Glenda Prado had always been skeptical of shamanic healing practices. As a child growing up in Ecuador, she had watched her mother and grandmother use plants and herbs for medicinal and spiritual purposes, yet she refused to adhere to their vocation. “I didn’t believe it,” Prado said. “I thought it was foolish — my mother working with shamanic herbs.”

After nearly a decade of success under the guidance of Valerie Blackwell-Truitt, the Yellow Springs Community Dance Concert has a new face — three new faces, to be exact.

Harold Wright has what is sometimes referred to as a “hard head.” The stubbornness of this 79-year-old retired college professor has been one of few consistencies in a life that has taken him to places as distant as Hawaii, Tokyo and New York City.

Filmmaker and villager Vanessa Query, left, has organized a festival of original short films that will be shown at the Little Art Theatre at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 21. She is shown with Little Art -Executive Director Jenny Cowperthwaite, who is enthusiastic about providing a venue for independent filmmakers.

While church basements tend to be the place for after-service coffee hours and socials, the basement of the Yellow Springs United Methodist Church will soon veer off the traditional path and host vegetables. Beginning this Saturday, Jan. 9, from 9 a.m. to noon, the church will sponsor its first winter farmers market.

In many classic children’s stories, seemingly common and mundane entrances disguise the most fantastical places. For Alice, the gateway to Wonderland was through a rabbit hole, while the four Pevensie siblings discovered the bewitching world of Narnia through an old wardrobe. The driveway to Erik and Deirdre Owen’s home is no different. Looking (and feeling) […]

Jalana Lazar’s stint with the Peace Corps in Madagascar began inauspiciously. On her first day in the country, she was driven to the village of Nosiarina and dropped off with little fanfare. Remembering her initial dismay, she said, “They left me on the side of the road with a bike and my steel trunk.” She figured out the logistics of her new life on her own.

The abundance of musicians and music lovers is part of what makes the village unique, and among those bands, one stands out, not only for its music, but also because of its history.

There are many differences in the lives of good friends Diana Scott and Donna Lynn Johnson. A practicing nurse as well as the owner of Scott Street Tavern in Springfield, Scott is also a film student at Wright State University and the mother of two children. Johnson has a teenage son and is the owner of the Main Squeeze on Xenia Avenue. In her spare time, she runs a food consulting company and previously held positions with companies like Dole and Safeway Manufacturing in her native California.

There is, however, something that is bringing these two seemingly divergent lives together: a joint venture that they have named Mad River Films.

The local artist and new business owner is working to make sure that desire becomes a reality with Getaways for Women, a retreat service that she hopes will introduce area women to the village’s many resources.

With all the abundance and richness in town, “I’m like a connector,” Mellon said. “I’m a local host.”