How can Leelanau County ensure that its places, spaces, and services are designed for people of all abilities, including those born with a disability and those facing physical challenges over time? That question will be front and center at a public forum titled “Universally Accessible Leelanau?” which the League of Women Voters of Leelanau County will hold on Wednesday, April 2, at noon at the Leelanau County Government Center on M-204 between Lake Leelanau and Suttons Bay.
“The world is held together by tiny friendships.” So explains the wise grandmother character in local author Lynne Rae Perkins’ latest novel “At Home in a Faraway Place.” On March 29, Perkins will be one of two authors featured at an event at Bay Books in Suttons Bay highlighting literary selections for young readers on the opportune topics of immigration and cultural acceptance. The program will open at 10:30 a.m. with Bay Books owner Tina Greene-Bevington reading Thrity Umrigar’s children’s book, “Sugar in Milk.” Described by Running Press as “a timely and timeless picture book about immigration that demonstrates the power of diversity, acceptance and tolerance from a very gifted storyteller” Sugar in Milk made several best book lists and garnered two awards when it was published in 2020.
It’s a movie house. It’s a venue for concerts. It’s a gathering place for members of the community. It’s a working non-profit. The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay is all of those. “This building has so much history,” says Graham Powers, executive director of the Bay Community Theatre Organization. Built in 1920, it originally served as a livery stable and fire station. It wasn’t until 1946 that it was transformed into a movie theatre. “There’s a great need for keeping these spaces alive,” says Powers. Alive and live, as in the theatre’s “Live at the Bay” series. On March 16, the Bay welcomes Kennedy’s Kitchen for its annual St. Patrick’s Day show. “It’s the fifth year for Kennedy’s Kitchen. It’s become one of our annual favorites. It’s a fun show,” Powers says.
On Thursday, March 13, from 4 to 7pm, The Mill in Glen Arbor will once again offer live music. Partnering with Inn and Trail Gourmet, Detroit’s hottest indie-roots group, Jackamo, made up of Alison and Tessa Wiercioch on vocals and song writing, and Jimmy Showers, guitarist/song writer, will make their northern Michigan debut at The Mill.
The National Writers Series will host Martin Luther King, Jr., biographer Jonathan Eig at the City Opera House in Traverse City on Thursday, March 13 at 7 pm. The Glen Arbor Sun spoke with Eig about his portrayal of King, about our collective tendency to oversimplify the icon and forget that in his time he was radical and disruptive, and why we need to hear King’s message in today’s America. “King: A Life” is the first major biography written in decades about the civil rights icon. Vividly written and deeply researched, this revealing portrait by a master storyteller is an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.
What stimulates creative inspiration? For Playwright Rebecca Reynolds, one answer is Edward Hopper, a leading 20th-century realist painter whose work ignites the curiosity of many. On March 9, the Old Art Building (OAB) in Leland will present three short plays, written and directed by Reynolds, that are based upon three Hopper paintings. A sold-out evening performance motivated the OAB to schedule a matinee the same day. The event, coined as Drinks, Drama & Dessert, will include social time and dessert alongside the plays performed by a selection of talented locals.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore announced in a media release that it has rescheduled the candlelight hikes and Maple Sugaring Days program originally set for Feb. 28 and March 1 to Saturday, March 22, at the Dechow and Olsen farms, due to a rapid drop in temperatures and dangerous winter conditions at the park.
The Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes — a nonprofit partner organization to the National Lakeshore, which helps maintain the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail — invites the public to meet and welcome the organization’s new executive director, Laura Ann Johnson, at an event on Thursday, Feb. 20, from 4-6 pm at the Cherry Republic Public House. Help celebrate new horizons for Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes and enjoy some fellowship in the middle of this great winter. Light food and beverages will be provided by Cherry Republic.
As Leelanau County embraces a snowy winter, the Empire Area Community Center (EACC) plans to revive a favorite winter tradition — the Empire Winterfest. Events will be hosted throughout the village on Saturday, Feb. 22. Winterfest was last held in Empire in 2018, but had been celebrated for decades before. The most well-known event — a polar plunge in South Bar Lake — will return this year, along with a number of other activities including public saunas, a neighbor coffee hour, potluck, and live music.
In September 2022, two Black women from Philadelphia opened a life-changing Facebook message from a White man in Grand Rapids. Kevin Brooks reached out to cousins Carmen Hopson and Coleen Burton with his discovery that their families were inextricably linked more than 100 years ago in Empire Township. The relationship was not born of freed slaves still economically dependent on their former owners, nor were they hired live-in employees. Rather, the respective families of Joseph Payment and Anna and Levi Johnson were neighboring farm owners and pioneering homesteaders along Little Glen Lake who forged a friendship born of necessity and steeped in mutual respect. What transpired from that visit and a subsequent one evolved into the documentary The Search for Anna and Levi. Subtitled “A Lost History of Black Homesteaders in Leelanau County” it was written and directed by Joe VanderMeulen, a local science journalist and documentary filmmaker. In honor of Black History Month, a special preview screening of the film The Search for Anna and Levi will take place on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 2 pm at The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay.