Category: Reviews
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Review: “Daring Trader” captures profound role of Jacob Smith on how Flint became Flint
By Harold C. Ford “In the signing of the 1819 treaty by the Chippewa and Ottawa, (Jacob Smith) had earned himself several hundreds of dollars in payment from the government for his secret work, while also quietly sowing the seeds for his white children to each receive hundreds of acres of desirable property where white…
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Review: Flint Writers Fest displays depth, diversity of Flint talent
By Harold C. Ford ‘Writing is the painting of the voice.” …Voltaire The latest iteration of a local festival that elevates the literary arts displayed the depth and diversity of Flint-based writers Sept. 13-14. This year, its third, the event premiered a new name, date, location, and talent. Formerly the Flint Literary Festival, the Flint…
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Review: “Gamma Rays” captures troubled family at The Rep through Sept. 22
By Patsy Isenberg Events in the lives of a dysfunctional family with mental health and medical problems and who are doomed financially are portrayed compellingly at The Flint Repertory Theatre (The Rep) in the play, “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds.” The production continues through Sunday at the Elgood Theatre, 1220 E. Kearsley…
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Review: Riveting Semaj Brown “bleeds fire” at Mott Warsh Gallery performance
By Jan Worth-Nelson Facing lies, atrocities and daily affronts to self-love and spiritual peace, “we have to tap that eternal spring of regenerative light,” Flint poet, artist, musician, scientist and activist Semaj Brown implored a rapt audience Aug. 21 at the Mott-Warsh Gallery, 815 Saginaw St. Brown, who moved to Flint from her hometown Detroit…
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Review: Paper recreations of historical fashion “amazing” at FIA through Sept. 8
By Patsy Isenberg Is fashion art? Designer Isaac Mizrahi said on the CBS News show Sunday Morning in 2016, ”Some fashion belongs in museums… some really doesn’t… sometimes you do go into a museum where they have a show of clothing, and it does feel like a store window…” Still, museums are exhibiting fashion more frequently these…
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Love, goodness, and Flint’s musical heart echoed as Jazz Fest turned up the heat
By Tom Travis Mother Nature turned up the heat and local and regional and national musicians turned up the jazz this weekend as the 38th Flint Jazz Fest returned to where it was born – Flint’s Riverbank Park. After several years of being bounced around Flint, the Jazz Fest in the heart of downtown seems…
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Book Review: “American Dialogue” offers indispensable conversation between “then” and “now”
By Robert R. Thomas In assessing the here and now, history offers an indispensable perspective. American Dialogue is an enlightening example. As author and historian Joseph Ellis puts it, “The study of history is an ongoing conversation between past and present from which we all have much to learn.” Subtitled The Founders and Us, his book’s…
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Review: June Art Walk offered many pleasures for Saginaw Street strollers
By Patsy Isenberg It was a perfect late spring day for the June Art Walk, and hundreds of visitors took advantage of the weather, walking up and down Saginaw Street in downtown Flint. It was not raining for one thing and the temperature was in the mid-70s. It was a little breezy, causing outdoor…
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Review: Energetic “Songs About Stuff” premiere explores the 90s with music, humor
By Patsy Isenberg “I was walking down Haight Street in San Francisco when a counterculture douf cornered me/ She had a freshly dyed purple Mohawk, $120 Doc Martin boots on/ In other words, she was wearing about as much equity as I had made this year/And with a wanting look on her pale face she asked me for…
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“Graffiti artist at heart” Charles Boike bringing street art vitality to Flint
By Jan Worth-Nelson Charles Boike long ago gave up his “life of crime” in the name of art. But Boike, 36, who has been described as an “urban graffiti artist at heart,” definitely has not given up his life of art. Now a practicing attorney with a wife and baby daughter, the Fenton artist has…
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