Seeing “The Great Debaters” Like Going to Church in St. Louis’ Chase Park Theater

Click here to read about Denzel Washington’s creative marketing strategies to get “The Great Debaters” made. “Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (February 6, 1898–August 29, 1966) was an American Modernist poet, educator, columnist, and politician. His work concentrated on the experience of African Americans and includes several poetic histories. He was a contemporary of the Harlem Renaissance…

Janet Riehl celebrates 59 years—a revelatory conversation gestures the way to choreograph a creative life and bring forth many talents and art disciplines

Seventeen years ago (December 1990) I taped and transcribed this conversation with Lynda Caesara when I lived in the Bay Area. I’ve excerpted some portions I thought relevant to the themes of my Riehlife…creating connections through the arts, across cultures, and generations….and my role as catalyst and nexus. It is a snapshot of a stage…

Alethea Eason’s children’s novel HUNGRY reviewed in KidPost, Infodad

My good friend Alethea Eason is a marvelous author of the children’s book HUNGRY. We met in Northern California’s Lake County. I first moved to St. Louis and now she’ll be moving to teach in Chile, South America in February…and continue writing her next book in the series, STARVED. Click here to go to the…

Mother’s Fruitcake Recipe, Holiday Memories from the Depression onward, and a little family history—Ruth Evelyn Johnston-Thompson’s Golden (California) Fruitcake

You may be finished with your holiday baking. You may be sated from all your holiday eating. Or, you may be bored in this week of the dead in these days between Christmas Day and New Year in which my birthday happens to fall. Or, you may even be collecting yourself for next year. You…

Gracious Courtliness the Gift of “The Mayor of Clifton Terrace”, William Gradolph—seasonal memory from back in the day by Erwin A. Thompson

I knew him personally. In my growing up years he was a legend. He lived on Clifton Hill, so designated because it was a pretty formidable hill on the road from the main highway to the little settlement of Clifton Terrace. He was a veteran of the 1898 Spanish-American war. In his younger years he…

Generations of Family Christmas Traditions by Erwin A. Thompson

Evergreen Heights, the place pioneered by E.A. Riehl, my father’s grandfather As a family, over generations, we developed some of our own Christmas traditions. PROVIDING CHRISTMAS TREES FOR THE COMMUNITY My Grandfather Riehl was a pioneer in this part of the country in raising evergreen trees for Christmas trees. We took orders, in those days,…

Christmas Greetings from Janet Riehl, the Move-Back Kid

Around the world in less than 80 years and back to the Midwest again. From girlhood atop a big hill to maturing into an all-around creative type. I now focus on writing and making books and maintain an this online weblog (blog) Riehl Life: Village Wisdom for the 21st Century (www.riehlife.com) where 400 faithful readers…