With Kids

 
The 20^th annual East Lansing Summer Solstice Jazz Festival is set for Friday, June 17 and Saturday, June 18 in downtown East Lansing. The Festival showcases a variety of jazz talent and styles spread out across several locations including the Main State at 230 Albert Avenue, the MSU Outreach & Engagement Education Stage on the Ann Street Plaza, and the Fieldhouse Craft Sports Bar at 213 Ann Street.

Photo: The Accidentals, of Traverse City

The seventh annual Pumpstock Festival will take place Saturday, June 4^th from 2:00pm – 8:00 pm at East Lansing’s Bailey Park. Pumpstock is an annual outdoor concert event that lets area residents hear nationally recognized musical acts in a fun, family-friendly setting.

The cost is a $10 suggested donation per adult, and kids attend free. All donations go to the artists.

With summer headed toward  East Lansing, we will be seeing more and more green outdoors. If you want to add a touch of green to the indoors - without extensive care - terrariums are a great way to add a low maintenance garden to any space.

Don’t let your black thumb steer you away from trying a terrarium. There are plants that even the most inexperienced gardeners won’t be able to kill.

Editor’s note: The author, Shannon Schmoll, PhD, is Director of MSU’s Abrams Planetarium. The photograph above is of SunSpotter in use showing an image of the sun.

When people think of astronomy, they often think of the stars and planets in the darkness of night. However, we have a rare treat of a daytime astronomical event coming up. On Monday, May 9, 2016, the planet Mercury will transit in front of the sun. Weather permitting, East Lansing residents will be able to observe the phenomenon as explained below.

Art on display at the Marriott as part of the Art for Charlie exhibition.

Five-year-old Charlie Waller may have died from terminal brain cancer in 2011, but his legacy continues through the Art for Charlie Foundation, created in his honor to help families dealing with children’s hospice care or the loss of a child. Currently, Art for Charlie is hosting an art show now through May 1 at the East Lansing Marriott at University Place (300 M.A.C. Avenue).

Two student deaths at East Lansing High School in the course of a month have saddened many in the community. At ELi, we feel the impact not only as East Lansing residents but as parents; my son only recently left our public schools and Publisher Alice Dreger’s son is still a student at ELHS. One of our reporters, Danny Kaplowitz, is himself a student at ELHS, and our board Vice President, Vic Loomis, is a graduate of ELHS and has children at the school. I could go on and on with this list.

All of Us Express Children’s Theatre (AECT) presents “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” this coming weekend and next.

This classic story by C. S. Lewis is, according to the East Lansing Recreation & Arts website, “set in the land of Narnia,” and “faithfully recreates the magic and mystery of Aslan, the great lion, his struggle with the White Witch, and the adventures of four children who inadvertently wander from an old wardrobe into the exciting, never-to-be-forgotten Narnia.”