Creative Collective Explores

Season 2 is coming. 🎧

Creativity Connects with Mikki Wilson (AKA The Dot Connector) is back — and this season goes even deeper past the polished feeds and tidy origin stories.

Every week, Mikki sits down with a woman entrepreneur from our community and gets to the real stuff: the messy middle, the near-misses, the moments that don't make the highlight reel.

Premiere drops July 16.

Set a reminder. You're going to want to hear these. 👇

Sponsored by Jenni Stuart Fine Jewelry · Produced by Randyll Collum + Peabody TV

Essex County is mid-transformation this week, and honey, so are we. 🦋 Here's your Sevenings lineup — the after-seven glow-up, one becoming-something-else moment at a time.

Wednesday 7/8, three comedians walk into a firehouse — literally — for Laughs at the Firehouse Center for the Arts with New England Entertainment "NOW" Productions at 7:30PM, where Paul Gilligan headlines and nobody's job description includes putting out fires.

Thursday 7/9, all those late-night "research hours" finally pay off at True Crime & Reality TV Trivia at Granite Coast Brewing Company, 7PM — rep your Granite Coast gear for bonus points.

Friday 7/10 is a whole mood: brine it, preserve it, and take three jars home from the Pickle Party Cooking Class with With Flour In Her Hair at 5:30PM; wander into Night Owls: Summer Backyard Games at Salem Athenaeum at 6PM, where the gate opens at six and strangers turn into rivals turn into friends by nightfall; or turn molten glass into a signature piece all your own at An Evening of Glass & Wine (21+) at North Shore Glass School, 7PM — total newbies welcome.

Saturday 7/11, catch Shakespeare under the stars at A Midsummer Night's Dream at Hale Farm with Historic Beverly, 7PM — fairies, a love potion gone wrong, bring a blanket and your chosen family. Then dig out the scrunchies for the 90's Throwback Dance Party at The Bell Inn & Tavern, 9PM, with DJ Eness spinning every word you swore you forgot.

And Sunday 7/12 closes it out with Lynn de Noche 2026 from Lynn Walking Shoe TOURS, 6:30PM — the Shoe City after dark, stories told only in Spanish, only at dusk.

That's just some of it. Something's about to become something else in Essex County — might as well be you. Stay sevening. 🌆 Follow along: Creative Collective Explores or our newsletter and calendar every week.

That was a DAY. 🏳️‍🌈✨

North Shore Pride Parade & Festival brought the color, the music, the local vendors, and about a thousand of your new best friends to the street. Thank you to everyone who came out, danced, shopped small, and made it feel like home.

Whether you marched or just soaked it all in — you were part of it. And the North Shore is better for it.

Tag someone you spotted in the crowd 👇