Joe Reilly has been a big hit with the Ann Arbor-area kids for nearly two decades. They know him from his many performances at local schools, libraries, and music workshops, and they love him for his songs celebrating awesome animals, the wonders of nature, and the importance of our connection to the earth and each other.

On Saturday, May 17, he’s throwing a free family concert at The Ark that will pair his big-hearted, interactive show with a celebration of Indigenous culture. Joe Reilly and his band, the Community Gardeners, will perform alongside the All Nations Dancers, a group of Anishinaabe pow-wow dancers from Mt. Pleasant.

The University of Michigan grad's music is gentle and generous in spirit, drawn from traditional folk and blues to encourage sing-alongs, and spiked with the lyrical flow of hip-hop to keep it real. His easy rapport with his tiny audience members leads them to learn while they play, like a Buddhist Mister Rogers whose essence is his greatest lesson.

Sponsored by Ann Arbor Public Schools, The Ark event launches at 11:30 am with a catered lunch provided by local Indigenous vendor Anishinaabe Meejim, followed an hour later by music and dance. Per The Ark, pre-registration is “strongly encouraged.”

I asked Reilly a few questions about "There’s a Place for You in the Circle" featuring Joe Reilly and The Community Gardeners with the All Nations Dancers.

"Well, it's 1969, OK
All across the USA"
—The Stooges, "1969"

John Norman Collins was arrested in Ypsilanti on July 31, 1969, for the murder of Karen Sue Beineman, an 18-year-old student at Eastern Michigan University. It made national news because a serial killer had haunted Washtenaw County since 1967, and eventually Collins was under suspicion for five other Michigan murders (as well as one in California).

But the story was knocked out of the country's consciousness just over a week later when Charles Manson and members of his cult killed seven people on August 8-9, including pregnant actress Sharon Tate, the wife of acclaimed director Roman Polanski.

The Manson murders were a cultural touchstone that some think helped usher out the hippy era, making way for a grittier 1970s where the idea of peace and love were swept into the dustbin of history.

This overall portrait of America in transition is the backdrop for director Andrew Templeton's new documentary, 1969: Killers, Freaks, and Radicals, which makes its Michigan debut on Friday, May 16, at Cinetopia Ann Arbor (Michigan Theater and State Theatre, May 15-18). It features new interviews, vintage footage, and re-creations.

The film focuses on Collins' crimes, but unlike John Keyes' 1974 book The Michigan Murders, Templeton analyzes the story through the lens of social upheaval and how the local police force stumbled through its investigation by targeting the "freaks and radicals" when looking for suspects.

What does it truly mean to "become the best version of yourself?" To find meaning, to overcome obstacles?

In Ann Arbor author Omar Hussain's debut novel, A Thousand Natural Shocks, a charismatic figure offers a unique solution: Don't try to overcome trauma, but excise every trace from the conscious mind. To "detonate the past" you must "liberate the future," but only the most devout followers will access this obliterating salvation.

Dash, a reporter intent on forgetting no matter the cost, is determined to rise through the ranks of the faithful. But who will he be when he comes out the other side of his altered history, and how will Dash cope with the revelation of the cult's true purpose?

Under Hussain's pen, Dash's narration is frenetic, rich with ripe anxiety, and fractured by our hero's sleep deprivation, self-medication, and general mind-destroying tactics in his pursuit of erasure. From the very first pages, it's clear how the cult's mantra would resonate with a man in his state: "God is love. God is life. God is a bomb."

I spoke with Hussain about A Thousand Natural Shocks, which he is reading and signing at Literati on May 13, and his work with Defy, the communications company he co-founded.

The Neighborhood Theatre Group (also known as NTG) is ending its 9th season with an off-the-wall and hilariously funny send-up of the always predictable Lifetime movies.

The original musical trauma comedy is called—take a breath, the title is long—The Stranger in My Breakfast Nook: A 90’s Lifetime Original Musical Parody, written by Kristin Anne Danko and Kylista Geiger. Geiger is the director and Danko, the founder of NTG, directs the music.

NTG’s minimalist approach to theater is a necessity in the tight confines of the Back Office Studio. Those limitations only add to the laughs. Another interesting quirk is something called the Tree County Universe—very Marvelish. The universe was created in 2019 and centers on the sister cities Shouting Oaks and Whispering Pines, home of the Silverspoon’s Serving Spoons, South North University, and a lot of trees.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features beat-driven ambient by Jason Engling, gothic-folk by Dollie Rot, folk by Dave & Kristi, organ experiments by Latimer Rogland, and gritty vaporwave by Delos Prismatic.

Evelyn is showing those signs of growing old. The memory isn’t what it used to be, she gets confused at times and longs for a little more fun in her life.

Rory is a drifter, a 25-year-old man always on the go. He wasn’t getting along with his family, especially his father, so he ditched college and has been rambling ever since.

Evelyn and Rory meet on a plane flight to a Caribbean island where Evelyn owns a beachfront house. The two of them hit it off. That’s how it usually goes, young adults often find they get along with people who are two or more generations older. They don’t judge, they don’t presume, but they often pass along some well-earned wisdom.

This is the theme of Julie Marino’s play Welcome to Paradise, a comedy that celebrates a chance encounter. Ypsilanti's PTD Productions is presenting Marino’s play through May 17 at the Riverside Arts Center.

Every so often, I find myself daydreaming: As the members of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) watch their stock portfolios plummet because of Trump’s tariffs, or as they observe the president ignore decisions by other justices, including those he appointed, they have second thoughts about giving Trump unprecedented power—and they find a way to save us.   

I was disabused of this fantasy when I read Leah Litman’s marvelous new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. The University of Michigan law professor, who clerked at the high court, will discuss her book with Barbara McQuade on May 14 at Literati Bookstore.

I loved the book—well, as much as I can love something that convinces me that radical right justices are ruling from their feelings instead of the law. Litman’s style is accessible, and her book is full of pop culture references: American Psycho, Arrested Development, Game of Thrones, Taylor Swift. The story she tells is bleak, but there’s comic relief, mostly in the form of snarky comments of the sort some of us are driven to these days.

The Monday Mix is an occasional roundup of compilations, live recordings, videos, podcasts, and more by Washtenaw County-associated artists, DJs, radio stations, and record labels.

This edition features sights and sounds from Fans With Bands interviewing Mazinga, performances from the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, a MEMCO mix from DJ Art, and viral TikTok fella DJ DC.

Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features jazz-steeped indie by Mei Semones, hip-hop soul by Nadim Azzam, Americana by Bill Edwards, '60s-style folk-rock by Chip Kramer, and jazz-dada jams by Tinn Parrow and His Clapfold Platune.

This story was first published on February 27, 2024. We're highlighting it because Zilka Joseph and Isaac Pickell will read from their work for "Jewish American Poets of Color" at AADL's Downtown branch on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 6:30 pm.

“From tumbled sands and shattered bark / blurred shadows dragged us,” writes Zilka Joseph in her new poetry collection, Sweet Malida: Memories of a Bene Israel Woman. 

These poems are immersed in the history, customs, and food of the Bene Israel people. The Ann Arbor poet shares about their shipwreck on the shores of India, worship of the prophet Elijah, and subsequent dispersing across the world. While Joseph imparts facts about the culture and community, she also makes the poems personal with her memories. 

This cultural and familial history informs Joseph’s poems, such as “Leaf Boat,” which is a longer poem that receives its own section of the book. Joseph describes “my body a leaf boat / lamp floated on water” in the context of the heritage of her ancestors, grandmother, parents, and herself who moved from place to place. Even her birth was during unsettled weather: “I was born Thursday in monsoon rain / night time East coast time / in Bombay a baby opens her eyes.” Water, especially oceans, flows through the lines, and “in my dream / the whales are singing.” 

Joseph focuses less on what is lost, though she does pay tribute to her parents, and focuses more on the richness that the traditions and foods of the Bene Israel pass along. One such food is “draksha-cha sharbath. Sherbet of raisins” for Shabbath, which Joseph writes about replicating on her own after moving to the United States. Earlier, she had prepared it with her grandmother and mother. As she writes in one of the short essays or prose poems that are interspersed throughout the book, making this recipe is like time traveling for Joseph: