There are many things that keep us from writing, whether it’s outside forces like jobs and families, or internal forces like doubt and procrastination.

In this workshop, Alex Kourvo and Bethany Neal will show you how to make the most of your writing time, conquer writer’s block, and develop solid work habits to finish your book.

This is part of the monthly Emerging Writer’s Workshops, which offer support, learning, and advice for local authors. Each month, two weeks after the workshop, there is a Meet-Up where the instructors will read samples of your work and offer advice and assistance in a casual, supportive atmosphere.

This film and discussion will be presented in Spanish. This program will also be presented in English on Monday, February 1.

Dr. Silvia Pedraza, U-M Professor of Sociology and American Culture leads tonight’s screening and discussion of the film War and Peace (1942-1954). World War II is a watershed event for Latino Americans with hundreds of thousands of men and women serving in the armed forces, most fighting side by side with Anglos. But on the home front, discrimination is not dead: in 1943, Anglo servicemen battle hip young "Zoot suitors" in racially charged riots in southern California.

After the war, Macario Garcia becomes the first Mexican National to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor for his exploits fighting in Europe, only to be refused service in a Texas diner. The experience during the war pushes Latinos to fight for civil rights back home. A doctor from South Texas, Hector Garcia, organizes the American GI Forum, transforming himself into a tireless advocate for civil rights and the friend of a future president. Although Latinos make significant gains, the journey for equality is far from over.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information on Latino Americans: 500 Years of History programs at AADL, please visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

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Huron High School English teacher and Love & Vodka:My Surreal Adventures in Ukraine author R.J. Fox will lead participants through the process of turning real life experiences—both profound and ordinary—into the art of creative non-fiction.

Learn how to mold your own life stories through such topics as story structure, dialogue, character development/arc, and how to infuse your writing with literary elements traditionally associated with fiction. Participants will apply the skills taught during the workshop through various prompts and activities designed to spark creativity, with the aim of mining material that can later be developed into various forms of memoir and creative non-fiction, from short essays to long-form works.

R.J. Fox is the award-winning writer of several short stories, plays, poems, and fifteen feature-length screenplays. He is also the writer and director of several award-winning short films. In addition his writing and film-making exploits — not to mention his talents as a saxophonist — Fox teaches English and Video Production in the Ann Arbor Public Schools where he uses his own dream of making movies to inspire his students to follow their own dreams. Fox has also worked in public relations at Ford Motor Company and as a newspaper reporter.

This event includes a book signing and books will be for sale at the event.

Executive Director John Manfredi and Artistic Director Suzi Regan of Ann Arbor's premiere professional theatre, Performance Network, will host an evening discussion on directing theatrical productions. They will discuss the process by which they choose, cast, design, produce and maintain the plays they direct, pulling from their collective 55 years of professional experience.

John Manfredi is an award winning actor, director, writer, teacher, arts advocate and has been producing theatre in Michigan for over 30 years. He is owner of Etico Productions LLC, a Michigan theatrical consulting and production company. You may have seen him as an actor on the Performance Network stage many times in some of their most recent box office successes such as An Iliad, A Picasso, and K2; at the Williamston Theatre in Lion In Winter where he also directed Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune; or at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in The Scullery Maid.

Suzi Regan has been an actor, director, writer, sound designer, arts advocate and teacher in and around the Detroit area for 25 years. She has worked on or around every professional stage...Meadow Brook, JET, Williamston, Purple Rose... in the area including Performance Network where you many have seen her in Good People, Time Stands Still, and The Blonde, The Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead. She was most recently seen on stage at Williamston Theatre in Outside Mullingan and is currently the director of Performance Network's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Michigan native Chef Mei Lin will join us for a special event to talk about her culinary career and time on Top Chef. Now based in Los Angeles, she has been traveling, cooking, and percolating on what's next after winning Top Chef earlier this year.

Mei grew up working alongside her father at their family-owned-and-operated restaurant outside Detroit, where she learned the fundamentals of being a well-rounded cook and running a restaurant. Over the years, she has had the privilege of working for some of the most revered chefs in the industry such as Michael Symon (Roast), Marcus Samuelsson (C-House), Wolfgang Puck, and headed to Los Angeles to work with Michael Voltaggio at ink.

Author Jan Jarboe Russell and local Holocaust Survivor Irene Butter pay a special visit to AADL to discuss Ms. Russell’s new book, which features a chapter about Irene Butter.

The Train to Crystal City: FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II is the dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II, where thousands of families, many of whom were US citizens, were incarcerated.

Combining big-picture World War II history with a little-known event in American history that has long been kept quiet, The Train to Crystal City reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR's tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war.

Author Jan Jarboe Russell is a former Nieman Fellow, a contributing editor for Texas Monthly, and has written for the New York Times, the San Antonio Express-News, Slate, and other publications. She is the author of Lady Bird: A Biography of Mrs. Johnson and has also compiled and edited They Lived to Tell the Tale. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Dr. Lewis F. Russell, Jr.

Irene Butter, born in Berlin, Germany grew up as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Europe. A survivor of 2 concentration camps she came to the US in 1945. After graduating from Queens College in New York City she obtained a Ph.D. in economics from Duke University. She and her husband were on the faculty of the University of Michigan for more than 35 years. Since the late 1980’s she has been teaching students about the Holocaust and the lessons she learned during those traumatic years. She is a co-founder of the Raoul Wallenberg lecture series at the University of Michigan and is also one of the founders of ZEITOUNA, an Arab/Jewish Women’s Dialogue group in Ann Arbor.

The event includes a booksigning and books will be for sale.

Join Trevor Eller, Miriam Dowd, & Bridget O'Brien, of the People's Food Co-op, for a discussion and world cafe (facilitated talk). A conversation and process (world cafe) on applying and connecting the principles of each philosophy in a time of global transition and transformation. This collective meeting of minds is to challenge habituated norms, guiding us to a more resilient, sustainable abundant life through Yoga and Permaculture Philosophys and Principles aiming for deeper embodiment. The instructors are: Trevor Eller, Certified Yoga Instructor, Kirtan Leader and Yoga Teacher Trainer, Bridget O'Brien, Certified Permaculture Designer and Teacher and Miriam Dowd – Art of Hosting Facilitator.

When drugs are taken repeatedly their effects often change. Most people are aware that some effects get smaller and smaller – a phenomenon known as tolerance. However, the repeated use of drugs of abuse can also lead to a very different kind of change; some drug effects get bigger and bigger – a phenomenon known as sensitization. Brain regions that are normally involved in regulating motivated behavior are among those that can undergo sensitization, and as these brain systems become hypersensitive this can lead to a pathological increase in the desire (motivation) to take drugs. In this talk, Dr. Terry E. Robinson will focus on the ways drug abuse can change the brain, how this influences behavioral and psychological function, and how such changes may contribute to the transition from mere drug use to addiction.

Dr. Terry E. Robinson is the Elliot S. Valenstein Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the U-M Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, and is known internationally for his research concerning the persistent behavioral and neurobiological consequences of repeated psychostimulant drug use, and the implications of these for addiction and relapse.

This program is co-sponsored by the University of Michigan Department of Psychology.

This session is in Spanish and will be presented in English on Monday, January 25 from 6:30 – 8:30 pm.

Explore the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape the United States over the last five centuries when the Ann Arbor District Library presents Latino Americans: 500 Years of History. Created by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, this six-episode series features documentary film screenings and discussions at the Downtown Library.

Dr. Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof, U-M Associate Professor of History and American Culture leads tonight’s screening and discussion. After the film, Dr. Hoffnung-Garskof will introduce the legal and political status of Puerto Rico, its inhabitants, and migrants to the mainland in the wake of the Cuban-Spanish-American War, making comparisons and drawing contrasts with the simultaneous experience of immigration from Mexico.

Tonight’s film is "Empire of Dreams (1880-1942)." Widespread immigration to the U.S. from Latin countries begins – first with a small group from Cuba, then a larger one from Mexico. Both flee chaos and violence in their home country and are attracted by opportunities in the United States. In 1898, the U.S. helps liberate Cuba and Puerto Rico from Spain but then seizes Puerto Rico as its colony. The first Puerto Rican arrivals (now U.S. citizens) establish a network in New York.

During the 1920s, immigration is encouraged with the expanding U.S. economy. Mexicans and Mexican Americans build a thriving community in Los Angeles and look forward to a bright future. But when the economic boom of that 1920s ends with the catastrophic Depression of the thirties, the pendulum swings. Immigrants encouraged to immigrate in the 20s are deported en masse in the 30s.

Puerto Ricans, also caught in the depths of the Depression, rebel against U.S. rule on the Island, and eventually gain Commonwealth status from the U.S. Government.

The Ann Arbor District Library is one of 203 sites nationwide to host this series, which has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The AADL series is also co-sponsored by Michigan Radio and the U-M Latina/o Studies Program and is part of an NEH initiative, The Common Good: The Humanities In the Public Square. For more information about this AADL series, visit aadl.org/latinoamericans.

Co-sponsored by:

Planting a rain garden is a fun way for people to make a difference in the quality of the water in our rivers, lakes, and streams, starting in our own backyards. You don’t need any special equipment – just some space, a spade, compost, and a few plants.

We’ll talk about the benefits of Rain Gardens and how to build and plant one. Bring your questions and photos of your yard, if you like, for individual advice. Take the information home and start your own!

Susan Bryan is the Rain Garden Coordinator for the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner’s Office, working with plants and people to protect the water quality in the Huron River. She has designed many residential gardens, rain gardens, and bio-infiltration areas. She is a past president of Wild Ones, has a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan, and is an Advanced Master Gardener in Washtenaw County.

Roger Moon is a Master Rain Gardener, trained in the Washtenaw County program, and a Traverwood neighborhood resident with four rain gardens on his property. He has given numerous talks on rain gardens, media appearances, and designed six rain gardens himself. Roger has adopted rain gardens in Huron Hills and Gallup parks, and takes care of them throughout the year. Roger received the Washtenaw County Rain Garden Leadership Award in Education in 2015.