APRIL 10-16, 2019 Diversity on Film - see page 23 Capital City Film Fest Program inside Project1_Layout 1 4/1/19 10:44 AM Page 1 2 www.lansingcitypulse.com City Pulse • April 10, 2019 2019 CONTEST VOTE FOR US! City Pulse • April 10, 2019 www.lansingcitypulse.com 3 Favorite Things Paul Titov and his flat skewer Dennis Burck/City Pulse Titov uses his skewer to cook lulah kabobs every summer weekend. When I was a child, this skewer We call this a lula kabob. It takes was all around me. It was the only skill to put ground beef on that will thing we ever used. It was primitive stay on the skewer when cooked. cooking — some days we would just You have to form it in a proper way. BBQ around a fire with a pile of If there are any air pockets, the April 11TH–13TH | MSU Campus | 39TH Annual bricks. We put meat on this, chick- meat will fall off. Generously sponsored by Leonard and Sharon Tabaka en or whatever we wanted. Mostly, I learned how to do this This skewer isn’t just the story of from seeing other people doing it. 4/11 THURSDAY, 7:30 PM Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz Octets Essentially Ellington High School my people as Armenian, but most My father did it. My grandfather Four jazz octets, conducted by Regional Festival Middle Eastern people as well. did it. My uncles did it. They could jazz faculty and graduate students, High school jazz bands compete blend the sounds of big band with and perform the music of Duke People always say “My grandfather only teach me so much. Practice is small-group performance. Fairchild Ellington and other big band composers before Jazz at Lincoln used to do it this way.” There are a what makes perfect. Theatre, MSU Auditorium. General admission: $12 adults, $10 seniors, students free. Center clinicians and other jazz lot of arguments on what is the best BBQ grills are fun and every- professionals. Fairchild Theatre, way to cook with it. thing, but this cooks the meat like 4/12 FRIDAY, 8:00 PM MSU Auditorium. Free Swing Dance with Originally this was a sword. nothing else does. 4/13 SATURDAY, 8 PM Jazz Orchestras Soldiers would go into battle, and I agree it probably isn’t as con- Two jazz orchestras, conducted Jazz Spectacular between battles, they would take venient as a grill, but it gives you by Rodney Whitaker and Etienne Finale Concert Opening performance by the pieces of meat and put it on their a feeling that you are doing exactly Charles, perform the repertoire of the great jazz masters as well as SPECTACULAR Outstanding High School Jazz Band swords to cook. Little by little, these what your grandfather and ances- swing for an audience who cannot of the Day, including the Be-Bop keep from dancing. Spartans, MSU jazz musicians and evolved into more of a home-ori- tors did. It gives you a little more MSU Demonstration Hall. guests Lewis Nash, jazz drums ented item. flavor to your food with the love General admission: $12 adults, $10 seniors, and Sachal Vasandani, jazz vocals. students free. Fairchild Theatre, MSU Auditorium. These come in all shapes and and history behind it. Reserved seating: $25 adults, forms, but this one is my favorite Just looking at it brings back so 4/13 SATURDAY, 9 AM–6 pM $20 seniors, $15 students. one. I probably have 40 of these at many memories from back in my my house. I have a special bucket childhood. Every moment I cook to keep it in at my house I made to with it, I can cherish those. store it. If we are going to a picnic, Food is not so much what is on I pick up my bucket and it goes your tongue, but in your mind as with me wherever I go. well. When those two combine, it I can’t wait till the weather makes one hell of a flavor. breaks for a little bit. For the next (This interview was edited and six months, this will be the only condensed by Dennis Burck. If TICKETS & INFO: MUSIC.MSU.EDU/JAZZ-SPEC thing I will cook with. There is not you have a recommendation for a weekend that goes by where I “Favorite Things,” please email don’t use this. [email protected].) I like to use ground beef with it. 4 www.lansingcitypulse.com City Pulse • April 10, 2019 VOL. 18 ISSUE 36 (517) 371-5600 • Fax: (517) 999-6061 • 1905 E. Michigan Ave. • Lansing, MI 48912 • www.lansingcitypulse.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: (517) 999-5061 or email [email protected] PAGE CLASSIFIEDS: (517) 999-6704 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER • Berl Schwartz 13 [email protected] • (517) 999-5061 ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR • Audrey Matusz Check out our Summer Camp Guide! [email protected] • (517) 999-5068 EVENTS EDITOR/OFFICE MANAGER • Suzi Smith [email protected] • (517) 999-6704 DIGITAL CONTENT/PRODUCTION MANAGER • Skyler Ashley PAGE [email protected] (517) 999-5066 26 STAFF WRITERS • Lawrence Cosentino [email protected] • (517) 999-5065 Peppermint Creek's new play gives a voice to refugees Kyle Kaminski • [email protected] (517) 999-6715 Dennis Burck • [email protected] (517) 999-6705 PAGE SALES EXECUTIVE Lee Purdy • [email protected] • (517) 999-5064 32 Contributors: Andy Balaskovitz, Justin Bilicki, Daniel E. Bollman, Jeffrey Billman, Capital News Service, Music coming to town as part of Capital City Film Fest Bill Castanier, Ryan Claytor, Mary C. Cusack, Tom Helma, Gabrielle Lawrence Johnson, Eve Kucharski, Terry Link, Andy McGlashen, Kyle Melinn, Mark Nixon, Shawn Parker, Stefanie Pohl, Dennis Preston, Allan Cover I. Ross, Nevin Speerbrecker, Dylan Tarr, Rich Tupica, Ute Von Der Heyden, David Winkelstern, Paul Wozniak Art Distribution manager: Paul Shore • (517) 999-6704 Delivery drivers: Dave Fisher, Dale Gartner, Art by Nevin Speerbrecker Thomas Scott Jr., Jack Dowd, Gavin Smith, NOW AT 10:00 A.M. SUNDAYS on City Pulse • April 10, 2019 www.lansingcitypulse.com 5 C PULSE NEWS & OPINIONOF THE WEEK C ‘Blue-collar chief’ OF THE WEEK Mackey takes reins at Lansing Fire Department Before Mike Mackey started as chief of the Lansing Fire Department last week, he oversaw a department that covered nearly 1.5 million residents over 1,800 square miles in Palm Beach County, Florida. The city of Lansing is a much small- Greater Love Apostolic Temple er pond: about 116,000 residents over 505 Seymour Ave., Lansing 37 square miles. So, how did Lansing This former Christian Science attract him? church built in 1952 —now for sale — “When you get into larger organiza- bears all the marks of a Mid-century tions, you tend to lose contact with the Modern building, incorporating firefighters, the men and women in the small scale details with its crisp, field,” Mackey said. “I’ve always enjoyed modern appearance. The brick, lime- that. Coming here, I’m going to be able stone and randomly coursed ashlar to hit all the stations, train with the men are solid and enduring, capped with and women and go on calls with them. a sky-piercing copper clad steeple Professionally, I think it’ll be a great fit.” Approaching the main entrance Mackey, 50, is a self-described from the east, visitors ascend the “blue-collar chief.” He follows two inter- main plinth to find sculpted conifers im chiefs appointed by Mayor Andy Lawrence Cosentino/City Pulse before the solemn main entrance. Schor after Randy Talifarro resigned Hints of decorative themes repeated last year. Mike Mackey, who started April 1, plans to spend his first 90 days as Lansing fire chief listening to his staff and the community. throughout the interior and exterior Mackey, who was one of nine candi- are expressed within this entrance: dates, is paid $124,471 annually. flattened squares form the door glaz- “I haven’t met a single person that Jerauld’s successor, Jeff Collins, crimination lawsuit levied against the ing; concentric rectangles located I haven’t liked here,” Mackey said in stepped down in January 2018 amid department continues. Solutions are above those doors; and the fluted col- an exclusive interview with City Pulse. accusations that the department fos- still a work in progress. umns and the egg and dart mould- “There really is a truth about this tered a culture of sexual harassment Mackey noted his earlier post as divi- ings hint of other classical details. Midwestern charm. People are just so and racism. Mackey, who came up sion chief of operations kept him large- The concentric rectangles continue nice. I couldn’t get over it." through the ranks over 31 years before ly away from department leadership. around the building as carved lime- "This is a blue-collar, working-class retiring last month, was selected as the “It was just about being more open, stone window lintels, while inside, department. That’s who I am. I’m not interim chief to help guide a “period of transparent, honest, broad-minded and the detail repeats on interior doors afraid to roll up my sleeves and get healing” and take the department in a really bringing in people from various and the sanctuary’s coffered ceiling. dirty.” “different direction,” explained Nancy backgrounds.” Stacks of flattened squares make up Shifting from a department as large Bolton, a Palm Beach County govern- Mackey played a role in hiring as his other interior doors and in the choir as Palm Beach County’s should be a ment executive. successor the first African American screen behind the altar. simple transition, Mackey explained.