Community Calendar

By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Adapted by Jonathan Davis and Joan Herrington

WMU Theatre invites you to Heritage Hall on WMU's East Campus to experience the glittering world of Jay Gatsby in an immersive experience that takes you through the classic novel. Don your finest attire, embrace the spirit of the era, and prepare to be transported to a time of excess, intrigue, and ultimately, profound tragedy.

In 2017, Rich and Brenda Keith attended the annual meeting of Eastern Bird Banders in West Virginia. Stu MacKenzie from Bird Studies Canada spoke on the Motus Project that was launched in 2014. In Stu’s presentation he showed slides of Gray-cheeked Thrush banded in traditional and shade grown coffee plantations being detected at Motus stations going north, until they reached Michigan. Stu’s observation “we need Motus stations in Michigan” was taken as a command by Rich. The Michigan Motus Array presently has 20 stations with 8 more funded and going up in 2025 plus more in the works. Rich and Brenda will speak to their experiences and findings since joining the Motus Project.

Longtime Audubon Society of Kalamazoo members Rich and Brenda Keith began working with the research program at the Kalamazoo Nature Center (KNC) as volunteers in the mid-1980s. Both were eventually hired by the KNC in the bird banding program. That program expanded to include the Keiths’ 43-acre property near Vicksburg, Michigan, now known as the Pitsfield Banding Station. That site as well as the KNC and Fort Custer Training Center are part of the Kalamazoo Valley Bird Observatory under Rich’s direction. In addition to banding birds, Rich and Brenda have also contributed to a variety of bird-related research projects, the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas, winter feeder surveys, and Christmas Bird Counts. Both are certified hummingbird banders, a designation achieved by very few in Michigan. In 2018, they began work on the Motus Tower project across lower and upper Michigan.

We hope you’ll join us on Monday, March 24, at People’s Church, 1758 North 10th Street, Kalamazoo. Come at 7:00 PM for some refreshments and socializing. Snacks and beverages will be provided. It’s helpful if you bring your own coffee cup. The one-hour program will start at 7:30. Masks are recommended but not required in the church. Handicap parking and access is at either the front or the rear entrance.
We will have a simultaneous Zoom link to the meeting for those who can’t make it or feel uncomfortable as yet to attend in person. This link will be available shortly before the meeting in the April newsletter and on our event calendar (https://kalamazooaudubon.org/calendar/). We will also be recording the meeting for later viewing.

For our Spring 2024 series, RCL & the Meet Michigan Author Community welcome Michael Delaware!

Author & Michigan history aficionado, Michael Delaware, launched his podcast, Tales of Southwest Michigan’s Past, in 2022.

His book Victorian Southwest Michigan True Crime was published in March 2024. It focuses on the mysterious & macabre stories of Michigan’s past.

Known for synchronized choreography, eclectic musicality and joyful spirit, San Jose Taiko performances are sought throughout the world.

Since 1973, the world-class ensemble has captivated global audiences and critics alike with the powerful, spellbinding and propulsive sounds of taiko. Often described as dancing with drums, performers express the beauty and harmony of the human spirit.

By studying with masters of other traditions and cultures, San Jose Taiko has broadened and embellished this historical art form into a distinct performance style that blends the traditional rhythms of Japanese drumming with the beat of world rhythms.

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In collaboration with Kalamazoo RESA – Education for the Arts. Additional support for this performance is provided by the Arts Fund of Kalamazoo County, a grant program of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo.

R.E.S.P.E.C.T. A CELEBRATION OF THE MUSIC OF ARETHA FRANKLIN® is an electrifying tribute celebrating the music of the legendary Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. This concert experience takes audiences on a journey of love, tragedy, courage, and triumph. Starring a live band and supreme vocalists, come experience a night of music by one of the greatest artists of all time.

The concert features all your favorite hits in one evening, including "Natural Woman,” “Think,” “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me,” “Chain of Fools,” “Respect,” and many more. You’ll be out of your seat and dancing in the aisles as you lose yourself in the music that inspired a generation.

Enjoy free admission and extended hours until 8pm on Thursdays. Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program and the Efroymson Family Fund.

Join us for a free screening and discussion of the award-winning Netflix documentary Disclosure (2020). Disclosure offers an eye-opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender. Leading trans thinkers and creatives, including Laverne Cox, Lilly Wachowski, Yance Ford, Mj Rodriguez, Jamie Clayton, and Chaz Bono, grapple with films like Dog Day Afternoon, The Crying Game, and Boys Don’t Cry, and with shows like The Jeffersons, The L-Word, and Pose. Director Sam Feder invites viewers to confront unexamined assumptions, telling a story of dynamic interplay between onscreen trans representation, societal beliefs, and the reality of trans lives.

Disclosure is best suited for mature audiences, due to language and brief moments of nudity.

Following the screening, stick around for a community conversation led by Ava Dziadzio, Special Projects Coordinator for OutFront Kalamazoo.

Already seen the film and want to participate in the discussion alone? Join us at 7:45 PM. Refreshments will be provided.

By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Adapted by Jonathan Davis and Joan Herrington

WMU Theatre invites you to Heritage Hall on WMU's East Campus to experience the glittering world of Jay Gatsby in an immersive experience that takes you through the classic novel. Don your finest attire, embrace the spirit of the era, and prepare to be transported to a time of excess, intrigue, and ultimately, profound tragedy.

Book and Lyrics by Tom Eyen | Music by Henry Krieger
Original Broadway Production Directed and Choreographed by Michael Bennett

Orchestrations by Harold Wheeler

A sweeping and inspirational journey through 20th century American pop music, Dreamgirls chronicles one Motown group’s rise from obscurity to superstardom. Through gospel, R&B, smooth pop, disco and more, Dreamgirls explores themes of ambition, hope and betrayal, all set in the glamorous and competitive world of the entertainment industry.

“Dreamgirls is a show about a time in American musical history when rhythm and blues blended with other styles of popular music creating a new American sound. Act One is set in the fabulous sixties – a time when we were still screaming at Elvis and listening to the Beatles, but were dancing to the new beat of countless girl and boy groups like The Supremes, The Marvelettes, The Temptations and The Shirelles. Dreamgirls is not just about the singing and the dancing and the performing. The play is also about the behind-the-scenes reality of the entertainment industry – the business part of show business that made possible this cultural phenomenon. Act Two shows the creation and the arrival of disco – though the word is never used in the script. The subject matter of this play deals with a musical contribution to America of such importance that only now – decades later – are we beginning to understand.” – Michael Bennett

"Dreamgirls is a musical full of sparkle... a tale of transformation: from naive hopefuls into jaded superstars, from raw R&B into the disco era, from success to failure, and then back again." – Lyndsey Winship, The Guardian

By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Adapted by Jonathan Davis and Joan Herrington

WMU Theatre invites you to Heritage Hall on WMU's East Campus to experience the glittering world of Jay Gatsby in an immersive experience that takes you through the classic novel. Don your finest attire, embrace the spirit of the era, and prepare to be transported to a time of excess, intrigue, and ultimately, profound tragedy.