Ypsi Stories Ypsilanti District Library

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