In September, former Ann Arbor City Attorney Stephen Postema launched the release of his book at a fitting location – the Ark, the nationally known acoustic and folk music venue on Main Street. His book, titled “Running Around Town: An Ann Arbor Memoir,” is a collection of essays about growing up in Ann Arbor between the years 1963 and 1973.
Postema’s memoir shares the observations of an energetic boy living in anything-but-simple time: the mercurial decades of the 1960s and 1970s in Ann Arbor. The book brings funny and quirky insights into gentle focus, with a lens on the small things in life, according to Postema. Part coming-of-age impressions, part family and societal portraits in miniature, part love story, the book is ultimately a tapestry of transformative everyday interactions, woven together with the cultural influences and music of the times.
Postema, as a perennially curious narrator, describes his small but teeming domain extending to the University of Michigan Diag and the people who influenced him: a cashier who sells him a peace sign necklace at Middle Earth; the clerks at Discount Records who provide musical advice; the folk musicians at the Ark; U-M basketball star Cazzie Russell; and a classmate, a bibliophile, who teaches him to sing in tune and passes him a note in history class at Pioneer High School.
And fittingly, the book touches on Postema’s introduction to the law: reading cases in a Federal Supplement in the U-M Law Library at age 16 in an attempt to pass himself off as a law student to attend the Law School Student Dance in the Law Quad; being grilled about the movie rating system by a prominent U-M Law Professor while attempting to take the professor’s daughter (Postema’s eventual wife) to an R-rated movie; frequently contemplating the meaning of trespass concerning the city, public school, and University of Michigan property and buildings, which he felt then were seriously under-utilized after hours; and learning to love the law via a policeman neighbor who bails him out of situational predicaments.
Postema, who holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin Law School, worked as the Ann Arbor City Attorney from 2003-22. He currently is Of Counsel to Conlin, McKenney & Philbrick in Ann Arbor. He also serves as a mediator and arbitrator.
The book was published by Fifth Avenue Press, which was founded in 2017 by the Ann Arbor District Library in an effort to support the local writing community and to promote the creation of original content.
For more information, Postema can be reached at skpostema@gmail.com.
Postema’s memoir shares the observations of an energetic boy living in anything-but-simple time: the mercurial decades of the 1960s and 1970s in Ann Arbor. The book brings funny and quirky insights into gentle focus, with a lens on the small things in life, according to Postema. Part coming-of-age impressions, part family and societal portraits in miniature, part love story, the book is ultimately a tapestry of transformative everyday interactions, woven together with the cultural influences and music of the times.
Postema, as a perennially curious narrator, describes his small but teeming domain extending to the University of Michigan Diag and the people who influenced him: a cashier who sells him a peace sign necklace at Middle Earth; the clerks at Discount Records who provide musical advice; the folk musicians at the Ark; U-M basketball star Cazzie Russell; and a classmate, a bibliophile, who teaches him to sing in tune and passes him a note in history class at Pioneer High School.
And fittingly, the book touches on Postema’s introduction to the law: reading cases in a Federal Supplement in the U-M Law Library at age 16 in an attempt to pass himself off as a law student to attend the Law School Student Dance in the Law Quad; being grilled about the movie rating system by a prominent U-M Law Professor while attempting to take the professor’s daughter (Postema’s eventual wife) to an R-rated movie; frequently contemplating the meaning of trespass concerning the city, public school, and University of Michigan property and buildings, which he felt then were seriously under-utilized after hours; and learning to love the law via a policeman neighbor who bails him out of situational predicaments.
Postema, who holds degrees from Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin Law School, worked as the Ann Arbor City Attorney from 2003-22. He currently is Of Counsel to Conlin, McKenney & Philbrick in Ann Arbor. He also serves as a mediator and arbitrator.
The book was published by Fifth Avenue Press, which was founded in 2017 by the Ann Arbor District Library in an effort to support the local writing community and to promote the creation of original content.
For more information, Postema can be reached at skpostema@gmail.com.
