Support for the EQMC at the Halfway Inn

  • Author:
    n/a
  • Send To:
    University of Michigan Dining Services
  • Sponsored By:
    Ann Arbor, MI
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The East Quad Music Co-Op is a student group that has been putting on concerts in Ann Arbor for upwards of twenty years. It was re-started in late 2003 by a group of Residential College students at the University of Michigan who lived in the East Quadrangle dormitory, many of them employees at it's cafeteria and eventual music space, the Halfway Inn. We have been passing the torch for six years now, and are presently led by a melting pot of current and former Residential College students, most of them residents of East Quad. We were named the second-best all-ages venue in Michigan in 2006 by the Detroit News.

We operate our shows as all-ages endeavors that charge only $5 no matter who the band playing is, be it someone on their national tour, or an Ann Arbor musician just getting started. We don't keep a penny of that money, all of it going to the musicians. The EQMC believes that this egalitarianism dually enriches the student community and the greater Ann Arbor community with this cultural exchange.

We are currently in talks with dining services about whether or not we can use the space for music at all. No decision has been made yet, but it is clear enough that we are in danger of being shut down with no explanation as to what has changed, except that the Halfway Inn's "primary purpose" is a cafeteria for dorm residents - a cafeteria that happens to have a stage in it.

Our success has been founded upon cooperation with UM's dining services, and an understanding that the Halfway Inn is a space that can be used for more than one purpose to the benefit of both East Quad residents and members of the Ann Arbor community.

Please offer your support if you want to see a staple of local music press on. Our existence is a pure product of effort, love, and passion. Our reward is the music experience itself. These are all things that we love about Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, and Michigan music, and we want to keep participating in that. We believe using the Halfway Inn is an integral facet of what we do, and that it benefits Michigan students, The University, East Quad residents, and the Ann Arbor community as a whole.

Our aim is to work cooperatively with dining as partners to be able to use the space sparingly, one to three nights per month. We are students and community members who want to be heard. We want a voice.

This petition is a small symbol of that voice. This petition offers support for the use of the Halfway Inn for music concerts.

Thank you,

-
The East Quad Music Co-Op.

957 Signatures

  • Ethan Milner
  • Ian Dickinson
    • Title
    • Dr.
  • Annie Palmer
  • Alexandra Dickinson
    • Title
    • Former Co-President of EQMC, Caring Community Member
    • Comments
    • В
  • David W. Jones
  • David Hashim
  • Alex Robins
  • Emily Lardner
    • Title
    • student
  • Courtney Fredrickson
  • Brandon Zwagerman
    • Comments
    • I was involved in putting on shows at the EQMC in 2006 before I graduated and moved away, but I'd been to shows at the Halfway Inn (AKA Halfass) before then and even since. This space, as a venue, represents everything live music should be about-- this is about students doing something themselves without outside funding or influence; building community in a dorm basement a few times a month, open to people of all ages. I've seen high schoolers and baby boomers in there, and of course tons of UM students. Nationally-known acts have performed, as well as promising young Ann Arbor bands just getting one of their first shots at playing in front of a group of respectful and interested people (who aren't just their friends or parents). The EQMC and the shows it puts on have been an important niche in the Michigan music scene for decades; closing these shows down is equal would in a lot of ways be an insult to generations of students who built a grassroots organization and scene from the ground. EQMC = important.
  • Meghna
  • Dustin meyer
  • Bethany Gorka
    • Title
    • 2005 RC alum
  • Ross Huff
    • Title
    • trumpet
    • Comments
    • i have both performed and listened to concerts @ EQMC. We need alcohol-free, all ages venues!! the EQMC is doing the right thing.
  • Joseph Xu
  • Melissa Wallin
  • Joshua Rouan
  • Andrew Wigg
  • Daniel Rouan
  • Ashley Wiers
  • David Martin
  • Jennifer Smith
    • Title
    • Former EQMC Vice President
  • Jessica Kursman
  • Amy Hunter
  • Matt Hampel
  • Angela Kalsi
  • Andrea Tawil
    • Title
    • Alumnus
  • Ian Mays
    • Title
    • student poet
  • Patrick Cooper-McCann
    • Title
    • RC Student
    • Comments
    • The EQMC is an asset to East Quad, Ann Arbor, and the Michigan music scene, and there's no reason it can't continue to peaceably coexist with Dining Services in everyone's favorite all-ages venue, the Halfass/Halfway Inn.
  • Sarah Crockett
  • Lucinda Waters
    • Title
    • EQMC patron and Member
  • Hayley Berkshire
  • Matthew Roney
  • Tony Lowe
  • Brian Grant
    • Title
    • Alumnus
  • Jeremy Peters
    • Title
    • UM Grad, EQMC Attendee and Employee of Ghostly International and Quite Scientific Records
  • Linda Mathews
  • Andrew TImmons
  • Perrin Disner
  • Andrew
  • Alexander Itkin
    • Title
    • UM student, musician
  • Forest Casey
  • ezc
  • Biz
  • Kristin Schroeder
  • Patrick Elkins
  • scott sellwood
  • James Dowd
  • Arielle Castro
  • Maya Price