Bridge Senior Writer Ron French says the odds that a shooting will happen at any one school are astronomically low, but he says schools still have to spend time and money preparing for an active shooter in their building. Bridge examined what districts across Michigan are doing to make buildings more secure and the drills in case of an active shooter. 

French says that even though the costs of school security keep rising there is little agreement about best safety practices. He says there are a few simple things that everyone agrees on like locking outside doors. But French says the type of security and the details of active shooter drills varies from district to district.

The five members of the neo-fusion band Lushh, formed in 2015 by a group of advanced and adventurous jazz students, have been spending a lot of time outside the familiar hallways of Western Michigan University's School of Music. They've been gaining real-world experience in venues from Chicago, to Detroit, and beyond, playing for new audiences, forging new connections, and now, going on tour with a new full-length album. It will be available on Wednesday, April 24 in a performance at the Kalamazoo State Theatre. Lushh will open for Boney James at 7:30 pm. 

In the studio with Cara Lieurance, the members of Lushh - saxophonist Eddie Codrington, guitarist Andrew Saliba, keyboardist Grayson Nye, bassist Matthew Epperson, and drummer Madison George - talk about their commitment to their sound and the strategies that have helped them follow their path.  

Oliver Baez Bendorf has written two books of poetry: The Spectral Wilderness and Advantages of Being Evergreen. The first won the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry. The second will appear in September and won the Cleveland State University Poetry Center’s Open Book Poetry Competition.

As Earth Day 2019 arrives, there are dire warnings about climate change. Western Michigan University History Professor David Benac says “the problems are so big, and to be perfectly honest one person can’t solve it, and we have to recognize that.” But Benac says Earth Day in Kalamazoo is an opportunity to organize events around sustainability and activism.

Western Michigan University History Professor David Benac says the solutions to climate change have to be innovative and big. He says Earth Day is a good time to think about the future of communities and neighborhoods. 

Benac says every great change in the country was thought to be impossible “until people made it happen.” Kalamazoo’s Earth Day celebration will run from noon until 5:00p.m. on Saturday April 20th in Bronson Park. 

Fontana will present a concert of Brahms, Mozart, and Dohnanyi by Camerata RCO on Thursday, April 18 at 7:30 pm in the Dalton Center Recital Hall at WMU. Cara Lieurance talks with violinist Annebeth Webb, who tells the story of how the group was started . It began not as a calculated offshoot of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, but rather at the invitation of hosts who housed members of the orchestra on summer vacation in Italy.

Webb explains that although playing in the RCO is a full-time job, the musicians still love to branch out with chamber music when they can. She helped organize Camerata RCO based on the interest and availability of her fellow RCO players. In her experience, the orchestra taught her how to interpret the musical languages of many composers - Brahms for example - through their symphonic works, which ends up adding a lot to how she interprets their chamber music.