Encore Magazine March 2024

Rootead in Full Bloom

Bent9's New Spin

Favorite Historic Buildings

March 2024

Meet Elizabeth Washington

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

AI in the classroom can make us all smarter

come to play The energy is happenin’, the table action is off-the-charts and there’s over 2,200 of the hottest slots around. Options, endless. Entertainment, you got it. Deliciousness, served with every dish at our chophouse, buffet, brewpub, and sports bar.

Have one of those nights you’ll never forget at...

1 1 2 3 1 2 9 t h Ave n u e ◆ Wa y l a n d , M I 49 3 4 8 ◆ 26 9. 7 9 2 . 7 7 7 7 ◆ g u n l a ke ca s i n o . co m

ENCORE EDITOR'S NOTE

From the Editor T

here are those who fight change — hate it, fear it, and try to stymie it. And then there are those who face it and embrace it, no matter how scary it seems. In this issue we meet several local people who greet change with a welcome mat.

Artificial intelligence is bringing about change at lightning speed, and for our cover story this month writer Zinta Aistars speaks with several members of one field — education — who are working to embrace aspects of this change. She talks with educators who are actively teaching students how to use AI as a tool and who, despite common fears, say that using artificial intelligence can actually make us smarter and will be more helpful to us than harmful. They are strong advocates of the position that human intelligence is in control of the machines.

In our Update story, we revisit Rootead, a nonprofit we first wrote about in 2016 that is aimed at helping and culturally enriching Black people and other people of color in our community through African dance and drumming, psychotherapy services, and doula training and certification. Eight years later it has grown significantly and is making an impact on our community, but one thing that hasn't changed is the burning passion of its founder, Kama Mitchell.

Another community organization that has been going through change is the Northside Association for Community Development, which represents the neighborhood north of downtown Kalamazoo that is home to more than 5,000 residents. We meet its new executive director, Elizabeth Washington, who took over when Mattie Jordan-Woods retired after 36 years at its helm. Those are big shoes to fill, but Washington welcomes the challenge.

Finally, we look at Bent9 Hot Yoga & Fitness, a local studio whose owner saw opportunity in change. Bent9, which has grown a loyal following for its hot yoga, barre and fitness classes, has expanded its Westnedge Avenue facility to offer spin classes as well. Taking on the expansion was a risk, but owner Hannah Skiba says it has had its rewards not only for her business but for her clients too.

The month of March is also a sign that change is inevitable. Winter ebbs, green comes back into view, and we start thinking about gloriously warm days to come. As we welcome this month of change, may you also enjoy our stories about local change-makers.

A law firm focusing on estate planning, estate settlement, and the transfer of wealth.

Left to right: Morgan Rogalke-Scime, Charles S. Ofstein, Tyler J. Stewart, Olivia A. Kurajian, William B. Millard

211 East Water Street, Suite 401 Kalamazoo 269.343.2106 dementandmarquardt.com w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 3

Rootead in Full Bloom

Bent9's New Spin

Favorite Historic Buildings

March 2024

Meet Elizabeth Washington

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

AI in the classroom can make us all smarter

Publisher

encore publications, inc.

Editor

marie lee

Art Director alexis stubelt

Photographer brian k. powers

Contributing Writers

zinta aistars, jordan bradley, lynn houghton, marie lee, scott peterson, jarret whitnack

Copy Editor/Poetry Editor margaret deritter

Advertising Sales

janis clark, sha'nna stafford, krieg lee

Distribution ron kilian robert zedeck

Office Coordinator kelly burcroff

Proofreader hope smith

Encore Magazine is published 12 times yearly. Copyright 2024, 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 The staff at Encore welcomes written comments from readers, and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to print or return them. To learn more about us or to comment, visit 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.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by those interviewed and published here do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of Encore Magazine or the official policies, owners or employees of Encore Publications.

4 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

ENCORE CONTRIBUTORS

Zinta Aistars With cell phones in our pockets, Alexa and Siri taking commands, and computer screens in our cars telling us how to reach our destinations, our lives are filled with various forms of artificial intelligence.

The rise of AI in our everyday lives led Zinta to explore how it might be affecting education.

"When I started to hear about AI taking over the workplace, producing copy and producing videos that could so affect our thinking, I worried," Zinta says. "Was this the real-life rise of the Terminator?

Would I soon be out of a job as a writer?

Interviewing experts for this story about AI calmed many of my fears. But not all."

Zinta Aistars is the creative director of Z Word LLC and the producer and host of the weekly radio show Art Beat on WMUK 102.1 FM.

Jordan Bradley

Jarret Whitenack

Jordan wrote this month's story on local yoga, fitness and cycling studio Bent9 and is a big fan of yoga. She thinks that finding the right studio for any yoga practitioner is all about finding the perfect alignment of accessibility, challenge and style.

"I think my favorite thing about Bent9 — and yoga, in general — is the calm after a class," Jordan says. "It's been great to speak with owner Hannah Skiba and her crew, who were so welcoming."

Jordan was an editorial intern for Encore and is currently writing for a trade publication on hospitality.

This month Jarret wrote an Update story on Rootead, a local nonprofit that focuses on community health, racial healing and birth justice for Black, Indigenous and other people of color.

While interviewing founder Kama Mitchell, Jarret says, he was impressed by Mitchell’s and the organization’s drive to provide a safe and healthy place for the BIPOC community of the greater Kalamazoo area.

“I really admire people who can put their all towards something,” says Jarret. “Kama’s doing something that is helping others have a better life, making it all the more impressive.” Jarret, a graduate of Oregon's Portland State University, is an intern at Encore.

C O R P O R AT E R E P R E S E N TAT I O N E S TAT E P L A N N I N G

A law rm focusing on the transfer of wealth and corporate representation, creating clients for life.

A S S ET P ROT E C T I O N BUS I N E S S L IT I G AT I O N R E A L E S TAT E

www.willis.law w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 5

FA MI LY Because family is an investment with the highest returns.

At Greenleaf Trust, we are here to make sure your family comes first. Our team is exclusively dedicated to providing the highest level of comprehensive wealth management services, trust administration, and retirement plan services.

Client relationships begin at $2 million.

KALAMAZOO 6 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

Financial security from generation to generation.

CONTENTS

MARCH 2024

FEATURE

AI is Here to Stay 16

Despite concerns, educators say it can help make us all smarter

DEPARTMENTS 3 From the Editor 5 Contributors 8 First Things

A round–up of happenings in SW Michigan 10 Five Faves

Favorite historic buildings that are still standing

12 Update

Rootead in Full Bloom — Adaptability, tenacity and advocacy fuel this nonprofit's growth

21 Enterprise

Bent9's New Spin — The hot yoga and fitness studio expands to add spin cycling to its mix

34 Back Story

On the Cover: Artificial Intelligence programs were used by photographer Brian K. Powers to create this photo illustration which features Dr. Kuanchin Chen, professor of computer information systems and director of the Center for Business Analytics at Western Michigan University. AI did a variety of tasks to create this image from placing students at the desks, to placing Chen in the photo, creating the background behind Chen and removing elements from the photo. This is the original image:

Meet Elizabeth Washington — She has taken the helm of the Northside Association for Community Development

T heArts

24 Theater 25 Dance 25 Comedy 25 Literature 26 Music 28 Visual Arts 29 Events of Note 32 Poetry "The Poet Makes Breakfast (Mindfully)" by Scott Peterson

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 7

FIRST THINGS ENCORE

First Things Something Shared

Yellowface is focus of Reading Together programs Rebecca F. Kuang's 2023 acclaimed novel, Yellowface,

will be the focus of activities and discussions this month as the selection for the 2024 Reading Together program.

Coordinated by the Kalamazoo Public Library, Reading Together is a community reading program that encourages the community to read and discuss the same book and culminates in a public presentation by the book's author.

Yellowface is a novel about a writer and the world of literary publishing and tackles themes including the fine line between cultural appreciation and appropriation.

Kuang will discuss her book at 3 p.m.

March 23 at Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. The presentation is free.

Prior to Kuang's visit, a number of events related to the book will occur: • Publishing from the Inside, virtual presentation by publishing agents, 6:30 p.m. March 6.

• T he Chinese American Experience, talk by Dr. Ying Zeng, 6:30 p.m.

March 13 at Portage Zhang Senior Center, 203 E. Centre Ave. • The Subtlety of Satire, talk with author Andy Mozina, 6:30 p.m.

March 19, Central Library.

• Y ellowface through an Ethics Lens, panel discussion, 6:30 p.m.

March 21, Fetzer Center, WMU. For a complete list of Reading Together activities, visit kpl.gov/ reading-together.

Something Awesome

Learn about the April 8 solar eclipse The totality of the April 8 solar eclipse won’t be directly over

Southwest Michigan, but it will be within traveling distance (the closest spot is Toledo, Ohio), and the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society is hosting presentations about this phenomenon, which won’t occur again over the continental United States until 2044.

Among the events scheduled in our area are:

Experiencing Totality: The Great Eclipse of 2024 — Online talk by astrophysicist Fred Espenak on the history of eclipses and eyewitness accounts, 7 p.m. March 1.

Solar to the Max — Online talk by astrophotographer Alan Friedman on photographing the eclipse, 8 p.m. March 15.

Community Eclipse Presentations — KAS President Richard Bell will talk about viewing eclipses at: • 1:30 p.m. March 2, Eastwood Branch Library, 1112 Gayle Ave. • 6 p.m. March 6, Vicksburg District Library, 215 S. Michigan Ave. • 6 p.m. March 14, Paw Paw District Library, 609 W. Michigan Ave. • 7 p.m. March 18, Boy Scouts of America, 6501 S. 12th St. • 5 :30 p.m. March 25, Schoolcraft Community Library, 330 N. Centre St. • 6 p.m. March 27, Comstock Township Library, 6130 King Highway.

Bell will also speak in other locations around West Michigan; for a complete schedule or to access the online talks, visit kasonline.org.

Something Alternative

Silversun Pickups to play at State The alternative band Silversun Pickups, best known for their songs ”Lazy Eye”

and “Panic Switch,” will perform at 8 p.m. March 1 at the Kalamazoo State Theatre.

The group formed in 2000 in Los Angeles and has produced six albums, with their most recent, Physical Thrills, released in 2022.

Doors open at 7 p.m., and tickets are $37–$111. For more information or to buy tickets, visit kazoostate.com.

8 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

ENCORE FIRST THINGS

Something Informative

Exhibit focuses on Indigenous knowledge Native Americans have lived and

worked the land of this continent for thousands of years, and their knowledge of it will be explored in an exhibit opening this month at the Kalamazoo Nature Center.

Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge, Shared Science, from the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, features real-life stories from four Indigenous communities. It examines how native knowledge, practices and traditions can help solve ecological problems. As part of the exhibit, a feature on mnomen (wild rice) will be included, created by the Gun Lake Tribe of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians.

The exhibit opens March 23 and is expected to run until fall. The Nature Center is open 9–5 p.m. Monday–Saturday and 1–5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $4–$7 based on age, or free for children 3 and under. For more information, visit naturecenter.org.

Something Percussive Drum Tao to perform at Miller

The Japanese taiko performance group Drum Tao will

bring its energetic, percussive show to Miller Auditorium at 3 p.m. March 17.

Drum Tao combines music and dance using large-scale drumming and traditional Japanese instruments like the shinobue (flute), koto (harp) and syamisen (guitar).

Tickets are $31–$50. For more information or to buy tickets, visit millerauditorium.com.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 9

FIVE FAVES ENCORE

Five Faves

Favorite historic buildings that are still standing

BY LYNN HOUGHTON

M

any things make a community unique, including its institutions, natural features and various events. A community’s buildings are another characteristic that denotes its individuality. Houses, churches, schools and other structures can make an area stand out and even add a lot to its skyline.

Kalamazoo has been lucky that many of our older buildings remain standing due to a variety of factors.

Some continue to be used for the purpose they were built while others are being used for something other than what was originally intended. Although there are many candidates, here are five of my favorite historic buildings:

Park Trades Center 326 West Kalamazoo Ave.

This imposing building is a good example of the industrial structures that were once abundant to the north and east of downtown, many of which are now gone. Built between 1906 and 1921, this fourstory brick building was originally the home of the Kalamazoo Loose Leaf Ledger Co., which made blank binders using paper manufactured in the area. For close to 70 years, paper-related companies occupied this building, including the Saniwax Co., which made waxed food wrappers. In the 1970s the building became home to light manufacturing companies as well as artists and craftspeople, which still is the case today.

10 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

Ladies' Library Association Building 333 South Park St.

For over 145 years, this unique brick building has stood as a testament to the power of women in this community. The Ladies' Library Association, begun in 1852, was the first such organization in Michigan and the third in the United States. A dream to have its own headquarters came to fruition when the group raised sufficient funds and hired Henry Gay, a Chicago architect, to design this building, the style of which is called either Venetian Gothic or Queen Anne. It is filled with stained glass, woodwork and art and provides a permanent home for the association’s library and a place for the members and others to gather. Over the years, the Ladies' Library Association has spearheaded additions, renovations and restorations to the structure, which help it continue to contribute to the organization and the community.

Desenberg Building

251 East Michigan Ave. When this building opened in 1886 in what is now called the Haymarket

Historic District, it was known for what was inside: the wholesale grocery firm B. Desenberg and Co., established by Bernhard Desenberg before the Civil War. The building's fame today is not because of the grocery, but because the Chicago architectural firm that designed it was Adler & Sullivan. The firm was founded by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan, the latter of whom became one of the most influential American architects of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In its reporting on the building at the time, the Kalamazoo Gazette paid little attention to the architects and concentrated more on the building's construction, which boasts unique ornamentation at the cornice and between the windows. The building now has offices and an event center on the first floor and was previously home to various retail stores.

ENCORE FIVE FAVES

Kalamazoo County Courthouse

227 W. Michigan Ave. Since 1837 there have been three courthouses on Courthouse Square, as the spot was named in one of the first plats of the city. This third structure, dedicated in 1937, received funding both from the federal government through a Public Works Administration grant and from county voters and originally held both the courts and all county offices. Local architect Milton C. J. Billingham designed this Art Deco-style building that harmonized with the Art Deco Kalamazoo City Hall, located across Bronson Park. Along with its distinctive geometric shape, the courthouse also features a great deal of exterior and interior ornamentation, including sculptures by Detroit artist Corrado Parducci found at the cornice, doorways, windows and corners of the building. Kalamazoo County opened a new justice facility on Eleanor Street in December 2023. The plans for the old courthouse, now owned by the private developer Plaza Corp., had not been disclosed as of press time.

State Theatre

404 South Burdick St. For many years in this community, if you wanted to see a theatrical performance, a vaudeville act or even a movie, you would go downtown, since a number of theaters, both big and small, could be found up and down its streets. The greatest one of all, and the one that still remains, is the State Theatre, which was completed in 1927. John Eberson, known for his atmospheric theaters, designed the building, choosing what has been described as a Spanish or Mediterranean courtyard motif for both the exterior and interior. It is especially evident in the auditorium, with its stucco walls, sculptures, balconies and wrought iron, along with a blue ceiling with stars and a cloud machine. It continues to be a wonderful venue for concerts, movies and other events.

About the Author Lynn Houghton is the regional history curator of the Western Michigan University Archives and Regional History Collection. She leads the Gazelle Sports Historic Walks, a series of free architectural and historic walks at various locations in Kalamazoo County that happen during summer and fall, and she is the co-author of Kalamazoo Lost and Found, a book on Kalamazoo history and architecture. She also participated in the PBS documentary series 10 That Changed America, about the history of architecture and urban planning. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from WMU and a master’s in library and information science from Wayne State University.

…providing wealth accumulation and wealth preservation strategies to ensure our clients’ ongoing financial success through a combination of unparalleled personal attention, creative planning, and experienced investing.

Listen to Our Podcast: “Five-Minute Finance” 7840 Moorsbridge Road, Portage, Michigan 49024 269.321.8120 | 800.488.2036 | lvmcapital.com w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 11

UPDATE ENCORE

A Burgeoning Nonprofit

Adaptability, tenacity and advocacy fuel Rootead’s growth

Brian K. Powers

BY JARRET WHITENACK

T

he seeds that Kama Mitchell sowed in 2016 to create Rootead have not only taken root in the last eight years, but truly bloomed.

The scope and depth of this nonprofit organization that provides youth enrichment, community healing and birth justice for Black, Indigenous and other people of color have expanded greatly since its beginning, but the drive to help the BIPOC community has stayed the same.

“I would describe (Rootead) as a forward-thinking organization that makes decisions based on the greater good and adapts to what the community needs with a very anti-racist, anti-injustice lens,” says Mitchell, Rootead’s executive director.

Mitchell and her cousin Heather Mitchell created Rootead based on their shared experiences of being biracial women in a predominantly white community and the inequity they were exposed to.

12 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

When Rootead first appeared in Encore In honor of Encore’s 50th anniversary, we are revisiting stories from past issues and providing updates. Encore first ran a story about Kama Mitchell and Rootead in its September 2016 issue, when Rootead was just starting out and had a staff of three. To read the original article, visit encorekalamazoo.com/drumsdance-and-doulas/

ENCORE UPDATE

“We would go to yoga classes and African dance classes and sometimes be the brownest people in the room,” recalls Kama Mitchell. “We were both biracial, (so) that was a little shocking. The climate, the environment, it's like a Dutch Bible belt.

“I've traveled a lot around the country and lived in a lot of places, and when you start to notice the significant disparity between Black and white in your own city, it becomes a little bit jarring. When you notice and understand redlining, statistics, social determinants of health, it becomes activating. But for us to have so many billionaires in the community and then for 51 percent of black women and their families to be on or below poverty level, it irritates me, so I was, like, ‘I have to do something.’”

Mitchell’s own two sons were also among the catalysts for her to start Rootead. “I'm raising Black children in the community, so I want my boys to have a better experience,” she says.

Small start, big expansion Rootead started very small, with an equally low-key mission. “We wrote a tiny little grant to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation to host a six-week program called Rootead Queens, to at least give women nervous-system regulation by offering them dance and yoga to deal with the world out here,” says Mitchell.

Rootead kept writing grants and building relationships in the community, but its growth was slow until May 2020.

“When George Floyd passed away the summer of 2020, we started just getting money thrown at us because our organization centers on the lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, and people of color and we have a focus on healing and a focus on justice,” she says.

At the same time, a grant request by the organization to the Stryker Johnston Foundation resulted in an award of $500,000, which Mitchell says further fueled the organization’s growth.

Rootead hired new employees and expanded its scope. The organization now has 14 employees and a three-pronged focus.

Youth, healing, justice

Opposite Page: The leadership staff at Rootead includes, from left, Coco Marie, Vanessa Moon, Kama Mitchell, Heather Mitchell and Carmen James. Above: Scenes from Rootead's offices and studios include, from top to bottom: a front reception area, a dance and yoga studio, a room for doulas to train and work in, and the youth enrichment center.

The first focus is youth enrichment, headed by Heather Mitchell, an area that emphasizes African roots and culture through drum and dance, mindfulness, social-emotional learning, Indigenous history and community support. A key element in this area is the Youth Rootead Drum and Dance Ensemble for kids ages 13 through 18, which, in addition to giving training in African drumming and dance, provides free transportation and meals.

Coco Marie oversees a second branch of the organization — community healing. “Anything 'healing-esque' that's requested from the community goes through Coco, and we figure out if we have the capacity to do it,” explains Kama Mitchell. "For instance, United Way just contracted with us to do some healing arts work with their staff for their wellness. We do retreats, trainings and workshops in the community that mimic our ethos around regulating the nervous system and building relationships, understanding, cultural humility and sensitivity.” w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 13

UPDATE ENCORE

Rootead's healing focus also includes a newer initiative to help the BIPOC community access mental health care.

“We're coming up on three years for the Black and Brown Therapy Collective, which is very well funded and well used by our community. Any Black or brown person in the community can reach out, sign up and be paired with a Black or brown therapist and get up to $1,000 of therapy paid for,” says Mitchell. “All they have to do is sign up and say they want it.”

The third prong of Rootead’s work is its birth-justice efforts, which include doula training and certification. Since it began in 2016, the organization has trained more than 40 doulas to provide mentoring and assistance to pregnant BIPOC women to help reduce the high infant mortality rates in the BIPOC community. According to 2021 Michigan Department of Community Health statistics, the mortality rate for Black babies in the state is more than three times higher than for white babies (15.5 deaths per 1,000 live births vs. 4.2 deaths per 1,000 live births).

“The way the Red Birth Green doula collective (of Rootead) and I approach birth is that it’s very much a physiological act, and we should treat it as such with a whole lot of support, a whole lot of

knowledge and less medical interventions,” Mitchell says.

Pride in job creation While Rootead’s growth and increasing impact on the community are admirable, those are not what Mitchell says she is most proud of.

“I'm most proud of the fact that I have created 14 family-friendly, living-wage, anti-racist jobs.

I think everybody who works here has the same intention for the community: They're all in to change the narrative, move the needle.”

But most grant-funding organizations don’t recognize the people it takes to make these programs happen, Mitchell says.

“I'm pushing back on how they want to fund the program and not the people," she says.

"There would be no programs without the people, so when you look at our finances, you would balk because 68 percent of our funds go to the people working. The programming comes from us. It's not materials. It's not paper. If I don't have the people, how do we do the thing?”

While Mitchell praises the Rootead team for the organization’s success, there’s no doubt Mitchell’s own characteristics deserve credit as well.

“I've just been tenacious,” she admits. “And authentic. I'm authentic to a point where I make people feel uncomfortable sometimes, but life's too short. I've been able to build really awesome relationships. Even before I started this, I went

Drums and dance props await use by Rootead patrons.

to the nonprofits that people thought were similar and checked in with those executive directors because we're stronger together. And I've been able to share my lived experience in a way that has people calling me for consults. We've been invited to many things based on our consistently showing up for the youth, for the people, for the pregnant people.

“Being transparent, authentic, tenacious has helped.”

Stop the Clock

Fixed Price Legal Services For Businesses and Estate Planning

Kalamazoo | Grand Rapids | Paw Paw | (888) 461- 7744 | www.willis.law 14 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

DINING DESTINATIONS Fresh, Local, Sustainable Ingredients Hand Cut Steaks – Fresh Seafood

local fine dining

Great Selection of Michigan Craft Beers on Tap Awarded best desserts in Michigan

Surprising!

Check our FB page for specials, current hours for Dining in, Takeout and Delivery.

663 10th Street, Plainwell 269-685-1077 www.fourrosescafe.com KPL_Encore_Halfhoriz_FEB24_PRINT.pdf

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

1

2/5/24

103 S. Grove St., Delton (269) 623-8310

2:39 PM

Meet the Author Saturday, March 23, 2024 3 pm | Chenery Auditorium

Join us to hear the author’s prepared remarks, followed by an audience Q&A session and a booksigning opportunity. Copies of Yellowface will be available for purchase from Michigan News Agency.

readingtogether.us

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 15

AI is Here to Stay

Despite concerns, educators say it can help make us smarter

BY Zinta Aistars

M

any of us have seen the movies and read the science fiction books about robots becoming increasingly human, surpassing humans in intelligence and then taking over the world and bringing about the end of civilization as we know it.

Scary? Sure. News stories about artificial intelligence, or AI, can trigger all those uncomfortable thoughts, but AI has been steadily changing civilization for a long time and will be more helpful than harmful, some local experts contend, especially when it comes to education.

“I began researching AI in the early '90s,” says Dr. Kuanchin Chen, professor of computer information systems and director of the Center for Business Analytics at Western Michigan University. “AI was traditionally understood as a part of computer science then. Today there are many forms of AI — Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, your smart phone. It’s everywhere. Chatbot is just one of the newer forms.”

Chatbots are used in a type of artificial intelligence called generative AI, which is sparking wide concern and controversy and numerous news articles and commentaries.

It can create text, images, video, and other types of media.

“Generative AI is a tool trained on millions of scraps of information that it gathers from the internet,” explains Dr. Gwen Tarbox, English professor and director of the Office of Faculty Development at WMUx, an innovation hub at the university. "It is a tool that locates patterns and responds to prompts based on those patterns."

While sparking some concerns, it also has benefits that should be embraced, argue Tarbox and some other local experts.

“Generative AI can help students learn better and help faculty achieve their goals,” Tarbox says.

To that end, WMU developed WMUx in 2020 to embrace the new technology. Instructors, staff and administrators collaborate to address the challenges of using AI while 16 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

encouraging academic innovation, not only within the university campus but also in the community beyond the campus, working with pre-college students, adult learners and organizations. WMUx has so far held 30 workshops on the use of AI, often open to the public, and many more are planned.

“When ChatGPT — a language-processing tool — was released, we had faculty who were eager to embrace it and bring it into their classrooms, while others wanted to ban it," Tarbox says. “That’s their right, but we wanted to be able to offer training in how to use it, how it could be beneficial to students and faculty both. There were a lot of misconceptions we wanted to address. New things often make us uncomfortable, but being informed about AI can help us see this as a useful tool in education.”

Using chatbots effectively WMU English professor Dr. Brian Gogan is offering a new class on how to get the most out of using chatbots and how to prompt them effectively. The class, titled "AI Writing: Prompt and Response," was developed in collaboration with WMUx, and in it students use AI tools such as GPT-4, Bard and Copilot.

“Specificity and detail, rhetorical elements impact the effectiveness of your prompt,” Gogan says. “We talk about using persona, role, audience, task when developing your prompt. The temperature of the prompt refers to the style and tone you want it to generate.

"AI is redefining what we mean by writing activity. We can use it to review, fact-check, revise, but we will still need human writers. I have two students in my class studying to be journalists, and they use it as a research tool and for fact-checking.”

While the chatbot mostly pulls its content from what’s available on the internet, the Dr. Kuanchin Chen, professor of computer information systems and director of the Center for Business Analytics at Western Michigan University, teaches business students to use AI.

Brian K. Powers w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 17

human eye is still needed to interpret the content and evaluate if it is what the user needs, says Gogan.

“I had a wide range of students in a recent class. Some wanted to learn more while being skeptical that it could be useful. Others wanted to level up and get that competitive edge as they entered the job market," he says. "AI competency is beginning to show up in job sites as a requirement. Any fear students had about AI coming into the class dissipated as they began to work the platform.”

Students first learn to visualize and map the process, craft an effective prompt and then review and assess the GPT’s response.

Teaching AI competency, says Gogan, may very well change with each course offering, since AI technology is evolving fast. “It’s a tool that requires a human user, much like a typewriter or a computer.

Humans retain agency. It is evolving, however, faster than policy about how to use it.”

Concerns about AI

18 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

Top: Dr. Brian Gogan teaches a course to English students at WMU on how to use AI in their writing. Bottom: Through the WMUx innovation hub, Dr. Gwen Tarbox, left, and Alyssa Moon, right, work with faculty to embrace and employ the new technology. Photos courtesy of Western Michigan University.

Detecting AI use in student papers can be challenging, acknowledges Josh Moon, educational technology specialist at Kalamazoo College, but he says educators can usually tell when a paper is not in a student's voice.

"AI is a powerful tool, and we need to recognize that students will use it. We need to help students understand when it is not useful to use it," Moon adds.

He says Kalamazoo College has thus far opted not to develop a campus-wide policy on using AI. “It would be impractical,” he says.

“How AI might be used is so different across departments, and different professors have varied views on its use.”

Along with the risk of plagiarism, he says, common concerns about AI include fake images and texts created to fool the viewer. Political and social media ads are examples of areas where fake posts or images might appear, especially in this election year.

“In general, I think fears are overblown,” he says. “Yes, fake AI and the misinformation it can create can be challenging. People can be apt to believe what they see online if it fits their preconceived notions.”

Which is why, he says, it can be so crucial for today’s educators to help students develop critical-thinking skills — to check sources, ask questions and maintain a healthy degree of skepticism."

Courtesy

Tarbox acknowledges that there are valid concerns about the accuracy of the content a chatbot might create, and she offers a warning: Chatbots have been known to create “facts” where none exist, or they can incorporate a bias in response to a prompt.

“Given that the current data sets used to train chatbots are taken from the Internet, the data are heavily North American and European in origin,” she says. “We need to take that into consideration when using these tools. It’s a part of the bias that comes into play."

Gogan agrees. “Some of my students work internationally, and they have come across cultural differences,” he says. “Some countries have policies that restrict AI access. They get entirely different results for their prompts than we do.”

Author rights have also come up as a recent AI issue as well, with well-known authors taking their case to the courts to legislate the use of their written creations by chatbots.

“It will be interesting to see how author rights play out in the courts,” Tarbox says. “Copyright is less clear when it comes to chatbots, but it is important to understand that chatbots learn patterns rather than take up exact words. If authors are concerned that chunks of their work will be used, that’s not likely.”

“For the chatbot to learn a pattern, the text must be downloaded thousands of times,” adds Alyssa Moon, associate director of instructional design and development at WMUx. “When exploring chatbots as tools," she says, "you must be well versed in their use, in the ethics and the bias of their use, and understand the why in using them. We encourage people to play with them, learn about them, develop an AI competency. The bias part of it — that’s an inherent part of everyone. It will always exist. AI will reflect bias too, and that’s why we teach critical thinking.”

What the chatbot generates for the user is only as good as the prompt it is given, Tarbox points out. It is not as simple as typing in a topic and requesting an essay, so cheating is not that easy, she says.

“You need a clear understanding on how such a tool works, how to prompt well,” she says. “Cheating has been around and will be around forever. We need to ask ourselves, 'Why would a student cheat? What do we need to do to prevent that?' AI is a nonjudgmental tool that can be used as a tutor. We first give faculty support in how to use it and how to prevent cheating.”

AI in the world of business Nowhere might critical-thinking skills be more needed, Chen says, than in the world of business. He is currently teaching a course at WMU called Artificial Intelligence in Business. The course explores natural language processing, machine learning, generative AI, fraud detection, human-AI symbiosis, user-generated content and more — branches of AI used within the context of real business challenges.

“Garbage in, garbage out,” Chen says, repeating an adage that's never been more relevant than now when referring to the use of AI.

He reminds his students to always check for bias in the data AI pulls up, keeping an eye out for cultural differences.

“We worked with scholars from France, Poland and Turkey,” he says. “We expected we would all come up with the same answers to our prompts in generative AI, but we did not. Different countries brought up their own cultural bias. When using generative AI, one should keep in mind that certain data may not be available in a certain country for the algorithm to process. The outcome could be made-up findings (termed "AI hallucination") or something drawn from the data collected from a different country. This latter one is what we saw in these experiments." It is recommended, he says, that people "use several search engines, generative AI, and other tools to triangulate the results. Keep in mind, computer algorithms can be biased too.”

Chen and a group of WMU engineering faculty were recently awarded a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant to study how AI can empower tomorrow's workforce, and students are already giving positive feedback.

“A misperception can be that using an AI tool gives one an advantage,” Chen says, “but anyone else can pick it up too, get up to speed in a short time, so there goes your competitive edge. There’s a symbiosis between human and AI, beginning with a collaboration, but collaboration can’t be the goal. We must create new capabilities and benefits for both parties. This is why systematically learning how AI and its branches are used to solve the problems that were difficult or even impossible before is of educational importance.”

A common fear of AI is that its use will displace humans in the job market.

“That won’t happen overnight for most people,” Chen says. “It will be piecemeal.

Even if AI eventually takes over part of your old job, training and preparation through human-AI symbiosis techniques will shift your skills upward.”

Chen encourages students to learn new capabilities to offer in the workplace. An example would be to learn the techniques behind “keyword and concept stuffing,” which involves manipulating wording in resumes, advertising messages, social media messages or web sites to gain benefits.

“Keyword and concept stuffing is a means of inserting a certain word or phrase or concept in a piece of writing so that it advances to the top in search engines, resume screening tools, etc.,” he explains. “When it is used in disguise to sway resume screening programs — say, printing the font in white color on a white background — it requires new capabilities in humans to work with AI in order to detect that. However, when it involves variations of the same concept, not just repeated words, it requires even a deeper collaboration with AI to detect it. These activities require humans to play an important role before, during and after the collaboration with AI to jointly accomplish the work — a nice form of humanAI symbiosis.”

Chen says he takes a holistic approach in his classes, teaching students how to work with many branches of AI to solve problems.

He trains students on three pillars of AI competence in problem-solving: AI tools, techniques behind the tools, and processes to implement human competence.

Another use for AI can be what Chen calls "sentiment analysis." An example would be a business analyzing customer reviews on a site such as Amazon, X or hotel.com. Do people like their product? Why do they or don’t they like the product? When a customer complains, what are they complaining about?

“AI in that kind of analysis can help a business watch for trends, capture consumer preferences, identify areas of recommendations, and detect fake reviews,” he says.

Downplaying public fears

you may not see it anytime soon," he says, referring to the title character in the 1984 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a robotic man-like machine capable of destruction and impossible to kill. "One thing to keep in mind is that AI is not just one tool, but many things with many branches.

It takes multiple branches of AI together to approach human intelligence. Examples of AI branches include natural language processing, machine learning, voice AI, image processing, email filtering, etc. You don’t have to be a computer scientist to experience it."

People encounter AI frequently in daily life, he says, as, for example, in the use of Siri, tags for people in photos, automated financial investing, chatbots for customer service, autocorrect in word processors, patterns or facial recognition to unlock your phone, travel recommendations, and more.

"They are all AI," he says, "and they represent some of the key AI branches."

He advises people to make AI part of their skill set, "playing" with an application such as ChatGPT to start and experience how it works, because knowledge and familiarity can eliminate fear.

“And understand that AI is changing fast,” he adds. “That’s why we should not just formulate our education vision based solely on the kind of AI available today, even as we want to have an AI-competent campus. If anyone is hesitant about AI, enroll in a class and approach it with guidance from people with expertise. Look to the future of how this experience translates to a healthy human-AI symbiosis that creates a lasting competitive competence — that’s our educational goal.”

Chen waves off most fears of artificial intelligence. “If you think artificial intelligence is on the brink of becoming the Terminator,

Home to Over 100 Events Each Year!

Car Shows • Expos • Dog Shows Festivals • Collectible Shows • Family Events Trade Shows • Flea & Antique Market Conferences • Banquets

For a complete schedule of events Please visit www.kalamazooexpocenter.com

2900 Lake Street Kalamazoo, MI 49048 269-383-8778 w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 19

June 7 & 8, 2024

a a

Kalamazoo Institute of

KALAMAZOO INSTITUTE OF ARTS 314 S. Park St., Kalamazoo, MI 49007 | 269.349.7775 | kiarts.org

Le wis Re e d & A llen P .C . a tt orn eys Front row, center: Richard D. Reed Middle Row (L-R): Owen D. Ramey, Staci L. Salisbury, Wesley J. Todd, Jennifer Wu, Michael A. Dombos, Vernon Bennett III, Lana M. Escamilla, James M. Marquardt Back Row (L-R): Stephen M. Denenfeld, Jonathan J. Vander Horst, Joseph W. Vander Horst, Ronald W. Ryan, Thomas C. Richardson, David A. Lewis, Michael A. Shields, Kimberly L. Swinehart 136 east michigan avenue suite 800 | kalamazoo | michigan | 49007-3947

phone: 269.388.7600 | fax: 269.349.3831 www.lewisreedallen.com

20 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

ENCORE ENTERPRISE

Bent9's New Spin

The hot yoga and fitness studio adds cycling to its mix

BY JORDAN BRADLEY

Brian K. Powers

When Hannah Skiba took her first yoga

class in college, she hated it. Skiba is now the owner of Bent9 Hot Yoga & Fitness, in Kalamazoo's Vine neighborhood.

Skiba, 33, who is originally from Alpena, came to Kalamazoo in 2008 to attend Western Michigan University in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in premed. All premed students are required to declare a minor, so Skiba settled on a minor in holistic health, which led her to attend her first yoga class.

“I was like, ‘That was horrible,’” Skiba says with her signature lilt and a laugh.

Skiba explains that she grew up athletic and competitive, playing soccer and basketball, running track and doing competitive dance for a time. Yoga didn’t offer the competitive edge she was used to, but over time she realized that the practice offered an opportunity for internal competition, she says, and its mental and spiritual aspects made it that much more beneficial.

Yoga has its origins in Hinduism, the world’s oldest religion, according to the Hindu American Foundation. The yoga tradition has been in existence for at least 5,000 years as “a practice to control the senses and, ultimately, the mind,” says the foundation. This aspect was what Skiba began to fall in love with – the training of the mind and spirit, as well as the body.

While still in college, Skiba attained her 200hour yoga teacher training certificate, the first accreditation level that allows someone to teach the practice. Next, she began to seek out teaching positions, eventually coming across a Craigslist post seeking certified yoga instructors for what would become the Bent9 yoga studio.

Bent9 opened its original location in May of 2015, on Burdick Street near the Arcadia Owner Hannah Skiba in the Bent9 studios known for their colorful painted windows. w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 21

Creek Festival Place, with founding owner Tatiana Otto at the helm and offering classes in hot yoga and barre. The barre classes weave ballet movements into a rigorous fitness workout. Skiba joined the studio as an inaugural teacher. In 2019, she says, Otto was ready to sell the studio and asked her if she wanted to take it on. Although it wasn’t a step she expected to take at the time, she says she loved the community she had come to know through the studio and wasn’t ready to give it up.

Skiba took over as owner of the studio in April 2019. At the time, Bent9 needed to find a different location and moved to a temporary space above Factory Coffee, on Frank Street. It wasn’t perfect, but it had a certain charm, Skiba says. In the winter, they used space heaters to warm up the loft.

By December of that year, Bent9 had found a new home on Westnedge Avenue across the street from Fourth Coast Coffee, Crow’s Nest and Martini’s, in the Vine neighborhood.

“It was slow and building, and I still was very nervous the whole time,” Skiba says, reflecting on the first six months in the new building. She says she frequently wondered, “‘What is this going to be like?’ because I had no baseline.”

“There was a work of love to get it ready,” says Jess Whicker, who began teaching yoga with Bent9 at the Burdick Street site and followed the studio’s moves to new locations. “It was a new building. It wasn't anything before.”

Brian K. Powers

ENTERPRISE ENCORE

Skiba was able to build it out to best fit a fitness studio’s needs. When the bones of the studio were fleshed out, she began to add art by local artists throughout the studio, including hand-painted windows on the front of the building.

One of the hardest parts of owning a yoga studio, Skiba says, “is just getting people to get past that fear of initially walking in the door.”

A Google search for "yoga" will yield at least one row of photos that feature thin, extremely limber women in equally stretchable outfits, painting an intimidating picture for anyone whose resume doesn’t include model or contortionist.

“There's a big idea of 'prohibitiveness' about yoga that I think keeps people from trying it,” Whicker says. “Whenever I tell people that I do yoga, the first thing they say is, ‘I could never do that because I'm not flexible.’”

TIME TESTED. TENACIOUS. TRUSTED.

James R. Shinar T: (269) 329-4625 F: (269) 323-3418

8051 Moorsbridge Rd. Portage jim@shinarlaw.com

www.shinarlaw.com 22 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

From left to right, Hannah Skiba (second from left) and Jess Whicker (second from right) during a trial spin class in Bent9's new cycling space; hallway between the studio's two sides; and for clients new to yoga, barre and spinning, Bent9 sells yoga gear and workout clothing.

The need for flexibility to do yoga is a common misperception, Skiba agrees, but it can increase your flexibility, she says. Other reasons to practice yoga, she says, include building or sustaining joint health and mobility and deepening your spiritual and meditative practices. And she makes it a top priority to create a welcoming environment.

“I try to stress to (the staff) that it’s the most important thing: If you're the first face that they're seeing when they come in, I want them to feel like they belong there no matter what,” Skiba says.

But don’t be fooled by her welcoming ethos. Anyone who’s taken one of her 75-minute heated vinyasa yoga classes Sunday mornings will tell you that Skiba will kick your butt — and she’ll do it with a gleeful smile.

A month and a half after Bent9 opened at its current location, Covid-19 hit and the studio was yet again in a state of flux, pivoting to offer online classes and eventually, in the summer, outdoor classes.

By the end of 2022 and beginning of 2023, Skiba says, she was able to establish more consistent class schedules and offerings.

While yoga and barre classes are Bent9's

ENCORE ENTERPRISE

bread and butter, Skiba has peppered in anatomy and alignment, meditation and other workshops as the schedule and her instructors allow, even offering a seven-day yoga retreat in Costa Rica in spring 2023.

“This last year has finally felt like my first year in business,” Skiba says. “I still feel like it's brand new, and I still feel like there's so much growth.”

‘The trifecta’ Skiba is always looking to try new classes and offerings at the studio, she says. Seasonally, Bent9 has held classes centered on the summer and winter solstices, myofascial massage, and alignment and anatomy workshops, rendering the studio’s schedule a playful dance of interests on a solid foundation of weekly and daily classes.

Last November, Skiba and her faithful instructors ushered Bent9 into a new era — the “trifecta,” Skiba says — with the addition of spin classes. These intense cardio exercise classes utilize stationary bikes,

colorful lighting and much the same music as you’d hear at a rave.

Last spring, Skiba began expanding her studio into the unused half of her current building. Over the summer, she says, she and several cycling trainers worked on developing the studio's spin program, which suits the spirit of the studio as well as the needs of Kalamazoo’s cyclers, she says. The studio has 15 bikes and currently holds five to 10 classes each week.

“People that do cycling are very committed and they love it, and I want to make sure that we have an amazing space to offer,” Skiba says.

Bent9 instructor Whicker, who is trained to lead cycling classes as well as yoga classes, says, “I love cycling and I love yoga, so to me (the addition) feels very natural.”

For more information on Bent9 class schedules and pricing, visit bent9hotyoga.com/classes.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 23

TheArts Skeleton Crew

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe

Dwandra Nickole Lampkin will have a starring role in this production about the relationships of a tight-knit group of workers at a small automotive factory on the brink of closure.

Lampkin, an associate professor of theatre at Western Michigan University, has performed in a number of theater productions and in such television shows as Law and Order, Third Watch and Wonderland.

The production, directed by Dee Dee Batteast, will also include Jessica Krolik, Dan Johnson and Delanti Hall.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. March 7–9 and 14–16 and 2 p.m. March 10 and 17.

Tickets are $25–$44 and available by calling the Farmers Alley box office, 343-2727, or visiting farmersalleytheatre.com.

Sarah Lynn Roddis, who has been in numerous local theater productions, has the sole role in this onewoman show examining American society, art, humanity and the feminist movement.

In a role originated by Lily Tomlin, Roddis first becomes Trudy, a clever observer of the society around her and who becomes the play’s guiding conscience as Roddis transforms into other characters. Roddis has a long list of credits for performances at the New Vic Theatre and Kalamazoo Civic, including as Annie Sullivan in the Civic's 2014 production of The Miracle Worker.

Show times are 8 p.m. March 15, 16, 22, 23, 29 and 30. Tickets are $32 and available at thenewvictheatre.org.

March 7–17 Farmers Alley Theatre

March 15–30 New Vic Theatre

39 Steps

March 8-17 Kalamazoo Civic Theatre Just try to keep up with the 150 characters played by a small cast in this fast-paced whodunit at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre.

A mix of comedy and mystery, this parody play is an adaptation of the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock of the same name. The local production features Drew Dixon, Katherine Harte-DeCoux, David Noyes, Trevor Stefanick, Traci Glasscock, Jake Burrell and Nora Hauk.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. March 8, 9, 15 and 16 and 2 p.m. March 10 and 17. Tickets are $17–$30 and available at Kazoocivic.com.

TheArts

THEATER

is published in partnership and funding provided by

Argonautika March 15–24 WMU Theatre

Mary Zimmerman's retelling of the classic Greek myth about the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts will be staged in the Williams Theatre at Western Michigan University.

In the play, Jason and his crew not only deal with an array of daunting challenges in their “first voyage of the world,” but encounter fantastical characters such as Medea and Hercules.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. March 15 and 22 and 2 p.m. March 17 and 24. Tickets are $7–$21 and available by calling 387-6222 or visiting wmich.edu/theatre.

Acid Indigestion March 23 All Ears Theatre

This comedy about truck drivers will be performed at 6 p.m. March 23 at the Kalamazoo Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition, 315 W. Michigan Ave. The free, live all-audio production features a script written by Kalamazoobased writer and longtime Encore contributor Robert M. Weir. He has written nine scripts for All Ears Theatre, with the first one produced in 2008.

Performances are recorded and broadcast at a later date, primarily on SoundCloud. For more information, visit allearstheatre.org.

Ongoing Local Production

Dutchman, Feb. 29–March 3, Kalamazoo College's Festival Playhouse 24 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

LITERATURE

DANCE Dance Throughout the Years

Reading Together 2024

(see story in First Things, on page 8)

March 16 Ballet Arts Ensemble A world premiere by guest choreographer Jeff Wolfe will be one of the highlights when this youth dance ensemble performs its spring concert at 4:30 p.m.

March 16 at the Gull Lake Center for the Fine Arts, at 7753 N. 34th St., in Richland.

The concert, which will celebrate dance works from 1869–2024, will feature Wolfe's piece Fallen. Other performances will include a reinterpretation of Don Quixote, Act III, featuring guest dancer Alexandra Meister-Upleger of Grand Rapids Ballet.

Tickets are $22 and can be purchased in advance at baetickets.org. For more information, visit balletartsensemble.org.

Ongoing Performances

Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest) — Feb. 29–March 3, Epic Center

COMEDY Improv Performances Throughout the month Crawlspace Comedy Theatre

There will be a lot to laugh about this month when improv groups take the stage at the comedy space in the Kalamazoo Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition building, at 315 W. Michigan Ave. Scheduled performances are Canned Champagne, a group of graduates of Crawlspace, March 1; Slaptail Nation Presents: Slap Your Tail Comedy, featuring comedians from Kalamazoo, Detroit, Grand Rapids, and South Bend, Indiana, March 9; Crawlspace Eviction, March 15–16; Pop Scholars, returning to Crawlspace on March 22 after being favorites of the Kalamazoo Improv Festival; Riddled with English, March 23; Blunder Bus, also previous Improv Festival performers, March 29; and Joyce II Men (pictured above), a Kalamazoo-based group, March 30.

All shows begin at 7:30 p.m., and tickets are $2–$15.

For more information, visit crawlspacecomedy.com.

Author Talks

Throughout the month Various venues Local authors and an acclaimed national journalist are among those presenting author talks in person or online this month: • Nina Totenberg (pictured above), legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio, will discuss her book Dinners with Ruth, about her long friendship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in an online presentation at 4 p.m. March 6. Registration is required; visit kpl.gov.

• Christopher Paolini will discuss his young-adult fantasy series World of Eragon in an online talk at 4 p.m. March 14. Registration is required; visit kpl.gov.

• Brian Wilson, Western Michigan University professor and author of several books, including his latest, The California Days of Ralph Waldo Emerson, will give an in-person talk at 6 p.m. March 19 at Richland Community Library, 8951 Park St., Richland. For more information, visit richlandlibrary.org.

• Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, will talk about turning Greek classics into modern fiction in an online presentation at 7 p.m. March 21. Registration is required; visit kpl.gov.

Ruta Sepetys March 19 Portage Zhang Senior Center

This award-winning historical fiction author will be on hand starting at 6:30 p.m. to discuss her work, including her 2016 novel, Salt to the Sea, which is the Portage District Library's 2024 Communiteen Reading selection.

Sepetys is acclaimed for giving voice to underrepresented history and those who experienced it. Her books have won or been shortlisted for more than 40 book prizes, are included on more than 30 state reading lists, and are currently in development for film and television.

Sepetys' presentation is free, but reservations are requested and can be made online at communiteenreadportage. com/2024.

Author Hop 2024 March 22 Portage District Library

A chance to meet local authors and explore the variety of their work will be available from 5–8 p.m. at the library.

More than 30 local authors of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and youth literature are expected to participate, and authors will have copies of their works for sale.

For a list of participating authors, visit events.portagelibrary.info/ event/9541235. w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 25

TheArts

Fretboard Festival

WMU School of Music

March 1–2 Kalamazoo Valley Museum

Throughout the month Various venues

Two festivals, guest artists and faculty recitals are on tap in March at Western Michigan University's School of Music Unless noted, performances will be in the university's Dalton Center Recital Hall and are free. Scheduled this month are: • Western Invitational Jazz Festival, featuring the University Jazz Orchestra and trombonist Elliot Mason, 7:30 p.m. March 2, $5–$15.

• Between Feathers, a new-music ensemble, 7:30 p.m. March 12.

• NOW Ensemble, a chamber-music quintet, 7:30 p.m. March 13, with a preconcert talk at 7 p.m., $5–$15.

• Southwestern Michigan Vocal Festival, featuring the Festival Chorus, Honors Choir, University Chorale and the WMU treble chorus Anima, 7 p.m. March 14, Miller Auditorium.

• Ben Hahn, trombone, 1 p.m. March 17.

• David Mercedes, tuba, 7:30 p.m. March 18.

• GC 46, a performance by the WMU student vocal jazz groups Gold Company and Gold Company II, 7:30 p.m. March 22 and 23, $10–$20.

• Jazz Combo Showcase, 5 p.m. March 25.

• Martha Councell-Vargas & Ann DuHamel, flute and piano, 7:30 p.m. March 27, with a pre-concert talk at 7 p.m., $5–$15.

• Robert White & Yu-Lien The, trumpet and piano, 7:30 p.m. March 28.

This annual festival celebrating Kalamazoo’s stringed-instrument heritage with performances, workshops and vendors returns this month to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Anna Whitten Hall, in downtown Kalamazoo.

The free festival will feature 10 performances by artists and groups that include folk musician Joel Mabus, children's group El Ballet Folklórico Estudiantil Mariachi, the hot-club jazz of Djangophonique, Americana/blues group Grace Thiesen Band, folk singer/songwriter Mattijane Brooks, and country/folk/gospel band Luke Lenhart and the Green Valley Boys.

Workshops will include techniques for the ukulele, dobro, upright bass and bass guitar, and banjo.

The festival runs from 5:30–9 p.m. March 1 and 9:30 a.m.–7 p.m. March 2. For a complete schedule, visit kalamazoomuseum.org/events/fretboard-festival.

To purchase tickets, go to wmich.edu/music/events.

Cyrille Aimee March 15 Fontana Chamber Arts

Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Cyrille Aimée will showcase her improvisational style on WMU's Dalton Center Recital Hall stage at 7:30 p.m.

Fontana Chamber Arts is presenting this acclaimed vocalist whose career spans from singing on street corners in Europe to performing at prestigious jazz festivals and on Broadway. She has been called a “rising star in the galaxy of jazz singers” by the New York Times.

Aimée’s program will be announced from the stage. Tickets are $15–$30 and available at fontanamusic.org or by calling 250-9684.

A wealth management firm that believes in commitment … to its employees, its clients, and its community.

Ray Financial Group

We built it.

Kent Ray

Senior Vice President/Investments

Jeff Siefert, CFP®

First Vice President/Investments

Rena Fields

Registered Client Service Associate

Greg Seiler, CFP®

Vice President/Investments

Sue Brenner

Registered Client Service Associate

(269) 384-5024 | (888) 481-0002

www.rayfinancialgroupofstifel.com 950 Trade Centre Way, Suite 305 Portage, Michigan 49002 Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated Member SIPC & NYSE | www.stifel.com 26 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Throughout the month Various venues

Magic-themed music, female composers and the world premiere of a piece written

by Branford Marsalis promise to make for interesting performances by the KSO this month.

The Magical Melodies concert, at 7 p.m.

March 5 in Miller Auditorium, will include pieces from Mozart's The Magic Flute, Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and John Williams' scores for the Harry Potter movies. Tickets are $5–$18.

KSO's string orchestra will perform Music, She Wrote, a program celebrating female composers, at 3 p.m. March 19 in Western Michigan University's Dalton Center Recital Hall, Tickets are $5–$35.

A work written for the KSO by saxophonist and composer Branford Marsalis will take center stage when the symphony presents Journeys: Shostakovich, Ravel & Marsalis at 7:30 p.m. March 23 in Miller Auditorium.

The program will feature South Korean pianist Yekwon Sunwoo and include Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony.

Tickets are $5–$68. To purchase tickets, visit kalamazoosymphony.com.

Throughline

MUSIC

March 9 Kalamazoo Philharmonia Three examples of compositional mastery will be featured by this orchestra of amateur and professional musicians.

The program will include Miloslav Kabelác's The Mystery of Time, Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn, and Samuel Barber's Symphony in One Movement.

The Philharmonia performs at 7:30 p.m. in Kalamazoo College's Dalton Theatre. Tickets are $3–$7 and available at the door. For more information, visit philharmonia.kzoo.edu.

Love Is Love Is (Volume 7)

March 5 Kalamazoo Choral Arts The Kalamazoo College Singers will join the Kalamazoo Choral Arts Chorus for this annual vocal concert celebrating love in its many forms.

The concert is set for 7:30 p.m. in Kalamazoo College's Dalton Theatre, in the Lights Fine Arts Building. The show will also be available to view online.

Tickets are $5–$19. For more information, visit kalamazoochoralarts.org. w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 27

TheArts

Young Artists of Kalamazoo County 2024 High School Area Show 2024

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Work by young artists from across Southwest Michigan will be featured in these two annual exhibitions at the KIA. Young Artists of Kalamazoo County 2024, which opened in February and runs through March 17, features artwork by youth from Kalamazoo County elementary and middle schools.

Works by Southwest Michigan high school students will be highlighted in the High School Area Show 2024, a juried exhibition that offers students the opportunity to win scholarships and prizes. The show opens from 6–8 p.m. March 30, with free admission that evening, and runs through April 28. The awards ceremony will be held 6-8 p.m. March 29.

For more information, visit kiarts.org.

VISUAL ARTS Art Hop Annual Student Exhibition March 19–April 2 Richmond Center for Visual Arts

Works by students in Western Michigan University's Gwen Frostic School of Art will be featured in this jurored exhibition in the Monroe-Brown Gallery, with an opening reception from 5–8 p.m. March 22.

The exhibition's juror is Kim Shaw, programs director at the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

Gallery hours are noon–6 p.m.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, noon– 8 p.m. Thursday and 8 a.m.–6 p.m.

Saturday. For more information, visit wmich.edu/art/galleries.

March 1 Downtown Kalamazoo In conjunction with the Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest), the March Art Hop will have a theme celebrating movement and dance.

This free event, organized by the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, runs from 5–8 p.m. and features a variety of artists’ works as well as live music and the chance to visit downtown businesses.

The Arts Council has an app that provides a guide and map of Art Hop sites, information about participating artists, and walking directions. For more information or to access the app, visit kalamazooarts.org.

Edible Book Festival

March 23 Kalamazoo Book Arts Center

This culinary celebration of the book arts, as delicious as it is creative, will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the KBAC, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 103A. Entrants create food items inspired by their favorite books, with separate categories for edible books made by children and edible books made by adults.

The setup and optimum time to view the books for this popular annual competition will be from 4:30–5:30 p.m., with voting until 6 p.m. Winners will be announced at 6 p.m., followed by an opportunity for attendees to eat the entries.

For more information, visit kalbookarts.org.

Ongoing Exhibitions: The Illustrated Accordion, through March 15, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center

Evaluation & Care of Trees and Shrubs Kalamazoo, MI • 269-381-5412 • www.arboristserviceskzoo.com 28 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

American Realism: Visions of America, 1900-1950, through April 14, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Kyungmi Shin: A Story to Finding Us, through May 12, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

PERFORMING ARTS THEATER Plays Dutchman — A naive bourgeois Black man is murdered by an insane & calculating white seductress who is planning for her next victim, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 29–March 2, 2 p.m. March 3, Kalamazoo College's Balch Playhouse, 129 Thompson St., festivalplayhouse.kzoo.edu.

Skeleton Crew — Explores the layered relationships of a tight-knit group of workers at a factory on the brink of closure, 7:30 p.m. March 7–9 & 14–16, 2 p.m. March 10 & 17, Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley, 343-2727, farmersalleytheatre.com.

39 Steps — A fast-paced mystery comedy with a small cast playing 150 characters, 7:30 p.m. March 8–9 & 15–16, 2 p.m. March 10 & 17, Civic Theatre, 329 S. Park St., 343-1313, kazoocivic.com.

Argonautika — A retelling of the classic Greek myth of voyage of Jason & the Argonauts, presented by WMU Theatre, 7:30 p.m. March 15 & 22, 2 p.m. March 17 & 24, Williams Theatre, WMU, 387-6222, wmich.edu/theatre.

The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe — One-woman show examining American society, art, human connectivity & the feminist movement, 8 p.m. March 15–16, 22–23 & 29–30, New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St., thenewvictheatre.org.

Musicals My Fair Lady — The story of Professor Henry Higgins' efforts to transform a young flower seller into a “proper lady,” 3 p.m. March 10, Miller Auditorium, millerauditorium.com.

Jesus Christ Superstar — Musical portraying the final weeks in the life of Jesus Christ through the eyes of Judas, 7:30 p.m. March 26 & 27, Miller Auditorium, millerauditorium.com.

Other Acid Indigestion — An all-audio theater production written by Robert Weir, 6 p.m. March 23, Kalamazoo Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition, 315 W. Michigan Ave., allearstheatre.org.

DANCE Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest) — Hosted by Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, Feb. 29–March 3, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, midwestradfest.org, 342-4354.

Sparkle Motion — Belly dance showcase featuring Kami Liddle, 8–10 p.m. March 2, Dormouse Theatre, 1030 Portage Road, dormousetheatre.com.

Dance Throughout the Years — Ballet Arts Ensemble Spring Concert celebrating dance from 1869–2024, 4:30 p.m. March 16, Gull Lake Center for the Fine Arts, 7753 N. 34th St., Richland, balletartsensemble.org.

MUSIC Bands & Solo Artists Silversun Pickups — Rock music, 8 p.m. March 1, State Theatre, 404 S. Burdick St., kazoostate.com.

Bell’s Eccentric Cafe Concerts — Lilly Hiatt w/ Molly Martin, March 5; Mary Timony w/Youbet, March 11; Surfrajettes w/The McCharmleys, March 15; all shows begin at 8 p.m., 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 382–2332, bellsbeer.com.

Detroit Blu & JR Clark Band — Blues, 2–6 p.m.

March 10, Rugger’s Up & Under, 711 W. Michigan Ave., kvba.org.

Whiskey Before Breakfast — Traditional Irish music, 2 p.m. March 10, Parchment Community Library, 401 S. Riverview Drive, 343-7747, parchmentlibrary.org.

Steve Hackett — Former lead guitarist for Genesis, 7:30 p.m. March 23, State Theatre, kazoostate.com.

JJ Grey & Mofro— Funk-rock band, 7 p.m. March 27, State Theatre, kazoostate.com.

Breaking Benjamin w/Daughtry — American rock bands, 7 p.m. March 30, Wings Event Center, 3600 Vanrick Drive, wingseventcenter.com/Events.

Orchestra, Chamber, Jazz, Vocal & More Fretboard Festival — Celebrating Kalamazoo’s stringed-instrument heritage, Kalamazoo Valley Museum, 230 N. Rose St., & Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Anna Whitten Hall, 202 N. Rose St., 5:30–9 p.m. March 1, 9:30 a.m.–7 p.m.

March 2.

Western Invitational Jazz Festival — Featuring University Jazz Orchestra & trombonist Elliot Mason, 7:30 p.m. March 2, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, wmich.edu/music/events.

Magical Melodies — The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra performs magic-themed music, 7 p.m. March 5, Miller Auditorium, kalamazoosymphony.com.

Love Is Love Is (Volume 7) — Kalamazoo Choral Arts Chorus with Kalamazoo College Singers, 7:30 p.m. March 5, Dalton Theatre, Kalamazoo College, and online, kalamazoochoralarts.org.

Disney Princess: The Concert — Musical performances by Broadway performers, with animation, 7:30 p.m. March 9, Miller Auditorium, millerauditorium.com.

Throughline — Kalamazoo Philharmonia performs, 7:30 p.m. March 9, Dalton Theatre, Kalamazoo College, philharmonia.kzoo.edu.

Music, She Wrote — KSO Chamber Series celebrating women composers, 3 p.m. March 10, Dalton Recital Hall, kalamazoosymphony.org.

Between Feathers — New-music ensemble, 7:30 p.m. March 12, Dalton Center Recital Hall, wmich. edu/music/events.

International Percussion Ensembles — Steel pan drumming, East African drumming & taiko drumming, 7 p.m. March 13, Dalton Theatre, Kalamazoo College, music.kzoo.edu/events.

NOW Ensemble — Chamber music quintet, 7:30 p.m. March 13, Dalton Center Recital Hall, with preconcert talk at 7 p.m., wmich.edu/music/events.

Southwestern Michigan Vocal Festival — Featuring Festival Chorus, Honors Choir, University Chorale & WMU treble chorus Anima, 7 p.m. March 14, Miller Auditorium, wmich.edu/music/events.

Ben Hahn — Trombonist & WMU alumni, 1 p.m.

March 17, Dalton Center Recital Hall, wmich.edu/ music/events.

Drum Tao 30th Anniversary — High-energy performance by percussion artists, 3 p.m. March 17, Miller Auditorium, millerauditorium.com.

David Mercedes — Tubist & WMU faculty member, 7:30 p.m. March 18, Dalton Center Recital Hall, wmich.edu/music/events.

GC 46 — WMU’s Gold Company & Gold Company II vocal jazz groups, 7:30 p.m. March 22 & 23, Dalton Center Recital Hall, wmich.edu/music/events.

Journeys: Shostakovich, Ravel & Marsalis — Performance by the KSO, 7:30 p.m. March 23, Miller Auditorium, kalamazoosymphony.com.

Jazz Combo Student Showcase — 5 p.m. March 25, Dalton Center Recital Hall, wmich.edu/music/ events.

Martha Councell-Vargas & Ann DuHamel — Flutist & pianist, 7:30 p.m. March 27, Dalton Center Recital Hall, with pre-concert talk at 7 p.m., wmich. edu/music/events.

Robert White & Yu-Lien The — Trumpet player & pianist, 7:30 p.m. March 28, Dalton Center Recital Hall, wmich.edu/music/events.

COMEDY Crawlspace Comedy Theatre — Improv performances by Canned Champagne, March 1; Slaptail Nation, March 9; Crawlspace Eviction, March 15–16; Pop Scholars, March 22; Riddled with English, March 23; Blunder Bus, March 29; Joyce II Men, March 30; all shows begin at 7:30 p.m., Kalamazoo Nonprofit Advocacy Coalition, 315 W. Michigan Ave., crawlspacecomedy.com.

Bianca Del Rio: Dead Inside Comedy Tour — The Season 6 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, 8 p.m.

March 21, State Theatre, kazoostate.com.

The Peras Tour — Comedian Joe Pera, 8 p.m. March 29, State Theatre, kazoostate.com.

VISUAL ARTS Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 314 S. Park St., 349-7775, kiarts.org Exhibitions American Realism: Visions of America, 1900-1950 — Paintings, drawings & prints that capture the American experience, through April 14.

Kyungmi Shin: A Story to Finding Us — Selected works from the KIA’s Chinese ceramics collection & original works by Shin, through May 12.

Young Artists of Kalamazoo County 2024 — Works by youth from Kalamazoo County elementary & middle schools, through March 17.

High School Area Show 2024 — Works by Southwest Michigan high school students, March 30–April 28; awards ceremony 6–8 p.m. March 29; free admission 6-8 p.m. March 30.

Events Screendance Preview with RAD Fest — Dance films from 2023 and a teaser of the 2024 festival, 5–8 p.m. March 1.

ARTbreak — Program about art, artists & exhibitions: Weaving as a Metaphor, Liminal Spaces & Other Interdisciplinary Interconnections, talk

by Victoria Marcetti, March 5; Women Activists in Comics: Creating Change through Image & Text, talk by Krista Turner, March 12; Mideast/Midwest: A Brief Introduction to Middle Eastern Music, presented in collaboration with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, March 19; Kirk Newman Art School Residents, March 26; sessions begin at noon in the KIA Auditorium; register online.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 29

EVENTS ENCORE Book Discussion — R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface, 2 p.m.

March 20.

Exploring American Realism with Carmenita Higginbotham — Discussion of the American Realism exhibition, 6–8 p.m. March 21, KIA Auditorium; registration required.

Richmond Center for Visual Arts Western Michigan University, 387-2436, wmich.edu/art Annual Student Exhibition — Works by students in WMU's Gwen Frostic School of Art, March 19– April 2, Monroe-Brown Gallery; opening reception from 5–8 p.m. March 22.

Other Venues Art Hop — Displays of art celebrating movement & dance, 5–8 p.m. March 1, various locations in downtown Kalamazoo, 342–5059, kalamazooarts.org.

The Illustrated Accordion — A non-juried exhibition of accordion-style books by emerging & established artists, through March 15, with artists' reception 5 p.m. March 1, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 103A, 373-4938, kalbookarts.org.

Edible Book Festival — Celebrating the art of the book; setup, viewing & vote 4:30–5:30 p.m.; winners announced 6 p.m.; eating begins at 6:05 p.m., March 23, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, 3734938, kalbookarts.org.

Southwest Michigan Printmakers — Themed portfolio from 22 artists based on the Kalamazoo watershed, through March 31, Glen Vista Gallery, Kalamazoo Nature Center 7000 N. Westnedge Ave. LIBRARY & LITERARY EVENTS Antwerp Sunshine Branch Library 24283 Front St., Mattawan, 668-2534, vbdl.org Sunshine Readers’ Book Club — 5:30–6:45 p.m.

March 20.

Kalamazoo Public Library 553-7800, kpl.gov Chinese Painting Workshop — Learn the fundamentals of Chinese ink painting, 8 a.m.–5 p.m.

March 2, Oshtemo Branch, 7265 W. Main St. KPL Tech Days — Personal session to learn technology & the internet, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. March 2, 4, 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, 25 & 30, Central Library, 315 S. Rose St.; sessions are first-come, first-served.

KPL Mobile Library — 3:30–5 p.m. March 4, New Village Park/Heather Gardens, 2400 Albans Way; 11 a.m.–noon March 11, Ecumenical Senior Center, 702 N. Burdick St.; 10–11 a.m. March 26, Lodge House, 1211 S. Westnedge Ave.; 3–4 p.m. March 26, Maple Grove Village, 735 Summit Ave. Nina Totenberg — The NPR legal affairs correspondent discusses her book Dinners with Ruth, 4 p.m. March 6, online; registration required.

Rose Street Poetry Club — A reading & writing poetry group for adults, 10 a.m. March 9, Central Library.

Music & Memories with Fiddlehead Music Therapy — Songs for older adults & discussion about music and memories, 10:45 a.m. March 11, Oshtemo Branch.

Christopher Paolini — Online talk by the author of the young-adult fantasy series World of Eragon, 4 p.m. March 14; registration required.

Madeline Miller — Online talk by the author of The Song of Achilles and Circe, 7 p.m. March 21; registration required.

Confections with Conviction — Kalamazoo chocolate shop owner Dale Anderson talks about chocolate & social impact, 6:30 p.m. March 25, Eastwood Branch, 1112 Gayle St.; registration required.

Parchment Community Library 401 S. Riverview Drive, 343-7747, parchmentlibrary.org Reading Together Book Discussion — Discussion of R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface, 6 p.m. March 4.

Parchment Book Group — Discussion of Tyler Nordgren’s Sun, Moon, Earth: The History of Solar Eclipses from Omens of Doom to Einstein and Exoplanets, 6 p.m. March 11.

Big Furry Friends — Meet a therapy dog, 4:30–6:30 p.m. March 12.

Friends of the Library Book Sale — 9 a.m.–1 p.m., March 16.

Mystery Book Club — Discussion of Elsa Hart’s City of Ink, 6:30 p.m. March 19.

Eclipse Craft Party — Make indirect viewers & cases for eclipse glasses & learn how to observe the sun safely, 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m., March 23.

Silent Book Club — Bring your own book & read in companionable silence at the library, 5:15 p.m.

March 25 & 1:15 p.m. March 27.

Business Coverage

• Commercial Property • General Liability • Business Automobile • Commercial Umbrella

Personal Coverage • Homeowners • Automobile • Umbrella Liability • Life Insurance • Annuities 452 N. Grand Schoolcraft

(269) 679-4918 30 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

301 N. Richardson St. Vicksburg

(269) 649-1914

trustshieldinsurance.com

Portage District Library 300 Library Lane, 329-4544, portagelibrary.info Yoga with Apral — Apral Milan-Corcoran leads an hour of movement, 4 p.m. March 4 & 18; registration required.

Kalamazoo County Historical Society — Monthly meeting about local history, with speakers & discussion, 7 p.m. March 4.

Muffins & the Market — A discussion of recent stock market trends, 9 a.m. March 7 & 21.

Exploring Options with Warren: The Basics of Investing with Options — Warren Fritz presents personal investment fundamentals, 10 a.m. March 7.

Book Discussion — Discussion of R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface, 7 p.m. March 7.

Book & a Movie — Focusing on Frank Herbert’s science-fiction classic, Dune, 7 p.m. March 12; those attending will receive a ticket to the movie at Celebration Crossroads Cinema at 6 p.m. March 19.

The Chinese American Experience — Talk by Dr. Ying Zeng, director of Asian Initiatives at WMU’s Haenicke Institute for Global Education, 6:30 p.m.

March 13, Portage Zhang Senior Center, 203 E. Centre Ave., portagelibrary.info.

International Mystery Book Club — Discussion of Gu Byeong-mo’s The Old Woman with the Knife, 7 p.m. March 14.

Kalamazoo Macintosh Users Group — About Macintosh computers, programs & accessories, 9 a.m.–noon March 16.

Renaissance Irish Warriors — Swordsmanship Museum & Academy historian Jerry Berg discusses weapons & shields, 1 p.m. March 16.

Kalamazoo Valley Genealogical Society — Open to those interested in genealogy, 7 p.m. March 18.

Plots & Pages: A Local Writers Group — Author Mark Love discusses the craft of writing, 6 p.m.

March 19.

Ruta Sepetys — The author discusses her book Salt to the Sea, 6:30 p.m. March 19, Portage Zhang Senior Center, portagelibrary.info.

Cookies & Conversation: Heartwarming Reads Book Club — Discussion of Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, 2 p.m. March 20.

Author Hop 2024 — More than 30 local authors will be on hand, with refreshments provided, 5–8 p.m. March 22.

Richland Community Library 8951 Park St., 629-9085, richlandlibrary.org Bridge Club — Noon–3 p.m. Tuesdays.

Richland Area Writer’s Group — Open to new members, 10 a.m. March 9 & 23, in person & online.

Cookbook Club — Sample & discuss recipes from Rebecca Lando’s The Working Class Foodies Cookbook, 6 p.m. March 12.

RCL Film Club — Discussion of Lifeboat (1944), 6 p.m. March 13.

Creative Boot Camp: Six Exercises to Spark Artistic Creativity — Class two of a six-session CreativeBug workshop; Class A runs 6–7 p.m. March 14; Class B runs 6–7 p.m. March 26; registration required.

Brian Wilson — Discussion by this WMU professor & author of The California Days of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 6 p.m. March 19.

RCL Book Club — Discussion of Charles Frazier’s The Trackers, 6 p.m. March 21.

Trivial Pursuit Trivia Night — Teams of 2–6 people, 6:30 p.m. March 27; registration required.

Vicksburg District Library 215 S. Michigan Ave., 649-1648, vicksburglibrary.org Bridge Club — 9:30 a.m. Tuesdays.

Eclipse Presentation — Talk by Kalamazoo Astronomical Society President Richard Bell, 6 p.m.

March 6.

Book Club for Adults — Check at circulation desk for book title, 9:30 a.m. March 7.

Other Venues Yellowface : Reading Together 2014 — For schedule, see "Something Shared" on page 8 of this issue or visit readingtogether.us.

MUSEUMS Gilmore Car Museum 6865 Hickory Road, Hickory Corners, 671-5089, gilmorecarmuseum.org 2024 Winter Lecture Series — Michigan State Parks Along the West Michigan Lakeshore, Christine Byron & Thomas Wilson, March 3; Those Amazing Bradford Model T Girls, Jim Butte, March 10; Carnegie Libraries in Michigan, Dianna Stampfler, March 17; Creating a Giant: The Men & Money That Started the Ford Motor Co., Ray Swetman, March 24; all sessions begin at 2 p.m.

Hoods Up Horsepower Tours — Cars on display with their hoods up, March 4–18.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 230 N. Rose St., 373-7990, kalamazoomuseum.org What it Means to Be a Hometown Writer — Exhibit on award-winning author Bonnie Jo Campbell’s history as well as personal items from her writing world, through June.

Kalamazoo State Hospital: 165 Years of Psychiatric Care — Examines the history of the patients, employees & buildings of Michigan’s longest-operating mental hospital, through January 2025.

NATURE Kalamazoo Nature Center 7000 N. Westnedge Ave., 381-1574, naturecenter.org Maple Sugar Festival — Annual celebration of spring’s arrival, with maple sugaring demonstrations, March 9.

Roots of Wisdom: Native Knowledge, Shared Science — Traveling exhibit of real-life stories told through the voices of four Indigenous communities, opens March 23, KNC Exhibition Hall.

Kellogg Bird Sanctuary 12685 East C Ave., Augusta, 671-2510, birdsanctuary@kbs.msu.edu Online Birds & Coffee Chat — DNR pathologist Julie Melotti speaks on the bald eagle, 10 a.m.

March 13; registration required.

Dessert with Discussion — Jason Rowntree discusses his book, Good Food That is Better for the Environment, 7–8:30 p.m. March 21; registration required.

Other Venues Experiencing Totality: The Great Eclipse of 2024 — Online presentation by Fred Espenak, 7 p.m. March 1, Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center, 600 W. Vine St.; register for in-person or online viewing at kasonline.org.

Beginning Birding Walk — Led by an experienced birder, 9 a.m. March 2; meet at Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery's second parking lot, 34270 County Road 652, Mattawan, kalamazooaudubon.org.

Introduction to Amateur Astronomy — The last of a five-part online lecture series: “The Art of Astrophotography,” 1 p.m. March 9; register at kasonline.org.

Nature Journaling Workshop — Connect with nature through drawing or writing, 6 p.m. March 15, Schrier Park, 850 W. Osterhout Ave., portagemi. gov.

Solar to the Max — Online presentation by artist & astrophotographer Alan Friedman, 8 p.m. March 15; register for online viewing at kasonline.org.

The Meadowlark Conundrum — Presentation

by Mitch Lettow & Sharon Gill, 7:30 p.m.

March 25, People's Church, 1758 N. 10th St., kalamazooaudubon.org.

MISCELLANEOUS 10 Little-Known Facts — Memorable moments & courageous stories in Black history, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. through March 29, Portage City Hall Atrium, 7900 S. Westnedge Ave., portagemi.gov/calendar.

Craft Show — More than 250 vendors, 9 a.m.–3 p.m. March 2, 10 a.m.–3 p.m. March 3, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 2900 Lake St., 269-903-5820.

Kalamazoo Home & Garden Expo — Building trends, products & ideas, noon–8 p.m. March 8, 10 a.m.–8 p.m. March 9, 11 a.m.–4 p.m.

March 10, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, 269-375-4225.

ARC Community Advocates’ 17th Annual Inclusion Conference — Conference to promote inclusivity, 8:30 a.m.–4 p.m. March 15, Fetzer Center, WMU, communityadvocates.org.

Kalamazoo Living History Show — Re-enactors of the French & Indian War through the Civil War, along with craftspeople, vendors & history buffs, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. March 16, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.

March 17, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, kalamazooshow.com.

Ladies Night Out — Fundraiser for Kindleberger Arts Commission with hors d’oeuvres, dessert, drinks & bingo, 4 p.m. March 16, The Fountains Banquet Center, 535 S. Riverview Drive, Parchment, kindlebergerarts.org; registration required.

Kalamazoo County 4-H Tack Sale — More than 150 vendors selling items for horse & farm, 5–9 p.m. March 18, Kalamazoo County Expo Center South; for more information, send email to kalamazoo4hhorse@yahoo.com.

Thunderbirds RC Club Swap Meet — Offering radio-controlled airplanes, trains, helicopters, boats & more, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. March 23, Kalamazoo County Expo Center, Room A, 269-823-4044.

Kalamazoo Reptile & Exotic Pet Expo — Reptiles, amphibians, small mammals & other exotic pets, plus supplies & food, 10 a.m.–3 p.m.

March 24, Kalamazoo County Expo Center South, kalamazooreptileexpo.com.

Ballet Arts Ensemble

4:30 PM

M A R CH 1 6TH

Gull Lake Center for the Fine Arts in Richland, MI

W W W .B A LLE T A R T S E N S E M B L E . O RG

Book Now!

Ticket Price

$22

Seniors and Students $10

Group rates for 20 or more available

Ticket Booking Info:

baetickets.org

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 31

POETRY ENCORE

A special Thank You to our advertisers!

The Poet Makes Breakfast (Mindfully)

Ballet Arts Ensemble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Better World Builders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Dave’s Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 DeMent and Marquardt, PLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Four Roses Café . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Gilmore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

So boldly honest, though, the adjective stamped on the lid, like a sign hanging on a pole in front of an Amish bakery.

Finally, the sweet, earthy bouquet of fresh coffee and the winter light pouring through a frosted windowpane.

Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Cosmo's/O’Duffy’s Pub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

So bland, the beginning, plain yogurt in a white bowl on a winter morning.

Blueberries next, so plump and sweet, like chunks of a starry night sky, and strawberries as fat and red as the cardinal perched on the feeder outside my window.

Arborist Services of Kalamazoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Greenleaf Trust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Gun Lake Casino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Helios Solar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport . . . . . . . . . 35 Kalamazoo Community Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

— Scott Peterson Before retiring, Peterson was an educator in Mattawan. He has also taught at Western Michigan University and was a teacher-consultant for the National Writing Project. His essays and poetry have appeared in Longridge Review, Plain Song Review, and other journals, anthologies and magazines.

Kalamazoo County Expo Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Kalamazoo Institute of Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Kalamazoo Public Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Kalamazoo Valley Community College Foundation . . . . . . 4 Lewis, Reed & Allen, PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 LVM Capital Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Ray Financial Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Shinar Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Trust Shield Insurance Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Tujax Tavern & Brewpub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Willis Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 & 14 WMUK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

32 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

ENCORE BACK STORY

Elizabeth Washington (continued from page 34) "The reality is that property builds wealth, so who has and owns the property matters," says Washington. "We're helping people right here in our neighborhood around housing, economic development, and health and fitness, and that's what I'm here for, so if that means learning about urban development and asking a lot questions, I'm good with that."

How did you get where you are today?

I graduated from Kalamazoo Central and Kalamazoo College, where my first degree was in human resources and relations and where I later earned a teaching certificate. I discovered I loved teaching eighthgraders because I was teaching them about U.S. history at the same time they were becoming their own persons, questioning our government, our government's creation and its challenges. The idea of social justice was built into the way I taught and organized the classroom.

In 2013 I went to work for Derek Jeter's Turn2 Foundation as the director of Jeter's Leaders, a leadership development program for high school students. We took them all over the U.S. and did weeklong social justice projects. The director of diversity and inclusion position at Bronson Healthcare became open, and I wondered, "What would it look like if I could impact a whole health care system, the largest employer in Southwest Michigan? What could that do in a social justice manner for our whole community?"

At Bronson, I implemented programs like language services to provide medical interpretation and translation, built community partnerships and worked internally to implement the American Hospital Association's Equity of Care Pledge. I discovered how to push the organization to look at how well we were doing with regards to populations that were marginalized traditionally by health care and other systems. If we could collect data around race, ethnicity, language and other social demographic factors, we could see where disparities lie within our system and in comparison to the community around us.

That became bigger than anything I had ever done before.

Creating systemic change is a lot of work, and it tired me out. I resigned in 2022. My whole thing for a year was rest and reset.

YO U

Become part of a network of members that share a similiar respect and passion for the arts! New added benefits reach even further to connect you with the community. Each Arts Council membership includes: • Unlimited event listings on the arts calendar • Promotional opportunities through select media channels • Waived application fees for Grants & Art on the Mall • Rental discount rates at partner organizations • Membership at Public Media Network • And much more!

Membership has its benefits.

Mattie Jordan Woods (former NACD director, who retired in December 2023) asked me to apply for her position. I don't think I would have if she hadn't, because how do you follow someone who was here for 36 years and created a neighborhood association unlike any others, based on the idea that the best way to impact housing, economic development and health and fitness in our neighborhood is to own property and build wealth? I think all of my experiences were needed for me to be able to say, "Yes, I can do this job."

What are the pressing issues for the Northside neighborhood?

The event center that's going in to our south and the Hard Rock venue going in to our northeast will have a big impact. We are creating the structures right now so that we can make sure that the properties around here stay with the community and don't all become Airbnbs or short-term rentals. Right now, 80 percent of this neighborhood's homes are residential rentals. I don't want people to be priced out of living in their own neighborhood.

We know, with those venues going in, there will be a need for workers at those sites. The 2022 Kalamazoo Community Health Needs report shows that where we sit has the least labor force participation and the highest childhood poverty in Kalamazoo. How can we turn that tide? How can we help the people within this community get the skills and training to be able to participate in the economy that those venues will create? We have to have the infrastructure and the partnerships in place to get that moving.

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Raising two amazing African American children who are successful in their definition of successful and happy in their definition of happy.

I would also say I'm proud of the work I was able to accomplish at Bronson. Not a lot of health care organizations were collecting patient data like race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation and gender identity and then using that data to pinpoint where to do community health work, but we were.

— Interview by Marie Lee, edited for length and clarity

CREATE

connect

ACHIEVE @

KalamazooArts.org

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 33

BACK STORY ENCORE

Elizabeth Washington

Executive Director, Northside Association for Community Development

(continued on page 33)

34 | ENCORE MARCH 2024

Brian K. Powers

E

lizabeth Washington's foray into social justice began when she was just 9 and a friend was being picked on by a group of bigger fourth-graders at St. Augustine Cathedral School. Little Elizabeth stood up to one of the more muscular boys in the group and told him to stop. He pushed her.

"Since he touched me, I punched him in his stomach and ended up down in the principal's office, who at the time was a nun, and she listened to my story," the 54-year-old Kalamazoo native recalls. "I don't remember the punishment — I may have had to do lunch duty or wipe tables — but I know I thought, 'I would still do it again.'"

Now Washington is putting her social justice ethos to work at the Northside Association for Community Development, a nonprofit founded in 1981 to promote the health, financial stability and revitalization of a neighborhood that nearly 5,300 Kalamazoo residents call home. In 2023, 77 percent of the residents of the Northside neighborhood were Black, according to the W.E. Upjohn Research Institute for Employment Research, and it is an area that has a history of inequity on many fronts, from economic to environmental.

Despite these challenges and the fact that Washington is relatively new to the field of urban and community planning, she is undaunted.

Understanding

Home Performance You might not be used to thinking about your home “performing.” After all, it’s a structure that just sits there, right? Actually, your home is more like a collection of often invisible systems that work together and independently to:

• Keep you comfortable: Your heating, cooling, and ventilation systems provide a livable environment — ideally, warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer, and neither excessively dry nor excessively humid all year-round.

(269) 383-7862 TheBetterWorldBuilders.com

• Seal out pollutants: Proper air sealing and insulation provide a healthy living environment by keeping external pollutants from entering, and ventilation continuously circulates fresh air.

• Protect you from extreme weather: Your home’s shell — its roof, windows, doors, and skylights — is an important barrier against natural disasters like hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and extreme heat.

• Keep your operating costs low: The more energy or water efficient your systems, appliances, and fixtures are, the lower your utility bills are.

Call Better World Builders

TODAY for $100 OFF our CERTIFIED HOME PERFORMANCE ENERGY AUDIT! (Reg. Price $499) JOIN US at the Kalamazoo Home & Garden Expo March 8-10 at Booth 205/206!

• Provide you with power: Whether you’re connected to the grid or generate your own energy through solar, for example, your home’s power generations systems keep the lights on, your apliances running, and your WiFi up.

• Raise your home’s value: This is a big one. Homes that are more energy efficient, more comfortable, and healthier — and can prove it — also tend to be more valuable in the market.