On Hand

Jeffrey Seller is one of the biggest Broadway producers. Beyond ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Rent,’ Seller’s work has grossed billions of dollars. The 60-year-old Tony award winner is nothing short of a living Broadway legend. But before the spotlight, Seller was another Michigan theatre kid – an outsider everywhere but school play rehearsals. Seller's new memoir, Theater Kid: a Broadway Memoir, explores the path that took him to Broadway.

GUEST:

Jeffrey Seller, Broadway producer and author of Theater Kid

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Ever feel the need to get away? 

Perhaps, to a galaxy far, far away?

Michiganders did just this past May the 4th. Every year for two weekends a warehouse in Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood gets converted into a Star Wars universe. A small army of do-it-yourself artists, makers, and fun-seekers transform a half-block of space into, well, outerspace.

The detail is otherworldly – streetscapes closely resembling Tatooine (otherwise known as Luke Skywalker’s home planet), stucco storefronts, dust-covered tents, and cosplay Mandalorians decked with helmets, breastplates, and blaster pistols.

Space Dive takes place atTangent Gallery, generally around May 4. There are still tickets available for this weekend’s events.

Star Wars attire is mandatory, as declared by the Empire.

GUESTS: 

• John Dunivant, co founder of Space Dive
• Daniel Land, cofounder of Space Dive
• Eric Heerspink, Grand Rapids ceramist

Check out photos from the event here. 

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A mistrial was declared when a jury in Grand Rapids failed to reach consensus on the conviction or acquittal of Christopher Schurr, the police officer who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya. 

GUESTS:

Dustin Dwyer, Michigan Public

Michelle Jokisch Polo, Michigan Public

 

To listen to full episodes of Stateside, head over here.

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Ann Arbor Writer Michelle Yang came to the states as a child, after growing up in a Chinese family in South Korea. Her debut Memoir, Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love, is a warm, engrossing story of becoming unmoored, and finding connection and community, even as she’s fighting with fierce cultural pressures about her own body image and identity as a woman.

GUESTS:

Michelle Yang: author, Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love

Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Audio Network.

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Students at East Kentwood High School interviewed their family members about their immigration stories in a project marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. They will be sharing those stories this week at events celebrating West Michigan's Vietnamese American community. 

GUESTS: 

• Le Tran, art teacher at East Kentwood High School
• Christina Le, junior at East Kentwood and one of the student speakers at GR Stories event

EVENT DETAILS:

GR Stories: This is our home now, 50 years of building community after Saigon

• May 7 @ the Grand Rapids Public Museum, 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

50 Years After Saigon: Vietnamese Stories of a New Home

• May 9 @ The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. 

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A look back at Santa Ono's career in higher education thus far, and what's been particularly challenging about high education administration in the last several years. 

GUESTS:

David Jesse: senior writer, Chronicle of Higher Education

Jamal Watson, PhD: editor of "Diverse: Issues in Higher Education," professor of Strategic Communication and Public Relations, Trinity Washington University

Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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The Scarab Club has played an important role in Detroit’s arts and cultural scene for more than a century. But like many other Detroit arts lovers, the club’s new gallery director first stumbled into it by chance. 

On today’s pod, we’re going to be talking to Scarab Club gallery manager Donna Jackson about her approach to community engagement–and the profound impact the Detroit arts scene has had on her own life. 

GUEST: 

Donna Jackson, gallery manager at the Scarab Club 

Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions.

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A new storytelling event in Grand Rapids called Unfiltered aims to bring people together through the sharing of experiences in and around the city.

Similar to the format of The Moth, Unfiltered features folks in and around Grand Rapids sharing stories about first loves, scary job interviews, weird interactions in grocery stores, make-or-break moments of adversity, and more. Storytellers are invited to tell a 12-minute story around a common theme.

Raul Alvarez, lead organizer for the event, initially pitched this idea to a group of friends with whom he regularly met for drinks. They were all excited to help plan a storytelling event, he said.

“They went to work, and we had no clue what to expect,” Alvarez said. “It was kind of a prototype, but all of a sudden it sold out.”

While Alvarez said storytelling might be a bit scary at first, because it involves a certain level of vulnerability, the community hasn't backed down.

“Now, we have the second sellout, which tells us it is a movement,” Alvarez said. “We want to keep it going, because there's a lot of stories out there. We already have stories that have been submitted for a future [event].”

The next Unfiltered is May 2, 2025 at the Four Star Theater, in Grand Rapids. The theme is “You Can’t Make This S*** Up!” 

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Back in September 2024, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel charged seven Pro-Palestinian protesters for allegedly defying orders from University of Michigan public safety officers. The individuals were charged with trespassing, a misdemeanor, and for resisting arrest, a felony.

In this episode we break down why the U-M Pro-Palestinian protestors want AG Nessel off the case. 

GUEST: 

Beenish Ahmed, journalist at Michigan Public

Looking for more conversations from Stateside? Right this way.

If you like what you hear on the pod, consider supporting our work.

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions and Audio Network. 

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We are a time and place in America where more children of Holocaust survivors are with us than survivors themselves. In some ways this is the lens through which many Americans understand how the Nazi regime murdered 6 million Jews in the 1930's and 40's.

Sassa Akervall's mother survived the Holocaust. She shared part of her family's story in the book, The Ones Who Remember: Second-Generation Voices of the Holocaust. It was published in 2022 by members of Temple Beth-Emeth in Ann Arbor and contains a collection of essays telling the stories of the children of Holocaust survivors.

• For more information on the book, go to secondgenerationvoices.com 

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