Benefit for Mick Vranich [1946-2010]

[Django]

I'm sure some of you all know Mick Vranich and if you know him you know how much hes done for so many people.

As I understand it, Mick took a very serious fall on a construction site. He suffered a pretty bad head injury as well as a punctured lung and two broken vertebrae. There will be at least two benefits for him. I don't know all the details but the first one will be at the Old Miami next Saturday Feb. 20th. I understand another one will be at CCS later in the month.

If anyone has any more solid info please post it here. There will be an auction of donated artwork at both benefits. If you can donate a piece of your work or good old $$ please do it.

As I get more info Ill post it here.

[eno]

the name sounds familiar.

[ct_alum]

What Trade is he and what Local does he belong to?

[fzappa2000]

I'm really glad to hear that folks in the Corridor have started organizing some financial and spiritual support for Mick & Sherry. As soon as details about donating money are available, I'll send my check in. Mick represents what the spirit of the artistic community in Detroit truly strives for....

[RickBeall]

I used to love the cool atmospheric way he played guitar and the musicianship of his bands. I remember a bass player who had extra strings on his guitar who played drone strings, and a drummer where all the drumming was by hand, no sticks.

[Lowell]

Mick is an outstanding poet and musician and a force in Detroit's art community. Along with his partner Sherry Hendrix they have created the wonderful Alley Culture gallery and been leaders in the revitalization of Lincoln Street, where the live, have restored a great house and built the Alley Culture gallery from a declined garage in the back. I will definitely be supporting this effort and urge all other to give what you can.

Here is Mick performing at the Fourth Street Fair from about three years ago.

[Lowell]

Alley Culture form the alley between Trumbull and Lincoln.


...and an interior view.

[eno]

Thanks Lowell for the background on Mick Vranich. I had a feeling he had something to do with music but couldn't place him.

Update on his condition at: http://www.corridortribe.com/individ...ck_vranich.htm

[fzappa2000]

Went down to see the Muggs at the Motown Winterblast last night and got some more info on Mick. More surgery is planned for next week to stabilize two broken vertebrae that he suffered among other injuries falling through a floor and down some stairs [[YIKES!)

Here's the latest info that I have of the first of several benefits planned to help Mick & Sherry out: Friends and fans of Detroit, give what you can. If I find out about making direct donations to help out I will post it here because I know that a lot of folks would want to help out that are not going to make it down to the Old Miami....
[INDENT]

[fzappa2000]

Just got an email from one of the fund raiser organizers about making donations for Mick for those of us unable to get down to the Old Miami this Saturday. Send your checks to: Mick Vranich C/O Old Miami 3930 Cass Detroit MI 48201 Let's all think of Mick this week and hope for the best. FZ

[Detroit_uke]

Bump...this Saturday

[Django]

Just got a call from Jerome Feretti, he wanted me to post the following.

Saturday March 6th, Center Galleries at 310 Frederick Douglass will be having an auction/benefit for Mick. Starting bids will be no lower than $25.

To donate art for auction you can drop them off at the Artist Market at Forest and Woodward in care of Matt Hanna. .

Micks not taking any visitors in case anyone was thinking about it.

I'll try and update with more specifics later

[Django]

The auction at Center Galleries is on Sat March 6th between 6-9pm

You can drop off art to Matt Hanna at the Artist Market between Feb 23- March 4th.

[jeromium]

We would like to thank the Detroit Yes forum for their contributions at the benefit on Saturday. Eric and Becky said the total was over $5,700.00! The winner of the grand prize of the raffle was Sharon Newton of the Cass Corridor. The people at this gathering place made it work. We hope Mick is getting better.
Thank You!
Jerome

[fzappa2000]

....Indeed.... glad to hear things went so well.
Keep up the great work y'all. Plan to make it down to CCS Sat. night.

Mick we're here with you in spirit...

FZ

[det313grrl]

bump

Attachment 5398

[Django]

Bump it on over to Center Galleries tonight.

[JohnnyFreddy]

The Benefit for Mick Vranich at the Center Gallery, College For Creative Studies,
Saturday, March 6th, went very very well.
Thankyou to all involved. Whether it was a contributed piece of art, or a purchase from the
over one hundred items on display in a silent auction.
Thankyou especially to Matthew Hanna, a very close and great friend of both Mick and Sherry,
for his unfaltering energy in organizing these events, and his assistant April Dunsten for her devoted help as well.
Thank You to Michelle Perron and Todd Erickson at CCS for hosting March 6th.
Thank You to everyone who [[in their love for Mick) bought art and contributed mony.
Who can say there is no love or good, in the City Of Detroit?

[fzappa2000]

Sadly, I must report that I've received a message from a reliaible and trustworthy friend telling me that Mick passed away peacefully at 9 PM last night [[Monday). Have Mick in your thoughts today....

[Lowell]

Thank you Mick for the art, the poetry, the music, the joy, the buildings you restored, the commitment to your neighborhood and Detroit, the Alley Culture gallery and the light and love that shone from you. My deepest condolences to Sherri.

[RickBeall]

Hey Mick, I only knew you through some of the great music you played on your guitar at various street events around Detroit, but I loved your music ... and I visited the Alley Studio once. Loved your vibe man.

[urbanoutdoors]

Mick was one of those guys that makes Detroit unique. I knew him the majority of my life and feel good to have known him. Whether it was repairing my Bicycle, going to an art opening, or picking up some produce it was always nice to see Mick and find out what he was doing next. He was a very important member of the activist, poetry, arts, and music scene's and he will be sorely missed...

[urbanoutdoors]

http://www.metrotimes.com/blog/reckless.asp?perm=1057

Mick Vranich: 1946-2010

“One of the original hero working-class poets from the early days of Detroit’s hip, contemporary poetry scene,� fellow poet M.L. Liebler wrote in a Wednesday morning e-mail of Mick Vranich, who passed away the following night. Vranich had taken a serious fall on a construction site in February, suffering a head injury, a punctured lung and two broken vertebrae [[leading to at least one benefit to raise funds to help him and wife). Presumably, his more recent surgery was related to that. A note we received from artist Bob Sestok said that “following an operation, his lungs began to bleed and nothing could be done.� Other notes put the time at 9 p.m., the manner as “peacefully.�

Vranich was a rock ’n’ roll poet who knew how to swathe his words in electric guitar shimmers, or send them skittering ahead of a big beat. But strip away the sounds of the instruments and there was the sound of the words that also worked alone. And in addition to poetry and music, he was an arts activist in myriad ways, including running a private gallery space, Alley Culture, with his wife, Sherry Hendrick.

Here’s some of what Norene Smith [[then Norene Cashen) had to say here in Metro Times in 1999 about his book Saw Horse:

In the final section of the book, “Nails,� “papers pile up to no consequence/like the pile of branches/to sleep on no electric force� [[“The Authorities�), where the poet struggles with the terminal art of crafting. The invisible surveillance of internal voices against the need to resist outside forces — real or perceived — creeps out of “Dawn Patrol,� which finds nature and the man-made tangled yet again. It rises to articulate the writer’s burden of too many possibilities: “i end up just sitting here staring/out the window watching the leaves/grow the rain clouds roll in the/thunder head explodes with ragged/lightning bolts the darkness falls/the sirens wail somewhere in the/distance not too near like the gun.�

And here’s more of what Liebler had to say:

He was a true innovator of performance poetry in our city. I was always amazed at how he would perform his poems with musicians and play lead guitar at the same time. Mick Vranich was one of the important building blocks in the foundation of what we now refer to as “Detroit poetry.� We will always love and respect him for all he gave to this community through his talent and creative treasures. Mick loved this city with all his heart and soul.

And this is how Smith’s review concluded:

Saw Horse strikes with deep feeling, but most interestingly it possesses dimension. Vranich’s delicate plays on words move as two-way hinges, folding one idea upon another in multiple meanings. In the same way, “Nails� drives through and holds layers in place: the thought, the expression, the poem, analysis of the poem, the movement of the poem, the still picture of each moment capturing and assimilating whatever happens to be there.

Vranich builds his paradox painfully aware of the disintegration of the structure as well as the body, memory and art of its maker. He watches alone, yielding to that process fully, always willing to lay another piece of material down and continue the work.

You can send further thoughts on Mick and his legacy to letters@metrotimes.com.

[barnesfoto]

Detroit, once again, has lost one of the people it needed the most.

Besides his work as a writer, musician and doer of other amazing things, he was a master craftsman whose skills helped restore countless historic properties.

I now realize that I amassed a small fortune in conversations over coffee, carpentry, art and the world in general with him.

We who knew him are richer for his presence.

Condolences to all.

[rustic2]

Can only echo what's been said earlier. It's a sad loss, and he'll be missed

I knew Mick slightly -- introduced myself at the food co-op one day, a lifetime ago. I had seen him perform with Wordband two or three times. I have some great pics of them performing at the Shadow Box in Hamtramck. If I ever dig them up and get access to a scanner, I'll share.

Ironically, perhaps fittingly, a cassette of "Cloak of Skin" has been struck in the tape deck of my beater car since mid-November. I'll have to dig it out, want to hear it again.

Peace to all.