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.

• Mark Lomax Quartet to celebrate ‘A Love Supreme’ anniversary at Foundry

  By Lauren ShowsJanuary 17, 2025

  

  Dr. Mark Lomax II, who performed in Yellow Springs in fall of 2023 as part of the Foundry Theater at Antioch College’s inaugural season of programming, will return to the Foundry with the Mark Lomax Quartet on Saturday, Jan. 18, to mark the 60th anniversary of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme.”

• 2024 In Review | Village Life

  By Lauren ShowsJanuary 16, 2025

  

  Milestones were reached, celebrations held, good causes supported and more in 2024 — just another year of typical village life in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

• A beloved and well-fed community

  By Lauren Shows

  

  On the third Saturday of each month, there’s a kind of family meal at First Presbyterian Church. The Beloved Community Project, which hosts the free monthly meals, considers anyone who crosses the threshold to be family — come on out, no questions asked, and you’ll be fed.

• 2024 In Review | Education

  By Lauren ShowsJanuary 6, 2025

  

  From ongoing facilities improvements, transfers of school property to incoming and outgoing educators — 2024 was a great year for education in Yellow Springs.

• Celebrate unity, Haitian Independence

  By Lauren ShowsJanuary 2, 2025

  

  The Haitian Community Alliance, or HCA, is sponsoring a “Celebration of Unity” event, to be held Saturday, Jan. 4, at the Metropolis of Springfield. The event, which is free and open to all, will feature Haitian food, performances by Haitian singers and dancers and Yellow Springs’ own World House Choir, and panelists who will speak on Haitian history.

• School board talks ongoing initiatives, later erupts

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 26, 2024

  

  Though the bulk of the school board’s most recent regular meeting Thursday, Dec. 12, was business as usual, the meeting’s last half hour was a return to the heightened tensions that have marked several of the board’s public interactions over the last few months.

• Local nonprofit YS Emergency Assistance provides financial help ‘right now’

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 24, 2024

  

  The longtime local nonprofit YS Emergency Assistance, or YSEA — a charitable group previously known as STARFISH — works to help folks living in Yellow Springs with one-time gifts of financial assistance.

• Stage presents

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 21, 2024

  

  The cast and crew of the middle and high school winter play: The Brothers Grimm Spectaculation,” successfully mounted four performances of the madcap show last week.

• Story Chain makes connections through voice

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 17, 2024

  

  For a decade, local nonprofit Story Chain has worked to connect loved ones who can’t physically be together through the power of the voice. Since its founding, the Yellow Springs-based nonprofit has run successful programs at Dayton Correctional Institution, and in Greene, Montgomery and Clark County jails.

• Checking in with the Little Art Theatre

  By Lauren ShowsDecember 15, 2024

  

  The Little Art Theatre is moving toward its 95th birthday next year with some updates already in its pocket — and more on the horizon.