The League of Women Voters of Leelanau County will host a webinar on Wednesday, Nov. 2, at noon with Len Niehof, University of Michigan Law Professor and First Amendment and Media Attorney, as he narrates the recent Roe v. Wade decision, the Supreme Court Justices’ process to this decision and his own thoughts and ramifications of this important legal decision.
Control of the 110-seat Michigan State House of Representatives could be up for grabs this election, and the new 103rd District, which includes Leelanau County, might prove pivotal in that race. Facing off are Republican incumbent Jack O’Malley and Democrat Betsy Coffia, who has attacked O’Malley over his record on abortion and his casting doubt on the 2020 election results. According to AdImpact Politics, more money has been spent to win the 103rd than any other State House seat.
The Glen Arbor Arts Center’s current VESSELS exhibit offers an out-of-the-box look at bowls, baskets, urns, pods, and other objects that store and carry things. This juried exhibition is on display until Oct. 27 and features 28 exhibitors from Michigan, California, Illinois, and Rhode Island. Of particular note, the exhibit includes the Creation of the World 6/9, a needlework tapestry from Judy Chicago’s “Birth Project”—a feminist initiative from the early 1980s, in which Chicago collaborated with more than 150 artists to create dozens of images combining painting and needlework that celebrate various aspects of the birth process; from the painful to the mythical. This series celebrated the birth-giving capacity of women along with their creative spirit. With women’s reproductive rights under siege, and the arts reemerging as a forum of social and political expression, we chatted with the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s gallery manager Sarah Bearup-Neal about VESSELS and the inclusion of a work from “Birth Project.”
As we approach Independence Day, I wonder at the concepts of “freedom” and “equality.” At the ways our governing bodies have historically made laws that only represent a portion of our population, writes Mae Stier in our Fourth of July weekend edition of the Glen Arbor Sun. From the inception of our country, wealthy white men have been protected by the laws they created for themselves, but people of color, women, children, and impoverished people have not received the same protections. As a woman born in the late 1980s, it feels difficult to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Women now have less autonomy than they did when I was born, and I fear what comes next. I now see abortion access as a necessary step toward equity, especially in a society that does little for parents and their children once they have left the womb.