Profiles

Ann Arborite Arie Lipsky

Sep 13, 2014 | , |

As the Ann Arbor Symphony rehearsed for a children’s concert, conductor Arie Lipsky was about to give the downbeat for the song “Puppy Love.” Mary Steffek Blaske, the symphony’s executive director, handed...

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A Fresh Look

Sep 1, 2014 | , |

“All the world’s a stage” is a fitting speech delivered amidst the greenery of Nichols Arboretum. As You Like It, the lighthearted love story being performed as part of the Shakespeare in the Arb series, now in...

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Dave Lamkin

Aug 11, 2014 | , |

It’s a rainy June afternoon, and All Star Driver Education instructor Dave Lamkin is giving two high school sophomores their fifth driving lesson. The girls remind him that today they’ll practice parallel parking and...

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Ele’s Place

Aug 1, 2014 | , |

The monogrammed necklace of her dad’s initials she wears, and the quilt made of his old T-shirts on her bed, are just two ways Oceana (Oh-SHE-anna) Bailey stays close to the memory of Richard Bailey—the father she adored...

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Ann Arborite Hiawatha Bailey

Jul 3, 2014 | , |

At the Blind Pig, Hiawatha Bailey says, “they know how to treat a rocker right.” When he’s not crooning behind the mic or listening to other acts in the bar’s main room, you may find him downstairs in the...

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Gayle Hurn

Jun 11, 2014 | , |

On a sunny morning in early May, no one is in the water at Fuller Pool, but about two dozen city staffers and volunteers are milling around it, adults setting up lounge chairs and little kids bouncing a basketball or picking...

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Latania Fair

May 11, 2014 | , |

When there’s a late-night crisis at Alpha House, the local shelter for homeless families, shelter director Latania Fair gets the call. It may be a staff member wondering whether a client needs to go to the emergency room....

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Martin Contreras and Keith Orr

Apr 7, 2014 | , |

Over coffee one morning last October, Martin Contreras, fifty-four, and Keith Orr, fifty-six, discussed whether they should get married that day. “Let’s do it,” urged Contreras. They had been a couple for...

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Ann Arborite Josh Greenberg

Mar 24, 2014 | , |

Josh Greenberg has just landed in Uganda. It’s the summer after his sophomore year at Duke, where he founded a nonprofit called the Progressive Health Partnership. He’s raised the money to start a small medical...

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Susan Murphy

Dec 24, 2013 | , |

“What’s the game here?” U-M prof Susan Murphy asks as she projects strings of equations and approximations in a crowded classroom in the Dennison Building. Students in this advanced U-M statistics class write...

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Liz Davis

Nov 25, 2013 | , |

For more than twenty-five years, waitress Liz Davis has walked the wooden floor of the Old Town Tavern. “When I first started working here, this was a rough corner,” she recalls in a husky voice. At the time she was...

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River Hero

Oct 15, 2013 | , |

Standing on a footbridge next to Argo Dam, Laura Rubin likes what she sees: a group carries inner tubes toward the new Argo Cascades, bikers and runners whiz by, a couple of paddleboarders balance clumsily on the pond, a few...

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Sports Shrink

Sep 15, 2013 | , |

Dan Saferstein knows how important sports are to a lot of Ann Arbor kids–and to their families. “In this city, parents have high expectations,” he says. “College [athletic] scholarships become kind of a...

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A Knowing Nose

Aug 13, 2013 | , |

Sitting down at Sweetwaters with Michelle Krell Kydd, I ask, “What exactly can you smell right now?” “The generic smell of a coffeehouse,” she replies. “I can smell cake. I can smell something...

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Kiki Markovits

Jul 13, 2013 | , |

You must “build right angles,” Kiki Markovits instructs in a heavy Austrian accent as she points at her perfectly positioned chin and neck. A petite woman dressed in a stylish cotton top, black leggings, and...

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Taking Flight

Jun 20, 2013 | , |

“Man, it was hard,” says Grant Grimard, nineteen. The former Pioneer High basketball captain broke with the pack after graduation in 2011: Instead of college, he joined the nonprofit City Year program, where he...

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Bernie and Marvel Mayotte

May 20, 2013 | , |

A toddler is on the loose in Bernie and Marvel Mayotte’s family room, weaving in and out among the toys and books that dot the floor, climbing up and down on couches, and pointing around the room. Bernie, age...

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Giving Boys a Voice

Sep 1, 2012 | , |

Nine-year-old Alden Rohwer loves to sing. “He sings all day long, on car trips—­everywhere!” says his mother, Aileen. She says since joining the Boychoir of Ann Arbor about a year ago, Alden’s been inspired not...

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