February 21, 2018: Your Arts & Culture Adventure Picks

By UMS

This post is a part of a series of posts curating adventurous arts and culture experiences in Southeast Michigan. Sign up for email updates (choose “Arts & Culture Adventures” list).

UMS Wallace Blogging Fellow Amanda Krugliak is an artist, curator, and arts administrator best known for performance and conceptual experiential installations, most notably as curator at the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities since 2007.

It’s nearly the end of the shortest month after a long winter haul….It’s time for the big thaw…puddles instead of drifts, easing up on that mortal fear of falling….because just when you were ready to throw in that proverbial towel… someone sends you an anonymous Valentine, or you watch Romeo and Juliet in the Detroit Opera House and you were in awe just to be there, or you hear a new song that stays with you all day, and it becomes absolutely clear that you can never hold back spring.

14: A Night Of Teatro and Dialogue
February 22, 7-9pm
Lydia Mendelssohn Theater, Ann Arbor

The U-M Department of Theatre and Drama presents the play 14, written and directed by Assistant Professor José Casas.  The work is inspired by a true-life event in which a smuggler abandoned 30 Mexicans crossing the desert near Yuma AZ, resulting in 14 deaths in the group from dehydration.  The play is based on the interviews and public accounts of Arizona residents, reflecting their different attitudes towards issues of undocumented immigration and their different versions of the truth.  There will be a talk back with the cast and community members at the end of the performance. A reception will follow in the Henderson Room at the Michigan League. Free, no tickets required.

56th Ann Arbor Film Festival 2018 Poster Release Event
February 24, 10am – 12pm
Ann Arbor Art Center

Wahoo!  The Ann Arbor Film Festival, now in its 56^th year, is one of those extraordinary happenings that make you feel like one of the luckiest people on the planet just to live in this smart and creative place.  Under the insightful and steadfast leadership of Leslie Raymond, and the fresh and innovative programming of Katie Grace McGowan, the 56^th Ann Arbor Film Festival upcoming in March is not to be missed.  Join them for the release of this year’s poster, the scoop on this year’s upcoming programs, a cup of jo, baked goods and great company.

Women’s Improv Jam
March 7, 7:30-9:30pm
Pointless Brew, 3014 Packard St, Ann Arbor

Well, thanks to my super cool and talented friend Joe L., (you know who you are) I am kept abreast of those new and interesting things going on that might be under my radar.  This whole idea sounds terrific….drinking artisanal beer and partaking in various forms of improv, either as a participant or a watcher, with the whole irresistible mystique of a “barely has a name on the door” kind of place.  I’m in.  This particular jam invites women, trans, and/or non-binary to join in for this recurring short-form improv.  It doesn’t matter whether you are new to this or a pro, all levels welcome, with a safe, supportive and inclusive environment.  Just pay what you can, and yeah  tell ’em  Joe sent you.

Michele Oka Doner – Fluent in the Language of Dreams
Now through May 5
Wasserman Projects, Detroit

What a great opportunity to see a solo exhibition of renowned artist Michele Oka Doner, who spent her formative years as a young artist in both Detroit and Ann Arbor (a U-M alum); a time of new worlds colliding with artists like Charles McGhee, George Manupelli (founder of the Ann Arbor Film Festival), gallerist Gertrude Kasle, and physicist Lloyd Cross (co-creator of the first holograms–an experiment for which Doner’s sculpture was appropriated) .  This exhibition revisits, for the first time, the large scale floor installation Pages I and II, which she created almost 40 years ago for her first solo museum show in 1978 at the Detroit Institute of Arts. In retrospect and moving forward, the exhibition considers this seminal work as it pertains to the evolution of her dynamic artistic practice rooted in natural forms and breaking new ground.

Parlor Talk: Carlos Nielbock
February 28, 6-8pm
Urban Consulate, 4735 Cass Ave.

As part of its continuing stand-out programming which offers insightful, compelling, and critical conversations that bring community together in a town hall type format , the Urban Consulate hosts Detroit artist and master craftsman Carlos Nielbock, to consider how a community creates more opportunity for non-college bound youth in Detroit, as the city’s economy revitalizes.  Nielbock benefited himself from opportunities to apply his metalworking skills, (part of his now 30 year career in the trades, ) and he would like to help create opportunities for others like himself who aren’t following a  path of higher education.

Like what you read? Sign up for email updates (choose “Arts & Culture Adventures” list).