Videos | Ann Arbor District Library

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Ignite | Ann Arbor

Tue, 01/07/2020 - 9:24am

Enlighten us, but make it quick!

How would you share your passion in 5 minutes, with just 20 slides? We asked Ann Arbor this question; Ignite | Ann Arbor is the response. Watch your neighbors engage in this international phenomenon of fast-paced geekery! Discover what your community geeks have to say – whether it's food, tech, business, music, art, history or something strange and new, it's sure to be a feverish night filled with discovery!

The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006.

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Stars Rising: Why U-M's Detroit Observatory Matters and Where It's Going

Tue, 01/07/2020 - 8:49am

Why is an observatory in Ann Arbor named for Detroit? What made the Detroit Observatory a milestone for the University of Michigan and American higher education? How was the Observatory central to the growth of American astronomical science, when did it lose that role, and how did it get it back? And who were some of the people who made it all happen? Gary Krenz of the University’s Bentley Historical Library will explore these and other questions in this talk. In its 165-year history, the Observatory has gone through many transformations, and it is currently going through another—the construction of an addition to improve access, education, and programming. Krenz will also look at what that project entails and what lies ahead.

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Author Event | Morgan Parker Discusses Magical Negro

Tue, 01/07/2020 - 8:11am

Magical Negro is an archive of black everydayness, a catalog of contemporary folk heroes, an ethnography of ancestral grief, and an inventory of figureheads, idioms, and customs. These American poems are both elegy
and jive, joke and declaration, songs of congregation and self-conception. They connect themes of loneliness, displacement, grief, ancestral trauma, and objectification, while exploring and troubling tropes and stereotypes of Black Americans. Focused primarily on depictions of Black womanhood alongside personal narratives, the collection tackles interior and exterior politics—of both the body and society, of both the individual and the collective experience.

In Magical Negro, Parker creates a space of witness, of airing grievances, of pointing out patterns. In these poems are living documents, pleas, latent traumas, inside jokes, and unspoken anxieties situated as firmly in the past as in the present—timeless black melancholies and triumphs.

For this event, Parker was in conversation with Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Visiting Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan.

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Author Event | Ebony Roberts: The Love Prison Made and Unmade: My Story

Tue, 01/07/2020 - 8:05am

Author Ebony Roberts is joined by Ashley Lucas, Director of the Prison Creative Arts Project at the University of Michigan, for a discussion of Ebony's new memoir, The Love Prison Made and Unmade: My Story. As a little girl growing up in Detroit, Ebony witnessed her parents’ brutal physical fights, often fueled by her father’s alcoholism. Her experiences as a child shaped her views on love and set the pattern for her future romantic relationships. She found herself drawn to men who cheated; verbally abused her; and disappointed her.

When she met Shaka Senghor, a man in prison for second-degree murder, she felt an intense spiritual connection, but struggled with the idea that this man behind bars could be the love God had for her. Ultimately she ignored other people’s fears and took a chance. Through letters and visits, they fell deeply in love. Once Shaka came home, they thought the worst was behind them, but Shaka’s release was the beginning of the end.

The Love Prison Made and Unmade is heartfelt. It reveals powerful lessons about love, sacrifice, courage, and forgiveness; of living your highest principles and learning not to judge someone by their worst acts. Ultimately, it is a stark reminder of the emotional cost of American justice on human lives—the partners, wives, children, and friends—beyond the prison walls.

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Author Event | Jill Grunenwald: Reading Behind Bars

Thu, 01/02/2020 - 10:15am

Author Jill Grunenwald reads from her new book Reading Behind Bars: a True Story of Literature, Law, and Life as a Prison Librarian. After graduating with a Masters in Library and Information Science, Jill returned to Northeast Ohio and took a job as a librarian at an all-male, minimum security prison on the far west side of Cleveland. Reading Behind Bars is the true account of her experiences there.

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Desserts by Decade: The Dirty 30s with Keegan Rodgers and Patti Smith

Tue, 12/17/2019 - 8:40am

Join us for the latest installment in a new series on the history of desserts by decade. This month, we will discuss the 1930s!

The decade began with people driving custom convertible Packards and sneaking sips of "giggle juice" (hopefully not at the same time!) and ended with Hoovervilles and Apple Annies drinking "dog soup". People might not have had a lot of dough but they still could make, well, dough! Get the lowdown on some keen recipes from the 1930s with Lakehouse owner/baker Keegan Rodgers and hear about national and local history from historian/writer Patti Smith. Learn how to make a treat from the era while enjoying stories about happenings at the local and national scene. It's the bee's knees!

This event was in partnership with The Lakehouse Bakery.

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The Art of Voice Over & Performance Capture with Debra Wilson

Mon, 12/16/2019 - 9:19am

Actress and comedian Debra Wilson is perhaps best known as the longest-serving original cast member on the sketch comedy series MADtv, appearing for the show's first eight seasons. With numerous guest star appearances in both network comedy and drama series’ and a score of independent films, she has more recently found success in the realm of voice over and motion capture for television, film, and video games.

Join Debra as she returns to AADL to discuss the art of voice over, performance capture, and the proactive inner faith that has sustained her in her career.

Her first project in the area of motion capture was as the prototype model for ‘Ney’tiri,’ played by Zoe Saldana, in James Cameron’s Avatar. Her voice over work began much earlier: as a narrator for E! Entertainment celebrity specials, and then into animation for television and film, ADR & looping, network announcing, radio commercials, books on tape, theme park attractions, and a wide range of video games. She has worked on well over fifty video games to date including five different World of Warcraft games, God of War, Final Fantasy XV, Mafia III, Gears of War 4, Telltale: The Walking Dead- The Final Season, several Call of Duty games, Telltale: Batman, and Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.