Flint Portraits: Peter Bourque

Peter Bourque on a visit to St. Agnes in August.

Author and educator Peter Bourque grew up in Flint and lived in the Vehicle City from 1954-1971. He attended St. Agnes School, where he also served as an altar boy.

After leaving Flint, Peter eventually joined the Peace Corps. His experiences are recounted in the book Tarnished Ivory: Reflections on Peace Corps and Beyond:

As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ivory Coast (1973-75) and a Peace Corps trainer in Mali (1986), Peter Bourque kept a personal journal and wrote over 55 letters back to the States. In them, he described the satisfactions and frustrations of living, working and traveling in West Africa as well as his reactions to the people he encountered-Ivorian, French, Malian and American. Decades later, he reflects and elaborates on these writings with current-day observations and candid essays about idealism, world poverty, the Peace Corps, the French, and losing his religion.

He settled in Tuscon, where he is now a retired high school teacher and teaches English as a Second Language for Literacy Volunteers of Tucson. He reflected on life in Flint in a 2009 column for the Arizona Daily Star:

At family gatherings, talk among the men, to my disinterest, was invariably about "the shop," "the line" and "tool-and-die makers," a trade which I never understood. One brother-in-law, Art, had gotten a college degree and was white-collar at Buick. Another, Stan, worked for Oldsmobile in Lansing. My brother Jacques chose Ford in Detroit for his lifelong employment, but no one seemed to hold that against him.
Culturally, Flint was sophisticated for a factory town of its size and included the Cultural Center, a large community college named after local philanthropist Charles Stewart Mott (a former GM vice president) and a branch of the University of Michigan, which I attended.
In the '60s and '70s, the stability and continuity of GM families in Flint was remarkable. I went to the same Catholic school for 12 years, as did many of my classmates. College-bound juniors and seniors from the Catholic schools attended monthly presentations at General Motors Institute that covered a variety of topics.
Young adults who weren't going to college or who dropped out could easily get jobs on the assembly line that were well-paying and unionized with amazing benefits — those same benefits that contributed to GM becoming noncompetitive in the auto industry.
In my mind, working for GM was a trap that many 18- to 20-year-olds fell into. Nonskilled workers were lured by the security and financial incentives, which overshadowed what were often mind-numbingly tedious jobs "on the line." "Only 25 more years and I can retire," you too often heard them say.

Flint Portraits: Romain Johnston

An earlier post on Frank Price prompted a reminder from a reader about another Central High grad from the same era who made it big in the entertainment industry — Romain Johnston. Price and Johnston were friends at Central and active in the high school theater scene.

Here is Johnston's entry from the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame :

A legend in the Variety Show or Musical genre, Johnston won three Emmys® and was nominated an additional ten times. Johnston got his start in art direction with the television series Number Please (1961) and went on to win his Emmys for work on The Mac Davis Show (1974), The Sentry Collection Presents Ben Vereen: His Roots (1978) and Pryor’s Place (1984). In 1978, Johnston received three of the five Emmy nominations for Art Direction of a Variety or Musical Program. He has also worked on iconic series Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters, The Flip Wilson Show and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

Flint Portraits: Frank Price

Flint Expatriate Frank Price, the former Columbia Pictures and Universal TV chief, recently bought an ocean-view condo in Santa Monica for $3.1 million. At Columbia, he was involved in the creation of Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, and Ghandi.

Before he made a name for himself in the entertainment world, Price stood out at Central High School, where he was editor of the school paper, president of the drama club, and president of the junior class. He worked as a copy boy at The Flint Journal, and eventually worked his way up to police and fire reporting. After a stint in the Navy, he worked summers at Chevy in the Hole to pay his way through Michigan State. He transferred to Columbia University, but he left early when to work for the CBS story department.

Lauren Beale of The Los Angeles Times reports:

The 3,165-square-foot third-floor unit shares no walls with neighbors. Features include terraces, marble floors, a built-in aquarium and two fireplaces. There are two bedrooms and three bathrooms. The complex, which has 24-hour security, a gym and a rooftop swimming pool and deck, was built in 1997.

My mom remembers Price from her days at Central. And you can get more of his story here.

Flint Portraits: Paul A. Toth

Flint Expatriate Paul A. Toth has a new work of fiction coming out soon called Airplane Novel. You can read the first chapter here. If you can't wait for the entire book, you have plenty of other options. Check out Paul's other novels Fishnet, Fizz, and Finale, described as a "whipsmart coming-of-age story" by Time-Out Chicago.

Paul, who now lives in Florida, has also been published in dozens of literary journals. Here's an excerpt from a story called Psychologically Ultimate Seashore in the Barcelona Review:

Whenever Janet arrived at the mall, the early morning walkers, senior citizens all, had already begun their march. It would take them round to Crowley's, west to Sears, north to the cineplex and back home to JC Penny's. They were proud as Marines and arrived every morning to follow doctors' orders, walking in the heat in winter and the air conditioning in summer. They moved fiercely, leaning, mustering gravity in their struggle. There was a mania in their stalk, a clutching and a frenzy. Meanwhile, percolating with nervousness, Janet would open the gate with a jerk of her hand, sending it upwards in shivering rattles as the Nikes and Reeboks clip-clopped behind her. She would pull the gate down, head to the receiving room in back and switch on the lights. Then the retail sun would rise: There was light.

Flint Portraits: J Raud

Flint-born Jeff Raudebaugh is a 27-year-old musician who performs as J Raud and now lives in Washington, D.C. He’s got a song in the Canadian independent film At Home By Myself…With You, which recently premiered at the Vancouver film festival

"My wife Sam and I moved from Michigan in August 2007 because the job outlook was not promising in our fields. A friend once told me that real musicians have day jobs. I’m not sure if I completely agree with that statement, but since I am also currently working as a trust banker, it does make me feel better. I have independently produced and released four albums of music. I have been performing live music since I was 15 years old. My wife, who is a landscape architect, and I have good memories of Michigan. We miss family and friends. One thing we have noticed is how much we crave Michigan foods, including Koegel Vienna hot dogs and Halo Burger. We also miss the smell of pine trees “up north”, and the beauty of the Great Lakes."

J Raud’s latest CD — Naked as a Jaybird — is available here.

Flint Portraits: Audrey Dismond

The Flint Journal has a profile of Audrey Dismond, a great example of someone trying to make a difference in Flint:

"My company is called Roof Right Construction. I’m a licensed builder and can build a whole house, but we focus on roofing. Roof Right started in 2004. I am blessed with some terrific girls. I have about six working for me now.

"All of my girls come from unfortunate circumstances. They need a helping hand more than others might. I help them learn to roof to code and how to appreciate themselves. They have to love their bodies as well as their minds. They were not put here to smoke a crack pipe or be a punching bag. I call them my girls for a reason. They’re my family. I come from a wonderful family. I believe whole-heartedly in family."

Flint Portraits: Chad Nelson

In the market for some oil paintings featuring dear old Flint? Artist Chad Nelson is the person to see:

"I have been painting works of art for about five years now. And I’ve learned that the more I paint, the less I really know about painting. There is so much to be explored in paintings and so many ways to create them. What I love to paint most are landscapes. I naturally gravitate towards the subject of landscapes because of my life-long appreciation of the natural world, its connection to human life, and the beauty of creation.

"The landscapes that I most often paint are from scenes near my geographic region of Mid-Michigan, or places that I have visited. I usually create in my studio working from photographs that I have taken, but sometimes paint en plein aire, meaning 'out of doors.'

"The most recent work that I have created has been focused on color relationships, design, and paint application. Recent paintings include palettes that are softer and more muted using deep and pale hues, unlike my earlier works, which were often brighter and more saturated. I have been in the habit of trying to unify the tone of my paintings across the entire surface, by using a few colors that are mixed into all subsequent mixes. This color unification of a painting works compositionally and helps in defining the mood of a particular piece.

"I am often motivated in trying to execute my paintings in an alla prima fashion, or 'at first try.' I believe a one time go at a painting, if done properly, keeps a painting fresh, breathing, spontaneous, and alive. This immediacy also aids in keeping things simple in terms of design. Compositions that are cleaner and simpler often reveal more impact than those that are cluttered or overly complicated. I try to keep it simple.

"I am also a custom home painter. After spending a few years painting homes, I have utilized some of the concepts involved in this trade that have helped me as an artist. The level of detail and precision that is necessary to gain customer satisfaction and confidence in painting their homes’ has given me a greater sense of awareness of the overall level of craftsmanship that is also required to make fine art paintings. Some concepts that I have paid more attention to include surface preparation, paint application, surface sheen, and final presentation. The experience I have gained from this trade has proved to be invaluable in the progression of my fine art painting."

Flint Portraits: Thomas Wirt

Thomas Wirt — a.k.a. Jar With Most — has graciously let me use several of his photos on Flint Expatriates. Here's an interview where he discusses his photography and his life in Flint.

The Jade Shoppe

Most Flint Expatriates define themselves by where they went to school. What’s your academic history?

I grew up on the west side of Flint, my family's house is on Downey Street, two blocks away from Zimmerman School. My parents still live there. I went to Zimmerman, when it was an elementary school, from kindergarten to the second grade, 1963 to 1966. In 1966 Eisenhower Elementary School was built, and I went there from 3rd to 6th grade, then back to Zimmerman for junior high, from 7th to 9th grade. I went to Southwestern from 1974 to 1976, but I skipped a lot of school, and had to make up my last year of school at the Flint Schools of Choice on 5th Avenue, graduating with a Southwestern diploma in 1977.

A mural in Brush Alley

How did you get started in photography?

I got interested in photography in the mid '70s, it helped a lot that my father had a darkroom in our home's basement that I used. My father worked at The Flint Journal, and later at Smith-Bridgman's, as a commercial artist in the 1960s.

After I graduated from high school, in 1977, I went to work at JD Color Lab on Corunna Road, working in darkrooms and developing film. I worked there until 1983, then went to work at a 1-hour photo lab in the Eastland Mall (now the Courtland Center) until 1986. At that time, I wanted to get another job, but I couldn't find anything in the photographic field in the Flint area. I moved to Lansing in 1986, and worked at a custom photographic lab until 1997, when film-based photography started to decline. I am no longer employed in the field of photography. I take more pictures now with my digital camera then I ever did with my film cameras when I was working in photo labs, and when I had my own darkroom.

The D. Levasseur Building on the corner of North Franklin Avenue and Leith Street.

You have a gift for capturing the reality of Flint in an affectionate way, if that’s the right term. How do you choose your subjects?

Some of the subjects I choose are for nostalgic reasons, places that were important to me when I was growing up, such as Southwestern and Zimmerman schools, and St. Matthews school, where my sisters went to school. My parents had a hobby shop in "The Jade Shoppe" building, before I was born. Your observation that my shots "seem to capture the promise Flint once held and the reality of its present state" and "are depressing and nostalgic at the same time" is very astute, that is exactly what I think about and feel when I see these scenes and take the pictures.

Stevens Moving and Storage near the site of the old Buick City factory complex.

Where are you now?

I've been living in Lansing, only about an hour away from Flint, for the last 20 years, and come back to Flint kind of sporadically, sometimes I go several months between visits. Being away for such long periods, I haven't seen the changes that slowly happen, and I'm struck by how different it is from when I lived there. Like how there is razor wire all over the place. I don't remember seeing that when I lived there. And how there are almost no signs of the factories that were once what Flint was all about. I think that if I was living in Flint all along, I may not be as interested in my home town as I am now. When I started taking my digital photos of Flint a few years ago, it was just for my own collection, I just wanted to have some pictures of home that I could look at. I've done Google searches for pictures of Flint, especially the Flint that I remember growing up, and could find almost nothing on the Internet about it, so I decided to share the photos that I have with the world. I will continue taking, and posting more pictures of Flint.

The Durant Hotel renovation project

Flint Portraits: Mark Brewer

Mark Brewer, an expatriate now living in the Chicago area, reflects back on a time when you could get free harp lessons in Flint and the fictitious Death Squad gang roamed the halls of Hamady High:


My parents moved to Flint from Calgary, Alberta, when I was a month old. After a year living near Jackson Avenue and Avenue A, we moved just outside of town, to the northwest side, where I attended Gillespie Elementary, Hamady Junior High and then Hamady High.

Feeding into my father's loathing for anything that costs money, I dropped piano lessons and started harp lessons because they were free. There were four public harps in Flint: one each at Flint Institute of Music, Eisenhower Elementary, Zimmerman Junior High and Southwestern High. The harp teachers were grad students at the University of Michigan. The lessons were funded by the Ballenger Foundation and kids from the county were invited to participate. So I did.

I took free lessons from age 11 to 16, practicing at the Flint schools for two years, and then my father bought me a harp on the condition that I pay for college myself. Luckily, that was back when college was still affordable.

Somehow I thought it was normal for a town the size of Flint to have a dozen harp students. I played in the Flint Youth Symphony for several years, mostly playing trombone since there were fewer capable trombonists than harpists. I was allowed to play second harp once and had the privilege of sitting near Chris Lamb, who went on to become the principal percussionist for the New York Philharmonic. At the time, I was impressed with the fact that he was so good he got out playing in marching band. Or, at least, that's the legend.

Being a harpist at Hamady was a challenge. The school administration wasn't able to stop the recurrence of my face being caved in at least weekly by the typical Hamady mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging troglodytes who wanted to show how much they loved me.

But then a clever friend invented a fake gang — Death Squad. He managed to successfully associate it with various anti-social activities before announcing that I was under their protection. The beatings stopped immediately.

Through the harp and the youth orchestra, I associated Flint with bright, educated people who could read and valued the arts, and I spent as much time as possible in the cultural area. I played in UM-Flint's production of The Fantasticks, a musical featuring a small combo and a challenging harp part, while still at Hamady. Later, I was offered a scholarship to join the theatre program there, but instead went to Ann Arbor for music school, where I had been taking harp lessons since I was about 16.

Given what Flint has endured recently, it's nice to see that the Flint Symphony, which grew into a respectable orchestra around the mid-1980s, is still intact. Just before leaving in 1988, I played with the orchestra in their first concert under Enrique Demecke, who is an amazing and inspirational musician and leader. But it was Isaiah Jackson who whipped the orchestra into shape.

For most of the 1980s, I played in the Warren Symphony, which was actually a good orchestra. I didn't play much in Flint, given the general attitude that anything from Flint must suck. So I logged a lot of miles driving to the Detroit area after my job at EDS/AC Spark Plug. After two years of EDS and GM's pompous attitude, not to mention the warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I was part of the team making the worst cars in history, I moved to Oak Park to be in the thick of the cultural scene in the Chicago area. More gigs. More money. Fewer miles. It must be heaven.

In Chicago, I'm privileged to play with all sorts of high-level musicians. I play mostly jazz now, specializing in bossa nova. I have a nice business with the Hilton Hotel and the Palmer House, and play in people's homes for their intimate soirees. I was on the music faculty of Concordia University for about 10 years, but just resigned.

When not playing the harp, I'm a freelance writer, and am currently working on a business plan for a marketing services company specializing in newsletters, magazines, websites and other relationship builders.

I'd like to thank (somehow) all the folks in and around Flint who still keep the arts alive in Flint. The art museum is a real treasure and I never miss an opportunity to brag about it. Gayla Zukevich, former ballet diva, once said the Flint is a
Karmic debt center for artists. That may be true for those professionals in the arts who live and work in Flint. Their contributions are continually overlooked because, apparently nothing good can come from Flint. Leo Najar, former youth orchestra conductor, is a good example. But hopefully they'll realize that some of us still appreciate and draw from the time, attention and professionalism they invested in their students. If it wasn't for them, people like me wouldn't be in the big city trenches of creativity, contributing to society with good things that matter.

Flint Portraits: Nancy Kovack

What does the Vehicle City have to do with Jason and the Argonauts, the awkwardly animated film that once seemed so cool and cutting edge?

Note: This post has been updated to correct two errors.

Actress Nancy Kovack, of course.

"On March 11, 1935 1936, Nancy was born in Flint, Michigan. Yes, the same Flint, Michigan, made popular by another prominent child of the city, Michael Moore, in his film documentaries," cultsirens.com breathlessly explains. "Our girl was a brainy student type, as it was reported that she enrolled at the University of Michigan at age 15 to eventually graduate around 19! She took the time to be a radio deejay and to win a lot of beauty contest titles (at least eight) by the age of 20."

And what's Flint's best-known actress doing these days? How does a bombshell who's worked with Dean Martin and Alfred Hitchcock pass the time? She lives quietly with her family in a modest house off East Court in Flint. She enjoys the Farmer's Market on Saturdays, and she's been sighted at the White Horse Tavern on occasion.

Just kidding.

"Another big honor came her way when she said ‘yes’ to a marriage proposal coming from famed orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta," according to cultsirens.com. "They were united on July 19, 1969. She subsequently popped up a couple of times on TV, credited as Nancy Mehta, and was last seen on a Bronk episode in 1976. The couple had two children. Mehta became the music director for the New York Philharmonic. And Nancy preferred to dedicate herself to family life. Of course, Mehta eventually worked with Pavarotti and Domingo. In 1998 the couple moved to Germany, where hubby became Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. Also, Nancy lost some money to Susan McDougal, a player in the Whitewater scandal. By her own admission, Nancy Kovack refused to play the Hollywood game, be it casting couch or swingers scene, despite playing seductive and/or sexy roles. She never became a major movie star and this suited her fine."

Flint Portraits: Bernard Rosenberg

A guest post from an Alaskan adventurer, fishing guide, art teacher, author and Flint Expatriate...

"I am Bernard Rosenberg, son of Sherwin Rosenberg, and grandson of Edward Rosenberg. Our family business was Edward Rosenberg and Son Wholesale Fruits and Vegetables, Inc. We had a massive warehouse on West Water Street and serviced Flint and the surrounding communities for over four decades.

"Yeah, I'm ex-Flint. I grew up in it during my junior and senior high school years at Southwestern. My name opened just about every door in town. In the heyday of my family business if a cop stopped me during a moving violation all he had to was read the last name on my driver's license and he would let me go. Sure enough, I would see him the following Saturday morning helping himself to bags full of fresh produce, free of charge. Jesus! We paid off everybody from the Teamsters to the County Commissioners. I never waited for anything and just the utter of my family name would open closed doors. I knew just about every alley and kitchen backdoor there was. I serviced everything from the elite upscale restaurants on Dort Highway to the country clubs in Holly. I delivered all the way from the dead-end joints off North Saginaw to the lunch-stops on Fenton Road.

"I was a rich kid, but an unspoiled rich kid.

"I worked hard and had no fear. I shot pool with Terrance Knapp, who went on to form Terry Knight and The Pack and manage Grand Funk Railroad. I hung in the coffee houses of the early '60s and blew dope with Joanie Mitchell before she became a superstar. I was gang-stomped in that town. I was shot in that town. I was almost stabbed to death in that town. I survived.

"I graduated in 1967. I had no intention of going to college, but I did, simply following a high-school girlfriend who later dropped out. I didn't quit and graduated CMU in 1971. I migrated to Sarasota, FL and I'll soon end a 37-year career as an art teacher.

"I never planned any of it.

"I always thought I'd be taking over the family business in Flint. We were purveyors and sold produce to the community all the way from the '40s to the '70s. My grandfather was the founder and the millionaire. When he dropped dead in his office chair in the early '60s my father took over. By the time we reached the '70s everything about this business had changed. Though I tried to get my father to adapt, he wouldn't, and by 1970 he went belly-up.

"Our family business was nicknamed the 'fruit house' by all of us, and though gone, the name still endures. A lot of the back-end boys were hillbillies from the rural heartland and were quite vulgar. It didn't stop there. Profanity ran rampant and it continued all the way into the front office with both my father and grandfather. It was a rough business, and cursing was the norm. It got me too, and even to this day when I slip and let fly my wife will ostracize me and tell me to 'knock off that fruit house talk.'

"I have been a visual communicator during all these times and will end being a visual artist when I retire. I have traded the brush for the keyboard and microphone. I am a writer and publisher. I plan to enter the lecture circuit and will launch as a motivational speaker in two weeks. I also do wholesale and retail business in the USA using a Chinese manufacturer. I am soon to expand into the area of print brokerage.

"Obviously, I am now planning everything."

Flint Portraits: Larry O. Dean

Poet and musician Larry O. Dean was born and raised in Flint, where he worked with Michael Moore as an arts editor and reporter at The Flint Voice. He's the author of seven books, including I Am Spam, a series of poems inspired by spam email.

Here's an excerpt from his poem entitled "Are You An Artist? Find out Free:"

"Do you want to know
that badly? Does it even matter?
You're either an artist, or you're not.
No middle ground. If
you don't already know
for sure, admit it,
there are suspicions - signs,
indications, warnings.
And you're worried."

After living in San Francisco, he now teaches poetry in the Chicago Public Schools, gives frequent readings, and is a singer-songwriter, working both solo as well as with several pop bands, including Post Office, The Me Decade, and currently, The Injured Parties.

For more information go to http://www.larryodean.com/

Flint Portraits: Christopher Paul Curtis

Read or listen to Tavis Smiley interview Flint author Christopher Paul Curtis as he discusses everything from literature to hanging doors on Electra 225's.

Flint Portraits: Ben Hamper

For any exiled Flintoid longing for a taste of home, look no further than "Rivethead," Ben Hamper's brilliant and profane look at life in the auto factories of Buick City. Here's an excerpt, courtesy of Michael Moore's website:

I was seven years old the first time I ever set foot inside an automobile factory. The occasion was Family Night at the old Fisher Body plant in Flint where my father worked the second shift.

General Motors provided this yearly intrusion as an opportunity for the kin of the work force to funnel in and view their fathers, husbands, uncles and granddads as they toiled away on the assembly line. If nothing else, this annual peepshow lent a whole world of credence to our father's daily grumble. The assembly line did indeed stink. The noise was very close to intolerable. The heat was one complete bastard. Little wonder the old man's socks always smelled like liverwurst bleached for a week in the desert sun.