Semester in Detroit and The University of Michigan Detroit Center are teaming up again to host Detroiters Speak. These public events are free and open to all. Moderating the latest series is Residential College Creative Writing Lecturere Lolita Hernandez. Hernandez has invited several artists from Detroit's literary community to come share their work. Check out the lineup here:

 

May 15:  M.L. Liebler with Coyote Monk // Walter Lacey

 

M. L. Liebler is an internationally known & widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist and arts organizer. He is the author of 13 books including the Award winning Wide Awake in Someone Else's Dream (Wayne State University Press 2008). Wide Awake won both The Paterson Poetry Prize for Literary Excellence.  His groundbreaking working class literary anthology from The Coffee House Press (Working Words: Punching the Clock and Kicking Out the Jams) received The Michigan Library Notable Book Award for 2011.  His forthcoming book is Underneath My American Face from The Wayne State University Press in 2015. www.mlliebler.com

 

Coyote Monk is Steve King, bass and Grammy Award Winning co-writer, producer, and engineer for Eminem; Frankie the K, keyboards and leader of Black Hat poetry band; Leonard Johnson, drums and former member of The Dangerous Diane Band and the Cass Corridor Ghost Band; Ted Nagy, former lead guitarist of The Magic Poetry Band and Director of Music Hall's Jazz Cafe.

 

Walter Lacy is a poet and hip-hop artist, born and raised on Detroit's West side. He has opened for a range of artists, including Saul Williams, hip-hop artist Freeway, and Detroit's own Dwele. He was a member of the 2009 U-Club Slam Team (for CUPSI) that competed at the University of Pennsylvania. He has poetry and hip-hop projects in the works.  

 

May 29:  Kim Hunter // Alise Alousi // James Hart III

Kim D. Hunter is life-long Detroiter employed in media relations for nonprofits. He has served as Poet-in-Residence in several Detroit public schools through the InsideOut Literary Arts Project.  He co-directs the Woodward Line Poetry Series. His work has appeared in Rainbow Darkness, Abandon Automobile, Triage, Hipology, Metro Times, Dispatch Detroit and  Graffiti Rag.  His has published two collections of poetry: borne on slow knives (Past Tents, 2001) and edge of the time zone (white print inc, 2009). He became a Kresge Literary Arts Fellow in 2012 with a collection of short fiction, The Official Report on Human Activity. His work can be seen and heard at www.kimhunterdetroit.com 

 

Alise Alousi’s poems have appeared in: Graffiti Rag, The Alternative Press, The Malpais Review and in several anthologies including, We are Iraqis: Aesthetics and Politics in a Time of War (Syracuse University Press).  She is a Knight Arts Challenge recipient for From Detroit to Baghdad: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here. She works for the InsideOut Literary Arts Project.

 

James Hart III has published four books of poetry, and forthcoming 'The Thirteenth' Ms, and Translations of Gertrude Kolmar, a lost poet whom died in Auschwitz. His work has appeared in various journals including: Pasttents Press Online Anthology, 6x6, Ugly Duckling Presse; and Theoretical Writtings at Jacket2, and outofnothinng.org, etc...
He is curator of the Woodward Line Poetry Series at the Scarab Club, and director of White Print INC. Press in Detroit. In 2001 he corresponded with Jacques Derrida who expressed great interest in his work

 

June 12: Lolita Hernandez

 

Lolita Hernandez is the author of two collections of short stories: Making Callaloo in Detroit and Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant, winner of a 2005 PEN Beyond Margins Award. She also is the author of two chapbook collections of poems: Quiet Battles and snakecrossing. She is a 2012 Kresge Literary Arts fellow. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in a wide variety of literary publications. After over thirty three years as a UAW worker at General Motors, she now teaches in the Creative writing Department of the University of Michigan Residential College. Hernandez is the author of Autopsy of an Engine and Other Stories from the Cadillac Plant (Coffee House Press), winner of a 2005 PEN Beyond Margins Award and is a 2012 Kresge Fellow. After over thirty three years as a UAW member at General Motors, she now teaches in the Creative writing Department of the University of Michigan Residential College.