All invited to read and discuss their poetry or short stories. Bring about 6 copies of your work to share. Hosted by local poets and former college English teachers Joe Kelty and Ed Morin.
7-9 p.m., Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757
Literati is pleased to welcome Rebecca J. Kinney and Stephen M. Ward for a discussion of their recent books about Detroit and the people who form its heart.
What is the “new Detroit” that everyone keeps talking about? In Beautiful Wasteland: The Rise of Detroit as America’s Postindustrial Frontier, Rebecca J. Kinney reveals that the contemporary story of Detroit’s rebirth is an upcycled version of the American Dream, which has long imagined access to work, home, and upward mobility as race-neutral projects. She tackles key questions about the future of postindustrial America, and shows how the narratives of Detroit’s history are deeply steeped in material and ideological investments in whiteness.
Rebecca J. Kinney, who grew up in metropolitan Detroit, is assistant professor in the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at Bowling Green State University.
In Love and Struggle: The Revolutionary Lives of James and Grace Lee Boggs details both the personal and the political dimensions of the Boggses’ lives, highlighting the vital contributions these two figures made to black activist thinking. At once a dual biography of two crucial figures and a vivid portrait of Detroit as a center of activism, Ward’s book restores the Boggses, and the intellectual strain of black radicalism they shaped, to their rightful place in postwar American history.
Stephen Ward is associate professor in the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies (DAAS) and the Residential College at the University of Michigan. He is also a board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership in Detroit.
The authors will discuss how their fiction transforms home into character. How do writers use assumptions about familiar places to find the unexpected and surprising? When is a hometown the whole trouble, and also the last, best hope for change? The authors will also talk about how the unique landscape of the upper Midwest inspires their fiction.
Kelly Fordon’s work has appeared in The Florida Review, The Kenyon Review (KRO), Rattle and various other journals. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks. The first one, On the Street Where We Live, won the 2012 Standing Rock Chapbook Award and the latest one, The Witness, won the 2016 Eric Hoffer Award for the Chapbook and was shortlisted for the Grand Prize. Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, was chosen as a Michigan Notable Book, a 2016 Foreword Reviews’ INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, an Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist in the short story category. She works for The College for Creative Studies, Springfed Arts and The InsideOut Literary Arts Project in Detroit.
Laura Hulthen Thomas is the author of the short fiction collection, States of Motion, published by Wayne State University Press. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including The Cimarron Review, Nimrod International Journal, Epiphany and Witness. She received her MFA in fiction writing from Warren Wilson College. She currently heads the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of Michigan’s Residential College, where she teaches fiction and creative nonfiction.
Membership event for the new Michigan chapter of Sisters in Crime, Saturday, July 29, 2:30 PM. Refreshments, membership sign up, and a panel discussion on “Bad Guys” with author Sarah Zettel, Judge Terrence P. Bronson, Retired U.S. Marshall Louis Stock and Pinkerton Vice President Jason Porter. The panel will be moderated by Judy Lee Burke and the event introduced by Michigan Sisters in Crime President Jan Rydzon. The panel discussion will take place at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase (across the street from Aunt Agatha’s), 212 S. 4th Ave.
Shalom Hartman Institute (Jerusalem) Muslim Leadership Initiative facilitator Haroon Moghul discusses his coming-of-age memoir about growing up as a 2nd-generation American Muslim in a post-9/11 world. Signing.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL multipurpose room (lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4555.
The Hummingbird Global Writers’ Circle is an international reading series started by Dr. Debotri Dhar, CEW Visiting Scholar (2015-17) and Lecturer in Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan. The aim of this literary initiative is to bring writers and communities together in different parts of the world to foster a love of books, to discuss the craft of writing, and to promote creative dialogue and global understanding in small ways. The name was inspired by the tiny hummingbird which builds its home with just a few drops of nectar, a root here, a leaf there, and a little bit of sky.
The Circle’s themed readings by established and emerging writers are free and open to the community. The theme for the first event of the Circle is feminism/ gender, to be held on Monday August 21 (3-5 pm) at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
The writer-speakers for this session are Linda Gregerson, Laura Hulthen Thomas, Mike Ferro and Debotri Dhar (writer bios below), who will read from their poetry and fiction, followed by conversation /Q&A.
Light refreshments will be served. All members of the community are welcome to attend, however, RSVP is required. If you wish to hear our speakers read from their work, share tips, and engage in conversation, please RSVP to debotri@umich.edu.
Barbara Cohn’s new book, The Detroit Public Library, is a photographic tour of the Detroit Public Library’s rich art and architectural history.
Started in 2003, the Kerrytown BookFest is an event celebrating those who create books and those who read them. The primary goal is to highlight the area’s rich heritage in the book and printing arts while showcasing local and regional individuals, businesses, and organizations. Since 2003 we have been growing, sharing, and discovering more and more about the rich book culture in our region.
The BookFest features authors, storytellers, publishers bookbinders, book artists, book illustrators, poets, letterpress printers, wood engravers, calligraphers, papermakers, librarians, teachers, publishers, new, used, and antiquarian booksellers and many others associated with books and their diverse forms, structure, and content.
More information at kerrytownbookfest.org
10:30 AM – Main Tent
Community Book Award Winner Presentation – James and Robin Agnew
11:00 AM – Main Tent – “Women in History” with Laurel Huber Davis, Theresa Kaminski, Greer Macallister and Pamela Toler with Barbara Mhangami-Ruwende as moderator
11:00 AM – Kerrytown Concert House –
“Terror in the City of Champions” with Tom Stanton moderated by D.E. Johnson
11:00 AM – Kerrytown Tent –
Mother Goose
11:45 AM – Kerrytown Tent – “Everyone Loves Dogs!” with Cartoonist Dave Coverly and Stacie Grissom and Morgane Chang from Bark Box and a FUNDRAISER for the Humane Society of Huron Valley Bountiful Bowls Program – Please bring dry dog or cat food or cat litter on the day of the event for donation to the program
12:15 PM – Main Tent – “Historical Suspense” with James R. Benn, Anna Lee Huber and Deanna Raybourn moderated by Nancy Herriman
12:15 PM – Kerrytown Concert House – “The Kelloggs: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek” with Howard Markel
1:00 PM – Kerrytown Tent – “Fantasy and Adventure” with Middle Grade author Ted Sanders and moderated by Molly McCaffrey
1:30 PM – Main Tent –
“Literary Leanings” with Peter Ho Davies, Simon Van Booy moderated by Douglas Trevor
1:30 PM – Kerrytown Concert House –
“Civil Rights in 1960’s Detroit” with Stephen M. Ward and the story of James and Grace Lee Boggs
2:15 PM – Kerrytown Tent –
“YA Authors From Michigan!” with Erica Chapman, Kristin Bartley Lenz, Heather Meloche and Darcy Woods moderated by Patrick Flores-Scott
2:45 PM – Main Tent – “Short Stories from ‘Bob Seger’s House'” with Ellen Airgood, Loren D. Estelman, Gordon Henry and Michael Zadoorian moderated by M.L. Liebler
2:45 PM – Kerrytown Concert House – “A $500 Dollar House in Detroit” with Drew Philip and moderated by Desiree Cooper
3:30 PM – Kerrytown Tent –
“Page Turning Thrillers” with David Bell, Karen Dionne and Stephen Mack Jones moderated by Elizabeth Heiter
4:00 pm – Main Tent – “Poetic Musings” with Robert Fanning, Cindy Hunter Morgan, Keith Taylor and Z.G. Tomaszewski moderated by Zilka Joseph
4:00 pm – Kerrytown Concert House – “Washtenaw Literacy Volunteer Workshop” – Learn about becoming a volunteer for Washtenaw Literacy
Ann Arborite Paul Dimond discusses his experiences doing research for his historical novel set in Ann Arbor and northern Michigan in the 1st half of the 20th century. He is joined by his wife, Marty, who wrote the poems by the titular character that appear in the novel. Signing.
7-8:30 p.m., AADL multipurpose room (lower level), 343 S. Fifth Ave. Free. 327-4555.[
Native Detroiter Jessica Care Moore discusses her visual art installation and collection of poems that honors the life of Sandra Bland, a black woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Texas in 2015, 3 days after being arrested during a traffic stop.
5:10 p.m., Michigan Theater. Free. 668-8463.
