“One Track Mind” features a Washtenaw County artist or band discussing one song from their latest release.

Standout Track: No. 2, “Stand Up!”, from 3Steez aka Trés Styles. The Athletic Mic League MC’s latest album, The Lover & The Fighter: Ninja, is the first of three planned releases featuring a martial arts theme. The boom-bap hip-hop album revisits 3Steez’s past, including his time living in New York. On “Stand Up!”, 3Steez includes lyrical references to Athletic Mic League, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and other Michigan shout-outs. “I’m in New York talking about being from Michigan. I’m in ninja mode, killing everything as a member of my crew, representing Michigan everywhere I [go]. When I got home, I felt like that song needed to exist and be heard. I’d been in New York so long people thought I was from there—which made sense—but as a member of AML, I had to make sure Michigan was still being put on the map.”

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week:
Ki5, Lorian Janine, Dave & Kristi, Michael Pardo, Rosary, Minus9, Rawhide, Grandmaster Rodimus, Lucky 17, and Fearless Amaretto.

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week:
Michael Skib, The Great Homesickness, Ekanti, Atomic Bombcatz, DJ FLP, Placid Angles, Youth Novel, Diont'e Visible, and Crypt Watcher.

Naming All the Flowers I Could (NAF) is a multidisciplinary artists' association at the University of Michigan that supports the work of queer and female creators.

Founded in 2023 by Maddie Vassalo and Miles Hionis, NAF hatched the idea for a festival celebrating queer and female artists after attending the winter 2025 U-M School of Music, Theatre, and Dance's Performing Arts EXCELerator entrepreneurial fellowship program. NAF refined its plans for the fest, then submitted a proposal to U-M Stamps School of Art & Design's 2025 Big Idea Award.

NAF was awarded $25,000, and the All the Flowers Festival started to bloom.

According to a press release from NAF, All the Flowers Festival exists to "cultivate a community of like-minded artists and collaborators, forging new avenues for queer and female artists to tell their authentic stories and create work outside of traditional theater and film industry pathways. This plan included the idea for a festival as a showcase for queer and female theater makers, filmmakers, and performers to bring their work to the public, and to strengthen connections between University of Michigan programs."

All the Flowers Festival takes place at two U-M venues on North Campus—the Duderstadt Video Studio and Arthur Miller Theater—from Wednesday, February 4, to Saturday, February 7.

Here is the full list of performances:

“One Track Mind” features a Washtenaw County artist or band discussing one song from their latest release.

Standout Track: No. 1, “North Ingalls Street,” from North Ingalls. The seven-piece band’s debut release, To Be Loved Back, is about finding love through different relationships. On “North Ingalls Street,” singer-songwriter Corazon Szell finds refuge and community at a house on 213 North Ingalls Street in Ann Arbor. A U-M alumna and a player for the women’s rugby team, she lived there with the team for two years before graduating in 2025. “Before I even lived there, it was a place that always had its doors open. A place where I could go to escape my dorm and hang out with my friends that I had made on the team. And when I moved in, I wanted to continue the idea that all are welcome. ‘North Ingalls Street’ was inspired by that idea. The idea that no matter what is going on in your life—good, bad, happy, sad—there will always be a place for you to come and share, and to feel safe doing so. The memories that I have in that house with my roommates, my friends, and my family, hosting potlucks, board game nights, movie nights, bonfires, and more, are some I will never forget.”

Ellen Rowe has been making news recently—and one of the biggest bits of info is buried inside a new feature profile of the jazz pianist.

First, in November 2025, the University of Michigan Arthur F. Thurnau professor and Earl V. Moore Collegiate professor of music in the School of Music, Theatre and Dance released Vinton's Cove, her sixth album as a leader. Rowe's record label, Smokin' Sleddog, said this about the record: "The album features six original compositions by Rowe ... showcasing a range of jazz styles. ... [Rowe] presents arrangements of jazz and pop standards that cast them in a slightly different light, interpreting them through varied harmonic approaches and diverse musical feels."

Then, on January 19, 2026, there was an announcement that Rowe given the Rhetaugh G. Dumas award for her "sustained efforts to promote gender diversity in jazz ensemble composition and arranging, and overall commitment to advancing the role of women in jazz." Rowe is the first woman chair of a major university jazz department, and she's among the first female directors of a university jazz ensemble. “Under her leadership," wrote Melody Racine, associate professor emerita of music, theatre and dance, in a nominating letter, "the U-M jazz program recruited more female students than any other jazz program of a comparable size in the country.”

Finally, in the February 2026 issue of Downbeat, the music industry's leading jazz magazine, Rowe is interviewed about Vinton's Cove and her career, and a major life update was reported:

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week:
Joanna Sterling, Moonmill, Lydia Lato, Tension Splash, Dancers, Rawhide, Hey Look Listen, The Minor Pieces, microplastique, Kid Jay, and Chirp.

“One Track Mind” features a Washtenaw County artist or band discussing one song from their latest release.

Standout Track: No. 3, “West Park,” from Rik Strange, aka Erika Marlisa. The Ann Arbor singer-songwriter’s debut release, Angelclown, is a five-track EP that explores relationships. On “West Park,” Strange feels hopeful about a new partner and contemplates the direction of her life. At the time, she was living in a house on Huron [Street] that borders the park. Strange often took morning walks in West Park during the fall to process her fear and self-doubt. “This song was my attempt to instead lean into abundance, and yes, to attempt to approach a new love from that same place, instead of getting caught up in what it might become or what might go wrong. Ultimately, at the time, I wasn’t very good at that, and the relationship didn’t last, but that’s another song! That’s what I love about songwriting, the archival effect. Things change, but West Park preserves the whimsical feeling, place, and time—it’s nice there!”

If you took a giant dollop of American Idol, added a heaping helping of The Voice, and tossed in a massive spoonful of America's Got Talent, you'd have a lot of caterwauling singers standing around waiting to belt.

But if you wrap those competitions into a Whose Line Is It Anyway?-style format, and stage it at an Ann Arbor brewpub, then you have Mic Drop, a new improv singing competition, which debuts at 6:30 pm on Sunday, January 25, at hear.say brewing + theater. Mic Drop then runs every fourth Sunday of the month through June, at a minimum.

The rotating cast of singers includes Kyler Wilkins (aka Ki5), Leah Gittlen, Forrest Hejkal, Elizabeth Harding, Caitlyn Crowel, Josh McDaniel, Julia Snyderwine, Jenna Jansa, Toriano Drane, Katie Parzych, Beth Dutridge-Corp, Kara Williams, Sara Rose, and Shelly Smith.

Music director Jamie Artman will accompany the crooners on a variety of instruments, primarily guitar and keyboards.

The Radar tracks new music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This week:
October Babies, Laughing Hyenas, Bill Edwards, Larkn, Craig Taborn, Dre Dav and Mo Grease, Sigidy, Ryan Gerald, Kelsey., Studio Lounge, Benji Robot, and George Mashour.