Pioneer Theatre Guild’s reimagined Hamlet embodies exactly the type of theater program Quinn Strassel wants for students: “Theater is better when everyone is invited to the table.” And in Ann Arbor Public Schools, high school students have an open invitation.
When I walk up to the hot pink facade of Cluster Museum on Main, I often get a little jolt of excited anticipation—I never know what artist I might meet, what new creative work I might experience, what spark of conversation might ignite me.
Hear.Say Brewing + Theater is a lot of things: a craft brewery, a taproom, and a performance space for comedy of both the stand-up and improvisational varieties. Nestled into a cozy west-side commercial strip on W. Liberty, between Stadium and Maple, it’s also a welcoming neighborhood hub.
This is the U School approach: a philosophy of constructive conflict resolution, developed by U School leadership, blended with the Reggio Emilia approach, eco-justice, and play- and place-based education.
High-rises and luxury student apartments are transforming Ann Arbor’s skyline, and the streets and neighborhoods below.
Standardized test scores show that many Ann Arbor–area kids are struggling with reading proficiency. According to results released last year from the 2024–25 Michigan Student Test of Education Progress, only 56 percent of AAPS third-graders met or exceeded proficiency standards in English Language Arts. On a key national study known as the Nation’s Report Card, Michigan was ranked forty-fourth in the U.S. for fourth-grade reading in 2024—dropping eight places since 2019.
In its 2025 annual report, released in late April, the Washtenaw County Health Department announced a promising decline in deaths from opioid overdoses, firearms, and suicides in 2024. Firearm deaths continued to drop in 2025, and preliminary data show a similar trend for opioid overdoses and suicides. With all three issues nationally recognized as public health crises, why has Washtenaw County been so successful?
In an exceedingly rare political maneuver, resigned Ann Arbor school board treasurer Don Wilkerson filed in June to run in the November special election called to fill the seat he vacated.
Read More
In late June, three Democratic state reps—Jason Morgan and Morgan Foreman of Ann Arbor and Jimmie Wilson of Ypsilanti—introduced legislation that would require university officials to follow local zoning requirements and ordinances. This followed U-M’s announcement in May that it would purchase the 140-acre Concordia University campus for $60 million. Because the university has legal autonomy on land purchases, the move did not require local input.
Read More
After scathing reviews, Blue Suede’s Exhibit A2 has left the building.
Read More
Activist campaign prompts Consumers Energy to abandon plans for a gas-fired plant in Lima Twp.
Read MoreThe city’s plan to spend $500,000 to give qualified residents about $4,000 to $7,500 to buy a new or used EV shows poor judgement at the very least.
Read More
We spoke with three painters, one from each fair, whose work engages with “intersections,” a concept that encompasses much of what the fairs are all about: exploring points of connection and embracing individuality and commonality at once.
Read More
“[A] 140-home enclave set on rolling hills between the Huron River and Whitmore Lake Road” and “a masterpiece of the landscaper’s art.” That’s how a June 2005 Observer piece, “The Buried History of Barton Hills,” described Barton Hills Village (BHV). Two decades later, there’s trouble in paradise.
Read More
There were at least two reasons why U-M’s $60 million deal to buy Concordia University’s Geddes Rd. campus rankled city hall.
Read More
In April, the community was shaken when the regents’ choice for president, Kent Syverud, announced he would not take office due to a cancer diagnosis. He had been scheduled to assume the job on May 11. For now, interim president Domenico Grasso continues to lead U-M’s 68,000 students across the three campuses and about 50,000 faculty and staff at the university and hospital.
Read More
Ann Arborites Eli Savit and Abdul El-Sayed say their campaigns are steeped in what they have experienced here, whether as a schoolchild, like Savit, or in formative college years, as in El-Sayed’s case.
Read More
In June 2025, Michigan Medicine opened the doors of the Ypsilanti Health Center at 300 W. Michigan Ave. with a mission that was twofold: to improve health outcomes and the social determinants of health in a city that has long trailed Ann Arbor in both.
Read More
Jenna and Jim Tenzillo moved to Northville Township from Ann Arbor to shorten their commutes, but the move came with a trade-off: the smell of the Arbor Hills landfill, located just across the county line in Salem Township.
Read More
Sarah Russman’s daughter will leave their home in Ann Arbor this fall to embark on her freshman year of college and the new experience of shared living in a dorm room. Meanwhile, Russman is themself getting ready for a new shared-living experience, under a program that aims to address housing affordability and the challenges for older adults living alone.
Read More