Vocal Harmonies

Socializing and Networking 🛜🆕 at PLUX on Thursday. Making new friends and drinking 🚰🎈🎉🚿🌊. Everybody Welocme, locals, expats or new 🆕 in town.

Making the new Friends after work or in your vacation.

Our traditional "Join & Play" event is on the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of each month. As always, it's free to come & play with us. How does it work ? • The events are open for beginner to advanced gamers. If you're new here they're the perfect gateway to discover what we do! • Those who want to host a game are asked to share in the comments below which game, & for how many players you can run your table. • For others, if you see a game you'd like to join just respond to the host in the comments below and we'll reserve a spot for that game for you. • Don't worry if you're new to boardgames or simply don't know the games being hosted this time around; you can simply show up and the event host will sort out a spot at a table for you! *But please make sure to arrive by 19h30* at the latest *so we can take the time to find you a suitable spot.* • The rules for the games will be explained by the table host before the game starts. No need to study them upfront, although several hosts post a video link to rules or background which can enhance your enjoyment of the game if you have the time to watch beforehand. This is never mandatory, however. ============================================== Games on the night: **\-\-\-\-** **PARKS [(](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/266524/parks)[2nd EDITION)](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/437306/parks-second-edition) \-\-\-\-** Spot 1: Geraldine (host) Spot 2: Ella Spot 3: Ella's +1 Spot 4: Ruben **\-\-\-\-** [Newton](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/244711/newton) **\-\-\-\-** Spot 1: Cedric (host) Spot 2: [k1o4n1d](https://www.meetup.com/members/481208286/) Spot 3: Hellen **\-\-\-\-** [Kavango ](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/387515/kavango)(2024) **\-\-\-\-** Spot 1: Marco (host) Spot 2: Xavier Spot 3: Yarince Spot 4: Andrea **\-\-\-\-** **Calico ----** Spot 1: Leo / Sorac (host) Spot 2: Spot 3: Spot 4:

**Palace : Broken View** 04/06 @ 19h00 This article was part of FORUM+ vol. 30 no. 1 | 2, pp. 68-79 Broken View. Congo and the magic lantern. **As an early projection device, the magic lantern was often used for colonial propaganda. For instance, to showcase and legitimize the ‘good works’ of the church in the colony. But lanterns were also used by missionaries in Africa to evangelize the local people and create a colonized mindset. This text is a reflection on the work process of Broken View, an essay film on colonial images from the Belgian Congo and the magic lantern. Through montage, collage, and assemblage the film examines and recontextualizes these images of the Belgian colonial past.** Als vroeg projectiemedium werd de toverlantaarn vaak gebruikt voor koloniale propaganda. Bijvoorbeeld om de 'goede werken' van de kerk in de kolonie te presenteren en te legitimeren. Maar lantaarns werden ook door missionarissen in Afrika gebruikt om de plaatselijke bevolking te evangeliseren en een gekoloniseerde mentaliteit te creëren. Deze tekst is een reflectie op het werkproces van Broken View, een essayfilm over de toverlantaarn en koloniale beelden uit Belgisch-Congo. Door montage, collage en assemblage onderzoekt en hercontextualiseert de film deze beelden uit het Belgische koloniale verleden. [...] **"I see montage not as a final stage of the filmmaking process, but rather as a way of beginning, montage as a way of writing."** In trying to find a way to present still images in a medium which relies on movement, I quite intuitively turned towards collage. This way, movement lies in the act of cutting out, in the tension between two arrested movements: the captured ça a été of the photograph and the completed collage-gesture that brings two or more images in the same space. The form gives rhythm to the discourse and engenders it. The cutting out of figures becomes a formal translation of what I try to do in the film discursively, to decontextualize and recontextualize fragments from the past. It performs the question of how to see these colonial images today, if we even should see them? Perhaps the only way to be able to show these images is when they are set in motion within a poetic space that aims to do justice to the realities of oppression from which they were taken. I am aware that some of the images in the film are hurtful to see. I am aware that some will see the reuse of these images as a continuation of the violence their taking involved, and that my position as a white European man will enforce this view. Though I have seen instances of this reiteration of colonial violence in cultural products that purport to denounce the colonial past, I do not believe that to show these images, even violent ones, even from my side of the colonial heritage, automatically implies continuing the violence they both document and materialize. I think this happens when not only the images themselves but also the spectacle-form and ideological framework in which they were presented are reproduced, in other words, when the effects of their reproduction are either ignored or anticipated and exploited in the service of this or that agenda. I have not treated this lightly. Broken View does not seek out a shock effect, it does not try to sell a product or resort to cynically rousing controversy to gain attention in an increasingly saturated audio-visual market. Nor do I claim a sort of neutral ground or moral high ground. It is the spectacle-form, the milieu in which these images were made and shown, that I hope the film interrogates and deconstructs. I do this knowing that any deconstruction is also a construction, that my film is also a form, and that there is no inherently unproblematic form. Both the essayistic montage and the collage, the poetics I turned to in this film, bring together elements that often have little to do with one another. They do this, as the writer Brian Dillon wrote about the essay form, ‘in such a way that the scandal or shock of their proximity arrives alongside a conviction that they have always belonged together’.11 So, these images must be accompanied by other images, brought into relation with other, maybe even seemingly unconnected images. These relationships are not comparisons or equations, but the threads of an unfinished fabric, a continuous work of de- and reassembly, a broader, perhaps speculative contextualization. Assemblages are formed in which the figures are brought into each other’s orbit, within a wider frame and into another timeline than those of the photographs they were taken out of, inserting them into new constellations, trying to find new rhythms. In doing so, I hope to make visible some of the brushstrokes with which they were originally made, the power relations these images texturized and helped (helplessly) to fabulate, the purposes they were to serve. The film is an essay, an atlas of sorts, or an album where fragments of images and language exchange their shortcomings, what words can show and what images can say. But what to say? Who is speaking and to whom? The spoken text is not only a feature of the essay film. Magic lantern projections were almost always accompanied by live narration. In the case of mission photography almost always in the explanatory mode, an authoritative register, a man, a priest, who spoke with full authority on what was being projected. There was no doubt in his voice. There is but one truth, and that is the Christian truth. At this stage in the editing process, I am trying to find a balance between different registers of the voice-over. The challenge is to subvert the authority of the colonial voice, to replace it not with silence, but to find another way of speaking, of giving information, to introduce an element of doubt. This can reside in subtle formal gestures, a tone of voice, an emphasis turning into a question mark, repetition, or wordplay. I am not quite sure yet how, but I want to let this informative, authoritative mode disintegrate into a poetic mode. I mean poetry in the sense that it is the opposite of the direct speech of the colonizer. That it is a tentative way of speaking. An essayistic way of speaking if you will. The text becomes a collage of registers, of sources and tones but spoken by a single voice. [Cinema Palace](https://www.cinema-palace.be/nl/film/broken-view) [This article was part of FORUM+ vol. 30 no. 1 | 2, pp. 68-79](https://forum-online.be/en/issues/februari-mei-2023/broken-view-congo-and-the-magic-lantern) **For Dreamers, Coffee shots, Orezza, eau de Saint-Georges !**

Join our next meetup at Collibra on June 4th! We will have 3 talks about OpenTelemetry and will share some food and drinks while networking **Location:** Collibra, Rue Picard 11, 1000 Bruxelles **Agenda:** 17:45 : Doors open 18:00 - 18:30 : Drinks and pizza 18:30 - 19:10 : Talk #1 OpenTelemery on Kubernetes with EDOT: Getting started and what's ahead 19:10 - 19:50 : Talk #2 Taming Tenancy, Cost and Architecture at Collibra Through OpenTelemetry and Our Telemetry Backbone 19:50 - 20.30 : Talk #3 Closing the Observability Gap: OpenTelemetry Meets Elastic at Telenet 20:30 : Wrap up **Talks:** **#1 OpenTelemery on Kubernetes with EDOT: Getting started and what's ahead** **OpenTelemetry has become the default way to instrument applications and infrastructure, and Kubernetes is one of the places where it makes most sense to use it.** This talk is a tour of OpenTelemetry on Kubernetes, focusing on the Elastic Distribution of OpenTelemetry (EDOT). We will explore the OTel basics (general architecture, signals) and the recommended way to deploy OTel on Kubernetes using the OpenTelemetry Operator. A live demo with an Elastic backend will showcase the correlation of metrics and logs, demonstrating how everything ties in together. Finally, it will cover the current community effort to stabilize Kubernetes observability, including the promotion of Kubernetes attributes to release candidate status and the latest updates to the semantic conventions for Kubernetes metrics. This session is useful for beginners trying to get into OTel, and for those running OTel in their Kubernetes cluster and trying to get some insights on what is to come. *Speaker: João Marques Correia, Software Engineer at Elastic* **#2 Taming Tenancy, Cost and Architecture at Collibra Through OpenTelemetry and Our Telemetry Backbone** Operating a SaaS platform presents the same observability problems as any other enterprise, but due to the scale and tenancy, we introduce a huge multiplier on the observability signals, having an effect on cost and effectiveness. This session dives into the techniques Collibra used to tame these problems and how to maintain clarity when infrastructure spans virtual machines, modern Kubernetes clusters, and a complex mix of single- and multi-tenant architectures. Without the right context, telemetry data becomes a noisy, indistinguishable flood. We will dive into the architectural decision to leverage the C4 system model, ensuring every piece of telemetry carries the vital context of what it belongs to and where it sits in the hierarchy. Enabling us to gain insights into both signal attribution and allowing virtual chargebacks. The presentation details the implementation of a pipeline using custom-built OpenTelemetry collectors designed to handle the data and enrich it before sending it to the appropriate backends. This session will give you practical insights on the challenges SaaS platforms have, but the techniques that are used to tame them can be applied everywhere. *Speaker: Alex Van Boxel, Principal System Architect at Collibra* **#3 Closing the Observability Gap: OpenTelemetry Meets Elastic at Telenet** Modern systems generate more telemetry than ever, but without consistency, that data quickly becomes noise. At Telenet, we turned to OpenTelemetry to standardise how we collect and enrich observability data across our bare-metal Kubernetes clusters. This talk dives into how we integrate OpenTelemetry into our engineering workflows and couple it with Elastic for storage, analysis, and visualisation. We’ll walk through our architecture, instrumentation strategies, and how we ensure high-quality telemetry that engineers trust. Along the way, we’ll highlight real use cases, from debugging production incidents to improving service performance, and discuss what worked, what didn’t, and what we’d do differently today. If you're an Elastic user looking to adopt or scale OpenTelemetry, this session will help you bridge the gap between theory and practice. *Speaker: Reidar Veroft, Container Platform Engineer at Telenetgroup* **Bios** **Alex Van Boxel** is a Principal System Architect at **Collibra**. With an engineering background in Research and Development at Alcatel-Lucent, Progress Software, and Veepee he loves to focus on the fundamental building blocks of the software industry. That means reading, understanding, and contributing to specifications, as well as contributing to the Open Source projects that run through our infrastructure. He is code-owner of two components of the OpenTelemetry collector. **João Marques Correia** is a Software Engineer at **Elastic**. Having recently joined Elastic, he has been focusing on OpenTelemetry, with a bigger effort being put into Kubernetes metrics stabilization. Before joining Elastic, he worked as a Software Engineer at Cisco on a Data Center network controller. He is drawn to distributed systems, and in particular how to observe them and keep them working reliably. **Reidar Veroft** is a DevOps Engineer at **Telenet**, where he builds observable, reliable systems that power critical infrastructure across Belgium. From the 5G core to our voice core, he focuses on making sure the systems behind Telenetgroup are not only running, but fully understood through high-quality telemetry. **Thanks to Collibra for hosting this meetup!**

Small curated movie nights in a hidden garden in Ixelles, next to Place Flagey. A mix of: * **cult classics** * **recent movies** * **international cinema** * **comedy nights** * **karaoke & dubbing chaos nights** * **comfort food and summer vibes** **This is not a giant public Meetup** where 40 strangers stand awkwardly around overpriced drinks pretending networking is fun. Humanity already suffered enough. Our idea is simple: we gather in a private home and transform the courtyard into a small outdoor cinema. Sometimes we cook together before the movie: Italian, Thai, Lebanese, Japanese, Balkan, Greek, Latin American street food etc. Sometimes people simply grab pizza from the excellent pizzeria next door and join the screening. Food is intentionally relaxed: bowls, finger food, street food, popcorn, snacks, comfort food. **Some nights are more gourmet.** Some are glorified pizza-and-movie nights. Both are valid forms of civilization **;-)** ## **What makes this different** The group is i**ntentionally small**: usually 6 to 8 people maximum. **People are introduced properly.** Nobody gets abandoned in a corner. The atmosphere stays human, social and safe. **No heavy drinking.** **No creepy behavior.** No random people showing up uninvited. Smoking is allowed because is outside in the courtyard and occasionally we may have **hookah nights** depending on the movie/theme. ## **Typical evenings** * Wong Kar-wai + Asian comfort food * Spaghetti western + Italian street food * Anime + sushi night * Greek cinema + mezze * Balkan chaos cinema + burek * Cult movie dubbing nights where people voice scenes live karaoke-style Yes, this is a real thing now apparently. ## **Important** Because Meetups and public internet are full of bots, spam accounts and socially radioactive individuals, **we do NOT post the exact address publicly.** To join: scan the QR code on the image and request access to the private WhatsApp group or send me a DM. From there: * we announce movies * vote on menus * organize cooking nights * coordinate places **If you are new in Brussels, introverted, traveling, recently arrived, or simply tired of giant impersonal events, this may be your thing.**

🇬🇧 EN 🇬🇧 🔥 SALSA CUBANA CLASSES ARE BACK 🔥 We are delighted to see you again for the start of the 2025/26 academic year 👉 Find all the needed information on our website : **[https://danzamania.be/](https://danzamania.be/horaires/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExUjNGU3gzRWdsUFlWMGJMQgEeCHgiKV40mum5hOp5szt0Lxx3U-5DyHO_wR_ZJekcr_m7EFRdpcRthKRV9EU_aem_W6hFXCri8O6Kd9el-RIuIQ)** ✅ PROGRAMME ✅ 👉 TUESDAY 16/09 7:00-8:00 pm - Salsa Level 1A @ Salle Oxygène - Angie, Octavia & Raffa 8:15-9:15 pm - Salsa Niveau 1B\* @ Salle Ste Suzanne - Tine & Sam 8:00-9:00 pm - Salsa Cubana Level 2 @ Salle Oxygène - Angie, Octavia & Raffa \*The Level 1B course is the same as the Level 1A course. It will be taught by Tine & Samuel and starts at 8.15 p.m. It allows those who wish to arrive one hour later and have a group of about 10 people. 👉 WEDNESDAY 17/09 7:00-7:30 pm - Body Expression @ Salle Oxygène - Yusnay, Tine & Raffa 7:30-8:30 pm - Salsa Level 3 @ Salle Oxygène - Yusnay, Tine & Raffa 8:30-9:30 pm - Salsa Level 4 @ Salle Oxygène - Yusnay, Tine & Raffa 👉 THURSDAY 18/09 8:00-9:00 pm - Cuban Salsa Partnerwork - Level 1 + @ Studio Empain - Zoli 9:00-10:00 pm - Cuban Salsa Partnerwork - Level 2 + @ Studio Empain - Zoli 👉 FRIDAY 19/09 8:30-9:30 pm - Rueda de Casino @ Vibrato - Team Danza Mania 9:30-12:30 am - Practica & Entertainment with DJ Joel 💃 Dale Mambo🕺

Need some quiet time for reading? Want to share the experience with others? Join us at the charming venue of The Sister Café to read in the company of others. It’s alone, but also together, get it? We read for an hour and a half, then chat over a drink. This is a free activity except for the price of the drinks you're consuming.

**BACKSTAGE Live & Party / PHIL the Genesis & Phil Collins Tribute Show .** 📅 Quand ? Vendredi 05 Juin, dès 21H 📍 Où ? Acte 3, Braine-l'Alleud 🎟 Entrée 15€ via billetterie [https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/backstage-the-phil-collins-genesis-show-live-party-tickets-1988386096340?aff=oddtdtcreator](https://www.eventbrite.fr/e/backstage-the-phil-collins-genesis-show-live-party-tickets-1988386096340?aff=oddtdtcreator) ☞ Entrée 20€ sur place FACEBOOK / [https://fb.me/e/cqJ8OHoFA](https://fb.me/e/cqJ8OHoFA) *** ☞ Ouverture: 21h00 ☞ Concert: 22h30: ☞ Party: 00h00 (approx) Backstage Live & Party, un concept "soirée concert" rajeunit. Des groupes Cover ou Tribute sélectionnés par l'Acte3 pour leurs qualités et leurs générosités sur scène. Des playlists plus jeunes, des musiques plus récentes avec en majorité des groupes de "tributes" reprenant des artistes de 1990 à ce jour. Ce vendredi, nous recevons le groupe PHIL, groupe tribute officiel venu d'Allemagne, reprenant le répertoire de Phil Collins et de Genesis. ✨ POURQUOI VENIR ? ✔ Un concert incroyable ✔ Une piste de danse en feu ✔ Une ambiance conviviale et chaleureuse ✔ L’occasion parfaite pour faire des rencontres ✔ ENORME Parking & sécurisé *** ☞Vers 00h00 notre DJ reprend les platines avec les standards des 30 dernières années. *** DRESS CODE : TENUE DE VILLE EXIGÉE. âge minimum 25 ans. * d'infos : christian@acte3.be *** 📍 Lieu : L’Acte 3 Event Hall Clos Lamartine 1, 1420 Braine-l’Alleud www.acte3.be

Join us for an energizing Qi Gong class focused on physical exercise techniques that help cultivate and balance your energy. Qi Gong is a traditional Chinese practice that combines movement, breathing, and meditation to improve overall well-being. In this session, you will learn various exercises aimed at enhancing physical strength, flexibility, and vitality. Whether you are a beginner or have experience with Qi Gong, this class is designed to help you connect with your inner energy and feel rejuvenated. Come discover the power of Qi Gong and train your body and mind for better health and harmony.

Join Us for a Meditative Forest Walk We warmly invite you to a silent, meditative walk through the forest, where we will move together in stillness for about one hour. This gentle practice helps you reconnect with nature, slow down the mind, and notice the subtle details—both around you and within you. By walking silently, we create space for calm, clarity, and unexpected insights. Details: Date & Time: Saturday 6 June Meeting Point: Herrmann Debroux Metro (exit straight ahead after leaving the platform) Start Time: We begin walking at 16:10 sharp, so please arrive on time if you plan to join. Practical Note: Please wear weather-proof walking shoes, as the forest paths can get a bit muddy when rainy. After the walk, you are warmly welcome to join for a drink at Rouge Cloître. It’s a cosy, creative space to end the evening together if you feel like staying on. If you're in the mood for a quiet inward journey, we would be delighted to walk with you this Friday. For any questions or to let me know you’re coming, feel free to contact me at 0474 60 83 70. Looking forward to sharing this peaceful moment with you.

# Tired of dating apps or surface-level social events? This is different. Relational Labs is a guided connection experience for singles who want more honest, playful, emotionally intelligent interaction — without performance, pressure, or endless small talk. This is not speed dating. Not networking. Not “pitch yourself to strangers.” It’s a facilitated relational container rooted in psychology, emotional intelligence, attachment work, social dynamics, nervous system awareness, and real-world human connection — made practical enough that you can actually live it instead of reading another 50 books about it. ## What happens • A 2-hour guided online relational experience • Real-time connection exercises designed to create authentic interaction • A format that adapts in real time to whoever is present • Optional participant-led in-person continuation afterward • WhatsApp connection thread after the session ## This may be for you if: • You’re tired of shallow or repetitive social spaces • You want deeper connection without forced intimacy • You enjoy personal growth, psychology, communication, or relational work • You’re open to meeting people in a more intentional way ## Important This experience runs with whoever is present and takes its own shape each time. Sometimes expansive. Sometimes intimate. Both are the real thing. Booking happens through our website. 👉 Reserve your spot: [https://consciousconnectionsclub.com/join](https://consciousconnectionsclub.com/join) Optional in-person continuation: same day or within 48 hours depending on the city Most people come alone. People often leave surprised by how quickly strangers can feel human, warm, honest, and real. Sometimes awkwardness turns into ease. Sometimes curiosity turns into chemistry. Sometimes people simply remember what it feels like to actually connect again.

**“A creative space to connect with your body.”** ​In the rush of everyday life, it can be easy to forget to slow down and listen to what is happening within. ​Yet this is often where a deeper kind of wisdom can be found. The body is constantly communicating with us - if we give ourselves the space to notice and listen. ​This workshop offers just that: a gentle space to reconnect and explore what your body might be asking for. ​Join us for a creative journey where we will settle the nervous system through sensorial, tactile exercises that bring you into contact with your body. Laura will then guide you through an inner listening process, allowing your own sensations, images, and insights to emerge. ​ Everyone is welcome. You don’t need any previous artistic experience - just a bit of curiosity. **Price: 15 euros per person** **Please book via the following link:** [https://luma.com/a2xonlhd](https://luma.com/a2xonlhd) *Clicking 'attending' on Meetup does not secure you a space!* ​ **What you can expect:** ​- a kind, respectful and non-judgmental atmosphere \- gentle\, guided explorations \- the use of different media such as paint\, ink\, clay\, drawing or collage ​**Practical information:** ​- Workshop duration: 2 hours \- Open to all from 14 \+ \- Language: English but a French translation is possible \- Please wear comfortable\, loose clothing that allows you to move freely and that you don't mind getting paint on \- All materials will be provided \- Please bring something to take your work home in \(a folder\, a plastic sleeve\, etc\.\) ​**About Laura:** ​Laura is a second year art-therapy student. She previously trained and worked as a puppeteer for her theatre company, Théâtre de l'Heure Bleue, and continues to work as a visual artist. She is currently developing an art therapy project using shadow puppetry with patients in palliative care, alongside a somatic-based project for people living with trauma or chronic illness. Her creative process is deeply kinaesthetic, translating felt experience into visual expression. ​For more information: [www.theatredelheurebleue.com](https://www.theatredelheurebleue.com/?utm_source=luma) or find her on Instagram: theatredelheurebleue

Have you always wanted to learn Bachata? Now is the perfect time! Our regular classes at Albert Hall are designed to help beginners progress quickly and master this beautiful social dance that is very popular right now! 💃🕺 We have just started a new session where everyone can learn at their own pace. Come with or without a partner. After the beginner's class, there are more advanced classes, followed by a free dance party for students. 🎉 A nice venue and a warm atmosphere—don't miss this opportunity! 🔥 PROGRAM 🔥 7:00 p.m. → Bachata Beginner NEW (Room 1) 7:00 p.m. → Bachata Advanced (Room 2) 8:00 p.m. → Bachata Beginner II (Room 1) 9:00 p.m. → Bachata Intermediate (Room 1) 💥 10:00 p.m. → Bachata Social Party with DJ Felito on the decks for a wild night of dancing! 🎶 🍍 Fresh fruit buffet provided to recharge your batteries between dances! 📍 Location: Albert Hall 651 chaussée de Wavre 1040 Brussels 💸 Prices: 1 class: €15 10-class pass: €120 20-class pass: €210 Dance party only: €10 (cash) 👉 Registration on site

The Alliance is part of the Greater Central Ohio Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. We are an all-voices chorus dedicated to providing an inclusive environment for all those who love to sing, regardless of their race, gender identity, sexual orientation or musical background. The Alliance is the first and only all-voices barbershop chorus in Central Ohio. **Who:** Anyone with a passion for singing at a high level. Previous barbershop chorus/quartet experience not required. **When:** The Alliance rehearses weekly on Thursdays from 7pm-10pm. **Where:** Lord Of Life Lutheran Church: 2480 W Dublin Granville Rd, Columbus, OH 43235 To become a full member of The Alliance, we welcome you to start by visiting us for a few rehearsals to experience the group and sing with us! Then, you may begin the 2-part audition process for membership: the assessement, and audition. We strive to make our auditions as stress-free as possible to help you let your best singing self shine.

Start your week the right way with Manic Mondays. Giving you an enjoyable Bachata lesson with a push of cool moves. The second hour has Beginner/Intermediate Salsa on 1. You must understand basic Salsa skills to participate. 730pm-830pm Bachata Cool Moves 830pm-930pm Salsa On 1 (Beginner/Intermediate) 15 for One Class 20 for Both Free Parking & Plenty of Dance Space. Viva Dance Columbus 2809 Festival Lane Dublin OH 43017

Join us as we get together to see Paul Rudd in the latest comedy-drama-musical from John Carney, POWER BALLAD! The film follows a washed-up wedding singer, a fading boy band singer and a stolen hit song. Here’s a description, trailer and plan for this event: DESCRIPTION: Rick, a washed-up wedding singer, and Danny, a fading boy band star, bond over music and a late-night jam session. When Danny turns Rick's song into a hit, Rick sets out to reclaim the recognition he believes he deserves. Power Ballad is written/directed by John Carney, the master of the modern musical and creative mind behind Once, Begin Again and Sing Street! It stars Paul Rudd, Nick Jonas, Peter McDonald, Marcella Plunkett, Havana Rose Liu and Jack Reynor. BUZZ & ACCLAIM: The film premiered to rave reviews at this year’s Dublin International Film Festival where critics call it “a sure-fired crowd-pleaser” that “just might be the feel-good hit of the year!” Others say, “Paul Rudd delivers a career-best performance in this charmer” that’s both “hilarious and deeply moving." The film continues John Carney’s “long run of success with yet another charmer” and “a sharp, hopeful crowd-pleaser that strikes the right notes!” SUMMER OF ICE CREAM, VOL 2: SHAKE NO. 8! Ranked the #1 Ice Cream Shop in Columbus, this is a perfect early stop on our Summer of Ice Cream! Their menu uses made-from-scratch recipes in an array of traditional, specialty and vegan shakes, hot cocoa, crepes, waffle sticks, specialty coffee & espresso, and more! Their specialty shakes are as delicious as they are over-the-top and they offer an extensive vegan menu! You can check out their full menu here: [https://www.shakeno8.com/menu.php](https://www.shakeno8.com/menu.php) PLAN: Please purchase your ticket for the 6:45pm showing and we’ll meet in the upstairs lobby between 6:25 and 6:35pm! Advance ticket purchase is advised for this opening night showing! Once you have yours, please list your seat number in the Comments section of this event. We'll head to nearby Shake No. 8 immediately following the show! Should be a fun one, Dan

Welcome, readers! Our May read is **_Kindred_ by Octavia E. Butler.** The story follows Dana, a Black woman living in 1976 California, who is suddenly pulled back to a Maryland plantation before the Civil War. She learns her survival is tied to a white slaveholder’s son. Forced to move between centuries, she must endure the brutal realities of slavery while fighting to hold on to her identity. Tense, intimate, and unforgettable, Kindred explores how the past refuses to stay buried. Looking forward to discussing with everyone! We will meet at Zaftig Brewing Co in their event room in the back. We are welcome to bring in our own food, but **drinks must be purchased at the bar.** Happy reading! 📖

Welcome, readers! Our June read is ***Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible*** ***Voyage*** **by Alfred Lansing.** A work of nonfiction, and one of the most astonishing survival stories in history, we follow Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew after their ship is crushed by Antarctic ice. Stranded in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the men endure months of isolation, freezing temperatures, and near starvation—yet refuse to give up hope. Lansing brings their ordeal to life through vivid detail and firsthand accounts, capturing both the brutality of nature and the resilience of the human spirit. At its core, the story is a powerful testament to leadership, perseverance, and the unbreakable will to survive against impossible odds. Looking forward to discussing with everyone! We will meet at Zaftig Brewing Co in their event room in the back. We are welcome to bring in our own food, but **all** **drinks must be purchased at the bar.** Happy reading! 📖