A metal sunflower now stands in front of the Oregon Cheese Cave in downtown Phoenix as a tribute to the community’s resilience five years after the devastating Almeda Fire. Cheese cave owner Mélodie Picard, who spurred the idea, said the metal sunflower is a “sign of hope” that the town has made it five years since the Labor Day blaze.
Local artists talked about their work, what peace means — through sculpture, painting, and poetry at the Langford Art Gallery in Phoenix, during “VISIONARY: Art from the Heart,” part of the Ashland Culture of Peace Commission’s 10th anniversary and observance of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace.
The art of fermentation takes center stage again Sept. 20-21 as Fermentopia, Harvest Edition, serves up a second helping in Phoenix — a weekend celebrating flavor, culture and connection.
Mary Martin was one of about 20 people who gathered on the lawn of the 1st Phoenix Presbyterian Church in Phoenix on Monday morning to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Almeda Fire, which burned more than 2,600 households out of their homes in Phoenix, Talent and south Medford on Sept. 8, 2020.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival is moving forward on two fronts this fall: keeping audiences engaged with a lively monthly screening series and welcoming longtime programmer Aura Johnson as its new director of programming.
Ryan Pfeil: On my eldest daughter’s first day of kindergarten, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, the day after Labor Day, a column of smoke that seems to reach 10,000 feet high dances on the horizon with an imprecise cruelty. I watch it as I shovel clothes and important documents — whatever the hell you’re supposed to grab first if a fire is bearing down on your home — into my truck.
As Talent and Phoenix mark five years since the devastating Almeda Fire, Talent Maker City, a local nonprofit, will host several events, including workshops to preserve dozens of murals around Talent and an event on pet preparedness.
The Ashland Family YMCA has always had an internal safety plan, says Heidi Hill, chief executive of the organization. But not until last fall did the nonprofit have a specific plan for a wildfire evacuation on the books. It is the first local organization to ask Ashland Emergency Management Coordinator Kelly Burns how to make such a plan.
Ashland’s Parks & Recreation Commission plans to vote Sept. 10 on a nearly $3.4M budget—up $500,000 from earlier estimates. Phase one won’t include a playground, but commissioners say it’s time to move forward.
An Ashland artist was given a chance to paint a special mural, one that might help those who are in need. With a mandate to “engage and possibly lighten the load of the people passing beside it,” muralist Sarah Bernard began what would become a four-month project painting a mural on a dining room wall at the OHRA homeless shelter in Ashland.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc lobortis enim non odio vulputate, sit amet dapibus ligula dictum. Proin consectetur fringilla dapibus. Pellentesque et dolor iaculis, ullamcorper turpis faucibus,
Ask Strider: A worried older brother asks our advice columnist’s advice. And a dog’s guardian wants to know if there is any hope getting their hat-hating dog to calm down. As always, Strider tries to give words that help!
After a successful production of “The Vagina Monologues” and raising more than $2,000 for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, Ashland actor and director Lia Dugal intends for “The Climate Monologues” to premiere in Oregon in late 2025 or early 2026 at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.
It’s complicated.
Herbert Rothschild: Whether visualization and intention by themselves can effect broad social change is impossible to determine, but the question merits sustained consideration.
(It’s free)
