Join Dr. Mike Hill for a poetry reading and writing workshop

HFC English instructor Dr. Mike Hill asks the question What Makes Us Purple in his chapbook of 27 poems.

"I've actually been thinking about this question some because I’m still wondering if it's a good title for the book. This is the title of the fourth poem in the book. That poem is about one of my children expressing rage at four. My son, both in real life and in the book, is on the autism spectrum, and what made/makes him purple at times is the frustration of processing and articulating his emotions. So, I guess, that the title is appropriate for the book because the poems here are trying to articulate and make poetic the emotions and meanings of everyday domestic life," explained Hill.

"We have a lot of culture that lives at HFC"

Hill will read from his chapbook and conduct a writing workshop at the Writing Center (Room A-201), which Hill co-founded, on the second floor of the Learning Success Center (Building A on the main campus) on Tuesday, October 20, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. The writing workshop will begin at 4:00 p.m. You do not have to attend one to attend the other.

"Part of the vision of the Writing Center was to make it a cultural center for writing on this campus in addition to being a place where people work on their academic writing," said Hill. "The Writing Center Director Dr. Chelsea Lonsdale has kept that vision alive in multiple ways, such as making it a vibrant space for diverse types of writing and holding and sponsoring events like this one. I'm thrilled to be able to do a reading in a such a welcoming and comfortable space. I'm especially thrilled to be doing one of my first readings in support of this book on our campus."

Lonsdale is looking forward to her long-time colleague’s presentation at the Writing Center.

"Mike Hill founded and was the first director of the Writing Center, so it is a special honor to have him read from his new poetry chapbook and lead a writing workshop afterward. Mike is an incredibly talented and passionate writer and instructor, and I think it's important for that energy to be shared outside of a traditional class setting," she said.

Hill will facilitate the writing workshop, which is designed to get people to think about how their own experiences are poetic and worthy of being explored through writing. Hill will discuss the origins of several of his poems and use them as starting points for exercises that use experience exploration as an invitation into creative expression.

"You don't need to be a poet or even a lover of poetry to participate. You just need to be someone who has lived," said Hill. "I hope we pack the Writing Center so full that we blow out the walls and expand the reach of its work to everyone on this campus. I mean, I would love to have a huge audience, but I also hope our students, faculty, colleagues, and community take advantage of the cultural moments they find on our campus. We have a lot of culture that lives at HFC and much of it is so much richer than our next assignment or our next meeting."

Proud to have been part of the HFC community for two decades

Born in Alabama, Hill and his family moved to Michigan when he was 6 months old. He lives in Redford with his family.

After graduating from Lakeview High School in Battle Creek, he began his education at Kellogg Community College. He transferred to Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY, where he is a two-time alumnus. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in English with a concentration in philosophy. He earned his doctoral degree in the Social Foundations of Education with a concentration in philosophy from the University of Toledo. Hill also completed doctoral work in Modernist American Literature and Composition/Rhetoric at Wayne State University.

Hill has been teaching at the college level for more than 30 years. He taught at Wayne State for five years and Toledo for five years. He also taught adjunct at Monroe County Community College and Owens Community College in Toledo before joining the HFC (then Henry Ford Community College) faculty full-time in 2006.

"It's been 20 years? I will just say in relation to all that time and the current project: I am thrilled to be able to produce work using some of the ideas I cover in my composition, creative writing, and philosophy classes," said Hill. “And I am excited to make a small contribution to our campus culture and the culture in the world around us. It is hard for community college professors to pursue the ideas and work that made them want to be professors in the first place, so it is gratifying to get to a place in my career where I have the luxury and mental space to do something extra."

The color Purple

Since 2010, Hill has written poetry but never actively pursued having his work published until five years ago. In 2021, his poetry was published in several journals, including Dogwood Poetry and Windward Review.

"I also started writing much more regularly, so I built up enough material to build a couple of book possibilities," he said.

For Hill, it's easier to talk about how What Makes Us Purple was put together rather than what inspired it.

"Each of the poems were written as individual pieces and the book became loosely thematized as I started to group together different combinations of poems as collections," he explained. "Ultimately, the themes of fathers, children, neurodivergence, and a masculine perspective on domestic relationships emerged. And so did the poetic goals of writing with an eye toward the accessibility of poetry and being guided by the poetics found in real experience."

He spoke about the challenges of getting What Makes Us Purple published.

"The timeline and process of getting a book out there is long and a bit laborious, especially when trying to publish through a traditional publisher," said Hill. "This book has been mostly finished for about two years now. It was sent to multiple publishers and contests before getting accepted and then all the stuff that both the publisher and I have had to do to bring it to publication is a bit mind-blowing."

He continued: "But I guess the best moment I have had was walking by my wife one day as she was sitting on the couch just reading my book like it was a real book. I’ve already written a poem about that experience! My wife has read and heard all the poems in the book before, but seeing her appreciate the book as a book, well, there was just something special in that moment."

Other Writing Center events

Please join us for two other events at the Writing Center, including:

• "Writers of HFC meet + greet coffee hour" on Thursday, October 22, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m.
• "Pathways to Barrett" on Thursday, October 22, from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.

"The Writing Center is so excited to offer these events for the HFC community. I think most people see the Writing Center as a place to get help with writing – and we are that – but we also want to be a place where writing happens and where writers are celebrated for their creativity, their curiosity, and their intellect. Writing is a distinctly human endeavor, and we are proud to be a resource on campus that recognizes and supports writing of all kinds," said Lonsdale.

Hill's poetry reading and writing workshop are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. For questions or more information, contact Hill at mdhill1@hfcc.edu.