News Briefs June 30-July 5: Get muddy at Bluebell Beach, see Movies Under the Stars
By Anne Trelfa Play in the Mud July 2 This Saturday, July 2, is International Mud Day. Genesee County Parks and Recreation invites the public to celebrate at Bluebell Beach by getting muddy. This free event, located at the north end of the park, 5500 Bray Rd., is open...
“Filtered water” green light draws alarm, reassurance from community partners
By Jan Worth-Nelson The announcement issued today by the Environmental Protection Agency that Flint's water is now safe for all populations and all uses, if filtered -- a dramatic shift from the status quo understanding since January -- drew responses of surprise,...
News Briefs June 19-30: Music in the Parks series begins, lead-fighting foods workshops offered
By Anne Trelfa Music in the Parks free summer concert series 2016 begins The Music In The Parks Free Summer Concert Series 2016 begins Saturday June 25. First in the series features the Flint Symphony Orchestra and the Flint Jubilee Chorale performing at 7 p.m. at...
EPA identifies “significant challenges” to long-term Flint water quality in memo to Snyder, Weaver
By Jan Worth-Nelson Flint faces significant "long-term challenges" that need to be tackled to assure safe drinking water, according to a strongly-worded memo from Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, delivered today to Gov. Rick Snyder...
Donated checks to city “never cashed,” Mayor Weaver’s chief of staff says
By Jan Worth-Nelson Checks made out to the City of Flint as donations after the water crisis broke this year "have never been cashed," Steve Branch, Mayor Karen Weaver's chief of staff, told community partners in the Flint Water Recovery Group at a meeting today at...
News Briefs June 14-30: Dinner to benefit Whaley House; Flint Youth Theater season opens
By Anne Trelfa Whaley Dinner Club Returns with a Summer Soiree Tickets are available now through June 23 for a "Summer Soiree" to benefit the Whaley Historic House Museum. The Sloan Museum in Flint's Cultural Center will host the Whaley Dinner Club: Summer Soiree set...
Music is a “radical affirmation of the humanity we all share,” William Harvey asserts in return to Flint
By Jan Worth-Nelson William Harvey stands in front of 1910 Montclair St. in Flint, a house he hasn't laid eyes on since 1987, and says, “Oh my god, that’s the house. That was where I got my first violin.” It came through the mail and, he recalls with the specific...
Happy Anyway: A Flint Anthology launches with complex stories, national interest
By Jan Worth-Nelson UPDATE: We have added late-arriving comments here from contributor Layla Meillier. Please see below. Editors and publishers nationally already are expressing interest in a new collection of essays about Flint, according to the publisher. Happy...
News briefs June 10-11: Free Chamber Music at FIM, Concerned Pastors/MCC Water Summit
By Anne Trelfa Free Chamber Music Series continues June 10 at the FIM Fridays in June, the Flint School of Performing Art and Flint Symphony Orchestra present the 2016 Chamber Music Series. The four-concert series, sponsored by the Patricia Cumings Dort Fund and the...
East Village Magazine – June 2016
The latest issue of East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Hispanic/Latino group aims to help undocumented Flint residents cope with water crisis
By Stacie Scherman Among groups affected by the Flint water crisis, as some worried social service providers have pointed out, the undocumented immigrant community has been much challenged and under-represented. San Juana “Juani” Olivares, president of the Genesee...
Parks, council-mayoral issues dominate College Cultural Neighborhood Association meeting
By Kayla Chappell and Jan Worth-Nelson UPDATE: This story has been edited to reflect that Jody Lundquist, the city's chief financial officer, resigned May 31. More than 55 people attended the College Cultural Neighborhood Association's (CCNA) May meeting, which...
“We’re better together”: social justice in black and white
By Robert R. Thomas Seemingly different as their backgrounds, Beecher black pride and Northside Chicago white privilege, Artina Sadler and Tracie Kim share a common passion for social justice. They teach a course titled “Cultural Competence in Health Care” at UM-Flint...
Pulling weeds by moonlight
By Teddy Robertson I got home late, a bit after 9 pm, coming back in June to my house in Flint after a several months’ sojourn in the south babeach cities west of Los Angeles. My partner Dennis---an LA native---won’t arrive until July. I’ll be on my own in...
East Village Magazine – May 2016
The latest issue of East Village Magazine is available for download here:
The power of words and a presidential visit
By Nic Custer Author's Note: This essay is the result of my role as a Flint citizen and not while acting as a journalist. It is in that spirit and in that voice that I am offering this piece to share my experience with the community. In the age of constant...
Village Life: President Obama’s drink of water, boos for Snyder, and that primal scream, continued
By Jan Worth-Nelson Editor's note: This is an updated version of an earlier (April 25) Village Life column President Obama’s sip of water from a sparkling clean glass at Northwestern High School during his May 4 visit was nothing less than a show-stopper. After a few...
At 100, Applewood Estate celebrates by welcoming community
By Jan Worth-Nelson In 1916, the Charles Stewart Mott family of Flint clearly were “one percenters” as we’d call them today, and the life they shaped for themselves when they built their estate that year at the foot of Kearsley Street reflects a passion for healthy...
Crossing Water guides Flint residents to safer shores
By Nic Custer Michael Hood knew from 30 years as a wilderness guide that a canoe can’t get from shore to shore unless the rotten wood is replaced first. This metaphor is what inspired the name for Crossing Water, an Ann Arbor-based organization playing a crucial role...
View from a grass-roots table: people coming together to cope with Flint water
By Teddy Robertson We sit in a rectangle of tables, old manila file folders halved and then creased so we can write our names and prop them up in front of us. I’ve found my way to the basement of the Unitarian Universalist church for the meeting of a group called...
Turn on the taps first two weeks of May, water officials implore Flint residents
By Nic Custer Flint residents are being asked to run cold water through their systems daily for two weeks starting Sunday, May 1. The goal is to push out lead trapped in the system by getting a higher velocity of water running through the water pipes, especially in...
Commentary: It’s not the city charter…it’s the people
By Paul Rozycki After several weeks of high profile hearings, criminal charges, and the governor guzzling Flint’s water, perhaps the greatest risk for the average citizen has been the danger of being poked in the eye by someone pointing a finger at someone else, as...
Village Life: Primal scream, anybody? This is going on too long
By Jan Worth-Nelson I was warned: I had Kleenex at the ready. Still, when my tears started up in the dark during Flint Youth Theater's production of “The Most (Blank) City in America” Saturday night at the Elgood Theater, they hit me like a squall. I was crying for...
St. John Street neighborhood remembered by McCree Theater’s Winfrey
By Robert R. Thomas Charles Winfrey, Executive Director of the McCree Theatre, once wrote a play titled “The Saints of St. John Street” based on his fondest memories of growing up in Flint’s St. John Street neighborhood. He told his audience of 40 at the Flint Public...
EPA water use handout project aims at hard-to-reach residents, faces funding needs
By Jan Worth-Nelson Note: This is an updated version of a story appearing in the April hard copy of East Village Magazine based on information available when the hard copy went to press. More information has since become available. A two-sided color...
