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.

Join Dr. Charmeka Newton and discover her co-authored new workbook, Black Lives Are Beautiful, designed to help members of the Black community counter the impacts of racialized trauma while also cultivating self-esteem, building resilience, fostering community, and promoting Black empowerment. Dr. Newton will engage in a brief talk connected to this topic and there will be interactive stations present where you can try some of the tools discussed in their workbook.

Poetry is the anarchy of the senses making sense. —Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919-2021)

Passages in poetry that reference flavors and fragrances draw us into the sensorial experience and imagination of the writer while shining a light on our own. This is especially true of modern poetry that embraces the prosaic in place of rigid, codified forms.

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.

Red and blue make purple, right? So why does it always turn out brown when you try it at home?

Join us for a hands-on color mixing session with a dash of color theory. Learn some techniques to get better results when combining colors and come away with a few rainbow hued cards. 

This event is in partnership with the UM Hatcher Library.

Gather ‘round for an evening of informed and informal talks from a friendly neighborhood expert! We’ll have three speakers, each presenting on a different topic and sharing interesting facts that you never knew you never knew! Past Nerd Nite speakers have led deep dives into topics from the legacy of Louis Pasteur, to the origin of elements, to how a trumpet works, to a dissection of romance novel tropes. So bring a friend, grab a drink, and enjoy an evening among fellow nerds. Be there and be square!

Stuttering is an often misunderstood condition, from research to Hollywood. This talk will discuss myths and current research in terms of how stuttering may occur and how stuttering is treated. Participants can expect to learn answers to questions such as, do children simply grow out of stuttering, or is someone who stutters simply anxious? The lab’s recent findings from following up with previous research participants will be discussed to elucidate the intricacies of recovery from stuttering.

State of Pride in 2025: Where Are We With LGBTQ Equality?  2025 has brought many changes in the rights of LGBTQ people, especially for transgender and nonbinary people. From Michigan working to advance protections to massive rollbacks at the federal level, join Naomi Goldberg, executive director of a think tank focused on speeding equality for LGBTQ people, to learn more about the state of LGBTQ equality here in Michigan and nationally. Learn more about what's happening and what may be coming next. 

Gather ‘round for an evening of informed and informal talks from a friendly neighborhood expert! We’ll have three speakers, each presenting on a different topic and sharing interesting facts that you never knew you never knew! Past Nerd Nite speakers have led deep dives into topics from the legacy of Louis Pasteur, to the origin of elements, to how a trumpet works, to a dissection of romance novel tropes. So bring a friend, grab a drink, and enjoy an evening among fellow nerds. Be there and be square!