Waffles on a stick? A social club without alcohol? All based around a small-town coffee shop? Welcome to Hive, the Suttons Bay coffee shop that’s long on service, special events and community. And coffee, of course. After all, that’s what enticed Landon McDaid to open the Suttons Bay business at the location previously occupied by Mundos Roasters. It still serves Mundos coffee, with specialties including blueberry lemon latte, flavored espresso tonic and other specialty drinks.
If it’s July, then it must be time for art projects for Glen Lake middle schoolers. Same for August. And September, October—you get the idea. Thanks to a partnership between the Glen Arbor Arts Center and Leelanau Investing For Teens—the Suttons Bay-based center for after-school activities commonly known by its acronym LIFT—each month the art center offers a class for students from Glen Lake Middle School. The partnership started in April 2024 and programs will continue through April 2025, or until all 12 classes are fulfilled, though both GAAC and LIFT are hopeful additional funding will allow it to continue.
High school graduations typically celebrate the students. But a special ceremony held by Northwest Education Services (NES) at Creekside School in the Grand Traverse Commons on June 21 honored not just local migrant farmworker graduates but also their hardworking families. A page on the foldout printed program declared ¡Sí se pudo! “Yes they could” with a silhouette of graduates in caps and gowns tossing their tassels overlaying a scene of an apple orchard. Ellos creyeron que podían, así que lo hicieron. “They believed they could, and they did it.” “The motivation for holding a separate celebration was to celebrate the parents as well,” said NES bilingual parent liaison Beatriz Moreno. “Parents go through great struggles and sacrifices to help lead their children to graduation. Many of our parents did not get an education or had limited schooling. This is a thank you to our parents for helping get to graduation.” This was the first year the migrant graduation ceremony was held since 1997, when Moreno, herself, graduated from Leland.
The photos and cell phone videos suggested a typical northern Michigan summer wedding. But the ceremony held between Daniel Carboni and Cristina Fernandez on Sunday, June 16, at the Lodge at Hickory Hills—Traverse City’s municipal-owned ski hill—was anything but typical. The nuptials were the culmination of a four-day “Spiritual Life Summit” held by the Twin Flames Universe, a new age relationship cult run by Suttons Bay residents Jeff and Shaleia Ayan. They are accused of charging their cult members thousands of dollars while pressing them into toxic relationships and manipulating their emotional and mental health struggles. To avoid detection, the summit’s organizers used alias names when they booked Traverse City venues. Even so, an informal group of concerned individuals who call themselves Citizens for the Prevention of Predatory Commerce have worked behind the scenes, contacting many venues in the Traverse City region and Leelanau County and encouraging them to exercise due diligence if contacted by Twin Flames Universe. In February, the National Writers Series hosted author Janja Lalich—an authority on cults—and Twin Flames survivor Keely Griffin to the Traverse City Opera House for an event packed with drama, emotion and education about the nature of cults, then and now.
On Sunday, June 23, the Bay Theatre in downtown Suttons Bay will show the third and final film of this year’s Made-In-Michigan series with a screening of the documentary film Marqueetown by Traverse City writer-directors Joe Beyer and Jordan Anderson. Beyer and Anderson will attend along with producers Beth Milligan and Christal Frost Anderson for an audience Q&A hosted by Glen Arbor Sun editor/publisher Jacob Wheeler.
Suttons Bay Chamber of Commerce will host the annual Artisan & Wine Walk on Friday, June 21. Patrons will enjoy live music throughout the village and extended hours between 5-8 pm at participating shops that will also feature a local artisan with their work. Art will be available for purchase, and some artists will be demonstrating their craft in person.
Peninsula Housing invites the public to participate in a workshop to explore housing options for 980 S Herman Road and 339 South St. Mary’s Street. A public meeting will be held on Thursday, May 2, from 6-7:30 pm at the Suttons Bay / Bingham Fire Station Community Room (201 South St. Mary’s Avenue in Suttons Bay). Peninsula Housing will present options for housing and amenities on two sites and community members will have opportunities to share their ideas.
Living in Leelanau invites the wearing of many hats, with individuals often finding themselves sitting on multiple boards, working more than one job, or filling numerous needs throughout our small communities. Many of the most successful businesses also operate in this way, meeting multiple needs under one roof: the coffee shop that is also a music venue, the vintage store with the art club, the restaurant with an inn above. At one such multi-functional establishment—Farm Club—writer Mae Stier sat down to talk with Elijah Nykamp, who is himself a wearer of many hypothetical hats. Owner of the clothing studio and shop Nykamping in Suttons Bay, Nykamp is the designer and sewist of all the clothing he creates. Not only does he design and create beautiful, wearable pieces, he is also a community builder, frequently partnering with other artists.
Perhaps no Spring 2020 COVID-19 transplants to Leelanau County were as mysterious, and now as controversial, as Jeff and Shaleia Ayan, the Suttons Bay residents and relationship coach gurus behind Twin Flames Universe, which a December 2020 Vanity Fair article called “a sort of therapeutic-spiritual reality show.” Last week the streaming service Netflix launched a scathing, three-part documentary series titled “Escaping Twin Flames,” which casts the Ayans’ online community as a cult whose leaders prey upon members and charge them thousands of dollars while pressing them into toxic relationships and manipulating their emotional and mental health struggles. Twin Flames has also attracted negative national press from Vice and Time magazine.
On Saturday, Dec. 16, at 7 pm, Miriam Pico and David Chown will return to The Bay Theatre in Suttons Bay after last year’s sold out event for an evening of joy, reflection, and wonderful memories as they entertain the audience in their unique style, with original arrangements of Holiday favorites. They’ll be accompanied by a full ensemble of fellow instrumentalists and singers, making this a night to remember.