Calendar

Apr
19
Fri
Hilton Als and Graduate and Undergraduate Hopwood Awards @ Rackham Auditorium
Apr 19 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Please join us as we celebrate the winners of the 2018-19 Hopwood Awards.
Following the announcement of the awards, there will be a lecture from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hilton Als and a light reception. Free to attend and open to all!

Hilton Als began contributing to The New Yorker in 1989, writing pieces for ‘The Talk of the Town,’ he became a staff writer in 1994, theatre critic in 2002, and lead theater critic in 2012. Week after week, he brings to the magazine a rigorous, sharp, and lyrical perspective on acting, playwriting, and directing. With his deep knowledge of the history of performance—not only in theatre but in dance, music, and visual art—he shows us how to view a production and how to place its director, its author, and its performers in the ongoing continuum of dramatic art. His reviews are not simply reviews; they are provocative contributions to the discourse on theatre, race, class, sexuality, and identity in America.

Before coming to The New Yorker, Als was a staff writer for the Village Voice and an editor-at-large at Vibe. Als edited the catalogue for the 1994-95 Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition “Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art.” His first book, The Women, was published in 1996. His book, White Girls, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2014 and winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Non-fiction, discusses various narratives of race and gender. He is author of the introduction to the Penguin Classics edition of The Early Stories of Truman Capote. He is also guest editor for the 2018 Best American Essays (Mariner Books, October 2, 2018). He also wrote Andy Warhol: The Series, a book containing two previously unpublished television scripts for a series on the life of Andy Warhol.

In 1997, the New York Association of Black Journalists awarded Als first prize in both Magazine Critique/Review and Magazine Arts and Entertainment. He was awarded a Guggenheim for creative writing in 2000 and the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism for 2002-03. In 2016, he received Lambda Literary’s Trustee Award for Excellence in Literature, in 2017 Als won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, and in 2018 the Langston Hughes Medal.

In 2009, Als worked with the performer Justin Bond on “Cold Water,” an exhibition of paintings, drawings, and videos by performers, at La MaMa Gallery. In 2010, he co-curated “Self-Consciousness,” at the VeneKlasen/Werner gallery, in Berlin, and published “Justin Bond/Jackie Curtis.” In 2015, he collaborated with the artist Celia Paul to create “Desdemona for Celia by Hilton,” an exhibition for the Metropolitan Opera’s Gallery Met. In 2016, his debut art show “One Man Show: Holly, Candy, Bobbie and the Rest” opened at the Artist’s Institute. In 2017 he curated “Alice Neel, Uptown” at the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City.

Als is an associate professor of writing at Columbia University’s School of the Arts and has taught at Yale University, Wesleyan, and Smith College. He lives in New York City.

Apr
30
Tue
David Priess: How To Get Rid of a President: History ‘s Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives @ Ford Presidential Library
Apr 30 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Join David Priess, author and former CIA insider, as he discusses his new book, “How to Get Rid of a President: History’s Guide to Removing Unpopular, Unable, or Unfit Chief Executives.”

To limit executive power, the founding fathers created fixed presidential terms of four years, giving voters regular opportunities to remove their leaders. Even so, Americans have often resorted to more dramatic paths to dis-empower the chief executive.

“How to Get Rid of a President” is a lively narrative showcasing various dark sides of the nation’s history: a stew of election dramas, national tragedies, and presidential departures mixed with party intrigue, personal betrayal, and backroom shenanigans.

In this briskly-paced and approachable sweep of history, Priess barnstorms through history, showing all the ways – from impeachment to death – that presidents have either left office prematurely or just barely avoided doing so. While the pomp and circumstance of presidential elections might draw more attention, the way that presidents are removed teaches us much more about our political order.

Free Admission. Free Parking. Book sales/signing and reception follow program.

Lecture: Gregory Boyle @ Washtenaw Community College
Apr 30 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Literati is proud to be partnering with Dawn Farm to host Gregory Boyle at the Towsley Auditorium at the Washtenaw Community College.

In this presentation, Gregory Boyle will share how compassion, kindness, and kinship are the tools to fight despair and decrease marginalization. Through his stories and parables, all will be reminded that no life is less valuable than another.

The Rev. Gregory J. Boyle

Gregory Boyle is the founder of Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, Calif., the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry program in the world.

A Jesuit priest, from 1986 to 1992 Father Boyle served as pastor of Dolores Mission Church, then the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles that also had the highest concentration of gang activity in the city.

Father Boyle witnessed the devastating impact of gang violence on his community during the so-called “decade of death” that began in Los Angeles in the late 1980s and peaked at 1,000 gang-related killings in 1992.  In the face of law enforcement tactics and criminal justice policies of suppression and mass incarceration as the means to end gang violence, Father Boyle and parish and community members adopted what was a radical approach at the time: treat gang members as human beings.

In 1988 they started what would eventually become Homeboy Industries, which employs and trains former gang members in a range of social enterprises, as well as provides critical services to thousands of men and women who walk through its doors every year seeking a better life.

Father Boyle is the author of the 2010 New York Times-bestseller Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.  His 2017 book is the Los Angeles Times-bestseller Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship.

He has received the California Peace Prize and been inducted into the California Hall of Fame.  In 2014, the White House named Father Boyle a Champion of Change. He received the University of Notre Dame’s 2017 Laetare Medal, the oldest honor given to American Catholics.

May
7
Tue
Martha Jones: Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America @ Robertson Auditorium (Ross)
May 7 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
As former slaves struggled to become citizens, they redefined citizenship for all Americans. With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones shows how the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, fulfilling the long-held aspirations of African Americans. Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at The Johns Hopkins University. She is a legal and cultural historian whose work examines how black Americans have shaped the story of American democracy. Professor Jones holds a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University and a J.D. from the CUNY School of Law. Her most recent book, Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. Register online.
May
23
Thu
S. Max Edelson: The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America Before Independence @ Robertson Auditorium (Ross)
May 23 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

A Michigan Map Society Lecture

In the eighteenth century, Britain relied on geographic knowledge to reform its American empire. The schemes of colonial development and control that these maps envisioned, Edelson argues, helped provoke the resistance that led to the American Revolution. Lecture presented in collaboration with the Stephen S. Clark Library. Dr. S. Max Edelson is Professor of History at the University of Virginia. His second book, The New Map of Empire: How Britain Imagined America Before Independence (Harvard University Press, 2017) was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize and received the John Lyman Book Award for U.S. Maritime History by the North American Society for Oceanic History. Register online.

Jun
4
Tue
Patrick Spero: Frontier Rebels: The Fight for Independence in the American West @ Robertson Auditorium (Ross)
Jun 4 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Discover the untold Story of the “Black Boys,” a rebellion on the American frontier in 1765. Drawing on largely forgotten manuscript sources from across North America, Spero reveals an often-overlooked truth: the West played a crucial role in igniting the flame of American independence. Patrick Spero is a scholar of early American history, specializing in the era of the American Revolution. He is the Librarian and Director of the American Philosophical Society Library in Philadelphia. Dr. Spero holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Register online.

Jun
13
Thu
Barbara Stark-Nemon: A Novel Path to a Second Career @ Towsley Auditorium, Washtenaw Community College
Jun 13 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Barbara Stark-Nemon, author of award-winning novels Even in Darkness and Hard Cider, lives, writes, cycles, swims, does fiber arts, and gardens in Ann Arbor and Northport, Michigan. She has degrees in English literature, art history, and speech-language pathology from the University of Michigan and worked with deaf and language disabled children. Even in Darkness is historical fiction based on a family story in 20th century Germany. Hard Cider is contemporary fiction set in northern Michigan. This day pass is free of charge to all members who paid for either the All Thursday Morning Lecture Series Package or the Distinguished Lecture Series and All Thursday Morning Lecture Series Package. Membership is not required for this day pass. Speaker’s Synopsis: The author will describe the path to her current career as a novelist, from her story-telling grandfather to work as a speech-language therapist and teacher. A love of narrative is the common thread. Fictional elements woven into family stories, personal experiences, research, and travel contributed to the writing of both her novels, and a third novel-in-progress. Stark-Nemon will address the challenges and rewards of embarking on an encore career as a novelist.

Jun
24
Mon
Kim Darst: The Iditarod Sled Dog Race Experience @ AADL Downtown
Jun 24 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Kim Darst from Husky Haven Sled Dogs will share her experience competing in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Anchorage, Alaska.  Husky Haven Sled Dogs was established in 1999 with two Samoyeds and a dream to run the Iditarod. In 2009 that dream came true, and they were the first team from New Jersey to qualify, enter, and run the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Come learn about what it takes to train for the Iditarod, and meet one of Kim’s sled dogs!  Copies of Cotton’s Tale, a children’s book about Kim’s story, will be available for sale.

Jun
27
Thu
Tom Grace: The Thriller Alchemist @ Towsley Auditorium, Washtenaw Community College
Jun 27 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Tom Grace is the internationally bestselling author of the Nolan Kilkenny thrillers “Undeniable”, “The Secret Cardinal”, “Bird of Prey”, “Twisted Web”, “Quantum” and “Spyder Web”; and the stand-alone thriller “The Liberty Intrigue”. His books have been translated into eight languages and sold in over twenty-five countries. Grace was born and raised in Michigan, and graduated twice from the University of Michigan with degrees in architecture. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and resides in Michigan with his family.

The lights dimmed in the auditorium and the speaker for the OLLI Local Author lecture stood center stage. “Imagine if we were to discover a body among us,” he began, “that of a person who met a most unnatural end. There would be an investigation and we would have ourselves a mystery. But if, with the body, we found clues to a looming tragedy and the clock is ticking—then we have a thriller!”

This is the second in a three-lecture series. The subject is A Celebration of Local Authors. The next lecture will take place July 11, 2019. The title is William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quadrangle.

Jul
11
Thu
Margaret Leary: William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quadrangle @ Towsley Auditorium, Washtenaw Community College
Jul 11 @ 10:00 am – 11:30 am

Margaret A. Leary became director of the Law Library in 1984 and retired in 2011. From 1973 to 1981, she served as assistant director and from 1982 to 1984, as associate director. She received a BA from Cornell University, an MA from the University of Minnesota School of Library Science, and a JD from the William Mitchell College of Law. Leary worked to build the comprehensive library collection to support current and future research in law and a wide range of disciplines. She also developed strong services to support faculty research. Her biography of William W. Cook was published by the University of Michigan Press in fall 2011. Giving It All Away: The Story of William W. Cook and His Michigan Law Quad describes Cook’s family background, his education at Michigan, and his great success in New York City, which generated the money he was to give to Michigan Law.

This is the third in a three-lecture series.

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