Artist? Graphic designer? Photographer? Videographer? Want to sell your art?

Have you shown at art fairs and events—talking to seemingly interested buyers—and then selling fewer pieces than anticipated? This interactive workshop will offer tips to help your work find a warm and loving home and a guided discussion on tactics that work.

Artists can use this workshop to brush up on approaching their art marketing like the business it is. The key to any business is to get customers and, if possible, repeat customers. The purpose of this workshop is to get artists to do what other businesses do to get customers—market the product so you can sell it!

This workshop will be led by Steve Feinman, District Director for SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), serving Michigan and Northwest Ohio, with 300+ volunteers who provide mentoring and coaching for small business owners. Steve also develops and conducts workshops on topics that include fine art marketing, strategic marketing and sales, and business model canvases. In 2015, Steve was named Small Business Counselor of the Year by the SBA Michigan District Office. Steve has been an avid interest in fine arts and literature. He has been active in the fine arts community in Philadelphia, Maryland, and New Orleans. His specialty is art industry economics and policy.

Baffling Bill returns to AADL for an evening of extraordinary magic!

What kind of bridge can you build with straws and other household materials?

Can you build the strongest one?

AADL presents an evening with award-winning poet Clayton Eshleman, who will discuss his writing and read excerpts from his new collection of poetry: "The Essential Poetry, 1960-2015". This event includes a book signing and books will be for sale.

Clayton Eshleman has lived in Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Peru, France, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. He is presently Professor Emeritus, English Department, Eastern Michigan University. His first collection of poetry, Mexico & North, was published in Kyoto, Japan in 1962.

As a contemporary writer, Eshleman’s history is our own: his writing a record and reflection of our times. His story — the story revealed in his poetry — is the story of mid-America meeting the wider world; the story of social and political radicalism, of a counterculture raising a voice in poetry and in art; of the challenges, frustrations and anomie that befell that counterculture and of the continued and indeed ongoing drama of empire and overreaching power, from Vietnam and El Salvador to Afghanistan and Iraq. Eshleman’s life in let ters has exemplified a commitment to ceaseless, wide-ranging exploration and encounter: with other places, other people, other poetries — foreign and familiar —, other modes of thought and image.

As he has written of his work: “I dream of poems that could change something essential / about the way a few people view creation…”

Among his recognitions and awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry; The National Book Award in Translation; two Landon Translation Prizes from the Academy of American Poets and the The Alfonse X. Sabio Award for Excellence in Translation.

Between 1967 and the present, he founded and edited two of the most innovative poetry journals of the later part of the 20th century, Caterpillar and Sulfur. He is also the co-translator of "Aimé Césaire: The Collected Poetry" and the author of "Juniper Fuse: Upper Paleolithic Imagination & the Construction of the Underworld. "

This 2014 documentary plunges viewers into the world of three New Orleans school marching bands. It closely follows several groups of kids growing up in America's most musical city, and one of its most dangerous, as their band directors get them ready to perform in the Mardi Gras parades. The band leaders also teach them to succeed and to survive.

The story is also a unique portrayal of an American inner city, highlighting men with an open-eyed, deep commitment to the community they've grown up in and the children in their charge. Viewers will find a celebration of the strength and insight of these men, and the potential and resilience of their students. Navigating the urban minefield through moments of setback, loss, discovery, and triumph, these children and their adult leaders reveal the power and resilience of a culture.

The 90-minute film (which is not rated) features three marching bands in the years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. As Mardi Gras approaches and the young musicians progress, we discover their passions and quirks, their personal struggles and tragedies. We come to see the powerful positive role being in the band plays in their lives.

The film culminates in a different kind of musical performance: a moving funeral tribute by band members from across the city to a young man who was one of their own.

The League of Women Voters of the Ann Arbor Area, A2Ethics, and the CivCity Initiative invite you to an informative session to learn more about Participatory Budgeting, one of the fastest growing democratic innovations occurring in the U.S. and Canada today. It is a new way for residents to have direct involvement in government by deciding how designated parts of a city budget will be spent.

There are 60 cities in the U.S. and Canada with Participatory Budgeting initiatives, however, the movement has both proponents and critics. This program is intended to introduce and discuss the concept through an objective forum.

Jeana Franconi and Michelle Monsegur, directors of the Participatory Budgeting initiative in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will conduct this session. They will describe the Cambridge Participatory Budgeting project; outline how it works; what it funds; their experiences; and what has worked and what has not. The Cambridge project includes youth and non citizens in the process and also has a very strong evaluation component. For more information on Participatory Budgeting from A2 Ethics, visit their website.

John W. Barfield is a legendary entrepreneur who is known as a pioneer of corporate America's vital Minority Supplier Development programs. He is the founder of The Bartech Group Inc., a leading workforce management and staffing solutions provider to Global 500 firms. Bartech, based in Southfield, Michigan, employs more than 3,000 people, manages approximately 26,000 contract workers worldwide, and manages approximately $3 billion in contingent labor for its global clients. Bartech was named the Nation's Top Managed Service Provider firm for 2014 by HRO Today, a trade magazine for the contingent workforce Industry.

Join us as John discusses his life and his new autobiography, Starting From Scratch : The Humble Beginnings of a Two Billion-Dollar Enterprise. A book signing will follow and books will be for sale at the event.

The son of an Alabama sharecropper, John W. Barfield dropped out of high school to enlist in the United States Army, serving in Germany and France from 1945-1947. Upon his discharge, he worked as a custodian at the University of Michigan.

In 1954, he and his wife Betty, formed the first of many companies, J & B Cleaning Company (later renamed Barfield Cleaning Company) located in Ypsilanti. John and his wife Betty sold their first business to ITT Corporation in 1969. It was a breakthrough transaction that led to a relationship with General Motors Corporation and a second career as one of the most successful minority suppliers for GM and other companies.

In 1977, Barfield incorporated John Barfield and Associates and by 1984 he had expanded the company and renamed it Bartech Inc. Barfield formed and eventually sold additional businesses, including Barfield Building Maintenance Company and Barfield Manufacturing Company.

As a long time philanthropist and mentor to other entreprenuers, Mr. Barfield has received numerous honors and awards, including The Tree of Life Award, the highest honor of the Jewish National Fund of America; the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion's Humanitarian of the Year Award; and the A.G. Gaston Lifetime Achievement Award from Black Enterprise Magazine.

Bring the whole family to clap and sing along with lots of ukuleles, familiar songs, and a couple of tandem stories!

Musical duo Two of a Kind perform at the Library, sharing songs about animals and their habitats, with an environmental focus!

Two of a Kind is an award-winning, nationally touring husband-wife duo specializing in interactive music for children and families. They present musical programs for audiences of all ages, including songs, movement, sign language, puppets, and more—all with an emphasis on interaction and participation.

Two of a Kind helps audiences of all ages feel that they can create music and that they can make a difference in the world.

The University of Michigan’s Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program, in partnership with the Ann Arbor District Library, is starting a Girls Who Code Club for girls in grades 6 – 12 who have little or no programming experience.

This meeting will provide you with information on the program format, expectations and Club registration. While attendance at the information meeting is not mandatory, it is encouraged.

The club will meet Monday evenings from January 11 – May 23, in the Ann Arbor District Library’s Downtown Library. We expect regular attendance. Additional field trips and activities will be scheduled throughout the semester. Registration will be required. Space is limited, we will give preference to high school students.