Detroit

This talented lady and Detroit native, commemorated twice on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was a 20^th^ century cultural touchstone no less than three times in her long career...

• winning an Academy Award for her iconic role as Stella in Kazan's 1951 film version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, the role she played in the original Broadway production
• getting (literally) into the skin of Prof. Zira of the original 1968 Planet of The Apes movie series ("...but you're so damned ugly.")
• adding that Emmy Award nominated touch of class to classic daytime soap opera The Edge of Night as Nola Madison

Ms Hunter, born today in 1922, would have celebrated her 100^th^ birthday but, unfortunately, passed away September 11, 2002.

Feed your face for a good cause!

Visit over 25 top Detroit restaurants during November 12 - 16 to experience 3-course meals for $20, $35, $50 and/or$75. Let’s Do Dinner Detroit presented by Stella Artois features delicious food at discounted prices while supporting Forgotten Harvest.

For every Let’s Do Dinner Detroit meal served, Forgotten Harvest receives a donation that provides 8 meals to individuals and families in need.

In case you are remiss in your music history…

In 1971, Coffey recorded "Scorpio" which was a million selling instrumental single that peaked in the US at number nine on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart and at number six on the Billboard Hot 100. The instrumental track featured the former Motown "funk brother", Bob Babbitt on bass. On January 8, 1972 Coffey became the first white artist to perform on the television show Soul Train, playing "Scorpio". "Scorpio" received a gold disc awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 9, 1971.

Everybody knows Scorpio! Happy 82^nd^ Birthday, Mr Coffey!

• Dennis Coffey @ Wikipedia
• The Temptations (Coffey on guitar) -- Cloud 9 (1969)
• Dennis Coffey and The Detroit Guitar Band -- Scorpio (1971)
• Dennis Coffey and The Detroit Guitar Band -- Taurus

"Whatupdoe…Come and get your glizzies."

Diamond — that's her business name — had worked as a stripper in many 8 Mile clubs, with the stage name of, you guessed it, Diamond. But a 2010 car accident on the Lodge Freeway changed her life, and she started making her living by hustling in a different way.

After the accident left her with a broken foot, Diamond spent some time in Arizona, where she noticed that taco trucks and other food vendors were raking in the dough. “I could do this in Detroit,” she thought.

60 years ago today…

“What you and I need to do is learn to forget our differences. When we come together, we don’t come together as Baptists or Methodists…You don’t catch hell because you’re a Baptist, and you don’t catch hell because you’re a Methodist. You don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a Methodist or Baptist. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Democrat or a Republican. You don’t catch hell because you’re a Mason or an Elk, and you sure don’t catch hell because you’re an American; because if you were an American, you wouldn’t catch hell. You catch hell because you’re a Black man. You catch hell, all of us catch hell, for the same reason.”

Tonight at 7:00pm and a Sunday matinée at the lavish Detroit Film Theatre.

[Jean-Luc] Godard’s foray into lush color and CinemaScope moviemaking stars the great Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter caught in a tangle of deceit and ambition between a difficult, demanding director (Fritz Lang), a crude, snarling American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

• Contempt at Wikipedia

...Draw with them!

Today and Sunday, The DIA hosts another Drop-In Workshop: Drawing with Scissors, that allows attendees to get their Matisse on...without all the downsides, of course!

Explore the art of collage and create your own unique work using just paper, scissors, and glue, inspired by Henri Matisse's Jazz series on view in the special exhibition After Cubism.

Free with admission; all supplies provided.

Non-Detroit-specific post. Sue me.

Today is just one facepalm after another, folks...

The U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 ruled abortion laws must be left up to the states, overturning a half-century of federal abortion protections and spurring Michigan voters to approve Proposal 3 in the November 2022 general election, adding the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy to Michigan's constitution.

In a statement Wednesday, Stacey LaRouche, [Gov. Gretchen] Whitmer's press secretary, said the governor would work to defeat the lawsuit.

"It shouldn’t be lost on people that these right-wing organizations and radical Republicans in the Michigan Legislature are cherry picking courts to try to once again overturn a constitutionally guaranteed right because they can’t win with voters," LaRouche said.

Mayor Pro Tem Mohammed Hassan, one of three incumbent [Hamtramck] city councilmen running for reelection, was the top vote-getter among the six candidates, according to results from the city clerk.

Hassan drew national scrutiny earlier this year when he introduced a council resolution in June passed unanimously that banned the display of LGBTQ+ flags on city property. The resolution was passed and since then, Hamtramck has seen a wave of attacks against LGBTQ+ flags, symbols and people, according to residents and activists.

Hassan refused to comment Tuesday afternoon while outside a polling site at Hamtramck High School, saying he does not talk to the media. Hassan has not returned emails and phone calls from the Free Press this year about his flag resolution or other issues in Hamtramck.

Further reading:

• Detroit News: Hamtramck's 'neutral' flag ordinance sparks federal lawsuit
• Hamtramck City Council candidate doubles down on comments about Holocaust, child marriage, and homosexuality

As if you didn't know, Detroit-born Ms Shakoor (born Jeanette McGruder) is host of Detroit Public Television's long-running Detroit Performs: Live from Marygrove and one of The Brides of Funkenstein. Singer, musician, comedienne, actress, writer, storyteller, Ms Shakoor is also a 2017 Kresge Literary Arts Fellow.

• The Brides of Funkenstein: Didn't Mean to Fall in Love

Happiest Birthday, Ms Shakoor! 🥳🎂🎉❤

The Free Press reported police radios in scout cars, precinct stations and patrol wagons heard the message from headquarters: “Attention all cars, Gordie Howe’s new record is 545.”

“People have asked me what was my greatest moment in hockey, and I always say it was that goal,” Mark Howe said in an interview. “The ovation just went on like it seemed forever. I remember thinking, ‘I’m the only one in here who can say, ‘that’s my dad.’ ”

“The scale of the tree is a bit of an optical illusion. It must look appropriately sized within the grandness of the skyline but also it needs to be strong, symmetrical, and able to hold the 7-foot star on top"

[David] Cowan [chief public spaces officer for the Downtown Detroit Partnership] said their organization has supported the transformation of Campus Martius Park, which now ranks as the No. 1 Public Square in the U.S. according to USA TODAY, for 20 years.

Nasr Hussain, who is among six people running for Hamtramck City Council, suggested on Facebook on Monday that the Holocaust was “advance punishment” for Israel’s “savagery” against Palestinians in the Israel-Hamas war.

“She was betrothed at six, marriage consummated at nine after reaching puberty and giving her consent,” Hussain wrote in response to a news story about a child getting married to an adult man. “Women reach puberty between 8 and 12. If she was ok with it and her parents were ok with it why does it bother you.”

In response to a WXYZ-TV story about a mother and son who were charged with kidnapping for taking a teenager to get an abortion, Hussain wrote, “15 years old [SIC] can’t get married but she can get sexually assaulted, kidnapped, and forced to have an abortion. Liberal logic!!!”

Further reading:

• Detroit News: Hamtramck candidate's post suggests Holocaust was 'advance punishment' for Gaza attack
• Some in Hamtramck concerned over antisemitic Facebook post by city council candidate

[G.C.] Cameron, 78, a Detroit native who still lives here, is not being inducted with the Spinners.

That irresistible, pleading lead voice of G.C.’s on “It’s a Shame” — he goes into a passionate falsetto at various points that could give Marvin Gaye pause — brought the group its first post-doo-wop hit in 1970, thanks to the songwriting and producing skill of Stevie Wonder, as well as the earworm guitar riff from a Funk Brother (reportedly Dennis Coffey) — that voice is not included?

Drama, romance, politics, geography...it all plays into the story, while we all yawn and say, "who gives a rat's ass about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame anyway?"

How could this have snuck under my radar?!

Updated: Oct. 25, 2023, 1:49 p.m. | Published: Oct. 25, 2023, 1:46 p.m.

Faygo has just unveiled a new flavor of pop and it tastes just like an Orange Creamsicle. The historic Michigan soda pop company’s new creation is called “Faygo Dreamin.” The orange creme soda gradually began hitting store shelves today across the state and everywhere Faygo pop is sold.

And speaking of which...

Dr. Ossian Sweet (October 30, 1895 – March 20, 1960) was an African-American physician in Detroit, Michigan. He is known for being charged with murder in 1925 after he and his friends used armed self-defense against a hostile white mob protesting after Sweet moved into their neighborhood.

After the trials, Ossian Sweet rented the home on Garland [Street] to a white couple until 1930, when he moved back into the house. However, both his wife and two-year-old daughter Iva had died of tuberculosis in 1926. Sweet remarried twice, and divorced each time. In 1946, he sold the house, moving into the flat above a pharmacy he owned. In 1960, in failing health, Sweet took his own life.

The Ossian H. Sweet House was designated as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1975 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Suddenly, without warning or fanfare, an organization from the AFL’s Waiters and Waitresses Union strode to the center of the main floor, blew a whistle, and shouted “Strike!”

As whistle-blowing activists spread the pre-arranged signal through the building, 250 saleswomen stepped back from their customers and folded their arms: Downtown’s first sit-down had begun.

If sugar skulls ain't your thang...

That's right! Everybody's favorite four-letter word writ large on the silver screen at the gorgeous Detroit Film Theatre...CATS!

Why stay at home watching hilarious and lovable cat videos on your cellphone when you can bask in the grandeur of the "domesticated" felines 100 larger? You say you don't like cats? After this, you'll adopt ten and become a crazy cat ~~lady~~ person! Or maybe not.

Two shows Saturday, Oct. 28 (today, Sylvester!) and Sunday, Oct 29 (tomorrow, Fifi!), coinciding with National Cat Day (who knew?)

EDIT 14:33 CEST: typographical errors

Saturday, October 28 and Sunday, October 29, from 12pm to 4pm!

Learn how sugar skulls are used for Day of the Dead celebrations in Mexican and Mexican American communities while you decorate one of your own to take home! No experience necessary. All supplies provided. Free with admission.

You gotta have ART!

Yeah, I'm late on this one: the Monument to Joe Louis, by sculptor Robert Graham, was inaugurated October 16, 1986. Sue me.

Look at it. A couple of racist idiots doused it with white paint in 2004. "The Fist" just laughs. Like a few cans of paint could ever make a difference, could somehow diminish its power.

From "The Greatest" to the greatest...

Whatever I said before, I don't mean it, 'cause Joe Louis was the greatest.

Look at Joe's life. Everybody loved Joe. He would have been marked as evil if he was evil, but everybody loved Joe. From black folks to red-neck Mississippi crackers, they loved him. They're all crying. That shows you. Howard Hughes dies, with all his billions, not a tear. Joe Louis, everybody cried.

-- Muhammad Ali

With all the drama unfolding in Detroit around equity in mural painting, who should get to paint the city, and at what price, we’re taking this time to appreciate a piece that Detroiters can actually be proud of.

Earlier this week Mayor Mike Duggan, city officials, and community members gathered at a press conference to celebrate the 200th mural in Detroit’s City Walls program painted by lifelong Detroiter Nicole Macdonald.

That’s when Detroit muralist Sydney James called us.

“All of these white artists painted Black people,” she says. “There was no vetting process or anything. They said, ‘Hey we can come in and paint these walls,’ and the city said OK, but they make Detroit artists go through the wringer and do all these community activations before they can put something up. These European artists weren’t asked to do all of that.”

Additional "rabbit hole" links:

• A selection of Detroit murals by Detroit artists
• Does the Motor City’s public art serve the public?

...or Detroit City Council approves $13.9M for a second Maggot-dome

...or Use it or Lose it: Detroit City Council doesn't know on what to spend just shy of $14M of ARPA funds

...or Another reason pork is bad for you

...or Eastside Detroit's second Led Zeppelin will cost almost $14M

...or...

I could go on all day like this...

Saturday is Make a Difference Day and to highlight Breast Cancer Awareness Month we not only speak to two incredible educators who are survivors of breast cancer and making a difference -- Wendy and Nina Shirley -- we also caught up with Ascension Michigan at Focus Hope in Detroit offering free mammograms.

In metro Detroit, we are using our voice to help increase knowledge about breast cancer prevention and treatment.

Check the important links at the end of the article. 🩷🎗