Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of educational entertainment known to mankind. From the West African tradition of the Griot to modern day Moth events, storytelling environments have served as a means to pass along history, shape culture, share helpful lessons, and establish a sense of belonging and community.

The U-M Comprehensive Studies Program and Department of Afroamerican and African Studies invite you to explore themes related to campus life, coming of age, and learning and growing, at this series of Moth-Style Storyteller Lounge events.  The theme for the November event will take its inspiration from UMMA's exhibition Beyond Borders: Global Africa and include notions of border and boundary crossing as the jumping off point to share personal experiences. Storytellers include students, faculty and staff, and Voices of Wisdom (alums or community members).

Light food and refreshments will be served in the Commons at 6:30 prior to the start of the program.

Value the Voice will take place on Tuesdays, September 18, November 13, January 22, and March 19 at 7 p.m. in the UMMA Auditorium.

For more information, please contact Keith Jason at mrjason@umich.edu or 734-764-9128

Philip Metres’s writing has appeared widely, including in Best American Poetry, and has garnered two NEA fellowships, two Arab American Book Awards, and the Lannon Literary Fellowship, among others. His work has been called “beautiful, powerful, magnetically original” (Cleveland Arts Prize citation). Lawrence Joseph has written that “Philip Metres’s poetry speaks to us all, in ways critical, vital, profound, and brilliant.” His poems have been translated into Arabic, Polish, Russian, and Tamil. He is a professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, where he teaches literature and creative writing, and lives with his wife Amy and their two daughters. Were it not for the Ellis Island effect, his last name would be Abourjaili.

Aimee Bender is the author of five books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998) which was a NY Times Notable Book, An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000) which was an L.A. Times pick of the year, Willful Creatures (2005) which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010) which won the SCIBA award for best fiction and an Alex Award, and The Color Master, a NY Times Notable Book for 2013. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and more, as well as heard on PRI’s “This American Life” and “Selected Shorts." She lives in Los Angeles with her family, and teaches creative writing at USC.

Join African Students Association, Caribbean Students Association, Creatives of Color, and Black Student Union at the University of Michigan Museum of Art for an exciting evening of food and performance in conjunction with the UMMA exhibition Beyond Borders: Global Africa. Performances include spoken word, Amala Dancers, Ambiance, and more! The event is semi-formal with a gallery viewing included. We look forward to sharing our perspective on how African culture, artistic expressions, and traditions are beyond borders, in an event you do not want to miss!

Is music performance, or could it be seen as a form of social interaction between two people? Furthermore, is social interaction a type of performance? Come and see how music could be another key in removing previously perceived barriers between these ideas. 

22-year-old Saxophonist William Wood, originally hailing from the UK, currently resides in Ann Arbor to pursue his master's degree in jazz at the UofM. Despite his recent arrival he has already had the pleasure of working with Detroit's finest musicians—including Marion Hayden, John Douglas and Buddy Budson—and hopes this will continue and grow. 

Find William on Instagram @w.ne.wood

Paul Rand was a giant of American design whose influential career spanned the second half of the twentieth century. His visionary and pithy conceptions of corporate and non-profit brand identities—though often graphically minimal—embody the artist’s complex philosophy, interest in modernist aesthetics, and singular wit. This exhibition features posters, book covers, and packaging designs from the entirety of Rand’s career. Visit Paul Rand: The Designer’s Task with an UMMA docent to explore the genre of graphic design within the context of the art museum and examine how Rand’s intellectual process and impact on visual culture developed over time.

The exhibition Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the Early 1970s presents large-scale works by four leading American artists—Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Al Loving, and Louise Nevelson—who chose abstraction as a means of expression within the intense political climate of the early 1970s. To many at the time, the decision by women artists and artists of color to make abstract art represented a retreat from politics and protest: an abnegation of a commitment to civil rights and feminism. Join UMMA Director and exhibition curator, Christina Olsen, in the gallery to explore these works of art and the questions they pose.

U-M students Lenae Jefferson and Qwantayvious Stiggers will engage visitors in a conversation about art, identity, borders, and other matters on the closing day of the exhibition Beyond Borders: Global Africa. Ms. Jefferson was the 2018 UMMA Bennett Summer Intern as well as a Program Intern at the Motown Museum. She has been involved in the Vice President for Student Life’s Student Advisory Board and the Prison Creative Arts Project. Mr. Stiggers has served on the executive board of Habitat for Humanity, as a member of the Black Student Union, and as a leader in Bridge Scholars PLUS. Join these accomplished and dedicated students in a meaningful discussion in this exciting exhibition before it closes.

More than ever in the era of globalization, ideas traverse geographic, generational, and cultural boundaries, even as national borders seem to be closing. Beyond Borders: Global Africa reflects on this moment by considering how Africa and its artists have been at the center of complex histories of encounter and exchange for centuries. Bringing together a dazzling array of works made in Africa, Europe and the United States from the nineteenth to twenty-first century, the exhibition demonstrates the international scope and reach of art from Africa and the African diaspora. Join UMMA docents as they explore the significant themes of our times including slavery, colonization, migration, racism and identity.

Jen Sygit and Sam Corbin have been performing regionally as a songwriting team for the better part of a decade. Together, they have six albums and are both members of the Americana outfit "Lincoln County Process."  Soulful vocals laden with rich harmonies, a variety of instrumentation including banjo, acoustic guitar, telecaster, and harmonica round out the duo's eclectic, roots-y sound.

Find Jen and Sam on Twitter @sygvicious and @SamCorbinMusic.

Lina Iris Viktor is a British-Liberian conceptual artist whose work centers around the age-old practice of gilding with 24-karat gold to call into question the nature of time and being. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, Viktor weaves together many disparate materials, uniting contemporary and ancient modes of making including photography, performance, installation, and abstract painting. In recent years she has focused on creating increasingly dark canvases embedded with “layers of light” in the form of symbols and intricate patterns that Viktor calls “light-works.” According to the artist: "My personal mandate has always been to reveal that which is hidden. To reflect upon diverse histories — many of which have been grossly misrepresented or erased — and bring them to light. I want to offer a hopeful projection of a future I would like to see." Viktor has exhibited extensively in the United States and internationally, including at the Harvard Art Museums, the Cooper Gallery at Harvard University, the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art in Atlanta, and has a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art (opening in October 2018). Additionally, Viktor has engaged in critical talks and panels at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., New York University, the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and King’s College in London.

One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends—a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.

This week's reading features Will Brewbaker, David Wade, and Talin Tahajian.

Will Brewbaker was born and raised in Alabama, which is a small state in the southeastern corner of the USA. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia, where he encountered his very first iambic foot. 

David Wade is a fiction writer from Washington, PA interested in rustbelt literature, hip hop, and speculative fiction. He is an MFA candidate at the University of Michigan and can (sometimes) be found online @davidwadetv.

Talin Tahajian grew up near Boston. She did her undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge (UK), where she studied English literature. She edits poetry for Big Lucks and the Adroit Journal. 

Storytime at the Museum promotes art enjoyment for our youngest patrons. We read a story in the galleries and include a fun, age-appropriate, hands-on activity related to it. Children ages three to six are invited to join Storytime. Parents must accompany children. Siblings are welcome to join the group. Meet in front of the UMMA Store.

As the holidays ramp up and expectations go into high gear, slow down and enjoy a leisurely experience with magnificent art by Helen Frankenthaler,  Sam Gilliam, Al Loving, and Louise Nevelson in the exhibition Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the Early 1970s. Give yourself the gift of time for quiet, immersive attention to beautiful and intriguing paintings using strategies found in “Slow Looking” by Sheri Tishman, Senior Research Associate at Project Zero, a research and development center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. UMMA’s Curator for Teaching and Learning, Pam Reister, will introduce visitors to Tishman's strategies of thoughtful attention to the things around us. Observe carefully, reflect thoughtfully, think cooperatively with other visitors, and enjoy the break.

Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the Early 1970s explores large-scale works of art by Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Nevelson, Sam Gilliam, and Al Loving, within the context of highly-charged debates of the early 1970s about aesthetics, politics, race, and feminism. This exhibition explores the gendered and racialized terms upon which great art was defined and assessed, and the strategy of artists to question the identity and aesthetics of the artist making the art. UMMA docents will help visitors look through the lens of the four artists’ works to explore the aesthetic choices inherent in abstraction as well as the acts of staining, pouring, draping, —or even taking apart the wall itself—within this charged political context.

Elizabeth Alexander—poet, essayist, memoirist, scholar, and arts activist—is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009 and is author or co-author of fourteen books, most recently a memoir, The Light of the World, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015.

Elizabeth Alexander—poet, essayist, memoirist, scholar, and arts activist—is president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the nation’s largest funder in arts and culture, and humanities in higher education. Dr. Alexander has held distinguished professorships at Smith College, Columbia University, and Yale University, where she taught for 15 years and chaired the African American Studies Department. She is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, serves on the Pulitzer Prize Board, and co-designed the Art for Justice Fund. Notably, Alexander composed and delivered “Praise Song for the Day” for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009 and is author or co-author of fourteen books, most recently a memoir, The Light of the World, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2015.

University and community poets will meet in the serene and surreal constellation that is Tristin Lowe: Under the Influence and read a selection of poems. The installation, which includes a twelve-and-half-foot-diameter felt facsimile of the moon, creates a feeling of time having stopped, a sensation that is both captivating and strange. Poets will read work that address that feeling and other themes in their work. Talin Tahajian, U-M MFA student and Hopwood Graduate Poetry winner, will curate this event, inviting fellow students and local poets to share their work. Join us for this encounter with unexpected visual and literary art.

The U-M Center for Southeast Asian Studies and UMMA invite you to introduce your family to the performance traditions of Java, Indonesia's most populous island, by spending a Sunday afternoon learning about and creating Javanese shadow puppets. Detroit-based puppeteer Carrie Morris will lead the workshop, where children ages 5-12 will create their own wayang. Attendees are encouraged to continue their immersion in the Javanese arts by attending the Javanese gamelan and dance performance at Stamps Auditorium following this workshop at 4 p.m.

The story of Japanese archaeologist Ryoichi and evidence of his worldwide excavations are
explored by Patrick Nagatani in this series of photographs. Nagatani presents a narrative of
Ryoichi’s archeological work, supported by images of excavation sites, unearthed artifacts, and
Ryoichi’s own journal pages. According to the photographs, Ryoichi discovered evidence of an
automobile culture buried at sites across several continents: Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon,
and a necropolis in China. Docents will introduce this provocative and playful series that compels viewers to reflect on how photographs and institutions, such as museums, shape our
knowledge of the past and present.

Electronic Chamber Music students, led by SMTD professor Michael Gurevich, respond to the speculative truth of the exhibition Proof: The Ryoichi Excavations by creating and performing works which use technology to subvert or transform reality.

Paul Rand was a giant of American design whose influential career spanned the second half of the twentieth century. His visionary and pithy conceptions of corporate and non-profit brand identities—though often graphically minimal—embody the artist’s complex philosophy, interest in modernist aesthetics, and singular wit. This exhibition features posters, book covers, and packaging designs from the entirety of Rand’s career. Visit Paul Rand: The Designer’s Task with an UMMA docent to explore the genre of graphic design within the context of the art museum and examine how Rand’s intellectual process and impact on visual culture developed over time.

Paul Rand was a giant of American design whose influential career spanned the second half of the twentieth century. His visionary and pithy conceptions of corporate and non-profit brand identities—though often graphically minimal—embody the artist’s complex philosophy, interest in modernist aesthetics, and singular wit. This exhibition features posters, book covers, and packaging designs from the entirety of Rand’s career. Visit Paul Rand: The Designer’s Task with an UMMA docent to explore the genre of graphic design within the context of the art museum and examine how Rand’s intellectual process and impact on visual culture developed over time.

The Art, Ideas & Politics Book Club is a partnership between UMMA and Literati Bookstore in connection with UMMA's exhibition Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the Early 1970s. Surrounded by the large-scale artworks by Sam Gilliam, Helen Frankenthaler, Al Loving, and Louise Nevelson, we will read and discuss bold and critical voices—both fiction and nonfiction—guided by Literati Bookstore's Creative Programs Manager, Gina Balibrera Amyx. Books will explore visions and critiques relevant to abstract art as well as the immense social changes of the period, and include Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power (Jan 10), Art on My Mind, Visual Politics by bell hooks (March 14), Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner (July 11), and How We Get Free, edited by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Sept 12).

Gina Balibrera Amyx is the Creative Program Manager at Literati Bookstore, and a graduate of Zell MFA Program. Her writing has been featured in the Boston Review, Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly Review, and The Wandering Song, an anthology of the Central American diaspora.

The Art, Ideas & Politics Book Club will meet on the second Thursday of the month, 12-1 p.m. in the exhibition gallery. Pick and choose or come to all of them. Books will be available for sale at Literati Bookstore and at book club meetings at a 15% book club discount.
 

Create a 3D sculpture inspired by the artist Louise Nevelson who was known to make work using everyday objects and materials she found on the street. We will explore the UMMA exhibition, Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the 1970s, which features a large-scale work by Nevelson, as well as other well known abstract expressionists, followed by a hands-on workshop with local artists Susan Clinthorne and Nora Venturelli. 

Create a 3D sculpture inspired by the artist Louise Nevelson who was known to make work using everyday objects and materials she found on the street. We will explore the UMMA exhibition, Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the 1970s, which features a large-scale work by Nevelson, as well as other well known abstract expressionists, followed by a hands-on workshop with local artists Susan Clinthorne and Nora Venturelli. 

The story of Japanese archaeologist Ryoichi and evidence of his worldwide excavations are
explored by Patrick Nagatani in this series of photographs. Nagatani presents a narrative of
Ryoichi’s archeological work, supported by images of excavation sites, unearthed artifacts, and
Ryoichi’s own journal pages. According to the photographs, Ryoichi discovered evidence of an
automobile culture buried at sites across several continents: Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon,
and a necropolis in China. Docents will introduce this provocative and playful series that compels viewers to reflect on how photographs and institutions, such as museums, shape our
knowledge of the past and present.

“The internet has introduced a new way of seeing and being,” says Eva Respini, Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the ICA/Boston. “It’s affected how we shop, eat, date, travel, our social behaviors, our political machines, and how we create and consider art,” both online and off. The exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, on view at UMMA December 15, 2018 - April 7, 2019, brings together more than forty works across a variety of media and features artists and collectives of different generations and backgrounds to take a look at this ubiquitous influence.  Join Respini, the exhibition curator, for an in-depth exploration of the art, artists, and ideas behind the show.

Eva Respini is the Barbara Lee Chief Curator at the ICA/Boston and specializes in global contemporary art and image-making practices. At the ICA Respini recently curated Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today and has organized exhibitions of leading contemporary artists such as Diana Thater, Liz Deschenes, Nalini Malani, Dana Schutz, as well as forthcoming exhibitions of William Forsythe, Huma Bhabha, John Akomfrah and an exhibition on art and migration in the 21st century.
 

Formerly Curator at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Respini organized there critically acclaimed retrospectives of Cindy Sherman, Walid Raad, and Robert Heinecken, and exhibitions with artists Klara Liden, Anne Collier, Leslie Hewitt, and Akram Zaatari. She is author of Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today (2018); Liz Deschenes (2016); Walid Raad (2015); Robert Heinecken: Object Matter (2014); Cindy Sherman (2012).

One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends - a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.

This week's reading features Erika Nestor and 'Pemi Aguda.
 
Erika Nestor is a poet from Dexter, Michigan. She worked in Madison, Wisconsin as a technical writer before entering the MFA program here. She currently prefers sonnets to software.

'Pemi Aguda is a writer from Nigeria. Her stories sometimes slant into the surreal and are inspired by the city of Lagos.

Join the next generation of artists at their studio site as they explore theory and practice in the age of the internet.

Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the Early 1970s explores large-scale works of art by Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Nevelson, Sam Gilliam, and Al Loving, within the context of highly-charged debates of the early 1970s about aesthetics, politics, race, and feminism. This exhibition explores the gendered and racialized terms upon which great art was defined and assessed, and the strategy of artists to question the identity and aesthetics of the artist making the art. UMMA docents will help visitors look through the lens of the four artists’ works to explore the aesthetic choices inherent in abstraction as well as the acts of staining, pouring, draping, —or even taking apart the wall itself—within this charged political context.

In conjunction with the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, UMMA and Vault of Midnight-Ann Arbor partner to present a book club that will read and discuss three comic books that explore some of the extreme possibilities of life in the age of the internet. Books include: The Private Eye (January 20), Snot Girl vol. 1 (February 17), and Bitch Planet vol 1 (March 10). Pick and choose your favorites or come to the whole series. Books will be available for sale at Vault of Midnight. All are invited to read and participate. Please note that these comic books deal with mature material.

Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of educational entertainment known to mankind. From the West African tradition of the Griot to modern day Moth events, storytelling environments have served as a means to pass along history, shape culture, share helpful lessons, and establish a sense of belonging and community.

The U-M Comprehensive Studies Program and Department of Afroamerican and African Studies invite you to explore themes related to campus life, coming of age, and learning and growing, at this series of Moth Style Storyteller Lounge events. Storytellers include students, faculty and staff, and Voices of Wisdom (alums or community members).​ 

Light food and refreshments will be served in the Commons at 6:30 prior to the start of the program. 

Value the Voice will take place on Tuesdays, September 18, November 13, January 22, March 19, 7 p.m. UMMA Auditorium.

For more information, please contact Keith Jason at mrjason@umich.edu or 734-764-9128

Elif Batuman has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 2010. She is the author of the novel, The Idiot, and The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her stories have been anthologized in the 2014 Best American Travel Writing and the 2010 Best American Essays collections. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and a Paris Review Terry Southern Prize for Humor. Batuman holds a doctoral degree in comparative literature from Stanford University. From 2010 to 2013, she was writer-in-residence at Koç University, in Istanbul. She lives in New York.

Organized by U-M students for U-M students, and inspired by the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, the 10th annual Student Late Night event at UMMA will be a fun-filled creative explosion!

Come to the party and enjoy some of the best fun that the digital age has to offer! Participate in live collaborative art making, motion graphics, and sound mixing. Have fun with art inspired apps, snap a meme worthy photo in the photo booth, snag some free food, and have a blast! Don’t miss it or you will be one grumpy cat.

Hosted by the Student Collective at UMMA in partnership with Maize Collective.

Storytime at the Museum promotes art enjoyment for our youngest patrons. We read a story in the galleries and include a fun, age-appropriate, hands-on activity related it. Children ages three to six are invited to join Storytime. Parents must accompany children. Siblings are welcome to join the group. Meet in front of the UMMA Store.

The internet has changed every aspect of contemporary life—from how we interact with each other to how we work and play. Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, examines the radical impact of internet culture on visual art since the invention of the web in 1989. Join UMMA docents as they explore the more than forty works across a variety of media—painting, performance, photography, sculpture, video, and web-based projects—in this exciting exhibition.

In response to the Virtual Worlds considered in the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, SMTD professor and video game music specialist Matthew Thompson explores the dichotomy of real/unreal in a live performance of new analog transcriptions of favorite video game soundtracks, joined by undergraduate and graduate piano students from his studio. 

Tour the exhibition, Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, and hear from a multidisciplinary panel of U-M Faculty in an open forum format organized in partnership with the U-M Science, Technology, and Society Program which highlights international and global issues shaping the social, historical, and cultural understandings of science, technology, and medicine.

One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends - a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.

This week's reading features Rachel Ann Girty and Justin Balog. 
 
Rachel Ann Girty is a writer and classical mezzo-soprano from Southfield, Michigan. The farthest west she's ever been is the Kansas-Missouri state line. 

Justin Balog is a writer and arts administrator from Beach Park, IL. He is a first authored, scientist with work appearing in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism.

Construct an impossible but believable story in the manner of Patrick Nagatani's imaginative photographs featured in the UMMA exhibition of his work Proof: The Rioichi Excavations. In this workshop, we will create fantastical stories through collaging found images. We will explore the meaning that is implied when images of living forms, objects, and other things that could not have met in the same place and time, meet in your work. UMMA docents will lead a tour of the exhibition, followed by a hands-on workshop with local artist Adrian Deva. Designed for families with children of ages six and above. Parents must be present during the workshop. 

On the occasion of the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, UMMA and Vault of Midnight-Ann Arbor have partnered up to form the UMMA Book Club: The Age of the Internet in Comic Books. Join David Choberka, Andrew W. Mellon Manager of Academic Outreach & Teaching, for a discussion in the gallery that connects the art on view to themes in the selected comics. Open to anyone, regardless of participation in the book club.

Construct an impossible but believable story in the manner of Patrick Nagatani's imaginative photographs featured in the UMMA exhibition of his work Proof: The Rioichi Excavations. In this workshop, we will create fantastical stories through collaging found images. We will explore the meaning that is implied when images of living forms, objects, and other things that could not have met in the same place and time, meet in your work. UMMA docents will lead a tour of the exhibition, followed by a hands-on workshop with local artist Adrian Deva. Designed for families with children of ages six and above. Parents must be present during the workshop. 

Chinese artist Wang Qingsong’s 2018 work The Bloodstained Shirt restages in Highland Park, Michigan, an iconic 1959 drawing by Wang Shikuo of peasants rising up against a cruel landlord and triumphantly reclaiming their right to the land. Wang’s projects are usually located in China, but while visiting southeast Michigan he was struck by the similarities between the effects of inequitable real estate development on local communities in Detroit, Highland Park, and his native Beijing. His large-scale photograph in the UMMA exhibition Wang Qingsong/Detroit/Beijing features more than seventy volunteers from the greater Detroit community and University of Michigan. Eight months later, Michigan residents created a work of protest banners in collaboration with Wang, also included in the exhibition. Join the artist to hear more about the evolution of this project, from the initial idea to a larger project connecting the two urban centers.

Light refreshments and open gallery after the program. 

The story of Japanese archaeologist Ryoichi and evidence of his worldwide excavations are
explored by Patrick Nagatani in this series of photographs. Nagatani presents a narrative of
Ryoichi’s archeological work, supported by images of excavation sites, unearthed artifacts, and
Ryoichi’s own journal pages. According to the photographs, Ryoichi discovered evidence of an
automobile culture buried at sites across several continents: Stonehenge, the Grand Canyon,
and a necropolis in China. Docents will introduce this provocative and playful series that compels viewers to reflect on how photographs and institutions, such as museums, shape our
knowledge of the past and present.

Ada Limón is the author of five books of poetry, including Bright Dead Things, which was named a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Poetry, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, a finalist for the 2016 National Book Critics Circle Award, and one of the Top Ten Poetry Books of the Year by The New York Times. Her other books include Lucky Wreck, This Big Fake World, and Sharks in the Rivers. Her new collection, The Carrying, was released by Milkweed Editions in August of 2018 and has been called “her best yet” by NPR, “remarkable” by The New York Times, “exquisite” by The Washington Post, and one of the Ten Titles to Pick Up Now by O Magazine. She
serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency M.F.A program, and the 24Pearl Street online program for the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center. She also works as a freelance writer in Lexington, Kentucky.

Paul Rand was a giant of American design whose influential career spanned the second half of the twentieth century. His visionary and pithy conceptions of corporate and non-profit brand identities—though often graphically minimal—embody the artist’s complex philosophy, interest in modernist aesthetics, and singular wit. This exhibition features posters, book covers, and packaging designs from the entirety of Rand’s career. Visit Paul Rand: The Designer’s Task with an UMMA docent to explore the genre of graphic design within the context of the art museum and examine how Rand’s intellectual process and impact on visual culture developed over time.

Major Jackson is the author of three collections of poetry: Holding Company, Hoops—both finalists for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature—and Leaving Saturn, winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize and finalist for a National Book Critics Award Circle. He is also a recipient of a Whiting Writers' Awardand has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner​ Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress.

Jackson was a creative arts fellow at Harvard University before professorship at University of Vermont and serving as a core faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars. He currently serves as the Poetry Editor of the Harvard Review.

In conjunction with the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, UMMA and Vault of Midnight-Ann Arbor partner to present a book club that will read and discuss three comic books that explore some of the extreme possibilities of life in the age of the internet. Books include: The Private Eye (January 20), Snot Girl vol. 1 (February 17), and Bitch Planet vol 1 (March 10). Pick and choose your favorites or come to the whole series. Books will be available for sale at Vault of Midnight. All are invited to read and participate. Please note that these comic books deal with mature material.

Abstraction, Color, and Politics in the Early 1970s explores large-scale works of art by Helen Frankenthaler, Louise Nevelson, Sam Gilliam, and Al Loving, within the context of highly-charged debates of the early 1970s about aesthetics, politics, race, and feminism. This exhibition explores the gendered and racialized terms upon which great art was defined and assessed, and the strategy of artists to question the identity and aesthetics of the artist making the art. UMMA docents will help visitors look through the lens of the four artists’ works to explore the aesthetic choices inherent in abstraction as well as the acts of staining, pouring, draping, —or even taking apart the wall itself—within this charged political context.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (she/they) is a queer disabled nonbinary femme writer and cultural worker of Burger/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent. Leah's work has been widely published and anthologized, most recently in The Deaf Poets Society, Glitter and Grit, and Octavia's Brood, including work in the anthologies Dear Sister, Persistence: Still Butch and Femme, and Visible: A Femmethology, among others. A VONA fellow, she holds an MFA from Mills College. In 2010, she was named one of the Feminist Press' 40 Feminists Under 40 Shaping the Future, and she is a 2013 Autostraddle Hot 105 member.

Join Leah and the Spectrum Center for a conversation on the intersection of queerness, race, and disability in today's society. Leah will treat us with her latest work on the aforementioned topics and bring us to her own world. 

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is part of a series of keynote speakers Spectrum Center is hosting on campus covering radical queer advocacy and activism work in collaboration with several departments and student organizations at University of Michigan. 

One MFA student of fiction and one of poetry, each introduced by a peer, will read their work. The Mark Webster Reading Series presents emerging writers in a warm and relaxed setting. We encourage you to bring your friends—a Webster reading makes for an enjoyable and enlightening Friday evening.

This week's reading features Rachel Cross and Eirill Falck.

Rachel Cross is a writer from the Midwest. Her fiction has appeared in SmokeLong Quarterly, Fugue, Day One, and elsewhere. You can find her online at rcross.net.

Eirill Falck, is a writer from Oslo, Norway.

Storytime at the Museum promotes art enjoyment for our youngest patrons. We read a story in the galleries and include a fun, age-appropriate, hands-on activity related to it. Children ages three to six are invited to join Storytime. Parents must accompany children. Siblings are welcome to join the group. Meet in front of the UMMA Store.

The internet has changed every aspect of contemporary life—from how we interact with each other to how we work and play. Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, examines the radical impact of internet culture on visual art since the invention of the web in 1989. Join UMMA docents as they explore the more than forty works across a variety of media—painting, performance, photography, sculpture, video, and web-based projects—in this exciting exhibition.

In conjunction with the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, 1989 to Today, UMMA and Vault of Midnight-Ann Arbor partner to present a book club that will read and discuss three comic books that explore some of the extreme possibilities of life in the age of the internet. Books include: The Private Eye (January 20), Snot Girl vol. 1 (February 17), and Bitch Planet vol 1 (March 10). Pick and choose your favorites or come to the whole series. Books will be available for sale at Vault of Midnight. All are invited to read and participate. Please note that these comic books deal with mature material.

On the occasion of the exhibition Art in the Age of the Internet, UMMA and Vault of Midnight-Ann Arbor have partnered up to form the UMMA Book Club: The Age of the Internet in Comic Books. Join David Choberka, Andrew W. Mellon Manager of Academic Outreach & Teaching, for a discussion in the gallery that connects the art on view to  themes in the selected comics. Open to anyone, regardless of participation in the book club.