In Michigan, Sunshine Week is often marked by promises of more transparency from our lawmakers in Lansing. But if the past is an indicator of the future, the Michigan Legislature won’t get too far past the talking phase.
Category Archive: Culture
Jennifer Miller, director of Three Rivers High School’s production of EMMA!, spoke with Watershed Voice about the musical, which opens tonight at 7 p.m. at the Three Rivers High School Performing Arts Center.
Glen Oaks Community College President David Devier tells the story behind GOCC’s high graduation rate, which ranks near the top among all Michigan community colleges.
Hammered: A Thor and Loki Play, an upcoming production from the Mendon/Centreville Drama Club, isn’t necessarily what you might think of when you think of a play. Watershed Voice recently had the opportunity to speak with Director Eathan Bingaman about what inspired him to bring these characters to the Mendon Elementary Auditorium stage.
WSV’s Dan Robinson writes, “May we take up that responsibility and declare a season of reconciliation and healing along the Dnieper River in Ukraine, the rivers of the Great Lakes, and waterways around the world.”
Emme Zanotti writes, “American moms and dads are being punished for loving their transgender children. Stop and think about that. The LGBTQ community is on the verge of access to vital familial and societal acceptance, but from Lansing to Washington D.C., Republicans are impeding that progress — by prosecuting parents.”
The following letter was submitted for publication by St. Joseph County Clerk Lindsay Oswald on behalf of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks ahead of the 2022 state primary and general election.
WSV’s Charles Thomas suggests three steps to take when learning how to lose with grace.
Critical shortages of computer chips used in cars and trucks are fueling a rift between automakers and their dealers, and the divide is likely to grow deeper as automakers make a radical shift to electric vehicles
WSV’s Aundrea Sayrie writes, “Worthy causes have always required allies. Thankfully the work of past generations has not been in vain because inhumane and cruel social constructs have been eradicated but the fact remains there is still need for progress on many fronts. There is still a need for advocacy and activism. This is because although the month of February is coming to a close, Black history, Black joy, Black exploitation, Black pain, and racism isn’t over.”
Content Warning: The following contains unsettling and graphic details concerning the life of Sarah Baartman. Baartman was sold into slavery, and put on exhibit as a “freakshow attraction” due to her naturally curvaceous body. She endured unimaginable cruelty as she was sexually exploited for others’ profit. This piece is intended to educate and bring a broader awareness of racist colonial exploitation, and the dehumanization of Black people. Reader discretion is advised.
Zora Neale Hurston is most famous as a fiction writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Her most famous book became the 2005 movie of the same name: Their Eyes Were Watching God. Yet this remarkable, and controversial woman was also a notable cultural anthropologist — and a student of the “father of American anthropology” Franz Boas — whose contributions have only recently begun to be appreciated.
Charlotta Bass is believed to be the first African-American woman to own and operate a newspaper in the United States, and was the first African-American woman nominated for vice president.
Fred Hampton was an American civil rights leader, deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party Illinois chapter, and founder of the City of Chicago’s first Rainbow Coalition.
Walter P. Manning was a Tuskegee Airman who flew 50 missions during World War II. In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, and the Air Medal for heroism six times..
Sow Good Seeds columnist Deborah Haak-Frost writes, “This isn’t a call to abandon grocery stores and restaurants, and start threshing wheat in our backyards to make bread in wood-fired ovens, but it is an invitation to reconsider how we see our time, skills, and the story of our food in today’s world.”
Garrett Morgan was an African-American inventor, businessman, and community leader who is credited with inventing an improved sewing machine and traffic signal, a hair-straightening product, and a respiratory device that would later provide the blueprint for World War I gas masks.
Gloria Richardson Dandridge was the first woman in the United States to lead a civil rights movement outside of the Deep South as co-founder of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC).