EMU's "King Kong at Ninety: Visualization in the Art of Stop-Motion Animation" celebrates the creativity behind the film that helped launch the Creature Feature

Fri, 02/03/2023 - 11:30am by christopherporter

While spending an hour-plus perusing Eastern Michigan University’s exhibit King Kong at Ninety: Visualization in the Art of Stop-Motion Animation, I was struck by how, in some ways, it’s probably harder for young film buffs to stumble upon the old classics.

Admittedly, nearly all movies that survived are available to us at any moment now, but that tsunami of choices also means viewers must specifically seek out a film like King Kong (1933) instead of merely tumbling out of bed before your parents get up on a Sunday morning, turning on the TV, and sampling that week’s “Creature Feature”—a genre largely spawned by the runaway blockbuster success of King Kong.

The Ark’s Ann Arbor Folk Festival Makes Welcome Return to U-M’s Hill Auditorium

Mon, 01/30/2023 - 3:30pm by strattonl

Open the Vaults: Tania El Khoury's multimedia installation “Cultural Exchange Rate” immerses you in the artist's family history

Thu, 01/26/2023 - 9:30am by christopherporter

If you could unearth all the secrets of your family’s past, would you?

"Are we not drawn onward to new erA" Encourages Understanding the Climate Crisis From an Unconventional Perspective

Tue, 01/24/2023 - 12:30pm by strattonl

“The Plastic Bag Store” Uses Art to Raise Awareness About The Pervasive Problem of Plastic Packaging

Fri, 01/20/2023 - 2:00pm by strattonl

It’s an unnervingly perfect coincidence that when you emerge from the installation/play The Plastic Bag Store (TPBS) presented by University Musical Society (as part of its No Safety Net series), you see a cafeteria space with boxes of individually packaged snacks for sale on a rack.

Selina Thompson's “salt: dispersed” is a powerful document of her monologue retracing the transatlantic slave route forced on her ancestors

Thu, 01/19/2023 - 9:30am by christopherporter

In 2016, Selina Thompson, an interdisciplinary artist based in Birmingham, England, went on a journey to retrace the path of her ancestors. That path was that of the transatlantic slave trade.

Fraught reunions with old friends are at the core of Penny Seat's "First Snow"

Thu, 12/08/2022 - 1:45pm by christopherporter

The prospect of seeing friends from high school, after a years-long separation, always feels fraught. Will it be awkward? Will they judge you? Will you judge them? What will you talk about? Will you somehow ruin perfectly contained, long-packed-away memories?

Encore Theatre's “A Christmas Story: The Musical" sings the praises of the classic film

Tue, 11/29/2022 - 2:15pm by christopherporter

A stage musical based on a beloved film classic—like, say, A Christmas Story: The Musical, now being staged at Dexter’s Encore Theatre—can be a double-edged sword. 

Andrea Carlson's "Future Cache" exhibit at UMMA imagines decolonized landscapes for the native peoples violently removed from their land

Tue, 11/22/2022 - 3:30pm by christopherporter

​​"Conversations on Mortality" at 22 North looks to transcend the silence about the dying side of living

Mon, 11/21/2022 - 1:30pm by christopherporter

Conversations on mortality are difficult, often avoided, and in America, they are traditionally taboo. The 22 North gallery in Ypsilanti welcomes the thought-provoking exhibit ​​Conversations on Mortality, which confronts our impermanence, the inevitability of death.