Eddie Bell

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

Elizabeth Volpe

Rebecca Rank

2009 Downtown Literary Arts Series
All readings are free and open to the public.  They are all held Sundays at The Scarab Club located at 217 E. Farnsworth at John R in the heart of the Cultural Center / Wayne State University Campus. The Scarab Club is directly behind the Detroit Institute for the Arts. We have our own free, safe, and close parking area. For Directions (313) 831-1250
The 2009 Downtown Series at The Scarab Club Features

February 22, Sunday 2-4pm
Eddie Bell (Woodstock, NY Poet)
Diamond Dancer & Friends (Detroit Performance Poet)
Maria Costantini (MDW Master Level Workshop Poet & Author)
Jeff Vande Zande (Michigan novelist, poet/author of new novel from Bottom Dog Press)
Robert Downes (Traverse City author of travel memoir Planet Backpacker, publisher of Northern Express Weekly)

In Case the Name Doesn’t Ring a Bell
Eddie Bell’s poetry is a rhythmic composite of social commentary, historical fiction and pointed allegory. Exposed to his hardboiled grandmother’s tender verse from age three, he learned to impart the nuances of life, particularly black life, through poetic stories. His plainly written free-verse poems evoke a continuum of deeply felt emotions especially when presented in oral form. Eddie’s poetry is accessible to audiences old and young and without racial or cultural barriers.
He has performed his work in large and small venues from coast to coast and in Paris and throughout central France. Eddie is the recipient of multiple grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the French Ministry of Culture. He spent two month-long exhilarating residencies at Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois where he completed Capt’s Dreaming Chair, the first of his two books. His second book, Eddie Bell: En Francais, emerged from his Paris and Clermont-Ferrand collaborations and is presented in English with French translations. Some of Eddie’s work has also been translated into Russian.
Eddie’s latest works, Eeny Meany Miney Mo / Time to Lynch a Negro and Festival of Tears (a compact disc of poetry from Eeny Meany Miney Mo…with musical accompaniment), are unique fictional presentations of the humanity of lynching presented through poetry, narratives and short stories. He is currently completing his first novel, Hittin & Missin, The Fictional Memoir of Eddie Bates. Eddie resides in New Paltz, New York and Leadville, Colorado.

Planet Backpacker is more than a book about traveling around the world
In 2007, author Robert Downes, one of our February 22 Downtown Series readers, pedaled a mountain bike across Ireland, England and down the Danube, backpacking on through East Europe, Egypt, southern India and Southeast Asia. He was surprised to find, however, that there seem to be few American backpackers in the developing world.  Is it anti-Americanism, lack of curiosity, or outright fear that keeps U.S. travelers from going down the same paths enjoyed by backpackers from Australia and Europe?  Downes’ book offers some provocative explanations for why Americans seem to be among the missing in the Third World, along with a rallying cry to visit some of the most exotic locales on earth. Written in over 100 internet cafes on a trip around the earth, Planet Backpacker is a global On the Road for the 2000s. The book takes you from the super-cities of Cairo and Bombay to the dreams of everyday adventurers.  It’s packed with odd characters, history, myth, humor and thoughts on the traveling life. To date, Planet Backpacker has been the number one bestseller in Michigan for five weeks in a row.

March 29, Sunday 2-4 pm
(ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MONTH READING )
Allison Adelle Hedge Coke (Native American, Award Winning Poet from Nebraska)
Jan Beatty (Pitt Poetry Series Poet and Public Radio Poetry Host from Pittsburgh)
Terry Blackhawk (Poet and Director of Detroit’s InsideOut Literary Arts Program)
Jill Darling (Wayne State University Poet and Teacher)
Judy Adams (Detroit Public Broadcasting Legend & Piano Recitalist)

April 19, Sunday 2-4 pm
Elizabeth Volpe (Winner of 2007 Robert Watson Poetry Prize & nominated Best New Poet)
Rebecca Rank (Winner 2008 Permafrost Midnight Sun Chapbook Contest) 
Sophia Rifkin (Award winning MDW Poet and author of a new 2009 collection of her poems)