Profiles 64 results

Jean Magrane (left), who became Bloomington's first woman firefighter in 1987, with Greg Lucas at the “Jiffy Treat training day” in 2006. The fire department is often allowed to use condemned buildings for training purposes before the buildings are destroyed, such as the old Jiffy Treat on Kirkwood Avenue. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Jean Magrane, Firefighter

Michael G. Glab

After Jean Magrane became the city’s first female firefighter in 1987, it took years for most of her male colleagues to accept her as an equal. But she persevered because she valued the work more than any other job she’d had. Writer Michael G. Glab tells the story of this barrier-breaking firefighter. Click here to read the full story

April 19, 2018

William Morris, the attorney, radio DJ, and aspiring Episcopal deacon, says the foundation of all his work is teaching. Even on his radio show, "The Soul Kitchen," he says, "I'm teaching people different kinds of music." | Limestone Post

Big Mike’s B-town: William Morris, ‘Always Teaching’

Michael G. Glab

William Morris, the attorney, radio DJ, and aspiring Episcopal deacon, says the foundation of all his work is teaching. Even on his radio show, The Soul Kitchen, “I’m teaching people different kinds of music,” he says. Michael G. Glab writes about Morris’s rich and varied life in his column, Big Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.

February 22, 2018

3 Soap Guys Outwit National Brands Online [video]

Seth Teeters

When starting their business, Bloomington’s Soapy Soap guys created the “volcano method” of making soap. Four years later, they realized that same method would allow people to create their own customized soap — a process not offered by any other soap maker, not even national brands. Seth Teeters interviewed the soap founders in this video.

January 30, 2018

Local art lovers are anticipating the opening in April of FAR Center for the Contemporary Arts at Fourth and Rogers. Pictura owners David, left, and Martha Moore are doing more with FAR than moving their photography gallery into a historic building — they’re on a mission to “create a different experience” by bringing different kinds of art together. | Photo by Chaz Mottinger

New FAR Center Joins Arts Community at 4th & Rogers

Claude Cookman, Chaz Mottinger

Local art lovers are anticipating the opening of FAR Center for Contemporary Arts, the new art venue opening in April at Fourth and Rogers. Pictura owners David and Martha Moore are doing more than moving their photography gallery into a historic building — they’re on a mission to bring different kinds of art together. Writer Claude Cookman gives us an in-depth look at the FAR project and its creators. Click here to read the full story.

January 11, 2018

Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde is a scholar, an egungun (an ancestral priest in the Yoruba Orisa tradition), a healer, a poet, a teacher, and a birth and postpartum doula. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Abegunde, Writing to Heal

Michael G. Glab

Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde has been given many names, each one representative of her own history, her family’s history, and her Yoruba cultural heritage. And, like her names, Abegunde’s work represents the personal and the historical. LP columnist Michael G. Glab talks with the poet and scholar about her work with healing and social justice. Click here to read the full story.

November 21, 2017

From head to hoof, People & Animal Learning Services (PALS) therapy horse Daisy Mae stands a full 2 feet 4 inches tall. Shown here with a PALS team member, Daisy Mae often visits nursing homes, recreation centers, schools, therapy centers, and more, in addition to working with clients in the PALS Horsemanship Program. | Photo by Sierra Vandervort

Daisy Mae, PALS Tiny Animal Ambassador

Sierra Vandervort

She provides therapy for nearly 200 children and adults. And she’s only seven hands tall. Daisy Mae is a therapy horse at People & Animal Learning Services. Writer Sierra Vandervort talks to the PALS crew about the miniature horse affected by equine dwarfism, and the comfort she brings to people in Monroe County. Click here to read the full story.

October 3, 2017

For Kate Hess Pace, founder of the progressive grassroots group Hoosier Action, voting matters, but there are also “many, many other ways for people to build power for change.” Pictured here, members of Hoosier Action gather outside of Senator Joe Donnelly's office before meeting with his state director to discuss health care. | Courtesy photo

Big Mike’s B-town: Kate Hess Pace, Building Power for Change

Michael G. Glab

For Kate Hess Pace, founder of the progressive grassroots group Hoosier Action, voting matters, but there are also “many, many other ways for people to build power for change.” She spoke about empowering people with Michael G. Glab on his WFHB show Big Talk, and here, in Glab’s LP column Big Mike’s B-town. Click here to read the full story.

August 17, 2017

Big Mike’s B-town: Peggy

Michael G. Glab

Some folks just won’t stay down. Peggy is one of them. Through an abusive past — and a challenging present — Peggy persists. In Big Mike’s B-town, Michael G. Glab talks to someone who has experienced homelessness for almost two years. Although life always seems to knock her down, “I get back on my feet,” Peggy says. Click here to read the full story.

August 1, 2017

Big Mike’s B-town: Michael Waterford, Adventurer

Michael G. Glab

This month, adventurer and Bloomington native Michael Waterford will attempt to solo kayak the full length of the Mississippi River in record time — fewer than 42 days. Limestone Post columnist Michael G. Glab spoke to Waterford about his “Race to the Gulf” and the many trials he’ll face on the “big water.” Limestone Post will publish regular updates of Waterford’s journey. Click here to read the full story.

June 1, 2017

Big Mike’s B-town: Annette Oppenlander, Historical Novelist

Michael G. Glab

Author Annette Oppenlander thrives on historical fiction. “I must have my feet on the ground where these things happen,” she says in this installment of Michael G. Glab’s Big Mike’s B-town. Born in Germany and raised by a family that struggled to survive World War II, Oppenlander tells their stories in her fifth book, Surviving the Fatherland. Click here to read the full story.

May 16, 2017

Journalist Doug Wissing has become something of a hands-on scholar of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. After embedding with several military units and speaking with the people of Afghanistan, Wissing says he was able to see “every aspect of the war.” | Photo courtesy of US Army, Major Denton Smith

Big Mike’s B-town: Doug Wissing, Embedded Journalist

Michael G. Glab

Journalist Doug Wissing has become something of a hands-on scholar of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. After embedding with several military units, Wissing says he was able to see “every aspect of the war.” He shared his observations on the U.S. conflict in the war-torn country with Michael G. Glab. Read all about it in Glab’s column, Big Mike’s B-town.

April 13, 2017

Photo by Jim Krause, Tabletop Productions ttop.com

Big Mike’s B-town: Nancy Hiller, Cabinetmaker and Author

Michael G. Glab

Nancy Hiller went from “cobbling together” scraps of wood in her dining room in England to owning a successful woodworking studio in Bloomington. She has also written several noteworthy books about her craft, including her latest, Making Things Work: Tales from A Cabinetmaker’s Life. Read more about Hiller and her many talents in Michael G. Glab’s column, Big Mike’s B-town.