Literati is thrilled to partner with the Neutral Zone to celebrate the book release of Ann Arbor Youth Poet Laureate Zaphra Stupple! Zaphra will be reading from their debut collection There Will Still Be The Body.
Zaphra Stupple is a poet and multimedia artist living in Michigan. They are the 2017 Ann Arbor youth poet laureate and the 2017 Ann Arbor poetry slam champion. They were a feature in the Neutral Zone’s annual poetry show, Poetry Night In Ann Arbor, and are one third of the accompanying book, Joy, Despite. Their work has been published in The Offing, HEArt Journal, |tap| magazine, and Vinyl, among others. Find them at toothcage.wordpress.com.
Literati is thrilled to host poet (and former Literati bookseller!) Russell Brakefield who will be sharing his new collection Field Recordings
About Field Recordings:
Firmly rooted in the dramatic landscapes and histories of Michigan, Field Recordings uses American folk music as a lens to investigate themes of personal origin, family, art, and masculinity. The speakers of these poems navigate Michigan’s folklore and folkways while exploring more personal connections to those landscapes and examining the timeless questions that occupy those songs and stories. With rich musicality and lyric precision, the poems in Field Recordings look squarely at what it means to be a son, a brother, an artist, a person.
Inspired by the life and writings of famous ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, Field Recordings is divided into three sections. It is anchored by a long poem that tracks Alan Lomax on his 1938 journey through Michigan collecting music for the Library of Congress. This poem speaks to the complex process of recording the voices and stories of working-class musicians in Michigan in the early part of the twentieth century. It is rich with the pleasures of music and storytelling and is steeped in history. Like the rest of the collection, it also speaks to the questions and anxieties that, like music, transcend time and technology.
In poems alternately elegiac and rhapsodic, Field Recordings explores the way art is produced and translated, the line between innovation and appropriation, and the complex, beautiful stories that are passed between us. From poetry readers to poets, music fans to musicians, this collection will undoubtedly appeal to a wide audience.
Russell Brakefield received his MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. His work has appeared in the Indiana Review, New Orleans Review, Poet Lore, Crab Orchard Review and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the University of Michigan Musical Society, the Vermont Studio Center, and the National Parks Department.
Detroit children’s book writer Jack Cheng, author of See You in the Cosmos, discusses the art of writing and presents awards to the winners of the AADL short story contest for 3rd-5th graders.
1-2 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.
Saturday April 7 at 2 p.m. join us at the Ann Arbor District Library for a visit with Loren D. Estleman and Denise Swanson. Loren has a new Amos Walker novel coming out, Black and White Ball, and Denise launches a new cozy series with Tart of Darkness.
Nationally acclaimed local storyteller La’Ron Williams presents a program of music and stories emphasizing the importance of telling the truth. For grades K-5.
1-2 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.
Apr. 9 & 23. Open mike for storytellers, who each get 5 minutes to perform.
8-9:30 p.m., Sweetwaters, 123 W. Washington. Free. 769-2331.
Readings from local writers. Books and authors include Jeff Kass’s Takedown (murder mystery), R.J. Fox’s Tales from the Dork Side (memoir), Callie Feyen’s The Teacher Diaries: Romeo and Juliet (memoir), Michael Ferro’s Title 13 (suspense), and Gerald Nicks’s My European Adventures (travel guide). Signings. Refreshments.
7-8:45 p.m., AADL Westgate. Free. 327-4200.
Literati is pleased to welcome journalist Rochelle Riley who will be discussing the new book The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery.
About The Burden:
The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery is a plea to America to understand what life post-slavery remains like for many African Americans, who are descended from people whose unpaid labor built this land, but have had to spend the last century and a half carrying the dual burden of fighting racial injustice and rising above the lowered expectations and hateful bigotry that attempt to keep them shackled to that past.
The Burden, edited by award-winning Detroit newspaper columnist Rochelle Riley, is a powerful collection of essays that create a chorus of evidence that the burden is real. As Nikole Hannah-Jones states in the book’s foreword, “despite the fact that black Americans remain at the bottom of every indicator of well-being in this country-from wealth, to poverty, to health, to infant mortality, to graduation rates, to incarceration-we want to pretend that this current reality has nothing to do with the racial caste system that was legally enforced for most of the time the United States of America has existed.” The Burden expresses the voices of other well-known Americans, such as actor/director Tim Reid who compares slavery to a cancer diagnosis, former Detroit News columnist Betty DeRamus who recounts the discrimination she encountered as a young black Detroiter in the south, and the actress Aisha Hinds who explains how slavery robbed an entire race of value and self-worth. This collection of essays is a response to the false idea that slavery wasn’t so bad and something we should all just “get over.”
The descendants of slaves have spent over 150 years seeking permission to put this burden down. As Riley writes in her opening essay, “slavery is not a relic to be buried, but a wound that has not been allowed to heal. You cannot heal what you do not treat. You cannot treat what you do not see as a problem. And America continues to look the other way, to ask African Americans to turn the other cheek, to suppress our joy, to accept that we are supposed to go only as far as we are allowed.” The Burden aims to address this problem. It is a must-read for every American.
Rochelle Riley is an award-winning newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press who is no longer seeking permission to put the burden down. She hosts a weekday radio show on 910AM Superstation; she offers commentary on NPR, Michigan Radio and local television outlets and contributes to Essence and Ebony magazines. She was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2016, received the 2017 Ida B. Wells Award from the National Association of Black Journalists and Northwestern University, and was awarded the 2017 Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship by the Society of Professional Journalists. She also is a global wanderer who has visited twenty-six countries and counting.
U-M sociology professor Geneviève Zubrzycki and U-M anthropology professor Andrew Shryock discuss Zubrzycki’s book examining the importance of the annual Feast of St. John the Baptist to Quebecois national identity.
5:30 p.m., 100 U-M Hatcher Grad Library Gallery, enter from the Diag. Free. 763-8994.
All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
