What's New at OLLI
This page provides information about additions and changes to OLLI's program offerings.
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OLLI's Summer Lecture Series (Nature and Recreation in Michigan) Brochure
OLLI's Thursday Morning Lecture Series #5 Brochure (Native Americans in Michigan)
OLLI Spring Study Groups Brochure
OLLI Winter/Spring 2022 Catalog
OLLI's Distinguished Lectures Series 2 Brochure is available.
OLLI is Always Looking for Volunteers for Committees
Special Projects Committee
Looking for a fun and stimulating volunteer opportunity and a way to contribute? Join the Special Projects Committee, the OLLI "New Program Incubator". This is the committee that developed the Climate Change series, the COVID series, Torn from the Headlines, OLLI @ Home and OLLI Reads. Join us if you like generating new program ideas and making them happen.
Contact Jane Spinner at jspinner@umich.edu or Laurie Barnett at lcbarn@comcast.net if interested or to get additional information.
Join the Lectures Committee to help create the Thursday Morning Lectures
Join a Lectures Sub-Committee to meet new people while creating Thursday morning lectures. There are still opportunities for planning the lectures for the 2022-23 academic year.
For more information contact Frances Schultz by sending e-mail to: fschultz@umich.edu.
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All of the programs in the OLLI Commons are free and open to the public. You must be registered to receive the Zoom links for each Commons event.
Changes to the Zoom links used for OLLI Commons events
As of April 2021, the current single open Zoom link for the Commons were discontinued. Each Commons event now has its own separate Zoom link and participants will need to register for Commons events. The events are still free and do not require the OLLI annual membership fee to be paid.
For more information see: https://www.olli-umich.org/olli-commons.
Private meetings in the OLLI Commons are no longer being offered
All Commons events now require registration via the OLLI website, and the ability to book a “private” meeting in the Commons is no longer offered.
Time change for the Book Beat: New time is 4:00 to 5:00 pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month
The new time for the Book Beat is 4:00 to 5:00 pm on the 4th Tuesday of each month.
New Member Exchange discontinued
The New Member Exchange held on the 4th Monday of the month has been discontinued. The last meeting was held in February 2021. There is a possibility the Exchange will begin again in the future.
Poetry Reading with Ginny Bentz every third Friday, Free
Resources from OLLI Programs
Lecture Series Resources
- Resource List for Music in Detroit: Music In Detroit and Michigan: The Legend Continues
Click here for the resource list.
- Resource lists for the Canada and the United States: Unidentical Twins Lecture Series
Click here for the Facts and Questions resource list.
Click here for the Bibliography resource list.
Click here for the Cultural Achievements resource list.
Community Online Learning Opportunities
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Climate Emergency . . . Feedback Loops, five videos
The climate crisis continues to advance. These five videos, Climate Emergency: Feedback Loops, which were recently released clearly demonstrate the ongoing dangers that we are facing.
A Monumental and Rapturous New Anthology of Black American Poetry
New York Times article by Parul Sehgal
The new Library of America anthology “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song,” edited by Kevin Young, is a monumental tribute to that persistence, from the colonial period to the present. It features poems on injustice, harassment, hunger — protests on the page — but also rapturous odes to music and food, to gawking at beautiful strangers, to boredom and birth pains and menopause, and, yes, to moon, elms and lilacs, too.
Yo-Yo Ma and the Meaning of Life
A New York Times Magazine article by David Marchese
The immensity of Yo-Yo Ma’s talent is such that he would be globally admired if all he ever did was appear onstage or in a recording studio and then vanish after the last notes faded from his cello. That Ma has instead used his gifts in the service of spreading humanistic values — via cross-cultural musical collaboration, civic engagement and huge amounts of heart — means that his connection with the public goes far deeper than mere admiration.
On Dec. 11, Ma will release “Songs of Comfort and Hope,” an album recorded with the pianist Kathryn Stott. “People need each other for support beyond the immediate staples of life,” Ma says. “They need music.”
Life on Purpose: How Living for What Matters Most Changes Everything
Vic Strecher (MPH ’80, PhD ’83 ) is a professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. For the last decade, he has been teaching and researching the significance of purpose and how people can find it in their lives.