Unleash Your Inner Poet

Thu, 04/07/2011 - 6:57pm by MariaK

April 15th, AXIS Coffeehouse will be celebrating National Poetry Month with a special poetry fest for teens and adults! Come join us to read poetry, write poetry and flex your creative muscles. Snacks (and prizes!) provided. The time is April 15th, 6:30-8pm. The place is the Pittsfield Program Room. Be there, or be quadrilateral.

Short Shorts at AXIS Coffeehouse

Mon, 03/14/2011 - 5:49pm by MariaK

Short short fiction that is! Local writer Keith Hood will join us to share techniques for writing flash fiction, complete stories written in 1,000 words or less. As the Bard said -- "Brevity is the soul of wit." If you feel up to the challenge, join us in the Malletts Creek program room this Friday from 6:30-8 and get ready to think small.

To see just how much can be said in few words, check out It All Changed in an Instant, in which a collection of writers both famous and ordinary tell their life stories in just six words. In the spirit of things, here's a six-word story from me:

"Life is short. Visit AXIS Coffeehouse."

Malletts Creek -- 6:30-8:00 p.m. -- Friday, March 18

AXIS Coffeehouse Presents...Sandy Ryder!

Sat, 03/05/2011 - 1:05pm by MariaK

This Friday's AXIS Coffeehouse will be a very special one, featuring none other than the Wild Swan Theater's Sandy Ryder. Ms. Ryder will be in the Malletts Creek program room to give all and sundry tips on poetry as performance. We're going to have a lot of fun! The question is, will you be here having fun too?

For more on poetry as performance, try these:
Wham!, a guide to performance poetry for young people.
The Poetry Lounge: The Power of Performance, a DVD demonstrating poetry performance techniques.
The Spoken Word Revolution, a collection of performance poetry, with a CD so you can listen to the poems!

Malletts Creek -- 6:30-8:00 p.m. -- Friday, March 11

AXIS Coffeehouse Returns!

Fri, 02/25/2011 - 5:36pm by MariaK

Prepare to celebrate, denizens of Ann Arbor! AXIS Coffeehouse is coming back from vacation on Friday, March 4, tanned, refreshed, and eager to write more poems. We will return to our old haunts at Malletts Creek to write, read and have fun! AXIS Coffeehouse...all the cool people are doing it, and so should you.

If you want to catch up on the latest poems before coming, check out:
Time You Let Me In, new poems by young poets.
Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs, a story in poems about a teenage baseball player torn between his girlfriend and a new friend.
Poetry Speaks Who I Am, over 100 poems by authors classic to contemporary -- with a CD, so you can hear the poems read aloud!

AXIS Coffeehouse | Friday, March 4 | 6:30-8pm | Malletts Creek Branch

AXIS Coffeehouse Goes on Vacation

Mon, 02/07/2011 - 7:26pm by MariaK

Hello fellow poetry fans! This Friday will be the last AXIS Coffeehouse session before we take a two-week break. AXIS Coffeehouse plans to spend the break on the beach in a sunny, tropical locale, and will return on March 4 for our pre-summer session -- featuring special guests Sandy Ryder of the Wild Swan Theater and local author Keith Hood! Check in for updates! The time is Friday, 6:30-8. The place is Malletts Creek. See you there.

AXIS Coffeehouse | Friday, February 11 | 6:30-8pm | Malletts Creek Branch

Magazine Update -- Lil Wayne, Edible Bugs, and Books about Sports

Thu, 02/03/2011 - 6:48pm by MariaK

This month's magazines will stun and amaze you! Take a look...

For the young 'uns:
Creative Kids -- Featuring an interview with Katherine Paterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia!
Dig Magazine -- When is a hole in your head a good thing?
Ranger Rick -- Do you know that dolphins live in the Amazon River? And that people all over the world eat bugs? It's a strange world out there...

For the teens:
ESPN Magazine -- What's it like to be Jadeveon Clowney, who has been called the nation's number one high school football player? Read to find out!
Rolling Stone -- the Global Warming Hall of Shame and what Lil Wayne is up to these days.

For the parents:
American Baby -- baby traditions from all over the world, and a guide to scary symptoms that are really no big deal.
Horn Book -- What is 'YA Fatphobia'? Plus the favorite picture books of 2010, and a guide to good sports books for kids.
The Old Schoolhouse -- Tips for teaching technology, foreign language and writing skills at home.

I don't know about you, but I think these magazines sound fascinating. Especially that 'hole in the head' one. I'm already stunned and amazed!

Live at AXIS Coffeehouse...

Tue, 02/01/2011 - 2:27pm by MariaK

This Friday from 6:30 to 8 at Mallett's Creek, our friend Scott Beal will return to AXIS Coffeehouse to share his poems and his poetry-writing tips. When Scott is not writing for AnnArbor.com, he can be found at 826 Michigan, the Neutral Zone, and generally anywhere poetry is taking place. Scott's last visit was great fun, so come check out this one!

It's Go Time!

Sat, 01/29/2011 - 4:13pm by MariaK

Time to play the ancient strategy game, that is! Saturday February 5, 2011 from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm at Traverwood Branch, Michael Zhang of the University of Michigan Go Club and his super-crew will offer an introduction to Go -- at the same time the simplest and the most complex game of strategy on Earth.

As Iwamoto Kaoru -- a 9-dan professional Go player -- said "Go uses the most elemental materials and concepts -- line and circle, wood and stone, black and white -- combining them with simple rules to generate subtle strategies and complex tactics that stagger the imagination." Need I say more?

If you're interested in learning more about Go before coming to play it with us, check out Go by Charles Matthews, Go Basics by Peter Shotwell, or, perhaps the most entertaining introduction, Hikaru no Go -- a manga series about a young teen haunted by the ghost of a Go master.

AXIS Coffehouse Presents....

Sun, 01/16/2011 - 12:52pm by MariaK

This Friday AXIS Coffeehouse will be even cooler than it normally is due to the appearance of special guest Jeff Kass! Jeff Kass -- who can often be found at the Neutral Zone -- will present some of his awesome work, and give some suggestions for writing and performing poetry. The time: Jan. 21st 6:30-8. The place: Malletts Creek branch. Don't miss it!

An Epic Magazine Update -- Tigers, Fashion, and Valentine's Crafts

Thu, 01/13/2011 - 8:38pm by MariaK

This magazine update is truly epic, folks. Our magazine "in" box is swamped -- and I mean completely flooded -- with new magazines for all.

For the kiddos:
Zoobies -- This one's all about tigers. Adorable and fierce!
Iguana -- Cuentos, poemas, leyendas, y articulos. En Espanol, claro.
Scholastic Math -- The boys of Big Time Rush lead you through some painless problems.

For the teens:
Cicada -- Creative writing for teens, by teens.
WWE Magazine -- Wrestler Kaval tells all. Or at least some.
Lucky -- Going shopping? Find out what's in now! Before you perpetrate some serious fashion crimes on your friends.

And for the parental units:
Family Fun -- Valentine's Day crafts!
Book Links -- Multicultural literature. Hey, that sounds familiar.

With so many new magazines it's almost hard to know where to start. Dive in!