Remember last year when we asked you to vote for Jacksonville in the Levitt AMP [Your City] Grant Award contest? Your votes paid off, as the city of Jacksonville was selected as one out of 15 finalists for a $25,000 grant to produce a free and family-friendly concert series in a neglected public space. All […]
Jacksonville
Posted inMusic
Music matters most
Mary and the Immaculate Rejections play a CD release show at Black Sheep Cafe on Sat., Nov. 14. Ah, November comes and I feel the sadness and sorrow in my bones, even with these wonderful, extra sunny days. That normal slowing down of fall combined with the time change just knocked me for a loop. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Patriotic pets and family fun
Jacksonville’s Nichols Park is the setting for a full day of all-American family fun this Fourth of July. Activities include an all-day flea market, kids’ fishing tournament, Premier Bank charity walks and fun runs, concessions, cake and pie contests, cardboard boat races, bingo, swimming, live entertainment and more. A kid zone will be open from […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Not a sleeper
PHOTO COURTESY THEATRE IN THE PARK Theatre in the Park at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historic Site presents the Tony Award-winning musical comedy Pajama Game on Aug. 15-17 and 21-23. Directed by Sean Rose of Jacksonville, the storyline follows the clash between workers and managers at Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory. The production stars Becky Bertram (Petersburg) […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Creation stories
Read up on your creation stories. Genesis, The Musical premiers Aug. 1 at Playhouse on the Square in Jacksonville. There are nine performances through Aug. 10. Written by playwrights Ken Bradbury of Arenzville and Roger Wainwright of Chatham, the musical is a rapid-fire synopsis of the first book of the Bible. Bradbury directs a 10-member […]
Posted inNews
Does FutureGen have a future?
With U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois looking on, Ken Humphreys, CEO of the FutureGen Alliance, signs a labor agreement on Monday to provide union labor for the FutureGen project planned in a rural area outside Jacksonville. The agreement may signal that the long-delayed project is moving forward. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Illinois is one […]
Posted inNews
Meet Jennifer Gill
Jennifer Gill, who was voted in as superintendent of Springfield Public Schools this week, was educated in the same schools she’ll be overseeing in her new post. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE For Jennifer Gill, this is a sort of homecoming. Gill was born and raised in Springfield, was educated in Springfield’s public schools and went […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Soul force
PHOTO BY YOICHI R. OKAMOTO Here are a few Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Jacksonville and Springfield taking place on Monday, Jan. 20. Illinois College and the city of Jacksonville will celebrate with critically acclaimed author and NAACP Image-Award recipient Sheyann Webb-Christburg (pictured left) who will speak at 11 a.m. in Rammelkamp Chapel, […]
Posted inMusic
Hodgepodge of happenings
With a whirlwind of wonderful whatevers available to while away the hours this week in the entertainment section of our lives, here are a few tidbits and takes on the goings-on. In the “unbelievable events” category, how is it that two of my favorites in the music business are playing in Springfield on the same […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Tasteful teachings
“E Pluribus unum” is the 2013 theme of this year’s Prairieland Chautauqua to be held four evenings over Labor Day weekend. Modeled after traditional Chautauquas, which were educational gatherings named after the first, held on Lake Chautauqua, the Jacksonville get-togethers include musical shows, storytellers, communal suppers and re-enactors representing famous Americans. On the lineup: Brian […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Wonderful watermelon
It’s the very essence of summer. As a kid, I’d hang on to the green rind as I plowed my way through a half-moon slice or wedge, or sometimes even a canoe-shaped lateral hunk, hunched over so that the juice wouldn’t drip on my clothes – which it inevitably did, regardless. That was pretty much […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Whimsical world of words and visual wingdings
Ken Bradbury and Steve Varble put out an awesome new book that loosely covers Jacksonville in verse to the flavor of Shel Silverstein. The hardcover book, The Place Where We Live, is for all ages and not just for Jacksonville folk. Bradbury’s words will have your cheeks a’peaking (as in mountains) and Varble’s colorful illustrations […]
