The Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi held its annual Traditional Pow Wow on Saturday and Sunday, June 26th and 27th, at the Pine Creek Indian Reservation in Calhoun County's Athens Township. It included a song in honor of war veterans. Tribal Council Chairman Homer Mandoka welcomed participants and spectators to the celebration of American Indian culture and heritage. He says while pow wows are social, spiritual, and historic celebrations, they also serve to educate visitors. And Mandoka adds that, for many visitors, the experience can be the first step in connecting with their own American Indian ancestry.
The Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival will take place at W.K. Kellogg Regional Airport runs through Sunday, July 4th. Weather permitting, activities each day will include morning and evening balloon launches. The airshow portion of the festival takes place Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5:30 p.m. with aerobatic aircraft performing gravity-defying maneuvers. Among the pilots who'll be performing this year is Lt. Colonel John Klatt of the Air National Guard aerobatic team. He's is a veteran of three combat tours flying F-16's in Iraq. Klatt's father was an aircraft mechanic and his son grew up dreaming about flying. He's now recognized as one of the top unlimited class aerobatic pilots in the United States. Klatt will fly his Staudacher S-300D this weekend over Battle Creek. It weighs just 1,250 pounds and tops out at 250 miles per hour.
In other events:
A traveling exhibit from the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle is open all summer at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. "Out of This World: Extraordinary Costumes from Film and Television" is in the museum's third floor gallery through September 6th. Highlights include the hat worn by Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the robe worn by Sir Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977's Star Wars, and a tunic and sash worn by William Shatner in a 1967 episode of the TV show Star Trek. kalamazoo museum dot org has details.
American singer-songwriter William Fitzsimmons performs at 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 8th, at the Acorn Theater in Three Oaks. Israeli-born singer-songwriter Rosi Galen will open the show.