Goshen Commons will host an interactive event called “Goshen Commons Intersections” at the First Fridays event inside Better World Books this Friday, Mar. 8, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. The goal is to engage community members in intentional conversation with one another, to find surprising commonalities and celebrate rich differences. Participants will be given a seat at a table for two and a bunch of balloons. They will either join another participant waiting at a table, or wait for someone to join them. Instructions at each table will guide the pair to pull down different balloons with questions to...

By Liz Core • March 5, 2014 • Arts

Looking for something fun to do over spring break? For those who will spend midterm break on campus, running out of fun ways to keep busy during the whole nine days without classes could be easy. Cecilia Lapp-Stolzfus, a first-year from Washington D.C., discusses why spending some time in Goshen is important for students attending the college. “I find it much more fulfilling to be involved in a larger community than just the college because the town of Goshen has more age and economic diversity.” Since downtown is close to Goshen College’s campus and a vital part of the Goshen...

By Kayla Riportella • February 19, 2014 • Arts

After a series of twists and turns on the road, the Old Bag Factory came into my view near the outskirts of Goshen. I took my first steps on the mismatched red brick path and turned left to enter the old factory building. Multiple signs with arrows guided my way to my destination; at the end of the hallway, the Olde Country Confections Chocolate Factory greeted me with a sweet smell. Stepping in, my senses were in heaven. With a brown Hershey’s cap on his head, Daniel Robert Spence, the owner of the Olde Country Confection Chocolate Factory, gave me...

By Dona Park • February 12, 2014 • Features

This weekend I had a trance-like cinematic experience. The Goshen Art House was showing the wordless documentary “Samsara,” and I seized the opportunity to experience this independent film in an independent theater. I almost couldn’t find the theater at first. When I arrived at 211 S. Main St., my GPS helpfully informed me that I had reached my destination. I disagreed. All I could see were a multitude of closed stores and restaurants with their lights off and chairs piled on tables. Then I remembered that the Goshen Art House is located in the same building as the Back Alley...

By Chenoa Mitchell • January 29, 2014 • Arts

A grassroots Goshen group is proposing the legalization of urban chickens. The group, Hens for Goshen, is opposing a Goshen city ordinance that essentially bans livestock, fowl, and wild animals within city limits. Group members are now drafting an explicit proposal that would permit up to six hens in Goshen homeowners’ backyards. Hens for Goshen started in 2010 when John Nafziger decided he wanted to raise a few backyard chickens. A couple at his church advised him against it after they received a letter from the city requiring the removal of their two backyard-dwelling chickens. “I did some research and...

By Isaac Fast • January 22, 2014 • Features

December was a fabulous month for independent Goshen folk band Moral Circus. GC seniors and members Phil Scott, Henry Stewart and Lauren Treiber, all seniors, not only received more than three times as much money as they needed to fund their first studio album, but they were also featured in Independent Music News’ Staff list “Discover 50 Independent Artists in December.” Moral Circus’s debut album, “Set in a Stem,” was also released. In September 2011, Scott, Stewart and Treiber performed the song “Goshen” by Beirut at Kickoff, and they had so much fun making music together that they decided to...

By Chenoa Mitchell • January 22, 2014 • Arts

Jane Ruth, who spoke at the afternoon sabbatical on Tuesday in the College Mennonite Church Fellowship Hall, owned a restaurant for eighteen years before selling it and embarking on a part-time job that would take her on a journey.  She began leading tour groups to Croatia. The afternoon sabbatical on Tuesday was an international luncheon. These events are meant to introduce guests to a different part of the world through a guest speaker who has travelled or lived in a different country. A traditional meal is often served to accompany the speaker. During Ruth’s lecture, she shared about her experiences...

By Liz Core • November 22, 2013 • Features

On the first Friday of every month, downtown Goshen is brimming with people of all ages engaging in the act of busking. Some do it for fun, some for money; but what exactly is busking? Caleb Sawin, a sophomore at Goshen College, explained it as “a term for going out and playing on streets, in public, usually for festivals or large gatherings of people.” An experienced busker, he can be seen playing and singing on First Fridays in Goshen; since this reoccurring event draws more people than the usual downtown crowd, he feels it “gives him more reason to play.”...

By Brynn Godshall • October 22, 2013 • Features

Steve Martin, owner of Ignition Garage, a music Mecca in downtown Goshen, has two daughters who both listen to music. The eldest is 34 and has one of the largest CD collections he has ever seen, and the youngest is 26 and until recently didn’t own a single CD.  With the advent of digital music, the consumption of music has changed dramatically over the last few years. “Digital music is like fast food,” said Martin, “but if people want an experience there is still the really good restaurants.” Ignition Garage is a smorgasbord of fine dining. The store offers CDs...

By Elizabeth Derstine • October 22, 2013 • Arts

On Tuesday evening, donors, supporters and film enthusiasts received a sneak peak into what Art House, the new indie film and live performance theater, has to offer downtown Goshen. “We mostly just want to get people in the space to show them what we’ve been dreaming about,” said Artistic Director Adrianne Nesbitt, whose brainchild is becoming a reality. In Early September, Nesbitt, board members and supporters began converting the former New World Arts space into an independent film space.  But they have also retained a black box theater which, according to Nesbitt, will be used for live theater performances, cd-release...

By Logan Miller • October 6, 2013 • Arts

Shakespeare’s Globe Theater would be too mainstream for Goshen’s Shakespeare company, GoShakes. The theater group has tackled a cabaret at a sushi bar and Romeo and Juliet in a reversed theater setting, – the audience claimed the stage while the actors bounded about in the spectator section. Their third and upcoming production A Sonnet Soundscape will be live at a bookstore, Better World Books, 8:30 Friday and at 3:00 Sunday and at a music store, Ignition Garage, at 8:30 Saturday. A Sonnet Soundscape is a collision of William Shakespeare’s sonnets and original music by Moral Circus, a local band. “The...

By Elizabeth Derstine • September 18, 2013 • Arts

Although US-33’s rushing traffic is only a hundred yards away, a kayaker only hears quiet waves in the middle of Fidler’s Pond. Fidler’s Pond, the newest park in Goshen, located near the intersection of US-33 and College Avenue, opened Labor Day weekend. “Many people have to drive 20 miles or more to get to a park like this,” said Sheri Howland, the superintendent of parks in Goshen. The park includes a 1.5-mile walking and running path loop around the pond with easy access to the water for fishing. Canoeing and kayaking is permitted, and rentals are available on site for...

By Isaac Fast • September 18, 2013 • News

What began as “seed money” from last year’s graduating class has blossomed into the Trackside Community Garden, where three different types of cherry tomatoes, purple basil, rhubarb, potatoes, peppers and other garden plants grow and are harvested for the Goshen community. Carina Zehr, a senior environmental science and sociology double major, gets an excited gleam in her eye when talking about the peppers, the zucchini and the tomatillos—a small, circular, green fruit resembling a cherry tomato. But in order to reap the tasty benefits of the community garden, past and present GC students and community members had to dedicate their...

By Christina Hofer • September 18, 2013 • Features

GoShakes, a new theater organization in Goshen, will bring classic Shakespearean works to life by entertaining and educating audiences of all ages. Currently, the GoShakes cast and crew are working to bring the popular Shakespearian tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” to the stage. The show, which was cut from its normal running time of just over three hours to around one and a half, will be presented at the Goshen Theater in the beginning of May. GoShakes is the brainchild of Carrie Lee Bland-Kendall and Lindsay Nance, a 2006 graduate of Goshen College, who both have backgrounds in theater and currently reside...

By Christina Hofer • April 18, 2013 • Arts

Most everyone would agree that for college students, the price of the food matters as much as the taste. How fortunate, then, that a restaurant in Goshen offers food that is both inexpensive and delicious. As a cash-strapped college student working at nearby Camp Friedenswald last summer, I found myself with a carload of hungry counselors who were looking for something other than chicken strips and macaroni. As we neared Los Primos, we were a little concerned. The restaurant didn’t look like much more than an apartment building converted to business, and we had to squeeze our way through the...

By Mia Engle • April 10, 2013 • Features