Review: Riveting Semaj Brown “bleeds fire” at Mott Warsh Gallery performance
By Jan Worth-Nelson Facing lies, atrocities and daily affronts to self-love and spiritual peace, “we have to tap that eternal spring of regenerative light,” Flint poet, artist, musician, scientist and activist Semaj Brown implored a rapt audience Aug. 21 at the Mott-Warsh Gallery, 815 Saginaw St. Brown, who moved to Flint from her hometown Detroit in 2003 after marrying local family physician James Brown, combined...
Review: Paper recreations of historical fashion “amazing” at FIA through Sept. 8
By Patsy Isenberg Is fashion art? Designer Isaac Mizrahi said on the CBS News show Sunday Morning in 2016, ”Some fashion belongs in museums… some really doesn’t… sometimes you do go into a museum where they have a show of clothing, and it does feel like a store window…” Still, museums are exhibiting fashion more frequently these days, and the debate goes on. In answer, the current exhibit at the Flint Institute of Arts is fashion,...
Love, goodness, and Flint’s musical heart echoed as Jazz Fest turned up the heat
By Tom Travis Mother Nature turned up the heat and local and regional and national musicians turned up the jazz this weekend as the 38th Flint Jazz Fest returned to where it was born – Flint’s Riverbank Park. After several years of being bounced around Flint, the Jazz Fest in the heart of downtown seems to hit the right vibe. The crowds were small to begin with but by the Saturday night and Sunday night performances, the...
Book Review: “American Dialogue” offers indispensable conversation between “then” and “now”
By Robert R. Thomas In assessing the here and now, history offers an indispensable perspective. American Dialogue is an enlightening example. As author and historian Joseph Ellis puts it, “The study of history is an ongoing conversation between past and present from which we all have much to learn.” Subtitled The Founders and Us, his book’s focus is a dialogue between America’s founding fathers and our current historical state. “We...
Review: June Art Walk offered many pleasures for Saginaw Street strollers
By Patsy Isenberg It was a perfect late spring day for the June Art Walk, and hundreds of visitors took advantage of the weather, walking up and down Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. It was not raining for one thing and the temperature was in the mid-70s. It was a little breezy, causing outdoor vendors to weight down the paper on their tables or in the case of Jeff and Darlene Carey who were selling and signing Jeff’s books,...
Review: Energetic “Songs About Stuff” premiere explores the 90s with music, humor
By Patsy Isenberg “I was walking down Haight Street in San Francisco when a counterculture douf cornered me/ She had a freshly dyed purple Mohawk, $120 Doc Martin boots on/ In other words, she was wearing about as much equity as I had made this year/And with a wanting look on her pale face she asked me for some change./I said, ‘Change comes from within.’” Those are some of the lyrics in “Alternateen,” one of 27 original Wally Pleasant...
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