Last Since this pandemic started, bars and nightclubs have been among the first up to the chopping block. With good reason. Few other situations force us to get so up close and personal with strangers. Though there’s something about a bar at 1 a.m. on a Saturday night that blurs the thick line between stranger and friend. For 20and 30-somethings, especially, there’s nothing like a summer night that starts with cool drinks and ends in a hot bar. Things look a lot different now. With cases on the rise and social distancing measures still in place, will Detroit bar and club culture ever be the same?
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BY JASMINE GRAHAM • PHOTOS BY LAUREN JEZIORSKI
he night life in Detroit takes you on a ride through hole-in-thewall bars at the Eastern Market to fancy rooftops overlooking downtown to hustle clubs with the finest ballroom dancers. And, in the end, you may wind up at a coney island with your crew discussing the events of the night. During summertime in Detroit, the party scene never stops. Millennials, especially, start their Saturdays with brunch that leads to day parties that bleed into nights at the bars and clubs that spill into the street. But, this summer, things are a little different – to say the least. In January, the first case of 26 BLAC • AUGUST 2020 • BLACdetroit.com
COVID-19 was confirmed in Washington state. At that time, we had no idea how serious it would become. By early March, there were at least 1,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., and the first few cases of COVID-19 or “The Rona” were confirmed in Michigan. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency. Under the Michigan Emergency Management Act, the state is able to help local governments “to save lives, protect property and public health and safety or to lessen or avert the threat of catastrophe in any part of the state.” Whitmer went to work signing a series of executive orders including temporarily shutting down businesses, closing K-12 schools and colleges, and
