DETROIT -- Award-winning Detroit composer and singer/musician Carolyn Striho will release a collection of some of her poetry and lyrics spanning her lifetime of music. Detroit (Maiden Energy) is a critically acclaimed compilation of Striho’s expansive body of work, with Street Princess poems, and lyrics written for music ranging from rock to soul/pop to gypsy folk. She is embarking on a tour to promote the book that kicks off in the place where she began her creative journey: Detroit.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while,” Striho writes in her preface, “and being a songwriter most of my life, I wanted to share some of my own poetry and lyrics.”
Detroit (Maiden Energy) ,Carolyn’s first full collection of poems and lyrics, reads with overtones of a poetic memoir, recounting her youth as a musical sensation and her electric and sometimes challenging rise on the Detroit music scene. She is also a breast cancer survivor and is featured in an upcoming PBS film special about survivors. She will also take part in the Pink Fund performance and is currently working on a new album slated for release in 2020.
Carolyn kicked-off her tour at the Made in Michigan Festival in Allen Park, with more appearances planned throughout the Fall. Included in her promotion of Detroit (Maiden Energy) is a special digital exhibition of her photo and poster archive, featuring photos of some of the world’s top artists, including Iggy Pop, The Ramones, The Slits, Patti Smith, Steve Earle, Yoko Ono, Don Was, photos of her previous bands, vintage posters and some surprises from this multi-talented Detroit artist.
Detroit (Maiden Energy) goes sale October 10, 2019. Autographed copies will be available in local stores including Book Beat in Oak Park, River’s Edge Gallery in Wyandotte and Dearborn Music with more locations coming soon. The book will be available on Carolyn’s website, www.carolynstriho.com, Aquarius Press/Aux Media’s website https://aquariuspress.myshopify.com/ and on Amazon.
Join Carolyn for a book signing, birthday party and performance on Saturday, November 9th at 8pm at The Cadieux Cafe with special guest, The Orbituns. http://www.cadieuxcafe.com/calendar/
For interview requests, please contact Heather Buchanan at aquariuspress@gmail.com
Detroit-Area Events
Sunday, October 27th NOON - WDET-FM 101.9 ‘s NPR in Detroit Ann Delisi will air an interview with Carolyn about her new book - stay tuned at 12 pm to the wonderful Ann Delisi’s Essential Music! ! https://wdet.org/
Week of October 28th —WDET-FM 101.9 ‘s NPR in Detroit on Culture Shift Carolyn’s book will be featured in Ann Delisi will air an interview with Carolyn about her new book and also, an interview with Mike Halloran and Carolyn Striho on their influential show “Radios in Motion” - stay tuned to Culture Shift this week! https://wdet.org/
Friday, November 1, 2019—A big night at River’s Edge Gallery! Come join the opening kick off of Carolyn’s new book, with a book signing, reading and more - wine, hors d’oeuvres and song - There will also be Carolyn’s retrospective of posters, photos and surprises with a digital exhibition, all at River’s Edge Gallery, 3024 Biddle Avenue, Wyandotte, Michigan 48192. 7-10 PM https://artattheedge.com/
Sunday, November 3, 2019—A big afternoon at Book Beat! Reading, live music and the really cool poster/photos and surprise digital exhibition party at Book Beat, Oak Park , 3-5 PM! http://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/news/
Saturday Night, November 9, 2019—Cadieux Café Detroit ! Music, great bands, the book and a blast of “Birthday and the Book” with Carolyn Striho Group and The Orbitsuns at The Cadieux Café! From 8:30 pm to midnight - http://www.cadieuxcafe.com/calendar/
Praise for Detroit (Street Princess)
"Carolyn Striho is the personification of Detroit Rock energy, charisma, beauty and talent. On stage, she is a force of nature, but this collection of her poems and lyrics allows us to experience this dynamic artist in a more intimate and personal way. Carolyn Striho is long overdue for a book just like this!"
--Ann Delisi, Host, Ann Delisi Essential Music, WDET-FM
"In her song lyrics and poetry, Carolyn Striho opens up her heart and her head, blending emotion and psyche into a brave and provocative look into herself and the world around her. Whether it's direct or abstract, you get engrossed in her words without even thinking about it, taking the trip willingly and coming out the other side all the better for it."
–Gary Graff, Billboard/New York Times Syndicate
“When you witness Carolyn Striho fronting a band live, you are immediately overcome by her frenetic energy and kinesthetic intensity. In Detroit (Street Princess), a collage of poems, song lyrics, and vignettes, Striho takes us both backstage and offstage into the childhood and coming of age of that persona—in doing so, we listen to and learn the softer, unguarded “languages we spoke to understand.” Striho has rocked the Motor City for many years, gracing the stage with the likes of Patti Smith, and the pieces in this collection allow us to see beyond the amps through the poet-singer’s eyes. The writing is direct, honest, Detroit hard and vulnerable at once, leaving ‘dirt in the mouth/ but gold in the heart.’”
--John Jeffire, Stone+Fist+Brick+Bone and Motown Rising
“Carolyn Striho is a Detroit rock’n’roll genius, with a poetic heart and a funk-driven soul. Her new book shows the multitude of her many experiences from her Detroit childhood, to her strong feelings about war and contemporary social issues with a final chapter offering a good dose of love poems and lyrics all packed with truth and hope. As a musician, Carolyn rocks from punk to funky R&B, and as a poet, she takes the reader deeper into imagery, metaphor all with a sense a life well lived.”
--M. L. Liebler, Editor, Heaven Was Detroit: Essays on Detroit Music from Jazz to Hip Hop & RESPECT: Poets on Detroit Music
“Carolyn Striho’s verse and poetry allow readers rare insights: We can shiver or drink inside frigid Michigan winters, we can align with the overlooked and forsaken, we can see strange beauties where few others do, we can rock ’n’ roll in ways only Detroiters understand. The gifted Striho, who grew up a performer first, mixes cultures and tropes and music and literary disciplines with the grace of a Temptations harmony, all while her note-perfect words and lines shift beneath our feet, challenging us with head-spinning verve. This book is a rare song indeed.”
--Brian Jabas Smith, author of Spent Saints and former editor, MetroTimes
About Carolyn Striho
Carolyn Striho is a Detroit recording artist, musician, singer, performer and writer who mesmerizes audiences with her strong vocals, fiery keyboard and guitar, energetic performances, heartfelt and poetic melodies, spontaneous improvisation, torch songs and dance beats, but also with a gypsy flourish of modern music. Carolyn’s most recent album, Afterthought, was on the GRAMMY® Awards 2018 First Ballot for Best Rock Album of the Year. Carolyn has won 11 Detroit Music Awards and a Billboard Magazine Award for her songwriting, albums, musicianship and live performances. Carolyn also has toured overseas six times in Europe and also had a two-month tour of Japan. She’s played many national and international festivals including Lollapalooza, Rome Italy’s Donne In Musica, London U.K. Meltdown, and many more. Carolyn’s musical resume is quite extensive, with highlights including opening for Steve Earle in England, and performing in Detroit, Toronto, Chicago, Frascati, Fiuggi and Rome, Italy and in London and Isle of Wight, U.K. Carolyn’s also performed with Patti Smith on two tours, and with her band, Detroit Energy Asylum, which included many members of Was (Not Was). With a strong catalog of music, she is working on a new album for 2020 and a new U.K. tour. Carolyn is a Wayne State University Graduate (B.A, M.S., Ed.S.) and also a high school English teacher in Special Education in Metro Detroit. She has more memories of her DJ life on the radio (NPR/WDET-FM).
About the Publisher, Aquarius Press
Celebrating its 20th year of publishing in Detroit, the award-winning Aquarius Press develops and promotes many of the nation’s top poets and writers, including several Michigan authors, including John Jeffire, Thomas Galasso, Qiana Towns and Flint millionaire industrialist Willie E. Artis. Titles by Aquarius Press have been featured at the Library of Congress, Smithsonian and Lincoln Center. The owner, Heather Buchanan, is a 2019 Michigan Humanities Council Champion of the Year nominee, the 2019 University of Michigan-Dearborn’s Difference Maker Alumnus of the Year and the recipient of a Proclamation from the City of Detroit.