Just when we thought the year could not get any better at iO, we’re pleased to announce more exciting news. IO’s founding donor, Hollywood film producer, Bob Shaye, has just pledged a generous matching grant of up to $25,000. Shaye continues to believe, as do we, in the value of encouraging Detroit’s youngest…

Get Versed is InsideOut Literary Arts’ annual showcase of students performing original work on stage at the premier Detroit Film Theater inside of the Detroit Institute of Arts. The hour-long show has been hailed as one of the best ways to spend $5.00 in Detroit. The curtain goes up on…

sponsored by with Special Guest Betty DeRamus Betty DeRamus is a published author and a former columnist for The Detroit News, the Detroit Free Press, the Associated Press, the Michigan Chronicle and the British Broadcasting Corporation. She has received an array of awards for her writing including: a 2011 Headliner Award…

Former Citywide Poets Coordinator Headlines in March Say the name Nandi around IO and eyes invariably light. She was a force on the page and in the lives of young students she led as a long-time leader of the CWP. We’re bringing her home to headline the March installment of…

The Talk of ‘12 5,037 K-12 students for yearlong weekly creative writing workshops this year. 32 top writers-in-residence worked with IO in classroom and after-school programs. 31 schools around Detroit embraced our 25-week core classroom programming. 5,771 people attended 50 events and readings through InsideOut Literary Arts Project, primarily free…

Roger Bonair-Agard is his own revolution… —Patricia Smith Scratch the Page, IO’s reading and workshop series, is back with a big literary name on the mic: Roger Bonair-Agard. You’ve seen him on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour. He descends on Detroit to work with our students…

Come shop with a purpose on Dec. 1st., as the Paradise Pen Company (inside the Somerset Collection) hosts “The Gift of Possibility,” a one-of-a-kind shopping experience to benefit IO and young writers in Detroit. Fun runs from 10 am to 5 pm. and includes a 10% discount, a silent auction and of…

Thanks to 17 talented writers and 80 generous donors for making The Great Write Off of 2012 a great success an a sweet memory. Together we raised more than $5,500 to help IO expand ongoing afterschool workshops in critically underserved community locations. Thanks for sharing our belief that poetry adds…