Bruce Berger is many things. He is a Yale graduate, a professional pianist and a world traveler. What he’s best known for is his writing: essays and poetry aimed at exploring the relationship between nature and culture, generally focusing in the desert. Now he’s bringing these writings to Salt Lake.
On March 15, at 7pm Berger will be at the King’s English Bookshop to read from, discuss and sign his most recent book, A Desert Harvest: New and Selected Essays. Read the rest of the story here.
0 Comments
Jess Martinez’s fifth-grade classroom looks like any other at Riverside Elementary in West Jordan.
Desks are pushed together to make small tables. There’s a row of hooks for the kids to hang their coats and backpacks on. Posters with encouraging sentiments cover the walls. Remnants of the day’s lessons are still up on the whiteboard. This room would not stand out in a mainly English-speaking school, yet the posters and lesson are all in Spanish. Martinez is the fifth-grade Spanish teacher in Riverside’s Dual Language Immersion (DLI) program. Read the rest of the story here. Cru Kombucha started with Red Bull. Zachary Twombly noticed that his friend, Christian Alber, was drinking a lot of the energy drink. Knowing how that can mess with your stomach, Twombly introduced Alber to the beloved probiotic, kombucha.
The two both like to try new things in the kitchen, so it didn’t take too long for them to try brewing the fermented favorite themselves. It took some experimenting, but soon Alber and Twombly had some kombucha for their friends to try. Read the rest of the story here. Athena is 50 years old. She is a mother and, like her namesake, a wise leader. She is beautiful and big. She has the longest tusks out of her whole family. She is the matriarch of a herd of elephants in the African savanna. She is the Elephant Queen.
The Elephant Queen premiered as part of the kids’ section of the Sundance Film Festival on January 26. Directed by Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble and narrated by Chiwetel Ejiofor, this film is fun and touching. It focuses entirely on the animals of the savanna. The stories and cinematography will keep the attention of viewers of all ages. Read the rest of the story here. “Good Standing,” written by Matthew Greene, directed by Jerry Rapier and produced by Plan-B Theatre, is a solo play about Curt Brown, a gay Mormon who just married the love of his life. Now he is facing excommunication from the church that he was raised in. Set in the disciplinary hearing that is referred to as a “trial of love” where Curt must face 12 men, six advocating for him, six against, trying to decide whether he should remain a “Mormon in good standing.” Each of these men giving his thoughts on Curt’s actions, while Curt gives his thoughts about these men.
Greene’s writing is funny, smart and touching. Using his familiarity with the Church and terms like “Mormon-splaining” Greene tells an amusing, yet all-too-real story. The characters are familiar to the viewers who are/were members of the Mormon church. Those who aren’t members of the church get a good idea of what the members can be like from this play: stubborn, judgmental, trying to be open-minded, while still completely missing the mark (not unlike the way the LDS church recently decided they accept openly homosexual members, as long as they don’t–God forbid–actually act on those Same Sex-Attraction (SSA) “temptations.”) Read the rest of the story here. For the 21st year, Utah Humanities hosts their Book Festival: This state-wide, six-week event is a chance for people to explore new books and hear from the authors. This year the festival is just as busy as always, including a reading by authors Nicole Walker and Julia Corbett, two authors dedicated to the environment, and our very human relationship with it.
On October 3, at 7 P.M. these two authors will be at the Salt Lake City Public Library. Walker and Corbett will read from and discuss their newest books, Sustainability: A Love Story and Out of the Woods: Seeing Nature in the Everyday, respectively. Read the rest of the story here. Midterm elections in the United States rarely have the interest of the public in the same way that presidential elections do. After all, it’s hard to be as excited about an election when you’re not voting for the commander-in-chief. However, the 2018 midterm has seemed different than past midterms.
The graph below is from Google Trends. It is a program that uses graphs to show how popular certain searches are over a period of time. This graph is showing the popularity of the search, “how to register to vote” from September 1, 2014 (the last midterm election) to November 7, 2018 (this midterm election) in Salt Lake City, Utah. BUTTE, Montana – There is something so nice about going into a local business and being greeted like a friend. To have someone smile at you, ask you how you are doing, even chat a bit. It truly highlights the relationship between a community and local businesses, businesses like Headframe Spirits.
Walking into Headframe Spirits’ administrative office I am immediately greeted by a black Pomeranian (Sam, as I would come to find out later), followed by a Golden Retriever puppy (Kida). Both dogs are friendly and seem very excited to see me. The dogs are followed by Courtney McKee, CEO of Headframe Spirits, greeting me as warmly as the pups. This perfectly sets the tone for what exactly Headframe is all about; being friendly and creating a feeling of community. The tinkle of a bell, the smell of paper, the sight of colorful covers on the shelves, a friendly face greeting you from behind a counter. Nothing is quite like the feeling of an independent bookstore.
The local bookstore is a unique place. Each of the following bookstores brings something different to the community. All of them create a place for lovers of literature of all kinds to find their people. Read rest of the story here. |