Lauren Shows was born to a preacher and a preacher's wife, and spent the majority of her earliest childhood years rollin' 'round the bible belt, to end up in Panama City, Florida. After graduating from Florida State University in Tallahassee, she spent the next several months in existential crisis, making lattes for snowbirds and spring-breakers, before moving to Kentucky to get an MFA in writing from Spalding University. A chance meeting at Spalding landed her in Yellow Springs. She was graciously hired by the News, though her only previous dealing with newspaper publication was in third grade, when she wrote a story about a bunch of skeletons rising from the dead on Halloween, which was printed in the Owenton News-Herald. Lauren enjoys cheese, giant squid, and Michael J. Fox.

• Concert to offer warmth in ‘midwinter’

  By Lauren ShowsJanuary 5, 2026

  

  “In the Bleak Midwinter” with Marna Street, violin, and Barbara Leeds, piano, will be performed Saturday, Jan. 10, beginning at 3 p.m., in Herndon Gallery at Antioch College. Admission is free.

• Villager gives the gift of listening

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 26, 2025

  

  Even in a small town, where people tend to know and be known by their neighbors, it’s not unusual for folks to feel alone around the holidays. With that in mind, one Yellow Springs villager is trying to meet that feeling head-on, offering a simple gift: half an hour of conversation.

• Miami Township Trustees approve new community paramedic position

  By Lauren Shows

  

  The first item Cannell brought forward for the 2026 budget was the creation of a 40-hour career community paramedic position, which the trustees unanimously approved; they later approved the hiring of Steffinie Brewer to fill the position, effective Dec. 27.

• Reichert to retire from Yellow Springs Schools

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 24, 2025

  

  A Yellow Springs graduate, JoFrannye Reichert served the district as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional before being hired as the full-time music teacher for Mills Lawn in 2007.

• Aid mounts for Yellow Springs’ Haitian neighbors

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 22, 2025

  

  For Springfield’s estimated 15,000 Haitian residents, their Temporary Protected Status designation is set to be revoked on Feb. 3, 2026. In the meantime, Springfield’s Haitian Support Center, or HSC — which marked its two-year anniversary last week — has mobilized to meet needs for Haitian residents.

• Meet your community outreach specialists

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 16, 2025

  

  When federal SNAP benefits stalled this fall, Yellow Springs’ safety nets snapped taut in an effort to catch as many affected folks as possible. Among those nets, and often helping bind them together, are the YS Police Department’s Community Outreach Specialists Florence Randolph and Danny Steck.

• Duke Ellington’s ‘Nutcracker Suite,’ string-style, at the Foundry

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 11, 2025

  

  String super-group Mr Sun will bring their reimagined version of the suite to the Foundry Theater on Thursday, Dec. 11: A string-band take on the suite based, in part, on Tchaikovsky’s original, but mostly on the 1960 big-band-inflected reworking by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn — a reinterpretation of a reinterpretation.

• 25 years of Ms. Demure

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 9, 2025

  

  This month, Ms. Demure will host a live holiday program on DATV featuring a number of guests — including Yellow Springs’ own Mayor Pam Conine — in celebration of the season, Ms. Demure’s 60th birthday, and 25 years on DATV’s airwaves.

• Take yourself on a tour, learn about Black history in Yellow Springs

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 6, 2025

  

  The self-guided tour pairs permanent markers with an online map and historical notes designed for residents and visitors to follow on their own.

• Villager’s new novel heads west

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 2, 2025

  

  “As with Geisel’s earlier work, the physical settings in ‘Orcas’ Call’ map directly onto real places: Orcas Island, the Salish Sea, the Olympic Peninsula.”