Ypsi Stories

Nearly seventy Ypsilanti men served in the Civil War's Black regiments, including many who had previously escaped from slavery. A dozen never returned. Whether with Michigan’s 102nd United States Colored Troops or the “Glory” regiments of the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Infantries, Ypsilanti men were largely stationed on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina. There they were at some of t...

Ypsilanti's Water Street Sculpture Garden, also known as the Water Street Commons, was a rhizomal happening and community run outdoor space in the city of Ypsilanti which was most active between June 2013 and April 2016. Professor Beth Currans, as a researcher, as a participant, and as an observer, was in the perfect position to study and document this phenomenon in recent Ypsilanti history.

Ypsilanti District Library Clerk Jerome Drummond takes us back again to Ypsilanti in its earliest years. Settlers traveling west had left their homes on the east coast behind but not their interest; how would information be gotten? The federal government considered it crucial to its plans of westward expansion that unity of the population be maintained by shared information; the tool for achieving...

In today's episode, we'll be in conversation with members of Ypsilanti's Palm Leaf Club. The Palm Leaf Club was formed on October 30th, 1904 as the Trustee Helpers of Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church and changed its name to the Palm Leaf Club in the 1930s when it officially separated from the church and became its own civic and social African American women's organization, the only...

In today’s episode, we're talking with Dr. Dyann Logwood, who grew up with her family in the historic Willow Run neighborhood before moving to southern Ypsilanti Township, where her family would be one of the few Black families in the area. Dr. Logwood tells us personal stories about her experience as a kid in a Black family in 1970s and 1980s Ypsilanti. She talks about how things were different b...

In January 2017, amid nationwide response to the inauguration of President Donald Trump, many major cities and even smaller towns saw resistance gatherings in the form of Women’s Marches, focusing on issues of sexism at a national level. While most chose to align themselves with the national Women’s March organization, Ypsilanti, as it often does, did things a little differently. On Friday and Sat...

In February of 2016, the Ypsilanti District Library hosted a talk by Lee Azus on the history of Ypsilanti's urban renewal program. He followed up with a presentation in April of 2018 on how racism in twentieth-century American housing policy shaped Ypsilanti. In today's episode, we're going to be hearing from Lee Azus on the effects of Urban Renewal on Ypsilanti's Southside neighborhood.

In the first episode of Ypsi Stories, circulation clerk Jerome Drummond educates us about early land speculation in the Ypsilanti area, focusing chiefly on the prominent land speculator, Lucius Lyon.