The balance between being a pastor and a reporter is sometimes difficult for me, in that I bring Pastor Aaron to interviews and stories where I should be looking with the eyes of a journalist.

Only Raymond Ruka could have the tribal standing to extend the invitation that has brought three Maori tribal elders all the way from New Zealand to Yellow Springs. 

I’ve noticed that many around us are feeling overwhelmed and fatigued. Through listening, I’ve learned that what many of us are experiencing in this intensity for the first time is what billions of people of color feel each and every day.

“This is project-based learning in its true form,” 2015 Yellow Springs High School graduate David Butcher says of his food-truck business Flyby BBQ that will be in the village on Aug. 16.

Now that Ms. Mary McDonald — Ms. Mac — has passed on and the legal statute of limitations has run out, I can tell a story that underscores the point about how she helped students take important risks.

Yellow Springs resident Issa Walker was in Detroit visiting a radio studio owned by legendary rapper Eminem. He was offered the microphone as a beat he had never heard started to play. Issa Ali did not hesitate.

Crisbin Antonio, whose face and New Orleans Grill food truck are likely more familiar to villagers than is his name, has been in the same spot for nearly eight years, between the Post Office and Nipper’s Corner, selling bourbon chicken.

Yellow Springs is filled with major talent. We have luminaries in all the artistic fields. But no single name in the world of hip-hop calls Yellow Springs home. That is changing. Issa is on the rise.

John Gudgel has had family in Yellow Springs since the 1890s; Kevin McGruder came to the village via Antioch College only five years ago. Together, these two historians are trying to preserve some vital local history that is in danger of being lost.

What do you do if in preschool you were winning all the footraces by running backwards while everyone else sprinted?