Category: Literary Arts

REVIEW: The Ark’s 32nd Annual Storytelling Festival

Angela Lin Leave a comment

In The Ark’s 32nd year of its storytelling festival, we were graced with a mix of personal and traditional tales from three wonderful performers. Each storyteller had their own style of storytelling, all of which were appealing and intriguing and full of lessons to be learned.

Ivory Williams of Detroit started the night off with his stories that very much involved the audience. He started with a story about God’s creation and dispersal of people, putting the best people in Ann Arbor obviously. His story about a monster blocking the bridge highlighted the meaning behind obstacles, which you don’t always have to fight with force, since they are meant to be embraced. The young girl of the story, who embraced the monster and become successful in life, did the two most important things a successful person must do: she returned to her village to share what she learned, and she told stories. The morals of kindness and love guided Williams’s stories, and his use of repetition tied the story nicely together, making it twice as nice and twice as powerful.

Next was Edgar Oliver, who had a very timid yet enthralling voice, as he performed for us snippets of his shows and some pieces of poetry as well. His vivid imagery and meticulous details of his stories set the stage for some absurd twist in the story that he delivered with such deadpan emotion, the audience loved it. From the albino watermelons trapped under a swimming pool to the trash can goddess and his love for red wine to the trampling pig, Oliver regaled us with his very distinct storytelling. He took us all over the world, telling us stories about his hometown of Savannah, Georgia, his time spent in France, and his life in New York City. His stories were sprinkled with entertaining comedy, though there was a hint of sadness and regret in the last snippet from a show he’s still writing; however, through his words and stories, Victor lives on in his memories and in ours.

Finally, Laura Simms finished the night with her love stories, which took on a variety of forms. She told us about the fairy she met on the New York City subway, and the time she saw Nina Simone perform, which was the first time she fell in love with the world. Then, she told a long and humorous story about a prince’s long and desperate journey looking for true love, emphasizing the importance of true companionship. She ended with the story of her mother’s seal skin coat and the powers it had in transferring good to the world.

Williams, Oliver, and Simms all captivated the audience with their engaging words and stories. Their stories taught us to think about the good in ourselves and in others, and to look for true love in every moment of our lives. This wonderful tradition at The Ark gives the people of Ann Arbor a night of entertainment filled with kindness and love through the simple power of words. As Williams repeated throughout the night, stories must be told.

PREVIEW: The How and the Why

Neha Srinivasan Leave a comment

Theatre Nova’s latest show, The How and the Why, is another play with its roots in science. I’ve seen two similar ones over the last year, and I’ve been favorably impressed by both. One of those, incidentally, was the last show of Theatre Nova’s I saw, Constellations, which was beautifully done and makes me incredibly excited to see another of their shows. The How and the Why is about evolutionary biology – my favorite scientific subject to read and learn about – and has as its main characters a mother and daughter who are both renowned evolutionary biologists. Add to this the fact that the daughter proposes a new theory of female sexuality, and this play might just be everything I’m looking for in a literary work.

The How and the Why runs through February 24. Tickets are $22 each (or if you have a financial limitation, pay-what-you-need tickets are available at the door). More information about Theatre Nova and the play can be found here.

REVIEW: Poetry Reading by Hannah Ensor + Suzi Garcia

Minna W 1 Comment

This was the first poetry reading I attended this year. I have not been to Crazy Wisdom in a long time, and I forgot how unique the space is. They sell books, art, jewelry, incense, tarot cards, fair trade products, etc. The tea room is upstairs, just like at Literati.

I did not realize that both Hannah Ensor and Suzi Garcia were reading at the event. Since I gave some background information on Hannah Ensor in my preview, here is some information on Suzi Garcia: she has an MFA in Creative Writing with minors in Screen Cultures and Gender Studies, and she has presented and taught poetry at multiple national conferences. She is a valuable mentor and editor to Ensor and was instrumental to the publication of Ensor’s first book of poetry.

I enjoyed hearing Ensor and Garcia’s unique styles. Ensor made a lot of pop culture references, as the description of the event promised. Her pieces were mostly conversational and captured the mundane to transform into literary pieces. Garcia, on the other hand, utilized a lot of metaphor and analogy. Her poems were emotional, raw, and often explored the theme of earthliness.

During the event, the poets also talked about their sources of inspiration, which were thought-provoking. Ensor talked about writing in a parking lot of Planet Fitness and how a poem was partially inspired by a screening of Jurassic Park. Garcia talked about how one of her poems emerged from three factors: the desire to find a home for a couplet she had written, being inspired by an old song she knew, and a mentor encouraging her to write about her childhood. All these motivations mashed together into one finished product. Another one of her poems came from listening to Carly Rae Jepsen’s song, “Run Away With Me.”

While it may be humorous to hear where both poets found their sources of inspiration, it is also sensible. I often hear people describe inspiration as rare and profound—as if artists are zapped by lightning from Zeus or launched into manic creativity by the use of psychedelics, and then go on to create great literary pieces or famous works of art like “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke or Autumn Rhythm by Jackson Pollock. As an aspiring poet, I know daily enlightenment is unsustainable. Practically, inspiration mostly comes from the mundane. Everything (objects, constraints, concepts) is worthy of a poem or artistic piece upon closer examination. But execution is difficult. I was given the prompt by my 400 level poetry writing class: “write a poem where the movement from one scene to another affects the structure and/or mood of the poem,” and I am currently scuffling with a blank page.

Aside from inspiration, this poetry event also made me consider the difference between hearing and reading poetry. Ensor and Garcia are clearly both written poets first and spoken poets second. It is quite obvious actually. When you read silently, the body of a poem is its layout on a page: the amount of white space, line breaks, enjambment, punctuation, etc. When you listen, the body of a poem is the voice (of the poet, yourself, another reader speaking out loud), rhythm, posture, gestures, etc. In poetry that is spoken, rhyming and rhythm becomes more evident and (arguably) increases in importance. Take Benjamin Zephaniah, a British poet and activist, for example. He is a spoken poet first, a written poet second. Hear his voice and the joy with which he performs “Dis Poetry.” Another example is Sarah Kay, an American poet dedicated to using spoken word as an educational and inspirational tool. See how facial expressions and gestures are essential to her piece “Point B.”

During Ensor and Garcia’s reading, they relied on minimal gestures, rhythm, and word-play to convey their pieces. This does not make them good or bad poets. Rather, it reveals their niche study (and perhaps interest) in written poetry. The event was not a spoken word poetry event; it was a poetry reading event. And a good one at that. I appreciated the casual atmosphere, both physically and intellectually. It was a great place for written poets and enthusiasts to come and celebrate the beauty of language.

PREVIEW: Hopwood Awards Ceremony with Natasha Tretheway

Fareah Fysudeen Leave a comment

The esteemed poet Natasha Tretheway will be reading at the Hopwood Awards Ceremony tomorrow Jan 30 from 6-8:30 PM in the Rackham Auditorium. Her work has won many accolades from the Pulitzer Prize to longlistings for the National Book Award. Tretheway seamlessly merges traditional and non-conventional styles in her poetry and powerfully comments on history as a contemporary poet. The even will also announce and celebrate its student writers who won the 2019 Hopwood Awards. I look forward to a delightful evening of literature with the creative writing community on campus. This event is free.

REVIEW: Yule Ball

Neha Srinivasan Leave a comment

I attended the Michigan Quidditch Team’s Yule Ball with the idea of evaluating how well it brought the magic of Hogwarts into a Muggle college world. As a result, this post is not about the success of the ball as a social event and fun excuse for dressing up; it is about the success of the ball as an artistic interpretation and translation of Hogwarts.

As I understand it, the purpose of the Hogwarts Yule Ball was to provide a formal setting for the students to enjoy themselves and interact with other students. I think the UM Yule Ball could have done better on all three fronts – my overall comment is that it was a little disjointed. For one, instead of producing a Yule Ball experience, they attempted to provide a more generic Hogwarts one. Their decorations included a chess set with knee-high pieces, a Sorting Hat photo booth, and two sets of Quidditch hoops festooned with string lights. While successfully evocative of Hogwarts, these pieces didn’t do much to convey the sense of elegance I would have expected of a Yule Ball. Naturally, the Michigan Quidditch Team doesn’t have the same budget Hogwarts presumably has, or the ability to create decorations out of nothing. However, having planned similar events myself, I do believe it would absolutely have been possible to come up with an equally photograph-worthy set of elegant decorations that didn’t exhaust the budget, especially since this is something the Quidditch team holds every year and therefore the purchases they make could be seen as long-term investments.

In accordance with that, I think it was unclear exactly how formal the ball was intended to be: while most people did dress formally, there were others wearing casual clothes and even within the formal clothes there was a wide range of formality. I rather imagine Professor McGonagall would not have approved.

It was interesting to note, however, that teenagers have not changed much. I was reminded of Harry and Ron sitting on the side refusing to dance with their dates, partially courtesy of the number of phones that were being looked at while their owners slouched at the periphery of the League Ballroom, completely disengaged from the rest of the happenings. So as a venue for “fraternizing,” as Ron put it, there was very little of that happening either. Even in Hogwarts people were more willing to ask other people to dance (recall both Parvati and Padma Patil being asked to dance by boys from Beauxbatons), whereas here there wasn’t even that much dancing. The only real enthusiasm came with the select few songs people obsess over (like “Africa”). A major contributing factor to this was probably the fact that the playlist appeared to have been crowdsourced, so nobody had curated a list of dancing-appropriate songs in an order that made sense. This added to the overall disjointed nature of the event – at the Hogwarts Yule Ball, the Weird Sisters performed for the entire duration of the ball.

For a more faithful interpretation of the Hogwarts Yule Ball, the UM Yule Ball could have done with a little more vision. A cohesive conception of how they wanted the ball to go, and some added structure in how they set about achieving that conception, would have improved the experience of the Yule Ball considerably.

PREVIEW: Poetry Reading by Hannah Ensor

Minna W Leave a comment

Hey poetry enthusiasts, Crazy Wisdom is putting on a poetry reading event tomorrow evening featuring Hannah Ensor. A little about Ensor: she’s a poet living in Ypsilanti, a UM Residential College alum, and the assistant director of the Hopwood Program (which hosts a variety of highly competitive contests and prizes for students at UM). She has a lot of experience with publishing, especially on topics such as pop culture, sports, and mass media. She co-wrote the chapbook, at the intersection of 3, and was associate editor of Bodies Built for Game, an anthology of contemporary sports literature. Love Dream With Television is her first book of poems.

This event is part of Crazy Wisdom’s poetry series. The second Wednesday of the month are poetry workshop nights. On the fourth Wednesday there is a featured reader for 50 minutes and then open mic for an hour. The events are free and open to the public. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the open mic.

Come out and support one of our alums!

 

Location: Crazy Wisdom Tea Room

Date, Time: 1/23/19, 7-9pm

Price: Free

Crazy Wisdom Events: https://www.crazywisdom.net/events.html