How does poetry work in the world?  In individual lives and careers? In community celebrations and social occasions?  In reform movements?  In politics?  In classrooms and student life?  To ask these questions is to begin to explore how inspiration works and for what ends.

These projects were created by students in an honors seminar taught by Professor Julie Ellison at the University of Michigan in Winter 1999.  Each project presents documents from the collections of the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.  We are grateful for the sustained assistance offered by the Bentley archivists.

Documents were selected for two reasons:

We hope that these materials are useful to the citizens of Ann Arbor, and especially to teachers, librarians, poets, local historians, and those with special interests in history, place, and literature.

Winter 1999 Projects

• Abolitionists in Ann Arbor (Kate Sablosky)

• A Literary Woman's Life - Mary B. De Lamarter (Yvonne Marchand)

• Michigan Football and the Men It Created (Stacy Lerchenfeld)

• Poetry and Pacifism: Angela Morgan and the International Congress of Women (Mandisa Moseley)

• Twenty-Seven Months: John Sinclair Writes from Prison (Jim Sherry)

• What Role Did Gender Play in the Lives of University of Michigan Students in the 1920s? (Kari Kristan)

Watch this space!  Another set of student projects will be posted in Winter 2000.