"June's issue is very artful — All the stories have some art aspect to it. Not by design, just happenstance," says Encore Magazine editor Marie Lee, who joins Cara Lieurance to preview the stories set to be published next week.
The cover story centers on the Prairie Ronde Artist Residency at The Mill at Vicksburg, a former paper mill being redeveloped by entrepreneur Chris Moore into a multi-use destination featuring lodging, museums, restaurants, and housing. The residency, established around 2016, is unusual in that it is paid, includes housing, and requires artists to create work reflective of the mill itself. Artists from around the world have participated, leaving behind sculptures, murals, cyanotype works, multimedia pieces, and even ephemeral installations — including a striking cover image called Ice Pedestals, in which an artist crafted ice spheres embedded with glacial deposits from the surrounding landscape.
The issue also celebrates Friends of Poetry on its 50th anniversary. The Kalamazoo organization is credited with elevating poetry in the community through chapbook publishing, events, and serving as the genesis of the now-independent Kalamazoo Poetry Festival. Some founding-era members, including Elizabeth Kerlkowski, remain involved to this day.
Another feature profiles Megan Healy, new executive director of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra (KJSO), ahead of the group's summer tour of the Balkans — where they will perform in the hometown of Kalamazoo Symphony principal cellist Igor Czechovich. A bon voyage concert is planned before the ensemble's June departure.
The May issue, still on newsstands, features a renovation story about a 6,000-square-foot, six-bedroom 1908 Tudor-style home on South Street, originally built by James and Kerry Gilmore and now lovingly restored by Michelle and Pete Eldridge. Lee also highlights a story on Bent Not Broken, a local organization founded by Don Trey and Ebony Hemphill to support children and families navigating the juvenile justice system, and a profile of Andrew Schulz, one of only eight certified Pommelier cider experts in Michigan, based at Texas Corners Brewing Company.
The June issue of Encore Magazine is available at encorekalamazoo.com and on newsstands, with the print edition arriving in mailboxes the following Thursday. The magazine's office is located at 117 West Cedar Street in downtown Kalamazoo.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
