The Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) has acquired all 25 years of the Songwriters Open Mic video programs for their Archives. There were 9 cardboard boxes stuffed with different video formats (VHS, 8 mm, mini-DV, DVDs), plus sign-in sheets, program logs, and publicity material. The AADL Archives will digitize the collection, and eventually present this material online, in the context of documenting the local and regional community of passionate amateurs who constitute and support the environment for original music in our area.
Already online is a large sample of close to 200 half-hour programs from the past few years, which I uploaded to YouTube, at https://www.youtube.com/@songwritersopenmicannarbor7761/videos
Additional background: AADL’s COMMUNITY COLLECTIONS have a focus on Local History. Topics range widely: the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair, the Police Department, recipes and cookbooks, architectural drawings and postcards, pioneer families, the White Panther Party and John Sinclair, and an oral histories of African-American culture in Washtenaw County.
Andrew MacLaren, AADL Archives Manager, moved my boxes of media and papers to the Library’s temporary storage facility, and coincidentally the facility is immediately adjacent to the public access television station (CTN) that has broadcast the Songwriters Open Mic programs for all these years.
As I watched Andrew drive away with the 25 years of tv programs, I appreciated once again how much the open mic nurtures my own songwriting, and it allows me to meet and engage with a community of hundreds of talented and creative songwriters and those who love songs.
Tags: ann arbor, Jim Novak, open mic, songwriters