Art Walk Scene: Hip-hop, pop-ups, ice cream, art–downtown’s alive
By Tom Travis Entering the Flint Art Walk Friday night at Third Street and Saginaw, you hear the sounds of hip-hop and R&B. An open mic is provided for anyone brave enough to try a song on karaoke–though nobody’s there yet in the early evening sunlight. Right away, you’re greeted by various vendors participating in pop-up shops with #imbuildingsomething, a consulting business started by Ebony Gipson. She...
Kildee, Mays and Johnson discuss Flint water crisis at WDET panel
By Paul Rozycki According to U.S. Congressman Dan Kildee (5th District), obtaining justice for the Flint water crisis requires that those responsible be “held liable for the damage, that the basic water infrastructure be repaired, that residents be charged a fair price for their water and the health issues of the community be addressed.” Those comments came at the end of a panel discussion at the Flint Public Library Saturday hosted...
Book Review: “American Dialogue” offers indispensable conversation between “then” and “now”
By Robert R. Thomas In assessing the here and now, history offers an indispensable perspective. American Dialogue is an enlightening example. As author and historian Joseph Ellis puts it, “The study of history is an ongoing conversation between past and present from which we all have much to learn.” Subtitled The Founders and Us, his book’s focus is a dialogue between America’s founding fathers and our current historical state. “We...
Village Life: A raptor crash heralded my life with birds
By Teddy Robertson Smack! The front legs of my chair leave the floor, my hands pop off the laptop keyboard; I jerk backward. A split second, then a tinkling sound ripples over my left shoulder. I turn and look: in the storm window beside me fissures radiate outward as if pushed by an invisible hand. Something’s struck the plate glass almost dead center. I’m out the door — scanning the front porch for a clue — but the missile...
Commentary: A funny thing happened on the way to the election
By Paul Rozycki Note: This column has been updated for a correction via City Clerk Inez Brown: it was the city’s Finance Department that initially omitted the $320,000 in the budget for this year’s election, not the City Council–Ed. For most cities, villages, and townships, an election is a pretty routine thing. Candidates file, their names go on the ballot, they campaign, voters go to the polls, and the next set...
Education Beat: Admin shakeups, contracts highlight end of year for Flint Community Schools
By Harold C. Ford “Our buildings are not worthy of the children that enter them…There are lots of people who have been paid to do lots of things that have not done the things they were paid to do.” …Derrick Lopez, Superintendent, Flint Community Schools Administrative shakeups and the approval of ten service contracts highlighted the end of the 2018-2019 school year for Flint Community Schools. After robust debate, the district’s...
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