Bertha Barbee-McNeal – Bertha retired as a Choir Director from Kalamazoo Public Schools after an illustrious 27-year career influencing hundreds of students. She is currently the Artistic Director and piano teacher at the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center housed at the Douglass Community Association.
 
 

 

 

Caldin Gill-Street – Cal was involved for over 30 years with the NAACP and sang with the Master Choir for over 20 years at the Mt. Zion Baptist Church. She worked as a Human Resource Specialist for the Upjohn Company/Pharmacia (Pfizer) and as an administrative assistant at Western Michigan University.
 
 
 

Bertha and Call also served as Co-Chairs of the NAACP ACT-SO Competition in Kalamazoo for over twelve years. ACT-SO (Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics) is a national annual competition for high school students. In this program, students work with community-based volunteers for a year to develop their skills and prepare for a competition for scholarships and other awards. The dynamic duo worked in the schools to recruit students to participate in the program and helped them to prepare for the events. They both continue to visit K-12 schools and colleges to share their experiences with Motown.

John has been the inspiration and driving force behind many musical events over the years. He developed a partnership with the City of Portage and organized a 3-year musical event called the “Celery Flats Music Festival”. This free event helped raise donations for the “Friends of Celery Flats” committee. He also initiated another free concert called the “Folklife Music Festival”, at the City of Portage Overlander Band Shell. And finally, the “Loaves and Fishes” benefit concert has been a KFO sponsored event for over 30 years. Mr. Speeter has been involved as a performer, emcee, sound technician and stage manager in support of this event.

An accomplished cartoonist and illustrator, John has offered his services to many non-profits on a no charge basis, designing posters, brochures, logos and promotional items. His cartoons have appeared in many local, regional and national publications. Examples include his cartoon strip “Wheaties” that was published by the Wheatland Music Association in their newsletter. His cartoon calendars have been distributed free of charge in the Kalamazoo area. He co-authored and illustrated a series of motivational books entitled “Looking Forward to Monday Morning” in partnership with well-known lecturer and author Dr. Diane Hodges. His most recent book “How to Fish and Do It Well” has also been distributed on a national basis.


Kim’s reputation around the community proceeds her. She is widely known for the environment of creative safety she creates and protects. Her ability to look beyond the skill of her students to see the experience they are bringing and meet them exactly where they are without fear, intimidation or self-consciousness, is a gift to anyone who has experienced her teaching. In every opportunity she creates, Kim is cognizant of making art accessible and representative of our vast, beautiful, diverse community.

She also organized field trips to the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Lunchtime Live, and area artist studio tours. Her dedication to her students and their growth is palpable. She shows great compassion towards artist and genuinely cares about their development and engagement in the arts. Her dedication is a great example of how art can be transcendent and reach a variety of artists with different abilities and backgrounds.

His choirs have collaborated with notable organizations including the Battle Creek Symphony, the Kalamazoo Sacred Music Festival, and the Monroe Community Chorale and Symphony Orchestra, among others, and his Kellogg Singers have opened for Grammy Award-winning musical groups including Take 6 and Sweet Honey in the Rock.

He also regularly works with large area high school groups, often working with hundreds of students at a time to prepare them for upcoming concerts, such as the annual Prado Benefit Concert held each fall in Battle Creek. His choirs have toured nationally and internationally, performing concerts in the U.S. in Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. In the summer of 2012, he led the choirs on their inaugural European concert tour, presenting concerts in Cork, Dublin, and Malahide in Ireland. The choir returned to Europe in the summer of 2014, to perform concerts in towns and cities along the Amalfi Coast of Italy.

Since the very beginning of her tenure, she has pushed her team to provide diverse events that embrace not only national talent but give a space for local talent to be showcased. During COVID, State on the Street became an outdoor place for patrons to gather, while enjoying local talent. Stephanie’s business and administrative decisions are rooted in her passion and commitment to serving the community she lives in, and this shows in the experiences that the State Theatre offers to both patrons and artists alike.

Each resident works within their private or collective studios in one of their three historic buildings at the industrial edge of the Edison neighborhood, Kalamazoo’s largest neighborhood. For the public, they offer access to a workshop space that facilitates collaboration between Jerico residents and the local community. Jerico is the home of the Alyson Cameron Studio, Argenta Park, Autumn Barry Rock Shop, Black Thread Studio, Camille Lydia Photography, the Dapper Hammer, Elemental Media, Fido Motors, Home Energy Solutions, Hot Metal Artist LCC, Isobel & Ernest, Kalamazoo Backyard Yogis, Kal-Tone Musical Instrument Co, Kim Shaw Studio, La Luna Recording and Sound Studio, Metric Motorworks, Piano Quest, Seedling Studio, Start Here Coffee, Stuffed Brain Studio, Trager Pellet Grills, Trent Rex Tattoos, Weavers Unlimited, Yes Electric, and Ylva/Ulf Elhammer tattoo studio. They are truly the epitome of a successful business/art partnership.

At nearly every community arts event, whether it’s a food truck rally, the farmer’s market, a karaoke night, or a gallery opening, Syd is there with her notebook or phone, bee lining to new artists or folks she hasn’t met to learn their story, their connection to the arts, and how they might like to be involved in the VCAC. She has envisioned and brought to life a coffeehouse concert series; “Arts in the Burg” – an art camp for children who can’t access camps in Kalamazoo; cultural arts exploration programs for teens; programming for “Wednesday Winners” – a club for adults with disabilities; a special exhibition of AP art students’ works; community art projects at the Harvest Festival and Christmas in the Village; and themed explorations of different cultures like Venezuela, Lithuania, Japan, and Italy. She also adopted the local writing competition created by the Schoolcraft Library, The Tournament of Writers, and found ways to increase its reach to hundreds of participants ranging from ages 5 to 95. As a volunteer, she goes far beyond just suggesting “someone ought to do XYZ”, by taking the drive and initiative to see new projects come to fruition. Thanks to her infectious enthusiasm, we have a thriving, inclusive arts scene in Vicksburg and southern Kalamazoo County.

The theatre space is also a needed host for other performing artists in the area. Its jazz series has welcomed nationally renowned artists to Kalamazoo for unforgettable nights of music. Theatre companies such as Dormouse, Queer Theatre Kalamazoo, and Bare Backstage Productions have produced shows on the stage and welcome more opportunities to do so. In addition to weekend improv comedy shows, Crawlspace Theatre has an extensive and long-standing educational component, started in 2016, which has served hundreds of adults and youth through classes and camps. It’s been nearly 20 years that Crawlspace Theatre has been entertaining Kalamazoo. Over that time, they have found new ways to explore the world through their unique art form that keeps folks coming back for more. They are now expanding that offering with more performance teams, more classes, more camps, and more collaborations with other local artists to help deepen understanding in our community and how it can be its very best.