Calendar

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.

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.

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.

$10 Suggested Donation

ÆPEX Contemporary Performance is excited to open its third season by bringing Hungarian-American violinist Hajnal Pivnick to Ann Arbor’s beloved Literati Bookstore.

Based in New York City, Pivnick will make her Ann Arbor debut with a solo program featuring internationally recognized composers Georg Friedrich Haas, Peter Eövös, Chrysanthe Tan, Kaija Saariaho, and Anahita Abbasi alongside poetry readings by local award-winning poet Adina Schoem (Midwestern Gothic, Palooka Press) and graduate students at the University of Michigan.

Pivnick’s performance will also feature an improvisation, which will accompany one of Schoem’s readings. This offering will expose concertgoers to the intimacy of musical creation, as Pivnick’s extemporaneous composition will be inspired by Schoem’s poem and tailored to the concert’s unique atmosphere.

You do not want to miss this special interdisciplinary presentation that brings local and national artists together in one of Ann Arbor’s most iconic cultural spaces!

ÆPEX Contemporary Performance is a concert presenting organization dedicated to presenting the music of underrepresented and rarely performed twentieth and twenty-first century composers to audiences across Michigan. Since our debut in December 2015, ÆPEX has produced fourteen concerts and community music events at venues in Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Detroit, and Kalamazoo. Learn more about our past and future programs and make a donation to support ÆPEX at aepexcontemporary.org. ÆPEX Contemporary Performance is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.