Community Calendar

In the quiet glow of a moonlit junkyard, a community of cats gathers for one extraordinary night. They dance, they sing, they tell their stories — each one hoping to be chosen for a new life.

Western Michigan University’s production of CATS brings this beloved musical into the intimate Williams Theatre, placing the audience right in the heart of the Jellicle Ball. With characters that range from rebellious to wise, mysterious to magical, this is a show about identity, memory, and connection — told through music that leaps off the stage and choreography that fills every corner of the space.

What if, just for an evening, you could step into a café where people simply lived together — enjoying coffee, ice cream, love, and laughter — without the barriers that so often divide us? That’s the gentle power of Utopia, a play by Charles L. Mee. As a mother and daughter watch lives unfolding around them, we hear tender confessions, playful debates, and dreams shared across tables. Different perspectives collide and comfort, inviting us to imagine a world where everyone belongs and small joys are truly enough. Warm, thoughtful, and quietly profound, Utopia reminds us how good life might feel — and how it still could be.

Djékady is a collaboration between West African musician Balla Kouyaté and Grammy-winning cellist Mike Block. Their ensemble puts Malian music into conversation with American folk music and contemporary styles, allowing new shoots to sprout from his family’s musical tree.

Balla Kouyaté has been featured on numerous albums, including the Silkroad Ensembles’s Sing Me Home and Yo-Yo Ma’s Songs of Joy and Peace. His music has been recorded for the Library of Congress and heard in venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, and The Kennedy Center as well as festivals throughout the United States and Europe. As an educator, Kouyaté has offered masterclasses in universities and schools across the country, and he was chosen as a NEA National Heritage Fellow in 2019.

Mike Block is a Grammy Award-winning cellist, singer and composer with a passion for cross-cultural collaboration. Hailed as “one of the bravest, most intriguing musicians on the American fusion scene,” (Gramophone) he has been a member of the Silkroad Ensemble for nearly twenty years. Yo-Yo Ma calls Block “the ideal musician for the 21st century,” saying, “I’m always struck by his unique perspective on the world and his relaxed and confident approach; he takes on new music and new things fearlessly.”

The Lantern of Lost Memories tells the story of Mr. Hirasaki’s magical photo studio, a gateway to the afterlife where the departed revisit their memories through a “spinning lantern.” Guests—including a kind yakuza, a devoted teacher, and a young girl—relive their past and choose one cherished moment to photograph. This emotional story celebrates memory, love, and beauty. Discussion will relate themes in the book with the exhibition Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.
All book discussions are free, open to the public, and take place in-person at the Meader Fine Arts Library. Participants do not need to have read the book, but it will help facilitate the overall discussion. Preregistration is encouraged.

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.

Chinese, Korean, and Japanese artists have been painting pictures of birds for more than 1000 years. With an estimated 50 billion birds flying around us all the time, this comes as little surprise. Birders, who partake in one of the globe’s fastest-growing, multi-generational pastimes, know our feathered friends offer endless variety and incredible beauty. During this Joy Light Lecture in East Asian Art, Dr. Robert Mintz will guide our exploration of East Asian “bird and flower painting” through the joy of “artistic bird-watching.”

Kalamazoo Art League is delighted to sponsor this year’s Joy Light Lecture in East Asian Art and will provide a reception before the presentation, starting at 5:30 pm.

Dr. Mintz is the Chief Curatorial Director of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. A specialist in 18th-century Japanese painting, he oversees the art research and exhibitions program and guides the growth, preservation, and presentation of the museum’s Asian and Asian American art collections.

All hybrid events will be livestreamed to our YouTube page and can be found under the “Live” tab. Recordings of select past events are available on YouTube as well.

In celebration of Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper, visit the library to make your own bookmark using colorful washi tape and book pages. All supplies will be provided.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.

The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center functions as a creative public space where artists and book enthusiasts of all kinds gather to celebrate the collaborative arts of the book, including papermaking, printmaking, letterpress, bookbinding, and creative writing. KBAC preserves and employs traditional technologies while combining them with contemporary ideas and techniques. During this off-site ArtBreak, we will venture to KBAC to learn more about the organization and its diverse array of offerings!

The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center is located on the first floor of the Park Trades Center at 326 W. Kalamazoo Ave., Suite 103A. Enter the studio through the central door on Kalamazoo Ave. Parking is available on the street and across from the building on N. Church St. Parking garages are located at the intersection of Eleanor and Rose, and adjacent to the Radisson Plaza Hotel at the intersection of Water and Rose. Guests are also welcome to park in a KIA lot and walk to the Park Trades Center. Please do NOT park in the lot for Park Street Market or behind the Park Trades Center in the lot reserved for resident artists; cars parked in these lots are subject to towing.

Please note that this event will not be livestreamed or posted on YouTube.

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.

LuFuki Ismaeel Dhul-Qarnayn is a composer, guitarist, organizer, historian and cultural curator in Detroit. He views music as a spiritual practice that brings about healing and unity, and his art practice centers around Black ancestral legacy. His ensemble Divine Providence is an Afro-Spirit jazz collective of musicians who fuse genres with the intention of connecting hearts in order to promote unity, freedom and social action.

LuFuki is currently working on several projects, including XRoads, a traveling exhibit being housed for the week by the Kalamazoo College Music Department. The exhibit explores the under-documented historical and contemporary intersections between “jazz,” Black Muslims, and social justice movements.

LuFuki will also be conducting a lecture at 4:15 PM on Wednesday, October 22.

This engagement is supported by a John Stites Jazz Event Award from the John Stites Jazz Artist Organization, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) honoring the memory of John Stites and his passion for jazz music.