The Thrill of a Live Presentation

I had the opportunity to hear Ta-Nehisi Coates at the University of Detroit Mercy this year.  The buzz around the event had been circulating on social media for months.  Many of us bought our tickets in advance, not wanting to miss out on this evening.

As the hall filled, many of us looked around in amazement.  We couldn't believe he was packing the place.  Young and old.  Students and professors.  Suburbanites and Detroiters.  I looked around and saw representation from several different Metro Detroit universities.

You can read more about the evening here but the backstory on how he came to speak is even more interesting because it illustrates what can happen when people actually talk to each other.  Coates phoned UDM History Professor Roy Finkenbine and you can read all about it here.  Yes, it seems that people still do use telephones to talk to each other.  Try it sometime.  Forget the email and try dialing the phone number.  The human connection just may lead to something like this: a sporting arena filled with folks waiting to hear from an author in person.  He did not disappoint.