Ypsi Stories

In this episode, we’ll be in conversation with Danielle Schwerin, who once helped run Café Ollie, a staple of Ypsilanti brunch life and secret concert life in Depot Town, in the place where Miller’s Ice Cream, Schramm’s Deli, and Café Luwak once stood, and where Wax Bar now stands, kind of. It’s complicated!For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories⁠⁠⁠⁠If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, Escapepod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org⁠⁠⁠⁠.

In this episode, we’ll continue learning from renowned historian Matt Siegfried about the histories of different Native American communities in Michigan and Ohio, with some special focus on Southeast Michigan and the Huron River valley, including where modern day Ypsilanti stands and where Maguago’s town once stood. We’ll be looking at the communities who thrived around the Great Lakes, through the lens of the American conquest of the land now known as Michigan. We’ll learn together about the ways Native Americans resisted conquest in this area and where many of these communities live today.In Part II of this episode, we’ll be looking at the aftermath of the War of 1812, Indian Removal and those who resisted it, and then we’ll continue on the the status of group discussed in this episode, up to the current day! If you haven't listened to the first half of this episode, check out Part I in your podcast feed!For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories⁠⁠⁠If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, Escapepod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org⁠⁠⁠.

In this episode, we’ll be learning from renowned historian Matt Siegfried about the histories of different Native American communities in Michigan and Ohio, with some special focus on Southeast Michigan and the Huron River valley, including where modern day Ypsilanti stands and where Maguago’s town once stood. We’ll be looking at the communities who thrived around the Great Lakes, through the lens of the American conquest of the land now known as Michigan. We’ll learn together about the ways Native Americans resisted conquest in this area and where many of these communities live today.For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories⁠⁠If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, Escapepod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org⁠⁠.

In Episode 4 of Ypsi Stories, titled "From Here to There by Land and Water," we saw evolving ideas about how to move people and commerce across the United States and its territories. The country at first could not agree on the financing of national transportation with some states unwilling to help finance projects that only involved some states and not others. Then came the railroad. It was evident from the start that a railroad could be interconnected relatively quickly and effectively. A state such as Michigan could finance their part of a system and that part could be as large or as small as it was willing to finance and the benefit for everyone in the state was readily apparent. Ypsilanti was very fortunate to be on the path of the Michigan Central Railroad which played a large part in the history of the town, a subject we will explore in this episode with return guest, Michigan Avenue library Circulation Clerk Emeritus, Jerome Drummond.For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories⁠If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, Escapepod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org⁠.

ypsi experimental space was started by accident on January 1st, 2016, at the site of a former drugstore turned black box theater (8 N Washington Street) and ended by eminent domain on January 1st, 2023. While it remains a mystery as to why "yes" came into existence and little is known about the perpetrators who were said to have started this madcap venture, the main premise was ostensibly to cause some creative mayhem from time to time. Besides the playing of ping-pong, slideshow karaoke, and showing of films, there were reportedly evenings consisting entirely of experimental poetry, music, politics, theater, and a broad range of impromptu performances and exhibitions that still defy description. Occasionally, "yes" was even turned into "8," an intimate experimental dinner theater, where 8 delicious courses were paired with outrageous provocations by creative miscreants. While the "yes" itself no longer exists, the creative spirit lives on in the lives of all who entered its hallowed portal. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, AntennaPod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠ To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org.

The Parkridge Community Center on Harriet Street opened in December 1945 as a recreation center for Southside residents. It was funded through a World War II program that built recreation centers for war workers and their families. But, the story of how the Parkridge Community Center came to be located on Harriet Street as a segregated facility for African American families has been mostly forgotten. In this podcast, historian Lee Azus recounts the struggle by residents of the Southside to build an interracial community center on what was called the "buffer strip" between white and black Ypsilanti near Michigan Avenue. Their story illustrates their vision and its limits as it came up against the power and the purse-strings of Federal bureaucracies and the Ypsilanti City Council. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, Escapepod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠ To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org.

For all of us there comes a day which is the end of the line, but how we are dispatched changes with the times. It would be unusual for a person in Ypsilanti today to die in a boiler explosion or to be run over by a train, but such events were common in the nineteenth century. Nobody in either time period would likely be crucified or fall on their sword as might have happened in the first century Roman Empire; everything has its time and its place. In this episode we'll have a conversation with historian and circulation clerk emeritus Jerome Drummond about the culture and institutions related to death and dying in 19th Century Ypsilanti. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, Escapepod, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠ To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org

The Ypsi Farmers & Gardeners Oral History Project (YFGOHP) is a new YDL digital archive sharing the stories of Ypsilanti’s Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and/or working class food growers. Based on community input, the project started by collecting oral histories from elders and including portrait photographs of each farmer or gardener. The initial interviews were completed in October and November 2023 with more planned to start with farmers and gardeners of all ages in 2024. In this episode, we have the opportunity to have a discussion with three of the coordinators of this local oral history project to learn more about it:  Dr. Finn Bell, Omer Jean Winborn, and Briana Hurt. YDL librarian Madelynne Rivenbark, our engineeress, also contributes. During this episode we will also feature clips of the oral histories themselves, as well as follow up questions. The full oral histories from this project, as well as other oral histories and historical materials are located at history.ypsilibrary.org  For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, AntennaPod, gPodder, or wherever you find your podcasts!⁠ To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org

In the months that followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941, the United States began the transition from a peace economy to a war economy. Production of household items such as refrigerators and cars had to change to tanks, trucks, guns, and planes. It was not an easy transition. Eight months later, President Roosevelt in Washington was receiving reports on the failure of the production war. Everything was behind schedule, including the production of B 24 Liberator bombers at the Willow Run Bomber Plant, built by the Ford Motor Company just outside of Ypsilanti. President Roosevent decided that he wanted to go see for himself what was happening. In today’s episode, we learn about President Roosevelt’s secret visit to Ypsilanti in 1942, from local historian, James Mann. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories⁠ If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org

The 19th century in Ypsilanti, as elsewhere, was on the doorstep of the remarkable medical advances of the twentieth century. People who came down with even a minor illness could be dead in hours. Was that a cough or a death-rattle? The doctor might know or might not, and what was in his bag might help you or the undertaker. In this episode, historian and clerk emeritus Jerome Drummond will discuss the reasons we should definitely be happy to see a doctor in the twenty-first century. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories⁠ If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠⁠ypsilibrary.org

From 1997 through 2002, the LGBTQ community in Ypsilanti fought for their rights in the form of a Non Discrimination Ordinance for the City of Ypsilanti. The result of this struggle was one of the first Non Discrimination Ordinances in Michigan, with protections for LGBTQ Ypsilantians. Seventeen years later, in 2019, Ypsilanti teenager Miriam Berman Stidd interviewed Non Discrimination Ordinance campaign veterans, and Normal Park neighbors, Lisa Bashert, Beth Bashert, and Lisa Zuber, for a podcast episode project for her Communications class at Washtenaw International High School. Four years later than that, in 2023, Ypsi Stories hostess Shoshanna was able to work with Miriam Berman Stidd to unearth this podcast episode, which we are airing in its entirety, followed by a 2023 conversation with Miriam Stidd, Lisa Bashert, and Beth Bashert, facillitated by Shoshanna, about the original episode itself, and about changes felt between 2019 and 2023, as members of the LGBTQ community, in Ypsilanti. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ⁠ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories ⁠ If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ⁠ypsilibrary.org

In this season's episode we learn about the Shadow Art Fair, which was a local social, cultural, and interactive art experience that for many years in the 00s and 10s marked the peak of summer in July, while providing a warm, community-based, secular gathering each winter as well. We'll be speaking with some of the core organizers of the Shadow, including Mark Maynard, Jennifer Yates, and Melissa Dettloff.For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistoriesIf you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts!To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

In this season's episode we learn about the history of the 2014 campaign to expand transit in Ypsilanti, the state of transit then and now, and the power that this work had in terms of connecting the community through movement organizing. We'll be speaking with some of those involved in the 2014 campaign, including Martha Valadez, Gillian Ream Gainsley, Tad Wysor, and Kathy Meagher. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

Lee Osler is a musician who has lived in Ypsilanti almost his whole life, since he was two years old, and is most well known for his 1983 local hit, “Back to Ypsilanti,” released on his own label, Mustache Records. He started singing in fifth grade and has performed in parades, auditoriums, festivals, and cabarets. In Part 1, we’ll be learning about Mr. Osler's childhood growing up in Ypsilanti, his early life in music in schools and in earlier groups, such as the Soulful Soulmates, Masterpiece, and the Three Masters of Soul. We’ll learn about the local music scene when Mr. Osler was in his teens and twenties, the beginnings of the legendary Black Arts Festival, and the state of downtown Ypsilanti in the early eighties. In Part 2, we’ll learn about the development of the Back to Ypsilanti song from Mr. Osler. We’ll learn about Lee Osler & the Ypsi City Band and its connections to fundraising to restore the Rutherford Pool in Recreation Park. We’ll learn about other songs composed by Mr. Osler, including songs for other cities, his musical life after the success of Back to Ypsilanti, and his musical family. If you missed Part 1, definitely check that out first! For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

Lee Osler is a musician who has lived in Ypsilanti almost his whole life, since he was two years old, and is most well known for his 1983 local hit, “Back to Ypsilanti,” released on his own label, Mustache Records. He started singing in fifth grade and has performed in parades, auditoriums, festivals, and cabarets. In Part 1, we’ll be learning about Mr. Osler's childhood growing up in Ypsilanti, his early life in music in schools and in earlier groups, such as the Soulful Soulmates, Masterpiece, and the Three Masters of Soul. We’ll learn about the local music scene when Mr. Osler was in his teens and twenties, the beginnings of the legendary Black Arts Festival, and the state of downtown Ypsilanti in the early eighties. In Part 2, we’ll learn about the development of the Back to Ypsilanti song from Mr. Osler. We’ll learn about Lee Osler & the Ypsi City Band and its connections to fundraising to restore the Rutherford Pool in Recreation Park. We’ll learn about other songs composed by Mr. Osler, including songs for other cities, his musical life after the success of Back to Ypsilanti, and his musical family. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this two part episode! For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

In this episode, Lee Azus looks at the effect of Federal Housing Administration underwriting policies, Home Owners’ Loan Corporation risk maps, also known as redlining maps, and racially restrictive covenant agreements, on communities like Ypsilanti. By focusing on policies and policy discussions at the federal, state, and local level, he is able to show how discriminatory housing practices can trickle down from Washington, to Lansing, all the way to Ypsilanti. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

In this episode, we will be learning about the work of the Washtenaw County African American Genealogy Society from founder and Co Chair, Cheryl Garnett. Ms. Garnett will also be discussing special issues regarding genealogy for people with African American ancestry, sharing some of her experiences in the African American genealogy community, and recounting some of her ancestral history. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

The Kiwanis Club of Ypsilanti celebrated its 100th birthday on April 13, 2021.  So, what is this service club all about and what has it done during this past century? In this episode, we'll be speaking to long time members of the Kiwanis Club of Ypsilanti, Bill Nickels and Jerry Jennings about the history of this service club. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

Unless a town was founded for reasons other than the pursuit of agriculture, as was the case with lumbering or mining towns, the first industry established in most towns of the Upper Midwest were mills. Ypsilanti was no different and the first mill recorded was established by Benjamin Woodruff on the Huron River in 1824. No one then could foresee how this industry would blossom in the Age of Steam and bring Ypsilanti along with it. In this episode, we'll be learning the history of milling and industrialization in Ypsilanti from circulation clerk Jerome Drummond. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org

Highland Cemetery is perhaps the finest example of the garden cemetery in Michigan, which intended to make cemeteries beautiful. Highland Cemetery is a place of peace and nature, the perfect place to take a troubled soul for a walk. In this episode, we are going to be learning about the history of Highland Cemetery, and of previous cemeteries in Ypsilanti, from local historian James Mann. For more information about this and other episodes of Ypsi Stories, including photos and bibliographies, check out ypsilibrary.org/ypsistories If you don’t want to miss any future episodes, you can always subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you find your podcasts! To keep up to date on this podcast, as well as all the great things the Ypsilanti District Library is doing, you can follow the library on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, and of course, you can always check out our webpage at ypsilibrary.org