Literati is thrilled to welcome Harvey Ovshinksy who will be here to talk with us about the life of his father and the new book The Man Who Saw Tomorrow: The Life and Inventions of Stanford R. Ovshinsky. This event is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor and JCC members will receive 15% off the price of the book!
About The Man Who Saw Tomorrow:
The first full-length biography of a brilliant, self-taught inventor whose innovations in information and energy technology continue to shape our world.
The Economist called Stanford R. Ovshinsky (1922–2012) “the Edison of our age,” but this apt comparison doesn’t capture the full range of his achievements. As an independent, self-educated inventor, Ovshinsky not only created many important devices but also made fundamental discoveries in materials science. This book offers the first full-length biography of a visionary whose energy and information innovations continue to fuel our post-industrial economy.
In The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, Lillian Hoddeson and Peter Garrett tell the story of an unconventional genius with no formal education beyond high school who invented, among other things, the rechargeable nickel metal hydride batteries that have powered everything from portable electronics to hybrid cars, a system for mass-producing affordable thin-film solar panels, and rewritable CDs and DVDs. His most important discovery, the Ovshinsky effect, led to a paradigm shift in condensed matter physics and yielded phase-change memory, which is now enabling new advances in microelectronics. A son of the working class who began as a machinist and toolmaker, Ovshinsky focused his work on finding solutions to urgent social problems, and to pursue those goals, he founded Energy Conversion Devices, a unique research and development lab. At the end of his life, battered by personal and professional losses, Ovshinsky nevertheless kept working to combat global warming by making solar energy “cheaper than coal”—another of his many visions of a better tomorrow.
Harvey Ovshinsky is an American writer, story consultant, media producer, and teacher, and has been described as “one of this country’s finest storytellers” by the Detroit News. The Metro Times called Ovshinsky’s career chronicling life in Detroit during the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s “a colorful and fantastic voyage, at times brave and visionary,” spanning the universe of print, broadcast television and radio, and digital storytelling.
Irina Khutsieva is RC Artist in Residence.
The theater world in Russia is lively as ever, with a range of styles and interests represented by innovative and original work. But that world is also under significant threat as the Russian state puts increasing pressure on theaters and especially directors. The substance of the great art of theater is communication, respect, reverence, and an unflagging belief in humanity. Theater thrives on humanity the way flowers feed on soil, sun, and water. It in turn produces the conditions for humanity to grow. Theater produces and nurtures community and brings people together. In her lecture, Irina Khutsieva will expound on the relationship between theater, state and society in today’s Russia.
Irina Khutsieva is a stage director and acting instructor in Moscow, Russia. Trained at “GITIS,” the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art, she has more than 30 years of experience in Russian theater. She now directs her own studio theater, the Chamber Theater, Moscow, founded in 2004. Khutsieva has staged more than 50 plays in Russia, Germany, and the U.S. She has worked at one of Russia’s most distinguished theater academies – the Shchepkin Higher Theatre Institute, associated with the State Academic Maly Theatre of Russia. She also has extensive experience teaching college drama majors. A specialist and practitioner of the Stanislavski Method, she incorporates the principles and traditions of Russian psychological theater and has also developed her own staging and teaching methods. In recent years, she has directed a major gala performance shown on Russian national TV and has run workshops for professional actors in regional towns throughout Russia.
This local poet, organizer of the long-running Ann Arbor Poetry reading series, reads from …And Pharaoh Hardened His Heart: Poems for the Trump Years, his new chapbook of poems chronicling fascism, cruelty, gaslighting, narcissism, and the psychological endurance it takes to stay sane and compassionate in contemporary America. Signing.
7 p.m., Bookbound, 1729 Plymouth. Free. 369-4345
Literati is pleased to welcome sports reporter Tom VanHaaren who will be sharing his new book about the University of Michigan football program, The Road to Ann Arbor: Incredible Twists and Improbable Turns Along the Michigan Recruiting Trail.
About The Road to Ann Arbor:
Why did Desmond Howard spurn Nick Saban to play in Ann Arbor? How did Michigan really find All-American offensive lineman Reggie McKenzie? What did Bo Schembechler do that surprised Mark Messner and his family? And why was Tom Brady recruited so late in the process? The Road to Ann Arbor reveals how many Wolverines greats became just that. ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren takes fans back to the start and behind the scenes of the college recruiting process, showing that the path to The Big House is not always straight and narrow.
Tom VanHaaren is a college football and recruiting reporter for ESPN, which he joined in 2011.
Readings by 7 authors being published by this AADL imprint. Books include Tracy Gallup’s Paint the Night (picture book), Zac Gorman’s So Thirsty (all-ages comic), Linda Jeffries’ We Thought We Knew You (adult fiction), Brad and Kirstin Northrup’s Akeina the Crocodile (picture book), V.W. Shurtliff’s Setting the Record Straight (teen fantasy), and Tevah Platt, Willa Thiel, and Becky Grover’s Snail, I Love You (picture book).
1-3 p.m., AADL Downtown 1st fl. lobby. Free. 327-4200.
The Ann Arbor District Library and Literati Bookstore are proud to present author Mike Curato who be giving a special storytime reading of his new book Merry Christmas, Little Elliot.
About Merry Christmas, Little Elliot:
Best friends Little Elliot and Mouse are back for another adventure–and this time, they’re looking for Christmas spirit!
Little Elliot the elephant isn’t quite sure what Christmas spirit is, but he suspects he doesn’t have it. Not even a visit to Santa Claus can put Elliot in the right mood. But when chance blows a letter for Santa into Elliot and Mouse’s path, the two friends discover what Christmas is all about–and make a new friend, too. A heartfelt celebration of the season of giving! Perfect for sharing around the holidays.
Mike Curato is an illustrator who loves small treasures. He has illustrated many books for children and is the author and illustrator of Little Elliot, Big City; Little Elliot, Big Family; Little Elliot, Big Fun; and Little Elliot, Fall Friends. You can find him on any given day walking around the city, eating a cupcake (or thinking about it).
Reading by this local poet, a Neutral Zone advisor.
7 p.m. Espresso Royale, 324 S. State. $5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Local short story writer Alex Kourvo and young adult novelist Bethany Neal are joined by a representative from Cherry Lake Press and San Diego-based children’s nonfiction writer Virginia Loh-Hagan to discuss how to plan, write, and publish a children’s book. From noon-2 p.m., Loh-Hagan discusses literacy strategies for struggling readers (preregistration required at registrations@aadl.org). For adult and teen (grade 6 & up) fiction and nonfiction writers. Also, Kourvo and Neal host an open house for writers to connect with one another and/or work on their projects at 7 p.m. on Oct. 15.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200
U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies Consciousness Next! Series presents Dr. Julia Mossbridge, whose recent book The Premonition Code: The Science of Precognition, How Sensing the Future Can Change Your Life (with Theresa Cheung) was published on October 16.
The presentation will feature examples of precognitive experiences—where an individual has knowledge about the future that s/he could not have obtained via “normal” channels—and will cover what makes a precognition something other than coincidence. Dr. Julia Mossbridge, who contends that receiving accurate information about future events is neither unscientific nor uncommon, will explain how the scientific evidence for precognition, combined with what we know about consciousness and the nature of time, makes precognition a reasonable phenomenon to investigate further through research and application.
Mossbridge is a fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University in the Department of Psychology. Her book Transcendent Mind, published by the American Psychological Association in 2017, is one of the first academic books to examine paranormal experiences (nonlocal, physically transcendent dimensions of consciousness). Her research focus is precognition and its ramifications for creativity and healing, the time-consciousness relationship, and further capacities of consciousness that are coherent with an emergent, more integral conception of mind.
The U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies (PCCS) is directed by music professor and consciousness theorist Ed Sarath. It brings together colleagues from a wide range of fields to explore creativity and its underpinnings in consciousness and ramifications thereof for emergent models of education, spirituality, sustainability, social justice, and peace.
The PCCS Consciousness Next! series examines a range of phenomena and ideas that unite cutting-edge scientific research and age-old spiritual wisdom.
Storytelling by Michigan veterans. Also, live entertainment by the Concordia University Choir & Band and others TBA.
7 p.m., Hill Auditorium. Free, but tickets required in advance at eventbrite.com (search for “Stories of Service”). (518) 481-0552.
