Dimensions Academy

One of my favorite parts of my beat, arts and entertainment, is when I get to work on stories about arts education. A healthy arts education can give anyone — but especially youth — a sense of purpose, self-esteem and so much more.

I recently wrote a story about a group of students at Dimensions Academy, an alternative school in the Norman district for students struggling with educational or behavioral issues, who created an interactive art installation in the hopes of inspiring others to pay kindness forward. Read the story here.


The story was an absolute pleasure to work on. I went to the students' art class, helped create tiles for their project, and brought some show and tell.

Talking to the students about art as a hobby.

Chocolate Festival

My town loves chocolate. Seriously, I'm not kidding. They do. Every year, they throw a big festival in its honor. This year, Nathaniel and I got free tickets to go.

Holy deliciousness! This was heaven.

Vendors from all over gather to dish out their best chocolate samples. And the best part: all the money goes to supporting local art!

In the center of the ballroom they had kid art activities.

Haircut and Red Lipstick

I chopped my hair recently...

You know how I love to change up my hair. I love the length...it's so much easier to manage!

Chocolate: Behind the Scenes

Norman has a most lovely tradition called the Chocolate Festival. It's an arts fundraiser for the Norman Firehouse Art Center. A bunch of vendors gather and show off their favorite chocolate confections — it's really quite fabulous.

Since we give the event coverage every year, we decided we needed to do something a little different this time around — we wanted the "science" behind chocolate. I started to scour the Internet looking for a chocolatier that lives in Norman, or at least near Norman. Thankfully, we found one.

Andrew is a chocolatiere by every sense of the word — he loves chocolate more than just about anyone (well, maybe, except for Grandad.) He let me sit with him in his shop, and he told me the ins and outs of chocolate — the history of chocolate, how the famous dessert developed, what makes good chocolate, what good chocolate should visually look like, the texture of good chocolate on the palate, how white chocolate isn't really chocolate, and on and on. It was really quite fascinating. Plus, he educated me with some of his best chocolate samples...can't really complain about that.

One of my favorite things about my job is learning about people — who they are, how they spend their life, how they view the world, what makes them happy, what motivates them, etc. Andrew was a fun one to learn about. To me, the idea of being a chocolatiere just seems so fantastial...but for Andrew, it's reality.

Read the story here.

Always,

Eli Young Band

I recently had the opportunity to talk to a band member from Eli Young Band. Truth be told, it really wasn't that exciting. James Young, the guitarist, was nice and very gracious. But I guess I'm not all that starstruck.

You can read the story here.

Always,

Matt & Laura Come to Town

Our sweet friends Matt and Laura graduated from Texas Tech in December and moved back to Dallas. Lucky for us, Dallas isn't too far from Oklahoma City. They came to visit us over a weekend in January and we were spoiled with the best of company.

We ate lots of food, talked a lot, went shopping at the outlet mall and visited the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Downtown Oklahoma City.

And it was absolutely lovely!

The Unexpected

I drove through Starbucks the other day. And was quite surprised to find something staring back at me...

Always,

The Norman Philharmonic

One of the first big stories I wrote for the arts and entertainment beat was on the newly formed Norman Philharmonic.

A group of musicians had come together to create an exciting, dynamic, cutting-edge music group for the city of Norman.

Oklahoma Weather

This stuff is crazy. I'll have to swim to work soon.

And when it's frozen...it's simply lovely.

Always,

A Visit from Allison

My sweet friend Allison came to visit us with her boyfriend, Diego, in January. It was a short trip, but we packed it full of goodness.

We hit up the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History and had fun wandering around.

Standing outside the museum.

Hannah the Journalist, part 2

In January, some things changed at work. One of our staff members found a new job so I found myself in a new position: arts and entertainment.

When my editor offered the new position for me, I was immediately excited. Reporting on bad guys and fires isn't exactly my thing. But all things art, music, entertainment and creativity — right up my alley!

I'll be responsible for covering all things crime, education and A&E for a while...but hopefully, soon, my only responsibility will be arts and entertainment!

We published one of my kid-drawings to go along with the column introducing me as the A&E editor of "etc." — the paper's A&E section.

Check out my first section:

Always,