I could bore you with text or entertain you with pictures, I chose the latter. Here are a few shots of what i’ve done in the past few months here in Detroit.
Critical Mass, monthly 18-20 mile bike ride throughout the city. This month we tackled the lower eastside of Detrot.
This month’s challenge has been partnering with 8MBA. My team is the Central West team and we’re tackling my ‘hood of Detroit. It feels good to directly impact the city.
During this current challenge with 8MBA, we had our empathy project and had to visit this part. I noticed a long wall separating Birwood and Mendota streets. It’s 6′ tall and meant to separate the white Detroiters from the black Detroiters. The side i’m on is full of ranch style houses with one bathroom while the question the other side have two levels and 2-3 bathrooms. If i’m correct, the zoning difference for the streets was between Henry Ford High School and Mumford High School. The wall is Berlin Wall-esque but speak volumes of how segregated Detroit was and still is.
My favorite community service is #HashtagLunchBag. We get together the last Sunday of the month and pack lunches to hand out the homeless. They receive a sandwich, fruit, cookie, and water. Afterwards, some take them to shelters, I take it upon myself to hand out the lunches directly to people in the streets primarily in the Cass Corridor. A non-sponsored community service I do is give old clothes and returnable cans to those on the streets. We get to give.
Some behind the scenes shots from #HashtagLunchBag
Some would look at this picture and think i’m simply sitting on a bus. This isn’t just any bus, it’s the same one that Rosa Parks took her historic “stand” for civil rights on. We had a chance to tour The Henry Ford Museum and we came across this relic. Photograph is courtesy of my talented co-fellow Jon Ganci.
We work hard, but we don’t forget to PLAY. From the previous picture, the same guy is behind the lens of this shot. Jon wanted to capture a certain angle in this shot and wanted to have a certain center piece for the shot and he chose me, a native Detroiter holding the city’s native flag. It was wonderful to personify Detroit in one shot.
Two more months to go! I plan to end on a high note, stay tuned!
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