Top Ten

6 Look & Listen: Live Art and Jazz Every Other Monday

Ride with Pride

A super-sensory summer experience not to miss: From 7pm to 9pm every other Monday beginning July 19, Higher Art Gallery is hosting “Collaboration,” an intimate and entertaining look-and-listen mesh of music and art in action. Picture it: As you roam a gallery teeming with contemporary sculpture, paintings, and photography, you’ll watch two well-known professional artists — in the case of July 19, Melonie Steffes and Royce Deans — at work while at the same time, at play, is the equally well-known Jeff Haas Trio (Haas on piano, Bruce Dondero on upright bass, and Will Harris on drums) jamming out favorites from the Great American Songbook, as well as their own original music. A cross-collaborative experience of the kind big - city transplants yearn for, this bi-monthly event just might the coolest collision to happen to northern Michigan’s summer Monday nights. Tickets, a $12 goodwill offering, are encouraged as space is limited. Purchase at www.higherartgallery.com or call (231) 252-4616. Find the gallery at 219 East Front St. in Traverse City.

In case you needed another reason to go to Mackinac Island in the summer: Straits Pride hosts a Pride Ride the second Wednesday of each month on Mackinac Island. Riders will meet in Marquette Park at 6pm and ride to British Landing. Bring your own bike but plan to pick up a free pride flag or purchase a T-shirt or other merchandise before you roll from Marquette Park. Upcoming rides are July 14, Aug. 11, and Sept 8. Straits Pride represents lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, and other queer-identifying (LGBTQ) people, lifestyles, and traditions in the area including Mackinac Island, Saint Ignace, Mackinaw City, Cheboygan, and Les Cheneaux. Its goal is to provide and encourage the provision of safe, equitable, and public spaces for LGBTQ people and their allies. Want to support the mission? See straitspride.org. Want to connect without pedaling? The group also hosts gettogethers at the island’s Watercolor Cafe every other Monday for people of all ages to meet and socialize with fellow LGBTQ+ and allies over light refreshments, creative activities, and conversation. More info at straitspride.org

RELAX. ENJOY YOURSELF. THE KIDS ARE FINE.

231-946-8810 890 Munson Avenue Traverse City Stuff we love Walloon Writers Review’s Latest Edition

The timing couldn’t be more perfect: Our annual North of the 45th issue just so happened to follow the release of the sixth edition of Walloon Writers Review, the annual literary compendium of poetry, short stories, and nature photography inspired by the natural surroundings of northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. Guest edited by Petoskey and Mackinac Island resident and WWR associate editor Glen Young, in collaboration with founding editor Jennifer Huder, the 104-page edition — available in print, and for the first time, a digital version — features the work of more than a dozen Michigan (or Michigan-loving) authors and artists, plus a special section penned entirely by award-winning young authors. A great addition to your own bookshelf, or a treasured (and affordable: $14.95!) gift for friends and family whose heart remains in northern Michigan, the publication can be found at local independent booksellers like McLean & Eakin in Petoskey, Between the Covers in Harbor Springs, Saturn Booksellers in Gaylord, or Horizon Books in Traverse City and Cadillac, or you can order one through bookshop.org. To learn more or find out how to submit your own creative work at walloonwriters.com.

bottoms up Stone Hound Brewing Co.’s Sour de TART

Nothing says summer like a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade. The Sour de TART from the recently opened Stone Hound Brewing Co. in Acme is a fitting stand-in: A cherry-lemonade sour beer that tastes so much like your favorite lemonade you’ll hardly notice the 5.4 percent ABV. The hint of cherry tartness comes courtesy of King’s Orchards in Central Lake (recently White House-approved, following a visit last weekend from President Joe Biden), which supplied the Balaton tart cherries that went into the fermenter to make this beer. Best of all, drinking a Sour de TART is also a charitable exercise: As the name implies (it’s a play on “Tour de TART,” the July bike race that serves as the biggest annual fundraiser for TART Trails), Stone Hound’s Sour de TART is a partnership of sorts with Traverse City’s beloved recreational trail organization. One dollar from every pint sold goes toward TART to support the construction of the Acme Connector Trail, which will extend the TART Trail from its current terminus at Bunker Hill Road to the Acme Meijer and beyond. Where the trail terminates now is just a stone’s throw from Stone Hound’s front door, so when you reach the end of the trail, why not stop in to try this summer-friendly beer and support that next phase of trail development?