Everybody's favorite, from our perspective + experience--a look into the place we go to escape, our own little island, our Detroit Jewel...
Saybin Samone Roberson and Catie Goins
August 3, 2026
architecture, culture, columns - detroit city
Summer finally gave us a sneak preview, and when the weather broke, we decided to go for a walk to see some neighborhoods and bask in the nuance that is so effortlessly Detroit, and inherently, Black...
Saybin Samone Roberson and Catie Goins
May 25, 2026
architecture, culture, columns - detroit city
Paulina Petkoski, Owner and Director of PLAYGROUND DETROIT, shares her experience as a Detroit-based arts professional who has worked for more than a decade to showcase contemporary art, provide representation and influence the Detroit creative economy through her social enterprise...
Ashley Cook
April 23, 2026
art, culture - detroit city
Respectful, collaborative relationships with the people of other cultures—especially when engaging in anthropological studies—has become an expectation across the globe since the onset of a growing movement called New Animism. This can be seen here in Detroit through the close collaboration between the curators of the DIA and an advisory council of contemporary Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi artists working across the Great Lakes Region.
Ashley Cook
February 16, 2026
art, culture - detroit city
On May 17th 2025, College for Creative Studies celebrated the 100th anniversary of its student exhibition with over three thousand works of art on view across both campuses. The wide range of disciplines showcased throughout the event represents one hundred and nineteen years of evolution; what began as a curriculum with only basic classes in drawing, design, and woodcarving now offers BFA, BA, MFA, MA and MPS degree programs in over a dozen different disciplines as well as precollege & continuing education training, and certifications in Art Education. The story of CCS offers insight into the development of art schools in the United States—particularly in relation to industrial manufacturing—and reveals the adaptation and innovation that was required to stay open, even through Detroit’s most tumultuous years...
Ashley Cook
October 6, 2025
art, culture - detroit city
From the beginning, Detroit Techno music has been deconstructing sounds, and blending human and technology into creative hybrid entities. This movement of sonic samples quickly grew to include re-purposed spaces, signage and lights. Although this cultural genre, born in Detroit from abandonment and innovation, has evolved to incorporate sophisticated techniques to light the stages and dancefloors, many have figured out ways to keep the DIY spirit alive...
Ashley Cook
June 7, 2025
music, culture - detroit city
It’s hard not to feel lucky to exist early in a musical genre’s timeline. With the birth of techno occurring almost half a century ago, we as clubbers and fans of techno have a rare opportunity to engage with this genre’s pioneers, many of whom are still among us. However, as most discussions about techno history tend to center on the musicians and DJs behind the decks, we often overlook the larger forces that shape the culture; it’s time to shift our attention to the dancers, the voyeurs, the bartenders, the door attendants, the designers – all techno enthusiasts who play a crucial role in sustaining and evolving the scene...
Tara Shafa
April 14, 2025
music, culture - detroit city
Corrosion has come to define this place that was once the center of the Industrial Revolution in the US, with its metals now tarnished by extreme neglect and its communities plagued by disinvestment. Detroit, Michigan and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania flourished as engines of technical innovation in America before waves of economic abandonment left them jobless. Curator Kemuel Benyehudah’s newest exhibition Echoes from the Rust spotlights artists from these two cities, whose work touches on engineering, manual labor, and community as foundations of their blue-collar culture.
Ashley Cook
January 2, 2025
art, culture - detroit city, great lakes region
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, culture - detroit city
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, culture - detroit city
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
music, culture - detroit city
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 - detroit city
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 - detroit city
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
art, culture - detroit city
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
culture - detroit city