Calendar

Aug
26
Mon
Doc Fletcher: The History of Tiger Stadium: A Love Letter to Baseball at Michigan and Trumbull @ Saline District Library
Aug 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

“It was a night game, the field a shade of green that was the most beautiful color I’d ever seen, the smells, sounds, and sights of the pre-game action delightfully overwhelming… the air filled with the bouquet of hot dogs, spilt beer, and a cigar aroma much like that of the House of Windsor stogies preferred by my Dad. Cries of the vendors peddling those items pierced the air. Several Tigers were engaged in a game of pepper along the box seats down the right field foul line, as nearby Bill Freehan tossed a ball back ‘n forth with a teammate, entertaining the fans by playfully catching the ball behind his back.”

Doc Fletcher’s latest book is, “The History of Tiger Stadium: A Love Letter to Baseball at Michigan & Trumbull”, honoring The Cathedral at The Corner where – together with great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, siblings, children, godchildren, and friends – we have cheered our Detroit Tigers. Although the structure is gone, the memories remain.

Doc will share stories from the book of the characters on the field, in the stands, and those in the neighborhoods surrounding the ballpark, as well as the broadcasters who brought the action to us when we couldn’t be there ourselves.

 

Jia Tolentino: Trick Mirror @ Literati
Aug 26 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome Jia Tolentino back to Ann Arbor in support of her debut collection of essays, Trick Mirror. A book signing to follow. Free and open to the public. 

Early praise for Trick Mirror: 

“It’s easy to write about things as you wish they were–or as others tell you they must be. It’s much harder to think for yourself, with the minimum of self-delusion. It’s even harder to achieve at a moment like this, when our thoughts are subject to unprecedented manipulation, monetization, and surveillance. Yet Tolentino has managed to tell many inconvenient truths in Trick Mirror–and in enviable style. This is a whip-smart, challenging book that will prompt many of us to take a long, hard look in the mirror. It filled me with hope.”– Zadie Smith

“In Trick Mirror, Jia Tolentino’s thinking surges with a fierce, electric lyricism. Her mind is animated by rigor and compassion at once. She’s horrified by the world and also in love with it. Her truths are knotty but her voice is crystalline enough to handle them. She’s always got skin in the game; she knows we all do. Her intelligence is unrelenting and full-blooded, a heart beating inside every critique. She refuses easy morals, false binaries, and redemptive epiphanies, but all that refusal is in the service of something tender, humane, and often achingly beautiful–an exploration of what we long for, how we long for it, and all the stories we tell ourselves along the way.” –Leslie Jamison, author of The Recovering

“It has been a consolation these last few years to know that no matter what was happening, Jia Tolentino would be writing about it, with a clear eye and a steady hand, a quick wit and a conscience, and in some of the best prose of her generation.” –Patricia Lockwood, author of Priestdaddy

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Raised in Texas, she studied at the University of Virginia before serving in Kyrgyzstan in the Peace Corps and receiving her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan. She was a contributing editor at The Hairpin and the deputy editor at Jezebel,and her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Grantland, Pitchfork, and other publications. She lives in Brooklyn.

Aug
27
Tue
Stories from North Star Reach @ Literati
Aug 27 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Listen to teenage campers, counselors and staff share stories about the impact camp has had on their lives.

North Star Reach is a medically-supported camp on 105-acres in Pinckney, Michigan, serving children with serious health challenges and their families. Since 2016, through activity-packed residential summer camp and weekend spring and fall family camp programs, we have hosted more than 1,500 campers, including children living with sickle cell anemia, congenital heart disorders, and organ transplants. We are a not-for-profit organization dependent upon generous donors to serve all children at no cost to their families. To learn more about North Star Reach, visit www.northstarreach.org.

Aug
28
Wed
Sinister Schemes, Scandal and Murder: Historical Mysteries Author Panel @ Nicola's Books
Aug 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome Agatha award nominee L.A. Chandlar, Agatha Award winner Dianne Freeman and New York Times Best-selling author C.M. Gleason to discuss the sinister schemes, scandal and murder that take place in their Historical Mystery novels. Won’t you join us for tea?

L.A. Chandlar, The Pearl Dagger

As the Great Depression loosens its grip on New York City, Mayor La Guardia and his team meet their greatest foe in the fight against organized crime…

Agatha award nominee L.A. Chandlar is an author and motivational speaker on the fight to keep creativity alive, demystifying creativity in the workplace and personally. She lives in New York City with her family. Visit her at lachandlar.com.

Dianne Freeman, A Lady’s Guide to Gossip and Murder

How far will some go to safeguard a secret? In the latest novel in Dianne Freeman’s witty and delightful historical mystery series, the adventurous Countess Harleigh finds out…

Dianne Freeman is the acclaimed author of the Countess of Harleigh Mystery series. She is an Agatha Award and Lefty Award winner, as well as a nominee for the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award from Mystery Writers of America. She spent thirty years working in corporate accounting and finance and now writes full-time. Born and raised in Michigan, she and her husband now split their time between Michigan and Arizona. Visit her at www.DiFreeman.com.

C.M. GLEASON, Murder in The Oval Library

With the Confederate Army firing on Fort Sumter, the Civil War has begun—and an invasion of Washington, D.C., from Secessionist Virginia seems imminent. As the population evacuates, the President is in desperate need of men to defend the capital.

But even as dawn breaks with no Rebel strike, a single act of violence intrudes within the White House. One of the Frontier Guard lies dead in the oval library, throat slit ear to ear. There is a murderer among them…

C.M. Gleason is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Stoker & Holmes series for teens, in addition to the Lincoln White House mysteries. She lives in the Midwest and is hard at work on her next novel. Learn more at: cmgleason.com.

Poetry Salon: One Pause Poetry @ Argus Farm Stop
Aug 28 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

ONE PAUSE POETRY SALON is (literally) a greenhouse for poetry and poets, nurturing an appreciation for written art in all languages and encouraging experiments in creative writing.

We meet every Weds in the greenhouse at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty St. The poems we read each time are unified by form (haiku, sonnet, spoken word), poet, time / place (Tang Dynasty, English Romanticism, New York in the 70s) or theme / mood (springtime, poems with cats, protest poems). We discuss the poems and play writing games together, with time for snacks and socializing in between.

Members are encouraged to share their own poems or poems they like – they may or may not relate to the theme of the evening. This is not primarily a workshop – we may hold special workshop nights, but mostly we listen to and talk about poems for the sake of inspiring new writing.

Whether you are a published poet or encountering poetry for the first time, we invite you to join us!

$5 suggested donation for food, drinks and printing costs.

8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.

 

 

 

Aug
29
Thu
Fiction at Literati: Lillian Li: Number One Chinese Restaurant, and Akil Kumarasamy: Half Gods @ Literati
Aug 29 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We’re pleased to welcome Lillian Li and Akil Kumarasamy back to Literati Bookstore for an event celebrating the paperback release of their novels, Number One Chinese Restaurant, and Half Gods, respectively.  Book signing to follow. Free and open to the public. 

Lillian Li received her BA from Princeton and her MFA from the University of Michigan. She is the recipient of a Hopwood Award in Short Fiction, as well as Glimmer Train‘s New Writer Award. Her work has been featured in Guernica, Granta and Jezebel. She is from the D.C. metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Number One Chinese Restaurant is her first novel.

Akil Kumarasamy is a writer from New Jersey. Her fiction has appeared in Harper’s MagazineAmerican Short FictionBoston Review, and elsewhere. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has been a fiction fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and the University of East Anglia. Half Gods is her first book.

Sep
1
Sun
RC Drama: Twelfth Night @ Arboretum (Peony Garden entrance)
Sep 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

A special performance for students of Shakespeare in the Arb on Labor Day weekend. Play is Twelfth Night, directed by Graham Atkin and Carol Gray, with Kate Mendeloff of the Residential College. Takes place in Nichols Arboretum, 1610 Washington Hts., Ann Arbor. Free but student ID required.

Now in its 19th year, Shakespeare in the Arb is directed by Kate Mendeloff of the U-M Residential College, Carol Gray, and Graham Atkin, and performed by U-M students and community players.

For member and non-member questions and information, visit mbgna.umich.edu

Shakespeare in the Arb came into existence in the summer of 2001, when Residential College Drama faculty member Kate Mendeloff was asked to direct an outdoor production as part of a three year Ford Motor Company grant for Arts in the Nichols Arboretum. She chose Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for its structure — the characters were transformed by the power of the natural world. The production was such a popular success that Mendeloff remounted it the following summer, and “Shakespeare in the Arb” became an Ann Arbor tradition!

The unique experience of Shakespeare in the Arb comes from the environmental staging of the plays. There is no fixed stage; instead, the audience follows the action through different locations in the Arboretum. The staging takes advantage of the vistas and valleys, the special arrangements of the natural settings.

The wide open space of the Arb becomes a panoramic stage, creating a more realistic setting than if every scene was played out directly in front of you. As one critic commented, “The actors used the vastness of its Arb stage to full advantage, making entrances from behind trees, appearing over rises and vanishing into the woods.”

Every year, many UM students, alumni, and faculty members gather to act in Shakespeare in the Arb. The RC offers Spring term class credit to students who participate. The experience blends community, student, and professional-style participation in a theatrical production with the delicate ecology and beautiful environment of the Arb, providing dynamic educational value for participating students.

Auditions occur every April, with rehearsals starting in the Spring term. Performances occur over 3 weekends in June. For information about participation, please contact founder Kate Mendeloff.

To find information about this year’s production of Shakespeare in the Arb, go to Matthei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA) , or like Shakespeare in the Arb on Facebook for updates on the production!

Ann Arbor Poetry: Zaphra Stupple and Native Child @ Espresso Royale
Sep 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Ann Arbor Poetry hosts an open mic every 1st and 3rd Sunday, with feature poets whenever we can get them.
$5 suggested donation. facebook.com/AnnArborPoetry.
Zaphra Stupple is a poet and multimedia artist living in Michigan. They are the author of There Will Still Be The Body (Red Beard Press, 2018). They were the 2017 Ann Arbor youth poet laureate. They were featured in Ann Arbor’s annual poetry show, Poetry Night, and are one third of the accompanying book, Joy, Despite. Their work has been published in The Offing, HEArt Journal, |tap| magazine, The Journal, and Vinyl, among others.

Kelly “Native Child” Mays is a licensed therapist, word warrior, award winning poet, annishnabe kwe, mother, wife, survivor. She incorporates poetry into her activism, therapy, and into her everyday life. A Detroit native, she is proud of both her American Indigenous ancestry and her African American Ancestry. She competed at the National Poetry Slam 2017 in Denver, CO, and in 2018. She was winner of the 2017 Round Robin Motown Mic and a 2018 and 2019 Motown Spoken Word Artist if the year finalist. She was featured in Cathexis Northwest Press in their September 2018 online journal. In 2019 she ranked 17 overall in the Rustbelt Regional Poetry competition out of 80 poets. She describes her poetry as quiet storms and her daughters as her greatest poems ever written.

 

Sep
3
Tue
John U. Bacon: Overtime @ Hill Auditorium
Sep 3 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Tickets available here.

Literati Bookstore is thrilled to welcome national bestseller John U. Bacon to the historic Hill Auditorium on the campus of the University of Michigan as he launches his latest book, Overtime: Jim Harbaugh and the Michigan Wolverines at the Crossroads of College FootballFollowing an introduction by Sam Webb and Ira Weintraub of WTKA’s The Michigan Insider, John will give a book talk and answer audience questions.

The event is general admission, free and open to the public, but getting a free ticket secures your admission. You can also get a free ticket plus pre-order a signed copy of Overtime for the price of the book plus tax–those paid, pre-ordered copies will be picked up at the event.  A book signing will follow the event, and guests will be released by row to join the signing line. Guests must have a copy of Overtime they wish to have signed to join the signing line. Guests with pre-signed copies may join the signing line to have those copies personalized. 

A map of walkable parking structures can be found here

About OvertimeFor the past year, John U. Bacon has received unprecedented access to Jim Harbaugh’s University of Michigan football team: coaches, players, and staffers, in closed-door meetings, locker rooms, meals, and classes. Overtime captures this storied program at the crossroads, as the sport’s winningest team battles to reclaim its former glory. But what if the price of success today comes at the cost of your soul? Do you pay it, or compete without compromising?

Overtime delivers a riveting and revealing insider’s account of the Harbaugh era, a deeply reported human portrait of a big-time college football program.

In the spirit of HBO’s Hardknocks, Overtime follows the Wolverine coaches, players, and staffers through the 2018 season, including Harbaugh, offensive stars Shea Patterson and Karan Higdon, NFL-ready defensive standouts Rashan Gary, Devin Bush Jr., and Chase Winovich, second-stringers striving to find their place on the team, and their parents’ reactions to it all. Bacon met with them every week during a season that saw the Wolverines ride a ten-game winning streak to #4 in the nation, then take a beating at the hands of arch-rival Ohio State, led by controversial coach Urban Meyer, Harbaugh’s foil. Overtime also previews the crucial 2019 campaign ahead.

Above all, this is a human story. In Overtime we not only discover what these public figures are like behind the scenes, we learn what the experience means to them as they go through it – the trials, the triumphs, and the unexpected answers to a central question: Is it worth it?

John U. Bacon is the author of the national bestseller The Great Halifax Explosion and four bestselling books about college football, including Three and OutFourth and LongEndzone, and Bo’s Lasting Lessons, co-authored with Michigan coach Bo Schembechler. A former feature writer for the Detroit News, his writing has been recognized three times in The Best American Sports Writing series. He appears often on NPR and national television, including ESPN’s 2019 documentary series on college football. He has taught at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the University of Michigan. A popular public speaker, he lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and son.

Questions? Email John@LiteratiBookstore.com

Sep
4
Wed
Reception: Cynthia Sowers: Daughters of Memory: Paintings and Poems on the Nine Muses @ RC Art Gallery (East Quad)
Sep 4 @ 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Daughters of Memory: Paintings and Poems on the Nine Muses is an interdisciplinary show of works by Cindy Sowers exploring the elusive sources for the ancient figures of the Muses, as well as the appropriation of these figures by different artists through the ages.

Reception for the Artist: September 6, approximately 4:30pm. Refreshments will be served.

Cindy Sowers received her B.A. from Oakland University, her M.A. from University of Michigan in Comparative Literature, and her Ph.D. also from the University of Michigan in Comparative Literature. During her Masters program in 1973, she started teaching at the Residential College in the First Year Seminar and French programs. Her dissertation, The Shared Structure of Craft and Song: A Study of Homer’s Narrative Art, revealed passions for narrative and visual analysis comparatively understood that would characterize her teaching thereafter. She participated in an interdisciplinary group composed of Residential College humanities and fine arts faculty who together constructed the Arts and Ideas in the Humanities concentration. Cindy’s recent course offerings have included critical approaches to the literature and visual arts of classic modernism, postmodernism, Shakespeare and Rome, the heritage of Greece, the psychoanalytic interpretation of the arts, and many others. She combines analyses of literary texts, visual arts, and philosophy to hone in on the animating spirit of a cultural moment and space. She has presented at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2006 U-M residency, as part of the RC Faculty Colloquium, for the LSA Comparative Literature and the Colloquium on Critical Theory sponsored by the LSA Department of English Language and Literature, and at the Residential College’s 50th Anniversary celebration. She has received the Ford Foundation Fellowship, the Rackham Prize twice, the U-M Excellence in Teaching Award, the Matthews Underclass Teaching Award, and is a member of the Medieval Academy of America. Cindy retires from her position as a Senior Lecturer and Lecturer IV, having served in the Residential College for 46 years. She has an active art practice, and her work will be displayed in the RC Art Gallery in a fall 2019 exhibition. She also maintains a personal website, cynthiasowers.rc.lsa.umich.edu, where she publishes essays, poetry, and visual artwork.

 

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