But when his boatlift business took off, he bought the old post office and moved there, and I took over the home office. Now I am taking over the post office building.”

Once again, Lindsey finds leaving the nurturing arms of the Wine Loft and the Millennium Group a bittersweet proposition. “There’s no doubt I get more out of our relationship than they do,” she says.

Lindsey’s diminutive cake truffles are big in delectability.

“Lindsey is a great example of how you reap what you sow,” says Millennium’s Shelly Pastor. “She is just one of those quality people whose intentions are true and we were happy to put our support behind her. She is so successful she outgrew our space. It’s really neat to see her succeed.”

Cupcake Zoo’s new location will allow Lindsey to ramp up her

allergen-free baking with separate pieces of equipment to prevent crosscontamination. Even though there’s ample room for a walk-in bakery, Lindsey is shy of creating one. She is focusing instead on finding retail venues to carry her allergen-free products. The Natural Health Center in Kalamazoo has carried her products since last fall, and the success of that venture has spurred Lindsey to seek out more retail opportunities.

She is also enhancing her menu — which now has 17 flavors of cupcakes — with pies, cake truffles and candies and starting to ship her products beyond the Midwest.

So, for the inventive baking entrepreneur, mother of two and wife of an equally busy business-minded husband, her web-based approach is still the ideal business model.

“No matter where we are,” she says, “we can be everywhere.”

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Grateful Ambassador A sense of indebtedness drives Tim Terrentine to give back to his community.

T

Photos: Courtesy Southwest Michigan First

By Brian Lam

IM TERRENTINE has never known anywhere but Kalamazoo as home. And that’s just fine by him.

Now that he has a job selling Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan to the world, his lifetime of experiences in “every walk of life” here is paying off.

“I’m fortunate to be an ambassador for a community where education is valued, where people treat each other with respect and where opportunity abounds,” says the 32-year-old executive with Southwest Michigan First, the region’s economic development organization.

It Starts at Home But Tim’s own fortunes had inauspicious beginnings, and it was this rocky start in life that shaped his views on just how fragile society can be and that every individual in this community counts.

Abandoned at birth in a Saginaw hospital, Tim was adopted two years later by a Kalamazoo couple, Bob and Bonnie

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Terrentine. The abandonment could have been life’s defining circumstance, he says, and he makes no attempt to conceal his struggles with it.

“I did wrestle with it,” says Tim, “and confronted it as I pursued my master’s degree in interpersonal/intercultural communication at Western Michigan University.” His master’s thesis, Who Will Cry For the Little Boy? was a personal autoethnographical analysis of his identity.

But instead of seeing his beginnings in a negative light, he instead focused on finding ways to give to his community what he felt his adoptive parents gave to him.

“Because I came into this world with no one and nothing, I always feel some sense of indebtedness to society, that I have to give back, that I have to help. I owe so many people — people who didn’t have to love me or invest in me or take time for me. I try to turn that back around and do that back for people — people I don’t even know — because that’s the story of my life.”

Abandoned at a Saginaw hospital at birth, Tim was adopted at age 2 by Kalamazoo couple Bob and Bonnie Terrentine.

Tim describes his parents, Bob and Bonnie, as the “epitome of self-less love.”

Tim with wife, Gretta, son T.J., and daughter Olivia.

Tim is the second of the four Terrentine children, and one of two adopted by the family. Tim’s older sister Melita was also adopted by Bob and Bonnie, while younger siblings Aleesha and Travis were born to the Terrentines.

More than just providing their children with a home, Bob and Bonnie instilled in them the strong values of working hard and giving back.

“My parents are the epitome of selfless love,” says Tim. “Anytime two people decide they’re going to take care of somebody else’s kids and treat them as if there’s no difference — well, those people taught me how to love, how to hang in there, how to provide.”

Tim experienced additional reinforcement of these values through his years in Kalamazoo Public Schools during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

He attended elementary school at Chime, now known as Prairie Ridge, and then headed to the original Lincoln School, before attending Hillside Junior High and Kalamazoo Central High School. He describes it as a “roaring time for KPS.” “We experienced so many great leaders in education at that time who really knew how to motivate students.

I learned lessons from my teachers and coaches as to how to help people, how

to encourage people, how to build a team, how to build place and how to build community. I got to see a lot of great examples of that growing up in Kalamazoo.”

At Central, Tim formed a relationship with his educators and coaches that would influence the way he worked with kids throughout his young adult years.

“My former principal, Joe Payton, stood outside the “I owe so school every morning many people; with the marching band’s drum core and people who shook 1,500 students’ didn’t have hands,” Tim recalls. to love me or “Every morning, rain, sleet, hail, invest in me whatever.”

This exposure or take time reinforced in Tim the for me.” importance of taking an interest in kids who need someone to believe in them, which led to his first job as a home support specialist at KPS’ Indian Prairie Elementary.

“My job was to be the connection between the school and the homes, especially for kids who were struggling with attendance or grades or behavior,” Tim says. His work at Indian Prairie and the impact he had on the students

caught the attention of another Kalamazoo family: the Jeters.

Dr. Charles Jeter, father of New York Yankee Derek Jeter, was looking to expand the curriculum of his son’s Turn 2 Foundation. Working with former Lincoln Elementary principal Becky Hunt, Dr. Jeter needed someone to create and oversee a new peer-resistance program for the foundation. They approached the then-20-year-old Tim. “Dr. Charles Jeter and Mrs. Becky Hunt gave me a great opportunity to help create the Turn 2 Foundation’s ‘Proud To Be Me’ after-school program,” says Tim. “We worked with fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders to help them develop the ability to resist the pressure to use drugs or alcohol.” The program still exists today, not only in Kalamazoo but also in Florida and New York.

That life-changing experience strengthened Tim’s resolve to give back to the community. It instilled in him the belief that young leaders will rise to the occasion when given the opportunity, a belief he carries forward into his work with Southwest Michigan First.

“I am hell-bent on making sure that young, emerging leaders have opportunities,” insists Tim, “and I’m pleased that Southwest Michigan First is involved in that work as well.” To that

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Terrentine

end, Tim has launched the inaugural First 50 program, which matches 25 upand-coming leaders with 25 seasoned leaders for mentoring (see story below).

Always An Advocate After five years at the Turn 2 Foundation, Tim sensed he needed more education and opportunities to grow.

He enrolled at WMU and throughout his undergraduate and graduate years continued to be involved in Turn 2 and with other youth programs. At age 28, Tim became the executive director of the Douglass Community Association.

During his time there, Tim focused on empowering youth to improve the quality of their lives, helping to oversee

the addition of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Kalamazoo to the Douglass facility.

Tim was making a powerful impact in the Kalamazoo community, and people were taking notice.

In May 2010, Southwest Michigan First approached Tim, and he saw another opportunity to improve the community he loved. He took his current

Developing The Tools to Lead

H

Photo: Brian Lam

OW CAN THE LEADERS of Southwest Michigan prepare the next generation for the challenges of tomorrow? By identifying, engaging and empowering the right people, say executives from Southwest Michigan First. With that premise in mind, they have launched the organization’s First 50 program.

First 50, spearheaded by Tim Terrentine, matches 25 of Kalamazoo’s emerging leaders with 25 seasoned leaders for a yearlong leadership development experience. The program features bimonthly events covering such topics as talent cultivation, economic development, community engagement and successful leadership strategies. In addition, mentors and mentees are encouraged to meet regularly for informal sessions to share ideas.

Kristi Tyler, store manager and buyer at Sydney clothing boutique in the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, says she is “honored to be a part of the program.” Her mentor is County Administrator Peter Battani, and from him she hopes to round out her knowledge of the area in which she was born and raised. “I’m hoping to learn a lot from Peter,” she says. “I feel like I should know a lot more about local politics than I do, and I’m excited to have a candid conversation with him about our county.”

For Peter, helping tomorrow’s leaders develop their skills is a big part of what leadership is all about.

“Leaders define themselves by their ability to show other people what’s possible,” he says. “Great leaders help others develop the tools to lead.”

Another apprentice in the First 50 program is Ali Satkoski, event planner at Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan. She didn’t move to Kalamazoo until after Peter Battani, (right) has provided Kristi Tyler with leadership mentoring as part of First 50 program.

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high school, when she enrolled at Western Michigan University.

After graduating, she decided to make Kalamazoo her home.

Ali chairs the board of Kalamazoo Area Young Professionals and says the mission of First 50 correlates with the vision of KAYP. “We have to take the time to invest in the young talent that is emerging in Kalamazoo. I talk to young people all the time that are looking for ways to get involved.”

Ali’s mentor is Dawnanne Corbit, sales manager for the Kalamazoo company Ship-Pac. Dawnanne says mentoring isn’t a one-way street when it comes to learning. “These young leaders bring fresh ideas,” she says.

The First 50 program is a hands-on program. Mentors are encouraged to help their apprentices look for ways to get involved in the community. “We want the emerging leaders to get an opportunity to have their leadership on showcase. This is how their leadership skills will develop,” Tim explains.

At the end of the program, participants are encouraged to stay involved. “At the end of the year,” Ali says, beaming, “we each get to recommend five people who we think would be right for next year’s program, people who are looking to make a difference.”

The closing celebration for the inaugural class of the First 50 program will take place in September. Southwest Michigan First hopes First 50 will be an ongoing program that helps to keep the region moving forward.

“We’re going to continually look for, and work with, the future leaders in this community,” says Tim. “I’m excited about the possibilities that are being created.”

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position as vice president to help other community leaders expand economic development efforts in the region.

Again, Tim saw an example of someone putting faith in his ability to succeed. In this case, that someone was Southwest Michigan First’s CEO, Ron Kitchens.

“Ron has been such a great coach,” says Tim. “He’s the type of leader that doesn’t give you tasks to do. He makes you CEO of your own responsibilities.

He gives you room to grow.

“I’m having the time of my life right now. The opportunity to meet new people, build new relationships and promote this region is more than I could have ever imagined.”

While Tim works with local businesses to facilitate their expansion and growth, he does a fair amount of traveling, both to promote Southwest Michigan and to learn. He is working toward his Certified Economic Development Certificate, in an intensive program sponsored by the International Economic Development Council.

“We’ve got great opportunity before us. I think we’ve got a great plan in our hands on how to move forward. The only thing that can stop Southwest Michigan from growing in the future — to become a great, great region — is if we buy into negativity.

“We have to be able to transcend the trivial to achieve greatness. That’s critical. If we can just work together to achieve the same goals, we will be one of the most robust regions in the nation, no doubt about it. They’ll be talking about Southwest Michigan along with Austin, Boise and other high-achieving communities. In fact, they’re starting to do that now.”

Typical of Tim’s ethos, he stresses that the community shouldn’t dwell on its problems but tout its successes. “We can’t be silent about the good stuff. There will always be challenges, but we have to stay positive and be vocal about our successes.” (continued on page 40)

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Spirit of Kalamazoo

Big Leaps From a (Not So Little) Hop

KALAMAZOO’S MONTHLY ART HOP embodies the diversity and abundance of fine and performing arts in our community.

Before I became the executive director of the Black Arts & Cultural Center, my sons and I could always be found wandering around the many destinations in downtown Kalamazoo on the first Friday of each month.

When the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo began the Art Hop in 1995 (originally called Gallery Hop), I’m sure not they (or the downtown businesses) envisioned it becoming the success that it is. This event allows many artists from Southwest Michigan an opportunity to showcase their work to hundreds in our community. The artists range from school-aged youth to senior masters in their crafts. There are four special Art Hops known as Extended Art Hops held in March, June, October and December in collaboration with Downtown Kalamazoo, Inc. These special events involve even more local businesses than usual showing art.

Art Hop patrons examine a work The Black Arts & on exhibit at the Black Arts & Cultural Center.

Cultural Center has had

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the chance to participate in the monthly Art Hop and, like other galleries and businesses, showcase the talents of individuals who may not otherwise get such exposure.

Take a walk down the Kalamazoo Mall and you can see things during Art Hop that you may never see in a downtown area. I once saw a llama at Fiber Arts. My son said, “Dad, there’s a llama,” but I didn’t Sidney Ellis, executive director of Black believe him. And, of Arts & Cultural Center (right) stands with course, there it was. former pro football player and actor Bernie Casey, whose artwork was featured in the Art Hops give center’s gallery. you a chance to meet and mingle with people who enjoy art and/or just take pleasure in the beautiful downtown atmosphere. Spaces like (continued on page 42) Photos: Courtesy of Black Arts & Cultural Center

If someone were to ask you to describe the essence of the spirit of Kalamazoo, how would you respond? Following is the answer from Sidney Ellis, executive director of the Black Arts & Cultural Center.

By Sidney Ellis

Creative Kids

By Theresa Coty O’Neil

THEATER IS A MULTI-TALENTED artist’s paradise. Writing, acting, music and design are all woven together, culminating in a live performance. What could be more creatively satisfying?

At least, that’s what Loy Norrix High School sophomore Grace Santamaria has found. Grace, who is one-third of a set of 16-year-old triplets (her talented brothers, Joe and Andy, also share her performing interests), has been drawn to the stage and the backstage since she began participating in the Kalamazoo Civic’s reputable Youth Theater.

“All of us used to go to drama camps,” says Grace. “My brother Joe is still into acting.

Andy plays piano and guitar so he is interested in musical production.

What I really want to do is theatrical production and design, especially costume design.”

Why theatrical production and costume design? Grace In addition to her theatrical talents, Grace recently took a test to is also a gifted artist. determine her major types of intelligence, and it confirmed what she already knew.

She scored very high in spatial/visual, linguistic, music and interpersonal skills.

Photo: Eleanaor McCormick

So Many Talents, So Little Time

Grace Santamaria

All of these qualities are essential to successful theater.

Costume design, in particular, appeals to both Grace’s love of research and of things social.

“It’s the part of design where you get to have the most people interaction,” she explains.

“You have to work your way up in costume design. First you do quick changes and emergency costume repair,” she says, with a laugh, “which is a really good way to meet people.”

Already Grace has an impressive theater resume. At the Civic Youth Theater, she has stage-managed Lyle the Crocodile and worked costumes on many other shows. In the adult theater, she has also “dressed” for several shows, including King Lear and Annie. (continued on page 43)

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See page 46 to learn more about this work and the artist.

{

}

By Larry Massie

Blue Water Grave

Fateful 1860 collision between schooner and steamer claimed nearlyy 300 lives. ives.

EW OF NATURE’S BLESSINGS equal the majesty of Lake Michigan with the sun smiling down on a calm summer’s day. The bluest of blues stretches mirror-like into the horizon. But when dark clouds scud in from the northwest, within a matter of minutes the blue beauty can become a raging maelstrom of howling wind and monster waves. The fury of the Big Lake in an ugly mood has battered to the bottom hundreds of proud vessels. And wicked weather coupled with Larry B. Massie, recipient of the first-ever human error has Lifetime Achievement Award from the resulted in some Historical Society of Michigan, is a Michigan of the most tragic product and proud of it. Born in Grand Rapids, he grew up in Allegan and has three degrees consequences.

F

Massie’s Michigan in history from Western Michigan University.

The author of 20 books about Michigan history, he shares his enthusiasm for and knowledge of Michigan’s heritage statewide at conferences, school assemblies, libraries, community groups and festivals.

Larry lives with his wife and workmate Priscilla, daughters Maureen and Autumn, and a 35,000-volume reference library in an 1880 schoolhouse in the Allegan State Forest.

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Early in the morning of Sept. 1, 1860, Captain Nelsen Malott watched dockworkers load the last of a cargo of white pine planks aboard the schooner Augusta. The lumber had been floated down the Black River to the buzzing sawmills that lined the shores at Port Huron. The vessel’s holds had been filled with the wood, and great stacks covered the decks of the 128-foot-long craft. At 4 a.m., Malott ordered the sails raised and the Augusta billowed into the St. Clair River. Swaying under her top-heavy load, she proceeded up Lake Huron to the Straits of Mackinac and then down Lake Michigan toward her destination, Chicago.

Malott, but 26 years old, was a capable skipper with nearly nine years of experience, mostly on salt water. Born on the family farm in Essex County,

A woodcut shows the schooner Augusta at dock in Chicago after her collision with the Lady Elgin.

Ontario, he had crowded numerous adventures into his maritime career. En route from Montreal to London with a cargo of lumber, his vessel, the Gold Hunter, encountered a savage gale that dismasted her. The cargo shifted and she floated on her side in the Atlantic for 45 days. The crew’s rations lay in a hold beneath the water. Finally, some of the ravenous sailors seized Malott and another young man and announced that one of them would have to be eaten. The other crew had families to support, and it seemed only fair that the unmarried lads be the lambs. Forced to draw straws to see who would be sacrificed first, Malott luckily got the long one. His unfortunate companion had been mostly devoured before a passing steamer

rescued the cannibal crew and, next on the menu, Malott.

On another voyage across the Pacific, Malott’s vessel caught fire.

He abandoned ship, climbing into a dinghy with seven other sailors.

Amazingly, 32 days later Malott guided the little boat into the harbor at Callao, Peru.

In 1858, the Detroit-based firm of Bissel & Davidson hired Malott to captain the Caroline, loaded with Lake Superior copper, through the St. Lawrence canals and across the Atlantic, all the way to Liverpool, England. Having successfully completed that assignment, Malott was put in charge of the Augusta, a five-year-old schooner the firm had recently purchased to enter the lumbercarrying trade. Chicago and other port

The steamer Lady Elgin at dock in Chicago the day before she went to the bottom of Lake Michigan, taking nearly 300 passengers and crew with her.

cities had an insatiable demand for Michigan white pine, and there was plenty of money to be made delivering it.

Another seasoned captain, Jack Wilson had heeded the call of the Great Lakes when he signed on as a deckhand on the schooner Boston at the age of 16. He had steadily risen through the ranks, exhibiting coolness under pressure and bravery during various maritime exigencies. He saved the day twice on Lake Superior when the icesheathed Algonquin nearly went down and again when the Monticello collided with the steamer Manhattan. By 1860, he commanded the elegant 252-foot-long wooden side-wheel steamer Lady Elgin,

a vessel purchased by the old Mackinac-based fur trader Gurdon Hubbard to transport passengers and supplies on the Chicago-toLake Superior route. With 24 years of service under his belt, Wilson was beginning to look forward to retiring to the fruit farm near Coldwater where his wife and three children resided.

There is no evidence that Wilson and Malott had ever met or even knew of each other. But fate had decreed a rendezvous on Lake Michigan, an encounter that only one of them would survive.

Returning from a voyage to Lake Superior ports and through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, the Lady Elgin docked in Milwaukee on Sept. 6, 1860. There, 300 to 400 excursionists streamed across the gangplank, intent on a round of merrymaking in Chicago. Most were members of Captain Garrett Barry’s Irish Union Guards, a Milwaukee militia organization whose arms and equipment had recently been confiscated by state officials over political squabbles concerning the 1860 presidential campaign,which pitted Republican Abraham Lincoln against Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, with slavery being the main issue.

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Massie The Lady Elgin steamed out of Milwaukee shortly after midnight on Sept. 7. The ship’s bar enjoyed a lively business during the otherwise uneventful voyage. Docking in Chicago early in the morning, the Irish militiamen, many of whom had already gotten a good start on the jollity, disembarked and spent the day cheering Democratic orators, parading and partaking of an evening banquet and dancing along with considerably more imbibing. They stumbled back to the steamer that night, along with a crowd of jovial friends who followed them aboard without bothering to book passage.

Somewhat reluctant to head out into the lake because a fast-dropping barometer indicated an approaching storm, Capt.

Wilson nevertheless blew the whistle for departure, and the now overloaded vessel crept down the Chicago River and out into the big lake. She swung to port and her big side paddle wheels churned “full ahead.” Not long afterwards the gale arrived. Amid the shrieking wind and great waves, several on board saw a white light off the starboard side, but the steamer continued on its course.

Aboard the Augusta, Capt. Malott had laid down for a nap when, at about 2 a.m. on Sept. 8, the ship’s first mate came clumping down the stairs to tell him a severe squall had hit. The captain jumped up and began helping his crew bring in the sails. The gale-force wind This contemporary artist’s woodcut depicts the collision between the Augusta and the Lady Elgin.

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{ Captain Jack Wilson, courageous master of the ill-fated Lady Elgin.

and driving rain made visibility near zero. The lumber piled high on the forward deck made matters worse.

The Augusta’s first mate, John Vorce, remembered hearing someone yell that there was a light off the lee side. He glanced up to see that his own vessel’s one white light, as required by a nautical regulation, was burning brightly. Then he climbed to the top of the stack of lumber and spotted the Lady Elgin’s headlight crossing the schooner’s bow. About the same time, Malott glimpsed the steamer’s port and starboard colored lights.

“Hard up, hard up, for God’s sake, man, hard up!” he hollered to the wheelsman. The heavily loaded schooner, normally slow in answering her helm, had been thrown nearly on her beam ends by the squall. With the rudder practically out of the water, she was unable to turn.

At a 90-degree angle, the vessels collided.

The Augusta’s jib boom, a pole extending beyond the bow of the ship, lanced deep into one of the steamer’s staterooms, passing inches away from one of the ship’s officers. The vessels hung together momentarily and then broke apart. Fearing that the Augusta’s bow had been stove in and was in danger of sinking, one of the crew yelled for a rope to be thrown from the steamer, but it continued full speed ahead. The Augusta’s crew prepared to launch the lifeboat, but, to their relief,

}

the ship’s cook crawled into the forecastle and reported substantial leaking but not enough that the pumps couldn’t handle it. The first mate remembered Malott remarking, “It was hard of the steamer to turn away and leave us.”

Nobody on board the Augusta realized that the schooner had given the steamer its death blow; its bow pierced the vessel and gashed a gaping hole below the waterline. Capt. Wilson made two attempts to lower boats to try to plug the hole, but both failed in the raging seas. He headed the Lady Elgin toward shore, some 10 miles away. But water soon swamped the engine room, extinguishing the boiler fires, and the steamer shuddered to a stop, listing badly. The Lady Elgin went down about 20 minutes after the collision. Fortunately the rush of air and water upwards dismembered her superstructure, and some of the passengers and crewmen were able to cling to doors and sections of the deck.

Captain Wilson found himself atop the wreckage of the hurricane deck with about 40 others. But as the night wore on and the gale pushed the wreckage toward shore, huge waves tore it apart and most on board were swept away. Wilson dove to save a woman who had gone under and never resurfaced. As the survivors neared shore, many were fatally injured by the splintered wreckage in the huge waves.

More than half who managed to make it within 100 feet of shore were battered to death by the surf.

A few of the survivors scaled the steep bluff along the shore and fanned out to nearby houses to seek help. Citizens responded with ropes and dry clothing. Word spread to neighboring Evanston, and students from Northwestern University and Garrett Biblical Institute jumped aboard a train and were soon plunging into the breakers to try to save those

With the rudder practically out of the water, she was unable to turn.

Look and Feel Your Best too exhausted to make it to shore. A Northwestern student hero, Edward W. Spencer, dove into the surf 16 times to bring 17 half-drowned victims to safety.

About that time, Malott steered the battered and leaking Augusta into Chicago. He mentioned to one of the tug crew that towed the schooner to dock that they had hit a big steamer during the night. Only then did he learn that it was the Lady Elgin and that there would likely be a heavy death toll. The final tally of victims numbered at least 287 and possibly as many as 350 because it was not positively known how many extra passengers had gotten aboard in Chicago. Only 100 to 155 survived. The Lady Elgin tragedy remains the second worst on the Great Lakes. Only the 1915 Eastland calamity, when that big steamer rolled over in the Chicago River, claimed more lives.

A hastily convened jury took testimony from survivors and Malott and his crew and ruled that both ships had been at fault. Since nautical law gave the right of way to a sailing vessel, it was the responsibility of the Lady Elgin to avoid the collision. Nevertheless, public sentiment in Milwaukee, particularly in the Irish neighborhoods, cried out for revenge. Aware of the danger, Bissel & Davidson assigned Malott to another vessel and sold the Augusta. The new owners painted her black and renamed her Colonel Cook. For the succeeding 34 years she sailed the Great Lakes whenever she could get enough crew members to ship aboard a vessel believed to be haunted by the spirits of the Lady Elgin’s victims. Finally, she ran aground and went to pieces in Lake Erie.

In 1864, Bissel & Davison placed Malott in charge of a new schooner, the Mojave, pride of their fleet. On Sept.

8 of that year, the fourth anniversary of the Lady Elgin disaster, a passing vessel spotted the Mojave in the middle of Lake Michigan under ideal weather conditions. Later that day, she and her entire crew mysteriously disappeared and were never seen again.

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C March is National March Into Literacy Month, and what is literacy without libraries? Encore takes a look at a Kalamazoo institution that has long promoted reading and books: the Ladies’ Library Association, which is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year. The LLA is home to the oldest lending library in Kalamazoo and its members embark on numerous good works throughout the community. We offer a glimpse of the LLA through the eyes of one of its newest members and provide a short history of the organization and its historic building on South Rose Street.

Ladies’ Library Association

By Kit Almy

160-year-old organization maintains relevance in modern world.

Lin Cote has traveled the world and had two successful careers: first as an opera singer and then as a business consultant. But as a new member of the Ladies’ Library Association (LLA), Lin feels life has come back around to her childhood and her lifelong love of books.

“I grew up as a child loving to read. I just inhaled books,” she says. Each week she would bike to the library, check out seven books, take them home and read them, and do it again the following week.

Around age 9, she approached the librarian to find out how she could get access to the books in the “big people’s room,” explaining that she had already read all the children’s books that interested her. The librarian was skeptical and quizzed her on the contents of several books she pulled randomly off the shelves. Even after Lin was able to prove she knew what they were about, the librarian asked, “How will I know you won’t read something you shouldn’t?”

Lin had an answer for that, too — she’d ask her mother. “I’d read every magazine I could get my hands on,” she recalls, but first she would ask her mother if it was OK for her to read a particular story. “And I was such a nerd that if she said no, I didn’t read it. And of course the magazines my mom had were McCall’s and Ladies’ Home Journal, so it’s pretty unlikely anything racy was going to show up, but she was my censor nonetheless.”

Reading has always been important to Lin, who collects antiquarian books, particularly 19th century literature. She first encountered the Ladies’ Library Association Building when she stopped in for coffee during an open house after the Kalamazoo Holiday Parade one year. She loves architecture and was “totally mesmerized by the building.”

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Gorgeous glass windows illuminate the ornate staircase leading to the upper level of the Ladies’ Library Association Building. The lower photo shows the beautiful wordwork gracing the library and meeting room on the first floor.

Photos: Kit Almy

Then and now: Today’s Ladies’ Library Building (center inset) has changed little in its outward appearance from when the engraving (below) was made a century ago.

Lin was semi-retired and looking for a meaningful way to give back to the community. That day she talked with a member on whom the LLA had made a huge positive impact, and Lin was surprised and impressed to learn all the different things the organization does.

Lin didn’t know much about the LLA until that visit, and she believes most people in the community don’t either. But she’s anticipating greater exposure for the LLA because of its 160th anniversary and capital campaign this year. “Pretty soon I’m hoping that people won’t drive by that building saying, ‘I wonder what’s in there?’”

When she joined the LLA about a year and a half ago, Lin jumped in with both feet, agreeing to be the organization’s new recording chair. She’s a fierce advocate for what the LLA has to offer, both for its members and the greater community.

Members meet in the library twice a month, usually for a luncheon or tea. They can participate in a variety of interest groups and committees, including four reading groups and groups devoted to art, music and needlework.

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Ladies’ Library Association There are also committees concerned with education, conservation and international outreach. For the most part, though, the LLA’s more than 200 members focus on doing good works, giving both time and money to many local and national causes.

As a member of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC),

the LLA contributes funding to Girlstown, a nonprofit organization founded by the Michigan chapter of the GFWC. It also supports the international charity Operation Smile, which provides surgery for children born with cleft palates.

Many local nonprofits receive financial assistance from the LLA, including the YWCA’s domestic assault

program, the Kalamazoo Humane Society, Loaves and Fishes and cultural institutions like the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and the Civic Theatre.

A few years ago, the LLA began giving out college scholarships. The amount given each year varies according to available funds. According to Lin,

Historic Organization and Building Moving Into 21st Century 2012 IS A BIG YEAR for the Ladies’ Library Association. The organization is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year, and at the same time kicking off a $2.2 million capital campaign to improve the safety and accessibility of the library building on South Park Street.

The Ladies’ Library Association (LLA) was formed in 1852 by a small group of women who had been gathering informally to read to each other since 1844. It was the first women’s club in Michigan and only the third to be organized in the country.

The group began to sponsor lectures and soon offered Kalamazoo’s first lending library, with its collection housed in various locations until the building was completed in 1879. It was the only circulating library until the Kalamazoo Public Library opened in 1872.

The LLA’s motto from the start has been “Do What You Can,” and in 1902 it joined the General Federation of Women’s Clubs (GFWC), through which it supports national and local philanthropic projects.

In its early days, the LLA promoted initiatives in the public schools concerning literacy, current events and dental hygiene, among others. Over the years, the LLA has made numerous contributions to culture and social causes in Kalamazoo.

The Ladies’ Library Association Building is not quite as old as the organization, but it is historically significant. It was the first building in the United States built by and for a women’s organization. It is also the oldest building in Kalamazoo still being used for its original purpose.

Designed by Chicago architect H.W. Gay in Venetian Gothic style and 32

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erected by local builder Frederick Bush, In addition to bimonthly members’ the building at 333 S. Park St. includes a meetings and teas, the building is open to meeting room and library on the first floor the public on certain days each year. The and “a jewel box of a performance hall LLA also rents out the building for private upstairs,” says member Lin Cote. It features events such as weddings, bar mitzvahs several stained glass windows, and meetings. In 2011, the building many of which depict scenes hosted 117 such events, the from literary works or pay proceeds of which support the tribute to early members organization’s philanthropy. of the LLA. The capital campaign The building is will raise funds to make the listed on the National building more accessible Register of Historic through the addition of an Places and is also elevator and handicappedrecognized as a Michigan accessible restrooms. The historic site. Except for a kitchen also will be updated, 1931 addition of a commercialand safety improvements One of the few places style kitchen, restrooms and will include bringing the you can find a gargoyle dressing rooms, the building has electrical work up to code in Kalamazoo is on the changed very little since it was built, front of the Ladies’ Library and adding a new fire exit.

Association building. containing much of the original The LLA hopes This one is actually a woodwork, furniture and artwork, the updates will enable replacement for the first which was purchased in Europe by the organization to one, which came from a 12th century English Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, a charter host more events, cathedral and now hangs member of the LLA and wife of particularly concerts by inside the building. the first president of Kalamazoo local groups that would Photo: Erik Holladay College. Lucinda Stone’s great-greatmake better use of the granddaughter Elizabeth Harris will give second-floor auditorium. a presentation to the LLA during its 160th The ultimate goal behind the building anniversary celebration in May. improvements is to bring in more money to “It’s just such a magnificent place. You support the association’s many good works just kind of walk in there, and between the and to maintain the building for posterity. environment of the building and the books “We’re very, very cognizant of the fact that are there, you can literally be taken to that that building is entrusted to us,” Lin another time and another place,” says Lin, says, “and we have to do what we can to who has had the opportunity to read many keep it going, so when we’re long gone our of the more than 3,000 volumes in the granddaughters and great-granddaughters library’s permanent collection. Members will still have that building. We could are allowed to peruse the books only on do what we do out of some (other) place designated days and may never take them downtown, but it wouldn’t be the same off-site. because that building is … our heart.”

LLA members prepare a lunch in the building’s kitchen. Back to front are Millie Karnemaatt, Bev Siemers, Lil McWethy, Barbara Baker and Tina Armaly.

in 2011 the organization gave out $25,000 in scholarships to 17 students in Kalamazoo County.

LLA members also put in many volunteer hours with local nonprofits.

“Sometimes what organizations need isn’t just money, it’s service,” Lin says.

The needlework committee, for example, sews clothes for women in homeless shelters. Members have even adopted a stretch of the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail, where they pick up litter a few times a year. Another committee, “made up,” Lin says, “of some of the best cooks I’ve ever seen in my life,” prepares the food for all events in the building.

“In addition to the stuff that we do that is hard work, we also have fun,” Lin says. The fun includes various social events for members and open houses like the ice cream social during the KIA Art Fair. “I scooped ice cream last year until I thought my arms were going to fall off, but we had the best time,” she says.

“Everything that we do strives to work towards improving the environment, the community, and just bettering the lives of other people,” in particular young people. “Our future is our children, and I really believe more so than ever before in our history we have to start very early helping children to understand the importance of

things that I grew up with — they called them citizenship back then.”

The LLA promotes youth citizenship in part by supporting the Kind News, a newspaper for elementary school children, with stories to help them learn how to demonstrate kindness to people, animals and the environment. Last year the LLA funded subscriptions for 120 elementary schools from Michigan to New York.

Lin says that in this economy, it is more important than ever to continue to support nonprofits and philanthropic organizations, and the LLA wants to be able to continue to keep itself and its support for other institutions going. “We’re finding ways to use what we have, whether it be dollar resources or building resources and have that generate more money for us,” she says.

Lin enjoys working with the LLA because she is applying what she learned in her careers to give back to others.

Her first career, as an opera singer, began in childhood when she fell in love with opera the first time she heard it. Lin describes herself as “a shy kid with a big voice” who joined the church choir because people in the pews around her stared whenever the congregation was singing a hymn. The choir director told her parents that they should get her voice lessons.

“My first voice teachers didn’t know what to do with me. They were afraid they would harm my voice, so I got a lot of Mozart and art songs in my repertoire. My opportunities came later with teachers that understood my instrument.”

She found mentors in college and loved performing, but her father wanted her to study something practical and advised her to get an education degree to become a music teacher.

But Lin realized she was not at all interested in teaching. “I started taking other courses, looking into other things, and knowing that if I could light on something that would meet with (my father’s) approval and still keep my music, then I’d be getting the best of both worlds.”

Lin says she was “a shallow teenager,” and that quality brought her an eventual solution. At that time, business

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schools were predominantly male, and she had noticed while walking past the business school on campus that the main entrance stairs were “loaded with good-looking boys,” she laughs.

She saw an advantage in being Lin Cote is a relatively one of the few new member of the women students in LLA, having joined the the business school, organization less than two years ago. but it turned out she also enjoyed the classes, so she majored in business and continued studying vocal performance.

She had the opportunity to apply for a scholarship provided by Luciano Pavarotti. “I was very, very fortunate that I got one of the finalist positions,” she says. The scholarship gave not only money to pursue a music education, but also internships with opera companies to see how they worked and to watch live performances.

She decided she loved that world and joined the Houston Grand Opera after graduating. From there, opera took her around the world, including to Switzerland, Israel, Italy, France, Austria and Ireland. She also did stints in Florida and New York.

In addition to seeing the world and meeting many interesting people, Lin says, “I learned a lot about people and taking directions,” which helped in her next career.

Like athletes, singers have a shelf life, Lin says, and she wanted to go out while she was at the peak of her talent.

So she got an M.B.A. and started a career in business. She worked for two large insurance and risk management companies before starting her own business, specializing in general business and risk management consulting.

She does see a parallel between her two professional lives. “I think if you

look at really successful businessmen or businesswomen, there’s a certain amount of drama that they have in their lives, a certain amount of performance, if you will.”

Lin is now semi-retired, but she’s not ready to As an opera singer and just sit back and participant in musical relax. “I (want) to theatre, Lin played many roles including do more, and that Marian in Music Man. to me is the big draw of LLA — it captures my love of architecture, music, history and reading, but it also gives me incredible opportunities to interact with not just the women of the group but the whole community.

There’s something you can get involved in that takes you outside (into) the community any day you want to. There’s always something going on.”

In particular, she has enjoyed watching opera videos with the music committee (“I can talk to them about what it’s like behind the scenes”), waitressing at the ice cream social and modeling for an LLA fashion show.

As reporting chair responsible for creating an annual financial report for the state GFWC, she has contact with all departments of the organization, and she is becoming heavily involved as a spokesperson for the LLA to the business and arts communities, encouraging more organizations to make use of the library building.

She also hopes the LLA will attract more members, particularly younger members. “It’s for women of any age that aren’t through living and want to be involved in a positive way with community and culture, and also to make friends with people of like mind,” she says.

“I definitely want to be involved with the Ladies’ Library Association, because I think that it’s giving just as much to me as I’m going to give to it.”

MORE EXPECT

LOCAL NEWS LOCAL WEATHER INTERVIEWS THROUGHOUT THE DAY

WMUK m 102m1 FM WMUK m ORG

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Performing Arts Plays The Acting Company — The Comedy of Errors — This highly-praised touring repertory theater company presents Shakespeare’s farce about two sets of identical twins separated at birth. Mar. 13, 7:30 p.m.

Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

The Cure for Love — This bawdy sex comedy adapted from a Dumas novel provides limitless laughs. Mar. 15–17 & 22–24, 8 p.m.; Mar. 25, 2 p.m. Williams Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.

Tony ‘N Tina’s Wedding — WMU’s University Theatre presents a big fat Italian wedding where the dinner and ceremony are the show and audience members are the guests. Dinner and wedding cake provided

by Millennium Restaurant Group. Mar. 29, 31, Apr. 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 7 p.m.; Apr. 1 & 15, 5 p.m. Cityscape Events Center, 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 387-6222.

Crimes of the Heart — The play teems with humanity and humor as it examines “Nearly all men can the plight of three young stand adversity, but Mississippi sisters beif you want to test trayed by their passions. a man’s character, Mar. 30, 31, Apr. 6, 7, 13, give him power.”

14, 20, 21, 27, 28, 8:30 p.m. New Vic Theatre, Abraham 134 E. Vine St. 381-3328.

Lincoln

Musicals & Opera Smoky Joe’s Café — A rollicking musical revue with songs written by Leiber & Stoller that will take you back to a simpler time. Mar. 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 8 p.m.; Mar. 8, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 11 & 18, 2 p.m. Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

How I Became a Pirate — The Civic Youth Theatre presents this musical adventure about a boy named Jeremy who signs on to help pirates bury their treasure. Mar. 16 & 23, 7 p.m.; Mar. 17 & 24, 1 p.m. & 7 p.m.; Mar. 18, 2 p.m.; Mar. 20 & 21, 9:30 a.m. & 12 p.m.; Mar. 22, 5 p.m. Parish Theatre, 429 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Jersey Boys — The blockbuster musical tells the amazing story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, including all their hit songs and popular favorites. Mar. 20–22, 27–29, 7:30 p.m.; Mar. 23 & 30, 8 p.m.; Mar. 24 & 31, 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Mar. 25 & Apr. 1, 1 p.m. & 6:30 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

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Dance Midwest RAD Festival — Wellspring Cori Terry & Dancers presents four dance concerts as part of the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival. Mar. 2 & 3, 7:30 & 9 p.m. Visit www.midwestradfest. org for details.

Spring Concert — A Celebration — Ballet Arts Ensemble presents their spring concert of dance. Mar. 10, 2 & 7 p.m. Shaw Theatre, WMU. 387-2300.

Symphony Spanish Rhapsody — Maestro Raymond Harvey and the KSO welcome cellist Johannes Moser for an evening of sensitive, sensual and sparkling Spanish sounds.

Mar. 10, 8 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 349-7759.

Carnival of the Animals — Conductor Barry Ross leads the KSO and Grand Rapids Ballet in this production of one of SaintSaens’ favorites. Mar. 25, 3 p.m. Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 349-7759.

Love Is in the Air — The WMU University Symphony Orchestra led by Bruce Uchimura will perform. Mar. 25, 3 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Chamber, Jazz, Orchestra & Bands Dalton Wed@7:30 — A series of WMU School of Music concerts. John Wojciechowski on sax, Scott Cowen on trumpet, and Tri-Fi, Mar. 14; University Percussion Ensemble, Mar. 21; Birds on a Wire, Mar. 28. Concerts at 7:30 p.m. Dalton Center. Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Dance Forms — Fontana Chamber Arts presents violinist Tim Fain performing a Philip Glass composition written for him and the Bach Partita No. 2 that inspired it.

Mar. 16, 7:30 p.m. Wellspring Theatre, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 382-7774.

Western Invitational Jazz Festival — The University Jazz Orchestra will perform along with the outstanding band and combo from the festival. Mar. 17, 7:30 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Alumni Recital — WMU School of Music presents Mira Shifrin, flute. Mar. 18, 3 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Faculty and Guest Artist Recital — The ensemble electro<>acústico will perform with faculty member Christopher Biggs.

Mar. 19, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Lecture Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Spring Evening — An evening of intimate music with the KSO’s Burdick-Thorne String Quartet and other KSO musicians.

Mar. 30, 8 p.m. Cityscape Events Center, 125 S, Kalamazoo Mall. 349-7759.

Alarm Will Sound — Fontana Chamber Arts presents this 20-member ensemble and their genre-bending program with pieces by Aphex Twin and John Adams.

Mar. 31, 8 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 382-7774.

Vocal and Radio Conspirare — The Bach Festival presents a concert by this acclaimed choral arts group led by Craig Hella Johnson. Mar. 7, 7:30 p.m. Portage Central H.S. Auditorium, 8135 S. Westnedge Ave. 337-7407.

Southwestern Michigan Vocal Festival — Featuring the high school festival chorus, honors choir and University Chorale. Mar. 15, 7 p.m. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-4667.

All Ears Theatre — Step back into history and enjoy live radio performances for later airing on 102.1 WMUK-FM. The Lady and the Lion, Mar. 3; Twenty Thousand Leagues, Part I & II, Mar. 17; Goldilocks, Mar. 31.

First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. 6 p.m. Free.

An Evening with Scott Coulter — Farmers Alley presents this celebrated New York singer and cabaret performer in a special cabaret-style performance. Mar. 16 & 17, 8 p.m.; Mar. 18, 2 p.m. Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley. 343-2727.

Guest Jazz Artist — A seven-member vocal ensemble, Groove for Thought, will perform. Mar. 23, 8 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4689.

Gold Company Invitational Vocal Jazz Festival — The 32nd annual festival will feature a performance by Gold Company.

Mar. 24, 8 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4689.

A Gilbert and Sullivan Celebration â&#x20AC;&#x201D; The Kalamazoo Singers present a concert of music from the operettas of the famous duo. Mar. 25, 3 p.m. First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. 387-2300.

Collegium Musicum â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This WMU early music group led by Matthew Steel will perform. Mar. 29, 8:15 p.m. Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Visual Arts WMU Richmond Center for Visual Arts (RCVA) 387-2455 Peter Campus: Existentialism and a Halflife in Video â&#x20AC;&#x201D; New works from a pioneer of video installations. Through March 23.

Albertine Monroe-Brown Gallery.

Gems of the University Art Collection â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition featuring outstanding pieces from the collections of WMU. Through June 29. Netzorg/Kerr Gallery.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 349-7775 Infrared Photography â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Prints by Christopher Light, Kalamazoo resident, are featured. Through March 18.

Hefner Collection of East Asian Art â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramics, metal objects, prints and paintings on loan from the Hefner family.

Through April 7.

Object of Devotion â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition of sixty alabaster panels and free-standing figures that were displayed in the homes of Christians in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Mar. 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;May 13.

Louis Comfort Tiffanyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Quest of Beauty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This exhibition marks the premiere of a special installation of the KIAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collection of works by the master artist. Ongoing exhibition.

ARTbreak Â&#x2014;â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Informal free presentations on art-related topics. Asian Art from the Hefner Family Collection, Mar. 6; Books, Alabasters, and Devotion in Medieval England, Mar. 13; The Virgin Mary in English Alabaster Sculpture, Mar. 20; Ida McDougal: Her Story, Mar. 27. Bring a lunch to these 12 p.m. sessions.

STEPPING BACK WITH THE ARTS

A sharp wit has long been admired in literature. Few have demonstrated wit so sharp as Dorothy Parker. Parker (1893â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1967) was a poet and satirist known for her wisecracks and free verses. She was an original member of the New Yorker â&#x20AC;&#x153;board of editorsâ&#x20AC;? and published pieces in Vogue, Life and The New Republic as well.

Along with Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood, Parker founded the Algonquin Round Table. She sold hundreds of viciously funny poems. But her cutting remarks had a downside, too. She was terminated as theater critic at Vanity Fair for being too caustic. But like her or not, she was funny.

Miscellaneous Saniwax Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; An exhibition of photography from students of the Valley Center School as part of KRESAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Education for the Arts. Opening reception during Art Hop, Mar. 2, 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m. Through Mar. 16. 345-3311.

Midtown Gallery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Featuring Raku ceramics by Michael S. Bryant and oil paintings by Richard Brinn. 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 372-0134.

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

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

Literary Events Portage District Library 329-4544 Cats Art Exhibit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; This exhibit views felines through the eyes of painters, photographers, sculptors, a quilter and mixed media artists. Opens Mar. 2. Meet the Artists Reception with music by Hired Hands on Mar. 11, 2 p.m.

Evening Storytime â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Meet local childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s author Katie Seifert and hear her read her story, Ellieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Room. Mar. 15, 6:30 p.m.

At one point she had a small office in the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. She had very few visitors for the first few days so when a painter arrived to put her name on the door, she instead instructed him to paint a single word: â&#x20AC;&#x153;GENTLEMENâ&#x20AC;?!

Fundamentals of Starting a Business and Writing a Business Plan â&#x20AC;&#x201D; A workshop presented by the Michigan Small Business & Technology Development Center. Mar. 21, 6â&#x20AC;&#x201C;9 p.m. Registration required, call 387-6004.

Kalamazoo Public Library 553-7809 Meet Luis Alberto Urrea â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Meet the author of this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Reading Together selection at these events: ConversaciĂłn con Luis Urrea, Mar. 6, 2:30 p.m. El Sol Elementary School, 604 W. Vine St.; Cross Cultural Experiences, Mar. 6, 7 p.m. Kalamazoo Central H.S. Auditorium, 2432 N. Drake Rd.; A Writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Perspective, Mar. 7, 12 p.m. K-College Light Fine Arts Building, Recital Hall. 553-7895.

Reading Together Book Discussions â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Join the reading community for these discussions of Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea. Mar. 1, 9 a.m. Vicksburg District Library, 215 S. Michigan Ave.; Mar. 9, 12:45 p.m. Unitarian Universalist Community Church, 10441 Shaver Rd.; Mar. 11, 2 p.m. Peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Church, 1758 N. 10th St.; Mar. 20, 10:30 a.m. Portage District Library, 300 Library Lane. (continued on page 39) Please send notification of activities to: Encore â&#x20AC;&#x153;Events of Noteâ&#x20AC;?

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

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If you have It, appreciate It.

Out of the morning mist, like zombies, they range along the beach.

Sidestepping the surf, burley tourists lurch, more than one red as hell others white, like poached perch, stooping here and there to reach for the exoskeletal remains of a mollusk or crustacean.

If you are given It, teach with It. If you sense It, test It. If you had It, search for It. If you are looking for It, question who has It. If you flaunt It, you only think you have It. If you want It, reach for It. If you recognize It, you have shared It.

By Ann Chestnut Ann Chestnut was born and raised in Allegan and recently retired from teaching. Her many ways of expressing herself include gardening, jewelry making and writing. Ann currently lives on a picturesque farm just outside of Allegan with her husband, Jim. Her poetry has been published in Sassafras and Sumac: Poems of Reflections of the Muse (Trace Hay Publications, 2011).

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And the shells skitter and tinkle before the waves as the Atlantic growls a steady roar, and its milky tongue licks the shore.

While sandal-shod walkers crunch and crush bits and pieces, once perhaps flotsam and jetsam, now but detritus of the sea.

And when and where it could, the western sun portrayed the penumbrae of palmettos skirting the sand in rows before the gauntlet of hotels, high-rise dominoes arrayed in variant shades of pastels, so that bleary beachcombers might find their way home.

By Larry B. Massie

Larry Massie writes Michigan history for Encore and has published more than 20 books on the subject.

Larry enjoys writing poetry â&#x20AC;&#x153;because the pressure to produce is not there.â&#x20AC;? His inspiration for this poem was a spring break trip he took to Myrtle Beach last year with his wife, Priscilla, and two daughters, Autumn and Maureen.

(continued from page 37) Movie and Popcorn — Come and enjoy the film Gnomeo and Juliet. Mar. 16, 2 p.m.

Central Library.

A Reading Together Concert — The band, Sierra Negra, will entertain with their Latin-style music. Mar. 21, 7 p.m. Central Library. 553-7895.

Kalamazoo Fretboard Festival — A celebration of our legacy of stringed instruments, this free event includes concerts, workshops and more. Mar. 23 & 24. A special play-in contest on Mar. 2 at 6 p.m. will determine who gets the last chance to perform at the Fretboard Festival.

Boomers and Beyond — A program geared for adults over 50 to learn about spiders in this interactive program. Bring a lunch to finish the program. Mar. 27, 11 a.m.

Miscellaneous

Nature

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

Field Ornithology Course — Lectures and field trips will teach identification of birds, “birdscaping” your yard, and much more.

Classes start Mar. 27 and run Tuesdays and Saturdays through May 19. Fees and registration required. Call 269-671-2510 or e-mail birdsanctuary@kbs.msu.edu.

Gwen Frostic Reading Series — A series of author visits and readings sponsored by the WMU English Department. Bonnie Jo Campbell, Mar. 23, 8 p.m. WMU Bernhard Center, Rooms 105–107; Jen Bervin with two events, a lecture entitled Small Infinities — Emily Dickinson’s Manuscripts, Mar. 28, 4 p.m. Waldo Library, Meader Rare Book Room, and a reading, Mar. 29, 7 p.m. Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave. Ste. 103.

Museums Kalamazoo Valley Museum 373-7990 Disease Detectives — Disease-fighting detectives explore an environment to learn more about infectious disease transmission and prevention. Through May 28.

Remember Me: Civil War Portraits — Learn about how tintype photography was done through portraits of Civil War soldiers. Through June 17.

Music at the Museum — Third Coast Ensemble, an eclectic string band will perform. Mar. 9, 7 p.m. There is a $5 charge for this event.

Planetarium Programs — The DigiStar planetarium presents various programs.

Invaders of Mars (through Mar. 16), Crossing the Sun (Mar. 17–June 15), Mon., Wed., Fri., Sat., Sun. at 3 p.m.; Sky Legends of the Three Fires (through Mar. 16), Mystery of the Missing Seasons (Mar. 17–June 15), Weekdays, 11 a.m., Sat., 1 p.m., Sun., 2 p.m.; Orion Nights (through Mar. 10), The Artist’s Sky (Mar. 17–June 15), Tues. & Thur., 3 p.m., Sat., 2 p.m.

Kalamazoo Nature Center 381-1574 Owl Prowl — Take a night hike to find out which species of owls are calling in the woods. Dress to be warm and walk quietly.

Mar. 2 & 8, 7 p.m.

Maple Sugar Festival — Maple treats and fun activities mark the annual festival with a pancake breakfast, wagon rides and maple syrup demonstrations at the sugar shack. Mar. 17 & 18, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

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Terrentine (continued from page 21) While his current position may not allow Tim the one-on-one impact he had in the neighborhoods and schools earlier in his career, he has not forgotten his commitment to children.

Tim and his wife, Gretta, who works at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, have two children, Olivia and Tim Jr. (who goes by T.J.), who serve as daily reminders.

He is chairing a new organization, KC Ready4s, an early education program focused on preparing every 4-yearold in Kalamazoo County to succeed in kindergarten. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also involved in United Way and on the boards of other

Three generations then (left): A Doritos-toting Tim with his father Bob Terrentine (left) and grandfather Robert Miles. Three generations now (right): T.J. Terrentine (center) is flanked by dad Tim, (left) and his grandfather Bob Terrentine (right).

local and state organizations.

Tim doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t confine his community support to boardrooms.

He makes it a point to attend football and hockey games at his alma mater, WMU.

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As a high school student, Tim learned about leadership and giving back from teachers and coaches he encountered at Kalamazoo Central.

“I’m a Western guy,” he admits. “I like Bronco football, and I’ve turned into a Bronco hockey fan. I just like being in that atmosphere. The students at Western are wild and crazy.”

Tim has also found his own voice — literally — through his passion for music, which he calls his “second heartbeat.”

“Music has always represented salvation for me. Those times when I really struggled with what was going on in my life, or had difficulties or hardships, music always calmed my soul. It’s one of God’s greatest gifts to humans. At church, I sing every chance I get. When they put me to rest and embalm me, they’re going to pull music out of me. My bloodstream will have treble and bass clefs coming out of it.”

But this musical man on the move still finds time to reflect on the many opportunities he’s had and how they allow him to give back. He never forgets those who believed in him, starting with Bob and Bonnie so many years ago.

“I love my parents. And I’m proud of them. I keep telling them that I’m working my butt off so that they can enjoy retirement. They sacrificed a lot for me, and I’m eternally grateful.”

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Spirit of Kalamazoo (continued from page 22)

Q: Where in the Kalamazoo area was this picture taken?

(Answer on page 44)

Midtown Gallery, MRC Art Works and Carver Gallery, while open during the week, enjoy huge Art Hop crowds that fill their galleries with newfound friends who not only like to look but also to avail themselves of a great occasion to purchase art. Coffee shops exude the sweet aromas of our favorite teas and specialty coffees, drawing the crowds to look at their displays and enjoy a short cup.

Even the Kalamazoo Public Library is in on it, at times offering not just a glimpse at local artwork but also a myriad of books and magazines to read online and off. Jewelry stores, hair salons, gift shops, banks, credit unions, furniture stores and restaurants that serve dishes from subs to fondue benefit and embrace the event. You see people laughing, nibbling the free appetizers, sometimes sipping a little wine and, yes, more often than not, actually enjoying art. Even those husbands who say their wives drag them downtown can often be seen the following month showing their buddies around while their wives are trying to catch up.

On some occasions you will experience the dance moves of Wellspring Cori Terry and Dancers or the melodic sounds of Fontana Chamber Arts or have your friends see you on the Public Media Network.

There is something for everyone. And when the Park Trades Center gets in on the act, it’s more icing on the cake.

But alas, almost four years ago on April 15 — yes, Tax Day — when I became the executive director of the Black Arts & Cultural Center, it seemed as if I would not get to enjoy the Art Hop as much. My duties during most of the event are to greet guests and introduce them to the many artists we showcase throughout the year. But don’t feel sorry for me.

I get the greatest opportunity in the world when I present some of our local kindergarten-to-12th-grade youth to the public and see the looks in their young eyes when our guests marvel at the work they have done. Of course, if you didn’t already know, occasionally organizations like Education for the Arts and public schools from Kalamazoo and Portage and surrounding areas get to show off the work of local students as well.

The Art Hop is also a great chance to introduce the general public to students from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo College and the Kalamazoo Valley Community College Center for New Media. The Art Hop highlights the diverse cultures of Southwest Michigan and unveils works ranging from bronze sculptures to handmade paper, wood carvings to glass, and even works using human hair from a barbershop. The list goes on and on. You name it, if it’s art, it’s in downtown Kalamazoo on the first Friday of every month.

So take a big leap and hop on down and see us.

The monthly Art Hop draws many to view the variety of works featured at the Black Arts & Cultural Center.

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Creative Kids (continued from page 23) At Fancy Pants Theater (formerly Whole Art), Grace has had a variety of roles, including assistant director/stage manager of James and the Giant Peach, the theater’s first-ever family show.

Currently she is a part-time employee of Fancy Pants.

“I am one of those people who is most content when I’m as busy as I can possibly be,” she says.

When she’s not working on a show, Grace is occupied with her other passions, which include visual art. At the moment, she is a member of the Loy Norrix Improv Team, otherwise known as I.T. Her brothers are also members.

“My motivation for auditioning was to increase my performance experience,” says Grace. “Improv gives you a chance to be quippy and have no one to credit it to but yourself. At the same time, you really have to work together as a team.

It’s very integrated.”

Grace admits there may be a slight advantage to working with her brothers.

“I would hope we would be able to predict each other pretty well,” she says.

Self-taught in digital photography, sewing and watercolor, Grace was recently invited to join Cindy Vanlieu’s Advanced Placement (AP) Art Class, an honor typically reserved for juniors and seniors.

“I think I’ve always been interested in visual arts,” Grace says. “I’ve always been told I was good at them.” She credits her gifted teachers, including Kathy Murphy at Winchell Elementary School and Mrs. Vanlieu, for providing her with endless ideas and support.

Grace’s current project involves the visual incongruity of idioms. The AP project will include 12 2-D pieces that will become increasingly complex in relationship to the theme.

“If all goes as planned, it will end up looking like a children’s book in the beginning, whimsical but ironic. By the end, the pieces will become more twisted and macabre, showing the visual incongruity between the theme and composition,” she says.

Grace also credits her parents, as well as the city of Kalamazoo, for offering her an amazing artistic upbringing and wonderful opportunities.

“Other towns have Art Hops, but it’s the cumulative combination of the number of local theaters, the magnitude of the art fair, the downtown association that is very supportive of the arts, our Junior Symphony and the artistic grants through the Gilmore Foundation that really provide an incredible variety,” she says. “This is unique to Kalamazoo. I’ve talked to kids

from other cities, and they don’t have these things.”

This summer Grace’s plan is to attend a two-week camp in Stratford, Ontario, home of the revered Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she “hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to spend time with more students who share (her) interest in language and theater — two things which Shakespearean study integrates very nicely.”

Not surprisingly, Grace is a devoted proponent of the arts in education. “I think both visual art and theater should be mandatory in high school,” she says. “It would help students become well-rounded and more confident in speaking.”

As a grateful beneficiary of the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship program, Grace is already considering her college options, including two that have strong theater departments, Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan.

For Grace, with her many talents, the possibilities are endless, but it’s hard to imagine a more perfect fit than the variety that theater production could offer her.

“I haven’t changed my mind since middle school,” she says, “but you never know.”

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Glass Center

Art Hop visitors created two-inch fused glass tiles for mosaics that Vases, forged and welded metal with an inlay of fused and hang in the center. stained glass, by Kathy Kreager.

to more than 200, and 19 part-time instructors teach a broad curriculum on creating glass art.

“We’re lucky to have so many artists here who can also teach,” Frank says.

At the same time as its membership and programs grow, the center continues to expand its educational outreach.

In 2011, its Community Education program, which is coordinated by Jennifer DiGiuseppe, held 291 classes and other activities, teaching glass art to more than 3,600 people. A strong focus of the WMGAC — as it has been since the beginning — is to teach children.

Kids are attracted to the WMGAC

2012 Keyboard Festival April 26 – May 12

TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Complete schedule and artist videos: www.TheGilmore.org

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camps and classes, where they are allowed to make their own glass art. It’s no surprise they’re excited, Rebecca says.

Parents are always telling their kids not to play with glass and not to play with fire.

“What do we do here? We’re going to teach to kids and adults to work with fire and glass,” she says. But the center emphasizes safety as it teaches children and adults, how to about an art form that has the potential to cut and burn its creators.

And if sometimes that art breaks?

Perhaps an even more important lesson: Just shrug your shoulders, laugh and start again.

Photo: Carolyn R. Fink

The same year the organization changed its name, the group hired Rebecca Boase as its second executive director.

She replaced Linda Kekic, who had been at the glass society’s helm since 2006.

Rebecca says she came on board during a pivotal time for the WMGAC. The group developed a marketing and branding campaign funded by Michigan NOW! and is expanding its programming even further.

“Our vision is to become a nationally recognized, state-of-the-art organization,” Rebecca says. “I think regionally we’ve developed a solid reputation. We have to crank up a bit on the art that’s created here to gain a national reputation, though we are super good as a community art center.”

She says gaining a national reputation may require working on the curriculum of the WMGAC’s classes to attract “artists in here that are creating great art.”

The groundwork is being laid for that reputation. Membership has grown

Photo: Erik Holladay

(continued from page 10)

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Photography Way Back When

Answer! (question on page 42)

Michigan Lifestyle Properties . . . . . . . . . 35 Midtown Gallery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Moors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Oakland Centre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Portage Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Sharp Smile Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Varnum Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 WMUK. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 YMCA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

We’d love to share your poetry with Kalamazoo-area readers. Please submit a short personal profile to accompany it.

Encore Magazine c/o Poetry Editor 350 S. Burdick St., Suite 316 Kalamazoo, MI 49007 editor@encorekalamazoo.com

The photo was taken on July 28, 1928, at Kalamazoo’s municipal airport, then known as Lindbergh Field. Kalamazoo officials and others had gathered at the Portage Township site to celebrate the opening of airmail service to the city.

Lindbergh Field began as a simple landing strip in 1921. Eight years later, the city was granted Michigan Airport License Number One. Trivia Column by Maureen Massie 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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Foto Stop

Profile

Entries Wanted!

IN HONOR of National March Into Literacy Month, Encore is making a slight departure in its selection for the FotoStop feature. SUZANNE BLAINE SIEGEL’s painting of Michigan Avenue, looking toward Kalamazoo’s iconic Michigan News Agency, was too good to pass up as we honor reading and the love of the printed word.

Suzanne’s highly-detailed and colorful urban landscape paintings might be mistaken for digitally manipulated photographs if she weren’t, by her own admission, “almost computer-illiterate.”

“I can just barely use the word processor at the library,” she admits.

She does rely on photos she’s taken to create her paintings. “Since it would be absurd for any artist to set up a workshop in the middle of Westnedge or Michigan avenues in the rain at night for the 100-plus hours it takes to paint one of my urban nocturnes, I use photos for a reference,” she says.

In her paintings, Suzanne depicts commonplace urban motifs and natural landscapes with glowing colors and subtle gradations of tone. She says the

effect often suggests “luminous scenes recalled from dreams, childhood memories or moments of heightened awareness.”

“I hope to share views of hometown life, cheerfully recognizable, but which also evoke a sense of perhaps a deeper level of positive consciousness,” she explains. “A little taste of the transcendent, in short.”

Beginning this month, Suzanne’s paintings can be viewed at the People’s Church, 1758 N. 10th St., in Oshtemo Township. From June through September, her work will be exhibited at the West Michigan Cancer Center as part of the Kalamazoo Arts Development Initiative Grant Show sponsored by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

Suzanne is currently working on paintings for her fourth calendar and preparing a retrospective collection of her art for a book titled Luminosities, Vol. 1: Landscape Paintings and Other Works.

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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 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 specifics of taking the image you submit.

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