One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends – a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.
Readings by U-M creative writing grad students, including prose by Colin Shephard and poetry by Augusta Funk.
7 p.m., UMMA Auditorium, 525 S. State. Free. 764-6330.
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 discuss different ways to use setting and description to highlight characters, actions, and themes. 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 Mar. 18.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200
Literati is delighted to host the contributors to Community High School’s recently published literary magazine, VOICE: Issue 1, for a night of poetry and prose readings!
VOICE is a student-run journal of literary and visual arts at Community High School located in Ann Arbor, MI. Its first edition was published in December 2018. It features poetry, prose (fiction and essays), and art by Community High School students.
Readers Include….
Chloe Di Blassio is a student and artist at Community High School in Ann Arbor. She began drawing when she was 2 years old and has never stopped since. She works primarily with the figure, capturing small moments of emotional subtleties and inward gazes.
Nicole Tooley is a senior at Community High School. She grew a love for words in her literature and creative writing classes at school. In her spare time when she’s not composing short poems or reading a good memoir, she can probably be found dancing.
Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit that also produces a weekly public radio show. Ten storytellers are selected at random to tell a 3-5 minute story–this month’s themes are “Envy” (Mar. 5) & “Ruse” (Mar 19)–judged by a 3-person team recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Seating limited, so arrive early.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6 p.m.), Greyline, 100 N. Ashley. General admission tickets $10 in advance only at themoth.org beginning a week before each event. 764-5118.
Every Wed. Members read and discuss poems around themes TBA. Followed by collaborative writing games and exercises. Attendees invited to read their poems. Snacks & socializing.
8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.
Local writer (and Observer contributor) Patti Smith hosts a story time for adults, with storyteller Ken MacGregor and others. Pajamas encouraged. For adults only.
7 p.m., Bookbound, Courtyard Shops. Free. 369-4345.
Literati is thrilled to welcome back poet Rob Halpern who will be reading from his new collection Weak Link
Rob Halpern lives between San Francisco and Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he teaches at Eastern Michigan University and Huron Valley Women’s Prison. His most recent book of poetry, prose, essays, letters, and manifestos is Weak Link (Atelos 2019). Other books include Common Place (Ugly Duckling Presse 2015) and Music for Porn (Nightboat Books 2012).
Iranian American journalist Jason Rezaian, Washington Post Tehran bureau chief, was convicted of espionage in Iran in 2015.
4-5:30 p.m., Mendelssohn Theatre, 911 North University. Free. 998-7666.
Literati is pleased to partner with the Jean & Samuel Frankel Center for Judiac Studies at the University of Michigan to have copies of Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century available for purchase. This year’s Belin Lecture is at the Forum Hall Palmer Commons.
29th David W. Belin Lecture in American Jewish Affairs
2018 marks the 70th anniversary of two momentous events in 20th-century history: the birth of the State of Israel and the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Both remain tied together in the ongoing debates about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, global antisemitism, and American foreign policy. Yet today American Jews are increasingly divided on the subject of Israel and human rights. Many on the Jewish Right and the Jewish Left increasingly imagine Zionism and international human rights as intrinsically incompatible – though they differ in their reasoning. Drawing on his recent book, Rooted Cosmopolitans, Professor Loeffler will discuss the deeper historical roots of this divide and its implications for the future of American Jewish politics.
James Loeffler is associate professor of history and Jewish studies at the University of Virginia and former Robert A. Savitt Fellow at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
