The Tuskegee Airmen earned the nickname as the Red Tail Angels for fighting fascists in the skies of World War II. They flew hundreds of patrol, escort and attack missions for the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces, and were recorded as the fleet with one of the lowest casualty counts of all of the United States pilots. They were recognizable as a team because of the red tails of their planes, and because they were segregated from all of the other pilots for being primarily African American.

Ashley Cook

November 11, 2024

activism

Lux Laine

November 4, 2024

literature

For the third show hosted by the recently-formed Site Works collective, Wyatt Thiry and Nolan Young conjure up a variety of structures which feel loosely related, yet intensely connected. Methods of sculpting, drawing, painting, and digitization are used to amalgamate a concoction of materials which become trapped together inside stoic gray walls...

Jackson Gifford

November 1, 2024

art

Mr. Spotless celebrates it's fourth Halloween as Detroit's first haunted car wash. Here, Runner Magazine interviews Fathel Salha, who came up with the idea to start this spooky seasonal attraction at his family's buisness...

An Interview with Fathel Salha

October 23, 2024

business

A poem by Jaxon Kolhoff

October 21, 2024

literature

Mary-Ann Monforton is back in Detroit after living in New York City for 48 years. Here she offers a glimpse of her NYC life and what she is doing since her return...

Ashley Cook

October 17, 2024

art

Michigan Student Power Alliance is a hub for radical youth activism, existing within a broader statewide ecosystem of grassroots, progressive student organizers who are working to connect student struggles across higher education campuses and build a powerful youth movement that will enact change...

Emily Jones and Fiana Arbab

October 9, 2024

activism

With closed eyes, my nostrils fill with a metallic perfume. warm sweat. earth. a dampened cave...

A poem by Anna Sysling

October 7, 2024

literature

Summer is finally over, bringing us to the fifth installment of detroit:coded! Welcome! So far it’s been very easy for me to approach beautiful women expressing themselves and ask to take their picture. I don’t need much of an excuse to talk to these earth angels and bask in their powerful feminine glow. This time around I made more effort to capture...

Sage Sherlock

October 5, 2024

columns

Gallery Mouse has welcomed the transition from summer to autumn with an exhibition by Kelly Agius and Natalie Lerner. It Creeps In opens a conversation about pursuit, not as an essential aspect of the food chain but as an element of horror in storytelling...

Ashley Cook

September 30, 2024

art

There’s something circuitous about seeing masses of textile art, in the old Boyer-Campbell Building, in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood of Detroit. The building was once a factory and warehouse for an automotive supply company...

Lisa John Rogers

September 28, 2024

art

This exhibition by Maria Prainito-Winczner presents thirty individual works that collectively demonstrate the artist’s longstanding dedication to material and symbolic indulgence...

Ashley Cook

September 26, 2024

art

Art Clvb is a Detroit-based Market Network created in 2022 by Steve and Dorota Coy with the intention of facilitating connections between artists, collectors, curators, galleries, and individuals involved in the local art ecosystem...

Ashley Cook

September 23, 2024

art

A review of Věra Chytilová’s film Daisies, presented as part of the ongoing column SOUND and VISION...

Oliver Shaw

September 16, 2024

columns

Raised in Bavaria, Hanna Maria Schmutterer recognizes this dress, called the dirndl, as a symbol of a preserved tradition that is still worn in Bavaria today. The creative process itself is performative, and she engages directly in women’s history of labor and childhood fantasy exploration...

A conversation with Hannah Maria Schmutterer and Isabella Nimmo

September 13, 2024

art

Ghanaian American author Esinam Bediako has been honored for her debut novel Blood on the Brain, set to launch in September of 2024 in Brooklyn, New York. Born and raised in Metro-Detroit, Bediako’s story of a young woman, Akosua, who is also a Ghanaian American from Detroit, highlights challenges of growing into adulthood in the United States...

An interview with Esinam Bediako

September 9, 2024

culture

July 27th marked the opening of Olivia Guterson’s inaugural exhibition with Louis Buhl & Co. As a recent graduate from Cranbrook Academy of Art, the work in this show represents her transition from student to professional, starting this new chapter with an adventurous use of material and form...

Ashley Cook

September 2, 2024

art

Hamtramck, Michigan is the home of a few different ceramic studios, with the newest one being Porcelinen. Vanessa Beard has been working as a ceramicist for many years, officially starting her business in 2019, and opening a storefront and studio in 2022...

An interview with Vanessa Beard

August 26, 2024

business

Setting foot into The Barbershop’s larval form on May 24th, I was met with the remnants of what once was, surely, a barbershop. The faded pink walls, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and large basins of granite counter-top which served as pedestals for chemical innovations destined to become groundwater. Despite this tragic beauty, I knew it all had to go, as I was there to meet with founder Jack Jacket to discuss possibilities for the soon-to-be gallery’s first show...

Jackson Gifford

August 19, 2024

culture

It took me 40 years to find the edge of the lands.
Had my head in books with the chickens
Scratched out living
At this late stage of the game,
We’re all actors playing roles...

A poem by Owólabi Aboyade

August 12, 2024

literature

A series of paintings by Marissa Jezak, inspired by the aesthetics of Detroit’s Movement 2024 festival...

Marissa Jezak

August 5, 2024

art

Summertime is making time for bathing suits and water shoes, it's figuring out which fabric feels best on your skin during especially humid days. Summer is halfway through and Detroit has been active. Every park I see is full of...

Sage Sherlock

August 2, 2024

columns

Sophia Moreno is a designer and artist based in Detroit. Her work delves into themes of hyper-femininity, excess, and adornment, with a particular interest in exploring low-brow aesthetics....

Studio Visit

July 28, 2024

columns

Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with West Side Detroit Pop Punk artist, “FrostIsRad” who takes on his blend of the Pop Punk genre and adds a Detroit twist.Frost along with band mates The AV Club, which consists of VA(keys and Bass), Animal(Guitar), Brian(Guitar), and Devin(Drums), has been gaining traction on a local and national level...

E-Man Bates

July 23, 2024

music

Currently on view at Matéria Core City are twelve paintings that illustrate the artist Ian Swanson’s newfound employment of texture after nearly a decade of increasingly subtractive approaches to material application...

Ashley Cook

July 16, 2024

art

Elizabeth Youngblood is a Detroit-based artist who has demonstrated a dedication to simplicity. Her exhibition Syntax at Stamps Gallery affirms her continued reverence for minimalist philosophies, presenting a survey of her work from the 1970s until now...

Ashley Cook

July 8, 2024

art

A poem by Anna Sysling...

June 27, 2024

literature

Too often, contemporary art about humanity’s demise uses raw data and overwhelming research in an attempt to explain the true horror of our imminent extinction. Jasmine Murrell, a contemporary artist from Detroit, who is based in Brooklyn, helps sieve through the collective anxiety by reminding us that in order to survive, we must stop the domination and let nature dictate the future...

Matthew Kyba

June 24, 2024

art

I met up with the entity known as Greyhound (or my friend Tyriq), a man of many hats and all of them brimming with talent. On the Bumbo’s patio we discussed his upcoming shows, Spooky Saloon, authenticity and vulnerability...

Theresa Ndrejaj interviews Tyriq

June 20, 2024

music

Movement 2024 covered by detroit-coded is here!! Check out some eye catching looks sprinkled throughout the techno playground during Memorial Day weekend...

Sage Sherlock

June 11, 2024

columns

There is an almost scientific approach to object-making in Michael E. Smith’s current exhibition at What Pipeline. This is routine for this artist though; his consistently careful use of material and space indicate a dedication to poetry while unpacking the vastness of language and perception...

Ashley Cook

June 10, 2024

art

From Friday, May 31st through Sunday, June 2nd, The Boyer Campbell building in Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood was the host of a surreal exhibition by botanical artist Lisa Waud...

A Conversation with Lisa Waud

June 6, 2024

art

Property restoration in East Village is the focal point for a project called Little Village, with each of the locations having historically hosted businesses and institutions that were at one time staples of their community...

Ashley Cook

June 4, 2024

architecture

The Listening World at Louis Buhl & Co. is a display of paintings by artists whose practices have encouraged contemplation of nature as a welcoming home, accessible in its authentic entirety, just past the veil of civilization...

Ashley Cook

May 30, 2024

art

This year’s annual MFA show at the Cranbrook Art Museum showcases work from 59 artists—graduates from eleven departments at the Cranbrook Academy of Art...

Antonia Piedmonte-Lang

May 22, 2024

art

Lynne Ramsay’s work is not for the faint of heart. She’s only made four films in almost twenty five years, but I’ve yet to encounter a filmmaker who demonstrates the notion “quality, not quantity” more awesomely than Lynne Ramsay. I love all her films, and all for different reasons. But none of them (few films at all, really) come close to Morvern Callar...

Oliver Shaw

May 20, 2024

columns

Welcome to the second installment of detroit-coded! People are starting to take off some layers and open up their wardrobes here in the Motor City. The beginning of 2024 is flying by, summer is around the corner. Take a gander at some looks that caught my eye the last few months...

Sage Sherlock

May 17, 2024

columns

Morgan Strong is a multimedia artist, currently based in Detroit. Her work is interdisciplinary and sculptural—consisting of many 3D elements, and various mediums, with a particular gravitation toward metals and fibers. She often blends these two modes together in her main body of work, juxtaposing the harsh and fragile...

Studio Visit

May 13, 2024

columns

caitlin c. harvey has spent years studying the beauty hidden in the sounds that constitute our existence: our environment, our conversations, the endless drone of a mechanized world. Her debut album Lighteater arrives this week on the new Detroit-based label Circle One.

James Allen

May 2, 2024

music

A poem by Karpov

April 22, 2024

literature

Powerful emotional and musical undercurrents will draw audiences into this 21st century American opera by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek. The production originated with director Tom Morris in Edinburgh in 2019. The 2024 version is an international co-production of Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Adelaide Festival, and Théatre National de l’Opéra Comique. Diana Wyenn directs this revival, which opened on Saturday, April 6th at the Detroit Opera House...

Roopa Chauhan

April 12, 2024

culture

I visited Greenfield Village on December 26th. Fires burned in front of houses, it is holiday nights. I went up to the Webster House, and curiously, as I recall it, the house moves and grows and slips into the dark. For some inexplicable reason, thighs against the thick, red-velvet rope, I slip into a dream state...

Antonia Piedmonte-Lang

April 11, 2024

literature

Sometimes the internet feels like endless work: ai porridge, uncloseable ads, outlook search and rescue—terror and celebrity simultaneous. Maybe once you turn off notifications you will find enlightenment. For me, zen is Facebook Marketplace...

Grace Millard

April 8, 2024

culture

April 1 Mercury in Aries goes retrograde. Invasive messages of the past...

Theresa Ndrejaj

April 3, 2024

columns

Take a trip to the unknown eclectic realms of pure moods. Mixed with love in Detroit by DJ Joshy.

Joshy

April 1, 2024

music

Yuval Sharon directed the Detroit Opera’s production of John Cage’s avant-garde musical concept, Europera’s 3 & 4, which took place on March 8-10, 2024 at the iconic Gem Theater...

Roopa Chauhan

March 28, 2024

culture

As part of a behind the scenes experience, we were invited to observe the fitting of Kisma’s costume and meet the Detroit Opera Costumers in person. The following images taken by Detroit-based photographer Niki Williams to document this moment...

Niki Williams

March 28, 2024

fashion

Steam curls, dancing over a bowl of homemade lentil soup, warming the tops of my thighs sitting in front of a fire, tucked away in a friend’s backyard on Larkins Street....

A poem by Anna Sysling

March 25, 2024

literature

Tune in to the first installment of detroit-coded:latewinter edition. Statement bomber jackets, the color red, clothing with eccentric words, and color clashing have been standing out the last few months amongst a sea of folks just trying to stay warm in this mild winter we’ve been having. Detroit-coded is a column to witness the changing of the seasons through street-style of the 313...

Sage Sherlock

March 22, 2024

columns

Handwoven drawings have populated Lynn Bennett-Carpenter’s practice since 2015. Over the years, her dedicated exploration of concept, image, form, and presentation have culminated in the exhibition now on view at Matéria Cass Corridor...

Ashley Cook

March 21, 2024

art

A poem by Karpov

March 18, 2024

literature

When David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows premiered in 2014, I was in awe of how simultaneously timeless and timely the film was. There was a marked jump in collective screen time after 2013, the start of many more people having access to everything (the internet, each other) all the time (smartphones) — the start of time collapsing in on itself just as it does in the film...

Lisa John Rogers

March 11, 2024

film

Jnn Aprl is a record producer and multifaceted creator. She has lived in Chicago and Detroit and is currently based in Seoul. runner magazine presents a conversation with Jnn about her upcoming album Gift n Curse Principle, set to release March 15th, 2024 on Rene Koala Label...

March 8, 2024

music

Maha Hmayed is a Lebanese Detroit-based mixed media analog collage and lens-based artist. She channels inspiration from the ethereal realms of her dreams, working intuitively and tapping into her subconscious mind through the exploration of the human psyche, desires, fears, and the interpretation of symbols...

Studio Visit

March 4, 2024

columns

Social theorists around the world acknowledge Detroit as a complex place that was once built as a “utopian vision of the future” and now exists as utopia’s perfect antithesis. The city’s time-line has followed the devolution of many cities depicted in science-fiction tales, giving rise to cyberpunk, a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on a future of advanced technological and scientific accomplishments...

Ashley Cook

February 19, 2024

culture

happy extra large cherry red hella spicy heart day, runner mag. I’m yours...

ez rowe

February 14, 2024

music

Microtones is pleased to announce its first full length release from Maro Kariya, aka Otodojo. The Sound of Stone was inspired by freezing landscapes coupled with Kariya's feeling of dread from dystopian visions of war and a warming climate...

Maro Kariya

January 31, 2024

music

The inspiration for this piece comes from my personal experiences during the 2017 Mosul conflict, where I witnessed the devastating impact of war on the people and the environment. This piece offers a unique perspective on the complexities of war and the profound impact it has on those involved...

Karpov

January 29, 2024

literature

Joshua Kochis considers his creative practice as a collaboration with the natural world, and the ecology of Southeast Michigan in particular...

Studio Visit

January 22, 2024

columns

The current exhibition at What Pipeline features the work of four artists from varying backgrounds and generations, emphasizing their continued effort to explore the breadth of art history, locate critical points of reference and present them as outlets to prompt contemporary conversations. The works in this show oscillate around each other like satellites, offering hints here and there to guide interpretation...

Ashley Cook

January 12, 2024

art

A New Moon in Capricorn on Jan 11 triggers your need to prove your worth to the world. They might not get it but that won't change who you are...

Theresa Ndrejaj

January 11, 2024

columns

My sister turned 15 last week. She plays the flute and studies all the time. She bakes cupcakes and tries to make friends. In the smartphone. hormone. hothouse. Called high school...

Anna Sysling

January 8, 2024

literature

On October 28, 2023, one of Detroit’s newest galleries, Matéria Core City celebrated the opening of Split, a solo exhibition by Detroit-based artist and curator Jova Lynne. Photographic and sculptural elements are spread throughout the gallery in a minimalist tone, with pops of yellow, copper, gold and silver enriched by the whites of the walls. The simplicity allows for a serenity that supports the conceptual focus of the show, healing...

Ashley Cook

January 4, 2024

art

A liveliness radiates from the vivid, energetically charged works by Progressive Art Studio Collective (PASC) members, currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Featuring 37 artists, the exhibition marks the progress of the past three years of the program, which offers artistic guidance and exhibition opportunities for adults with disabilities in the Metro Detroit area...

Marissa Jezak

January 1, 2024

art

When Ashley and I decided to put together this column, films started flooding my thoughts. I have hundreds of favorite films. Seriously. Tangerine is just one. But, Tangerine embodies the spirit of this series better than most. This is Sound and Vision, so I had to pick something with the most explosive of aesthetics...

Oliver Shaw

December 25, 2023

columns

As I sit down to make sense of True Romance and how it works its way through how I understand myself in relation to the city I’m transported in time to my uncle’s white van on I-94 in the pitch blackness of the early evening, working our way back to “Midtown”/”Cass Corridor” from an off the books scrap job in the suburbs...

Walter Lucken IV

December 22, 2023

film

Kevin Bernard Moultrie Daye, also known as SPIRITUALS, is a Detroit-based architectural designer, artist, curator, music producer and performer. He was born on the East Coast, raised on the West Coast and currently teaches architecture at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His exhibition shadowworking on view at The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit applies methods from his various creative backgrounds to deliver an encompassing experience that can satisfy both a passive and active viewership...

Ashley Cook

December 18, 2023

art

On September 1, 2023, Celma Project Space + Sucesiva in Mexico City hosted a conference to discuss their most recent exhibition FICTIONAL DYNAMICS: Microtubular web castles of poiesi by Juan Diego Covarrubias...

Ashley Cook and Juan Diego Covarrubias

December 15, 2023

columns

Scrolling Time Magazine’s list of “The 100 Best Movies of the Past 10 Decades,” one would not think to find auteur Jim Jarmusch’s night-dwelling vampire romance Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) amongst the likes of Quentin Tarantino and Greta Gerwig, set to represent the 2010s...

Darian Hillaker

December 11, 2023

film

The collection of photographs exhibited at Belle Isle Viewing Room marks a notable moment in the gallery’s effort to bring extraordinary work to the contemporary art scene in Detroit. For their final show, they present Joanne Leonard, a world renown photographer whose work spans decades and leaves a trail of influence in its path...

Ashley Cook

December 4, 2023

art

A sizable group assembled in the backyard behind Spaysky Fine Art in Hubbard Farms for Matteus Huvaere’s anticipated performance Honoring the Heatwave: I Have to Save my Family. Huvaere and I recently met onset during a music video shoot. Huvaere was the talent, I was the movement director...

Biba Bell

December 1, 2023

art

This month around the city, Detroiters got cozy with their headwear and outerwear. Berets were abundant (it’s giving French “Détroit“ roots), alongside some bold beanies, and only the fluffiest and fuzziest of accessories...

Leigh Miller

November 27, 2023

columns

Dardas uses her art practice as a tool in remembering the lost relationships between humans and non-human beings because of the extractive nature of capitalism by regulating and healing our collective body to restore interdependency...

Studio Visit

November 20, 2023

columns

Exhibition review and interview with Switzerland-based Dutch artist Linda Voorwinde about her most recent show Kakophonie Der Diskrepanz at Austellungsraum Friedengasse in Zurich...

Ashley Cook and Linda Voorwinde

November 13, 2023

columns

Delray Beyond Isolation is the story of the quiet loudness on the margins of total existence and economic chaos. A story that speaks of the indestructible spirit and the eternal search for inspiration that facilitates survival...

Karpov

November 6, 2023

culture

Born in Detroit, the artist Austin Martin White’s first show at Petzel Gallery debuts a materially layered body of work navigating the complex histories of identity...

Chris Pinter

November 3, 2023

columns

The Detroit Opera House opened its season on October 7, 2023 with an original co-production of Giacomo Puccini’s Madame Butterfly bringing fresh voices and viewpoints to a timeless classic...

Roopa Chauhan

October 30, 2023

culture

City goers, like the leaves, have fallen for rust oranges, burnt umbers, and golds this month. However, a “major vein” in color combos has been folks “vamping“ it up in reds and blacks. Something of an eye candy treat has been seeing people out and about in “unseasonably“ super-saturated outfits and accessories—bright pinks, reds, blues, and rainbow patterns...

Leigh Miller

October 26, 2023

columns

An assembly of feelings and emotions...

Umar Rashid

October 23, 2023

music

In Beatrice’s time stewarding Arnold’s, the city of Detroit was re-narrativized at least 10 times, from all sides. It was a wild time to be alive in the world, and a wild world to be trying to make sense within, especially as a young artist...

Beatrice Von Rague Schleyer and Mïï Gunn

October 16, 2023

culture

Made by American artist, Yashua Klos, these pieces explore how identity is assembled not only from within, but also from without: “one’s identity cannot be separated from the geography around them. Just as the environment is built by people, the environment in turn – builds us,” says Klos...

Roopa Chauhan

October 10, 2023

art

Ford, GM and Stellantis, the “Big Three” made a combined QUARTER-TRILLION DOLLARS in North American profits over the last decade. UAW members never got their fair share...

Niki Williams

October 6, 2023

activism

On Oct 4 Mercury in Libra. Spare the feelings and turn on the charm. People are only ever going to hear what they want to hear. Might as well deliver...

Theresa Ndrejaj

October 4, 2023

columns

It’s that time of year––there’s a change in the air, the leaves, and the LOOKS. As NYFW takes place out East, in the Midwest, and especially Detroit, a temperate September seems to bring out the best in people, events, and style. From Dally in The Alley to Detroit Month of Design, everywhere there are things to do and people to see. Similar to the changing leaves, people have been out and about in Technicolor and textures...

Leigh Miller

September 26, 2023

columns

Most pieces written on the work of Luc Tuymans approach his paintings from the conceptual. Treading in the land of images, how they function, his contribution to that epistemological body etc. This consistency amongst critics and scholars makes sense to me, especially in 2023 where very few people who write about artwork see it in person. But in the context of Luc T., his work in person sings an entirely different song...

Chris Pinter

September 14, 2023

columns

When you show up at the coney, expect more than just a meal. Since the first Coney Island opened in 1917 and operated above a speakeasy downtown, Detroit’s working class has grown their reputation into a staple of food culture...

Amelia Gillis

September 11, 2023

culture

Last night I went to a broadcasters’ awards dinner where a woman in a silver sequined dress announced a local station’s prize for Best Breaking News Story of the year...

Anna Sysling

September 4, 2023

literature

Out in the streets, Detroit is selvage-ing the last of summer sun in style. Similar to the weather we’ve been having this past season with dark, stormy skies contrasted by sky-illuminating lightning, end-of-August styles are bringing the heat in high-contrast black-and-white (featuring pops of color, mostly in patterns—can we call florals for pre-fall groundbreaking?)...

Leigh Miller

August 28, 2023

columns

August 11 marked the world premiere of ‘round midnight // i got it bad (and that ain’t good) by Detroit-based playwright and poet will street. The production is a semi-autobiographical semi-love-story told eagerly by the main character and narrator whose name is Elijah Eddleman...

Ashley Cook

August 23, 2023

culture

Street Style Scene in Detroit is a new column published by Runner Magazine that observes and highlights contemporary fashion trends in Detroit; the first piece for the column will debut on Monday, August 28, 2023. Here, we present our brief conversation with the columnist Leigh Miller about her interest in fashion, her experience working within the industry and the significance of street fashion as an essential element of culture...

A conversation with Leigh Miller

August 14, 2023

fashion

August 2 was a hot night in Detroit and on E. Boston Boulevard, a bunch of people moshed at a mansion owned by a young musician named Brian McGuire. The Armed were in town to shoot a music video before setting out on tour...

Maddie Boyer and Ashley Cook

August 9, 2023

film

Nicholas Polisuk (b.1989, Detroit, MI) is an artist whose practice is concerned with the preservation of print media. Their recent work has focused on assembling two-dimensional collage works from collected print and digital materials...

Studio Visit

August 7, 2023

columns

When Lizzie Borden made Working Girls, she wasn’t intending to directly comment on her own experience. Instead, like any filmmaker with true heart, she was telling a story she felt needed to be told. I’m a huge fan of everything she’s done before and since, but as I told Lizzie (as you are about to read), Working Girls is the standout...

Oliver Shaw

July 31, 2023

film

Feels so rehearsed, like a simulation. Another memory event. Over time it becomes easier to detach. I envision myself as disconnected from them, their spirits expelling out of their bodies. How can I hurt for someone who doesn't even exist?..

Marissa Jezak

July 17, 2023

literature

Noguchi designed many playgrounds, civic spaces, and sets for performance throughout his career; through these designs he hoped to activate ritualistic interaction that would channel the unconscious elements of our existence...

Sarah Cohen

July 6, 2023

architecture

On July 2 Venus in Leo squares Uranus in Taurus. This is the beginning of a mutiny in regards to romance and values...

Theresa Ndrejaj and Brad Taormina

July 4, 2023

columns

Weird Magic is a snapshot of several moments that played out in my life over the course of a week or so. The synchronicities both benevolent and inconvenient that I share in this work all felt like tangible and cosmically-time invitations into a deeper level of witnessing and experiencing the present moment. In an ongoing effort to resist the engineered and addictive quality of this little dopamine slot machine in my pocket, I attempt to share (and maybe even celebrate) the absurd and karmic magic of my IRL experiences; while also noticing the ways that attachment to these little narratives that shape my days can be thrilling, self-limiting and entirely arbitrary all at once.

Anna Sysling

June 29, 2023

literature

Through her artwork, Arrington investigates the depths of identity in the context of American sociocultural anthropology. Working through a process of research and photographic manipulation, she aims to excavate personal truths regarding her own Blackness and womanhood.

Studio Visit

June 21, 2023

columns

A series of photographs taken at Hart Plaza during Movement 2023

Marissa Jezak

June 5, 2023

culture

The Blueprint presents a mix by FABiOLA for the fourth and final installment of their runner magazine takeover

The Blueprint

June 2, 2023

music

The Blueprint presents Yasmeenah for their third installment of their runner magazine takeover with her mix Have Faith

The Blueprint

May 25, 2023

music

something blue is a powerhouse, detroit gem ( born and raised ) ! + had the bodies moving and heads turning at our September blueprint installment, she digs from her roots and takes us on a journey through detroit electro, ghetto tech, and more and is a sight for sore ears! need we say more, listen for yourself !

1hr of something blue fresh off the press. <3

The Blueprint

May 18, 2023

music

Starting today, The Blueprint will be releasing a weekly mix and a profile from residents and family who we feel represent the work we’re trying to do in Detroit; disrupting and realigning the music ecosystem to better support people at the margins, be they woman, black, queer, and othered with a deep appreciation for those who have paved the way. For this first mix, Blueprint resident Blackmoonchild guides you through the sound of a quintessential BP party using all original production and edits.

The Blueprint

May 11, 2023

music

My mixes tend to be an homage to the dancefloors I’ve experienced in the days/months leading up to recording. I think most DJs can relate to this. Whether I’m dancing or playing (or both!), I’m endlessly inspired by the energetic, cosmic flow of the room. I attempted to capture the rollercoaster of emotions attributed to the floors and dancers I’ve recently encountered. It’s a callback to these incredibly present moments. Also, always eat your fruits and vegetables. :) ...

mix by LADYLIKE

+ interview with gin ebony

May 2, 2023

music

A collection of remixes of songs by Sara Marie Barron, Sorg, Hydropark, Baron Rétif & Concepción Perez, Napoleon Maddox, Ohtis, Waajeed, Pajaro Sunrise, Benny Loco, Pajaro Sunrise and Shigeto

Charles Trees

April 24, 2023

music

Emilia Nawrocki creates work using their own body to explore the facets of her identity along with the battle of one's relationship with their body image when struggling with mental illness, societal expectations, etc...

Studio Visit

April 22, 2023

columns

On March 11, Belle Isle Viewing Room hosted its second dual opening event with the work of Yeager Edwards greeting visitors who then traverse the space into B. Scoba’s exhibition before taking a moment to reflect on these two artists who were selected to exhibit side by side...

Ashley Cook

April 10, 2023

art

The full moon in Libra 16° on April 6 lovingly holds a mirror to her dear Sun in Aries at 12:34am, that's where you start and they begin...

Theresa Ndrejaj and Brad Taormina

April 7, 2023

columns

The development of these “playscapes” or “playgrounds” is ongoing as they continually change to fit the needs of the modern child, and stretch the capabilities of design and technology. Following is a brief overview of the different architectural styles used in the design of playgrounds since their emergence, and the environmental factors that influenced this evolution...

Marissa Jezak

April 3, 2023

architecture

Wendell B. Harris Jr.’s Chameleon Street is the ultimate example of a hidden gem. After a long overdue national tour last year (including a screening and Q&A with writer/director/star Wendell B. Harris at the city’s own Cinema Detroit), the film is finally reaching an audience Hollywood hoped it would never find...

Oliver Shaw

March 27, 2023

film

Amber Codiñera Locke’s first solo exhibition since moving from Detroit to Los Angeles evokes the conversation about place as an essential part of an artist’s practice. The forms, colors, subjects and brushwork varies to meld these two worlds as her views transition primarily to the west coast and its own distinct relationship with the natural world...

Mary Kate and Ashley

March 20, 2023

art

*Paid Actor explores the potential for textile collage through fashion. Here, Dessislava discusses a new series of pieces using scarves cut up, rearranged and sewn together in different combinations...

Interview with Dessislava Terzieva

March 13, 2023

fashion

Can you capture the feeling of discovery? Balancing the territorial need to own our places with the curious desire to change our experiences over time. How often do we actively work to outweigh the fear of rewriting in order to see the world around us with fresh eyes...

Maddie Boyer

March 6, 2023

literature

When viewing bree gant’s Wend, currently on view at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, I reflect on our bodies in relation to space. Interior space, space within our bodies, exterior space, space our bodies take up in the world and the infrastructural space our bodies are confined by...

Chris Pinter

February 27, 2023

art

Maddie Duda's work explores a variety of techniques with an emphasis on painting with acrylic paints and sewing using second-hand materials. Her work draws inspiration from childhood memories and vintage items to explore themes of nostalgia and the contrast between light and dark. With dreamy color palettes and touches of glitter, her work is far from minimalist...

Studio Visit

February 20, 2023

columns

On January 14, two separate exhibitions opened simultaneously at Belle Isle Viewing Room. Most recently, what used to be the workshop of Pence Fine Art became a second showspace for the gallery, and this would be the inaugural event where two separate artists would show their work side by side...

Ashley Cook

February 16, 2023

art

heyy :)) it’s me natty g, your friend from detroit!! i was so honored to make this loveee themed mix for the suuuper awesome runner magazine :) i wanted this mix to tell a story - the emotional journey one goes on when faced with a new crush...

join me for 90 minutes of mostly groovy/spacey love jams + a few classic hits that will make all of your valentine’s day dreams come true :) i love you!!!!!!!!!

Valentine's Day mix by Natty G

February 14, 2023

music

Last week Runner Magazine published the play Is It Morning Yet? by will street. In this interview, he discusses his play, past works and influences throughout time...

Interview by Ashley Cook

February 13, 2023

thought

The play begins with the title track for the show, James Fauntleroy’s "Is it Morning Yet.” The lights come to a slow rise at the end of the song. The commotion of the market begins. QUINTERIUS enters with the first wave of people dressed in his uniform for the day–a lazily put together Santa Clause costume–beard and all...

a play by will street

February 6, 2023

literature

The Figure Club of Detroit provides the opportunity to sculpt from life...

An interview with Heather Anger and Rich Wiquist

January 30, 2023

culture

This is a collection of tunes I thought would sound good together, thanks for listening!..

mix by Max Daley

January 17, 2023

music

In his solo exhibition Butch Boy Fantasy at What Pipeline, Detroit, Genevieve Kuzak’s photographs and video position the viewer as spectator in a diary of intimate portraits exploring the intricacies and flux of gender and human sexuality...

Marissa Jezak

January 12, 2023

art

MIDNIGHT FUNK 2 BUMP IN YA COSMIC CARS 4 YO NIGHT DRIVE (THRU-BABYLON)...

mix by Bleft

January 9, 2023

music

On January 1, Venus and Pluto meet in Capricorn and you may be digging up family heirlooms. Venus enters Aquarius on January 2, bringing a logical approach to love. A Full Moon in Cancer arrives on January 6...

Theresa Ndrejaj

January 2, 2023

columns

Capricorn FM is a South African radio station based in Limpopo that broadcasts in English as well as the vernacular languages Tshivenda, Sepedi and Xitsonga. While traveling through the South African countryside during a trip to visit my friend, I gathered many Shazams of music being aired.

Here is a mix of some selected tracks...

Ashley Cook

December 12, 2022

music

The suburbs of River Rouge are situated between the Marathon oil refinery and the highly industrialized Zug Island located on the Detroit River; this makes the area one of the most polluted zip codes in the country...

Samuel Gulliver

November 21, 2022

culture

Pure Rave, a collective based in Detroit, Michigan, is an ongoing experiment in “chance dance”. Using various prepared turntables, “damaged” records, the occasional drum machine, rudimentary CDDJ loops, and 133.33 bpm loops. The effect is an indeterminate arrangement of patterns and rhythmic sonic collage. Real-time experimentation with the goal of hitting your pleasure center for whatever your brain thinks is interesting...

Pure Rave

November 14, 2022

music

wetdogg releases their first music video emo swingset which was shot on Coney Island NYC by Tara Shafa....

wet dogg

November 11, 2022

music

With over 40 books in print, many of them sold out, there seems to be a vast array of different artists included in the Rotland Press collection, however there is a consistency in its visual and literary aesthetic, “mordant amusement and exuberant despair”...

An interview with Ryan Standfest

November 7, 2022

business

This place has been relatively neglected compared to the well groomed public park across the canal; to find the location for the show, we toured the landscape of high grass, fallen trees and broken concrete paths. Marissa Jezak was the curator of the show, inviting artists who she felt had an affinity for magic, folklore and craft...

Ashley Cook, Genevieve Goffman, Oda Haugerud, Marissa Jezak, Madeline Kuzak and Jackie Valadez

October 31, 2022

art

On September 23, 2022, the exhibition With a Flick of a Tale opened at Loner, an unconventional exhibition space in Paris located in the attic above the apartment of Gilles Jacot, who directs and curates for the space. As a collaborative project between Linda Voorwinde and Ashley Cook, the show served as a recollection of a series of chaotic events in Detroit and Hamtramck that happened 5 years ago in 2017...

Linda Voorwinde and Ashley Cook

October 27, 2022

art

Tables and Chairs is Quintessa Matranga’s second solo exhibition with What Pipeline and is currently on display, viewable until Saturday, October 29, 2022...

Ashley Cook

October 24, 2022

art

At Hearse Fest, one of the largest gatherings of funeral car aficionados in the country, one thing is clear, death is coming for us all. When it shows up, with its cold glare and hungry scythe, you might finally get to catch a ride...

Niki Williams

October 17, 2022

culture

A powerful and long-developing talent, 2Lanes was kind enough to take time from his busy international schedule to sit down with me to discuss his production techniques, gear chasing, and influences...

Dretraxx

October 10, 2022

music

On October 2 at 5am Mercury in Virgo stations direct before it ingresses into Libra on October 10 at 7:50pm. Mercury in Libra wants to hear both sides of the story, making friends through fairness and tactful gossip. A great time for networking and expressing yourself aesthetically...

Theresa Ndrejaj

October 3, 2022

columns

This mix is a collection of tracks compiled thinking about Summer, crushes, fleeting moments, and dance, made with love for dancers everywhere.

Joshey

September 26, 2022

music

Tim Johnson’s approach to art-making based on nostalgia and sensorial memory is at play in his most recent solo exhibition, Speed Bump at No Place Gallery in Columbus, Ohio. ...

Mary Kate and Ashley

September 19, 2022

art

A series of photographs taken on Belle Isle during the Detroit Kite Festival...

Daniel Ribar

September 12, 2022

culture

The work of Morgan McPeak realizes a combination of two stylistic genres, 1960's psychedelic art and futurism, reviving and bringing the two into the current day to participate in an evolving aesthetic that a number of artists are also currently developing through their own practices....

A conversation with Morgan McPeak

September 5, 2022

art

After release from willing captivity, we are sat in a dark room accented with just enough indigo deep purple and emergency red lighting to see 3 steps in front of us…darkness swallowing. We approach a large screen not quite the size of a Jumbotron and not quite small enough to carry alone. Flickering images of events that have unfolded in highlight reel form of the last 5 years of existence play...

Gorgeous Portis

August 29, 2022

music

Upon entering the gallery, artist Alexandra Virginia Martin presents us with a problem. There are two hanging sculptures located just inside the door. These sculptures block our passage and our view of the rest of the space. As viewers we must choose whether to contort our bodies to maneuver between these two hovering green latex vessels or to pass through by committing the cardinal sin of art viewing and touch the art...

Kurtis Greene

August 22, 2022

art

Runner Magazine is proud to host the official music video premiere of OVA, the newest single by JNN APRL. The filming took place at The Orange Room on October 21, 2021 and involved a team of Detroit locals including Zapon, Sidd Finch, Collin Preston, Patrick Ethen, Intent, Phebe Rose, Weednerdscool, and Owlmom 247...

JNN APRL

August 15, 2022

music

‘A flower from home’ encourages discovery and learning through seasonal flora. Detroit-based foraging repurposes ephemera from the home garden, neighborhood alleys, abandoned lots, and landscaping debris to floral arrangements with sustainable and local material. Through a ‘gardener first’ floral mentality, native seedpods, fruits, foraged invasives, and lichen covered branches challenge what we consider beautiful.

Zoë Davis

August 8, 2022

business

A series of photographs taken at Hart Plaza in Detroit during Movement Electronic Music Festival 2022

Daniel Ribar

July 18, 2022

culture

Mix...

Scott Potis

July 11, 2022

music

On July 5 at 2:03am Mars, ingresses into Taurus. Mars, the planet of action and desire will slow down in stable Taurus. While Mars was in it’s domicile Aries we felt ready to take action at any moment, our desires were right in front of us. When Mars is in Venus-ruled Taurus, there’s no need to rush. Long-term goals, specifically around finances or creative projects, are what we might be focused on. Saving up for a luxurious bath-robe or a Caribbean vacation. Mars wants to keep it moving but in Taurus he has a chance to take it easy, cautious steps towards sensual pleasures...

Theresa Ndrejaj

July 4, 2022

columns

For her first physical solo exhibition in Detroit, Liu merges Eastern and Western culture in her continuous exploration of the female figure, imbuing silk and paper alike with intricate, layered imagery. A handful of the featured works are elevated by the employment of color-changing light, which is a common use in her practice and represents Taiwan's position as the global leader in LED manufacturing. Liu splits her time between Taiwan and Detroit and received her MFA in 2020 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art...

Conversation between G.E. Liu and gallery director Sara Nickleson

June 27, 2022

art

A fair fight is non-existent. You always use everything around and fight dirty and to the point if you gonna do it for real, in any kind of capacity for real experience that you might have as a human being, which by the way, I question more than agree with the fact that I am one of you, or maybe even the same alien race if that might be who you are...

Kirill Slavin

June 20, 2022

literature

The ambition of the world’s superpowers to travel to space, leaving our earthly home through sheer force of will and scientific progress, is the same ambition which led them to construct massive social housing complexes like Cite Gagarine, New York’s Queensbridge Houses, my own city’s Frederick Douglass Homes (known colloquially as the Brewster Projects), the Techwood Homes in Atlanta, and to an extent the entire city of Brasilia...

Walter Lucken IV

June 6, 2022

thought

Though treacherous, the journey to Acid Planet was finally over. Once the crew had arrived, Heniac noticed something strange on the ship that didn’t seem to make sense. It was tucked away behind a bunch of gear and appeared to be a portal covered by a shower curtain...

Secret Shower

May 26, 2022

music

Gin’s DEMF 2022 mix - dubbed the BATS OUTTA HELL mix, aka The Club^TM mix - points to the collective energy leading into this DEMF long-wknd; evoking poignant imagery surrounding our re-unification on dance floors as we emerge after two years of the living hell that was the pandemic snuffing out our annual long-wknd JOY...

Gin Ebony

May 23, 2022

music

Leah Harris is a renowned musical artist currently based in New York City, however she grew up in Windsor, Ontario just across the river from Detroit. She has been influenced by the Motown sound since an early age, which sparked her initiation into the world of music, specifically focusing on piano, singing and songwriting...

Interview with Leah Harris

May 20, 2022

music

Detroit based producer/DJ, Marshall Applewhite is a man of many hats. His aliases include OktoRed, Cocky Balboa, Star Machine and Secret Shower, to name a few. His sound is what one may call tangential, diverging from expected norms and keeping true to the essence of the futurist movement from which techno originates...

RETURN TO ACID PLANET is a series of mixes curated by madeofants - all artists in this series are represented by the Detroit-based label Junted...

Marshall Applewhite

May 19, 2022

music

My name is Aldo Giovanni De La Cruz. My close friends and family call me Gio and I make music, DJ, & sometimes play live under the moniker of Memory Clap Acid. The mix I’ve done for Runner Magazine is a 111 minutes of funky mutant techno, Detroit sludge, Drexciyan electro, & tripped out breaks infused club edits all tied together by a common thread. Acid!!!

RETURN TO ACID PLANET is a series of mixes curated by madeofants - all artists in this series are represented by the Detroit-based label Junted...

Memory Clap Acid

May 12, 2022

music

Heniac joined Junted for the label’s conception party in 2017, which was his introduction to DJing. And after a few years of dabbling with music production, released his first single on a Junted compilation in 2020 which featured the Based God himself, Lil B. Later that year Junted distributed his first EP, ‘Angor’, in Nov 2020.

RETURN TO ACID PLANET is a series of mixes curated by madeofants - all artists in this series are represented by the Detroit-based label Junted...

Heniac

May 5, 2022

music

These five artists and curators decided to come together with a commitment to create platforms for their peers on the margins through as many ways as possible. Since 2017, they have organized talks, exhibitions, performances, workshops, publications as well as participated in already established initiatives around Detroit, the United States, and abroad...

Ashley Cook

May 2, 2022

culture

Chloe Sells

April 25, 2022

art

The history of art in Detroit encompasses the story of C-Pop, an exhibition space that started when Michael Lask responded to Rick Manore's ad in The Metro Times about old concert posters...

Michael Lask and Rick Manore, narrated by Ashley Cook

April 18, 2022

business

This coming astrological weather will accelerate the ongoing shift of the greater consciousness. It’s all been building up to this. Will we gather the strength to accept this new understanding? How will we nurture this Proustian “vibe-shift”? Spirituality, sexuality, drugs and the passage of time. Welcome to Quarter 2.

Theresa Ndrejaj

April 17, 2022

columns

A springtime in Detroit mix

Scott Potis

April 11, 2022

music

"A mile out of town the road goes into [the] forest and never comes out of it”. When young French writer Alexis de Tocqueville arrives in Detroit in 1831, intending to see some of America’s untouched wilderness, he describes vast forests on his travels from Detroit to Saginaw...

This text unpacks the history of trees in Detroit and contemplates new ways to incorporate forestry within the city

Leonie Hagen

April 4, 2022

architecture

By collapsing their personal histories with Sexton’s biography and mathematical theories of motion, Ouyang explores the body as a vehicle of self-mutability, temporal transference, and rapturous discovery...

A review of the most recent exhibition at No Place Gallery in Columbus, Ohio

Stephanie Kang

March 28, 2022

art

B_KS@ is a Detroit-based bookstore that sources rare and high-quality magazines and books from around the world, offering locals the opportunity to access and acquire them in person...

A conversation between Ruben Cardenas and Ashley Cook

March 14, 2022

business

90 minutes of house, techno, and breaks made with love for dance floors everywhere...

Joshey

February 28, 2022

music

Hello. My name is Shan, welcome to this special Shantasy Island mix for Runner Magazine. While the mix before you may not be exceptionally dancey, it is dubiously moody- and what better timing than for the romantic tone of February’s Valentines. I hope that you’ll enjoy...

Shantasy Island

February 14, 2022

music

Like I was saying this was one of those nights that was so cold all you saw moving was the steam from the sewer. Every other animal besides us knows to get inside and stay there when it’s that cold. I had spent most of my shift in the valet booth reading, punctuated with the occasional trip out back to smoke a cigarette with the cooks from the hotel bar. Wasn’t really making any money but I still had the clock goin. Interestingly enough, slow nights like this was when me and the guys got along best, so we hadn’t got into it or anything that night. I got a cheeseburger from the hotel bar for my “lunch” and about halfway through it one of the guys came in, we’ll call him Mo...

Walter Lucken IV

February 7, 2022

literature

Despite 2021 being a watershed year for many Detroit-based artists’ representation at the fairs, it seems to have gone largely unremarked upon. By my count, works by thirty three Detroit artists made their way down to Miami this past December, represented by twelve galleries across all the major fairs...

Nolan Simon, edited by Rachel Pontious

January 31, 2022

art

Today, Daniel Sharp, also known as madeofants, releases his EP Lost & Found. With this music, Sharp also presents a video for the song “cyberhellravedungeonfunruncore (Marshall Applewhite’s Kids Today Get Distracted Easily Mix)” that was made in collaboration with Joel Dunn....

Ashley Cook

January 24, 2022

music

Maddie Kuzak’s work has been shown across the United States, from Los Angeles to New York City, granting a glimpse into internet-laden aesthetics alongside horror tropes, melding into a singular, one-of-a-kind practice that transcends the current zeitgeist of Millennial and Gen Z art, piercing through the online and the in-person.

Kellen MacGregor

January 17, 2022

art

One of One is a perfect example of Loyke’s approach to making work and the interweaving that he continues to use to underscore the various facets of his practice. The video was shot by Jay Hendricks, edited by Lokye with the song produced by G $wank. It was filmed at Public Pool with his most recent exhibition acting as the backdrop while also participating as the main focus of the video.

Video Premiere

Ashley Cook

January 10, 2022

music

For the past two years we have been put through the ringer. It might have been foolish to expect last year to be any different than the one before it but we can look forward to a touch of reprieve in 2022.

Theresa Ndrejaj

January 3, 2022

columns

Through the lens of play-count-maximizing production, music appears thoroughly mapped. Known rhythms, well-worn sample packs, and enculturated structures denote genres – purportedly-useful fictions that serve to both limit the scope of possible production and inhibit the consumption of anything but recapitulations of what we already know...

Video premiere

Weather Citizen

December 27, 2021

music

The heydays of the auto industry certainly led to Detroit being recognized as the Motor City. At that point, a new term called Fordism took over the world, which eventually led to the most recent one, which may not yet be completely known and defined - Detroitism...

Katarina Dačić

December 13, 2021

business

In the end I’m not trying to find anything too specific. I just enjoy the thrill of looking in deep waters of the self, sometimes using Jungian archetypes as guidance tools, but in the end it’s all about getting in contact with the stuff dreams and nightmares are made of, because we wouldn’t be without it...

Juan Diego Covarrubias

December 6, 2021

art

Gen Kuzak’s most recent pornographic film The French Boys premiered at the Cranbrook DeSalle Auditorium in Bloomfield Hills on October 14, 2021. The film features a transmasculine couple in Paris, France who responded to Gen’s call for actors after having also become fans of his work in recent years...

Ashley Cook

December 2, 2021

art

I interpret Trudell’s concept of “being human” as defined by a union of “being” - a physical and psychological body event - with conscientious acts of humanity that disrupt colonial power structures. This alignment of the embodied self and the thinking mind allows us to unsettle normative conditioning and connect to a decolonized version of ourselves. I outline how “being human” simultaneously eschews colonial identities and helps one internalize a decolonized paradigm....

Andrew Kaplowitz and Paris La Don

November 29, 2021

thought

The usual fashion centers of the world occasionally take a backseat when designers become curious and exploratory, asking what would it mean to exhibit this work here? How would the work be read if it were premiered there? Of course, within the world of art, music, fashion, design, anything really, things can be much more interesting when the context of place is considered in relation to the content...

Mary Kate and Ashley

November 22, 2021

fashion

Film Premiere

Lullaby explores the relationship between solitude and spirituality while portraying the blurred lines between dreams and reality and how they bleed together to construct our perceptions, especially during a time when the days seemed to melt together. Shot by local director, LANSUH, at Dabls Mbad African Bead Museum and features electronic artist KESSWA as the goddess character. Scored by Sara Barron and was mixed and mastered by Ben Collins (Anna Burch, Stef Chura).

Sara Barron

November 15, 2021

music

Planet Ant Theatre is a true survivor and no stranger to the many obstacles that face a non-profit community of creatives striving toward a common goal. After more than 25 years in operation, the Ant boasts the longest running improv comedy show in the Detroit area...

Matthew Copeland

November 8, 2021

culture

DJ Mixx

EXT EST

November 1, 2021

music

What transforms in the body when it becomes ill—not just physically, but its entire essence?

Marissa Jezak

October 25, 2021

thought

Shortly after Samuel Davidson’s absence, five more workers disappeared and fearing it a trend, the boss became concerned about losing the contract. When none of the workers returned his calls and he received angry protests as to why trash had not been picked up in certain locations, he panicked and began the arduous process of covering for the missing workers himself. Unable to manage the workload, the company lost contracts, and soon enough, what remaining workers stayed began to drift away and the company disintegrated...

This short story explores the possibility of upending a system without the need for violence or destruction. What happens when people collectively reject a system built on their own exploitation?..

Rey Hinojosa

October 18, 2021

literature

To Whom It May Concern: the name is JAK, I don’t beat around the bush unless I’m planting flowers there – here, I am lookin for a job and what else is new like ain’t we all? Trying to find the position of our dreams...

Joshua Kochis

October 11, 2021

literature

Brown’s work exudes a genuine sense of warmth and affection for her subject matter that is evident in the amount of labor invested in these works. Hundreds of earrings and chicken heads had to be cast individually in brittle plaster and then inlaid into these tablet forms. The care shown and labor exerted is presented as if they are love letters to all of the women who have adorned themselves with these ornaments throughout history....

Kurtis Greene

October 4, 2021

art

These nine small gouache paintings presented at Belle Isle Viewing Room were made as part of a larger series that will debut at The Contemporary Dayton, an upcoming solo show featuring over 200 new pieces by George Rush...

Ashley Cook

September 27, 2021

art

The high contrast between the contexts of the gracefully dilapidated domestic space and the fragile glass works seems to invent a place where the architectural structure feels, in-fact, to be more delicate than the artworks inside...

Ashley Cook

September 13, 2021

art

These in particular I wrote over a holiday break, when I found myself avoiding my last round of seminar papers...

Walter Lucken IV

September 6, 2021

literature

For the launch party, which was held outdoors in a very socially distanced empty lot, she asked me to write a poem about anything I felt needed to be said - to my hometown and the broader world. Pulling back the curtain - collecting the receipts, if you will....

MJ Slide

August 23, 2021

literature

It is not a surprise that the importance of imagery on our society has been growing exponentially for decades, with the adoption of technology solely used to create, produce, edit, distribute, and syndicate it. There are over 3 billion images shared daily, and over a trillion images copyrighted every year. There is an entire system running parallel to culture that stores, showcases, and hides the content created...

Chris McGraw

August 9, 2021

thought

A creative flash non-fiction piece exploring our physical relationship to the sounds of the city from a newcomer's POV.

"Wear sturdy boots and withhold judgment. Open your mind's eye - feel it in your chest. It's gonna be ok."...

MJ Slide

July 26, 2021

literature

As Detroit is seemingly slowly recovering, looking back at the development of Berlin might help to understand what could be at stake when imagining Detroit’s future; maybe Berlin can serve as a prediction of how Detroit’s urban landscape might develop if the wrong people are in charge. Just like Berlin a couple of decades ago, Detroit has the quite unique opportunity to redefine what kind of urban environment it wants to be.

Leonie Hagen

July 5, 2021

architecture

An audible amalgamation is spawned from the minds and work of Matthew Ryan Surline (MRS) and Walken Schweigert in their music ensemble Crune that unites the aesthetics of Baroque and Disco into an immersive listening and entertainment experience. With a primary inspiration of Baroque music laying the foundation for decision making behind their music, the act of bringing this classical era into the contemporary further entertains the character of this era, which was an expansion of musical possibilities with more complex compositions, innovation and experimentation...

Ashley Cook

June 28, 2021

music

June 5, 2021 was the most recent FUCK ICE car wash with the focus on the abolition of the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. This event was located on Breckenridge in Detroit, a desolate street just North of 1-94 and just west of Grand River avenue. This area resembles a country road with foliage overgrowth, a giant dead tree and just a couple houses on the block. It very much sets the tone for this Detroit car wash, as this vacant-ness and free growth of the wild natural plants are complemented by the beautiful cars that are ever so prevalent in a Detroit summer...

Ashley Cook

June 14, 2021

activism

You might ask who sent me. Well, I would remind you that those who my work loves, it cannot name. There will be some allusions here and there, maybe an argot or a jargon that the attuned ear can capture, but no names...

Walter Lucken IV

June 7, 2021

literature

Demeter, past post flourish. a hag lost in mort carrying corpus. Seeker, Who is to welcome her summer?

Daisy

May 24, 2021

literature

“The ultimate, hidden truth of the world is that it is something that we make, and could just as easily make differently.” I kinda think like people are a wrapper around the animalistic void. At certain times the wrapper gets thin or goes away. And hence the human instrumentality initiative seeks to unify the void inside all of us lmao

Palm Treat and an Anonymous Media Theorist

May 10, 2021

thought

“An architectural extravaganza is hoped to return vitality to the doyenne of decayed downtowns—Detroit. But can architect John Portman draw crowds and keep them there? Will the transplant live but the body die?”

Leonie Hagen

April 26, 2021

architecture

The common theme amongst the mindset of these artists is in their communication of an experience similar to seeing the world through a sheer translucent veil. Whether intentional or not, the recognition of the relationship between the inner and outer world is at play, and there is no filter that is attempting to hide this current state of mind.

Ashley Cook

April 12, 2021

art

"The five wall works presented in The Ritual of the Mask are intimate paintings made of paper, fiberglass and wood. McGhee refers to these shaped artworks as ‘crushed paintings’....."

Ashley Cook

March 29, 2021

art

What is the role that image making plays during the process of grievance, catharsis and even in the production of acceptance or new hope? This question seems to be something that is emerging when viewing the work of Bryan Corley in the exhibition Life (Pre)veils at Cass Cafe. On view are 19 works that seem to be on some kind of dissected journey through different histories from art to mythology to meme culture, combining them all into an amalgamation that mirrors the contemporary “melting” pot of meaning that is this internet saturated world of symbols....

Bryan Corley in Conversation with Ashley Cook

March 15, 2021

art

It has always been convenient to implement hierarchies and categorization as a way to understand differences, but in effect, this practice has robbed everything that exists within this framework of its right for more autonomous, natural, wild and enchanting ways to “be” and “engage”.

En·chant·ment (n) a feeling of great pleasure or delight; the state of being under a spell, magic...

Ashley Cook

March 1, 2021

thought

Float the Vote was one such point of curiosity that I felt could be fully realized and brought forth into the physical world because of a sincere focus on strengthening access to voting in communities around Detroit. I was ecstatic to discover I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Feeling calm, ready, and vigilant, our five-person team set out into the sprawling urban landscape of Detroit to recruit food trucks and reach as many people as possible...

Brandon Stuart

February 15, 2021

activism

We often see the curatorial arts rely heavily on white-walled galleries and cube-like centerfolds embellished by cocktail parties and small talk. The simpler the space, the easier for the viewer to digest the art, correct? With conceptual art cementing its place within the contemporary art world, the traditions of art institutions, as well as the art market, are in question. How do we make art spaces more accessible to a broader audience, therefore easing the process of artists’ presentation of work?...

Lydia Kuzak

February 8, 2021

art

The presence of clocks in public spaces provides a tool for the people while also sort of marking an awareness of the city’s own participation in contemporary society. When being mindful of timekeeping devices in the cityscape of Detroit, there are a handful to be found. Mostly Downtown in the Financial District, some seemingly randomly scattered across the city attached to various kinds of buildings. Some on abandoned mediocre buildings, some on very iconic buildings. Some on banks, some on office buildings, some on shopping malls, some on churches. A few working, most out of order. Some of those still working are set at a wrong time. Nobody seems to care, clocks have vanished from the people’s consciousness...

Leonie Hagen

February 1, 2021

architecture

Wurl Sotto, a Detroit-based hip-hop artist and member of hip hop collective WE!RDOZ GANG, has been making a name for himself in Detroit over the past few years. While doing small shows around the city, he also has been doing very well on all streaming platforms such as SoundCloud, Spotify and Apple Music after receiving a feature in the Metro Times piece Bands to Watch in 2017. His debut album Andromeda, dropped in October of 2020, is a tale of transcendence, love, pain and forgiveness...

Brian H. Newman

January 25, 2021

music

Due to its sheer size, it is difficult, almost inappropriate, to describe the city of Detroit’s current condition with any one-sided perspective. It has recently been branded as “up and coming” because it has a Shinola Hotel, cocktail bars, and street lights that are turned on (in some locations). What can be misleading though, is the assumption that having a Shinola Hotel, and street lights, is all Detroit needs to turn into a healthy city. This raises questions of - Is that really enough?..

Riley Rinnan

January 18, 2021

architecture

After a cloudy day of avoiding potholes, driving at sunset while everything glows orange is a necessary meditation. Driving around in a city this big introduces techniques and etiquette specific to the neighborhoods—learning when to roll through the lights or maintain speed while someone is stood in the turning lane is part of demonstrating respect for the areas passed through. Detroiters made the cars, and they make the rules too. Enjoy the view while it lasts and stay reckless...

Amelia Gillis

January 11, 2021

literature

“Bower of Bliss is an enchanted setting in the epic poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser. In her book Sexual Personae, Camille Paglia theorizes that Spenser’s bower of bliss represents a feminine space of sexual domination: a shady, womb-like enclosed area where the hero is seduced away from his quest and kept in a state of ‘languid indolence and passivity’ by a sorceress who erotically drains his energy"...

Ashley Cook

January 4, 2021

art

At TCF they scream “stop the steal”, we insist that there’s no evidence. We insist on science, reason, civil society, even democracy after it was a fiction all year. The water in the Catskills is so cold it stops time. I imagine I can float here for ten years, steeling myself for another 6 months of 2020. I’ll have all the answers when I get out of the water. The teenagers 5.9 feet away are from the future. Maybe that’s why I keep getting plucked out of the frying pan, to give them the pros and cons of civilization before our world is forgotten forever. There’s a lot to be said for it, which is why we keep ending up in a defensive position...

Walter Lucken IV and Dominic Palarchio

December 28, 2020

literature

EAT DA RICH

December 21, 2020

fashion

For those who are aware and conscious, this is not a new conversation. The title of this exhibition by Sean Maxwell at Granny’s Chandelier (October 16th - November 10th) points unapologetically to a discourse that is fundamental to the development of the “free world” that we call the USA; this discourse I am talking about is one that has been sustained by and for the voices of those who believe we can do better, for centuries...

Sean Maxwell in conversation with Ashley Cook

December 14, 2020

art

On July 31st of this year, the Twitter account belonging to Wayne State University’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors tweeted that "lowering Black student enrollment by 40% is nothing to celebrate!" and that the Wilson administration had moved the university "away from its mission to serve our community in Detroit"...

Walter Lucken IV

December 7, 2020

thought

The interplay between something completely untouchable and something utilitarian provides an avenue to imagine a more playful yet still functional reality. Could we really live like this? What would reality feel like if industrial design more commonly teetered into surreality?...

Ashley Cook

November 30, 2020

art

The machines came to gnash their teeth, and bite at me, in the winter of 2017. My sister with light blue blush, and the poison ivy, wound round her face in mourning, was eaten the day before. And our brother, smoke-blackened wedding chapel, dangling snaggle-toothed staircase, collided with ground, hardened mud and frosty dew, just the day before that...

A poem written from the perspective of an old house and an accompanying personal essay...

Christiana Laine

November 23, 2020

literature

The work presented in their most recent exhibition Outer Heaven at No Place Gallery in Columbus, Ohio holds a sense of stoicism above their previous exhibitions...

Ashley Cook

November 16, 2020

art

In the early 2000s self portraiture started to become a central component in defining youth subcultures, with the increased manufacturing of cell phone cameras and escalating popularity of online social networking. People have been making self portraits forever, but before digital photography became such an effortless and widely accessible tool, the self portrait was more of a niche form of art reserved for traditionally skilled artists and photographers. Now it’s omnipresent...

Marissa Jezak

November 9, 2020

thought

Reader, don't hesitate on wondering whether or not this narrative is flirting with the existing conditions of Detroit, or for that matter any other city. It is. And on purpose. That's the point. The narrative however, like any science fiction story, is open to interpretation. I'm not necessarily creating a pessimistic nor an optimistic narrative. I'm creating an alternative environment by simply suggesting possibilities based on existing conditions.

José Arturo Joglar-Cadilla

October 26, 2020

literature

The Harvest gives a glimpse of the diversity in which the wearable arts of EAT DA RICH span. Following a dynamic layout of textures, colors and applications where there are no boundaries or commitments to mores, EDR debuts their first perfume oil to hit the market, No. 1, announcing its release planned for October 31st

EAT DA RICH

October 19, 2020

fashion

Dance Mix

Ariel Sports is a Detroit artist and DJ that explores concepts of trans embodiment, community engagement, and dancefloor activism through live mixing, sound collage, video installation and nightlife events. Her mix Doll Apparatus is a polyrhythmic journey with meshing of hardstyle, atypical club sounds, transfeminine voices, and electroclash nostaglia...

Ariel Sports

October 12, 2020

music

It can be interesting to examine a certain complex that seems to mark the tone for the 21st century of Modern humankind; this complex, and it’s contradictions, occur from the experience of existing in a body that is between an “animal” and a “human”. By recognizing the constant interplay between these two states, which can be abruptly broken, or fluidly linked, we can attempt to communicate our experiences as “modern” humans in the modern world, and unpack its profound impact on our understanding of mental health, gender, race, class, nature, species...and machine....

Ashley Cook

October 5, 2020

thought

“Going nowhere fast” isn’t what you always think it is. Going somewhere slow is so much worse. Within about a three block radius surrounding Granny’s Chandelier, the gallery Lokye operates, there are a few who go nowhere fast - and it sometimes feels close to nirvana...

City Taxes

September 21, 2020

music

From 2009 and up through our current situation, there have been a slew of underground hip hop artists in Detroit that are innovating and creating in their own lane, with little professional guidance; Sheefy McFly was one of the artists at the forefront of this Renaissance...

Brian H. Newman

September 21, 2020

music

The goal of psychoanalysis is to turn neurotic suffering into normal human misery. Obsession as attempt to solve ambivalence felt to be dangerous...Smoldering reek of shame. Blood smiles out at me...You can’t turn it off. Diversion to diversion to diversion to diversion...

Levi Okla

September 7, 2020

art

I grew up in a very small Midwestern town. The type of quaint and sleepy place where every neighbor waved to one-another and knew your brother, your cousin and your great grandmother. The private Christian elementary and middle schools I attended had a 100% white staff and student population. My public high school in the same town maintained roughly 98%. I believe the homogeneity of my surroundings and complete lack of representation or education about any other races, creeds, or colors, wove an intentional fabric of “blissful” ignorance which has taken me half my life to begin to unravel and reconstruct...

Christiana Laine

August 24, 2020

thought

When entire neighborhoods vanish from the physical space, and business corridors with their intertwined infrastructure disappear, there are questions we must ask ourselves: “How do we document these changes, and give back to the communities directly affected? How do we memorialize what a neighborhood once was? How can the function of open source data be expanded and utilized in the 21st century of “cloud computing”? What potential exists to archive our built environment and pay homage to structures that stand today and may not tomorrow?”...

Riley Rinnan

August 17, 2020

architecture

Art Mile is an exhibition that took place online from July 29 to August 5, 2020. It was founded in order to “champion Detroit’s vibrant and diverse arts community, by promoting public programs and online acquisitions.” With over 50 different galleries and project spaces participating, Art Mile was able to function as one of the few local exhibitions that has worked to highlight hundreds of artists’ work, presenting the broad scope of what is happening within the local art scene, in a simultaneous and relatively concise way...

Ashley Cook

August 10, 2020

art

Gorgeous Portis is a mix maker and music producer based in Detroit, with various mixes available to the world through their presentation on Archive.org. The titles are abstract and confusing at times, using numbers as letters or as words, inventing new words or consistently using the word “ugly”; only by listening through the mixes can they reveal their particular methodology, with a kind of abstract reasoning used to guide the construction of these unique audio-based structures....

Ashley Cook

August 3, 2020

music

This is not an essay as such; it is not expository nor is it persuasive. I have no argument to make. Rather this is an attempt to account for the events that have defined the year. It is a patchwork analysis. It is not a new summation of the present crises by any means, but through repetition and slight iterations, comes a grain of nuance which develops the conversation ever so slightly.  The decade commenced with symbolic significance. 2020 was employed to inscribe inspirational social media posts with “Vision is 2020,” suggesting finally that “this would be the year!” But, the year for what?..

Olivia Gilmore

July 20, 2020

thought

As artists we are conditioned to believe that our worth is synonymous with the capital we generate and the admiration we receive. But what power does our work hold, apart from its role in this social exchange? The way art functions not only in a social & political context, but as a tool for healing & self liberation is very relevant in late capitalist society. The exhausting and alienating effects of the economic system we live in tend to be overwhelming, and can cause us to gravitate toward self destruction...

Marissa Jezak

July 6, 2020

thought

James Oscar Lee's n u l l Account opened on February 15th at 1201 Bagley Street in Detroit, a location which was formerly the Engine Company No. 8, built in 1908 and functioned as a firehouse until 1982. Initially, it could be interesting to consider the relevance of choosing this location, which was in relatively raw condition, to host a contemporary painting show, but, throughout the history of Lee's practice, he has commonly chosen to exhibit his work between off site “found” spaces throughout the city and proper gallery spaces....

Ashley Cook

June 22, 2020

art

What would it mean, as contemporary moderns, to recognize these areas, the hybrids, the blocks of movement of something which is in transition between what it was and what it will be? As many contemporary philosophers and anthropologists are beginning to see this need for control as paradoxical and highly problematic, they are asking “how do we break from these tendencies?” And "what kinds of potential comes with the suspension of our need for control?"...

Ashley Cook

June 8, 2020

thought

Among the newest array of online zoom meetings and virtual dance parties, in the ether of the net, exists a 115 minute ambient music set weaved intermittently with a reading of Octavia E. Butler’s Speech Sounds. Composed by Perlex, Speech Sounds Live was presented as part of the BLDG:01 live streaming project called Stille. The airy vibe of the encouraging melody and layered sounds, like wind or a machine working slowly with a steady rhythm,...

Ashley Cook

May 25, 2020

music

Nolan Simon (b. 1980) lives and works in Hamtramck, Michigan. His work has been included in exhibitions across the US and Europe, including solo shows at 47 Canal in New York City, Lars Friedrich in Berlin, Rieseburo Galerie Christian Nagel in Cologne, Green Gallery in Milwaukee and at What Pipeline in Detroit. Nolan and I met in his studio at CAVE, a collective art studio located in the Russell Industrial Center...

Virginia Torrence

May 11, 2020

art