By Karolee Gillman, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
In the the world of high fashion, Miranda Priestly is queen. Miranda is the editor of Runway magazine. She expects perfection from everyone, including her newly hired assistant, Andrea Sachs. Andrea wants to be a writer for The New Yorker, but has left her resume at every publishing house. Runway offers Andrea a job “that a million girls would die for”.
The job is actually salaried servitude. Miranda has one demand, often near impossible, after another for Andrea to complete during the day. Andrea pushes friends and family aside as she tries to keep up with those demands. During a trip of a lifetime to Paris Fashion Week, Andrea realizes what is really important in her life, and abruptly quits her job.
The way Andrea quits makes news in the society pages, making her a minor celebrity. Afraid that she has been blacklisted in the publishing industry, Andrea moves back home with her parents, and begins writing short-story fiction. One of these stories is picked up by a national teen magazine, and her career really begins.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) announced that they are welcoming a special guest to the Museum, Rexie the T-Rex on Saturday, January 19 and Sunday, January 20! Visitors will get up close with a life-size dinosaur through this entertaining show for kids and families.
Be prepared to step back in time when you meet Rexie, an anatomically perfect, realistic puppet standing over 8’ tall and 12’ long! Everyone loves to make friends and take their picture with Rexie. Families who see the gentle and life-size baby T-Rex experience a thrilling prehistoric encounter from a world long since extinct. Join Rexie the T-Rex, for an unforgettable family experience of legendary proportions!
“We are excited to welcome Rexie the T-Rex to the Museum this month,” said Kate Kocienski, VP of Marketing and PR for the GRPM. “With the popularity of the Expedition: Dinosaur exhibit, this is a perfect fit to continue our dinosaur takeover throughout the Museum.”
Rexie will be meeting visitors on the first floor galleria of the GRPM on January, 19 and 20 at 11:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. Encounters and photo opportunities with Rexie are free to Museum members and free with general admission to the Museum.
Rexie the T-Rex is brought to the GRPM by Great Shows for Kids.
Expedition: Dinosaur, a special traveling exhibition now open at the GRPM, explores the fascinating world of dinosaurs and the hunt for their fossils! From life-sized and lifelike animatronic dinosaurs – some controlled by visitors – to mechanical and electronic learning stations, visitors become paleontologists. The exhibit taps into our fascination with these incredible creatures and includes a number of hands- on interactives that explain dinosaur movement, digestion, and evolution, and show the life and methods of dinosaur hunters from the 1800s to today. Tickets to the Expedition: Dinosaur exhibition are $4 with the purchase of a general admission ticket, with discounts for Museum members. For more information and tickets, visit grpm.org/Dinos.
Expedition: Dinosaur was developed by Stage Nine Exhibitions. The exhibit at Grand Rapids Public Museum is sponsored locally by Meijer, David & Carol Van Andel Family Foundation, David & Amy Leonard, Keller Ford, Chris & Kim Branoff, FASTSIGNS, Old National Bank, Straight Line Fences and Holiday Inn Grand Rapids Downtown. Media sponsorship by Wood TV8, Wood News Radio and WGVU Public Media.
The first Grand Rapids show Kenny Chesney announced for April 6 at SMG-managed Van Andel Arena on his Songs for the Saints 2019 Tour sold out quickly. So quickly that a second show for Sunday, April 7, has been added.
Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, January 18 at 10:00 AM. Tickets will be available at the Van Andel Arena and DeVos Place® box offices, online at Ticketmaster.com, and charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000. See Ticketmaster.com for all pricing and availability.
After playing 19 major stadium concerts, breaking 11 records and playing to over 1.3 million members of No Shoes Nation, Kenny Chesney decided to scale things back, head to where the fans are and create a more intimate concert experience. Though known for his high impact shows, Songs for the Saints 2019 Tour is going to bring all the energy, all the intensity and all the songs to select markets.
“I wanted to bring the music to the people, knowing how many members of No Shoes Nation travel to see our stadium shows,” the man the Los Angeles Times hailed “The People’s Superstar” said of his 2019 tour. “To me, making the rooms a little smaller, coming to where the fans live, we’re changing the dynamic – and I think it’s going to be pretty cool. It’s a lot of people’s hometowns, and that’s always awesome energy.”
Joining the songwriter/superstar on Songs for the Saints 2019 Tour is good friend and hard country icon David Lee Murphy. Murphy’s feel good faith in the universe “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” became his second and Chesney’s 29th No. 1 – and scored the pair the 2018 CMA Award for Musical Event of the Year.
With “Better Boat,” Chesney’s duet with Mindy Smith from the deeply personal Songs for the Saints climbing the charts, the 8-time Entertainer of the Year is turning his attention back to the fans, the music and the road. Profiled in The New York Times in early November for his intersective approach to music through sports, the man from East Tennessee believes in the power of music to heal people wherever they are.
“One thing people who’ve been coming to see us know is that every night, I tell people, ‘Whatever your problems are, I want you to leave them out there… and for one night, I want you to forget about it, and have the time of your life,’” he explains. “It’s not that we don’t have serious songs, or heartbreak songs, but I want people to feel what they need to feel, sing as loud as they can and have the kind of night everybody needs to feel the best part of being alive.”
Earlier this year, The New YorkTimes further recognized that power, offering, “Everything country learned from arena rock is in the mix…the music gives him heroic, wide-open spaces,” while the Cleveland Plain Dealer offered, “Chesney makes you feel better, better about yourself, better about life,” and Variety noted, “Country Music’s only true long-term stadium act.”
“To me, songs are personal. That is until you play them for others. Now when I hear the audience singing along on “Noise,” or “Get Along,” or “American Kids,” it’s their song every bit as much as it’s mine. They throw so much light and heart on everything, even a sad one like “Anything But Mine,” the songs shine. So for us, getting out there and hearing these songs again just reminds us how powerful they are. And getting to take them to some places we’ve missed, playing some rooms where we can really see all the faces? That’s really awesome, too.”
It’s wintertime West Michigan, but things are about to heat up downtown in DeVos Performance Hall. The Grand Rapids Symphony presents the rich and fiery flavor of Latinx music and dance in Rhythm of the Dance.
From Argentina to Spain, Rhythm of the Dance showcases music from both sides of the Atlantic and gives a taste of the classic favorites as well as a contemporary imaginings of Latin-American music. The program will include such classic works as Joaquin Rodrigo’sConcierto de Aranjuez, the most popular work of all time for guitar and orchestra, with guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas.
Dancers from Grand Rapids Ballet will join the orchestra for the vibrant rhythms and irresistible melodies of Two Tangos by Astor Piazzolla.
The concert in the Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series, led by Music Director Marcelo Lehninger, will take place at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Jan. 18-19 in DeVos Performance Hall. Concert sponsor is Warner Norcross + Judd. Villegas’ performance is sponsored by the Edith I. Blodgett Guest Artist Fund.
The Grand Rapids Symphony’s Brazilian-born Music Director will lead the orchestra in Spanish composer Manuel de Falla’s Suite No. 1 from The Three-Cornered Hat and in Argentinean composer Alberto Ginastera’s Four Dances fromEstancia.
The Symphony will also perform Three Latin American Dances, a contemporary work written by Gabriela Lena Frank, a Grammy Award-winning American composer of Peruvian descent.
Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, which includes one of the most hauntingly beautiful English horn solos in the symphonic repertoire, is sure to be a highlight of the program.
Having lost his sight at the age of 3, Rodrigo was a virtuoso pianist and gifted composer. Though he was not a guitar player himself, several of his works for guitar and orchestra raised the profile of the instrument within the world of classical music.
Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas, winner of the Andres Segovia Award and Gold Medalist in the first Christopher Parkening International Guitar Competition, will join the Symphony to perform the concerto that made Rodrigo famous.
Born and raised in La Rioja, Spain, a region full of wineries and bodegas in northern Spain, Villegas is praised as a charismatic performer with singing tone and consummate technique that conjures the passion, playfulness and drama of his homeland’s musical heritage.
‘I never heard the guitar sound the way that you play it.’ is a comment guitarist Villegas often hears.
Villegas told Billboard Magazine in 2016, “When I play a concert, people always say, ‘I never heard the guitar sound the way that you play it.’ And that is exactly what I am looking for. We’re talking about an emotional connection through the music using the guitar. For me, the guitar is the most wonderful and expressive instrument.”
An evening of Latin music would not be complete without a tango or two by “The Great Astor.”
On his ninth birthday, Piazzolla received his first bandoneon, an instrument related to the accordion, from his father, who bought it from a pawn shop for less than $20. Piazzolla soon became a prodigy on the instrument, learning the music of Bach, Mozart and Schumann and, of course, the tango.
Intending to become a composer of classical music, Piazzolla for 10 years wrote symphonies, piano concertos and chamber music. After winning a composers’ competition, he was given the opportunity to study with the famed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, mentor to such composers as Aaron Copland and Philip Glass.
In a 1988 interview with the Washington Post, Piazzolla recalled presenting his work to Nadia Boulanger, “…all of a sudden she says, ‘Why don’t you play a piece of the music you write in tango? I’m very much interested.’ I played eight bars and she just took my two hands and put them against her chest and said, ‘This is Astor Piazzolla, this is the music you have to go on writing, not that. Throw that into the garbage.’”
“And that’s what I did,” he continued. “I threw 10 years out of my life into the garbage. Now I write classical music, or symphonies, but always with a tango taste in it, trying the most to be Astor Piazzolla always.”
Inside the Music, a free, pre-concert, multi-media presentation sponsored by BDO USA, will be held before each performance at 7 p.m. in the DeVos Place Recital Hall.
Tickets for the Richard and Helen DeVos Classical series start at $18 and are available at the Grand Rapids Symphony box office, weekdays 9 am – 5 pm at 300 Ottawa Ave. NW, Suite 100, (located across the street from Calder Plaza). Call (616) 454-9451 x 4 to order by phone. (Phone orders will be charged a $2 per ticket service fee, with a $12 maximum).
Tickets are available at the DeVos Place ticket office, weekdays 10 am – 6 pm or on the day of the concert beginning two hours before the performance. Tickets also may be purchased online at GRSymphony.org.
Sit back and experience the wonder of the cosmos with the wonder of music! Kick off the New Year with Concerts Under the Stars at the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) featuring the sounds of dark folk music with Fiona Dickinson on Thursday, Jan. 17.
This site-specific performance will combine shoegaze and dream-pop with ethereal interludes to create two seamless sets that flow into familiar song structures and out into meditative drones. Musicians Dan Fisher, Shane Tripp, and Ben Wiessenborn will assist on the project as a backing band. Accompanying Fiona with live visuals on the planetarium dome will be Meghan Moe Beitiks.
“Fiona Dickinson is a great start to the 2019 Concerts Under the Stars series,” said Kate Kocienski, VP of Marketing and PR for the GRPM. “Although each concert is a different genre, so you would need to see all of them for the full experience.”
Concerts Under the Stars will begin at 7:30 p.m., with Museum doors opening at 6:30 p.m. New this year, performers will play two sets, with a short intermission in between. Refreshments, beer and other beverages will be available for purchase.
Tickets are $12 for GRPM members and $15 for non-members if purchased in advance, and $15 for members and $18 for non-members on the day of the concert. Tickets are currently on sale at grpm.org, by calling 616-929-1700 or at the Museum’s front desk.
The 2019 Concerts Under the Stars series will continue on Feb. 7 with psych rock from Frankie and Myrrh, Feb. 28 with ambient R&B from Bronze Wolf, and will conclude on Mar. 21 with the electronic sounds of Pink Sky.
Fiona Dickinson is a British songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and music educator currently residing in Grand Rapids. Along with her work arranging strings for the ambient noise project, Saltbreaker, Fiona has a lengthy list of collaborations on stage and in the studio. She also has a background in composition for independent film and live score for site-specific performance with dance, video, and analog projection.
Meghan Moe Beitiks, has designed lights for the California Academy of Sciences, the Asian Art Museum, SF Sketchfest, and Atom-R. She is an artist working with associations and disassociations of culture/nature/structure, analyzing perceptions of ecology through the lenses of site, history, and emotions in order to produce work that interrogates relationships with the non-human. She was a Fulbright Student Fellow in Scenic Design to Latvia and a recipient of the Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists. She received her BA in Theater Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her MFA in Performance Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University, and has designed media for previous Concerts Under the Stars in 2018.
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Alexander McCall Smith’s ninth novel in the wildly successful No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series. The Miracle at Speedy Motors, revisits the life of Mma Ramotswe. She is a “traditionally built” woman of Botswana, who has created something completely new in the town of Gabarone, and even in all of Botswana: a detective agency led by a woman. Precious Ramotswe was led to do this after her dear, good father died, and she needed a means to support herself, since she had left her terrible marriage.
I am not a big fan of the classic mystery genre (hate the whole “red herring” thing), and worse yet, this sub-genre is often termed a “Cozy”, which seems about as appealing as lukewarm oatmeal. Do not be put off by these terms! This series is fascinating, lively, and hilarious: if you start them you will not be able to stop!
They are like small snapshots of the lives of some very fascinating characters, in the cultural context of Botswana. These books have had unfailingly great reviews, even receiving two Booker Judges’ Special Recommendations and also being voted one of the International Books of the Year and the Millennium by the Times Literary Supplement. So don’t worry that they will be too enjoyable to be good for your mind. And don’t be surprised if they lead you into reading more books about Africa, a continent rich in so many different traditions, with unimagined wealth still to be discovered, that may well become the next China or India.
Alexander McCall Smith’s biography would make an interesting book in itself. He has lived and taught at universities in different countries, and has written many non-fiction books that are considered definitive in their field. He was born in Zimbabwe (which was then Rhodesia) and went to school near the Botswana border. Later in life, he wanted to write a book that would speak to his admiration for the people of Botswana, and Mma Ramotswe came into being.
If you have heard about them but not tried one yet, it is important to begin at the beginning in this series.
The LowellArts Players Youth Theater presents Henry and Ramona, a full-length comedy by Cynthia McGean based on the books by Beverly Cleary. Performances are Jan. 17th at 7pm, Jan. 18th at 7pm, and Jan. 19th at 2pm & 7pm at Lowell Performing Arts Center/Lowell High School, 11700 Vergennes, Lowell, MI 49331. The production includes 19 youth, teen, and adult actors ages 8 and up from Lowell and surrounding communities. Directed by Teresa Goldner.
Synopsis: Newbery Award-winning author Beverly Cleary’s irrepressible hero saves the day in this adaptation of one of the best-loved children’s book series of all time. Ten-year-old Henry wants to do something important; he wants to deliver newspapers, just like that showoff Scooter McCarthy and the other boys. But first Henry has to prove to his parents he can handle the responsibility. That won’t be easy with Ramona Quimby around! Then when the boys form a clubhouse excluding girls, Henry’s friendship with Beezus is tested and the girls wreak their hilarious revenge. All of Henry’s most memorable adventures are here including riding to the dump in a bathtub and getting his first bike. Along the way, with the “help” of Ramona, he learns some valuable lessons about friendship and maturity. ‘Henry and Ramona’ captures the everyday trials and triumphs of being a kid.
By Elaine Bosch, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Laura Hillenbrand knows how to turn a tale. Her first book Seabiscuit: An American Legend told the true story of the famous racehorse with all the depth and drive of great fiction. Her second book, Unbroken: A World War II story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption an equally compelling historical read, proves Seabiscuit was more than beginner’s luck.
In 1931, Louis Zamperini was an energetic, incorrigible high school student with a penchant for stealing and scheming. Saved from self-destruction by the efforts of his older brother Pete, Louis learned to pack his considerable emotional baggage into running, a talent he had long possessed, but which he had heretofore used only to elude the authorities.
Louis became a record breaking local hero known as the “Torrance Tornado”. At the age of nineteen, he represented the United States in the 1936 Olympic games. He returned from Berlin, his passion intact, intent on being the first man to run a mile in four minutes or less.
World War II intervened. The 1940 Olympics, scheduled for Tokyo, were canceled, and Louis found himself a bombardier in the Air Force. In 1943, his plane went down in the Pacific Ocean. Louis suddenly found himself battling for something far more serious than a world record — his life.
For two years Zamperini faced deprivation and degradation that few can imagine — first as a survivor adrift in the ocean, and then as a prisoner of war at the worst prison camps in Japan. Singled out due to his officer and celebrity status by “The Bird,” a psychotic, sadistic camp commander, Louis became the target of an intense campaign waged to utterly humiliate, demoralize, and destroy him. That he survived at all is amazing. That he did so with his spirit and joy intact is a miracle.
Hillenbrand will captivate you with this story, shocking and inspiring in turn. It is life and times writ large.
Sunset, Lake Michigan was one of seven Alten paintings recently gifted to Grand Valley by Anita Gilleo. (GVSU)
Grand Valley State University has several art exhibits opening this month. Below is a list of the university’s galleries and upcoming exhibitions.
“Mathias J. Alten: An Evolving Legacy”
Exhibition dates: ongoing
George and Barbara Gordon Gallery
DeVos Center, Building E, Room 103 and 202, Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Gordon Gallery hours: Friday and Saturday, 1-5 p.m.; closed on holiday weekends
The German-born American artist Mathias Joseph Alten (1871-1938) is often referred to as the dean of Michigan painters. Working in a traditional representational style, Alten incorporated the aesthetics and techniques of the Impressionist Movement in paintings infused with light and punctuated with deft brushwork. Based in Grand Rapids, Alten created more than 3,800 works over a more than 40-year career, including landscapes, seascapes, portraits and florals. Grand Valley State University holds the largest public collection in the world of Alten’s work.
“Multitudinaria marcha por la ley de agua 14 julio 2018” in “Water: Human Right or Commodity?” exhibition. (GVSU)
“Water: Human Right or Commodity?”
Blue Wall Gallery, DeVos Center, Building B
Exhibition on display Jan. 7-June 21
This exhibition explores human rights in a world of increasingly limited natural resources; specifically, access to clean water. A result of the research and collaborations arranged by two Grand Valley State University social work faculty members, Paola León and Steven Smith, this exhibition includes images and descriptions of the challenges faced in El Salvador and Flint, Michigan. Organized into themes dealing with civic engagement, infrastructure, ownership/legislation, public health and scarcity/contamination, these materials provide local, national and international context to water rights. The El Salvador portion of the exhibition, focusing on the lack of running water in homes, social activism and contamination by the mining industry, was organized by León. Smith organized the Flint portion of the exhibition, documenting the ongoing issues and continuing recovery of the City of Flint’s tainted water supply.
“Fallout” is part of the VMA Sabbatical Showcase opening Jan. 14.
VMA Sabbatical Showcase
Art Gallery, Thomas J. and Marcia J. Haas Center for Performing Arts
Exhibition on display Jan. 14-March 29
This sabbatical showcase will feature works by Grand Valley faculty members Brett Colley, Dellas Henke, Hoon Lee and Anthony Thompson.
Students using a specimen to aid in anatomy and physiology courses in “Plastination – The Art of Preservation,” opening Jan. 14
“Plastination — The Art of Preservation”
Red Wall Gallery, Lake Ontario Hall, Allendale Campus
Exhibition on display Jan. 14-June 21
Plastination is the process of infusing animal, human or plant tissues with a variety of plastic or silicone products to render the tissues odor-free, dry and permanently preserved for educational and instructional purposes. The process was invented by Gunther von Hagens in 1977 at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and became popular through his many “Body Worlds” exhibitions around the world. Beginning in 2007, members of Grand Valley State University began studying plastination and investigating the opportunity to create a lab at the university. That became a reality in 2013, and since then, more than 300 specimens have been plastinated for use in a variety of teaching roles. This exhibition tells the story of plastination at Grand Valley and walks viewers through the process and uses of plastinates. It brings together more than 20 animal specimens from the lab – currently the only plastination lab in Michigan.
For more information about Grand Valley State University art exhibits, call (616) 331-2563 or visit gvsu.edu/artgallery.
Arts at Noon brings nationally and internationally known musicians to Grand Valley State University for 14 performances each academic year. All Arts at Noon concerts will take place in the Cook-DeWitt Center located on the Allendale Campus. They will begin at noon and last approximately one hour. Every concert is free and open to the public. For more information about Arts at Noon, visit gvsu.edu/artsatnoon.
The Perugino Quartet will perform Jan. 16 for the GVSU Arts at Noon program. (GVSU)
January 16 – Perugino Quartet
Named after Renaissance artist Pietro Perugino of Grand Rapids’ sister city Perugia, Italy, The Perugino String Quartet has performed across Michigan and at the world-renowned Julliard String Quartet Seminar at the Lincoln Center in New York City. The group is composed of Grand Rapids Symphony members including, violinists Eric Tanner and Christopher Martin, violinist Barbara Corbato and cellist Stacey Bosman Tanner. Together, the quartet performs classics of the string quartet repertoire, as well as a variety of new chamber works. The Perugino String Quartet centers its appearances around Michigan, having performed at many arts-based series and events, such as the Chamber Music Festival of Saugatuck, Art Reach of Mid Michigan and Muskegon’s Feeding the Soul of the City concert series.
Pablo Mahave-Veglia performs on the cello. Mahave-Veglia will be part of the GVSU Faculty Recital on Jan. 23.
January 23 – GVSU Faculty Recital
This Arts at Noon concert will feature performances by two Grand Valley State University music faculty members: Pablo Mahave-Veglia, professor of cello and director of the university’s Early Music Ensemble, and Sookkyung Cho, assistant professor of piano. Mahave-Veglia is a cellist and teacher of broad interests whose repertoire ranges from the early baroque, performed on period instruments, to his ongoing interest in researching, performing and recording the work of contemporary Latin-American composers.Before taking her position as an assistant professor of piano at Grand Valley, Cho served on the piano faculty at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Continuing Education in Boston. She was also adjunct faculty in theory at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University and served as a Teaching Fellow in the piano minor and music theory departments at The Juilliard School. Cho has performed throughout North America, Europe, and her native country, Korea, in prestigious venues, including Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Beaux concerts de la releve in Quebec, Château de Fontainebleau in France and Zijingang Theater at Zhejiang University in China, among others. She received a bachelor’s degree in music and doctorate of musical arts from The Juilliard School, and a master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.
Dan Sippel, Executive Director at the West Michigan Tourist Association (WMTA), will introduce M. Christine Byron and her husband Thomas R. Wilson when they present the 100-year history of West Michigan Tourist Association to the Rockford Area Historical Society on Thursday, Feb. 7. The 1pm meeting is at the Rockford Community Cabin on Monroe Street.
The West Michigan Tourist Association was founded in Grand Rapids in 1917. Established as a non-profit organization based on membership, it was the first grass-roots tourist association in the country. At the time, the tourist industry was in its infancy.
Although railroad lines, steamship companies, and various hotels and resorts promoted the region they served, there was no concentrated effort to boost the tourism advantages of the state. With strong leadership and the committed members of WMTA, tourism has grown into one of Michigan’s leading industries. Byron & Wilson will feature some of the noteworthy efforts to advertise and promote our state over the last 100 years.
Christine Byron is retired from the Grand Rapids Public Library and together she and her husband have written five books focusing on the history of West Michigan tourism. They have been collecting postcards and Michigan tourism ephemera for over 30 years. The public is welcome to this event. In the event that Rockford Public Schools close due to bad weather the Rockford Area Historical Society will not meet.
By Julie Beukema, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
Are you young at heart? Although marketed for teens, I argue that any age group will highly appreciate The Hunger Games, an adventurous tale. I can guarantee that most teens in your life have at least heard of it. Thus reading it yourself could provide not only hours of entertainment, but also open a door to great discussion with those teens.
The Hunger Games tells the story of a post-apocalyptic United States. The United States government has collapsed for many reasons, including drought and war. Those who survived are now governed by a bureaucracy known as Panem and have been divided up into 12 Districts and a Capitol. Each district is required to provide a Tribute of one boy and one girl who are forced to fight to the death in an annual televised contest known as The Hunger Games.
Katniss, a 16-year-old girl from one of the poorest Districts, District 11, offers to be the female tribute in place of her younger, weaker sister. What follows is a tale of compassion and survival guaranteed to grip readers and to provide many points for discussion.
“Ice Worlds” is the newest planetarium show at the Chaffee Planetarium.
Discover the balance between ice, water and the existence of life! The Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) is proud to present a new planetarium show, Ice Worlds, beginning Jan. 7 in the Chaffee Planetarium.
Travel to the Arctic and Antarctic regions of our planet as well as the icy bodies beyond Earth. Audiences will examine the ecosystems that live and thrive in the icy regions of our planet and see how their survival is connected with our own. Beyond Earth, we’ll see how the existence of ice shapes the landscape and the natural systems on other planets and moons in our solar system. Narrated by two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Actress, Emily Watson.
“At the Grand Rapids Public Museum, we are continuously working to bring new, exciting and educational offerings to the community, and are excited to kick off 2019 with Ice Worlds,” said Kate Kocienski, VP of Marketing and PR for the GRPM. “Planetarium visitors will explore and compare ice throughout the universe from Earth to other planets and beyond.”
Ice Worlds will begin in the Museum’s Chaffee Planetarium on January 7, with shows daily at 2 p.m.
Tickets to the Chaffee Planetarium are free for Museum members and $4 with general admission to the Museum, $5 for a Planetarium-only ticket for non-members.
Ice Worlds is produced by Evans & Sutherland Digital Theater.
Somewhere between a short story and a full novel comfortably sits the novella. This is the short, sharp, and often brilliantly paced story that can be experienced in one or two sittings. Crystalline in structure, these stories sink in with intensity, revealing characters or situations that resonate long after the story is over. These are two of my favorites.
Mr. Summer’s Story by Patrick Suskind, illustrated by Sempe
This is the delightfully illustrated story of a boy profoundly affected by a few brief encounters with an enigmatic neighbor. The unnamed narrator tells of his experiences growing up in a small German village after World War II. While much of the story focuses on the joyful exuberance of youth and the frustrations of growing up, it is through the boy’s observation of the town’s most mysterious character, Mr. Summer, that we are told a much more compelling tale.
Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
A comment on capitalism, obsession, and social norms, Bartleby is certainly one of literature’s most perplexing characters. Bartleby is hired as a copyist at a law firm on Wall Street in the 1850s. Through his polite and passive denials when asked anything from inquiries about his personal life to direct orders of the job, always replying with the allusive “I prefer not to,” Bartleby becomes increasingly exasperating to his colleagues. A character not easily forgotten.
The Grand Rapids Public Museum is excited to announce that Concerts Under the Stars are returning for 2019. Concert-goers will enjoy a fully immersive experience of audio and visuals in the Museum’s Chaffee Planetarium.
Beginning on January 17, join the GRPM for the first performance in the Concerts Under the Stars series, Fiona Dickinson, featuring dark folk music. Concerts Under the Stars will run January through March 2019. Visitors can sit back and experience the wonder of the cosmos with the wonder of music to performances featuring the sounds of folk, rock, electronic and R&B.
“The Museum is excited to bring back Concerts Under the Stars for the third year highlighting local music and audiovisual artists in this very unique venue,” said Kate Kocienski, VP of Marketing and PR for the GRPM. “Live music in the Chaffee Planetarium is a one-of-a-kind experience for concert-goers, and not something that is replicated at other venues.”
Fiona Dickinson is a British songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and music educator currently residing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Along with her work arranging strings for the ambient noise project, Saltbreaker, Fiona has a lengthy list of collaborations on stage and in the studio. She also has a background in composition for independent film and live score for site-specific performance with dance, video, and analog projection.
Dark folk is a sub-genre of folk music that blends traditional Nordic folk music and ambient music and is considered to be closely related to metal. Fiona will be accompanied by live visuals on the planetarium dome by Meghan Moe Beitiks.
Meghan Moe Beitiks, has designed lights for the California Academy of Sciences, the Asian Art Museum, SF Sketchfest, and Atom-R. She is an artist working with associations and disassociations of culture/nature/structure, analyzing perceptions of ecology through the lenses of site, history, and emotions in order to produce work that interrogates relationships with the non-human. She was a Fulbright Student Fellow in Scenic Design to Latvia and a recipient of the Edes Foundation Prize for Emerging Artists. She received her BA in Theater Arts from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her MFA in Performance Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Grand Valley State University, and has designed media for previous Concerts Under the Stars in 2018.
Concerts Under the Stars will begin at 7:30 p.m., with Museum doors opening at 6:30 p.m. New this year, performers will play two sets, with a short intermission in between. Refreshments, beer and other beverages will be available for purchase.
Tickets are $12 for GRPM members and $15 for non-members if purchased in advance, and $15 for members and $18 for non-members on the day of the concert. Tickets are currently on sale at grpm.org, by calling 616.929.1700 or at the Museum’s front desk.
The 2019 Concerts Under the Stars series will continue on February 7 with psych rock from Frankie and Myrrh, February 28 with ambient R&B from Bronze Wolf, and will conclude on March 21 with the electronic sounds of Pink Sky.
By Laura Nawrot, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
What library would be complete without Kevin Henkes’s wonderful picture book, Chrysanthemum? This book tells the story of a young mouse’s first experience at school and the confusion she feels over having a unique name. The story touches on teasing and self-confidence in a gentle and humorous way. Although targeted at pre-school and kindergarten readers, it appeals to slightly older children as well through the universal experiences of Chrysanthemum. A nice family read with a fun twist at the end.
Shug by Jenny Han, follows Annemarie “Shug” Wilcox through the perils of seventh grade: new friends, first crushes and a new school. Han appeals to a wide audience through a main character who is not your average girl. Shug is believable—a real person with real problems, normal family issues and less than perfect solutions. While some of the situations seem more likely to happen to a slightly older girl, Jenny Han is right on with the details, and readers will empathize with Shig’s experiences.
Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar uses humor through the viewpoint of a geeky kid named Scott who approaches high school with a very different perspective than his older brother Bobby. Scott sets out to win a classmate’s heart by joining the school newspaper, running for student council and auditioning for a play. Although Bobby is popular with the girls, Scott becomes invisible. Many of Scott’s difficulties appear as hilarious lists dedicated to helping his unborn sibling make it safely through high school. The situations Scott encounters are realistic, and Lubar has a superb comic sense.
Bass Ackward and Belly Up by Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain looks at four girls embarking on their first year of college. Written in chapters that feature each of the characters (similar to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books by Ann Brashares), the story covers four months of their lives as they follow their various dreams. At first, this book appears to be somewhat predictable, but the authors stay true to the characters Harper, Kate, Sophie and Becca in developing the story and keeping it real.
Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict with NBC, Jenna Bush Hager is no longer able to fulfill her commitment to speak at Calvin College’s 2019 January Series. Her twin sister, Barbara Pierce Bush, has graciously agreed to fill her spot on Thursday, Jan. 10.
Barbara is the co-founder of Global Health Corps and co-author of Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life, which takes readers on an extraordinary and deeply personal journey behind the scenes of what it is like to be born into a political dynasty, revealing never-before-told stories about the Bush family, and uncovering the enduring sisterly bond that kept them sane through it all.
The January Series runs from 12:30-1:30pm EST Monday through Friday in the Covenant Fine Arts Center on Calvin’s campus. And, the series is also available in more than 50 cities throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. In 2018, nearly 80,000 people enjoyed the series live between on-campus, remote sites, and audio livestream. Go here for more information.
By M. Christine Byron, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
A second book by Tom Dilley, one of Grand Rapids premiere postcard collectors, has just been released by Arcadia Publishing in their Postcard History Series. This volume covers aspects of Grand Rapids History between 1900 and 1960. Intended to supplement the themes developed in Dilley’s first book, Grand Rapids in Vintage Postcards 1890-1940, the book features 116 postcards, most from the author’s personal collection.
Dilley gives us glimpses of life in Grand Rapids in the first half of the 20th Century. Postcards portray street scenes, scenic views, recreation and local events, such as the flood of 1907 and John F. Kennedy’s visit to the city in 1960. The book features businesses of Grand Rapids, including formerly prominent establishments such as Herpolsheimers, the Pantlind Hotel and Joppe’s Dairy Company.
The earliest postcard views of neighborhoods portray Heritage Hill streets and homes. As the city grew outward, neighborhoods such as Madison Square, Eastown and Ottawa Hills are shown. Ramona Park and Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids became favorite amusement spots, as evidenced by many postcards.
Different types of postcards are reproduced in the book, including rare leather cards and double or panoramic postcards. Dilley also included two collectible series of cards: the Mr. Rover cards and the 1910 Homecoming postcards. Dilley’s book will interest postcard collectors, historians, researchers and anyone who might enjoy taking a stroll down memory lane.
As the Grand Rapids Ballet likes to say: “It isn’t the holidays without ‘The Nutcracker’.” And for one local youth, it will be a holiday to remember because she is part of the show.
The Grand Rapids Ballet is in the midst of its annual run of “The Nutcracker”, with final performances Dec. 21-23. As the ballet was preparing for the performances, WKTV Journal caught up with one of the youth dancers in the performances, Kentwood’s Cecilia Nguyen.
Grand Rapids Ballet’s production includes, according to the Ballet, “the world-famous design of Chris Van Allsburg, Broadway-quality sets by Tony Award winner Eugene Lee, festive choreography by Val Caniparoli, and live music from Grand Rapids Symphony, all come together to create pure magic.”
“The Nutcracker” opened Dec. 14 and will continue this weekend, Friday-Sunday, at ther DeVos Performance Hall, downtown Grand Rapids. For more information and tickets visit GRBallet.com .
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
At one time in China, a woman’s value was judged by her marriage and children. For Imperial wives and concubines, this could mean life or a secret death. Author Anchee Min introduces Tzu His, who became China’s last empress. Orchid, as she was known in the Forbidden City, began life as an innocent country girl who became the Emperor’s fourth wife.
While others have told Empress Orchid’s story, author Min uses her own childhood in China to tell this story of a girl turned goddess. Orchid rises above all other women in the Forbidden City to become her Emperor’s favorite wife. She gives him an heir and, when enemies threaten China, leads her people as regent for 46 years.
Min’s native tongue helps give the story its scope. Her descriptions tell a tale of a time when the Boxers were gaining power and the Imperials were losing it. It was a time when the wives and concubines of an emperor fought for the chance to have an heir and the power and security that a son could bring. Orchid is the Cinderella of 19th-century China: a woman who had to become more than a simple country girl to rule her people in peace and justice.
Step right up ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, to a world of gears and canvas, pulleys and sawdust when Cirque Mechanics presents 42FT – A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels on Friday, Feb. 1, at 8pm at The Mendel Center as part of the Discovery Series on the Mainstage.
At the center of every circus rests a 42-foot ring full of thrills, laughs, and excitement. 42FT – A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels is the latest invention from the creative minds of Cirque Mechanics. The company dares us to leap into the circus ring and experience the timelessness of this evolving art form. The show’s unique mechanical interpretation of the traditional, and its story full of the lore of the historic one-ring circus create a welcoming place, like a big top, the audience can be amazed. The action in 42FT is full of theatricality and a modern sensibility, showcasing a galloping mechanical metal horse and a rotating tent frame for strongmen, acrobats, and aerialists.
Cirque Mechanics was founded in 2004 by Boston native and German Wheel artist, Chris Lashua, after the success of his collaborative project with the Circus Center of San Francisco, Birdhouse Factory. Cirque Mechanics quickly established itself as a premiere American circus, with its unique approach to performance, inspiring storytelling and innovative mechanical staging. Spectacle Magazine hailed it as “the greatest contribution to the American circus since Cirque du Soleil.”
Cirque Mechanics, although inspired by modern circus, finds its roots in the mechanical and its heart in the stories of American ingenuity. The shows, rooted in realism, display a raw quality rarely found in modern circus, making their message timeless and relevant. The stories are wrapped in circus acrobatics, mechanical wonders, and a bit of clowning around. The troupe has created four extraordinary productions; Birdhouse Factory, Boomtown, Pedal Punk, and new for the 2018-2019 season 42FT- A Menagerie of Mechanics Marvels.
Tickets for 42FT – A Menagerie of Mechanical Marvels are on sale now starting at $26. They are available online here and through The Mendel Center Box Office at (269) 927-8700, option 1, weekdays from 10am to 6pm. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more, seniors, students and children, active military members, and veterans. For information about group rates, pre-show party options, and other special arrangements, contact the Box Office.
This performance is made possible in part by the Gast Young People’s Performance Endowment and is sponsored by Chemical Bank and Kruggel Lawton CPA. This presentation is supported by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, and the Crane Group.
About The Mendel Center Mainstage
The Mendel Center raised the curtain on its first Mainstage season performance in the fall of 1992. Since that time, it has presented Mainstage season performances to more than half a million attendees. This is in addition to the scores of performing arts, national and international speakers, ceremonies, and community events hosted by other groups and organizations on the Mainstage. The 1,559-seat Mendel Center Mainstage Theatre offers state-of-the-art acoustics and comfortable seating in elegant surroundings. Amenities include free parking, handicap accessibility, and an array of services including catering and bar service for private pre- and post-show events, child booster seats, assistive listening devices, non-spill cups for beverages inside the theatre, and premium seats in the Stage Side section.
About the Discovery Series
Now in its sixth season, The Mendel Center’s Discovery Series provides family-friendly performing arts events for audiences of all ages. The series delivers enriching experiences that introduce young people and their families to the excitement of professionally produced touring productions. The goal of the series is to inspire creativity, spark imagination, educate through the arts, and to create opportunities to build cherished memories while having a lot of fun.
The Mendel Center is 30 minutes from Niles and 40 minutes from the Kalamazoo and South Bend areas. It is located on the Lake Michigan College campus at 2755 E. Napier Avenue, Benton Harbor, Michigan, one mile east of I-94 (Exit 30) and one mile west of the US 31 Bypass (exit 24). Its GPS mapping address is 1100 Yore Avenue, Benton Harbor, MI.
Your plans for a trip to Italy fell apart? Until you can visit Rome or glide through Venice’s canals, do this: Take up with a policeman.
Donna Leon, an American living in Italy, has just brought out the 15th book, Through a Glass Darkly, in her mystery series set in Venice. Commissario Guido Brunetti is patient, principled and long suffering in the pursuit of justice in a bureaucracy often corrupt. He is married to Paola, who cooks wonderful meals and provides shrewd commentary. You finish a book feeling you’ve had a privileged homestay and seen sites for from the tourist track.
It’s best to begin the series with the first book, Death at La Fenice, since the author often refers to earlier incidents. Here, in the celebrated opera house, the world-famous conductor Maestro Helmut Wellauer, is poisoned during a performance of La Traviata. Brunetti, accustomed to the mazey corruptions of Venice, is surprised at the number of enemies Wellauer has made on his way to the top. That title is followed by Death in a Strange Country, in which the body of an American soldier is found in a canal. Next in the series is Uniform Justice, in which a cadet from Venice’s elite military academy is found hanged. The investigation leads to a wall of silence and hostility.
The series is very popular throughout Europe and is gathering lots of fans in the U.S., many of whom also couldn’t vacation in Venice this year.
By Lisa Boss, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
What a lovely story this is, accompanied by Warren Hanson’s evocative illustrations on each page.
It’s a short, quickly read tale, told in a flexible rhyme that describes a man’s initial reluctance to go across town and visit his elderly aunt. He remembers her as vibrant and fun, and he doesn’t think he wants to see her after her stroke, going “downhill.” He’s pretty sure it would depress his happy Christmas.
He can’t escape a nagging feeling of guilt though, and so he does go, and has quite a surprise waiting for him.
I love reading my favorite Christmas poems and stories each year, and this is very high on my short list. Give yourself or a loved one a great gift by checking out A Cup of Christmas Tea.
Join the Grand Rapids Public Museum (GRPM) for the final 2018 Mighty Wurlitzer Organ Concerts with special holiday music performances by Lance Luce on Friday, Dec. 21 and Saturday, Dec 22.
Luce will present holiday cheer this season bringing to life favorite holiday songs on the GRPM’s 1928 Mighty Wurlitzer Theater Organ. His performance will include White Christmas, Silver Bells, Winter Wonderland, Let it Snow, The Christmas Song, Sleigh Ride, Brazilian Sleigh Bells, Mary’s Little Boy Child and other carols.
These concerts are great for families during the holiday season! Tickets are recommended to be purchased early, as they are likely to sell out.
Lance Luce is an internationally acclaimed theatre organist, who has played hundreds of concerts all over the United States, Canada, England and Australia. In 2014 he was awarded Organist of the year by the American Theatre Organ Society. Most recently he became the head organist for the Detroit Red Wings at the new Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit. He has played concerts for numerous chapters of the American Theatre Organ Society and other affiliated theatre organ groups and clubs. He has played for National and regional conventions of the ATOS in the United States and TOSA in Australia.
Shows will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 21, and at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 22, in the Meijer Theater at the GRPM.
Tickets for individual concerts are $8 for Museum member adults, $4 for Museum member children, $10 for non-member adults and $5 for non-member children. Tickets are available by visiting grpm.org/Organ or by calling 616-929-1700.
Tulip Time’s 90th Anniversary Gala will benefit the festival’s “Join the Dance” initiative.
By Susan Zainis
Tulip Time Festival
Tulip Time Festival (www.tuliptime.com) announces plans for a 90thAnniversary Gala to benefit the “Join the Dance’ initiative on Saturday, March 23.
The Tulip Time Festival is committed to celebrate our Dutch Heritage, our warm and inviting community and of course, tulips. Together, we produce a world-class festival and elevate the experiences of a half million visitors each year. The community is invited to attend the Gala in support of the festival’s most popular events – Dutch Dance.
Dutch Dance strives to maintain cultural authenticity in the costumes worn by dancers. Each costume is modeled after period dress representing provinces of the Netherlands. Producing a Dutch Dance costume is no small feat! It can take an expert seamstress up to 15 hours to create a full costume – some with as many as eight finished pieces to complete the ensemble – at an average of $300 each costume. The Gala is designed to create a fund for Dutch Dance costumes and eliminate the cost of costuming as a barrier to participation. Your support will empower local students to Join the Dance.
Guests of the Gala, which will be held at the Holland Civic Center, will be treated to an unforgettable evening that will feature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, an elegant dinner, live music, and extraordinary silent and live auctions.
Mark your calendars and save the date for this event now! Tickets will go on sale beginning Monday, January 14, 2019. For more details on the Gala visit www.tuliptime.com/gala. The Tulip Time Festival is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
Join the dance as we “paint the town orange”at Tulip Time’s 90thAnniversary celebration May 4-12, 2019. Detailed program and event information for Tulip Time 2019 is available on www.tuliptime.com. Tickets are now on sale for National Entertainment and Local Arts & Culture Series events. They can be purchased online at www.tuliptime.com, in person at the Tulip Time Festival Box Office located at 42 West 8thStreet, Holland, Michigan, or by phone at 800-822-2770.
By Bill Hill, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
It is a strange life.
The Emperor penguins are born into darkness at the coldest end of the earth. To get to their mating territory 70 miles inland, they must waddle in short steps for a week through a hazard of upthrust ice scored by crevasses. As deep winter comes on, the females hatch one egg each, pass it to their partner and make the long march to the shore to feed and recover. The male Emperors stay behind cradling their precious eggs on the tops of their feet. They will huddle together through the long Antarctic winter going without food for as much as four months. The darkness and terrible cold ease as the sun climbs higher. Shortly after the eggs hatch the females return, ready to spell the exhausted males who now must totter to the sea. The parents take turns shuttling to the sea for food till their chicks are old enough to make the journey themselves, and the cycle begins again.
Despite its billing as the “Official companion to the major motion picture,” this book is a distillation of the movie in 160 pages of photos with the movie’s narration for text. There is a short end chapter on the making the film. The publisher, National Geographic, has produced a handsome and fascinating book, one that could be shared with the rising generation.
Blandford Nature Center welcomes West Michigan families to join us at our Annual Pioneer Holiday Celebration on Saturday, Dec. 8th, 2018, from 12-4pm located at 1715 Hillburn Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504. The program is the perfect way to kick off the Grand Rapids holiday season with festive favorites and holiday traditions for guests of all ages to enjoy.
“Winter is a beautiful season! This event allows families to get out in nature and experience the beauty of Blandford while also learning about history and engaging in Pioneer traditions. We will also offer traditional holiday concessions available such as coffee, hot cocoa, and roasted marshmallows free of charge”, says Amber Kilpatrick, Community Programs Manager.
Several activities will be available to visitors such as cookie decorating, creating ornaments, candle dipping, making stick gnomes, cookie making, marshmallow roasting, snow snake games outdoors and more. Visitors are also encouraged to tour the historical buildings on site and explore life as an early pioneer in the one-room schoolhouse, log cabin and blacksmith shop.
Guests can also visit the wildlife ambassadors inside the Wildlife Education Center and farm animals over at the Blandford Farm (3143 Milo St NW). As usual, the trails will be open for exploration plus information will be available on how Blandford gift memberships make a great holiday gift.
The event is open to the public with admission fees of $5 for members and $8 for non-members. Children 2 years and younger will be admitted for free. For registration and more event details, go here.
By Megan Andres, Grand Rapids Public Library, Seymour Branch
Hearing that her father is dying, Ruby Torvald takes her little sister Opal and leaves New York City for the wilds of Little Missouri in Dakota Territory. When they arrive in this pioneer town, they are shocked to discover their father is very near death and owns Dove House — a sordid bar, complete with barmaids. Before he dies, Per Torvald makes Ruby swear she will “take care of the girls” — the soiled doves in residence. Ruby finds herself suddenly faced with life on the frontier in a barely-there town.
Over the course of four books, Snelling tells the story of Ruby Torvald and Little Missouri. The author focuses on each of four women: Ruby Torvald, Pearl Hossfuss, Opal Torvald, and Amethyst O’Shaunasy. These women find themselves in circumstances often beyond their control in a time when women were not considered strong in body or emotion.
Ruby finds herself taking on the reform of Dove House while her younger sister Opal confronts societal views of women in the West. Pearl goes from riches in Chicago to a one-room schoolhouse in Little Missouri, and Amethyst comes to find her lost nephew Joel in Medora. The four women learn something about themselves and about God in this Inspirational Fiction series.
Join the Michigan Maritime Museum and the South Haven Memorial Library for a family event Saturday, Dec. 15th. From 10am to 11am the Library will be offering a holiday craft activity. From 12pm to 3pm at the historic Keeper’s House there will be children’s book readings about the Christmas Tree Ship on the top of each hour. Hot cocoa, Christmas tree cookies, sledding, and a little nautical holiday shopping will be provided.
Participate with your children and grandchildren in a free take-home craft activity inspired by the holiday season provided by the South Haven Memorial Library. After your craft project, head over to the Keeper’s House at 91 Michigan Avenue and snuggle up with hot chocolate and a cookie while listening to the heartfelt story of “Captain Santa.” The Rouse Simmons, the real Christmas Tree Ship, delivered Christmas trees to the poor in Chicago every year until its sinking in 1912. Hear the story of how the US Coast Guard continues this tradition even today in honor of the Rouse Simmons, over 100 years later. Spend the afternoon enjoying sledding on the famous South Haven sledding hill just outside.
While you cross a few things off your holiday gift lists, take the chance to peek inside this 19th century home that housed South Haven’s light keepers, Life Saving Service men, the US Coast Guard and is now the home for the Michigan Maritime Museum’s Marialyce Canonie Great Lakes Research Library.
The event is free to attend. Donations are appreciated. Enjoy Christmas at the Keeper’s House this holiday season!
For information on the family craft activity, contact the Library at 269-637-2403 ext. 2. Information about the Keeper’s House event can be found online at www.michiganmaritimemuseum.org or by calling 269-637-8078 ext. 3.
The Robin Connell Trio will be playing trio jazz at Grand Rapid’s One Trick Pony Thursday, Dec. 6, from 8-11 p.m., with Kentwood bassist Charles Johnson sitting in.
Connell will be on keyboard and vocals, with Ian LeVine on drums.
There is no cover. One Trick Pony is located at 136 E. Fulton. For more information on music at One Trick Pony visit one-track.biz . For more information on gigs with Robin Connell visit robinconnell.com . For more jazz in West Michigan, visit wmichjazz.org .
Courtesy W.K. Kellogg Conference Center and Manor House
By Sarah Carroll, W.K. Kellogg Biological Station
Have a holly jolly holiday season when you visit the W.K. Kellogg Manor House this year for a marvelous meal or a traditional high tea. The holidays are a special time at the Manor House, visible in our lavish decorations and decadent culinary spreads.
Holiday meals at the Manor House are a special tradition, sure to bring cheer to you and your friends and family of all ages.
Each high tea at the Manor House has a different theme and menu, featuring a light meal and a historic tour of the Manor House. All teas will be held from 3–5pm unless otherwise noted.
Pricing information and registration for each event are available online. All events will be held in the W.K. Kellogg Manor House, located at 3700 E. Gull Lake Dr., in Hickory Corners. Reservations are required. To learn more, visit conference.kbs.msu.edu, call 269-671-2400 or email conference@kbs.msu.edu.
Many of our holiday events have already sold out, please register today to secure your reservation.
The W.K. Kellogg Manor House is part of the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station. As MSU’s largest off-campus educational complex, we’ve put our land-grant values into practice for nearly a hundred years as we’ve delivered groundbreaking scientific research and education, community engagement, and historic preservation. As we look forward, our students, staff, and faculty are working to understand and solve real-world environmental problems for a better tomorrow.
KBS is more than any individual lab or location. There’s a story behind all that you see; look closer and you’ll find more amazing discoveries than ever before. To learn more about KBS, visit us online at kbs.msu.edu.
This just in: Kayla Dean, budding feminist and future journalist, is about to break the story of a lifetime. Egged on by her best friend, Kayla has decided to try out for her high school’s notorious dance team, the Lady Lions, in order to expose their unfair selection process. But when she actually makes the team, the true investigation begins! Now a Lady Lion, Kayla is transformed into a dance diva. But does looking good and having fun mean turning her back on the cause? Soon Kayla is forced to challenge her views, coming to terms with who she is and what girl power really means.
Saving Juliet
by Suzanne Selfors
Mimi Wallingford has a life most girls can only dream of — complete with the starring role in her family’s production of Romeo and Juliet. But acting is not her dream, and she’s fighting for the right to become a doctor. During the play’s final performance, Mimi’s wish to get away actually comes true when she and her costar are magically transported into Shakespeare’s Verona. Now that she knows the real Juliet, Mimi doesn’t want to stand by and allow the play to reach its tragic end. But if saving her new friend means changing the ending, will she and Troy ever make it back to Broadway?
Vampire Kisses 1: Blood Relatives
by Ellen Schreiber, Art by rem
The absolute last thing goth-girl Raven and her vampire boyfriend, Alexander, need is another hitch in their nighttime — only romance — but dark trouble hovers on the horizon. When a crew of sketchy vampires takes up residence in Dullsville’s lonely graveyard, Alexander finds this motley bunch led by his very own blood-sucking cousin, Claude Sterling. Claude and his creepy crew can only spell out more problems for the pair, especially when Raven finds them in daylight in the very last place she could ever imagine. What could Claude and his invaders be doing — or searching for — in Dullsville?
The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook
by Dilara Hafiz, Imran Hafiz, and Yasmine Hafiz
What does it mean to be a Muslim? Ask ten people, and you’ll probably receive ten different answers. The American Muslim Teenager’s Handbook is a positive, informative guide to Islam in America. Timely and engaging, it conveys the basics of the fastest-growing, most stereotyped and misunderstood religion in America from a progressive, teen perspective. Whether struggling to define themselves as Muslims in American society or simply curious about Islam, teens will find much to love about this entertaining book.
Bunker 10
by J. A. Henderson
At eight o’clock in the evening, 24 December 2007, Pinewood Military Installation exploded. The blast ripped apart acres of forest and devastated the remote highland valley where the base was located. No official cause was given for the incident. Inside Pinewood were 185 male and female military personnel — a mixture of scientists and soldiers. There were also seven teenagers. This is the story of their last day.
To say Chicago-based Ryley Walker is a busy man these days would be a grand understatement. Just check his passport and his album/EP catalogue and music downloads.
After gigs in Europe on Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 — in the Brighton UK, Paris and Amsterdam, respectively — Walker will likely catch a red-eye and get over a bout of jet lag before he takes the stage at Calvin College on Wednesday, Dec. 5.
And that is just his live music schedule. He has also been busy in the studio.
Ryley Walker. (Supplied photo by Evan Jenkins)
So far this year the 29-year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist from Rockford, Ill., has released Deafman Glance, an eclectic mix of originals, as well as the just-out The Lillywhite Sessions, a track-by-track cover of Dave Matthews’ infamously abandoned 2001 art-rock masterpiece of the same name.
So, the audience at Calvin’s Recital Hall should be prepared for a wild ride with Mr. Walker. And cheap tickets — $10 general admission — are still available.
Deafman Glance is Walker’s fifth album release since 2014, not to mention three EP releases between 2011-13, including The Evidence of Things Unseen, originally only available on cassette. (Ya, he’s worked his way up.) His 2015 album release, Primrose Green, gained a ton of buzz and included several notable Chicago jazz and experimental musicians doing their instrumental things.
While Walker is probably proud of Deafman Glance, he quickly moved on to the next thing on his non-stop musical ride.
“It’s a good record. But I can’t really listen to it anymore. It kind of broke my brain,” Walker said in supplied material. “I was under a lot of stress because I was trying to make an anti-folk record and I was having trouble doing it. I wanted to make something deep-fried and more me-sounding. I didn’t want to be jammy acoustic guy anymore. I just wanted to make something weird and far-out that came from the heart finally.”
An initial listen of Deafman left me with the feel that I was on a long road-trip with the musician, with the smooth, confident alt-pop songwriting flowing forth often in almost stream of consciousness, accompanied by long long instrumental/synth experimentations. My favorite cuts were “Opposite Middle”, “Spoil With the Rest” and, for an unknown reason, the hypnotic instrumental “Rocks on Rainbow”. But there are several soft, almost spacey ballads.
From Deafman, Walker turned to The Lillywhite Sessions, and a sometimes complete reinterpretation of Matthews songs, which Walker describes as “a record where (Matthews) and his band indulged a new adult pathos and a budding musical wanderlust … (with Walker’s covers being) one adolescent fan’s fulfillment of that possibility, a partial musical map of the places that this trio’s early interest in Matthews has since taken them.”
An initial listen to Lillywhite found interpretations filled with both smooth and jagged synth riffs, sparse almost jazzy horn riffs, and often haunting alt-pop sounds. Having little experience with Matthews’ originals, I found “Big Red Fish” to be my favorite, while “Grace is Gone” was the one original remembered, but I was still drawn to Walker’s clear, clean version.
The period of the making of Deafman and Lillywhite was, not so incidentally, actually filled with the “a new adult pathos” of Walker’s own.
Ryley Walker. (Supplied photo by Evan Jenkins)
“I quit drugs and booze recently,” he says. “I got sick of being a party animal — I don’t want to be 19-gin-and-tonics-Ryley any more. My brain is working a little better now, but man I was just going at it pretty wildly, and then trying to make a record (Deafman Glance) while I was drinking, it was kind of like torture.
“The songs (on Deafman) don’t really deal with any political or personal or social issues at all. Mostly it just comes from being bummed out. And there’s not a lot of musical influences on the record. I wasn’t even listening to music when I made it. … Maybe I’d say it’s a record for coming up or coming down. It’s not an album for the middle of the day. It’s for the beginning or end of it.”
Can’t think of a better way to end a work day than catching Walker at Calvin.
The concert will be somewhere in Calvin’s Covenant Fine Arts Center, 1795 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids. For tickets and information, visit calvin.edu/calendar/event . For more on Ryley Walker visit ryleywalker.com.
The War and Treaty, featuring Michael and Tanya Trotter, has been added to the St. Cecilia Acoustic Café Folk Series, with the performance set for Feb. 24. (Supplied)
Anybody who attended the recent Bob Seger concert in Grand Rapids already know that The War and Treaty — which opened the Seger show — are worth the price of a ticket all by themselves.
The rest of us will just have to find out for ourselves at St. Cecilia Music Center in February.
St. Cecilia on Monday announced that the band, featuring Michael and Tanya Trotter, has been added to the Acoustic Café Folk Series, with the performance set for Sunday, Feb. 24, at 7:30 p.m.
“The War and Treaty’s Motown sound with soul and folk roots … are a powerful duo who are on the rise and we are excited to feature them,” Cathy Holbrook, St. Cecilia executive director, said in supplied material.
Tickets for The War and Treaty are now on sale. (Tickets are also still available for this week’s folk series performance by the The Lone Bellow, who will take the St. Cecilia stage Thursday, Nov. 29, at 7:30 p.m.)
The War and Treaty, featuring Michael and Tanya Trotter, sing songs of their lives and of other lives. (Supplied)
The War and Treaty, according to supplied material, “blend roots, folk, gospel, and soul, reaching back through their deep-rooted history to conjure up the strength of their ancestors. Their Down to the River EP (2017) boasts a sound that’s both stirring and sensual, driven by joy, determination, and an unceasing upward gaze.”
Lofty sounding words, but their real life stories provide evidence to the description.
The backstory of the band, and its name apparently, is a story of the separate but now joined musical paths of Michael and Tanya. One found their voice during childhood; the other found it during time of war. And their songs now blend to show life — real life, of real people.
After winning a talent show when she was 13, Tanya knew singing would be her life, her supplied biography states. Growing up in a tight-knit community just outside of Washington, D.C., she had a voice described as “honeyed and bold, guttural but angelic.” She started writing songs young as well, often alone in her room at night.
Michael spent part of his childhood in Cleveland before moving with his mother, brother, and sister to Washington, D.C. The family spent time in and out of homeless shelters – a limbo Michael would experience again as an adult. He was 19 when his first daughter, Michaela, was born, he “joined the Army for her,” he says in his supplied bio. Michael enlisted in the United States Army in 2003.
The musical transformative days, came when he was sent to Iraq, and stationed in one of Saddam Hussein’s ruined palaces. There, he had access to a piano that had emerged miraculously unscathed. An American officer heard him play and sing, and he encouraged Michael to pursue music. When that same officer was killed, Michael sat down to write the first of his many songs, some for other fallen comrades.
When Michael returned home, he was booked on a festival, where he met Tanya Blount. Today, they’re married, with a 6-year-old son, and writing and singing songs that, again, translate life, real life, to the audience.
“You have to have a deep place of love within yourself to be vulnerable,” Tanya said in describing their music. “With The War and Treaty, we allow people to see two people that are not perfect. We get on stage. We sweat. We’re overweight. We yell. We get ugly, we scream! My hair comes loose. We’re vulnerable — naked — in front of people, and it’s a chain reaction. It allows them to be vulnerable, too.”
For more information on The War and Treaty visit their website: thewarandtreaty.com/ .
Tickets for The War and Treaty are $30 and $30. All concert tickets can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. A post-concert “Meet-the-artist” party with wine and beer will be offered to all ticket-holders, giving the audience the opportunity to meet the artists and to obtain signed CDs of their releases. For more information or to purchase tickets online visit www.scmc-online.org.
Comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director Aziz Ansari is bringing his “Road to Nowhere” Tour to Grand Rapids! The MASTER OF NONE star will take the stage at SMG-managed DeVos Performance Hall on Friday, April 26, 2019, at 7:30pm*.
Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, Nov. 30 at 12pm. Tickets will be available at the DeVos Place® and Van Andel Arena® box offices, online at Ticketmaster.com, and charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000. A purchase limit of four (4) tickets will apply to every order. See Ticketmaster.com for all pricing and availability.
Fans who register as a Ticketmaster Verified Fan by Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 10pm will receive a personal presale code to gain presale access to tickets with a 10% discount on Friday, Nov. 30 at 10am.
*No late seating. No cellphones, cameras or recording devices will be allowed at this show. Upon arrival, all phones and smart watches will be secured in Yondr pouches that will be unlocked at the end of the show. Guests maintain possession of their phones throughout the night, and if needed, may access their phones at designated Yondr unlocking stations in the lobby. All guests are encouraged to print their tickets in advance to ensure a smooth entry process. Anyone caught with a cellphone in the venue will be immediately ejected. We appreciate your cooperation in creating a phone-free viewing experience.
Oh Brudder Productions own all rights in the content and materials delivered during his performance (the “Materials”). Any use of the Materials without the express prior written consent of Oh Brudder Productions is strictly prohibited and is punishable to the full extent of the law.
About Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari is a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, producer and director. Ansari stars in his Emmy Award-winning Netflix hit MASTER OF NONE, which he also writes and directs. Among several other awards and nominations, the show has earned him a 2017 Golden Globe Award for “Best Actor in a TV Series, Comedy” as well as nominations for “Best TV Series, Musical or Comedy” in 2016 and 2017. In 2017, Ansari was honored with the Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award of Excellence in Comedy, a SAG nomination for “Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series,” and the WGAW Evan Somers Award for outstanding writing featuring characters with disabilities, for the MASTER OF NONE episode “New York, I Love You.”
In 2015, Aziz became one of the only headlining comedians ever to sell out Madison Square Garden in New York. His two sold-out performances at the legendary arena were filmed for his fourth comedy special, AZIZ ANSARI: LIVE AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, which was released on Netflix in March 2015. In 2013, his hour-long stand-up special BURIED ALIVE premiered on Netflix to rave reviews. Aziz’s other comedy specials include DANGEROUSLY DELICIOUS and INTIMATE MOMENTS FOR A SENSUAL EVENING. He continues to perform stand-up for tens of thousands of people all around the world.
Aziz co-starred opposite Amy Poehler in the beloved NBC series Parks and Recreation for the show’s entire seven season run. Aziz’s portrayal of government employee ‘Tom Haverford’ earned him critical praise as one of the show’s breakout stars and garnered him nominations for an American Comedy Award for “Best Comedy Supporting Actor – TV” and a NAACP Image Award for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series” in 2014.
Aziz has also appeared on the big screen in THIS IS THE END, FUNNY PEOPLE, 30 MINUTES OR LESS, GET HIM TO THE GREEK, I LOVE YOU, MAN, and OBSERVE AND REPORT, and lent his voice to animated projects in both film and television; the FOX animated series BOB’S BURGERS as ‘Deryl’ and in Twentieth Century Fox’s animated features EPIC and ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT, which grossed $268 million and $877 million worldwide, respectively.
For his career in comedy, Aziz received VARIETY’s “Power of Comedy” Award in 2014. Aziz got his start in entertainment performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and with the sketch comedy group HUMAN GIANT.
By Karolee Gillman, Grand Rapids Public Library, Main Branch
