Learn all about Ann Arbor's seedy past at this week's Nerd Nite

Damn Arbor alum and co-host of the Ann Arbor Stories podcast, Rich Retyi, will be giving a presentation about Ann Arbor's former red light district around Fourth Avenue at this Thursday's Nerd Nite. Rich and his co-host, Brian Peters, have been researching the heyday of Ann Arbor's red light district the 70s and 80s. A time when Fourth Avenue was not known for being the home of the Food Co-op and Fourth Avenue Birkenstock, but instead the infamous Danish News Bookstore. I asked Rich what he found most interesting in researching for his presentation. Here's what he said:

It's crazy how big a role the state of Michigan played in the history of porn. One of the biggest pioneers of pornography operated right near Flint, and at least one of the entrepreneurs he spawned set up shop right here in Ann Arbor, fighting the city and its businessmen for nearly a decade, while operating bookstores, theaters and massage parlors in the state. Ann Arbor had a real and true bad side of town. Anecdotes from citizens and businesspeople who operated on and near South Fourth Avenue talk about prostitutes lounging in doorways, hoodlums roaming the street and cars cruising slowly down the block looking at the merchandise. All two blocks from City Hall and Ann Arbor Police Headquarters.

Sounds like it will an entertaining and educational lecture. There will also be presentations by Romance novelist Celia Mulder, who will cover romance novel subgenres from "time-traveling Vikings to firefighting cowboys to shapeshifting were-creatures;" and from physicist Brian Worthmann, who will be talking about the color pink from a physics perspective.

Nerd Nite is this Thursday, February 18th at LIVE. Doors are at 6:30 and presentations are at 7.
There is no cover thanks to the AADL.