LITERAMA!
Dynamic Poetry and LILA Awards Presentations
The Ann Arbor Book Festival is proud to present an evening full of poetry and the presentation of the annual "LILA Award", or Leader in the Literary Arts. This year, the award is going to two leaders in the community, the Family Book Club, and Nicola Rooney, owner of Nicola's Books. This evening will feature poetry from children at the outset and then will venture into edgier territory later with nationally renowned adult poets and electric high school and college poets participating in an inter-generational poetry slam. Come out and see some of the hottest young poets in the area and enjoy these great performances!
Friday, May 14
7:00 pm
Neutral Zone
310 E. Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Tickets: $5 at the door. Proceeds benefit the Ann Arbor Book Festival.
Dynamic Poetry
Aracelis Girmay is the author of Teeth, a collection of poems published by Curbstone Press in 2007. Her poems have also been published in Ploughshares, Bellevue Literary Review, Indiana Review, Callaloo, and MiPOesias, among other journals. Her collage-based picture book, Changing, Changing: Story and Collages, was published by George Braziller in 2005. She has been a featured reader at the Udi Aloni Project Room, Studio Museum in Harlem, Bowery Poetry Club, & prisons in Trenton & Manhattan. A Cave Canem fellow, Girmay teaches writing workshops in New York & California.
Rachel McKibbens was born in Anaheim, CA. She is a member and co-founder of the Right Coast Writers Brigade. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including World Literature Today, The New York Quarterly and Bowery Women: Poems. Among other honors, she is a New York Foundation of the Arts Poetry Fellow, a Pushcart nominee, and the 2009 Women's Individual World Poetry Slam champion. She has read her work at universities, schools, galleries and various other venues across the nation. She teaches poetry and creative writing across the country at all levels. An ex-punk rock chola with five children, she lives in upstate New York with writer Jacob Rakovan and four of their children.
2010 LILA Award Recipients
Family Book Club
The mission of the Family Book Club is to ensure that all children in Washtenaw County have an equal opportunity to develop a love of reading by providing books and information and by sharing beliefs about the value of reading.
The Family Book Club, originally called the Baby Book Club, is a nonprofit 501(c) (3) grassroots organization founded in 1991 by a group of educators dedicated to promoting the benefits of literacy. We believe that reading is one of the greatest joys and keys to success in life.
Nicola Rooney
Nicola's Books is one of Michigans largest independent bookstores. In Ann Arbor we have had a long standing relationship with Washtenaw Literacy with Nicola being on the board so long that her term limit is just around the corner. We are also business partners with both the public and private school sector in Washtenaw County. We have a strong working relationship with the Ann Arbor District Library with Nicola being on the screening committe for six years for the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads program. More recently we have been partnering with Ann Arbor icon The Michigan Theater.
Nicola has owned the store since 1995. She previously was an Chemical Engineer, but has been a big reader ever since she can remember. Her reading preferences center on history, both fiction and non-fiction. Her current favorite series is the "Pink Carnation" by Lauren Willig - an entertaining series in the style of The Scarlet Pimpernel, with a contemporary and historical story line.
About the LILA Award
The Festival has established this annual award to honor a member of the community who has made outstanding contributions to the prominence of the book, fostering a love of reading, and promoting literacy. The recipient is an active member of the community in the area of the written word.
Contact:
Kathy Robenalt
734.369.3366
WRoben3357@aol.com
