June 16, 2020: Reading and Discussion of “I Have the Answer,” online via Harrison Township Library. Sign up here.
May 27, 2020: “Building Your Literary Community” panel discussion with Desiree Cooper, Lolita Hernandez and Laura Hulthen Thomas online via Wayne State University Press.
May 14, 2020: Bookclub discussion of “I Have the Answer” with Grosse Pointe book club online.
April 7th, 2020: Launch party for “I Have the Answer” via the Grosse Pointe Public Library online.
December 7th, 12-4pm: Detroit Writing Room Holiday Fair.
October 30th: Grosse Pointe Writer’s Group, 6:30.
October 23rd: Bookbound in Ann Arbor with Zilka Joseph.
March 2nd, 7pm: Blues Collar Poetry/Music Fest: Fort Street Bridge Park Benefit
AWP in Portland, Oregon, March 27-31st:
March 28th: Tupelo 30/30 Alumni Reading: TaborSpace, 5441 SE Belmont St, Portland, OR 97215, 6-8pm.
March 29th: Just having fun with Queenie’s at McMenamin’s BackStage Bar, 5-7pm on March 29th. Address: 3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd., Portland, OR 97214.
April 2nd: 6pm: Poets and Pies, Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave. , Main Library Friends Conference Room.
April 11th: 7pm: Motor-Signal Reading Series with Elizabeth Schmuhl at Signal-Return Press, 1345 Division St #102, Detroit, MI 48207.
April 18th: 6pm: Page Bookshop reading with John Freeman, Zilka Joseph, Michael Lauchlan and Dorene O’Brien. Directions here.
May 16th: 7pm: Reading at PuppetArt in Southfield at 7pm, 24293 Telegraph Rd #150, Southfield, MI 48033.
May 18th: 3-5 pm. Reading at the East Side Reading Series.
June 18th: Reading at #yeahyouwrite in NYC at 6:30pm with Will Allison, Jonathan Durbin, Clifford Garstang and Myla Goldberg. More info here.
July 15-August 13th: Jentel Artist’s Residency, Sheridan, Wyoming.
Past Events:
Brain Candy Reading, October 15, 2018:
November 14, 7pm: When Art Makes You Lose Your Mind
Artists have always been inspired by their deepest fears, personal traumas and core concerns. Mining them helps us connect with universal themes and experiences. Nowadays, there seems to be an added source inspiration: political witness. In these tumultuous times, artists are not only responding to internal demons, but external, socio-political ones as well. All of these muses are fraught with inherent mental stress. When you are motivated to dig deeper than ever before to deliver urgent art—even at the expense of your mental health—who will witness the witness?
This workshop is for those for whom art is a way to process profound emotional/social/political pain, grief, fear and/or anger. While art often touches these emotions, there are times when an artist feels compelled to express them before the emotions have been harnessed, processed or even survived. There are times when the artist is creating art about a shipwreck while the ship is sinking. At other times, a seemingly dispassionate work may strike an unexpected vein of emotion that is difficult to manage while continuing to create.
Artists in all genres who are having difficulty balancing their art with their mental health will benefit from this exploration. Panelists will address the pitfalls of creativity and mental health, while artists will share their stories of managing emotionally difficult projects.
Join us in a roundtable to discuss surviving the deep cut of artmaking, and how to preserve sanity when doing your hardest work.
Panelists: Desiree Cooper (fiction/memoir), Sherina Rodriquez (playwright), Oren Goldenberg (filmmaker), Gail Parker (therapist)