WFHB Community Calendar

Performed by members of Gamma Ut and curated by Eric Fisher

*the Bloomington QUARRY MORRIS DANCERS will perform on the Plaza in front of the City Hall at 10:30am*

ngrid Matthews (violin), Colin St. Martin (flute), Shelley Taylor (cello), and Byron Schenkman (harpsichord) present a concert of solo, sonatas, and trios.

The full 14-piece Indianapolis Jazz Orchestra with guest vocalists Russell Moss and Lauren Robert will feature Hoosier Jazz Classic “October in Brown County” along with other songs of great Hoosier composers such as Cole Porter.

Written by Marcia Cebulska, in response to the hate ministry of  Topeka’s Westboro Baptist Church, Visions of Right not only has timely social and political implications relating to themes of homophobia  and anti-Semitism, but also has a strong local interest. The playwright, Marcia Cebulska lived and wrote in Bloomington  for about 20 years,  and is well known in theatre circles there and in Indianapolis. She will be working closely with this production throughout the run and will be a talk back participant.

When Cebulska moved to Topeka, Kansas, she learned of the hate-mongering activities of the Westboro Baptist Church. She went undercover, attempting to discover the basis for the bigoted activities of the church. Visions of Right, fueled by her research, evolved into a fictionalized portrait of a fanatic preacher. Gay Bashing and anti-Semitism are brought to light in the play, which tells the story of photographer, Christina Romanek’s head-to-head encounter with the preacher’s twisted view of what is right.

The cast includes IU theatre graduate students,  Abby Lee and Chris Handley, both members of Actors’ Equity,   Adam Decker, IU undergraduate theatre major,  and well-known Bloomington actor, Gerard Pauwels.

Now more than ever, Visions of Right,  delivers an important message. As Marcia Cebulska wrote:“Today, our headlines are filled with more and more incidents of hate speech and hate acts perpetrated by numerous sources in our private and public arenas. We can respond by running and hiding. We can respond by answering violence with more violence. Or, we can respond, with a little help from our friends, with acts of creativity and humor, unity and light.”

Visions of Right premiered in Topeka by the Ad Astra Theatre Ensemble. The performance was  praised by audience members:

“This play is: intelligent, biting, funny, humanizing; excellent story and characters…timeless, seamless writing.”

“Very moving, as if through a lens to the soul,”

“Wonderful! A play that speaks to humanity.”

Doors will open 30 minutes prior to show; metered parking and parking garage space is available downtown and across the street. For more information on the Jewish Theatre or on Visions of Right, please visit jewishtheatrebloomington.com or on Facebook: Jewish Theatre of Bloomington.

The Vallures are the sounds of summer in the 60’s at a GO-GO; dancin’, shakin’, groovin’, movin’ it, bringing you sweet soul music with a twist and a shout! Old hits, rarities, and originals with a nod to sixties girl groups make you wanna Boogaloo, Shingling, and just let it all hang out.

Needmore Coffee Roasters is a woman-owned small-batch coffee roastery in Indiana dedicated to roasting organic, ethically sourced coffee from the finest small-scale farmers around the world.

Relationship Coffee – Direct Trade: Our current direct trade coffees are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Our collaborative relationships with these farmers ensure environmental, economical, and social sustainability, resulting in the production of the highest quality coffee.

Fair Trade Certified^TM: Your everyday purchases, like your daily cup of coffee, can help farmers get better prices to help them keep their kids in school and protect fragile ecosystems. 

Helping Others: Always trying to help the community, our coffee grounds are donated to local gardening groups and farmers. We also make an annual donation to help fund the Comedor Children’s Lunch Program in Posoltega, Nicaragua, which is organized and run by  Bloomington & Posoltega Sister Cities.

Presented by Christine Talley Haseman a Board Member of the local NAMI affiliate: NAMI – Greater Bloomington Area.

The Venue will host a presentation of NAMI by Christine Talley Haseman, a Board Member of NAMI, a practicing local attorney and former Monroe Circuit Court Judge. Christine has a particular interest in increasing the availability and ease of access to mental health care and mental health services in our community.

NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. What started as a small group in 1979 has blossomed into the nation’s leading voice on mental health. Today, it is an association of hundreds of local affiliates, state organizations and volunteers who work in communities to raise awareness and provide support and education
NAMI educates. Offered in thousands of communities across the United States through NAMI State Organizations and NAMI Affiliates, its education programs ensure hundreds of thousands of families, individuals and educators get the support and information they need.
NAMI advocates NAMI shapes national public policy for people with mental illness and their families and provides volunteer leaders with the tools, resources and skills necessary to save mental health in all states. 
NAMI listens. NAMI responds personally to hundreds of thousands of requests each year, providing free referral, information and support—a much-needed lifeline for many.
NAMI leads. Public awareness events and activities, including Mental Illness Awareness Week and NAMIWalks, successfully fight stigma and encourage understanding. NAMI works with reporters on a daily basis to make sure our country understands how important mental health is.

Join us to learn more about this vital local organization.

Sara Watkins is an American singer-songwriter and fiddler. Watkins debuted in 1989 as fiddler and founding member of the progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek, along with her brother Sean and mandolinist Chris Thile. Watkins also plays the ukulele and guitar, and played percussion while touring with The Decemberists, an indie rock band based in Portland, Oregon.

Watkins released her third solo album, Young in All the Wrong Ways, in 2016. “This is a breakup album with myself…” says Watkins of writing and recording these ten soul-baring songs about the last couple of year, a time in her life which she considers transformative. “I looked around and realized that in many ways I wasn’t who or where I wanted to be. It’s been a process of letting go and leaving behind patterns and relationships and in some cases how I’ve considered myself.”

In the summer of 2014, Shelley fell for “Hog of the Forsaken,” a bowed rollick at the end of Michael Hurley’s wayward folk circus, Long Journey, then nearly forty years old. Hurley’s voice, it seemed to Shelley, clung to the fiddle’s melody, dipping where it dipped and climbing where it climbed. This was a small, significant revelation, prompting the guitarist to trade temporarily six strings for four and, as she puts it, “try to play like Michael.” That is, she wanted to sing what she played, to play what she sang. She tried it, for a spell, with the fiddle.

“Turns out, I wasn’t very good at fiddle,” remembers Shelley, chuckling. “But I took that idea back to the guitar and tried that same method. I did it as a game to make these songs, a way to find another access point.”

But that wasn’t the end of the trials. After collaborating and touring with ace guitarist Nathan Salsburg for so many years, Shelley decided to put her entire guitar approach to the test, too. Each day, she would twist and turn into a different tuning, letting her fingers fumble along the strings until the start of a tune began to emerge. After playing the songs of her phenomenal third album, the acclaimed Over and Even, so many nights during so many shows, the trick pushed her hands out of her habits and into a short, productive span that yielded most of Joan Shelley.

It’s fitting that the set is self-titled. These are, after all, Shelley’s most assured and complete thoughts to date, with lyrics as subtle and sensitive as her peerless voice and a band that offers support through restraint and nuance. In eleven songs, this is the sound of Joan Shelley emerging as one of music’s most expressive emotional syndicates.

To get there, Shelley had a little more help than usual. In December 2016, she headed a few hours north to Chicago, where she and Salsburg joined Jeff Tweedy in Wilco’s Loft studio for five days. Spencer Tweedy, home from college, joined on drums, while James Elkington (a collaborator to both Tweedy and Salsburg) shifted between piano and resonator guitar. Jeff added electric accents and some bass, but mostly, he helped the band stay out of its own way. “He was protecting the songs. He was stopping us before we went too far.” she says.

Web: http://www.joanshelley.net
FB: https://www.facebook.com/joanshelleymusic
Twitter: @JoanShelley
Instagram: @joanshelley

Join us as Jean Capler, MSW, LCSW, Rehab Hospital of Indiana, discusses emotions and stroke recovery.  This group meets the first Thursday of each month.

The Bloomington Walking Club is an informal group that meets for a guided group walk on the paved trails surrounding Olcott Park. The group meets every Thursday evening, weather permitting. All ability levels are wel

Join other youth entrepreneurs (Lemonade Day) and their mentors to celebrate your success, play games, eat snacks, win awards and HAVE FUN!

Come downtown to the Bloomington Entertainment & Arts District for a look at what is new and different in our community. Artwork, refreshments and live music will be available for your viewing pleasure.

Remember that we have a new gallery! Soma Coffee House on Kirkwood has added a gallery to their space.

Come to these locations and experience something new:

Blueline Gallery
-By Hand Gallery
-gallery 406
-Gallery Group
-Gather: handmade Shoppe & Co.
-Ivy Tech John Waldron Arts Center
-Monroe Convention Center Art Gallery
-Pictura Gallery
-Royale Hair Parlor Gallery
-Soma Coffee House on Kirkwood
-The Venue Fine Art & Gifts

Visit gallerywalkbloomington.com for show details, a map, and suggestions for parking downtown, and don’t forget to support local art.

Dee Schaad’s work is included in numerous private, corporate and public collections. His ceramics have been shown in exhibitions regionally and nationally. Thirty of his ceramic figures from the series “Pilgrims on the Way to Canterbury”, were recently on display as part of the Art at the Indianapolis International Airport. His ceramics have also won numerous merit and purchase awards and have appeared in a variety of publications. Articles written by him have appeared in “Pottery Making Illustrated” and in Ceramic Sculpture and Studio Ceramics, both books, publications of the American Ceramic Society.

Kevin Horan is an artist based in Langley, Washington, USA. He is working on projects which look at animals as people, people as animals, and the planet as a very small place. His pictures are reality-based, and he enjoys finding the amazing hidden in the ordinary. His work from Chattel was selected for the Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50 in 2014.

A recovering photojournalist, Horan has published his work in The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, LIFE, U.S. News & World Report, National Geographic,  and numerous other magazines and books.  Horan based himself in Chicago 1976-2006 and Whidbey Island since 2006, with assignments ranging from presidential campaigns to small-town life in Russia to development issues in the Amazon to following a dollar bill for a week for LIFE Magazine. He was Artist in Residence, Glacier National Park, September, 2004; staff photographer for Chicago In The Year 2000; staff photographer for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times, 1977-1981. He received a degree in journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Nature sings, and her music touches all our lives. From the low, sad moan of an autumn wind to the melodious trills of spring frogs, the sounds of nature enfold us in every season and mood. The Nature Sounds series combines a live, acoustic performance by local musicians with an educational nature presentation about the sounds made by creatures of the water, earth and sky that are found in all our outdoor spaces.

Each program begins with an introduction to the park’s current music makers, followed by an hour-long concert. After the concert, a guided nature walk will encourage active listening and creating connections between our own music and that of nature.

Musical act: Amigo Fields

Presented by Bloomington Parks and Recreation’s Nature Sounds

Performers: Susan Harris, Jillian Chaney, Sarah Cassidy, Kel McQueen, and Facets of Color

Structured activity will be followed will be followed by plenty of free-form exploration.

RSVP: to [email protected]

RSVP preferred due to limited parking. Carpooling encouraged! Donations gladly accepted.

6/3-On the Hunt for Plants

7/1-What’s in the Water

8/5-Building Things: Forts, Cairns, and Fairy Places

9/2-Collections

10/7-Autumn Leaf Extravaganza

11/4 Forest Scavenger Hunt & Campfire Fun

The Blooming Neighborhood Celebration provides neighborhoods with the ability to reach out to the public about what is happening in their neighborhoods as well as enjoy the camaraderie of neighborhood folks. What wonderful community building takes place when there are Neighborhood Associations gathered together!

“In the Bag” is the 2017 theme for the Blooming Neighborhood Celebration. It is beyond doubt that Bloomington Neighborhoods have it “IN the Bag”, when it comes to great people, knowledge and resources to make their own neighborhood a great place to live. Each participating neighborhood will receive a “HAND BAG” that serves as a tool box and will contain supplies that neighborhood associations can use in the organization of their neighborhood associations.

Starting January 16, Moms’ Monday, our new moms group, will be held in The Baby Space at the Monroe County Library on every first and third Monday of the month from 10 am to noon. This space is a separate, fully enclosed room designed just for the needs of babies who are not yet walking, and their caregivers.

This group is a drop-in style. It is open to moms and their babies who are not yet walking. Please note that older children are not permitted in The Baby Space.

Needmore Coffee Roasters is a woman-owned small-batch coffee roastery in Indiana dedicated to roasting organic, ethically sourced coffee from the finest small-scale farmers around the world.

Relationship Coffee – Direct Trade: Our current direct trade coffees are from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Our collaborative relationships with these farmers ensure environmental, economical, and social sustainability, resulting in the production of the highest quality coffee.

Fair Trade Certified^TM: Your everyday purchases, like your daily cup of coffee, can help farmers get better prices to help them keep their kids in school and protect fragile ecosystems. 

Helping Others: Always trying to help the community, our coffee grounds are donated to local gardening groups and farmers. We also make an annual donation to help fund the Comedor Children’s Lunch Program in Posoltega, Nicaragua, which is organized and run by  Bloomington & Posoltega Sister Cities.

Presenting Nathan Dillon, Taylor Hernly and Kenny Hall ‘In the Round’

Frank Adler is a single man raising a child prodigy – his spirited young niece Mary in a coastal town in Florida. Frank’s plans for a normal school life for Mary are foiled when the seven-year-old’s mathematical abilities come to the attention of Frank’s formidable mother Evelyn whose plans for her granddaughter threaten to separate Frank and Mary.

Stars: Chris Evans, Mckenna Grace, Lindsay Duncan, Jenny Slate and Octavia Spencer. Rated PG-13

A fun 1930s musical parody, Dames at Sea follows Ruby, a small-town girl, who moves to New York City with “nothing but tap shoes in her suitcase and a prayer in her heart,” as she chases her big Broadway dreams!

The Bloomington Walking Club is an informal group that meets for a guided group walk on the paved trails surrounding Olcott Park. The group meets every Thursday evening, weather permitting. All ability levels are wel

Sponsored by Writers Guild at Bloomington

FEATURING Andrew Hubbard (poetry), Tom Bitters (fiction), and Antonia Matthew (poetry)-WITH music by Kyle Quass

There will also be an open mic.

In the course of growing up and then trying to keep food on the table, Andy Hubbard has lived in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Washington DC, Maryland, North Carolina, Nebraska, Indiana, and Texas. He glories in his family, his home in the woods of Nashville, Indiana, his wife’s incomparable cooking, and his genius for procrastination. He is currently unemployed full-time as a poet. He frequently considers giving it up to become a productive member of society, but never gets around to it.

Tom Bitters has written fiction since fifth grade when he produced a short note, supposedly from his mother, explaining why he should be allowed to watch the seventh game of the World Series that afternoon. Since then, he has published stories in journals such as The Berkshire Review, Hampshire Life, Peninsular, and “Meat” for Tea. He moved to Bloomington in 2013 from Moscow, where he taught English to Russian children who mostly wanted to know why all Americans own guns. He serves on the Board of the Friends of the Monroe County Public Library and volunteers in the VITAL program there, tutoring ESL learners. His plan is to live long enough to see the I.U. football team play in the Rose Bowl again.

Antonia Matthew grew up in England during World War II and has lived in Bloomington since 1968. Since 1984 she has been member of Five Women Poets, who have put out three chapbooks and a CD of their work. She has been published in various magazines, NIMROD, WIND, and INDIANA REVIEW among them. Her work is also included in the anthologies A LINEN WEAVE OF BLOOMINGTON POETS and CELEBRATING SEVENTY. She has written a play, HOMEFRONT, which is built around the letters that she received from her father when he was fighting in Burma in WWII. It has had one staged reading. She’s written a novel that she shows to no one, and is currently working with memoir and flash fiction.

KYLE QUASS is and has been a professional student, soldier, jazz musician, database administrator, and data architect among many other things. He holds a MM in Jazz studies from Indiana University. He has studied, played, and/or collaborated with David Baker, Joe Henderson, Greg Osby, Mulgrew Miller, Tyshawn Sorey and Cory Smythe. He has presented at multiple conferences including Oracle Open World, Indiana Oracle Users Group, and the Higher Education Data Warehousing conference. He has performed on numerous and varied recordings, from David Baker to Amy Stephens to Murder By Death. He has more than a half dozen recordings under his own name, most of which can be found and purchased at https://kylequass.bandcamp.com/. His most recent recordings under his own name are DARKNESS MADE OF LIGHT and RISE AGAINST, both recorded in August 2017.

A fun 1930s musical parody, Dames at Sea follows Ruby, a small-town girl, who moves to New York City with “nothing but tap shoes in her suitcase and a prayer in her heart,” as she chases her big Broadway dreams!

The Farmers’ Market, held each Friday at St. David’s afternoon/evening – May through September; provides a venue for local farmers to sell fresh produce/meat, an opportunity for local artisans to sell their handmade creations and a wonderful location for area musicians to display their talents.

A special booth is reserved each week at the market for a local outreach/non-profit to highlight their community programs at no cost to the agency.  The Children’s Garden and Playground, a dream of the Outreach Committee, offers children of both customers and vendors an opportunity to play in a safe and fun environment.

The Bean Blossom Farmers’ Market began on the grounds of St. David’s Church in 2013 as a community outreach program to encourage healthy produce and food consumption for the community and provide a venue for local musicians and crafts people.

The Farmers’ Market Advisory Committee is the steering committee made up of members from St. David’s and two vendors from the market.  This committee guides the operation of the market, prepares marketing and advertising and supports the St. David’s food booth.