AADL Talks To: Peter Sparling, Lecturer, Poet, Essayist, Dancer, and Filmmaker

Fri, 08/09/2024 - 10:00am

In this episode, AADL Talks To Peter Sparling. Peter is a lecturer, poet, essayist, dancer, and filmmaker. He is the Rudolf Arnheim Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Dance at the University of Michigan. Peter talks with us about his career, from his start as a member of the José Limón Dance Company and principal dancer with Martha Graham Dance Company through his time in Ann Arbor as director of his own Peter Sparling Dance Company. Peter talks about his activism, the changes in the Ann Arbor dance community over the years, and his current work after retiring from the university 6 years ago.

Legacies Project Oral History: George Ramsey

Wed, 01/15/2020 - 10:04am

George Ramsey was born 1938 and grew up on East Warren Avenue in Detroit. He remembers experiencing the Detroit Race Riot of 1943 as a young child and the Detroit Riot of 1967 as an adult. He attended Northeastern High School with classmates who became famous Motown singers. Ramsey served in the United States Air Force and USPS before becoming a road manager for a Motown recording group in the late 1960s. He worked for Motown music producer Lamont Dozier in California in the 1970s.

George Ramsey was interviewed in partnership with the Museum of African American History of Detroit and Y Arts Detroit in 2010 as part of the Legacies Project.