Season Press brings Black history to life

by Zinta Aistars
Published in Southwest Michigan's Second Wave Media
August 11, 2016

This story reported by Zinta Aistars is reprinted with permission from WMUK. It first appeared on WMUK's Between the Lines. Listen to WMUK's Between the Lines every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m.

We’ve all heard stories about the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, and Sojourner Truth. But there are other stories to tell about African-American history. Writer Sonya Hollins and her husband Sean Hollins, a graphic designer, have created a series of children’s books about African-Americans in Michigan who aren’t necessarily famous but whose stories are inspiring. 

The first is Benjamin Losford and His Handy Dandy Clippers. They published the book through their own company, Season Press, LLC, in January 2016. It's illustrated by Kenjji Jumanne-Marshall.

One of the reasons the couple decided to publish the series is because they feel the books fill a gap in traditional history books. "A lot of kids learn history about people like Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman--a lot of people that are traditional in history," says Sean Hollins. "But this book is bringing out a story about people who are right in our own community. We can touch the things they built. This brings history a lot closer."


While Benjamin was not initially impressed with barbering as a career, he learned the trade and eventually became ...

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Between the Lines: Humans Beyond Boxes

by Zinta Aistars

for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate




Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guests: Allison Kennedy and Jerrin Yarbrough

Members of Humans Beyond Boxes

CREDIT GREG FITZGEraLD

Feeling human again: that’s the goal of the Kalamazoo nonprofit called Humans Beyond Boxes. The grassroots storytelling collaborative helps heal people affected, directly or indirectly, by incarceration. It offers creative writing workshops, chapbook publishing, life skills training, readings and performances, as well as a supportive atmosphere for those struggling to re-enter the community after years of incarceration.

“We also work with Michigan United and the Michigan People’s Campaign,” Allison Kennedy says. She's a co-facilitator at Humans Beyond Boxes. “We recently helped to get Fair Chances For All passed,” she says, referring to an ordinance approved by the Kalamazoo City Commission that requires employers to hold off on background checks until after a job applicant is given serious consideration and a chance to interview.

“It means not putting a box to check off on an application,” Kennedy says. “And it means not considering a record that is more than seven years old, or charges that don’t have anything to do with the job requirements.”

Humans Beyond Boxes' mission includes working for legislative change to ease the path back into society for those who've been behind bars.

Jerrin Yarbrough, one of the founders of Humans Beyond Boxes, speaks about healing through creative writing that he's experienced.

“I mostly use Humans Beyond Boxes as my own recreational release,” he says. “Technically, I was one of those who helped with the set-up. But now I use it mostly to cultivate my writing (and) to meet others with similar interests. Many of us use it as an emotional release. Humans Beyond Boxes is somewhat subjective in what it offers to individuals. For me, it is something I don’t get in other places.”

Jerrin Yarbrough at a public reading

CREDIT HUMANS BEYOND BOXES

The United States currently has the world’s largest prison system, with a prison population of about 2.2 million, including 45,000 in Michigan. The recidivism rate is around 70 percent.

Humans Beyond Boxes brings its programs to places such as K-PEP, the Kalamazoo Probation Enhancement Program, to help people cope with the challenges of adjusting to life in the world outside once they're released. They hold many events at the FIRE Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, 1249 Portage Road, in Kalamazoo.

“Otherwise people tend to find us by word-of-mouth. Or just call me. My cell phone and email are on our website,” says Kennedy.

Kennedy says shame is a predominant emotion she sees in people who do reach out. Incarceration leads to ...

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Between the Lines: Wilderness Women

by Zinta Aistars

for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate




Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: L.E. Kimball

A cabin in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

CREDIT ZINTA AISTARS

Place is yet another character in L.E. Kimball’s new book, Seasonal Roads (Wayne State University Press, 2016), a collection of connected stories about three women living in the wilderness of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The three — mother, daughter, grandmother —are connected by blood but also by the wilderness in which they live.

Kimball understands the power of place. When she’s not teaching at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, she lives off the grid with her son in a cabin on a trout stream. Some of her inspiration comes from her experiences there.

“I live in a more remote setting than a lot of Yoopers,” Kimball says, referring to the name used for those native to the U.P. who can be resistant to newcomers. “At first, we didn’t have a bathroom. I showered outside the cabin with one of those water bags hanging from a tree. We either had a Porta-Potty or we used the woods. So we added things as we went along.”

CREDIT WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS

The two-room cabin where the lives of these three women intersect is accessible only by seasonal roads. They are open only during the few short months when the U.P. isn’t buried under snow. Norna deals with the wilderness head-on: hunting, foraging, fending for herself, and defending herself whenever needed. Kimball says she's the most perplexing and unknowable character. Her daughter Aissa is fresh from a divorce, trying to heal wounds, while Jane finds herself up against a forest fire.

“When I first started writing this, I wanted to write about how inaccessible we are sometimes to the people we are closest to,” Kimball says. “And I wanted to write about a woman who lived off grid in the wilderness. I started writing it before I moved here myself.”

Other aspects Kimball enjoys exploring in her work are ...

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Between the Lines: Commonwealth of Letters

by Zinta Aistars

for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate




Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: Robert Russell

The home of the Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters

CREDIT GLCL

To write is, in great part, to live and work in isolation. The writer lives through his or her words in worlds created in the mind and in the heart. Yet a literary community is vital to a healthy community, and not just for the benefit of writers.

The Great Lakes Commonwealth of Letters, located at 758 Wealthy Street SE, in Grand Rapids, is a non-profit writers' center. GLCL’s mission is to encourage, promote, and celebrate the literary endeavors of writers in the Great Lakes region.

GLCL was founded in 2013 and offers reading series, talks about the craft of writing, classes and workshops, book launches for authors in the Great Lakes region, and programs for teens and and young adults. It also sponsors writing contests and offers consultations with professional writers, among other services.

Robert Russell is the director of development at GLCL. Asked about what GLCL does, he brims with enthusiasm. “Literary arts are open to everyone. Anyone can write down thoughts. You don’t have to be published. There is healing in writing. It’s a kind of therapy, and it also connects people. I’ve always thought the literary arts are vastly under-appreciated.”

Individual membership is $40 a year, allowing the member access to the Writers Hub, private events, discounts on manuscript consultations, workshops and classes, and other benefits. Student membership is $25 annually. A hundred dollars makes you a "Friend of GLCL." Most events are open to the general public.

CREDIT GLCL

“As a nonprofit, we survive on memberships and fund drives,” Russell says. “Our annual drives raise funds for GLCL, general operating funds, help us bring in more staff, increase the hours of the Writers Hub, add additional programming, pay writers, and so on. We do sell books by our members, but it’s all these other events that distinguish us from bookstores.”

Russell is a writer himself. His first novel, Sea of Trees, was ...

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Between the Lines: Michael Zadoorian's Movie

by Zinta Aistars

for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate




Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: Michael Zadoorian

Michael Zadoorian

CREDIT JOHN ROE

Detroit native Michael Zadoorian says earning his living as a copywriter sharpened his editorial skills and thickened his skin as a creative writer. He's the author of two novels: Second Hand and The Leisure Seeker, along with the short story collection, The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit. But did that prepare him for the phone call he got from a renowned Italian film producer?

“The Italian filmmaker Paulo Virzi is going to make his first English-language film based on my novel, The Leisure Seeker,” Zadoorian says. “And it will be starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland.”

Film rights to the novel, published by William Morrow in 2009, had already been bid on several times. But Zadoorian says he learned to take it all with a grain of salt. Sparks of interest faded to nothing. This time, though, the deal was solid. Filming will begin later this year.

CREDIT HARPERCOLLINS

“It's essentially the story of an older couple in their 80's,” Zadoorian says. “They decide to escape all their doctors and their adult children, all the people who seem to be running their lives. They decide to kind of kidnap themselves and go on a last vacation together. The 'Leisure Seeker' is the name of their RV.”

Against the wishes of their frantic children, Ella (played by Mirren), who has terminal cancer, and her husband, John (Sutherland), who has Alzheimer’s disease, take off on their final cross-country journey on Route 66, heading west to California. The novel follows their adventures and misadventures. There are touching moments when the shadow of ...

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Wheelchairs are Heavy! Don't Hurt Your Back!

by Zinta Aistars
(Blog for a Grand Rapids, Michigan, healthcare organization)

Joseph Ross, Physical Therapist, Spectrum Health Center for Acute Rehabilitation, had an idea how to make loading a wheelchair into an auto trunk easier. He talked with Scott Daigger, manager, innovation and entrepreneurship, Spectrum Health Innovations. He explained how he had created the idea for a patient’s mother who was in her 60s, struggling with loading her wheelchair into her car.

“I stayed after work that day and experimented with a crutch, using it as a lever,” Ross says. He demonstrated the maneuver to Daigger. He lifted the chair using  the crutch into the trunk with much less effort than expected.

“It was amazing when I had Joe show me his idea,” Daigger says. “However, the crutch wasn’t the optimal tool to use. We decided to work with Hope College’s Center for Faithful Leadership and their student team to design a better, more convenient lever.”

The group of Hope College students began by talking with potential customers to explore possible demand. In their market research, the students and SHI found that nearly 2 million people over the age of 65 in wheelchairs require the help of assisted living.*

Next step: create a better lever. They worked through several prototypes and finally came up with a lever that looked something like a pitchfork. They called it LoadMate™.

“I'm a biomedical engineering major at Hope College and interested in the medical device industry, so this project was right up my alley,” says Brenden Merriman. He worked on the project with Amanda Napier, Rochelle Miller, and Jonathon Maat.

“We tested our design with residents at a senior day center,” Merriman says. “In one such trial the elderly gentleman was able to ..."

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Between the Lines: Jim Hines, Libriomancer

by Zinta Aistars

for WMUK 102.1 FM
Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate




Between the Lines is my weekly radio show about books and writers with a Michigan connection. It airs every Tuesday at 7:50 a.m., 11:55 a.m., and 4:20 p.m. (or listen anytime online), on WMUK 102.1 FM, Southwest Michigan's NPR affiliate. I am the host of Between the Lines.

This week's guest: Jim C. Hines

Jim C. Hines

CREDIT COURTESY JIM HINES

Librarians are magic. Any bookworm or someone with a well-worn and tattered library card knows that. And Michigan author Jim C. Hines knows it better than most, having created Isaac Vainio, a character who is a librarian and a magician. He's a "libriomancer" who can literally pull magical beings into the world from the written word.

“Isaac Vainio is a libriomancer from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula,” Hines says. “At the start of the "Magic ex Libris" series, he's gotten himself into trouble and has been put into a kind of magical time-out. Over the course of the series, various magical things get loose— well, I don’t want to spoil that!”

Hines is the author of twelve fantasy novels, including the "Magic ex Libris" series, the "Princess" series of fairy tale retellings, the humorous "Goblin Quest" trilogy, and the Fable Legends tie-in Blood of Heroes. He’s won the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer. Hines’ newest book is Revisionary, the fourth book in the "Magic ex Libris" series (DAW, February 2016).

Hines says Revisionary takes a different turn from most fantasy books: “So many urban fantasy books and series have the assumption that magic exists but it’s a secret. I look around at how well we as a species keep secrets—and I have a really hard time believing we would be able to hide this. We’re not that good. Over the course of the four 'Magic ex Libris' books, the secret starts to come out.”

CREDIT DAW BOOKS

With his ability to pull what he needs from books, Isaac Vainio, the librarian, borrows from Star Trek, the Narnia books, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and others. How fun is that?

But Hines does more than just play with magic and create fascinating worlds. He brings in contemporary issues like sexism and turns them on their head. Sometimes he even has a bit of fun with  ...

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