Tag Archives: interviews

Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interviews: live, in front of an audience, and over beers

By Mark | April 8, 2013

Video of the recent Concentrate event has now been posted online, for those of you who weren’t able to attend in person. Among those interviewed are local illustrator Dustin Krcatovich, soon-to-be-graduating MBA Newcombe Clark, and U-M postdoc Linda Foit. (A fourth woman was plucked from the audience, but I don’t recall her name.) I’ve yet [...]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Special Projects, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Concentrate, Concentrate speaker series, Dustin Krcatovich, exit interviews, free beer, Jeff Meyers, Linda Foit, Newcombe Clark, Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interviews | 15 Comments

Ted McClelland on fleeing “Michissippi” and why we’ll never be able to keep our brightest young people from Chicago

By Mark | December 24, 2012

Here on the site last week, I twice invoked an article that had appeared on Salon.con entitled Right-to-work bill: Michigan just gives up. Well, the second time I did so, the author of the piece, Ted McClelland, left a comment. And, from there, a short email exchange ensued, resulting in the following interview. I hope [...]

Posted in Michigan, Observations, Uncategorized | Also tagged American Railway Union, Amway, and Hopes of America's Industrial Heartland, brain drain, Brian Dickerson, Caught in the Middle, Chicago, Edward McClelland, exit interviews, fiscal cliff, globalization, Grand Rapids, Hard Times, Lansing, MEDC, Michael Finney, Michigan Democratic Party, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Michigan State, Michissippi, Next: Young American Writers on the New Generation, Niowave, Nothin' But Blue Skies: The Heyday, Obama, Renaissance Center, Richard C. Longworth, Richard Marx, Rick Snyder, right-to-work, Salon, Ted McClelland, UAW, United Auto Workers, University of Michigan, Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President | 16 Comments

Boots Riley of The Coup… on Communism, Corporatism, hip-hop, and the need to beat down scabs

By Mark | November 28, 2012

Last night, I had the occasion to speak with world-renowned hip-hop provocateur Boots Riley on a wide range of subjects spanning from his childhood in Detroit, spent in a household of Communist organizers, to his current work, organizing people in his neighborhood as a member Occupy Oakland. And, of course, we touched on his equally [...]

Posted in Art and Culture, Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Detroit, Economics, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 21 Grams, 9/11, advertising, Alex Rivera, American Splendor, anti-capitalist, at-risk youth, Barbara Ransby, Bill Maher, Boots Riley, California, Capitalism, civil rights, class, College of Ethnic Studies, Communism, Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, Danny Goldberg, dark comedy, fast food workers union, Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO, foreclosure defense, fundraisers, Greensboro, guillotine building workshop, Happiness, hip hop, ILWU, independent film, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Japanther, Jeff Clark, K-Mart, Kev Choice, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, La Peña Cultural Center, labor history, labor movement, Led Zeppelin, Levi's, longshoremen, lunch counter sit-ins, Magic Clap, Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night, militancy, NAACP, Nirvana, North Carolina, Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Sandy, Ohio Players, Oscar Grant, Ozone House, picket lines, police brutality, political hip hop, political organizing, Politically Incorrect, Port of Oakland, Progressive Labor Party, Prop 21, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, rap, revolution, rhetoric of violent revolution, San Francisco, San Francisco State, San Francisco State strike, scabs, SDS, sit-down strikes, Sleep Dealer, social justice, Sorry to Bother You, speaking truth to power, Street Sweeper Social Club, Students for a Democratic Society, sympathy strikes, Taft–Hartley Act, Ted Hope, The Coup, The Guillotine, The Ice Storm, threat of violence, unions, United Steelworkers, USW, Walmart, Walter Riley, Washtenaw Eviction and Foreclosure Defense, we need a revolution, WEFD, Woodruff's, work stoppage, World Trade Center | 25 Comments

Author Amy Cortese on the burgeoning “locavesting” movement, and how we can harness it in Michigan

By Mark | October 25, 2012

Next Tuesday, October 30, Think Local First will be bringing author Amy Cortese to Ann Arbor to discuss her book Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It. Following is my interview with Amy, who, in addition to being a published author, has written for the likes of the New York [...]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Economics, entrepreneurism, Local Business, Locally Owned Business, Retail, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Accelerating Community Capital, American Sustainable Business Council, Amy Cortese, Arbor Brewing Company, blood funnel, blue sky laws, butchershop, buy local, CDFI, Chamber of Commerce, Clare, community development loan funds, Cops & Doughnuts, crowdfunding, CSA, Dante Hesse, economic development, investing, Jobs Act, Judy Wicks, Jumpstart Our Business Startups, Kickstarter, LION, lobbying, local investing, Local Investing Opportunities Network, Localist, locavesting, Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit From It, Main Street vs. Wall Street, Matt Greff, Milk Thistle Farm, move your money to a credit union, Obama, Occupy Wall Street, Port Townsend, Port Townsend LION, private placement, public offering, Rene Greff, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, single-payer system, Slow Money, Small Business Administration, Stacy Mitchell, subsidies, tax loopholes, tax reform, The Big Box Swindle, The Brinery, Think Local First, unaccredited investors, Woody Tasch, Zingerman's | 7 Comments

What I might be doing at this summer’s Shadow Art Fair

By Mark | June 26, 2012

One of the good things about being among the handful of people behind the Shadow Art Fair is that I don’t have to apply. In exchange for the work that I do, I get a table automatically, and I have right up until the morning of the event to decide what it is that I [...]