Encore February 2013

SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN’S MAGAZINE

FOUNDATION HEAD LOVES WHERE SHE LIVES TEENS’ CREATIONS HIT THE SILVER SCREEN PARROT RAISERS HAVE NESTING INSTINCT MAESTRO ORCHESTRATES SUCCESS

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SOUTHWEST MICHIGAN’S MAGAZINE

FOUNDATION HEAD LOVES WHERE SHE LIVES TEENS’ CREATIONS HIT THE SILVER SCREEN PARROT RAISERS HAVE NESTING INSTINCT MAESTRO ORCHESTRATES SUCCESS

PUBLISHER

ENCORE PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Financial Advice for You on Your Road Through Life

EDITOR

MARIE LEE DESIGNER

MARIA MAJESKI a part of

COPY EDITOR

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Anything but CommonÂŽ

Jeff K. Ross

MARGARET DERITTER PHOTOGRAPHER

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ERIK HOLLADAY

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CONTRIBUTORS

KAYE BENNETT, THERESA COTY-O’NEIL, MARGARET DERITTER, BRIAN LAM, JEREMY MARTIN CONTRIBUTING POET

BOB LAWRENCE ADVERTISING SALES/BUSINESS MANAGER

KRIEG LEE ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVE

CELESTE STATLER OFFICE MANAGER

RON DUNDON

Encore Magazine is published 9 times yearly, September through May. Copyright 2013, Encore Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Editorial, circulation and advertising correspondence should be sent to:

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F E B R U A RY 2013

features ‘Local Gal’ Leads Foundation Carrie Pickett-Erway rose from intern to CEO of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.

22

Open for Growth Maestro’s unconventional working environment a reflection of CEO Jen Randall.

18

Love Takes Flight Breeding and raising parrots have helped one couple cope with tragedy.

28

Teen Filmmakers Teen Filmmaker Festival features emerging artists and a standout from past years.

32

Up Front

6

Love Songs Mall City Harmonizers will sing their hearts out on Valentine’s Day.

9

Photo Challenge You know you’ve seen it, but where?

Solve our picture puzzler and win a gift certificate to Great Lakes Shipping Co.

10

Update Now a college graduate, performer Alan Smola continues to make magic.

12

Good Works Fred Sammons’ devices make impaired children more mobile.

15

Savor Gorilla Gourmet’s chef takes to the road.

Arts

36

Artifactory Historical icons and artifacts inspire poets for annual event.

37

Farewell Tour Tokyo String Quartet comes to Kalamazoo on its last tour.

38 39

Poetry Events of Note

Departments

17 46

On the cover: Kalamazoo Community Foundation CEO Carrie Pickett-Erway Photo by Erik Holladay

First Glance An inspiring image by a local photographer.

The Last Word A sidewalk encounter looks at lives “tossed aside.”

Massie’s Michigan Historian Larry Massie is taking a sabbatical from writing this feature. We look forward to his return.

UP FRONT ENCORE

Mall City Harmonizers sing love songs to others’ sweethearts

BY

MARIE LEE

S

ome men just don’t look forward to Valentine’s Day, but there’s a group of 32 Southwest Michigan men who do and will gladly sing the day’s praises.

That’s because the members of the Mall City Harmonizers, an all-male a cappella barbershop chorus, spend the day serenading others’ sweethearts as they deliver singing valentines in four-part harmony.

“This is one of the most enjoyable things we do all year long,” says Ludwig Ouzoonian, the organization’s president, “because you’re dealing with special emotions.”

For $45, a tuxedo-clad quartet will serenade the recipient with two love songs and present him or her with a red rose and a card with the regards of their loved one. The songs available run from the more traditional “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and “I Love You Truly” to “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” from the Disney movie The Lion King.

The Mall City Harmonizers have been delivering singing valentines for at least 45 of the group’s 72 years. Ouzoonian says that they’ve presented singing valentines in places varying from homes, schools and restaurants to senior living facilities, bowling alleys and health clubs. The senders are both male and female, but not always human.

“We once did a singing valentine from a dog to a dog-sitter,” Ouzooninan recalls. “We sang from the dog’s point of view, (and) the card we gave him said it was from the dog. Of course, it came from the dog’s owner.”

The singing valentines are a fundraiser for the Mall City Harmonizers, who use the money to help pay for their director, music and rehearsal space. The nonprofit organization — whose oldest member is Larry Flegal at 91 and youngest is Jonathan Wolfe at 18 — was formed in 1941. Its quartets and the group as a whole do a number of performances during the year that include private functions as well as public holiday performances.

6 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

“We’ve been ringing chords in Kalamazoo since before Pearl Harbor,” Ouzoonian says proudly.

The group continues to grow, recruiting new members through its public performances. It has made attempts to modernize its repertoire as well, adding songs from Disney shows and more current tunes.

“We like to sing the songs that people enjoy today, and those are different than they were 50 years ago,” Ouzoonian says. “It takes many weeks and months of work to perfect the four-part harmony on a song so we are careful to perform only the songs we know well.”

The group rehearses every Tuesday evening at the Transformations Spirituality Center. The members vary in their musical experience, but “we’re all amateurs,” Ouzoonian says.

“Some of our men have music training and education, some play instruments and were in bands and some just love to sing,” he says. “What we’re looking for is a singer who can hold a pitch and sing along with other men. Some men love to sing but have never sung with another man singing other parts of the same song in their ears.”

The group provides training to help aspiring tenors, leads, baritones and basses learn their parts in the delicate balance of creating four-part harmony. Once a quartet is successfully established, the foursome works on learning new songs to build its repertoire.

The Mall City Harmonizers like to use their public performances to advocate for their art form.

“We like to fan out into the audience and greet and meet people and give them information on four-part harmony,” Ouzoonian says.

“It’s the personal touch that matters.”

To order a singing valentine, visit www.barbershopharmony.org or call call (269) 350-4085.

ENCORE UP FRONT

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 7

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UP FRONT PHOTO CHALLENGE

Where is this?

Tell us for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Great Lakes Shipping Co. 1) Go to www.encorekalamazoo.com and click on the Photo Challenge tab at the top.

Fill out the form and submit your answer; or 2) E-mail your answer to editor@encorekalamazoo.com. Type “Where is this?” in the subject line. Include your name, address and telephone number; or 3) Mail your answer to Encore, 350 S. Burdick St., Ste. 214, Kalamazoo, MI 49007; include your contact information.

One entry per person. The winner will be chosen in a random drawing of correct entries. Entries must be received by Feb. 15, 2013. The correct answer will be printed in the March issue of Encore Magazine and on Encore’s website beginning March 1.

Need a hint? Go to our Facebook page, facebook.com/EncoreKalamazoo, for weekly clues.

photo challenge winner Congratulations to Robert Webster of Kalamazoo, who correctly guessed last month’s photo was of the E in the neon sign at the Rave movie theater in downtown Kalamazoo.

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UPDATE UP FRONT

In celebration of its 40th year, Encore is taking a second look at some of those who have been featured in past issues of the magazine. This month we catch up with magician Alan Smola, who was first featured in December 2008.

Alan Smola makes magic across the globe

BY

JEREMY MARTIN

As Alan Smola tells it, magic, like music, can be used as a tool to bridge cultures.

He found that out firsthand last summer during a more-than-month-long gig that found the 22-year-old performing two shows a night five days a week on Saipan, an island 120 nautical miles north of Guam.

“We had a full cast, four Las Vegas showgirls and a live tiger,” says Smola, a Kalamazoo native and recent University of Michigan graduate. “For the finale we made a fullsize helicopter appear on stage. It was the biggest show I’ve ever done.”

Smola, whose stateside set consists of a great deal of humor and crowd interaction, found he had to drastically adjust his presentation style for the Saipan crowd, which consisted primarily of Russian, Japanese and Korean vacationers. Because his audience spoke so little English, he relied less on jokes and banter and added more “flash” to his set so it was easy to understand no matter what language the audience spoke.

10 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

“I was totally nervous. It was a completely different environment for me,” Smola says. “(But) the audiences over there loved the show, and it was a great experience, a lot of fun.”

Smola, who was just beginning his freshman year at the University of Michigan when Encore featured him in its December 2008 issue, graduated last May with a dual degree in political science and communication studies. He now lives in Minneapolis and works full-time as an analyst in Target Corp.’s entertainment division.

He continues to perform as a magician on weekends, accepting corporate gigs and university engagements around the country.

He recently did performances for 3M, Indiana University and the Detroit Tigers. He was also back at Kalamazoo’s 2012 New Year’s Fest, where he’s been a performer every year since he was 15.

“When I was starting as a kid, I did a lot of birthday-party magic and did stuff for little kids. Now the market I’m going after is more for corporate audiences and colleges,” says Smola. “It’s a little bit older of an audience. I would say my show is based around comedy now, and there is a lot of audience participation.”

Photo credit: Courtesy/Alan Smola

UP FRONT UPDATE

Alan Smola, who started performing as a magician at 15, still makes magic despite having a “day job.”

And even though he now has to balance his magic career with a 40-hour work week, he says things haven’t changed that much.

“It’s not too big of a change. It’s kind of what I was doing all through college. I would study during the week and do magic on the weekends,” Smola says.

While in college, he co-founded the variety troupe Shazam, which raised funds for the University of Michigan Health System. The student-based magic and performance club hosted shows around campus, collecting several thousand dollars for the hospital system.

“It was a lot of fun. A lot of people got involved, and we made quite an impression around campus,” Smola recalls.

Smola’s magic abilities seemed to draw attention wherever he went. He couldn’t — and still can’t — go to a party without being asked to do a trick.

“After the first two years it was pretty well known on campus that I was a magician and they did a little newspaper article about me,” he says. “There’s not a single party I went to that somebody didn’t ask me to do a trick. When I’m out and about in Minneapolis now or at company parties, if people start talking to me a little bit, the magic

thing comes up and it’s, ‘Well, let’s see a trick. Can you do a trick?’’’

Smola says that sort of attention “comes with the territory,” and he doesn’t mind being asked by total strangers to do card tricks or illusions. In fact, impromptu magic shows often give him a chance to try out new tricks and stay sharp between scheduled performances.

He is continually adding to his repertoire, creating new tricks and illusions to improve his act.

“It’s a constant investment, trying to make it bigger and better, to make it more current and innovative,” he says. “It’s getting harder and harder to fool people. You have to be constantly reinventing how you do things.”

But what happens to all the old tricks that are have been retired from his act? They don’t just disappear; most go into storage at his parents’ Kalamazoo home, where a room dedicated to magic has been filling up since he was a child.

“I have most of my current stuff with me in Minneapolis, but over the years I’ve built up quite a collection of things, and much of it is still in that office collecting dust,” Smola admits with a laugh.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 11

GOOD WORKS UP FRONT

Tricycle expert Fred Sammons is an inventive volunteer

JEREMY MARTIN

Erik Holladay

BY

Fred Sammons continues to modify and adapt AmTrykes for those with disabilities.

i

n the more than four decades from his first job to retirement, Fred Sammons took on some challenging and important roles. He taught mechanical drawing to high school students, fought in the Korean War and became an occupational therapist. With this professional expertise, he directed the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, worked for Northwestern University’s Amputee Clinic and started a company that designs and distributes therapeutic devices for people with disabilities (Sammons Inc., which became Sammons Preston and now is a division of Patterson Medical).

You might think retirement would pale in comparison to this impressive resume. But Sammons has been doing some of his

12 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

most satisfying and exciting work since he retired.

About 18 years ago he became a volunteer with the National Association of American Business Clubs, or AMBUCS, an Alabama-based charitable organization that creates mobility tools for people with disabilities. And in that role he has become the country’s premier expert on AmTryke tricycles and other mobility devices for children and adults with conditions such as cerebral palsy and spina bifida.

“It’s wonderful. It’s such a nice organization, and I’ve been able to use my knowledge about therapy to improve the tricycles a lot,” says the 84-year-old Kalamazoo resident, who is a member of the Alive After Five chapter of AMBUCS, one of three chapters in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area.

The AmTryke was developed in the 1990s by the Longview, Texas, AMBUCS chapter to provide a therapeutic and fun device to help children develop their weakened or atrophied limbs. The device has matured and now provides mobility to individuals of all ages and sizes who have physical limitations.

“We started giving the bikes away 20 years ago,” Sammons says. “Last year we gave away 3,000. This year we want to give away 4,000.”

And while AMBUCS offers a wide range of devices through its catalog, sometimes those devices aren’t just right for a specific person’s needs.

That’s where Sammons’ engineering and occupational therapy skills come into play — he invents, tweaks and customizes products, including the AmTryke.

“It’s exciting to me to take a disability and then build a tricycle around that disability and have it show up in the catalog, where any therapist in the country can order it,” says Sammons.

Once a device is posted in the AMBUCS catalog, it becomes available for distribution to families in need. In order for someone to receive a mobility device, they must first be recommended to the organization by a licensed physical or occupational therapist. The majority of AmTrykes go to children in financially needy families.

“They (the families) have to go through a therapist to have a child qualified to get a bike. The bike is given to a family, and they promise to give the bike back when they don’t need it anymore,” Sammons explains.

Quiet, Comfortable, Affordable In most cases, AmTrykes that aren’t needed are sent back to AMBUCS or get passed on by the therapist to another family. As a result, Sammons’ creations have been shipped all over the world and have helped children and adults with multiple disabilities gain momentum and build the strength necessary to move around in their environments.

Sammons has developed trikes that are foot-powered, some that are hand-cranked and others operated by both feet and hands, and he’s created them for both fully grown individuals and children barely old enough to speak.

“I figured out how to adjust the seating so it can go all the way down for 1-year-olds, so the child doesn’t have to wait until he is 3 to get on the bike,” Sammons says.

And when the child outgrows the trike, a new AmTryke can be shipped out, or in some cases the original trike is retrofitted for the now larger youngster.

Sammons’ contributions led him to receive the 2012 National AMBUC of the Year Award.

The organization cited Sammons as the “supreme inventor for our AmTrykes and accessories,” noting that “if he can’t fit a recipient with a catalog product, he just invents one!”

“I was very surprised, very surprised,” says Sammons of the award. But it’s hardly his first honor and not likely to be his last; he is also an honorary lifetime member of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation board.

Despite the thousands of AmTrykes that have already been built and distributed, Sammons knows there are still plenty of children born each year who need his help. “I don’t see any end. There are still lots of children that need tricycles, and they need to go from one to the next,” Sammons says.

As a former teacher and the founder of a company that grew to become a multimillion-dollar business, Sammons says he prefers the lower stress level of being a volunteer. “I find it very satisfying,” he says.

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UP FRONT SAVOR

Food on the move Gorilla Gourmet drives local mobile dining trends BRIAN LAM

Noel Corwin is no stranger to moving around. The owner of Gorilla Gourmet, a Kalamazoo-based mobile food service, has traveled the world chasing his culinary dreams. But now he travels the streets of Kalamazoo in his restaurant-on-wheels, dishing out gourmet meals to people looking for a quick bite.

While an ordinance allowing food trucks was passed by the Kalamazoo City Commission last August, that was far from the beginning of Corwin’s culinary endeavors. Gorilla Gourmet had been open, although stationary, since 2010. But the new ordinance has allowed the 36-year-old Corwin to make Gorilla Gourmet mobile and enter into an aspect of the culinary business he is passionate about: food trucks.

The young entrepreneur, who was raised in Kalamazoo and graduated from Hackett Catholic Central High School, has spent his adult life honing his skills in kitchens and classrooms around the world. His schooling includes two California institutions: Santa Barbara City College, where he enrolled in the Culinary Management program, and the esteemed Culinary Institute of America, in Napa Valley. He has worked in some of Napa’s most popular restaurants, including Reaux and The Martini House, a restaurant he helped open as the pastry chef. He’s also spent multiple summers cooking on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket and a year in the kitchen at the prestigious Charleston Place Hotel, in South Carolina.

In 2008, he was recruited to open an upscale restaurant in Korea.

Even though that fell through, Corwin decided to head to Southeast Asia anyway. He spent nine months on a culinary tour, jumping into kitchens for brief cooking stints at restaurants in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

“It was an amazing experience for me,” he recalls. “The food in that part of the world is amazing, and I was particularly inspired by how incredible the food of the street vendors could be.”

Corwin headed back to Nantucket for a season after his tour of Asia. The resort town afforded him great income and more highend kitchen experience but at a cost: 100-hour workweeks during the height of the season. “I finally came to the conclusion that if I were going to work this hard, it was going to be for myself,” he says.

He headed back to Michigan to visit his family and decided his

Gorilla Gourmet chef Noel Corwin, far right, provides samples of his culinary creations at Taste of Kalamazoo.

Courtesy of MLive/Kalamazoo

BY

hometown would be a good place to start his own business.

“I started looking for a venue to start generating product,” says Corwin. “I needed a space and wasn’t in a position to invest in brick and mortar.” Though food trucks weren’t allowed to be mobile when Gorilla Gourmet started in 2010, Corwin was able to get licensing to operate out of a stationary unit. He leased parking space near the intersection of Oakland Drive and Lovell Street, built a commercial kitchen into a former Snap-on Tools truck and opened for business.

He also secured a corner spot for his Gorilla Gourmet truck at the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market and offered catering services for events.

In 2011, he purchased a house at 305 Oakland Drive — down the street from his stationary location — and moved his business there.

Corwin says that he prefers to keep his truck on this property during lunch hours for consistency. “People know where to find me for lunch right now. It costs more money to be out driving around, and that doesn’t always bring in more business.”

Being mobile has allowed him to expand his evening business, however. Gorilla Gourmet is now a regular sight at downtown festivals and functions. Corwin believes his truck’s mobility will benefit the catering side of his business. He can now pull a fully functional commercial kitchen right up to an outdoor event instead of moving a lot of cooking equipment manually.

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Corwin says his traveling experiences have inspired the vision he has for Gorilla Gourmet. “All over the world, food trucks and street vendors are an integral part of the culinary scene. I’ve seen this model successful in Asia, Denver, Portland (Oregon) and all over California.�

In fact, Corwin says his business’s name is a play on the “guerrilla restaurant� movement that became popular in the San Francisco Bay Area. Diners would buy tickets to a dining experience with no idea where it would be or what would be served. Hours before the meal, patrons would be contacted with the location and details of the dinner.

The same approach has been used by mobile vendors in California, where gourmet food trucks alert their fans to the day’s location based solely on a Tweet minutes before setting up. Corwin has begun incorporating some of these practices into the Gorilla Gourmet experience. “Sometimes I’ll keep a few specialty dishes off the day’s written menu, but I’ll Tweet or Facebook the feature,� says Corwin. “The people that follow me get the inside tip on something new or different.�

Corwin is poised to take the Gorilla Gourmet experience to the next level. He recently built a commercial kitchen inside his Oakland Drive home and is able to prepare more dishes, store more ingredients and, as he puts it, “experiment in his culinary lab.�

Corwin insists that the appeal of the food truck would wear thin if he didn’t commit to a changing menu with quality ingredients, and he believes this commitment has kept his fan base strong.

He also believes upscale street vendors and food trucks will make their mark on Kalamazoo’s dining scene. Currently, there are two other licensed food trucks in town, The Organic Gypsy and Coffee Rescue. Corwin says these micro-restaurants will help downtown become a destination location, as food trucks have in Portland and Denver. “Kalamazoo is leading the charge in the state for micro-entrepreneurship. It’s about making business ownership accessible,� says Corwin.

In the meantime, Corwin plans to do what he’s always done: keep moving. But he’s taking his kitchen with him. “I didn’t invent the wheel,� he says. “I just make food that I like to eat. That’s what’s been the calling card of this business.�

ENCORE FIRST GLANCE

See page 26 to learn more about this photo and its photographer.

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Unconventional work environment is a reflection of Maestro’s leader BY

The Kalamazoo company Maestro doesn’t have a traditional work environment, but then the company’s founder, Jen Randall, isn’t a traditional CEO. The Goshen, Ind., native has been a middle school teacher on an Indian reservation in Arizona, owns a franchise hair salon, sold pharmaceuticals and managed sales teams. Now she runs an innovative tech company that builds tools such as mobile applications and online training programs to help companies improve their performance. It was recently recognized as one of Inc.’s 500|5000 fastest-growing U.S. companies.

“Building a culture is what drives me,” says Randall. “I wanted to create a culture where people want to come to work every day.

This space only adds to that culture.”

“This space” is a wide-open, 5,200-square-foot work environment located in downtown Kalamazoo above Food Dance Café, at 401 E. Michigan Ave. Maestro moved to the location in May after being housed at Kalamazoo Valley Community College’s Michigan Technical Education Center (M-TEC) facilities since 2007.

With the exception of one sequestered room for private meetings, the workspace features no offices, no cubicles and no interior walls.

The meeting room is enclosed by floor-to-ceiling glass panels, and

18 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

BRIAN LAM

here the there are dozens of 27-inch iMacs on rows of long tables where workers sit. Oh, and there’s a ping-pong table.

“Even the company we worked with to build out the space didn’t quite understand our vision of openness,” Randall recalls. “We had to look at several companies to get it the way we wanted it.”

Randall says this openness promotes communication and collaboration among Maestro’s 37 employees. For example, a Maestro project manager one day rolled in her chair from one software engineer to another to discuss projects, Randall says.

There are 10 breakout areas for brainstorming and collaborating.

But even the nontraditional equipment in these areas — like the pingpong table, a Play Station 3 at the couch pit or the kitchette with a fully stocked drink cooler and snacks — are there to get employees to engage with each other, to stoke their creativity and to create an exciting work environment.

While some might say such an environment is a recipe for too much goofing around on the job, Randall gives evidence to the contrary: “Not only are we growing and hitting all of our sales goals, but we’re expanding what we can do for our clients.”

Maestro started out with a focus on e-learning. The principals came up with the company’s name because they were working with so many

Erik Holladay

Maestro CEO Jen Randall, seen here in a sitting area in the Maestro ofďŹ ce, believes in building an open work environment.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 19

Randall and Jake Betzold, Maestro’s production director, work together in the kitchette area of Maestro’s offices. The table they are sitting at is made of old wood pallets.

contractors, vendors, potential clients and other people necessary for the start-up of the business that they felt as if they were conductors. Now the company advises clients in marketing and sales just as much as in e-learning, developing app and tablet sales tools tailored to their needs.

“We have a great team,” Randall boasts. “Our team is always surprising our clients with what’s possible. It gets really fun when we can help our clients overcome their challenges and just blow their minds with what we can do for their businesses.”

With Maestro’s new digs, explosive growth and expanding services, Randall says she’s trying to take a deep breath and normalize all the recent changes. She heaps high praise on her employees and says her current focus isn’t on growth but on keeping the right people in the right places to create a great customer experience. She credits Harvard Business School guru Clayton Christensen with her mantra for 2013: “Be patient for growth; be impatient for profitability.”

A nontraditional entrepreneur

Randall says she’s always been entrepreneurial. It’s a trait she claims she picked up from her dad, whose business background is also nontraditional, but in an entirely different way.

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Erik Holladay

It was also during her time in Arizona that she married her husband, Sean, and gave birth to her son Reid. “We would still be in Arizona had Reid not been born eight weeks prematurely,” says Randall.

“He was at the Phoenix Children’s Hospital for nearly two months, and we needed more family support.”

Randall’s great-grandmother was living in Kalamazoo, and her aunt from Chicago had recently moved here as well. Randall worked as a nanny for her aunt’s two boys, allowing her to be with Reid throughout the day.

As Reid got older, the former teacher started thinking about returning to the work force. “They were pink-slipping teachers in Michigan at the time,” Randall says. “I didn’t want to go back to school and work hard only to lose my job at the end of the year.” Instead, she found a job in pharmaceutical sales with Johnson & Johnson.

In a short time, she was promoted from sales representative to specialty sales to regional sales trainer, a position that took her back to Chicago. A year after she moved back to Chicago, a sales manager position opened up in Greenville, S.C. Randall’s husband had been supportive throughout Jen’s advancement, and this time was no different.

“I remember the night they offered me the position,” she recalls. “I had to make a decision, but I couldn’t get ahold of my husband. I took the position.” Sean backed the call, and the Randalls made the move.

Things became steadier for the couple in South Carolina. Sean found a job quickly in sales, and the two stayed with their respective companies for five years. During that time, they moved into a dream home and had their second son, Mackenzie. It was also in Greenville where Randall’s entrepreneurial spirit began to manifest itself, as the teacher-turned-sales-manager purchased a Great Clips hair salon franchise purely as a side business.

Despite their day-to-day career stability, Randall found the business ownership bug was still biting. In 2008, she received a phone call “out of the blue” that took her in a new direction.

Fateful phone call

“My dad was Amish but left that way of life when he married my mom. Along with my uncle — the only one of his 10 siblings to leave with him — they started a chicken farm.” Eventually Randall’s parents sold the chicken farm and built other businesses, giving their daughter a firsthand look at business ownership.

This happened in Goshen, Ind., where Randall lived until graduating from high school. From there, she headed to the Chicago area and, with limited funds, moved in with an aunt who was often away.

“She was an airline pilot so she was gone all the time, which meant I had my own pad. I also saved money in college by taking my general undergrad classes at a community college.”

Randall then transferred to Northern Arizona University, where she completed a teaching degree. She spent seven years in Arizona, teaching for four years after graduation, the first two on a reservation. She moved to Flagstaff, where she taught by day and worked on a master’s degree by taking night classes.

“One day, I got a call from Josh Little saying he was interested in starting a new business,” Randall recalls. Josh and his wife, Tamara, were old family friends. A kindred spirit with Randall, Little had also gone from teaching to medical sales to sales training and, it seems, been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug as well.

He worked for Stryker at the time and wanted Randall on board for an e-learning business he was forming. Sean Randall’s support of his wife’s endeavors would once again be called upon when it was revealed that the proposed business venture was in Kalamazoo. The Randalls would have to move. Again.

“We put our house on the market, ditched our benefits and company cars,” Randall says. “We moved from a 5,500-square-foot home to a 700-square-foot apartment.”

It took the founders of Maestro (then called Maestro e-Learning) time and money to get things going. “We didn’t pay ourselves for a long time; then we paid ourselves minimally,” Randall says. “Times were tight. Everything was challenging.” (continued on page 27)

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 21

Carrie Pickett-Erway rises from foundation intern to Chief Executive Officer BY

KAYE BENNETT

hen Juan Olivares left his position as president and CEO of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation in May 2011 to become a college president, Carrie Pickett-Erway didn’t intend to apply for her boss’s job. After all, she’d only been the foundation’s vice president of community investment for six months.

Then the foundation’s board of trustees, led by chairperson Barbara James, interrupted its national search for Olivares’ successor to suggest to Pickett-Erway that she apply for the job. Pickett-Erway had what they were looking for, says James.

In addition to her dozen years of experience at the foundation, she had something else the board felt was critical for the job: “a deep a commitment to and love for this community,” says James.

22 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

Pickett-Erway’s passion for the greater Kalamazoo area comes naturally. A self-described “local gal,” she grew up in the Pine Lake area. Her father, Robert Pickett, worked for GM; her mother, Catherine, is a phlebotomist at Westside Family Medical Center and a homemaker. Pickett-Erway was a cheerleader and played softball as a kid and graduated from Delton-Kellogg High School. She went to Western Michigan University and married a guy from Battle Creek.

You don’t get much more local than that.

Ironically, though, the path that led this former small-town girl from the softball fields of Barry County to the corner office as CEO of a nationally recognized community foundation with more than $313 million in assets started in Nicaragua.

After high school, Pickett-Erway earned two social-work degrees from WMU: a bachelor’s in 1995 and a master’s in 1999. It was during those college years, she says, that she developed her “social conscience.” A Habitat for Humanity International project took her to Nicaragua, where she helped rebuild a hurricane-ravaged community and “learned to give back,” she says. “I wish it had happened sooner,” she adds.

As a result, Pickett-Erway changed the focus of her social-work studies from the traditional counseling and casework track to policy, planning and administration. “I’m more of a strategist than a tactician,” she says.

Those skills came into play in one of her first jobs, as a community organizer in the mid-1990s, when she helped residents of some of the city’s most-challenged urban neighborhoods define their needs and build their skills. The neighborhood housing program where she served as project director would later evolve into the Building Blocks program. This program, affiliated first with Kalamazoo College and now with the WMU School of Social Work, brings college students and volunteers together to refurbish house exteriors and do landscaping in low-income neighborhoods.

Other influences on Pickett-Erway’s ultimate career were the jobs she held while in high school and college. “I was one of the best waitresses the Plainwell Chicken Charlie’s ever had,” she says proudly. From that and other food-service jobs she held, PickettErway developed “a deep respect for anyone who has ever worked in restaurants,” she says.

For several years in college, she worked for the employment-services company Manpower, interviewing and testing job seekers and aligning them and their talents with the needs of employers. She learned then, and still believes firmly, that people are an employer’s most important resource.

the intern who never left It was her graduate-school internships, however, that landed her at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. After internships with the Michigan League for Human Services in Lansing, which gave her a taste of policy analysis and advocacy, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, she came to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation in January 1999. At the time, recalls Pickett-Erway, the Community Foundation Board of Directors was exploring the proactive side of grant making, and her internship duties were part of that exploration. “I got lucky,” says Pickett-Erway. “It was unique for an intern to work at that level.”

There were two tangible results of her internship: The board adopted a policy of involving community leaders in its grant-making work, and Pickett-Erway got a job. The foundation brought her on first as an independent consultant and then as a part-time program officer. The part-time job turned full-time in 2001. “I’m the intern who never left,” she says, laughing.

By 2006, Pickett-Erway had become the foundation’s senior community investment officer, supervising the staff and assisting with the leadership of her department. When Olivares introduced a new operating model to the foundation, she was invited to assume the leadership of strategic planning. In January 2011 she was named vice president of community investment. A few months later Olivares announced his intention to leave the foundation to become president of his alma mater, Aquinas College, in Grand Rapids.

“We were fortunate that (board member) Don Vander Kooy stepped in as interim CEO,” says James of the period without Olivares. “That gave us some breathing room.” The search committee, which consisted of the entire board, began a national search. “We looked at some fine candidates,” says James, “but they lacked the knowledge of and passion for our community.” It was Vander Kooy who suggested they revisit the concept of hiring from within.

Pickett-Erway didn’t even consider applying for the top job; she had been vice president for such a short time. “I had so much to learn,” she says. “I was waiting for a perfect alignment of the stars. I had nestled into the vice president role.” Having just entered her 40s, she felt she had plenty of time for future career moves, and, like other foundation staff, she was excited to see who the new CEO would be.

When she was approached by the board about the job, Pickett-Erway had reservations. She wondered if they were settling for an easy choice by going with an internal candidate. But she soon learned that the board was not about to compromise its standards for a leader just to hire from within. “They still put me through the wringer,” she says.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 23

Anthony Steinberg Robert Neumann

Erik Holladay

Scenes from Carrie Pickett-Erway’s life: clockwise, from left: The 43-year old has been at the helm of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation for just under a year; Pickett-Erway helps out at a First Day Shoe Fund distribution; she grew up near Delton, where she played softball; and with the foundation staff.

“We put Carrie through a talent testing, and she hit it out of the ballpark,” James says, noting that the board was impressed by Pickett-Erway’s leadership abilities and knowledge of the community.

In March 2012, Pickett-Erway emerged from the process as the first female president and CEO in what was then the 87-year history of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Her immediate reaction to her new job, she says, was “to pinch myself for my good fortune.”

It’s a feeling of good fortune she hopes the rest of the foundation staff shares. “Having relationships with my colleagues was an advantage because I know their talents,” she says. “No one had to show the new boss they were capable. I already knew that. We have an incredibly talented staff.”

The board’s decision to promote Pickett-Erway is a decision that the community also seems to have given a thumbs-up. “I’ve heard from the community that they love the fact that I’m local,” says Pickett-Erway. “I already know what we have here.”

24 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

Having seen Pickett-Erway in the CEO’s shoes for nearly a year, the foundation’s board remains enamored of her talents. “She just shines,” says James. “She’s a gem. Thank goodness we didn’t miss this.”

personal passions The Kalamazoo Community Foundation is acknowledged as one of the most successful community foundations in the nation, and Pickett-Erway attributes much of that success to its long-term stability.

The organization has had only four CEOs in its history, with the shortest tenure being that of Olivares, who served for three years. Many of the foundation’s 30 staff members have been with the organization for years and even decades. “This lets us keep the momentum going and makes for continuing improvement,” Pickett-Erway says.

Pickett-Erway, a relatively young CEO at 43, is deeply entrenched in her community: Her parents still live in her childhood home, while

her sister and brother also live in the area. In 1995, Carrie Pickett married Steve Erway, a Battle Creek native and engineer at Denso Manufacturing. Their children, Lucas and Grace, attend Kalamazoo Public Schools.

It is her children, says Pickett-Erway, who give her great confidence in the future. She describes Grace, a seventh-grader at Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts, as so creative and talented that “half the people I know will be working for her someday.” Lucas, a junior at Loy Norrix High School, is not only a great swimmer, says his mom, but an emerging leader and “brilliant.”

“Lucas and Grace care about this community, and at such a young age. They inspire me to think about my own leadership ability,” Pickett-Erway says.

As a busy wife, mother and CEO, Pickett-Erway has little spare time, but she does manage to work in a few of her own passions. She competed recently in a triathlon, for example. She and her friend Sam Lealofi have been walking, running and talking partners for several years, using the time as a stress reliever. The exercise helps put office problems in perspective, says Pickett-Erway. When she’s running, her only goal is to get up the next hill.

Challenging themselves to complete a triathlon seemed a logical next step for the friends. It was also a good personal goal for PickettErway, who has been involved with Girls on the Run, a characterdevelopment program for girls in grades three through eight that uses running to help them develop confidence and healthy lifestyles.

The pair chose to participate in the Girl’s Best Friend Triathlon, which was held in August in Kalamazoo County’s Prairie View County Park and was similar to Girls on the Run in its lack of competitiveness.

“Everyone we passed — or were passed by — told us, ‘You’re doing great!’” recalls Pickett-Erway.

Pickett-Erway indulges another passion each fall: college football. She says she goes to all of WMU’s home games and is a huge University of Michigan fan. But she admits, risking the wrath of the Buckeye State, that with one exception — Ohio State — she’ll root for any college team. It’s no surprise that Pickett-Erway, with maternal ancestors named Fitzpatrick and paternal ones named O’Conner, even occasionally cheers for Notre Dame, unless, of course, the Irish are playing against Michigan.

Pickett-Erway also serves on the boards of Kalamazoo County Ready 4s, an early care and education program that aims to prepare every child in the county to succeed in kindergarten, and the Local Initiative Support Corp. (LISC), which helps residents transform their distressed neighborhoods into healthy communities.

community assets Whether through working with the foundation or through other experiences, Pickett-Erway has become convinced that “there is something very special about this community.”

Perhaps it is the community’s size — “It’s not too big, but it’s big enough,” she says — that allows the foundation to create collaborations and partnerships that fully represent the area. “That’s harder to do in larger communities,” she says. In addition, the most vulnerable families in Kalamazoo are easily visible. “They’re not hidden or isolated.”

Also distinguishing Kalamazoo is its culture of giving back, which has seen many families and individuals giving their money and leadership to the community for generations. “There’s less of a need to take credit,” says Pickett-Erway, using the Kalamazoo Promise scholarship program and the legacy of W.E. Upjohn as examples.

“Taking care of our neighbors is part of our ongoing culture. Each generation has refused to let that go away, she says, noting that such dedication to caring for each other is “ intentional . . . and it must continue to the next generation.”

Even with its legacy of stability, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation has changed over the years, alongside the community and society as a whole. The foundation, says Pickett-Erway, has evolved in its understanding of diversity and equity. Diversity, she believes, is a different concept than it was two or three generations ago. Today, “diversity” includes not only race but also other socio-demographic factors such as sexual orientation.

The old concept of foundations, says Pickett-Erway, was “money in, money out,” with grants given to nonprofit organizations known for doing good work. Today, grant giving is much more intentional.

Community foundations are taking a look at their communities, identifying people who have been marginalized and targeting grants to programs that can help them.

The Kalamazoo Community Foundation, in that vein, has targeted racism in the community. Among its efforts to address the issue, the foundation has funded a summit on racism, become involved with the Race Initiative of Southwest Michigan and supports the Eliminating Racism and Claiming/Celebrating Equality (ERAC/CE) program. As a result, the YWCA of Kalamazoo presented the Kalamazoo Community Foundation with its first “On the Journey” Award in 2011, recognizing the foundation’s efforts to end racism.

Looking ahead, Carrie Pickett-Erway sees challenges for the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, as both the community and the social problems it faces become more complex and more systemic.

Deep-rooted problems like poverty, she says, can’t be solved by treating the symptoms instead of the causes.

She points to the foundation’s involvement in the Learning Network as an example of the kind of broad-reaching programs that are needed to solve such systemic problems. Three years ago, the foundation designated education as its No. 1 priority. In keeping with that, the foundation is part of a local collaboration working to prepare every child in Kalamazoo County for school and college. The program has become one of the most important initiatives that the Foundation is involved with, says Pickett-Erway.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 25

“When young people are educated, they can be contributing citizens.” And that, she says, is what makes a community vibrant.

facts about the foundation

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Reading Together Meet Author

Amy Waldman Elegantly written and tightly plotted, The Submission gives the reader a visceral understanding of how New York City and the country at large reacted to 9/11—a lucid, illuminating, and entertaining first novel.

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s

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The Kalamazoo Community Foundation was established in 1925 “to make life better for all through leadership and stewardship of resources that last forever. ” In 2012, it adopted the theme “Love where you live” and introduced it in August with a public talk by Peter Kageyama, author of For the Love of Cities.

The foundation did not have a president for its first 40 years. Since then, it has had just four top executives: Howard Kalleward, who served from 1965 to 1987; Jack Hopkins, who served from 1987 to 2008; Juan Olivares, who served from 2008 to 2011; and Carrie Pickett-Erway, who became president and CEO in April 2012.

In 2011, the foundation: s Held 804 funds, 21 of them created that year. s Received 2,685 new gifts, totaling $24 million and ranging in size from $2 to $9.1 million. s Awarded 411 scholarships, totaling more than $1 million. s Made grants totaling $16.9 million.

To learn more about the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, visit kalfound.org or call 269-381-4416.

First Glance Artist ERIK HOLLADAY captured this beautiful Our grateful thanks to the following for their sponsorship of Amy Waldman’s visit: Irving S. Gilmore Foundation Friends of Kalamazoo Public Library

image of snowflakes one morning while brushing the snow off his car. Holladay is a freelance photographer and visual artist who began his photography career at the age of 15. The work of this award-winning photojournalist often graces the pages of Encore.

PHOTOS WANTED!

Do you have an image that captures the essence of living in Southwest Michigan?

We invite photographers of all ages and abilities to submit their work for consideration as a First Glance photo. Send your photos and contact information to editor@encorekalamazoo.com.

26 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

MAESTRO (continued from page 21) On top of this, the Greenville house took a long time to sell, and Randall and her husband found themselves having to make payments for both the Greenville house and rent in Kalamazoo during the rough start-up years.

Randall feels indebted to MTEC for providing Maestro with incubator space and allowing the fledgling company to keep start-up costs and logistics manageable.

MTEC provided affordable, move-in-ready space equipped with phone lines, office furniture and cubicles.

In 2009, Little and Randall started a second company, Bloomfire, an online collaborative-learning platform. It was decided that Little would take over Bloomfire, and Randall would become president of Maestro. (Two years later, Little moved Bloomfire to Salt Lake City, where he then sold it but kept permanent residence.)

“When I took over, for the first few months I just kept things moving forward,” recalls Randall. “Then I started making changes. I switched the logo and really began to look for other opportunities in the market.”

Shortly after assuming the role of president, Randall started paying attention to the explosion of tablet devices, seeing an opportunity for sales and training apps that would allow Maestro to expand its services significantly.

“Before 2011, none of our business was in mobile device applications. By the end of 2011, it was 40 percent. This year we went from 40 percent to 70 percent.”

New services led to new clients, more business and more employees, and more employees meant it was time to find a new space. The company’s move to the downtown location allowed Randall to build the collaborative culture she’d been envisioning, with open space, open communication and maybe an open spot at the ping-pong table for some midday office camaraderie.

“Call us crazy,” begins the tagline on Maestro’s web page about their new space, “but it seems to us it’s easier to solve and create since we landed here.” Is Randall’s nontraditional vision of corporate culture the future of successful companies here in Southwest Michigan? Judging by Maestro’s explosive growth, it would almost be crazy to think otherwise.

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BY

THERESA COTY-O’NEIL

under their

Erik Holladay

Wings

28 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

The Wilcoxes with a few of their flock: Toby perches on Jay’s left arm while Murphy is on his right and Karen holds Toot-Toot.

AFTER TRAGEDY, COUPLE FINDS PARROTS BRING ‘joy and peace’

K

aren and Jay Wilcox of Mattawan didn’t set out to become breeders of parrots when they got their first bird eight years ago; these owners of several dogs and cats just wanted to welcome a new animal into their growing menagerie of pets.

“Mostly me,” admits Karen, who had lost her mother and grandparents to a tragedy five years earlier and was also facing the prospect of an empty nest as the youngest of her three children was planning to move out.

“Let me tell you, I fought it,” says her husband, Jay. “She would be looking online, and I would say, ‘Honey, you just keep looking.

We’ll find that perfect bird.’”

It turned out that a lot of birds for sale in Michigan were imported from Florida bird farms, which had reputations akin to puppy mills. There were few Michigan breeders, but finally Karen located Alden Lowe, the owner of Giggle Pets in Dorr, who had a home operation. They soon met the bird of their dreams — or so it appeared. Beaker was a Goffin cockatoo, a beautiful, whiteplumaged bird known for its small size, life span of about 50 years and curious, affectionate nature.

“We looked and looked for a wonderful, friendly bird,” says Karen wryly. “Then we got Beaker, and she’s not wonderful or friendly.

Except to my husband.”

Beaker, whose gender is unknown (the gender of some bird breeds can only be determined surgically), is referred to by the Wilcoxes most often as a she, although she has never laid an egg.

“She looked just like a chicken when we got her,” says Jay. “No tail feathers. We both ‘oohed’ and ‘aaahed’ about her.”

Because Karen worked nights, it was Jay who was home to cuddle Beaker during her favorite holding time. “And pretty soon, she was mine,” he says. “We just connected, like, unbelievable. She’s my baby now. If I don’t hold her, she screams like you wouldn’t believe. We have to be one-on-one with the lights low.”

Eight years after Beaker joined the Wilcox household, their Mattawan nest is anything but empty. More than 40 parrots of six breeds — from the African grey to the rare and expensive rosebreasted cockatoo — share their home. Throughout the ranch house — in the living room and kitchen and most especially in the basement aviary — squawks, rustles, chirps and catcalls erupt above the muffled radio, which keeps the birds company.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 29

“Birds settle people. ”

Above, Jay snuggles with Murphy. At right, parrot eggs are smaller than their chicken counterparts.

Erik Holladay

Erik Holladay

—jay Wilcox

Life-altering tragedy The birds have been a special comfort to Karen. In late August 2000, Karen’s world was horrifically shaken. She worked as a nurse at Heartland Health Care Center, and it had been a long day. She was feeling anxious and wanted to speak to her mom. She called once, but there was no answer.

Ten minutes later, Karen’s brother phoned to break the news that her grandparents, Sary and Marinus Polderman, (91 and 93 years of age, respectively) and her mother, Ann Gipson-Lewis, 63, were dead. The three had been murdered in what appeared to be a home invasion. Ann, who lived next door to her elderly parents, was apparently delivering groceries to them.

The Poldermans were a loving Dutch immigrant couple who sold flowers and vegetables at a roadside stand in front of their Pavilion Township home; Ann was a devoted daughter and mother of four. While it was rumored that Marinus kept a large amount of cash in his house, little was taken. The Kalamazoo Gazette called it one of the “most brutal murders in the area’s history.”

30 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

The case remained unsolved for five years.

During that time, most of Karen’s energy was consumed by sorting out the emerging details of the crime and coming to terms with her traumatic loss.

“Obviously,” she says, “I needed something to do.”

As she’d watch Jay snuggle with Beaker, Karen started scheming. One day she needed to go to Alden Lowe’s for some bird food, and she returned with Toot-Toot (aka Lacey), an umbrella cockatoo, one of the largest of the cockatoos, with a wingspan of 3 feet. Karen was a little intimidated by the bird at first but soon fell in love.

Toot-Toot, like Karen, loves people. In fact, Karen takes Toot-Toot to her job as a nurse at Friendship Village, a retirement home in Oshtemo Township. The cockatoo climbs up residents’ arms and nestles in their necks.

“One woman who recently died wouldn’t talk to people, but she would carry on conversations with Tootie,” Karen says.

“Birds settle people,” says Jay. Karen would often fall asleep at night snuggled with Toot-

Toot until Jay would lift the big bird gently and put her back in her cage.

Lowe sensed the couple’s growing interest in birds and asked the Wilcoxes if they would like to hand-feed hatchlings. Soon he asked if they would like to take a pair of Eclectus parrots home for breeding. Since then, the couple have hatched birds of six breeds, including African greys, Eclectus parrots, and blue and gold, rose-breasted and harlequin macaws, most of which they return to Lowe for sale in his shop.

“We started feeding babies, and the next thing you know, we go gangbusters,” says Jay. Karen and Jay are devoted to their flock and to each other. They haven’t taken a vacation in more than 30 years — since their honeymoon, in fact. “Every day is a honeymoon,” says Karen.

Chicks need constant supervision, which the couple provide by working split shifts.

Birds are typically “problem parents” who will sometimes eat their young or refuse to feed them. The couple feed the hatchlings from day one, which helps ensure they are safe, friendly pets.

“Day ones need to be fed every two hours, even at night,” says Jay, “so it takes team action.”

The Wilcoxes have helped birds hatch and even had to feed a hungry chick in its shell. “Birds are like big kids,” says Jay. “I never could have anticipated how much I’d love them.”

Life-threatening allergy Five years ago, Karen began having trouble breathing. Climbing the stairs caused her to lose her breath. A lung biopsy revealed that she had a condition known as Bird Fancier’s Lung Disease, an allergic reaction caused by drying bird waste and feather dust that affects 4 percent of the population. Her doctor recommended that they get rid of the birds, but Karen didn’t have the heart to do it.

Nine of their pet birds lived above the living room in an area cordoned off with a cargo net. It was difficult to do, but the Wilcoxes moved many of those birds to their basement, including Toot-Toot, Karen’s favorite but the one that creates the most dust. Now, before Karen takes Tootie to work, the cockatoo must be thoroughly washed and blow-dried. Since Karen is officially not supposed to hold the bird, she enjoys taking Toot-Toot to Friendship Village and watching other people hold her, although she will admit to occasionally sneaking a quick cuddle.

Last month, however, doctors prevailed upon Karen, and she and Jay have agreed that they will stop breeding and raising birds. They are beginning the process of whittling their flock from nine to less birds, but Karen admits she can’t — and won’t — let them all go.

“I’ll just be more careful,” she says.

A family legacy In many cultures, birds are symbols of peace and love. In East Indian mythology, all birds represent a departed soul. Parrots, in particular, are associated with communication and socialization.

Karen’s mother and grandparents had always loved wild, outdoor birds but wouldn’t have chosen to have one in the house. Karen remembers a story her mother told about delivering a sewing machine to a family who had set up chickens in their home.

“They had birds in their kitchen!” she told Karen. The family had chicken wire instead of cupboard doors, which appalled her mother.

Karen thinks often of this story. After her diagnosis, a few birds remained upstairs — Beaker, of course, and Bradley, a Quaker parrot, the chattiest of the flock. From the basement doorknob hangs a respirator, not looking particularly used. Karen smiles down at three different-aged Eclectus chicks in cages on the upstairs counter. “Guess who’s in the kitchen, Mom?” she asks playfully.

Karen sees her love for the birds and for the elderly people she works with at Friendship Village as a natural extension of her family’s heritage.

“My mom and grandparents were very loving and very giving, and they passed that on to me,” she says. “That’s why I chose the profession that I did. I have worked with the elderly for years and years.

They’re like the parents and grandparents that I don’t have anymore.

I cry when they pass on. They give me a lot of love and joy.”

In 2005, the Polderman murder case was finally solved. Three men and two women were tried, found guilty and sentenced. The five had been looking for money to buy drugs. Karen was relieved by the resolution of the case, but she doesn’t feel vengeful toward the killers.

“People say to me, don’t you wish they had the death penalty? But I really don’t. I don’t judge them like people think I should. It’s not my place.”

Both Karen and Jay admit the birds have helped take their minds off their losses, which never really go away. “When bad things happen, you just don’t want to dwell,” says Jay. “Birds keep you busy.”

“They just give me joy and peace,” says Karen. “I’m kind of carrying on where my mom and grandparents left off. And the birds help with that.”

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ARTS ENCORE

STORIES BY

FILM FEST AN ‘ AMAZING ’ SHOWCASE OF TEEN TALENT

32 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

MARGARET DERITTER

One

of the most important things to know about Kalamazoo’s annual Teen Filmmaker Festival is that it’s not just for teens. While teenagers are the ones eligible to submit films, adults too can enjoy viewing the chosen entries.

The festival, which began in 2004, is packed each year with talent, creativity and craftsmanship — and, at times, some really funny films. But there’s been no shortage of dramas at the festival either, some of them dark and unsettling: films about suicide, cyber bullying, the stranglehold of technology.

“I think it’s made a lot of adults in the community realize there’s more to teen filmmaking than silly goofing around. A lot of people have been impressed with the variety of subject matter,” says former Kalamazoo Gazette movie critic James Sanford, who has served as a judge for the festival seven times.

This year’s festival is set for 2:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Kalamazoo’s State Theatre. The event is a joint undertaking of the Kalamazoo Public Library, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and Public Media Network, and it’s open to submissions from Michigan teens ages 13 to 18.

It got started when the library’s former head of Teen Services, Kevin King, told the KIA’s curator of education, Michelle Stempien, that he’d always wanted to do a teen film festival. “I thought that was a great idea,” says Stempien.

In its first year the festival received about 20 submissions and showed all of them, says Stempien, half one night at the library and the other half the next night at the KIA. It drew about 20 audience members the first night and 30 or 40 the second. Since then, it’s been a one-day affair, with audience and submission numbers growing steadily. The festival moved in 2011 from the KIA to the Rave theater, and this year it’s moving to the State because of the Rave’s closing. Last year more than 90 films were submitted, 21 were shown, and the audience topped 400.

Submission rules and award categories have also changed over the years. Films can be

no longer than 10 minutes, for example. The first year, says Stempien, “we didn’t really have any rules. We received a whole bunch of films that were very short and one that was 45 minutes long. We realized we needed some parameters.”

Stempien and two others decide which films make it into the festival: Stewart Fritz, lead Teen Services librarian at the Kalamazoo Public Library, and Brian Zipp, of Public Media Network. They select about two dozen films, and then judges with film expertise choose the award winners (except for the People’s Choice Award). Local filmmaker Kevin Park serves as emcee.

“It’s a big event for the kids,” says Tom Ludwig, who teaches filmmaking to Kalamazoo County students in the Education for the Arts (EFA) program. “It’s like the movie premieres you see. It’s the first time they’re able to have this kind of gala ... where they’re able to sit there with people and get their response.”

“To see your work on a big screen and see and hear people’s reactions is really rewarding,” says Amy Stermer, another EFA teacher and filmmaker.

In the festival’s early years, most entrants were EFA students, but now many submissions come from other teens in the region and from other parts of the state. Stempien attributes the broadened interest to schools making film part of their curricula and to teens having greater access to high-quality filmmaking equipment and editing software. With Facebook and YouTube, filmmaking is “so much part of the teen lifestyle now,” she says.

Sanford says he has seen the festival entries grow from “a fair amount of bad imitations of music videos and really silly stuff ” to “more experimental or adventurous films.”

“It’s been a real privilege over the years to see how the festival has evolved and to see how the artists who’ve been entering it have really sharpened their skills and found their way,” says Sanford. “There’s some really amazing work out there.”

Fritz agrees. “When I first got involved (in 2009), I thought it would be bad, shaky-camera stuff, kids running around in the woods, but that’s not true at all. There’s such variety — comedies, dramas, science fiction. It’s amazing to see the amount of creativity involved.”

Above, some of the festival entrants from past years.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 33

Mmmm ...

Chunky Pineapple creator is back at scene of crime

Works by Zach Terry, now a film student at New York University, have long been audience favorites at the Teen Filmmaker Festival.

A

Erik Holladay

s Kalamazoo’s Teen Filmmaker Festival reaches its 10th year on Feb. 24, five-time People’s Choice award winner Zach Terry is looking forward to returning. But this time he’s not one of the entrants — he’s a judge.

When Terry was a freshman at Mattawan High School, he wowed a 2007 festival audience with his offbeat and hilarious film Mmmm ...

Chunky Pineapple, about a murderous can of Dole pineapples. Now the

34 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

ENCORE ARTS 20-year-old is studying filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, expects to graduate at the end of this year and hopes to make a living as a film director.

Terry is a great example of the influence the Teen Filmmaker Festival can have on young people. He was in eighth grade when he attended the festival for the first time. He saw a couple of films he really liked and thought, “I could do something like that.”

He made Chunky Pineapple that year to promote his school’s canned food drive. “My buddy and I came up with the idea for the film, and we shot it all in one day,” says Terry. His buddy was Phil Maxwell, who starred in the film and now studies acting at the University of Michigan. They looked around Terry’s house for props, and Zach noticed a Dole pineapple can. “I was looking at the can opener and how rugged and vicious it looked, and I thought, ‘If you were a can attacked by a can opener, what would it be like if you came back with a vengeance?’”

Terry and Maxwell got a good reception when they showed the film at their middle school so they decided to enter it into the festival the next year. “When I stood up front (after the screenings) and said, ‘I’m Zach Terry and I made Chunky Pineapple, people were clapping and were like, ‘Wooooo!’ It was great to see how entertained people were.” The film didn’t win an award from the judges, but the audience voted it their favorite film.

That experience got Terry hooked on filmmaking, and the next year he was back at the festival with a sequel, Mmmm ... Chunky Pineapple 2: Sweet Revenge, which also won a People’s Choice Award as well as the Judges’ Choice Award.

His next film, When You’re Ready to Say It, was a love story.

“Everyone was only recognizing me as the Chunky Pineapple kid so I started moving away from that a bit. I tried a drama, but it’s so bad, looking back. It was really melodramatic and kind of mushy.”

Nevertheless, the audience gave Terry another People’s Choice Award.

The fourth year he entered the festival, his surrealistic drama Defining David Dalton won not only the People’s Choice Award but the judges’ award for Best Film. The film focuses on a young man who never leaves the house willed to him by his aunt. He lives with just two caged birds and his own imaginings. “I miss my aunt, but then again I’m no stranger to loneliness,” he says in the voiceover.

Terry says the film is “definitely the one I’ve been most proud of. It kind of foreshadowed things I’ve been doing. ... That was my submission film to NYU that I think really helped me get in.” The film also won a Young Filmmaker Award at the daVinci Film Festival in Corvallis, Ore., and an honorable mention in the student film category at the Los Angeles Reel Film Festival.

While young filmmakers in Kalamazoo County school districts could connect with each other in the Education for the Arts program, Terry wasn’t eligible for EFA because his district was in Van Buren County. Instead, Terry took filmmaking classes from Martin Burch at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. “Martin helped bring me up to the level these other kids were getting. I learned the basics of cinematography, screenwriting, editing. I took classes with him all through high school, and he was my mentor.”

Terry says he’s “the first artist in a family of non-artists,” yet it was

his father, Roger, who found out about Burch’s classes and encouraged Terry to attend. “My parents have been so supportive,” says Terry, whose father works for Pfizer Inc. and whose mother, Vicki, is a physical therapist. In fact, when Terry was making one of his Chunky Pineapple films and trying to shoot knives out of the family toaster, his dad suggested throwing knives into the toaster instead and running the film in reverse. He even helped his son throw the knives.

Terry’s parents also have been very supportive of his decision to attend film school, but school hasn’t been easy, he says. During his sophomore year, for example, he had to make five 2 1/2-minute silent black-and-white films in one semester. “It was crazy and absurd and I didn’t sleep at all, but you really learn a lot.” Now he’s making an eight- to 12-minute color film with sound, and during his senior year he expects to make a 15-minute film. “But you have to pitch your movie. You have to get it greenlit to get an allotment from the school to make your film.”

As a festival judge, Terry is eager to see what his successors have entered into this year’s festival. “I’m really excited. I’m really curious to see it from this side of things. I think every year the quality of the work goes up so much.”

He’s also eager to meet the young filmmakers and have a chance to answer their questions. “I would love to have talked to someone who’d gone to film school,” he admits.

When asked what advice he would give to these aspiring Fellinis, Scorceses and Bigelows, he said, “My biggest regret looking back is that I didn’t collaborate more with other people. There were opportunities to work with those EFA kids. Filmmaking is such a team effort, such a collaborative activity. I would definitely suggest that.

“I think story is really important, too. Hollywood is so much just reboots and sequels. It’s all about money rather than what makes a good story.

“To me, the most exciting part of the process is when you get to show it and share it with people and hear them laughing or whatever, just entertaining people, making them feel something.” www.encorekalamazoo.com | 35

ARTS ENCORE

Artifactory blends local y poetry and history BY

MARGARET DERITTER

E

very year, on a winter’s afternoon, the Kalamazoo oo Valley Museum hosts an event that can be enjoyed by poetry lovers, history buffs and anyone who just loves es living in Kalamazoo and its environs.

It’s called Artifactory, and it’s a joint undertaking with th Friends of Poetry, a Kalamazoo organization devoted to promoting poetry.

Before the event, Friends of Poetry asks local poets to dwrite about southwestern Michigan objects, icons, landtz, scapes and landmarks. The museum’s curator, Tom Dietz, then chooses poems that lend themselves to audiovisual presentations about some historical aspect of their subject matter. At the event, the poets read their work, and Dietz gives his related presentations using images from the museum’s collection.

“I always find it fun to talk about some topic in local history,” says Dietz, “and this is a different way for me to approach it.”

Poet Elizabeth Kerlikowske, who is president of Friends of Poetry, came up with the idea of Artifactory along with other board members of the group, and the first event

was held in 2004. “I love Kalamazoo,” says Kerlikowske, “so I wanted to do something with the museum.”

She says she has learned some interesting historical tidbits over the years from Artifactory presentations: “I know they used to have horse races on Race Street, they crashed trains together at the fairgrounds for a stunt, and newsboys would jump on trains and sell celery when the trains stopped in Kalamazoo.”

This year’s Artifactory is scheduled for 2 p.m. Feb. 24. Typically, about 15 to 20 poets read their work, but at last year’s event there was an added treat, as musicians Steve Barrett and Leonard Duke turned Christopher Magson’s rhyming poem “Emerald Ash Borer, 2011” into a Chicago-style blues number. It’s easy to imagine how lines like these could be turned into lyrics: Emerald ash borer ate my (continued on page 42)

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Fond Farewell Tokyo String Quartet will stop by to say goodbye JEREMY MARTIN

G

oodbyes are never easy, but on Saturday, Feb.. 23, local fans of chamber music will have the opportunity to say sayonara to the Tokyo String Quartet when it performs at Western Michigan University.

In July, after 44 seasons and more than 40 album releases, this internationally acclaimed ensemble with a loyal local following will disband. Its concert at WMU’s Dalton Center Recital Hall — part of Fontana Chamber Arts’ 2012-13 season — will no doubt be an emotional affair as it will be the final time violinists Kikuei Ikeda and Martin Beaver, violist Kazuhide Isomura and cellist Clive Greensmith play for a Southwest Michigan audience. The group has performed in Kalamazoo numerous times since the 1960s and has been here three times within the last five years.

“Every time we play there should be a sense of urgency and spontaneity. I think we owe it to the music,” Greensmith says. “But to be very truthful, there have been a couple of performances that we’ve had this year where I think, ‘This could very well be the last time that we play in that hall, for that public or play those particular pieces.’”

The quartet’s final tour has the group playing a rotation of about 15 pieces by composers that include Mozart (String Quartet in B Flat), Webern (String Quartet) and Schubert (String Quartet in G Major). The set will also include an original commissioned work by Lera Auerbach, appropriately titled “Farewell.”

Henry J. Fair

BY

Tokyo String Quartet members, front row, Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda; back row, Kazuhide Isomura and Clive Greensmith.

“We’ve been pretty diligent commissioning works over the past 10 years,” Greensmith says. “We’ve been quite enthusiastic about finding new composers to support. I think it’s always important to keep expanding our repertoire. … We’ve added a couple of unusual pieces this year, and we’ve taken commissions as well by living composers.”

The Tokyo String Quartet was formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music, in New York City. Its founding members attended the Toho School of Music, in Tokyo. Though Greensmith, who joined the group in 1999, and Beaver, who became a member in 2002, are both about two decades younger than founding members Ikeda and Isomura, the foursome’s time on the road and in the recording studio has bonded the musicians. “It’s the longest time I’ve spent doing one single thing as a professional musician,” Greensmith says. (continued on page 43)

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POETRY ENCORE

MALALA Out of the grief-stained valley Of Swat where the dark side of religion Has eclipsed the minds of men And dropped its ugly dark veil Over a people groping in its shade for hope, A lioness has lifted her voice.

Although yet a young schoolgirl Her roar has shaken the foundations Not only of the land of her birth But of lands full of countless people That lie beyond the borders of her wildest imagination – People who paused and saw the bold face Of righteous deďŹ ance aring from The laughing eyes of an innocent child: A child who would not be silenced, Who would not stop shaking an angry ďŹ nger Like a mother in the face of her wayward child At the many mindless monsters Who dared to tell her and her sisters and their mothers What they are not allowed to dream Or what they have no choice but to someday become.

And when she bristled in the face of their anger And roared even louder when threatened by their guns They burst in upon her dressed in their ridiculously Transparent costumes of spiritual outrage And shot her Not realizing that the blood They spilled all over her rightful place On that simple school bus Would roar all the more loudly:

Loudly enough to crush the fear That had gripped the tongues Of her people for far too long, Loudly enough to pierce The rigid ancient walls that keep the world’s Religions from proclaiming their common values together, Loudly enough perhaps to drown out All the angry voices that prompt some men To commit acts of such heartless cruelty That even the demons wince and drop their eyes in shame. — Bob Lawrence Bob Lawrence is a retired language-arts teacher from the Benton Harbor school system who has moved on from teaching literature to writing his own poetry and plays. His 10-minute play Beep, which uses telephone messages to provide a new take on Romeo and Juliet, was presented Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at the Box Factory for the Arts, in St. Joseph, as part of the inaugural Out of the Box Play Fest.

Encore invites area poets to share their work with Southwest Michigan readers. For consideration, submit your poetry and a short personal proďŹ le by e-mail to editor@encorekalamazoo.com or by mail addressed to Poetry Editor, Encore Magazine, 350 S. Burdick St, Suite 214, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007.

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ENCORE EVENTS

PERFORMING ARTS Plays Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure — This theatrical adaptation provides all the elements that Holmes’ fans have come to expect, 8 p.m. Feb. 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16; 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7; 2 p.m. Feb. 10, Civic Auditorium, 329 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Musicals Grey Gardens: The Musical — The Kalamazoo Civic presents this alternately hilarious and heartbreaking story of two eccentric women: the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, 8 p.m. Feb. 1 & 2; 2 p.m. Feb. 3, Parish Theatre, 429 S. Park St. 343-1313.

Communicating Doors — With the help of timetraveling hotel doors, characters race through 40 years of sheer lunacy trying to rewrite their fates, 8 p.m. Feb. 7–9, 14–16; 2 p.m. Feb. 17, Williams Theatre, Western Michigan University. 387-6222.

Caroline, or Change — University Theatre presents this Tony Kushner/Jeanine Tesori musical exploring the relationship between an AfricanAmerican woman and the son of her employer as they try to make sense of the tumult of America in 1963, 8 p.m. Feb. 1, 2, 8, 9; 2 p.m. Feb. 3 & 10; 7 p.m. Feb. 3, York Theatre, WMU. 387-6222.

The Whipping Man — A Confederate officer and two former slaves wrestle with their complex relationships and family secrets in this play set in 1865, 8 p.m. Feb. 8, 9, 14–16, 21–23; 2 p.m.

Feb. 10, 17, 24, Farmers Alley Theatre, 221 Farmers Alley. 343-2727.

The Palin Bunch — A new play by local playwright John Thierwechter, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14; 8 p.m.

Feb. 15, 16, 22, 23; 2 p.m. Feb. 24. Fancy Pants Theater, 246 N. Kalamazoo Mall.

Same Time Next Year — A romantic comedy about a love affair of two people who are married to others and meet once a year, 8:30 p.m.

Feb. 15, 16, 22, 23, March 1, 2, 8, 9, 15, 16, New Vic Theatre, 134 E. Vine St. 381-3328.

In the Next Room — A comedy about marriage, intimacy and a new electrical device in postCivil War America, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28; 8 p.m.

March 1 & 2; 2 p.m. March 3, Balch Playhouse, Kalamazoo College.

Les Misérables — Dream the Dream is the new 25th anniversary production of this iconic Broadway musical, with new staging, 2 p.m.

Feb. 1–3; 8 p.m. Feb. 1 & 2, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Wolfram Plays Liszt — The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra welcomes pianist William Wolfram to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1, 8 p.m. Feb. 15 & 16, Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 349-7759.

Chamber, Jazz, Orchestra & Bands Dalton Wed@7:30 — A series of WMU School of Music concerts: Zodiac Trio, Feb. 6; String-Jazz World Music Explosion, Feb. 13; Red Sea Pedestrians, Feb. 20. All concerts at 7:30 p.m., Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Birds on a Wire — This ensemble led by David Colson performs a free concert, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Rudresh Mahanthappa Quartet — Fontana Chamber Arts presents jazz saxophonist’s group, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Feb. 9, Wellspring Theater, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 382-7774.

Hair — A new award-winning production of this classic rock musical set in 1960s America, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 26 & 27, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Gilmore Rising Stars Series — 2012 Gilmore Young Artist George Li returns following his debut at last year’s Gilmore Keyboard Festival, 4 p.m. Feb. 10, Wellspring Theater, Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall. 342-1166.

Symphony University Symphony Orchestra — Bruce Uchimura will conduct this free WMU concert, 3 p.m. Feb. 3, Chenery Auditorium, 714 S. Westnedge Ave. 387-4667.

Jazz Concert — University Jazz Lab Band and University Jazz Orchestra present a free concert, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-4667.

Band Concert — University Symphonic Band presents a free concert, with Robert Spradling conducting, 3 p.m. Feb. 17, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-4667.

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Tokyo String Quartet — Fontana Chamber Arts presents one of the world’s finest chamber ensembles in a special farewell performance (see article, page 37), 8 p.m. Feb. 23, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 382-7774.

Mediterranean Holiday — The Kalamazoo Concert Band presents a concert under the direction of Thomas Evans, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23, Miller Auditorium, WMU. Vocal, Opera & Radio High School Choral Festival — The Kalamazoo Bach Festival Society brings 10 area high school choirs together to perform for and receive coaching from WMU Director of Choral Activities Kimberly Adams, 9–11 a.m. (individual choirs) and 12:15–1:15 p.m. (mass choir) Feb. 6 & 7, Light Fine Arts Building, Kalamazoo College. The public can observe all sessions for free.

Gold Company 35th Anniversary — WMU’s renowned vocal jazz group presents its annual concert, 2 & 8 p.m. Feb. 9, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Matchbox Twenty — The popular rock group, with frontman Rob Thomas, performs, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Vocal Concert — WMU ensembles University Chorale, Collegiate Singers and Cantus Femina perform, 8 p.m. Feb. 16, First United Methodist Church, 212 S. Park St. 387-4667.

Die Fledermaus — WMU School of Music presents this staged performance of Act II of the famous Strauss opera, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 21, 8 p.m. Feb. 22, Dalton Center Recital Hall, WMU. 387-2300.

Experience the Beatles with Rain — This tribute band will recreate the songs, gestures and nuances of the legendary foursome, 8 p.m.

Feb. 22, Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

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All Ears Theatre — Live radio performances for later airing on 102.1 WMUK-FM: Sleeping Beauty, Feb. 9; Pirigi’s Wonderful Dolls, Feb. 23, 6 p.m. First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave. Free.

Miscellaneous Cooper’s Glen: The Great Lakes Acoustic Music Festival — Concerts with Foghorn Stringband, Detour, Mike Compton & David Grier, Joel Mabus and more, 7 p.m. Feb. 15 & 16; workshops, noon–5:30 p.m. Feb. 16,. Radisson Plaza Hotel & Suites, 100 W. Michigan Ave. www.greatlakesacoustic.org.

Kathleen Madigan — Nationally known comedian, 8 p.m.

Feb. 15. Miller Auditorium, WMU. 387-2300.

Teen Filmmaker Festival — This annual free event showcases the work of Michigan teen filmmakers, shows all of the finalists’ films and allows audience members to vote for a People’s Choice Award, 2:30 p.m.

Feb. 24, State Theatre, 404 S. Burdick St. (See article, page 32).

VISUAL ARTS Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, 349-7775 Treasures from Kalamazoo Collections — This exhibition features art of all genres on loan from local collectors, through Feb. 17.

Stoked: Five Artists of Fire and Clay — An exhibition of works from Minnesota’s Saint John’s Pottery studio by Richard Bresnahan and four of his apprentices, through April 7.

The Art of China and Japan: Selections from the Collection — Works on paper, ceramics and sculpture, through June 9.

40 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

Up Close — A series of educational programs led

by Curator of Special Programs Greg Waskowsky: A Different Gaze: Artists Crossing the Color Line, 6:30–7:45 p.m. Feb. 14 & 21.

Miscellaneous Midtown Gallery — Nothing Rhymes With Orange, an exhibit of works by Jerry Harty, Mark Olson, Steve Hess, Margie Welek Fagan and Colin Howe, February, 356 S. Kalamazoo Mall.

372-0134.

Art Hop — View the works of local artists at various venues and galleries in downtown Kalamazoo, 5–9 p.m. Feb. 1.

John McKaig: Always Outward or Homeward Bound — An exhibition of works by printmaker/ artist John McKaig, Feb. 1-28, with opening reception 6–9 p.m. Feb. 1, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Park Trades Center, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave. 373-4938.

LITERARY EVENTS Kalamazoo Public Library, 553-7879 or 342-9837 Covert at the Smithsonian — Learn how and why the first black settlers of Covert, Mich., will be featured in a new exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Feb. 12, Washington Square Branch, 1244 Portage St. Author Anna-Lisa Cox — The author discusses her history of Covert, Mich., A Stronger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Feb. 19, Powell Branch, 100 W. Paterson St. Portage District Library, 329-4544 Read All About It — Author T. Geronimo Johnson will read from and discuss his book Hold It ‘Til It Hurts, with a book signing to follow, 2–3:30 p.m.

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Open for Discussion — A literary discussion group focusing on Caleb’s Crossing,

by Geraldine Brooks, 10:30 a.m. Feb. 19.

Reading, Reception and Book Signing — Hope College professor emeritus Jack Ridl will read from his poetry collection Practicing to Walk Like a Heron, 3–4:30 p.m. Feb. 24.

Miscellaneous About Writing: Visiting Authors Series — Poet Kathleen McGookey will give two presentations on love poems: a craft talk, 10 a.m., and a reading and discussion of her work, 2:15 p.m. Feb. 14, Student Commons Theater, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, 6767 West O Ave., Texas Township.

An Evening with Rosemary Willey and Paula Presler — Kalamazoo Book Arts Center presents these poets, 7–9 p.m. Feb. 23, KBAC, Park Trades Center, 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave. 373-4938.

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ARTIFACTORY (continued from page 36)

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tree / Little green beetle don’t you bother me / Go fly away where I can’t see / Way down south to Kankakee. The musicians won a giant round of applause.

Magson’s wife, Bonnie Jo Campbell, was also featured at last year’s Artifactory. Those who know Campbell as an acclaimed shortstory writer and author of the best-selling novel Once Upon a River might not know that she also writes poetry. At Artifactory, she read a poem called “The Time Machine,” about an old Kalamazoo Stove that she and her husband brought home (white as a bride and too wide / for my kitchen). The poem provided Dietz a chance to talk about the history of the Kalamazoo Stove Co., which had a 50-year run, from 1902 to 1952.

Two other poets wrote about the museum’s tornado machine, each giving the subject matter a different spin. Gail Griffin’s poem had Kalamazoo’s 1980 tornado locked into the “crystal chamber” of the museum machine after lurching into town from the west, slinging her hips, zagging / down the main drag, / a roaring tarantella, while Kathleen McGookey’s poem had Dorothy ordering the tabletop model of the tornado machine “to send the gifts she has gathered into Oz.” Dietz used these poems to launch into a talk about local tornadoes that happened long before the well-known 1980 twister.

Last year’s event provides a good example of the wide range of subject matter that can be expected at an Artifactory reading. Poets wrote about Kalamazoo’s one-way streets, its Ladies’ Library Building, its public library and its daily newspaper. They shared memories of the Doster Country Store, Michigan summers, the blizzard of 1988, an abandoned paper mill. All of the poems were printed in a booklet that was distributed to audience members so they could read along.

“One of the things about Artifactory,” Kerlikoske says, “is that people who come to the event but don’t know each other end up feeling very connected by the history involved.”

To submit poetry for consideration for 2014 year’s Artifactory event, send it to mme642@ aol.com or 2423 Russet Drive, Kalamazoo, MI 49008. You’ve got plenty of time — the deadline is Dec. 31.

42 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

TOKYO (continued from page 37) When the idea began circulating about two years ago that Ikeda and Isomura would retire soon, the junior members initially thought they would continue the group under the same name, but respect for both the quartet and the legacy of its founding members put that idea to rest.

“The Tokyo String Quartet, the name, was so bound up with the membership that, well, losing two members — that’s a huge amount of change to embrace in one go,” Greensmith says. “Martin and I thought about it, and we felt that it might be a good thing to try to continue. But when we looked at the future and really looked at what we had done, we felt proud about the time that we had devoted to the quartet.”

Greensmith cites the increased difficulty of air travel and the amount of time the group spends on the road each season as additional reasons for disbanding. The quartet, which began its tour in Toronto on Jan. 10, will have played 57 concerts by the time it has its final performance on July 6 at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Connecticut.

But the group won’t be leaving fans completely empty-handed. In June it will release its final CD, featuring pieces by Dvorak and Shubert. These ”new”recordings are actually about five years old but will finally be made available to the public about a month before the group finishes its tour. The CD will be the eighth to be released by the group’s current members.

Greensmith says that he and the other three members of the group have bittersweet feelings about the end of the quartet’s run, but they are also looking forward to whatever opportunities lie before them.

“There is an overwhelming feeling of gratitude, privilege and humility that I’ve been granted this great fortune and had the privilege to play this wonderful music,” Greensmith says, “and a just-ever-so-slight feeling of melancholy that it isn’t going to last forever.”

The Tokyo String Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. Feb. 23 at Dalton Center Recital Hall, Western Michigan University.

Visit www.fontanachamberarts.org for ticket information.

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ENCORE THE LAST WORD

(continued from page 46)

happiness there. When the old man died, his family finally came back into his life to scavenge whatever they could profit from. They kicked me off the farm and sold my motorcycle for $25 at the auction.

“Why are you still here?” the man asked as he slumped back to the sidewalk. “Haven’t you heard enough?”

“No”, I said. “I paid for a story, and this one’s not done.”

He pulled the plastic up over his head and continued, “Not much more to tell. I just keep moving. I don’t want to be attached, and I don’t want to be a burden. I heard a story about a man named Jesus from the old Marine, and sometimes I’ll stop in a church to see if it’s real. I pray for my mom, for the old Marine and for all of the souls I had a hand in taking.”

A slight smile crowded the wrinkles across his face as he said, “And sometimes I pray for a motorcycle.”

I reached in my pocket and found the last two $20 bills and handed them to the grizzled old man. “You trying to buy a clear conscience?” he asked. “’Cause a simple ‘excuse me’ will do.”

“No, sir,” I said. “I’m just trying to pay back a little of what you deserve.” He rose to his feet and started to walk away. I turned in the opposite direction and headed for a better part of town.

Sometimes a brief encounter can change your life forever. And on the rarest of occasions it can change your outlook. Now at the end of each and every prayer I say, ”I now ask for a motorcycle for the man in the green plastic garbage bags.”

Have The Last Word Have a story to tell? Non-fiction, personal narratives about life in Southwest Michigan are sought for The Last Word. Stories should be no more than 1,000 words. Submit your story and contact information to editor@encorekalamazoo.com.

Alex Lee, a proud U.S. Navy veteran, is the executive director of communications for Kalamazoo Public Schools. He lives in Kalamazoo, which he refers to as “the small city with the gigantic heart.” Outside of his job, Alex writes as a hobby. This is his second piece to appear in “The Last Word” feature.

www.encorekalamazoo.com | 45

THE LAST WORD ENCORE

Tossed Aside BY

Most of the night had expired, but the fun and extravagance continued. I was passing $20 bills like they were a fresh deck of cards. I had picked up the check for everyone’s meal and counttless rounds of whatever followed. But my life was about to be altered by the cool and wet city street in downtown Kalamazoo.

As I stepped out into the street, I was immediately forced to change my course by a man lying across the sidewalk wrapped in green garbage bags. I hopped across, landing on the other side without making contact. I’m sure I flashed back a disgusted look as I took stock of my whereabouts. “Hey, you could say ‘excuse me,’” I heard the man say in a weathered and scratchy voice.

He continued, “Isn’t that what you rich folks say when you almost step on people? You know, I used to be someone. I may not deserve any respect, but you should know better.” I squared up to the man half in curiosity, half in disgust. “If you used to be somebody, how did you end up here?” I asked. He sat up, looked me in the eye and said with no uncertainty whatsoever, “I just got tossed aside.”

“I’ll buy you a bottle of whatever you’re drinking in exchange for the story,” I said. In a sad and haunting tone he responded, “Oh, I’ll dance for your quarters, Mr. Rich Man, but I’d rather have a warm cup of coffee.” I went back into the restaurant and returned a few moments later with an oversized cup of coffee.

“My story’s not a sad one,” he said. “It’s just got a few too many parts of reality. My mom was never anything to look at, but at the age of 16 she was fooled by someone who said she was. One evening was all he needed, and he never came back. She in turn

G. ALEX LEE

got a broken dream, and a son.

I was tossed aside before I was ever born.

“My mom tried to love me, but she just didn’t know how.

In school I learned quickly that I was not of the proper class, but I was willing to trade compliance for a warm, safe place and a meal. When I couldn’t learn to read, I just learned to fight.

“At 17, I asked the judge to put me in a foster home. But his choices included only jail or the military. I thought I had found a home with the Marines. The Corps gave me a uniform, regular meals and a good dose of self-respect. I fought well and killed a lot of enemy soldiers during my time. I stood with the Marines in Vietnam at Khe Sanh when we were nothing more than bait to draw out the enemy. No one ever expected us to return. We were tossed aside by our own command.”

The man struggled to get to his feet. He stood tall for a brief moment and then leaned against the cold brick wall. “All of the people I killed,” he said, “all of those people I was trained to hate, have come back to life in my dreams. And you know what? In the end they were just brave soldiers fighting for their families and for their country, just like me. Their lives were just tossed aside for nothing in particular.

“When I came back home, I saw my efforts as heroic. But the country saw me as a loser and a baby killer, and once again I was just tossed aside. I found a part-time job working for an old Marine trying to live out his life on an old, broken-down farm.

He gave me a place to stay, an old motorcycle and a sense of belonging. That part-time job lasted 23 years. I think I found some (continued on page 45)

46 | ENCORE FEBRUARY 2013

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