Community Calendar

This half-day class will be an engaging guided walk through the land where students will learn to identify, sample, and harvest seasonal plants. They will then use their foraged materials to create a take-home herbal preparation or edible goodie made during the workshop.

Are you looking for an opportunity to better understand your local watershed? Become a Kalamazoo River Guardian! Working with a team of experts, participants will help sample Trout Run Creek at KNC for macroinvertebrates (water bugs). Samples will then be brought indoors to be identified under microscopes as a group. The data collected contributes to a statewide database used for valuable research and water quality monitoring. No prior experience is required.

This program involves both an outdoor and indoor component: we kindly ask that you register only if you can commit to participating for the entire duration of the program.

Saturday, October 3, 2026, 9 am-1 pm

Meet: Coopers Glen Auditorium inside the KNC Visitor Center

Fee: Free program, $5 optional pizza lunch

Please Register >

Audience: Ages 8+, all participants 17 years old or younger must have a guardian accompany them and provide supervision at all times.

This event is recommended for those older than 8. If you have a younger person who you would like to bring, please connect with us and we can discuss ways in which they can participate safely and while having a fun experience.

Birds and Coffee
Autumn is here, and for our avian neighbors that means migration is underway! Join us for a celebration of fall flight and come along on a guided bird walk at 9:30. Coffee will be available to purchase throughout the morning, with local birders here to chat and share their knowledge!

Saturday, October 3, 2026, 9-11am

Meet: Main parking lot of the Visitor Center

Fee: Included in regular KNC admission; KNC Members free!

Audience: Adults. Drop-ins welcome!

"During this special program, three contemporary Indigenous artists from across the country will come together to discuss their artistic approaches, points of inspiration, and visions for the future. Speakers include Dakota Mace (Diné), Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Kelly Church (Pottawatomi/Ottawa/Ojibwe). Mace’s work focuses on translating the language of Diné history and beliefs while pushing the viewer’s understanding of Diné culture through alternative photography techniques, weaving, beadwork, and papermaking. Photographer Cara Romero uses contemporary techniques to depict the modernity of Native peoples, illuminating Indigenous worldviews and aspects of supernaturalism in everyday life. Kelly Church is a black ash basket maker, a fiber artist, and a strong advocate for the survival of Native traditions through her work in educating the public about the endangered black ash tree.

Mace’s multimedia piece Tsin Bigaan (Branches) and Romero’s photographic print Arla Lucia are on view in the exhibition For the People, By the People: America at 250, and Church’s woven black ash piece Every Dawn is a New Day is on view in our permanent collection exhibition.

Galleries open at 11am, and admission is included with the price of program attendance.

Ticket Prices:
KIA Members - $10
Non-members - $15
College students - $5

Bone Cleaning and Jewelry
Are you a vulture with an eye for the macabre? Learn about the many ways to clean bones, as well as the ethics and legality of bone collection. Then, create a unique piece of jewelry using bones processed through KNC’s unique method!

While we will do some cleaning in class, most of the information will be through discussion, as these techniques take many days to do on your own.

Saturday, October 10, 2026, 10-11:30am

Meet: Visitor Center Classroom

Fee: KNC Members $12; Non-Members $15

Please Register >

Audience: All ages

Imaginal Writing Workshop
Gather your little writers for a fairy-and-folk-tale inspired, local-nature-based story-telling experience!

We’ll start our stories together, then dive into our imaginations to explore the rest of the story and write it down, with bits of guidance along the way.

This program is aimed at young writers and their families. Please bring your own notebook or journal.

October 3

November 7

Time: 11:00am-12:00pm

Meet: Glen Vista Gallery inside the Visitor Center

Fee: KNC Member child $12; Non-Member child $15 (Adults free with purchase of children’s ticket)

Audience: Families and children ages 5-12

Enjoy the Golden Age of Broadway with Songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein

The Kalamazoo Civic Senior Class Reader’s Theatre celebrates the golden age of Broadway with the delightful musical revue Some Enchanted Evening – The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein October 2-11, 2026, in the Parish Theatre.

Featuring the unforgettable melodies of legendary composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, this joyful evening of music brings together beloved songs from timeless classics such as The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel, and The King and I.

Purchase Tickets: https://bit.ly/SomeEnchantedEveningTickets-Oct2-11
Flex Pass Subscriptions: https://bit.ly/KazooCivicFlexPass
Group Rates: Call (269) 343-1313 or visit: https://bit.ly/KzooCivicGroupTix

Performance Dates and Times:
• Friday, October 2, 2026, at 7:30 PM
• Saturday, October 3, 2026, at 2:00 PM*
• Sunday, October 4, 2026, at 2:00 PM
• Friday, October 9, 2026, at 7:30 PM
• Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 2:00 PM
• Sunday, October 11, 2026, at 2:00 PM
*October 3 at 2 PM (ASL Interpreted & Audio Description Services Available)

Music and Lyrics by RICHARD RODGERS & OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II
Concept by JEFFREY B. MOSS
For Jerry Kravat Entertainment Services, Inc.
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING – THE SONGS OF RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals. www.concordtheatricals.com

Award-winning jazz pianist and composer Dabin Ryu brings a distinctive voice shaped by her roots in Seoul and her career in New York City. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and The Juilliard School, Ryu has performed with acclaimed artists including David Virelles, Randy Brecker, Anat Cohen, and Billy Harper.

Winner of the 15th UNISA International Piano Competition and the 2025 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission, Ryu has earned praise for performances that combine “fierce chops and control” with crisp, authoritative ideas. The NYC Jazz Record has called her “a force,” citing her bright energy, deep awareness of jazz history, and extraordinary command at the piano.

Ryu balances an active performing career with teaching as an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, continuing to shape the next generation of jazz musicians while pursuing her own work as a compelling artist “to keenly watch.”

Award-winning jazz pianist and composer Dabin Ryu brings a distinctive voice shaped by her roots in Seoul and her career in New York City. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and The Juilliard School, Ryu has performed with acclaimed artists including David Virelles, Randy Brecker, Anat Cohen, and Billy Harper.

Winner of the 15th UNISA International Piano Competition and the 2025 Jazz Gallery Residency Commission, Ryu has earned praise for performances that combine “fierce chops and control” with crisp, authoritative ideas. The NYC Jazz Record has called her “a force,” citing her bright energy, deep awareness of jazz history, and extraordinary command at the piano.

Ryu balances an active performing career with teaching as an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, continuing to shape the next generation of jazz musicians while pursuing her own work as a compelling artist “to keenly watch.”

Join the Connecting Chords Music Festival for a presentation of selected works from Duke Ellington's acclaimed Sacred Concerts. Participating artists include the Western Michigan University Jazz Orchestra, alto/mezzo soloist Tiffany Gridiron, and other area performers.

Duke Ellington's Sacred Concerts are a trilogy of extended musical compositions by the American jazz composer and bandleader. These performances were created between 1965 and 1973 as expressions of Ellington's faith through the fusion of jazz improvisation, big band orchestration, gospel vocals, choral elements and spiritual themes.

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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.

This event is co-sponsored by the Stucki Family Foundation (in loving memory of Heidi E. Stucki) and the Kalamazoo Community Foundation Arcturus Fund (on behalf of Betty Upjohn Mason).

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Celebrate the unifying power of the world’s music at the 2026 Connecting Chords Music Festival, running from August 14 – November 29. Established in 2001, the Festival features an incredible variety and quality of musicians every year – if you know, *you know*!

Learn more about the Festival at ccmusicfest.com.