Encore September 2015

Black Owl Cafe's Darren Bain

September 2015

Uniting Neighbors

Bret Green’s Breakout Role

Meet Troy Thrash

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Creating Comics in Kalamazoo

Mary Spradling died in 2009.

Today she’s teaching people about the history, experiences and contributions of African Americans.

Mary loved Kalamazoo. She was Kalamazoo Public Library’s first black professional librarian and was instrumental in initiating the city’s official recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.

Her own legacy is a collection of 2,800 books, magazines and record albums highlighting the history, experiences and contributions of African Americans that she donated to Kalamazoo Valley Community College in 1998. A Community Foundation fund created in her honor by friends maintains and enhances the collection.

We can help you show your love for Kalamazoo and leave a legacy too. Call 269.381.4416 or visit www.kalfound.org to learn how.

2 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

equity | education | engagement

“Four months ago, I had anterior hip replacement surgery at Bronson Methodist Hospital. And it was the best thing I ever did. I put off the surgery for three years — until I could hardly walk at all. Thanks to Bronson, I started feeling better before anything was even scheduled. My doctor did a great job of explaining what to expect and what would be done. My pain was minimal and I could move around better than I ever expected. In just four weeks, I was back doing the things I used to do — camping, walking the dog, golfing with my buddies and so on. The best testament to my outcome: forgetting that I ever had a hip problem. And for that, I’m so thankful.”

Don, Portage, Michigan, May 17, 2014 Don’t let hip pain keep you from what you love. Learn more about anterior hip surgery at bronsonpositivity.com/hip.

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September

CONTENTS 2015

FEATURES Creating Comics in Kalamazoo

24

Creativity Unbound

32

Local artists and storytellers show that comics aren’t kid stuff

Meet serial entrepeneur, author, artist and renovation genius Darren Bain

DEPARTMENTS 8 Contributors

Up Front 10 First Things — What’s happening in SW Michigan 12 Tournament of Writers — Schoolcraft competition beckons aspiring authors

14 17

Good Works

Block by Block — Uniting neighbors to improve neighborhoods Free Health Clinic — Faiths come together to meet community need

19 Savor

BBQ on the Corner — Street-side stands offer good food and good folks

21

Enterprise

Filling the Gap — Junior Achievement is ‘bridge linking education and business’

46 Back Story

Meet Troy Thrash — The sky’s the limit for the Air Zoo CEO.

ARTS

38 Actor Bret Green

Portage native has breakout role in new

CBS series

40 Events of Note 43 Poetry

On the cover: Artist Paul Sizer created this cover for Encore using his own comics creations as well as those of other local comics artists. Learn more about comics in Kalamazoo on page 24.

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Black Owl Cafe's Darren Bain

Perspective

Uniting Neighbors

Bret Green’s Breakout Role

Meet Troy Thrash

A NEW

September 2015

Creating Comics in Kalamazoo

Carole Morgan Owner, StageRight Home Staging

When I first started, I just wanted to lose weight. But Genesis helped me to see that health is not just about weight, but rather striving for a healthy lifestyle. I love the progression that they take me through. I may be 68 years old, but I’m motivated because they assist me and help me to see my successes. Each day is a victory. Now I want a quality life style; with stamina, balance and confidence. The benefits for me go way beyond the exterior, the benefits are helping me to grow from within.

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Publisher

encore publications, inc.

Editor

marie lee

Designer

alexis stubelt

Copy Editor

margaret deritter

Contributing Writers

In-Home Personal Training & Wellness Services

andrew domino, lisa mackinder, kara norman, j. gabriel ware, robert m. weir

GET A FREE IN-HOME CONSULTATION:

tim conrad, junfu han, brian k. powers

Photographers

(205) 433.9377 genesisfitwell.com

Poetry Editor

margaret deritter

Advertising Sales krieg lee celeste statler sophia jacobs

Distribution kama mitchell

Office Coordinator hope smith

Encore Magazine is published 12 times yearly. Copyright 2015, Encore Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising correspondence should be sent to:

www.encorekalamazoo.com 117 W. Cedar St. Suite A Kalamazoo, MI 49007 Telephone: (269) 383-4433 Fax: (269) 383-9767 Email: Publisher@encorekalamazoo.com

Great flavor comes from deep roots.

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© Bell's Brewery, Inc., Comstock, MI

since 1985

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 $36, two years $70. Current single issue and newsstand $4, $10 by mail.

Back issues $6, $12 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.

DR. SANDHyA SOOD-MCMILLEN Mom

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CONTRIBUTORS

encore

Andrew Domino

A frequent contributor to Encore, Andrew is a longtime comic book fan. He knew there was more to the art form than Superman and Dilbert, but he didn’t realize how much Kalamazoo-area talent was literally a mouseclick away. You can find more of Andrew’s writing at www.dominowriting.com.

Lisa Mackinder

Kara Norman

Lisa, who contributes two stories this month — one on Junior Achievement and the other on actor and soon-to-be star Bret Green — says she was surprised by the level of dedication of those involved with Junior Achievement. “I found it inspiring not only how many people volunteer their time with the area’s students, but do so with a deep commitment and belief in what they are doing,” she says. Lisa is a freelance writer from Portage whose work has previously appeared in various Chicken Soup for the Soul books, Dog World, MiBiz and other publications.

A freelance writer living in Kalamazoo, Kara enjoys delving “into the minds behind thriving, community-minded businesses” such as that of serial entrepreneur, writer and artist Darren Bain. She also hunted down the wizards behind the aromatic and delicious food of Lil' Brothers BBQ for this month’s Savor feature. “I love talking to people who successfully combine various passions and talents,” she says.

J. Gabriel Ware In this month's issue, J. Gabriel tells readers about Schoolcraft's Tournament of Writers and the Building Blocks of Kalamazoo organization. "Writing about Building Blocks of Kalamazoo was cool,” says Ware, who is entering his senior year at Western Michigan University. “I got to understand the behindthe-scenes workings of an organization that's building friendships and trust among Kalamazoo residents."

8 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

Robert M. Weir Robert finds joy in reporting the deeds of people he calls “candle lighters,” folks who, by embracing the concept “it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness,” bring the light of hope to those who are less fortunate. In this issue, Robert relates the endeavors of Kalamazoo candle lighters who are creating a free health care clinic for the area’s homeless and indigent citizens. See more of his work at www.RobertMWeir.com.

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up front encore

First Things Something Healthy Walk for a better life

Join the fight against heart disease and stroke at the American Heart Association’s Kalamazoo Heart Walk Sept. 26. The walk begins at 8 a.m.

“The Kalamazoo Heart Walk is the American Heart Association's premier event for raising funds to save lives from this country's No. 1 and No. 5 killers — heart disease and stroke,” says Chris Laurent, the American Heart Association’s corporate events director for Southwestern Michigan. “The Heart Walk is designed to promote physical activity and heart-healthy living while creating an environment that's fun and rewarding for the entire family.”

Registration is free, but donations are encouraged. For more information, visit www. kalamazooheartwalk.org or email Chris Laurent at Chris.Laurent@heart.org.

Something Sporting

WMU to kick off season against MSU Western Michigan University’s Broncos open their 2015 football season against the Michigan State University Spartans Sept. 4 at Waldo Stadium. Kickoff is at 7 p.m., with the game scheduled to be televised on ESPNU. “Michigan State coming to Waldo Stadium is something that benefits our fans, our university and the entire Kalamazoo community,” says WMU Athletic Director Kathy Beauregard. “We have hosted a number of high-profile teams in the past, but the chance to host the Spartans on our home field is really very exciting.”

Tickets to the game, which cost $68 each, are likely to sell fast, since there are many Spartan and Bronco fans in the area. For tickets, call 269-389-8092.

10 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

Something Delicious An anniversary ale

Bell’s Brewery celebrates its 30th anniversary this month by adding a commemorative drink to the menu: Its 30th Anniversary Ale. A dark chocolateand fruit-flavored ale with an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 11 percent, the brew is an American Imperial Stout. It will be packaged in six-pack bottles and available on tap at Bell’s Eccentric Café and many of the locations where Bell’s beer is sold.

Founded by Larry Bell, Bell’s Brewery began selling commercial beer in September 1985. In 1993, Bell's became the first Michigan brewery to open an on-site pub. That pub, Bell’s Eccentric Café, at 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., is open from 11 a.m.— midnight.

Find more happenings in Events of Note on page 40.

encore up front

Something Homegrown

Harvest Fest celebrates healthy local food Learn about healthy, locally produced food Sept. 20 during the 13th annual Tillers Harvest Fest at the Cook’s Mills Learning Center, 10515 East OP Ave., in Scotts. The fest runs from 11:30 a.m.—5 p.m.

The event is planned by Tillers International, a nonprofit organization that works toward international rural development.

“While the 13th annual Tillers Harvest Fest is a family event with live music, good food and lots of fun farm activities, our main objective is to draw attention to the local small-scale farming community and good land stewardship,” says Ryan DeRamus, Tillers International outreach coordinator.

The event will include workshops and panel discussions, including one with Mark Kimball, a New York-based whole-diet chef, and Stephen Leslie, author of the book The New Horse Farm and the upcoming book Horse-Powered Farming for the 21st Century.

Admission to Harvest Fest is $15 per carload or $1 per person for busloads of 10 or more. There is no admission fee for bicyclists. Gates open at 11 a.m.

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up front encore

Tournament of Writers

Schoolcraft contest beckons aspiring authors by

J. Gabriel Ware

Courtesy

Last

Lois Helland, left, stands with Debra Christiansen after it was announced that Helland, of Schoolcraft, was the Grand Prize winner in last year’s Tournament of Writers competition.

12 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

September, 13 aspiring writers from Schoolcraft and Vicksburg achieved something they may have only dreamed of: seeing their work published. And more writers, from a broader area, will have the same opportunity this fall.

The Schoolcraft Community Library is holding its second Tournament of Writers competition for aspiring poets and writers.

The inaugural competition was held last year, and its participants were surprised when the Friends of Schoolcraft Community Library, the committee presenting the contest, printed the submissions in a book called Small Town Anthology.

“When I presented each one of the entrants with a book with their works, the roof blew off the building,” says Debra Christiansen, author and president of Friends of Schoolcraft Community Library. “Nothing matches the thrill of seeing your name and your words in a book the first time you hold it in your hands.”

Tournament of Writers was inspired by the Kalamazoo Gazette’s Community Literary Awards competition, which highlighted local poetry, short story and memoir writing. When that competition ended in 2011, it left a void for community writers wanting to showcase their talents, says Christiansen.

“I wanted to bring a writing competition back to our community because we didn’t have many outlets before,” she says.

The Tournament of Writers is open to Schoolcraft Community Library cardholders and reciprocal cardholders, including those in the Vicksburg, Kalamazoo and Portage library districts. Submissions of nonfiction, fiction and poetry will be taken from Sept. 8 to Oct. 16 in categories divided by age groups: a junior division for those under 12; a teen

encore up front

division for ages 12 to 17; an adult division for ages 18 to 49, and a senior division for ages 50 and older. Entrants can submit only one entry per category in their age group, and the maximum length of a submission is 2,500 words. Submissions can be made via mail or email, and there is no entry fee for the contest.

Christiansen says the guidelines for acceptable writings are purposely lax to include as many writers as possible. Even a Tweet could be submitted, she says.

There will be first, second and third prizes for each genre per age division, plus the grand prize, which is a gold fountain pen.

Last year’s Grand Prize winner, Rusty’s Last Ride, by Lois A. Helland of Schoolcraft, is a true story that relives the last day of the author’s ailing dog. Christiansen says the story brought tears to the eyes of some of the judges.

“I was impressed with all the entries for our first contest. They were very imaginative,” Christiansen says. “Some of the writers have the talent to produce full-length books.”

Want to Submit Your Work?

The 2015 Tournament of Writers submission period is Sept. 8—Oct. 16. Submit your entries by mail to Schoolcraft Community Library, 330 N Centre St., Schoolcraft, MI 49087 or by email to schoolcraftlibrary@gmail.com.

For more information, call (269) 718-3593.

Small Town Anthology is available for $5.99 on Amazon.com.

Christiansen says entries will once again be published in a book, with the proceeds from sales to fund the library.

“The competition brings us together as a community of writers,” Christiansen says. “It shows the community that we have a lot of talent and that the library is more than a building full of books. Our slogan for the tournament is ‘Swords down! Pens up! Get clacking!

Go!’”

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Good works ENCORE

Block by Block

Organization unites neighbors to improve neighborhoods by

J. Gabriel Ware

W

earing gloves and armed with branch cutters on a wet Saturday morning, Ralph Shoub and about a dozen of his neighbors are chopping and removing bushes in the backyard of his Oakwood home. Later the neighbors will also help Shoub replace his home’s rotting windowsills and paint its exterior.

Shoub and his neighbors are working in partnership with Building Blocks of Kalamazoo, a nonprofit organization that recruits and organizes neighbors to work together as teams on home improvement projects in their low- to moderate-income neighborhoods. By working together, neighbors create solidarity, which can lead to their becoming more involved in their neighborhoods, says Carrie Drake, the organization’s executive director.

“What we’re really looking for is that neighbor connectivity — breaking down walls between people and beginning to build a more trusting network of neighbors on the street,” Drake says.

Building Blocks of Kalamazoo works in the Northside, Eastside, Edison, Vine,

Top right: Building Blocks participant Leslie Beynon cuts down overgrown brush. Center: Ralph Shoub, at left, and Tammy Beynon haul brush cut from Shoub’s yard.

Bottom: 5-year-old Sly Fox chips in by carrying a branch.

14 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

Oakwood, Stuart and Douglas neighborhoods. To participate, the neighborhood association of each area applies for a grant from Building Blocks, identifying sites within the neighborhood that need exterior home improvement work. Drake says the organization generally has 30 to 55 households per site that are worked on between May and September each year.

Building Blocks provides $5,500 for each site for exterior repairs and its yearly budget

is supported by fundraising and donations from businesses and foundations.

Building Blocks began in 1995 when then-Kalamazoo College sociology and anthropology professor Kim Cummings and three of his students began working on home improvement projects in the Vine and Eastside neighborhoods. Cummings says the projects’ success was affirmed by the excitement of the people involved.

“I realized how much students like working outside of the classroom,” Cummings says.

“When we finished the first pilot projects,

everyone loved it — the students, the residents and the neighborhood associations.”

The following year Building Blocks became part of a course offered at Kalamazoo College. Cummings’ and Building Blocks’ objective then was to provide

Michigan University has offered a social work course each summer in conjunction with the organization that allows students to become community organizers for the semester.

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students with field experience in community organizations. Over the years, however, Building Blocks evolved to focus more on facilitating leadership and engagement among neighborhood residents. That transition led to the hiring of Drake a year ago as Building Blocks’ first executive director. In her role, Drake meets with other community organizations, community members and the Building Blocks board of directors to decide upon upcoming projects.

Students, however, are still essential to Building Blocks projects. Since 2011, Western

The class sessions, led by Cummings, look more like corporate board meetings than traditional lectures. Four connecting tables form a large square, and Cummings talks with the students about communication styles, time management and leadership.

Such skills prepare the students to go doorto-door to recruit residents, informing them about Building Blocks and encouraging them to attend meetings. These meetings, also managed by the students, begin the process of breaking down economic and cultural barriers among neighbors — residents agree on how to allocate funds, decide which repairs they will work on and develop estimates for the needed materials.

“They may decide a particular home needs a new porch. Another home may need new roofing, or a sidewalk needs new gravel,” Drake says.

Participating residents of each site split into groups, and two or three homes are worked on simultaneously. Instead of parting ways at the conclusion of a project, resident groups sometimes continue to work together. Drake says in 2013 one group of Vine neighbors was so unified that after their project was completed they worked to shut down a house in their neighborhood that had “illegal activity going on.”

“Public Safety became aware of the house through this group and increased their presence in the area,” Drake says. “The group

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had the confidence that they could make a difference, and they demonstrated that they had more influence as a group than as individuals.”

Once projects are done, Building Blocks of Kalamazoo asks participating residents to complete surveys to assess changes in attitudes about their neighborhood and neighbors. Drake says the results usually show increased trust among residents, increased pride in their street and increased awareness of available resources provided by the neighborhood association.

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“The surveys indicate that many connections were made where connections previously did not exist,” Drake says. “This demonstrates that the impact of Building Blocks on residents is transformative and has the potential to influence the culture of resident involvement with each other and with their neighborhood.”

Shoub is a good example of the impact Building Blocks can have. He remembers growing up in a Grand Rapids neighborhood where everyone knew one another, but the self-described introvert says that for the first 15 years after he bought his home in Kalamazoo’s Oakwood neighborhood, he didn’t make many friends there.

“I didn’t know them before Building Blocks,” Shoub says. “The problem is that society has made us so individualistic in our pursuit of wealth. But Building Blocks of Kalamazoo has helped me build relationships with my neighbors.”

And that kind of relationship building helps to stabilize neighborhoods, Drake says. “Once there were a couple of homeowners in the Vine neighborhood that were going to move out,” she says. “But after Building Blocks came through, they decided to stay.”

encore good works

A New Free Clinic

Faiths come together to meet community need by

Robert M. Weir

From left: Lucinda Stinson, the Rev. Dr. Randall Warren and Joe Bower stand in front of the mobile clinic that will temporarily serve as a free clinic in Kalamazoo.

W

hen it comes to health care, 10,000 to 15,000 Kalamazoo County residents are believed to be uninsured, underinsured or undocumented, says Lucinda M. Stinson, deputy director of community services in the county’s Health & Community Services Department. Stinson further estimates that 20 percent of these residents — more than 2,000 annually — would visit a free health care clinic if one were available.

Thanks to the initiative of Stinson and many other deeply dedicated persons, such a clinic — the United Interfaith Free Health Care Clinic of Kalamazoo County (UIFC) — will soon be operating.

The area used to have a free clinic, the Free Clinic of Kalamazoo, which closed in 2010 after organizers determined the clinic was duplicating services already available in the community.

But the Rev. Dr. Randall Warren, priest at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and executive director of UIFC, says a clinic to serve this population is still necessary for the physical and emotional health of disadvantaged individuals as well as the social and economic health of the community.

“Regardless of where you stand on the issue of affordable health care or of undocumented folks having health insurance,” Warren

says, “the simple fact is that everyone without insurance who goes into a medical crisis, receives treatment in a hospital emergency room and can’t afford to pay (for it) raises the cost for all and adds stress to the community’s health care system.”

Warren and Stinson, who served as UIFC executive director prior to her employment with Kalamazoo County, say that the name of the United Interfaith Free Health Care Clinic defines its purpose.

“We want this clinic to be all-inclusive, not a clinic that sees some but not others. Therefore, the word ‘united’ came to mind,” Stinson says. “Also, all of us involved have a faith-based compass, regardless of our chosen religion.

Therefore, we included the word ‘interfaith.’”

In regard to the word “free,” Warren emphasizes that all the world’s religions espouse free health care as a basic human right. “Buddha didn’t charge people to heal them. Muhammad didn’t tell people he needed money to pray for them,” he says. And Stinson points out that Jesus helped both the rich and the poor, all at no cost.

The clinic will be staffed entirely by volunteers. It will also be an affiliate of Volunteers in Medicine (VIM), a national organization that works with individuals and groups interested in developing free health care clinics for the uninsured in their local communities.

Warren adds that volunteers’ efforts, along with medical supplies donated by the community, will enable the clinic to also be “free” of government sponsorship. “The moment we take a cent from the government, there are limits on who we can see, and we don’t want there to be any limits,” he says.

The clinic will be located at First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave.. “This is near the hub where homeless and uninsured people w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 17

good works ENCORE congregate,” Stinson says. “It’s three blocks from MLK Park, one therapists, social workers, faculty and students at WMU’s School of block from Bronson Park and near the Gospel Mission, Ministry with Medicine and College of Health and Human Services. Other volunteers Community and the Rickman House.” without medical experience can assist with patient check-in and other The location is also close to Kalamazoo’s main Metro Transit depot, non-medical activities. providing some convenience for persons who reside in the city’s and The clinic will begin seeing patients one evening a month this fall, county’s outer reaches. And it’s less than a mile from the Western potentially as early as October, in a mobile bus it will commission Michigan University and Kalamazoo College campuses, making from Community HealthCare Connections in Calhoun County. In the it convenient for the student meantime, remodeling of First Want to Help? populations as well.

Baptist’s educational wing to To volunteer, call the Rev. Randall Warren at St. Luke’s Episcopal Joe Bower, the elected lay provide a permanent site for the Church, (269) 345-8553. leader at First Baptist and the clinic is set to be completed by church’s primary liaison with summer 2016.

Monetary donations for medical equipment and supplies can be UIFC, says his congregation is The clinic’s operating schedule sent to United Interfaith Free Health Care Clinic of Kalamazoo County, P.O. Box 51215, Kalamazoo, MI 49005. expressing “a lot of excitement will be promoted through the because the clinic offers an To provide volunteer or monetary support for the clinic renovations religious community and socialopportunity to share the space services networks. “We will add at First Baptist Church, call the church at (269) 345-2195. we have.” The congregation hours as need requires and is looking to utilize unused areas within its church building, and resources allow,” Warren says.

Bower says the United Interfaith Free Health Care Clinic is a prime Both Stinson and Warren emphasize that this clinic, which has opportunity.

501(c)3 nonprofit status, will blend seamlessly into the county’s In addition, Bower is thrilled that the downtown churches are current health care systems. working together. The board fostering this cooperation calls itself “The clinic could become a medical home for those who don’t have “Faith Square” and includes members from First Baptist, First a primary health care physician,” Stinson says. “But our role is to Congregational, St. Luke’s Episcopal and First Presbyterian churches. partner with other health care providers. If a person with a primary The UIFC project also involves congregations of the Northside care physician comes to see us after hours, we will call the physician’s Ministerial Alliance, in part because of Stinson’s membership at Mt. office the next day to relate the patient’s condition and the services Zion Baptist Church. we delivered.”

Bower says the effort follows the spirit fostered by Kalamazoo’s “We see the medical world as a web of relationships,” Warren adds. founder, Titus Bronson, who intended that the land surrounding “We intend for this free clinic to sit firmly in that web by providing a Bronson Park be developed for religious, governmental and public- service that is currently not available within our county.” service facilities.

The UIFC governing body and volunteers ready to serve include clergy, pharmacists, health administrators, nurses, chiropractors,

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1300 West Centre Avenue Portage, MI • 269-321-9200 www.bkccpa.com 18 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

encore savor

On the Corner

Good food, good folks found at street-side BBQ stands Kara Norman

Tim Conrad

by

Terrence Burton of Lil' Brothers BBQ prepares rib tips on his grill, Big Guidry.

At the corner of Stockbridge and Burdick streets in Kalamazoo,

the heavenly smell of smoky sweet barbecue wafts from an unusual spot: a massive outdoor grill in the parking lot of a liquor store.

The grill belongs to Lil’ Brothers BBQ, owned by husband and wife Terrence and Tisha Burton, who sell their barbecue next to J&B Discount Liquor Store. Theirs is one of a handful of enterprises in Kalamazoo that prepare and sell barbecue in unique places. Lil’ Brothers sells rib tips and pulled-pork sandwiches, sides like collard greens and baked beans, and desserts that include three-layer caramel cake. Rib-tip meals start at $5 and include one side. A large meal costs $10 and is enough to feed two people.

The Burtons start their grill at 10 a.m., open at 10:30 a.m. and serve food until 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday, rain or shine.

“My grandmother taught me a lot of the cooking,” says Ms. Tisha, as she calls herself. “My great-aunt taught me how to make desserts with nothing in the cabinet. I didn’t know we were poor until I got older. These ladies cooked from their heart, and that’s how they taught me to cook.”

The Burtons, who met in a high school cooking class, run their establishment out of the parking lot while construction is being completed on their inside space in a building adjacent to J&B. They focus on high-quality produce and meats and pride themselves on their traditional style. “We’re just a family that loves to cook,” Tisha says.

Their daughter, 16-year-old Kyseana, spent a whole summer learning to perfect peach cobbler and banana pudding. The family has plans to expand to two other locations this fall. Terrence has been teaching their 23-year-old son, Joe, his barbecuing techniques so Joe can take over their current location when that happens.

Terrence wears a clean blue apron and sandals. Cars honk at him as they drive past, and he waves. His grill — Big Guidry, named for his uncles Ivy and Profit Guidry of Benton Harbor, who made it for him — is a beast, propped up on cinderblocks and one dusty metal stockpot. Across the parking lot, Tisha and her helpers run a cash register on a card table. Macaroni, collards and green beans simmer in slow cookers. A bag of cut French fries stands next to a small deep fryer. A pitcher of ice water sweats on the table. Cars line the parking lot, their drivers waiting on orders.

Tisha’s spices are the magic behind Lil’ Brothers BBQ’s buttery macaroni, its spicy green beans and crusty, tender ribs. She concocted a spice rub when she was 7 years old and is the only one who knows how to make it. Her kids joke that she is a warlord in the kitchen, but she says seriously that food is “a life-and-death matter.”

Terrence nods in agreement with Tisha. He grew up watching his uncles in outdoor pits in Benton Harbor on a piece of land they bought together. His family is Creole and hails from Hammond, Louisiana. The uncles worked at steel mills and welded their own grills. On holidays, they cooked gumbo and jambalaya in cauldrons outside. Terrence watched them grill from the time he was 6 years old. When he was 35, they tapped him to work the grill. All his cousins gathered around to watch, “like a baby had been born,” Tisha says.

Until recently, Lil’ Brothers was located inside Burdick Hair & Beauty Supply, at the corner of Cork and Burdick streets, down the street from its current location. The former location is now the site of a rival operation called Kalamazoo BBQ Grill, run by a man known as “Coop.” Coop, who operates his stand from 11 a.m.—8 p.m. most days, w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 19

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His sauce, which is thick, sweet, and tangy, has twice won the amateur sauce contest at Kalamazoo’s annual Ribfest, a downtown festival visited by more than 30,000 people every August.

The outdoor grill is key to catching potential customers, Coop says. “Some people drive by and never stop because they don’t know it’s inside,” he says. “If I’m out there on the grill, then they’ll pull in and ask.”

From the street, these corner barbecue stands appear to be renegade ventures akin to tailgate parties, but they are regulated by the same kind of licensing required of any other business. Lil’ Brothers currently works with a temporary license, renewable every two weeks.

The Burtons say their second location will be in Benton Harbor and the third will be inside Frazier’s Lounge, at 2233 N. Burdick St. The Burtons are vigilant when it comes to the food they serve and passionate about the source of their fruits and vegetables. “I’m a country girl,” Tisha says. “I believe good food should come from the ground. I have a man — Austin Harding — who grows all my fruits and vegetables for me: turnip greens, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, okra, summer squash.”

Harding lives in Kalamazoo but tends a blueberry farm outside of town. “Every night,” Tisha says, “I get my shipment for the next day.”

Indeed, community is the backbone of Lil’ Brothers BBQ. The business started as a popup party endeavor, and the owners still cater events.

Creating their own company is a dream come true for Tisha and Terrence, but their greatest joy, Tisha says, is “cooking for somebody and you turn around and they have the biggest smile on their face after they tasted something. Everybody wants to go into a place and feel like it’s Cheers, and that’s what this is, but with food.”

encore Enterprise

Filling the Gap

Junior Achievement is ‘bridge linking education and business’ by

Lisa Mackinder

L

Brian Powers

ast December, a large group of high school students from across the area sat down for breakfast at Western Michigan University’s Fetzer Center. As they glanced around their tables, it’s likely that a similar thought struck the mind of each teen: “I don’t know anyone.” That was by design.

“We split the kids up so they know nobody at their table,” says Tom VanderMolen, president of Junior Achievement of Southwest Michigan.

“The first message they hear is that this happens in business every day: You don’t know who you will meet or how that person may impact your future.”

To participants in the Junior Achievement Titan Challenge’s regional competition, this breakfast represents the first of many entrepreneurial experiences on this day. The Titan Challenge is a virtual contest in which students make daily decisions on capital investment, pricing, production, marketing, research and development, and charitable giving.

They submit their decisions online to JA’s Titan Challenge computer system, which compiles data, provides industry reports and poses business challenges for the teams to solve. The program then ranks teams based on achievements such as profitability.

In May 2014, a Comstock High School team called HashTagSwag — which won the regional competition held at the Fetzer Center — went on to outperform seven competitors from the United States and Canada to win the national 2014 Junior Achievement Titan Challenge. Business volunteers who advised HashTagSwag included Brian Lueth, an associate at Plante Moran, an accounting and business advisory firm; Kathy Fosmoe, a real estate agent with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services; and Alison Nord, a Comstock High School business teacher.

The group helped guide Comstock seniors Eric Grant, Katy Way,

Tom VanderMolen, president of Junior Achievement of Southwest Michigan, in the organization’s downtown Kalamazoo offices.

Jack Weir and George Webber II to their win. The team created and marketed a Holo-Generator, a fictitious all-purpose electronic device.

“Business volunteers meet with the class up to 13 times and, following the JA teaching guide, help them through the array of decisions they will have to make in the competition and one day in

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 21

Enterprise ENCORE their own business,” VanderMolen explains.

Fosmoe participated with JA as a high school student and used the program when she taught business classes at Otsego and Portage Northern high schools. She volunteers with JA, she says, because she witnessed the program’s direct impact — from both sides of the desk.

“Students are more interested in participating and show more interest if there are hands-on activities and competition inside the classroom,” she says. “I have also seen that if one ‘works in the real world’ rather than being in school, the students seem to think the topics are more relevant than what the classroom provides.”

Since its inception in 2007, the Titan Challenge has grown to include 455 Southwest Michigan students in the program.

VanderMolen attributes much of the Titan Challenge’s local success to the Western Michigan University Haworth College of Business, which works closely with Junior Achievement.

“I think our partnership with WMU’s Haworth College of Business has been key to Titan’s growth,” he says.

In addition to the breakfast, during the 2013 regional Titan Challenge held at the Fetzer Center, students toured the Haworth College of Business, listened to guest speakers and sat down for a question-and-answer session with Haworth business professors. The Fetzer Center hosted a sell-out crowd, with more than 50 businesses on site.

JA of Southwest Michigan was established in 1955. In VanderMolen’s opinion, JA is more crucial today than ever. “How often do we hear our local business leaders voice concerns over the future workforce?” VanderMolen asks. “‘We have jobs, just nobody qualified to fill them’ seems to be a growing theme. Junior Achievement serves as a bridge linking education and business.”

Recognizing that important link, the area’s business community responds with great support. According to VanderMolen, during the 2014-15 school year, 345 business volunteers had 68,482 contact

hours with 12,427 students.

Local JA volunteer Brian Lueth says JA is important because it fills a gap in the education system and because topics such as entrepreneurship and personal finance have overarching impacts in our lives.

“Yet we don’t take the time to teach kids about things like business plans, credit card debt, balancing checkbooks, etc.,” Lueth says. “We have young adults that don’t understand how a mortgage works or the impact of a variable interest rate. No matter what you do in life, learning personal finance skills will have applicability.”

Besides the Titan Challenge, JA also offers after-school opportunities and brings business experts into classrooms. These professionals teach three key JA programming areas: financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship.

“When you can take a volunteer from a bank into a classroom to teach kids how to manage a checking account or credit card debt, that lesson is coming from a true expert,” VanderMolen says. “The volunteer is key to the program’s success.”

The area business community also steps up with job shadowing.

“When a business is interested in working with JA, we attempt to find a good fit in the education world,” VanderMolen says. He gives an example of Education for Employment students interested in art and design who spend time working on a project at LKF Marketing in Kalamazoo.

Area manufacturing companies such as Fabri-Kal, Eaton Corp., Stryker Corp. and Denso are also working with Junior Achievement of Southwest Michigan to develop ideas.

“The JA experience is unique for students because it teaches them how to own their economic success,” VanderMolen says. “This is critical to building a strong workforce and strong communities.”

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Get Serious

Kalamazoo's comics Scene Artists show that creating comics isn’t kid stuff

F

story by

Andrew Domino

rom Archie to The Avengers, from The Far Side to Speed Bump, comics intrigue and entertain us. But, for a few folks, creating those comics is the stuff of dreams.

“There’s a lot of weird things going on in my head, and I need to put them down on paper,” says Joshua Gaunt, 30, who just moved from Kalamazoo to Chicago. He’s an artist currently working on his online comic series Wintry, which tells the story of a suburban neighborhood in a never-ending winter.

Wintry is designed to be read on a computer screen the same way one would read a page in a book. Gaunt, who posts his work at wintrycomic.com and finished the first chapter of Wintry in April, says the comic is mostly an outlet to exercise his artistic skills. He continued working on the tale this summer, along with a new comic about “adapting to the changes life throws at you.”

“It’s an experimental place — I know how to (draw), but I want to know what’s my style,” he says, referring to the detail of his illustrations and the tone of his story (so far, kind of grim: One character is having a discussion with a zombie).

While Gaunt is in the early stages of developing Wintry, 33-year-old Neil Bryer’s work is a little more developed. The Kalamazoo artist returned to an old companion this summer in his online series, Wombat (wombatcomic.com). Neil the wombat, like Mickey Mouse, stands on two legs, wears clothes and gets into trouble with Kalamazoo city staff (the comic is semiautobiographical). Like Gaunt, Bryer started Wombat to practice his drawing and writing.

He produced comics regularly from 2006 to 2013, when he took a break. He now works on marketing campaigns for United Bay Community Credit Union, and while he says designing marketing materials can be considered “creative,” it’s not the same as creating a comic strip.

A collage of work by Kalamazoo comics artists, clockwise from top left, Neil Bryer, Blake Eason, Neil Bryer, Joshua Gaunt, Paul Sizer and Kenjji Jumanne-Marshall.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 25

“Recently I’ve been feeling that itch,” Bryer says. “If you’re creative, you want to create.”

Most people are probably not familiar with Gaunt or Bryer or their work, but they may have heard the name of another Kalamazoo comics artist: Paul Sizer. His selfpublished science-fiction books Little White Mouse (2006) and Moped Army (2005) can be found at the Kalamazoo Public Library. Half of Sizer’s workweek is spent teaching graphic design at Western Michigan University; the rest is devoted to design work for clients, including video game companies and universities (he created the Buster Bronco logo that inspired the costume for WMU’s mascot).

Sizer is also working on a new comic book, Daughters of the Octopus, to be published in 2016.

He writes, draws and edits his comics and then sends them to several vendors to print paperback copies of the finished books.

Another company helps distribute the books to comic book stores and libraries. Sizer also sells his books on his website, paulsizer.com.

“I do stuff that will advance my career,” Sizer says. “When I did work that I wanted to do, people started finding me a lot more.”

A Comics Primer

Above: A panel of work from Kenjji Jumanne-Marshall’s comic Witch Doctor. Top right: Blake Eason’s work depicts heroic women of all shapes and sizes.

26 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

Printed comics come in several forms. The smallest is the strip, which tells a story short enough to fit on one page or even in a single panel. Wombat is a comic strip, as are most classic newspaper comics, like Garfield and The Family Circus.

Next is the comic book, usually 32 to 48 pages (including ads) and published monthly to tell part of a larger story. Batman, Iron Man and other superheroes are most often found in comic books.

Graphic novels are next on the size scale. The largest works, like Sizer’s Little White Mouse, offer epic tales that range from largerthan-life adventure stories to intimate personal narratives. Maus, a 1991 graphic novel by American artist Art Spiegelman about the

Jewish experience during the Holocaust, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

Japanese comics, also called manga, are even larger, often collected into telephone book-sized volumes.

And while sometimes comic drawings are called cartoons, the term cartoon usually applies to animation on film, TV or in YouTube videos.

Many local comics artists say they got their start by reading superhero comic books and newspaper comic strips and imitating what they saw, creating their own drawings of Charlie Brown and Spider-Man. They quickly moved on, though, working on original characters and plots and developing their own “look” for faces, clothing and technology. For example, detailed pipes and wires fill the background in Sizer’s comics. The zombie in Gaunt’s Wintry is very realistic-looking and definitely not for young children. Artist Blake Eason, 31, of Kalamazoo, draws women of all shapes and sizes, mostly on his Instagram page (instagram.com/blakeinobi). While Eason’s Wonder Woman doesn’t look like the one published by DC Comics, the character is attracting attention online. “(People) are usually surprised that they see people like them in the comics,” Eason says. “Women want more representation of different-sized women.”

Comics artists like to have print copies of their work available for readers to buy, but nearly all of their work is published online first, unless it’s been created for a specific client. The most popular place on the Web for comics art is DeviantArt (deviantart.com), a gallery of photos, paintings and drawings, though many artists will also post their work on Facebook, Tumblr and other sites. On DeviantArt, artists can show off their latest work and get feedback on their experiments with new styles of art. Bryer, Sizer and Eason all have work on DeviantArt, and Gaunt says he wants to put his drawings there as well.

And while the online world has been helpful to popularize Wombat, Bryer says he suspects some of his website traffic may be accidental.

“I get a lot of clicks from Australia,” he says. “I’m not sure why, but the wombat is an Australian animal.”

For a face-to-face encounter with comics fans, artists head to conventions where artists and writers talk about their work. C2E2, held in Chicago each spring, is one that several Kalamazoo artists have attended, either sitting at their own booth meeting readers or as visitors themselves. At the conventions, Bryer hands out business cards featuring Wombat.

“If you say the comic is free, people will tend to take it,” he says.

On a more local level, Gaunt credits Kalamazoo’s monthly Art Hop for exposing visitors to new artists. He is one of the artists operating Exquisite Corpse, an art studio and gallery in the Park Trades Center, in downtown Kalamazoo, that is part of the monthly event.

“Comics are opening up to a lot more people,” Gaunt says. “It’s still in some people’s heads that comics are for kids, but who makes the comics?”

Left: Joshua Gaunt’s comic Wintry features zombies. Above: Neil Bryer’s Wombat is a semi-autobiographical comics series.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 27

Origin Story The roots of Kalamazoo’s contemporary comics scene date back about 20 years, to the Kalamazoo City Comics Coalition, a gathering of several dozen artists and writers. The group assembled several issues of Bulk Comics, a brief comic book series that showcased their work. Out of print now, it was available at Kalamazoo comic book shops in the 1990s. Sizer was a member of the Comics Coalition, as was Aaron Warner, whose Adventures of Aaron comic was published by the Kalamazoo Gazette starting in 1990, was picked up by the Detroit News and then syndicated nationwide by Tribune Media Services in 1995. Adventures of Aaron was published as a comic book for several issues in 1997 by Image Comics, a Californiabased company best known for The Walking Dead comic book series that inspired the TV show. Another Bulk Comics artist, John Fountain, now works in animation for Disney and Nickelodeon.

“Kalamazoo was a hotbed of comics creators,” Sizer says. “It was fun to see all these different styles together.”

After Bulk Comics came Kalamazoo Comix, in 1996, another anthology series.

Sizer and Bryer were in that one and so

28 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

was Kenjji Jumanne-Marshall. In Kalamazoo Comix Issue 3, Jumanne-Marshall drew a story of a pizza-delivery superhero. For 10 years after that, he published his own comic, Witch Doctor, featuring a supernatural hero protecting the people of New Orleans. He’s working on a new horror-themed series, Frankie, which is part of a bigger project that includes short films, music and animation. It’s set to appear on Kalamazoo’s public-access TV channel, Public Media Network (PMN), in October, and a sneak peak can be had at facebook.com/FRANKIElives).

“My passion is for comics that aren’t mainstream,” Jumanne-Marshall, 41, says.

From top left: Comics and artwork by Paul Sizer, Neil Bryer, Blake Eason and Kenjji Jumanne-Marshall.

“They’re hard to find, but if you did find one, you were glad because it was so rare.”

Live and Let Draw Nearly every comics artist dreams of drawing comics as their full-time job, but to do so doesn’t always mean signing on with a publisher like Marvel to draw Spider-Man. Most artists say they would rather create and publish their own work and characters,

engaging in every step of the process, from conceiving, writing and drawing comics to designing page layouts, getting books printed, advertising the books and selling copies at comics conventions or anywhere else they can. For example, Bryer had copies of his strip collected into a book, Wombat, which has been sold at Fanfare Sports and Entertainment, a comic book shop in Kalamazoo.

“Freelance is the way to go,” Gaunt says.

“You get to keep the rights to your work.”

On a more practical level, Sizer says being entirely self-published means an artist takes on all the risk of printing a book but also receives all the reward if the book does sell. That’s why he’s taking the selfpublishing route for his upcoming Daughters of the Octopus comic. While he continues to work on that book, Sizer has other projects in the works, including design work for games and advertising firms. Sizer says one of his most unusual projects was the cover art for musician Thomas Dolby’s 2011 album, A Map of the Floating City. Sizer won an online contest to create the cover art for Dolby, who is best known for the 1982 song “She Blinded Me With Science.”

Sizer also helped design a computer game that shared the look of the Floating City album.

Collaboration is a path several Kalamazoo artists are taking to be able to continue drawing.

Jumanne-Marshall is working with several local models as he puts his Frankie story together.

Gaunt is teaming with Kalamazoo writer and

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 29

Eason both work at restaurants; Bryer, as mentioned, works in marketing at a credit union. Eason says he’s looking for a big break, but until then he’ll use the time he has available to practice drawing.

“For now, I’m taking the opportunity to work on my own art,” he says. “You have to work the Clark Kent job and be Superman at night.”

Above: Moped Army was published by Paul Sizer in 2005. At right: Joshua Gaunt’s Wintry has a darker tone than some comics.

comics artist Richard Carbonneau on a comic Gaunt describes as a “book about monsters and what they mean to you.”

“We’ll try to see if any (publisher) will pick it up, or we’ll try to Kickstart it,” he says, referring to the crowdfunding website where individuals can contribute money in return for a copy of the book once it’s completed.

While some artists are able to spend most of their time on their comics, others have to fit it in alongside their day jobs. Gaunt and

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Creativity

Unbound Author, illustrator, carpenter, musician, designer, coffee roaster …

Is there anything Black Owl Café’s Darren Bain hasn’t done? story by

Kara Norman

photography by

BRIAN POWERS

D

arren Bain is out of breath. He is expanding the back room behind Black Owl Café on Walbridge Street, where he and business partner Garrett Krugh roast beans for their joint venture, Kalamazoo Coffee Co. Constructing a wall of windows so the atmosphere echoes the beauty they’ve created in the coffee shop, Bain takes a break from hammering and squats above a floor sheathed in sawdust.

He wears thick-rimmed glasses under a North Face ball cap and apologizes for not having more time to talk. “I’m the only one who can do this,” he says, pointing to the wall he is building.

Bain, a native of Pocatello, Idaho, is in his early 40s and is the artistic brain and brawn behind the café’s rustic aesthetic. He’s also a musician, a dad, a writer and a painter who recently wrote and illustrated his first children’s book, Kip and K’nor.

“I guess some people would call me a … uh … ,” Bain says, searching for the right word. One thinks he might say “Renaissance man,” which is actually not a bad phrase to describe him, but instead Bain says, “… illustrator.”

Bain has written three more books, including a follow-up to the alliterative, fable-like Kip and K’nor.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 33

He has yet to illustrate them, but he’s not sure when he’ll have time for that.

Bain also does the artwork for all of Kalamazoo Coffee Co.’s packaging.

He points to a wall of shelves where shiny foil bags are stacked like tidy soldiers in sleeping bags. “Have you seen the bags yet?” he asks, pulling down one that has three cows diving into a cup of crème brûlée on the front.

Some of the packaging art begins as pen-and-ink drawings. Other art is taken from his illustrations in Kip and K’nor, whose inspiration came from Bain’s travels during the off-season when he worked inventorying cell phone towers.

He worked six months a year for 10 years, backpacking around the world by himself, carrying small sketchbooks and drawing a lot. Many of the illustrations on Kalamazoo Coffee Co.’s bags come from those drawings.

Black Owl Café, which opened in 2012, was recently named Michigan’s Best Coffee Shop by the MLive news organization. The accolade surprised Bain, who didn’t know his establishment was even in the running.

Emily Wegemer, a resident of Kalamazoo and a devotee of its coffee shops, swears by Kalamazoo Coffee Co.’s products. “Black Owl has the best coffee in town, by far,” she says.

“I love what they’re doing.”

Black Owl Café is a place where coffee cups are stored in cubbyholes and hammered spoons are personalized in exchange for a donation to the company’s membership club. You could call the coffee shop a hipster haven, but while the word “hipster” conjures someone with a laconic, sarcastic veneer, Bain is all energy and action.

The first time I meet Bain he leads me through every room in his downtown building, one block from the large, brick Kalamazoo sign dividing Michigan and Kalamazoo avenues. He says the building dates back to the 1920s and was home at one time to a pattern works that made wood models of items that were going to

34 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

be engineered in metal and to a business that made electric motors.

Starting the tour, Bain leaves an office-like corner where a child’s pink car seat is strapped inexplicably to a metal stool, like the punch line to an inside joke. “You know what I really want to build?” he asks. “A spa.”

When pressed for the kind of spa — perhaps a Norwegian sauna or a place for massage and facials? — Bain moves on. He is climbing the stairs to a room just over the café. This room is long and full of natural light, with an irregularly shaped stage at one end.

Originally set up to provide more seating for the café, the room needs a sprinkler system before the city of Kalamazoo will approve its use. Once Bain finishes the new wall downstairs, getting this room up to code will be his next priority. “We want to do it right,” he says, hinting there were phases in his life when rule following was not a top priority.

More seating would allow for more customers, and more customers would offer the potential for expanded hours and more food options in the kitchen. Although the café is packed at 10 a.m. on a Friday morning, its current hours are limited to 7 a.m.—3 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m.— 2 p.m. weekends.

Black Owl serves egg scrambles, pancakes and waffles on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. It offers

Sweetwater’s doughnuts, cookies and cinnamon rolls at all times, as well as specialty drinks like vegan hot chocolate, chai lattes and espresso. The café brews Kalamazoo Coffee Co. coffee, of course, using beans that have been roasted on-site.

Although the owners hope to expand the café’s hours, Bain says he also has to set some limits on his work hours because he has a 4-year-old son whose mother lives elsewhere. “I don’t work around the clock because I made a vow to myself that I’d be a dad first,” he says.

Kip and K’nor It is that devotion to his son that was instrumental in the creation of his children’s book Kip and K’nor. The book tells the story of a chicken and a pig on the hunt for a limitless water supply. Their journey begins in a dried-up lakebed. Illustrated in rich reds and with whimsical characters like a pot-bellied pig and a cow soaking in a roadside bath, the book traverses several landscapes with bizarre guides before arriving at its summit, where persistent effort is rewarded.

Bain wrote Kip and K’nor for his son, who helped illustrate it. Together they drew on 3-by-4-foot canvases and photographed the process. Bain painted over their drawings, but he knows those are under the final work, and it’s important to him that his son knows that, too.

When he finished writing the book, Bain showed it to his mother and to his painting mentor, who both said it was missing something. “In my heart, I knew that there was something missing, too,” he says. “It was making me angry. I was like, this is the best I can do!”

Then he woke in the middle of the night with the missing part of the story: the word “faith,” a word that prompts some readers to ask if the story is religious but that Bain believes is an essential part of life.

“I have faith that a train is going to come by,” he says. “I have faith when I pick up my son at school that he’ll be healthy and well today. You know, you have faith in a lot of parts of your life.”

As someone who has had several careers, who grew up winning music awards for playing the French horn before leaping head first into an indie rock career, faith that everything will turn out OK is something Bain has put into practice every day.

If including that one word in his book made its story come alive, it also closed some doors to traditional publishing. Bain launched a Kickstarter campaign and published the book Clockwise from top left: The logo designed by Bain for his business, Kalamazoo Coffee Co.; Bain in the Black Owl Café for which he designed the interior; paint and drawings in the space Bain uses to create his illustrations; stacks of doughnuts and cups in the café; and an illustration from Kip and K’nor.

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himself, a decision he says he doesn’t regret for a second.

The book is available online and at BookBug in Kalamazoo. In Bain’s building, a giant stack of Kip and K’nor books roosts hip-high under a tarp, awaiting distribution. Like a lot of things in his life right now, they have to take a number.

Building works of art In the not-quite-up-to-code room on the second floor of the Black Owl building, old doors comprise one wall, interspersed with rustic barn wood. Bain has engineered sockets along this wall to house machinery for drop-down tables.

The whole room is a work of art, but Bain downplays his carpentry skills. “I’m self-taught in everything,” he says.

When pressed about how creativity functions in his life, he doesn’t want to talk about talent or vision or ambition. He wants to tell stories. Like one about the time he was a junior studying music at the University of Idaho and got a call from the manager of alternative rock group R.E.M. Bain had sent a tape to R.E.M’s music label and was being invited to move to Atlanta to play music. On the way to take a test the following day, Bain instead veered off the path leading to his classroom, went to the registrar’s office and withdrew from school.

“That was my first time leaving Idaho,” he says.

It’s fun to imagine a young Bain on the precipice

of exploration. He seems to have been just as full of direction and energy then, but without the responsibilities he has now as a dad and business owner.

Not that he is cowed by those responsibilities. Hearing him talk about how he built the room on the second floor, painting each brick on one wall a different shade of muddy green, the construction sounds like a whimsical affair. Dust covers the stage. A faded picture of a religious icon — Mary? Jesus? — alights like a sporadic ornament in the middle of all those doors.

But there is something perfect about the room. Maybe it’s just that no other bodies are present to interfere with its clean architecture, strong brick bones or the panes in all those windows, but it feels impeccably rustic.

Indeed, Bain says he sanded the whole floor by hand. An American flag stretches along the brick wall facing the wall of doors, painted with just 48 stars, “the number of states there were when this building was originally built,” Bain explains.

Details like this tell the story of not only the physical place but the mind of an artist.

It’s probably no accident then that the first page of Kip and K’nor starts with characters floating on a raft made of an old kitchen

Constructed by Bain, everything in the Black Owl Café has a rustic feel, from the coffee cup cubbies to the message/menu board.

door. Bain has a whole room in the Black Owl building that stores piles of old lumber — barn wood he has hauled from farms in an old pickup truck. If he were one of the characters in his book, he’d likely be afloat in a sea of old doors.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 37

ARTS encore

Hometown Boy in Hollywood Portage native Bret Green stars in new CBS series by

Lisa Mackinder

Bret Green, at right, stars as Preston, a paraplegic in the new CBS series The Inspectors.

This scene features fellow actors Harrison Knight, at left, and Erica-Marie Sanchez.

I

t happened while shooting a scene this spring with Viola Davis: The moment Bret Green realized he might really have an acting career.

Living in Los Angeles for two years, he had gone to about 60 auditions before landing the part of a police officer on an episode of the ABC series How to Get Away With Murder.

During the shoot, “I kept thinking to myself, ‘Don’t forget your lines in front of this woman,’” he says. “I was incredibly nervous acting with Viola. I mean, she's been nominated for an Oscar twice. Her character on the show is very intimidating, so that didn't help, but she was a super sweet lady. She even called me 'a hunk.' I'll never forget that.”

Despite a few butterflies, Green obviously gave a strong performance — after that, the roles kept coming. He went on to play a fraternity brother alongside Dylan McDermott on an episode of last season’s CBS series The Stalker and a male cheerleader on the ABC comedy The Goldbergs.

Green’s name and face might ring a bell for some folks in his hometown. The son of Tim Green and Lisa Green, of Portage, and a Portage Northern High School graduate, Green earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations from Western Michigan University in 2009.

But soon his name and face will be widely recognizable beyond Southwest Michigan. Last spring Green received the call — he had 38 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

landed a regular role on a new CBS series, The Inspectors, which debuts Oct. 3.

“It was a little bit of disbelief,” Green says. “I smiled from ear to ear.”

After auditioning 50 to 75 actors for each role on the series, CBS tapped Green to play Preston, a 19-year-old college freshman who became a paraplegic in the same accident that killed his father.

Preston wants to become a U.S. postal inspector like his mother, who experiences problems when returning to work after the accident. “His mom is having trouble solving the crimes, so Preston and his friends step up and help her find clues and think outside the box,” says Green, who relates to his c h a r a c t e r ’s tenacity. “There are bits of Preston that exist within me.”

Playing a paraplegic required Green to learn about living life in a wheelchair. Hearing about a 16-year-old who broke his neck while playing football and had lost mobility from the chest down, Green located the young man on Facebook, called the teenager and asked if they might meet. Green says the teen and his mom were open books whose determination and candor proved inspirational and provided invaluable knowledge for Green.

“I learned that he was just an average kid trying to navigate life while in a wheelchair and that most kids his age lose the majority of their friends within the first year of the accident,” he says. “It really made me have compassion for the physically challenged and understand what they go through. I spent 24 hours in a wheelchair before we started filming just to understand what it's like. The looks of pity that I got were hard to handle.”

Green gets additional help with understanding the physical challenges of his role from a fellow actor on the set — currently in his 40s — who, as a double amputee, has used a wheelchair since he was 16. “Greg Gadson plays my character's personal trainer to keep

ENCORE Arts

Preston in shape,” Green says. “Greg served several tours overseas and lost his legs when his Humvee was blown up by an IED.” Gadson appeared in the movie Battleship alongside Liam Neeson, Taylor Kitsch and Rihanna.

One episode of The Inspectors is shot per week in Charleston, South Carolina. It takes an hour and a half to set up everything for the next take, so there’s a lot of downtime on the set, Green says. “It’s a ‘hurry up and wait’ game. We shoot at least 12 hours per day and shoot four to five scenes per day.

They’re long days but a lot of fun.” With one exception: “The humidity is not fun,” Green says, laughing. “I should be used to it, growing up in Michigan.”

For several years, Green escaped the muggy summers. After graduating from WMU, he moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, to work as a marketing and public relations executive with a marketing company. At first, he enjoyed his job. “The money was great,” he says. “I went on plenty of trips.” But after a couple of years, the job’s appeal faded.

After becoming involved with a student film company in Arizona, Green recognized that he had an interest in acting, directing and producing. He told his wife, Amanda Loveland, of his desire to move to Los

A Portage native, Bret Green is a graduate of Portage Northern High School and Western Michigan University.

Angeles to become an actor. “She was super, super supportive,” Green says. “Not everyone has that.”

Initially, the rest of his family reacted with a bit more shock. “They were excited, but they were aware of how good my situation was in Arizona,” Green says.

Once in L.A., Green worked with several acting coaches, including Sara Mornell, of Sara Mornell Studios. Mornell taught him “about auditioning and how to (land) the job,” Green says. Within a week of meeting Mornell he landed the part alongside Viola Davis, and within a month he tested for a series regular role with CBS. While at WMU, acting never crossed Green’s mind. But subtle clues, including having the lead role in a school play at the age of 10, did exist throughout his childhood.

“As a kid, I always wanted to be inside the theater,” he explains. “My grandfather took me to plays at the Civic.”

Growing up in a sports-oriented family and having two older brothers, Green never recognized his interest in choir and plays as something that might inspire a career — until recently. “I love the ability to be creative,” he says. “I kind of lacked that with sports.”

For Green, the icing on the cake in landing his latest role is the opportunities that may come of it. “Sometimes it feels like a secret club that nobody wants you to join,” he says of the acting world. Maybe The Inspectors will finally provide Green with that elusive membership pass.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 39

Half Past Autumn — A documentary about Gordon Parks, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 3, KIA Auditorium.

PERFORMING ARTS THEATER Plays Our Town — Thornton Wilder's view of the intricacies of smalltown life, 7:30 p.m. Thurs.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. 25–26 & Oct. 1–11, York Arena Theatre, WMU, 3876222.

Musicals The Will Rogers Follies — Tom Wopat reprises his starring role, 8 p.m. Tues.–Fri., 5 & 8:30 p.m. Sat., 5 p.m. Sun., through Sept. 6, Barn Theatre, Augusta, 731-4121.

Once ... Twice ... Thrice: The Best of the Odyssey — The New Vic’s original folk music trilogy, 8 p.m.

Fri. & Sat., through Sept. 26, New Vic Theatre, 381-3328.

Little Shop of Horrors — The musical horror comedy about a man and his plant, 7:30 p.m. Thurs., 8 p.m.

Fri. & Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. 18– Oct. 11, Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley, 343-2727.

Evita — Eva Peron's rise to power as Argentina's First Lady, 7:30 p.m.

Thurs.–Sat., 2 p.m. Sun., Sept. 25– Oct. 10, Civic Theatre, 329 S. Park St., 343-1313.

COMEDY The Second City: Fully Loaded — Chicago-style improv, 8 p.m. Sept.

25, Miller Auditorium, WMU, 3872300.

MUSIC Bands, Solo Artists, Vocal Turkuaz — Nine-piece "powerfunk" group, 9 p.m. Sept. 3, Bell's Eccentric Café, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 382-2332.

Pleasant Drive — “Gritty, witty, dancy" jam rock, 9 p.m. Sept. 4, Bell's Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

Ein Prosit — Traditional German music with alphorn fanfares, polkas and sing-alongs, 1–4 p.m.

Sept. 5, Bell's Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

House of Boogie — All-vinyl funk and soul dance party, 8:30 p.m.

Sept. 5, Bell's Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

40 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

The Crane Wives Album Release — An indie-folk-rock band from Grand Rapids, 9 p.m. Sept. 10, Bell's Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

Beanie Sigel — American rapper, 8:30 p.m. Sept. 12, State Theatre, 404 S. Burdick St., 345-6500.

Wilco — Alternative rock band, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16, State Theatre, 345-6500.

Jonny Lang — Blues, gospel and rock singer, songwriter and guitarist, 8 p.m. Sept. 25, State Theatre, 345-6500.

Mustard Plug — Ska punk band from Grand Rapids, 9 p.m. Sept.

25, Bell's Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

Already Dead Family Reunion 5 — Performances by Longface, About a Million, sewingneedle and others, 6 p.m. Sept. 26, Bell's Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

Orchestra, Chamber, Jazz & More Cécile McLorin Salvant — Fontana presents the Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist, 8 p.m. Sept. 11, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, 3827774.

B4 . . . In B — The Beatles, Billy (Joel), and Berlin (Irving) in barbershop, 7 p.m. Sept. 12, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, 615-8796.

Gull Lake Jazz Orchestra — Contemporary big band sound, 7 p.m. Sept. 16, Union Cabaret & Grille, 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 384-6756.

Live and Interactive! — WMU School of Music presents Dmitri Matheny, jazz trumpet, Sept.

16; Sphinx Virtuosi, Sept. 23; Western Brass Quintet, Sept. 30; all concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. with a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m., Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, 3874667.

The Kingsmen — Chenery Gospel Series presents the Southern gospel vocal quartet, 7 p.m. Sept.

18, Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave., 337-0440.

Brahms & Tchaikovsky — Lana Trotovšek performs Brahms' Violin Concerto with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, 8 p.m. Sept.

18, Miller Auditorium, WMU, 349-7759.

Crescendo Fiddlers — Folk fiddle music spanning multiple generations, 3 p.m. Sept. 20, Van Buren Historical Society, 58471 Red Arrow Hwy., Hartford, 345-6664.

Tony Fields & Doug Decker — Jazz, blues and Motown duo, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 26, Mangia Mangia, 209 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 226-3333.

The World of Stravinsky — Maestro Raymond Harvey conducts Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra musicians in a multisensory journey into the life of Igor Stravinsky, 3 p.m. Sept. 27, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, 349-7759.

Gilmore Rising Star Fei-Fei Dong — The pianist performs works by Chopin, Mozart and Liszt, 4 p.m.

Sept. 27, Wellspring Theater, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 342-1166.

VISUAL ARTS Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 314 S. Park St., 349-7775 Adaptation: Transforming Books into Art — Contemporary artists’ transformation of books into sculptures, through Sept. 6.

Common Ground: African American Art — Works from the Flint Institute of Arts, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and the Muskegon Museum of Art, through Nov. 15.

Manierre Dawson: Engineering Abstraction — Abstract painting collection, through Dec. 13, with curator's talk at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 10.

Flowers in Chinese Art — Chinese paintings and ceramics, through Jan. 24.

ARTbreak — A weekly program about art, artists and exhibitions: Marcia Wood: Monuments of Form, Scale, and Surface, talk

by David Curl, Sept. 1; Benny Andrews: Visible Man, film presentation, Sept. 8; Manierre Dawson, Inventions of the Mind, talk by Sharon Bluhm, Sept. 15; The Birthplaces of Photography, talk by Ginger Owen, Sept. 22; Kara Walker, Stories and Fred Wilson, Structures, film presentation, Sept.

29; all sessions begin at noon, KIA Auditorium.

Sunday Public Tour — Walk through the exhibitions with a docent: Last Chance for Adaptation: Transforming Books into Art, Sept. 6; Common Ground: African American Art, Sept. 13; Flowers in Chinese Art, Sept. 20; KIA Kirk Newman Faculty Review, Sept. 27; all sessions begin at 2 p.m.

Art Detectives: It Doesn't Look Real!

— A look at the Manierre Dawson show and an art activity, 11 a.m.

Sept. 12, KIA Meader Fine Arts Library.

Station Eleven — Discussion of the bestselling novel by Emily St. John Mandel, 2 p.m. Sept. 16, Meader Fine Arts Library.

Get the Picture: Jack Beal's "Sense of Smell" — A discussion of the painting led by Denise Lisiecki, noon Sept. 17, KIA Auditorium.

Through a Lens, Darkly — A film examining the African-American image in photography, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 17, KIA Auditorium.

Cyclorama — Poetry reading and Civil War art, with Daneen Wardrop, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 24, KIA Auditorium.

Richmond Center for Visual Arts Western Michigan University, 387-2436 Jim Hopfsenperger & Jason Lahr: Little Lebowski Urban Achievers — Furniture pieces and narrative paintings, Sept. 10–Oct. 9, NetzorgKerr Gallery.

Quintapata: Pascal Meccariello, Raquel Paiewonsky, Jorge Pineda, Belkis Ramirez — An artists' collaborative group from the Dominican Republic, Sept. 10–Nov. 6, Monroe-Brown Gallery.

Other Venues Art Hop — Local artists and musicians at various venues in Kalamazoo, 5–8 p.m. Sept. 11, 342-5059.

LIBRARY & LITERARY EVENTS Kalamazoo Public Library First Saturday at KPL — Family event with stories, activities, guests and door prizes, 2–3:30 p.m. Sept.

5, Children's Room, Central Library, 553-7844.

KPL Concert Series — The Nashon Holloway Band performs, 7–8:15 p.m. Sept. 16, Van Deusen Room, Central Library, 553-7844.

Portage District Library 300 Library Lane, 329-4544

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 230 N. Rose St., 373-7990

PDL Writer's Group — Focusing on fiction and creative nonfiction writing, 6 p.m. Sept. 10 & 24.

Treasures of the Great Lakes — Learn how navigators on the Great Lakes have used the night sky and lighthouses to navigate, 2 p.m.

Sat., 3 p.m. Tues. & Thurs., through Sept. 12.

International Mystery Book Group — Discussion of The Skull Mantra, by Eliot Pattison, 7 p.m.

Sept. 10.

Great Books — Reading and discussion of Immigrant Voices: 21st Century Stories, 2 p.m.

Sept. 13 & 27.

Top Shelf Reads — A book group for young professionals that discusses offbeat reads, 7 p.m. Sept. 14, Latitude 42 Brewing Co., 7842 Portage Road, 585-8711.

Lamps of Atlantis — Explore how ancient artifacts and astronomical evidence help archaeologists discover a buried city, 3 p.m.

Mon., Wed., Fri.–Sun., through Sept. 18.

TINKERTOY®: Build Your Imagination — Giant replicas of the classic construction set with fun educational activities, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Mon.– Thurs. & Sat., 9 a.m.–9 p.m. Fri., 1–5 p.m. Sun., through Sept. 20.

The Life and Art of Manierre Dawson — Sharon Bluhm discusses the artist's life and work, 7 p.m. Sept. 14.

Ways of Wine: After-Hours Taste & Pair — Local connoisseurs discuss the how-to of wine tasting, 7 p.m. Sept. 18.

Rooted: A Reading & Discussion by Zinta Aistars — The writer reads from her memoir, 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 23.

From Mind to Matter: World of Miniatures — Learn to assemble tabletop miniatures and scenery for gaming boards, dioramas and model railroads, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Sept. 26.

Other Venues Book Club — Discussion of Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy, 7 p.m.

Sept. 14, Parchment Community Library, 401 S. Riverview Drive, 343-7747.

T. Geronimo Johnson — Fiction writer and poet appears in Gwen Frostic Reading Series, 8 p.m.

Sept. 24, Rooms 157–159, Bernhard Center, Western Michigan University, 387-2572.

MUSEUMS Air Zoo 6151 Portage Road, 866-524-7966

Experience Matters.

NATURE Kalamazoo Nature Center 7000 N. Westnedge Ave., 381-1574 Butterfly Walk & Monarch Tagging — 2–4 p.m.

Sept. 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29, picnic area in Arboretum.

Bird Banding Up Close — Visit the bird banders as they bring back the first birds of the day, 8 a.m. Sept. 5 & 19, Banding Barn.

Kalamazoo Astronomical Society Public Observing — 8 p.m.–midnight Sept. 5, 12 & 19.

DeLano Farms Harvest Party — Blacksmiths, spinners, pioneer activities, wagon rides and family activities, 1–4 p.m. Sept. 27, DeLano Homestead, 555 West E Ave.

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Da Vinci: The Exhibition — Hands-on journey through da Vinci’s life, research, innovations and art, through Oct. 4.

Black Wings: American Dreams of Flight — Smithsonian traveling exhibition chronicles African-American aviation pioneers, through Oct. 4.

Gilmore Car Museum 6865 Hickory Road, Hickory Corners, 671-5089 West Michigan Muscle Cars PLUS Show & Swap Meet — Classic muscle cars and other vehicles, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Sept. 13.

Ford Model A Day — Model A show and swap meet, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 19.

Cadillac-LaSalle Club Museum's Fall Festival — The club's first national meet of Cadillac and LaSalle enthusiasts, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 27.

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Kellogg Bird Sanctuary 12685 East C Ave., Augusta, 671-2510 Birds and Coffee Walk — A walk to view birds of the season, 9 a.m. Sept. 9.

Hearty Soups and Stews — Learn to prepare foods using fresh fall flavors, 6–8 p.m. Sept. 22, Spruce Lodge, 671-2160.

Birds of Prey Live! — See the resident red-tailed hawk and great horned owl, 1–2:30 p.m. Sept.

26.

MISCELLANEOUS Lunchtime Live! — Live music, food trucks and pop-up vendors, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Sept. 4 & 11, Bronson Park, 337-8191.

Music Festival — Sept. 5 & 6, Olde World Village, 13215 M-96, Augusta, 580-1290.

Antique Engine & Tractor Show — Antique farm equipment, parades and live music, 9 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Sept. 10, 10 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Sept. 11, 9:30 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Sept. 12, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept.13, Michigan Flywheelers Museum, 06285 68th St., South Haven, 269-639-2010.

Best of Michigan Wine Tasting — Featuring Michigan wineries, food by Premier Catering and music by Hackneyed Quips, 6:30–9 p.m.

Sept. 10, Lawton Lions Heritage Community Center, 646 N. Nursery St., 624-1474.

Douglas Avenue; South Street/Bronson Park, 8 a.m. Sept. 25, starting at Gazelle Sports, 342-5996.

NSRA Street Rod Nationals North Plus — Street rods, muscle cars, custom and specialty vehicles, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. Sept. 11 & 12, 8:30 a.m.–2 p.m.

Sept. 13, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 2900 Lake St., 303-776-7841.

Paw Paw Wine & Harvest Festival — Winery tours, bicycle trip through the vineyards, contests and carnival, Sept. 11–13, Paw Paw, 655-1111.

Art and Vine Royal Wine and Painting Party — Create a painting and do a six-flight wine tasting, 5:30 p.m. Sept. 17, Henderson Castle, 100 Monroe St., 344-1827.

Murder Mystery Dinner — Enjoy dinner while unraveling clues to solve a murder, 6–9 p.m.

Sept. 18, Henderson Castle, 344-1827.

The Lalas Burlesque — Los Angeles burlesque show, 8 p.m. Sept. 18, State Theatre, 345-6500.

Bangor Apple Festival — Farmers' market, kids' activities, classic car show and entertainment, Sept. 19, downtown Bangor, 269-427-5831.

Super Summer Flea & Antique Market — New and used, handcrafted, antique and collectible items, 8 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 19, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 383-8761.

9/11 Memorial Stair Climb — A climb in honor of the firefighters lost on 9/11, 7:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Sept. 11, Wings Event Center, 3600 Vanrick Drive, 345-1125.

Home Town Sports Card Show — Sports cards, autographed items and memorabilia, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Sept. 19, Cube Viewing Area, Wings Event Center, 744-7337.

2015 Gazelle Sports Historic Walks — Historical walking tours focusing on Kalamazoo's history and architecture: West Douglas Neighborhood, 8 a.m. Sept. 11, starting at North Street and

Kalamazoo Reptile & Exotic Animal Show — 10 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 19, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 779-9851.

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All Eastside Schools Reunion — Reunion of former students and faculty from Roosevelt, Brucker, Wilson, Burke, Spring Valley, St. Mary's and Barbour Hall, 4 p.m. Sept. 19, Kalamazoo County Expo Center North, 599-7702.

Kalamazoo Dance — Social dance for singles, couples, college students and dancers of all skill levels, 7–10 p.m. Sept. 19, The Point Community Center, 2925 N. 10th St., 344-5752.

Tillers International Harvest Fest — Focusing on local food and farmers, draft animal power and sustainable agricultural techniques, 11:30 a.m.– 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20, Cook's Mill Learning Center, 10515 East OP Ave., Scotts, 626-0223.

Square Dance Kalamazoo — Music by The Rhythm Billies, 7:30 p.m. lesson, 8 p.m. dance, Sept. 21, Bell's Eccentric Café, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 382-2332.

Schoolcraft Coin Show — Coins for purchase or evaluation from dealers, 9 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Sept.

26, Krum Community Center, 515 East Clay, Schoolcraft, 273-7070.

Be Fit Health Festival — Health awareness and free health screenings, 1–5 p.m. Sept. 26, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 349-4485 ext.112.

Haunted History of Kalamazoo Tour — A walking tour to learn about the haunted side of Kalamazoo, 8–10 p.m. Sept. 26, starting at Bronson Park, 216-9727.

Bronson Children's Hospital Run & Walk 2015 — Supporting the children's hospital, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Sept. 27, starting at Bronson Methodist Hospital parking lot, corner of John and Lovell streets, 341-8400.

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ENCORE Poetry

Planning When I take the dogs out for their walk just after dawn I might intend to notice how many more leaves have fallen in the breeze onto Maple Road since yesterday as summer makes its slow September turn toward autumn or I might check how many more leaves on the birch have become gold coins while most still wear green or see how the bean field down the road bleached by the sun another afternoon has lightened to a new shade of amber until I approach the ponds where a heron that must have spent the night standing as still as driftwood on the shore unfurls and flaps the blue sheets of its wings and lifts off into the air.

— Robert Haight Haight's most recent book of poems is Feeding Wild Birds (Mayapple Press). He has taught writing at Kalamazoo Valley Community College for more than 25 years and divides his time between the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan.

Saying Goodbye

for Marie Bahlke

Ghost trees and wildflowers on this northern dune all default to lavender. It takes so much energy to stay alive here, color is beyond them. But we laugh like girls, decide we like Hoary Puccoon because of its name.

You sort cherry tomatoes on the deck, putting the good ones back with the bad by mistake. You order me not to tell your kids. How we grieve these leave-takings, hummingbirds feeding, and tough monarchs migrating from one mop head of goldenrod to the next. You worry that the wind will shift east, blow in hordes of fruit flies from the orchards. You tell me how Harold made you drive first when you headed for home each September, so you couldn’t cry.

— Gail Martin Martin has been friends with fellow Kalamazoo poet Marie Bahlke since they met in a book group at Kalamazoo College in the 1980s. This poem, Martin says, was written after a visit to Bahlke’s cottage in Northport, “where we sat gabbing and looking out at the Manitou islands for two days.” Martin’s most recent poetry collection, Begin Empty-Handed, won the 2013 Perugia Prize and the 2014 Housatonic Book Award.

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We are where you are. mercbank.com

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INDEX TO ADVERTISERS

LIKE WHAT YOU HEAR? JOIN WMUK

The Ayres Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Bell’s Brewery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Borgess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Bravo! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Brink, Key & Chludzinski, PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Bronson Health Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Civic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Consumers Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Dave’s Glass Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 DeMent and Marquardt, PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Dr. Desjarlais . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 FarmNGarden Fence Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

BECOME A MEMBER WMUK.ORG

Fontana Chamber Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Food Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Four Roses Café . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Friendship Village . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

WMUK

Genesis Fitness & Wellness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

102.1

Gilmore Real Estate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Great Lakes Shipping Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Greenleaf Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Halls, Closets & More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Horizon Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Back-to-School Time

Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

In September, children prepare themselves with new backpacks and school supplies.

Many businesses carry back-to-school specials on products and services for kids.

What about the parents?

If your business serves grown-up customers, think about holding a “They’ve Gone Back to School!” sale. September is a great time for adults to catch up on house chores, commitments to their personal health, and personal projects. Why not give parents a little incentive and help them get more out of their September?

HRM Innovations LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Kalamazoo Community Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Landscape Arborist Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Lawton Ridge Winery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 MacKenzies’ Café Bakery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Malia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mercantile Bank of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Pennings Handyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

When the kids are away, finally the parents might have time to get things done!

Portage Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Marketing works best when it’s targeted towards a group that isn’t getting the attention it deserves and would truly appreciate the help you have to give. After the kids go back to school, what can you offer their parents? They would appreciate the attention, and give you their business in return!

Saffron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Premier Vein Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Svikis Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Varnum Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Vlietstra Bros. Pools & Spas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Wild Ginger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 WMUK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

☎

1116 W Centre Avenue 323-9333 PortagePrinting.com

44 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

Woodwork Specialties Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Zooroona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

BACK STORY (continued from page 46)

How did you end up where you are today?

It really started when I was 7 and got my first telescope from my parents. I went to Villanova and got a degree in astronomy and astrophysics and then went to work on the Hubble Space Telescope.

I went back to school and got a master’s degree and then went to work for a satellite software analysis company. I became executive director of the National Aerospace Development Center, in Alpharetta, Georgia, which worked regions across the U.S., from Colorado to Texas to Alabama, to build up their aerospace workforce. We built partnerships between employers, educators, government and military and helped them understand their workforce needs by inspiring kids to go into aerospace.

What I found out was that the regions with the best success in workforce development were those that had either a museum or science center somewhere at their core, because museums and science centers can teach differently than a teacher can in a classroom. Soon after, I became the executive director at the Da Vinci Science Center (in Allentown, Pa.).

My mission there was to develop this cultural institution into something that can help inspire the region’s technical workforce.

Over the next five years, that’s what we did. The U.S. Department of Labor hailed us as the model for science centers that are a critical piece of the technical workforce pipeline.

Is that what you’ve sought to do with the Air Zoo? When a recruiter contacted me about the Air Zoo, my first questions were “What is an air zoo?” — I thought it was about flying animals — and “Where is Kalamazoo, Michigan?” The first time I walked through the Air Zoo’s cloud tunnel I knew it was an amazing place and opportunity to create new and innovative programs that would give kids the knowledge that the math and science they are studying now in school will matter in the future.

By developing education programs and getting industry involved as much as we can, we want to “hero-ize” scientists, engineers and technicians — let kids meet someone who says, “This is what I do at my job, and I love what I do — you can be like me one day.”

In 2 1/2 years, we’ve created 40 new hands-on interactive, inquirybased programs that run the gamut of science. We have programs in forensic science, magnetism, physics, electricity, and they are working. Three years ago our summer camps had 200 kids enrolled; this summer it was over 700. Our fill rate has doubled. We are thrilled — field trips are up higher, and our paid admissions are up.

Why is this mission so important to you?

Industry is really struggling to find enough technical talent. We have to find a way to give kids an opportunity to see that they can fall in love with science and that it is something they can do with their hands, their minds and their hearts.

For me it’s about impact. I do believe we can provide a very different kind of impact here. This is why I have to be here — it drives me. It’s not the airplane that drives me; it’s what we can pull out of that airplane — the stories behind that airplane, the science, the technology — that is going to ignite something in a kid to take it a step further than to say “That’s something I love” to saying “That’s something I want to do.”

We just want to give every kid that opportunity. If we draw a 3-mile radius around the Air Zoo right now, there are still kids in that circle who do not have the opportunity to get here. That’s what we have to figure out. Over the last year we‘ve gotten some grants and donations to give to schools and community organizations so kids can come here free of charge and to pay for transportation. Another solution is that our programs are portable. We have a very robust outreach program and take the programs to kids where they are.

What keeps you up at night?

Four kids and two dogs. I have to say, actually, nothing keeps me up at night.

I am always thinking, “What can we do next? What can we do bigger and do better and reach an audience we haven’t reached yet?”

But I do that every day at work.

I live in every moment. I am very deliberate about that.

Everyone Deserves a Great Workplace

Innovative Human Resources Consulting, Training, and Recruiting 229 E. Michigan Ave, Suite 345 Kalamazoo 269.459.6060 www.HRMInnovations.com w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 45

Brian Powers

BACK STORY encore

Troy Thrash CEO & President, Air Zoo

T

roy Thrash has long wanted to see bigger things. It started with the universe: He got his first telescope at age 7, and his first job out of college was working with the Hubble Space Science Institute to fix the optics on the Hubble Space Telescope. Now the aerospace industry veteran has set his sights back on Earth, helping to ignite kids’ passion for math and science. In the past 2 1/2 years that Thrash has been at the helm of the Air Zoo, he has helped transform the museum into an exploratory science center that aims to reach as many kids as it can with the message that science, math and technology are more than subjects in school — they are the future.

46 | Encore SEPTEMBER 2015

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 47

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