Press

Emil Messina, my barber of many years, told me in the video that he’d work until “the day comes.” Today, I found out, that day came. Some family health emergency, I was told, and then he retired. That’s all anyone at the Oak Park Arms could tell me when I called for an appointment this

An art exhibit on display beginning Aug. 17 at the Oak Park Arms will feature the work of a local artist created while in Italy for a residency program. Ann Primack, who specializes in crafting ceramic tiles from scratch, has taught ceramics at the Arms’ Lifelong Learning Center, as well as the Oak Park Art

Theater troupes often test their talents on small audiences before the really big performance in order to work out bugs and assess crowd response. The young actors of BRAVO, the theater program at Brooks Middle School, can now travel to a weekend competition with confidence after performing numbers from Annie Junior and Legally Blonde Junior

Having worked with senior citizens for the past 15 years, art instructor Nancy Fong knows they tend to have plenty of material for self-expression. “When you live a long life, you have lots of past,” she said. As a group, seniors — who frequently attend her classes at the Senior Citizens’ Center of Oak Park

Emil Messina’s grandfather was a barber. So was his father and two brothers. “I was born in a barbershop, barbers all around me,” he said. “I don’t know anything else.” Messina, 84, has been a barber since the age of 13, when he was cutting the hair of soldiers during World War II in his