The University of Michigan's Stamps Gallery recently opened its second annual exhibit Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative 2023, featuring works by contemporary artists living and working in the state. 

But the finalist for the $5,000 grand prize won't be announced until June 29 at an awards ceremony.

Parisa Ghaderi, Levon Kafafian, and Bakpak Durden are the 2023 Envision finalists and you can see their multimedia pieces on display through July 29. All three artists will make individual appearances at Stamps in July to discuss their work.

You can learn more about the artists and watch four short videos documenting the Envision: The Michigan Artist Initiative 2023 below:

The University of Michigan's North Campus Research Complex (NCRC) is a place for scientists and businesses to develop ideas and projects that can affect real-world change.

The NCRC is also the home of two low-key galleries that run regular exhibitions featuring artists with connections to Michigan (the state and/or the university).

On June 15, 4-7 pm, the NCRC will host a reception for three new exhibits running in the Rotunda and Connection galleries through August 11:

➥ Matthew Zivich, Americana
➥ Cristina Joya, Something Holy
➥ Julianne Orlyk Walsh, Chronicle

Read more about the artists and their works below:

The We Write To You About Africa exhibition at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) isn't really an exhibition in the traditional sense.

It launched in 2021, both online and in person, and is scheduled to run indefinitely because rather than being a limited-time display of UMMA's art plus borrowed pieces, it's actually a reinstallation of the Robert and Lillian Montalto Bohlen Gallery of African art with the connected A. Alfred Taubman Gallery II space. The combined rooms double the amount of space the museum can use to highlight art drawn from collections across the U-M campus as well as new additions to UMMA.

The latest work to join We Write To You About Africa is Frederick Ebenezer Okai’s When the Gods Speak, Heaven Listens, a nearly 15-foot-tall sculpture by the Ghanian artist that comes in three parts: a vaselike clay body decorated with various patterns, topped by a ceramic depiction of two humans, with clouds hovering over the other sections.

UMMA released a video that follows the journey of When the Gods Speak, Heaven Listens from Accra, Ghana to Ann Arbor and its installation at the museum. Check it out below:

March's 61st Ann Arbor Film Festival (AAFF) was also the soft launch of Frank Uhle's new book, Cinema Ann Arbor, which officially comes out in June.

Uhle hosted a panel at AAFF, "Cinema Guild and Campus Film Societies: Their History and Legacy," a topic covered in the book, documenting the groups who brought cutting-edge films to the University of Michigan—and the controversies that sometimes ensued.

We interviewed Uhle about the film societies in a preview article for this panel discussion—check it out here—which included former U-M film society members Hugh Cohen, Dave DeVarti, Philip Hallman, and Anne Moray.

You can now view the panel discussion in the video above.

Kate Mendeloff, a drama lecturer at the University of Michigan who directed the annual "Shakespeare in the Arb" plays for two decades, died on Saturday, April 15, from pancreatic cancer. She was 69.

MLive.com staff writer Samuel Dodge wrote a wonderful obituary for the beloved educator, director, wife, and mother:

Garrett Schumann, executive director of the Ypsilanti-based ÆPEX Contemporary Performance, and mezzo-soprano Olivia Johnson (Detroit Opera House, Seattle Opera) talked about the life and music of African-American composer Julia Perry (1924-1979) on May 28, 2022, in a Zoom discussion sponsored by the Ann Arbor District Library. The event featured rare archival materials from Perry's career as well as the first public screening of ÆPEX's video recordings from June 2021 of two of Perry's compositions, in which Johnson participated as a vocal soloist: "Pastoral" (1959) and "Stabat Mater" (1951).

A Tanglewood fellow and graduate of the Juilliard School, Perry built an accomplished international career as a composer and conductor in the face of enormous obstacles. Despite receiving a commission from the New York Philharmonic and awards from both the American Academy of Arts & Letters and Guggenheim Foundation, Perry's music fell all but silent following her death.

This presentation explores the reasons behind Perry's muted posthumous legacy by diving into the constellation of documents that record her life and career, including archival audio of the composer describing her music at a Columbia University forum in 1954.

Last fall, the Ann Arbor District Library released five new literary works on its Fifth Avenue Press imprint, which focuses on works by local writers:

Northern Woods
by Amy Hepp
School’s out and first-grade teacher Emma Richards is desperate for a vacation. Two weeks in a gorgeous lodge in northern Minnesota is a perfect way to escape the congested city and the reality of her failed marriage. Much to her surprise, a registration error lands her in the middle of a 10-day canoe camping adventure through the rugged wilderness of the Boundary Waters with an eclectic group of campers including Mark, a handsome teammate who is looking to soothe the ache of his recent loss. Together, they face miles of open water, storms, bears, and steep portages in the Boundary Waters. But the biggest challenge might be opening their hearts.

Ann Arbor Adventures: Visit to the University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History
Ann Arbor Adventures: Visit to Matthaei Botanical Gardens
both written by Ashlee Edens and illustrations by Nicole Ray (Sloe Gin Fizz)
Ann Arbor Adventures is a picture book series that captures the magic of the city of Ann Arbor. In Visit to the University of Michigan's Museum of Natural History, a family of beavers explores the recently constructed building and learns about Michigan ecosystems, fossils, the solar system, rocks, minerals, and so much more. In Visit to Matthaei Botanical Gardens, a family of squirrels wanders through the conservatory looking at tropical plants and cacti, visit the outdoor gardens and bonsai, and explore the trails as they learn what blooms all year long.

Skip, the Stone
written and illustrated by Emily Siwek
A wave carries Skip, the Stone from the safety of the lake bottom all the way to the surface and he's not sure if he'll sink or swim. Embracing the unknown, the Petoskey stone’s true nature is revealed as generations experience the joy of discovery, the timeless nature of memories, and the unexpected delight of letting go.

My UnBEElievable Life
by Rebecca and Owen Wittekindt
This colorful, hardcover children’s picture book takes you into the hive as one worker bee tells you about her life. From the first stages of development and through all her jobs in the colony, you learn through whimsical verse all the amazing things bees do in their short yet productive lives.

On December 2, 2022, AADL hosted a reception at its Downtown branch to celebrate the release of the books; below is a video of the event where the authors talked about their work and their creative processes:

On "My Mortal Wound," the opening song on Lily Talmer's It's Unkind to Call You My Killer album, states in the chorus:

I’m alright; I am
Just the tide’s gone still and I’m left waiting for something to happen
For anything to happen; For good things to happen

Well, good things are happening for the Birmingham native and University of Michigan graduate.

In the past few months, she's released two terrific albums: the aforementioned Killer, an 11-track, stripped-down collection of songs performed live, and Hope Is The Whore I Go To, which features 10 strings-and-brass-colored tunes recorded in studios from Ypsilanti, Michigan to Brooklyn, New York.

Both albums highlight Talmer's exquisite amalgamation of 1960s folk-pop, Eastern European brass bands, and the melancholy melodies of Brazilian and Mediterranean music. Her twang-tinged voice is a slightly untamed powerhouse that's more than capable of delivering her heartfelt, poetic lyrics exploring personal and spiritual relationships with the drama and delicacy they deserve. Think of a jazz singer who hasn't sanded the edges off her voice but can still duck and weave in and out of the music like an instrumental virtuoso. (Canadian cult singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O'Hara is the closest analog to my ears.)

"If Hope Is The Whore I Go To is the primordial scream version of the message I’m trying toward," Talmers says in the interview below, "It's Unkind to Call You My Killer is the inward recoil. I’m telling you something in the first record, and in the second I’m kind of just admitting things to myself." 

Since graduating from U-M, Talmers has moved to Brooklyn but makes frequent trips back home, including a stop on Sunday, January 8 at The Ark for her first headline show at the venue.

In 2021 Pulp did an extensive piece on Talmers for her debut full-length release, Remember Me As Holy, and in late summer of this year, former AADL public library associate Katy Trame talked to Talmers about her life and brilliant new records. 

—Christopher Porter, Pulp

A new Ann Arbor District Library video featuring a conversation with authors Dur e Aziz Amna and Julie Buntin is now available.

Recorded on August 26, 2022, it spotlights Amna discussing her debut novel American Fever.

In American Fever, Amna tells the story of 16-year-old Hira, who's on a yearlong exchange program in rural Oregon. Hira must swap Kashmiri chai for volleyball practice and understand why everyone around her seems to dislike Obama. A skeptically witty narrator, Hira finds herself stuck between worlds.

Kirkus calls American Fever "a funny and affecting novel ... a wonderful new spin on the coming-of-age story. A smart, charming debut."

Hailing from Rawalpindi Pakistan, Amna now lives in Newark, New Jersey. She graduated from Yale College and the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. Amna also has been published in the New York Times, Financial Times, and Al Jazeera.

Don't ever write a year-in-review intro before you've had lunch. See below for reasons:

2022 is Pulp’s sixth year of compiling a delectable list of Ann Arbor District Library staff picks, featuring a smorgasbord of media to review and devour. With an insatiable hunger for books, films, TV shows, podcasts, music, and more, our AADL staffer suggestions will whet your appetite for anything you may have missed in 2022—or from previous years.

Because who can keep current with everything on the media menu these days?

The current media landscape is a 24-hour grocery store with everything everywhere available all at once. It’s decision paralysis at the deli counter, so consider us your Instacart shoppers for things to read, watch, play, listen to, and experience. (Apologies if we missed anything on your shopping list, and we hope our substituting a banana for that frozen pizza is OK.)
 
With more than 36,000 words to ingest in the 2022 Staff Picks, we’ve divided everything into four separate courses so you can enjoy each portion at your leisure:

➥ AADL 2022 Staff Picks: Words
➥ AADL 2022 Staff Picks: Screens
➥ AADL 2022 Staff Picks: Audio
➥ AADL 2022 Staff Picks: Pulp Life

If you feel inspired as you eat up our words, let us know in the comments sections what you sank your teeth into this year. Your tasty tips can be from 2022 or any other era; it just needs to encompass whatever art, culture, or entertainment you enjoyed over the past year.

Now, open up these posts and chow down.

We’re off to make some spaghetti.