Laken Hoody Photo

08/16/2024

The Red Raiders Marching Band kicks off their 2024 marching season with a week long band camp featuring music under the theme “Dancing Through Time.”

08/10/2024

The Spartan Marching Band commenced at the start of the week in preparation of their fall marching band season featuring songs under the theme “A Night At The Movies.“

11/24/2023

Heaps of people assembled along Central Park West for the 97th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Starting 30 minutes earlier than previous years, eye-catching floats and enormous balloons marched down the street, featuring fan-favorite characters like Spongebob Squarepants and Pikachu as well as new balloons such as Monkey D. Luffy from “One Piece” and The Pillsbury Doughboy.

09/11/2023

22 years.

07/31/2021

the great eastern michigan state fair rolls back around in imlay city, michigan 🎠🎈

06/27/2021

A tornado rips through Port Austin, a village at the tip of Michigan’s thumb, on Saturday, June 26, 2021, leaving decapitated trees, damaged homes, power outages, and devastation to several families and businesses in its wake. The tornado was on the ground for 11 minutes.

06/11/2021

Where The Sidewalk Ends
photo story by Laken Hoody

There are endless ways to tell a story, one way being through dance. It’s not a permanent medium, it’s a fleeting moment; one must watch the story unfold through movement before one’s eyes and understand the story through one’s own experiences of life. Not one person will have the same understanding of a dance performance as another because not one person has the same exact life experiences as another.

Dance takes the dancer and the audience to another place. Erin performs a piece entitled Where the Sidewalk Ends, choreographed by CMU student choreographer Laken Hoody, immersing herself as well as the audience into the story through a completely different world.

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends, and before the street begins, ” Shel Silverstein recites from the poem. “And there the grass grows soft and white, and there the sun burns crimson bright,”

This place, where the sidewalk ends, is uncharted territory for the dancer playing the character in the story. All her life she has been told what to do, what not to do, and what path she must take to be successful in life. But is that what I really want for myself? It’s time for her to choose; she is at the end of the already-paved path.

“And there the moon-bird rests from his flight, to cool in the peppermint wind,”

Her body is filled with nervousness as her mind fights between the options of her future that keep her up at night; though, her heart already knows.

“Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black, and the dark street winds and bends, past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow,”

Her life so far has been made up of choices that others have made for her. When do I get a say? This isn’t the life she wants for herself, but she doesn’t want to disappoint those closest to her. The internal battle of guilt has kept her on the path they’ve wanted her on for this long, but now someone, the universe, has asked her what she wants.

“We shall walk with a walk that is measured in slow, and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,”

Cautiously, she approaches the end of the sidewalk. Her dominant foot lurches forward, hovering over the ledge of the unfinished pavement, until her body retracts back to the safety of the far side of the sidewalk. What if they’re right?

Internally, she is conflicted, but she contemplates each side. The only person who has to live this life is me.

She takes a running start toward the end of the sidewalk and leaps fearlessly over the threshold. You will never know unless you try.

“For the children, they mark, and the children, they know, the place where the sidewalk ends.”

—

[ you can view this story in the full on my website lakenhoody.com 😊 i hope you enjoy this story as much as i do. it was so much fun getting to be apart of Central Michigan University’s Theatre and Dance Company’s show and getting to choreograph my piece Where the Sidewalk Ends and ultimately photograph this picture story of the process as we went along. individual captions for each photo are below each photo! ]

11/19/2020

Beyond grateful to have been a part of this project. Check out my and my classmates' photo stories, videos, and more.

May 19, 2020. Massive destruction along the Tittabawassee River in Midland County, Mich. Homes, schools, churches, businesses, parks, entire lives uprooted like the hundreds of trees that were knocked over and cascaded down the Tittabawassee river. 

11/19/2020

Here is my photo story regarding the Midland flood project of our JRN 422 class this semester. Click the post to read my story and photos, and also click the link to view my overall piece + profile on our website! ALSO, check out all my peers' amazing work featured throughout the website! I am so incredibly proud of us, this project, and the one and only Kent Miller for teaching us and guiding us through.

10/30/2020

Earlier this semester (for my JRN 422 course here at CMU) I was assigned to photograph a farm family. It was such a great experience! A HUGE thank you to the Koth family for letting me photograph them and their farm! Loved getting to dive deep into the hardworking world of farming, I learned a ton! 🚜🌾

09/15/2020

Wishing the happiest of birthdays to my favorite model who gets me job opportunities because she makes the most beautiful photographs. I LOVE YOU!