Literati is thrilled to partner with the Stamps School of Art and Design to welcome author and musician Joseph Keckler to the Rackham Auditorium as part of the Penny Stamps Distinguished Speaker Series.
Straddling the worlds of music, art, and performance, Joseph Keckler has garnered acclaim for his rich, versatile 3+ octave voice and sharp wit. Keckler’s live performances have been seen at SXSW Music, the New Museum, Issue Project Room, the BAM Fischer Center, Joe’s Pub, the Afterglow Festival, and many other venues. He has received residencies from MacDowell and Yaddo, as well as a Franklin Furnace Grant and a Fellowship in Interdisciplinary Work from the New York Foundation for the Arts. His most recent performance piece, I am an Opera, was commissioned by Dixon Place. The Village Voicenamed him Best Downtown Performance Artist, 2013. For this special speaker series event, Keckler will read from his latest book, Dragon at the Edge of a Flat World (Dragon Point Press, 2017). Drawn from the stories of his life, Keckler’s essays explore the corners of downtown New York, where he made his name performing his songs and plays, and back to the Midwest, where everything began. The texts included in Dragon at the Edge of a Flat Worldrepresent both the continuation and foundation of Keckler’s work on stage.
Jane Austen Book Club Discussion at Nicola’s Books – Associated event of the University of Michigan Graduate Library ‘The Life and Times of Lizzy Bennet’ Exhibit
With the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen’s death, the Grad Library is showcasing not only significant early editions of Austen’s works held in the Special Collections Library, but a much broader swath of materials revealing the historical milieu in which she and her characters lived. This lead to a discussion about books about or written by Austen that reflected these times; out of that the Jane Austen Book Club Discussion was created. There will be three discussion events, February 7th, 28th and March 7th.
Sarah Van Cleve will serve as moderator. She is a first-year doctoral candidate in English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan. She graduated from Princeton University in 2012 with an A.B. in English and Certificate in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her junior research was on violence in Jane Austen’s juvenilia and Frances Burney’s Evelina and her senior thesis was on scenes of reading in George Eliot’s novels. She was raised on the 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice which she firmly believes has no cinematic equal.
Books will be available through Nicola’s Books – contact the store directly 734-662-0600 or come in to the store (2513 Jackson Avenue – Westgate Shopping Center.) Nicola’s Books will offer a 15% discount for the purchase of this title when you tell them that the book is for the Jane Austen Book Club. You may also check with the AADL for availability of the title.
Students, nominated by their instructors, have been invited to read their own poems and short stories to a peer audience. For many student writers, Café Shapiro is a first opportunity to read publicly from their creative work. For others, it provides a fresh audience, and the ability to experience the work of students they may not encounter in writing classes.
An open mike for poets, who are welcome to read their own work or a favorite poem by another writer. Followed by a reading by a featured poet TBA.
7 p.m., Bookbound, Courtyard Shops. Free. 369-4345.
About A Village with My Name:
In A Village with My Name, acclaimed journalist Scott Tong merges memoir and history, offering an account of regular people living through defining moments in modern China from the start of the 20th century to the present, including the toppling of the monarchy, occupation and war crimes during WWII, mass death, famine, and witch hunts under Communism, the secret expansion of prison labor camps, market reforms, and the dawn of the One Child Policy. In this lively and accessible book, Tong brings the long backstory of China’s quest to go global to an American audience, painting a compelling portrait of the often traumatic ways that world historical events rippled through Chinese society. Each character Scott profiles is a Chinese window to the outside world: a pioneer exchange student, a rare American-educated girl born in the closing days of the Qing Dynasty, an abandoned toddler from World War II who later rides the wave of China’s global export boom, a young professional climbing the ladder at a multinational company, and an orphan (the author’s daughter) adopted in the middle of a baby-selling scandal fueled by foreign money. The style is light and at times irreverent, but Tong explores dramatic moments with the depth and sensitivity of a grandson of China seeking to understand the country and its people before memories of the tumultuous 20th century fade.
Scott Tong is a correspondent for the American Public Media program “Marketplace,” with a focus on energy, environment, resources, climate, supply chain, and the global economy. He is former China bureau chief. Tong has reported from more than a dozen countries.
The RC Resident Advisors are proud to present:
Open-Mic Night
February 8th, 7:30-9pm in the Java Blu Cafe right here in East Quad–
ft. local band City of Lakes!
City of Lakes comes from a variety of musical backgrounds, fusing styles of indie-folk, blues, and traditional scores, with influences such as Band of Horses and Head and the Heart.
RC Creative Writing Faculty may be making an appearance…
and ALL are welcome to to come perform a poem, a story, a song, or anything else!
Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfUEkRd0AtSYg69ltCs8L2ylEwV2nm-7rxFYg4t1_fIWPzwyQ/viewform
Email eshabis@umich.edu with any questions!
Performances include dance, music, spoken word, and a variety of mixed media and digital arts. Artists include Anthony Coffee, Spencer Haney, Olivia Johnson, Alex Kime (RC 2017), Hannah Marcus, Maddy Joss & Johnny Matthews, Augie Lessins & Daniel Kumapayi, Red Shoe Company, Nichole Reehorst, and more!
Join us for this special evening hosted by the UMMA Student Engagement Council, in partnership with Arts at Michigan, the Michigan Community Scholars Program, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs.
Literati is excited to host translator Grace Mahoney for this special bi-lengual reading of Ukranian poet Iryna Starovoyt’s collection A Field of Foundlings.
About A Field of Foundlings:
Presented in a dual-language format, A Field of Foundlings is the first in Lost Horse Press’s series of Ukrainian poetry in translation. Starovoyt’s poetry investigates the curse and virtue of forgetting, the suppressed generational memory of the twentieth century, and the new context of its retelling in Eastern Europe. Drawing on the paradoxes of mythology, technology, and tradition, Starovoyt brings the traces of undesirable history and the minefields of memory into an unexpected constellation to interrogate assertions of knowledge and meaning-making in the world today. In a time where the chaos and power of forces beyond our own seem to diminish the potency of the past, Starovoyt’s poems invoke a conscious dialogue with a past that is not severed from the ever-changing present, but echoes in our sense of self, brings some continuity to our daily decisions, and orients us toward the future.
Grace Mahoney is a translator of Ukrainian and Russian literature. She is a PhD student in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan.
Discovering Zen in American Poetry with John Wolff in the Crazy Wisdom Community Room – Nov. 18, 3:45 to 5 p.m. – Book Signing. The Driftwood Shrine author, John Gendo Wolff, will discuss poetry by Americans like Emily Dickenson, and William Carlos William, highlighting the influence of Zen in their work. Q&A. Free to Attend. For more info: (734) 276-5979
FRUIT is an independent, community-led reading and dialogue series for and by marginalized voices, hosted in Literati Bookstore. This month’s readers are Dylan Gilbert, Brittany Rogers, and Yalie Kamara
FRUIT is a moment and a movement of reclamation. It is a space of and for literary artists representing the marginalized: the colored, the queer, the silenced, and the unseen. Each event showcases the work of fresh, revolutionary artists and features a conversation around their lives and their crafts. In this space, FRUIT strives to serve as a carefully curated reading and dialogue series for those who live at intersections ignored. This experience exists both physically and digitally in order to help those marginalized voices reclaim their flesh and plant their roots through short-form literature. Our goal is to create an experience that is intentional in its centering of the historically othered. Through this exploration of identity and craft, we hope to cultivate a platform in which the growth and sharing of radical joy— both encumbered and despite— happens in the presence of solidarity and healthy community.
