Lindsay McHolme is the Community Literacy Liaison at the Literacy Center of West Michigan.  Over the past few years, she has been involved in improving literacy in the community as a Volunteer Tutor and Literacy Coordinator for the Literacy Center's Adult Tutoring Program.

 

Rap, and more specifically the culture of hip-hop, has gone through many phases, and has often been the victim of controversy since becoming part of mainstream American consciousness in the mid-1980s.  The hip-hop of the 1990s was marked by violence as two of its biggest stars, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G., were both murdered within a year of each other in unrelated incidents. Many view the rap music that has come out over the last decade as being vapid and materialistic. However, Victor Williams is hard at work to educate people of all walks of life that there is an incredibly positive and educational aspect to hip-hop culture, as well as phenomenal music right in their backyard.

Since 1995, Victor Williams has been operating the Grand Rapids Hip-Hop Coalition, a group whose mission, according to Williams "is to educate and preserve the youth through hip-hop culture."

The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has awarded $200,000 in grant monies to fuel the continued development of two Grand Valley State University incubator programs for life sciences, high technology and alternative energy startups.

A Grand Rapids Press article announces that SiTE:LAB will transform a dilapidated downtown Grand Rapids building with its April site-specific, one-night art installation by Kendall College of Art and Design students.

Nanny on Demand is barely out of diapers, yet this growing enterprise providing flexible daycare without requiring a long-term contract announced this week that it's ready to take its franchise opportunity beyond Michigan's borders.

The newest of West Michigan's first three Nanny on Demand locations will open in early- to mid-February along Grand Rapids' Medical Mile at 545 Michigan St. NE, behind El Barrio Mexican Grill.

When you offer a reward, it serves as a catalyst. The process through which competitors go to become the winner of that reward, and the community engagement and conversation that occurs because of that process, is the hidden value.

Big, blue and round, the new Helen DeVos Children's Hospital is full of circles -- colorful artwork circles, swirling mosaics, round wayfinding signs, chairs and ottomans.

Two Kalamazoo-area businesses will receive assessments designed to help them develop greener business practices now that they have joined Western Michigan University's green manufacturing initiative.

It's reported to be the most technologically advanced building on Grand Valley State University's Allendale campus and features an automated storage retrieval system (ASRS) that enables the school to house tens of thousands of books in a fraction of the space required by traditional library shelving.

Construction on the $70 million Mary Idema Pew Library Learning and Information Commons begins May 5, 2011, and project leaders at Pioneer Construction are in the throes of wrapping up subcontractor vetting for the proposed LEED-NC Platinum facility.