For the past 25 years, Springfield’s downtown has become a giant party every New Year’s Eve with First Night Springfield, the first and longest-running event of its kind in Illinois. The p]]> Mike Ross, director of Urbana’s Krannert Center%uFFFDfor the Performing Arts, is hard-pressed to name his favorite place to be inside the University of Illinois’ celebrated arts space.Ross]]> It’s chilly in the packed parking lot of the Eagles Club on Springfield’s far east side. But inside the club’s cavernous concrete ballroom more than 100 novice dancers are shedding s]]> Untitled Document Larry Harnly, a retired State Journal-Register sports editor, was part of a group of 32, about half from Springfield, who spent one week in Jamaica on]]> Untitled Document One need only look at the roof of the Dana-Thomas House, with its upturned corners, to see Japan’s influence on architect Frank Lloyd Wright. ̶]]> The following was adapted from a Clemens Lecture presented in April for the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. It originally appeared in the Chicago-based political magazine In These Times. ]]> I had seven e-mails from an older gentleman who is the president of a highly respected nonprofit asking me to become his friend on Facebook. It was so unnerving I joined Facebook just to make the e-]]> Historians credit Christopher Columbus for finding the Americas, but Kaba Hiawatha Kamene declares that African descendants lived in what is now the United States many years prior to 1492. Kamene, a s]]> Yes, it’s a little boot scootin’ and a little two-steppin,’ but Prairie Land Dance Club (PLDC) in Illiopolis ain’t your mama’s square dance. Folks at PLDC are just as com]]> Promotional flyers for Shen Yun — a multimillion-dollar stage production set for Feb. 9 at Sangamon Auditorium — are lavish, four-color photo montages of elaborately costumed dancers, whir]]> Every week, Amy Alkon provides IT readers with her spin on romantic problems in her syndicated column The Advice Goddess. The column, which received the first place award for commentary last month fro]]> ’Tis the season to be toasting, and, according to experts, it’s the perfect time to raise a glass with some sparkle. “The wine is alive,” says Charles Stanfield, sparkling-wine]]> Visitors and residents hungry for good music and good food in Springfield are sure to find some of both this weekend at the 11th annual Taste of Downtown. The popular event is presented this year in c]]> “To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything.”Abraham Lincoln uttered those words in his famous farewell speech to Springfield almost 150 years ago. Since then, Sprin]]> Illinois Bureau of Tourism Deputy Director Jan Kostner refuses to dwell on the poor economy and its effect on tourism.In mid-February, as she delivered the annual State of the State of Tourism Address]]> Untitled Document Don’t get caught stuck to a barstool in lieu of ringing in the new year. The last day of 2006 is a time for changes. Make this year the year you actually remember singing]]> Untitled Document Illinois Humane hosts the Hogs for Dogs dice run for the second year in a row on Saturday, June 16. Money raised at the run “goes directly to animal care ]]> Just when we thought Rwanda had reinvented itself into a genuine success story in Africa, and that Rwandan president Paul Kagame had become a star of international leadership, along comes the hero of ]]> You may only be "haa'dly'kin" (barely able) to understand Anita Singleton-Prather and the Gullah Kinfolk, but you won't want to "tek'e foot een 'e han" (to run, or to leave quickly) once you hear the]]> Architect John Shafer’s new office building at 1230 S. Sixth St. in Springfield recently won an award for sustainable design from the Central Illinois Chapter of the American Institute of Archit]]>