French Valley Vineyard brings the fiesta to your Thursdays from 4-7 pm all winter long, with sizzling live music and mouthwatering tamales from Spanglish. The musical lineup includes: Chris Skellenger on Feb. 8, Rhett & Jon on Feb. 15, the Duges on Feb. 22, and Dennis Palmer on Feb. 29. French Valley’s sister winery, Bel Lago, hosts Folgarelli’s Lasagna Saturdays from noon-5 pm each Saturday through February. Saturday, Feb. 10, will also feature a Super Soup-er Supper from 1-4 pm.
Luke Woltanski kicks off Live Music Fridays this month at Cherry Public House with a performance tonight from 5-8 pm. The Glen Arbor Sun featured Woltanski in an August 2016 story, which you can read here. Subsequent performances include Woltanski and John Piatek on Feb. 9, Patrick Niemisto and Chris Skellenger on Feb 16, and Skellenger and Paul Koss on Feb 23. Cherry Public House also hosts a trivia night on Sunday evenings from 5-7 pm.
John Farah, a longtime dentist in Ann Arbor who lives part-time at The Homestead in Glen Arbor, has published a memoir about his journey from Jerusalem to Michigan. He’ll hold a book reading and signing for “Imagine: A Palestinian Journey” on Feb. 2 in Ann Arbor. Farah wrote most of the book during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I started it to let my kids and family know about my journey,” he said. “A Palestinian growing up in Israel, sympathetic to Jews suffering in Europe and always feeling because of their history they will do the right thing towards Palestinians.”
From now until March 16, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore will host weekly programs on Saturdays. Programs on Saturday, Jan. 20, featured Anishinaabe historian Eric Hemenway. In the morning, he lead a guided hike focused on survival strategies and traditional Anishinaabe activities during the season of biboon (winter). In the afternoon at the Philip A. Hart Visitor Center, Hemenway also shared about traditional Anishinaabe art.
This Sunday, Jan. 28, the Friendly Tavern in Empire hosts an afternoon of music, stories and poems highlighting the history of the Sleeping Bear Dunes area. Anne-Marie Oomen and Norm Wheeler will present “A Stone That Rises,” a dramatization of pioneer life in the settlement of Port Oneida, while Chris Skellenger and Patrick Niemisto will perform various songs inspired by local lore. The performance is presented by the Empire Area Community Center, with donations accepted to support their emergency relief fund. Join the fun from 4-6 pm at the Friendly Tavern in Empire.
The Tree of Life is one of the most universal, recurrent, and enduring of all iconographies—a visual metaphor for the interconnectivity of life forms, Earth and the cosmos. Its legacy stretches across religions and cultures. It appears throughout literature, the arts, and even modern science. This ancient motif now graces the Lobby Gallery of the Glen Arbor Arts Center. It is the mixed media installation of Traverse City artist, Mary Fortuna, aptly titled: Tree of Life: Connecting the World. The exhibit will be shown through April 25. Fortuna’s Tree of Life: Connecting the World is a glorious rendition of this most recognizable of images. It is comprised of the tree form itself, which is drawn in Sumi ink on Japanese paper, affixed to which are numerous hand-sewn soft sculptures—a snake, armadillo, turtle, fox, and bee, among other critters.
The International Affairs Forum at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City has announced that longtime Leelanau County resident Dick Grout, who is 103 years old, will be presented with the French Legion of Honor by Yannick Tagand, the Consul General of France in Chicago, in a private ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 30, at Kirkbride Hall in the Grand Traverse Commons. Grout took part in the Allies’ D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944—the seminal battle on the Western Front during the Second World War. He was earlier awarded both a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart for his service.
Glen Lake Community Schools will host the first of two scheduled “listening sessions” on Wednesday, Jan. 10, at 6 pm related to a loss in this past November’s bond election. This session will be held in the secondary media center. According to a letter from superintendent Jason Misner, the public is invited to attend and participate in this forum and share opinions and feedback on the recent bond vote and what Glen Lake can do to meet the needs of area students and the community.
“Happy.” How exactly is happiness defined? Is it a simple proposition or a complex notion? Is happiness something objective or something entirely subjective? Is it completely nebulous? Happiness can be the view from atop Pyramid Point; the June harvest of Bardenhagen strawberries; chasing the Northern Lights out at the end of Bohemian Road; volunteering at Leelanau Christian Neighbor’s weekly “Blessings in a Backpack;” driving Leelanau County’s back roads, like Schomberg—just because. The Glen Arbor Arts Center is interested in how artists relate to, and creatively express, the notion of happiness. The GAAC’s very first exhibit of 2024 will explore happiness, and is, fittingly, titled “Happy.”
Hiking, snowshoeing, even watching how maple syrup is made, from tree to syrup. They’re all on tap (pun intended) at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore this winter. And even better than that, all the activities are free. “The Most Beautiful Place in America” according to ABC’s Good Morning America offers opportunities for fun and exploration not just in the summer but year-round. “The Dunes don’t close,” says Emily Sunblade, lead interpretation park ranger. Winter certainly provides a different experience than summer. For example, if there’s snow, the hikes become snowshoe hikes. More than that, snow cover provides the opportunity to explore beyond the trails, as rangers can safely lead hikers off the trails. “That won’t damage sensitive plants,” says Sunblade.