A winter heating issue at Antioch College has prompted a venue change — but not a pause — for two upcoming events sponsored by Mad River Theater Works.

A poetry event on Thursday, Feb. 20, and a hip-hop performance on Friday, Feb. 21, originally slated for the Foundry Theater, will now be held at the Herndon Gallery after a boiler malfunction and subsequent water damage closed the Foundry, as well as the Wellness Center and the Art and Science Building.

Via the college’s website last week, Antioch officials said replacement parts for the failed boiler have arrived and been installed, but the Foundry remains closed while damage from frozen and burst geothermal lines is assessed. The move comes with reduced capacity; advance ticket registration is strongly encouraged. Parking for the events is available behind the Olive Kettering Library.

The Wellness Center reopened Wednesday, Feb. 11, with staff noting that the pool and spa are closed until water can be returned to an appropriate temperature.

Full information on the closures and updates are being posted online at antiochcollege.edu.

Speaker series: Ross Gay, janan alexandra

The first of the two events, set for Friday, Feb. 20, will feature a joint reading and conversation from poets Ross Gay and janan alexandra as part of a continuing speaker series.

Mad River Theater Works Managing Director Chris Westhoff said the idea for the event began with Gay, a well-known contemporary poet and essayist whose work he felt would resonate strongly with a local audience.

“He’s very attuned to people’s struggles in all different ways, but his focus, at least in his work, remains in areas of joy and what he calls ‘delight,’” he said.

Westhoff described the evening as a shared reading, noting that Gay and alexandra are colleagues who know each other well and who both teach writing at Indiana University. Gay, he said, suggested inviting alexandra to join him for the inaugural event.

alexandra, who spoke with the News this week, is both a poet and a self-described “burgeoning writer of nonfiction,” and said Gay’s invitation for her to co-headline the event is an extension of a professional and personal relationship shaped by magnanimity.

“He’s a very generous person and friend and mentor in my life,” she said. “He often brings people into things.”

alexandra’s debut poetry collection “come from” was published last year, and she said she often writes from a place of close observation of her own inner life, her body and the world around her — her “experience of being alive.”

“It’s beautiful to take notice — to notice what moves us, to be interested in how our mind works,” she said.

Taking notice, she said, extends outward to others as well, especially at a time when reliance on technology can create distance between people.

“Increasingly, as you disconnect — you know, have AI write your emails — people are very removed from their bodies, the wisdom and knowledge in their bodies and feeling,” she said. “I believe in the primacy of feeling.”

As an educator who has taught creative writing in a variety of settings, alexandra brings a similar philosophy to the classroom, where she said she aims to help folks be curious and connect with themselves and each other as creative beings — and to belay some of the anxiety that can sometimes be attached to the practice of writing.

“Especially in school settings, there’s so much fear connected to reading and writing and getting it right, spelling correctly, but we all use language all the time,” she said. “You know how to woo your crush via text message; you’re using the same skills in writing.”

Language — its limits, its gifts, its eccentricities, its cultural consequence — is a central theme in much of the work that populates alexandra’s book “come from,” which braids English with Arabic to explore home and family. Within the poems, alexandra’s Lebanese-American identity is reflected in exploration of both belonging and disconnection, particularly around her relationship to the Arabic language.

In “Invocation,” the opening work of “come from,” alexandra writes about calling her mother to ask for an Arabic word she’s forgotten, for which there is no English equivalent. She ends the poem by wondering:

when i can
no longer call,
what else
will have no name?

“I write in English,” alexandra said, “but I started experimenting with having a little bit of Arabic on the page, or at least transliterated Arabic as an expression of parts of my identity and things that don’t exist in English but do exist in Arabic.”

That experimentation, she said, was guided in part by formal study of Arabic while in graduate school, and in part by seeing other writers engage in “language retrieval work,” which she described as “invoking the importance of language that has been in some way lost” through “immigration or dislocation or war or colonialism.”

“I feel this very deep connection to the language,” she said. “But I’m not always legible in Arabic to other people, my identity as Arabic is questioned because I’m not fluent … and [language is] a big part of how people determine belonging. … I think some of that playing on the page and moving between voices is my own intuitive experiment in being.”

Playing on the page is a physical exercise for alexandra’s work, at least in its initial stages, as she said she writes longhand daily before later transcribing and shaping her work. Writing in this way, she said, feels like a “sanctuary,” away from the many assorted tasks that proximity to a computer might demand.

“I think writing is a very embodied practice; people think of it as happening in your head, but there’s a brain-hand connection, and writing by hand helps me find out what I’m thinking about and what I’m feeling,” she said. “My attention’s not pulled in five directions — and there’s just the pleasure of a pen, feeling that juicy connection to a page, that feels good.”

As for what she will read on Feb. 20, alexandra said she is still deciding. She often adjusts her selections based on the room, the audience and the moment. No matter what she reads, she said she hopes the audience will walk away “being filled up with good stuff.”

“Connection, care — anything that helps people build their capacity for being alive and continuing to work hard to survive and help other people survive,” she said. “I hope it’s fortifying.”

It’s a hope, she said, that’s rooted in the act of gathering during difficult times; she acknowledged that, against all odds, humans have “survived so much unspeakable brutality.” With that in mind, being together around art, she said, doesn’t mean we have to evade the painful or unresolved elements of living.

“It’s not that we’re turning away from what is devastating,” she said. “What is devastating is with us as well.”

In that sense, she said, joy and grief are not opposites, and people connecting with and caring for each other is a kind of shared endurance.

“The joy is not that we’re talking about happy things,” she said. “It’s that we’re together.”

“No More Knocking”

The following night, Friday, Feb. 21, Mad River Theater Works will present “No More Knocking,” a hip-hop performance featuring well-known area artist Tronee Threat, along with Chris., Blakk Sun and 11-year-old break dancer Kai the Action Kid.

Westhoff said the idea for the project grew directly out of a performance he heard last summer at the former community gathering space on Short Street, where Tronee Threat, Chris. and Blakk Sun performed together.

“They were both on Tron’s Short Street set last summer, and I so dug it,” Westhoff said. “It was so good. It was so life-affirming. It was so forward-thinking.”

Westhoff said he was drawn to the energy of the performances, but also to the substance of the words beneath the music.

“Sometimes hip hop is really great because the energy and the spirit is great, and the sound of it is big and full, and it’s all happening, but the content can be anything,” he said. “But with their set, there wasn’t a sentiment that didn’t mean something resonant.”

After that performance, Westhoff told Tron he wanted to find a way to bring the work into an indoor setting, and he said Tron was on board from the get-go. Thus was born “No More Knocking” — a title, Westhoff said, that communicates the show’s underlying idea: a refusal to wait for permission from entrenched systems.

“The concept is that waiting for someone to open the door for you, when that someone is the establishment, isn’t working,” he said. “So we’re not going to wait.”

Kai the Action Kid, a competitive break dancer from Columbus, will serve as a connective presence throughout the evening.

“I think his dancing is the main way he communicates to us,” Westhoff said, describing the young performer as an interlocutor between the other artists during the show.

In the tradition of some of Mad River Theater Works’ past devised performances, Westhoff said “No More Knocking” is coming together organically, with room for adjustment up until the doors open at the Herndon.

“We have the show in order,” he said. “But the way in which it comes together — all the elements will be there, and then it’ll be my job the day of to put it together. We’re really excited.”

janan alexandra and Ross Gay will read and speak Friday, Feb. 20, 7–9 p.m. “No More Knocking” will debut Saturday, Feb. 21, 7:30–9 p.m. Both events will be held in the Herndon Gallery; for more information, and to purchase tickets in advance, go to http://www.antiochcollege.edu/foundry-theater.

Around 100 villagers crowded the John Bryan Community Center’s gymnasium on Wednesday, Jan. 21, to sound off at a public forum hosted by the James A. McKee Association. The topic was Short Street — whether to re-open the downtown road to vehicular traffic, keep it closed in perpetuity as a community gathering space, or come up with some kind of middle ground.

A handful of folks went to the mic to weigh in — from advocates of needed accessibility and more downtown parking to hacky sack enthusiasts who found a home on Short Street. No consensus was reached nor were any decisions made — but that may come on Monday, Feb. 2, at the next Village Council meeting.

According to the meeting agenda, which can be read on page 10 of this week’s issue of the News, Village Manager Johnnie Burns, Assistant Manager Elyse Giardullo and Police Chief Paige Burge will lead a one-hour discussion and presentation on the future of Short Street.

The ostensible goal of the presentation will be to fill the Council and public on a greater breadth of pilot project details: costs, visions, mock ups, renderings, traffic studies — “Anything you need to make the best decision,” Burns said, alluding to a potential vote on whether or not to reopen Short Street.

Thousands of neighbors to Yellow Springs’ north may be the targets of a possible large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation to take place in the coming weeks.

According to reporting earlier this week by the Springfield News-Sun, Springfield officials are bracing for a heightened presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents in the city beginning Wednesday, Feb. 4 — the day after Springfield’s estimated 15,000 Haitian residents will lose their Temporary Protected Status.

The supposed operation will last at least 30 days, according to the report.

TPS is an immigration designation that allows people from countries experiencing political unrest — such as Haiti — to emigrate to the U.S.; it’s what brought Haitian asylum-seekers to Springfield in greater numbers beginning in 2020, eventually becoming approximately 25% of the city’s entire population. But next week’s expiration of TPS could shift those demographics.

This anticipated ICE operation in Springfield comes on the heels considerable upheaval and mass political demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, after Border Patrol agents shot and killed two city residents over the course of January.

Whether ICE operations extend 10 miles south to Yellow Springs remains to be seen. 

At the Tuesday, Jan. 20, Village Council meeting, Council member Carmen Brown reminded the village of a few indelible truths — namely Resolution 2018-42, which states that “no Village department may use Village funds, equipment or personnel for the sole purpose of detecting or apprehending a person’s suspected immigration status, unless in response to a court order.”

“Basically,” Brown said, “Yellow Springs Police cannot help or hinder [Border Patrol].”

Learn more about the past, present and future of Springfield’s Haitian residents this Sunday, when the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship will host guest speaker, Viles  Dorsainvil, co-founder and director of the Springfield Haitian Help and Support Center. 

The News will provide future updates to any local ICE operations as they occur.

“The Penman of the Revolution: Meet the Man Who Wrote America” — the inaugural program in a planned six-part local America 250 Speaker Series — will be presented Friday, Feb. 27, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Senior Center Great Room.

The program will explore the life and legacy of John Dickinson, often called the “Penman of the Revolution,” whose writings helped shape early American ideas about rights and citizenship. The talk will be led by Jane Calvert, a national scholar, and will examine Dickinson’s Quaker-adjacent roots and his lasting influence on American political thought.

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A and dialogue with Tanya Maus, a Yellow Springs resident and director of the Quaker Heritage Center at Wilmington College.

The event is free and open to the public and is presented by the Village Public Arts and Culture Commission in conjunction with the America 250-Ohio Commission, which is coordinating statewide programming leading up to the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.

Plans for Yellow Springs’ longtime, downtown grocery store Tom’s Market to change its business model are pressing ahead. 

A press release from the Yellow Springs Community Foundation, Monday, Feb. 23, said that the foundation struck an agreement with Tom’s Market owner Jeff Gray with the goal of “transitioning the business into a form of community ownership in approximately two years.”

During this “transition period,” the statement reads, “Tom’s Market will continue operating as usual.” 

The announcement means Tom’s Market is one step closer to becoming a co-op, a cooperatively-owned grocery store in which individuals could buy ownership shares, engage in decision-making, vote on operational matters, share in profits and receive discounts on products. 

The sale price and exact terms of the agreement are confidential as dictated by the agreement, Project Manager and village resident Kumar Jensen wrote to the News. 

“That being said, I can share that the purchase will include all assets owned by the business including such things as: inventory, equipment, vendor contracts, supplier agreements, licenses, business name, etc.,” Jensen said. 

Having signed a letter of intent, both Gray and the foundation have entered into a 90-day due diligence period. 

According to Jensen, that period allows the buyer — in this case, the Yellow Springs Community Foundation — the opportunity to “do as thorough business operations as possible and complete any critical business transition tasks before the sale is finalized.”

Specifically:

• Conducting an equipment inventory and evaluation to ensure that equipment including things like refrigerators and freezers are operating as described;

• Conducting an inventory audit of all goods that will be included in the sale of the business; and

• Identify which licenses, permits and certifications will transfer with the business, versus needing new registrations.

“For example,” Jensen wrote, addressing the latter point, “We do not want to see a lapse in the grocery being able to accept SNAP, so the due diligence period gives us time to work to get the new owners authorized to accept SNAP.”

Once this 90-day due diligence period is completed, Jensen said, and if both parties are satisfied, then the sale will be completed, at which point the ownership will change hands. Until then, ownership will remain in Gray’s hands. 

“During [the due diligence] period], Jeff Gray will remain actively involved in management while YSCF recruits and trains new leadership,” reads the foundation’s press release. “YSCF has enlisted the support of local and national experts, including participating in the Food Co-op Initiative’s Co-op Conversion learning cohort and support from Co-op Dayton, to assist with transition planning and community ownership exploration.”

It continues: “Throughout the due diligence period and into new ownership, the top priority is to ensure continuation of smooth operations at the grocery store, including investing in necessary business operations, and supporting the existing staff, which are and will remain one of the biggest assets of the business.”

The foundation said its project team for the transition of Tom’s business model is committed to keeping the Yellow Springs community informed throughout the transformation process, and intends to hold a town hall in April. 

Further coverage can be found in the Feb. 28 issue of the Yellow Springs News. 

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