Yeah, yeah: you want to lose five pounds, exercise more, eat less. Who doesn't, at least during the month of January? But wellness means more than numbers on a scale, and a few local initiatives are playing their part in crafting a healthier Grand Rapids. Each week this month, Rapid Growth will feature one unique way to be well in West Michigan. Want a more thoughtful, sustainable path to feeling better in 2015? Read on.
Yeah, yeah: you want to lose five pounds, exercise more, eat less. Who doesn't, at least during the first week of January? But wellness means more than numbers on a scale, and a few local initiatives are playing their part in crafting a healthier Grand Rapids. Each week this month, Rapid Growth will feature one unique way to be well in West Michigan. Want a more thoughtful, sustainable path to feeling better in 2015? Read on.
What does the national trend towards police body cameras mean here in Grand Rapids? It's a measure that finds almost universal favor among civil rights advocates and citizens from a range of backgrounds on Internet comment threads and in community meetings. But dig deeper, and the pros and cons of the technology get murkier. Rapid Growth's managing editor Stephanie Doublestein spent a night in a patrol car on a ride-along with the Grand Rapids Police Department last month, interviewed both Chief Rahinsky and those behind the recent community initiative OperationBodyCamGR, and attended this week's Grand Rapids City Commission meeting to help you understand what the growing call for body cams means here in our city.
Not many local artists are able to craft a life that allows them to make a living out of making music, but through a combination of talent and tenacity, Karisa Wilson seems to have figured it out. Stephanie Doublestein sits down for tea with the beloved local singer-songwriter to talk about the on-stage and behind-the-scenes aspects of this cool job.
Nearly a year into her tenure as Opera Grand Rapids executive director, Anne Berquist is taking the opera in new directions. In advance of next week's performance of Carmen, Stephanie Doublestein talks with the dynamic leader about her childhood in France, the state of the arts in Grand Rapids, and how to create a fun experience for a new generation of opera attendees.
When the ArtPrize winners are announced this weekend, a few talented artists will go home thousands of dollars richer, and many of those involved with the Grand Rapids arts community will, we assume, go home and take a nap. But if he plays his cards right – and if venues don't close early, foiling his carefully laid plans -- one local man will go home with the satisfaction of having quietly visited every single venue for the fourth year in a row.
Move over Airbnb; ArtPrize, along with several other West Michigan organizations, is also harnessing the power of the sharing economy to connect artists to local hosts, making their stay during the annual competition feel like home. As the city gears up for this fall's flood of artists, Stephanie Doublestein hears from one of the competition's winners, who says the program helped her thrive.
LaughFest is a ten-day event in March, so does its director spend the dog days of summer lounging in a hammock? Hardly. Joanne Roehm has a seriously cool job (all year round), and Stephanie Doublestein finds out just what she does when the talent isn't in town.
West Michigan, we know you love to raise a glass of local craft beer, but have you ever wondered what, exactly, a brewer does all day at work? We found out. (Hint: It's more than just drinking beer.) Just in time for this week's American Homebrewers Association conference descending on Beer City, USA, Stephanie Doublestein finds out what Mitten Brewing Company's Rob Wanhatalo does to turn fermented grain into that pint in your hand.
The Grand Rapids Vintage Bicycle Club welcomes spring by takings its shiny wheels and its social ways out in public. Stephanie Doublestein hops on her red 1970s cruiser and gets to know the people behind these beautiful bikes.
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