Zinta Aistars

1 week ago | wmuk.org | Zinta Aistars

There is a narrow border between destruction and prosperity, between positive and negative feedback, says Péter Érdi. Érdi is a computational neuroscientist at Kalamazoo College. He has written a book called, Feedback: How to Destroy or Save the World. When Kalamazoo College art professor Tom Rice got his hands on the book written by his colleague, he realized the patterns he created in his artwork reflected negative and positive feedback in some manner.

2 weeks ago | wmuk.org | Zinta Aistars

Allie Wist spent more than a decade as a photo director for food media in New York, most recently at Bon Appétit. As an artist, Wist wanted to portray food in an entirely different way. As a Prairie Ronde artist resident in Vicksburg, she plans to design a sensory installation dinner based on insights (and ingredients) related to some of the paper mill's sustainability-related projects, featuring local, foraged ingredients, edible clay sculptures, and “postindustrial” perfumes.

3 weeks ago | wmuk.org | Zinta Aistars

When Farmers Alley Theatre introduced the first ever Lumen Playwriting Competition at the conclusion of 2024, Gordon Bolar had just the submission for it. He submitted his play for youth, titled “Animals of North America,” and he won first prize. We talk about his prizewinning play as well as plays Bolar brings to the Senior Readers Theatre. After retiring as General Manager in 2016, Bolar has continued to review theater for WMUK.

1 month ago | wmuk.org | Zinta Aistars

The Kalamazoo Poetry Festival, first held in 2014, has since grown and thrived, featuring poets from the Kalamazoo community as well as from across the nation. This year, Casey Grooten has been named first executive director of the Festival, helping to make it grow – perhaps embracing all literary arts, not just poetry. A conversation with Casey Grooten “I’m coming up on a year in May of being the first full-year-round executive director,” Grooten says.

1 month ago | wmuk.org | Zinta Aistars

David Phillips crossed the ocean to spend five weeks as the Prairie Ronde Artist Resident in Vicksburg, Michigan. A trained architect living in London, Phillips is a landscape artist, leaning to the abstract. He will be exploring the former Lee Paper Company mill and its adjacent 80 acres of property along with the historic town of Vicksburg. Phillips anticipates creating somewhere between 100 and 200 postcard-sized images while in Vicksburg as part of his art project.