April is National Poetry Month!

Hey Everybody, we're celebrating National Poetry Month with a couple of great opportunities for you to show off your poetic chops- and even get yourself published. 

The library is putting out a book of poems by Westland Library community members. Submit them to me at andy.schuck@westland.lib.mi.us or bring me in a paper copy by the end of the month (we may even post some weekly submissions at our display by the Reference Desk). See the library display for more information and fun, interactive poetic things to do in the library (yes, everyone whose poem is selected will receive a copy of the book and we will try to fit in everyone who submits).

We are also having a Teen Poetry Slam combined with an All Ages Open Mic on Friday, April 24th from 6:30-9 p.m. to give everyone a chance to read their poems out loud for a live audience. This one will not be taped by WLND, so those of you who are a little camera shy won't have to worry about being filmed.

Let me know if you have any questions at andy.schuck@westland.lib.mi.us or 734.326.6123.

Percussive John

John, one of our Poetry Group stalwarts, is also a master percussionist and has passed along some music as well as the date of a show he is participating in in the next month. Check him out if you can in his various incarnations!

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The 'Ambient-Percussive-Space' music project I (John Smolinski) am playing with 'Universal Circles' is playing the Assembly Line Concert at 2:00 a.m. March 28th (What better time for Space Music?) at AJs Music Cafe. The Assembly Line Concert is a tribute to the American Auto Worker. Shawn and I will be at AJs by midnight the 27th...For those who can't make it, but are denizens of the night, this event is being streamed on the internet:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-assembly-line-concert

For those who can make it, please reply to Ronda's (Shawn's lady) evite below, (tie-dye is optional though Ronda is hyping it for the video-taping, they seriously had to flatter me to get me to wear it, and I will be wearing a very muted tie dye...)

As well for the REAL late night (early morning?) crowd there is an after-gig party. Get those naps in on Friday!

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http://www-personal.umich.edu/~shawndel/Universal_Circles_Band.html


Family, friends, co-workers, fellow musicians, supporters,

I re-entered the studio over this past weekend for session two with guitarist Shawn DeLoach of Ann Arbor, to explore more musical expressions within our project 'Universal Circles'. More complete and polished then session #1, which was our first collaboration and meeting and a rough mix, we did six recordings. Click on the link to hear the first three. These even have titles! Hope you enjoy these musical offerings.

John 'Juan' Smolinski

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kudos also to John for his great performance at the March Open Mic at the library. They sounded great!

March Poetry Group

Many thanks to Cheryl Martin, who commandeered the last Poetry Group meeting for us! I didn't get a lot of details about the program but it sounded like Cheryl had a lot of fun with those who made it. Keep up your writing and hope to see you at the next Open Mic (this Thursday- 3/19- from 6:30-8 p.m.)

Blues and Muse

Hey folks, here's a posting for another Open Mic in the area. It's happening Tuesday, March 23rd from 7-11 p.m. Sounds like fun:

Blues and Muse (hosted by Clay and Chico, AKA Los Desgraziados)
@ Maxwell's in Garden City
32416 Industrial Road
phone: 734.427.5300 ext. 7