A diverse nation deserves diverse poetry, Celebrate National Poetry Month with leading poets of color from Ann Arbor’s vibrant poetry scene as they explore pressing themes of identity, heritage, culture, race, resistance, and more. This event will be curated by local writer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang.
- Jasmine An comes from the Midwest. Her chapbook, Naming the No-Name Woman, won the 2015 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in HEArt, Stirring: A Literary Collection, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Nat. Brut and Waxwing, among others. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD in English and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan.
- Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard is the current Youth Poet Laureate of Ann Arbor. Aldo believes firmly in bringing people together and making people feel seen through poetry, and hopes to do so in his own poetry. He is a recent graduate of Pioneer high school, former Ann Arbor Youth Slam Team member, and a freshman at the University of Michigan, studying Vocal Performance and Engineering.
- Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit. He teaches in the English Department Writing Program at University of Michigan and in the Literary Arts Program at the Neutral Zone.
- Leslie McGraw is the creative inspiration behind the Bookbound Open Mic & Share Poetry Series and the Life By Poetry online community. Her debut poetry collection, Emergencies of the Heart, was published in 2014; and her essay, “Roses Come in Black, Too,” was published in the As/Us Women of the World Journal. You can follow her on Twitter @LifebyPoetry.
- Saleem Peeradina is the internationally esteemed author of several books of poetry, memoir, and essays. He is the editor of Contemporary Indian Poetry in English, one of the earliest and most widely used texts in South Asian literature courses. He has served as writer-in-residence from Chelsea District Library to the American College in Madurai, India and is Professor Emeritus at Siena Heights University.
- Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a journalist, essayist, speaker, educator, and poet focused on issues of diversity, race, culture, and the arts. Her poetry has appeared in Cha Asian Literary Journal, Kartika Review, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. She teaches Asian/Pacific Islander American studies at the University of Michigan.
- Cozine A. Welch, Jr. is a formerly incarcerated published poet and writer. A staff member of the University of Michigan’s Prisoner Creative Arts Project (PCAP), he now teaches at the University and is managing editor of the Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing literary journal.
Each week will feature different Detroit-based speakers and guests who will explore the given topic and engage the students through a combination of formal remarks, presentations, and public discussion. Light dinner provided; free transportation from Ann Arbor to Detroit; public welcome and encouraged to attend.
This event is free and open to the public. There will be a catered reception to follow the lecture.
Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. She is also a partner at Pipestem Law, P.C., where she works to protect tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. Nagle has authored numerous briefs in federal appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Nagle studied theater and social justice at Georgetown University as an undergraduate student, and received her J.D. from Tulane Law School where she graduated summe cum laude and received the John Minor Wisdom Award. She is a frequent speaker at law schools and symposia across the country. Her articles have been published in law review journals including the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Yale Law Journal (online forum), Tulsa Law Review, and Tulane Law Review, among others.
Nagle is an alumn of the 2012 PUBLIC THEATER Emerging Writers Group, where she developed her play “Manahatta” in PUBLIC STUDIO (May 2014). Productions include “Miss Lead” (Amerinda, 59E59, January 2014), and “Fairly Traceable” (Native Voices at the Autry, March 2017), “Sovereignty” (Arena Stage), “Manahatta” (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and Return to Niobrara (Rose Theater). In 2019, Portland Center Stage will produce the world premiere of “Crossing Mnisose.”
Nagle has received commissions from Arena Stage (“Sovereignty”), the Rose Theater (“Return to Niobrara,” Omaha, Nebraska), Portland Center Stage (“Mnisose”), Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Yale Repertory Theatre (“A Pipe for February”), and Round House Theater.
The Berkhofer Lecture series (named for a former U-M professor and founder of the field of Native American studies) was established in 2014 by an alumni gift from the Dan and Carmen Brenner family of Seattle, Washington. In close consultation with the Brenners, Native American Studies decided to create a public lecture series featuring prominent, marquee speakers who would draw audiences from different communities (faculty and students, Ann Arbor and Detroit, and Michigan tribal communities as well as writers and readers of all persuasions). Native American students at U-M have consistently expressed their desire to make Native Americans more visible both on campus and off, and we believe that this lecture takes a meaningful step in that direction. Additionally, because of the statewide publicity it generates, we think it is already becoming another recruitment incentive for Native American students. It goes without saying that the speakers we are inviting provide tremendous value to the mission and work of Native American Studies at U-M.
Best selling author Tahereh Mafi comes to AADL to discuss Defy Me, her latest book in the Shatter Me series of dystopian adventure young adult fiction. She is joined in conversation with YA author Caleb Roehrig.
Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of A Very Large Expanse of Sea, the Shatter Me series, Furthermore, and Whichwood. She can usually be found overcaffeinated and stuck in a book. You can find her online just about anywhere @TaherehMafi or on her website, www.taherehbooks.com.
Caleb Roehrig is the author of Death Prefers Blondes, White Rabbit and Last Seen Leaving, which was called one of the Best YA Novels of 2016 by Buzzfeed.com. Caleb lives with his husband in Chicago.
This event includes a book signing and books will be on sale, courtesy of Literati Bookstore.
Literati is excited to welcome the Creative Writing Sub-concentration seniors in the English Department at the University of Michigan for a night of poetry and prose readings!
Each year the Creative Writing Sub-concentration selects no more than 14 students who spend their senior year working with faculty to complete a creative thesis of poetry or fiction. These collections, the same size as many MFA theses, are first attempts to create book-length manuscripts, and to prepare the writers for their work in the future.
Readers include…
Laura Dzubay is a writer specializing in short fiction, long fiction, and articles about all the music she loves. She is mostly from Indiana and has published work in Blue Earth Review, Bad Pony, Belle Ombre, and others, and has won three Hopwood Awards. She enjoys UltimateGuitar.com and pretending it’s fall year-round.
Sophia Christos is a senior studying English, creative writing, and entrepreneurship. She’s one of the founders of EMPOWER, an online young women’s magazine that promotes positivity and inspiration. Sophia’s also a development intern at the Alzheimer’s Association, where she is working to find the first survivor of Alzheimer’s. In her spare time, Sophia loves to scuba dive, ski, and travel the world.
Nitya Gupta is a senior from the Chicago suburbs studying English with a sub-concentration in creative writing and a minor in the environment. She’s a Daily Arts Writer for The Michigan Daily as well as an Editorial Assistant at Michigan News. When she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys practicing and teaching yoga.
Ana Lucena is a senior studying English with creative writing and pre-law at the University of Michigan. Her favorite themes are psychological horror and social justice. Her writing is deeply inspired by film and comics as well. If her writing career doesn’t take off, she plans to go to law school in the hopes of furthering her research skills and her understanding of society to the benefit of her writing.
Cailean Robinson is a writer, reader, introvert, and feminist. Her work has appeared in the 2016 Cafe Shapiro Anthology. If Cailean could do anything for a day, she would people-watch with Libba Bray and Jane Austen, and if she could go anywhere for a month, she would visit New Zealand. Cailean enjoys acting and listening to musicals, and her plans after graduating (please stop asking) are to live, to travel, and to finish her book. She is from Ann Arbor, MI and Kennesaw, GA.
Matthew Solway is a poet at the University of Michigan. He has worked in various medical research labs studying diabetic complications and is committed to understanding the natural world through poetry and science with a specific focus on improving the lives of those who cannot help themselves. This fall, he will continue his studies Wayne State School of Medicine.
Josie Tolin is just glad to be here. She’s from Chesterton, Indiana—a town so unremarkable it’s almost remarkable. Her short fiction has appeared in The Google Drive Folder (a premier publication co-founded by Nitya Gupta, Kate Velguth, and Ellie Zak) as well as Emails to Her Friends (subject line: “can u tell me if this sux, lol”).
Literati is pleased to be partnering with the Ann Arbor Downtown Library to host graphic novelist Box Brown who will be discussing his new book Cannabis: The Legalization of Weed in America.
About Cannabis:
Mexico, 1519 CE.
During the Spanish conquests Cortés introduced hemp farming as part of his violent colonial campaign. In secret, locals began cultivating the plant for consumption. It eventually made its way to the United States through the immigrant labor force where it was shared with black laborers. It doesn’t take long for American lawmakers to decry cannabis as the vice of “inferior races.”
Enter an era of propaganda designed to feed a moral panic about the dangers of a plant that had been used by humanity for thousands of years. Cannabis was given a schedule I classification, which it shared with drugs like heroin. This opened the door for a so-called “war on drugs” that disproportionately targeted young black men, leaving hundreds of thousands in prison, many for minor infractions. With its roots in “reefer madness” and misleading studies into the effects of cannabis, America’s complicated and racialized relationship with marijuana continues to this day.
Author Box Brown delves deep into this troubling history and offers a rich, entertaining, and thoroughly researched graphic essay on the legacy of cannabis legislation in America.
Box Brown is an Ignatz Award–winning cartoonist, illustrator, and comic publisher from Philadelphia. His books include the New York Times–bestselling Andre the Giant: Life and Legend and Tetris. Box Brown’s independent comics publishing house, Retrofit Comics, was launched in 2011.
Join us for an evening with six, local, published authors doing short readings from their books, and have a chance to chat and buy their books too!
We’ll kick off the evening with readings by two authors with books published with the library’s Fifth Avenue Press imprint: Linda Jeffries with the adult fiction novel, “We Thought We Knew You” and V.W. Shurtliff with the Teen novel, “Setting the Record Straight“.
Meet the authors:
Brooke Borton with her poetry collection, “Mutter”. Tecumseh resident Brooke D. Borton spent much of her childhood growing up in the south amidst an intractable depression, experiencing what she believes to be her first manic episode at the tender age of 15. Her first self-published book of poetry, titled “Hoarding Hearts”, spans her late teenage years into early adulthood, encompassing the push and pull of manic depressive romances, whimsical adventures, and guitar playing. “Mutter”, her most recent collection, charges head-first into what it means to be a mother when your moods won’t sit still. With her presentation of Mania and Manuscripts, Brooke D. Borton brings to Ann Arbor readers an intimate understanding of the challenges faced by mothers battling mental illness, encouragement for those in the trenches, and hope for those who may have lost it.
C.A. Collins with her book “Sunshine Through the Rain”. Ms. Collins was born and raised in the Deep South where sweet tea, seafood gumbo, and bless your heart were commonplace. Ms. Collins was recently published in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: My Crazy Family”.
Callie R. Feyen with her memoir, “Twirl: My Life with Stories, Clothes, and Writing”. Feyen is a writer and teacher living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She writes creative nonfiction, and in her oldest daughter Hadley’s words, she uses her imagination to, “add a bit of sparkle to the story.” Callie R. Feyen is a contributor for Coffee+Crumbs, Off the Page, Makes You Mom, and Relief Journal.
Sylvia Hubbard with her book “Beautiful“. Find the answers wrapped around suspense, drama, and erotic romance in “Beautiful”, Author Sylvia Hubbard’s 40th Novel. Detroit Author & Founder of Motown Writers, Sylvia Hubbard has published over 40 books on suspense romance. As an avid blogger, Sylvia has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, plus has had five #1 Bestsellers. She has spoken all over the U.S. & Canada on literary, blogging & busy mom subjects.This is part of the monthly Emerging Writers Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors.
Do you have a completed manuscript? Consider submitting it to the library’s imprint Fifth Avenue Press.
Literati is pleased to be partnering with the Neutral Zone to host poet Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard.
Join us for the release of a poetry book by Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard, Ann Arbor’s Youth Poet Laureate! Aldo’s work explores the intersection of multiple identities and homelands, painting a complex, vulnerable and vivid self-portrait. Aldo will read from his collection, followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Aldo Leopoldo Pando Girard is an Afro-Cuban poet born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI. He loves music, walking through the woods, has an intense fascination with mountains, & thinks that the ultimate goal of life is to increase happiness in the world. He was a feature for Poetry Night in Ann Arbor 2018 and a member of the 2018 Ann Arbor slam team. He spends a lot of time at the Neutral Zone sharing poems, ideas, & energy. He is now a student at the University of Michigan studying vocal performance and civil engineering.
Animals have played a crucial role in human history, and continue to do so until today. The interaction between humans and animals can affect the environment, and vice versa. In the ancient Egyptian Nile Valley, in addition to providing food, transportation, raw materials, companionship and entertainment, animals played a key role in religion. As such, they inspired divine iconography and language, and served both as manifestations as well as offerings to gods. Ultimately, in the twilight of Egypt’s pharaonic history, animals played a part in defining cultural identity and world-view. This talk will focus on a critical locus of this agency: animal mummies in ancient Egypt, and what they tell us not only about Egyptian culture, economy, and human-animal relationships, but also about Egypt’s changing environment.
Salima Ikram is Distinguished University Professor of Egyptology at The American University in Cairo, and has worked as an archaeologist in Turkey, Sudan, Greece and the United States. After double majoring in history and classical and near eastern archaeology at Bryn Mawr College, she received her MPhil in museology and Egyptian archaeology and PhD in Egyptian archaeology from Cambridge University. She previously directed the Animal Mummy Project, the North Kharga Darb Ain Amur Survey, Valley of the Kings KV10/KV63 Mission co-directed the Predynastic Gallery project and the North Kharga Oasis Survey. She has also participated in several other archaeological missions throughout Egypt. She has lectured on her work internationally, and publishes in both scholarly and popular journals. She also has an active media presence.
