MOTOR SIGNAL featuring TARIQ LUTHUN AND CHAD ROCHKIND [6.18.2015]

Join us for our June Motor Signal event! Motor Signal is a monthly reading series that jolts the poetry and prose reading out of its conventional form.

This month’s event will explore what it means to “belong” to a place and our inherent need as humans to feel a sense of belonging in our communities. Who do we consider outsiders and when do we become one ourselves? 

Featured readers include Tariq Luthun and Chad Rochkind. 

Open to the public with a $5 suggested donation.

More info at: http://literarydetroit.com/2015/01/02/motor-signal-reading-series/

Artist Bios:

Tariq Luthun is a Palestinian-American poet, analyst, & strategist from Detroit, MI. He is Literary and Events Coordinator for Write A House, and Director of the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam. His work has been featured on Button Poetry, and in the literary magazine The Offing. He can best be described as the end-result of Drake falsetto-rapping Edward Said's Orientalism.

Chad Rochkind is the founder of Human Scale Studio, a consultancy that helps the shapers of the urban world build a more human-centered future. Prior to Human Scale Studio, Chad was Executive Director of Urban Social Assembly, a non-profit that served as a think/do-tank for new models of urban development. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chad is passionate about Detroit’s role in leading the world toward a more sustainable and equitable urban future.

THE A2 POETRY SLAMIVERSARY [8.9.2015]

The Ann Arbor Poetry & Slam has been around for more than two decades, and it has been going strong for nearly two full years since it's resurrection in 2013 by none other than Lindsay Stone and Garret Potter. 

On Saturday August 1st, join us at Literati Bookstore as we thank you for all the support through the years with the work of A2 poetry mainstays, friends, and legends alike. Not only will we be celebrating continuity and growth, but also sending off the slam team to compete at the 2015 National Poetry Slam! Aug 10-15 in Oakland!

This is a show that you really shouldn't miss as we usher in our next year, which will be full of fresh faces, new work, and some organizational moves as well. 

CUPSI WORKSHOP | SYSTEMS OF EXPRESSION [3.27.2015]

SYSTEMS OF EXPRESSION: COMBATING OPPRESSION WITH TOOLS OF OUR OWN

with Tariq Luthun, Sam Cook, Terisa Siagatonu, and Janae Johnson.


oppression [uh-presh-uh n]:
the exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjustmanner.

As members of a very socially active community, we are no strangers to oppression and its ramifications upon us and/or those that we know and love. As orators, it is our duty to ensure that we are using our gifts, talents, and skills to help push underrepresented narratives out into the world-- whether those narratives are widespread or simply our own personal stories.  However, that can be difficult when existing in a world that often feels as though it is trying too hard to excise us and our stories from it. Often, this oppression manifests itself through a myriad of systems [human-made, or otherwise].

This panel workshop seeks to remind students that there are responsible parties behind the efforts that seeks to constrain us, but in response, we are a collection of faces and names that can create work that seeks to unhinge ourselves from those constraints. Whether that oppression be racism or loneliness, the idea is to expound upon the pedagogy of our existence not as the antithesis to oppression, but as standalone entities that-- instead of simply seeking to survive-- live to thrive. The goals of this workshop are to 1) develop a dialogue around what is deemed to be oppressive [especially within the collegiate environment], 2) developing a strategy laced with best practices to address building sustainable organizations that ensure safe/brave spaces whilst building community.

 

WHET: A Workshop Series

WHET
\ˈhwet, ˈwet\ | verb 
: to make sharper or stronger

One of the goals of the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam is to not only encourage the sharing of work from those in the community, but to help engage in community-building and pushing the craft forward. So, come be a part of the open mic, check out our featured artist, and workshop some poetry every first Saturday of the month to help prepare you for your next writing or slam endeavor, and to embrace the community while you do it.

WRITE DOWN DETROIT

Join Write A House every second Tuesday of the month for this fresh, enticing series that brings together some of the most engaging thinkers and doers from throughout Detroit as they not only showcase their work, but the stories that drive them and their processes as creators and Detroiters.

CUPSI WORKSHOP | ICE CREAM CONVERSATIONS [2.28.15]

3.28.15 | Saturday | 3:30PM
Common Grounds Theater

Ice Cream Conversations: Scooping up Poetry & Serving Passion

Come through like a Drake verse to join Gelato Czar Tariq Luthun and Milkshake Monarch Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib as they break down poems and our passions by identifying which flavors of ice cream go best with your poetry. Also, 80% of this event will be comprised of just making the most instragramable ice cream mountain concoctions and fraternizing over frozen yogurt while in the presence of everyone you have come to know and love through CUPSI and poetry.