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Wonders of construction explored in exhibit
With people spending about 90 percent of their lives
inside buildings, what sorts of secrets, surprises or extraordinary engineering feats would be revealed if the walls could talk.
The stories behind structures are the focus of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum's next nationally traveling exhibition, “Raise The Roof.” The free exhibit from the Science Museum of Minnesota opens Feb. 16 in the Havirmill Special Exhibition Gallery on the third floor and continues through June 1.
The exhibit features buildings and building science from around the world. Visitors can travel to great heights and distant ages to investigate the foundations of architecture and engineering.
They can step over the threshold of an authentic Mongolian house, climb to the top of a skyscraper under construction, learn building secrets from a 9,000-year-old city, watch mighty buildings crumble, and raise the roof of a dome. They can enter a full-scale “ger” (pronounced “care), a circular tent of lattice, poles, fabric and rawhide invented by nomadic Mongolians. The ger is known in this country by the name of its Turkish relative, the yurt.
Elegant and energy-efficient, one can be erected in one day, but cooperation is needed. These days, the ancient structures are gaining popularity as homes, cabins, and offices.
Near the ger in the exhibition, visitors can explore the secrets of the mud-brick ruins of Çatalhöyük (pronounced Chat-tahl-hu-yook), believed to be the world's oldest city. Excavations at the 9,000-year-old site located near Ankara, Turkey, began in the 1960s but were stopped because of the technical inability at that time to adequately preserve the findings. The dig was restarted in 1993 with a plan to continue for 25 years.
Archaeologists believe the ancient city covered an area the size of 50 soccer fields. They are studying the site to learn more about the Neolithic Period, or new Stone Age, when people began abandoning hunter-gatherer lifestyles to settle in communities, grow crops, and raise animals.
For thousands of years, people have pretty much agreed that a building with a dome, such as the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome or the U. S. Capitol, marks an important structure. A dome
creates a soaring space on the inside, and an impressive sight on the outside.
In the “Collapsible Dome” section of “Raise the Roof,” visitors can turn a flat roof into a dome right over their heads, and find out how domes have been engineered through time.
Lots of engineering know-how goes into making a building reach for the sky. The 3-D "View From the Top” lets people look down the side of a skyscraper from 40 stories up.
In the skyscraper section of the exhibition, visitors can build block towers, make trusses to withstand the forces of tension and compression, and test the response of different buildings to various earthquake frequencies. Another demonstration shows how tall buildings are kept from swaying too much in strong winds.
“Raise the Roof’s” Demolition Theater showcases the explosive work of the famous Loizeaux family that own and operate Controlled Demolition Inc., the world's largest organization of demolition experts.
Dangerous conditions that can lead to carbon-monoxide poisoning in homes are explored in the "Downdraft House," a doll-house-sized model outfitted with airflow indicators, a working furnace, and operating doors and vents.
"Meet the Mites" shows how infinitesimal numbers of creatures live in all homes and buildings all of the time.
Several “story corners” tell the tales of some very unusual buildings. One is the Winchester House in San Jose, Calif., that was built by the heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune.
In response to a psychic’s warning that the ghosts of those killed by the famous rifles would haunt her unless she built day and night, Sarah Winchester constructed a six-acre house filled with twisting stairways and blocked passages to confuse angry spirits.
The coolest hotel in the world is the Ice Hotel built every year in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden. Rooms, chandeliers, and even glasses in the bar are made entirely of ice. The building’s temperature is a chilly 35 degrees from November until April, when the whole thing melts.
Other highlights include "Timber!" where visitors can assemble ingenious wooden joints held together without nails, and "Listening to the Walls," an activity drawn from interviews with blind and visually impaired people who navigate through buildings using their sense of sound. Because dogs need homes, too, an interactive computer game, "Dogtastrophe," allows visitors to design canine castles that can survive snow-blower blizzards or lawn-sprinkler floods. “Raise the Roof” is a look at structures humanity depends
upon but rarely thinks much about. Hands-on activities, vivid images and strange-but-true tales brings these scientific wonders into the world of relevancy.
Internship alert – big dollars, great training
The high-tech internship program that attracted two KVCC students last summer – resulting in major scholarship dollars and priceless job experience -- has set a Feb. 18 deadline for those interested in being involved in 2008.
The joint venture between Southwest Michigan First and the Kalamazoo-based Monroe-Brown Foundation is a train-your-own workforce-development program that awards each student as much as $8,800 in revenue to apply to their college educations.
It is open to eligible KVCC, Western Michigan University and Kalamazoo College students. In KVCC’s case, students must be entering their second year of studies. They will be exposed to valuable networking opportunities and valuable on-the-job training in their chosen fields.
Interested students must apply for the internships directly through the participating 18 companies – some offering more than one slot -- that include:
● ADMETRx
● MPI Research
● ProNAi
● CSM Group
● Landscape Forms
● Proteos
● A. M. Todd Co.
● Tekna
● Stryker Instruments
● Riley Aviation
● Workforce Strategies Inc.
● NanoVir LLC
● Jasper Clinic
● Treystar Holdings Inc.
● W. Soule & Co.
● AVB Construction
● Wolverine Pipe Line Co.
● Parker Hannifin Corp. Brass Division
Once the intern is hired, he/she will work for the employer for a minimum of 400 hires from May through September. The interns are paid at least minimum wage. The 10-week post is regarded as full time, but it can be customized to fit the needs of each company and intern.
Upon successful completion of the internship – as decided by the company and the foundation – each of those parties will pay the intern a $500 bonus – a total of $1,000.On top of that, the foundation will award a pair of additional payments of $2,500 at the beginning of each of the two semesters following the internship.
etails of the 2008 edition of the program and the participating companies are posted on the Southwest Michigan First website. An interested person can either “google” Southwest Michigan First or go directly to [email protected].
“The program worked very, very well in the summer of 200y,” said Ron Kitchens, president and chief executive officer of Southwest Michigan First. “It is designed to keep the talent that we train here in our part of the state. Companies learned whether they could be getting quality employees. I’m already hearing talk relating to long-term employment for these interns. That’s the whole idea.”The reasoning for the initiative called the Southwest Michigan First Talent Network is simple -- one of the
key components to sustained economic development in high-tech fields including manufacturing is “lots of smart people.”
For many enterprises – and not just those in emerging businesses – the No. 1 factor for achieving success is finding the right people to fit the right jobs. Internships are tried-and-true ways to “grow your own” and identify prospects with high potential. I
t’s the classic win-win equation: great experience for those who are selected as interns and a no-strings-attached arrangement on the part of the employer because internships are basically akin to temporary jobs.
The employer gets essentially a low-cost look at a potential permanent employee who could either be somebody who would not be a good fit or somebody who has “the right stuff” to be a future leader.In order to find that out, interns – while supervised and operating within a structured work environment – should be given enough autonomy and enough leeway to determine their own direction.
That allows the employer to evaluate the person’s judgment, how he or she works with other people, and work habits. Few one-on-
one interviews provide those types of measurements. Photos now part of online staff directory
The upgraded KVCC employee directory, which now
includes a photograph of each faculty and staff member, goes on line Friday (Jan. 11).
Put into place as part of the college’s evolving campus-security program, the “one-picture-is-worth-1,000-words” directory will feature the photo on each KVCC’ers ID.
When accessed, the directory will open without photos as the default. Click the link located at the top of the screen -- "Directory with Photos"-- to present the directory in the photo format. “If the photo on your current ID doesn’t represent the real you (e.g. a bad hair day),” says Terry Hutchins, “the Texas Township Student Service Center or the Arcadia Registration Office (Anna Whitten Hall 109) will retake your photo for storage to the database. New ID cards will not be issued as part
of this process.” Access to the online directory is restricted to current employees only. Direct questions to Hutchins at [email protected] or extension 4244.
3-day festival features silent flics, bLuE daHLia
A three-day salute to the era of silent films, with the Kalamazoo combo of bLuE daHLia providing the accompanying music instead of a theater-based organ as in the old days, is being hosted by the Kalamazoo Valley Museum Jan. 17-19. “Black and White and bLuE” will feature four showings of three films. EachWill be complemented by original scores composed and performed by bLuE daHLia, which formed in Kalamazoo in 1995 and on several occasions has provided the background music for museum screenings of Buster Keaton’s “The Navigator. A pass to the three-day festival of showings and music in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater costs $10. Tickets to an individual event are $5 each. They are available at the museum or by calling (269) 373-7990. Here are the billings: ♫ “The Cat and the Canary” (1927) – Thursday, Jan. 17, at 8 p.m.
♫ Keaton’s “7 Chances” (1925) – Friday, Jan. 18, at 8 p.m. and again on Saturday, Jan. 19, at 3 p.m.
♫ “Alias Jimmy Valentine” (1915) – Saturday, Jan. 19, at 8 p.m. The bLuE daHLia members are Levi Strickland (bass and acoustic guitar), Carolyn Koebel (drums, percussion, vibes, and dulcimer), Leslie Boughton (vocals and percussion), founder Derek Menchinger (guitars and mandolin), and Cara Lieurance (flute, whistle, and saxophone). “The Cat and the Canary” is German director Paul Leni’s adaptation of a John Willard play about three brothers who spend the night in a haunted mansion in anticipation of the awarding of inheritances from a rich uncle. It’s kind of like the silent-screen version of a Mel Brooks look at horror films. In “7 Chances,” Keaton plays a down-on-his-luck stockbroker who learns that, in order to inherit $7 million, he must get married by 7 p.m. In this score, the Kalamazoo-based combo uses a typewriter, bird whistles and tympani.
“Alias Jimmy Valentine” tells the story of a gentleman thief known as the greatest safecracker of his era, how he is betrayed by an accomplice, is nabbed by a famous detective, and then “beats the rap.” Quite a story for a 1915 film.
In 1997, bLuE daHLia began a decade of visual-arts collaboration when commissioned by the Sound of Silents Film Festival. Its compositions for vintage film eschews the traditional and melodramatic approach to film scoring, found in today's independent and major-release films and television.
Using a broad range of instrumentation and style, bLuE daHLia has developed a repertoire of more than 10 silent-film scores for live performance. Varying in emotional tenor from slapstick romantic comedies to drama and horror, these orchestrated works forged connections with great films across generations and cultures.
Boughton, fluent in English and French, can also perform Spanish, Czech, Greek, Japanese, Latin, German, and Hawaiian compositions.
Koebel provides a full percussive backdrop to the group’s soundscape. She performs on a full drum set, vibraphone, hammered dulcimer, pots, pans, and various hand drums from across the globe. Her background spans the Western classical tradition, Brazilian samba, West African tribal drumming, Afro-Cuban percussion, and Middle Eastern styles. She has previously served as principal percussionist with the Battle Creek Symphony Orchestra.
Koebel has been exploring drumming and rhythm for more than 24 years. She was the music director of the Michigan State University Department of Theater’s production of “Waterworks: Tales of the Hydrasphere.” With a keen interest in rhythm-based healing, she works as a music therapist in schools for children with special needs. The recipient of a master’s degree in music therapy from MSU, she was one of the key presenters at the 2005 Michigan Music Therapists conference.
Menchinger is the founding member of bLuE daHLia, playing guitar in the band since its inception in 1995. He began his musical career playing guitar in garage bands until joining the underground Goth band, The New York Room, in 1990. After five years and three records with the group, he formed bLuE daHLia to pursue new musical directions.
Strickland started with ska in his first band -- Tom Collins and the Cocktail Shakers -- releasing his first recording “Pick it Up,” then moved to heavy-world beat music, playing with West African musician Nathan Njinhrina in the West Michigan band Yoroka. He also managed to release another self-
titled album with the Kalamazoo-based Pound and Beers. Strickland also owns his own information-technology company, Better Geek.
bLuE daHLia was described by the Detroit Free Press as being "more adventurous than anyone else dares to be" with a blending of guitars and bass, soaring multi-lingual vocals, and orchestral percussion.
‘Success,’ transfer workshops for students
All KVCC students are invited to take part in a series of
winter-semester workshops geared to topics that can help assure them of success in their studies.
“What It Takes to Be Successful” sessions will be held in either the Student Commons’ Forum or Theater with the opener set for Wednesday (Jan. 16) from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in the Forum.
Among the topics to be covered are the dates and deadlines that are important to students in their pursuit of academic success. Also covered will be a review of “best practices” involved with transferring to a four-year school, completing a program of study, and preparing for graduation. One session will be devoted to employment opportunities and job skills.
With all sessions slated for 1 to 2:30 p.m., here are the remaining dates:
♦ Wednesday, Jan. 30 – the Forum.♦ Tuesday, Feb. 12 – the Theater.♦ Tuesday, March 11 – the Theater.♦ Wednesday, March 12 – the Theater♦ Tuesday, April 8 – the TheaterFor more information about this series, contact the
Transfer Resource Center in Room 1364 at extension 4779.A college-application workshop is scheduled for
Wednesday, Jan. 23, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Room 1330 on the Texas Township Campus. It is designed to help “demystify” the application process needed to be followed in transferring to a four-year university.
The center has also arranged for Rene Bush, a representative of Robert Miller College in Battle Creek, to meet with students about possible transfer on Wednesday (Jan. 16) from 8 a.m. to noon in Anna Whitten Hall. She will be at the Texas Township Campus cafeteria on Wednesday, Jan. 23, between the same hours.
Then it will be back to the downtown site on Thursday, Jan. 24, from 8 to noon, and at the main campus on Tuesday, Jan. 29, during those same hours.
PBS series on arts part of Black History Month
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum will commemorate
Black History Month by offering a free film series that recognizes and celebrates the achievements of 20th century African-American writers, dancers, painters, actors, musicians, and other artists who changed the United States as a nation and as a culture.
Each Sunday in February, segments of the PBS series, “I’ll Make Me a World,” will be shown in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater at 3 p.m.
Each film will be introduced by a guest host from the arts and academic communities. They will lead a short discussion following each film.
The series will begin Sunday, Feb. 3, with “Lift Every Voice,” covering the years 1900 to 1920. Dr. Romeo Philips, retired professor emeritus of music and education at Kalamazoo College and a former member of the Portage City Council, will host.
This segment covers the trials and triumphs of the first generation of African-Americans born into freedom: vaudeville stars, represented by Bert Williams and George Walker, and the creators of jazz, America’s original music.
Oscar Micheaux is highlighted as the producer of motion pictures that depict the complexities of black life during a time of racial segregation and conflict.
The Sunday, Feb. 10, attraction will be “Without Fear or Shame,” covering the years 1920 to 1937. Focusing on the creative movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, the program highlights poets Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, as well as female blues singers. This segment is hosted by historian Michelle Johnson, who is a Zora Neale Hurston scholar.
“Bright Like the Sun” is the offering for Sunday, Feb. 17, and covers the years from 1935 to 1954. This segment depicts how Paul Robeson, the legendary singer and star of stage and screen, used his artistry and fame to fight for social justice in the United States and abroad.
A Harlem art school and the birth of bebop and “cool”
jazz are also covered. Soprano Alfrelynn Roberts, who performed in the Detroit Opera’s production of “Porgy and Bess” and has sung with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, will host this segment.
The final showing on Sunday, Feb. 24, will be “The Freedom You Will Take,” covering the years 1985 to the present.
In this episode, transformation of the contemporary cultural landscape by the power of African-American film, performance, rap music, and spoken word is explored.
Denise Miller, poet and KVCC instructor of English and African-American literature, will host.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson, son of former slaves, is credited with today’s celebration of Black History Month.
The observance evolved from “Negro History Week,” established in 1926 by Woodson, who had risen from his humble beginnings to earn a Ph. D from Harvard University.He also founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, which is dedicated to encouraging scholars to engage in the study of African-American history. February was selected as the time for the celebration because it was the birth month of both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Negro History Week became Black History Month in 1976, the year of the American Bicentennial.
M-TEC hosts lead-safety seminar Jan. 24
Chinese-made toys have been garnering headlines
recently because of their lead content, but the U. S. construction industry and health officials have been coping with how to safely handle lead-based paint for almost 30 years. Funded by a grant from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, the city of Kalamazoo and the Kalamazoo County Department of Health and Community Services are sponsoring a seminar on “Lead-Safe Work Practices” at the M-TEC of KVCC in 2008. The five-module seminar will be held on four dates: Jan. 24, April 8, Sept. 25, and Nov. 18. Each complete session will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a fee of $30 that includes materials and food. Another series is slated for 2009. The “Lead-Safe Work Practices” seminar is targeted for:
● Building-code and housing inspectors.● Large and small contractors involved in the renovation,
repainting or remodeling of buildings, and who might encounter
lead-based paint.● Maintenance and custodial workers.● Building supervisors and landlords.● Staff members of state and local units of government.● Staff members of community and social-service
organizations.● Do-it-yourself homeowners.● Students in the construction trades.Each seminar will cover these five topics: “Why Should I
Be Concerned About Lead Dust?”; “Set Up Your Work Space to Contain Lead Dust”; “Safe Work Practices”; “Clean Up and Checking Your Work”; and “Planning the Job.”
At the end of each training session that will be conducted by Atrium Environmental Health and Safety Services of Reston, Va., attendees may take a 25-question exam to gain a certificate for course completion.
The federal EPA, in conjunction with the National Paint and Coatings Association, launched this initiative because many homes and buildings constructed prior to 1978 featured lead-based paints.
Thus, those involved in the renovation, remodeling and repair of such structures – both externally and internally – should be aware of methods that reduce and control dust and debris generated by their work because even a small amount of dust can pose a health risk.
For more information, visit the M-TEC of KVCC’s website at www.mteckvcc.com and click on “Training.” Registration can be done online or by calling the M-TEC at (269) 353-1253.
Students welcomed back by 99 friendly faces
Ninety-nine KVCC’ers volunteered to staff welcome-
back tables throughout the Texas Township Campus and at Anna Whitten Hall to launch the winter semester on Jan. 7-8.
Many stepped forward to serve on both days and during multiple time slots.
Among the welcomers were:Chris Garrett, Daniel Cunningham, Lena Cool, Howard
Carpenter, Rob Haight, Art Parker, Nancy Vendeville, Jon Stasiuk, Tom Keena, Kate Ferraro, Joe Brady;
Connie Edlund, Robert Sutton, Ezra Bell, Ruth Baker, Su Cutler, student Ross Dailey, Mike Tyson, Judy Hayes, Jack Bley,
Bob Vezeau, Caroline Whiting, Rick Margelis, Harland Fish, Mary Johnson;
Terry Coburn, Jim Taylor, Mike Collins, Tom Thinnes, Chris Preston, Denise Baker, Jennifer Snead, Dorothy Kovacs, Deb Bryant, Dan Mondoux, Brian Graening, Pam Siegfried, Mary Martin, Tom Lentenbrink, Mike Hall, Juwan Watson;
Colleen Olson, Karen Maas, Pat Sulier, Darlene Kohrman, Sheila Eisenhauer, Mike McCall, Diane Vandenberg, Kandiah Balachandran, Wanda Scott;
Sheila Baiers, Teresa Fornoff, Theresa Hollowell, Helen Paleschi, Laura Cosby, Haley Crites, Pat Conroy, Camila Wolinski, Steve Cannell, James Tucker, Karen Steeno vanStaveron, Ann Lindsay, Bruce Punches;
Jeff Donovan, Jackie Howlett, Terry Hutchins, Steve Doherty, Erick Martin, Pat Pojeta, Karen Visser, Doug Martin, Dwight Coblenz, Mel VanAntwerp, Larry Taylor, Sue Egan, Muriel Hice, Karen Phelps, Mark Sigfrids, Lori Evans, Marylan Hightree, Carol Orr;
Heidi Stevens-Ratti, Ken Barr Jr., Makida Coulter, Ola Johnson, Barbara VanZandt, Valerie Jones, Nicole Newman, Cindy Wilson, Don Chapman, Claudia Barbee, Brian Olson, Kevin Dockerty, Anora Ackerson, Isaac Turner, Jeff Swigart, Jill Storm, Jim Ratliff, and Philipp Jonas.
Reliving Kalamazoo’s 1980 tornado
"Memories of Kalamazoo's 1980 Tornado" will be
refreshed at a Sunday, Jan. 20, film presentation at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.
Slated for 1:30 p.m. in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater, it is part of the museum's series of documentaries about "Inclement Weather" that ties into its nationally touring exhibition, the kids-friendly "The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm."
This retrospective is the product of Channel 3's news accounts of the May 13, 1980, tornado that hopped, skipped and jumped into downtown Kalamazoo on a late Tuesday afternoon.
Five people were killed, 79 injured and more than $50 million in damage was done to property by a natural force that had the power – as described in The Kalamazoo Gazette’s extra and the first it published since the end of World War II – “to pluck century-old trees out of the ground like so many green onions.”
The killer tornado of 1980 touched down at 4 p.m. west of the community and proceeded to makes its up-and-down way
along M-43, West Main Street, and through Bronson Park. One of the giant trees sucked out of the ground reportedly offered shade to Abraham Lincoln when he spoke at a Republican Party rally there in August of 1856.
After it rammed into the Comerica Building, the tornado bulldozed into Gilmore’s Department Store, and basically, with a touchdown here and there, dissipated. It was all over in 25 minutes.
But it will never be over for those who experienced the 1980 twister. As with the Americans who can recall exactly where they were when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, when President Kennedy was assassinated, and when the airliners hit the towers in New York, Kalamazooans remember the details of May 13, 1980.
There is a kinder, gentler, compassionately conservative version of a tornado on the first floor of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, compliments of a “hands-in” exhibit created by The Exploratorium in San Francisco.
More information about each of these events and attractions is available by checking the museum’s web site at www.kalamazoomuseum.org or by the museum at 373-7990.
Reading Together community events begin Tuesday
Two months of community events linked to the
Kalamazoo Public Library’s Reading Together program for 2008 will begin on Tuesday (Jan. 15) at 7 p.m. in the downtown-Kalamazoo library.On the heels of the National Endowment for the Arts’ recent study that reported Americans are alarmingly reading less and less, KVCC will again be taking part in the Reading Together initiative with “Animal Dreams” by Barbara Kingsolver being the selection for the community read in 2008.
“Reading Together” invites people of all ages from all walks of life to read the book and then engage in discussions about the issues that are addressed, including the Hispanic and Native-American cultures of the American Southwest, environmental degradation, eldercare, and the individual’s responsibility for the public good.
The discussions and special programs will be held through Feb. 29 at a variety of sites in Kalamazoo County.
An increasing number of adult Americans are not reading
even one book a year, according to the NEA study. Students in high school and college are more than likely forced to read a book or two as part of their classes, as opposed to engaging in the activity for pleasure, enlightenment, and horizon-expanding.
The age-old correlation has not changed – those who read a lot have equally adept writing skills; those who write well do more than their share of reading. The kick-off event at the main library, located at 315 S. Rose, is titled “What’s Your Dream?” and will feature flashbacks to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
In “Animal Dreams,” one of the main characters, who is of Apache, Pueblo and Navajo descent, explains that “animals dream about the things they do in the daytime just like people do. If you want sweet dreams, you’ve got to live a sweet life.”
Springing from the book’s title, Reading Together will encourage people to think about their own dreams and to talk about how they live out these dreams in the Kalamazoo community.
A cross-section of community residents will speak about individual dreams, the dreams for their children, their community, their nation and their world. Moderating the session will be Lois Jackson of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.
Each of the Reading Together events, including the opening session, is free and open to the public. “What’s Your Dream” is jointly sponsored by Western Michigan University, the Northside Ministerial Alliance, the city of Kalamazoo, and the foundation. Here are the rest of the special programs and events through the end of the month:
“Oral History” – Friday, Jan. 18, at noon, main library: Donna Odom, interpretation coordinator at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and president of the Southwest Michigan Black Heritage Society, will talk about how memories shape individuals and cultures. “The Mystery of Love” – Sunday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 315 W. Michigan Ave.: Sponsored by the Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo as part of its “Campaign for Love and Forgiveness,” this documentary explores love in marriage, family, community, science, forgiveness, the search for the divine, friendship, and war. Actor, playwright, and author Anna Deavere Smith is host of this two-hour special.
“Regarding the Earth: Being Good Guests” – Thursday, Jan. 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the Portage District Library, 300 Library Lane: Representatives from a variety of environmental organizations in the community will be part of an “Environmental Mixer” where visitors can learn how they can
do their part to be “a good guest to the Earth.” These organizations will share their vision for a healthier planet and provide resources and how-to guides based on the latest environmental best-practices.
The guest speaker will be Mel Visser, author of “Cold, Clear and Deadly: Unraveling a Toxic Legacy.” He will describe his search for the source of persistent organic chemicals in the Great Lakes. His investigation took him to the Canadian High Arctic, where he lived with the Inuit and learned about their intimate relationship to the land and how their food supply is being contaminated by the expansion of global agribusiness. A question-and-answer session will follow Visser’s presentation. “The United States in Central America” – Friday, Jan. 25, noon at the downtown-Kalamazoo library: Steve Cameron, a geography professor at Western Michigan University, and Michael Millar, a WMU colleague on the Spanish faculty, will discuss foreign policy and humanitarian involvement. “American Indian Storytelling” – Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 4 p.m. at the library’s Washington Square branch, 1244 Portage: Storyteller Larry Plamondon of Delton, a First Nation advocate and tribal elder of the Grand River Bands of Odawa, will share ancient stories of the Anishnabek, “the First People of Michigan.” Plamondon’s memoir, “Lost from the Ottawa: The Story of the Journey Back,” has been described as “Unique and compelling...” and “a harrowing spiritual journey.” This repeats that evening at 7 at the library’s Oshtemo branch, 7265 W. Main. St.
“The Book as a Literary Classic” – Tuesday, Jan. 29, at 6:30 p.m. at the Portage District Library: Vicki Stewart of the WMU English Department will lead a panel discussion that looks at the characterization, potent poetic imagery, and layered plot that is filled with resonating social, political and environmental issues contained in “Animal Dreams.”
The Kalamazoo Valley Museum will take part in Reading Together on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 8 p.m. with a free showing in the Mary Jane Stryker Theater of Kalamazoo filmmaker Dhera Strauss’ documentary about the local Tex-Mex band, “Los Bandits.”
“Animal Dreams” is described as a fictional love story and a moving exploration of life’s largest commitments as told through flashbacks, dreams and Native-American legends. It was chosen by a 24-member selection committee from 84 books that had been nominated.
“Animal Dreams” was awarded the Pen/USA West Fiction Award and the Edward Abbey Award for Ecofiction. It was named an American Library Association Notable Book and
chosen by the Arizona Library Association as its “Book of the Year.”
Arcadia Commons Campus librarian Jim Ratliff is on the program’s steering committee.
Previous “Reading Together” titles are: “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury in 2003; “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich in 2004; “The Color of Water” by James McBride in 2005; “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien in 2006; and “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon.
Joining the Kalamazoo Public Library in the “Reading Together” partnership are other community libraries, colleges and universities, health and social-service agencies, cultural, civic and religious organizations, local government, and the news media.
A three-year grant from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation seeded the project with the library now appropriating funds for its support along with receiving other grants, gifts and contributions for its continuation.
The selection committee draws its members from high schools and colleges, libraries, bookstores, book clubs, civic and social-service organizations, the news media, and various religious denominations.
Joan Hawxhurst, the program’s coordinator at the library since its inception, has turned over those duties to Lisa Williams, who recently left her post at the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo,
Copies of “Animal Dreams” are also available at all Kalamazoo Public Library locations and at other libraries and bookstores throughout the county.Kingsolver has 12 books to her credit, many of them rich with plot, symbolism, literary innovation, and social commentary. They have been translated into 19 languages.More information is available at the Kalamazoo Public Library’s web site or at www.readingtogether.us .
Sunday Series looks at stories behind local artifacts
“The Things of History: Artifacts and Their Stories” is
next installment of the Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s “Sunday Series” presentations about the history of Southwest Michigan.
On Jan. 13, Tom Dietz, the museum’s curator, will talk about why museums collect objects, artifacts and things that help
tell a place’s history. His presentation will examine some of the more
intriguing artifacts in the Kalamazoo museum’s collection.The program is free and begins at 1:30 p.m. in the
museum’s Mary Jane Stryker Theater.“Artifacts are the things that make up history,” Dietz
says. “Those that we collect have a story; they’re not just anonymous objects purchased at a garage sale. The more interesting and compelling their stories are, the more likely we are to accept them for the museum’s permanent collection. It is the story behind an artifact that is the difference between it and the same object sitting in an antique mall or second-hand store. “Sometimes these stories come with the artifacts,” the curator says. “Other times, the artifacts have been in the collection for many years. Then we have to undertake our own original research into the donor. Or we have to confirm or expand upon fragmentary information that we have.”
In that regard, Dietz says, the Internet has become an indispensable research tool in recent years. Genealogy research, patent research, the history of a particular type of object and its manufacturer might be available on the Internet. Other research tools are local histories, biographies, other historical repositories, and city directories.
Among the artifacts that Dietz will discuss on Jan. 13 will be a sheep-shearing chair, a magic lantern slide projector, recording equipment, a wire-mesh fly trap, and local patent medicines.
He will tell the stories behind some 15 objects and reveal what made these artifacts such an important window into the history of this community.
Dietz’s “Sunday Series” continues into 2008 with these presentations:
● “Edward Israel: Kalamazoo’s Arctic Pioneer” – Jan. 27: Kalamazooan Edward Israel died on an ill-fated Arctic trek in the 1880s and this is his story.
● “Charles B. Hays – Home Builder” – Feb. 17: This explores the whys and wherefores of one of Kalamazoo’s most important developers of commercial, industrial and residential properties in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
● “Poetry Artifactory IV” -- Feb. 24: Thanks to the Friends of Poetry in Kalamazoo, poetry and history come together as the members’ use of words help tell the story of regional artifacts in the museum’s collections.
● “The Architectural History of Kalamazoo” -- March 9.● “The Sins of Kalamazoo” – April 6: Poet Carl
Sandburg wrote metaphorically about “The Sins of Kalamazoo,”
but this program examines the reality, the community’s pool halls, bars, gambling houses, and other entertainment outlets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and what local “reformers” did to clean up these “sinful haunts.”● “The Academy of Music” – April 20: The community’s first “grand” performing-arts center was dedicated on May 6, 1882, and was eventually destroyed in a fire.
For more information about the presentations, contact Dietz at 373-7984.
PeaceJam is discussion topic
Faculty, staff and students interested in the peace
movement are invited to a discussion on Thursday, Jan. 31, at 3:30 p.m. in the Student Commons Forum.
Sponsored by the KVCC Student Peace Alliance, the focus of the dialogue will be on the mission of PeaceJam, whose website is www.peacejam.org, and on the movement’s next steps.
The presentation and discussion is also open to the public.
‘Blown Away’ planetarium shows end Jan. 27
“Blown Away: The Wild World of Weather” is the Kalamazoo Valley Museum planetarium’s complement to the three-month stay of the nationally touring exhibit, “The Magic School Bus Kicks Up A Storm.”
The 50-minute show, geared for audiences of upper-elementary students and older, is the planetarium’s attraction on Saturdays and Sundays at 3 p.m. through Jan. 27. Tickets are $3.
“Predicting what to expect is the goal of weather forecasters, the fortune tellers of meteorology,” says planetarium coordinator Eric Schreur. “Their forecasts come not from a crystal ball, but rather from understanding the science of interactions between the sun, atmosphere, oceans and continents.“
And, of course,” he says, “science involves observing, measuring, and keeping records that become the basis of predictions.“Blown Away: the Wild Side of Weather” was produced at the Detroit Science Center’s planetarium, with
support from the WDIV-TV weather team.
Schreur added a few “elements” to the Kalamazoo experience. Winds are “provided” by some high-powered fans while audience members should realize that the misty environment is not the result of a hole in the domed theater but a few well-placed spray containers.
“Blown Away” reviews how the sun is the power plant that runs Earth’s weather machine. Solar radiation heats Earth’s exterior, warming the air just above the surface so that it becomes lighter and rises. The surface pressure drops and surrounding air moves in to replace the rising air – a low-pressure system has started to form.
What goes up must come down and, as the rising column of air begins to cool, the air settles, increasing the pressure at the surface – forming a high-pressure system.
Surface winds blow to balance the pressure between these high- and low-pressure areas. Solar radiation also heats large bodies of water, causing evaporation. The water vapor rises and cools, then condenses to fall as rain or snow, which runs through rivers, streams and under ground to the seas, completing the water cycle.
As the energy and water cycles churn, masses of warm, moist air collide with large accumulations of cool, dry air, forming weather fronts where winds and static electricity build into thunderstorms. The strongest expressions of weather systems come as blizzards, tornados, and hurricanes move across the countryside.
“Usually you go inside to escape the fury of a storm,” Schreur says, “but in this show the storm builds inside the planetarium. “Blowers fill the domed chamber with howling wind, and strobes flash bolts of lightning on the planetarium sky,” he said.
The show also offers safety information about the extremes of weather that produce blizzards, tornados and hurricanes.
“The Magic School Bus,” which will also be at the museum through Jan. 27, features 33 hands-on activities geared to help children understand how weather conditions are created, how they are measured and how they are reported.
And finally. . .
Some of life’s lessons gained from the front-yard snowman, who, thanks to the recent “heat wave,” took a few days of vacation way, way up north.Wearing white is always in style -- even after Labor Day.Getting outside in the winter is good for your health.It's fun just to hang out in your front yard..Like the snowman, all of us are made up of mostly water.Accessories don't have to be expensive.If you're a little bottom heavy, that's OK. You know you've made it when they write a song about you.If you look down and can't see your feet, you're probably not very active.Sometimes sweating too much can have disastrous results.There's no stopping you once you're on a roll.The key to life is to be a jolly, happy soul.
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