Encore Magazine June 2016

Passing the presidential baton at Kalamazoo College

Foraging for wild edibles

June 2016

Kalamazoo's Got the Blues Blues music is going strong in SW Michigan

Meet Carrie Vanderbush

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Sally Grushon died in 2006.

Today she’s helping Kalamazoo area kids get ready for kindergarten.

Sally loved Kalamazoo and was a champion for its children. In 1978 she helped start Hilltop Preschool at Zion Lutheran Church, which has been helping Kalamazoo area kids get ready for kindergarten ever since. When she died, her family created The Sally E. Grushon Endowment for Hilltop Preschool. It honors her legacy and provides scholarships to help families cover the cost of a quality pre-kindergarten education for their children. We can help you show your love for Kalamazoo and leave a legacy too. Call us today at 269.381.4416 or visit us online at www.kalfound.org to learn how.

equity | education

“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 To watch Don’s story and learn more about anterior hip surgery, visit bronsonpositivity.com/hip.

The Garden Center at

Passing the presidential baton at Kalamazoo College

Foraging for wild edibles

June 2016

A sister company of Arborist Services of Kalamazoo, LLC

Meet Carrie Vanderbush

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Kalamazoo's Got the Blues Blues music is going strong in SW Michigan

Publisher

encore publications, inc.

Editor

marie lee

Designer

alexis stubelt

Photographer brian k. powers

Copy Editor

margaret deritter

Contributing Writers

Bird Feed ● Fertilizer ● Salt ● Local Home Delivery 1003 Staples Ave ● Kalamazoo, MI ● 269.381.0596 ● FarmNGarden.com

olga bonfiglio, andrew domino, lisa mackinder, emily townsend, robert m. weir

Poetry Editor

margaret deritter

Advertising Sales

BUSINESS COVERAGE Commercial Property Commercial General Liability Workers Compensation Business Automobile Commercial Umbrella

celeste statler sophia jacobs krieg lee

Distribution kama mitchell

Office Coordinator hope smith

Encore Magazine is published 12 times yearly. Copyright 2016, 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

theayres-group.com We offer a full range of insurance products to meet your specific insurance needs including: • HORTICULTURE • FARMS • CRAFT BREWERIES / WINERIES • MANUFACTURING • HOME HEALTHCARE • MOVING & STORAGE • WORKERS COMPENSATION • PERSONAL LINES Athens

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Edwardsburg

Ralph Hayward Insurance 220 West Prairie P.O. Box 87 Vicksburg, MI 49097 269.649.1914 • 800.646.9773 *offices independently owned & operated.

Harbor Springs

Schoolcraft

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Vicksburg

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.

Correction: The caption for the photo in “Singing Sisterhood” story that appeared in the April issue of Encore incorrectly identifies the woman in the photo as Jackie Stigler.

The woman is Judy Hagey, president of the Kalamazoo Community Chorale’s board of directors.

CONTENTS

J u n e 2016

FEATURES Kalamazoo's Got the Blues

20

Passing the Presidential Baton

26

Blues music is going strong in SW Michigan

Kalamazoo College’s leaders — old and new — look to the future

DEPARTMENTS 6 Contributors

8 10

Up Front First Things — What’s happening in SW Michigan Artists Are Why — KIA Fair inspires artists’ lives for 65 years

12 Enterprise Treasure troVe — Portage store specializes in unique items with a past

16 Savor Foraging for Food — Nabe Bowerman finds edible foods in forests and fields

30

Events of Note

38 Back Story

Meet Carrie Vanderbush — Volunteer Kalamazoo's leader has a lifetime of giving back under her belt

On the cover: This classic, well-played 1937 National Duolian guitar is one of many instruments local blues enthusiast Doug Beckman plays. Photo by Brian Powers.

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contributors encore

Olga Bonfiglio

Olga was a good choice for writing about the outgoing and incoming leaders of Kalamazoo College. She has been involved in higher education for 40 years, including nine years teaching at Kalamazoo College. She earned a master's degree in educational leadership at Western Michigan University and won a Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship in 1984 that took her all over the world.

Andrew Domino

A frequent contributor to Encore, Andrew writes this month about Nabe Bowerman, who forages for food in the fields and forests of Southwest Michigan. Andrew says he searches for his food at the grocery store but is intrigued by the idea of learning how to forage in the summer sun. Read more of his writing at dominowriting.com.

Lisa Mackinder

For this month’s issue, Lisa spoke with Julie Ahlberg, the owner of troVe, a Portage shop that sells rustic and country-chic home furnishings and accessories. The shop is a dream come true for Ahlberg, and Lisa says it’s hard not to catch the business owner’s enthusiasm. “I was struck by Ahlberg’s genuine delight as she described her love of painting and creating, as well as her excitement as she pointed out vendors’ creative pieces and explained her desire that they succeed,” Lisa says.

6 | Encore JUNE 2016

Emily Townsend As a lover of the arts, sunny days in Bronson Park and old sepia-toned photos of Kalamazoo, Emily enjoyed learning about the history of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair.

“Kalamazoo continues to blow my mind with its strange and rich past,” she says. “I was surprised to learn Kalamazoo has hosted one of the oldest street art fairs in the nation. This small Midwestern city is full of historical gems.” Emily has joined Encore after a stint reporting for The Cambodia Daily. She is also the host of Kalamazoo’s only feminist news and music show, Grrrlville on WIDR 89.1 FM. You can enjoy more of her work at soundandscrawl.com.

Robert M. Weir

In his article about the Kalamazoo blues scene, Robert mentions some of the area’s most revered blues venues, such as Missias’, Mr. Wonderful’s, Louie’s, Top Hat and the 411 Club.

All are places where he says he has danced to good blues with dear friends, so his conversations with members of the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association were more like reminiscing than interviewing, and researching the history of the blues was akin to delving into family lineage. He also admits he found himself singing blues songs out loud while writing the article. Bob has been a contributor to Encore since 1996, and more of his writing can be found at robertmweir.com.

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up front encore

First Things Something Artistic

Aviation art lands in Kalamazoo Award-winning aerospace art will be on display June 1–25 at the James C. Westin Gallery at the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

The American Society of Aviation Artists’ 30th annual International Aerospace Art Exhibition will feature 53 works in oil, watercolor, gouache and mixed media by 36 artists from around the world. The exhibition is also a contest, with various awards being given in categories such as commercial aviation, military aviation and space.

The exhibition is part of the ASAA’s 30th International Aerospace Art Forum, set for June 3–8 in Kalamazoo.

The forum will draw experienced and novice aviation artists from across the globe for classes, networking and the art exhibition. You can meet some of those artists during the June 3 Art Hop, 5–8 p.m. at the Arts Council, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 203.

The exhibition can be viewed from 8 a.m.–5 p.m.

Monday–Friday.

For more information, visit asaa-avart.org.

Something Soulful

Nashon Holloway hits local stages Nashon Holloway has performed her rock- and soul-driven original music around the world, from stages in Dubai and Carnegie Hall to the set of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Despite her growing popularity, you can still catch the Kalamazoo native performing in and near her hometown this month.

Holloway will play several free shows in Southwest Michigan in June: • Nashon Holloway Band, 9 p.m.–midnight June 4 and 8–10 p.m. June 28, The Union Cabaret & Grille, 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall.

• Solo performance, 6:30 p.m. June 7, Kalamazoo Public Library’s Alma Powell Branch, 1000 W. Paterson Ave. • With Bryan Blowers, 7:30–10 p.m. June 10, Maude’s Taphouse, 117 E. Allegan St., Otsego.

For more information, visit nashonholloway.com.

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encore up front

Something Musical

Broadway vet in A Man of No Importance Alfie Byrne is a bus driver with a secret that he can’t

share with anyone but his imagined confidant, Oscar Wilde.

If that premise isn’t intriguing enough to want to see Farmers Alley’s presentation of A Man of No Importance, then the musical’s cast list may seal the deal.

The show plays June 10–19 at Western Michigan University’s Little Theatre (corner of Oakland Drive and Oliver Street) and brings back Broadway veteran Dirk Lumbard to star as Alfie. Lumbard, last seen as Herr Schultz in Farmers Alley’s 2014 production of Cabaret, will be joined by Chicago actor Michael Ehlers (who starred in the theater’s I Love a Piano in 2013) as well as local favorites Jeremy Koch and Denene Mulay Koch.

Show times are 8 p.m. June 10, 11, 17 and 18; 2 p.m. June 12 and 19; and 7:30 p.m.

June 16. Tickets are $35; $33 for adults 65 or older and students.

For more information, visit farmersalleytheatre.com or call 343-2727.

Something Festive

Three Rivers Water Festival has it all It’s a small-town festival, but don’t be fooled: The Three Rivers Water Festival June16–18 is anything but small.

From the Lions Club Ox Roast on June 16 to the Fireworks Finale on June 18, the festival offers three jam-packed days of entertainment, rides, food, demonstrations and … did we mention food? There’s a pig roast, strawberry fest, pancake breakfast, barbecued ribs and pie and coffee, not to mention the food vendors along the carnival midway.

The festival features nearly 50 activities and events, so even if you’re not eating, you can be entertained by live music, bingo, monster trucks, art exhibits, a parade, a carnival and … really, there’s just too much to list.

The festival begins at 9 a.m. June 16 and 17 and at 7 a.m. June 18 and runs late into the evening. Admission and many activities are free.

For a full schedule of events, visit trchamber.com.

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up front encore

Seasoned Artists to Aspirants KIA Fair part of artists’ lives for 65 years by

Emily Townsend

I

f you were in Bronson Park on the first Saturday of June in 1952, you would be standing amid a crowd of 15,000 people. A swing band is playing nearby, and paintings by 70 artists are hanging along 1,100 feet of clothesline strung between the park’s trees.

Welcome to the debut of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Clothesline Art Show.

Fast-forward 64 years and the scene is similar: There are still lots of people (likely twice as many), live music and art, but instead of clothesline, the park is lined with white canopies. Along with 190 artists, from sculptors and jewelers to potters and painters, selling their wares, there are food vendors, a beer garden and Saturday kids’ activities.

In its 65 years, the KIA Fair, scheduled for June 3–4 in Bronson Park, has been known by six different names, but, no matter the moniker, participating artists say the annual art fair is as much a boon to them as to the art lovers who attend it.

Jeweler David Smallcombe is likely the KIA Fair’s longest-showing artist. He first set up at the art fair in 1977, shortly after graduating from Western Michigan University. Even then, he said, the KIA Fair was an anomaly.

“Now there are art fairs set up all over the place all the time. Back then, there were really not that many,” he says. “The Bronson show was a long and honored fair even at that point. Now we see (art fairs) as an institution in our culture. Back then, it was pretty new stuff.”

His son was just 2 months old when Smallcombe participated in his first fair, and the artist admits that when he started, he didn’t know if there would be enough art fairs for him to build a career on. “It was Top: Paintings are hung on horizontal boards set up like a fence at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts’ art fair in 1961. Bottom: Jewelry created by artist David Smallcombe (inset), who has been exhibiting at the fair for nearly 40 years.

10 | Encore JUNE 2016

encore up front

pretty scary because I wasn’t sure I would have a venue to sell my work,” he says.

“It’s not an easy living by any sense. I had four children. But they’ve all grown up in the fairs and done really well with it. I feel really fortunate to have lived life like that and for my kids to have enjoyed a different way of seeing the world.”

The importance of the KIA Fair for printmaker Tamara Hirzel is neither historical nor nostalgic. Hirzel is the KIA’s 2016 Emerging Artist, an honor that comes with support for an artist who has not previously presented in an art fair.

After a career in graphic design and raising a family, Hirzel is returning to her dream of being an artist, she says. She recently completed a nine-month post-baccalaureate residency at the KIA in printmaking.

“When I told my daughter I was going to be an ‘emerging artist’ (at the fair), she laughed and said, ‘Mom, you’ve been an emerging artist for 50 years,’” Hirzel says. “I’ve been incubating. It’s really been the last five years I was able to start taking classes at the KIA and renew my love of printmaking, which I have been doing on and off since high school.”

Along with the opportunity to show her work, the KIA is providing Hirzel with a canopy, a table and a bit of business advice.

“I’ve talked with other artists to try to get the business end of things, like a credit card payment on my phone and getting my website ready. It’s the little things,” Hirzel says. “As an artist, I don’t have a lot of experience as a merchant.”

Smallcombe, now a well-known Kalamazoo silver- and goldsmith, said his business practices and presentations at art fairs have evolved through the years. “My (first) booth was a card table, an Indian-print

Above: KIA Emerging Artist Tamara Hirzel makes prints. Inset: Hirzel’s Sunshine Turtle and May Apples, linocut with watercolor.

sheet on top of that and a big aloe plant. My work was in a small display case. Basically, I just did copper and brass at the time.”

Smallcombe has seen the landscape of the KIA Fair change over the years as well. “There were no canopies at all back then. If it rained, you’d grab a piece of plastic and try to cover everything, but of course the wind would whip that right back off and everything would get wet.

“Now you’d be laughed out of a show if you didn’t have a canopy.

It’s just incredibly different in the professionalism that people give it today, with sharp booths, pictures, canopies and signage.”

Smallcombe says he believes the KIA Fair has enjoyed longevity because art fairs run by local arts centers have a different feel. “The whole atmosphere is different and much nicer when it’s a local arts center, rather than a promoter who is doing a whole series of shows and the art show doesn’t really matter."

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SAVOR Enterprise encore encore

Treasure troVe

Store specializes in unique items with a past by

Lisa Mackinder

I

n the home décor and accessories store troVe, owner Julie Ahlberg has merged three of her passions: paint, anything with rust and a good story.

The 7,000-square-foot Portage store, at 8639 Portage Road, sells high-quality Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, offers painting classes and rents space to vendors who fill their booths with plenty of those oxidized items that Ahlberg enjoys as well as repurposed pieces.

“It’s rare that I sit down,” she says with a laugh. “I am working hours and hours, but it’s my business. It’s what I love.”

A year ago, Ahlberg bought the store, then called Consigned Design, and changed the store’s name to troVe. She had worked for 25

12 | Encore JUNE 2016

years in the financial industry, spending the last five years of her career as a client services associate at Sanford Financial Services in Portage. Though finance wasn’t her passion, Ahlberg says it served a purpose and perfectly positioned her for business ownership.

“Had I not started in the financial industry, I couldn’t run the store the way I am now,” Ahlberg says. “I needed those years of maturity and experience.”

That experience also gave her the backbone to make hard choices, she says, such as turning away vendors whose items don’t fit with her vision for troVe and making sure that current vendors meet expectations, including coming in at least twice per month

encore Enterprise

Wares found at troVe include home décor and accessories crafted from repurposed items, such as shutters and picket fences, as well as vintage pieces.

to keep their items fresh, moving items around regularly and removing seasonal pieces in a timely manner.

Ahlberg rents space to 40 vendors who sell antiques, furniture and specialty handcrafted items. For instance, there’s a railroad cart transformed into a coffee table, a wreath created from burlap, and homemade wooden rustic shutters. Vendors typically occupy 8-by8-foot spaces, although one recently expanded into a 15-by-8 space.

Ahlberg’s criteria for vendors and their wares is pretty simple. “People say to me, ‘Well, what are you looking for?’ I say, ‘Something unique.

Something that’s not here yet.’”

Of course, a bit of rust doesn’t hurt. Ahlberg, who describes her own style as rustic chic, says she has always been drawn to rusty items. She likes the color of rust and how it changes from brown to orange to gray. Rusty items offer another attraction — they’ve aged and therefore hold a story. The story potential gets Ahlberg’s mind spinning: Was this item in a barn? Is it from down South? Did a farmer use it? Ahlberg says she loves discovering an item’s history.

“I often have customers who ask the story behind a piece or if I know where it came from.

It’s fun when I know the story and I’m able to share it with a customer.”

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SAVOR Enterprise encore encore

One of the first new things Ahlberg decided to carry after purchasing the business was Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, which quickly became a top seller at troVe. The paint, created by designer and artist Sloan, is sold by more than 1,400 establishments in 40 countries, and troVe is the only store in Kalamazoo County carrying it. Ahlberg says that the product pretty much sells itself.

One of the benefits of this paint is that it can be applied to any surface without the need to prep the surface by sanding, priming or stripping. In order to carry the paint, Ahlberg underwent a lengthy application process.

After approval, Ahlberg says, she had to receive training on the product.

“To be a stockist for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint I had to go to New Orleans for training,” Ahlberg says. “She’s very serious about this, which is good. It was also a big investment for me.”

While there, Ahlberg learned a variety of paint techniques, which she passes on to customers through classes at troVe three times a month.

Each class lasts approximately two to three hours. Currently Ahlberg offers a basics class, in which she teaches smooth finish, rustic finish, two-color distressing and crackle finish. She plans to eventually add advanced classes and hopes to provide classes for children.

Ahlberg has a number of business inspirations but admits she got great advice from former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, whom she heard speak at a leadership event. Powell believes in placing people in positions where they can do what they love, Ahlberg says.

Since Ahlberg wanted to focus on the creative side of troVe, she hired a social media expert and an accountant to handle those jobs.

Upcoming troVe Events June 4: Vintage Fair and Other Delights, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Aug. 20: The Mile-Long Yard Sale, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

For more information, visit troVeofportage.com.

Above all, Ahlberg seeks to create and maintain a fun atmosphere at troVe. Zoie, her 4-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog, helps with this mission by calmly sauntering over to welcome customers upon their arrival. “I can’t tell you how many people come in and say, ‘Is Zoie here?’ She’s a great shop dog,” says Ahlberg.

So far, Ahlberg’s efforts have paid off. Last year troVe’s sales rose 38 percent, she says, and this year sales are already up 50 percent. And a recent comment by a customer made that success all the more sweet.

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encore Enterprise

Center photo: Visitors to troVe are often greeted by Zoie, a Bernese Mountain Dog, and Julie Ahlberg, the store’s (and dog's) owner. Opposite page and above: Ahlberg likes to stock her store with unique items that “have a good story.”

Ahlberg is a fan of the HGTV show Fixer Upper, in which the owners of Magnolia Homes, Chip and Joanna Gaines, breathe new life into rundown properties. Ahlberg especially appreciates Joanna Gaines’ designs, which, she says, are “old, new, greenery, antiques, rustic and farmhouse chic blended together.” Recently, when a customer came into troVe and exclaimed that it was “the Magnolia Farms of Portage!”

Ahlberg was elated.

“It made my mouth open wide, and I smiled from ear to ear,” Ahlberg says. “The words literally took my breath away.”

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savor encore

‘Live Like A Caveman’

Nabe Bowerman forages for edible food in forests and fields by

Andrew Domino

16 | Encore JUNE 2016

encore Savor

I

Brian Powers

f you search for something to eat in the fields and forests of Kalamazoo County and you aren’t Nabe Bowerman, chances are you’re going to find something dangerous.

“A lot of people bring stuff (to me) and ask questions,” Bowerman says. “Most of the stuff is poisonous.”

Bowerman, a 63-year-old Korean native whose given name is Chom Tok, has been foraging her whole life; it's a skill she learned from her parents and has since taught to her three, now grown, sons. Bowerman has spent about 20 years working at Bonamego Farms, in Lawrence, foraging for vegetables and weeds on its 350 acres of property in Van Buren Township, just north of I-94.

During the winter, Bowerman is able to find a few hardy plants under leaves buried beneath the snow. In spring, though, the variety of her finds improves. She waits until the morning dew has dried before heading into the fields; it’s less of a mess that way, she says. Each foraging trip takes about an hour, although she says these trips seem to last a little longer each year, since there’s always a new edible to find, bring back to the kitchen and experiment with.

At left: Nabe Bowerman, wearing red gloves, leads class members, including Jeremy Mossman (light green shirt) and Brett Walters (black shirt) in a vocal appreciation of Mother Nature. Above: Bowerman explains the difference between false and true Solomon's Seal plants.

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savor encore

“Dandelion, nettle, chickweed — go outside, get a dandelion and pop it out of the ground,” she says. But she warns against plucking the yellow flowers growing in suburban backyards; they might have unsafe pesticides or weed killers applied to them.

Outdoor classroom Bowerman isn’t stingy with her knowledge of what can be found to forage. She leads classes on the topic in the spring and summer at Bonamego Farms. The former martial arts instructor places an emphasis on healthy eating in her classes, where she demonstrates how to search for plants, which plants are safe to eat and how to clean, prepare, cook and enjoy wild plants once you’ve found them.

Currently, her summer class, which began in May, is offered every other Sunday.

Classes are free, but registration is required at the farm’s Facebook page, facebook. com/BonamegoFarms, or at its booth at the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market.

“We start with field trips,” she says of her classes. “You can find vegetables under your feet. Then we go on to weeds and seedpods.”

18 | Encore JUNE 2016

Bowerman is happy to answer questions and sort through what her students discover.

“You have to be familiar with the woods,” Bowerman says. “It’s not all on the ground.

You have to look up on the tree. Mushrooms grow up there.”

Foraging is not regulated by the state, except for mushroom hunting. Mushroom hunters require a certification from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development before they can sell mushrooms to the public. Eating the wrong kind of mushroom can lead to serious illness or death. Bowerman, who often sells what she forages, usually looks for flowers and other greens instead of mushrooms.

Talk to the trees Bowerman is a fixture at the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market and the Bank Street Winter Market, where she sells what she forages — such as horseradish root and daffodils — along with Bonamego Farms’ tomatoes, apples and onions. At the Winter Market, she sold homemade spring rolls as well. In recent years, Bowerman has also been foraging for herbs, using them to make aromatic,

comforting teas. She has about 60 varieties of herbs now and sells her teas at the Farmers’ Market and Winter Market as well.

Bowerman also eats meat, sometimes hunting with a bow and arrow. For Bowerman, eating is about being close to the land, whether that’s digging in the dirt or just staying away from the grocery store shelves.

“Take off your shoes. Touch the earth,” she says. “I want to live in the woods like a caveman. Why would I want to be in front of a computer every day when I can go out and talk to a tree like a crazy person?”

She also experiments with new meals.

Lately she has been making kimchi, a traditional Korean dish of fermented cabbage.

Bowerman’s version, however, is made with

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Top left: Bowerman, front right, shows how to identify edible greens to (from left) Marla Fisher, Sonya Terburg, Terri Howard, Jeremy Mossman and Kathey Lynn Gold.

Above: Bowerman sells morels and dried violets at a farmers’ market. Bottom left: An assortment of Bowerman’s food for sale at the market includes tarragon snacks, sauteed black beans with sesame, Asian style anchovies and garlic scape kimchi.

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stinging nettle. She explains that the plant just needs to be soaked in water to get rid of its sting, but she notes that it’s “a challenge to find it, cook it and eat it.”

Bowerman says she’s able to meet nearly all of her own food needs by foraging and goes to a grocery story only to buy paper products and other non-food items.

“Sometimes I just say, ‘I’m going grocery shopping,’ and go into the fields,” Bowerman says. “You don’t even need a chopstick. Just go out and pick up a twig.”

Bowerman realizes not everyone will forage each day as she does. But it is her goal to help people to develop healthier eating habits and to better appreciate the environment where their food grows.

“The sun gives really powerful flavor and taste (to plants),” she says. “Big companies use chemicals on everything. Even homegrown, you have to water it and fertilize it. I’m interested in what nature can do.”

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Kalamazoo

Love for blues m

Among the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association members that make the annual blues festival happen are, from left: Ralph Yingling, Colleen Barker, Mike Barker, Doug Beckman, Dennis Massingill and Dave Hunt.

20 | Encore JUNE 2016

o’s Got the Blues

music fuels annual festival

story by

Robert M. Weir

photography by

Brian Powers

“Nobody loves me but my mother, and she could be jivin’ too.” – B.B. King

The blues. Plaintive, yet appealing, with melancholy melodies accented by flatted

“worried” notes, blues songs are often lamentations of longing for a better life — someday, somehow. And in that essence of expectation lies the blues’ alluring strength.

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Roots and Fruits

If you know rock, you know the blues “The blues is the roots; everything else is the fruits.” – Willie Dixon William James “Willie” Dixon (1915 –1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. In 1962, he penned “You Need Love,” which was recorded by blues legend Muddy Waters that same year. In 1985, Dixon won an out-ofcourt settlement from the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin, proving that the lyrics of the band’s song “Whole Lotta Love” too closely matched those of Muddy Waters’ hit.

Here are a few of many blues songs that have influenced rock ’n’ roll and other music genres: • “House of the Rising Sun” is a traditional folk song of unknown origin, sometimes called “Rising Sun Blues.” It was recorded by Clarence “Tom” Ashley and Gwen Foster in 1933 and covered by Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly and many others, most notably Eric Burdon and The Animals in 1964.

• “Cross Road Blues” was written and recorded by Robert Johnson in 1937, then covered by many artists, including Eric Clapton with Cream in 1966.

• “Fixin’ to Die Blues” was written and recorded by Booker T. Washington “Bukka” White in 1940; Bob Dylan sang it on his debut album, Bob Dylan, in 1961.

• “Hound Dog,” made famous by Elvis Presley in 1956 and recorded by more than 250 others, was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and recorded by Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton in 1952.

• “On the Road Again” was written and recorded by Tommy Johnson as “Big Road Blues” in 1928. It was covered by artists of various genres, including Canned Heat in 1967 and Willie Nelson in 1979. Also, Canned Heat took its name from Johnson’s “Canned Heat Blues.”

• “Catfish Blues” is a Mississippi Delta song from the 1920s that Muddy Waters recorded in 1950 as “Rollin’ Stone,” and that version was the inspiration for the names of The Rolling Stones rock group and Rolling Stone magazine.

• The melody of “Sweet Home Chicago” has its roots in three known blues songs from the early 1900s. It was recorded by Robert Johnson in 1936 and covered by many rock and country artists, including Stevie Ray Vaughan. As the theme of the movie The Blues Brothers, it has become the pop anthem of Chicago.

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Blues music stems from African roots, transplanted in America as work songs and field hollers on slave plantations in the Deep South. After abolition, the genre sprouted in juke joints in the Mississippi Delta and, like a vine rife with tenacious passion, wound its way north to blossom with fiery slide-guitar riffs and passionate vocalizing in the nation’s major blues meccas: Memphis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Kalamazoo.

Yes, Kalamazoo is a bona fide “home of the blues” — and home of the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association (KVBA), which in July hosts its 23rd annual Kalamazoo Blues Festival at the Arcadia Creek Festival Place.

Birth of local blues Dave Hunt, a KVBA founding member and guitarist/lead vocalist in Seventh Son, a blues band that performed its first gig in 1987 and is Southwest Michigan’s oldest continually performing blues band, says, “The first year, we talked to the city, and they said, ‘What weekend do you want to have it?’ That was before there were a lot of festivals, like there are now.”

Another KVBA board member researched weekends that consistently had the least rain during the previous decade and picked

the second weekend in July. “He nailed it,” Hunt says. “We’ve only had to collect our rain insurance one time.”

The Kalamazoo area’s blues heritage had already been strong prior to that first festival, with the presence of Gibson Guitar Corp. on Parsons Street and a handful of close-knit bands that played at nightclubs devoted to the blues. One of these clubs was Missias’, “the working man’s bar,” on Eleanor Street between Rose and Burdick.

“In the summer of ’93,” Hunt says, “they fenced off part of their parking lot and had Seventh Son and Annette Taborn’s band there. The place was packed, and they made oodles of money, so some of us said, ‘Why are we getting paid only a flat fee of $200?’” With the intent of helping the bands make more money, Hunt and other blues aficionados formed the KVBA that fall.

At the same time, entrepreneur Wayne Deering was pioneering outdoor events in a downtown parking lot near Arcadia Creek.

With Deering’s advice, plus rental of his crowd-control fencing and ticket booths, the KVBA launched its first festival in 1994.

It featured local bands, groups from Lansing and Grand Rapids, and two Chicago-based

headliners, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials and the Chicago Rhythm & Blues Kings. Each band received $800. It was a huge success, but, “it was hard work,” Hunt says. “We really didn’t know what we were doing.”

Festival blues With experience, the KVBA has become more skilled at putting on a party. Board member Nick Hatzinikolis calls the Kalamazoo Blues Festival “our Super Bowl … three wonderful days of fun, food, love and blues.” Festival coordinator Dennis Massingill claims it’s “a showcase among the top 10 blues festivals in the U.S.” Drawing as many as 10,000 music lovers annually, the Kalamazoo Blues Festival is even mentioned in the how-to book Blues for Dummies.

Over time, attendance at the festival has gone up and down. In one of the better years, late-arriving fans were halted at the gate because the festival site was already packed to the max. Another year, festival attendees hailed from 26 states. Many volunteers also live outside of Michigan. “They come in on Thursday and leave on Sunday,” says Colleen

Top: Doug Beckman, top photo, collects antique instruments used to play the blues, including, from left, a single string Lowe bow, a cigar box guitar, Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, 1937 National Duolian guitar and a miniature banjo. Above: This year’s Blues Festival logo was designed by Kalamazoo Valley Community College student Allison McKenna.

Barker, the KVBA’s director of sponsorship, marketing and membership.

“We’ve brought several million tourist dollars into the community,” says KVBA’s vice president, Mike Barker. “Of the money we spend for goods and services to put on the festival, the lion’s share goes to local businesses.”

Yet, there have also been years when proceeds were so low that board members had to charge expenses on credit cards and borrow money to pay the liability insurance premium.

Hunt looks on the down years with a philosophy that’s germane to the genre. “It’s not the blues to be all shiny and polished and flush with cash,” he says. “The blues is about trials and tribulations and financial troubles.”

Yet, the blues is also about hope and perseverance. Spirituals and code songs on Southern plantations signaled black slaves to board “the gospel train” (the Underground Railroad) and “follow the drinking gourd” (the Big Dipper) to freedom in the North.

Lyrics from the 1900s, such as those of Esther Phillip’s “I’m Gettin' ’Long Alright,” speak of overcoming jilted love: “I cried like a baby when you went away last Friday night (but) I done made me some connections and, believe me, I sure am gettin’ ’long alright.”

With festival expenses of more than $100,000, the KVBA relies on periodic fundraiser concerts and festival sponsors. Kalamazoo radio stations WRKR (107.7 The Rocker) and WIDR, the student station on Western Michigan Univesity’s campus, are natural partners.

But other sponsors, such as casinos and car dealerships, aren’t necessarily associated with music.

Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s contribution is organizing a competition among its commercial art students to design a new festival logo each year.

Sponsors receive a listing in the festival’s program, complimentary passes and visibility on banners and the KVBA’s website and social media. KVBA member Hatzinikolis says sponsors “get to interact with the blues community throughout the year. This generates a buzz and keeps the interest level high, so by the time of the festival, people are ready to rock ’n’ roll … er, blues.”

A Musical ‘Super Bowl’ What: 23rd Annual Kalamazoo Blues Festival When: July 7–9 Where: Arcadia Creek Festival Place, downtown Kalamazoo What: 22 bands, both local and from afar, including these headliners: Thursday, July 7 7:55 p.m., Monkey Junk — A “refreshing blend of swamp-rock and blues” Friday, July 8 8:30 p.m., Karen Lovely — 2016 Blues Music Award nominee for Best Contemporary Blues Female Artist 10 p.m., Sugar Ray & the Bluetones — “Bringing the best blues for 35 years” Saturday July 9 8:25 p.m., Cash Box Kings — Nominated for three 2016 Blues Music Awards 10:05 p.m., Royal Southern Brotherhood — “Not a band, an extravaganza.”

Special Treats: Free one-hour workshops for musicians and blues fans will be offered July 8 and 9. Topics include harmonica and guitar techniques, women in the blues, cigar box guitars and more.

Programs for children will also be available from noon–5 p.m. July 9.

Cost: July 7, 4:30–10:30 p.m., $5 July 8, 4:30 p.m.–12:30 a.m., $10 July 9, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 a.m., $12 Three-day pass, $20 in advance, $25 at the gate (includes admission to the All-Star Jam at Shakespeare’s Pub at 10:30 p.m. July 7) Tickets go on sale June 1 at various Kalamazoo retailers and the Kalamazoo Blues Festival website, kalamazoobluesfestival.com.

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Son of the blues Hatzinikolis’ humorous slip of the tongue confirms just how far the blues has extended from its roots, a truth summarized in lyrics by blues legend Muddy Waters recorded in 1977: “Well, you know, the blues got pregnant, and they named the baby Rock & Roll.”

The lineage from original soulful acoustic blues includes honky-tonk, ragtime, bluegrass, country, jazz, Motown, rhythm and blues, rock, hiphop and rap. The early practitioners were legends such as Mamie Smith (1883–1946), the first black female to record a blues vocal; Ma Rainey (1886–1939), Bessie Smith (1894–1937), Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912–1982), Pinetop Perkins (1913–2011) and Billie Holiday (1915–1959).

Then came the British invasion in the 1960s, whose performers covered many of the blues classics and transformed them into rock ’n’ roll chart-toppers. As the genre was “discovered” by white folks, it generated increased popularity for aging but more recent black blues artists: Muddy Waters (1913–1983), B.B. King (1925–2015), Bo Diddley (1928–2008) and Buddy Guy, who played at Kalamazoo’s State Theatre (again) last October and will turn 80 in July.

Sue Weaver, the KVBA’s newsletter editor, says, “When I first heard about the blues, I said I didn’t know what blues music is. Doug (Beckman, a founding member of Seventh Son) said, ‘Oh, yes, you do.’

And he started talking about Janis Joplin, Cream, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Steppenwolf, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and all those musicians I listened to and loved.”

Blues in the schools Yet, The Blues National Educational Outreach Campaign says, “As profound as the blues has been to the national music experience, it has only occasionally entered the American classroom, mostly through individual teachers who were committed blues fans.”

(with plants, that is)

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Seventh Son is one of several local blues bands that plays in area venues.

For more than 20 years, former KVBA board members Mike Irelan and Doug Beckman have done their share to educate students through the KVBA’s Blues in the Schools project. Their presentation encompasses Beckman playing tunes on his collection of unusual instruments, including a cigar-box guitar and a 1937 National Duolian steel guitar.

Also, since 2000, the KVBA has annually awarded a music scholarship to an area high school student based on a written essay and involvement in music in school and the community. In 2013, the award was renamed the KVBA Boogie Woogie Bob Peters Music Scholarship in honor of Bob Peters (1956–2010), a multi-talented artist who had been a fixture on the local blues landscape.

Yet, as with many established entities, questions arise about the future of the local blues community.

The old blues nightspots — Missias’, Mr. Wonderful’s, Club Soda, Kozy Inn, The Whistle Stop, Chaps on Main, Kraftbrau and, more recently, The 411 Club — have closed. At the same time, other venues — Louie’s Trophy House Grill, The Union Cabaret & Grille, Bell’s Brewery, Old Dog Tavern, Rupert’s Brew House, Shakespeare’s Pub, Lamplighter Inn and Barn Brewers (formerly Old Hat) — offer a smattering of blues.

Marty Spaulding, blues entrepreneur and owner of The 411 Club, no longer produces a weekly blues radio show on WRKR, but KVBA

board member Irelan does host the Blues Power show every Tuesday night from 8–10 p.m. on WIDR. While DJs on classic rock stations play blues tunes, they usually don’t identify the genre.

“They aren’t saying, ‘Here’s a blues song you might like.’ This is a problem,” says Massingill.

And even though Baby Boomers recognize the blues’ distinctive sound, they don’t take in live concerts as they did when younger.

“There’s no denying it,” Hunt says. “Blues fans go out less frequently, they stay out less late and they drink less alcohol.”

Yet, enthusiasm on the KVBA board still pulses strongly. Former festival volunteer coordinator Nancy J. King, who got involved in 1994, notes that, even with a limited budget, the Kalamazoo Blues Festival brings in prime national entertainers. “Each year we have some really nice new talent who are not well known but go on to a lot of fame within the next couple of years,” she says.

Board member Lynn Headapohl says the KVBA is generating more interest through ads on blues websites throughout Michigan and surrounding states.

Similarly, musicians throughout the Kalamazoo Valley blues community continue to adapt. Big seven-piece bands, like Seventh Son, rarely play three or four gigs a month in large venues with a spacious dance floor, which was once their norm. Today, more common settings are cozy taverns, suitable for a soloist or a duo playing acoustic instruments.

Acoustic. That word resonates to the roots of the blues. According to a PBS report, when African-American bandleader W.C. Handy discovered Delta blues, he did so in a train station in the hamlet of Tutwiler, Mississippi, circa 1903. Handy had missed his train and slept on a wooden bench. When he awoke, he heard a “ragged black man sitting next to him, singing … and sliding a knife against the strings of a guitar.” The music was the blues. The lyrics were stark poetry. And the presentation was acoustic.

Then, as well as now, blues singers tell of life as it is. Bleak? Yes, but with an undertone to rise up and live on. That attitude of guarded optimism also comes through when blues musicians talk about the future of their genre.

As blues icon Willie Dixon said, “As long as American music survives, so will the blues.”

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Keith Mumma 26 | Encore JUNE 2016

Kalamazoo College President Dr. Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, left, stands with her successor, Dr. Jorge Gonzalez, who will take the reins of the college July 1.

Passing the Presidential Baton

Kalamazoo College's leaders — old and new — look to the future From its perch overlooking the city, Kalamazoo College has been a stately presence for 183 years, during which time the college and its leaders have left an indelible mark on the area.

At the end of this month, one more of those leaders passes the baton to the next: After 11 years at the helm, Dr. Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran, the college’s first female and first African-American president, will retire, and Dr. Jorge Gonzalez will assume his new post as the college’s 18th president and its first Latino leader.

In these articles we meet the two leaders and take a look at the road forward for both. stories by

Olga Bonfiglio

‘I have great faith this spirit will continue’

Kismet brings new leader to Kalamazoo College

Dr. Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran’s first connection to Kalamazoo was decades ago and half a continent away. She was a counselor at a Girl Scout camp in California, and the camp’s assistant director happened to hail from a school in a town with an odd-sounding name.

The school was Western Michigan University, and the town was Kalamazoo. Years later, the place with the funny name would become Wilson-Oyelaran’s home and the former camp counselor would lead one of its colleges.

On June 30, Wilson-Oyelaran will complete her tenure as the 17th president of Kalamazoo College.

“I have come to love this place very much,” she says, “and even though I know that it’s time to go, the leaving isn’t easy.”

She and Olasope, her husband of 36 years, will return to their home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, from which they moved 11 years ago when she took the helm at Kalamazoo College. They have strong roots there as well. Wilson-Oyelaran served as associate professor and chair of the department of education at WinstonSalem State University, dean at Salem College, vice president of Salem Academy and College and acting president of Salem College.

“When I left Winston-Salem to come to K in 2005, I was excited about a new professional opportunity, and the game plan was clear,” she says. “Retiring from K represents the end of my professional work. It’s a final period and rather bittersweet.”

There seems to be no doubt about it. Dr. Jorge Gonzalez was meant to be the next president of Kalamazoo College.

The economist turned professor and administrator clearly has the background for the presidency of this liberal-arts college, and his attitude of service to others is consistent with Kalamazoo College’s stated tradition and values. But what may be most interesting about his ascendancy is the series of events, chance encounters and role models that created a glide path to the corner office of Mandelle Hall.

Gonzalez, 54, grew up in Monterrey, Mexico, where the extreme poverty he witnessed on a daily basis inspired him to want to eliminate it.

“I wanted to study economics in order to learn how to make the world a better place by using resources to provide more opportunities for people to have better lives,” he says, “not how to make a company's maximum returns on investment.”

Gonzalez went to the Monterrey Institute of Technology and later pursued a doctoral degree in economics at Michigan State University, the same place where his father, Dr. Jorge F. González-Arce, had earned a Ph.D. in marketing. In Gonzalez’s fourth year at MSU, he was asked to teach a microeconomics class and discovered he liked teaching.

“It was pure joy,” says Gonzalez. “I knew right away that college teaching was my life.”

Life after Kalamazoo

Kalamazoo connection

But leaving academe doesn’t mean Wilson-Oyelaran will be idle.

“For the first three months I will take time for myself and time for travel,” she says. “Eventually I’ll consult and write, but I have no desire to work full time on anything anymore. I want to be very deliberate about my choices.”

Wilson-Oyelaran also plans to spend time with the couple’s children and their only grandson, who lives in Taiwan, as well as

MSU would also present Gonzalez with an opportunity of another sort. It was there that he met his wife-to-be, Suzie Martin, who was studying for a doctorate in educational psychology. The couple married in 1989.

Suzie was born in Kalamazoo to John and Millie Martin. Her father worked for The Upjohn Co. (now Pfizer Inc.), and when she was 3 years old, her father's job took the family to Mexico and then to Puerto Rico.

(continued on page 28)

(continued on page 29)

Dr. Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran

Dr. Jorge Gonzalez

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(continued from page 27)

visit Nigeria, her husband’s homeland and the country where the couple met and lived for more than 14 years.

And there will be periodic visits back to Kalamazoo. A board member of the W.E. Upjohn Institute, Wilson-Oyelaran will return to the area for meetings in the spring and fall.

But the Los Angeles native admits she’s quite happy to be able to avoid Michigan winters.

“I bought good coats and lots of socks when I first came here, but I never learned how to dress properly for winter,” she admits.

The long road from her native Southern California to Kalamazoo was not on WilsonOyelaran’s radar when she started college with the intention of becoming a teacher.

Neither was a career in higher education or a college presidency. However, opportunities arose, and the young, enterprising sociology major followed up on them with vigor, enthusiasm and a spirit of adventure.

One life-changing opportunity was the year she spent studying in London, England, where her research immersed her in the lives of immigrant children from Africa and the Caribbean.

“This experience was transformative,” she says. “I left England committed to understanding a wider world, fascinated with the notion of the African diaspora and determined to travel and study abroad more extensively.”

After graduation from Pomona College in 1969, she received a Thomas J. Watson Traveling Fellowship and spent 16 months traveling and studying in Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania. After earning master’s and doctoral degrees in childhood development at Claremont Graduate University, WilsonOyelaran returned to Nigeria to teach at Obafemi Awolowo University, where she spent 14 years in the departments of education and psychology. From 1982 to 1987, she chaired that university’s department of psychology and served as a consultant for UNICEF. In 1988, Wilson-Oyelaran and her family left Nigeria so that she could become a visiting scholar of education at North Carolina Wesleyan College.

Bringing more diversity As she reflects on her career in higher education, Wilson-Oyelaran sees links between herself as a student in the 1960s and today’s students who are deeply engaged in social change and issues of social justice.

28 | Encore JUNE 2016

"The issues of today, like the issues of the ’60s, have created another heightened moment which calls us to pay attention to our society and our communities."

— Dr. Eileen B. Wilson-Oyelaran “I was a student activist in college during the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, when racial tensions were erupting in Los Angeles, Detroit and elsewhere. Communities all over the nation were in crisis, and those concerns impacted college and university campuses,” she says.

“The issues of today, like the issues of the ’60s, have created another heightened moment which calls us to pay attention to our society and our communities.”

When she came to Kalamazoo College in 2005, the college's student body was primarily white and middle class, and making the college more diverse was one of her primary tasks. Today, Wilson-Oyelaran says, the college’s roughly 1,450 students represent greater diversity of geography, religion, socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, but "there is much more work to be done in this area.”

“Many students of color continue to feel alienated by academic institutions that they experience as white spaces. Throughout America, students of color feel marginalized in the classroom. Their experience is not well represented in the curriculum, and their interactions with peers are sometimes problematic because white students often make assumptions about students of color based on stereotypes. These factors can make a college campus a very complex environment in which to build community.”

She says that building community and a feeling of inclusion becomes even more complicated because society has provided

young people with few models of how to have respectful disagreements in a pluralistic society. Absent such models, we shouldn’t be shocked at the tension on campus, she says.

However, Wilson-Oyelaran is concerned that this tension has become quite “brittle,” with students unwilling to engage in conversations with people holding alternative perspectives from themselves.

“Freedom of speech complicates the matter,” she says. “How do we hold freedom of speech as a first principle and ensure that the dignity of every human being is honored and recognized? Students are asking, ‘What mechanisms do we have when someone else’s speech challenges my dignity or my right to exist as a human being?’ How do we uphold freedom of speech in a democratic pluralistic society? This is a major challenge facing many colleges and universities and our society at large, as demonstrated by the current political discourse.”

Wilson-Oyelaran believes in equal measure in the importance of facing challenges and celebrating progress. When she started her career, she had no examples of AfricanAmerican women presidents to emulate. (continued on page 34)

(continued from page 27)

While the family was in Puerto Rico, Kalamazoo College alumnus and her father’s Upjohn colleague Phil Carra encouraged Suzie to go to Kalamazoo College by buying her hats and shirts with the school’s logo emblazoned on them. The seed Carra planted took root, and Suzie graduated from Kalamazoo College in 1983.

“Through Suzie I learned about Kalamazoo College for the first time,” Gonzalez says.

After graduating from MSU, Gonzalez's first job was teaching international economics and macroeconomics at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

“I had the time of my life as a professor at Trinity,” he recalls. “It suited me and my values.

I loved the students and felt I was doing what I should be doing in life.”

'Love what I am doing' One day the dean of Trinity asked Gonzalez to be chair of the economics department.

Gonzalez says he had never thought of being an administrator, but he gave it a try and ended up serving for three terms. He had planned to go back to teaching, but Trinity’s president, Dr. John Brazil, asked him to apply for an American Council of Education (ACE) fellowship, which prepares promising individuals for senior leadership in colleges and universities.

Coincidentally, Gonzalez’s fellowship was at Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he first met Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, who was a member of the college’s board of directors and the president of Kalamazoo College.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would come to K and follow in Eileen’s footsteps,” he says.

After completion of the ACE fellowship in 2008, Gonzalez expected to return to Trinity to teach. However, fate — and Dr. Brazil — had other plans for him. Gonzalez became a special assistant to the president, a position in which he would do “a little teaching and a little administration.”

“It turned out to be a lot of both,” says Gonzalez, “but I loved what I was doing.”

Gonzalez spent 21 years at Trinity. He moved on to Occidental College, in Los Angeles, in 2010, serving as its vice president of academic affairs for six years. (Interestingly, the current provost at Kalamazoo College, Mickey McDonald, was a professor and administrator at Occidental before he came to Kalamazoo in 2009.)

"My reason for being is to open the doors of such a fine education to students from all backgrounds and environments."

— Jorge Gonzalez Then last year Kalamazoo College found itself needing a replacement for its retiring president, and Gonzalez was asked to apply for the job by the college’s presidential search committee.

“It was a match made in heaven,” Gonzalez says. “I felt at home from the moment I set foot on campus.

Given my wife's history and her own good reviews of her education here, I knew it was meant to be.”

Role models Gonzalez says that role models have had a significant impact on his life. His father was a professor of marketing in Mexico who later went into the banking and brewery industries in Monterrey.

“My father always said that he would not leave any money for his children, but he was committed to paying for our education, which is a lifetime investment in our future. He taught me about the importance of education.”

Gonzalez’s maternal grandfather was a chemical engineer who went to high school and college in the United States at a time when Mexicans were not as welcome because of prejudice. He later ran successfully for mayor of Monterrey.

Gonzalez participated in his grandfather’s campaign and gained his first taste of politics and fundraising as well as a sensitivity for and a desire to reduce the inequalities of society.

“In Mexico, I saw poverty all around me,” Gonzalez says. “That's when I realized

that only through human ingenuity and appropriate investment of resources could we solve those problems.”

As Kalamazoo College’s first Latino president, Gonzalez sees himself as an important role model for the Kalamazoo community. “Not many people have an opportunity to be a Latino role model,” he says.

It’s a role he has experience with. While at Occidental, Gonzalez participated in a Science Olympiad for K-12 students and interacted with all the students and their families and gave out medals to the winners.

“I loved doing this, especially when the kids and their parents saw someone like me was running a college,” he says. “Many couldn't believe I was in that position.”

Global education 'essential' Exposure to other people from different walks of life is one reason that Gonzalez, who is an enthusiastic traveler, believes study abroad — a key part of a Kalamazoo College education — is one of the most important experiences college students can pursue.

“I've been in global education all my life,” says Gonzalez, who will be Kalamazoo College’s first international president. “It's (continued on page 34) w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 29

VISUAL ARTS Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 314 S. Park St., 349-7775 Exhibits PERFORMING ARTS THEATER Plays Late Nite Catechism — A one-woman comedy about a nun who teaches catechism class, 2–4 p.m. June 12, Holy Family Chapel at Nazareth, 3427 Gull Road, 381-6290.

Buyer and Cellar — Scott Burkell stars in a comedy about an underemployed actor working in Barbra Streisand's basement mall, 8 p.m. June 14–18, 5 p.m. June 19, Barn Theatre, 13351 West M-96, Augusta, 731-4121.

Musicals Once … Twice … Thrice: The Best of the Odyssey, Part 2 — The best of the New Vic's original folk music trilogy, 8 p.m. June 3 & 4, New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St., 381-3328.

Avenue Q — Sesame Street meets South Park in a show boasting "full puppet nudity," 8 p.m. June 7–11, 5 p.m. June 12, Barn Theatre, 13351 West M-96, Augusta, 731-4121.

A Man of No Importance — Farmers Alley Theatre presents the story of an Irish bus driver who shares his secrets with an imaginary confidant, 8 p.m. June 10–11 & 17–18, 2 p.m. June 12 & 19, 7:30 p.m. June 16, Little Theatre, 798 Oakland Drive, 343-2727.

Guys and Dolls — Broadway musical about gamblers, gangsters and showgirls, 8 p.m. June 21–25 & June 28–July 2, 5 p.m. June 26 & July 3, Barn Theatre, 731-4121.

Until the Stars Fall — Edgar Lee Masters' poetry examining rural, small-town and early 20thcentury American life is accompanied by music of the era, 8 p.m. June 24–25, July 1–2, 8–9, 15–16 & 22–23, New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St., 381-3328.

MUSIC Bands & Solo Artists Live Music at Arcadia Ales — Level 4, modern jazz quartet, June 1; The Sam Pilnick Project, modern acoustic jazz quintet, June 8; Steve Pesch, guitarist performing rock and country music, June 15; The Brass Rail, local brass quintet, June 22; Allie Garland, guitarist and pianist performing all genres, June 29; all shows 7–9 p.m., Arcadia Ales, 701 E. Michigan Ave., 276-0440.

Bell's Garden Opener: Greensky Bluegrass — Kalamazoo-based progressive bluegrass/rock band, 8 p.m. June 2–4, Bell's Eccentric Café, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 349-7759.

Art Hop Music: The Copacetics — Local soulindie-jazz group, 7–9 p.m. June 3, Arcadia Ales, 276-0440.

30 | Encore JUNE 2016

Lost Dog Street Band — Original music and storytelling songs, 9–11 p.m. June 4, Louie's Backroom, 629 Walbridge St., 385-9359.

Young Artists of Kalamazoo County — Local students from kindergarten through eighth grade display their artwork, through June 5.

Soul-Filled Sundays — Alex Mendenall, soul/ folk songwriter, June 5; Lee Krahenbuhl, singer/ songwriter, June 12; Roma Ransom, eclectic Bohemian world folk music, June 19; Aerial M with Chris Hudson and Phil Ladouceur, classic rock to bluegrass, June 26; all shows 5–7 p.m., Arcadia Ales, 276-0440.

Rhythms of Abstraction: Landscape Duets of Arnold Change and Michael Cherney — Twenty works combining contemporary Chinese ink painting and photography, through June 19.

The Accidentals — Michigan trio presenting a blend of pop, jazz, bluegrass, indie, folk, country and classical, 9 p.m. June 9, Bell's Eccentric Café, 349-7759.

DC & Last Gasp Collective — Hip-hop/neo-soul/ R&B emcee and hip-hop/indie/gospel group, 9 p.m. June 10, Bell's Eccentric Café, 349-7759.

Who Hit John? and Megan Dooley — Bluegrass/ Americana roots band and Kalamazoo torch singer, 5:30–7 p.m. June 12, Flesher Field, 3664 S. Ninth St., 731-5388.

The Soil & the Sun — Grand Rapids-based indie rock band, 9 p.m. June 16, Bell's Eccentric Café, 349-7759.

Marco Benevento — Pianist and songwriter, 9 p.m. June 18, Bell's Eccentric Café, 349-7759.

Yonder Mountain String Band — Progressive bluegrass/pop/rock band, 8 p.m. June 22, Bell's Eccentric Café, 349-7759.

The Red Sea Pedestrians — Kalamazoo-based world roots/Americana band, 9 p.m. June 25, Bell's Eccentric Café, 349-7759.

Orchestra, Chamber, Jazz, Vocal & More Gun Lake Live Summer Series — Brena, June 1; Stereo Vegas, June 8; Dueling Pianos, June 15; Toppermost Beatles Tribute Band, June 22; Great Scott, June 29; all shows 6–10 p.m. Lakefront Pavilion, Bay Pointe Inn, 11456 Marsh Road, Shelbyville, 888-486-5253.

Kalamazoo Kids in Tune — A young, diverse orchestra that’s part of an afterschool program, 5:30 p.m. June 2, Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave., 349-7759.

Hike to a Concert — Hike into the nature reserve for a concert by singer/songwriter Blake Whyte, 3 p.m. June 4, Eliason Nature Reserve, 9501 Shaver Road, Portage, 329-4522.

Concerts in the Park — Area musicians perform, 4 p.m. June 5, 12, 19 & 26, Bronson Park, 342-5059.

Celtic Woman: The Destiny Tour — Four Irish women perform traditional and contemporary music, 7 p.m. June 14, Miller Auditorium, WMU, 387-2300.

2016 West Michigan Area Show — Juried exhibition of work in all media, through July 10.

Barbara Takenaga: Waiting in the Sky II — A collection of abstract paintings by a prominent contemporary artist, June 18–Sept. 18.

Eternal Beauty: Egg Tempera Paintings by Fred Wessel — June 25–Oct. 2.

Events Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair — Nearly 200 jury-selected artists from across the country, 3–8 p.m. June 3; 9 a.m.–5 p.m. June 4, Bronson Park.

Sunday Public Tours — West Michigan Area Show, June 5; From 2 Arises 3: Arnold Chang and Michael Cherney, June 12; Barbara Takenaga: Recent Paintings, June 19; Fred Wessel: Master of Egg Tempera, June 26; sessions begin at 2 p.m.

ARTbreak — A weekly program about art, artists and exhibitions: Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World, documentary, June 7 & 14; An Illustrated Reading with Mary Hatch and Elizabeth Kerlikowske, combining paintings and poetry, June 21; Artist's Talk with Chul Hyun Ahn, the sculptor discusses his upcoming exhibition, June 28; all sessions begin at noon, KIA Auditorium.

Thursday Evenings — Three Films by Tom Ludwig, 6:30 p.m. June 9; Get the Picture! Michelle Stempien discusses Colleen Browning's painting "The Tourist," 6:30 p.m. June 16; The Big Draw, create art with unusual materials, 6:30 p.m. June 23; Reception with the Artists, meet exhibition artists Barbara Takenaga and Chul Hyun Ahn (whose sculpture show opens July 2), 5:30–7:30 p.m. June 30, with talk at 6:30 p.m.

Making Pictures: Summer Photography Workshop — Learn from guest artist Thomas Allen, 6 p.m. June 10.

Other Venues Meet the Wood Turners — A woodwork exhibit of bowls, boxes and sculptures, 6–8 p.m. through June 20, Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center, 200 S. Main St., Vicksburg, 501-1347.

American Society of Aviation Artists International Aerospace Art Exhibition — Aerospace art collection in oil, watercolor, gouache and mixed media, through July 25, James C. Westin Gallery, Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, Suite 203, 732-940-1646.

Art on the Mall — Outdoor juried show featuring more than 75 local and regional artists, noon–9 p.m. June 3, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. June 4, Kalamazoo Mall, from Michigan Avenue to Lovell Street, 342-5059.

Art Hop — Local artists and musicians at various venues in Kalamazoo, 5–8 p.m. June 3, 342-5059.

Fantasy Forest Art Carve — Artists transform ash tree trunks into a fantasy forest, 8 a.m.–dusk June 16–18, Leila Arboretum, 928 W. Michigan Ave., Battle Creek, 269-969-0270.

LIBRARY & LITERARY EVENTS Kalamazoo Public Library First Saturday at KPL — Family event with stories, activities, guests and door prizes, 2–3:30 p.m. June 4, Children's Room, Central Library, 315 S. Rose St., 553-7804.

Zentangle Journaling Meditative Art — Easyto-learn, interactive way to create beautiful patterns, 6–7:30 p.m. June 6, KPL-Oshtemo Branch, 7265 W. Main St., 553-7980, registration required.

Movies Under the Stars — Watch The Long, Long Trailer, 9–10:30 p.m. June 16, Oshtemo Township Park, 7275 W. Main St., 553-7980.

Zentangle Journaling Meditative Art — Easyto-learn, interactive way to create beautiful patterns, 6–7:30 p.m. June 27, KPL-Eastwood Branch, 1112 Gayle Ave., 553-7810, registration required.

Urban Fiction Book Discussion — Discussion of Fly on the Wall, by Trista Russell, 6 p.m. June 28, Alma Powell Branch, 1000 W. Paterson Ave., 553-7960.

Parchment Community Library 401 S. Riverview Drive, 343-7747 Know It All on Call: One-on-One Computer Help — One hour of free help, 10 a.m.–noon June 3, 10, 17 & 24; registration required.

Parchment Book Club — 7 p.m. June 6.

Fight Back: Learn How to Spot Frauds and Not Get Scammed — Home Repair, June 15; Identity Theft, June 29; both sessions begin at 6:30 p.m.

Houses that Love Built: Presenting Habitat for Humanity — Learn about homeownership, repair programs and volunteer opportunities, 6–7:30 p.m. June 23.

Portage District Library 300 Library Lane, 329-4544

Other Venues Poet Jane Hilberry — Reading from her new collection, Still the Animals Enter, 7–8:30 p.m.

June 1, Bookbug, 3019 Oakland Drive, 385-2847.

Adult Summer Reading Program — Register for Exercise Your Mind: Read! program, 9:30 a.m.– 8:30 p.m. June 6–11, Comstock Township Library, 6130 King Highway, 345-0136.

Learn Zentangle — Create an abstract drawing using repetitive patterns, 6–8 p.m. June 7, Richland Community Library, 8951 Park St., 629-9085.

June Book Group — Discussion of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler, 7–8:30 p.m. June 9, Richland Community Library, 629-9085.

Adult Craft: Independence Day Pallet Flag — Decorate a wooden pallet for a door decoration, 5:30 p.m. June 15, Comstock Township Library, 345-0136.

Novelist Michelle Cox — Reading from her novel, A Girl Like You, 7–8 p.m. June 28, Bookbug, 385-2847.

Novelist David Means — Reading from his novel, Hystopia, 7–8 p.m. June 30, Bookbug, 385-2847.

MUSEUMS Gilmore Car Museum 6865 Hickory Road, Hickory Corners, 671-5089 Classic Car Club of America Museum Grand Classic and Experience — Restored classic automobiles, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. June 4 & 5.

Vintage Motorcycles — Motorcycle ride, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. June 11; show and swap meet, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

June 12.

Air-Cooled Gathering — Featuring rare aircooled cars, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. June 18.

Antique Tractor, Engine and Machinery Show — Tractor parade, sawmill team demonstrations and antiques and crafts, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. June 24, 9 a.m.–6 p.m. June 25, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. June 26.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 230 N. Rose St., 373-7990 Fares and Squares: The History of Checker Motors — Explore the company's history and a 1923 taxi from the Gilmore Car Museum, through Aug. 21.

LEGO Travel Adventure — Use LEGOs to think creatively and build vehicles, through Sept. 11.

Friends of the Library Book Sale — 9 a.m.–3 p.m.

June 4.

Animotion Festival Kickoff Concert: Who Hit John? — Southern blues and bluegrass band, 7 p.m. June 3.

Top Shelf Reads — A young professionals' book group discussion, 7 p.m. June 13, Latitude 42 Brewing Co., 7342 Portage Road, 585-8711.

Animotion Festival — Create LEGO-themed animation, 1–4 p.m. June 4.

Family Fun — Interactive art, dance and stories, 10 a.m. June 15, 22 & 29.

Must Be 21+: Game, Doodle, Color — Hang out, play games and meet friends, 7 p.m. June 27.

NATURE Kalamazoo Nature Center 7000 N. Westnedge Ave., 381-1574 National Trails Day — Help improve the nature center’s trails, 10 a.m.–1 p.m. June 4. w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 31

Welcome to Geocaching — Learn about outdoor treasure hunting using your GPS or smartphone, 2 p.m. June 12.

Kalamazoo Farmers' Market — 7 a.m.–2 p.m.

Tues., Thurs. & Sat., June 2–Oct. 27, 1204 Bank St., 359-6727.

Golf Cart Tour: DeLano Woods — Tour around the Source Fen looking for plants and animals, 4 p.m. June 13, DeLano Homestead, 555 West E Ave.; registration required.

Dionysos Greek Festival — Theo & Stacy's annual celebration of Greek culture, with food, musicians and dancers, 11 a.m.–10:30 p.m. June 2, 11 a.m.–midnight June 3 & 4, Arcadia Creek Festival Place, 125 E. Water St., 344-0795.

Vibrant Gardening: Garden Tool Time — Learn how to maintain and sharpen garden tools, 6 p.m. June 16, DeLano Homestead.

Golf Cart Tour: Habitat Haven Trail — Tour around the East Fen looking for plants and animals, 4 p.m. June 20; registration required.

Discover the Fern Valley Trail — Hike the 0.7-mile trail, 2 p.m. June 26.

Boomers and Beyond: Flower Family Trees — Identify families of plants using traits other than their flowers, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. June 28.

Other Venues Birds and Coffee Walk — A morning bird walk and discussion over coffee, 9–10:30 a.m. June 4 & 8, Kellogg Bird Sanctuary, 12685 East C Ave., Augusta, 671-2510.

Dairy Open House — Learn about robotic milking, take a wagon tour and enjoy ice cream, 4–8 p.m.

June 14, Pasture Dairy Center, Kellogg Biological Station, 10641 N. 40th St., Hickory Corners, 671-2702.

Ladies' Library Ice Cream Social — Enjoy ice cream and tour the building, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. June 3 & 4, Ladies' Library Association, 333 S. Park St., 344-0158.

Michigan Horse-Drawn Vehicles Association — Blue Ribbon clinic and horse show for all levels of competitors, 9 a.m. June 4 & 5, Kalamazoo County Expo Center Horse Arenas, 2900 Lake St., 517-712-7085.

Mt. Zion Biker Blessing & Motorcycle Parade — 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m. June 4, starting at Macy's at Crossroads Mall, 6650 Westnedge Ave., and ending at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 120 Roberson St., 388-3111.

Do-Dah Parade — A whimsical Kalamazoo tradition, 11 a.m. June 4, downtown Kalamazoo, 388-2830.

Six Starz Skate Jam — Professional skateboarders perform and judge trick competition, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. June 4, Upjohn Park Skate Park, 1000 Walter St., 337-8191.

Botanical Nature Walk — A "plant's eye" view of the KL Avenue Nature Preserve, June 18; the preserve is on KL Avenue, 1000 feet east of Fourth Street, 324-1600 or see swmlc.org for details.

Walking Tour Series: Downtown Kalamazoo Breweries — Learn about the local beer culture, noon–4:30 p.m. June 4, 11, 18, 25 & 26, starting at Old Burdick's Bar & Grill, 100 W. Michigan Ave., 350-4598.

MISCELLANEOUS

Portage Farmers' Market — Noon–4 p.m. June 5, 12, 19 & 26, Portage Senior Center, 320 Library Lane, 359-6727.

100-Mile Farmers' Market — Fresh food from local farms, 3–7 p.m. June 1, 8, 15, 22 & 29, People's Food Co-op, 507 Harrison St., 359-6727.

Strings, June 17; Shelagh Brown Band, June 24, 11:30–1:30 p.m., Bronson Park, 337-8191.

Parade of Homes — Homes with the latest trends in construction and design, 4–9 p.m. June 10 & 17, 1–9 p.m. June 11 & 18, 1–5 p.m. June 12, 6–9 p.m. June 13–16, various locations, 375-4225; see kalamazoohomepage.com for details.

Kalamazoo Pride — Live entertainment and information booths celebrating diversity, 6–11 p.m. June 10, 2–11 p.m. June 11, Arcadia Creek Festival Place, 349-4234.

Kalamazoo Pride Brunch — Featuring state Rep. Jon Hoadley as keynote speaker, 10 a.m. June 11, Union Cabaret & Grille, 125 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 349-4234.

Vicksburg Old Car Festival — Cruise Night ’50s Drive-in, 6–10 p.m. June 10; Car Show, Steam & Gas Engine Show, Auto Parts/Swap Meet and Juried Craft Show, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. June 11, downtown Vicksburg, 649-1312.

Family Fishing Clinic — Learn the basics of casting and catching, 9–11 a.m. June 11, Spring Valley Park, 2600 Mt. Olivet Road, 337-8295.

Summer Expo Craft and Vendor Show — Shop from local crafters, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. June 11, Kalamazoo County Expo Center South, 903-1604.

Downton Abbey Tea — High tea, British foods, entertainment and a tour of the Manor House, 3–5 p.m. June 14, Kellogg Manor House, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, 671-2400.

Family Fit Festival — Explore new activities and wellness opportunities, 4–7 p.m. June 16, Upjohn Park, 1018 Walter St., 329-4522.

Three Rivers Water Festival – Live music, midway, food, games and art, 9 a.m.–late evening June 16 & 17, 7 a.m.–late evening June 18, downtown Three Rivers, trchamber.com.

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Kalamazoo Island Festival — Live reggae music, crafts and food, 11 a.m.–midnight June 16–18, Mayors' Riverfront Park, 251 Mills St., 217-0022.

South Haven Harborfest — Celebrate Southwest Michigan's maritime history with dragon-boat races, live music, crafts and food fair, June 16– 19, downtown South Haven, 637-5252.

United Kennel Club Premier Dog Show — Agility, obedience, rally obedience, dock diving and weight pull events, 8 a.m.–4 p.m. June 17–19, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 343-9020.

Steam Dream Expo — Michigan's longestrunning steampunk convention, 6–10 p.m. June 17, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. June 18, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. June 19, Olde World Village, 13215 M-96, Augusta, 580-1290.

Irish Fest — Celtic bands, Irish step dancers and a kilt contest, evening of June 17, noon–close June 18, Old Dog Tavern, 402 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 303-5143.

Funfari Kids' Day — Lemur Lap Fun Run for kids 10 and under, plus fun activities, 8:15 a.m. June 18, Binder Park Zoo, 7400 Division Drive, Battle Creek, 269-979-1351.

Fitness in the Parks — Free exercise program, 9–10 a.m. Saturdays, beginning June 18, Upjohn Park, 337-8191.

Paddling 101: Learning and Refining the Basics — Learn the basics of kayak paddling, 10 a.m.– noon June 18, Ramona Park, 8600 S. Sprinkle Road; sign up via Lee's Adventure Sports, 311 W. Kilgore Road, 381-7700.

Hidden Kalamazoo 2016 — A self-paced tour of behind-the-scenes spaces in downtown, with “Historic Kalamazoo in LEGOs” on display at City Hall, 10 a.m.–4 p.m. June 18 & 19; see hiddenkalamazoo.com for details.

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KISS: Kalamazoo Invitational Soccer Showcase — Over 200 U.S. and Canadian teams compete, June 24–26, River Oaks County Park, 9202 E. Michigan Ave. (M-96), Galesburg, 484-1105.

Alamo Community Foundation Car, Truck and Bike Show — Plus pancake breakfast, other food, door prizes, June 25, Alamo Township Park, 8326 West DE Ave.; see TheAlamoFoundation.org for details.

Cheetah Chase 5K — A run through the zoo, 8 a.m. June 25, Binder Park Zoo, 269-979-1351; registration required.

Battle of Sunset Lake — Celebrate the founding of our nation, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. June 25–26, Recreation Park, 12538 S. Sprinkle Road, Vicksburg, 649-2453.

Kalamazoo Reptile and Exotic Pet Expo — Buy, sell or trade reptiles, amphibians and exotic pets, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. June 25, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, Room A, 779-9851.

Taste of Vicksburg — Live music, local food and craft beer and wine, 5–11:30 p.m. June 25, downtown Vicksburg, 548-7404.

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up front encore Wilson-Oyelaran (continued from page 28) College presidents were mostly white men, with only a few women administrators at women’s colleges. African-Americans served as college presidents of historically black institutions, she says, but not of other institutions. Now, African-American women in academe have assumed presidencies at Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania, and Trinity College, in Connecticut, a change that Wilson-Oyelaran heartily applauds.

“It’s gratifying to see the diversity of the world better reflected in higher educational leadership,” she says.

As she departs Kalamazoo College, WilsonOyelaran has great hope the college will continue to thrive. During her administration, the college’s endowment increased from $152 million to $220 million, and its recent major fundraising effort was the most successful in the college’s history, raising $129 million.

Other achievements include renovations of the Upjohn Library Commons and the Hicks Student Center and construction of the new athletic fieldhouse complex on West Michigan Avenue. Construction of a new

fitness and wellness center began last fall, and a new natatorium is in the design stage.

In addition, curricular enhancements include reinvigoration of the “K-Plan,” a customized curriculum plan for students, three new academic majors (business, critical ethnic studies, and women and gender studies), and new career and professional development opportunities.

“These are things to be proud of,” says Wilson-Oyelaran. “Students, faculty and staff have worked hard by bringing their whole selves to our work. I have great faith this spirit will continue.”

Wilson-Oyelaran also played a central role in the creation of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College, which seeks to develop leaders who will help make the campus and the world a more equitable place that enables people to thrive.

“I’ll miss being a part of the exciting things happening at the Arcus Center,” she says.

“The center’s programming has included important town-and-gown conversations, and the fellows program gives support to local young people as they pursue their interests

in promoting positive social change. It has become a real hub for deep conversation regarding issues of social justice.”

Wilson-Oyelaran does leave with some regrets — namely that she didn’t have enough time to take advantage of all that Kalamazoo has to offer in the arts.

“There are a tremendous number of things to do here,” she says, “and that helps make the community a wonderful place for institutions of higher education."

Above all, she will miss the joy of watching students grow and develop during their years at Kalamazoo College.

“K allowed me to develop relationships with students,” Wilson-Oyelaran says. “I’d meet them at the opening convocation in September of their first year and four years later say goodbye to them at graduation in June. I know some of their stories as well as some of their struggles and accomplishments.

It’s a gift to be able to participate in such an important part of their journey and to observe the changes in their lives that the institution has helped foster.”

Gonzalez (continued from page 29) essential in the intellectual development of our students. It allows you to see the goodness of people you don't know. It allows you to ask questions. And when you can't speak the language, it puts you in a vulnerable position where you develop greater empathy and sensitivity to others.”

While at Trinity, Gonzalez took students to economic and business conferences in Mexico and Spain for seven weeks during the summer. He organized a trip to France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium to show students how the European Union operated.

He also took students on a trip to Vietnam.

“It changed their lives, as it changed mine when I spent a year of study abroad in Wisconsin as an undergraduate,” he says.

“Study abroad is all about understanding the dynamics of global connections.”

Gonzalez's plan for Kalamazoo College is to continue to build on his predecessor’s strong legacy of opening up the college to more students, especially those of diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. He says that it is important to explain the value

of a Kalamazoo College education to those who do not know much about it.

“We have small classes, bright students and a dedicated faculty and staff,” he says.

“My reason for being is to open the doors of such a fine education to students from all backgrounds and environments.

“Many of the leaders of society come from institutions like K. We need to nurture our students so that they can be exposed to all that the college offers in experiential education, study abroad and engagement with the community.”

Gonzalez also wants to emphasize social justice, which is the focus of the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership at Kalamazoo College.

“Most professors talk about this issue in class, but we must go beyond the classroom and become more engaged in the community. Students get so much out of such experiences,” he says. “It will make us all stronger as a result of such engagements. It's a two-way street.”

Gonzalez plans to “ease himself into” involvement in the Kalamazoo community by first learning about the area to determine

where he might have the largest impact.

“Kalamazoo has civic pride and cultural amenities that make it a great place to live,” he says. “It is concerned about the future of its young with fine programs like the Kalamazoo Promise. It is obvious that people believe in the importance of community and making it better through an investment in education.”

Gonzalez also notes that there is yet another serendipitous connection between his background and Kalamazoo: beer.

“Monterrey is the beer capital of Mexico,” he says of his hometown. “The city was built around beer, and Kalamazoo is becoming that, too.”

But, more importantly, Gonzalez says, his new community aligns with his own aspirations.

“When you love what you do and find a place that's dear to you that aligns with your own purpose and goals in life, that's a fantastic match.”

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encore Back story

BACK STORY (continued from page 38)

How did you get where you are today?

Actually, I have done volunteerism my whole life. I was initially influenced by my mom, and when I was in high school I was involved in a lot of clubs and was president of my class and National Honor Society, which all had a volunteer component. In college at Lake Superior State University I was in a sorority and volunteered through that.

When I moved here, I mentored a girl from third grade to her graduation from high school. After my husband and I adopted our first child, I took some time off from working to be at home but quickly realized I needed something else, so I joined Junior League and eventually served as its president.

It was through Junior League that I learned about an opportunity at Pretty Lake Camp and became the camp’s marketing manager. Then the opportunity at Volunteer Kalamazoo came along, and it really fit my lifetime of volunteering and desire to ignite the passion in others to give back to the community. It was the perfect job for me.

What do people say when you tell them what you do?

Because Volunteer Kalamazoo has been around for 50 years, I hear a lot of stories about how people connected with us way

back when. Most people are excited to tell me their volunteer stories, but sometimes people feel a need to make excuses to me for why they aren’t volunteering, like they think I’m keeping a big tally in my office of nonvolunteers (she laughs).

Who or what has most influenced who you are today?

My family. My mom died when I was 11, and I have two brothers and two sisters, and we became very close.

I think my mom’s death was a defining moment — it was a big change in my life and I had to grow up fast and be independent. I helped raise my twin brothers, who were a year and half when she died.

I was the first in my family to go to college. My dad was a school bus driver, and he remarried a woman with seven kids, so I knew my parents wouldn’t be able to pay for college. I worked hard to get good grades and ended up with a full scholarship to attend Lake Superior State.

What is your most memorable volunteer experience?

I was a fortuneteller at the carnivals we had for the kids at Pretty Lake Camp.

My friend and I came up with these whole personas — I was Zelda — complete with dressing up in these great costumes. It’s

amazing what kids will tell someone if they are just willing to listen. We’d ask, “What do you want to know?” And a lot of them would say, “What am I going to be when I grow up?” You can see clues, like one boy had a basketball painted on his cheek, and I’d say, “You want to be a basketball player.” And he said, “How did you know?”

Our biggest message as fortunetellers was always “Stay in school.” Sometimes we’d see the same kids year to year, and they’d try to test us by asking, “I was here last year and what did you tell me?” I’d answer, “I told you that you needed to stay in school.” And they’d say, “How did you remember?”

Speaking of fortunetelling, where do you see yourself in five years?

This is my first executive director job, and I am hoping I will move on to another executive director job. I really enjoy being an executive director because I don’t have to only know one thing. I have to know bits and pieces of everything.

What’s on your bucket list?

My husband will die when he hears this, but I want to climb a mountain. Kilimanjaro maybe. Not an Everest, where you have to wear oxygen, but still a significant mountain.

I don't know if it’s ever going to happen, but it seems like a cool thing to do.

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BACK STORY encore

Carrie Vanderbush Executive Director Volunteer Kalamazoo

Carrie Vanderbush knows a little something about volunteering, and not because she oversees an organization that matched more than 22,000 volunteers with local nonprofits last year.

When Vanderbush was growing up in Higgins Lake and Gaylord, her mother instilled in her and her four siblings the value of helping others. “There was never an option for us not to help someone if we could. My mom helped our neighbors with things like raking leaves, and we were encouraged to help the people around us.”

Back then, Vanderbush probably couldn’t see that all of this helping out of others would someday lead to a job, but it did. (continued on page 37) 38 | Encore JUNE 2016

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