Students, nominated by their instructors, have been invited to read their own poems and short stories to a peer audience. For many student writers, Café Shapiro is a first opportunity to read publicly from their creative work. For others, it provides a fresh audience, and the ability to experience the work of students they may not encounter in writing classes.
Students, nominated by their instructors, have been invited to read their own poems and short stories to a peer audience. For many student writers, Café Shapiro is a first opportunity to read publicly from their creative work. For others, it provides a fresh audience, and the ability to experience the work of students they may not encounter in writing classes.
Literati is thrilled to welcome author Morgan Jerkins who will be discussiong her new book This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminists in (White) America.
About This Will Be My Undoing:
Doubly disenfranchised by race and gender, often deprived of a place within the mostly white mainstream feminist movement, black women are objectified, silenced, and marginalized with devastating consequences, in ways both obvious and subtle, that are rarely acknowledged in our country’s larger discussion about inequality. In This Will Be My Undoing, Jerkins becomes both narrator and subject to expose the social, cultural, and historical story of black female oppression that influences the black community as well as the white, male-dominated world at large.
Whether she’s writing about Sailor Moon; Rachel Dolezal; the stigma of therapy; her complex relationship with her own physical body; the pain of dating when men say they don’t “see color”; being a black visitor in Russia; the specter of “the fast-tailed girl” and the paradox of black female sexuality; or disabled black women in the context of the “Black Girl Magic” movement, Jerkins is compelling and revelatory.
Morgan Jerkins is an associate editor at Catapult whose work has been featured in The New Yorker, Vogue, the New York Times, The Atlantic, Elle, Rolling Stone, Lenny, and BuzzFeed, among many others. She lives in New York.
New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker discusses his new book about Obama’s presidency and legacy. Book sale, signing, and reception.
7 p.m., Ford Library, 1000 Beal. Free. 205-0555
Literati Bookstore of downtown Ann Arbor is thrilled to welcome artist, performer, and author Patti Smith to the Detroit Film Theatre at the Detroit Institute of Arts as she presents her latest book, Devotion, on Wednesday, February 14th at 7pm. Tickets are $20 (service fee not included) and include a hardcover copy of Devotion, to be picked up at the venue. Seating is general admission. Literati Bookstore will be on hand for additional book sales. There will be no signing following the event.
About the Book: A work of creative brilliance may seem like magic–its source a mystery, its impact unexpectedly stirring. How does an artist accomplish such an achievement, connecting deeply with an audience never met? In this groundbreaking book, one of our cultures beloved artists offers a detailed account of her own creative process, inspirations, and unexpected connections.
Patti Smith first presents an original and beautifully crafted tale of obsession–a young skater who lives for her art, a possessive collector who ruthlessly seeks his prize, a relationship forged of need both craven and exalted. She then takes us on a second journey, exploring the sources of her story. We travel through the South of France to Camus’s house, and visit the garden of the great publisher Gallimard where the ghosts of Mishima, Nabokov, and Genet mingle. Smith tracks down Simone Weil’s grave in a lonely cemetery, hours from London, and winds through the nameless Paris streets of Patrick Modiano’s novels. Whether writing in a café or a train, Smith generously opens her notebooks and lets us glimpse the alchemy of her art and craft in this arresting and original book on writing.
About the Author: Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. Her memoir Just Kids received a National Book Award, and her recent book M Train is a critically acclaimed New York Times best-seller. Smith was awarded the prestigious title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Republic. Her seminal album Horses has been hailed as one of the top one hundred albums of all time, and in 2007 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Smith lives in New York City.
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
Hieu Minh Nguyen is the author of This Way to the Sugar (Write Bloody Press, 2014) which was a finalist for both a Minnesota Book Award and a Lambda Literary Award. A queer Vietnamese American poet, Hieu is a Kundiman fellow and a poetry editor for Muzzle Magazine. His work has also appeared in the Southern Indiana Review, Guernica, Ninth Letter, Devil’s Lake, Bat City Review, the Paris-American, and elsewhere. Hieu is a nationally touring poet, performer, and teaching artist. He lives in Minneapolis.
Nicholson Baker is the author of nine novels, including Mezzanine and Vox, and four works of nonfiction, including Double Fold, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, and House of Holes, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, and The New York Review of Books. He lives in Maine with his family.
Literati is proud to welcome author Jeff Kass who will be be reading and sharing with us his thrilling debut novel set in Ann Arbor, Takedown
About Takedown:
Ann Arbor: a small city with a big university A city of cute coffee shops, leftover hippies, hybrid cars, indie bookstores, and craft breweries. A city, above all, that values education. Or does it? Jim Harrow has been an Ann Arbor cop for fifteen years. He mostly handles things like stolen cars and fratboy fights, giving him time to coach high school wrestling and help raise his teenage daughters. But things take a deadly turn the night after the Michigan–Michigan State football game, when a house party ends in a fire. Its single victim is a graduate student with no job, no friends, and no research. What was Sanders Bolgim working on, and why would someone want to kill him for it? Nothing about the case makes sense, and as Jim traces the events leading to the fire, he uncovers a shady party company, dark money buying for-profit charter schools, and a string of murders stretching back years. In a town where money and education are always in each other’s pockets, someone is paying a killer to teach the ultimate lesson. Kass’ debut novel is an astute commentary on the darker side of education reform wrapped in a gripping adventure. Filled with authentic characters, a strong voice, and the perfect portrait of a Midwest college town, Takedown is as sharp and crisp as a football Saturday.
Jeff Kass is the author of the award-winning short story collection Knuckleheads and the poetry collection My Beautiful Hook-Nosed Beauty Queen Strutwave. His stories, poems, and essays have appeared in multiple literary journals. He founded the Literary Arts Program at The Neutral Zone, Ann Arbor’s Teen Center, and is currently an English teacher at Pioneer High School and the Assignment Editor at Current Magazine.
One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends – a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.
Readings by 2 U-M creative writing grad students, including fiction writer Laura Preston and poet Lea Xue.
7 p.m., UMMA Auditorium, 525 S. State. Free. 764-0395.
. http://umma.umich.edu/events/4270/mark-webster-reading-series
Please join the Clements Library as we celebrate the release of The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering an Early American Crisis, by James E. Lewis, Jr. A professor of History at Kalamazoo College, Lewis examines how rumors and reports of Aaron Burr’s activities in the trans-Appalachian West in 1805 and 1806 produced a sense of crisis that was broadly held across the new nation. He discusses the various political and cultural forces that shaped how men and women at the time turned vague and often conflicting accounts into enough certainty to act.
Books will be available for purchase.
Hatcher Graduate Library – The Gallery, 913 S. University Ave. Free. 734-647-0864.ehanka@umich.edu http://clements.umich.edu/exhibits-upcoming.php
