Audio Tour Complete

Our audio guided walking tour of the music and cultural history of Bowling Green, Ohio, is now fully uploaded to this site. All of the 9 stops on the walking tour have its own page with information and a recorded audio segment. There is also an interactive map to help guide you. Please start here to get acquainted with all the tools available for your walking tour of BG and BGSU.

Aerial Tour

For anyone interested in the architectural history of BGSU, the Center for Archival Collections has valuable resource for studying the physical growth and changes of Bowling Green State University from the 1930s through the 2000s called Aerial Tour.

Doyt Perry Stadium

Took a trip to Doyt L. Perry Stadium, site of the Poe Ditch Festival, celebrating it's 45th anniversary on June 1st, 2020. Despite quarantine some students had managed to jump the fence for an impromptu game of pickup football on the field.

Alumni Mall

Visited the the site of the Daze Of Rock Festival on BGSU campus today, where peregrine pond used to be, on the 33rd anniversary of the festival (April 25th, 1987), now the site of Alumni Mall, a catch all park for various plaques honoring various donors and affiliations.

Poe Ditch Festival Ad from the Ann Arbor Sun

We found an advertisement for the Poe Ditch Festival from the May 23, 1975 edition of the Ann Arbor Sun, a bi-weekly newspaper for the organization Trans-Love Energies. The newspaper was originally called the Warren-Forest Sun (founded in Detroit and named after the Detroit neighborhood between Warren Avenue and Forest Avenue) before relocating to Ann Arbor Michigan in 1968 when Trans-Love Energies relocated.

Gary Grimshaw, and John and Leni Sinclair founded the Trans-Love Energies organization in 1967, and they worked out of communal houses at 1510 and 1520 Hill St, where the Ann Arbor Sun was produced and edited by the members of the group. The buildings housed the MC5 as well as artists, and the paper was originally aligned with the White Panther Party. The Trans-Love Energies organization is still in operation today, primarily as a medical marijuana compassion center.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters Campus Connections

The Bridge Over Troubled Waters sculpture appears to be opening up in its connections to the May 1970 protest murders. The welded beads that write out its dedication, pictured above, have opened up connections with in and out side of Ohio. The statue was designed by Donald Drumm, the first artist in residence at BGSU. Drumm's work is most prominent around campus when looing at his 7 story work that cover the Jerome Library. According to the Kent State library Drumm had a 14 foot statue that was shot when the National Guard fired into a group of students killing 4 on the campus on May 4th 1970. Bridge Over Troubled Waters is made from the same metal that Drumm used to create the still standing and bullet hole marked sculpture on the Kent State campus. Ten days Later police opened fire on dorms at Jackson State a HBCU in Mississippi. This event has largely been forgotten in history. In keeping with the national norm the Sculpture is first referred to in the BG News on August 6th 1970.  "DONALD DRUMM, University artist in residence, has entitled his newest project "Bridge Over Troubled Waters." It is a memorial to the students killed at Kent State University and Jackson State College during the campus disorders this spring. The art work is located between the Centrex Building and Kohl Hall." The paper states in a brief remark on page 4. However, in keeping with the master narative of forgetting the police killings on the Jackson State Campus the BG News writes on September 24th of 1970, less than 5 months after the killings "BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED Waters" is Donald Drumms artist in residence, title for the contemporary sculpture commerating the Kent State Four. It is located behind the Centrex Building." On page 5.

We are working through more research but this sculpture has direct material ties to Kent State and appears to be on of few memorials that include Jackson State we can find. Neither Kent State not Jackson State make refernce towards the statues partial dedication to the slain Jackson State students.

For futher information follow the link to the Kent State Library or the NPR article that lays out the negation of the Jackson State Two from the historical record.
https://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/bridge-over-troubled-waters

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126426361

Waterville Trip

Today we took a trip to historic Waterville, Ohio, home of Third Street Cigar Records to see some photographs from local music photographer John Rockwood. Rockwood was present at the Poe Ditch Concert, that is included on the walking tour. John has tried reaching out to  Rockwood. 

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Justin at the Sculpture

Today John and Justin visited the sculpture on BGSU's campus by Sculptor Don Drumm entitled Bridge Over Troubled Waters, and is a memorial to the Kent and Jackson State shootings. The work was created from the scraps of from a sculpture on the Kent State University campus also by Don Drumm, that was in the line of fire at the time of the shootings. Justin will be researching this sculpture for the Walking Tour. We tried to make contact with the artist, who also did the relief work on the facade of the Jerome Library.