Encore May 2015

Great Lakes Trekker Loreen Niewenhuis

May 2015

The Red Sea Pedestrians

Foods to Try: Pacific Rim

Meet James Sanford

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Ghosts of The Past A peek at Hidden Kalamazoo

Deed Shepherd died in 2005.

Today she’s helping Kalamazoo area girls lead joyful, confident lives.

Deed herself was a joyful, confident woman who loved where she lived: Kalamazoo.

She also loved Kalamazoo’s young people. Their zest for life only added to her own.

Thanks to a bequest she left to the Community Foundation, thousands of Kalamazoo County girls who participate in Girls on the Run learn how to embrace who they are, define who they want to be, rise to any challenge, and change the world.

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

equity | education | engagement

“I’ve always loved to golf. But as my heart condition got worse, I couldn’t do much of anything anymore. Even walking across the room left me feeling tired and out of breath. Fortunately for me, the doctors at Bronson helped change all that. They told me about a new heart surgery called TAVR that could actually give me my life back. And that’s exactly what happened. Within days of my surgery at Bronson Methodist Hospital, I could walk without feeling out of breath, and I wasn’t tired anymore. My nurses, they were great, too.

They talked to me, listened to me, even gave me pudding and popsicles in the middle of the night. Better yet, I’m back doing all the things I did before my heart condition: mowing the lawn, going to the gym and playing golf with the guys — terrible as ever.”

Roy Kidney, Battle Creek, Michigan, September 17, 2014

When one person shares their positivity, we all share in it. To share how Bronson Positivity has impacted your life, or to watch a video of Roy’s story, visit bronsonpositivity.com.

share

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up front encore

Have a good day, for a long time to come.

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2 1 1 s o u t h ro s e st r e e t k a l a m a z o o , m i 4 9 0 0 7 g r e e n l e a f t ru st. c o m 2 69. 3 8 8 .9 8 0 0 8 0 0 . 4 1 6 . 4 5 5 5

May

CONTENTS 2015

FEATURES Hidden Kalamazoo

24

The Red Sea Pedestrians

34

Loreen Niewenhuis

18

A sneak peek at Kalamazoo’s unseen places from photographer Brian Powers

This undefinable band just wants to have fun

The Great Lakes trekker keeps on walking

DEPARTMENTS 7 Contributors

Up Front 8 First Things — What’s hip and happening in SW Michigan

10

The ‘Other’ Kellogg — WMU prof Brian C. Wilson sheds light on the life of John Harvey Kellogg

12

Good Works

Eventful Experience — Students help nonprofts through Kalamazoo Experiential Learning Center

14 Enterprise

Great Start — Business incubator helps young entrepreneurs

16 Savor

Food Finds — Five things to try at Pacific Rim Foods

46 Back Story

Meet James Sanford — He makes movie watching more fun

ARTS

30 Art Hop Expands

The monthly art event has jumped its downtown

boundaries

32 Stephanie Stamm

The author of young adult lit finds the ‘extraordinary

within the ordinary’

39 Events of Note 43 Poetry On the cover: The stairway of the old Hotel Holt above Alfred E Bike in downtown Kalamazoo is illuminated by a bright double pitch skylight. This scene and many others from next month’s Hidden Kalamazoo tour are captured by photographer Brian Powers. See page 24.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 5

Great Lakes Trekker Loreen Niewenhuis

etime f i l a r Built foxation… of rela

The Red Sea Pedestrians

Foods to Try: Pacific Rim

May 2015

Meet James Sanford

Southwest Michigan’s Magazine

Ghosts of The Past A peek at Hidden Kalamazoo

All pools built locally

by Vlietstra Bros.

Publisher

encore publications, inc.

Editor

marie lee

Designers

peter brakeman, alexis stubelt

Staff Writer

tiffany fitzgerald

4266 Ravine Rd. Kalamazoo, MI 49006 www.vlietstrabros.com

269-349-7779

Summer Hours: Monday - Friday: 9:00am - 5:30pm, Saturday 9:00am - 2:00pm

Copy Editor

margaret deritter

Contributing Writers

jarett coy, andrew domino, robert m. weir

Photographers

junfu han, brian powers

Landscape

Arborist

Services LLC

A sister company off

Advertising Sales krieg lee celeste statler

Distribution kama mitchell

Office Coordinator hope smith

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

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

The staff at Encore welcomes written comment from readers, and articles and poems for submission with no obligation to print or return them. To learn more about us or to comment, you may visit www.encorekalamazoo. com. Encore subscription rates: one year $36, two years $70. Current single issue and newsstand $4, $10 by mail.

Back issues $6, $12 by mail. Advertising rates on request.

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

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

Evaluation and Care of Trees and Shrubs Kalamazoo, MI ● 269.381.5412 ● LandscapeArboristServices.com

6 | Encore MAY 2015

Jarett Coy

ENCORE

CONTRIBUTORS

Jarett, who graduates from Western Michigan University this month with a degree in public relations, worked as an intern at Encore and found the subject of his article on the Kalamazoo Experiential Learning Center close to home. “I really enjoyed learning about an organization determined to expose students to real-world event planning experience while providing an effective service to nonprofits and making an impact in the downtown area,” he says. “To be an intern at the KELC, you really have to have a passion for making a difference in your community.”

Andrew Domino Andrew Domino, a talented freelance writer who wrote our story this month about the expansion of Art Hop into the Oakwood and Washington Square neighborhoods, has been a frequent contributor to Encore, covering everything from the arts to fantasy gaming. You can find more of his work at dominowriting.com.

Brian Powers When offered the chance to take photos of dusty and forgotten buildings for our Hidden Kalamazoo feature, Brian Powers was all over it. “Abandoned spaces have always captured my imagination and driven me to try to capture the feel of a room or building through the lens of my camera,” says Brian. “I feel an incredible sense of soul and presence when I am in an interesting old space, particularly when it has not been renovated or if it has been restored to its original glory.” In addition to the photo feature on Hidden Kalamazoo, you will find examples of Brian’s beautiful photography throughout Encore.

Robert M. Weir

Robert has the market cornered on profile pieces in this issue. He introduces readers to Great Lakes walker and author Loreen Niewenhuis, gets to know local band The Red Sea Pedestrians and gives us a glimpse of Brian C. Wilson and his book on John Harvey Kellogg. These stories all speak to Robert’s passions — he loves music and knows a bit about writing books as an author, book editor and authors’ coach. You can see more of his writing at RobertMWeir.com.

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up front encore

First Things Something Good Blooms for a cause

Looking for a perfect Mother’s Day gift as beautiful as the woman you’ll give

it to? (Yes, you may steal that line for the card.) The Michigan State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program might have an answer: its Annual Flower and Plant Sale May 8 and 9.

You can buy locally grown blooms for mom and help support the Master Gardener Program, which provides 13-week master gardener training programs for Michiganders as well as seminars and classes for the public.

The flower and plant sale features a selection of perennials, hanging baskets, annual flowers, vegetables, herbs and gardening gifts. Daily drawings for a free hanging basket will be conducted both days.

The sale takes place 9 a.m.–6 p.m.

May 8 and 9 a.m.–3 p.m. May 9 in the Walnut Room of the Kalamazoo County Building, 3299 Gull Road.

Something Historical

Experience the American frontier You

can experience black powder shooting contests, live reenactments and live entertainment at Frontier Days at Olde World Village, 13215 M-96, in Augusta. Certain aspects of America between 1780 and 1880 come alive at this annual event, set for May 16 and 17. The event includes pioneer-themed artisans, a traders’ row, target shooting, Native American dancing and activities for kids and families.

Admission is $10 per person, or free for children under 12. For ticket sales or more information, visit OldeWorldVillage.com.

8 | Encore MAY 2015

Something Delicious A taste of Tanzania

Kalamazoo’s only African restaurant, Jambo African Cuisine, opened in January at 6541 Stadium Drive. It offers traditional Tanzanian-influenced fare, from samosas (fried pastry with savory fillings) to meat and vegetable dishes spiced with flavors ranging from the Middle East to India — all areas of culinary influence for Tanzanian cuisine.

The restaurant has received positive reviews on social media rating sites such as Facebook, Urbanspoon and Yelp, which cite the welcoming atmosphere, flavorful dishes and unique food as reasons to go. Local diners recommend trying the chai tea and the beef samosas.

Jamba African Cuisine is open 11 a.m.–9 p.m.

Sunday–Thursday and 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Friday, but it’s closed Saturday. Find more information at Facebook.com/Jambo-African-Cuisine or call 366-4334.

Something Hoppy

The women behind local brewing Learn about the booming brewing industry from the perspective of

women in the Women of West Michigan Beer Tour, which takes place 11:30 a.m.–5 p.m. May 16 in and around Kalamazoo.

The tour offers four stops: Tibbs Brewing Co., where co-owner Cindee Tibbs will talk about the launch of her nanobrewery; Hop Head Farms, in Hickory Corners, where guests will visit with farm co-owner Bonnie Steinman and learn about her state-of-the-art hops-processing equipment; Boatyard Brewing Co., to meet brewmaster Amy Waugaman; and finally Arcadia Ales, to discuss the opening of the Kalamazoo facility with co-owner Mardy Suprise.

West Michigan Beer Tours, the host of this tour, promises other surprises and special guests along the way.

The tour costs $67 for a standard ticket, which includes beer at each brewery, or $79 for the same offerings plus a Hop Head Farms logo pint glass and a West Michigan Beer Tours T-shirt. To reserve a ticket, visit WestMichiganBeerTours.com.

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up front encore

The ‘Other’ Kellogg

WMU prof Brian C. Wilson pens bio of John Harvey Kellogg Robert M. Weir

Brian Powers

by

H

aving been born in California, Brian C. Wilson knew only two things about Michigan: “Cars come from Detroit, and cereal comes from Battle Creek.”

But soon after accepting a teaching position at Western Michigan University in 1996, the professor of comparative religion found a trove of intriguing information about his new home. Not only is Battle Creek home to the Kellogg Co., the ready-to-eat foods manufacturer founded

by Will Keith Kellogg in 1906, but “in the 1840s and 1850s Battle Creek

10 | Encore MAY 2015

Author Brian C. Wilson stands outside the former Battle Creek Sanitarium, which was overseen by John Harvey Kellogg. The building is now the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Building.

was a magnet for non-mainstream religions,” Wilson says.

In fact, Michigan was a hotbed for alternative religions in the 19th-century: the Strangite Mormons on Beaver Island; the Nation of Islam in Detroit; the Israelite House of David in Benton Harbor; Spiritualists in Frazier’s Grove near Vicksburg; and Hicksite Quakers,

Swedenborgians and Seventh-day Adventists having a healthy body, while necessary to in Battle Creek. carry out the work of God, was secondary So it wasn’t a surprise that Wilson, who to that obligation. In 1903, Kellogg, a strict specializes in American religious history, vegetarian, published The Living Temple, wanted to learn more about the Kellogg which included his religious views and his family, whose Seventh-day Adventist beliefs physiological practices of diet and exercise. inspired the accidental invention of the corn The church hierarchy banned it among flake by W.K. and his brother Dr. John Harvey Adventist congregations.

Kellogg. But Wilson was less drawn to W.K. In 1907, fearing that Kellogg would “change than to the “other” Kellogg. That attraction fundamentally the character of the Seventhresulted in Wilson’s book Dr. John Harvey day Adventist denomination,” the church Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living, disfellowshipped him. Kellogg continued to which was released in September. express his viewpoints, however, and his book W.K., born in 1860, and John Harvey, born Biologic Living, published in 1920, further in 1852, were two of 16 siblings and step- espoused his belief — known as “the Battle siblings. During his research, Wilson learned Creek idea” — that “it is not possible to have a about the “connections between flaked cereal pure spirit in an impure body.” and religious approaches to diet.” He also “John Harvey Kellogg was a brilliant began to see John Harvey as a “compelling man,” says Wilson. “He had a good mind figure” and the most widely known Adventist and tremendous confidence, but he always of his era. had to push himself forward. Because of his “John Harvey was raised as a dyed-in-the- physical shortcomings — rickets and nutritional wool Seventh-day Adventist,” but, as a physician, he was troubled by the “growing conflict of religion and Want To Learn More? science,” Wilson says.

• Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Wilson writes in his book, “Once Biologic Living is available at Kazoo Books, exposed to the erosive logic of the Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com and Kindle. natural sciences during his medical training, Kellogg’s restless mind • Tour the Historic Adventist Village, 482 W. would not allow him simply to Van Buren St., call 965-3000 for hours. accept the dogmas of Seventh-day • Tour the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center Adventism without synthesizing (former Battle Creek Sanitarium), 2 Hamblin them with his new scientific and Ave. E, call 961-2000 for hours. medical knowledge.”

Wilson found Kellogg had produced an extensive volume of theological writings that reside at the Archives problems as a child and being short of stature of Michigan, the University of Michigan, with a squeaky voice as an adult — he learned Michigan State University and Andrews early how to project his will.”

University. “Some people say he never had an Today, a massive downtown structure in unpublished thought,” Wilson says.

Battle Creek still attests to John Harvey’s Kellogg’s “central conflict” with the church, industriousness. In 1866, the Adventists says Wilson, was his belief that “physical established the Western Health Reform purity is as important as spiritual purity.” Institute, which operated in a farmhouse This idea contradicted Adventists’ belief that on what was then the city’s western edge.

Kellogg became superintendent of the institute 10 years later. The farmhouse was replaced with a larger building in 1878, and the operation expanded it extensively in the late 1800s. Renamed the Battle Creek Sanitarium, it gained acclaim as one of the premier wellness destinations in the United States, with clientele that included foreign notables as well as U.S. presidents, wealthy industrialists and movie stars.

That building was destroyed by fire in 1902, and John Harvey had it rebuilt only one year later. Six stories high and elegantly crafted in the style of the Italian Renaissance, the new sanitarium was outfitted with stateof-the-art holistic health equipment and services. But the entity went bankrupt during the Depression, and in 1942 the building was sold to the U.S. government as an Army hospital. It is now the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center. “The skyline is still dominated by the San’s twin towers, added in the late 1920s,” Wilson says.

Wilson also notes that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a historically significant presence in Battle Creek after having moved its headquarters from there in the early 1900s, in part to distance itself from Kellogg’s influential “amateur theologizing.” The church, which claims 17 million members worldwide, owns three blocks of downtown homes on West Van Buren Street that once belonged to its charismatic founders.

This Historic Adventist Village includes the John Harvey Kellogg Discovery Center, a museum that contains Kellogg’s medical and exercise equipment that was rescued from the sanitarium before it was turned over to the government.

Wilson hopes his biography of Dr. Kellogg will enlighten as well as inform.

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good works ENCORE

Eventful Experience

College students help nonprofits through new center Jarett Coy

Junfu Han

by

At times, the best way to learn how to do

something is just to do it.

That’s the idea behind experiential learning, a teaching method that engages students in hands-on, real-world activities to learn the skills needed to succeed in their fields.

It is also the driving force of the Kalamazoo Experiential Learning Center (KELC), a new nonprofit organization that provides college students with paid community-engagement and event-planning experience in Kalamazoo.

“My vision is to have students use what they learn in the classroom to serve as an eventconsulting street team to local nonprofits,” says Deb Droppers, the center’s coordinator, owner of The Event Company and co-founder of the event management minor in Western Michigan University’s College of Education and Human Development.

The KELC is funded by grants (including a start-up grant from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation), donations and client fees and was started in 2014 by Droppers, who is 12 | Encore MAY 2015

known in the greater Kalamazoo community as the event-planning maven behind the DoDah and Holiday parades, June Jubilee and several festivals.

The KELC currently employs six student interns who advise nonprofits on the creation and planning of fundraising events, marketing campaigns and festivals, and organizational growth.

Droppers’ own Event Company, which she started in 1995, is very similar to the KELC; it’s also an experiential learning company specializing in public relations, marketing and event management. The difference between the two is that the KELC is a nonprofit, which allows it to receive grant funding so the students can work with smaller or start-up nonprofits that wouldn’t be able to afford the type of event coordination The Event Company provides.

The KELC does charge clients a fee to provide event management services, and 60 percent of the center’s funding comes from

From left, Deb Droppers and college students Evelyn Gordon and Kelly Moss listen as downtown retailers Amy Zane and Joan Van Sickler discuss a project the students are working on.

client fees. The KELC’s clients include DKA Charities Inc., the Open Roads bicycle repair program, The Community Healing Center and New Year’s Fest. Since its inception, KELC has steadily grown and acquired new clients, but Droppers says she can’t take all the credit.

“Start to finish, this has all been designed by interns,” she says.

One of those interns is Evelyn Gordon, an organizational communication major at WMU. Gordon is helping to organize Tips for Kids, a part of Roof Sit, the annual fundraising event for the Community Healing Center’s programs to treat and prevent child abuse.

Tips for Kids will take place May 14-16 and have volunteer teams at local Shell service stations washing windshields and pumping gas for tips, which will then be donated to the Community Healing Center. Last year’s

event raised $7,800; this year the KELC crew hopes to raise $13,500.

“It is so fulfilling to work on this cause,” Gordon says. “I really believe in it and its impact on the entire community.”

Working at the KELC, Gordon says, has “brought me closer to the community by allowing me access to community events that I would have otherwise not been a part of.”

That fulfillment and community impact are part of “placemaking,” which is at the center of Droppers’ mission to instill ownership of community in college students while giving them practical experience. The purpose of placemaking is to redefine and transform perceptions of public spaces in Kalamazoo, Droppers says, by having nonprofits host fun events in underutilized and underappreciated locations in the community.

The KELC’s first placemaking event, a Downtown Music Jam, was held in September and featured local musicians performing on the steps of the 8th District Courthouse, on West Michigan Avenue. Another Downtown Music Jam with live entertainment will be held May 19 outside of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation offices, at the corner of Michigan and Pitcher streets.

The KELC’s crew is also organizing several summer block parties with Community Oriented Policing Services, a division of the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.

“We really have an opportunity to change the perception about certain downtown areas with placemaking,” Droppers says. “And it engages the students in the community, which aligns with the goals of our legislators — we want students to stay here and to keep their talent here.”

Aside from boosting community engagement, the placemaking and event planning that the KELC provides also allow students to learn by doing and making mistakes.

“Through experiential leaning, we have the ability to empower students to learn the top five successful traits — flexibility, people skills, organization, passion and time management,” Droppers says. “Believe me, this is learned through doing … time and time again.”

Staff writer Tiffany Fitzgerald assisted with this story.

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Enterprise ENCORE

Starting Out Right

Business incubator helps young entrepreneurs W

Palan, dean of the Haworth College of Business, and replicates a program at Iowa State University, where she used to work.

Since its establishment in 2013, Starting Gate has accepted 25 companies into its semester-long accelerator programs, which run during WMU’s spring and fall semesters and summer sessions.

During the Starting Gate programs, students are given the tools and networking resources to plan a business launch. Since many of the student participants have full daytime schedules, they are given 24-hour access to the Starting Gate office in order to plan and strategize. They also receive weekly support from community members and WMU faculty who provide workshops and guidance.

WMU student Brandon O’Neill presents the ideas behind his company, Active Hydrofit, to others at a Starting Gate session.

Junfu Han

hen Western Michigan University junior Josie Marshall came up with the idea of starting her own business, For the Funds of It, to plan fundraising events, she quickly found that having a great idea for a business doesn’t always equate to launching that business.

“I had this idea, and I didn’t really know where to go with it,” she says.

“I’m a college student so I obviously don’t have a lot of capital. Then I got this email from Starting Gate that said, ‘Do you have an idea but don’t know where to go with it?’ And I said, ‘Yes! This is for me!’”

Starting Gate is a nonprofit incubator organization affiliated with, but not financially supported by, WMU and its Haworth College of Business. Supported by donations and endowments, it provides support services, mentorship and workspace for entrepreneurial WMU students such as Marshall. Starting Gate was started by Kay

14 | Encore MAY 2015

“We have a really cool workspace, workshops every week, and we prepare for Demo Day, Media Day and Investor Day presentations,” Marshall says. “They (Starting Gate) also provided business cards for me, which were really beneficial. It’s a great program that allows you to work with so many different people, and Lara Hobson (director of operations at Starting Gate) was able to match me up with the perfect people in the community to help me get started.”

Hobson describes Starting Gate as “a startup itself” and says its programs continue to develop and may morph into sessions that last the entire academic year. Hobson is also hoping for some additional financial support to allow Starting Gate to provide seed money for companies of its graduates. (Many other university-affiliated accelerator programs, such as the one at Michigan State University, provide such funding.)

Being connected to WMU allows Starting Gate to utilize the university community for networking and outreach, Hobson says.

Often a student will need some guidance on a patent or point of development, and Starting Gate can help find the right person at WMU with the expertise to help.

Marshall graduated from the Starting Gate program in the fall and is finishing her degree in management and entrepreneurship. Even after students complete the 100-day program, Starting Gate continues to provide support to aid them in establishing their business roots.

“I’m still in the process,” Marshall says, “but now I know where I want to go with my business and what to do to get there. It’s a great program and great opportunity for any entrepreneur who doesn’t know what to do, who’s stuck.”

Aside from direction, resources, support and a physical workspace, Starting Gate provides another fundamental service for startups: pressure to get things done.

“I keep them accountable — it’s like my professor hat comes on when I’m working with students,” Hobson says. “When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re on your own with everything. Who else is going to keep them accountable?”

During the program, the three milestones — Media Day, Demo Day and Investor Day — require students to create prototypes or develop business concepts to demonstrate to members of the community, local media outlets and investors to receive primarily feedback but possibly funding.

Companies of students who have graduated from the program include SafeSense Technologies, which is developing helmet sensors designed to help determine the extent of a sports-related head injury faster and with more accuracy, and SpeechMasterPro, which is focused on helping children and adults with speech disorders and whose first device helps improve enunciation. Both companies have been featured in local news reports.

It’s motivating to see the companies that move through Starting Gate develop, Hobson says, and that’s what keeps her connected to the organization and hopeful about its future.

“I started my own business five years ago, and I know what it’s like to be in the dark with finding resources,” says Hobson, who also works as a customer service consultant. “You just do so much on your own and you feel like you don’t know where else to turn. Just to let our students take advantage of our knowledge and help them find all these resources and to see their ambitions is exciting.”

To learn more about Starting Gate, apply for the program (open to all WMU students) or donate to it, visit wmich.edu/StartingGate.

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Savor encore

Culinary Kalamazoo

Five delicacies to experience at Pacific Rim Foods The greater Kalamazoo area has a number of small-scale grocery treasures, each with a unique offering of foods and finds. This series takes a look at those grocery stores and the unique foods savvy shoppers can find at them.

Brian Powers

P

Rikako Izumi, an employee of Pacific Rim Foods, marks a variety of Asian foods for sale at the market.

16 | Encore MAY 2015

acific Rim Foods was opened in 2008 by wife-andhusband team Xin and Anson Liu. The store, at 1926 Whites Road, in Oakwood Plaza, sells produce, meats, rice, candies, dry goods and frozen foods from countries in Asia.

“Xin and I are both Chinese so inevitably we lean toward Chinese food a little bit more, but we try to have a little bit of everything — Korean, Japanese and Malaysian,” Anson Liu says.

Pacific Rim Foods’ customer base pulls from both the Asian and Asian-American population of Kalamazoo as well as from non-Asian Kalamazooans, who make up about 60 percent of the customer population, Liu says.

The store has continued to grow since 2008, a trend Liu says they didn’t initially anticipate.

“We actually talked to Tim Timmons, the landlord and owner of Oakwood Plaza, about taking half the space originally,” he says. “But Timmons said we wouldn’t be able to make it on such a small amount of space. He really helped a lot — gave us a break on rent the first couple of years so we could build — and now we’re so happy we have all the space because we need it.”

In online reviews of Pacific Rim Foods on Yelp, Foursquare, Facebook and Foodspotting, the most-talked-about aspect of the store is its Friday offerings. Every Friday the Lius drive to Chicago’s Chinatown area to bring back a selection of baked goods, roast pork and duck and fresh produce, and in the summertime fresh star fruit, dragon fruit, lychee and sometimes fresh crab. They return with the goods midafternoon and often sell out before the next day.

“I like the atmosphere on Fridays,” Liu says. “It reminds me of the small markets (we had) growing up in China.”

If you go to Pacific Rim Foods, whether it’s for the first time or as a regular, here are five must-try items, according to Liu and local online reviewers.

Mochi

One suggestion is the Daifuku mochi — pastel-colored sweet Japanese rice cakes stuffed with sugary paste filling.

There’s also ice cream mochi, which have ice cream fillings.

Apparently mochi snobbery exists, and the pecking order is shelf mochi (least desirable), packaged mochi in the refrigerator section (more desirable) and fresh mochi (most desirable). One reviewer says although the Daifuku mochi is refrigerated and not fresh, it’s “good mochi” and “so much better” than anything on a shelf. Whichever mochi you opt for, there are several flavors to choose from in either the ice cream, refrigerator or shelf sections.

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Dumplings

One of Pacific Rim Foods’ most popular items is frozen dumplings, and the store has an ample selection, which can be narrowed down by filling, dumpling size and country of origin.

Liu says the ease of cooking these dumplings — just put them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes — makes them popular.

“Since this is a college town, we have a lot of students come in, and one of the things they like to buy are dumplings,” Liu says. “It’s easy for them to make.”

From the Friday delivery ...

Of all the types of meat the Lius pick up on Fridays in Chicago, Anson Liu recommends trying the roast duck because “it’s so delicious.” They also pick up roast pork and delicacy items such as pig ears and chicken feet. The chicken feet draw attention for their strange cuisine appeal, and both delicacies get some recommendations online from market-goers.

Another Yelp and Foodspotting recommendation is the bean paste snowball, a sweet rice pastry filled with bean paste, not unlike mochi, but the soft pastry offers a different taste and texture.

An item that seems to get as much attention as the chicken feet is the barbecue pork buns that come from Chicago bakeries on Fridays.

“I like the sweetness and doughiness of the bun mixed with the savory,” one reviewer says.

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Great Lakes

Trekker She takes her adventures 1,000 miles at a time by

18 | Encore MAY 2015

Robert M. Weir

Philip Rugel

A

h, how Lake Michigan draws us with its beaches, dunes, waves, sunsets. We have our favorite places: a state park, a lighthouse, a “secret spot.” We sit and admire the lake or stroll the water’s edge. But to trek the entire 1,000-mile shoreline? Do we love the lake that much?

Loreen Niewenhuis does.

Niewenhuis, who grew up in suburban Detroit and now lives in Battle Creek, has not only trekked the entire shoreline of Lake Michigan, but also walked another 1,000 w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 19

20 | Encore MAY 2015

Kevin Miyazaki

miles on the shores of the other four Great Lakes and explored 1,000 miles of Great Lakes islands by kayak, bicycle or on foot. And she’s captured all of this in three books about her adventures, the latest of which will be released this month. This new book, A 1,000Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure, is an extension of her first and second books, A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach (2011) and A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk (2013).

In her new book, Niewenhuis explores 30 islands of the Great Lakes, from the wilds of Isle Royale, in Lake Superior, to Montreal Island, a modern metropolis on the St. Lawrence River. Niewenhuis learned many lessons and experienced many revelations from her first 2,000 miles of lake trekking, but the island adventure intrigued her the most. “There are so many distinctive islands in our Great Lakes, each with its own historical and geological character,” she says.

Niewenhuis began her lake adventures in 2008, at age 45. “I felt something pull at me, goading me to take on something bigger than myself, to challenge myself in a big way,” Niewenhuis writes in A 1,000-Mile Walk on the Beach. Before that adventure, she considered spending weeks in a forest, but turned instead to Lake Michigan, her favorite body of water. She thought, “Why not walk its shoreline day after day until I had walked all of it, captured it in my muscles, recorded it in my body?”

That fall she told her husband, Jim, and sons, Ben and Lucas, then in their late teens, “This is the adventure I must have.”

Niewenhuis began to prepare for her adventure by jogging and training at a gym. With the intent to “keep as close to the water as possible,” she studied maps and satellite images of the lakeshore, beaches, parks, commercial and industrial structures, and the “wild expanse of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.”

She also researched the locations of coastal newspapers, electronic media outlets, libraries and independent bookstores. With a master’s degree in biological science from Wayne State University and another master’s in fine arts for writing from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky, Niewenhuis had committed herself to documenting her adventure, and these literary businesses would be the conduits through which she would deliver her story.

Plus, having worked in medical research at Henry Ford Hospital, among others, she saw a connection between sterile laboratory environments and the great outdoors. “It’s all science,” she says in an interview. “I love science and I love writing. The adventure of

trekking — and writing about it — allows me to use all those parts of myself.”

Niewenhuis started her trek around Lake Michigan on March 16, 2009, on Navy Pier in Chicago. The temperature was in the 60s, warm for the last days of winter. With the sun glistening over the great expanse of water in front of her, she looked south through clear, bright air, feeling thrilled, scared and “a bit overwhelmed at the scale” of what she was about to begin.

But begin she did, walking through Millennium Park, then past Adler Planetarium, Meigs Field and marina after marina. This part of the walk was easy enough, thanks to smooth city pathways. But then came the “industrial horrorscape” of Lake Michigan’s southern tip: oil refineries, steel mills, networks of railroad tracks and highways that forced Niewenhuis to backtrack and see “many places to dump a body,” she says, well aware of South Chicago’s infamy for violence, Yet, she endured, staying that first night at a bed & breakfast where she had a reservation.

On March 20, she reached Union Pier, having walked 72 miles — the side. “This was a moment for me to think back along the hundreds of roughest miles — in five days. After a four-day respite at home, she miles I had covered this year … path and road, rock and sand, marsh resumed her walk, trekking 53 miles to South Haven in the next three and swamp and bog, in two countries. I had seen the earth split open or tunneled to extract limestone and gypsum, sandstone and copper days.

Six months later, on Sept. 26, 2008, and four days after the … raging rivers diverted to generate electricity … ravages of urban autumnal equinox, Niewenhuis returned to Navy Pier, on foot, from decay, but also revitalization of riverfronts.”

But this termination point proved to be just another open door the north. Over 64 days, divided into 10 segments with recuperative rest breaks at home, she walked 1,019 miles, or an average of 16 miles in Niewenhuis’ journey. She has become a face for preservation, per day, 80 percent of the time alone, with either a small sling pack partnering with environmental organizations such as the Alliance for and food or a full-fledged backpack with camping gear. She wore the Great Lakes, The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club. She also speaks at bookstores throughout the Great Lakes states. “I love giving through three pairs of hiking boots.

Niewenhuis spent the next two years crafting her first book, writing these presentations, and they are very well received,” she says. “I use about Lake Michigan’s nuances, its geology and hydrology, its history videos and maps and graphics to connect with an audience.”

Because of her adventures, Niewenhuis has participated in a study and economy, its ecosystems for fish and fowl, and the pollution that threatens all. “As citizens, we need to be aware and vigilant of of moose bones on Isle Royale, piping plover research on the Manitou our Great Lakes,” she says, expressing disappointment at states and Islands, and aquatic exploration with the U.S. Geological Survey. And she accepted an invitation to ride the schooner Scorpion for the communities that industrialize most of their shorelines. ”I had the expectation that I could just explain how beautiful Lake bicentennial reenactment of the Battle of Lake Erie, which, with 17 Michigan is. And it is. But, as I hiked, I also saw the abuses and the tall ships, was the largest naval reenactment in American history.

All of these endeavors, she says, contortions, the dunes that were were away from the mainland — carved away for industry, the many either afloat or on islands — and they Superfund sites that are still being Loreen Niewenhuis’ planted the seeds for yet another cleaned up. And I realized that, even Upcoming Appearances: adventure. Why not a third book to though these waters are vast, they’re complete the trilogy? A book about still fragile.”

• Book signing, 5-8 p.m. May 1 (during Art Hop), the Great Lakes’ 35,000 islands?

So it’s no wonder that trekking Nature Connection, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall In June 2013, Niewenhuis began around the world’s fifth largest lake • Great Lakes Islands presentation, 6:30 p.m. her third adventure: a walking, biking only whetted Niewenhuis’ appetite May 12, Portage District Library, 300 Library and kayaking journey that took her for more. Near the end of her 1,000Lane to islands in all five Great Lakes: mile journey, her “adventure of a the Apostle Islands, the Manitous, lifetime” morphed into “This can’t be Find a full list of Niewenhuis’ events throughout Manitoulin (the world’s largest island the only one; this is too much fun.” the Great Lakes states at laketrek.com/authorin fresh water), Kelleys and South Why not walk another 1,000 miles, events.

Bass islands in Lake Erie, and a few she thought, this time touching the of the Thousand Islands. Plus, she shoreline of all five Great Lakes? kayaked through many more. This Thus, Niewenhuis’ second trek began in April 2012, extending from Port Clinton to Bay City — 302 third trip concluded with another grand finale — a walk around the miles in 23 days. Continuing northward, she walked Michigan’s entire storied Mackinac Island, with a finish on the veranda at the Grand Lake Huron shoreline. Then came two segments of Lake Superior, a Hotel. “It was a revelation to explore these islands,” she says. “Each stretch of Lake Ontario, and a retracing of the Sleeping Bear Dunes has its own character in and of itself.”

To seek revelation and be aware of individual characteristics of shoreline on Lake Michigan. The adventure ended Oct. 20, 2012, at islands says much about Loreen Niewenhuis. “I like to be with my Niagara Falls.

“It was the grandest finish line ever, with the waterfall and the own thoughts, and these adventures were transcendent,” she says. “I found that I could really connect with the environment in a way that beautiful trail on the Canadian side,” she says.

By this time, thousands of fans were following her through I didn’t think was possible.”

Niewenhuis says she learned that she “could push well past” the newspaper columns, radio and television reports, her website, and social media. “Walk with me,” Niewenhuis had invited readers in her walls that she thought were in her life. “The effort of hiking fell away first book. And many did just that — either vicariously or physically, as though the earth was turning beneath my feet. I felt completely connected with what was around me: sights, sounds, smells— here and there along the way.

Ben and Lucas were with their mom at Niagara, as they had been everything sharpened. And the physicality of moving over the land from time to time earlier. So were another 50 people, ascending 300 was gone. It was almost magical in some way. It changed me.”

Loreen Niewenhuis’ books are available many places where books are feet, a challenging incline even for a person in average health.

Niewenhuis’ account of this apex is especially powerful, fueled by sold. To learn more about her adventures, visit laketrek.com. the energy of her entourage as well as the roaring waters at their w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 21

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24 | Encore MAY 2015

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Ghosts of the Past A sneak peek at ‘Hidden Kalamazoo’

Y

ou emerge from a dark stairway, turn a corner and are suddenly bathed in light. Stand there a moment and take in the wide wooden staircase and two stories of balconied walkways illuminated from above by a large double pitch skylight.

As you go from room to room, amid the peeling paint and scuffed floors, you can see stubs of pipes peeking out of the wall and the outlines of where sinks used to be. Some rooms still have their towel bar in place.

At the end of the hall, a communal clawfoot bathtub and toilets are still in place. In the front of the building is a suite — two rooms with windows that overlook a bustling street below.

Welcome to the Hotel Holt.

Last used as a hotel in the 1980s, the two floors above Alfred E Bike, at 320 E. Michigan, are unrestored and full of reminders of the building’s history. The former hotel space also happens to be one of the seven stops on the Hidden Kalamazoo tour set for June 20 and 21. The tour, in its third year, offers people a chance to see downtown Kalamazoo spaces rarely glimpsed by the public, where the ghosts of the past are still visible.

Coordinated by the Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission, the tour raises money for the commission,

Opposite page: The dusty stairway of the former Hotel Holt. This page, from left, a dressing room for performers at the Kalamazoo State Theatre; a lonely couch in the upper floor of The Heritage Company.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 25

which uses it to fund historic preservation projects. Sharon Ferraro, historic preservation coordinator for the city of Kalamazoo and a member of the tour’s planning committee, says the project the commission is currently working on is restoration of the Fountain of the Pioneers, in Bronson Park.

Only 1,000 tickets, which cost $15 each, are available for the tour, which sold out in 2014.

“The tours have been so popular because it’s a chance for people to look behind the scenes,” Ferraro says. “They get to go inside buildings that are vacant or that most people don’t ever get to visit. We all lose the chance to see these spaces as more and more of these spaces are developed.”

In addition to the Hotel Holt, this year’s tour features: • The State Theatre, including the stage door and dressing room areas.

• The Civic Theatre, including the green room, kitchen, backstage and under the stage.

• The Bronson Healthcare corporate offices, which were formerly The Upjohn Co.’s world headquarters.

• The upper level of The Heritage Company.

• The Van Kersen Building, above Food Dance.

• The Fountain of the Pioneers.

A number of downtown restaurants and stores, including Mangia Mangia, Tudor House Teas & Spice, Taco Bob’s and Popcorn City, offer discounts on food or beverages for tour-goers. The discounts are valid only on the days of the tour, and patrons must show their tour tickets to get the discounts.

From top: Peeling paint, exposed lath and an old sign for the Hotel Burdick sit in an unfinished room at The Heritage Company; the double pitch grandeur of the restored staircase in the Van Kersen Building; the stage controls at the Kalamazoo State Theatre. Opposite page, when the lights are up, the ornate interior of the State Theatre is a feast of color.

26 | Encore MAY 2015

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 27

Clockwise from upper left: Some of the vintage and antique wares stored in The Heritage Company’s upper level; the brass banister of the stairway railing at the former Upjohn World headquarters, now the corporate offices for Bronson Healthcare; the lobby of the Bronson corporate offices reflects the building’s Art Deco influences; a staircase leading to a lower level lobby at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre.

Opposite page, a doorway to the green room area of the Civic Theatre.

28 | Encore MAY 2015

Hidden Kalamazoo tours When: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

June 20 & 21 How much: $15; children must be accompanied by an adult.

Where to buy tickets: Available at both D&W Fresh Market locations, 2103 Parkview Ave. and 525 Romence Road; The Spirit of Kalamazoo, 128 Portage St.; The Kalamazoo Historic Preservation Commission, 415 Stockbridge Ave.; and the Kalamazoo City Treasurer’s Office, 241 South St.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 29

Arts ENCORE

Expanding Access to Art

Art Hop has jumped its downtown boundaries andrew domino

Courtesy

by

Art Hop, held the first Friday of each month since 1997 in

downtown Kalamazoo, has long mixed local artists with local businesses. Except for a few “expanded” Art Hops each year that included art displays at other locations, most Art Hop venues had been downtown.

But now two new neighborhoods participate in Art Hop — the Washington Square area of the Edison neighborhood and the Oakwood Plaza area of the Oakwood/Winchell neighborhood. These neighborhoods wanted to boost their businesses and visibility, and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, which organizes Art Hop, was excited to offer more venues to its artists.

“There have always been places outside downtown (taking part in Art Hop), but this is the first time it’s been concentrated in an

30 | Encore MAY 2015

Art Hop visitors view works displayed in a gallery set up in a storefront in the Washington Square neighborhood.

area,” says Beth McCann, deputy director of the Arts Council. “The expansion has always been artist-driven. They came to us and said they wanted to be a part of it.”

Bree Hahn, co-owner of Initial Attraction, a gift store in the Oakwood Plaza, says her store became an Art Hop venue last November because she knew there would be plenty of visitors.

“There’s a buzz in the air on the first Friday of the month,” she says.

“We liked the idea that it was a plaza-wide event.”

In March, 49 locations were part of Art Hop, including nine in the Oakwood Plaza area and six in the Edison neighborhood. That’s up from the approximately 30 venues that used to participate

most months of the year. Almost 80 shops participate in December Art Hops, just in time for Christmas.

Heather Purcell, manager of Wild Birds Unlimited in the Oakwood Plaza, says her store featured nature photography from Josh and Dave Haas at the November and December Art Hops. Purcell says she bought one of the photos for full-time display in the store and it has generated excitement among customers about future Art Hops.

“There was a lot of (foot) traffic,” Purcell says. “A lot of people didn’t know we were here. The recognition is what we needed.”

Several stores in the Washington Square area, south of downtown along Portage Street, started participating in Art Hop in 2013. Their participation was part of a greater movement to revitalize Washington Square, which was a busy shopping area in the 1940s and 1950s. The area experienced a downturn in recent decades, and the Kalamazoo County Land Bank has been spearheading efforts to bring new business and residents to the struggling area.

Art Hop has helped that effort, says Land Bank Executive Director Kelly Clarke, who noted that “we’re able to benefit from the name recognition.”

Artists enjoy that same recognition from Art Hop, McCann says, because “it’s a great opportunity to have a first show and it gives veteran artists an opportunity to show off their new work if they’re trying a new style.”

Even if an artist doesn’t sell a piece during Art Hop, visitors often collect artists’ business cards and track them down later to purchase their art.

“It’s great to see what sells and what people are interested in,” says Amy Zane, who features high-school-age artists and others at her shop, Amy Zane: Store & Studio, at 132 S. Kalamazoo Mall. Zane has displayed her own work at past Art Hops and knows the benefits as an artist and gallery owner.

“It’s a ton of recognition for artists, and it’s made a huge difference in (potential customers) knowing where we are,” she says.

Scarlet Vazquez, director of participating arts at the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kalamazoo, helped almost a dozen middle

school students display their paintings and drawings and give a dance performance at last October’s Washington Square Art Hop. Another show is planned for this month’s Art Hop, when both Vazquez and Clarke say the Washington Square neighborhood venues will offer several activities highlighting the neighborhood’s improvements.

In 2014, about 75,000 individuals attended Art Hops, according to McCann. She expects attendance of about 80,000 this year.

“Stores are watching neighboring businesses jumping on board,” she says.

“They see that it’s good for their business and the community.”

McCann says the Arts Council is also eyeing the Stuart area, north of the Kalamazoo College campus, as a future Art Hop location.

Hahn says she has been hearing good reviews concerning the participation of Oakwood Plaza stores in Art Hop. “We’re hearing that it’s nice to have an alternative, or that they’re stopping here on the way downtown,” she says. “We wanted to do it because it’s a fun event. The community comes out for it.”

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 31

Arts ENCORE

Age-Defying Literature

Author finds ‘the extraordinary’ writing books for young adults Annette Shutty

Before she left, Stamm self-published the first two books of her three-book Lightbringer series — A Gift of Wings (2012) and A Gift of Light (2014). Both tell the story of a late teen exploring a newfound world of half-angels.

The Lightbringer series was Stamm’s first foray into YA, self-publishing and novel writing. She had previously contributed to the anthology Into the Storm: Journeys with Alzheimer’s, a collection of true stories about Alzheimer’s and dementia, and Undead of Winter — An Anthology, a collection of wintry horror stories.

“I was reading and writing a lot of essays and autobiographical pieces when all of a sudden all I wanted to read Author Stephanie was (young adult) Stamm, left, and the cover of her first fantasy, so I indulged Young Adult novel, A myself,” Stamm says.

Gift of Wings.

She found that her dive into young adult literature as a reader was also pulling her in as a writer. She kept thinking about how she would write a YA novel and after a while she decided she had enough ideas to start. After asking a close friend who had published both traditionally and independently about the two options, she decided to go it alone.

“I thought, ‘Why not? Let’s try this,’ because I’m kind of a control freak so I knew I would like being able to make all the decisions,” Stamm says. “I think if I knew then what I know now, how much self-publishing would entail, I might have been too intimidated.”

Learning how to format books for e-publishing and print publishing required Stamm to read up on HTML coding and design formatting

Who could have predicted the rise of young adult literature — the

celebrity status of the authors, the fast-selling pace of popular series or the fact that 55 percent of YA consumers are actually older than 18? Or that, of that 55 percent, 28 percent are between the ages of 28 and 40, according to a recent survey, making YA hardly Y at all?

Perhaps Stephanie Stamm, who has written two young adult novels of her own, could have — she understands the attraction to series like Twilight, Hunger Games and Divergent.

“I think that part of it is these questions YA answers — who you want to be and who you are — are questions that don’t go away,” Stamm says. “I would say that I hit these questions every decade or so. Even as an adult you can relate to this cycle.”

Originally from Kentucky, Stamm moved to Kalamazoo 14 years ago. She’s worked as a press operator, educator, potter and technical writer. It’s that last job that prompted Stamm to move from Kalamazoo to Atlanta in March.

“I’m so going to miss Kalamazoo,” she said in an interview before she left for Georgia, “but this opportunity came along and I couldn’t say no.”

32 | Encore MAY 2015

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and to become familiar with the artistic elements of the novel, including the allimportant cover. In publishing her first book, A Gift of Wings, Stamm decided to change the cover from a line drawing of wings to something more dramatic, fantastical and dark.

“The first cover was a very nice cover,” Stamm says, “but it didn’t speak to the age group or the genre as nicely as this one does.”

Although Stamm’s readership is small, the response to the Lightbringer series has been generally positive. On Amazon, A Gift of Light receives a five-star average, but its sequel, A Gift of Shadows, gets one poor review from a reader who hates the new love interest. Both books consistently receive four- or five-star ratings on Barnes & Noble and Kobo. A Gift of Wings also received a 4.5-star rating on IndieReader.com, earning it an IndieReader Approved designation on this website dedicated to independently published literature.

“It’s no exaggeration to say there are way more paranormal novels out there than any one person can be expected to read, and a lot of them have angels in them,” writes reviewer Niko Sylvester. “So I hope I’ll be forgiven when I say I approached A Gift of Wings with … considerable feelings of doubt.

Stamm’s writing, though, soon had me setting my misgivings aside — while it’s not perfect prose, it’s definitely good, and it’s very evident the author has spent a lot of time honing her craft.”

With all the paranormal fantasy novels out there, why do readers keep reading Stamm?

What draws them in?

“I think it’s related to an appeal to the extraordinary within the ordinary,” says Stamm. “Fantasy allows readers to explore modern mythology and questions of being and to reclaim and domesticate the dark and scary.”

When it comes to writing urban fantasy YA novels, Stamm herself feels drawn to the questions they present about identity, purpose and place.

“Or maybe I’m just immature for my age,” the 49-year-old jokes. “That’s my secret identity — I’m really a young person in a middle-age body.”

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 33

The Red Sea Pedestrians

The fun band

34 | Encore MAY 2015

encore ARTS

whose sound defies definition

by

Robert M. Weir

T

Mazawi

he Red Sea Pedestrians is an unusual name for a band, but then the band itself, composed of five gifted musician/singer/songwriters, is also unusual.

They started as sort of a klezmer band, playing Jewish folk music, but they like to defy definition — not only in genre but in artistic endeavors. One gig might find the group playing alongside a concert band; in another, the band may undertake a “geekish collaboration” of Beatles music with a fellow local band.

According to string player and singer Ian Gorman, the band’s name relates to its klezmer roots and came from the movie Monty Python’s Life of Brian, in which the lead character proclaims, “I’m a Red Sea pedestrian and proud of it.”

No one can really peg the band’s sound. “It’s difficult to plug us into one category because we try to combine different sounds — klezmer, Eastern European, gypsy, jazz, American roots and rock,” Gorman says.

Gorman’s wife, Rachel, the group’s clarinetist and a vocalist, agrees. “We don’t confine ourselves to a single type of music, so we’re open to exploring different styles that give space and respect to our creativity,” she says.

That openness to exploration may come from the varying influences and experiences of the band members. Rachel played in a marching band and was a fan of Benny Goodman and other jazz masters. Violinist and vocalist Cori Somers grew up listening to Itzhak Perlman, Midori Got o¯ and Motown, jazz and rock. Bill Caskey, singer and double bass and guitar player, was raised in a houseful of instruments with musician parents who came out of the Old Town School of Folk Music tradition in Chicago. Ben Lau, the group’s drummer since 2012, also has concert and marching bands in his past, but cites classical music, Scott Joplin and ragtime piano and the soundtrack of ’80s 8bit Nintendo video games as his musical influences.

The Red Sea Pedestrians are, from left, Ian Gorman, Rachel Gorman, Cori Somers, Bill Caskey and Ben Lau.

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 35

“So we have the diverse ability to read music like orchestral musicians, yet we can funk out and improv like rock stars,” Somers says. “This makes us more than just a band.”

This high level of diversity enables The Red Sea Pedestrians to stage performances with large ensembles such as the Kalamazoo Concert Band, the Kalamazoo Male Chorus and Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers as well as solo gigs.

The group has a “tendency to attract audiences who have an appreciation for less-mainstream musicians,” Ian Gorman says. “The most common compliment we get is that we simply don’t sound like anybody else.”

“Our fans range in age from the single digits to people in their 80s,” Rachel Gorman adds. “It’s neat to see people from all walks of life enjoying what we do.”

The Red Sea Pedestrians began performing in 2005 in a collaboration at Kraftbrau Brewery (now Old Dog Tavern) with popular local band The Corn Fed Girls. “The original members of The Red Sea Pedestrians had an ongoing joke that we should form a klezmer band,” Ian says.

“So when The Corn Fed Girls asked us to be the opening act for their annual Christmas show, we said, ‘Why not?’”

The band’s current five members include two married couples: the Gormans as well as Somers and Caskey. Rachel and Ian became friends in the late 1990s and grew closer by performing together.

They finally started dating in 2008. “She hypnotized me with her golden voice, and I wore her down with my horrible jokes,” Ian says.

Caskey and Somers met in 2000 while playing in separate bands and married in 2003. She joined The Red Sea Pedestrians in 2010; he in 2013. Ian Gorman jokingly claims that Somers “stalked us” about getting into the band, and she agrees. “I had known Rachel and Ian before Bill and I moved to Canada for a few years,” Somers says. “When we came back, they were playing in a klezmer band, so I contacted Ian and said, ‘Sooooo, if you ever need a violinist who’s actually Jewish, I would love to play with you guys.’”

36 | Encore MAY 2015

Each band member is a songwriter, allowing The Red Sea Pedestrians to perform many original tunes. Most of the songs start with one person’s idea and incorporate strengths of each musician.

In their first decade, The Red Sea Pedestrians have performed in living rooms, rock clubs and concert halls and at Art Hop. They’ve been on stage with The Corn Fed Girls numerous times, including for those “geekish collaborations” on late Beatles music. They’ve written approximately 50 original tunes (25 by current members) and recorded three full-length CDs, two extended-play CDs, and a “warm, smooth” 45-RPM, 7-inch vinyl disc. Two of their albums, The Electromagnetic Escape and Adrift, have been honored as “Roots Album of the Year” at the Jammie Awards, presented by WYCE-FM in Grand Rapids. But what really energizes the band are its performances, which are as different as the feelings they evoke in their audiences.

The group’s annual Halloween Masquerade Ball at Bell’s Brewery “started in 2008 as a lark,” Ian says, but, with crowds of 250 to 400 people wearing ever more elaborate masks, the party has become a much-anticipated community event.

The band performed with the Kalamazoo Concert Band at Chenery Auditorium in February. “What a show,” Somers says, “to share the stage with 80 musicians. And the audience was so receptive. I’ve never had so many enthusiastic comments after a show.”

On a more solemn note, Rachel recalls being approached by a woman at the Wheatland Music Festival a few years ago. “She shared that she had recently lost her mother and that her family played our CDs for her while she was in hospice. I was so amazed that our music, something we love to create, could bring that kind of joy and solace to others. I was very humbled and grateful.”

At the same time, this decade of experience stimulates The Red Sea Pedestrians to cast their dreams into the future. Here, the group’s visions are both pragmatic and wistful.

“I love bringing our music to new crowds,” Ian says, “and that creates opportunities for travel. But we’re all busy people with lots of

Robert M. Weir

plates spinning in the air, and the band needs to fit in with the rest of our lives.”

The rest of their lives includes families and day jobs.

Caskey is a youth services librarian for the Kalamazoo Public Library, having worked there since 2008 after earlier stints with libraries elsewhere in Michigan and in Canada.

Rachel is a radiology nurse at Borgess Medical Center, where she’s been employed since 2008.

Somers is a tenured core musician with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and the KSO’s director of educational partnerships, administering outreach programs that annually provide more than 15,000 area students with access to musical artists. She also teaches private lessons at Crescendo Academy of Music.

Take a Listen • Find The Red Sea Pedestrians online at redseapedestrians.com.

• Their music is for sale online at CD Baby, iTunes Store and earthworkmusic.com.

• Their discography includes “Tied to the Wheel/Magic Alex,” a 7-inch vinyl record (2014); The Electromagnetic Escape CD (2011); Adrift CD (2010); E.P. II extendedplay CD (2009); A Lesson in Cartography CD (2007); and SelfTitled E.P. extended-play CD (2006).

At left, The Red Sea Pedestrians performed alongside The Kalamazoo Concert Band at Chenery Auditorium in February. Above, the band’s bassist Bill Caskey, takes up the guitar for a tune.

Both Lau and Ian work in the music industry. Lau is co-owner of Sage on Sage studio and describes his clientele as “varied, with much rock and psychedelic, electronic and hip-hop, psychedelic funk, country funk, amalgamations.” Ian says Lau is many-dimensional. “In addition to being a drummer, he plays country pedal steel guitar and programs beats for the hip-hop group Maraj and has a history as both a punk/ska musician and as a band nerd.”

Ian, like Lau, is a recording engineer. He owns La Luna Recording & Sound. His customers are local bands as well as groups he has never met. “It’s wild these days,” he says. “People send files from all over through the Internet or on a CD or hard drive. I work on it and send it back.”

Somers says, “We all have so many other jobs and interests. Bill and I have two kids to raise, piano and dance recitals to attend, making sure our kids grow up loving the performing arts and going to festivals with us.

“But if I could answer dreamily,” she says of the group’s future, “I’d like to have a great experience recording our fourth album, perform three awesome shows a month and tour Europe for two weeks by 2017.”

Whether their dreams materialize locally or internationally, The Red Sea Pedestrians are, above all, committed to having fun. Fun with large performance ensembles. Fun with The Corn Fed Girls. Fun at festivals and outdoor concerts this summer. Fun at the annual Masquerade Ball at Bell’s. Fun composing songs for their next album.

Fun within the group itself.

Ian sums it up: “The most important thing is to make sure that The Red Sea Pedestrians remains fun.”

w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 37

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PERFORMING ARTS THEATER Plays Dearly Departed — A beleaguered family proves that living and dying in the South are seldom tidy and always hilarious, 8 p.m. May 1 & 2, New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St., 3813328.

A Piece of My Heart — Six women relive their memories of serving in Vietnam, 7:30 p.m.

May 1 & 2, Carver Center Studio, 426 S. Park St., 343-1313.

Richard III — A dramatic staged reading by the African Company, directed by Von Washington, Sr., sponsored by the Black Arts & Cultural Center, 7:30 p.m. May 1 & 2; 2 p.m.

May 3; Epic Theatre, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 349-1982.

Little Red Riding Hood — All Ears Theatre presents a mature treatment of the classic tale, 6 p.m. May 2, First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave., 342-5059.

MUSIC Bands & Solo Artists Dar Williams — American singer-songwriter specializing in pop folk, 9 p.m. May 1, Bell’s Eccentric Café, 355 E. Kalamazoo Ave., 3822332.

Cereal City Concert Band Spring Concert — Featuring Ed Zentera, trumpet, 7 p.m. May 2, Binda Theatre, Kellogg Community College, 450 North Ave., Battle Creek, 269-962-2153.

Cellist Richard Narroway — The 2010 Stulberg International String Competition winner performs Bach, 7:30 p.m. May 2, First Congregational Church, 345 W. Michigan Ave., 337-7407.

Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers — Michigan-based band, 8 p.m. May 8, Bell’s Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

Twin Peaks — Pop-rock band, 9:30 p.m. May 9, Bell’s Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

The Importance of Being Earnest — All Ears Theatre presents a comedy of mistaken identities and misunderstandings, 6 p.m. May 16, First Baptist Church, 342-5059.

Gilmore Rising Stars: Igor Levit — The pianist performs works by Bach, Beethoven and Prokofiev, 4 p.m. May 10, Wellspring Theater, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 3421166.

The Bickersons — All Ears Theatre presents a comedy from the golden age of radio, 6 p.m.

May 30, First Baptist Church, 342-5059.

Tedeschi Trucks Band — Grammy Awardwinning blues-rock group, 7:30 p.m. May 13, State Theatre, 404 S. Burdick St., 345-6500.

Musicals

Willie Nelson & Family — Country music, 7:30 p.m. May 20, Miller Auditorium, WMU, 3872300.

Crazy for You — Gershwin musical of romance and mistaken identities, 7:30 p.m. May 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 15 & 16; 2 p.m. May 3 & 10; Civic Theatre, 329 S. Park St., 343-1313.

Anne of Green Gables — Civic Youth Theatre presents the story of a feisty red-haired orphan who finds happiness, 7:30 p.m. May 15 & 22; 1 p.m. May 16 & 23; 4 p.m. May 16 & 23; 2 p.m. May 17; 9:30 a.m. & noon May 20 & 21; Parish Theatre, 426 S. Park St., 343-1313.

Some Enchanted Musicals — A revue of classic Broadway hits, 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat., May 15-June 13, New Vic Theatre, 381-3328.

Gordon Lightfoot — Canadian folk and country singer-songwriter, 7:30 p.m. May 21, State Theatre, 345-6500.

Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers — Grammy Award-winning singer and keyboardist, 7:30 p.m. May 23, Bell’s Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

The Moxie Strings — Cellist Alison Lynn and fiddler Diana Ladio perform Celtic and Americana music, 7 p.m. May 27, Kalamazoo Public Library Central Branch, 315 S. Rose St., 342-9837.

Elephant Revival — Folk music featuring Scottish/Celtic fiddle tunes, traditional ballads, bluegrass, indie rock and reggae, 8 p.m. May 30, Bell’s Eccentric Café, 382-2332.

Gilmore Rising Stars: Denis Kozhukhin — The pianist performs works by Haydn, Brahms and Prokofiev, 4 p.m. May 31, Wellspring Theater, Epic Center, 342-1166.

Symphony Sarah Chang with KSO — Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra presents the violinist, who will perform Dvorak’s Violin Concerto, 8 p.m. May 15, Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave., 337-0440.

Vocal John Rutter’s Mass of the Children — Kalamazoo Singers Masterworks Series with the Kalamazoo Children’s Chorus, 3 p.m. May 3, First United Methodist Church, 212 S. Park St., 381-6340.

Brahms’ A German Requiem — Featuring Heaven & Earth, Kalamazoo Philharmonia and the Bach Festival Chorus, 8 p.m. May 30, Chenery Auditorium, 337-0440.

Chamber, Jazz, Etc. Classics Uncorked: Spring Evening — An evening of chamber favorites performed by Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra Woodwind Quintet and Burdick-Thorne String Quartet, 8 p.m. May 1, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 314 S. Park St., 349-7775.

Kalamazoo Public Schools All-City Orchestra — 7 p.m. May 11, Chenery Auditorium, 3370440.

RJ Spangler Trio — Jazz and swing, 6:30 p.m.

May 16, Mangia Mangia, 209 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 226-3333.

40th Stulberg International String Competition — 12 semifinalists from around the world compete; daytime semifinal performances and evening finals concert, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. May 16, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU, www.stulberg.org, 343-2776.

Ladies’ Library Association 2015 Music Series — Ensemble Des Amis and guest players perform works by Czerney and Dvorak, 8 p.m. May 20, Ladies’ Library Association of Kalamazoo, 333 S. Park St., 344-3710.

COMEDY Ralphie May — Known for his hip-hop brand of comedy, 9 p.m. May 1, State Theatre, 3456500. w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 39

Events ENCORE Rodney Carrington — Comedian, actor and country music artist, 7 p.m. May 28, State Theatre, 345-6500.

2015 High School Area Show & Congressional Art Competition — Work by area artists ages 18 and younger, through May 24.

DANCE

Chinese Folk Pottery: The Art of the Everyday — A rare glimpse of the diversity and rich tradition in Chinese folk pottery, through June 21.

Constellation: Concert of Dance, Shadow, and Electricity — Wellspring’s Spring Concert, 8 p.m. May 8 & 9; 2 p.m. May 9; Wellspring Theater, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall, 342-4354.

Ballet Arts School of Dance Recital — 2 & 7 p.m. May 9, Chenery Auditorium, 337-0440.

Richmond Center for Visual Arts Western Michigan University, 387-2436

VISUAL ARTS

Alumni/Regional Artists — Alissa Lamarre, Lynn Batchelder, Gabriel Craig and Amy Weiks, Netzorg and Kerr Gallery, through June 5.

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts 314 S. Park St., 349-7775

Prints from the University Art Collection — Monroe-Brown Gallery, through June 5.

West Michigan Area Show — Juried exhibition from a 14-county region, May 9-Aug. 9.

Other Venues

Nina Belle Ward — Portraiture, still life and harbor scenes from coast-to-coast collections, May 16-Aug. 23.

ARTbreak — Free presentations on art-related topics: Martha Parfet: Keep the Quality Up, Parfet discusses her book, May 5; Recent Work with Wade MacDonald, the ceramist discusses his work, May 12; Is Art Dead or Is It Only Sleeping?, talk by sculptor Richard Light, May 19; From Darkness to Light, The Work of Lad Hanka, a presentation by Kim Chapman and Jim Armstrong, May 26; all sessions begin at noon, KIA Auditorium.

Second Sight/Insight II — Works from the KIA permanent collection paired with poetry from local writers, through May 10.

40 | Encore MAY 2015

Art Hop — Local artists and musicians at various venues in Kalamazoo, 5-8 p.m. May 1.

Battle Creek’s Fantasy Forest Art Competition — “All Creatures Wood and Tall,” artists transform tree trunks into works of art, May 13-20, Leila Arboretum, 928 W. Michigan Ave., Battle Creek, 969-0270.

LIBRARY & LITERARY EVENTS Kalamazoo Public Library Westnedge Hill Neighborhood Focus: Everyman’s House — Wendy Mutch discusses the five-room house designed by Caroline Bartlett Crane and the 1924 Better Homes in America winner, 7 p.m. May 4, Central Library, 315 S. Rose St., 342-9837.

Cheese 101 with The Cheese Lady — Learn about the history of cheese and cheesemaking from Natalie Fuller, 6:30 p.m. May 12, Alma Powell Branch, 1000 W. Paterson, 5537960; registration required.

Battle of the Glassblowers — Glass artists transform molten glass into exquisite objects, 5-10 p.m. May 1; noon-6 p.m. May 2; West Michigan Glass Art Center, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 100, 552-9802.

Westnedge Hill Neighborhood Focus: History and Architecture — Lynn Houghton, coauthor of Kalamazoo: Lost and Found, discusses the history and architectural styles in this neighborhood, 7 p.m. May 14, Central Library, 342-9837.

Asian Wonders: Selected Chinese and Japanese Artifacts from Kalamazoo College’s Rare Book and Art Collection — 1-3 p.m.

May 4–June 4, Upjohn Library Commons, Kalamazoo College, 337-7153.

What Vintage Sports Collectibles Are in Your Attic? — Michael Osacky discusses baseball memorabilia and the vintage sports collectible industry, 6 p.m. May 19, Central Library, 342-9837.

Helena Smith/Andrea Allen — Photography, May 8-June 4, Portage District Library, 300 Library Lane, 329-4544.

Spring in the Kitchen with the Organic Gypsy — Bridgett Blough, certified natural chef, presents a demonstration and tasting of a spring-inspired dish, 6:30 p.m. May 26, Eastwood Branch, 1112 Gayle, 553-7810.

Farm Animals — Multimedia, May 8-June 30, Portage District Library, 329-4544.

ns Ser ving Ka l am eratio n e G az e e oo Thr

Portage District Library 300 Library Lane, 329-4544 Science Fiction/Fantasy — Book discussion group, 7 p.m. May 4.

What Some Are Reading: 10th Anniversary Book Talk Soirée — Enjoy a frolic into the world of books, 6:30 p.m. May 7.

Top Shelf Reads — Book group discussion of Neil Gaiman’s The Ocean at the End of the Lane, 7 p.m. May 11, Latitude 42 Brewing Co., 7342 Portage Road.

A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure — Loreen Niewenhuis reads from her new book, 6:30 p.m. May 12.

International Mystery Book Group — Discussion of Belshazzar’s Daughter, by Barbara Nadel, 7 p.m. May 14.

Performance from the Page — Michigan Notable Book Award winners Lisa Lenzo and Monica McFawn in a “page to stage” event, 2 p.m. May 17.

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

May 17.

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Miscellaneous Travel Weekend Getaway — Spark publisher Steve Ellis gives a photographic presentation of his favorite spots, 6:30 p.m. May 5, Parchment Community Library, 401 S. Riverview Drive, 343-7747.

Free 2015

APR 4 - Ananse’s Return APR 18 - The Odyssey of Runyon Jones May 2 - Little Red Riding Hood May 16 - The Importance of Being Earnest May 30 - The Bickersons

May Book Group — Me Before You, by Jojo Moyes, will be discussed, 7 p.m. May 14, Richland Community Library, 8951 Park St., 629-9085.

MUSEUMS

Back in the ‘Golden Age” of radio, weekly radio programs brought the young and old to their living rooms to listen to adventurous, mysterious and comical tales.

Dedicated to promoting this rich history, All Ears Theatre performs newly scripted radio programs for live audiences, complete with old school sound effects, from January through May. Shows are later broadcast on 102.1 WMUK-FM. Performances are at 6:00 pm at the First Baptist Church and are FREE to the public.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum 230 N. Rose St. 373-7990 “Spoken Murals” Poetry Showcase — Spokenword poets from around the state, 7 p.m. May 8.

Friday Night Highlights Series: Memorial Day Observance — Captain Guy D. Gruters, U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and Vietnam POW, discusses forgiveness, leadership and teamwork, 7 p.m. May 22.

Kalamazoo for the Union — The Civil War through the eyes of Kalamazoo County residents, through May 17.

Upcoming Shows

Funding provided by For a complete schedule of shows, visit KalamazooArts.org w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 41

Events ENCORE The Artists’ Sky — Experience the stars through story, song, painting and music, through June 18.

birding hike, 8 a.m. May, 5, 12 & 19, Kalamazoo Nature Center, 7000 N. Westnedge Ave., 3811574.

cha, 7 p.m. lesson, 8 p.m. dancing, May 16, The Point Community Center, 2595 N. 10th St., 344-5752.

Wildest Weather in the Solar System — Explore atmospheres on other planets, magnetic storms on the sun and anticyclones, 3 p.m.

Mon., Wed., Fri.-Sun., through June 19.

Spring Bird Hike — A 2.5-mile hike to identify birds by song and sight, 8 a.m. May 16, Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, 701 W. Cloverdale Road, Hastings, 269-721-4190.

Frontier Days — Reenactments from 17801870, vendors and live entertainment, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 17, Olde World Village, 13215 M-96, Augusta, 580-1290.

Evidence Found: Explorations in Archaeology — Learn the science and methodology of archaeology in this visual and hands-on exhibit, through Aug. 31.

MISCELLANEOUS

West Michigan Apple Blossom Cluster Dog Show — AKC dog show featuring all-breed show, obedience trials and rally trials, 9 a.m.5 p.m. May 21 & 22; 8 a.m.-5 p.m. May 2325; Kalamazoo Expo Center, 246-7171.

Miscellaneous Gilmore Car Museum’s Dust-Off — Antique, classic, hot rod and show cars on display, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. May 9, Gilmore Car Museum, 6865 W. Hickory Road, Hickory Corners, 6715089.

DaVinci: The Exhibition — Hands-on journey through da Vinci’s life, research, innovations and art, through Oct. 4, Air Zoo, 6151 Portage Road, 866-524-7966.

NATURE

Kalamazoo Rock, Gem, Fossil and Mineral Show — Discover the world of rocks through hands-on activities, 4-8 p.m. May 1; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 2; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. May 3; Kalamazoo Expo Center, 2900 Lake St., 979-3348.

Fort Custer Stampede — Southwest Michigan Mountain Bike Association’s mountain bike race, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. May 3, Fort Custer Recreational Area, 5163 Fort Custer Drive, Augusta, 303-4686; registration required.

Kalamazoo Marathon & Borgess Run for the Health of It! — Full and half marathon, 10K and 5K runs, 5K walk, 8 a.m. May 3, Nazareth Campus, 3427 Gull Road, 345-1913.

Garden Education Day — Experts discuss a variety of garden-related topics, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. May 2, Kellogg Biological Station, 3700 E. Gull Lake Drive, Hickory Corners, 671-2400.

Kalamazoo River Valley Trail TrailBlazer 2015 — A spring bike ride between Kalamazoo and South Haven, May 9, with 7 a.m.-noon registration at 10th Street, Bloomingdale Depot or South Haven trailhead, 373-5071.

Kalamazoo River Valley Trail Spring Wildflower Walk — Learn about native spring wildflowers, 2 p.m. May 2; 6 p.m. May 6; Commerce Lane, behind the post office in Parchment, 375-7210.

Women of West Michigan Beer Tour — Visit four breweries for samples and stories on the local beer industry, noon-6 p.m. May 16, Tibbs Brewing Co., 402 S. Burdick St., 3504598.

Birding with the Stars: Inspired by Nature — Exhibit by artist Charley Harper, followed by a

Kalamazoo Dance — Monthly ballroom dance open to the community, with lesson in cha-

42 | Encore MAY 2015

May’d in Michigan — Michigan artisans, entertainment, vendors and food, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. May 23-25, Olde World Village, 5801290.

Memorial Day Parade — Honoring veterans from all wars and featuring floats, bands and military vehicles, 10 a.m. May 25, downtown Kalamazoo, 501-9971.

Kalamazoo Growlers vs. Battle Creek Bombers — Opening night, with fireworks and giveaways, 7 p.m. May 29, Homer Stryker Field, 251 Mills St., 492-9966.

West Michigan Spring & Summer Home and Remodeling Expo — The latest ideas in home improvement, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. May 30; 10 a.m.6 p.m. May 31; Kalamazoo Expo Center, 4800060.

America on Tap Beer Festival — A showcase of over 100 releases from America’s best craft breweries and imports, 2-5 p.m. May 30, Arcadia Creek Festival Place, downtown Kalamazoo, 344-0795.

ENCORE Poetry

Still Life With Crows She finally got what she imagined: a house like a well-made sentence, everything inherent, the whole place breathing quietly but deeply, like Buddha—draw in the world, with its shrieking disasters and obscenities, breathe out compassion’s long slow note.

light, she passed whole days watching the light shift across the windows’ shiny faces.

The beatific silence hummed, uncracked except by an occasional sound slipping down from an upper room, a rusty croak.

Outside the door she’d stand and listen, as bleat met caw across a furious flapping.

At times she seemed almost to comprehend the discourse of guffaw and sneer, snark and imprecation, raucous contradiction.

Beneath it all, a dark bass note hummed, vanishing when she tried to hear it.

Sometimes she felt a rising in her throat.

Sometimes she felt the weight of air displaced by shiny, tar-black wings.

— Gail Griffin

Collection of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

She got colors true as Easter eggs.

She got patina and texture and light, oh

The poem on this page is part of the art and poetry exhibit “Second Sight/Insight II,” on display at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts through May 10. Poems inspired by artworks from the KIA’s permanent collection are paired with those works. Griffin’s poem accompanies “The Crow Tree,” above, a lithograph by Russell T. Limbach.

Griffin, a retired Kalamazoo College professor, is a poet and nonfiction writer who has won prizes for poetry at Folio and Calyx. Her essay “The Messenger,” published in The Chattahoochee Review, was listed among the “Notables” in Best American Essays 2013. It first appeared in Encore in a shorter form.

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Paper means you don’t need to worry about accessing your document because you don’t have the right software. You don’t need to worry about backing paper up on multiple servers or remembering what you named the document. Paper doesn’t suffer from hard-drive crashes.

As printers, we reject the notion that paper could ever be obsolete.

People have been predicting a paperless office for years. Has that happened in your office?

Technology might change; paper endures.

Kalamazoo Valley Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Kalamazoo Community Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Landscape Arborist Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 LVM Capital Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Masonry Heater Design House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Mercantile Bank of Michigan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Millennium Restaurant Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Miller Auditorium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Nature Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Parkway Plastic Surgery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Portage Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 Professional Clinicians & Consultants, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 17 UniQ Jewelry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 V & A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 VanderSalm’s Flowershop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Varnum Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Vlietstra Bros. Pools & Spas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Weed Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 WMUK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

☎

1116 W Centre Avenue 323-9333 PortagePrinting.com 44 | Encore MAY 2015

Woodwork Specialties Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

BACK STORY (continued from page 46) How did you get where you are today?

Even though I had a substantial portfolio of journalism work when I graduated from Western Michigan University, I had never had an actual job interview. I graduated during a recession, so when I sent out resumes and the phone didn’t ring, I thought, “My career is over.” I had always been interested in the movie industry, so I went to work in a video store and then got my own store to manage. Later a friend who worked at Goodrich Theatres offered me a job in marketing, and from there I went to work for AMC Theatres in Detroit. I came back to Kalamazoo to work for Loeks Theatres (now Celebration! Cinema).

I started working again as a freelance writer for the Kalamazoo Gazette, and that became a full-time job. I was at the Gazette for 12 years, and in 2008 I was offered a buyout, which I took. I went to work for an entertainment magazine on Martha’s Vineyard that only operated in the summer, and it was the ultimate working vacation.

When that ended, I worked for the Chicago International Film Festival and then at the Battle Creek Enquirer. After writing a blurb about Alamo Drafthouse’s upcoming opening, I was contacted by Alamo through LinkedIn. After a lot of interviews with all sorts of people there, I joined Alamo.

What exactly is it that you do for Alamo?

It’s a very multi-faceted job, but the key elements are making sure we have movies to show. I consult with our film buyers in Dallas and decide ‘this is great for us’ or ‘this we can pass on.’ Then I look at how to promote these movies through special events like Cinderella’s Royal Ball, which we did to promote Cinderella. We will be doing something for Pitch Perfect 2 when it comes out because people here love Pitch Perfect — we held Pitch Perfect sing-alongs last fall and they all sold out.

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

I hear a lot of “I want your job.” To which I say, “I’m sorry. You can’t have it.” I’m not ready to give it up. It’s really fun.

There are a lot of people who don’t understand what I do or have a

simplified idea of what I do, like there is some magic movie vault in the sky and I just float up to it and pick movies out to show. For a lot of the stuff we show there’s detective work involved — finding out who has the rights, where to get it, negotiating the price and then finding what media it’s in and how we can convert that to a digital print.

Did any of the reactions to your events surprise you?

I didn’t think anyone would ever drive two hours to see Xanadu, but we had people from suburban Detroit that did.

Both our Potter Day (when Alamo showed all the Harry Potter movies) and Bonday events were more successful than I thought they’d be because in both cases they appeal to a niche audience.

And I kept waiting for the Pitch Perfect to die off and it never did.

We finally just had to stop doing it.

What keeps you up at night?

This is so sick, sad and strange, but I dream promotions. Bonday came to me in a dream where I was watching a trailer and I saw the M drop out of the word Monday and be replaced by a B. Sometimes movies I didn’t even know I wanted to play will come to me in a dream. I’ll see a wall of movies and one falls out and it’ll be Mr. Limpit and I will think, “Mr. Limpit? Oh, yes, I have to play this. It would be perfect for our Transformations theme.”

What do you do when you aren’t working?

I love to go to the lakeshore, which I find very refreshing, and spend time with my family. As I get older I realize how essential that is. When I first started out as a movie theatre manager, I saw every movie that came out because I wanted to be the go-to guy for movie information. I saw between 300 to 400 movies a year and it was very time-consuming. But I finally realized that a lot of the time you spend watching movies that aren’t crucial to your work could be time spent doing something else, like having interactions with real humans.

Is this the perfect job for you?

It really encompasses a lot of the things I was doing up to this point. And I have to say I still find it funny that I get to do something that I never thought anyone would ever pay me money to do.

Legal Experience In Your Corner.

®

n

n

25 years’ experience providing legal counsel to private business interests and non-profit organizations.

n

Real estate and economic development (with a particular knack for packaging incentives and credits to make the impossible deal possible).

Kalamazoo

n

Grand Rapids

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Metro Detroit

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Grand Haven

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Lansing

Contact Fred Schubkegel at flschubkegel@varnumlaw.com w w w.encorekalamazoo.com | 45

Brian Powers

BACK STORY encore

James Sanford Creative Director Alamo Drafthouse Cinema

If he hadn’t been so critical of his high school’s

newspaper when he was 16, there’s no telling what James Sanford would be doing now.

In a true “money-where-your-mouth-is” moment, the newspaper’s advisor challenged Sanford to do something to improve the newspaper. So he did. He wrote album reviews. Then movie reviews. And then, at the age of 17, he became a freelance movie critic and writer for the Grand Rapids Press.

His journalism career kept on going through college, but when he graduated, Sanford tried something different: He worked in the cinema industry itself.

Now, as the creative director for the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Kalamazoo, it’s Sanford who dreams up such promotions as Bonday (showing James Bond films every week), and ’80s movie sing-alongs to make movie-going more than just passive watching. (continued on page 45)

46 | Encore MAY 2015

Be healthy, be happy.

Build Something Better.

For over 35 years, AVB has had a strong focus on creating a healthy culture for our community.

As a founding and continuous sponsor of the Borgess Run for the Health of It and the Kalamazoo Marathon, we urge everyone to make a healthy lifestyle a priority.

We are proud of our healthy living culture at AVB and encourage you to cheer for all the participants during this year’s marathon events.

Visit www.avbinc.com to learn more.

4200 w centre ave

|

portage, mi 49024

|

269.323.2022

|

avbinc.com

Dave, Teri and Stephanie all needed a change. When they first came to Borgess Run Camp, none of them could run more than a couple blocks without getting winded.

But by connecting with new friends and expert trainers, a passion for running grew inside of them, and with it, their overall well-being. Now they are living healthier, happier lives. Just another way Borgess is making our community a healthier place to be.

Watch their incredible stories or share your own at ThatsWhere.com

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