Celebrating Bethlehem's Southside Culture
Tiffany Schmidt, Lehigh University graduate of English and author of several young adult novels, walked up to the podium of a Lehigh Notations series on a recent March evening. Smiling gently at the crowd, she clutched a hard copy of one of her novels, Hold Me Like a Breath, in her hand. Her other publications include Send Me…
“I’ve always wanted to start a band, and I just decided to do that this past December,” John Sears shared on the patio outside of Southside 313, sitting across the table from his fellow guitarist Nick Baranowski. Sears is the frontman, guitarist, and vocalist of John Sears and the Stock Music Company. Dragging on his…
In my April 4th talkback on Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife, the audience and I considered the film’s use of history to comment on the present. Just as significant, however, was the film’s sustained animal motif in its commentary on the Holocaust. The film tells the true story of Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who operate…
In 2012, wife and husband team Ellen and Tom decided to take a plunge and bring their 20-year idea into real life. As hobby-artists, the Flynn’s expressed their frustration for years over a common hurdle that many amateur artists experience – a lack of space to create. For years, Ellen recalled, they vented their frustration,…
Origin Story Dave Fry knew that Bethlehem needed a unique space for music lovers, and since founding Godfrey Daniels, a folk music listening room and performance club, in 1976, he and his club have done nothing but thrive. Providing a listening space away from the busy night scene, Fry and his friends created Godfrey Daniels…
In the most recent Tuesday Talkback, the SteelStacks audience and I considered Niki Caro’s 2017 Holocaust film, The Zookeeper’s Wife. Based on real events, this movie tells the story of a Polish woman and her husband (Antonina and Jan Zabinski), who run a Warsaw zoo at the dawn of World War II. When the Nazis…
Since 2016, The Mellon Digital Humanities Initiative at Lehigh University has offered an annual free film series at the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas that brings community members together to discuss innovative and timely cinematic works. This year’s spring series focuses on the theme of migration and gives attendees the opportunity to engage with important issues…
Café The Lodge: Recovery Through Art and Food “We’re proud of how involved we are in the community,” says Ian Panyko, Director of Café The Lodge. “People really love the mission.” Ian joined the Lodge in 2011 after obtaining his degree in Clinical and Counseling Psychology from Kutztown University. Originally a “Recovery Coach,” since then,…
For the past five years, I’ve had the pleasure of serving on the Cinema Committee and hosting a weekly film discussion series at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks. Our weekly film discussions are called the Tuesday Talkback and provide a unique opportunity to share stimulating conversation with audiences about a wide range of movies, from…
On Tuesday, March 21st, South Side Bethlehem residents packed the Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas to view the documentary After Spring. The documentary portrays the five-year odyssey of Syrian refugees settled in and around one of the world’s largest refugee camps in Zaatari, Jordan. Organized through Lehigh University’s MDHI-funded Communities Film Series 2017 with its exigent focus on…