First we go out, we get some pizza at Bimbo’s or Bilbo’s, then, depending on which day it is, we go to Olde Peninsula, Shakespeare’s, or Green Top Tavern.  Now we’re hungover.  Now we need coffee.

Since most of the Kosmopolitan’s readership are students at Kalamazoo College, let’s talk about why you feel comfortable/need to get out of Biggby’s in the library.  I sit with egregiously caffeinated beverage in hand and think about how, if my heart wasn’t so much a-racin’, I would go upstairs and get that homework done.  Instead, I sit around in the Biggby’s lounge and talk to my employee friends.  Fine.  You come to the library every day to read, learn, and get coffee, but doesn’t that wear out its purpose pretty quickly?  Isn’t going to the library to do homework going to get old fast?

If you go downtown, ah ha!  Now you’ve got the off-campus energy, vigor, and CAFFEINE CAFFEINE CAFFEINE to get over that interminable homework hump!  So let’s start with the most likely coffee joint you’ll visit: The Strutt at 773 W. Michigan.  I go to The Strutt pretty often.  The coffee isn’t any better than anywhere else, the ambiance isn’t any less pretentious than other coffee joints, but I’m bound to see one or two friends and hear one or two good songs over the speakers.  If anything else, The Strutt has some nice eye-candy on the interior: t-shirts hanging in the corner, an interesting ordering area, and a new polished, wooden bar that looks like it came right out of the forest.  Coffee prices are a little high and the menu doesn’t include many more flavorful drinks that you’d expect, but the place is also a restaurant, bar, and concert space.  If you’re not in the mood for coffee, grab a beer and a delicious pizza, which sport some ingredients you won’t be able to find anywhere else in town.

Okay, read on if you’re feeling particularly adventurous, because we’re going downtown.  Near the Kalamazoo Public Library is a nice nook called Something’s Brewing (120 W. South).  This skinny coffee bar has only a few tables but is rarely busy, so head down to it if you need a book from the KPL and a quiet place to work.  Coffee is cheap at SB, but the service is slow; sometimes I wait up to five minutes for a simple espresso drink.  The two or three different bariste who have waited on me have been exceptionally nice, though, and I don’t mind waiting an extra minute to support a local business rather than the interminable Biggby’s or Starbucks.

Now onto my favorite downtown coffee bar, Caffe Casa at 128 S. Kalamazoo Mall.  Like The Strutt, Caffe Casa doesn’t have the best coffee in town (that distinction belongs to the next coffee joint), and it certainly doesn’t have the best ambiance.  Instead, you walk in and wonder why there are so many plants in the corner and why the loud techno music is trying to push you back out the door.  The bariste are…strange.  I’ve had some interesting experiences at Caffe Casa, including one during which I was being stung by an insect trapped on the inside of my shirt.  Another was on New Year’s Eve, when I was questioned ad infinitum by one of the bariste for wearing a tie.  Caffe Casa is a great place with a large bar at which to sit (I’ve sat at the tables – it’s just not as good) and a decently large coffee menu; the pastries are very good too, especially the molasses cookies with lemon frosting.

Inside Water Street Coffee Joint

Last but certainly not least is Water Street Coffee Joint, located at 315 E. Water.  This one’s a little off the beaten path, but the coffee is definitely worth it.  Upon entering, you realize that this a big stop on the morning commute: it has a relatively small interior which facilitates fast entry, fast exit, and a bunch of little Water Street knick-knacks lining the wall.  The food cooler in the front of the store, which you’ll inevitably stare at as you wait for your coffee, has some delicious looking (and tasting) food inside, including various breads, dips, sandwiches, and salads.  The staff is constantly friendly and always willing not only to take your order and apologize if they’ve kept you waiting, but also to make small talk.  With reasonable prices, Water Street definitely has the best coffee in town, especially they’re whole-bean stuff (assuming you’ve got a grinder); just make sure you’re up to the walk from the W. Main neck-of-the-woods.

That’s it ladies and gentlemen.  I appreciate everyone reading the Kalamazoo Comparisons and hope that they’ll at least get you off campus once or twice.  It may be cold, but it won’t be for long, so keep good ole Basel in mind the next time you feel like pizza, beer, or coffee.

I told myself that if I was going to apply for Teach for America, that at least I was going to be honest about it.  So on January 31 I wrote what amounted to a tirade featuring the F-word on five distinct occasions. I focused on three main issues. 1) That TFA does not directly address systematic issues of inequality, and perhaps even perpetuates inequality by “plugging the cracks in the damn” of demographic disparity within public schools. 2) That for many, TFA is an extremely logical choice following undergrad, especially in the perceived presence of an unfriendly job market, when the job in fact demands heart and dedication in lieu of mere career-jockeying, and 3) TFA’s lack of presence within Detroit Public Schools, especially in light of their student’s recent fecal matter-rivaling test scores.  My goal was to poke and prod TFA, and then schedule an interview with a recruitment officer, all cards on the table.  By the time I had hung up the phone, I was singing a different tune.  While idealists they may be, the people and the organization of TFA are not disillusioned.  Their work appears to be a methodical and heartfelt defense of an educational institution that is central to the fulfillment of fundamental American principles.

Lady Bird Johnson, the First Lady, reading to children enrolled in Project Head Start at Kemper School in Washington, DC. Source: National Archives

TFA uses what I deem the “See What I Mean” tactic in order to approach a situation where two high schools within the same school district are unequal in both funding and student performance.  Essentially,  they hope experience will lead to critical understanding, which will lead to administrative and influential positions for corps alumni, which will ultimately result in the sustainable affecting of systems.  While this may not be the school board-evicting expletive-tipped door kicking I was hoping for, their system has the potential to affect more sustainable change within our nation’s public education systems over the next 10-25 years than a bureaucratic blitzkrieg would accomplish in a short sprint.  Understandably, TFA must be diplomatic in their undertakings even while the problem they combat is completely obvious and intolerable: personal liberty-driven American citizens failing at school (or vice-versa?).  My interview made clear that corps members hold standards in the underperforming classrooms they inherit to the highest level.  When pressed on the issue of enacting change from the school board or superintendent level, much depends on TFA’s relationship with a particular district. The one thing they do not want to do as an organization is to incite a bad relationship with a potentially prosperous school district. In Detroit, for example, a reader’s comment suggested that powerful teacher unions have a heavy hand in keeping TFA out of DPS, whereas in St. Louis, as much as 50% of new hires come through TFA.  Elsewhere, corps alumni are positioned to oversee operations from roles such as principals and deciders within hiring divisions, with the organization supporting specific “alumni initiatives” that seem to focus on an increased investment in this current “TFA—>inspiration—>career action” model.

The organization continues to effectively and aggressively recruit new corps members, somewhat ironically when considering the corp’s seeming popularity regardless of contact from the organization.   Following my initial article, I requested an interview, and by the following morning, I was speaking with my representative for half an hour–and she had read my article.  While it may seem like one fewer recruitment officer or other staff member would equal one more corps member in the classroom, and thus thirty or so more children positively affected, I respect their prerogative of continued growth through highly-screened college graduates.  This year TFA will place around 4,200 new corps members, as compared to around 3,600 in 2008.  What it was they were actually screening for, however, was another question, as I dubiously navigated through optional responses for information regarding everything from my gender and “ethnicity” to the number my father sees when he opens his paycheck. The weight these identifiers would hold within the admissions process was unclear.  With diversity as a goal of the growth plan, the current demographic of 70% of corp members identifying as Caucasian, and 68% as non-male would indicate that the optimal identity would be a non-Caucasian male.  The “Who we’re looking for” section of the website, however, stated outright that recruitment officers “seek individuals… who have what it takes to excel as teachers and to ultimately exert broader societal influence in our nation… [recognizing] there is no one profile of an ideal applicant. Ultimately, we look for individuals who have achieved results and demonstrated a range of leadership qualities – not just in one particular area.” The tribe of OTHER/BLANK gained another disciple.  American was not an option.

I submitted what I considered to be an honest application that represented me with integrity, with a resume highlighting leadership roles and community work in lieu of the driving feats I had previously showcased in an attempt to entice Car and Driver. Sitting with a friend a few days later, she asked me one simple question.  The question. “So why do you want to Teach for America?” I spurted on about how it was the right thing to do, how working for TFA is a good thing to do, but I could tell she was becoming increasingly unsatisfied with my responses. I paused and collected my thoughts before continuing on with what I was really trying to say: I believe that we are investing too much in the countries of Afghanistan and Iraq, and not enough in our own, evident in the federal budget.  There is a way to efficiently invest in the global economy that encourages American jobs and healthy diplomatic relationships abroad.  I believe that a reinvestment in American soil and American citizens will provide the greatest opportunity not just for individual prosperity and the ability to pursue one’s notion of happiness, but security as well. I believe that the ability to be able to choose what one does with one’s life is a fundamentally American principle, a principle that fuels the momentum of our country.  I believe that the key to access this personal liberty is found in schools, through education, and that without an effective education, one looses the potency of personal liberty, and thus the ability to choose the direction of one’s life.  According to her 2009 book The Power of a Promise: education and economic renewal in Kalamazoo, Michelle Miller-Adams points to a 20.8 percent dropout rate in the Kalamazoo Public Schools community, 65% of whose students qualify for federally-funded free or reduced lunch (162, 16).  To me, that 21 % of the population is now incapable of allowing personal liberty to dictate the direction of their lives, people whose lives could very well now dictate that direction for them, and perhaps even those of their children.

My subsequent half-hour phone interview is scheduled for this Friday, March 5 at 6:50 pm EST.

The preceding views expressed are solely those of the author, and do not represent those of The Kosmopolitan Online or its contributors.

Western Michigan University’s recent foray into the world of Shakespeare adopts a much more musical stance on the bard’s work. As You Like It was performed on the campus one hundred years ago, well before the university had a theater department, and was brought back as a centennial piece. The most impressive part of the production is the adaptation of Shakespeare’s notably lackluster musical numbers to a more modern stage.

What really sets this performance apart was the constant use of music, featuring Shakespeare’s original lyrics set to new musical scores by Sean Buckley. One of the greatest comical moments of the play came from its redeemers, the long list of bards and minstrels, who sing a medley of current and classic songs adapted to fit the scene. It was almost a Monty Python-esque moment as Jaques (Mitch Voss) commanded the Duke’s favorite musicians, who faithfully followed him in exile to the forest of Arden, to play.

The surprising use of music continued with Orlando (Chase LaPla), who did a great job of conveying emotion with and without the use of his voice. His initial love-struck silence upon meeting Rosalind (Jenna D’Angelo) filled the stage wonderfully and got as many laughs as anything else in the play. Even after he found his voice, he continued to surprise the crowd. He performed a love song, which he wrote with some inspiration from the Bard, and sung in the trademark iambic pentameter.

The comedic timing was wonderful as even the fence used on set was repeatedly the butt of jokes.  Rosalind and Celia (Therese Anderbergs) were playful and believable cousins and a joy to watch. Their pinky swearing throughout the play was over the top, and a pleasant touch. Rosalind’s masculine façade, Ganymede, was a powerful and controlling force, and her mocked baritone and awkward adaptations of man-nerisms, including upper arm punches and slightly confused bows, were nice additions.

The clown of the play, Touchstone (Louis Sallan) fit his role well, chasing his woman Audrey (Kenzie Ross) across the stage, and through the audience. Audrey spent every moment flirting with the closest man on hand, including or excluding her clown intended. Her coy seducer was the perfect foil to William’s (Joe Seibert) extreme and unrequited devotion. William constantly flung himself at the feet of his love, Phebe (Janai Travis), pleading with her and yelling out his love to the rafters. Phebe showed nothing but cold disinterest in the pathetic and smitten William, latching herself obsessively to Rosalind’s Ganymede, going so far as goosing and hair-inhaling.

The music and strong characters really make this production worth the trek over to Western’s campus. Personally, I thought nothing could save Shakespeare’s musical numbers, and was thrilled to see all the live music in the show.

As You Like It runs through Feb26 at 8pm in the Gilmore Theatre Complex’s Shaw Theatre. Admission for the general public is $20, $15 for seniors and WMU faculty/staff, and $5 for students.