June 5 & 19. 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. June themes: “Endings” (June 5) & “Impostor” (June 19). The 3-person judging teams 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.), Greyline, 100 N. Ashley. $8. 764-5118.
June 7-10, 14-17, & 21-24. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors in an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s vividly poetic love story, a romantic tragedy about “star-crossed lovers” defying their feuding families. Initially lightheartedly comic, then dire, this perennially popular drama is the heart-wrenching tale of 2 impetuous young lovers destroyed by the intransigence of their feuding families, their own mistakes, and some incredibly bad timing. 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. $20 (Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $15; students, $15; seniors age 62 & over, $17; youth under age 18, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
Petra Kuppers will read from her short story collection Ice Bar at Aut Bar/Common Language Bookstore. Visit with post-apocalyptic science fiction and psychedelic fantasy, featuring a cast of queer, vulnerable, beautiful characters. Disability becomes an invitation to new lives, new stories, new opportunities.
Advance Praise for Ice Bar:
Ice Bar’s tales, like the best myths, both chill us and warm us as they expose our as-yet unexamined psyches, and reinventing our time, place, and positions in it. This book’s insights are offered up by a rare talent, a serious and generous intelligence. These are the stories we have been waiting to read, by the writer we’ve long needed.
–Laura Kasischke
The worlds of Kuppers’ stories are worlds with not only mermaids, ghosts and other non-human beings, but also worlds full of disabled people, queer people, and people of color whose narratives are not about their disability, sexuality, gender, or race alone.
–Sami Schalk
Aut Bar Patio/Common Language Bookstore, 315 Braun Ct, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104. Free. 7342392634. petra@umich.edu http://www.spuytenduyvil.net/ice-bar.html
June 7-10, 14-17, & 21-24. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors in an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s vividly poetic love story, a romantic tragedy about “star-crossed lovers” defying their feuding families. Initially lightheartedly comic, then dire, this perennially popular drama is the heart-wrenching tale of 2 impetuous young lovers destroyed by the intransigence of their feuding families, their own mistakes, and some incredibly bad timing. 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. $20 (Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $15; students, $15; seniors age 62 & over, $17; youth under age 18, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
June 7-10, 14-17, & 21-24. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors in an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s vividly poetic love story, a romantic tragedy about “star-crossed lovers” defying their feuding families. Initially lightheartedly comic, then dire, this perennially popular drama is the heart-wrenching tale of 2 impetuous young lovers destroyed by the intransigence of their feuding families, their own mistakes, and some incredibly bad timing. 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. $20 (Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $15; students, $15; seniors age 62 & over, $17; youth under age 18, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., AADL Downtown 3rd-floor freespace rm., 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. annarborstorytelling.org, 997-5388
June 7-10, 14-17, & 21-24. U-M Residential College drama lecturer Kate Mendeloff directs students and local actors in an alfresco production of Shakespeare’s vividly poetic love story, a romantic tragedy about “star-crossed lovers” defying their feuding families. Initially lightheartedly comic, then dire, this perennially popular drama is the heart-wrenching tale of 2 impetuous young lovers destroyed by the intransigence of their feuding families, their own mistakes, and some incredibly bad timing. 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. $20 (Friends of Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum, $15; students, $15; seniors age 62 & over, $17; youth under age 18, $10; kids under 5, free) at the gate only. Tickets go on sale at 5:30 p.m. Space limited; come early. 998-9540.
This local husband-and-wife writing team reads from ‘Til Death: Marriage Poems, their jointly written collection exploring the ups and downs of suburban monogamy from their dual perspectives. The program begins with open mike readings.
7-8:30 p.m., Sweetwaters, 123 W. Washington. Free. 994-6663.
Readings by these 2 novelists. Title 13 is local writer Ferro’s satirical debut novel about an alcoholic bureaucrat who struggles with mounting paranoia, his relationships with concerned family members, his dying grandmother, and a budding office romance. Portland writer DeFreitas’s Hot Season is about 3 college roommates whose lives change when the FBI comes to campus in pursuit of an alum wanted for politically motivated crimes. Signing.
7 p.m., Bookbound, Courtyard Shops. Free. 369-4345.
Widely-published Detroit poet Lauren Bernstein-Machlay reads from her latest book, Travelers, a collection of autobiographical poems. Foreword (Traverse City) writer Susan Waggoner notes “it’s through the bravery of the concept-going back to the place where you grew up to plant your flag in uncertain turf-that the book most delivers. Poised between sinking back into nature and leaping forward to revival, flashing glimpses of Detroit stand out.” Followed by a poetry and short fiction open mike.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757.
