One, two, three, four.

Get my shoes then out the door.

Five I'm alive, six, seven, eight feelin' great.

Nine, gonna shine, life is good I'm doing fine.

Ten, Gonna do it right then do it again.

Yeah yeah.

I look up to the sky with all the beautiful color but, there's more than just for me so gonna share it with another.

I got to show, to give, let out, I want to sing and shout.

Take a look and see A beautiful morning that turns into beautiful evening.

And together make a beautiful life.

And if you want see, then come along with me.

That's right.

Welcome to Experience Michiana.

We have some wonderful things for you to experience this week.

Kelly is headed over to the Acorn Theater.

They have their great 2025 season kicking off.

You want to see all the things you can visit and see coming up.

We're also going to be talking about the reading hour.

Now this one's great.

For those of you who love to read.

Want to do it in a group setting, but maybe not quite in a book club.

We're talking quiet reading time.

Make sure you set yourself an appointment for that one.

But you might be wondering where we're at and why we have all these candles behind us.

Well, candlelight is coming to the South Bend Scottish Rite.

We're going to be talking about that next.

A little bit of orchestra, a little bit of Taylor Swift.

We're going to mash those together.

Check it out.

If you've never been to the South Bend Scottish Rite building, I have to tell you it is just incredibly timeless.

It's historic really.

I have Scott joining me right now.

Thank you so much.

Absolutely.

I mean, you get some of the backdrop here of what we're looking at, but the building itself, before we even get into what we're going to be talking about, the building itself is incredible.

100 years old.

Yes, yes, we did celebrate our centennial this last year in 2024.

And so it is 100.

And, about two months old at this point.

But, yeah.

So it is 100 years old.

And, like we said, the was, 1924, the cornerstone was set.

So it was a big deal back in the day.

Now, for those people who aren't Masonic affiliated, which I grew up in the Masonic realm.

So I was a rainbow girl.

My dad's a mason.

So I've been in these buildings before, and some people may have been here for weddings and things like that, but this is maybe a scene that you don't normally get to see the candlelight.

Is it a candlelight?

It is a candlelight.

Quartet quartets.

Yeah, that's the right word.

So we have four people coming into this.

Yes.

This is just an incredible phenomenon that's happening around the country.

Maybe even around the world, right?

Yes, yes.

And it's a whole new way to experience music.

Absolutely.

So candlelight by fever.

They do have, shows around the country, and also around the world.

But here locally in Michiana, I believe, were the only location.

So the South Bend Scottish Rite is the only location in this area.

Okay.

So they're going to be coming in for the quartet.

They are folks who are traveling all around the nation.

Yes.

And they're coming here.

And what is so unique about the music that they play?

Well, it's it's unique that it's, a lot of it is contemporary.

We do have the Taylor Swift show.

Yes.

Okay.

We I know hold on We had to pause.

We really have to say it's a Taylor Swift Orchestra performance.

Yes.

Yeah.

It's a tribute.

So not not Taylor Swift she won't be here, but I love that.

Okay.

We'd be glad to have her, but, but this is the next best thing.

Yeah.

They do, play all their contemporary music, such as the Taylor Swift, but we also they do shows, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which has been very popular.

And it's just with the candles, with the architecture of the building that just lends itself to, an awesome, night.

And it reminds me, I if you've watched the Bridgerton series, which has been, have, you know, for a couple of years now, but it's kind of taking that contemporary popular music and transitioning and dialing it back into an orchestra performance.

That's really a kind of I feel like a New Age thing that we're doing.

It is.

So, yeah, it does feel very new age.

But yet it feels kind of historic at the same time.

Yeah.

So it's just, it's just a nice evening.

It's very, tranquil.

Okay.

Now people are going to be getting their tickets for this, and I want to make sure to point out they're going to be looking for this on Facebook events, right?

Yes.

So if you see it on Facebook, don't be alarmed if there's different pictures that don't reflect this.

You as long as you follow the link and it is, candlelight by fever.

That's the company that's putting it on.

Yes.

Okay.

Now tell us about your company too, because you are not just doing the candlelight events, but also you have many other things that happen here in the Scottish Rite building, but all across Michiana, too.

Absolutely.

I always like to say we're the best kept secret here in Michiana I you know, I can attest to that.

I've been to weddings in here and so often I, you know, talk with other guests past our guests and they're like, I've never been in this building, but it is such a treasure here.

Sure.

So about ten years ago, we offered it to the public.

We opened it up.

It was more private before, but now we're offering it to the public about ten years now.

And, you know, we don't advertise as much as everybody else.

But they are kind of exclusive events.

Yeah.

Done right here.

So we have weddings.

We have private dine ins.

So we have rooms around the building where, you know, groups can have private dining.

Oh, really?

I didn't realize that.

Absolutely.

So.

And you guys have a kitchen on?

Yes.

And two.

Right?

Yeah.

We have a full staff kitchen.

So they can have, anything from filet mignon, all the way to marry me.

Chicken.

Wow.

So we have, good menu to choose from and, corporate, corporate, parties like the building.

So how many square feet is this building?

Do you know?

I mean, it's huge Yeah.

So if you if you did all the floors, it right around 26,000ft².

Oh my gosh.

So very, very large building.

And to think about all the detail that went into the creation of that 100 years ago and looking at the architecture.

And I even know, like the scrim is back here.

Tell us about those.

Yeah.

So the building again was built in 1924.

And the unique thing about the building is that it was built for the masons by the Masons and has never changed.

It's, it's goal.

Okay.

So it's always stayed in the same hands.

Yeah.

So the the scrims behind me, the scrims and the hand-painted things really add to the background for the performance.

These are we have about 40 of them back here.

Really?

Okay.

And they all predate the 1900s.

It's incredible.

And they're in fantastic shape.

They're in great shape.

So it's it's, it's a balance because there's a lot of humidity, that we have to take out of the air to try and keep those hand-painted, paintings and, backdrops.

So the room that we're in now, how many people can this hold?

So this is our grand cathedral we call it auditorium.

And they can seat, 600 very comfortably.

We actually, it's actually a little bit more, but to be very comfortable, we like to keep it.

Yeah, about 600.

That's amazing.

And again, you guys do so many wonderful things here at the Scottish Right building.

I especially love that.

So if you are interested in maybe getting, setting things up to have a wedding here or maybe a baby shower or anything like that, how can people find out more information?

Absolutely.

Well, they can contact me.

My phone number (574) 238-7382.

Or they can, always go to R&S entertainment.

That's our website.

So R&S entertainment.com.

You can also go to the ScottishRite.com Oh great.

Great.

And they do other stuff here at the Scottish Right building to not just have parties but.

Oh absolutely.

Absolutely.

So the guys still meet here obviously.

And so it's a great organization.

Also part of the Shriners.

so they, they are, you know, Masonic group here and, Michigan City, we have the Orac shrine, that, the Shriners or so, and everyone's familiar with the Shriners and all that they do with the hospitals and everything.

Yeah.

So we're not doing our secret handshakes today.

That's right, that's correct.

None of that.

But so much cool stuff that's showing.

I don't know if we mentioned it, but when is the candlelight event happening?

So we do have another one coming up.

February 7th.

Okay.

And that's coming up soon.

And that's the Taylor Swift at 615.

Oh, phenomenal.

Yeah, absolutely.

And then the, the later show is the Vivaldi Four Seasons.

Okay.

So you're going to hear that day.

Yes.

Yes.

Oh we normally have two, two shows.

So there's an early show and then there's a little later show.

Okay.

So you got to get your tickets for that.

And I know you guys are going to bring those back again maybe in the fall or another time.

Absolutely.

So and again we have it coming up.

March this March 22nd.

Again two shows starting at 615.

And then we have another one at 830 and then, about October, October, they'll start up again all the way through the end of the year.

All right.

Well, you don't want to miss out on this.

I know I've had I've talked to some friends who already came to the one that you guys had recently, and they were just talking.

Oh my gosh, it was incredible.

What an incredible experience.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

We've had nothing but five star reviews from from the event.

So we're going to keep coming back.

You sure you get your tickets though.

Absolutely absolutely.

All right thanks so much.

Absolutely guys.

Thank you.

Well, it's a brand new year at the Acorn Theater.

And we had to come out with Nikki here.

As you are the artistic and the creative director here, correct?

Yeah.

And how long have you been here?

I've been here almost four years.

I started in 2021.

And, my role has changed and grown over those four years.

And now I'm the artistic and creative director.

So what kind of, brought you here?

I actually have a background in education.

I was an elementary school teacher, but about 8 or 10 years ago, I made a pivot in my career and entered the arts.

I came from the box factory for the arts, and I also was a gallery manager for a couple of arts spaces in the community and landed here with a tiny little part time job, as the volunteer coordinator.

And I worked some shows, and then it just grew and grew from there.

So as the artistic and creative director, I run our marketing and our programing and our production teams.

So what does it mean to be here at the Acorn Theater?

Because it really has a special place in this community.

It absolutely does.

And for me, I'm so incredibly passionate about finding opportunities for musicians and artists, especially local ones.

Yes.

We bring in those big names that people recognize to our stage, but I really want for those people who live and work in this community, with us to have opportunities to perform.

And it's just something that I feel incredibly passionate about and fortunate to be able to, to work in a place like this.

Well, that's wonderful.

And well, it's a brand new year here.

And let's talk a little bit about what what this, couple of months look like.

Well, we, we take it slow in January.

So we've had it, we've had a slower January.

But who doesn't know?

I was about to say we have to take it slow.

Everybody enjoys having a little time just to stay home in January.

But now that we're coming into February, we're ready to start increasing our calendar.

We do about 150 events a year here.

And, so that means, basically that means you're busy.

Everyone.

Everyone here is busy.

My whole team and myself, we stay busy, but that means pretty much any Friday or Saturday night, year round.

If you're looking for something to do, people can go to Acorn live.org and see who we have playing that weekend.

And then outside of those Fridays and Saturdays, we certainly add, you know, a Thursday night here and there over the summer we do Sundays.

So that's how we kind of get to 150.

But here in February will be launching, our Art at the Acorn, which is our visual arts program.

Most people associate us obviously, with performance from the stage, but we've also chosen to fill our space with artwork from local artists.

And in this first exhibition of the year, which will have an open house for on February 1st, is a retrospective of our of our previous six artists.

So it's our first ever group show, featuring artwork from six local artists Frank Curlin, Nicky Holt, Chris Brown, Amy Renzi, Julie Suarez and Ethan Marconi.

And it's just a fabulous, eclectic group of of, of really thought provoking art.

So we'll have an open house with the artists on February 1st, and then we switch that out about every four, about every three months.

Excuse me?

Four times a year.

Oh that's wonderful.

Yeah.

And you said this is kind of the first time you're doing it a group show.

It's the first time we did a group show.

We've had six solo shows to date.

And so in April, we'll switch over to a new solo artist.

But as far as the music goes, in February, I'm really excited that we're bringing back May Erlewine, who is a Michigan based artist.

She is a wonderful singer songwriter.

Just an absolute gem.

She's performed here twice before, once in our music festival and once with a solo show last year, and it's just absolutely stunning.

So I'm looking forward to that event along with our most popular, one of our most popular tribute shows, which is Second Hand News, a tribute to Fleetwood Mac.

And, that show tends to sell out every single time, so fans want to come to it.

That's happening here in February as well.

And then of course, it's Valentine's Day.

It is.

So we actually have, it's kind of an UN Valentine theme or a Valentine theme.

However you want to lean in, you either lean into the love song or you lean into the anti love song.

I don't care which, but we have an annual, Valentine theme, Acorn Open mic Night, that's happening on February 13th.

With shiny, shiny Black, who's a local band?

They'll be our featured artist.

And then Colm and Laura Keegan will be here on Valentine's night, proper for a really wonderful, evening of music.

That's wonderful.

Now that's February, that's February, and not all of February, and few things that I thought of off the top of my head.

That's just a few things.

But then heading into March, heading into March, one of my favorite bands is coming back Henhouse Prowlers, who are just absolute bluegrass mainstays.

I mean, they're just fantastic.

They put on a phenomenal show, high energy, and they're also known as the Bluegrass Ambassadors.

So they partner with the U.S. State Department.

And, they're all about advocacy and, and education.

So they have a really wonderful nonprofit of their own that the that they operate.

So they're a great group of guys.

And it's going to be an absolute fabulous show in March.

And we have countless other events that month as well.

So I encourage everybody to look at our website for a full listing.

And then of course, April, and then we'll cut it off there because like you said, there's so many oh my gosh, we could go on and on and on.

In April 1st of my favorite events comes back around, which is a community art event called Art attack.

I don't know if you've ever been I have never know.

Okay, so in Harbor Country, which Three Oaks is technically Harbor Country, art galleries are everywhere, right?

It's a really wonderful artistic space here in this community.

But beyond art galleries, even non art spaces will open up during this art attack weekend for artsy gatherings.

And, we've been lucky to, sort of partner up with Art attack these last few years.

We like to launch the weekend with a Thursday night event.

And we'll do another open mic night that night, with, the Debutants from Indiana as our as our featured artist.

And then we'll try to fill the stage with some harbor country, performers that people love to see.

And then over the course of that weekend, the School of American Music is holding their annual fundraiser event with Patricia Barber.

So lovely music of jazz.

Evening of jazz music.

But on Saturday, we are really looking forward to this is a sneak.

This is a sneak peek.

Okay.

Because this isn't announced.

Oh, really?

No, this hasn't been announced yet.

So this is you heard it here.

First class here.

And experience.

Let me see.

Yeah.

So, I actually didn't even necessarily intend it, but I'm repping Andy Sydow today.

Actually love that T-shirt, by the way.

Thank you.

Andy was the runner up in our Singer-Songwriter competition last year, which is an annual event we do in July.

One of my most favorite things that I work on, truly.

But Andy is a brilliant musician, and he has this wonderful, project called measure one, which has been released on EP, and it is, music that is arranged with small orchestra group.

So there's a couple violins, viola, cello, a French horn.

And Andy plays either the piano or plays the guitar, depending on the song.

And so people can look that up.

Measure one.

It's an EP.

But he's currently working on measure two, so.

Okay.

You know, so, you know, music, you know, there's never just one measure Yes.

And so we're going to partner with some local orchestra students, from Saint Joe High School and, and he's going to come out and perform those songs and some others with really special orchestral arrangements.

And so that hasn't gone online.

That's not, that's not announced.

But I'm super, super excited about just the quality of that project, the quality of that music, the experience those students are going to have working with a professional musician for a paid opportunity.

Yeah.

Oh that's nice.

Absolutely.

And we'll open that show with another finalist from our singer songwriter competition who's a local artist named Hannah Beard.

Oh, that's wonderful.

And that's going to be in April.

It is.

Yeah.

What a wonderful way to start the spring off.

Absolutely.

I can't believe we're talking about spring in the middle of winter.

I know, I know, it's know I know.

Well that's wonderful Nikki, thank you so much for having us.

Oh my gosh.

Thanks for coming out.

And thank you for what you all do here in the community.

Again, just bringing just wonderful artistic opportunities as well as artists.

It's just a gem in this community.

So thank you for what you do.

I appreciate that so much.

Thank you.

Well, hello.

I enjoy a good book, and I'm sure many of you out there enjoy a good book, too.

But have you ever thought just to do it out in the public?

Well, I have with me today, my friend April.

This is such a joy to get to meet you finally, because I know we both are involved with WNIT.

Yes, yes, yes, I want to.

Yeah.

Thanks.

You guys are doing something really cool.

And I feel like we've heard about this trend in the past too.

But the collaboration of folks getting together to read silently.

Yes.

And Introverts Paradise is incredible.

So the Reading Hour South Bend is what you kind of put together?

Yes.

How long have you guys been doing this?

So my co-founder and I, Elizabeth Van Jacob, she's an academic librarian emerita.

Both of us were really struck two years ago.

So this is the start of our third year by a post by writer Rebecca Solnit.

So she's a social justice writer that I encourage people to read.

Super interesting.

And she had a post reminiscing about a place in Portland, a hotel in Portland where, you know, 20 years or so they hosted a silent reading hour or so, and she remembered it.

So fondly as a place where you would just show up.

Nobody spoke.

Everybody understood that people were just interested in the assignment to read.

And there they even had a there was a little tea bar there, I guess, and if you wanted to order tea you and slide your, what you wanted your order on a piece of paper to maintain the silence.

And she just talked about the, the, you know, the community, the sense of camaraderie and also, you know, the bliss of not being not having too much asked you.

So we this came to us, as something of interest, in part because we were still really coming out of Covid.

I feel like we still are healing from that time.

And so I made a little push.

I shared Rebecca Solnit post and just a stream of people I do this on, on Facebook and all these people are saying, oh my God, I would love to do this, let's do this.

And if I have free time, you say something like that, like, let's get a group together and just go do nothing together.

What a plan.

It's wonderful to be an adult.

It is.

I just I love it.

So you guys have been doing this.

How are you doing it?

Like once and so once a month.

And so, you know, I want to just emphasize this is a free idea, inspired by Rebecca Solnit.

But, you know, it's a cousin of things that are happening at tables, book store and other places that have, you know, occasions for people to gather and read silently together.

So we just kind of decided our vision would be to keep it to South Bend.

Okay.

To make it once a month and to we organize through Facebook, and just to show up at different places.

So we had a couple different goals.

One was to invite people to read in public.

So here in this sunny atrium, different areas.

That's exactly, see, and I see what you do there.

So to get people in different places, we chose this space in the DoubleTree Atrium in South Bend as our first space, and we've tended to do it most winters because the light is wonderful.

You've got these tropical.

We have the white noise going on behind us too, so that's a good idea.

So.

But we've made it, at bookstores, we've been at cafes.

We've met at the Potawatomi Conservatory Greenhouse.

We're trying to get people in different parts of town.

So a little bit about moving people out of maybe their comfort zone, helping them discover places that they may not, and discovering love to.

And something we talked about before we got started, too, was kind of the assignment of, the agenda to put yourself to read.

Yeah.

You know, I often have no intentions.

I know many people are just starting on their New Year's resolutions and they want to read, you know, books or whatever it is, whatever your goal.

Okay, maybe your five bucks a month if you're a hard reader, but this kind of gives you an opportunity to say, this is my time.

I'm scheduling it is and I'm going to do this, and I have other people to support me and that that's a really nice way to put it.

It's an appointment with yourself.

So, unlike other events where you might fret over whether people are going to show up or not, you know, worst case scenario, which has never happened.

If I show up for a reading hour and I'm the only one, I still have a beautiful hour where I've made an appointment with myself to read, not while I'm about to fall asleep, but during the day, which is wonderful.

During the day because people bring all sorts of different kinds of books.

They bring e-readers, they bring school books.

It's all ages, the books I'm an audiobook reader to absolutely just sit there and listen.

Yes, I love it.

There's so few places really where people of all ages can get together.

Sometimes I just look up and people really do understand the assignment.

They show up, they might smile, they sit down and they read, which is such a different dynamic as opposed to a book club.

Yes.

Where you have to say, I didn't actually read the book.

I'm here for the wine.

Yeah, yeah.

Or that there might be some competitive like, oh, you thought that?

Well, I think that this is just here in your world, with the pleasure of company.

So the only other, this was Elizabeth's idea that I really love.

The only other kind of, activity that we do is we never take pictures of people.

I think we honor people's privacy, but we do take pictures of the book covers that people are reading.

And then we share that on our Facebook page afterwards to say, like, what were we reading at the DoubleTree?

So that I think is wonderful because then you have, a reading period, you know, a little reading list of, oh, I kind of, you know, I should check that out.

It's fun to see that.

And the last couple of meetings, last couple of meet up, several people have been reading the new Louise Penny.

So those of us who are Louise Penny, addicts.

The new one dropped, and I was still, like, waiting 68th in line for the public library copy.

But you see that there are people who are reading series and wonderful to see a 12 year old reading next to an 80 year old reading next to some women friends.

I've been reading for like three months.

The Barbara Streisand book.

Oh, it's 48 hours.

Oh my goodness.

And it's it's a lot of Barbara I love it.

I love Barbara, but this gives you the opportunity to do something that right almost.

You know, it is your comfort, but bringing it to a new zone and also not having the pressures.

Yes.

Conversation if you want to.

I'm sure people do that as well afterwards.

Yeah.

Sometimes people, some people just kind of drift away.

Some people, you know, we hope it's a place where people who otherwise might not run into each other meet.

We certainly have regulars.

We have new people all the time.

I my dream would be that people go off and have a cup of coffee.

They get to know one another.

But it's a it's it has been a deep pleasure and again, an idea that I would give away to any.

Yeah.

Which is nice.

Which is a great thing to say too, because this can happen anywhere.

Absolutely.

You can take it.

You should and it should all across Michigan.

Absolutely.

And I know we have some other places that are doing this too.

When are you guys having your next meetup?

So our next one is, January 24th, I think it's a Saturday at Lang Lab.

So they've got a nice cozy reading space.

In the afternoon, I should of double check this.

Information so we know when all the updates are coming and your basement.

What's your Facebook page?

It's called, reading our South Bend in love.

And it is a group, so you do have to join just because we don't want, trolls in there.

So where's for little, you know, we ask you to say what your who your favorite author is and your favorite book.

Just so I have to ask you because you're already doing.

Yes, dinner in a book.

Yes.

I like to read you to read.

So tell me, what are some of your favorite authors or favorite stories?

Oh, goodness.

Yeah.

Rebecca Makkai I would say right now, The Great Believers, a beautiful novel about, people coming together at the beginning of the Aids crisis in Chicago.

That really made an impact on me.

Also, I'll just name one more the only book I think I've ever read through and immediately started reading again.

And that's Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry for the future.

So it's a science fiction book for people who don't necessarily like science fiction, but it's about the climate crisis.

He's all of his solutions.

It's got solutions in it.

So that's what I love about this book.

And I encourage people to read it and really talk with one another about the solutions that that he offers.

That is not just how do we mitigate harm, but how do we make a more beautiful world.

And he brings us there.

And it's it's quite healing and lovely to read in a moment where, the climate crisis could not be more vibrantly alarming to all of us.

Absolutely great recommendations for me.

Yeah.

Thank you.

I got a zillion I know I love it, but is there anything that people need to bring with them?

Something to read?

So I think sometimes people worry that, it's got to be a physical book.

Absolutely not.

People bring the New Yorker, they bring audio books, they read on tablets, they read on their phones.

We have, you know, people bring graphic novels, the wonderful proliferation.

I feel like I when I pillow just encourage you to do that.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, we'll see you at the next meeting.

Okay.

That sounds great.

Thank you so much.

Make sure you join the page for the reading hours, so you can find out where their next location is going to be.

Of course, we always have more things to share with you here on experience Michiana.

Make sure you tune in next week.

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