In the heart of winter, as Ann Arbor’s skies sometimes settle into quiet grays, the Penny Stamps Speaker Series unfurls its 2026 season — a constellation of voices that traverse continents and disciplines, forging vibrant connections between art, memory and the social fabric. Each Thursday, the Michigan Theater or the University of Michigan Museum of Art become portals: to Nairobi’s layered pasts, Detroit’s inventive resilience, archival urgencies, jazz’s living traditions and the imaginative ferment that animates our collective stories. These are not mere talks, but convocations of thinking and feeling—distilled, expansive and insistently exhilarating.
Jan. 22, 2026 — Deepa Butoliya
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Designer, researcher, and educator Deepa Butoliya investigates design at the margins—where constraint becomes creativity and improvisation becomes philosophy. Born in India and now working internationally, Butoliya’s practice centers on jugaad, a Hindi concept of resourceful ingenuity. She reframes it as critical jugaad, a lens for imagining futures that prioritize collective life over elite consumption. Her work traces this ethos through grassroots ingenuity, from Detroit’s cultural landscapes to global practices of adaptive resilience.
Jan. 24 — Julie Ault & Julie Herrada
4-6pm • U-M Museum of Art
Artist-curators Julie Ault and Julie Herrada have long expanded the boundaries of creation and care, interrogating how archives, histories, and institutions shape what we see—and what we remember. In conversation, they will explore how curatorial practice intersects with conceptual art histories and material culture to challenge dominant narratives and give voice to overlooked stories. Their talk dovetails with American Sampler: Activating the Archive, a related UMMA exhibition that reframes protest and resistance across decades.
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Jan. 29 — Julia Keefe & the Indigenous Big Band
5:30–7:00 pm • Michigan Theater
Julia Keefe leads the Indigenous Big Band in a celebration of jazz as a living cultural archive. Rooted in Indigenous and African diasporic improvisation, this ensemble animates tradition and experimentation in performances resonant with urgency, joy and collective memory—reaffirming jazz not merely as music but as an ongoing, communal act.
Feb. 05 — Rick Lowe
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
For more than 30 years, Rick Lowe has shaped social-practice art as a force for equity and community building. Best known for founding Project Row Houses in Houston—transforming derelict shotgun homes into vibrant creative spaces—Lowe’s work harnesses art as a vehicle for connection, care, and collective transformation, from neighborhood revitalization to global dialogues about memory and habitat.
Feb. 12 — Basil Twist
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Puppeteer Basil Twist conjures wonder where imagination touches reality. Renowned for underwater puppet theater and other inventive performances, Twist marries abstraction and mythic storytelling. His involvement in productions like My Neighbor Totoro demonstrates his gift for infusing familiar narratives with surreal depth and emotional resonance.
Feb. 19 — vanessa german
Feb. 19 — vanessa german5:30–7:00 pm • Michigan Theater
vanessa german, self-taught artist and “citizen artist,” transforms humble materials into sculptural meditations on resilience, love, and collective remembrance. Her assemblages—built from found objects, beads, glass and personal relics—confront violence while affirming healing, channeling spiritual and communal energies in works that are at once ritualistic and deeply personal.
March 12 — Shaka Senghor
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Memoirist and criminal justice reform advocate Shaka Senghor transforms personal redemption into a public mission. After nearly two decades incarcerated—including long stretches in solitary—Senghor emerged as a bestselling author and mentor, using his story to reframe conversations about incarceration, accountability, and the human potential for reinvention.
March 19 — Sheida Soleimani
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Iranian-American artist Sheida Soleimani constructs staged tableau photographs that unsettle narratives of power, identity and resistance. Drawing on political histories and cinematic form, her work challenges audiences to consider who tells stories—and whose truths are centered.
March 26 — Shana Moulton
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Video and performance artist Shana Moulton turns the vernacular of domestic life inside out. Through her alter ego Cynthia, she probes contemporary anxieties and commodified selfhood with wry humor and unsettling imagery, inviting us into the uncanny architecture of everyday existence.
April 9 — Lisa Hanawalt
5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Cartoonist and visual storyteller Lisa Hanawalt has shaped modern animation with surreal wit and empathetic flair. From BoJack Horseman to Tuca & Bertie, her work navigates laughter and melancholy, rendering the human condition with absurd, radiant clarity.
April 16 — Jonathan Adler
April 16 — Jonathan Adler5:30–7pm • Michigan Theater
Designer and cultural provocateur Jonathan Adler spins optimism into form. From ceramics to global design, Adler’s joyful blend of wit and luxury champions individuality and play, inviting us to consider how creative voice shapes both environments and lives.
Donna Marie Iadipaolo is a writer, journalist, and State of Michigan certified teacher, since 1990. She has written for national publications like The Village Voice, Ear Magazine of New Music, Insurance & Technology, and TheStreet.
She is now writing locally for many publications, including Current Magazine, Ann Arbor Family, and the Ann Arbor Independent. Her undergraduate degree is from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she graduated with an honors bachelor’s degree and three teacher certificate majors: mathematics, social sciences, English. She also earned three graduate degrees in Master of Science, Master of Arts, and Education Specialist Degree.
