Every Thurs-Sun., June 8-25. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. He takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson before bestowing forgiveness, abandoning his magical powers, and preparing to return to the world. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous “Full fathom five”) and contains some of Shakespeare’s most gorgeously haunting poetry. The RC’s annual Shakespeare in the Arb productions have become a hugely popular local summer tradition. Director Mendeloff takes special care to make the shifting Arb environments an active force in the performance. Bring a blanket or portable chair to sit on; dress for the weather.
6:30 p.m., meet at the Peony Garden entrance at 1610 Washington Heights. $15 (students, seniors, & Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
Every Thurs-Sun., June 8-25. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. He takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson before bestowing forgiveness, abandoning his magical powers, and preparing to return to the world. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous “Full fathom five”) and contains some of Shakespeare’s most gorgeously haunting poetry. The RC’s annual Shakespeare in the Arb productions have become a hugely popular local summer tradition. Director Mendeloff takes special care to make the shifting Arb environments an active force in the performance. Bring a blanket or portable chair to sit on; dress for the weather.
6:30 p.m., meet at the Peony Garden entrance at 1610 Washington Heights. $15 (students, seniors, & Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
Literati is pleased to be the bookseller for the Adrian District Library’s event with Eric Litwin, author of the original Pete the Cat series. Eric will be in concert, with a book signing to follow!
Get ready to sing, dance, and laugh. Eric’s dynamic performances are fully interactive. He sings, plays the guitar and brings books to life. Mr. Eric will share his Pete the Cat books as well as The Nuts and Groovy Joe. It is big, musical, literary FUN!
Contact the Adrian District Library at 517-265-2265 or cchesher@adrianmi.gov for more information.
Every Thurs-Sun., June 8-25. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s culminating work, a visionary romance set on a magical island ruled by the enigmatic but benevolent sorcerer Prospero and his beautiful daughter Miranda. Prospero is in fact the exiled duke of Milan, who conjures a storm that shipwrecks his old enemies upon his island. He takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson before bestowing forgiveness, abandoning his magical powers, and preparing to return to the world. The Tempest is filled with verse and song (including the famous “Full fathom five”) and contains some of Shakespeare’s most gorgeously haunting poetry. The RC’s annual Shakespeare in the Arb productions have become a hugely popular local summer tradition. Director Mendeloff takes special care to make the shifting Arb environments an active force in the performance. Bring a blanket or portable chair to sit on; dress for the weather.
6:30 p.m., meet at the Peony Garden entrance at 1610 Washington Heights. $15 (students, seniors, & Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on the monthly theme. The 3 judges are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Space limited, so it’s smart to arrive early.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6 p.m.), $10. 764-5118.
Richard Retyi and Brian Peters are Ann Arbor Stories, a podcast featuring stories of Ann Arbor’s distant and not so distant past, produced in partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library. Join them at Literati Bookstore for two all new live stories from Ann Arbor’s past, including photos, spoken word and music, as well as a Q&A session with the creators.
Learn more about the podcast and share your own memories of Ann Arbor as well. Check out Ann Arbor stories at aadl.com/annarborstories or visit them on Twitter and Instagram at @annarborstories.
All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share. Hosted by local poets and former college English teachers Joe Kelty and Ed Morin.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
Tickets are $35 dollars, and bundled with a hardcover copy of the book. A Q&A and book-signing will follow the presentation. Please note that this event will not include a musical performance, but a one-of-a-kind oral presentation by one of folk music’s great storytellers.Doors at 6:30.
Skiffle a do-it-yourself music craze with American jazz, blues, folk, and roots influences is a story of jazz pilgrims and blues blowers, Teddy Boys and beatnik girls, coffee-bar bohemians and refugees from the McCarthyite witch hunts. Skiffle is reason the guitar came to the forefront of music in the UK and led directly to the British Invasion of the US charts in the 1960s.
Emerging from the trad-jazz clubs of the early 50s, Skiffle was adopted by the first generation of British teenagers working class kids who grew up during the dreary, post-war rationing years. Before Skiffle, the pop culture was dominated by crooners and mediated by a stuffy BBC. Lonnie Donegan hit the charts in 1956 with a version of Lead Bellys Rock Island Line and soon sales of guitars rocketed from 5,000 to 250,000 a year.
Like punk rock that would flourish two decades later, Skiffle was home grown: all you needed were three guitar chords and you could form a group, with mates playing tea-chest bass and washboard as a rhythm section.
Roots, Radicals & Rockers is the first book to explore the Skiffle phenomenon in depth Billy Braggs meticulously researched and joyous account shows how Skiffle sparked a revolution that shaped pop music as we have come to know it.
Billy Bragg is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. Billys music is heavily centered on bringing about change and getting the younger generation involved in activist causes.
Open mike storytelling competition sponsored by The Moth, the NYC-based nonprofit storytelling organization that also produces a weekly public radio show. Each month 10 storytellers are selected at random from among those who sign up to tell a 3-5 minute story on the monthly theme. The 3 judges are recruited from the audience. Monthly winners compete in a semiannual Grand Slam. Space limited, so it’s smart to arrive early.
7:30-9 p.m. (doors open and sign-up begins at 6 p.m.), $10. 764-5118.
The authors will discuss how their fiction transforms home into character. How do writers use assumptions about familiar places to find the unexpected and surprising? When is a hometown the whole trouble, and also the last, best hope for change? The authors will also talk about how the unique landscape of the upper Midwest inspires their fiction.
Kelly Fordon’s work has appeared in The Florida Review, The Kenyon Review (KRO), Rattle and various other journals. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks. The first one, On the Street Where We Live, won the 2012 Standing Rock Chapbook Award and the latest one, The Witness, won the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for the Chapbook and was shortlisted for the Grand Prize. Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, was chosen as a Michigan Notable Book, a 2016 Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist in the short story category. She works for The College for Creative Studies, Springfed Arts and The InsideOut Literary Arts Project in Detroit.
Laura Hulthen Thomas is the author of the short fiction collection, States of Motion, published by Wayne State University Press. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including The Cimarron Review, Nimrod International Journal, Epiphany and Witness. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. She currently heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan’s Residential College, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction.
