June Summer Series: The Detroit Festival of Arts is now Midsummer Nights in Midtown!
Yes another “HOT” event!!
The University Cultural Center Association (UCCA) and Wayne State University are introducing a new series of summertime public performances, Midsummer Nights in Midtown, every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening in June. This special series will continue to provide outstanding arts and cultural programming for the
metropolitan Detroit community, in lieu of the Detroit Festival of the Arts which has been on hiatus for the past couple of years.
Midsummer Nights in Midtown spotlights a different Midtown venue each evening of the series, presenting an admission-free performance by international, national and local guest artists ranging from acclaimed musicians to award-winning poets and authors, and large-puppet theater for children. In total there will be more than a dozen participating venues and over 25 performances amid the state’s premier arts and cultural institutions, neighborhood galleries, and entertainment facilities.
The month-long series begins on Thursday, June 4th with a double-billing at two Midtown galleries – The N’Namdi Arts Center featuring Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Miles Long, and the Detroit Artists Market presenting Tally Hall. The once-Cosby Show youngster, Malcolm-Jamal Warner bka Theo Huxtable, now a celebrated musician in his own right, appears with his Los Angeles band.
Other performances include, American poet and 2008 National Book Award winner, Mark Doty, headlines the “Midsummer LitFest” on Saturday, June 6th at the Scarab Club. Considered “a star of contemporary American poetry,” The Detroit Science Center will host the “Midsummer Children’s Fair” on Saturday, June 13th , featuring the Hudson Vagabond Puppets’ latest production, “Butterfly: The Story of a Life Cycle”.
This evening of non-stop, hands-on fun includes twenty-four young creatives in the Youth Artists Market and more than a dozen imaginative children’s make-and-take crafts for all ages – as well as the Detroit Science Center’s huge variety of novel installations and educational experiences. Detroit vocalist and perennial favorite, Thornetta Davis, opens for the London-based, Jamaican-born poet, Linton Kwesi Johnson, who is credited as creator of the hybrid genre of reggae poetry. A book signing will start the evening at the Detroit Public Library Main Branch, Thursday, June 18th.
snippets from Midsummers Nights in Midtown Press Release.
For more information, check out their site at midsummernightsmidtown.com
