Northern Michigan Arts & Culture

This week on Points North, a decline in lake whitefish is pushing tribal commercial fishermen to the northern edge of their treaty waters. Plus, we look at test results for PFAS contamination in Michigan’s public water and meet a funk band from Boyne City.

Homeless shelters and nonprofits are getting headcounts of the homeless across the country this month. The data goes to the federal government for homelessness prevention. But this year's count in northern Michigan happened to fall on one of the coldest nights of the year.

Gillian Flynn is best known as the author of “Gone Girl.” She also wrote the screenplay of the film version. Since then, Gillian has written more for the big and small screen. She co-wrote the screenplay for the 2018 film “Widows,” as well as the TV adaptation of her book “Sharp Objects.” She also wrote the series “Utopia,” which will be released by Amazon this year. Doug Stanton spoke to Gillian at the Traverse City Opera House in April 2013. She told him she loved macabre stories since she was a child, when her father played her movies that were possibly inappropriate for her age.

Harlan Coben has published over 30 novels. His book "Tell No One" was made into a film of the same name. In the past few years, Harlan’s created three TV shows available on Netflix: No Second Chance, The Five, and Safe. His latest novel “Run Away” will come out in March of this year. Doug Stanton spoke with Harlan on the stage of the Traverse City Opera House in July 2015. At that time, his book “The Stranger” had just come out. Doug asked Harlan to tell him about how he balances his work with his family life.  

Greg Iles is known for his Penn Cage series of thrillers that take place in Natchez, Mississippi. Iles’s newest book, coming out in March 2019, is “Cemetery Road.” It’s a stand-alone novel of friendship, betrayal, and secrets that threaten to destroy a small Mississippi town. Doug Stanton talked with Greg Iles at the Traverse City Opera House in April 2017. At that time, his book “Mississippi Blood” had just been released.  It’s the third book in his Natchez Burning trilogy. Greg Iles began writing the trilogy while recovering from a traffic accident that almost killed him.

A new contemporary music ensemble has formed at Interlochen Arts Academy. On Friday night, the group will perform a piece called “Workers Union,” written by Louis Andriessen in 1975.

Last week we had very good Nordic ski conditions; waxing was easy and skating was fast. Here are a few highlights of the slip-sliding and ski-gliding possibilities this weekend.

Last Saturday, nearly 1,600 hungry people stopped by the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City. It was the 28th annual Downtown Chili Cook-Off and this year visitors tasted 20 different varieties from local restaurants. 

When the lumber industry moved into northern Michigan’s forests, settlements popped up everywhere. But when the trees were gone, the lumber camps moved on to new areas and the communities left behind would often fade away.

A new documentary tells the story of why the village of Interlochen was different.

The city of Ludington recently installed a new synthetic ice rink downtown, right in the middle of James Street Plaza.

A quarter mile into the woods at Michigan Legacy Art Park in Thompsonville, you’ll come across an outdoor amphitheater surrounded by tall trees. Around dusk on Saturday, the Benzie Central Chamber Choir filled the woods with Christmas songs.