May is known for its colorful flowers. Trees also are in bloom and insects are becoming more numerous. With all of this activity, the stage is set for the peak of songbird migration. Many of these birds are migrating north…
Editor’s note: After more than four years writing Inland Art for Community Word, Paul Krainak is focusing on other projects, notably a blog “Bad at Sports” accessed at http://badatsports.com/2021/sub-rural/. He recommended Nichole Gronvold Roller as his replacement. Her column will…
How do you spell art? On April 17, more than 15 young children would have answered F-U-N. That’s the day Big Picture Initiative and The Peoria Playhouse Children’s Museum co-hosted a mural making workshop. Artists Megan Couri and Jaci Musec…
Fine Arts Society of Peoria presents lecture by Dr. Robert McCarter “The Architecture of Carlo Scarpa: Recomposing Place, Intertwining Time, Transforming Reality,” 10 a.m. May 13 via Zoom. Register at FineArtsSociety.net. “Seen but not Felt” will be virtually exhibited all…
What is the meaning of life? Last time I suggested that we instead ask whether life is lived meaningfully. This phrasing doesn’t assume meaning must come from somewhere outside, written in words of fire. As Viktor Frankl says, “Questions about…
We are the last generation that can stabilize the earth’s deteriorating climate. That outcome requires a 50% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by the early 2030s. Then, we must reduce remaining emission to zero by 2050. Finally, we must go…
Returning Saturday May 15 is the West Peoria Residents Association annual communitywide yard sale. West Peoria residents interested in having their address shared in the Community Yard Sale need to contact coordinator Maggie at maggiemo@mtco.com or 673-0535. Information will be…
Perhaps it’s continuing effects from isolation caused by COVID or maybe turning another year older. Whatever the cause, I’m missing my parents very much. The sadness is deep even though my Dad passed away in 1992 and my Mom in…
Regardless of union outcome, Amazon effort inspiring. Ballots from voting at Amazon’s Bessemer, Ala., facility are being counted at press time, but labor leader Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants/CWA said it’s a win-win no matter the results.…
For years, the E.D. Edwards coal-fired power plant in Bartonville was linked to high asthma rates in Peoria’s Southside neighborhoods, but equally liable could be poor indoor air quality polluted with nitrogen dioxide from gas stoves, water heaters and furnaces.…
An “insect apocalypse” could jeopardize plant life. Farming in the 1990s increased use of neonicotinoid insecticides, the neurotoxins that collect in pollen and nectar –– causing paralysis and death for bugs, including bees. However, there’s doubt about bees’ current state,…
Most people seem relieved that April’s consolidated local election is going smoothly, and that November’s election is over (one that longtime Republican Christopher Krebs, U.S. Cybersecurity chief, said was “the most secure in American history”). Despite that – some say…
Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has died at the young age of 70. As someone who has spent a large part of his life in radio, I can tell you there was never anyone who was as popular as…
Tom Vilsack is returning to his post as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. He served in that capacity under President Obama for eight years. Vilsack hails from Iowa, a leading agricultural state with a major focus on industrial corn, soybeans, hogs,…
With the approval of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine against the COVID-19 virus, concerns have been raised by some religious leaders that it was developed using cell lines from fetuses aborted decades ago. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference has recommended that…
Local governments grapple with Pandemic Year Two . . . alongside their regular business. Peoria City Council started the Jan. 26 meeting wearing their Peoria Township hats by approving township expenses for January and February. A public hearing on the…
As I write this article, I have spent the last year as most of us have –– isolated, socially distanced and careful often times in fear or thinking about the unknown such as where did this virus come dfrom? Why…
Carmon Colangelo intervenes on the modern. Gestural abstraction, informal geometries, diaristic ephemera, surrealist afterimages, and architectonic montage all inform his practice. He fills work with happenstance, surfing through printmaking, drawing, painting and digital media to reconsider a principal birthright of…
Early during the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned that individuals in congregate settings such as nursing homes were particularly vulnerable to infection. Residents gathered for activities and meals, and staff members attended to a number of residents and often put in…
Natalie Jackson grew up understanding racial injustice. She lived in a home filled with powerful images that conveyed beauty, despair, fragility, strength and resolve. Her father, artist Preston Jackson, is a sculptor, musician and long-time faculty member at the Art…
April 2: First Friday Studio Tours, 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.; locations include Peoria Art Guild, Contemporary Art Center, Studios on Sheridan, Wheel Art Pottery. For a complete list go to: https://www.peoria.org/event/first-friday/3865/ Now on permanent loan: Preston Jackson’s “Bronzeville to…
