After a tumultuous period, Kyle Rasche prefers to pause and reflect.

The singer-songwriter and guitarist ponders heartbreak and growth after experiencing many life changes on Take It Easy.

“These songs were born in a period,” said Rasche, who performs as Kyle Joe, about his latest indie-folk album.

“There was a lot of heartbreak, and there was a lot of really beautiful love, too. And then as the writing went on, I started leaning into more of the lessons I was learning along the way and trying to make the music represent those moments instead of just the heartbreak.”

In those vulnerable moments, Rasche rediscovers himself and his sense of purpose across seven tracks. Collectively, they demonstrate the resiliency that comes from weathering a divorce, loving yourself, and finding kindred spirits.

“I hope more than anything that people hear the hope,” said Rasche, who hails from Alto, a small town about 20 miles southeast of Grand Rapids. “It can get pretty dark … but there’s some light in there.”

Best friends don't always have exactly the same interests, but it can be especially fun when what excites one pal complements the thing the other enjoys most.

For Batcat and Al the Ghost, one literally feeds the other: Al loves to cook and Batcat loves to eat. What happens, though, when their favorite hobbies take on a competitive edge?

Batcat: Cooking Contest!, the third volume of Meggie Ramm's early middle-grade graphic novel series, finds the colorful residents of Spooky Island testing their respective skills as part of a local festival.

The book is fun and cute, and it explores Big Emotions.

Ramm will launch Batcat: Cooking Contest! with a signing session at Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 26, 4-6 pm. (They will also be at Sidetrack Books in Royal Oak on April 19 and at Constellation Cat Cafe in Lansing on May 2.)

I spoke with Ramm about the latest book, the origins of Batcat, and what they hope kids and parents will take away from volume three.

Divorce is not just one thing; it's not just the moment of making the decision or signing a piece of paper. The events before, during, and after hold rage, heartbreak, pain, fear, freedom, and many more emotions and qualities, as poet Carmen Bugan documents in her new collection, Tristia.

Yet, even from the start of the book, the poet makes clear that this pain does not define her but rather serves as an experience to surmount:

Those who caused us pain
Will be left holding the chains
They have fashioned for us.

We are rising on the back of the wind.

The rise demonstrates that more than one thing can be true at once—pain exists alongside cultivating resilience, finding joy in children and nature, traveling, and reimagining how life looks. “It’s Possible,” says the poem by that name, that “Like an egg, the soul / Is ready to break again. / Like a river, the soul is ready / To rush over the banks.”

The path through the dark woods of divorce and a father’s death does not cut straight or clear. As the poet shares, “Today I met an old man who was lost,” the similarities between these two people emerge on “Archer Street”:

When the Independent Film Festival Ypsilanti (iFFY) was announced in January 2020, it was scheduled to take place at the Riverside Arts Center that April. A big worldwide something happened the month before, however, and the iFFY crew had to improvise, and the festival was held online and as a drive-in screening in a parking lot.

In other words, iFFY is malleable, and for this year's edition—which will run at the Riverside Arts Center, April 17-19—the festival welcomed changing things up a bit.

“Transformation and germination is really central to the festival this year," said iFFY co-director Micah Vanderhoof in a press release. "As the festival moves into its sixth year, we’re aiming to cultivate those elements which have resonated with the community and fostered a sense of connection, and incorporate new ideas and suggestions as we go. We hope to provide a space to share new perspectives, become inspired, and grow as artists, while remaining uniquely reflective of our Ypsilanti community.”

While iFFY brings in films from around the world, it also highlights some creatives here at home by kicking off the fest with Michigan-ish (April 17, 7:30 pm), a selection of short films made in our state—three of which were shot entirely or partially in Washtenaw County:

In 1925, Dr. Ossian Sweet and his wife Gladys moved out of Detroit’s Black-only neighborhood, Black Bottom, into an all-white Detroit neighborhood. They wanted a better life for themselves and their infant daughter.

Ossian Sweet was afraid that they had made a dangerous decision.

They moved on September 8, 1925. The first night there were racist catcalls but nothing serious. The next evening a mob surrounded the new home as Sweet, his brothers, and others gathered again in the house. Ossian was prepared with guns as the mob attacked the house, but the police ignored pleas from the Sweets. A white man was killed. The police raided the Sweet home and arrested 12 people including Ossian Sweet, Gladys Atkinson Sweet, Ossian’s brothers, and friends.

This led to a historic trial that brought the renowned civil rights lawyer Clarence Darrow to Detroit.

Playwright D.L. Patrick takes a different view of these historic events and shifts the attention from Ossian Sweet to his wife, Gladys. Patrick’s title for the play is a good summary of yet another example of a woman not given her due, Eclipsed: The Sun, The Moon, and Gladys Atkinson Sweet.

Theatre Nova is presenting the world premiere of Patrick’s play. It’s an emotional, intimate look at a family that struggles to lead a better life and is trapped by the vile racism that is still a major mark of shame in America’s history.

Families are fragile. Children become adults and go their separate ways. Everybody has their own quirks, complaints, successes, and failures.

Paul Stroili’s play My Mother and the Michigan/Ohio War, at the Purple Rose Theatre through May 25, finds just the right blend of family reconciliation and a rediscovered sense of humor, built around two obsessive wars.

Every year it’s a war.

You know the war: the mighty Wolverines versus that school in Columbus, Ohio.

Every other football game takes a back seat to The Game. This past season, the Buckeyes lost to the Wolverines and the coach had to win the national championship to keep his job. 

Fred Campbell was a big fan of The Game. The home he shared with his wife Izzy was a shrine to the University of Michigan Wolverines. It was his passion.

His other passion was the Toledo War of 1835-1836 to determine who got to claim the Toledo Strip. Ohio was already a state and Michigan would only become a state if a compromise could be reached. Michigan finally capitulated after agreeing to accept the Upper Peninsula and Ohio would keep the Toledo strip. Time would show that Michigan got the better deal.

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

This edition features a Kraftwerk-like electronic tune by French Ship, orchestral indie by Racing Mount Pleasant, jazzy fusion by The Missing Cats, rap by J-Classic, and soulful emo-tronica by Sacha.

Three-band bills are common in the concert world.

But three back-to-back-ish author talks split between churches within a strollable distance?

That's the working model for the Chelsea District Library's annual Midwest Literary Walk, which happens on Saturday, April 12.

Shelby Van Pelt (Remarkably Bright Creatures), Angie Kim (Happiness Falls), and Sarah Vowell (Lafayette in the Somewhat United States) are this year's writers.

The Midwest Literary Walk started in 2008, and like SculptureWalk Chelsea, it takes advantage of the small city's charming and easily navigable downtown to present big-time talent—all for free.

Here's the schedule and a selection of interviews with the authors:

“How do you / keep stones from sinking like that, I wonder? / How do you hold the wild shoots / of spring inside you, instead?” Now is the right season of year to contemplate these questions from the poem “Preparing” by Ellen Stone in her new poetry collection, Everybody Wants to Keep the Moon Inside Them.

The Ann Arbor poet will debut her book and be joined by two other local poets, Monica Rico and Ashwini Bhasi, on Wednesday, April 9, at 6:30 pm at AADL's Downtown branch. The event will include a reading and Q&A. On Saturday, April 26, Stone will be one of the poets in the Celebration of Jewish Poetry from 2 pm to 6 pm at Temple Beth Emeth. One of Stone’s poems is on display at Comet Coffee in the Poet Tree Town project throughout Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti during April.

The appearances of the moon in various forms generate a comforting presence in Stone’s collection as the simile “tidal as the pull toward moon” in “How I want the road to you” illustrates. In the second poem of the book, called “Bright side of the moon,” the poet shares how some things are nevertheless amiss since there is “Scarlet fruit scattered in the garden straw as if / the strawberry moon splintered. I gathered shards.” The poet discovers and picks up such shards for the rest of the book. The poems tell stories of lives unfolding through the natural order of marriages and motherhood as well as the pain of sexual assault and loss.

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

This edition features art songs by Black composers courtesy of Louise Toppin and Darryl Taylor, a meditative Gifts of Art compilation, experimental organ/keyboard/electronics by Latimer Rogland, Americana by Matt McCleskey, and singer-songwriter tunes by Lauren Blackford.