Calendar

Feb
28
Sun
29th Annual Storytelling Festival @ The Ark
Feb 28 @ 1:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Feb. 27 & 28 (different programs). Performances for adults (Sat.) & families (Sun.) by top-notch storytellers from around the country and the state. Headliners are 2 storytellers whose commentaries have been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Kevin Kling is a Minneapolis storyteller who specializes in autobiographical tales about everything from growing up in Minnesota and eating things before knowing what they are to hopping freight trains and getting his play banned in Czechoslovakia. Bill Harley is a Massachusetts songwriter and storyteller with an off-center point of view whose stories paint vibrant and hilarious pictures of growing up, schooling, and family life. Opening act is Yvonne Healy, a Brighton-based raconteur named Top Irish Storyteller in the USA whose repertoire includes weird Irish legends, outrageous family tales, and more.
7:30 p.m. (Sat.) & 1 p.m. (Sun.), The Ark, 316 S. Main. Tickets $20 (Sat.) & $10 (Sun. family concert) in advance at the Michigan Union Ticket Office (mutotix.com) &theark.org, and at the door. To charge by phone, call 763-TKTS.

 

 

Apr
24
Sun
Jennifer Burd and Laszlo Slomovits: Receiving the Shore @ Nicola's Books
Apr 24 @ 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Jennifer Burd has published lyric poetry and haiku in a variety of print and online journals. She is the author of a book of poems, Body and Echo, and a book of creative nonfiction, Daily Bread: A Portrait of Homeless Men & Women of Lenawee County, Michigan. She has co-written (with Laszlo Slomovits) a children’s play based on Patricia Polacco’s picture book I Can Hear the Sun, which was produced in 2015 by Ann Arbor’s Wild Swan Theater. Jennifer received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington, and she teaches online courses through the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. She works as an editor and writer for HighScope Educational Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Laszlo Slomovits is one of the twin brothers in Ann Arbor’s nationally-known children’s folk music duo, Gemini (GeminiChildrensMusic.com).  A fine singer and multi-instrumentalist, Laszlo has given concerts throughout the U.S. and a number of his award-winning songs are featured in songbooks music teachers use throughout the country.  In addition to his music for children, Laszlo has set to music the work of many poets. His recordings of these song-settings include five CDs of the poetry of ancient Sufi mystics, Rumi and Hafiz as well as “White Picture” by the Holocaust-era Czech poet Jiri Orten and “Cry of Freedom,” the poetry of contemporary American poet Linda Nemec Foster.

Jun
15
Wed
Greg Jobin-Leeds, Dey Hernandez, and Jorge Diaz: When We Fight @ Crazy Wisdom
Jun 15 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Crazy Wisdom Book and Performance Event — Come join the co-authors Greg Jobin-Leeds, Dey Hernández, Jorge Diaz and movement leaders for a multi-media hour of art, theatre and lively conversation. Longtime social activist Greg Jobin-Leeds joins forces with AgitArte-a collective of innovative artists and organizers-to capture the stories, philosophies, tactics, and art of six of today’s most pressing movements: immigrant rights, the LGBTQ movement, the fight for quality public education, the prison justice movement, the struggle for economic power, and the environmental movement.
Recently published by The New Press, WHEN WE FIGHT was highly praised by Noam Chomsky, Amy Goodman and Thom Hartmann.

Feb
26
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL Free Space (3rd floor)
Feb 26 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 971-5763.
Mar
26
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL Free Space (3rd floor)
Mar 26 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 971-5763.
Apr
13
Thu
AEPEX Contemporary Performance Presents: Typewriter Songs @ Literati
Apr 13 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Join ÆPEX Contemporary Performance and celebrated guest artists Megan Ihnen (mezzo-soprano) and Michael Hall (viola) for an intimate concert featuring the world premiere of Ypsilanti-based composer Garrett Schumann’s “Typewriter Songs.” This new work sets to music the profound and bizarre musings patrons of Literati have written on the store’s beloved typewriter over the years, and will be the centerpiece of an evening-long program of recently composed songs for voice and viola.

Apr
23
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL Free Space (3rd floor)
Apr 23 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 971-5763.
May
28
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL Free Space (3rd floor)
May 28 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 971-5763.
Jul
10
Mon
Ann Arbor Stories: Richard Retyi and Brian Peters @ Literati
Jul 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

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.

 

Oct
22
Sun
Ann Arbor Storytellers Guild @ AADL Free Space (3rd floor)
Oct 22 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
All invited to listen to guild members swap stories or bring their own to tell.
2-4 p.m., Ann Arbor District Library Freespace (3rd floor), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 971-5763.
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