Media
Not-So-Scary Monster Tales
What's that hiding under the bed? Join AADL storytellers for a special evening storytime featuring some (not very) scary monsters!
Media
The Gayest Generation Ep. 16 - Paul Grattarola
Welcome to The Gayest Generation, where we hear LGBTQ older adults speak for themselves. Every episode, we sit down with a different member of the LGBTQ community who laid the foundation for the freedoms we have today. Their stories, more than ever, must be heard.
In this episode, we speak with Paul "Crunchy" Grattarola, the former owner of the famous East Lansing watering hole, Crunchy's. Paul shares about his globetrotting career in hospitality, surviving hurricanes, and battling cancer.
Media
AADL Talks To: Tommy York, of York Food and Drink
Tommy York, owner of the popular eatery York Food & Drink, started his career with Espresso Royale, eventually transitioning to Zingerman’s community of businesses. After several years, he joined partner Matt Morgan to open Morgan & York. Tommy talks with us about his background in social work and how it shaped the evolution of his business; some of the many personal and professional challenges he’s faced over the years, and how he learned from mentors along the way to put people before profit.
Media
Cookies Galore with Keegan Rodgers!
Keegan C. Rodgers, owner of The Lakehouse Bakery in Chelsea leads this hands-on and lively workshop on how to make cookies galore!
In this class, students will learn all about how to make a variety of cookies for the holidays or anytime. The ingredients, the steps involved with each cookie, and how to properly store the finished product will all be covered in this class. Keegan will have cookies to taste, too!
Media
DeLong's
Director Kameron Donald takes us through the story of DeLong's Bar-B-Q Pit, one of Ann Arbor's most famed bygone eateries. In a history told by Diana McKnight-Morton, one of DeLong's founders, we learn about the idea for the restaurant being born out of the many heads that popped over the backyard fence during family barbecues and hear about the many people, Ann Arborites and those much more far-flung, who numbered it among their favorites.
Media
Black Foodways
In this video compiled from dozens of interviews from the Living Oral History Project and the There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive, participants share their memories of food and food traditions in their families, including fishing on the Huron River, hosting Fourth of July barbecues, and even starting a restaurant.
The Living Oral History Project is a partnership between the African American Cultural & Historical Museum of Washtenaw County and the Ann Arbor District Library, providing a permanent home for 50+ interviews with Black community members collected over the past decade. The collection continues to grow with interviews added each year.
The There Went The Neighborhood Interview Archive contains 35 interviews that went into the research and making of a documentary film about the closing of Jones School, produced by the Ann Arbor District Library and 7 Cylinders Studio.
Media
AADL Talks To: Domenico Telemaco, Owner of NYPD
In this episode, AADL Talks To Domenico Telemaco. Domenico tells us about his experiences owning and operating NYPD in downtown Ann Arbor for the past 27 years. He discusses how the business began, changes and expansions over the years, and reflects on popular menu offerings that withstood the test of time.
Media
Recipe Share | Ann Arbor Local History Recipes
Each week on our YouTube show Recipe Share, AADL staff members share recipes in a specific category – from “Unusual Veggies” to “Favorite Cookies” - whether tried and true or tried and failed. In this episode, we try three recipes taken from local cookbooks in our Ann Arbor Cooks cookbook digitization project (updated with ingredients now available):
Fruit Salad from the St. Andrew's Tuesday Guild's Favorite Recipes - Vol. 2 (1977):
Dorothy's Grapenuts Custard from the Ann Arbor Wellesley Club's Fare Thee Well (1974):
Media
AADL Talks To: Maren and Jeff Jackson, Owners of Seva
In this episode, AADL Talks To Maren and Jeff Jackson, the owners of Seva. In 2023, the vegetarian restaurant celebrated its 50th anniversary. It was first opened in 1973 at 314 East Liberty Street by Steve Bellock, and purchased by Maren and Jeff Jackson in 1997. Maren and Jeff talk about Seva’s early history, from its beginning as a vegetarian restaurant amidst other countercultural businesses and organizations, through its menu changes and other transitions over the years.
Media
Keith & Martin/Martin & Keith: Elegy for the \aut\BAR
“From 1995 to 2020, Ann Arbor’s Aut/Bar was the mecca for the LGBTQ+ community. Its founders, Martin Contreras and Keith Orr, created a cultural and political hub that bridged the AIDS era with assimilation of the queer community and urban gentrification. This film is both tribute and elegy to a moment of significant hope when Ann Arbor lived up to its reputation for harboring a tolerant and liberal-minded population. It is dedicated to the two men who were at its heart and whose proud determination to make it happen was both fierce and tender.” - Peter Sparling
