All the Small Things: Rick Bailey's essay collection "The Enjoy Agenda" is a humorous and touching look at some of life's little moments

Thu, 07/11/2019 - 11:00am by christopherporter

With warm and inviting prose, Rick Bailey takes us through life's hilarious and melancholy moments in The Enjoy Agenda: At Home and Abroad. 

A Night of Fiction: Bookbound Bookstore hosts Elizabeth Ellen, Juliet Escoria, and Mary Miller

Tue, 07/09/2019 - 2:30pm by christopherporter

While other towns struggle to maintain bookstores and aren’t able to host author events, Ann Arbor hosts myriad events featuring the writers behind the pages.

Nevertheless Film Festival persists to show that female-identifying moviemakers are making great cinema

Mon, 07/08/2019 - 2:30pm by christopherporter

The film industry does not celebrate women as it should.

Chloe Gray’s Fun Girl dance company blends quirky movement with thoughtful activism in “Girlfriend”

Tue, 07/02/2019 - 5:00pm by christopherporter

On June 22 at Riverside Arts Center, I had the pleasure of attending the first show presented by Fun Girl, a new Ypsilanti-based contemporary dance company created and run by Artistic Director Chloe Gray.  The company offers paid rehearsals and performances to their dancers, as well as apprenticeships, and acts as a platform for technically based dancers to explore quirky movement while applying thoughtful activism.  

A Brief History of "Hawking": The latest science graphic novel by Ann Arbor's Jim Ottaviani profiles the legendary theoretical physicist

Mon, 07/01/2019 - 12:15pm by christopherporter

The subject of the book was a scientist who was also a New York Times bestselling author and affiliated with a renowned university. And the writer of this book ... was also a scientist, a New York Times bestselling author, and affiliated with a renowned university. It's only fitting that Jim Ottaviani -- preeminent writer of science comics, former nuclear engineer, and current librarian at the University of Michigan -- wrote a book about Stephen Hawking, the preeminent theoretical physicist and cosmologist.

Illustrated by Leland Myrick, Hawking traces the legendary scientist's life, from his groundbreaking work in theoretical physics to his best-selling book A Brief History of Time to his advocacy for rights for people with disabilities. 

Art and "Soul": Honey Monsoon's new album looks for the light within

Thu, 06/27/2019 - 12:15pm by christopherporter

For local band Honey Monsoon, music and art spring from the same well of creativity. 

Museum exhibit labels tell the stories of an eccentric curator and visitor in Matthew Kirkpatrick's new novel

Tue, 06/25/2019 - 10:15am by christopherporter

The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century American Art by Matthew Kirkpatrick is a novel in the form of museum exhibit labels. The labels reveal the art pieces in the museum, along with the curator’s unique relationship and what has happened to the Seagrave family’s daughter. In between the labels, occasional passages narrate a visitor’s exploration of and discoveries in the museum. 

Psychological dramas and fragmented stories in Joe Sacksteder's "Make/Shift" push against form and content conventions

Tue, 06/25/2019 - 10:00am by christopherporter

A contestant in a game show where people are eliminated if they get aroused. Parents and kids enduring an overnight trip for hockey. A man in grief who sees letters in the sealant on the road. An international student and her hall counselor coming to understand each other’s perspectives. 

Each of these characters, among others, navigate the shifting situations of the short stories and flash vignettes of Make/Shift, the new collection by Joe Sacksteder.

Susan Jane Gilman set "Donna Has Left the Building" partly in Michigan "as a valentine to being here"

Thu, 06/20/2019 - 4:00pm by christopherporter

Being a culinary ambassador for cookware. Acting as a dominatrix. Facing search and seizure laws in Tennessee. Helping the refugee crisis in Greece.

From "East" to Best: Ypsi singer-songwriter Rin Tarsy makes her debut at The Ark with a new batch of tunes

Mon, 06/17/2019 - 11:30am by christopherporter

Rin Tarsy is drawn to creating albums with “[l]yrics that inspire, vulnerable songs that create connection and tap into feeling, organic and raw instrumentation, and energy in the music that is just plain fun to groove to!”