Profile Pitch

I am interested in doing my profile about the local downtown hotspot The Union. I fully believe that the Union has managed through their long-standing association with Western Michigan University to able to connect the downtown area and much of Kalamazoo with the college campus atmosphere and to present many of their best artists. Many of Western’s best singers and bands and also their jazz troupe the Gold Company hold regular performances in this restaurant and bar. They are Kalamazoo’s only entertainment venue that features college acts in an official role which differentiates it from places such as the Strutt. They also attract local and touring bands such as Funktion, that promise a good time. Even the name of the place highlights this college connection and I would like to explore that connection in my piece and how The Union positively serves the community by presenting the collegiate artists and connecting them to the community at large.
I have spoken to the manager already who thought it would be a great idea for a piece and was very willing to help. She gave me the email of one of the higher-ups but he has not responded yet to me. I have been a long-time patron and I have always found it to be a refreshing alternative to much of the “Scene” around Kalamazoo. I have had meals during the middle of the day with no entertainment, gone to the bar at night and also attended concerts that were held there. I even monitored the guests there once for an anthropology project that extensively detailed the people who frequent The Union. I think each of these makes me a viable candidate to write a piece about the venue. The Union takes a town that may easily be seen divided between its university self and the regular town that co-exists sometimes uneasily next to it and presents a place for a type of dialogue, expressed through the arts and alcohol. My piece will explore this.