Review: Hot Friday the 13th downtown ARTWALK a feast of stellar art and music
By Patsy Isenberg A lot of people came to downtown Flint on Friday the 13th for ARTWALK, which takes place the second Friday of every month. ARTWALK is sponsored by The Greater Flint Arts Council (GFAC) and includes many galleries, bars and restaurants along and near Saginaw Street. It was hot that night. But at least it wasn’t raining or windy. It was actually a perfect night for the event and it did not disappoint the festival...
Commentary: Arts millage advocates need to answer basic questions to help voters decide
By Linda Pohly The Genesee County ballot for Aug. 7 will include a proposal for an Arts Education & Cultural Enrichment Millage. If the millage passes, according to Citizens for a Better Genesee County, the group behind the millage campaign, the County–through its taxpayers–would pay an estimated $8.2 million per year for 10 years to the Flint Cultural Center Foundation for division among three Cultural Center...
Commentary: A primary primer for the Aug. 7 election — REMEMBER TO VOTE
By Paul Rozycki In less than a month, in the midst of summer vacations, art fairs, festivals, and car shows, Michigan will hold its regular primary, and the turnout is likely to be low, as it has been for years. That’s unfortunate because, for most officials, the primary is the real election—whoever wins the primary is likely to win in November. That’s because most of our election districts are gerrymandered to favor one party or the...
Review: Connor Coyne’s “Urbantasm: The Dying City” original, dark, magical, and infused with Flint
Urbantasm Book One: The Dying City by Connor Coyne Review by Robert R. Thomas Connor Coyne’s Urbantasm is the most original take on Flint I have read to date. Set in the fictional Rust Belt city of Akawe, Michigan, “an hour’s drive north of Detroit,” Coyne’s allegorical tale is a serial novel of four volumes the author says has taken 22 years to create. Book One: The Dying City will be published in September. The jacket of my...
Village Life: Why I moved to Flint
By Ted Nelson My first experience of Flint was Bishop International Airport. I still wonder about the “International” part. Could it be that Flint itself is another country? Perhaps there are secret flights here in the dark of night — aliens sneaking in from all over the world to benefit from the city’s abundance of jobs, services, and amenities. Who knows? I, however, was on a mission of another kind. I was at Bishop...
Commentary: Water shutoffs do no one any good
By Laura Sullivan In 2015, Dr. Sullivan, a Kettering University professor of mechanical engineering, worked with other activists as part of the Coalition for Clean Water to return the city of Flint to Detroit for its water supply. Since then, she has helped to coordinate positive interactions between residents, local physicians, researchers, journalists, the City of Flint, and the EPA. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the Flint Water...