The last year, but especially the last couple weeks, have been filled with goodbyes. This week will be no different.
As a community, we said our heartfelt goodbyes to Fred Meijer. Then as a staff and readership, we bid farewell to our founding photographer, Brian Kelly, as he embarks on a new chapter of his career. This week before Rapid Growth goes on holiday, we say so long not just to 2011, but to a planet that is not the same because of our touch.
Gone is our small, youthful population shape as we once again -- according to the growing concern of scientists -- expand our size. In 2011, we broke a new worldwide population record of 7 billion people, but we also continued to migrate in greater numbers to urban centers at a period of time when nearly every city struggled to make cuts or changes for future sustainability purposes.
At the current rate of shifting populations, the world will witness more than 70% of our population residing in some urban core by 2050.
It is clear we will be able to house these future residents on the urban landscape due to advances in architecture and building capabilities. However, we will have to face the daunting tasks of how to maintain a quality of life for all. Everything we take for granted now will be stressed to the limit, including urban transportation and access to clean water.
So, here we stand holding our corked champagne once more at the gateway of a new year.
It is rare that we’d cross over to the future without taking a moment to pause and ponder the past. As we mature, we realize that each year truly passes with blink-of-an-eye speed. Time is fleeting, but so are our opportunities.
In 2011, our region experienced some new pleasures. Since I am charged with looking at that which entertained us, it is exciting to reflect on the many firsts we enjoyed in West Michigan.
Aiming for our gut (and “for the health of it”), we chuckled through the debut of the Gilda’s Club LaughFest. We rocked the night away with the near legendary Guided By Voices all the way to our locally spectacular DJ Jef Leppard’s Retro D'Luxe at the newly christened venue, The Pyramid Scheme. On a culinary note, we searched for the perfect “Grandwich” this summer, one of the many 5x5 Night projects launched on our fertile soil.
We also witnessed other changes that hung on in conversations because of the power of one.
The council of Holland failed by one vote to pass the simplest of housing and employment protections for their LGBT citizens. A surfer with highlights and dressed as Jesus rose to become our number one choice in ArtPrize, once again proving this is the one event we can’t stop talking about, no matter how hard some might try to ignore it. Status Creative produced the number one lipdub in the world as a reaction to being on one list that the entire city seemed to take issue with -- all at once.
From the halls of academia came the touching debut of Rust by Austin Bunn, a new play about our shifting post-industrial base and a refreshing new work of art. The think tank group and “must-have ticket” of the year belonged to
TEDxGrandRapids as they firmly placed the innovation spotlight not only on our region’s opportunities and talent, but allowed us to welcome the world via Civic Theatre’s stage and the miracle of YouTube.
We even had a chance to initiate real time dialog between Grand Rapids and Detroit with grassroots action when Rapid Growth finally made
the first move by renting a bus to venture out in what is becoming a popular new trend of cross-pollination between Michigan’s two largest urban epicenters.
And while many have continued to nurture and grow these new connections, it was the Grand Rapids Art Museum who would present one of the boldest of such moves that I applaud for not pandering or exploiting, but for truly hosting an amazing and honest first-ever
Michigan Film, Art & Literature Symposium. This two-day visioning event was a space where discovery seemed to unfold like a flower in spring in a state that should be, according to outsiders, be rusting away in decay.
The spirit of our state was never more evident as people conversed at this new event and asked, “Who are we, and what do we want to unlock within as we seek to find our unique artistic voice(s)?”
We even had time to relax under the big sun at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park as Pink Martini in 2011 showed us the joys of celebrating our diverse world’s culture in song, even going as far as to invite
one of our own up on stage to dance a jig for the amusement of all.
These bold moves within art and imagination from within and from outside of us illustrated how we could expand and contract as a people as we gasp, plot, marvel, laugh and even cry all the while asking, “What kind of city do we want to be? How do we want the world to see us now since we have already proven over the past century what we were capable of achieving in West Michigan?” We have big shoes to fill.
The question was never if Newsweek’s claim about our city being a dying city was right (it was when you look at the data’s particular viewpoint about where are the children in Grand Rapids’ present time), but it was about asking us to give pause in our endless cheerleading sessions to begin to evolve of who we are or will be. Education would not be something just for the children of our region as many began to chant the oft-used, “It takes a village,” phrase when addressing our solution or evolution as a people.
Our area’s present struggle was never more apparent than when the election’s barometer of results rolled in throughout the year and one vote was never more telling of our combative future visions than The Rapid’s narrow passage of their 30-year plan. If it had failed, it would have meant a much different city and one I am not so sure we would want to stick around to see given the future trends about urban living.
The past year, in many ways, revealed more about our collective uneasiness with the future than any other year I can recall in a long time as lines between opposing points of view were drawn again and again, often shutting down dialog.
2008, the year G-Sync appeared, was a period of unparalleled anxiety, but this past year had its share of stressful times, too. Whether it was reflected by bricks being tossed through neighborhood businesses or the newly emerging national Occupy Wall Street movement (including a local Occupy Grand Rapids).
The key to our survival through all this was our willingness to engage with one another. A good example would be Rapid Growth’s speaker series that kicked off the year around the topic of neighborhood violence from an anarchist group that seemed less informed with each lashing out about our history. They chose to sign their demands as “the old neighbors," causing the real old neighbors to speak up about the region they helped settle back in the 1980s. It was refreshing to finally hear the story of this unique neighborhood, even though it was violence that sparked the conversation.
And for every smashing incident, there were also those picture perfect moments of how Grand Rapids engages with their community like when Mayor Heartwell and Sojourners’ Jim Wallis sat down post-lecture with Occupy Grand Rapids at Fountain Street Church to engage in meaningful dialog. It happened at a time when our community was just launching their 2012 Interfaith Understanding programming.
It was also the year that a more than a decade’s old program, UICA’s ArtWorks, earned the 2011 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award presented in Washington D.C. by the First Lady Michelle Obama. This is a program that I was a part of in 1999 during its incubator period and trust me this is a high honor for a program very close to many local artists’ hearts.
We have so much to celebrate here in our city. I have never felt more alive, even as we have struggled to align our city with the future. And judging by the dialog we sometimes have had this past year, neither have many of you.
If the future is to be there for us and for those inhabitants yet to arrive, then we have to be here now. We have to launch the city of the future while the costs to us are truly lower than they will become. Vision must be put into action from the arts to boardrooms, from the private to the public partnerships we seek to enact. We must find ways to expand the table.
In 2012, it will not be enough to “launch” for launch’s sake as we did often in 2011, but we must continue to debut that which is truly new and not just frivolous or something that ego allows to damage or hinder. And as we have seen by those who are delving into how our kids learn that we must educate those younger than us because this is the future we will leave them.
When it works, and it will, we will all be citizens of a city that becomes a beacon to others. We, as a city, will be more than just a place to party, but a place many more will call home as our downtown and other neighborhoods begin to transform.
The advances demand that we no longer be silent about injustices or simply be frivolous with our resources as a region or a state. I cannot help but feel that this city we have now is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It is time to expand, but not exploit.
Many organizations still struggle to connect with an audience beyond their choir loft of chorus members. We need a road map more than a savior in this area. We all have a role to play in this area, so adopt an organization -- or even two or three.
As the lifestyle editor of Rapid Growth looking back on my fourth year-end reflection of our community, I see our entertainment numbers truly do provide a snapshot of who we really are. I have always been a bit upbeat and celebratory, but today as I bop around town, I am being pulled aside much like I was in 2008 by arts directors, musicians and artists alike who all echo their concerns for our future.
We are not the only city to face this present tension, but this is our city -- the one we know and inhabit -- so it is our puzzle to solve.
In 2012, I am willing to embrace the new on even a grander scale, but understand fully that the new may come from small groups and not just on the backs of tourists from afar or just around the corner. Movements begin with an idea and often live in the one.
Change will happen one way or another, but what direction this path will take is now in our hands. The future needs all of us…. to be present and active in 2012.
Starting in 2012, I am asking our readers to commit to venture out to two events each week outside of restaurants. Our eateries are still vital, but the arts and the truly eventful entertainment programming of our city needs you now more than ever.
And if the chance presents itself to try something new, don’t be afraid to make it your first effort. The beauty of discovery is often made when we step off the path.
Choosing to adopt a new pattern in 2012 means our journey will bring many exciting discoveries about the nature of our city. The city is wide open to all of us. Creative offerings from the hand of the artist is such a wonderful part of this region, from the painter to the scientist to the furniture designer to the barista who makes our heart leap with a simple swirl of cream on top of our coffee.
The creative spirit is what gives us so many firsts in our region, but it also humanizes us and on those rare occasions reminds us we are not alone as we discover our future city together.
The Future Needs All … of us.
Happy New Year, West Michigan! Be The Change in 2012.
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
Email:
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