Michigan-based organization Disruptive Disciples Blacksmithing has traveled the state — including multiple stops in Three Rivers — to conduct demonstrations of how to transform disabled gun barrels into fully functional gardening tools. Blacksmith and Pastor Corey Simon, who also happens to be a gun owner and hunter, leads these demonstrations not to support efforts to take people’s guns or rights away, but rather to offer a space to imagine a world with less violence, and to mourn with those who have lost loved ones to gun violence.

The Huss Project (1008 8th St.) will be hosting their annual Back-to-School Celebration and community carnival on Saturday, August 12, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event will include vendors from local community organizations, a musical storybook from The Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra (KSO), as well as free backpacks filled with school supplies for any school-aged child in need. 

Doug and Alek are, in fact, alive. After a lengthy hiatus the duo return to preview the third annual Watershed Voice Artist Showcase (Saturday, July 15, 6 p.m., The Huss Project, Three Rivers), recap all that has happened between the last KYVD episode and this one, including Three Rivers Pride, Alek’s first tattoo(shout out to Portfolio Ink and Amber Ward), and how Alek’s wife Deborah is the Tom Hagen of Watershed Voice.