Happy Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Happy KYLYN Festival

EVENT: KYLYN Festival | Building Media Literacy in Older AAPI Communities, Monday May 4, 2026, 6:30pm to 7:30pm, Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library, 343 South Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, 4th Floor Program Room. Featured panelists include: Zosette Guir and Bill Kubota of Detroit PBS. Moderated by Chien-An Yuan. Join us for a panel discussion exploring the socio-cultural issues affecting the elder AAPI populations today. More than ever, this vulnerable demographic is facing a surge in being targets for scams, disinformation, and soft propaganda. These threats, often amplified through social media, exploit cultural, linguistic, and generational gaps, leading to severe financial, emotional, and social consequences. This panel discussion will focus on strategies being developed in solutions journalism to increase information literacy among AAPI elders and push back against these predatory tactics with evidence-based responses. This event is part of the KYLYN AAPI Arts & Culture Festival and is co-sponsored by Asian American Journalists Association Michigan Chapter.  https://aadl.org/node/668097

EVENT: KYLYN Festival | An Author's Journey: A Conversation on Publishing, Passion, and What Comes Next, Wednesday May 13, 2026, 6:30pm to 7:30pm, Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library, 343 South Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, Lower Level Program Room. Join a thoughtful conversation with AAPI authors A.H. Kim (A Good Family and Relative Strangers) and Michelle Yang (Phoenix Girl) as they discuss their journeys to get their books published, the positive reception of their work, and what comes next. Kim and Yang will offer reflections and insights on strategies for maintaining a sustained creative practice and provide valuable insight for aspiring writers and readers alike. This event is part of the KYLYN AAPI Arts & Culture Festival and co-sponsored by Asian American Journalists Association - Michigan Chapter. https://aadl.org/node/666500 

KYLYN Festival | Dance Performance: A Floating World, Friday May 15, 2026: 6:30pm to 7:30pm, Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library: 4th Floor Program Room. A Floating World is a movement-based performance from AAPI Performance Collaborative IS/LAND grounded in the belief that there exists an ephemeral “floating world” of ancestral consciousness and connectivity. We brush against this floating world in moments of sudden, yet inexplicable, familiarity - lucid dreaming, tasting something new that instantly feels known. These indecipherable encounters are surprising and confusing, yet they stir a profound, unconscious realization of a deeper reality that we cannot consciously understand. Intense emotional experiences, particularly grief, also evoke this connection to the 'floating world,' leaving us raw and destabilized. This event is part of the KYLYN AAPI Arts & Culture Festival. https://aadl.org/node/668218

Here are all the Kylyn events and AAPI events at AADL https://aadl.org/aapiheritagemonth 

Cluster Museum Ekphrastic Poetry Walk Author Reading Saturday, April 25, 2026, 1:00 PM

Happy National Poetry Month! Cluster Museum Ekphrastic Poetry Walk Author Reading

Saturday, April 25, 2026, 1:00 PM 2:15 PM

From 1pm-2pm on Saturday, April 25, a selection of the Ekphrastic Poetry Walk poets will perform their work in front of their chosen artwork.

Choose to walk to each location as a group or meet us there.

The Ekphrastic Poetry Walk includes CLUSTER’s Grass Grows in the Icebox, WSG Gallery’s Aesthetic Crossings: Ted Ramsey solo show and Gutman Gallery’s Process: A Human Exhibition.

Author list guest curated by Cam Finch & Katie Hartsock.

Featuring the work of James Barton, Scott Beal, Forrest Hejkal, T Hetzel, Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Rachel Nelson, Isaac Pickell, Onna Solomon, Ellen Stone, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Lily Tobias.

Author Reading Schedule:

1pm at CLUSTER Museum, 307 N. Main St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104

1:30pm at WSG Gallery on Ann St.

2pm at Gutman Gallery on 4th Ave. (I'll be reading at this part!)

if you haven't been to Cluster Museum yet, it's brand new, on Main and 3rd, two blocks from Kerrytown, and they're having a closing reception for their current exhibit afterwards, so join us!

https://clustermuseum.org/events/ekphrasticpoetrywalkauthorreading2026

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXZgHRgkSL7/?img_index=1

READING Cluster Museum 2-day Ekphrastic Poetry Walk Event

2-day Ekphrastic Poetry Walk Event

Friday, April 24, 2026, 12:00 PM to Saturday, April 25, 2026, 6:00 PM

Poetry Reading at Cluster Museum: Saturday, April 25, 2026, 307 N. Main St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104

During National Poetry Month, the 2-day Ekphrastic Poetry Walk celebrates the power of the Arts through the words of poets.

On Friday & Saturday April 24 & 25, pick up CLUSTER’s Ekphrastic Poetry Guide then head out on a self-guided scavenger hunt around the Kerrytown District’s art galleries to find the artwork written about by 12 Washtenaw County-based poets. 

The Ekphrastic Poetry Walk includes CLUSTER’s Grass Grows in the Icebox, WSG Gallery’s Aesthetic Crossings: Ted Ramsey solo show and Gutman Gallery’s Process: A Human Exhibition.

Author list guest curated by Cam Finch & Katie Hartsock.

Featuring the work of James Barton, Scott Beal, Forrest Hejkal, T Hetzel, Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Rachel Nelson, Isaac Pickell, Onna Solomon, Ellen Stone, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Lily Tobias.

HOURS: Friday 12-5pm & Saturday 11am-5pm

*Suggested sliding scale donation for the Ekphrastic Poetry Guide is $5-$15. 

*All funds go towards visual & literary Arts programming at CLUSTER Museum.

https://clustermuseum.org/events/2026ekphrasticpoetrywalk

EVENT Curtis Chin in Conversation/ Great Michigan Read 2025/26 Event

Curtis Chin in Conversation/ Great Michigan Read 2025/26 Event

Saturday, April 18, 2026, 7:00 PM  8:30 PM

307 N. Main St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Everything I learned, I learned in a Chinese Restaurant is this year’s Great Michigan Read choice, and CLUSTER is thrilled to host author Curtis Chin in conversation.

Chin will be joined in conversation by University of Michigan Professors Nadine Hubbs and William A. Calvo-Quirós exploring themes of immigration, identity, community and the experience of growing up queer in 1980’s American and outside its borders. Together, they will reflect on how a place of upbringing becomes the setting for an unlikely origin story: In Chin’s case a Chinese restaurant becomes the setting for how a closeted Chinese boy raised on republican politics transforms into a searingly honest Gay writer and activist for social and political activism in both the LGBTQ+ and AAPI communities.

The event is moderator by CLUSTER co-founder Chien-An Yuan.

The event is co-sponsored by Asian American Journalists Association Michigan chapter.

FREE but registration required. Register https://clustermuseum.org/events/michigangreatreadcurtischen

Doors open at 6:45.

Great Michigan Reads brings excellent and critically acclaimed books into the public zeitgeist. 

This event is made possible in part by a grant from Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

https://clustermuseum.org/events/michigangreatreadcurtischen

Write with me at WCC! ABCs of Publishing and Spring/Summer 2026

My last WCC class for winter 2026 --ABCs of Publishing

2 Sats, Apr 18, 25, 2026, 10am-12pm EDT, Washtenaw Community College, online

Register today! https://washtenaw.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay&int_category_id=3&int_sub_category_id=49&int_catalog_id=1

Upcoming WCC classes for spring/summer 2026

Spring/Summer 2026

Finding the Writer Within Continuing Writers Workshop
10 Suns, May 3-Jul 19, 2026, 12pm-2pm ET, Washtenaw Community College, online

Write Here, Write Now
4 Tues, May 12-Jun 9, 2026, 6:30-8:30pm, ET, Washtenaw Community College, in person

Writing to Change the World
2 Sats, June 6, 13, 2026, 10am-12pm EDT, Washtenaw Community College, online

Writing for our Lives (formerly Communication for Work and Life)
4 Tues., July 7, 14, 21, 28, 2026, 6:30-8:30 pm EDT, Washtenaw Community College, in person

Writing with style, Finding your voice
3 Saturdays, August 15, 22, 29, 2026 EDT, Washtenaw Community College, Zoom

Register today! https://washtenaw.augusoft.net/index.cfm?method=ClassListing.ClassListingDisplay&int_category_id=3&int_sub_category_id=49&int_catalog_id=1