“A Total Solar Eclipse will happen on April the 8th, 2024. It will happen with or without human notice. Notice or not-notice is all humans can do.” —Boyd Sturdevant Jr., Grok Art Founder and Art Director On April 8, 2024, the moon will cross directly between the sun and the earth, obscuring the sun’s rays and casting a shadow on the planet. At its longest, the total solar eclipse will last little more than four minutes, but during that time a swath of the earth’s surface will be blanketed in total daytime darkness. The eclipse on April 8 will enter North America on the Sinaloan shor ..read more

“Every time I finish tutoring someone, I just feel on top of the world.” —Anson Reynolds, senior at Bloomington High School South and finalist for a Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship The Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program named ten Monroe County high school seniors as finalists, five from Bloomington High School North and five from Bloomington High School South. Two of the finalists will be chosen by mid-December to receive four-year paid tuition and required fees to an accredited public or private Indiana college or university.  In addition to supporting young Hoosier scho ..read more

I arrived in Bloomington in August of 1999, having driven north from dead-center o’ the Florida Keys (Marathon, Florida — don’t let all the boats fool you: a drinking town with a fishing problem) intending only a brief stay here in my mother’s hometown. I caught WFHB’s signal just north of Bedford. I listened to a brilliant writer named Arbutus Cunningham tell a story about falling in love with strangers on a plane. When she finished falling in love, I was in love with the town.  Janiece’s talent allowed her to unravel the threads of time and musical boundaries “with a unique grace and ..read more

Bloomington theater is moving in a new direction. Melinda Seader and Aubrey Seader present contemporary theater and music through Off Night Productions, their new theater company, whose slogan is “Theatre for Everyone, Every Night.”  Having discussed for years the possibility of initiating the project that became Off Night, they plan to increase decision-making opportunities for the women and nonbinary artists who contribute to the arts in Bloomington. Through theater production, they will also provide accessible and inclusive performances by increasing the staged visibility of women and ..read more

“Matt Hart’s FAMILIAR is a wrestling match that morphs into a bear hug. & I mean that. This book’s a dapper flaneur stroll across time & space & the twisty landscapes of punk rock. Come on. Let’s listen to Matt Hart pronounce secret truths through the spinning wah wah blades of Whitman’s epic pedestal fan. Is this translation? Is this the grass? Part scorch, part drone, part weeping riff, this wrenching poem alchemizes new music from syllables you thought you knew. Read this book & stay stay stay stay stay ‘steady / tender / connected’.” —Kiki Petrosino, author of Bright: A Me ..read more

[Editor’s Note: Since 1994, the annual Soup Bowl Benefit for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank has raised more than $1.5 million. In this oral history, Duane Busick shows in words and video the history, behind-the-scenes action, and impact the benefit has had on fighting hunger. Duane’s video follows the article. Ticket information and more details about the 27th Soup Bowl Benefit can also be found at the end of the article, or at the Hoosier Hill website.] Bloomington author Scott Russell Sanders has been volunteering for more than ten years at the Soup Bowl Benefit for the Hoosier Hills Food ..read more

Fresh out of college in 2007, at the request of the Indiana University Robotics Club, Adam Nahas made a robot hand in the basement of the townhouse where he lived. “No ventilation,” he says. “No windows. It had a single staircase so I couldn’t bring any big equipment down there.” That basement was his workshop. He was hoping to create a few small things — “craft stuff,” he calls them. After spending four years at IU, trying on different creative programs like so many spring jackets, he’d settled on working with metals as he embarked on his journey in what some of us like to call the Real Worl ..read more

Henry Leck turned to the Arts Alliance to network, develop his painting skills, and show his work. In 2022, he became the organization’s president. | Courtesy photo Henry Leck spent his life devoted to singing. He taught choral music at Butler for 27 years and founded the Indianapolis Children’s Choir in 1986, leading the organization for 30 years. In his retirement, Leck decided to take up painting. Among other organizations, he turned to Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington to network, develop his painting skills, and show his work.  “I got wind of the fact that there was going to be ..read more

Introduction by student Lilly Laudeman What creates a sense of place? How can we both define and share it with others?  These are the questions we explored, challenged by our English 11 teacher, Rachel Bahr (a teacher at The Academy of Science and Entrepreneurship) and Limestone Post. In a collaborative project titled “Sense of Place,” we were asked to define just that: our sense of place.  Photo of the IU campus featured in Auggie O’Brien-Zink’s “sense of place” video. We discovered how Bloomington’s buildings and people provide a feeling of home. The community has created countle ..read more

I just think when we approach people, we need to have kindness and humility. —Virginia Githiri, Ph.D. As we find ourselves in the heart of Black History Month, it’s time to shine an extra bright light on Black Americans doing amazing things. Though we have a number of incredible small-business owners of color in Bloomington, there is one who really “pops.”  Virginia Githiri, Ph.D., not only holds four degrees and teaches at Indiana University in the School of Public Health, she also owns Bloomington’s only gourmet popcorn company, PopKorn Kernels with a Twist. The idea for PopKorn came to ..read more