July/August 2026 Issue: America 250 + Art in Michigan (Print Edition)

A Poet Grows in Skokie Edward Hirsch talks about “My Childhood in Pieces” "With ten published books of verse, several poetry anthologies, and numerous scholarly and critical works to his name—including the much-praised “Gabriel, A Poem,” a book-length elegy for his son who died tragically at the age of twenty-two, and the bestselling “How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry” and “A Poet’s Glossary”—Edward Hirsch is a major force both as a maker and popularizer of poetry." (Hugh Iglarsh) Booking at the Beach Chicago authors explore the City’s formidable reading tastes "Chicago beaches in the summer are full of readers. Their tastes are as unique as our neighborhoods, and far more complex than the ubiquitous descriptor “beach read” could possibly capture. Take a look at the book covers you pass the next time you’re walking your dog or dipping your toes in the surprisingly cold Lake Michigan surf. You’ll find philosophers and revolutionaries, fantasy tomes and essay collections, true crime and quirky little zines." (Elizabeth Niarchos Neukirch) America 250 Of the Audacity of Change: The Obama Presidential Center "There will always be this fight inside of Black America—inside of ourselves—that is both our existential threat to one another and our existential symbolism to the world. That’s just our history. Our existential primogeniture." (Scoop Jackson) Time Alone with Abe and Mary: The Abraham Lincoln Museum and Library "What happens when you go to a museum by yourself? You become more open to the experience, because you’re not worrying about someone else’s reaction. You feel free to weep a little over the death of young Willie, or feel stirrings of patriotism as you read the Gettysburg Address. You’re also lonesome, so you talk to strangers and learn why they’re there." (Mary Wisniewski) At Home with the Harrisons in Indianapolis: The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site "Elected in 1888, Harrison was a Union Army veteran who endorsed a law to enforce Black suffrage, though it didn’t pass. He was an early environmentalist, authorizing twenty-two million acres of forest preservation, backed a law to provide pensions to disabled veterans, reformed the civil service and signed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, which was the first federal act to outlaw monopolistic business practices." (Mary Wisniewski) Out in an Iowa Cornfield: The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum "Over the years I rolled by West Branch, Iowa (pop. 2,500) dozens of times on trips on I-80 between Chicago and Iowa City. West Branch is a little more than a three-hour drive from Chicago. The Hoover library and museum is part of the 187-acre Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, administered by the National Park Service. The grounds include Hoover’s birthplace cottage and eighty-one acres of restored grass prairie." (Dave Hoekstra) An Ordinary Man in Extraordinary Times: The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum "The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum opened in 1981 on the gentle banks of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ronald Reagan and Henry Kissinger attended the launch, while comedian Bob Hope hosted the festivities. The museum presents a humble and balanced look at America’s only unelected president and vice president." (Dave Hoekstra) A Rough Rider Rides Again in the Badlands: The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library "Once the sickly son of a Manhattan businessman, Roosevelt lived happily as a cowboy and was photographed in a suit of fringed leather, a bandana around his neck and a rifle on his lap. Roosevelt later said that he would not have been president if not for his experience in North Dakota." (Mary Wisniewski) Where the Buck Stopped: The Harry S Truman Library & Museum Despite the fact that the Harry S Truman Library & Museum explains why Harry never added a period after the S in his name, that period appears on the museum website. But it’s still fun to learn why no period is needed: his parents couldn’t decide between using the name Solomon, his maternal grandfather, or Shipp, his paternal grandfather, so they just used S instead of a middle name. (Cynthia Clampitt) Art in Michigan A guide for collectors, curators and the curious From Heidelberg to the Good Shepherd "In 1999, Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer ordered the demolition of three houses at the sprawling and internationally famed art installation, “The Heidelberg Project.” In response, Tyree Guyton, the artist behind the installation, announced a new project in which his trademark polka dots would spread out from Heidelberg Street until they covered the whole city. He was good to his word." (Steve Panton) Kalamazoo: Great Name, Terrific Art Scene "That legacy of cultural renown and obscurity remains a part of Kalamazoo’s identity. About a two-and-a-half hour drive from downtown Chicago and an almost straight shot west of the Lake Michigan community of South Haven, the Southwest Michigan city has much to recommend it." (Alison Cuddy) Collectors Not Consumers: How ArtClvb is Working to Replace Mass-Produced Decor with Real Art by Living Artists "Detroit has long been one of those cities that outsiders love to underestimate right up until it produces something impossible to ignore. Cheap space, stubborn ingenuity and a deep bench of artists have made it fertile ground for creative experimentation. Because the city has never enjoyed the dense web of commercial galleries and legacy collectors that shape art scenes on the coasts, Detroit has developed another specialty: building its own infrastructure. " (K.A. Letts) Cranbrook For Life: How a Farm Outside Detroit Became an Art, Design and Education Mecca "What does an ideal learning environment look like today? As our lives and many of our interactions have become virtual, the character and quality of the spaces in which we learn are even more important." (Dirk Denison) Polka Dots, Windmills and African Beads: The Legacy of Detroit’s Art Environments "Far from Detroit’s revitalized downtown, tucked away in neighborhoods beyond the city’s center—and in the nearby enclave, Hamtramck—quirky, playful spaces thrive. The Heidelberg Project, Hamtramck Disneyland, and MBAD’s African Bead Museum are filled with whimsical creations that rewrite their respective neighborhood’s histories by both clashing with and reflecting their surroundings." (Roopa Chauhan) The Great Beauty: Why Michigan Attracts Chicago-Area Artists for Residencies "Within a few hours’ drive from Chicago’s bustling metropolis are miles upon miles of pastoral, laid-back environments rimming the opposite side of Lake Michigan that are ideal for creating art. These swaths of western Michigan have served as ground zero for visual and performing artists to set aside time for their craft for decades now." (Kristine Hansen) What Else Could a Museum Be? Mike Kelley’s “Mobile Homestead” "Bordering the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), there sits a work so strange and self-aware that even calling it a “work” feels slightly inadequate, or at least incomplete: Mike Kelley’s “Mobile Homestead.” At first glance, the idea of discussing an artwork inside a museum risks sounding tautological, the kind of sentence contemporary art institutions inadvertently generate by merely existing." (Abel González Fernández) Outliers "The legendary stomping grounds of Paul Bunyan have no shortage of space—or of people who wanted enough of it to do their thing. Some Michigan artists and designers have more ample room and means than others. Yet many often embraced thrift, held close a connection with the state’s spectacular natural setting, and possessed a masterful sense of past and place, whether Michigan’s industrial legacy, natural treasures or distant influences both rustic and sleek." (Michael Jackman) Masterpieces for the Middle Class: History of Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Homes in Michigan "Nearly all of the thirty or so Wright-designed homes are still standing in Michigan, a mix of public sites that offer tours as well as private residences that are—depending on their steward—open for overnight stays or guided tours." (Kristine Hansen) Complex Savior: How Anthony and JJ Curis are Remaking Detroit "Religious parallels are unavoidable in speaking of the Shepherd, the contemporary arts space that, since opening in the vacated Church of Annunciation in 2024, has been the centerpiece of a breathtakingly ambitious cultural district on the east side of Detroit." ( F. Philip Barash) The Art Geography of Michigan "The breadth of Michigan’s art culture comes as a pleasant surprise—you would expect Michigan’s "galleric populi" to mostly saturate the lower palm of the state "hand" since Detroit, Ann Arbor and Flint find their homes there. And, as much as Detroit does dominate, Michigan’s taste for the artistic is peppered throughout the entire state. No county is too small nor too thinly populated to house some sort of creative nexus; vast collections and quirky thematics spring up in rural counties where one might not expect to find them." Arts & Culture Art: Kenzi Shiokava Finally gets his due + A Retrospective in Rio of the photo prankster Vik Muniz Dance: The long and lively life of Dance For Life Design: Jeremiah Hulsebos-Spofford and the afterlives of objects Dining + Drinking: A Tiki touchstone for the Midwest Film: Surmising the sizzle in summer's box office Lit: A renowned Indonesian novelist's work is breaking through Music: Kahil El'Zabar revisits "America the Beautiful" +. Klaus Mäkelä says farewell to Oslo and hello to Ravinia Stage: Gwydion reclaims theater's risk-taking heritage Reviews Hot sun, hot shows Poetry America: A new poem by Rebecca Morgan Frank 156 Pages Shipping within the United States is included in the price. Subscribe Never miss an issue! Cover: Edra Soto Tropicalamerican, 2014, print media edition produced at the Rauschenberg Artist Residency, Captiva, Florida