Metro Times 09/11/2024

EDITORIAL

Photo by Austin Richey

NEWS & VIEWS

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Congratulations to the Detroit Lions, who won their first game of the season against archrivals the Los Angeles Rams, 26-20! Readers had a lot to say about this new era of Detroit’s hardscrabble football team.

i walked around ford field last week, dispersing of the spirits and curses of the past, banners telling everyone who can read it takes more, ok it takes more talent, more grit, more luck, luck? Just a wee bit more from the Irish Catholics in Corktown and abroad who in 1963 wept at the loss of one of their own, JFK, while hours apart Ralph Wilson sold the team to the Ford family, and when sorrow

turned to disbelief and anger, a curse rose from living rooms across the Tri county area, a curse that took hold with a 13-13 tie the following game against the Packers, and a curse that has not received as much news because of Bobby Layne’s curse, which to some has not been broken yet, if the curse is broken this year, well, it’s about time, eh?

—John ONeil, Facebook

You know the Lions hype is reaching epic levels when the perpetually toocool-for-school Metro Times does a write up.

—David J. Majors (@CallMeDjm), X

man ya’ll are whiffing hard on the sports stories lol GO LIONS!

Mitch Tryfort Facebook

NEWS & VIEWS

Prosecutor Worthy requests funds to investigate cases handled by detective featured in Metro Times series

A little more than a month after Metro Times published a twopart series exposing a former Detroit detective who used illegal tactics to elicit false confessions and witness statements, both prosecutors and police oversight officials pledged to take action Thursday.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy plans to expand a unit dedicated to exonerating innocent people, and the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is investigating complaints that Detective Barbara Simon engaged in a pattern of criminal wrongdoing.

On Thursday, Worthy requested an increase in funding for her Conviction Integrity Unit (CIU), which is tasked with freeing innocent people from prison, after she told county officials that news reports suggested that Simon “may have tainted many cases.”

“My view is, if you’re running an office, you should never be afraid to look at old convictions to make sure they were done the right way,” Worthy said.

Wayne County Executive Warren Evans, a former Detroit police chief, is proposing the increase in CIU funding in his budget that still needs approval from the Wayne County Board of Commissioners.

Worthy said she was getting hammered in the media for declining to comment on investigating Simon’s cases. She said she wanted to wait until Evans supported the increase in funding for the CIU.

“I wanted to make sure that funding was approved by you and that will give me an opportunity to hire someone to focus on those cases,” Worthy said.

Worthy launched the CIU in 2018 to review old cases to determine if people were wrongfully convicted. But the unit is understaffed and overwhelmed with cases, according to Valerie Newman, head of the CIU.

Since the CIU was created, she said, prosecutors have received 2,311 requests to review cases. Of those cases, the CIU reviewed 1,177.

The CIU’s work has resulted in 38

inmates either being exonerated or their cases being dismissed. A disproportionate number of those cases occurred in 2020, the year Worthy was running for reelection.

By contrast, only three cases were dismissed since January 2023.

None of the CIU’s cases involved defendants who accused Simon of misconduct, leaving potentially innocent people with very little recourse.

“Currently, there is a backlog of requests for conviction review that the CIU is working through,” Newman told Metro Times last month. “The CIU strives to handle all claims with care and attention as it works through its backlog.”

Also on Thursday, four members of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners spoke in favor of an investigation into Simon, who was known as “the closer” in the 1990s and early 2000s because of her knack for gaining confessions and witness statements. Her methods of confining young Black men to small rooms at police head-

quarters for hours without a warrant, making false promises, and lying about evidence that didn’t exist led to the false imprisonment of at least five men. Many more innocent people are still behind bars because of Simon, activists and defense attorneys say.

Mark Craighead, who was exonerated after spending more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit and has led the effort to investigate Simon’s cases, says he’s relieved that authorities are beginning to take action. But he’s skeptical of Worthy’s office handling the investigations, saying prosecutors tried to keep him and three other exonerees in prison for years before it became abundantly clear they were innocent.

Craighead, another exoneree, and family members of inmates who say they were convicted because of Simon’s misconduct protested outside of Worthy’s office on Aug. 28, calling for an independent counsel to investigate Simon’s cases and demanding a meeting with Worthy.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is under fire for failing to investigate cases handled by retired Detroit Detective Barbara Simon. AP PHOTO/PAUL SANCYA

“We still want to meet with Worthy,” Craighead tells Metro Times. “And we want an independent investigation, not an in-house investigation. We don’t trust her office.”

Craighead called the CIU’s proposed budget expansion “a good step, but it’s not the right step,” he says, to address the hundreds of cases that Simon handled during her career.

Last Wednesday, Craighead filed a criminal complaint against Simon with the Board of Police Commissioners. He alleges Simon repeatedly engaged in criminal conduct by committing perjury, illegally detaining suspects for long periods without a warrant, and assaulting and threatening witnesses.

Some commissioners are asking the police department to investigate Simon’s actions while she was a detective and determine if anyone else was complicit in her misconduct.

But Commissioner Linda Bernard said more needs to be done and called for creating a task force to investigate Simon. She said the task force could include Detroit’s Office of Inspector General, the Michigan State Police, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“I don’t think that what we’re suggesting is enough, quite frankly,” Bernard said. “I do not think this is something that is a casual situation. There are major civil rights issues that have been raised in this matter.”

During the meeting, Commissioner Chairman Darryl Woods suggested that the board get into contact with the prosecutor’s office and the Michigan Innocence Clinic, which previously helped exonerate four people convicted as a result of Simon’s investigations.

In an interview with Metro Times on Friday, Woods reiterated his support for urging the proper agencies to investigate cases handled by Simon, who has been sued four times for wrongful convictions.

“Communicating with the right entities that have the authority to look at the cases and make the decisions about them is the best thing we can do,” Woods says. “This situation is not lost on us.”

Woods has a reason to be suspicious of improper investigations. He spent nearly 29 years in prison for a murder he says he didn’t commit. In 2019, Woods was released from prison after former Gov. Rick Snyder commuted his sentence. A trial judge determined that witnesses in Woods’s case may have committed perjury.

“I understand the pain of the wrongfully convicted,” Woods says. —Steve Neavling

Michigan becomes a leader in clean energy projects, job creation, report states

Michigan has emerged as a national leader in the clean energy sector following a series of ambitious state laws enacted by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, according to a report released Monday.

With investments from the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Whitmer signed a package of bills in November 2023 aimed at creating tens of thousands of jobs, reducing energy costs for families, expanding access to alternative energy sources, setting new carbon emission standards, and requiring utility companies to become more energy efficient.

Michigan now has more clean energy projects than any other state — 62 — creating 21,748 jobs and receiving more than $26.6 billion in new investments, according to a report released Monday by 5 Lakes Energy, a firm specializing in clean energy policy, sustainability, and environmental consulting.

According to the report, the state ranks among the top five in the U.S. for new clean energy projects and job creation.

“Last year, Governor Whitmer and the state Legislature secured a clean and prosperous economic future for Michigan. And today, we can see just how investing in the state’s clean energy economy and local businesses will benefit all Michiganders,” Courtney Bourgoin, senior policy and advocacy manager for Evergreen Action Midwest, said in a statement. “Michigan’s new clean energy policies position the state to fully leverage the federal funding available from the IRA to develop a thriving clean energy workforce and save the state billions of dollars in energy and public health costs. Michigan’s clean energy future is bright — and it’s already started.”

Beyond reducing emissions, the projects are also driving down energy costs for residents, according to the report. By 2030, Michigan families are expected to see an average reduction of $297 per year in their energy bills, a figure that could rise to $713 per year by 2040. This reduction is a direct result of the state’s shift toward cleaner, more efficient energy sources, the report states.

Michigan is projected to receive a total of $15.6 billion in IRA funding by 2030, and the figure is expected to nearly double to $30.7 billion by 2040. These investments will spur further economic development across the state, the report states.

The report also forecasts a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from

the electric power sector by at least 65% by 2030 and 88% by 2040. These reductions are positioning Michigan as a leader in the fight against climate change, the report states.

The report also underscores the public health benefits of the state’s clean energy policies. By reducing pollution, Michigan is expected to save $7.3 billion in avoided public health costs by 2030, with savings growing to $27.8 billion by 2040. These savings reflect fewer deaths, hospitalizations, and lost school and work days due to cleaner air and healthier communities.

“This report shows the strength of Michigan’s clean energy industry and its importance to the state’s economy,” Dr. Laura Sherman, president of the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council, said. “It is clear that the clean energy industry has been and expects to continue to hire new workers. Importantly, these are high-paying jobs at or above prevailing wage. Thanks in part to federal and state policies, companies across the clean energy industry are planning to expand operations and investments across Michigan.”

In metro Detroit, the projects are expected to spur more than 24,000 new jobs by 2030 and 40,240 by 2040.

Pollution-spewing factories are disproportionately operating in predominantly Black areas of Detroit.

Last month, environmental activists reached a “groundbreaking settlement” with Michigan regulators following a civil rights complaint over the licensing of hazardous waste facilities in predominantly Black, brown, and lower-income neighborhoods. It marks the first time that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) will be

required to use a federal mapping tool that identifies areas facing greater environmental risks and challenges. The tool, the Environmental Protection Agency’s EJScreen, helps policymakers direct resources and regulations to areas most in need.

“Thanks to Michigan’s bold new clean energy laws and nation-leading investments, we’re not only slashing household energy costs but unlocking billions in federal investment through the Inflation Reduction Act and the benefits are undeniable,” Bob Allison, deputy director for the Michigan League of Conservation Voters, said. “This is about more than just getting Michigan’s fair share of funds — it’s about creating good-paying union jobs and boosting our local economies across Michigan. We are showing the nation that investing in clean energy isn’t just the right thing to do for our environment — it’s the smart choice for our economic future.”

Overall, the report paints a promising picture of Michigan’s clean energy future, showing how federal and state policies are working together to drive economic growth, reduce costs, and create a healthier environment for all Michiganders.

“With nation-leading clean energy policies, Michigan is now at the forefront of the energy transition — attracting federal investment, creating jobs, reducing energy costs, and cutting air pollution across the state,” Douglas Jester, 5 Lakes Energy managing partner, said. “This report highlights how these benefits are reaching every region, while significantly advancing the state’s climate goals.”

—Steve Neavling

Two towering wind turbines provide clean energy near Mackinaw City. SHUTTERTSOCK

Controversy over Trump event leads to Livingston County’s sheriff resignation from nonprofit board

Livingston County Sheriff

Michael Murphy has stepped down from his position on a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for victims of sexual and domestic abuse in the wake of his controversial decision to host former President Donald Trump at the sheriff’s office last month.

The Michigan Bureau of Elections is investigating Murphy after Metro Times reported that he may have violated state law by using taxpayer resources to support a political candidate.

Murphy voluntarily resigned from the Board of Directors for the LOCASA Center, which provides services for victims of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual violence.

Sources who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal said many board members were furious and called on Murphy’s resignation.

It was also a strange choice for Murphy,

ostensibly an advocate for sexual abuse victims, to show support for Trump, who has admitted to groping women and was found liable last year for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.

In his resignation notice, Murphy expressed that his decision was made to avoid overshadowing the important work of LACASA. He emphasized his longstanding commitment to the organization.

“As a board member for close to 25 years, I have always been an advocate for LACASA, using my time, talents, and money to help where I could,” Murphy said in a statement after a Metro Times inquiry. “I have never intentionally or unintentionally done anything to hurt the organization, and it’s unfortunate some can’t see that.”

LACASA Board Chair Patricia Claffey reassured that the organization’s vital work continues without interruption,

French bulldog rescued from abandoned Detroit home a year after he went missing

Leo, a two-year-old French bulldog, went missing from a yard in Dearborn in August 2023, and his owner had all but given up on ever seeing him again.

Then late last month, the Detroit Animal Care and Control received a tip about a dog left inside a boarded-up, deteriorating home on the city’s east side. Melanie Fulkerson, an animal control investigator, went to the house and saw the wrinkled-face dog staring at her through a window.

The house was obviously abandoned, but she couldn’t enter the house without a search warrant. For three days, Fulkerson kept checking on the dog, and its curious face looked back at her.

Then on Aug. 23, the city received a search warrant, and when Fulkerson cut the locks on the door, the French Bulldog jumped into her arms.

She scanned the dog for a microchip and discovered the owner’s phone number. The owner, who now lives in Arizona, broke out in tears when Fulkerson called to say her dog, whose name is Leo, had been found.

According to Fulkerson, the owner was living in Ann Arbor at the time and was visiting family in Dearborn when the dog went missing from the backyard.

The owner posted flyers on social media and in Dearborn, but all to no avail.

Fulkerson said there’s a lesson for pet owners.

“It’s important to get your pet microchipped but it’s also important to keep the information attached to the microchip current,” Fulkerson said. “If your pet goes missing, update your microchip to say, ‘my dog or cat is missing.’”

Also in August a South Carolina woman was reunited with her cat after it went missing 11 years ago thanks to a microchip.

Metro Times couldn’t reach Leo’s owner for comment.

—Steve Neavling

highlighting LACASA’s four-decade commitment to providing a safe space for victims and survivors.

“For more than 40 years, LACASA has provided a safe and supportive environment for victims and survivors of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual violence, and a place where they are believed, trusted, and empowered,” Claffey said. “We thank Sheriff Murphy for his service to our organization, and will continue to work closely with him and his staff as our law enforcement partners.”

LACASA President & CEO Bobette Schrandt echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the organization’s strong relationship with local law enforcement, which she said will remain unchanged. Schrandt also underscored LACASA’s unwavering focus on the needs of victims and survivors.

“We are proud of our unwavering commitment to advocate for survivors,”

Schrandt stated. “We thank Sheriff Murphy for the years he spent on our board, and for recognizing that there is no room for distraction from our critical mission.”

The Michigan Campaign Finance Act makes it a crime punishable by up to 93 days in jail to use public resources to support a political candidate.

A day before Trump’s arrival, Murphy claimed in a video that the former president’s appearance was not a political event.

“Let me make a couple of things clear: One, this is not a political event. This is a press conference,” Murphy said.

The event forced the closure of multiple courts, as well as the offices of the prosecutor, magistrate, parole officers, and the probation department.

A campaign event by Trump’s running mate JD Vance at the Shelby Township PoliceDepartment is also being investigated.

—Steve Neavling

SiriusXM announces new Motown Museum show

The Motown Museum’s big expansion now includes SiriusXM’s satellite radio waves.

The broadcast company has announced a new weekly radio show, “Live from Motown Museum,” set for SiriusXM’s Smokey’s Soul Town on channel 74.

The show will be hosted by John Mason (a radio personality from WJLB and perhaps more famously known as the announcer for the Detroit Pistons, coining the famous chant “Deeeeee-troit basketball!”) and Levi Stubbs III, whose father Levi Stubbs was a founding member of the Four Tops.

It airs at 2 p.m. on Saturdays.

“As we embark on this exciting journey with our own radio show on SiriusXM, we see it as more than just a national broadcast opportunity — it’s a powerful platform to connect with Motown fans across the country on a deeper level,” said Robin Terry, Motown Museum Chairwoman and CEO, in a statement. “This venture symbolizes a unique opportunity in music storytelling unlike anything else on the platform. For our institution to have a place on Smokey’s Soul Town

on SiriusXM, for Detroit to be represented in such a meaningful way and for Motown stories to be told and shared is something that is transcendent as we continue our mission to amplify stories from Motown alumni and foster meaningful conversations to showcase Motown’s enduring impact.”

The deal includes exclusive content for subscribers on the SiriusXM app, including interviews with “Motown alumni, contemporary artists inspired by Motown, and key players in the Motown constellation.”

SiriusXM’s Smokey’s Soul Town is curated by Motown’s Smokey Robinson, playing a mix of classic soul, R&B, and Motown from the 1960s and ’70s.

The new show is just one of many good things going on at Hitsville, U.S.A. In 2016, the Motown Museum announced a massive $65 million expansion with a planned 50,000-squarefoot world-class entertainment and education tourist destination featuring interactive exhibits, a performance space, recording studios, and more, though an opening date has not yet been announced.

—Lee DeVito

COURTESY PHOTO

Michigan inmate wins $100 million judgment against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

A Michigan inmate known for his long history of challenging the judicial system with civil lawsuits has been awarded a $100 million default judgment against embattled entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The award was issued Monday by Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Anna Marie Anzalone following a temporary restraining order granted to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, against Combs in August. Combs, who has become the target of multiple lawsuits and criminal investigations in 2024, drugged and sexually assaulted Cardello-Smith in 1997 at a party in Detroit, according to court records.

Cardello-Smith, who crossed paths with Combs while Cardello-Smith worked as a Detroit-area restaurant and hospitality industry employee, is a self-taught student of civil and criminal statutes, and is serving an unrelated sentence at the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon Heights.

Cardello-Smith goes “way back” in history with Combs, he recently told Metro Times

Cardello-Smith produced prison facility information revealing Combs’s name logged into the visitation record, and says the founder of Bad Boy Records offered him $2.3 million dollars to dismiss the lawsuit, but Cardello-Smith

rejected the offer. Anzalone’s Aug. 7 order was established to prevent Combs from selling assets that could potentially be used to compensate CardelloSmith for possible damages. He is one of a mounting number of recent plaintiffs against Combs, alleging violence or sexual assault.

In the August hearing CardelloSmith told the court of a conversation in which he says he and Combs directly discussed the lawsuit.

“You know how we get down” was Combs’s alleged response to CardelloSmith’s threat to proceed with the action instead of accepting an out-ofcourt settlement, Cardello-Smith told Anzalone.

Cardello-Smith told the judge he said, “I disagree with how you get down.”

The virtual hearing and excerpts of it, in which Anzelone reads the complaint identifying Combs “also known as ‘Sean P. Diddy, also known as Diddy’” and “Diddy Run the City,” among other nicknames, has generated hundreds of thousands of social media views. Some in the comments sections of the videos express doubt about Cardello-Smith’s claim. A social media user known as @jenniferwyllie4033 notes the widely circulated hotel hallway footage in which Combs is shown kicking and

dragging his then-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura.

“Just remember… they made Cassie look crazy until she produced receipts,” @jenniferwyllie4033 posts.

Combs issued a social media apology after the footage of the assault was revealed this summer.

A default judgment is awarded to a plaintiff when the defendant in a civil suit fails to formally respond to legally filed proceedings. Combs did not appear for the Sept. 9 virtual hearing, which caused the default.

Cardello-Smith’s judgment could be the largest awarded to a non-attorney and a currently incarcerated inmate in history.

Combs is known as the record label founder and producer who launched the careers of legendary recording artists Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, and others.

—Eddie B. Allen Jr. and Bill Proctor

Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, above, has successfully sued music mogul Sean Combs, below MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, SHUTTERSTOCK (BELOW)

NEWS & VIEWS

Reagan and the making of movie myths

By Joe Lapointe

Ronald Reagan’s presidency lasted eight long years. The current film Reagan only feels that lengthy. At two hours and 15 minutes, this tedious biopic is a cliché-cluttered mix of melodrama and hagiography with all the subtlety and nuance of a superhero comic book.

Nevertheless, an afternoon screening last week in a suburban Detroit theater ended with robust applause from the audience. During a presidential election year, the release timing is ideal. Reagan left office in 1989 and died in 2004, but this Reagan pic shows how his myth lives on.

Like former president and current Republican candidate Donald Trump, Reagan (played here by Dennis Quaid) entered politics through show business: Trump from “reality” television and Reagan from Hollywood movies. Trump often praises politicians if they look like they come from “central casting.”

In this sense, Reagan was the real deal. He was a genuine professional screen performer who skillfully used soothing words and his Sunny Jim persona to disguise racial animus, to lie about arms-for-hostages, and to wage a disastrous “War on Drugs” while willfully ignoring the AIDS epidemic and inflicting trickle-down economics to favor Wall Street tycoons.

Hollywood itself coined the cliché “greed is good” for this decade of decadence. Rather than deal with Reagan’s flaws and mistakes, this Reagan script moves on two, simple and parallel tracks: Ronald Reagan brought down Soviet Union communism and Ronald Reagan really loved his second wife, Nancy.

The rest must be just fake news. So: In honor of the return of football, let’s reminisce on the difference between reality and myth as it applies to Reagan and what might be his best-known movie role: That of George Gipp of Notre Dame in the 1940 film Knute Rockne: All-American Flash back to 1979. I reported an “advance piece” on that year’s Michigan-Notre Dame game. Reagan, former

governor of California, was running for president. I lobbied his staff for a telephone interview with Reagan about his role as Gipp, who grew up in Calumet, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

In particular, I wanted to ask Reagan about the famous deathbed scene in which Gipp urges coach Rockne (Pat O’Brien) to tell the Fighting Irish — when they need a comeback — to win one for the Gipper. Later in the film, “Rockne” does just this at halftime of the 1928 victory over Army.

After Reagan’s people turned me down, I did the next best thing: I got O’Brien’s phone number from Freep colleague Shirley Eder who said O’Brien loved to talk. I called him and learned something: Both the deathbed scene and the halftime speech were no longer in the movie, which O’Brien watched religiously whenever it appeared on TV.

Irked by this, O’Brien blamed “Warner Brothers in all their wisdom . . . Probably some idiot cutter who didn’t like football.”

I checked into it and discovered the real reason: It was mistakenly believed at that time in the business of movie syndication on TV that the Gipp family had demanded the cuts.

Only one problem: The family never demanded the cuts. But this little myth became attached to the bigger myth about their deathbed conversation.

“The best scene in the movie!”

O’Brien said.

In the dialogue, Gipp tells Rockne: “Rock, some day, when the team’s up against it, the breaks are beating the boys, ask ‘em to go in there with all they’ve got, win just one for the Gipper.

I don’t know where I’ll be then, but I’ll know about it. I’ll be happy.”

Reagan/Gipp — dying of pneumonia — then finishes speaking, closes his eyes, and drops his hand as ominous music swells. The movie dialogue was written after both men were long dead.

In that Reagan is on screen for only seven minutes in the film, it is certainly a pivotal plot point. Years later, the mistake was cleared up. Both deleted scenes have been restored to the film for contemporary TV showings. O’Brien died in 1983.

Late in the conversation, I asked O’Brien if he planned to watch that year’s game.

“What do you mean, am I going to watch?” O’Brien said. “Am I a Catholic?”

O’Brien also spontaneously recited the first four paragraphs of Grantland Rice’s famous “Four Horseman” story about the Notre Dame-Army game of 1924 which Rice began with “Outlined against a blue-gray October sky . . .”

And so on. When I asked O’Brien to predict the outcome of the next game, he replied: “Maybe they’ll part the blue-gray skies and help the boys tomorrow when they’re thrown to the Wolverines.” As it turned out, Notre Dame defeated Michigan that day, 12-10, on a blocked field goal at the last second.

It is unlikely that any scenes from the current Reagan movie will be censored in any way. If they wanted to cut a few, they might start with the one in which British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher shouts at her TV “Well done, cowboy!” when Reagan tells Michael

Gorbachev of the Soviet Union to tear down the Berlin wall.

Better yet, leave it in, for unintentional humor. Same with the treacly love scenes between Ronnie and Nancy (and they love horses almost as much as each other). And critics have scalded Jon Voight for his portrayal of a retired Soviet intelligence officer who also narrates the timeline.

They say his “Viktor Petrovich” accent is like that of the cartoon spy Boris Badenov from the syndicated series about Rocky and Bullwinkle from the Cold War era. This may accidentally harmonize with the funny-pages sophistication of the script.

Other viewers may find Voight’s scenes to be the movie’s most poignant, particularly when he is confined to a small apartment (which feels a little like a jail cell) as he recounts to a young, ambitious colleague all about the fall of the Soviet Union and Reagan’s role in it.

A laugh-out-loud moment comes — this time intentionally — when Reagan shows three quick scenes of three successive funerals for three successive Soviet leaders.

Less intentionally funny is the scene — a real groaner — in which Tip O’Neill, the Democratic Speaker of the House, visits the Republican Reagan in the hospital after a serious assassination attempt.

O’Neill brings the rosary beads. Together, they pray. It’s a scene worthy of “Rock” and “the Gipper” in the hospital. But Reagan doesn’t die! If only Pat O’Brien were still around to play the part of O’Neill. Win one for the Tipper.

Lapointe

Where have you gone, Pat O’Brien?

ROB BATZDORFF

An app for art

How Detroit’s ArtClvb app is revolutionizing opportunities for local artists

By Layla McMurtrie

Inside Michigan Central’s NewLab building in Detroit, the walls of one office are covered in sticky notes of every color.

Buzzing with passion and dedication, the room is where Detroit’s ArtClvb — founded by Dorota Coy, her husband Steve Coy, and Justin Norman — is planning its upcoming Art Fair, set for Sept. 27-29 at several locations across the city.

The Detroit-based group, which officially launched earlier this year on March 13, or “313 Day,” aims to leverage technology to provide more opportunities for artists and buyers in local communities — redefining how collectors, curators, galleries, and art enthusiasts connect and interact within the art ecosystem.

“We’ve been making art for 15 years and there’s so much struggle in getting people to see it,” Dorota Coy says. “There are just not enough opportunities and we are figuring out better ways to broaden those opportunities.”

ArtClvb isn’t really a group, however; it’s an innovative app.

Currently in its first beta phase, the platform merges social networking with marketplace features, allowing users to showcase and sell their artwork through personalized profiles. The app will also facilitate studio visits, scan public art to link with artist profiles, and help collectors discover local talent. Additionally,

ArtClvb will offer tools for authenticating artwork, archiving features, and a buying experience that ensures royalty distribution to artists.

“What we want to do is shift thinking and get more people around the U.S. to think about and invest in art or buy it because it has aesthetic value, cultural value, or it means something to them,” Steve Coy says. “What we learned [in Detroit] is that there are so many talented artists that are undervalued and under-recognized, and we’re betting that’s true in most major cities.”

He adds, “There’s a select few that are making it, but the talent gap between the people who are making it and the people who aren’t isn’t significant at all.”

Starting in Detroit, ArtClvb creators hope to later venture into other major cities globally to connect artists and collectors in their own backyards, plus link creative minds from different sides of the country and world.

The upcoming Art Fair will serve as an avenue for ArtClvb to introduce the platform and its mission to the local community and connect with the people who inspired it.

The event will be a three-day celebration showcasing contemporary works from over 180 emerging to mid-career artists, most of whom are from Detroit. It will take place at around seven locations

‘Wow, I’d really like to join,’ because I’ve launched other technologies that are for social good, and this feels very much in that lane.”

She adds, “Technology should serve us, the users, the humans, in bringing joy to our lives and value to our lives, and art is definitely one of those ways we can do that.”

Similar to Studio Deals, Art Fair is helping directly connect collectors with artists — on an even larger scale. It’s putting the artists at the forefront for an event that organizers describe as a middle ground between craft fairs and Art Basel. Plus, it’s free for artists to participate and organizers say they accepted just about everyone who applied, aside from those who didn’t align with the mission of the event.

“When we started talking to different people in the arts community, they were really excited about it,” Barnes says. “We couldn’t have done this without the help of our partners or people who donated their building space to us. That’s how we’ve made this completely free to artists and completely free to the public because we have artists who’ve been in the community, or people who own buildings in our community who support the arts and are like, ‘Yes, we can open up our building to the public on a weekend because we believe in you and we believe in the artists.’”

To keep ArtClvb sustainable, as it currently has no budget, the fair will take a 15% transaction fee.

across the city in Islandview, Corktown, and the North End, with price points ranging from $100 to $10,000 to ensure accessibility to the general public.

Each space will feature performances, installations, sculptures, and 2D work, with most of the artists present to connect with in real time. Performances announced so far include Battle Elf, Bella Kiser, and Ackeem Salmon.

By the time of the fair, the ArtClvb app will be in its second phase, offering artist information and the ability to scan and purchase art directly.

Since the beginning of 2024, ArtClvb has hosted events including an exhibit showcasing Detroit artists in Tokyo, numerous gallery shows at NewLab, and Studio Deals — inviting collectors to visit artists’ studios across Detroit to purchase art directly at in-studio-only prices.

Kara Barnes loved Studio Deals so much, and the idea for the app, that she insisted on being a part of ArtClvb. Now, she serves as its Chief Strategy Officer, helping the founders build the technology and its surrounding mission.

“Even though my husband and I have always loved art, we didn’t always find it financially accessible. We’d only purchase things if we knew the artist because it’s just so intimidating to sometimes go into a gallery,” Barnes says. “When I started talking to them about the app, I was like,

Art Fair’s sponsors include Newlab, Method Development, Spot Lite, Design Core, Michigan Central, and NxWhere — a new gallery opening later this year.

For Art Fair, the ArtClvb app will showcase a map that tells buyers where around the city they can find art, as well as local restaurants around each space to support while in the area, plus local galleries and art spaces outside of the fair.

“The art world has been thought of as elite, so what we also want to do is address that everybody can be part of it and everybody belongs to it, lower down barriers to entry not only for artists, but also for art collectors,” Dorota Coy says. “It’s an ecosystem that only works when we all participate in it, making things a little bit more cohesive, and making things a little bit more collaborative, and making things a little bit more involved, so that everybody benefits from this ecosystem.”

The organizers hope that ArtClvb and Art Fair help push the city and big foundations and corporations to support the arts in Detroit even further.

Art Fair | Detroit is set from noon-7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 27 and Saturday, Sept. 28, and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29. The event is free, but attendees can RSVP on Eventbrite to stay updated with new details. A full list of locations and more information can be found at artclvb.xyz.

The ArtClvb team, from left: Justin Norman, Dorota Coy, Kara Barnes, Steve Coy.

COURTESY PHOTO

Balancing creativity and kids

A new nonprofit art hub promotes community, family-friendly spaces, and work-life balance

By Layla McMurtrie

At Buffalo Prescott, it’s not unusual to find artists creating alongside their children, Hot Wheels zooming around the studio, or kids running around the backyard.

Earlier this year, founder Samara Furlong brought her vision of an artist residency for parents to life.

The curatorial researcher moved back to Detroit from New York during the pandemic, got married, had a daughter, and quickly rejoined the local art scene. She curated a female-led performance and group exhibition called Divine Wisdom in February, and three of the artists from that show are now part of Buffalo Prescott’s first cohort of residents.

Named after the street corners it was born on, Buffalo Prescott is more than just an artist residency. It’s also a nonprofit artist incubator with a mission to “nurture the growth of Detroit’s contemporary art ecosystem.” Furlong’s goals include promoting work-life balance, making art accessible to the community, and providing a supportive space for artists with kids — though the spot is not just for parents.

The inaugural cohort of artist residents includes Olivia Guterson, Shaina Kasztelan, Evan Mazellan, Sara Nickleson, and Rachel Elise Thomas.

“It’s everything I’ve worked towards my whole life, and it’s really nice to be able to involve my family,” Furlong says. “I’m excited about this group of artists that we have, and to watch their careers grow and to see what this residency can do for them… that ability to dream in real time on both sides is something I’m really excited about.”

Furlong, a mother to a two-year-old, says that two of the current artist residents also have toddlers. She describes the unique atmosphere of the space, where parents can bring their children as a rare feature among artist residencies, which typically only allow the artist themselves.

“I’ve been in there with Olivia and her son is playing with Hot Wheels or helping her or playing hide and go seek in the backyard and it’s really just a beautiful thing to see,” Furlong says. “The great thing about it is that it’s an incubator for both us and for the artists… to have the flexibility and freedom to do that and also react to things that are happening in the world, whereas a museum has institutional bureaucracy, that’s a big benefit of

doing it at this scale.”

While the current artist residents were invited, Buffalo Prescott plans to implement a public application process in the future, with candidates evaluated by a panel of jurors. The inaugural group was personally selected by Furlong, many of whom she had previously worked with.

When she met Mazellan, it quickly became clear he was a perfect fit.

“I’m in his studio and everything’s blue and green and then there’s this nicely stretched small canvas over in the corner and it’s just bright colors, neon yellow and pink,” Furlong says. “I go ‘Evan, what’s the story with that one?’ and he’s like ‘Oh, that’s where my daughter paints when she comes in the studio.’”

Kasztelan, who worked with the founder at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), also brings a special touch to the residency, having painted a mural in Furlong’s daughter’s bedroom.

“Her art is very personal to me and I loved watching her career grow,” she says. “It’s all just been very intuitive and floating downstream and I’m just going with gut feelings. It’s just nice to have this joyful feeling where you work and make work and to have families encouraged.”

Beyond supporting individual artists, Buffalo Prescott aims to engage the wider community. The 3,600-square-foot building, once a Swedish tool and die shop, has deep roots in Detroit’s arts scene, having more recently served as the studio for designer Chris Schanck. Now, it continues that legacy as a space for artistic collaboration and innovation.

Each artist at Buffalo Prescott has a private studio with 24/7 access, but the space is also communal, encouraging skill-sharing and mutual support.

While this won’t always be the case, all of the residents this year are recent graduates of Cranbrook Academy of Art’s Master of Fine Arts program, so a key focus of the residency is addressing the “post-graduation gap” that many artists experience after leaving art school.

“There’s this true need for studio space, and this feeling of leaving art school, whether it’s undergrad or graduate program and just feeling this sense of loss and really big transition without a safety net,” Furlong says. “They’re really mourning the critiques and they don’t have that critique environment.”

To help fill that gap, Buffalo Prescott has partnered with Independent Curators International to bring in curators for studio visits and critiques, offering the residents visibility and mentorship. Additionally, Furlong invites artists from outside Buffalo Prescott to participate in programming with the residents and the local community.

Buffalo Prescott’s first public programming initiative, Casual Safe, is a partnership with local nonprofit Detroit Recovery Project. For this project, the residents designed safe sex and Narcan kits, which were distributed ahead of the Movement Music Festival. By November, these kits will be available at two artist-wrapped vending machines.

“It’s making something accessible and using art to connect with people and des-

tigmatizing recovery and filling a basic need in the community that’s literally saving lives and doing so in a way that’s bringing people together through art,” Furlong says. “Art is a beautiful way to see the world and connect with other people, and I’ve watched that happen in Detroit countless times, and it’s just really fulfilling to be a part of.”

To publicly launch Buffalo Prescott, Furlong is hosting a pancake brunch on Saturday, Sept. 14 as part of Detroit Month of Design.

“From the beginning, I wanted it to be very family-friendly, and it’s nice to actually follow through and do what I say I’m going to do,” Furlong says. “Families are encouraged, and not only encouraged, but that is what Buffalo Prescott is about.”

The event will feature activities for all ages, including drawing for kids, spray painting tote bags, and friendship bracelet making. The artist residents will also open their studios so the community can see what’s been happening in the space so far. Plus, Cranbrook is using the event to launch their alumni Open Studios series.

For now, Furlong’s goal is to ensure that the artists get the most out of the residency while the organization continues to build relationships and partnerships in the community. The incubator plans to offer artist talks, professional development sessions, workshops for all ages and skill levels, and off-site exhibitions, most on a sliding scale or donation-based rate.

“I think that opportunities like this will help [the artists], and other people might follow suit, and there can be more studio spaces available,” Furlong says. “I’ve already talked with others in the community to help make that happen, and just making [Detroit] a long-term place where artists aren’t priced out of and they’re able to continue to grow, and that makes it a safe haven for them to continue making art, but it also elevates Detroit.”

As Buffalo Prescott grows, Furlong envisions it becoming a place for artists and anyone interested in Detroit art to explore the city through an artistic lens.

“I was making a business plan for this and someone asked me who my competition was, and it’s like, there is no competition,” Furlong says. “Detroit is a very spread-out city, but it’s a small world here, and there’s no reason that we shouldn’t all work together to make it the best place for artists to flourish.”

Detroit’s Buffalo Prescott redefines residencies with support for parent artists COURTESY PHOTO

Small actions, big impact

Detroit fiber art exhibition showcases political, spiritual, and sustainable installations

By Layla McMurtrie

Over 15 rooms inside the 16,000-square-foot Boyer Campbell Building in Detroit’s Milwaukee Junction neighborhood are filled with fiber art this month for an exhibit titled Environment + Microclimates

The exhibit, which is part of Detroit Month of Design, features works by over 60 Detroit-area artists.

Larger-than-life quilts with political undertones, a hunting blind that examines gender, and a sustainable fashion display are just some of the pieces in the space — all made with fibers such as yarn, cotton, felt, and even wood.

The Environment + Microclimates exhibit is a collaboration between botanical artist Lisa Waud, arts writer and artist Sarah Rose Sharp, and Fiber Club*, a collective of Detroit-area fiber artists founded by Katie Shulman in 2022.

When Waud asked Sharp if she wanted to work together on a community installation, she said “yes” and suggested it involve Fiber Club*. Now, Shulman and over 60 other artists in the group are displaying work in the current show.

The theme, Environment + Microclimates, showcases how artists, though often small parts of larger communities, can still have a mighty impact.

Sharp defines a “microclimate” as a term in environmental science, emphasizing how small actions — like planting trees — can make a significant difference, much like the impact of fiber artists in this exhibit.

The exhibit demonstrates the wide variety of microclimates, as well as the uniqueness of fiber art and Detroit-area artists.

“I think my idea with Environment + Microclimates is to acknowledge artists as being part of a community, part of a landscape, and this broad environment of fiber art in Detroit, in metro Detroit, in Michigan, but also to understand that artists are creating a little world for themselves and for their viewers,” Sharp says. “My hope is that there’s a feeling as you move through the show that from place to place, the energy can be completely different, the temperature, the stimulus, what you’re seeing, how you’re feeling.”

Unique to many group exhibitions,

the different subspaces in the Boyer Campbell Building have allowed artists to create mini solo shows branching off from the main exhibition room. Each space reflects the artists’ individual ideas and practices, demonstrating the diversity of the fiber medium and the vastness of microclimates.

To guide visitors through the expansive exhibition, Sharp created a “Field Guide” that includes critical views of each artist’s work, explaining their creative values and ideas. The guide also features a centerfold trail map to allow visitors to easily explore the space through different themes.

“It’s this huge survey of fiber art, but it is not pushing a single narrative about fiber art,” Sharp says. “My imperative is not to dictate what artists should be doing, but to really open opportunities and trust that artists are the best problem solvers and will figure out what to do to make a great show, and they really have.”

In Environment + Microclimates, fiber art takes on various forms, from direct interpretations to abstract installations. Some pieces incorporate ambient sound, while others invite

interaction. The range of works spans political, spiritual, and sustainable themes, with most artists contributing multiple pieces.

One such artist is Irene Perez, whose work explores her Mexican heritage through a project titled Lupe, which has two iterations. The first, she says, recently helped her get into the Cranbrook Academy of Arts Master of Fine Arts program.

“It’s my take on Mexican identity through a piñata and a quilt,” Perez says. “The second iteration is a little bit more political in the sense that I am talking more about the family separation act that was implemented for a couple months, but it was a lot longer during Trump’s administration. I’m shining light on that little piece of history that we lived through.”

As a fiber artist, Perez says it’s encouraging to see such a large show of fiber art, recognizing how many dedicated artists of the medium are in Detroit.

“It’s just been an amazing opportunity to see how we all are able to come together, collaborate, and put together projects,” she says. “I feel really blessed to be a part of it.”

Environment + Microclimates is taking place at the epicenter of the Detroit Design District, a development in Milwaukee Junction that encourages artists to bring their businesses and projects to the stretch on E. Grand Blvd. Founded by Amelia Patt-Zamir in 2023, the district is funded by Method Development, a company that reactivates old buildings.

At the exhibit’s opening on Sept. 6, the whole neighborhood was involved. The event featured food from local restaurants Oak and Reel, drinks from local bar Kiesling, bites and sounds from gallery and bakehouse Someday, and interactive activities from local group Bulk Space.

Patt-Zamir says that collaboration and community within the local arts scene are at the heart of the Detroit Design District’s mission, and the month-long programming around the show will continue to reflect those values.

The Environment + Microclimates exhibition runs through Sept. 28, with open hours on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. More information and a schedule of events is available at fiberclubdetroit. org/events.

The larger-than-life show features over 60 local artists in a 16,000-square-foot building. RAJ MEHA PHOTOGRAPHY

Outside the white box

Detroit’s burgeoning Little Village arts district expands to the riverfront with Stanton Yards

By Lee DeVito

In an old boathouse on Detroit’s east side, I.M. Weiss Gallery director

Isabelle Weiss is putting the finishing touches on her latest show. Titled Until…, the exhibition features 2023 Kresge Arts in Detroit Fellow Lauren Kalman, who has presented otherwise meticulous black ceramic pottery intentionally warped with dents, handprints, and other imperfections. The works are displayed on small tables under track lighting in the middle of the boathouse, with some clustered together, as if fitting together like a puzzle.

“Until about two weeks ago, there was a boat in here,” Weiss says. “It was an actively used shop building.”

The show is the first to be held as part of an ambitious new project dubbed Stanton Yards, which aims to open about 13 acres in a marina space along the Detroit River to the public. The project is an extension of what is known as Little Village, a sprawling arts district across Jefferson Avenue in the East Village neighborhood that includes the church-turned-gallery

The Shepherd, the Charles McGee Legacy Park, a skate park designed

by pro skater Tony Hawk, and more.

Additional businesses set to move into the area in the coming months include the Coup D’état retail store, the Louis Buhl & Co. gallery, a cocktail bar called Father Forgive Me, and others, and existing arts-related businesses in the area include Pewabic Pottery, one of the oldest continuously operating potteries in the U.S.

Little Village is the brainchild of Anthony and JJ Curis, the art-aficionado couple behind downtown Detroit’s Library Street Collective gallery and its adjacent Belt alleyway.

“To be honest, we didn’t even really know that it was a marina across the street from us,” Anthony Curis says. “The buildings up on Jefferson are so buttoned up, there’s no visibility to the water.”

The plan is to redevelop a group of buildings, which includes an old theater, an old Navy facility, and a boat showroom — “taking 80,000 square feet of buildings that have been historically over the last 30 to 40 years for boat storage and service and transforming and transitioning them for more cultural and community-type uses,” Curis says.

That includes scaling down the size of the buildings to their original footprints, which will open up more space for pedestrians. “As soon as you get behind those first couple of buildings up on Jefferson, then you’ll walk into this beautiful green space,” Curtis explains.

The boathouse where Weiss’s show is on display is still pretty raw. Curis says they are still working on designs and plans for the cluster of buildings, and expects to officially start construction next year.

“In many ways, this is the first show that will happen at Stanton Yards,” he says of Weiss’s exhibition. “And hopefully, it kind of gives people an indication of where our heads are at, and where this is going.”

Across the street in Little Village is the latest version of the I.M. Weiss Gallery, the exhibition space Weiss founded a decade ago as Next:Space. The gallery was previously located in a former mechanic shop under Weiss’s Milwaukee Junction loft, but here in East Village, Weiss has consolidated: it’s now a largely appointment-only

showroom inside her home.

She admits blending her personal and professional spaces took some getting used to, but in the end she believes it made sense for her business.

“A couple weeks before my grand opening event [in April] I was like, ‘Oh God, what am I thinking?’” she says. But it seems to be working out so far. “I think for me, the work is personal to me,” she adds. “And I feel like the fact that I have made this so much a part of my life is something that I want to share with people.”

While staging artists’ work in her living room can be a challenge — Weiss has less space to work with than a typical white box gallery, and has to work within the confines of the space, which includes a bay window — it has its upsides. For one, prospective buyers can see the art in the context of a domestic space. “It has to be so extra intentional when you’re doing it in your house,” Weiss says of presenting work there.

Her next show at her home gallery is titled Adaptive Objects / or / Terms for Living by the ceramicist Benjamin Teague, which opens on Friday the 13th. The exhibition will be presented as three “acts” rotated out every two weeks.

“I’m thinking a lot about theater and plays, and how objects are these characters in our lives,” Weiss says. The show displays the objects, organic shapes with a weathered look, on actual furniture from Teague’s studio. The first act focuses on objects that are between five and ten years old, while the final act will bring in more recent works — which are actually older works that Teague has essentially remixed, highlighting the passage of time. Weiss says there are plans to host district-wide art events and gallery crawls in the future in Little Village, which she will also participate in.

“It’s always been one of the challenges with the city, because it is such a massive place in terms of square miles, of being able to bring some of these like-minded things together,” Curis says. “There’s a huge benefit for all of the different pieces of the puzzle in terms of being able to kind of collaborate in different synergies.”

He adds, “The Little Village, the concept behind it isn’t really necessarily about geographical boundaries. It’s really more about ideas and kind of bringing some of these cultural people and places together. We see Stanton Yards as an extension of it.”

Until... is on view at Stanton Yards; 9666 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit. The show is open to the public from noon-5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 5 or by appointment.

I.M. Weiss Gallery director Isabelle Weiss stands in front of a wayfinding sign for her Stanton Yards exhibition. COURTESY OF THE I.M. WEISS GALLERY

A selection of can’t-miss Detroit-area art events and exhibitions

By Metro Times staff

If you’re an art lover in Detroit, September is heaven.

It’s the city’s annual Month of Design, featuring over 80 exhibits, studio tours, activations, workshops, and panels happening across Detroit. This year’s theme, “Creative Currents,” honors Detroit’s legacy of artistry and innovation. It emphasizes the need for collaboration and creating spaces where information, opportunities, and creative solutions flow freely, in an effort to shape an equitable future for all. Choosing from all the great art shows and events that Detroit’s creative minds produce can be overwhelming. We’re here to help.

We compiled a list of our top picks for upcoming exhibitions and art events. Read on for our recommendations.

Shows & Exhibitions

Breaking Down Walls: Addressing Mass Incarceration through Art and Design

Sept. 12-13; N’Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, 52 E. Forest Ave., Detroit; bit.ly/breakingdownwalls24

The Michigan Justice Fund (MJF) — in partnership with the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), the Coldwater Kitchen documentary film, and local educator and artist Lauren Williams — is hosting this powerful exhibition that amplifies the voices of communities impacted by mass incarceration. The show delves into the harsh realities of incarceration and celebrates the resilience of the human spirit through art of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and allies. The opening on Sept. 12 will include a conversation with PCAP staff and artists, Coldwater Kitchen cast and crew, and Williams. Guests will be encouraged to write letters to incarcerated artists. The exhibition will be open for viewing Sept. 13 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Adaptive Objects / or / Terms for Living

Sept. 13 from 6-9 p.m.; 1578 Belvidere St., Detroit; imweiss.gallery

Hosted at the I.M. Weiss Gallery’s Little Village showroom, this three-part exhibition of ceramic works by Benjamin Teague highlights different eras

of his craft over time, as told in three “acts” rotated out every two weeks. Each phase reflects Teague’s evolving connection to his work and the passage of time.

Art In Motion

Sept. 28 from 6 p.m.-1 a.m.; 2463 Riopelle St., Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign. org

This multi-discipline installation merges art, fashion, and dance across three floors. Performances, vinyl soundscapes, fashion, and art displays will fill the space to showcase the diversity of Detroit’s artists. The event starts in the alley outside the venue with food trucks, seating, and beverages, while inside, you’ll find visual art installations, live DJs, and performances that cater to a range of sensory preferences. The rooftop offers views of Eastern Market and features a live DJ alongside mural painting by Pauly M. Everett. All ages are encouraged to attend.

Environment + Microclimates

Through Sept. 28; The Boyer Campbell Building, 6540 St. Antoine, Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign.org

Botanical artist Lisa Waud, curatorartist Rosie Sharp, and Fiber Club*, a Detroit-based collective of fiber artists, are coming together for this immersive exhibition. The show offers mini soloexhibitions from around 60 artists in one building, combining environmental and fiber-based art within various microclimate themes.

Constructing Futures AI

Through Sept. 28; 1001 Woodward Ave., Detroit; constructingfutures.design

The future of construction and design is the theme of this exhibition, focusing on robotics and AI. The installation, along with lectures and workshops, serves as a platform for conversations about emerging technologies, aiming to expand the discourse on construction innovation and how places could be more intelligently designed in the future.

Highrises Art Deco: Spectacular Skyscrapers in Detroit and Across America

Through Sept. 30; The Guardian Building, 500 Griswold St., Detroit; daads.org

Digital artist Chris Hytha and skyscraper historian Mark Houser bring their

book, Highrises Art Deco, to life in this exhibition showcasing iconic Detroit Art Deco skyscrapers. The exhibit pairs Hytha’s imagery of architecture with Houser’s historical stories, offering a deep dive into the creation of each structure. The exhibit is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

UNDERCURRENT

Through Sept. 30; Irwin House Gallery, 2351 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign.org

Detroit photographer Elonte Davis leads this indoor-outdoor exhibition, turning the gallery into an immersive space filled with over 20,000 captured moments. The project, designed to celebrate Detroit culture, uses film, sound, spoken word, traditional prints, and installations to highlight Davis’s work. Other Detroit artists will respond to the images with their own creative interpretations for a multimedia experience.

The Motown Mile: Pushin’ Culture Forward

Through Oct. 1; Detroit Riverwalk; detroitmonthofdesign.org

Demonstrating how Motown’s music continues to be a creative influence for musicians of all genres and generations, this exhibit will take viewers on a walk down the riverfront. The show focuses on how artists of every kind and genre look to Motown Records for covers, samples, interpolations, and inspiration.

Superbloom: Quinn Faylor Solo Exhibition

Through Sept. 30; Playground Detroit, 2845 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign.org

Local nonbinary artist Quinn Faylor presents this solo exhibition of abstract 3D sculptures and paintings that explore imaginative world-building. The pieces celebrate queerness and the extraordinary potential of relationships, both personal and collective, as they grow into new spaces.

Nest: A Reflection of Safe Spaces

Through Oct. 5; College for Creative Studies, 201 E. Kirby St., Detroit; ccsdetroit.edu

This exhibition at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, produced in partner-

ship with Detroit Artists Market, delves into the human need for sanctuary. Drawing inspiration from the protective instincts of birds that build nests to shield their young, the artists explore and reveal their own safe spaces through a range of mediums.

The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World Sept. 22-Jan. 5; Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; dia.org

One of the world’s biggest and best museums is presenting this exploration of the connections between art and cuisine from ancient times to the present. With over 200 works from the Middle East, Asia, and beyond, the exhibit is organized into themes like communal dining, coffee culture, and eating for health. As metro Detroit is home to a large concentration of communities from these regions, the exhibition holds even more relevance, celebrating the history and traditions of food cultures.

Parties & Events

Buffalo Prescott Launch Sept. 14 from 9 p.m.-1 a.m.; Buffalo Prescott, 11411 Buffalo St., Detroit; buffaloprescott.org

This new nonprofit artist incubator and hub, which offers a studio residency program, community workshops, and public programming, is holding its launch event this month. The familyfriendly gathering will feature music and pancakes in the building’s backyard. Attendees will have the opportunity to make their own art, plus meet and visit the studios of the hub’s first cohort of artist residents.

Unidos en Cultura: Design Build Green Hub Grand Opening

Sept. 14 from 1-5 p.m.; 1326 18th St., Detroit; eventbrite.com

Coinciding with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Design Build Green Hub is opening in Southwest Detroit. The space will serve as an innovative incubator for minority contractors and local stakeholders. The event will feature tours, storytelling about the building and community’s history, live music, entertainment, food, and more.

Punk Posters

Sept. 14 from 2-9 p.m.; Garage Cultural, 4670 Junction St., Detroit; facebook.com

Traveling artists from Colombia will be featured in this event curated by artist collective Mala Influencia. The anarchist group is part of an international movement of countercultural media, expressed through the punk aesthetic. The exhibit, which is touring globally, includes collaborations from dozens of artists connected to music and protest. Forty pieces, including fanzines, graphic art, and screen prints from the Latin American punk underground, will be on display. Prints will be available for purchase. The reception runs from 2-6 p.m., with live bands performing from 6-9 p.m., featuring Ann Arbor hardcore legends STATE, Boricua street punks Frente Norte from Toledo, and Detroit hardcore punks City Pleasure.

A Walk to Discover

Sept. 15 from 4-6:30 p.m.; Roosevelt Park, 115 Erskine St., Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign.org

This interactive photographer walk is aimed at enhancing the skills of local beginner to intermediate photographers. Participants will be encouraged to explore new perspectives and techniques to capture the world around them. The walk is designed to deepen attendees’ understanding of photography and help them refine their own shooting style.

Eastern Market After Dark

Sept. 19 from 6-11 p.m.; Eastern Market, 2934 Russell St., Detroit; easternmarket. org

Presented by the Gilbert Family Foundation, Eastern Market After Dark is the signature event of Detroit Month of Design. The evening will feature a district-wide night market and open studios, with galleries, retailers, brand activations, and live music. Since its inception in 2012, the event has become highly anticipated, drawing over 30,000 attendees annually and showcasing a range of emerging and established designers. This year, the event will also be celebrated at the Dequindre Cut’s Freight Yard.

A Conversation with Tiff Massey & dream hampton

Sept. 26 from 6-8 p.m.; Detroit Film Theater, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; dia.org/events

Two local icons are coming together for this conversation at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Internationally recognized artist Tiff Massey and award-winning filmmaker and writer dream hampton will explore the themes behind Massey’s celebrated exhibition Tiff Massey: 7 Mile + Livernois, which is on view at the museum through May 11, 2025.

ART FAIR

Sept. 27-29; various locations; artclvb. xyz/art-fair

Art Fair | Detroit, organized by ArtClvb, is a three-day event featuring contemporary works from over 180 emerging to mid-career artists, many of whom are from Detroit. The event celebrates art, culture, and community and will take place at seven locations across the city.

Murals in Islandview Block Party

Sept. 28 from 1-6 p.m.; Spot Lite, 2905 Beaufait St., Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign.org

Spot Lite is hosting a block party to celebrate Detroit Month of Design’s closing weekend and to showcase the new murals in the Islandview neighborhood created the week leading up to the party. The event is a collaboration with the Gilbert Family Foundation, Design Core Detroit’s Maker’s Market, Hospitality Now, and ArtClvb. Guests will be able to enjoy music, food, art, and other activities.

Evening of Arts

Sept. 28 at 3 p.m.; Hunt Street Station, 2200 Hunt St., Detroit; eventbrite.com

This end-of-month event is super multifaceted. There will be visual art, a photography room, fashion, film screenings, an “Art of Food” experience, and an after party of music. There will also be an art scavenger hunt where guests can explore the building

to search and collect digital art from featured artists and win a prize.

theJOYProject Public Kitchen

Sept. 29 from noon-6 p.m.; theJOYproject, 1105 Alger St., Detroit; detroitmonthofdesign.org

More than a community garden, theJOYproject is a living archive of Afro-Atlantic agriculture and foodways, aiming to be a place for the stories of Black and brown people’s relationships with seed and soil.

This event will be a chance for the local community to learn more about the project with tours, a public kitchen exhibition, skillshares, installations, and theJOYProject’s design challenge concept.

Opera & Dance

La traviata

Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 25 at 7:30 p.m.; Oct. 27 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

An updated 20th century telling of Giuseppe Verdi’s popular 1853 opera, originally set circa 1700.

Mark Morris Dance Group: The Look of Love

Nov. 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 3 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

A dance homage to the songs of Burt Bacharach, performed live with Broadway star Marcy Harriell on lead vocals backed by piano, trumpet, bass, and drums.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo: 50th Anniversary Tour

Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 24 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

A troupe of all-male dancers known for parodying the conventions of classical ballet “while making serious statements about gender identity and equality.”

Complexions Contemporary Ballet: 30th Anniversary Tour

Dec. 7 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 8, 2024 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

A co-promotion with Music Hall making its Detroit Opera House debut, this contemporary ballet features classics like Bach, Beethoven, and Vivaldi, with a second act featuring the rock music of Lenny Kravitz.

Twyla Tharp Dance: Diamond Jubilee featuring Third Coast Percussion

Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 2 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

The choreographer takes on Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations as well as a composer Philip Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia, accompanied live by Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion.

Rinaldo

Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m.; Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m.; March 2 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

A reimagined version of George Frideric Handel’s opera, here told “through the lens of a child’s fantasy in a contemporary pediatric ward,” where “the young patients venture on a heroic journey, where knights, sorcerers, monsters, and magic are used as a salve for unimaginable challenges.”

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

March 14 at 7:30 p.m.; March 15 at 7:30 p.m.; March 16 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

After a now-legendary 1958 performance of a troupe of young Black dancers in New York City’s 92nd Street Y, the Ailey company has gone on to become one of the most acclaimed dance troupes in the world.

Così fan tutte

April 5 at 7:30 p.m.; April 11 at 7:30 p.m.; April 13 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

This sci-fi take on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comedy, a tale of love and deception that swaps its characters out with a scientist and his robots.

Malandain Ballet Biarritz: The Seasons

April 26 at 7:30 p.m.; April 27 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

An original production combining Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and the works of Giovanni Antonio Guido.

The Central Park Five

May 10 at 7:30 p.m.; May 16 at 7:30 p.m.; May 18 at 2:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway St., Detroit; detroitopera.org

A 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning true story about the wrongful convictions of five Black and Latino teenagers in the assault of a white female jogger in Central Park.

Eastern Market After Dark is the signature event of Detroit Month of Design.

COURTESY OF DESIGN CORE DETROIT

WHAT’S GOING ON

Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Be sure to check venue website before events for latest information. Add your event to our online calendar: metrotimes.com/ AddEvent.

MUSIC

Wednesday, Sept. 11

Live/Concert

Knoll, Snakes of Russia, Abuse Repression, Cruel Bloom, Trespass 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $17.

Matt Lorusso Trio & Special Guests 8-11 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.

SOEN, Earthside 6:30 pm; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $25.

Summer Bike Night & BBQ 6 p.m.; Diamondback Music Hall, 49345 S. Interstate 94 Service Dr., Belleville; no cover.

Thursday, Sept. 12

Live/Concert

Leftover Crack, Hairy Queen, Nuke and the Nightshift, Disturbio Social 313 7 p.m.; Harpo’s, 14238 Harper Avenue, Detroit; $20.

Magic Bag Presents: Gaelic Storm 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $30.

The Takeback Tour with Tauren Wells and Danny Gokey 7 p.m.; Northridge Church, 49555 N. Territorial Rd., Plymouth; $25-$105.

USHER: Past Present Future 8 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49.50-$249.50.

DJ/Dance

Girls Night Out Beach Party presented by Wana Brands Sep. 12, 4-9 p.m.; Campus Martius Park, 800 Woodward Ave., Detroit; no cover. Karaoke

DARE-U-OKE 9 p.m.-midnight; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.

Drag Queen Karaoke 8 p.m.-2 a.m.; Woodward Avenue Brewers, 22646 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; no cover.

Karaoke at Detroit Shipping with DJ MO WILL 6-9 p.m.; Detroit Shipping Company, 474 Peterboro St., Detroit; no cover.

Friday, Sept. 13

Live/Concert

USHER: Past Present Future 8

11-17, 2024 |

p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49.50-$249.50.

Dollarmania: Danny Dollar$, Bill & Isiah, Frost is Rad (hosted by Shane Douglas) 7 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $10.

Epik High 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $48.

Eva Under Fire, Boys Of Fall, Fatal Conceit 6 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $20-$30. Hardwired (Metallica tribute), Wanted & The Pink 50’s 7 p.m.; Harpo’s, 14238 Harper Avenue, Detroit; $15.

Jon Pardi, Priscilla Block, Meghan Patrick 7 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $35-$99.75.

Magic Bag Presents: Mega 80’s vs. Class of ‘98 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Michael Bublé One Night Only 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $123-$428.

Nails, Mammoth Grinder, 200 Stab Wounds 6 p.m.; Tangent Gallery, 715 E Milwaukee Avenue, Detroit; $25. Public Memory, Johnstonsons 8 p.m.; Small’s, 10339 Conant St., Hamtramck; $12.

Royel Otis, Friko 8 pm; Majestic Theatre, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $25.

SuperCrunch (Grateful Dead Tribute), DJ Big Kahuna 9 pm; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Tattered & Torn (Slipknot tribute), Domination (Pantera tribute, Devil Church, Darkeater 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.

DJ/Dance

Enamour, NJP, Lumix, Outta Nowhere Sep. 13, 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20.

Saturday, Sept. 14

Live/Concert

4th Annual Preservation Fall Fest: Joe Hertler and Rainbow Seekers, Same Eyes, Gashounds, Au Gres 6-11 p.m.; The HOMES Campus, 112 Jackson Plaza, Ann Arbor; $35-75.

Adel Ruelas, Asintomáticos, Saideira (Santana tribute) 7 p.m.; The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw, Pon-

tiac; $25-$200.

BLK ODYSSY, Asha Imuno 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $20$70.

Boreworm, Nethergate, Among These Ashes, Stank, Introvert 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.

Charli XCX, Troye Sivan, Shygirl 7:30 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49.50-$129.50.

CupcakKe, Just Shacoi 7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.99.

Eli & Fur, Sherif, Girasole 9 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $18-$20.

Joywave, Hunny 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $27.

Magic Bag Presents: Reverend Horton Heat, Koffin Kats, Big Sandy 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $35.

Nikki Corvette & The Gorevettes, the Spins, the Flipsters 9 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover. Sum 41, the Interrupters, Many Eyes 7 p.m.; Detroit Masonic Temple Library, 500 Temple St, Detroit; $40-$165.

The Sisters of Mercy, Blaqk Audio 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $47.50-$197.50.

The Ultimate Doors (Jim Morrison & the Doors tribute) 8 p.m.; Emerald Theatre, 31 N. Walnut St., Mount Clemens; $20-$200.

DJ/Dance

DAYBREAKZ / Breakcore, Club, Jungle, Hardcore, and IDM Day Party Sep. 14, 4-10 p.m.; Job Stoppers Inc., 5631 Michigan Ave, Detroit, MI 48210, Detroit; $10.

Sunday, Sept. 15

Live/Concert

Earth Tones Concerts at the Cabin: Ahya Simone, William Sun Wang Trio 4-7 p.m.; Palmer Park Log Cabin, Merrill Plaisance St, Detroit; no cover.

Falling In Reverse, Dance Gavin Dance, Black Veil Brides, Tech N9ne, Jeris Johnson 5:45 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $35-$129.50. Fletcher, Maude Latour 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit;

$32.50-$68.

Freddie Jackson 7:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $37-$49.

Goatwhore, Vitriol, Necrofier, Recorruptor, Throne 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $20.

Kirk Franklin, Yolanda Adams, Marvin Sapp, Clark Sisters, Fred Hammond 7 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $69.50-$249.50.

KlezMitten - Michigan’s First Annual Klezmer Festival 2:30 p.m.; International Institute, 111 E. Kirby, Detroit; $20.

Larkin, Odd Reality, Dayproof, Davis Caruso 7:30 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $10. Living Room Jazz Night @ Shinola Hotel 5-8 pm; Shinola Hotel, 1400 Woodward Ave., Detroit; no cover.

Phil Ogilvie’s Rhythm Kings 5-8 p.m.; Zal Gaz Grotto Club, 2070 W. Stadium Blvd., Ann Arbor; no cover (tipjar for the band).

RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars LIVE 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace WindsorAugustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $43-$88.

SOUTHALL, Wight Lighters 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $20.

Monday, Sept. 16 Live/Concert

Deicide, Krisiun, Inferi, Cloak, Glacial Tomb 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $30. Novo Amor 7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $27.50-$87.50.

A tribute to the Blues ft Dnise Edwards Hosted By Sky Covington 7-10 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $35.

DJ/Dance

Adult Skate Night 8:30-11 p.m.; Lexus Velodrome, 601 Mack Ave., Detroit; $5.

Tuesday, Sept. 17 Live/Concert

Global Sunsets, Blackman & Arnold Trio 7-10 p.m.; Northern Lights Lounge, 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; no cover.

Judas Priest, Sabaton 7:30 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $49.50-$199.50.

Leprous, Fight The Fight, Annex Void 6 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $28.

Magic Bag Presents: Buzzcocks, Lovecrimes 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $45.

Roy Book Binder with Todd Albright 6:30-7:30 p.m.; Alpino, 1426 Bagley St, Detroit; $10.

STING 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $59-$249.

The Front Bottoms, Alex Lahey 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $37. whokilledXiX, Pranav.Wav, Neptvne, Vitamjn 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $20. DJ/Dance

B.Y.O.R Bring Your Own Records Night 9 p.m.-midnight; The Old Miami, 3930 Cass Ave., Detroit; no cover. DJ/Dance

Adult Skate Night Mondays, 8:30-11 pm; Lexus Velodrome, 601 Mack Ave., Detroit; $5.

B.Y.O.R Bring Your Own Records Night Tuesdays, 9 pm-midnight; The Old Miami, 3930 Cass Ave., Detroit; no cover.

THEATER

Performance

The Berman Center for the Performing Arts I’m Not a Comedian, I’m Lenny Bruce; $42-67; Saturday, Sept. 14, 8:30-11 p.m.

Fisher Theatre Spider-Man:Across The Spider-Verse Live In Concert; Saturday, Sept. 14, 7:30 p.m.

Musical Birmingham Village Players Memphis the Musical; $30; Fridays, Saturdays, 8-10 p.m. and Sundays, 2-4 p.m. Detroit Opera House Moulin Rouge (Touring); Tuesday, Sept. 17, 7:30 p.m.

COMEDY

Improv

Go Comedy! Improv Theater Go Comedy! All-Star Showdown The Allstar Showdown is a highly interactive improvised game show. With suggestions from the audience, our two teams will battle for your laughs. The Showdown is like “Whose Line is it Anyway,” featuring a series of short improv games, challenges and more. Fridays and Saturdays 7:30pm & 9:30pm 25.00 Fridays, Saturdays.

Planet Ant Theatre Hip-Prov: Improv with a Dash of Hip-Hop $10 second Wednesday of every month, 7 pm. Diamondback Music Hall Comedy

Show Featuring Howie Bell $35-$360 Sunday Sep. 15, 6 pm.

The Fillmore Nick Swardson: Toilet Head $32.50-$47.50 Thursday Sep. 12, 6:30 pm.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle Trae Crowder Think you’ve got a killer set? On select Wednesdays, newbies get a chance at the Castle mic. Sign up is on Wednesdays (from 11am-6pm) for the following week! (We can’t promise everyone a spot, but we’ll do our best to get you on!) To sign up call 248-542-9900 SHOWTIME 7:30pm Tickets to watch will be available at the door. Admission $5 $5.00 Wednesday Sep. 11, 7:30-9 pm.; This Detroit native received his comedic break while studying at The University of Michigan. Horace H. B. Sanders has combined his gifts of writing, improvisation and acting, while utilizing his unique perspective, to become a World Class Stand Up Comedian. Horace has been blessed to bring laughter to audiences of all kinds across North America, The Caribbean and entertained U.S. Troops in Japan. No matter the location; whether a sold out arena, church, corporate gathering, comedy club, university concert or TV production, Horace H.B. Sanders is guaranteed to deliver. $20.00 Thursday Sep. 12, 7:30-9 pm.; Trae Crowder first gained international attention (or notoriety depending on your politics) in 2016 for his hugely viral series of “Liberal Redneck” comedic “porch rant” videos. Since then, Trae has written a best-selling book, The Liberal Redneck Manifesto: Draggin Dixie Outta The Dark, toured the country thrice over playing sold out theatre shows under the WellRED Comedy Tour banner, appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO), Nightline (ABC), The View, Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC), NPR, WTF with Marc Maron, MTV, CNN, Huffington Post and in the Veronica Mars reboot, as “Chattanooga Charlie”, among many others. $35.00 Friday Sep. 13, 7:15-11:15 & 9:45-11:15 pm and Saturday Sep. 14, 7-8:30 & 9:30-11 pm.

Continuing This Week Stand-up

Blind Pig Blind Pig Comedy FREE Mondays, 8 pm.

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant The Sh*t Show Open Mic: Every Friday & Saturday at The Independent A weekly open mic featuring both local amateurs and touring professionals. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and the show begins at 9 pm.. The evening always ends with karaoke in the attached Ghost Light Bar! Doors and Sign up 8:30 p.m. Show at 9 p.m. $5 suggested donation.

InsideOut Literary Arts brings ‘If the River Could Sing’ youth event back to Detroit’s riverfront

For the third year in a row, InsideOut Literary Arts is bringing the literary world outdoors with If the River Could Sing: A Celebration of Writing and River, set for Thursday, Sept. 12 from 5:30-9 p.m. at Robert C. Valade Park along Detroit’s riverfront.

Since 1995, InsideOut Literary Arts has been helping Detroit’s youth build literary and academic skills through creative writing, becoming one of the nation’s leading youth writing programs.

If the River Could Sing is inspired by the beauty and legacy of the Detroit River, centering on themes of arts and culture, wellness, and conservation, culminating with a sunset showcase of music and poetry.

The free event, hosted by spoken word artist La Shaun phoenix Moore, offers an evening of activities and performances open to the local community.

“The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy is thrilled to partner with InsideOut Literary Arts to bring If the River Could Sing back to Robert C. Valade Park,” Detroit Riverfront Conservancy Public Spaces Manager Addison Mauck said in a press release. “The riverfront is the perfect backdrop for this celebration of arts and culture in Detroit, and we are honored to

host it at Valade Park, one of the most exciting and vibrant spaces along the Detroit River.”

Activities at the event — hosted by local groups and organizations — include a variety of options for all ages in four different areas. The wellness zone will feature meditation, river sounds, and cardiodrumming; the conservation zone will give attendees the opportunity to plant a seedling, create a body scrub, and meet a sturgeon; the teen zone will offer beat making, an open mic, and lawn games; and the arts and culture zone will provide opportunities for letterpress printing, mixed media arts, free book giveaways, hands-on experiences with various instruments, and more.

The event will also feature performances by award-winning Michigan poet jason b. Crawford, InsideOut’s Youth Performance Troupe, local harpist AnJelic, singer/songwriter and MC Monica Blaire, and Americana band the Codgers.

For more information on this year’s If the River Could Sing: A Celebration of Writing and River with InsideOut and to get tickets, see itrcs2024.eventbrite.com.

Robert C. Valade Park is located at 2670 Atwater St., Detroit. —Layla McMurtrie

InsideOut Literary Arts. FACEBOOK, INSIDEOUT LITERARY ARTS

FOOD

A Mexican-Korean mashup

By Jane Slaughter

Nuevo Seoul

220 W. Congress St., Detroit 313-502-5171

eatatnuevoseoul.com

Mexican dishes $12-$18

The name is clever and the idea is intriguing — Korean meets Mexican — but Nuevo Seoul lacks where it’s most important: the appeal of the food. It’s not bad, but you won’t be inviting friends.

The menu is basically Mexican dishes — tacos, burritos, quesadillas — with Korean meats, plus Korean-style fried chicken. Cocktails use both soju, the Korean rice liquor, and tequila or mezcal (not in the same drink), and there are complicated concoctions like ginvermouth-cynar-tea-lime-yogurt.

In Nuevo Seoul’s favor is that its prices are reasonable, for big portions. (Sometimes I write as if my readers’ main concern was filling their bellies till the next meal, though they’re not sure where it’s coming from.) It’s informal, with servers in cut-offs or jeans. Décor includes rows of colorful skulls, Day of the Dead-style. The crowd is diverse. A TV shows Korean scenes. A

sign at the host desk warns that 18% is added to each bill.

I found most dishes unsubtle and generic. Birria, for example, is a shredded, marinated beef dish associated with Jalisco, the state that’s home to a majority of Detroit’s Mexican immigrants. I ordered birria ramen, advertised as “slow cooked Korean beef short rib.”

It was served in a tall plastic container like you’d buy yogurt in, with a little plastic spoon. Fine for carry-out, but to try to eat from at your table? Broth, meat, and noodles were all one-note, sort of a universal “spicy meat.”

A burrito was packed with black beans, rice, sour cream, cheese, corn, cilantro, pico de gallo, and guacamole — a very American burrito — but it was still lackluster.

Tacos were more interesting, with seven Korean protein choices. I ordered kalbi beef (marinated ribs), bulgogi (marinated grilled ribeye or sirloin), and gochujang chicken. Gojuchang is a paste of fermented soybeans and chile peppers, and its reputation is complexity, with heat, umami, and sugar, plus the earthy tang that comes from fermentation. The tacos were correctly served with double corn tortillas and

respectively tasted a little sweet, a little savory, and a little hot. Salsa roja and salsa verde served on the side could add some personality; I didn’t discern any onion or cilantro.

Wings nubbly with flecks of sesame seed were not bad, but an enormous fried chicken sandwich with cucumber kimchi was a disaster: unwieldy, lots of crust with none of the luscious vibes we want from a deep fryer, little or no chicken flavor. Fries on the side were numerous and standard. You can also get kimchi fries with spicy mayo and cotija cheese, for another attempt at cross-cultural coordination.

A side order of guacamole was limey and just OK, uncharacteristically small. I did not get adventurous with my drink orders, though the list includes some titillating ingredients like liqueurs of melon, passionfruit, and artichoke.

A piña colada slushie (origin: Puerto Rico) was heavy on the coconut, served with a wide-mouth straw. My friend said her margarita showed a good balance between sour and sweet. A spiritless coconut paloma was refreshing on a hot night, the cloyingness of the coconut alleviated by the two citruses (grapefruit

and lime) and by the bubbles of the Mineragua sparkling water. Another slushie option will keep you awake all night, with tequila, Kahlua, cold brew concentrate, coffee syrup, and Abuelita, the hot chocolate brand.

You can also order from a rotating selection of fruit drinks — aguas frescas — like strawberry-watermelon.

As often happens, Nuevo Seoul did better on desserts (or my sweet tooth is talking). A tres leches cake was a steal at $7, though, again, served as if for take-out in an aluminum box. (Most restaurants would take it out of the bakery box it came in, cut it in quarters, and charge the same.) It was solid and served with a fourth leche, whipped cream, on top. Churros, if you eat them warm, are almost always a delight, and these did not disappoint. Skip the chocolate “ganache” on the side, though.

I was somewhat startled that a sign urged customers to win a free helping of churro chips — tortilla chips prepared churro-style — by leaving a five-star review.

Nuevo Seoul is open every day starting at noon, but on Mondays just for take-out and delivery.

At Nuevo Seoul, the menu pairs Mexican dishes with Korean meats.

JOE MAROON

CULTURE

Film Among the greatest of the American New Wave movement

The Conversation (1974)

Rated: PG

Run-time: 113 minutes

For cinephiles like me, it’s hard to overhype the importance of the American New Wave (AKA New Hollywood) era of movies that lasted from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. It was not only important in how, for a very limited amount of time, the era transferred the authorial role of filmmaking from the studios to auteur directors, but it also served to rescue Hollywood at a time when the advent of television weakened the power of the studio system.

Hollywood was so desperate to replicate the success of The Sound of Music and the big-budget spectacles of the late 1940s and early 1950s that the studios were pumping out musicals, war movies, and historical epics almost exclusively. Eventually, it became the youth that were spending the most time (meaning money) in movie theaters, so filmmakers started appealing to the socially liberal/rebellious kids of the time. For

By Jared Rasic, Last Word Features

basically the first time since pre-code Hollywood and the advent of the Hays Code in 1930, films were allowed to have some moral ambiguity and weren’t underwritten with the express desire to promote “traditional American values.”

The New Hollywood era arguably began with Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove in 1964, but it was the release (and massive critical and financial success) of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde and Mike Nichols’s The Graduate in 1967 that tentatively showed Hollywood that if they trusted artists and basically gave them carte blanche to follow their muse, then there was serious money to be made.

This era gave us (just to name a few) actual masterpieces like Cool Hand Luke, Faces, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rosemary’s Baby, Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, Catch-22, Watermelon Man, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection, Harold and Maude, Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Alien, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and so, so many more.

This is, without question, the strongest period of American cinema in history.

The death of the New Hollywood came hard and fast with the high-profile flop of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate in 1980 (made $3.5 million on a $44 million budget), the initial underperformance of Blade Runner and then the tragic death of two illegally hired child actors and actor Vic Morrow on the set of 1983’s Twilight Zone: The Movie

Just imagine being a cinephile in the 1970s, going to the theater every week and discovering new filmmakers like Robert Altman, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, William Friedkin, Hal Ashby, Woody Allen, Peter Bogdanovich, David Lynch, Terrence Malick, Martin Scorsese, John Cassavetes, Francis Ford Coppola, John Carpenter, Brian De Palma, Shirley Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, Mel Brooks, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, Ridley Scott, Roman Polanski, and dozens more. When I dream of movie heaven, it’s a lot like that.

Nestled right in between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II came what I consider not only to be Francis Ford Coppola’s unsung masterpiece, but one of the true high-water marks of the American New Wave. 1974’s The

Conversation is a paranoid, neo-noir thriller that was not only decades ahead of its time, but features the career-best work of Gene Hackman, composer David Shire, and the great editor-sound designer-directo Walter Murch. The film also features one of the five legendary performances of the astonishingly brilliant John Cazale, who made his feature film debut as Fredo in The Godfather and followed that up with The Conversation, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and then, posthumously, The Deer Hunter. Is it the greatest run of any actor in history? I like to think so.

Currently being re-released for its 50th anniversary as a 4K remaster with a new introduction by Coppola, The Conversation is not only worth catching in a theater while you can, but it’s one of the building blocks for life as a cinephile. It’s literally one of the best movies ever made and the restoration is gorgeous. So the time to see Hackman, Cazale, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, and Allen Garfield square off against each other has never been better.

I know it’s been awhile since Coppola has made a good movie (I think it might have been 1997’s The Rainmaker), but I’m optimistic for his new film, this September’s Megalopolis. I hope it’s his swan song and not some ridiculously out-of-touch manifesto on cancel culture, critical failure, and the modern difficulties of the straight, white male. Regardless of anything, I’ll be there opening night for Megalopolis because Coppola has earned it. Apocalypse Now, the first two Godfather films, and The Conversation means he has, if not my trust, then at least my loyalty. He has a lifetime pass to make whatever he wants, self-indulgent or otherwise.

Still, I’m a little nervous as Coppola has seemed quite out of touch (and creepy) in interviews and set photos over the last year. Regardless of quality or content, it’s incredibly depressing that Coppola, the author of multiple cinematic masterpieces, had to spend $120 million of his own money to finance Megalopolis

If anything, this once again proves that the era of New Hollywood is long dead and that we bury our giants, not with fanfare and respect, but with silence and one eye on our phones. Long live whatever comes next.

P.S. For anyone looking to start their journey into the cinematic wonderland that is the American New Wave, The Criterion Channel just released a collection of New Hollywood classics from ’66 to ’79 featuring fils like Malick’s Days of Heaven, Bogdanavich’s The Last Picture Show, Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon, and Nichols’s The Graduate… just to name a few. You won’t regret falling down this rabbit hole.

The Conversation (1974) features the career-best work of Gene Hackman. ALLSTAR PICTURE LIBRARY LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

CULTURE

Savage Love

Lies That Bind

By Dan Savage

: Q What do you think of a man who lied to a woman to manipulate her into staying in a relationship knowing that if he told her the truth she would leave? My boyfriend agreed to exclusivity and monogamy. He immediately began to violate this agreement. He lied repeatedly to me about who these other people were, what he was doing with them, and constantly told me he was honoring our agreement to be monogamous. He gaslit me and made me [feel] ridiculous for worrying. I eventually found out he was constantly engaging women online in chats and asking them to have phone or video sex with him. He had video sex with someone the same week he began talking to me about getting married! He got a phone number from a woman he met at work and only stopped texting her because sneaking out to date her was a “step [too] far” for him morally. I told all of his family and friends that he had been lying to me and cheating on me throughout our relationship. I stand by my right to let people know this. What do you think about my refusal to be quiet about his behavior? I believe women too often protect men’s reputations at our own peril. That is why I refused to keep his secrets. The shame should be his, not mine!

Now he tells me his friends and family don’t want us to get back together because I “overreacted” to his shameful behavior. I feel that with all the cards out on the table there’s no room for lies and that we could rebuild. What’s your opinion?

—Choosing Absolute Truth

A: What I think of your ex-boyfriend you should get used to calling him your ex-boyfriend — is irrelevant. What matters here, CAT, is what you think of your ex-boyfriend: you think he’s a manipulative piece of shit who cheated on you throughout your relationship and lied to you and gaslit you and emotionally abused you.

And you — not a crazy person want to get back together with him?

Let’s quickly review what he did: he flirted with other women online and asked them to have phonesex/cybersex with him, CAT, which was a shitty thing

to do each and every time he did it. At least one woman agreed to listen and/or watch while he had a wank, which was an even shittier thing for him to do. And he got one woman’s phone number and was tempted to meet up with her but didn’t go through with it, which allowed him to tell himself he didn’t do the shittiest thing he could’ve done — he may have even told himself he honored the monogamous commitment he made to you because he never actually touched another woman with his dick — and he lied to you about all of this and made you feel like a crazy person.

Now let’s review what you did: When you found out that his definition of monogamy was a lot narrower than yours, you didn’t turn to your friends and family for moral support or drag him to a couple’s counselor to hold him accountable. No, you dragged his friends and family into your conflict. Not because they needed to know, not because they could do anything about it, but to punish your boyfriend by making him look like an asshole in the eyes of his friends and family. And while you probably succeeded in making him look bad in the eyes of his friends and family, you also succeeded in making yourself look like a crazy person.

So, while I agree that women shouldn’t have to keep men’s secrets to protect their reputations, no one wants to live in a world where dragging in friends is the go-to move for every angry boyfriend, girlfriend, enbyfriend, husband, wife, spouse, etc., on the planet.

Even if your ex-boyfriend’s friends and family think he was in the wrong — even if you succeeded in exposing him for the manipulative piece of shit they already knew him to be (they’ve known him longer than you have) — they don’t want him to get back together with you because they don’t want you blowing up their phones every time you have a fight.

And if you convince him to back together with you, CAT, you’re gonna have more fights — hell, you’re going to have this fight again because he’s not going stop flirting with other women. So, unless you’re looking forward to having this fight again — and maybe you are (some people think conflict is passion (crazy people)) — you’ll stop pursuing this lying, manipulative, deceitful piece of shit.

: Q I’m a mid-40s bi woman newly married to my second husband. He’s 34, extremely hot, and I’m 13 years older. My last marriage had elements of openness to it, and I came into this relationship knowing I would eventually want some

level of ethical non-monogamy. Although my husband hasn’t had that sort of relationship before, he’s very open to it. Anyway, I have an old fling that I text with sometimes. He’s a single guy and we hooked up off and on for a few years, a few years ago. It was always just nostrings-attached sex. He has very good judgment and boundaries, and he knows I’m recently remarried. Our chats get sexual pretty quickly. I’m 99% sure that my husband would be fine with this, but I haven’t told him because — and this is the problem — I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much if it weren’t a secret. I’ve been talking to my therapist about this, but I’m interested in your take. I want my marriage to be based on honesty and authenticity, but I really enjoy these little secret flirtations. Should I tell my husband and explain that I don’t understand the importance of the secrecy? Because I really don’t. Or should I just keep doing what I’m doing and not worry about it? For more context, my husband is also incredibly thoughtful and he’s super good at processing things. And while this other guy is the only person in my life like this now, there have always been others like him. What do you think?

—A Gal In New England

A:

We’re all entitled to a zone of erotic autonomy — even married people — and I believe brief and/ or harmless flirtations fall with that zone, AGINE, and it sounds like your new husband might agree. Additionally, very few marriages would survive for long if we disclosed every dumbbut-essentially-harmless thing we did that might annoy our spouses. If you wouldn’t actually fuck this guy or any other guy without your husband’s approval, and if you’re plowing the erotic energy this stirs up into your marital relationship, I think you can enjoy this connection/flirtation without guilt. Keeping something to yourself keeping something for yourself — isn’t the same thing as keeping something secret.

But knowing what you do about yourself, AGINE, you could’ve and should’ve had a conversation with your husband before the wedding about privately (not secretly) enjoying a flirtation. It’s not too late to have that conversation — it’s never too late to have a conversation — and I’ve gone ahead and written your opening line: “Hey, if there’s ever someone else either of us wants to fuck — if we ever wanna move from talking about ethical nonmonogamy to actually practicing it — we’ll come to each other for permission before anything happens. But I’m not going to ask for your permission to flirt with someone else — just flirt, only flirt — and you don’t need mine.”

: Q My wife of twelve years is divorcing me. She went on a cross-country road trip with someone she’s in a band with and she was cold when she returned and then told me she wants a divorce. This person is a much younger man, and I suspect cheating. She denies it, merely chalking it up to camping and clearing her head. I know she’s been unhappy for a while, but I thought the relationship could be worked on. She is unwilling to try. Then I looked at her phone (we are on the same phone plan), and she has been talking with this man and texting with him incessantly. She says she is leaning on him as a friend, but it is way too much contact for that. I think she is in love with this person, but she won’t admit it because she doesn’t want to hurt me. Every time I bring up the subject, she accuses me of being crazy or jealous. I got her to admit to some feelings, but she swears it’s not what I think. Then she says it’s none of my business. The paperwork hasn’t even been submitted. Is she right? Is it none of my business? I just want the truth even if it kills me so I can have some closure.

—World

Of Hurt

A: Would being told that your wife had an affair — and it seems pretty obvious she did — give you the closure you claim to need, WOH, or would it allow you to assign blame for the collapse of your marriage? I don’t doubt that you’re sad, angry, and confused about the end of your marriage, but you knew your wife had been unhappy for a long time and it doesn’t sound like you were motivated to do much about her unhappiness until she announced that she wanted a divorce. (You talk about work that could’ve been done to improve your marriage, but you don’t mention doing the work or even offering to do the work.) If she’s leaving you for this man, WOH, that’s not a secret that’s going to keep. You might not know exactly what happened until after the divorce is finalized, but you’re going to find out eventually — so the closure you claim to need might not come before you close the books on your marriage, but it will come.

P.S. Your wife might be willing to see a couple’s counselor with you to mediate between you while you wind down your marriage, but it doesn’t sound like her mind is going to change. I’m sorry.

P.P.S. Closure isn’t always something we’re given by someone else, WOH, closure is often something we have to do for ourselves.

Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love! Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan! Podcasts, columns, and more at Savage. Love.

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

One of the longest bridges in the world is the 24-mile-long Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. During one eight-mile stretch, as it crosses Lake Pontchartrain, travelers can’t see land. That freaks out some of them. You might be experiencing a metaphorically similar passage these days, Aries. As you journey from one mode to the next, you may lose sight of familiar terrain for a while. My advice: Have faith, gaze straight ahead, and keep going.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

My horoscopes don’t necessarily answer questions that are foremost in your awareness. This might annoy you. But consider this: My horoscopes may nevertheless nudge you in unexpected directions that eventually lead you, in seemingly roundabout ways, to useful answers. The riddles I offer may stir you to gather novel experiences you

didn’t realize you needed. Keep this in mind, Taurus, while reading the following: In the coming weeks, you can attract minor miracles and fun breakthroughs if you treat your life as an art project. I urge you to fully activate your imagination and ingenuity as you work on the creative masterpiece that is YOU.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

The Gemini musician known as Prince got an early start on his vocation. At age 7, he wrote “Funk Machine,” his first song. Have you thought recently about how the passions of your adult life first appeared in childhood? Now is an excellent time to ruminate on this and related subjects. Why? Because you are primed to discover forgotten feelings and events that could inspire you going forward. To nurture the future, draw on the past.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

You are lucky to have an opposable thumb on each of your hands. You’re not as lucky as koala bears, however, which have two opposable thumbs on each hand. But in the coming weeks, you may sometimes feel like you have extra thumbs, at least metaphorically. I suspect you will be extra dexterous and nimble in every way, including mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You could accomplish wonders of agility. You and your sexy soul may be extra supple, lithe, and flexible. These superpowers will serve you well if you decide to improvise and experiment, which I hope you will.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

A beautiful autumn is upon us my imbibing chums, and everything taste better in the fall… everything except margaritas, stupid pain in the ass margaritas. Salt on the rim? No salt on the rim. Oh, sugar on the rim, that’s brilliant. ‘It’s too sour.’ ‘It should be sweeter.’ Sweeter!? ‘It’s too strong. It’s not strong enough.’ blah blah, blah blah.

The internet is filled with wise quotes that are wrongly attributed. Among those frequently cited as saying words they didn’t actually say, Buddha is at the top of the list. There are so many fraudulent Buddha quotes in circulation that there’s a website devoted to tracking them down: fakebuddhaquotes.com. Here’s an example. The following statement was articulated not by Buddha but by English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray: “The world is a looking glass. It gives back to every man a true reflection of his own thoughts.” I bring these thoughts to your attention, Leo, because it’s a crucial time for you to be dedicated to truth and accuracy. You will gain power by uncovering deceptions, shams, and misrepresentations. Be a beacon of authenticity!

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

Peregrine falcons can move at a speed of 242 miles per hour. Mexican free-tailed bats reach 100 miles per hour, and black marlin fish go 80 mph. These animals are your spirit creatures in the coming weeks, Virgo. Although you can’t literally travel that fast (unless you’re on a jet), I am confident you can make metaphorical progress at a rapid rate. Your ability to transition into the next chapter of your life story will be at a peak. You will have a robust power to change, shift, and develop.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

Mythically speaking, I envision a death and rebirth in your future. The death won’t be literal; neither you nor anyone you love will travel to the other side of the veil. Rather, I foresee the demise of a hope, the finale of a storyline, or the loss of a possibility. Feeling sad might temporarily be the right thing to do, but I want you to know that this ending will ultimately lead to a fresh beginning. In fact, the new blooms ahead wouldn’t be possible without the expiration of the old ways. The novel resources that arrive will come only because an old resource has faded.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21:

Did you ever have roommates who stole your credit card and used it to buy gifts for themselves? Does your history include a friend or loved one who told you a lie that turned out to be hurtful? Did you ever get cheated on by a lover you trusted? If anything like this has happened to you, I suspect you will soon get a karmic recompense. An atonement will unfold. A reparation will come your way. A wrong will be righted. A loss will be indemnified. My advice is to welcome the redress graciously. Use it to dissolve your resentments and retire uncomfortable parts of your past.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

One of my oldest friends is Sagittarius-born Jeffrey Brown. We had rowdy fun together in our twenties. We were mad poets who loved to party. But while I went on to become an unruly rock ’n’ roll musician, experimental novelist, and iconoclastic astrologer, Brown worked hard to become a highly respected, award-winning journalist for the PBS NewsHour, a major American TV show. Among his many successes: He has brought in-depth coverage of poetry and art to mainstream TV. How did he manage to pull off such an unlikely coup? I think it›s because he channeled his wildness into disciplined expression; he converted his raw passions into practical power; he honed and refined his creativity so it wielded great clout. In the coming

months, dear Sagittarius, I urge you to make him one of your inspirational role models.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

Let’s hypothesize that you will be alive, alert, and active on your 100th birthday. If that joyous event comes to pass, you may have strong ideas about why you have achieved such marvelous longevity. I invite you to imagine what you will tell people on that momentous occasion. Which practices, feelings, and attitudes will have turned you into such a vigorous example of a strong human life? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to meditate on these matters. It will also be a favorable phase to explore new practices, feelings, and attitudes that will prolong your satisfying time here on planet Earth.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

Few Americans are more famous than George Washington. He was a top military leader in the Revolutionary War before he became the country’s first president. George had a halfbrother named Lawrence, who was 16 years older. Virtually no one knows about him now, but during his life, he was a renowned landowner, soldier, and politician. Historians say that his political influence was crucial in George’s rise to power. Is there anyone remotely comparable to Lawrence Washington in your life, Aquarius? Someone who is your advocate? Who works behind the scenes on your behalf? If not, go searching for them. The astrological omens say your chances are better than usual of finding such champions. If there are people like that, ask them for a special favor.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

Over 15 centuries ago, Christian monks decided Fridays were unlucky. Why? Because they were the special day of the pagan Goddess Freya. Friday the 13th was extra afflicted, they believed, because it combined a supposedly evil number with the inauspicious day. And how did they get their opinion that 13 was malevolent? Because it was the holy number of the Goddess and her 13-month lunar calendar. I mention this because a Friday the 13th is now upon us. If you are afraid of the things Christian monks once feared, this could be a difficult time. But if you celebrate radical empathy, ingenious intimacy, playful eros, and fertile intuition, you will be awash in good fortune. That’s what the astrological omens tell me.

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