East Village Magazine – March 2016
The latest issue of East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Beyond the Water Crisis: Ready for prime time? Too much prime time?
By Paul Rozycki Before last November’s election there were many who wondered if Dr. Karen Weaver, running for her first elective office, was ready for prime time. It seems that we have our answer. In just a little over three months, has any mayor of a similar...
Village Life: Flint’s water story triggers writers’ unease
By Jan Worth-Nelson Scene One: I’m sitting under a yellow umbrella with Andrew Highsmith and my husband Ted in a sunny plaza at a California university. The yellow makes our faces look like we’ve smeared ourselves with dandelions. It’s a chilly but sunny 63. Highsmith...
Even the Commies came to Flint: reflections on poison water and the “revolution”
By Robert R. Thomas Since Flint has become the rock star of rust belt disasters, all manner of journalistic requests come through East Village Magazine’s office seeking some Flint access. You know, “the real Flint”—that kind of thing. When a request arrived from a...
Local poets, singers make art from water crisis, racism, justice at “Power of Witness”
By Stacie Scherman Kimberly Brown of Flint steps up to the mic at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Flint in the warm glow of spotlights illuminating the stage, and launches into a poem. “We are so vulnerable to what happens to the waters that nourish us,” she...
Flint Public Art Project, Spencer’s Art House leadership changes in Carriage Town
By Lori Nelson Savage The February meeting of the Carriage Town Historic Neighborhood Association focused on a review of the community improvement projects affecting the area. Projects discussed included Chevy Commons, Hamilton Dam, Spencer’s Art House, the Statue...
City water bill refunds to start soon: 65% from April 2014 “until the water is safe to drink”
Within the last few days, Flint residents received text messages announcing the launch of the $30 million water bill refund program recently approved and funded by the state legislature and signed by Governor Snyder Feb. 26. Here is the text as it was sent on Sunday,...
Street light upgrades, zoning changes, water supply highlight CPNA meeting
by Nic Custer The Central Park Neighborhood Association discussed grant applications for lighting upgrades, mobile meetings, Riverside Tabernacle playscape improvements, Kearsley Street zoning and water distribution updates at their February meeting Norma Sain,...
Syracuse, New York galvanizes city-wide response to Flint’s water woes; Buffalo joins, too
By Stacie Scherman Four hundred miles away from Flint, Daren Jaime, pastor of the People’s AME Zion Church of Syracuse, New York, recently “had a vision in the middle of the night” about helping Flint residents cope with the water crisis. The next morning he reached...
“Rebuild Flint” marchers pass by Karegnondi Pipeline, call for infrastructure, justice
By Nic Custer In the shadow of the former Buick City industrial complex and passing by pipes waiting to be installed in the Karegnondi pipeline, hundreds of diverse local and out of town activists marched a mile from the Metropolitan Baptist Church to the Flint Water...
Coneys and Vernors in Beverly Hills: Hollywood comes through for Flint
By Jan Worth-Nelson About 200 people, half of them declaring they were from Flint, came together Sunday afternoon at Spaghettini's in Beverly Hills, California, to raise money for Flint in the wake of its water disaster. By the end of the evening, which featured...
Byrd Competition stars 26 stringed-instrument musicians March 5
By Anne Trelfa Violins, violas and cellos will star March 5 at the Flint Institute of Music in a day of performance by 26 young musicians that is free and open to the public. The 45th annual international William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition will run from 8:45...
Politics of water: blame game, grandstanding, incompetence — and a turning point?
By Paul Rozycki At the end of last year, after our mayoral election, our switch back to Detroit water, and the progress on the Karegnondi pipeline, it seemed that the Flint Water Crisis has peaked. This month I was expecting to say a few words about the primary...
Water crisis not a “death blow,” Ananich tells neighborhood group
By Lori Nelson Savage Flint’s water emergency, its effect on neighborhood housing and a need to upgrade the tennis courts at Woodlawn Park ignited discussion at the January College Cultural Neighborhood Association (CCNA) meeting. “I don’t think this is a death...
Fluttered away like a pack of cards: reflections on Alice in Wonderland and adulthood
By Teddy Robertson When I was about eight years old I was very sick with a fever that must have been unusually high. What caused it or what my mother and grandmother surmised it might be, I don’t remember now. But I was in bed in a dark room, restless and confused....
As city-wide lead pipe mapping begins, UM-Flint prof explains how to test your water lines
By Nic Custer Two household items – a key and a magnet – and a set of simple observations may help worried Flint residents determine what their water pipes are made of. UM- Flint professor, Martin Kaufman, Department of Earth and Resource Science, told East Village...
Village Life: Can water be made holy again?
By Jan Worth-Nelson In the bleached and bleak light the morning after the Rachel Maddow show, I wake up torpid and head-achey with depression. I know the signs. When I get so down, the molten lava flowing just under that lethargy usually comes down to one hot origin:...
At Luigi’s, Eastsiders “incensed,” “Flint Strong” as Dan Kildee offers hope
Editor's note: EVM board member and contributing writer Bob Thomas was at Luigi's for the "after party" following the Rachel Maddow taping. Above...
Flint’s Water Crisis Followed Us Across the Country
Here is a piece Jan Worth-Nelson submitted to The Daily Breeze in L.A. after arriving in San Pedro last week. .http://www.dailybreeze.com/environment-and-nature/20160119/flints-lead-water-crisis-weighs-on-san-pedro-snowbirds
Literacy Tutor Training Sessions Set
By Anne Trelfa An opportunity to become a certified literacy tutor is being offered by the Genesee County Literacy Coalition starting Jan. 30. The Coalition will train volunteers to help adults learn to read, finish their GED process or learn English as a second...
Free course on water crisis offered by UM – Flint
By Anne Trelfa A free course focused on the Flint water crisis begins Thursday Jan. 21 at 4:30 in the UM – Flint Northbank Center. The UM-Flint Department of Public Health and Health Sciences is offering 8 sessions initially throughout the winter semester. Planners...
Global Film Festival resumes, also features Kildee, Ramsdell, Rao
By Andrew Keast The Global Issues Film Festival continues as usual this month, with another set of cinematic views on people and problems not often covered in the popular media. This, the second half of the Festival’s 14th season, will be held at the McKinnon Theater...
Book Review: Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan and the fate of the American Metropolis by Andrew Highsmith
By Robert R. Thomas Like a twisted love affair in which things are not what they seem, living in Flint can be an extremely disorienting hall of mirrors. For 10 years I have been researching Flint’s history, trying to understand my hometown roots and my current...
Cultural Center plan: Sarvis demolition, Sloan expansion, downtown links
By Nic Custer The Flint Cultural Center Corporation (FCCC) recently updated its master plan with recommendations to demolish the Sarvis Center and several underutilized buildings, connect the street grid, renovate the Sloan Museum, and redesign public spaces between...
Wat’er we expecting for Flint’s water in 2016? Words for the good news and bad
Let’s hope 2016 is the year we drain the lead out and mop up the water mess – so we won’t be flooded with washed-up water metaphors. (Maybe they’ll just dry up and blow away?)
