This summer, I spent 8 weeks working with the Work Department, a women-led design and innovation group focused on facilitating social impact in communities in Detroit and beyond. I had the opportunity to research and document the history of a long-term partnership that has been integral to the history of the Work Dept. For more […]
a collaborative poem informed by patrons at 3rd street bar on the evening of july 13th 2017
a familiar space
but a new night
(it’s the end of a two-year era)
many memories felt
and many more to make
in this city once so unfamiliar
now
we think we are home
(some) have (some) hope
—
money speaks on every corner.
even the most blighted of corners.
those […]
Earlier this year, I saw Ta-Nehisi Coates speak at the University of Detroit Mercy, lecturing on America’s racial history through the lens of Detroit. Every city across the United States experienced and enforced practices of urban renewal, redlining, discriminatory housing, but the large-scale implementation of these practices in Detroit had permanent implications that we are […]
Here’s a quick experiment in documentation of time and space. For each day in April, I captured one short video, trimmed each to one second, and spliced them together consecutively. The result is a short, entrancing blur of daily life–uniquely mundane and mundanely unique–stitched into thirty seconds. Individually, each second contains enough context to create […]
The Freep Film Fest, hosted by the Detroit Free Press and Michigan.com, wrapped up yesterday evening with a showing of 12th & Clairmount. The documentary shares the story of the July 1967 uprising in Detroit, told exclusively through archival home videos, news footage, and oral histories. Four sold-out shows throughout the weekend drew audiences diverse in demographic […]
I’ve spent the last month thinking critically about art. I love art, and my life has been largely defined by experiences creating and engaging with art. The last month has been particularly great because art became the focus of our Challenge Detroit work and a major outlet for play in Detroit. In mid-January, we began […]
Four months in Detroit have flown by. My body’s transition from an academic calendar to real life has brought along my understanding of time through an academic frame, which means that my first semester in Detroit just ended and I have one left as a Challenge Detroit fellow. That reality is crazy to me, so I wanted […]
I haven’t felt ok since November 7th.
The outcome of the 2016 Presidential election shook me up — not because polls were misleading, not because I was surprised that the candidate I supported could be unlikable, but mostly because of the realization that my belief in equality is not uncompromisingly valued by the majority of our country. I am shocked and […]
October flew by – our inaugural Challenge with MACC Development successfully completed, apples from my first trip to a Michigan cider mill picked, and the arrival of my business cards at HAA all making this month a memorable transition into real life in Detroit. Two months into Challenge Detroit, I think it’s finally sinking in that I […]
