BOOK BEAT – APRIL 2026 NEWSLETTER
Read, Think, Create.
Odilon Redon, Evocation of the Butterlies, detail 1910
Dear Readers,
Welcome to Poetry Month!
This April, we’re honored to host and highlight poets and artists who remind us that poetry is as much about community as it is about craft. If you missed Ken Mikolowski and M.L. Liebler’s book launch last month there’s another opportunity for each coming soon.
There is a lot going on and so our newsletter chatter will be brief, ha!
Monday, April 6 at 4pm Author Cisco Bradley presents I Hear Freedom: The Great Migration, Free Jazz, and Black Power at Wayne State University in the Humanities Commons on the second floor of The Adamany Undergraduate Library second floor. Hosted by ML Liebler and open to the public. Books available from Book Beat.
Thursday, April 9, 1-2:30pm Rebecca Kosick author of Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press will appear with Ken Mikoloski at the Hatcher Library gallery room at the University of Michigan.
Wednesday, April 15 | 4–7 PM Ridgeway Press & Art Collective – Art! Music! Poetry! Celebrate 52 Years of Ridgeway DADA at the Wayne State University Undergraduate Library.
Ridgeway Press & Collective is one of Detroit’s vital independent literary-artistic forces. This special event brings together:
• Melba Joyce Boyd • Marion Hayden • Carl Dada Zilch • Jeff Ensroth • Gregory Hallock • M.L. Liebler • Robin Eichele • Monster Island • Book Beat will have a table of books representing the authors at the event and reflecting Ridgeway’s Macomb-Dada and surrealist roots.
Wednesday April 15 from 11am – 2:30pm The StoryTime Guild FUNdraaiser
Story Tellers of Detroit will be holding a FUNdraiser luncheon with author and journalist Devin Scillian.Book Beat will be selling books at the event. Tickets are $60 and support Devin’s recommended organization the Michigan Reading Association.
For questions call/text Marcia 248-202-0441 or Mary Ann: 586-718-9143.
Saturday April 18, Poetry Night at Book Beat Saturday 6:60-8pm.
Join us in the shop for an intimate evening of readings curated by Chris Tysh, whose work explores language, performance, and feminist poetics with a sharp, experimental edge. Featured readers include:
• Robert Laidler, whose poetry moves between narrative and lyric, often grounded in place and memory
• Kim Hunter, a Detroit-based poet and activist known for work that is both personal and socially attuned.
• Chris Tysh, reading from her own work—precise, searching, and formally adventurous.
Wednesday, April 22, Celebrate Earth Day & Redon’s Birthday
On Aoril 22: take a moment to reflect on our connection to the natural world—and also the birthday of Odilon Redon, the visionary French artist whose dreamlike imagery continues to inspire. On this day, we’re thinking of Redon’s Evocation of Butterflies—a work in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts that feels especially alive. Butterflies, symbols of transformation and fragility, drift through his imagination like poems. We invite you to spend Earth Day with a book, a walk, or a moment of attention—something small and meaningful. Literature, like nature, asks us to slow down and look closely.
Saturday April 25 | 10am-6pm, and 6:30–8 PM Independent Bookstore Day Celebration
We’re celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a special Author Tea Party & Book Signing here at Book Beat.Expect an evening of conversation, tea, and books—an opportunity to meet writers, discover new work, and celebrate the role independent bookstores play in sustaining literary culture. More details on featured authors to come—stay tuned in-store and online.
April 26 – May 3, 2026: BOOKSTOCK – Laurel Park Place Mall, Livonia, MI
Bookstock is a massive, volunteer-driven used book and media sale celebrating its 22nd year in 2026, held at Laurel Park Place in Livonia, Michigan. Running from April 26 to May 3, 2026, the event raises funds for local education and literacy projects, and includes a student essay contest.
Gut yontif! Wishing our friends and family a Happy, peaceful and meaningful Passover and Easter holiday!
April is an Antidote for our times. We hope you’ll join us for these events and be part of what continues to grow at Book Beat. Thank you for reading. Happy Spring! See you at the shop!
With gratitude,
~Cary, Colleen and the staff at Book Beat
From the Backroom Gallery: A Gift of Poetry
Dispatches from the Avant-Garage: The Alternative Press (signed)
Hound Dog: A Poet’s Memoir of Rock, Revolution, and Redemption (signed)
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Odilon Redon, Red Sphinx, 1912
Proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
-William Shakespere, from Sonnet 98