Cookbooks from the past are a fascinating chronicle of the change that takes place as a community grows and expands. Food and Nutrition Educator Kate Helfrich has studied charity, or “community”, cookbooks produced in the late 1800s in Stockton and Sacramento, northern California. She shows how their recipes and advertising chronicle changes in the types of food that were eaten, the nature of home food production, and the influence of industrialization as these cities grew from Gold Rush-era local stagecoach stops to large metropolitan centers.

Join the Michigan Taiwanese American Organization (MITAI) to get ready for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Taiwanese American Heritage Week in May! Festivities will include a Lion Dance, take-home paper snake crafts, and a lecture about the 12 Lunar Zodiac animals. 

Inspired by The Hivemind Swarmed (Beacon Press, 2024), this panel explores the internet’s impact on culture, identity, and the human cost of “cool” jobs like making video games. Chicago author, and journalist-turned-oral historian, David Wolinsky joins experts in digital culture, gaming, and media to discuss how the internet has shaped modern bad-faith dynamics—and why gaming’s massive influence remains overlooked in journalism and public discourse.

The Sustaining Ann Arbor Together (SA²T) neighborhood grant program provides financial support for community-based activities that align with the City's sustainability and climate action goals. Through this grant program, local organizations have received grant funding for more than 45 projects that positively impact the Ann Arbor community. Join Ann Arbor's Office of Sustainability & Innovations and past SA²T grant recipients to learn more about the process and lasting benefits of these projects—and learn how your organization can apply for up to $10k of funding!

How do young children make sense of the world? Are they limited to what they see, or can they think beyond the here and now? In this talk, Dr. Susan Gelman will discuss how children's reasoning about hidden, invisible, and abstract entities provides a unique and valuable window into the human mind. Indeed, our early capacity to look beyond the obvious underlies humanity's greatest strengths, such as our search for knowledge and meaning, as well as our gravest challenges, such as prejudice and social inequities.

Join us for a talk with 1991greenery Homestead, who will be chatting about how she uses herbs in her natural body products. Learn how to grow your own garden at home, and get a chance to take home your own echinacea seeds to get started.

This event is part of Gardening and Farm Fest.

This presentation highlights 15 remarkable burial sites of soldiers from the American Revolution in the metro Detroit area—an impressive subset of over 70 known graves! Among these are three soldiers laid to rest right here in Ann Arbor. Notable figures include a Detroit veteran who was born enslaved but died free, Colonel Jean Francois Hamtramck—a confidant of George Washington and the namesake of the city of Hamtramck—and a Boston Tea Party participant buried in Dearborn Heights who continued to fight for the United States into his 70s.

The BLM Discussion Series is a quarterly recorded discussion between AADL staff members that focuses on books read from the African diaspora. The discussions are then aired for the public to view at their convenience. 

Watch AADL staff have a discussion of Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke.

Larry was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome when he was 19 years old. At the time, he was told that he could never be a teacher among other "never be's". Larry will tell us about Tourette Syndrome, what it is, what it is not, and how this tic disorder is seen in popular culture.

Join us for our five year anniversary of Transgender Day of Visibility events at the AADL! We'll be interviewing therapist, advocate and pioneer Rachel Crandall-Crocker. Rachel and her spouse, Susan Crocker, have been long-time organizers of the trans community, under the organization Transgender Michigan. 

Rachel started the Transgender Day of Visibility as an international holiday to contrast with Transgender Day of Remembrance — together we'll discuss community, history, and the ever-increasing scrutiny that trans lives have received in recent times.