Michigan Radio: Arts/Culture

If you have one staff, as in a stick, and then you add another staff, you now run into the question of whether you have two staffs or two staves. At least, that’s the question that popped into our heads when listener Nadia Luis asked us about the verb “stave off.”

Welcome to Songs from the Trail! "Songs from the Trail" is a show about and dedicated to music in Michigan that broadcasts weekly on WVBI on Beaver Island in the middle of Lake Michigan. Hosts Jackson Smith and Steve Girbach bring this special edition of the program to Michigan Radio to round out your summer playlist. They also talk to Detroit music producer, musician, and composer Luis Resto .

The words "previous" and "prior" are synonyms and don’t get much attention from language commentators. That is, they don’t get much attention unless “to” is part of the mix.

Tammy Coxen with Tammy’s Tastings took a trip up north to visit some distilleries, including a stop at Mammoth Distilling ’s tasting room in Bellaire and the distillery in Central Lake. Mammoth has a string of four tasting rooms from Traverse City to Petoskey. But if you live in the southern part of the Lower Peninsula, there’s one a little closer in Adrian, which is more or less 40 miles southwest of Ann Arbor. Anyway, Tammy was up north enjoying some cocktails when the bartender said, “Oh,...

Today on Stateside, the Michigan GOP is backing a petition drive to make changes to Michigan's voting laws: election security or voter suppression? Also, remembering R&B luminary Aaliyah and her Detroit roots. Then, a community comes together to help Afghan refugees build a new home in Lansing.

We do things more often "to no avail" than "of no avail." These constructions have been on our minds since a listener asked about the relationship between "to avail one's self" and "to no avail." As it’s our habit to make ourselves available for such inquiries, we decided to take a closer look.

Tammy Coxen with Tammy’s Tastings and I traveled to Royal Oak to visit Motor City Gas and try to find out what makes that distillery different. “Most craft distilleries get into making a variety of different types of liquors. They'll have a vodka and a gin and a rum and a whiskey and a bourbon to appeal to a lot of different audiences. My passion is whiskey. So we decided early on that we were only going to make whiskey, but I'm also more of a creative mind. So we wanted to get into tons of...

Southeast Michigan is home to the largest and most diverse population of Arab Muslims, with 40% of its population identifying as Muslim. Some claim that Highland Park is home to America's first mosque. However, Jillian Reese , the Michigan History Center’s Curator of Exhibits, explained that several mosques claim to be the country’s first.

If you shine your shoes today, tomorrow you’ll be able to say you shined your shoes. That’s pretty straightforward, but things get tricky when you substitute “light” for “shoes.”

When Broadway went dark due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the world jumped to action. Charities formed. Ghost lights illuminated darkened theaters. Zoom concerts were arranged, celebrating show tunes from Disney to Sondheim.

Even for speakers who feel solid about the distinction between "lie" and "lay," they may lose that distinction when "low" is added to the mix. Recently, one of Professor Anne Curzan's colleagues texted her to say they wouldn't be attending a meeting. They said they were trying to finish an article and would instead be "laying low." That last part jogged Curzan's memory.

The 1967 song "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" was one of Frankie Valli's biggest hits. It's been covered by dozens of artists, including rapper Lauryn Hill. Listeners of a certain age probably remember Heath Ledger's interpretation in the 1999 romantic comedy "10 Things I Hate About You." This song is also one of the first things we thought of when a listener asked us about the construction "off of."

This year has its hit indie film of the summer. Zola , which premieres for video on demand on Thursday, is based on the true story adapted from a lengthy tweet thread by A’ziah “Zola” King , a co-writer and executive producer on the project. Zola’s 2015 viral Twitter thread, titled #TheStory , tells how the 19-year old waitress and stripper from Detroit made a new friend and tagged along for what she thought was a lucrative weekend dancing in Florida clubs. What she got was a brush with sex...

Today on Stateside, an update on the Michigan Independent Citizen’s redistricting commission, which is tasked with redrawing the state’s lines of political representation. Plus, a conversation with the Detroit dancer who inspired, co-wrote, and executive produced the film Zola .

When we wet our whistle at a bar, we have a "wh" in whistle but not in "wet." That fact spurred an argument in the comments section of an article we found last week. The author had used the phrase "wet your whistle," but some commenters argued it should've been "whet your whistle.

The American Academy of Poets has chosen Flint’s Poet Laureate, Semaj Brown, as one of twenty-two 2021 Poet Laureate Fellows. Brown will receive $50,000 for her literary work. Brown intends to put the award toward the Poetry Pod Project , or P3. The virtual programming series, a project of her own design, aims to support literacy in Flint.

In his debut poetry collection Stereo(TYPE) , Jonah Mixon-Webster expresses the tensions and traumas he endures as a Black man, a queer individual, and a Flint native. Stereo(TYPE) was first published by Ahsahta Press in 2018, and will be re-released under Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group on July 13.

An eminent person can also be a prominent person. That same person can also be preeminent in their field. A self-described “confused” listener recently asked us whether there’s a difference between an eminent scientist and a preeminent scientist. And where does "prominent" fit in? As Professor Anne Curzan tells us, the distinctions here are few.

Today on Stateside , U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow talks about who gets the child tax credit expansion—and the pile of federal money headed to Michigan cities to make infrastructure fixes. Plus, the painful legacy of Native boarding schools in Michigan, and how tribal communities are reclaiming what was lost during an era of assimilation. And, we’ll hear how music educators took on virtual learning during the pandemic.

This week, we have got to address a question a listener recently sent us about whether there's anything wrong with saying "have got to" instead of just "have to." The short answer is no. However, there people are who see "have got to" as redundant, and that's why this gets a little complicated.