Media
Echos of Techno: Electronic Music in Ann Arbor
"Echos of Techno: Electronic Music in Ann Arbor is an intimate exploration of the city's innovative electronic music scene in the early 2000s, directed by artist and filmmaker Martin Thoburn. As a former Ghostly International insider and multimedia creator, Thoburn traces how Ann Arbor emerged as a vital hub for experimental electronic music, bridging Detroit's techno roots with the digital dawn of online music cultures. Centered around the story of Ghostly International—a record label that grew from a UofM college dorm room to global recognition—the film weaves together candid interviews with pioneering artists like Matthew Dear and Tadd Mullinix with rare archival footage to capture a transformative period when the city's avant-garde sound helped reshape electronic music's landscape." - Filmmaker Martin Thoburn
Media
Relentless Warrior: Al Wheeler - Ann Arbor's First Black Mayor
"It's been 50 years since Al Wheeler’s historic campaign for Mayor of the City of Ann Arbor. 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of his death. Relentless Warrior lifts up little-known facts of Dr. Wheeler’s amazing saga. From humble beginnings to a whirlwind tour of top educational institutions, we share how Professor Wheeler shaped and shared a life of firsts with his equally impressive wife, Emma, and their accomplished family. We also hear from some of the people who knew Al best and helped him become the first Black Mayor of Ann Arbor, as well as win re-election with a one vote, precedent-setting result.” - Filmmaker Carole Gibson
Media
Premiere Performance of Last Summer - A New One-Act Play by Jim Ottaviani
The University of Michigan Summer Symposium in Theoretical Physics brought great minds from all over the world to Ann Arbor for 15 years between WWI and WWII. One evening in 1939, Enrico Fermi tried to convince his friend Werner Heisenberg not to return to Germany, where he would certainly be compelled to help the Nazis develop nuclear weapons.
Last Summer is a new one-act play about this pivotal conversation, based on the physicists' own writings, written for the stage by award-winning science comics writer Jim Ottaviani, and produced in partnership with the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.
Media
Room for Change: Ann Arbor's Fair Housing Protests in the 1960s
"In the early 1960s, Ann Arbor neighborhoods were still mostly segregated. Racially restrictive housing covenants, realtors, banks, and landlords quietly worked to keep African Americans confined to only certain parts of the city. Hundreds of individuals and groups, including the NAACP, CORE, churches, and student groups began picketing, marching, and organizing sit-ins in protest. This film presents some of their stories." - Filmmaker Jennifer Howard
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AADL Talks To: Dick Siegel, Singer-Songwriter and Musician
Dick Siegel is an Ann Arbor singer-songwriter and musician who has written and performed regionally and nationally for over 40 years. In this episode, Dick talks with us about his musical influences and how a cross-country road trip and open mic nights at the Ark inspired him to start writing his own songs. Dick also sings some of his favorite lyrics for us and discusses how they were inspired by friends, family, neighbors, or -- as in the song “Angelo’s” -- a beloved local restaurant.
Check out Dick’s records at AADL. You can also watch his 2006 discussion on The Fine Art of Songwriting.
Media
AADL Talks To: Hiawatha Bailey, Founder of the Punk Band Cult Heroes, Former Community Activist, and Member of the White Panther Party
Hiawatha Bailey lived in one of the legendary Hill Street houses at 1510 and 1520 Hill Street where he was a member of the Trans-Love Commune, the White Panther Party, and later the Rainbow People’s Party. In this episode, Hiawatha traces his political awakening and community activism in Ann Arbor’s countercultural heyday during the late 1960s and shares stories of living and working in the commune, including the day he hung up on Yoko Ono and got a follow-up call from John Lennon. He also takes us through his musical journey as a roadie for the local rock band The Up and Detroit's Destroy All Monsters to founding his own punk band, Cult Heroes.
Media
Right to Read: The Ann Arbor King Case
Right to Read: The Ann Arbor King Case is a short documentary about the 1977 lawsuit that became known as the “Ann Arbor Black English Case” or “The King Case". Brought on behalf of 11 Black students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Ann Arbor, MI, childhood literacy, Black language, and cultural competency emerged as central themes of this case. The story resonated around the country for many reasons and prompted mixed media coverage, motivated academic study, and inspired public discussion.
"Language is to identity as oxygen is to life and the benefit of its mindful development in the formative years of children has long been documented. Like many, until I gained a deeper knowledge of this 1977 case (Martin Luther King Jr Elementary School Children v The Michigan Board of Education and Michigan Superintendent of Public Instruction), I thought it was solely about the treatment of Black English in a particular Ann Arbor, Michigan school and the implications for the school’s Black English-speaking students. While that is worthy of discussion and legal consideration, diving in revealed it to be a multidimensional story, starting with the fact that the case was not originally about language.
As a language enthusiast and also a Black English speaker, my initial interest in the case was primarily sociolinguistic. I was inspired to create this documentary, in part, because of the chance to explore how the US legal system recognizes and protects minority languages and dialects. Interestingly, until the mid-1960s, language was not considered a federally protected class in the US. One of my central guiding questions was “How did the kids’ use of Black English and teachers’ perception of it affect student development?” and “How does a perceived educational inequity translate to a debate of the legal protections a language deserves?” The “realness” or legitimacy of Black English was not automatically accepted (certainly not to the level that it is today), and I became fascinated with both the social discourse this prompted as well as the challenge it posed to the King Case students’ many expert witnesses, like sociolinguists Dr. Geneva Smitherman and Dr. William Labov, and education writer Dr. Daniel Fader, who in a court of law aimed to prove the existence of Black English as a language and educate the judge on its interconnection with identity and early childhood literacy.
The King Case students all lived in the Green Road housing projects, located in a middle-class neighborhood on Green Road on North Campus. It surprised me to learn that there is a documented history that living in a low-income housing community can lead to poorer academic outcomes and a diminished sense of belonging as was the situation with the King Case students.
It’s been nearly 50 years since the lawsuit was originally filed and there’s much to reflect on. I have been extremely lucky to sit in conversation with the chief expert witness for the King Case students, the trailblazing Dr. Geneva Smitherman; two of the students Kihilee and Dwayne Brenen, whose mother Janice bravely ignited the case; Ruth Zweifler, a fierce and longtime student advocate and founder of the Student Advocacy Center, now retired; Gabe Hillel Kaimowitz, the lead attorney for the students, now retired; Lamont Walton, a participating attorney for the students; Dr. Rossi Ray-Taylor, a former superintendent for Ann Arbor Public Schools; and Dr. Jessi Grieser, a sociolinguist at the University of Michigan. While there were many records and articles that were available to support the research process, one of the biggest challenges involved with making this film was, simply, time. The case’s original media evidence (trial audio recordings and photos) have been lost to the record. Some who were originally closely associated with the case are no longer alive and some others' memories of the case have since faded or they were too young to retain certain details. In addition to sit-down interviews, I leveraged archival material like case transcripts, newspaper articles, historical footage and photos to tell this story.
I had the opportunity to visit present-day King Elementary and witnessed how it has changed in many ways, which was incredibly inspiring. The King Case makes us examine the teaching of language and literacy and how early childhood learning experiences are carried with us across time. After watching this film, I hope viewers introspect on how they were socialized to think about language as a child and then consider what perceptions about language they carry with them today. For those with school age children in their lives, I hope they take a moment to have a conversation about the importance of literacy and commit to walking with them as they grow as learners.
I’m developing an expanded version of this documentary which features more interviews and more reflections from current participants, where the culture and climate of Ann Arbor is more deeply explored, where we can better understand how language arts curriculum was built in the US and how its construction contributed to a scenario where the King Case could happen." - Filmmaker Aliyah Mitchell
Media
I Remember When: School Days
This once-lost episode of I Remember When includes interviews with former Ann Arbor school teachers Lela Duff and Linda Eberbach, former Ann Arbor High School students David Inglis and Bill Bishop (at their 50th reunion), and long-time school board member Ashley Clague.
Produced and directed by Chris LaBeau
Exec producer: Catherine Andersen
Graphic Artist: Eric Anderson
Special thanks to Mr. Bill Bishop, Mr. Ashley Clague, Miss Lela Duff, Miss Linda Eberbach, Mr. David Inglis, and Stone School Nursery School
Sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Library, with help from the Ann Arbor Sesquicentennial Commission and the University of Michigan Speech Department.
