Infrastructure work, environmental justice “can’t wait another generation,” Kildee and activist panel agree
By Jan Worth-Nelson As the U.S. Senate was voting to approve the American Jobs Plan 69-30 Tuesday morning, with 19 Republicans joining all Democrats, a group of Genesee County activists from environmental justice, health care, and education spoke out forcefully to U.S. Representative Dan Kildee(MI-5) in a zoom webinar about the $1 trillion plan now on its way to the House of Representatives. The roundtable, organized by the activist...
Village Life: Viral time revisited, 2021 — personal panic, wine, and the witching hour
By Teddy Robertson We were all so new at balancing mortal threat and daily life. Inept, but resourceful. That’s how it felt a year ago this May when East Village Magazine staff shared their first experiences of the COVID pandemic. That’s odder than you might think—reporters usually don’t want to be part of a story. I can hardly recall the details of Spring 2020 now; I had to look them up. Each new order blotted out memory of...
Education Beat: Superintendent Steward reflects on relationship with Flint Community Schools board
By Harold C. Ford “It is my hope that, from this point on, the board and I will be able to work collaboratively to move the district forward.” — Anita Steward, superintendent, Flint Community Schools [Editor’s Note: Anita Steward, superintendent of Flint Community Schools (FCS), consented to an interview with East Village Magazine’s (EVM) Education Beat writer, Harold Ford, about her current relationship with the Flint Board of...
Profile: 30 years later, Ben Hamper remembers Rivethead, his legacy of “that one story, that one guy”
By Jan Worth-Nelson At a back corner table at Churchhill’s, escaping to AC on a muggy Tuesday afternoon in Flint, Ben Hamper takes a swig of his signature Jim Beam and Diet Coke and reflects on the 30 years since the country came to know him as an exuberantly profane, honest and hilariously irreverent blue collar bard. He was The Rivethead. His 1991 book Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line, is a raucous, scathing and sometimes...
“Rivethead” author Ben Hamper, bard of 20th century blue collar life, returns to Flint June 5
By Jan Worth-Nelson Ben Hamper, author of a classic best-selling account of “shop rat” life in Flint in the 1980s, returns to his hometown June 5 for a reading and book signing from 2-5 p.m. at Totem Books, 620 W. Court St. His appearance celebrates the 30th anniversary of the publication of Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line, Hamper’s vivid, scathing, irreverent, hilarious and occasionally heart-rending tale...
FACES of Flint
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