Hey there, friends. Looking for some intellectual fertilizer for your brain this weekend? I know I am. That’s why you’ll find me and as many friends as I can drag in the Mendelssohn Theater for the Ann Arbor Wordworks Homegrown show.
What’s that, you ask? Oh, dear reader, read on:
What do you get when you take some of the top youth poets in Ann Arbor’s VOLUME Youth Poetry Project over the last five years and mix them with some of the best performance poets at UM, EMU, and WCC? Then throw them all in a couple of dimly lit apartments with mostly functioning computers, a few scattered pizza boxes, the Pistons on TV in the background, a whole lotta heart, and vat-loads of burgeoning talent? You get Ann Arbor’s own underground performance poetry troupe working hard to challenge the boundaries of spoken word, fight crime, and make a mark as professional writers, artists, and teachers—Ann Arbor Wordworks!
Wordworks will perform its third annual full-length poetry concert HOMEGROWN this Friday, January 20th, at the Mendelssohn Theater in the Michigan League, 925 N. University. Doors open @ 6:30PM and the two-hour show begins at 7. Tickets at the door are $5 for students of any kind and $10 for members of the general public, $4 and $8 in advance. You can reserve tickets by contacting Jeff Kass at 734-223-7443 or via kass@aaps.k12.mi.us.
Click here to find out more info on the performers. I saw some of these amazing poets read at Poetry Night in Ann Arbor V, and trust me when I say this is an event not to be missed. Jeff Kass says it’s going to be “off the pine tree,” and I have no choice at this point but to believe everything that man says.
Also, I’m interested to see what exactly “off the pine tree” means. I bet it’s something good.
Furthermore, we hold tutor training sessions the third Wednesday of the month, which, this month, happens to be tomorrow. Linda from EMU will be joining us again; there will be pizza, and, as usual, stimulating and informative conversation about mentoring students. If you’ve never tutored, this is a great introduction. If you’ve been racking up the hours in our lab, this is sure to be an inspiring discussion.
Group hug…and I’m not talking about the Giraffedog, although, of course, he’s welcome to join us.