Nainamo bars, poutine, All-Dressed Potato Chips. If you know, you know. Many Canadian delicacies have a unique fusion of flavors. Local chef and Southwest Michigan Second Wave Food Writer Channon Mondoux, a Canadian herself, wants to have a big all-flavors Canadian party for native-born and the 'Canadienvious' so she's bringing the first-ever Canadiana Fest to Kalamazoo.
At Pathway Home potential homeowners will talk about their goals, be enrolled in KNHS financial readiness and homebuyer's education courses, be teamed up with HUD-certified coaches at KNHS, and learn "all the basics on what it means to go from a renter to a homeowner." Learn more about this approach to keeping people housed.
Second Wave's Mark Wedel interviewed a musical cactus. Well, not quite. But he interviewed a local musician who plays the cactus as an instrument – and another who plays music along with music-making aloe vera and even a giant Sequoia. Yes, plants can make music. For upcoming Earth Day (April 22), we celebrate the world as a magical, musical place.
Is trying mead on your bucket list? The world's oldest known alcoholic beverage (not a beer, not a wine) made with honey and yeast is available at Kalamzoo meadery Valhalla, a BYOF, open hall with all the Viking feels – longtables, Runes, and Valkyries serving flights of artisan mead. When you visit Valhalla, Hunter Dodge, CEO of Norse Nector Meadery, says "time stands still." Just ask Second Wave's Mark Wedel.
The second Kalamazoo Lyceum focused on the city's culture and whether our community has a shared story. Panelists Kama Tai Mitchell of Rootead, Daniel May of Dabney & Co., and Jennifer Hudson-Prenkert of Sounds of the Zoo, spoke about what culture means to them in Kalamazoo where they all agree race has divided a sense of a common story. "Culture is safety," says May. "It's being able to be yourself."
Street changes are coming to Kalamazoo, even if some of us are still in denial. Second Wave's streetwise Mark Wedel helps unpack what to expect. Downtown streets aren't the cause of every problem, says Dennis Randolph, City of Kalamazoo Traffic Engineer, but "they are the backbone, the framework of the community. So you need to do something with the transportation network if you're going to help the community as a whole."
Patsy Cline, the Muppets, Hamilton, the Spice Girls: You never know what might come up during the Darcy Wilkin Whatzit Hour at Edison's Dormouse Theatre, but you can count on bluegrass, folk, and a host who "Keep(s) on the Sunny Side," even if some tunes move a few to tears.
From a position with Downtown Kalamzoo, Inc. to working with the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, Beth McCann helped build up Kalamazoo's cultural image. In her new position as Executive Directory of Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services, she is building community in a different way – through affordable housing. "We need, what, 7,000 housing units right now?" says McCann. "I can't build 7,000, but hopefully, I can make a dent."
Open since November, Dabney and Co., Kalamazoo's only current Black-owned bar, was created to be a safe space for that showcases the “elevated beauty of Black culture” through food, music, drinks, and art. "For me, it's really important, in every aspect of Dabney and Co., you feel exactly how you would when you come into a Black household. We treat you just like family,” says owner Daniel May.
To bring back a tradition of neighbors gathering face-to-face, to discuss without the divisiveness that seems to have been born, in part, out of social media, a new Lyceum Movement has begun. Also called “A School for Community Life,” lyceums are happening in various towns in Iowa and Minnesota, and now Kalamazoo is a chapter affiliate. The topic of the inaugural Kalamazoo Lyceum was titled, “How is media changing the way we think?” Read on to hear what panel members and attendees had to say.
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