Culture

La Raza: Arts and Media Collective, 1975–Today

La Raza: Arts and Media Collective, 1975–Today

Feb 24, 2025 | , |

At the height of El Movimiento—the Chicano/Latino labor and civil rights movement led by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez—a group of mostly Mexican American U-M social work students founded Trabajadores de la Raza, intended to support underrepresented students and promote justice at the university. This group would evolve into the La Raza Arts and Media Collective, part of a vast network of grassroots organizations throughout the country. In UMMA’s glass-walled Stenn gallery, La Raza: Arts and Media Collective, 1975–Today celebrates its fiftieth anniversary.

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Event Review: Stargazing

Event Review: Stargazing

Dec 23, 2024 | , |

The planetarium rotates three shows every month, but the Sky Tonight, which runs twice every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, is always the “star” attraction. The presenter, usually a U-M science student, leads an exploration of the current night sky, gives tips on how to find the cardinal directions, constellations, and planets on your own, and winds up with a trippy full-speed-ahead jaunt through the stars that feels both like a roller coaster and a ride on a spaceship.

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Paper Cut

Paper Cut

Dec 23, 2024 | , , |

Advance Publications, owners of the Ann Arbor News and seven sister MLive papers, announced in October that it will shut down the Jersey Journal at the end of January, while also eliminating print editions of its flagship Star-Ledger and two other papers in New Jersey. Following the digital transition of four Advance-owned papers in Alabama and Mississippi in 2023, this move raises the possibility that print editions of the News and the rest of the MLive group could be next.

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The Birth of Cinema Guild

The Birth of Cinema Guild

Oct 25, 2024 | , |

Cinema Guild cosponsored the Ann Arbor Film Festival from its start in 1963 and hosted guests like Frank Capra, Harold Lloyd, Andy Warhol, and the Velvet Underground. And it sometimes courted controversy with screenings of banned films like Flaming Creatures, which in 1967 led to the arrests of four Cinema Guild board members.

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Event Review: Creature Discomfort

Event Review: Creature Discomfort

Oct 25, 2024 | , |

The legend of the Mothman originated in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, where between November 1966 and December 1967, locals reported sightings of a winged humanoid creature with huge, glowing red eyes. While skeptics argued that the sightings could be attributed to sandhill cranes or large owls, the incidents led to widespread fear and speculation, some believing it to be an extraterrestrial or supernatural entity. After the Silver Bridge collapsed into the Ohio River in December 1967, killing 46 people, theories arose that the Mothman was an omen of impending disaster.

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8 Ball Movie Night at the Blind Pig

8 Ball Movie Night at the Blind Pig

Aug 14, 2024 | , |

The shabby, welcoming confines of the Blind Pig, the beloved Ann Arbor dive bar and longtime music venue on First St., are also host to regular late-night gatherings celebrating the offbeat, idiosyncratic world of B movies.

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The Observer Observed

The Observer Observed

Jul 25, 2024 | , |

That’s the title of an exhibit on the second floor of the downtown library. Subtitled “45 Years of Pages from the Ann Arbor Observer,” it covers five large walls with reproductions of 500 pages published in the magazine between 1976 and 2022.

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Eli Lilly, Patron of the Arts

Eli Lilly, Patron of the Arts

Jun 25, 2024 | , |

The pharmaceutical giant started with a single location in the Original Fair on North University in 2022. This year, it will be everywhere as the first-ever presenting sponsor of all three fairs.

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Cancer Gratitude

Cancer Gratitude

Jun 25, 2024 | , , , |

An Ann Arbor native, Joan Belgrave is a two-time Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter. Four years after her husband died, her life took another dramatic turn when a routine biopsy resulted in an especially dangerous diagnosis: “triple-negative” breast cancer.

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Zoom Readings

Zoom Readings

Jun 25, 2024 | |

It was July of last year, and she had to finish What Springs Forth for a Zoom reading. It would be her first chance to hear her play—about “middle-aged friends who head for what they think will be a spa retreat and wind up battling [the elements], each other, and their inner demons”—read aloud.

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Event Review: Machine Dazzle’s Ouroboros

Event Review: Machine Dazzle’s Ouroboros

May 24, 2024 | , |

The ancient Egyptian and Greek symbol of a snake eating its tail, Ouroboros, is also the inspiration for the three-part art installation by U-M Stamps Roman J. Witt artist-in-residence Machine Dazzle (né Matthew Flower). The resident artist works jointly with students and faculty to create a work of art: Ouroboros, a room-sized “snake” that hangs from the ceiling at UMMA’s Irving Stenn Jr. Family Gallery.

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