WMU

Kalamazoo author Mark Nepo says all spiritual traditions speak of the whole being greater than sum of its parts. He says while it’s presented differently, the basic idea is that we need each other to “be all of who we are, and even more together.”

Mark Nepo says his book More Together Than Alone was 13 years in the making. The Kalamazoo author says he kept coming back to the idea of care and interdependence in various cultures. Nepo wrote other books in that time, and says he wondered if this one would ever get finished.

Nepo says his previous books were more about individual journeys. He says More Together Than Alone is about what happens when these “circles get larger.” Nepo will speak Thursday night February 21st at 7:00p.m. at Western Michigan University in Room 2452 of Knauss Hall. It’s part of the University Center for the Humanities lecture series.

It'll be 107 years ago this year that black resort Idlewild was founded by white developers in upper Michigan. Wealthy African-Americans spent their summer vacations there during the days of segregation. Soon it became the go-to place for the hottest entertainers of color to perform, like Duke Ellington. Detroit-area native Carlean Gill, now 80, was a showgirl with the Idlewild Review at the Paradise Club in the '60s and '70s. She will share her memories on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at the Richmond Center for the Visual Arts at Western Michigan University. The panel discussion takes place after a screening of a documentary about Idlewild.

Carlean Gill, 80, fondly remembers being a Las Vegas-style "showgirl" at the famed black Idlewild resort in northern Michigan that thrived from the 1920s to the 1960s during the days of segregation. The Detroit-area native and others will speak at a panel discussion/film viewing about Idlewild at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20 at the Richmond Center for the Visual Arts at Western Michigan University.