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50th Anniversary of the Port Huron Statement

by amy

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the now-legendary Port Huron Statement, a manifesto written by “Students for a Democratic Society” (SDS) at a retreat on Lake Huron in 1962. From October 31 - November 2, the University of Michigan is hosting A New Insurgency: The Port Huron Statement in Its Time and Ours, a free 3-day public conference exploring the significance of the Port Huron Statement and its social, political and cultural consequences for the New Left of the 1960s - from anti-war movements to civil rights and women’s liberation movements. We’ve pulled together articles from our Oldnews archive about the Students for a Democratic Society, featuring SDS co-founders Tom Hayden and Alan Haber and reflections from other New Left activists over the intervening years.

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Blog Post

Signal of Liberty

by jaegerla

The Signal of Liberty was Ann Arbor's prominent abolitionist newspaper, running from 1841-1847. The paper has been digitized and made available online. This wonderful resource can be browsed by either articles or images. The Signal of Liberty had a primary goal of spreading facts on the issue of slavery to readers in the Midwest and remains an excellent primary source for research.

This resource can be accessed by visiting signalofliberty.aadl.org or through the AADL website by going to the Research page, clicking Local History, and then selecting Signal of Liberty.

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The Beer Depot sign, 1967

by amy

An article in annarbor.com posted yesterday reports that the historic Beer Depot drive-thru sign will finally be repaired and restored at the East William street business after a storm blew it down last year and owners had to work through city ordinance restrictions.

For this and other signs from 1960s and 1970s-era Ann Arbor, check out our great collection of historic signs.

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Images from the Past: The Making of Ann Arbor

by annevm

Several years ago, when a patron needed an image of the old entrance to the U-M hospital, we suggested he look in The Making of Ann Arbor. Eureka! He found a colorful postcard image and printed it.

Other researchers in The Making of Ann Arbor website find similar success as they search or browse through several image collections and full-text of books. Nicknamed "MoAA," this website was created through a collaboration among AADL, the Bentley Historical Library, and the U-M Digital Library Production Services. You can use it for research or just to enjoy browsing through a collection of postcards, historic buildings, advertisements, and maps of early Ann Arbor.

Access to this and any of our other reference databases and resources is available at every branch of the AADL, as well as from outside the library with a valid AADL library card. For access from an outside location, please sign in to your library account, visit our reference database page, and navigate to the desired resource. To access The Making of Ann Arbor database, go to the research page and select The Making of Ann Arbor from the Ann Arbor category.

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Tracking down a sketch artist

by amy

Here's a cool story we wanted to share! So a woman in Georgia knows her dad was a sketch artist whose work appeared in the Ann Arbor News in the late 1960s and she'd really like to see some of his work. Her friend contacts The Ann Arbor Chronicle whose editor happens to know we're undergoing a massive digitization effort, and he forwards the query to us. Well, it turns out we've already scanned some of those very sketches at ridiculous high quality and color as part of our feature on the John Normans Collins murder and trial during the late 1960s!

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The Blind Pig

by oldnews

The Blind Pig is Ann Arbor’s legendary live music venue. It is best known for being the local venue where Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and Nirvana performed. Established over thirty years ago, the Blind Pig, or the Pig as referred to by locals, continues to be a premiere live music venue for indie, rock, hip hop, and electronic bands. Originally the venue functioned as both a bar and café, but now functions solely has bar/club with frequent live band performances. In addition, the 8 Ball Lounge located below the Blind Pig is now a well-known dive bar with a cult following all its own.

Click here for more articles about the Blind Pig

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The Ark

by oldnews

The Ark has been Ann Arbor’s premiere venue for folk music for more than four decades. Originally established in the mid 1960’s, the Ark has fought to stay afloat as a non-profit venue for live acoustic music. A series of fundraising events eventually led to the establishment of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival, which is still a yearly tradition. The original setting for the Ark was a historic house on Hill St., known as the Hill House. Unable to raise sufficient funds to maintain its upkeep and unable to appease its property owners, the First Presbyterian Church, The Ark was forced to move to a new site on Main St. Meanwhile after months of legal debate, the Hill House was destroyed in order to allow for the church’s new parking lot. The decision to tear down the house was met with much protest by the Ann Arbor community. In addition, the Hill House was deemed an historic monument, but this was not enough to safeguard the communal monument. The Ark made one more move to its current site on S. Main St. where it continues to thrive and bring prominent Folk musicians to the city.

Click here for more articles about the Ark

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This weekend is the 40th Dance for Mother Earth Powwow

by amy

Ann Arbor's Dance for Mother Earth Powwow celebrates its 40th anniversary this weekend at Pioneer High School. The Powwow, hosted by the U-M Native American Student Association (NASA), is one of the largest university powwows in the nation. We've added to Oldnews some of the articles and photographs from past powwows that we found in our Ann Arbor News archive.

Grand entry is at noon and 7:00 p.m. Saturday, March 17, and noon on Sunday, March 18. Learn what to expect if you're a first-time attendee. For more information, visit www.umich.edu/~powwow.

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Donald Harrison talks with former AAFF director Vicki Honeyman

by amy

In this clip, former Ann Arbor Film Festival director Vicki Honeyman remembers the all-night process of pulling together a festival program prior to the grant-funded multi-page booklets of recent years.

[1:39 min]

Attachment Size
AAFF_director_interview-Vicki_Honeyman_2.mp3 2.4 MB

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Donald Harrison talks with former AAFF director Vicki Honeyman

by amy

In this clip, former Ann Arbor Film Festival director Vicki Honeyman recalls the graphics of the 31st Festival.

[1:44 min]

Attachment Size
AAFF_director_interview-Vicki_Honeyman.mp3 2.5 MB