Village Life: Just another drag queen bingo night in Flint cheering things up
By Jan Worth-Nelson Can Flint be any more itself than combining a crowded bookstore, bingo, and a curvy six-foot tall drag queen in red sequins hollering out “B-8, bitches!”? I’ve been here more than 35 years and by now there is nothing much that could surprise me about my adopted hometown. The energy at Totem Bookstore’s Drag Queen Bingo night makes me think no matter how pissed we get at the world, no...
Village Life: How new digs in Flint made a doggie dream come true
By Meghan Christian This is about a dream of puppy love coming true, right on the east side of Flint. About a year into our relationship, my boyfriend Chad and I started talking about getting a dog. We would sit on the futon in our cramped, one-bedroom apartment and dream about what kind of dog we would get and the adventures we would go on together. But since our lease wasn’t going to be up for another six months, all we had were...
Village Life: Wilbur the “Flint Strong” dog, tangled vines and a city’s fate
By Jan Worth-Nelson In a conference room at City Hall recently after a typically chaotic council meeting, Councilman Herbert Winfrey leaned across a table and said something that stuck in my brain. He said, “A city is what it accepts.” I’m still thinking about that. It’s a sunny Wednesday, late September, and the heat has finally broken. I’m in my upstairs office, the window to my left open to blessed fresh air for the first time in...
Village Life: Flint moves beyond ghosts as autumn whispers in
By Jan Worth-Nelson It’s a lovely cool morning, clear and fresh, reminding me of why it’s good to be in the Midwest. It feels like the first day of fall, the light turning slightly mellow, even though it’s only the first of September, and I’m up early going next door where new tenants are moving in today to what was our first home on Maxine. The empty house looks beautiful to my sleepy eyes, a classic Flint colonial with warm wood...
18 Flint people on the water crisis: A Village Life gathering at Woodside Church
By Jan Worth-Nelson A visit to Flint by a Boston film crew in July led to a gathering of 18 Flint residents invited by East Village Magazine to talk about their lives in the city and their reflections on the water crisis and its effects. Their comments that night, all filmed and on the record, were heartfelt, honest, sometimes emotional and often gripping. Not everyone there was in perfect agreement, but the listening was open and...
Village Life: Only slightly in mourning, my husband becomes a full-time Flintoid
By Jan Worth-Nelson If you see my husband Ted around town anytime soon, be especially kind. He is going through a trauma. He’s moving on, after four decades as a Californian, to become a fulltime Flintoid. He’s giving up his cherished “AWRDMKR” California license plate – an artifact of the awards and trophy business he founded. He’ll be trading it for…something else – for sure, NOT choosing the options that say “Pure Michigan.” I...
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