Rebecca Lessard and Wings of Wonder will release a large Bald Eagle on Saturday, May 28 at the Empire Eagle’s Club property (the old Dunegrass Festival field) eight miles east of Empire, on M-72. The public is invited to attend this grand event, which begins at 11 a.m.
On Friday, May 27 at 7 p.m. the program “The Coho Story: Gold Rush in Platte Bay,” will be presented at the Empire Township Hall. Learn about the most successful sport-fishing introduction in Great Lakes history and the Coho’s effects, including its triumphs and tragedies, on the Platte Bay area. Free popcorn will be served and donations are appreciated.
Ohio artist and art professor Taimur Cleary will be the Glen Arbor Art Association’s second artist-in-residence for the 2011 season. His presentation for the public will take place on Thursday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at the Art Association’s building in Glen Arbor (opposite Cherry Republic — follow the sign to GAAA). The program is free and light refreshments will be served.
The popular annual Manitou Music Festival — bringing great and eclectic music to Glen Arbor and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore — has unveiled its lineup for the coming summer. The festival will kick off with a July 2 Patriotic Music performance by the Northport Community Band at the Glen Arbor Athletic Club, and hold its popular Dune Climb Concert on July 10.
Area residents looking for one of the best NASA space shuttle launch viewing experiences outside of Florida’s Space Coast are invited to watch the Endeavour blast off at 8:56 a.m. Monday on the State Theatre’s huge screen, while listening to the rockets roar via a state-of-the-art sound system.
Geradine Simkins’ new book is a comprehensive anthology of the life stories, struggles, and triumphs of 25 women who have dedicated their lives to social change and the practice of midwifery, and who have made significant contributions to shaping maternity health care in this country.
Suttons Bay’s farmers market will open Saturday in its new location, at North Park at the intersection of M-204 and M-22. The others lag a bit behind. Empire will open its farmers market on June 18 and remain open on Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., until September 10. Glen Arbor will hold its farmers market on Tuesdays, from 9 to 1, from June 21 until August 30.
Pathways to Sleeping Bear and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has released a dazzling new video that extolls the virtues of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, the 27-mile multi-use trail that will parallel M-22 and M-109 in and near the National Park. Construction will begin on the Heritage Trail late this summer.
“Sweet Summer,” a painting exhibition of cupcakes, donuts, pie slices and other food for the senses, opens Friday, May 27, at the Center Gallery at Lake Street Studios, 6023 S. Lake St., in Glen Arbor. Eastport artist Margie Guyot returns to Center Gallery with new oil paintings that celebrate the food she loves as well as the local landscapes that inspire her.
On May 20 and 21, join the Village of Empire for its eighth annual Asparagus Festival in downtown Empire. Help celebrate the arrival of this welcome spring bounty by penning a tribute and submitting it in the 2011 Empire Asparagus Festival Poetry Contest.