PHOTO BY TREVOR MILLER Based on a well attended 1842 Fourth of July gathering hosted by the Broadwell family, Clayville Historic Site is re-creating the historic event and inviting you. The daylong soirée features old-fashioned fun with music, horseshoes, softball and bocce ball. Bring your own softball equipment, all other sports equipment is provided. Also, […]
Anita Stienstra
Posted inArts & Culture
Field day
PHOTO BY DOUG CARR Families will have the opportunity to discover where food from their dinner plates comes from during Amazing Agriculture at the Illinois State Museum Saturday, June 28. Activities planned include a sweet corn farm-to-table relay, fruit and vegetable stamp painting, building a hamburger flannel board and seed planting. There will also be […]
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Bang for your buck
PHOTO BY GLENN SWEITZE Central Illinois’ largest Independence Day fireworks display takes place Friday, June 27. Rock the Dock is famous for its fireworks launched from barges on Lake Springfield in front of Lake Springfield Marina. Country singer Austin Webb, whose new single “Raise ’Em Up” is currently being played on the radio, will perform. […]
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The hearth eternal
She said to us who came with wondering eyes– “This is a magic fire, a magic room.” – From “The Hearth Eternal,” a poem by Lindsay published in 1914 in Congo and Other Poems. Jennie Battles stands in one of the rooms of the Vachel Lindsay State Historic Site by the typewriter poet Vachel Lindsay […]
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Going the extra mile
PHOTO BY CHAD MITCHELL PHOTOGRAPHY Assumption Fest opens Thursday, June 26, in the small town of Assumption but the lineup is anything but small. Recently added to the parade on Saturday, June 28, is the vehicle and color guard, courtesy of the Illinois Army National Guard’s Company A and Company D, 1st Battalion, 106th Aviation […]
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Witnessing the past
PHOTOS COURTESY CHERI FRY The largest mounted Civil War reenactment in the Midwest takes place in Jacksonville Community Park June 20-22. Watch soldiers drill and prepare for battle, fix meals, practice medicine and enact major battles. There will also be Friday night entertainment, an exhibit to honor war veterans, rides in WWII trucks, 1850s vintage […]
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Illinois nature
PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS Naturalists Michael Jeffords and Sue Post will present a program on their newest book Exploring Nature in Illinois: A Field Guide to the Prairie State, foreword by Illinois Audubon Society Executive Director Tom Clay (University of Illinois Press, 2014). The 280-page book, loaded with color photographs and evocative descriptions […]
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Comic pastiche
PHOTO COURTESY ROXY THEATRICALS Tony-award winning Best Musical Thoroughly Modern Millie arrives at The Legacy Theatre in a sparkling new production June 20-29. Set in the Roaring ’20s, “Thoroughly Modern Millie is that old girl-meets-boy, girl-loses-boy, girl-gets-boy and busts an international crime ring story,” says Director Scott Richardson, with a smile. “I can’t say it […]
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Full Moon: Corn Moon
Hugh Moore FULL MOON: CORN MOON It hears a root make movement in the soil, words that leaves make when the wind comes strong and sudden. Reads that map the shadows trace to show where day has gone. It speaks in tongues we have forgotten. In the sparrow’s flight can see a signal, or sense […]
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Survivor stories
The documentary Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor will be shown at the Hoogland Center for the Arts Friday, June 13, thanks to the Staab family. Bravo! tells the story of Bravo Company, First Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment who fought at the siege of Khe Sanh in Vietnam. Several of the men featured in the film will […]
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Favorite things
Springfield Municipal Opera will open its 2014 season with the musical The Sound of Music Friday, June 13. The production will run Fridays and Saturdays for three weekends with Thursday shows on June 19 and June 26. The true story of the von Trapp family follows the life of Maria Rainer, a young postulant at […]
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All scream for bison
Springfield Art Association will host a free family gathering, celebrating their mascot — a buffalo sculpture, created by John Kearny and purchased by the SAA in 1976. Kids’ activities, square dancers, crafts and free ice cream will be provided on the SAA lawn. There are two exhibits you can visit also, one at SAA and […]
