AADL Talks To: Liz Brater, 58th Mayor of Ann Arbor (1991-1993)

Mon, 09/16/2024 - 6:36pm

Elizabeth S. Brater is Ann Arbor's first female mayor, serving as a Democrat from 1991 to 1993. Prior to 1991, she was a member of Ann Arbor City Council. As both council member and mayor, Liz focused on housing and environmental issues, causes she continued at the state level when serving as a member of the Michigan House of Representatives from 1995 to 2000, and in the Michigan Senate, where she represented the 18th district from 2003 to 2010. Brater talks with us about her time in office, its many challenges, and some of her initiatives and accomplishments, notably her campaign to start the Michigan Recovery Facility (MRF).

AADL Talks To: Peter Andrews, Music Promoter, Organizer of the John Sinclair Freedom Rally and Ann Arbor Blues & Jazz Festival

Thu, 02/29/2024 - 9:08am

In this wide-ranging interview from 2010, Peter Andrews recalls his varied career producing and managing local and regional music talent — from managing the Scot Richard Case (SRC) band and bringing bands like The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and the Yardbirds to Ann Arbor’s Fifth Dimension club, to booking national acts for University of Michigan student groups. He also discusses his role in Ann Arbor’s legendary Blues and Jazz Festivals, producing the John Sinclair Freedom Rally at Crisler Arena in 1971, and bringing John Lennon and Yoko Ono to town.

Articles and photos about Peter Andrews

JCC Conversations | Nancy Wang – Executive Director of Voters Not Politicians

Wed, 02/01/2023 - 5:03pm

What are the very real possibilities that it will become much more difficult to vote in Michigan and how the Promote the Vote ballot initiative can block the current effort to suppress the vote?

JCC Conversations | Yalcin Yanıkoğlu, Sergio Martinez-Beltrán, Bob Chunn and Mark Brewer

Wed, 02/01/2023 - 4:35pm

Now that the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission has issued new maps, come learn what that means for you and for future elections. Guests on Conversations! will be Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Capital Reporter for Bridge Magazine, Bob Chunn and Yalcin Yonikoglu of Next Vote and Mark Brewer of Goodman Acker P.C.

JCC Conversations | Attorney Mark Brewer

Wed, 02/01/2023 - 2:56pm

Attorney Mark Brewer speaks to the current status of the redistricting process and what we can do about it. His principal areas of practice include campaign finance and non-profit law. He has been involved in a wide variety of election cases since the 1980s including county, legislative and congressional redistricting, presidential primaries/caucuses, recalls, recounts, ballot access, voter protection on Election Day and the protection of the right to vote a straight party ticket.

The vast majority of the maps submitted to Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission to date would result in districts that are more inequitable than the existing gerrymandered districts. Similarly, most of the comments that have been received support these maps.

JCC Conversations | Michigan House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski

Wed, 02/01/2023 - 2:10pm

Michigan House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski  talks about  her resolution to create a bipartisan joint select committee to investigate Michiganders’ involvement in the Jan. 6 pro-Trump insurrection in the U.S. and also discusses the April 2020 storming of the Michigan Capitol during a protest against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s COVID-19 health orders, which congressional Democrats have argued was a “dress rehearsal” for Jan. 6.

JCC Conversations | Aghogho Edevbie, Michigan State Director of All Voting

Wed, 02/01/2023 - 12:45pm

Join Chuck as he chats with Aghogho Edevbie, Michigan State Director of All Voting is Local, about how a Republican legislature can determine who receives Michigan’s electoral votes – not the voters.

Martin Bandyke Under Covers for July 2022: Martin interviews Alex B. Hill, author of Detroit in 50 Maps

Tue, 07/05/2022 - 9:38am

Detroit in 50 Maps shows you the Motor City from entirely new perspectives, from neighborhood coffee shops to the legacy of redlining.

There are thousands of ways to map a city. Roads, bridges, and railways help you navigate the twists and turns; topography gives you the lay of the land; population growth shows you its changing fortunes. But the best maps let you feel what that city's really like. Detroit in 50 Maps deconstructs the Motor City in surprising new ways. Track where new coffee shops and co-working spaces have opened and closed in the last five years. Find the areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, Coney Island hot dog shops, or ring-necked pheasants. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America’s most misunderstood cities and the people who live here.

A conversation starter for Detroiters past, present, and future, Detroit in 50 Maps is for anyone keen to understand the city in new and surprising ways.

Martin Bandyke Under Covers for December 2020: Martin interviews Graydon M. Meints, author of Pere Marquette: A Michigan Railroad System Before 1900.

Tue, 01/05/2021 - 8:25am

The Pere Marquette Railroad has not one but two histories—one for the twentieth century and one for the nineteenth. While the twentieth-century record of the Pere Marquette Railroad has been well studied and preserved, the nineteenth century has not been so well served. Pere Marquette: A Michigan Railroad System Before 1900 is the latest book by railroad aficionado Graydon M. Meints which aims to correct that oversight by focusing on the nineteenth-century part of the company’s past, including the men who formed and directed these early roads, and the development of the system. 

The Pere Marquette Railroad was formed in 1900 by a merger of three Michigan railroad companies and lasted forty-seven years, disappearing in June 1947 by merger into the maw of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Prior to the 1900 merger, the Pere Marquette Railroad’s predecessors made up a motley collection of disconnected and unaffiliated short, local rail lines. After the financial panic of 1893, and with some commonality of ownership, the companies worked together more closely. Before the end of the decade, the three main railroads—the Flint & Pere Marquette; the Detroit, Lansing & Northern; and the Chicago & West Michigan—had decided that the only way to maintain solvency was to merge. 

Using a plethora of primary sources including railway timetables and maps, this work lends insight into the little-known corporate business history of the Pere Marquette Railroad.

AADL Talks to: Jay Stielstra

Mon, 07/27/2020 - 10:11am

In this episode, AADL Talks to Ann Arbor playwright, coach, teacher, and songwriter, Jay Stielstra. Jay discusses his life and work as a teacher and a coach in the Ann Arbor Public Schools; how he became a playwright without ever having been backstage; and how a kid from Ludington, Michigan who just wanted to be a football coach ended up being one of Ann Arbor's most prominent singer-songwriters.

Historical articles and photographs about Jay Stielstra in our Community Collections