Join the Grand Traverse Humanists on July 6, 2026 at 6 PM for a presentation by Jack Hondorp called “The Wolves of Isle Royale.”

More information coming soon!

Join the Grand Traverse Humanists on August 10, 2026 at 6 PM at the Traverse Area District Library as we welcome Paige Langer with a presentation on World Forest Preservation.

Paige Langer is a Research Analyst for the Forest Program and the Cities4Forests Initiative at the World Resources Institute. Her work supports the program’s efforts to inspire, scale and implement efforts to restore degraded and deforested land back to economic, social and environmental productivity. Paige holds a B.S. in Biology, Political Science, and International Relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Master’s of Public Policy from the Trachtenberg School at George Washington University.

The World Resources Institute is a global non-profit research organization established in 1982. WRI works to improve people’s lives, protect and restore nature, and stabilize the climate. As an independent research organization, they leverage data, expertise and global reach to influence policy and catalyze change across systems like food, land and water; energy; and cities. They also work to shift the economic, finance and governance structures that shape people’s decisions and behaviors.

Join the Grand Traverse Humanists on September 14, 2026 at 6 PM at the Traverse Area District Library, as we welcome the American Humanist Association’s Executive Director, Fish Stark!

Fish Stark is an organizer, educator, social entrepreneur, and lifelong humanist. Fish has spent his career turning big ideas into bold action in service of belonging, flourishing, and social justice for all people. Fish lives in Annapolis, Maryland, where he is President of the Speaker Mike Busch District 30 Democratic Club, is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Annapolis, and serves on several nonprofit boards. He moonlights as an award-winning stand-up comedian and has performed in 13 states.

On November 9, 2026 at 6 PM at the Traverse Area District Library, the Grand Traverse Humanists will present a screening of the new documentary “All Too Clear.” This film uses cutting-edge underwater drones to explore how quadrillions of tiny invasive mussels, known as quaggas, are re-engineering the ecosystem of the Great Lakes at a scale not seen since the glaciers. To capture this epic change, the husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Zach Melnick and Yvonne Drebert spent more than 150 days filming underwater, making it the most ambitious underwater film ever made about the Great Lakes.

Filmmakers and freshwater explorers Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick are the founders of Inspired Planet Productions and Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. For more than two decades, the team has been shining the spotlight on Canadian nature, history and science stories, creating more than 40 hours of broadcast documentary, earning them three Canadian Screen Award nominations.

Lately they have shifted their lens underwater, partnering with Boxfish Robotics to bring their LUNA class ROV to Canada, allowing them to create cinematic imagery down to 1,600 feet deep. They have learned to “swim with the fishes,” using advanced underwater robotics and a custom-designed Henley landing craft to uncover never-before-seen freshwater worlds and wildlife behaviors for storytelling and science. They filmed the first known scientific documentation of Lake Whitefish spawning, and discovered the Africa, a 19th-century Lake Huron shipwreck.

Join the Grand Traverse Humanists on December 14, 2026 at 6 PM at the Traverse Area District Library, as our own Heather Kingham, founder and director of TC Sings!, presents a program on the joy of community singing!

TC Sings! is a choir for men and women who are new to singing, as well as those who’ve been singing their whole lives. They are not affiliated with any particular religion or spiritual path, but seek to celebrate humanity’s highest aspirations through music. TC Sings! is a member of the Ubuntu Choirs Network, which seeks to create a world in which we listen deeply to those around us, celebrate diversity, trust in our voices, and bring them forward on behalf of harmony, justice, and peace. “Ubuntu” is a Zulu word which expresses the concept “I am because we are;” we are connected to and must look out for one another.

Heather Kingham is a graduate of the Community Choir Leadership Training in Victoria, British Columbia. She is dedicated to putting a song into the hearts of every interested person in the Grand Traverse area.