Hope all Vegan Kalamazooans had a great summer! Join us for a pizza party at Blaze Pizza and tell us all about yours! As usual, our friends at Blaze are providing free drinks!
Date: Wednesday, September 16
Time: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Blaze Pizza, 5015 West Main Street Kalamazoo, MI
(Southwest corner Drake; ample parking)
Note: Blaze offers pizzas with Daiya vegan cheese. Click here for Blaze’s menu.
Join Vegan Kalamazoo at West Michigan’s First Annual Grand Rapids Veg Fest on Sunday, September 13th. The expo will introduce plant-based foods to the mainstream and raise awareness for healthy, compassionate and sustainable living. Everyone is welcome, so invite your friends and join the fun. Vegan and vegan-friendly businesses will be on site with product samples (vegan food and more!). Be sure to stop by the Vegan Kalamazoo table and say hello.
When: Sunday, September 13, 2015, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Where: The DeltaPlex, 2500 Turner Ave NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49544
Julie Christie narrates a study of cruelty to animals in labs, farming, the military, the fur trade, hunting, the pet food industry. The movie has a Kalamazoo connection, and one of its experts, Roger Ulrich, will be present at the showing and available for Q&A. Hosted by Laurie Oldfather, who encourages people to bring vegan finger foods to share. (She’ll provide drinks, as well as plates and utensils.) (Address is same street as Portage Central HS…south from Bacon. OK to park on front lawn if necessary.)
We had a terrific time at July’s Living Vegan get together! Eleven people attended and we discussed movies, photography, sports, and, of course, all things vegan! We also told some corny jokes, and a couple of us got in a great pool game!
We hope you’ll join us for our next get-together on Monday, August 24, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., at Jac Cekola’s Pizza in Portage.
Living Vegan is a social hour/discussion group is where we come together informally for fun times and fun discussions. Need a recipe? A vegan fashion tip? Tips for dealing with nonvegan family/friends? You’ll get it all at Living Vegan!
As always, at Vegan Kalamazoo events, everyone is welcome, including vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, and vegans-in-progress.
Our gracious host is, as always, Laurie Oldfather. You’re welcome to attend any “Living Vegan” event! RSVP requested in advance on our Meetup or Facebook page.
Join Vegan Kalamazoo for a fun, summer bonfire and barbeque! Vegan Kalamazoo events are a great place to meet like-minded people as well as catch up with old friends. Hope to see you there.
When: Thursday, July 16th 7:30 pm
Where:
Home of Katia Burke-Pappas
9559 Autumnwood Circle, Kalamazoo, Mi 49009
Directions only: samoekatia@hotmail.com (NOT for RSVP; see below)
Campfire Menu (All Vegan!)
What You Can Bring:
RSVP to join the fun!
Come one, come all, to what promises to be a unique and fantastic book club meeting. We’ll be reading pattrice jones’s The Oxen at the Intersection, and the author herself will be joining us via Skype.
Here’s Vegan Kalamazoo cofounder Hillary Rettig’s summary and review of the book (from Amazon):
“I’d give this book 10 stars if I could. It reads like the best mystery novel, only the events it describes are all true. It’s full of vivid descriptions of people, places, and motives; fascinating buried histories; and razor-sharp interpretations of a series of events that became internationally notorious, all told by someone who was at the center of it all.
“You might have heard of the plight of the Green Mountain College oxen. GMC (in Vermont) was experimenting with 19th century forms of agriculture, and used two elderly oxen, Bill and Lou, for plowing and other farm tasks. Bill and Lou were college and town mascots, supposedly beloved by all, until one day, Lou sustained a (relatively minor) injury and the college decided that both of the “beloved” oxen should be slaughtered and served up in the student cafeteria. (I am absolutely not kidding.)
“jones, who runs a sanctuary for farmed animals, offered Bill and Lou a retirement home at no cost to the College, but college administrators perversely declined–and kept declining other reasonable offers, despite local and international pleas for mercy. They were determined to kill the oxen, and eventually Lou disappeared under cover of night–presumably slaughtered, but no one knows how or what happened to his body.
“Why the College, which relentlessly claimed the moral high ground, chose to act in the “dead of night” like a criminal, I’ll let you decide for yourself.
“jones tells you the facts of the case in measured prose, trusting the inherent power of the story to manifest itself–which it does. When, starting halfway through the book, she gives you her interpretation of the various forces that conspired to “overdetermine” poor Lou’s death, you realize you have the rare privilege of witnessing a first rate mind at work. I learned so much from her analysis, and will be a better person and activist because of it.
“There is so much more I could praise–the book’s integrity and bravery, for one. But I’ll stop here. If you’re interested enough to have read this review you should just go ahead and buy the book.”
The Kalamazoo Library has copies of the book to lend, so get yours now. See you at the club!
Date / Time: Tuesday, July 14, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. (7:00 – 8:00 discussion; 8:00 – 8:45 pattrice joins us)
Where: Kalamazoo Public Library Main Branch, Board Room
RSVP: Our Meetup page.
Chris at Peace Pizzazz
Hey VK fans! I hope you are doing well and I am so excited to tell you about what Vegan Kalamazoo has been up to this past weekend! To start off, we were invited to table at the 7th Annual Peace Pizzazz, a festival for children, teens and adults aimed at promoting the Golden Rule (treat others how you want to be treated) and advocating for peace in the Kalamazoo community. We were there extending that argument to treating all sentient beings how we want to be treated.
We had a “name that fruit matching activity” and coloring sheets for the children, along with information on how to make the transition to a plant based diet for teens and adults. We answered thought provoking questions from the attendees such as, “I look pretty healthy (He did) and have been eating meat so how would you pitch me to go Vegan?” (Awesome question!) to which I responded, “The golden rule. If we don’t wish to be killed, eaten and/or held captive, then how can we support those who do that to animals by purchasing animal products?” We were also questioned about a recipe for Vegan Gumbo and found one in the Betty Goes Vegan cookbook. After visiting some of the other booths and watching the peace focused music and art performances, I feel confident that the next generation of adults growing out of this community will be more peaceful, empathetic and kind than mine.
Peace Pizzazz was organized wonderfully despite having to change location last minute due to rainy weather and we look forward to attending next year! We hope would love to share more about this event at our Vegan Potluck on June 11 2015.
Chris at the Circus Protest
The following day, we were a part of the circus protest organized by the Kalamazoo Animal Liberation League (KALL) at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center and Fairgrounds. Circus Pages was promoted as a fun and entertaining event for the family, however these type of shows are far from fun for the animals, who are often mistreated and beaten in order to learn the “tricks” they are forced to perform for the crowd. They are constantly in fear, held in small cages, and transported across the country against their will. This is the equivalent of slave labor and we wanted to attendees to be reminded of this.
As I arrived at the fairgrounds, I drove by the area where numerous animals including camels, elephants, tigers and giraffes were outside and unprotected in 50 degree rainy weather. Most of them generally looked miserable and it looked very unnatural to see them in that state. I felt even more encouraged by this and was proud to be a voice for animals who cannot speak for themselves. The number of people attending each show was around 120 and fellow veteran protesters from KALL said that this was the lowest number of attendees they had seen at the fairgrounds for circus. We are happy to announce that we were able to reduce this number even more due to our efforts! At least 10 cars of people did not attend the event after they drove by our protest at the main entrance. Many even thanked us for being out there and were happy to not attend the circus. This was the best part! To know that we helped reduce the profits of Circus Pages helps to give them an indication that what they are doing is cruel, unwanted, and should be stopped immediately.
Group shot of protesters
Veteran and rookie protesters stood together for over two hours, and we were so proud of everyone for coming out! We want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who attended! Be sure to join the Vegan Kalamazoo Meetup Group to keep updated on events like this. We would love to have you participate with us!
Chris Hendrickson
Vegan Kalamazoo
Let’s start the summer off right with a potluck!!!
When: Thursday, June 11, 6:30 pm – 9:00 p.m.
Where:
Home of LaRissa Head
4659 Blackburn Ave
Portage MI 49024
Map to house
Call (989) 327-7920 for questions or directions.
What to bring:
ALL FOOD MUST BE VEGAN (no meat, dairy, fish, honey, etc.)
If your last name begins with A-F, bring an entrée
If your last name begins with G-O, bring an appetizer or side dish
If your last name begins with P-Z, bring a dessert
LaRissa will provide beverages.
We will be selling Vegan Kalamazoo tees for $20 (cash or check to “Hillary Rettig”).
We’ll be announcing some new summer events shortly, but in the meantime please put these on your calendar:
1) Saturday, May 30, noon – 4:00 p.m. Vegan Kalamazoo will be tabling at the Peace Pizzazz festival in Bronson Park, spreading the peaceful vegan message to kids and families. Please stop by, and if you’d like to help out, email Chris.
2) Tuesday, July 14, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. The Vegan Kalamazoo Book Club meets at the Kalamazoo Public Library main branch. We’re reading The Oxen at the Intersection by pattrice jones. This is an amazing, fantastic, fun book by one of our movement’s top writers and thinkers, and pattrice herself will be participating via Skype. More info shortly, but in the meantime you can get your copy at the Library or any bookseller.
Everyone, including vegans, vegetarians, omnivores, and the veg-curious, is invited to all Vegan Kalamazoo events. Hope to see you soon!
Lots of great news and happenings to report! Vegan Kalamazoo tabled at the Marathon and the Dog Walk, so thousands more people now know that, yes, there really is a vegan Kalamazoo!
The most exciting things were:
1) The many surprised and happy shout-outs we got from vegan-friendly runners at the Marathon. And,
2) The fact that we were one of three animal rights / animal welfare organizations tabling at the Dog Walk. Also present were All Species Kinship, who brought along Rosa, an adorable rescued “spokeschicken” for compassionate living, and the Michigan chapter of the Humane Society of the United States, which does phenomenal work advocating for all sorts of animals.
When people see three booths advocating for compassionate living, our cause no longer looks fringe, but part of a powerful movement that is becoming more and more mainstream.
So, how do you like our new tee shirts? (Modeled by Hillary and Nathan Poirier, who organized the recent excellent Rewilding Conference at Aquinas College.) We’re selling them for $20–if you’d like one, email Hillary and she’ll arrange to get it to you. Remember that tee shirts, buttons, bumper stickers, letters to the editor, and other public expressions of veganism are fantastic activism! Speaking of which….
If you haven’t checked out VeganKalamazoo.com, lately, you might want to. Our Restaurants and Food Stores section now includes many great options, and we’ve also got some Vegan Neighbors for you to meet. (If you have a food entry or correction, or would like to be featured on our Neighbors page, please email Hillary.
