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As temperatures climb across Southwest Michigan, residents looking to escape the heat have several options throughout Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Cass counties. With excessive heat expected next week ahead of the holiday weekend, here’s where and how to beat the heat.

While Pride Month is primarily about celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community and love in its many forms, it can also be an opportunity for allies to look inward and reflect on how to be better. Not just as individuals, but collectively, what does it take to make someone feel truly welcome — and not simply accepted? To explore that question, Watershed Voice spoke with Heather Sanford of OutFront Kalamazoo about what meaningful allyship can look like during Pride Month and long after June ends.

Earlier this month, the federal government approved more than $70 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement agencies, marking one of the largest expansions of federal immigration enforcement spending in recent years.  For residents in southwest Michigan, questions remain about whether expanded federal funding could lead to increased cooperation between local police agencies and federal immigration authorities.

Communities across Southwest Michigan will mark Juneteenth this week with celebrations centered on history, culture, music and community gatherings honoring one of the nation’s most significant milestones in the fight for freedom. In Three Rivers, a community Juneteenth celebration is scheduled for Friday, June 19 at 6 p.m. at the new downtown amphitheater. Longtime Watershed Voice collaborator and supporter Debbie Allen will perform and serve as MC for the event.

The festival begins later Thursday evening with the annual Water Festival Parade at 7 p.m., marking the official start of the long-running community tradition. Carnival rides and food vendors will be available throughout the weekend as festival activities continue through Saturday. Residents can expect a packed schedule of events over the three-day celebration, with attractions ranging from arts and crafts vendors to races, live entertainment, and a fireworks finale.

In The Mother Wound, Part Six, Watershed Voice columnist Aundrea Sayrie writes, “Many mothers carried wounds no one ever helped them unpack. “Some were parenting while grieving. Some were surviving a dark reality while mothering. Some were trying to love from places within themselves that had never fully been loved gently either. “And while that does not erase the pain some children experienced, it does create room for something many people eventually wrestle with as adults: “The realization that their mothers were human long before they were ‘mom.'”