Detroit

Yeah, yeah, maybe you've seen the original 1982 theatrical release who-knows-how-many times, maybe you've seen this narrationless 1992 Director's Cut and probably the "complete artistic control" 2007 Final Cut, blah blah blah et cetera et cetera…

Well, take a tip from yer pal r^2^ and see it again on the big screen! I don't mean your 72" LCD in your front room (that smells of fried food and farts BTW) on your matted dog-hair, shapeless sofa with your permanent buttprint. See it the way PKD saw it months before his untimely death!

Face it, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, we're talking about a film that still touches all genre films made today. And it's at The Redford, which is always cool. Go, already! You'll thank me later.

🏎   EVEL KNIEVEL TRIBUTE!!!
🏎   NOEL G, "HECTOR" FROM THE FAST AND FURIOUS FILM FRANCHISE!!!
🏎   DEE SYNDER, GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA!!!…no, wait, that's that wrestler guy, whatshisface…
🏎   and FIVE, COUNT 'EM, FIVE BATMOBILES, FROM THE 1960s TO TODAY!!!

TOO MUCH FUEL-INJECTED TESTOSTERONE this weekend, March 1 - 3, at the 71^st^ Annual AUTORAMA Detroit!!! Over 800 CUSTOM CARS!!! HUBBA HUBBA, it's the MISS AUTORAMA RETRO PIN UP GIRL CONTEST!!! Just SO MUCH MACHINE!!!

AAAAAaahh. Ok. The Caps Lock is working now. Sorry about that.

Anyway, you Custom Car Commandos, it's all going down starting tomorrow, Friday March 1 at ~~Cobo Arena~~ ~~TCP~~ ~~TCM~~ oh, fer the love of Pete, Huntington Place! Tickets are available at the door!

If this isn't hardcore Detroit-related and Black History Month-related, well, call me George Wallace and wheel me outta here.

The Heidelberg Project is the brainchild of artist Tyree Guyton, started in 1986 and constructed by Guyton, his wife Karen and grandfather Sam Mackey (a side-thought: we can only imagine what that poor woman thought, like most wives, when Guyton first proposed the idea; "Oh, Lord, my husband has gone insane!" -- r^2^), Guyton subverted the decay and desolation born of the aftermath of the 1967 12^th^ Street Riots, of his native MacDougall-Hunt neighborhood, setting off, if you will, a "happy bomb." Derelict houses painted in circus colors and childlike motifs, fences adorned with discarded shoes of feet long perambulated, bicycle haystacks and tumbleweeds, orphaned dolls and toys piled high forming a Toyland Tower of Babel reaching up to Heaven.

During its history, The Heidelberg Project has had its share of detractors from the neighborhood residents and the City of Detroit, with two mayors ordering its dismantling. Throughout its existence it has also seen arsonists ravaging entire installations. Each time, Guyton et al. start fresh with new installations.

Relocation plans from the Heidelberg-MacDougall block, entitled Heidelberg 3.0, initiated in 2016. If you can't make it in person, there are apps that offer the virtual experience (as well as a cell-sized screen can, anyway) — ain't technology great? — for your iPhone and Android-powered surveillance device. But, people, believe me, nothing beats the live experience! The installation is open to the public and visiting hours are 8:00am -- 7:00pm. You might as well make the best of the end of the world, what with "spring in February" and see it the way it was meant to be seen: walk it.

Further reading…

• Archive of Destruction
• Atlas Obscura
• YouTube channel

EDIT 2024-02-29_17:57:45: typographical errors

Reception and Book Launch:

"A Tribute to President Barack H. Obama: Your Story Inspired Our Story"

February 29, 2024, 6:00pm -- 8:00pm
Southfield Public Library
26300 Evergreen Rd, Southfield, MI

A Gala reception and book launch will be held at the Southfield Public Library in celebration of President Barack H. Obama for his historic role as the first African American elected to serve as President of the United States of America.

You will hear from the leaders of the six collaborating organizations that published the book[…] You will also hear from local leaders and community activists such as the Honorable Barbara E. Talley who both served on the Presidential Book Committee and Retired Oakland County Circuit Court Judge Denise Langford Morris to name a few.

Please RSVP by to dean4justice@comcast.net or call (248) 790-0531 with any questions.

metroDetroit™-related post. You'll cope. You're strong.

Beginning February 26, 2024, all day
Southfield Public Library, Circulation Lobby
26300 Evergreen Rd, Southfield, MI

This traveling display from the Automotive Hall of Fame recognizes the contributions African Americans have made to the automotive industry that have not been celebrated or even fully captured and shared. Realizing that these are important narratives that need to be brought to light, this exhibit is the AHF's first effort to join with community in telling these stories.

On display Monday, February 26th - Friday, March 22nd in the Circulation Lobby.

Everyone is invited to the exhibit, no reservations are necessary.

Night of The Scarab

Performances by Warren Defever and J Rowe/Jordan Schug Sextet
Wednesday, February 28, 8:00pm
The Scarab Club
217 Farnsworth Street, Detroit, MI

Free Admission. All Ages Welcome. Donations to the club are welcomed.

The Scarab Club presents a very special night of live music featuring a rare appearance by His Name Is Alive's Warren Defever performing solo and the extraordinary J Rowe / Jordan Schug Sextet.

[…]Defever started making experimental atmospheric music at age 10 in 1979, long before ambient became a household word. Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Outlooking recorded in his parent's basement on cassette while in high school was featured on 1991's Home Is In Your Head album on the legendary 4AD label and then received gold and platinum records for[…]the movie Jerry Maguire. The same song was later used[…]on American Idol. His Name is Alive[…][has sold] 100,000+ albums

J Rowe and Jordan Schug's Sextet […] debut album (produced by Warren Defever) will be released soon and explores the mostly untapped vein of British progressive jazz groups of the early 70s such as Soft Machine and Ian Carr's Nucleus while staying firmly rooted in the classic sounds of Detroit heroes Marcus Belgrave, Larry Nozero and Lyman Woodard. Expect hot horns and heavy percussion over deep grooves and ambitious arrangements.

DTE Energy Chairman and CEO Jerry Norcia indicated on a recent earnings call that the company would pursue another electric rate case this spring, potentially hiking electric bills for customers just hit with a $368,000,000.00 rate increase in December.

That increase added $6.51 to the average bill. DTE Energy took in $1,400,000,000.00 in earnings in 2023, an increase from $1,200,000,000.00 in 2023.

Chris Bzdok, an environmental attorney{…]told Outlier in December that spending money on tree trimming, for example, only allows the utility to recoup the maintenance cost. However, if the utility spends the same amount of money on new equipment, it can be added to the company’s rate base, earning it their rate of return on investment, including 50% equity for stockholders. […] These shareholders include DTE’s top management, who receive millions in stock options.

The event, which will be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24 at The Icon in Detroit, will also consist of an expungement and felon-friendly job fair.

The flier says the gun exchange will be “no questions asked,” with handguns and non-automatic firearms to be bought for $100 and semi-automatic and automatic assault rifles to be bought for $200.

“This will not be the last one,” Skilla Baby says in his post’s caption. “We will try to get as many guns off the streets and clean as many records as possible every year if it’s up to me.”

From The Freep: Rapper Skilla Baby teams with Brady group for Detroit gun buyback event

Skilla Baby said he recognizes the Second Amendment right to own firearms — but he’s also a big advocate of safety protocols, proper storage and secure communities.

“I know with my influence, I can urge people to clean their records, get jobs and get guns off the street,” he said. “In the future, I want to do gun safety classes, fun stuff like that.”

“We know the power of joining forces with a city, with influencers, with these icons,” [Hannah Jones, national director of organizing for Brady: United Against Gun Violence] said. “That's how we got together. But it started with his vision, and he knew, and his folks knew, that we focused on safe storage."

Alt. link: https://archive.is/3LDQZ

Saturday, February 24, 2:00pm -- 3:00pm
Detroit Public Library, Jefferson Branch
12350 E Outer Dr, Detroit, MI

Have fun and win prizes, while learning about famous African Americans.

(Boy, they're awfully terse at the DPL -- r^2^)

B Serena Williams! N Sidney Poiter! BINGO! Everyone is invited and admission is gratis with registration, so click that link, sign up, dig out your favorite ~~graffiti mops~~ Bingo daubers and go!

**Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 ** February 4 -- June 23, 2024
Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI

In cooperation with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures…

Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 honors the legacy of African American filmmakers and actors from the dawn of cinema, through the golden age, and into the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by and named after an independent 1923 all-Black-cast movie, Regeneration seeks to revive lost or forgotten films, filmmakers, and performers for a contemporary audience.

Explore — or revisit — a bittersweet part of American cinematic history, lost in plain sight but not by accident. In concurrence with the exhibit, The Detroit Film Theatre will be showing a selection of 20^th^ century African American cinema gratis throughout the month of February until June.

This weekend's events are…

• Friday Night Live!: The Black Opry Revue
  Friday, February 23, 7:00pm
  DIA Rivera Court
  5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI
  Black musicians have always been integral to country, folk, blues, and Americana music genres; in many instances, it was Black musicians who first created these forms. The American music industry has an equally long history of not supporting them, or excluding them completely. For these reasons, Black Opry was founded by Nashville's Holly G. as a collective of like-minded musicians, writers, producers, and supporters who created a website where Black artists could be heard and celebrated. The Black Opry Revue is the touring element of this collective and highlights their diversity of sound and stories. Every Revue features a unique line-up of Black artists.

• The Scar of Shame
  w/short film Mercy the Mummy Mumbled
  USA, circa 1926/1918
  Sunday, February 25, 2:00pm
  DIA Lecture Hall
  5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI
  Harry Henderson plays a classic pianist and Lucia Lynn Moses a would-be cabaret singer; star-crossed lovers kept apart by the class divisions between educated strivers and the working poor who succumb to poverty, alcoholism, and crime. The ambition of The Scar of Shame was to present realistic Black characters with no resemblance to Hollywood stereotypes, and to depict the ways in which middle-class Blacks in the 1920s struggled to create new American identities without abandoning their community. This screening will include Mercy the Mummy Mumbled (1918), a silent short from the Ebony Comedies series produced by the General Film Company. It will be presented with a live musical score composed and performed by saxophonist Mike Monford. (82 min.)

The Regenerations exhibit and all DFT films are gratis with general admission. The Black Opry Revue is also gratis but requires seat reservations. General museum admission is free for residents of Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties. For further information, please call (313) 833-7900 during visiting hours or visit https://dia.org.

Black History Month at the DIA is generously supported by Arn and Nancy Tellem.

…Herds of Nerds Swarm In Warren

The Great Lakes Comic Convention Friday, February 23 – Saturday, February 24 The Macomb Community College Expo Center 14500 E 12 Mile Road, Warren, MI

Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of The Neverending Story!
with actor Noah Hathaway (Atreyu)

Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Mirage Studios Reunion!
Steve Lavigne - Jim Lawson - Dan Berger

Celebrate The 40th Anniversary of Transformers!
with Bob Budiansky, editor, Marvel Comics

Who knew, this synchronized quadrāgintennial tsunami of pop culture?

50 year Anniversary of Sid and Marty Krofft’s Land of the Lost!
Meet Wesley Eure (Will Marshall)
Kathy Coleman (Holly Marshall)
Phillip Paley (~~Fuzzyboy~~ Cha-Ka the Pakuni)

Okay, I’m out. Vendors, special guests by the Sandcrawler-load, events, tickets, everything you need to grok is at the website.

…or Make-believe Barbarians at The Gates of, uh, where the hell are we?

Michigan Nordic Fire Festival
Friday, February 23 -- Sunday, February 25
Eaton County Fairgrounds
1025 Cochran Ave, Charlotte, MI

Hands-on activities (Free except when noted):

• Spear Throwing
• Archery
• Axe Throwing (additional fee)
• Kids' Quest
• Kid's Axe Throwing

All this and other, erm, Vikingy events and activities, merchants, food and entertainment plus where to point your Viking ship all at the website. Please, no raping, looting or pillaging allowed but otherwise, y'know, have at it.

I'll just leave this here. I KID! I KID!

Apologies about the late posting especially for missing these two important events…

• (non-Detroit-Michigan-related) Nina Simone (RIP) was born on February 21, 1933
• (Detroit-born) Malcolm X (RIP) was designated persona non grata by The Nation of Islam and then later assassinated February 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in NYC

February 23, 1868—Dr. W.E.B. DuBois is born William Edward Burghardt DuBois in Great Barrington, Mass. DuBois can easily qualify as Black America’s lead­ing scholar and intellectual of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He was also an educator and social activist fight­ing tirelessly against racial injustice and U.S. imperialism.

February 24, 1868—The U.S. House of Represen­tatives voted 126 to 47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson.

Thanks to Johnson, who was acquitted by one vote in the Senate, the promise of Forty Acres and A Mule was never kept. If he had been expelled, who knows in what kind of America we would all be living in today? I'm sure that Rosa Parks would have sat on the bus wherever she damn pleased her entire life, Rev King would mostly likely have been "just another" Baptist minister, we wouldn't have had to wait until 2009 for our country's first Black president and our next quoted item would have never been realized…

February 26, 1920—Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) founds the first nation­ally organized celebration of Black American history (then called Negro History Week), which was first cele­brated on this day in 1926. Woodson scheduled the week to coincide with the birthdays of Civil War President Abraham Lincoln and Black aboli­tionist Frederick Douglass. However, in 1976, Negro History Week was expanded into the current day Black History Month.

How about something a little lighter in tone here at c/detroit? My favorite kokujin journalist (Happy belated Valentine's Day, Ms Green 💘 😊) writes about chef Maryam Khan, her 15 minutes of Reality TV fame and her future brick-and-mortar plans…

When Khan first started Khana back in 2018, she wasn’t quite sure where her life was going and felt a little lost. She has had a passion for food since she was 16, however, and decided to get creative with the recipes she grew up eating in her Pakistani household. Khan is a first-generation American born in Detroit to immigrant parents.

For Khan, the pop-up has been a way to reconnect with her Pakistani identity, which is something that she struggled with as a first-generation American, especially during the surge of Islamophobia post-9/11.

“I’ve been getting a lot of love globally from South Asians who found out about us from word of mouth through the show [The Great Food Truck Race -- r^2^],” she says. “The people who wanted to hate us got the opportunity to hate us but the people who were open minded saw the vision of what we’re trying to do. We were dedicated to putting our names out there and being like, yo, Pakistani food is dope [and] Pakistani identity is not like what it used to be… It was really cool to have the platform to share that with so many people.”

Politicians will be politicians…

“President Biden is proving many of our worst fears about our government true: that regardless of how loud your voice may be, how many calls to government officials you may make, how many peaceful protests you organize and attend, nothing will change,” [ex 15^th^ District Representative and current Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud] wrote.

Remember that the next time municipal services are lacking in Dearborn, MI. Salaam, everybody!

Yeah, yeah, I get it. Honest I do. Enough's enough. An unnecessarily exaggerated response. An incredibly complicated situation that just keeps getting knottier. But just like in comedy, timing is everything.

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib's call for people to vote against President Joe Biden in Michigan's Feb. 27 Democratic primary reverberated across political circles and social media over the weekend, with nervous supporters of the president's saying she was helping former President Donald Trump's reelection efforts.

On Saturday, even as Trump was making his way to Michigan for a raucous rally in Waterford Township, Tlaib, D-Detroit, who represents southeast Michigan's large Arab-American and Muslim community in Dearborn, released a video of her telling people to vote uncommitted as a signal to Biden of their continued demand that he call for Israel to stop a bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.

Several Democrats and others denounced Tlaib's stance almost immediately. Norm Ornstein, a congressional expert and emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, proclaimed it "shameful" on X on Sunday.

And after a group, Republicans Against Trump, posted the remarks, asking, "Who's going to primary her?" the civil rights lawyer Andrew Laufer said of her comments on X: "That’s an amazing stance @RashidaTlaib. Have your supporters not vote or vote for the guy who will deport them. Just an amazing position."

And as for the Listen to Michigan campaign, Tlaib has literally close relations with its membership: Her sister, Layla Elabed, is its campaign manager. Several other local leaders with whom she is close, including Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud and former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin, D-Bloomfield Township, also have signed onto the uncommitted campaign.

…also "signed on", that bastion of hard-hitting journalism, The Metro Times.

Even a dog knows not to defecate where he sleeps.

Alt. link: https://archive.is/apavN

Further reading:

• Michigan Advance: Biden campaign focusing on Trump, despite ‘uncommitted’ campaign in Michigan Dem primary
• The Freep via archive.is: Trump rails against EVs, China, job security in Michigan visit: Here's a fact check

Just another pop music legend Made In Detroit. Ahimè. The streets are littered with them here.

Just kidding, Berklee Honoree Dr Robinson, Gershwin Prize winner! Your shoulders are among those giants on whose we stand upon and we knew that long before the awards were presented. Vocalist, songwriter, producer and eternally handsome devil!

As if I have to remind you all…

• You've Really Got A Hold On Me - Bring It On Home To Me -- Live at The Apollo (1963)
• The Tracks Of My Tears (1965)
• I Second That Emotion (1967)
• The Tears of A Clown (1967)
• Ooh Baby Baby -- Live on Soul Train with Ms Aretha Franklin (1978)
• Cruisin' (1979)
• Just To See Her -- on TopPop (NE, 1987)
• The Tracks of My Tears - Live, BET Awards

Many Happy Returns, Smokey! We love you! 💘

This post is lovingly dedicated to Mr and Mrs Joseph and Angela Arco (RIP), our neighbors whom I loved dearly and schoolmates of "Smokey" Robinson's…where the teachers knew him as William.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/8808480

Ferris State University's Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery
Dr David Pilgrim, founder and director
presents
Overcoming Hateful Things: Stories from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Imagery
from February 12 to mid-August
Wayne County Community College District
Curtis L. Ivery Downtown Campus
1001 West Fort Street, Detroit

Upon entering the traveling exhibit at WCCCD, an opening sign states that some of the objects' images may seem "funny," "harmless or nostalgic," but they are "propaganda ... perpetuating anti-Black messaging, reinforce harmful ideas about African Americans, and continue to influence attitudes toward Black people." The sign also warns patrons that the displays are graphic, explicit and potentially offensive and disturbing.

Tears ran down the face of WCCCD student Micqoua Franklin last Wednesday as she described how she was moved by the exhibition.[…] "It really brings back how segregated we really were," said Franklin, 44, who is set this year to earn a social work degree from Wayne County Community College. "How we were treated like dogs. What we had to go through was so much. We are all the same people.

Seeds of the show were planted when[&hellip:] one of [the Jim Crow Museum's founder David Pilgrim's] teachers came to class with a chauffeur's cap and asked what it had to do with the Jim Crow era. […] The teacher told the class that Blacks could[hellip;]work during the 1930-40s in fields such as education and earn enough to buy clothing, a home and car.

"But if you had a nice car, you could have been beaten because Black people weren't supposed to have a nice car," Pilgrim said. "Having a chauffeur's cap could save your life. Because it was a way of saying, 'This is not my car. I know my place. I understand my role in society. I am not a threat to you.' That story left such an impression on me about the power of objects as teaching tools."

I'd like to once again remind the readership that the collection includes an all-too-recent past, with legal segregation ending in only the 1960s, desegregated busing upheld in 1971. A powerful, evocative article from The News' Kim Kozlowski about a powerful, provocative exhibit. The exhibit is open to the public and admission is gratis.

---

Interviewer: How do you feel like things have changed over the past couple decades?

*White people have gotten less crazy. That's all. [...] You can say “there's progress” and all of this. But when you say there's progress, but you're acting like what happened before wasn't crazy.

“Oh, segregation, we've made a lot of progress and there's no more segregation”?— Segregation's retarded. It's crazy to think you're better than somebody, and they can't eat with you and segr— that's crazy! That's insane behavior! Just to think that, on any level— that's kind of insane! So, you can say “black people have made progress”, but to say “black people have made progress” would mean we deserved to be segregated. The reality is: white people got less crazy.

My father didn't suddenly deserve to eat with people because he earned it. The people who were denying him his rights got less crazy. And that's what, progressively, has happened throughout the years. People are now getting less crazy about gay people. People are crazy.*

-- Chris Rock, CBC Radio One "Q" interview

---

Alt. link: https://archive.is/S5ibp

Saturday, February 17, 12:30pm -- 5pm
Historic People's Community Church
8601 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI

Be one of the first 100 adult arrivals, get a Free DBC 2024 Calendar!

This one-day family book event is hosted to promote, preserve and sustain literacy while celebrating the Heritage of Black History. Meet over 30 talented independent authors of adult & children's books from across the country and purchase their autographed books! This is also a National African-American Read-In hosted event. Come through to READ your excerpt from stories, poems & songs written by legendary African American authors starting at 1:00pm. Bring the Kids to get free cultural coloring sheets & goodie bags.

Everyone is invited but reservations are requested. You can reserve tickets at the linked Eventbrite site.

Reading is FUN-damental!

Part of the Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898–1971 exhibit at the world-reknown DIA.

Eleven P.M.
USA, 1928, directed by Richard D. Maurice
Sunday, 2:00pm
DIA Lecture Hall
5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit

Silent film director and railway labor organizer Richard D. Maurice was born in Cuba in 1893, migrated to the US in 1903, and settled in Detroit where he worked as a tailor. In July 1920 he founded the Maurice Film Company at 184 High Street, and produced two feature films released a decade apart. Eleven P.M., his surviving feature, is a surreal melodrama in which a poor violinist named Sundaisy (Maurice) tries to protect an orphan girl (Wanda Maurice) who is victimized by petty criminals.

Many Black filmmakers during the silent era adopted stylistic conventions of Victorian theater, but Maurice's innovative use of location filming, extreme camera angles, fantasy imagery, and kaleidoscopic special effects closely resemble avant-garde European films of the 1920s. Eleven P.M. will be presented with a live musical score, composed and performed by pianist Alvin Waddles.

See it, not only for the innovative Maurice's direction and performance but for actor H. Marion Williams' performance as the absolutely despicable Clyde Stewart!

This is what happens when the populace is raised on a steady 20-odd-year diet of Tony Stark, Lucius Fox and Peter Parker. Look what a generation of engineers gave us raised on Captain Kirk hailing Engineer Scott.

Despite its name, sounding more like a roll-up sandwich than a non-violent launched restraint…oh, hell, it's a bolas gun!… $32,083 has been allocated for The Detroit Police Department to purchase 20 BolaWrap launchers "to restrain people experiencing a mental health crisis".

From Malachi Barrett's (you handsome devil, you) accompanying BridgeDetroit article…

Bola launchers are handheld devices that fire a line of kevlar rope. Weighted barbs on each end wrap around a person and latch onto their clothing, restricting movement.

Deputy Police Chief Franklin Hayes told the council on Tuesday it’s a “less than lethal” tool that can safely restrain people who are a danger to themselves or others.

Despite seeming like an opportunity for DPD officers to play Batman, it's actually a sound, non-lethal idea. But like ~~firearms~~ ~~tasers~~ ~~tear gas~~ everything, it all depends on in whose hands it falls into.

One of Detroit’s most intriguing figures, artist LeRoy Foster (1925–1993) was an exceptional talent and a leading figure in the Black artistic community. Perhaps best known for his large mural at the Douglass Branch of the Detroit Public Library, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, (1972), Foster studied art at Detroit’s famed Cass Tech High School, the Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies) and, it is believed, at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Conceived as a companion to the concurrent contemporary-art-focused exhibition, Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit [see this post -- r^2^], LeRoy Foster exemplifies the rich local history of Black realism.

While researching the exhibition, the mural Renaissance City was recovered from storage at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School. The mural had previously been installed in the school’s old building from the early 1980s until 2005—this exhibition will be the first time it has been on view in nearly 20 years. The work is undergoing restoration at Cranbrook Art Museum thanks to the efforts of Rochelle Riley, Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit, and the Office of Arts, Culture, and Entrepreneurship. The restored work will debut in the exhibition and be returned to the new Cass Technical High School to be placed on permanent view to the public.

Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit
Saturday, February 17, 2024, 6:00pm -- 8:00pm
Detroit Institute of Arts
5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI

Join us for a panel discussion at the Detroit Institute of Arts with Detroit artists Sydney James, Hubert Massey, and Mario Moore, co-organized by Cranbrook Art Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts, introductions given by Laura Mott, Chief Curator, Cranbrook Art Museum, and Katie Pfohl, Associate Curator of Contemporary Art, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Organized to accompany the Cranbrook Art Museum’s exhibition Skilled Labor: Black Realism in Detroit, on view at Cranbrook Art Museum through March 3, 2024, this discussion will take place in the DIA’s Rivera Court, the location of Diego Rivera’s iconic Detroit Industry Murals (1932-33).

Everyone is invited and admission is gratis but registration is required.

r^2^ sez: do yourself a favor and participate in the discussion — this is an appointment you'll tell your grandkids about; these are three world-class artists…as if you didn't already know!

Today, let's celebrate a little creativity Made In Detroit, something positive…

The showcase, “Celebrating Black Artists,” hosted by Bedrock and The Carr Center, features 23 student artists from 10 Detroit schools as well as work from 10 emerging and established Detroit artists. The free show is on display inside Bedrock’s 1001 Woodward building through Feb. 29.

The Carr Center put out a call for student art submissions in December and had a jury of professional artists look through the artwork and select the pieces featured in the exhibit, [Carr Center's president and CEO Oliver] Ragsdale said. The work was selected into two categories–a junior division for grades 6-8 and a senior division for grades 9-12. Top prizes in the two categories will be announced Feb. 29.

Exhibit hours are 4-8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays; and 1-5 p.m. Sundays.

metroDetroit™-related post: this was too cool to not post here. Deal.

On Saturday, [Hellraiser star Doug] Bradley will be walking the red carpet and answering questions in metro Detroit before a screening of the Michigan-made horror flick “Thorns” at the Emagine Royal Oak.

Written and directed by Doug Schulze, the co-founder of Troy’s Motion Picture Institute, […] a former priest is assigned to explore a signal from deep space that's sent to a remote observatory and just happens to summon a fearsome thorned monster to Earth through a portal. […] Bradley plays an archbishop who’s a mentor to the ex-priest.

Bradley was chatting with Barker at a party in the mid-1980s[…] “Clive said to me, ‘I’m thinking of putting together a low-budget, independent British horror film, and I think there may be a part in there for you.’ That was the first moment Pinhead wandered into my life. […] I think I said: ‘Oh, great! Cool!’ And we moved on to talk about something else.”

There will be a red carpet arrival and a question-answer prior to the screening with “Hellraiser” star Doug Bradley, filmmaker Doug Schulze and editor and co-producer Julie Schulze. Tickets are $11.25 ($14.25 for cuddle seats) and available at the Emagine Entertainment website.

Who sez I don't love you all? ❤ 👹 ❤ Happy Valentine's Day!

Alt. Link: https://archive.is/XkxPT

The Freep's Keith Matheny writes about the jewel of Detroit, left to tarnish in the past but since its designation as a State Park in 2014, glitters and shines…

Belle Isle has more than 5 million visitors per year, making it the second-most-visited state park in the United States behind only Niagara Falls, New York.

It wasn't a simple process. Many Detroiters disapproved, adamantly, of the state taking control of the beloved city asset. In fact, the City Council in January 2013, voted to reject the idea. But Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder, pushed the lease through.

A unique aspect of Belle Isle as a Michigan state park is that many park features are run by different entities: the Dossin Great Lakes Museum run by the Detroit Historical Society; the Nature Center run by the Detroit Zoo; Hype Athletics coordinating athletic fields and work on the park's athletic building; the Detroit Yacht Club and Friends of Detroit Rowing; and the U.S. Coast Guard station.

Alt. link: https://archive.is/NXJgF