September 2019 Issue

Back to Aiken | Going Home

The Welsh call it mynd adref: going home. Odysseus spent his entire life just trying to go home. It took Moses over 40 years, and then it didn’t really end that well for him. E.T. had to play dead and evade the government just to go home. And Princess Leia can never go home, it was vaporized by the Death Star. But for me it took four years. And 3,000 miles. Way back in 2015, I was working as a baker and pizza chef at Lake Theater Café, just outside Portland, Oregon. I had just graduated from Portland State and was trying to figure out my next move. I started

Back to Bella

Partnerships are sometimes like marriages – some make it; some don’t. Over the summer my business partnership split up, and I am happily publishing Bella on my own now. Getting this first solo issue out has been difficult, but at the same time it has exceeded my expectations. Once again I have received an overwhelming amount of support from the community with comments like “You got this!” to “Let me know if there is ANYTHING I can do to help you out.” Bella has been everything I thought it would be, and I have been connecting with the community just as I hoped I would! That partnership is working! Back

Back to Grassroots: Are You Ready to Help #ConnectAiken Through Arts + Music?

Are you ready for a whole season of music in Aiken? This Fall, neighborhoods, lifestyle and advocacy groups, dreamers and thinkers, and a collaboration of Aiken media resources are working together to help #connectAiken through arts and music. In the middle of this campaign, we are bringing all of our diverse communities together for Aiken City Limits Music Festival on October 17 – 20. Save the date! Plan a weekend to be a tourist in your own town with regional touring musicians; Allman Brothers, Jack Pearson, in town for a Showcase Concert; an Amp the Alley Kickoff show; three stages around town on Saturday; a Mimosa crawl and restaurant specials;

The Story of…Looking Back…Living Forward

I remember dog Sophie was full-grown but still quite young at the time. Sophie was of mixed heritage, carrying the genes of some sort of shepherding breed, which created and crafted her reality primarily through the perception of sight. She navigated the world with her eyes – bush to bush, brick by brick, trees to rocks to houses, between fence lines and lampposts. When Sophie was very young, and experiencing each new season for the first time, she used to bark and coax me from my desk to follow her outside for something startlingly new, of which she felt I should be made aware – often simply a new blossom

Tutu School

As students head back to school, one Aiken mom is leaving the classroom for her sewing room. Costume designer Emily Raynor recently completed a week-long seminar to learn how to create one-of-a-kind tutus and improve her costuming skills at Tutu School. “It was great to be with so many people who love to sew,” said Raynor. The author of the sewing pattern was there to answer questions and give her insights from years of sewing. “The ruffling technique I learned will make a world of difference,” said Raynor. Every little girl in dance class dreams of wearing a tutu, but when did it first appear? Marie Taglioni, the Swedish Ballerina,