By Amanda May Moore
Within a beautiful historic house, nestled in the southside historic district of Ypsilanti, you will find a space for creatives where there are regular events, activities, and gallery exhibitions. Upon approaching the house, one will see writing on the window: Dzanc House, you’re in the right place. This is not only an indicator of having found the correct house, but also a way of communicating to the community at large that there’s a place where they belong. Whether it is for reading, writing, drawing, printmaking, knitting, crocheting, embroidering, performing, or simply absorbing the art—you’re in the right place.
Dzanc House hosts a variety of events ranging from figure drawing to writing workshops, but we are also a space for residencies. Artists, poets, authors, and writers are welcome to apply and stay for a day studio residency or overnight residency. One advantage to staying for a residency is to have training and full access to use the Risograph, which is a special form of eco-friendly printmaking developed in Japan. We offer workshops and lab hours for the community as well, but for anyone really looking to have more hands-on time with the Risograph, an overnight stay is a great opportunity!
As the Creative Director and Residency Coordinator, I curate a new exhibition featuring a local artist or two every month. Our application for 2026 exhibitions will be out this fall for anyone looking to exhibit in our gallery space on the main floor of the house. We will also host calls for art exhibitions for larger participatory shows centered around a theme, such as love in February, the month donned for romance.
We host a quarterly poetry series with incredibly talented national, regional and local poets. So far, we have hosted Jeff Kass who recently published with Dzanc Books a second collection of poetry on comics called, A True Believer, and Brittany Rogers, whose collection of poetry, Good Dress, is considered by Angel Nafis, author of BlackGirl Mansion, “a once-in-a-generation debut.”
Dzanc Books is the umbrella non-profit organization of a new community art & culture hub. Dzanc Books was established by Steve Gillis and Dan Wickett in 2006. Since then, it has published diverse voices and continues to promote literary readership, creative writing workshops, and readings across the country. Through the support of grants and generous donations from foundations, corporations, and individuals, this work has been sustained.
The Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation (AAACF) has awarded Dzanc Books grants to host workshops with young writers. Additionally, we have hosted published poet, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, who taught workshops with young writers at Pioneer High School as well as participated in a podcast with the students. Our published podcasts of poetry can be found on our website wonderfully put together by Paola Ortega, our digital coordinator. Literary Program Director and Grant Writer, Charlene Choi, has developed our free literary and cultural arts programming for our young writers. These programs begin again this coming fall and are free to all. Registration is open on our website and the poetry teachers are eagerly waiting to witness the creative power of writing poetry with young people in our community. They have a unique opportunity to be published as well as hosted on WCBN, a local radio station. Poetry is the focus of our workshops with different themes inspired by rules and rhymes, art, and the work of other great poets we study. This December we will be displaying their art and poetry in the gallery. Be sure to check the show out and join us in celebrating our young writers.
Dzanc House is more than a house: it is a home for all creatives to feel safe and welcome to be themselves in all forms of expression. Make Dzanc House is your new home for expanding your imagination and artistic practice.
To learn more about Dzanc House, upcoming opportunities, and calls for artwork, please visit dzanchouse.org and follow our Instagram account @dzanc_house or Facebook page @Dzanc-House. Dzanc House is located at 402 South Huron Street in Ypsilanti.
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