My wife and I are traveling to the US around Christmas, first staying a couple of nights at Sonder Gabriel Richard in Downtown Detroit before heading on to NYC. We were initially unbothered by what we considered overblown and outdated stereotypes about the area.

Now my wife is hearing from coworkers and family, including family who live in Detroit, about the grave danger she's in if she stays in downtown.I'm irritated by the anxiety these people have spawned out of nothing. Maybe I'm naive but my gut still says that they're blowing things out of proportion, and at worst it's a little seedy around there.

Would any locals like to comment on how poor a choice we made staying in downtown Detroit as first time travellers to the US? We're Australian if that matters somehow.

Attention: metroDetroit™-specific content. Deal.

…but the three giant abstract sculptures are still part of Lakeside's repurposed future.

^{Untitled by Fletcher Benton, JC Penney court at Lakeside Mall.
Photo: Mitch Hotts, Macomb Daily}

“We have been deeply moved by how much Lakeside Mall has meant to the Sterling Heights community for nearly 50 years,” Allison Greenfield, principal of Leviathan Development and chief development officer of Lionheart Capital, said in a news release. “This inspired us to create plans for repurposing the existing public art within the reimagined Lakeside. One of Lionheart’s main pillars is to reduce waste and facilitate reuse of serviceable materials and items, when possible, in the redevelopment process.”

Emphasis mine. Am I the only

Jacob Russell says he’s been part of metro Detroit’s mostly white improv scene for almost 13 years and noticed his peers didn’t know much about contributions Black people made to American history. The comedian, who grew up on Detroit’s west side, said that disconnect inspired “Birth of a Ho’ Ass Nation,” a satirical one-man show to “give them a perspective of how I grew up and what I was taught.”

Russell said he was inspired to write the first play, which he first performed in 2017 and has since become a series, because he wanted to offer his audience something deeper than just jokes.

Along with writing the play, Russell, 38, plays all the characters like Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, [W.E.B Du Bois](https://en.wiki

“Today, Detroit takes a step into a major national leadership role in fighting climate change,” Duggan said at the event in the footprint of the Gratiot-Findlay project. “127 city buildings are currently powered by 33 megawatts of energy per year from traditional sources, largely fossil fuels,” Duggan said. “In the next two years, we are going to build solar fields that are going to produce that 33 megawatts of energy in renewable energy, effectively generating all the power for city buildings from solar fields.”

Duggan said Monday that the program targets “some of the most blighted areas in the city” and would be “helping neighborhoods that think they’ve been forgotten.”

Homeowners in the footprint of the proposed solar fields stand to receive twice the fair market value of their homes or $90,000, whichever is higher, while renters will get 18 months of rent to relocate. Homeowners within community benefits areas surrounding the projects will receive $15,000 to $25,000 each fo

• Hart Plaza
• Belle Isle
• Ford Motor Company’s official rooftop party. Yeah. Real proletariat there, Lee. $350 a pop. Yes, proceeds do go to the The Michigan Thanksgiving Parade Foundation.
• TV (WDIV-4)

There. I just saved ya the trip. No thanks necessary. For those of you still asleep, it's tonight. Act accordingly.

Happy (early) Canada Day to our brothers and sisters across the river.

Free your mind and your ass will follow…
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

🥵

Maybe you wanna see something light while getting out of the oppressive, heavy, humid Detroit summer? Something escapist for your escaping the heat. A romantic comedy with a happy ending for everybody…well, for almost everybody. Are you in luck!

Friday evening, 8:00pm, at the historic (and air-conditioned!) Redford Theatre (at fashionable 17360 Lahser Road, just north of Grand River Ave.) is the 1987 romantic comedy, Moonstruck!

Directed by the late, great Norman Jewison (Fiddler On The Roof, In The Heat Of The Night), see 80s post-op Cher riding the top of her wave as a movie star and pre-op Nicolas Cage at the beginning of his…

Cher is perfect as the widowed woman, convinced she is cursed by bad luck, who agrees to remarry, only to fall for her fiance’s opera-loving baker brother (Nicolas Cage). This still fresh romantic comedy from Norman

The Detroit Film Theatre at the world-reknown (and air-conditioned!) Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates cinematically the Juneteenth weekend with not one but three blockbusters of African Americana!

Tomorrow at 7:00pm, one showing only, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson's 2021 award-winning documentary, Summer of Soul!

In his acclaimed debut as a filmmaker, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson fashioned a joyful and transporting documentary — part music film, part historical record — created around an epic event that celebrated Black history, culture, and fashion. Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, The Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in New York.

Incredibly, most of the footage was largely forgotten–but no more. Summer of Soul shines a light on the importance of history to our spiritual well-being, and stan

So much going on today here at !detroit@midwest.social(disease).

From ace reporters Robert Snell and Louis Aguilar at the News, "rat, meet sinking ship"…

…prosecutors are applying more pressure on Smith by slapping a lien on his $1.25 million home, a move that reveals possible new criminal charges that could be filed in connection with one of the largest alleged embezzlements in a public corruption case in recent Detroit history[…]

Plea negotiations were described in a federal court filing by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Moran and Smith's criminal defense lawyer, Gerald Evelyn, on June 10. […] "The parties jointly request that the court continue the period in which an indictment must be returned by 60 days in order to permit the ongoing plea negotiations to continue, as the issuance of indictment may change the posture of th

Why is this even posted here at !detroit@midwest.social? Read the article (or as much as you can stomach), peruse the graphic, and then you'll understand my perplexity…

Our study ranks 100 vehicles judged through the same five criteria as it’s been since the 2020 edition: assembly location, parts content, engine origin, transmission origin and U.S. manufacturing workforce. More than 400 vehicles of model-year 2024 vintage were analyzed to qualify the 100 vehicles on the list.

The tl;dr graphic…

The top 10 shifts

Happy Jubilee Day, Detroit!

This episode of Visions is celebrating Black Music Month!

You’ll hear music across all jazz genres and the decades exclusively from Black artists, including Hank Mobley, Meshell Ndegeocello, Marcus Belgrave and more.

Jazz music is black music, but there’s no better time to celebrate it than during June’s Black Music Month.

See, Kaleigh dearest, that's where you're wrong. Jazz/black music should be celebrated every day! 🥰 🎶

EDIT 08:57:54 CEST: typographic error.

What We Want Now
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

First posted last week here, 18-year-old chess champion—the highest-rated African American female chess player in history—Jessica Hyatt's visit to the DIA in an organized simul against 27 opponents "outed" a whole bunch of Detroit dads and grandfathers who have introduced their daughters and granddaughters to the analytical game of chess.

[hellip;]there's a group of Detroit dads that have been making moves for years; taking their kids to practices and tournaments all over; sitting in silence — sometimes for hours at a time — as their progeny test wits, strategy and skills against their opponents, and loving every minute of it. Unlike soccer or hockey, any congratulatory cheers are saved for the end of the game. But these fathers' pride is on display all the time.

“When I introduced my daughter to chess, it was all about giving her critical-thinking skills, and she was li

What do graffiti artist BVIS (real name: Bryan Herrin) and alleged terrorist Yousef Mohammad Ramadan have in common? What is the lowest common denominator here?

I'll give you all a clue. From the thin Metro Times article…

Despite Mayor Mike Duggan’s crackdown on graffiti, BVIS told Metro Times that he wasn’t afraid of getting caught. […] “I love just getting away with shit,” BVIS told us. “But part of me is like, I know people like it. It feels good to make people smile. But it is mostly the adrenaline rush.”

These two (Herrin and Ramadan) and many, many, oh so many people who, shall we say, work outside of the law (regardless where on the gamut) just can't resist painting a huge, neon red target on their backs. Some people just can't shut up.

![Deconstructing Beavis](https://midwest.social/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.

Brendel Hightower over at the Freep has compiled a pile of commemorations, celebrations and festivities for the upcoming Emancipation Day AKA Juneteenth, originating on June 19, 1865 but observed as a federal holiday only since June 17, 2021.

That's a lot of patience.

Here's a sample of the upcoming events, starting today…

• A Juneteenth Senior Lunch will be held at Southfield’s Parks and Recreation Building room 115 at City Hall.

• Dancing in the Street: Juneteenth Jubilee at Motown Museum: […]free museum tours[…]African dance workshop[…]live performances by Lol

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/13306381

Found this over at one of our regular sites, Michigan Advance, but honestly, it reads like a (not-very) covert ad for author Dave Liske's new book The Flint Coney. Flint Coney?!

That said I'm linking to the updated PBS video from which this comes from which plays less like one big book plug.

Moar Coney! BONUS:

• the original 2015 Made In Detroit broadcast about Detroit's coneys

Tell me you're not craving a couple of dogs now. What's that? You say you're vegetarian? Vegan? Well then…

• Velvet Peanut Butter!, with one of the greatest logos in the modern world ever! "Fresh! Pure! Delicious!"

![Fresh! Pure! Delicious!](https://midwest.social/api/v

Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. It is also often observed for celebrating African American culture. Originating in Galveston, Texas, it has been celebrated annually on June 19 in various parts of the United States since 1865.

Southfield’s Juneteenth Celebration will kick off with the raising of the Juneteenth flag on Monday, June 10 at 5 p.m. at the circle drive in front of City Hall, 26000 Evergreen Road. This will be followed by the reading of the Juneteenth proclamation with City Council at 6 p.m.

Visit the linked WXYZ page or http://www.cityofsouthfield.com/ for further information on all of the week's planned events and activities.

Free your mind and your ass will follow…
!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

Critics refer to the kids who covered the iconic Beaux Arts-style building as vandals and hoodlums. But graffiti writers look back and describe it as sort of a gritty community center viewed as a safe space for children who loved to draw and paint but didn't have art programs like students who attended elite schools in the suburbs.

But how does a company spend $950 million on the massive 30-acre campus and keep graffiti, a reminder of when the station was an eyesore?

"Often, graffiti is referred to as blight, as something that scares away our economy, and people don't want to live near it," [muralist Freddy "SW Freddy"] Diaz said. "If we learn to embrace our past, I think we can have a good future. The Central Station embodies that. It was a landmark that maybe didn't have a future but what it meant to the people that were painting in there and hanging out, and seeing what it is now, man, it almost gives you goose bumps, to really learn to appreciate the good and the bad of eve