A conversation with Alexis and Justin Black
All odds were against them growing up to know anything about healthy relationships, let alone graduate from college and start businesses of their own. Now married, the Blacks have co-authored
“When I was 6 years old, my mother committed suicide,” Alexis says. “I didn’t find out until much later that my grandmother also committed suicide, so that’s something that runs in our family. After losing my mother, I went to live with my biological father, and around that time is when the abuse started.”
Credit Patty Leonor Photography
It didn t end there. As do many girls and women who ve been abused as children, Alexis went on to choose toxic relationships in her teen years. Suffering the lack of self-esteem that victims often do, she subjected herself to emotional and psychological abuse by a boyfriend for more than eights years before finding the strength and self-worth to leave him.
Kalamazoo Public Library Re-opening March, 8th 2021
It s been many months but after the recent restrictions in Michigan were eased up, the Kalamazoo Public Library has announced that starting March 8th, all locations will be open. Now there is still a pandemic we re going through so obviously there are some safety precautions in place. Although all library locations will reopen to the public on Monday, March 8, there will be limited access. Curbside service will continue to be offered at all locations as it has been.
With the re-opening in place the Kalamazoo public library is stating that the listed locations will be closed so they can properly prepare for their doors to open again:
Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) will be reopening all library locations with limited access Monday, March 8. Curbside service will continue to be offered at all locations. Each location will only allow 25% of building capacity at one time, per a press release from KPL.
KPL is asking for patrons to abide by the requirements set when visiting their locations. This includes requiring all visitors to wear a mask, enforcing social distancing and allowing for a one hour maximum to browse, use the computer or check out materials.Â
Those experiencing COVID-19 related symptoms are asked to not enter. Hand sanitizer and wipes will be available and All KPL buildings are routinely cleaned by KPL staff.Â
Kalamazoo Public Library. (Photo courtesy of Midwest Communications).
KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) Tuesday, the Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) announced that all of its library locations will reopen to the public with limited access to services on Monday, March 8.
Officials say that curbside services will continue to be offered at all locations.
In order to prepare its buildings to reopen, all KPL locations will be closed the following days:
Central Library will be closed Thursday, March 4 through Saturday, March 6
Alma Powell, Eastwood, Oshtemo, and Washington Square Branches will be closed Friday, March 5, and Saturday, March 6.
All locations are closed on Sundays.
Credit Courtesy of Donna Odom
Odom was named a Kalamazoo YWCA Woman of Achievement recipient in 2018. She is a scholar on the Underground Railroad’s presence in Southwest Michigan. Odom used to coordinate history programs and special projects at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for 16 years, including holding a summer youth camp on the Underground Railroad. A major traveling exhibit about race had come to the museum during the same year that she retired from there in 2010.
Odom kept the conversation about race going by launching a multi-racial, community-wide book group that met in public spaces to encourage racial healing; it was founded within months of the exhibit’s conclusion. That discussion and reading effort is now a joint project of SHARE and the Kalamazoo Public Library.