Proving Innocence: Freeing the Wrongfully Convicted
The success of podcasts like Serial and documentaries like Making of a Murderer has drawn attention to the issue of wrongful convictions, and to flaws in the criminal justice system that allow these problems to persist.
In 2007, Bill Proctor, a journalist and reporter with WXYZ-TV Channel 7 in Detroit, founded Proving Innocence to investigate wrongful conviction claims and educate the public about the need for reforms. Bill talks about the cases that inspired him to take action, and brings along guest speakers who have experienced wrongful conviction and exoneration to share their perspectives.
Proctor was an award-winning journalist, reporter, producer, and anchorperson whose career of nearly forty years spanned electronic media, radio, television, and documentaries. He concluded his career as senior staff reporter for WXYZ-TV in Southfield, MI, retiring in May 2013.
Biking Northern Michigan
When it comes to cycling, Michigan is at or near the top of the list in America with 109 rail-trail conversions totaling 1,311 miles.
Learn more as veteran cyclist and traveler Bob Downes discusses cycling and his book Biking Northern Michigan: The Best & Safest Routes in the Lower Peninsula. Bob shares his fascinating travel experiences, tips, and stories.
Packed with funny stories, cycling tips, history and dining recommendations, Biking Northern Michigan will have you ready to ride one of the top cycling destinations in the world. The book includes more than 35 bike routes and 56 maps and illustrations in and around Traverse City, Petoskey and the Mackinac Straits in northwestern lower Michigan.
National Library Week Event: Award-Winning Author Mardi Jo Link
This year, AADL celebrated National Library Week evening with Michigan Notable Book Author Mardi Jo Link.
Mardi discussed her memoirs, Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm and The Drummond Girls, as well as some of her new projects and the craft of writing.
Mardi's memoir, Bootstrapper was an Indie Next pick, won the 2013 Booksellers Choice Award from the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association, was an Elle Magazine Reader's Prize winner, and was named a Michigan Notable Book. Film rights have been sold to Academy Award-winning actress, Rachel Weisz.
She has also written the true crime books, When Evil Came to Good Hart, Isadore's Secret:Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan Town, and Wicked Takes the Witness Stand:A Tale of Murder and Twisted Deceit in Northern Michigan, which were each Heartland bestsellers. Her essays have appeared in Bellingham Review, Bear River Review, Creative Nonfiction, the Detroit Free Press, Publishers Weekly, Terrain, and Traverse Magazine, among other places.
Mardi Jo Link was born in Detroit and grew up in Bay City. She studied journalism and agriculture at Michigan State University. She was a founder of the magazine, ForeWord Reviews, in Traverse City, Michigan, and earned her master's degree in creative writing from Queens University of Charlotte, in North Carolina. She is the mother of three grown sons and lives in Traverse City, Michigan, with her husband, Pete, and their dog, Gretchen.
#6 Ann Arbor Stories: Ghost in the Attic
For a town as old as Ann Arbor, it has surprisingly few ghost stories. But in the late 1950s, the congregation of the First Methodist Church in Ann Arbor was pretty convinced they had a spirit on their hands. Caretakers sometimes heard footsteps late at night, but never spotted anyone in the church. Until the early morning hours of August 30, 1959, when they made a chilling discovery.
Music by People Get Ready
Further reading from AADL's Old News:
Initial Story
Bill of Health
Lim Gets Aid
Going Back to School
Graduating Saturday
Hit by Car
10-year retrospective
Retrospective after Cheng's Death
#5 Ann Arbor Stories: Ann Arbor's Oldest Gay Bar
It started on April 30, 1949, when Cupid Bar rebranded itself as The Flame Bar, turning a popular downtown student watering hole into a slightly more popular downtown student watering hole. Almost 50 years later, The Flame would close, shuttering an Ann Arbor institution. It wasn’t Ann Arbor’s first gay bar, and certainly not its last, but The Flame played a major role in the lives of many among Ann Arbor’s LGBT community - for good and ill.
Music by Lightning Love
Further reading from AADL's Old News:
The Flame bar review
Death of Harvey Blanchard
The Flame Bought
The Flame Reopens on Liberty
#4 Ann Arbor Stories: The Birth of Iggy Pop
Muskegon claims him because he was born there. Ypsi claims him because, for most of his childhood, he lived in a trailer park on the outskirts of town. But it’s Ann Arbor - along with cocaine, meth, acid, booze, pills, AND ambition - that deserve the credit for turning James Newell Osterberg into Iggy Pop.
Music by FAWNN
#3 Ann Arbor Stories: Martian Madness
On the night of March 20,1966, Frank Mannor’s six dogs started barking like they’d never done before. He went outside to shut them up and that’s when he saw what he saw. Something flying through the night sky. At first it looked like a shooting star, then it slowed. It changed color. And it landed in the woods a few hundred yards from his Dexter farmhouse.
Music by Diego & The Dissidents and The Dead Bodies.
Establishing A Rain Garden: Clean up the Huron River, One Garden at a Time
Planting a rain garden is a fun way for people to make a difference in the quality of the water in our rivers, lakes, and streams, starting in our own backyards. You don’t need any special equipment – just some space, a spade, compost, and a few plants. This talk covers the benefits of Rain Gardens and how to build and plant one.
Susan Bryan is the Rain Garden Coordinator for the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office, working with plants and people to protect the water quality in the Huron River. She has designed many residential gardens, rain gardens, and bio-infiltration areas. She is a past president of Wild Ones, has a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan, and is an Advanced Master Gardener in Washtenaw County.
Roger Moon is a Master Rain Gardener, trained in the Washtenaw County program, and a Traverwood neighborhood resident with four rain gardens on his property. He has given numerous talks on rain gardens, media appearances, and designed six rain gardens himself. Roger has adopted rain gardens in Huron Hills and Gallup parks, and takes care of them throughout the year. Roger received the Washtenaw County Rain Garden Leadership Award in Education in 2015.
#2 Ann Arbor Stories: Death of a Policeman
Crime was never a big problem in Ann Arbor in 1935. There were occasional break-ins, robberies, stolen vehicles, assaults, a riot or protest or two, but Prohibition was over and the gangsters and bootleggers had moved on. An Ann Arbor police officer had never been killed in the line of duty, nor even died from a horse, car, or motorcycle accident while on duty. Not even a random heart attack. Until March 21, 1935.
Music by Ben Benjamin, and Aeroc made possible by Gholicense. Additional music by Chris Bathgate.
#1 Ann Arbor Stories: A Buck Twenty-Five
In 1824, John Allen of New York and Elisha Rumsey of Connecticut bought up 640 acres of prime Michigan land, paying $1.25 per acre. Those 640 acres, purchased in a tiny federal land office in Detroit, would become known as Ann Arbor. This is the story of the founding of Ann Arbor and how the town grew from its ragamuffin roots into what it has become today.
Music by Chris Bathgate