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We received comments in response to last week’s cover story package preview of metro Detroit’s late summer and fall festival season, especially regarding Arts, Beats Eats. Used to enjoy going there. However, 10-15 to park and another 10 to enter doesn’t leave much left to enjoy the arts or eats/ drinks. I know, I’m old and pine for the raw energy that this fest once had in Pontiac. Missing the stage with seats and good sight lines, and the tickets for refreshments idea was never a good idea. You’d think the three million plus admission , plus parking money generated would keep the cost of the eats to a dull roar, but I guess, even with gambling and drug money sponsoring it, that’s a pipe dream (pun intended).
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—Barbara Kropik, Facebook park for free somewhere down Woodward corridor, and take the Fast Bus to the event. This is what people do all over the world— they take public transportation.
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—Stephen Belcher, Facebook Stephen Belcher I went there the year they 1st had this venue. I had to leave and go sit on a bench on Woodward to watch (hear) Morris Day because there was no room where the band was playing. I liked it better in Pontiac, too.
4 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com News & Views Feedback ...............................4 News TheInformed......................................6Dissent..................8Incision.........................10 Cover Story Black to Land ......................12 What’s Going On Things to do this week ........22 Music Feature .................................24 Food Review .................................28 Bites .....................................30 Weed One-hitters ...........................32 Culture Film HoroscopesSavage......................................34Love.........................36..........................28Vol.42|No.46
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metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 5
With the widespread use of CBD over the past three years, Morris says it’s likely that many people who were convicted based on faulty testing had solely consumed CBD and were not under the influence of THC. But the problem goes well beyond that. Morris and other legal experts have long complained about the accu racy of marijuana tests. Due to varying tolerance levels, the amount of THC found in drivers’ blood does not prove they were intoxicated when they were behind the wheel. For example, a can nabis consumer can have moderate to high levels of THC in their blood and not be under the influence. The effects of cannabis don’t last long, but the THC lingers in the user’s blood, where it can be detected.
Michigan State Police locked up more than 3,000 people using faulty marijuana tests, according to internal memo
In a letter to prosecutors sent last Wednesday, Jeffrey Nye, director of MSP’s Forensic Science Division, acknowledged that the tests could not have conclusively proven the driver was intoxicated by cannabis.
6 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
–Steve Neavling
“Most immediately our concern was for the impact this finding may have on active legal proceedings where an individual allegedly used CBD alone and no other intoxicating substances,” Nye said. State police are only focusing on cases since March 2019 because that’s when CBD became legal in Michigan, according to Nye. But attorney Barton Morris, who specializes in cannabisrelated cases, said it’s still possible that many others were wrongfully convicted of driving under the influence because they had consumed CBD prior to MarchMorris,2019.principal attorney of the Can nabis Legal Group in Royal Oak, says state police have relied on a relatively inexpensive testing method that is unreliable for testing the amount of THC in a person’s blood, producing a measurement uncertainty — or an error rate — of 30%.
In those cases, Nye admitted, “there is insufficient evidence of impairment, intoxication, or recent use of mari huana to otherwise support the charged offense.”
State police plan to notify prosecu tors about the people who may have been wrongfully convicted, and defense attorneys are expected to begin filing motions to challenge their clients’ convictions.
“There is no amount of THC in a person’s blood suspected of driving under the influence that equates to intoxication like there is with alcohol,” Morris says. “We all know that .08 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood means you are guilty. There’s overwhelming evidence. We don’t have that in Michigan for TCH for a number of different reasons.”
Drug tests administered by state police failed to distinguish between THC and CBD, a non-psychoactive chemical compound in marijuana. SHUTTERSTOCK
“Michigan State Police created a method for testing THC in a manner that wasn’t great, but it was good enough for them because no one was complaining about it,” Morris tells Metro Times. “It’s expensive to test it for more specificity, and they would rather do it the cheaper and faster way. They created a method that was questionable as to the precise amount of THC in their blood.” He adds, “It was intentional igno rance. They stopped the testing when they could no longer ignore” the problems.Morrissays convictions that were based solely on the faulty testing should be overturned. “People like me contemplate to what degree does this invalidate the ability to remove convictions over the past three years,” Morris says. “Any conviction where the (lab) evidence was the main piece of evidence in determining some one’s guilt or innocence, there’s a strong argument that the conviction should be overturned.”
The letter was issued less than a week after Michigan State Police halted blood tests for marijuana because they were producing false positives for THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that produces a high. The toxicology tests failed to distinguish between THC and CBD, a non-psychoactive chemical compound that does not produce a high.
MICHIGAN STATE POLICE relied on faulty testing to produce criminal charges in about 3,250 cases since March 2019 in which a driver was alleg edly under the influence of marijuana and no other drugs or alcohol.
The significance of this discovery cannot be overstated. As many as 3,250 people may have been wrongfully arrested and convicted based on faulty testing.
NEWS & VIEWS
THE MICHIGAN BOARD of Can vassers last Wednesday deadlocked on certifying a ballot initiative to protect abortion rights.
metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 7
The bone of contention? The space between the words on the amendment. Republican Canvassers Tony Daunt and Richard Houskamp rejected the abortion rights initiative because of typo graphical errors, saying the amendment lacked sufficient space between some of the words.
–Susan Tabor
The lunacy doesn’t end there. Karamo has called herself an “anti-vaxxer” and condemned public schools as “government indoctrination camps.” To make matters worse, Karamo spoke at a QAnon conference last year. In case you don’t know, QAnon adherents believe that Democrats are Satan-wor shipping cannibals who run a child sex-trafficking ring.But even more frightening is that Karamo, if elected, would have control over our elections. Like Dixon, she has perpetuated Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. She falsely claimed that Trump won Michigan in 2020. A day after the Jan. 6 insurrection, she assigned blame to “Antifa posing as Trump sup porters,” adding, “I mean, anybody can buy a MAGA hat and put on a T-shirt and buy a Trump flag.”
“The bottom line is that the full text of the amendment must be accurate,” Eric Doster, a lawyer for the group opposing the initiative, told canvassers. “It contains nonsense passages, and nonsense can’t be put in the Michigan constitution.”
“There are no typos. There is a spac ing issue,” said Steve Liedel, an attorney for Reproductive Freedom for All. “Do you possess the statutory authority to disapprove this petition on a form requirement that is not addressed in any way under Michigan law? If you do this, you are setting a precedent that you can disapprove a petition without any basis in the Democraticstatute.”
I SERVED IN the Michigan state legislature as a Republican for six years. I had heated — but congenial — debates with then-state Rep. Gretchen Whitmer and other Democrats. This was the tradition of bi partisanship and common sense I was proud to carry forward. Now, as I watch as a private citizen, I am distraught by what has happened to my party. The Michigan GOP has devolved into a party of extremists and conspiracy theorists. The nominations of Tudor Dixon and Kristina Karamo make this clear. Now that the primary is over, Dixon is playing her self off as a moderate. She is anything but. When asked whether she believes Trump legiti mately won the 2020 election in Michigan at a debate in May, Dixon answered with an unequivocal “yes.” At a debate the following month, she raised her hand when asked whether she believes Trump won the election because of widespread voter fraud. Never mind that Trump lost Michigan by 154,000 votes. There’s a reason Trump endorsed Dixon. It’s the same reason he endorses any candidate — she pushes the Big DixonLie.has repeatedly spread false claims of election fraud in Michigan. On Nov. 8, 2020, Dixon tweeted, “Steal an election then hide behind calls for unity and leftists lap it up.” Last October, she said that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson ran the 2020 election “in a way that was rife with fraud” and said she did so with “premeditation.” It wasn’t just rhetoric that she was fomenting. Dixon supported a “forensic audit” of the 2020 vote even after numerous state officials and independent sources disproved the conspiracy theory that the elec tion was rigged.
And, apparently, anybody can win the GOP nomination for secretary of state, no matter how deranged they are. Our state is in trouble. The Michigan state legis lature is already in the hands of Republican extrem ists. If Dixon and Karamo win, there will be no check on Republican power in the state. That could have direTheconsequences.statelegislature could — and likely will — en force the 1931 abortion ban and attempt to overturn future elections. And if Trump runs in 2024 and loses, he and his allies could attempt to overturn the election results, setting off a constitutional crisis. After all, Republican state legislators already voted to overturn the 2020 election results. There will be no stopping them next time if the governorship and the office of the secretary of state are in Republican hands.
Canvasser Mary Ellen Gurewitz said her Republican colleagues had no authority to reject the initiative based on spacing issues. “The full text is there, and I think we have no choice but to certify,” she said. To make it on the November ballot, the initiative must be finalized by Sept. 9. The coalition behind the initiative submitted a record 753,759 signatures. Without a constitutional amend ment, abortion could soon become illegal in Michigan. In May and August, the state’s 1931 abortion ban was tem porarily halted by a Michigan Court of Claims judge who is presiding over a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood that argues the state’s constitution protects abortion rights. In a separate case, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is urging the Michigan Supreme Court to weigh in on the issue. Earlier Wednesday, the Republican canvassers also rejected a ballot initiative that would improve voting access.
It’s no wonder Dixon is a conspiracy theorist. She used to work for Real America’s Voice, the same streaming channel the far-right podcaster Steve Bannon is on. Her background in right-wing media shows on the campaign trail. She’s in favor of a Florida-style “Don’t Say Gay” bill. She referred to Whitmer’s tenure as a “tyrannical reign.” After her primary win, she mocked Whitmer as “a far-left birthing parent.” In other words, Dixon is resorting to culture wars and divisive rhetoric rather than appealing to all Michi ganders.There is no issue on which Dixon is more extreme than abortion. She wants to ban abortion — with no exceptions for rape or incest. And she supports Michigan’s 1931 law that makes having or conducting an abortion a felony. She called it “a good law.” In an interview, Dixon said a 14-year-old victim of incestual rape was a “perfect example” of someone who shouldn’t have an abortion. “A life is a life for me,” she said. “That’s how it is.” Look, I’m pro-life, but Dixon’s position on abortion is too extreme for me and it’s too extreme for Michi ganRepublicanvoters. secretary of state nominee Kristina Karamo is even more unhinged than Dixon. Karamo said that anyone who supports reproductive rights “must worship Satan,” accused Democrats of having a “satanic agenda,” called abortion “child sacrifice” and “a very satanic practice,” and said that demonic possession can be transmitted through “intimate relationships.” And on her podcast, she said, “Men and women no longer honor God. They honor their crotches.” Does this sound like someone who should hold elected office?
–Steve Neavling
Susan Tabor is a former Republican Michigan state representative. She lives in Lansing.
Michigan GOP canvassers block abortion rights ballot initiative, citing spacing between words
The 2-2 vote means supporters of the ballot drive will go to court in hopes of getting the initiative on the November ballot.The Reproductive Freedom for All ini tiative would amend the state’s constitu tion to affirm abortion rights.
Opinion: The Michigan GOP is too extreme to govern I am a former Republican state representative, and I am distraught by what has happened to my party
The Michigan Bureau of Elections recommended certification. Democratic canvassers and attorneys for the initiative said Republicans had no basis for rejecting certification.
Biden’s ‘Battle for the Soul of the Nation’ speech was by far his most important yet effre . illm n Come, friends, and let us clutch our pearls together, for the president of the United States, in say ing what needed saying years ago, in identifying the rot eroding our institu tions, in echoing the increasingly dire warnings of democracy scholars about the illiberal, authoritarian movement that has consumed conservative politics, might have hurt the fuck-your-feelings crowd’s feelings.
I’ve previously addressed the Demo crats’ short-sightedness in propping up Republicans they think will be easier to defeat. But let’s be real. In the pantheon of sins against democracy, it ranks pretty low. Both-sidesism is a hell of a drug. And it’s not like Biden didn’t appeal to unity and common purpose. He just didn’t pretend that Trump’s loyalists would be part of it.
NEWS & VIEWS
“I believe it’s my duty, my duty to level with you, to tell the truth no matter how difficult, no matter how painful,” Biden said.“And here, in my view, is what is true: MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution. They do not believe in the rule of law. They do not recognize the will of the people. They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they’re working right now as I speak in state after state to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.” Every word in that paragraph is ac curate.Same with this one: “They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger at the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as pa triots. And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election as preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections.” Earlier that day, in fact, former Presi dent Donald Trump promised pardons for those who participated in the Capitol riot if he is reelected.
The ost specifically objected to a line about “MAGA forces” taking the country “backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love” — all of which, of course, is happening.Butinthe ost’s view, just because the far right wants to roll back a half-century of civil rights guarantees so that ger rymandered state legislatures can strip women of their autonomy, that doesn’t mean they’re against democracy. Also, because editorial writers can’t help themselves, they chastised Biden for not calling out his own party for “its cynical effort to elevate some of the same ‘MAGA Republicans’ he now warns will destroy democracy if they prevail in the general election.”
“For a long time, we’ve told ourselves that American democracy is guaranteed, but it’s not. We have to defend it, protect it, stand up for it, each and every one of us,” Biden said. “That’s why tonight, I’m asking our nation to come together, unite behind the single purpose of defending our democracy regardless of your“We’reideology.allcalled by duty and con science to confront extremists who put their own pursuit of power above all else. Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we must be stronger, more determined and more committed to saving American democracy. And MAGA Republicans are destroying American democracy.”Biden— against his convivial instincts — decided to see American politics for what it is, not what he wants it to be. There is an extremist, authoritarian right — “semi-fascist” is an accurate descrip tor, according to an expert on fascism — that is taking over the Republican Party. Its rise imperils the rule of law, basic civil liberties, and democratic pluralism. We cannot act like it’s normal. And sure, the semi-fascists will get angry. They’ll project. They’ll call Biden Hitler or say he’s as bad as Trump. A hit dogButhollers.what the o’s editorial board didn’t understand is that Biden’s speech wasn’t meant to persuade the MAGA crowd.You’re not going to reform the MAGA movement. You have to crush it. Get more at billman.substack.com.
8 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
The speech at Philadelphia’s Indepen dence Hall last week — billed as a major address on the “Battle for the Soul of the Nation” — will likely be most remem bered for its strangely ominous optics, like President Joe Biden’s comms team leaned in a little too hard to the “Dark Brandon” memes, with red floodlights and a Marine honor guard silhouetted behind him. Or, as Tucker Carlson called it, a “blood-red Nazi background.” But it shouldn’t be. It was by far the most important speech of Biden’s presi dency, and one of the most important presidential speeches in a generation. It also marked a pronounced shift from the Biden who thought he could break the MAGA fever to one who, two years in, realized that the Republican Party he knew is a distant memory.
The right-wing reaction was about what you’d expect. Before Biden spoke, House Minority Leader Kevin McCar thy demanded that Biden apologize for “slandering tens of millions of Ameri cans as fascists.” Afterward, Sen. Rick Scott called Biden a “raving lunatic.”
Informed Dissent
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Biden’s comms team may have leaned in a little too hard to the “Dark Brandon” memes, but what he said was important.
e tion l e ie ’s Dan McLaughlin called the speech “blundering” and “in sincere.” Totally normal congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a deep fake video of Biden-as-Hitler delivering the speech, complete with swastikas in the background. “Did Joe Biden just declare war on Red State America?” Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, tweeted.Noless predictable were the Belt way pundits, many of whom got their knickers twisted over the Marines in the background—like they forgot Trump’s military-as-props fetish or the time George W. Bush landed a plane on an aircraft carrier to celebrate a mission that was not accomplished. e s in ton ost’s editorial board cried over Biden’s supposed appeal to partisanship instead of patriotism. “You don’t persuade people by scold ing or demeaning them, but that’s how the president’s speech landed for many conservatives of goodwill,” the edit board scolded.
metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 9
policy
I’d love to see more people talk about these revolutionary changes, my takeaway here is not that Biden is wrong to bury the lede — in fact, I applaud them for how they’ve messaged these policies. There’s a lot their strat egy can teach us about the space where advocacy, policy, and legislation meet. Policy is necessarily tedious. Good policy, after all, accounts for all of its consequences, intended and perhaps more importantly, unintended. In that respect, it can be hard to explain — even harder to advocate for in an increasingly attention-limited news en vironment like the one we live in today.
whengorequiresandsage.whenKudos.complexcancelinggoalsmessagedittrationdidiflivespeopleevenhealthfulltoFrankensteinnipcieswonkspolicyadvocatesexplainersboth.ment.IncomeToReformIncomeDrivenRepay-#RecalculateNonDiscretionary-Butasprogressives,wewantThatbehoovesustobebetterofourpolicygoals,notjustforit.There’sanothersideofthis:simplemakesforbetterpolitics.Policylovetodesignnuancedpoli-tobeallthingstoallpeople.Theyandtuck,pokeandproduntilthetheycreateisinexplicablethepublic.Thepolicygraveyardisofsuchpolicies—BillClinton’sreformplancomestomind.Butwhenitpasses,it’shardformosttoconnectwindfallsintheirtothepoliciesthatcreatedthemtheydon’tknowthatthepolicyevenit.Towardthatend,theBidenadminismayhavehadtheircakeandatetoo.Theyattachedalimited,easilyversionofthemostsimple—drugpricenegotiationandstudentdebt—tofarmorepolicieswithalotmorebite.Butrealpolicynirvanahappensthewholepolicyisitsownmes-Whatyouseeiswhatyouget—whatyougetiswhatyousee.Thatyoutotakethepoliticalrisktobig,buttoreapthepoliticalrewardsfolksunderstandexactlyhowthe
#CancelDebt is easier to advocate for than
The most revolutionary component of Biden’s student loan forgiveness is a rule change at the Department of Education with respect to the incomedriven repayment plan. The rule both reduces the maximum discretionary income a borrower can be asked to pay, and alters the way that discretionary income is calculated. Rather than 150% of poverty, the new rule would calculate non discretionary income at 225% of poverty.Tounderstand the impact, consider a hypothetical borrower in Michigan who graduated with $25,000 in student loanShedebt.lives alone and now makes $50,000 per annum. Her loan is accruing interest at 5% per year. Assuming she has $10,000 of her loan forgiven, she now owes $15,000. But that loan accrues interest at $2.05 a day — $60 a month.Thefederal poverty level in Michigan for a person living alone is $17,388. Under the old income-driven repay ment plan, she would be expected to pay up to $200 a month. Under the new rule, that drops to $45 a month. But if the loan is accruing more than $2.00 a day in interest, that means her monthly payment wouldn’t even cover the interest. Under the old rule, her interest would simply balloon her over all debt. But under the new rule, her excess interest is paid for by the federal government What’s more, if she makes her payments, her slate is wiped clean after 10 years, rather than 20 under the old system. If she were to stay in her job for the next decade (admittedly unlikely), she’d end up paying about $5,400 and the government would wipe out the remaining $9,600 of her debt. In total, that would mean she paid only only , 000 to pay off her entire $25,000 debt. This rule, combined with Biden’s initial $10,000 forgiveness, eliminates nearly 80% of her burden.
Let’s start with the Inflation Reduc tion Act’s much heralded price negotiation for prescription drugs. Prescrip tion drug negotiation has grabbed many headlines finally ending a long-held restriction on Medicare’s ability to advocate for its patients. Though, considering that negotia tion doesn’t actually start until 2026 and that it only applies to, at most, 20 drugs, it’s the thinnest possible negotiation they could have gotten. And so, the most important aspect of the prescription drug reform isn’t drug negotiation at all. It’s something buried deep beneath the headlines the Infla tion Reduction Act limits the annual increase of drug prices to the rate of inflation for Medicare beneficiaries Over time, this component — not Medicare negotiation itself — is where the real savings for patients will ac crue. Every year, pharmaceutical com panies and their CEOs, whose profits are held in stocks, raise their prices to arbitrarily bump their projected earn ings. Prices of half of the prescription drugs covered by Medicare increased faster than inflation in 2020. Price negotiation only benefits folks who are taking one of 20 drugs to which it applies. But limiting annual price increases across the board benefits far more people. The Biden administra tion buried the lede They did the same with student loan forgiveness announced last week. Ostensibly, this action is about forgiv ing up to $20,000 of debt for borrowers earning less than $125,000 annually. But like the Inflation Reduction Act, again, the most important aspect of the policy isn’t in the headlines.
The Biden Administration keeps burying the lede By Abdul El-Sayed
10 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
The Biden administration’s got its mojo back just in time for the fall midterms. That new momentum is, in part, thanks to two key pieces of policy the Inflation Reduction Act and Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. Though one is a major legislative accomplishment and the other a smart bureaucratic change, both have something in common: their most important parts weren’t their shiniest.
But just like the prescription drug reform, the Biden administration buried thisThoughlede.
benefits them. Medicare for All, anyone? Originally published Sept. 1 in The Incision. Get more at abdulelsayed. substack.com. NEWS & VIEWS The best parts of the Inflation Reduction Act and student loan forgiveness aren’t the obvious ones.
SHUTTERSTOCK
The Incision
metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 11
12 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
BlackLANDTOTHE
How a group of Black and brown Detroiters IS getting more POC outdoors for hiking, kayaking, and camping adventures
By Randiah Camille Green
metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 13
“THIS HAS TO BE IT,” my friend says as we pull into a parking lot at Proud Lake Recreation Area. We’re looking for a cookout and kayaking meetup called Browns, Blacks, and Kayaks. This is undeniably the spot, because everyone getting out of their cars carrying lawn chairs and blankets under their arms is Black, like us. It’s an unfamiliar feeling. Usually, on our visits to Michigan State Parks for hiking and camping, we’re the only Black folks around. But this event is led by Black to the Land Coalition, a group of Detroiters who organize outdoor events like kayaking, hiking, camping, and fishing, for people of Thecolor.goal is to get more POC outside, exploring nature and building a harmonious relationship with the land like our African and Indigenous an cestors had. Browns, Blacks, and Kayaks (or BBK) is the group’s signature annual event. This year drew more than 200 participants, half of which had never kayaked before. Afrobeat music and the sound of excited children fills the air. The chargrilled smell of burgers and vegan sausages teases our noses as brown-skinned people of all shades kick back on the grass and paddle down the river. Erin PJ Bevel, a BTTLC board member, wants to eradicate stereotypes of what’s seen as “Black” and what“Soisn’t.many of these things Black people are not used to seeing other Black people do, and so it gets labeled as ‘other,’” she says. “I would say some of the most negative feedback I get about stuff like this, unfortunately, comes from other Black people. I mean, people weren’t really talking about kayaking and there wasn’t really anybody I could kayak with, so even debunking that in our own community is reallyThisimportant.”allstarted around 2018, when several Detroit organizations working separately toward self-suf ficiency in communities of color decided to come together. BTTLC is made up of several organizations whose members share collective resources for initiatives like archery lessons, a camping program for elders, emergency preparedness, and an Urban Forest School for children. While on the surface, BTTLC may seem like just a group of POC getting together for outdoor recre ational activities, their work is rooted in ancestral connections to the Earth and preparing their com munities for what they believe is the eventual col lapse of capitalism, when they will have no choice but return to the land.
Bevel always knew she would homeschool her children, but decided to take the classroom out doors after her 5-year-old daughter seemed com pletely uninterested in her at-home curriculum.
There are several Forest Schools in Michigan, but Bevel found them all “woefully white.” So, she decided to create her own, and later took the idea to “ABTTLC.bigpart of our frame is making sure that our Black and brown children are learning about their unique relationship with Mama Earth,” she says.
ABOVE: RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN OPPOSITE: MARC KLOCKOW
FEATURE
Twice a month, the Urban Forest School kids go out and learn to identify wild plants and explore the flora and fauna surrounding them.
Bevel runs BTTLC’s Urban Forest School for children under 10 years old. It’s part of her “unschooling philosophy,” which trades a stuffy classroom for hikes in places like Eliza Howell and Rouge Park.
Bevel is also a co-founder of the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund, which provides resources and grant money to help Black farmers purchase land Black to the Land Coalition’s Browns, Blacks, and Kayaks event drew more than 200 people this year.
“Black, brown, Indigenous people are descendants of Earth-honoring societies. When I think about being a Black woman here in America on Turtle Island and raising a Black child, I want to make sure that they understand that we are descendants of people who found great power, organization, and greatness through working with the earth.”
Nature as a classroom
“We got all these kids sitting down for eight hours a day, not letting them go outside, and it’s like we’re just making them into capitalist slaves,” says Bevel. “Life is a classroom. You can teach math through seeds. We can count seeds, plants, cars, whatever. You don’t have to teach it by sitting down and looking at a book.”
“Protecting the Earth is
“Our ancestors on the African continent brought us agriculture, and animal husbandry, and all of these seeds of what we call civilization in America,” she says. “And I don’t mean stewarding it in that Abrahamic religious sense of having dominion over the earth, but working in cooperation with it. Protecting the Earth is protecting ourselves. This is not something that we are separate from or that is separate from us.”
The spiritual philosophy comes later, but things like kayaking and hiking are the first step on the road to building a relationship with the land. If more POC would just get outside to see and feel the life all around them, that connection with the planet as a living organism will come eventually. That’s the hope, anyway. Beyond the sacred aspects of land stewardship, BTTLC co-chair Tepfirah Rushdan believes we will eventually need to prepare for a reimagined society.
separateourselves.Thisprotectingisnotsomethingthatweareseparatefromorthatisfromus.”
As the name implies, Get Ready, Stay Ready’s goal is to prepare melanated people for emergen cies through workshops and skillshares.
MARC KLOCKOW
14 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com in the city. She says Black and Indigenous people have a responsibility to protect the planet and con tinue the traditions of their ancestors.
“The impetus for doing this work is that people who look like us are the least prepared and therefore the most susceptible to danger and a lot of the negative impacts that come from emergencies or disasters,” B Anthony says. “Whether it’s the instability of our power grid, the rise of terror at tacks on schools, something as simple as EBT cards
Whether climate change wipes us all out or polar izing politics tear humankind apart, she says there will come a time when the capitalism paradigm is no longer “Capitalismsustainable.andthe root of colonialism needs to be abolished and destroyed in its current form,” Rushdan says. “If we’re going to move toward soci eties that are more equitable, we are going to have to reverse that colonial trend and gain some level of independence. But if anything happens to society as we know it, you’re gonna have to go back and reexamine your relationship with the land. And if you don’t have one, you’re gonna be hit.” She adds, “We’re in the convergence where the old is collapsing and the new is being created. I want to drive us toward that, so for me, it’s like, let’s expose people to the outdoors and under stand what plants we can eat out here. Let’s un derstand that it’s OK to sit in the grass and it’s OK to swim in water that’s murky. That’s the natural way of things, so let’s conquer some of those fears andBTTLCanxieties.”board member B Anthony echoes similar thoughts.“Peace,” he greets my friend and I when we arrive at Browns, Blacks, and Kayaks. He answers the phone in the same manner when we later speak about his emergency preparedness initiative Get Ready, Stay Ready, a group he runs through his other organization, the Conscious Community Cooperative Think Thank (or C Three Think Tank, for short).
BTTLC is made up of different organizations whose members share collective resources forinitiatives.outdoor
metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 15 Wed 9/07 PATIO BAR OPEN@5PM Modelo Promo@6pm Mizz RUTH’S GRILL @7pm Thurs 9/08 KRW pres. Frequencies After DARK w/DJ Nefyu Doors@9pm/$5 Cover Mizz RUTH’S GRILL @7pm Fri 9/09 PARKHOUSE NIGHT Doors@9pm/$5 Cover Mizz RUTH’S GRILL @7pm SAT 9/10 Annual DALLY DAY @ OLD MIAMI DJ’s wsg/MARCIE BOLEN(Von Blondies) Vintage & Art Market on the Patio!* Deep Eddy Seltzer PROMO @4pm TOPP DOGG GRILL @6pm Happy Birthday, Sean Berendt! Sun 9/11 Bacardi Appreciation Day! BACARDI PARTI 2-9PM OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! TOPP DOGG GRILL@3pm Mon 9/12 FREE POOL ALL DAY Tues 9/13 B. Y. O. R. Bring Your Own Records (weekly) You Can DJ! @9PM NO COVER! Thurs 9/15 LITERARY DEATH MATCH One Night in Detroit @ The Old Miami! Nationally Recognized & Critically Acclaimed! “...part literary event, part comedy show, part game show” JUDGED by LOCAL CELEBS! $10 presale $15(literarydeathmatch.com)atthedoor Doors @6:30/Event @7pm* Coming Up in September: 9/16 Beauville/Ryan Dillilah&The Delmatics 9/17DrunkenCircusMonkeySeatbelts/Cinecyde/ 9/22 VINTAGE & ART MARKET on the PATIO* 9/23 Super Horndog/Static Factory 9/24 SUPER FUN DANCE PARTY (monthly) 9/25 Combust/Exhibition/D BLOCK/Breach 9/30 DetroitYogaLab pres. Costume & Dance *weather permitting JELLO SHOTS always $1
The first time I took my then- -year-old mother camping in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, she was dead set on bringing a gun or a knife to protect us against bears and the racist white people she was convinced we’d meet. When it dawned on her that she doesn’t actually own a gun or a knife, she thrifted a baseball bat, despite how many times I asked, “Are you serious, right now?”
“We need to be outdoors in order to heal, in order to get back connected to nature, and a lot of that healing is from a capitalist white supremacist system,” B Anthony says. “That healing works best when we can do that on our own. We don’t have time to nurse their white fragility when we’re fight ing for our right to be in an outdoor space. It’s not about hating anybody or anything like that. It’s just not about you, and if you are an ally, you need to understand that.”
A day on the Huron River at Proud Lake Recreation Area with Black to the Land.
To answer the question, “is it racist to exclude white people,” you must first consider how Amer ica’s racist history fuels present-day reservations many POC have about venturing out into the wild.
After a successful trip, my mother realized sleeping on the rock-hard ground was a more concrete
Years before Rushdan was spreading the joys of kayaking, she says she lived “off the grid” during her 20s in a complete rebellion against modern society. During her 10 years of isolation, she says she dropped out of school and lived in Detroit with “varying levels of electricity and water,” where she meditated daily and didn’t have a job. Rushdan would collect bottles or beg for money until she could scrounge up enough to eat every day. “My day-to-day sustenance was reliant on the creator,” she says. “I was basically living this monk lifestyle, practicing my yoga and spirituality, but I found myself getting further and further away from my people. I always felt the desire to change the things that I was seeing, but then I started to feel like, ‘How am I gonna change them if I’m isolated in this monk world?’” She considered herself a “poor righteous teacher” (named after the New Jersey hip-hop group), who thought renouncing money and society was the key to Thatliberation.lifestyle worked until she couldn’t feed her children.“Ihadlocs down to my butt, a head wrap up to the sky, and was wearing African garb very much in that nonconformist subculture, challenging the system,” she remembers. “But it was in a very theoretical way because when it came down to it, I couldn’t feed my children. It was like, OK, you know the system is the devil, but if you know that what are you doing about it?” After she turned 30, Rushdan came out of isolation, went back to school for environmental studies, and got a job with The Greening of Detroit, where she worked on conservation projects with local youth. From there she took a farming ap prenticeship and began growing her own food. Now she works at Keep Growing Detroit, an urban farm in the Eastern Market district that distributes seeds and transplants to gardeners around the city through its Garden Resource Program. For both Rushdan and B Anthony, the 2003 blackout that left many Midwestern cities, including Detroit, without power for several days was a turning“Whenpoint.theblackout hit I saw how vulnerable we were, and it really made me confront this revolutionary theory and deep isolation,” she recalls. “I was super revolutionary and I could cite all this philosophy, but I was still relying on the food system as it was to bring me my food every day. That was crazy for me. I had to confront that, like this deep rebelling against the system, what is that really gonna get us?” B Anthony adds, “I remember most folks not being prepared. I remember folks barbecuing in the alley, scavenging, and really struggling to make endsFrommeet.”there, B Anthony started getting seri ous about emergency preparedness and sharing it with his community. Rushdan began exploring her neighborhood to learn what plants were edible and planted a garden. They would later both come together under BTTLC with similar goals of selfsufficiency.
Having POC-only events makes people who may not have much experience with outdoor activities feel comfortable asking questions without the fear of being judged. It also means we don’t have to code switch or change the way we speak and behave to be understood and respected.
16 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com not working, or natural disasters, most of us are not equipped to handle those things.” He says the CO ID- 9 pandemic blew the lid off why people, especially in poor communities, need to be “Thingsprepared.arebecoming more and more real,” he says. “There’s been foreshadowing of food short ages all across the United States for a couple of years now. We’re also still in a water crisis. Even just being prepared for everyday Black life — like, what do you do when you are stopped by the police? That is an emergency that we don’t necessarily think about, but it’s something that happens.”
So, is it racist to exclude white people?
While some Black to the Land events are open to white allies, Browns, Blacks, and Kayaks is for POC only. It may upset some white people, but B Anthony and the others say having Black and brown only spaces in settings where they have historically felt unwelcome is a way of healing.
The woods hold trauma around lynching, rape, and other atrocious acts that have taken place there throughout history. In Michigan, the mere word “backwoods” dredges up images of gun-toting, mil itant extremists who aren’t the type of folks POC want to be stuck around after dark. Its reminiscent of sundown towns, areas where Black people were kept out through intimidation tactics, discrimina tory practices, or outright violence. Many metro Detroit suburbs were once sundown towns.
Now that’s a loaded question.
“I could just imagine white folks who may be very used to being in those environments taking over the space in a way that I didn’t want to see,” Rush dan says. “I wanted to be very intentional. I wanted people to feel themselves there, see themselves there, hear their music, talk in their language, and have a space to strategize and organize around independence and strategies for our community.”
Poor teachersrighteous
RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN
The Three C Think Tank also partners with Mama Shu’s Avalon Village to host an annual “hood camp” where children camp out in Highland Park for two nights. They learn skills like first aid, how to pitch a tent, and how to build a fire. Hood camp has been an ongoing event for about ten years.
“We would do tree plantings and it would be like 30 or 40 white volunteers come to an all Black neighborhood and the Black people sit on the porch and don’t feel included because they automatically feel like ‘that’s not my space,’” she explains.
Rushdan says she’d rather focus on creating joy through events like Browns, Blacks, and Kayaks, which provide a reprieve from the cacophony of city“Evenlife. outside of all the political talk of collapse, I love nature,” she says. “The sun, the water, the minerals in the soil, all of it. It’s all healing.” That love is clear as she gets people situated in their kayaks back on Proud Lake Recreation Area and instructs first-timers before they set off. As the day rolls on, it’s almost as if BTTLC exists in a microcosm where the stigma and fear attached to POC doing something as simple as kayaking doesn’t exist. The river has washed it away as par ticipants coast along its gentle waters.
A 2017 study found that nearly 70% of Black chil dren had “no or low swimming ability.” What’s more, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that Black Americans are 1.5 times more likely to drown than their white counterparts, while the rates for Indigenous people are two times higher.
“When you get outside of liberal Detroit, you can kind of run into some scary people and that can be a scary situation, especially if you’re by yourself,” Rushdan says. “I’ve talked to some elders who have seen some things in the woods, and that historical trauma lives in our DNA, and in our storytelling amongst our families. If that’s an experience that our grandmothers had, even if she didn’t say it out right, just that attitude of ‘Don’t go over there, don’t do that’ would be reiterated to us.” The effects of systemic racism are a lot to unpack, but they are the root of many of the issues BTTLC is trying to address. Beyond trauma and the fear or running into someone racist, other cultural reasons and atti tudes also deter many POC from outdoor activities.
“At the GD farm I was the first Black employee and I had long conversations with other employees about if we’re trying to engage the 85% Black population, and they pull up to the farm and see 10 white people working, they’re going to with draw from it. And so I didn’t want to replicate that.”
“This land is ours, all of ours, because I’m not saying that just Black and brown people need to be in nature,” Bevel says. “Everybody can be there. But like, everybody can be there, and that includes me.”
Not wanting a fresh retwist to get ruined in the water is a damn good reason for plenty of Black Americans to avoid going swimming. (If you know, youAndknow.)that’s not to mention the history of segregation in public pools and beaches, leaving many Black Americans with fewer opportunities to swim. It’s why dumpster trailers filled with water used as quasi-pools, also known as “swim mobiles,” became so popular in urban neighborhoods during the 1970s.Many Black Americans still grow up without learning how to swim, another seemingly benign way deeply ingrained systematic oppression rears its ugly head.
“That’s a very prominent statistic and we know that Black and brown people disproportionately don’t have opportunities to go swimming, and are just not being exposed to swimming for a variety of reasons,” Rushdan says. “That can lead to some very real anxiety when you’re on the water.”
Rushdan is actually biracial, or “all the things that were here when the whole thing popped off,” as she puts it. Her mother is English and French, and her father is Black and Indigenous. I ask her if putting the emphasis on her Black and Indigenous heritage somehow feels like ignoring her French and English roots. But Rushdan says intimately seeing both communities and the disproportionate oppression growing up put racial equity at the forefront of her mind. “I’ve actually talked to my mom about this, who is white,” she explains. “For me, it comes down to, if you’re not intentional about Black and brown people being welcome, in Detroit — this majority Black city — they won’t take ownership or engage with it in the same way.” She experienced this both while planting trees with The Greening of Detroit and working at the Keep Growing Detroit farm.
“If anything happens to society as we know it, you’re gonna have to go back and re-examine your relationship with the land. And if you don’t have one, you’re gonna be hit.”
Twice a month, the Urban Forest School kids go out to explore the flora and fauna surrounding them.
MARC KLOCKOW
18 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com source of discomfort than a hypothetical racist (who we never encountered). Still, the fear is tangible, especially for older generations of Black folks.
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The Swedish electronic dance superstar Eric Prydz largely keeps a low profile, at least as low of a profile that a platinumselling Swedish electronic dance music superstar can possibly keep while also cultivating a reputation for unimpeach able club bangers. Think tracks like 2004’s “Call on Me,” which sampled Steve Winwood’s 1982 hit “Valerie” and featured a risqué workout-themed music video, and a 2006 remix of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall, Part II” dubbed “Proper Education” — and wild, visually stunning live shows (including an Ibiza residency in recent years). So it’s a pretty big deal that Prydz will make a rare club appearance at Pontiac’s Elektricity this weekend. Detroit DJ Sherif is supporting, while the patio has Esshaki, Johnny Malek, Jake from SpaceFarm, Raedy Lex, and Some Black Cat, with Plus Size Models, Doug English, Food Fight, and Players Club in the Mojo Room. If you haven’t been recently, Elektricity unveiled renovations earlier this year, including the restoration of Moorish-inspired architectural flourishes dating back to its past life as the Eagle Theatre, and updated LED screens for eye-popping visual effects.
22 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com Select events happening in metro Detroit this week.
WHAT’S GOING ON Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks performs at Pine Knob on Tuesday.
SAT, 9/10 HUMP! Watching dirty movies in a theater with a bunch of strangers could be an excit ing way to spend an evening if you’re into that sort of thing. Or it could get weird real quick. The HUMP! Film Festival is your opportunity to try it out when it comes to Ann Arbor’s Michigan Theater on Saturday. Dan Savage (who contributes the Savage Love sex advice column to Metro Times) curated the showcase of sexpositive films. “These dirty movies are created by people who aren’t porn stars but want to be one just for this festival,” a press release reads. “The films run the gamut of body sizes, shapes, ages, colors, sexualities, genders, kinks, and fetishes. It is a unique celebration of creative sexual expression.” Pretty much sounds like amateur porn. Maybe not the boring vanilla kind you’d watch on Pornhub, but of a more artsy and experimental style that’s made by regular people. Everything from queer sex, to BDSM, and sex toys gone wrong is explored. This is the description for one of the films, “L’Ingrediente Principale (The Main Ingredient)”: “A ripe nipple, a clitoris drizzled in EVOO, a generous dash of salt — ingredients of all kinds combine in this mouth-watering queer film, culminating in the ultimate feast.” Meanwhile, in “Sucky Situation,” “Aphrobitey is sealed in a latex bed with nowhere to go.” HUMP! has screened in over 50 cities across the United States and Canada, becoming an international phenom enon before going virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, the raunchy festival goes back on tour, stopping in Ann Arbor for the first time in eight “Thereyears.issomething irreplaceable about seeing HUMP! in a physical theater with other people, with strang ers,” Savage says. “Despite our differ ences, there is an incredible shared experience during every screening. We see our shared desires, vulnerability, sense of humor, that shared need for intimacy. It’s bonding and kind of beautiful!” —Randiah Camille Green HUMP! Film Festival has showtimes at 6:30 p.m. and p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Michigan Theater; 603 E. i ert St. nn r or um lm est. com. Tickets are $20. 18+ only.
COURTESY PHOTO
THURS, 9/8
TUES, 9/13 Stevie Nicks Rock ’n’ roll icon Stevie Nicks is heading to metro Detroit’s Pine Knob amphitheater in September. The Fleetwood Mac singer will perform at the outdoor venue with singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton as support. It’s the 50th show announced for the 50th anniversary season of the venue, which recently reverted back to its historic Pine Knob name after sponsor DTE Energy opted not to renew its naming rights. Boomers, rejoice! —Lee DeVito Event starts at p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at Pine Knob Music Theatre; 33 Bob Seger Dr., Clarkston; 313-471-7000; 313presents.com. Tickets start at $49.50
—Lee DeVito Doors at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 10 at Elektricity, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; 248-599-2212; elektricitymusic.com. Tickets are $50. 18+ only.
If The River Could Sing
If the Detroit River could sing, it would probably sing a song that goes something like “please stop pollut ing me humans, both for my sake and yours, or else you’ll be sorry.” In reality, the river’s song is more like soft rolling water and gentle waves. InsideOut’s poetry and music event, dubbed If The River Could Sing will celebrate the river by exploring its history and conservation through art and wellness. The free event is part of InsideOut’s Poetry for the People program, which is designed to make poetry more accessible and engaging. It features a lineup of literary and music perfor mances by Detroit creatives like Nandi Comer, Noor Hindi, Jassmine Parks, and La Shuan Phoenix Moore. Other activities include risograph printing with Rachel Delmotte of the Room Project, a sound bath meditation, and learning about invasive and native plant species along the riverfront with the Friends of the Detroit River-led workshop. —Randiah Camille Green From 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 8. at Valade Park; 2670 Atwater St., Detroit; poetryforthepeople.insideoutdetroit.org/Freeentry.
SAT, 9/10 Eric Prydz
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“We’re playing this music and making these records to sell to these people. We’re not particularly product-minded like that, but at the end of the day, that’s what it is. You’re making music to please yourself as a musician, and you’re hoping that these people will buy it so you can make a living. So that was sort of what we focused on. We didn’t set these goals like we want to get signed to a major label and we want to sell out stadiums. We just had maybe a more realistic view of it. OK, here’s what we can do. Let’s do this.” Eventually Starr got to return to taking shows beyond his back yard, as Blackberry Smoke played some socially distanced and drive-in concerts in fall 2020. The band then spent much of last summer on a headlining tour, has con tinued to do shows this year, and will round out the year playing their album The Whippoorwill to celebrate the 10th anniversary of that release. Fans can expect some surprises in the set list. “We kind of just switch it up night to night,” Starr says. “There are songs that we sort of always play, favorites that I kind of figure, well, if we don’t play them, then we hear about it. But it’s OK. Personally, I love playing all of the songs. There really aren’t any that I go ‘Oh, man.’ And even if I did, even songs we’ve played thousands of times now, when you see people react, it kind of keeps it fresh. ‘Oh, I like this tune.’” A few songs could come from the band’s latest album, You Hear Georgia, which was released in May 2021 and debuted at No. 1 on the U.S. Americana albums chart. The band, which also includes Paul Jackson (guitar), Richard Turner (bass), Brit Turner (drums), and Brandon Still (keyboards), had planned all along to make a new album in 2020, but the pandemic pushed those plans back for a couple of months.
By Alan Sculley
“We were planning to go into the stu dio in March (2020) with Dave Cobb,” Starr says, mentioning the highly respected producer who remained on board for the project. “We had a bunch of songs written and we were ready to go. We were in Canada. We had just started a Canadian tour. I think we got three shows played and we were sent home. What we were going to do ini tially was go into the studio right off of that Canadian tour. It’s always great for a band to go in the studio coming off of a tour because you’re all well oiled and rehearsed. Of course, that all got shot down.”Instead, the group put recording plans on pause before settling on a late-May trip to Nashville’s RCA Studio A, where Cobb works. This slight delay actually benefited the album. It gave Starr time to write some more songs, a few of which, he says, supplanted other tunes that had been slated to be on the album. One of those tunes was “All Rise Again,” which was co-written by Starr and Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule and the Allman Brothers Band). One of the best songs on You Hear Georgia, the stout and soulful rocker includes a tangy slide guitar solo and a vocal turn fromAnotherHaynes.new addition was the title song, a crunchy rocker responding to the demeaning stereotypes often as sociated with the South and the people who call it home. “The song ‘You Hear Georgia’ itself was the last one written for the record. I was sitting over in the corner and I had been fiddling around with a riff with my buddy (and songwriting collaborator) Dave Lizmi, who’s a great guitar player,” Starr says. “We were batting some music back and forth and I started playing what I had of that song and singing the first couple of verse lines, and Dave Cobb was over in the corner of the studio on a couch. And Cobb came by having a cup of coffee and he said ‘What’s that?’ I said ‘Well, it’s not finished. It’s nothing yet.’ He said Well, go finish it. I love it. We’ve got to record it.’ “And Dave Cobb, I think he said you should call the album that, and it was just kind of an Ah-hah moment with all of us,” Starr says. “It was like ‘You’re right.’ It kind of cemented the whole week right here. Everything went so well and then to end on that sort of a bang was ‘Yeah man, you’re exactly right.’”The rest of the You Hear Georgia al bum demonstrates the band’s versatil ity, while still showing that Blackberry Smoke is first and foremost a rock ’n’ roll band. In addition to several other tuneful and muscular rockers (“All Over The Road,” “Live It Down” and “Morningside”), there’s a poppier tune laced with funk (“Hey Delilah”), a pure country song featuring a guest vocal from Jamey Johnson (“Lonesome For A Livin’”), and a stripped-back gentle ballad (“Old Enough To Know”). Starr feels the latest album, like each successive Blackberry Smoke album, finds the band growing musically and crafting a set of songs that’s a bit more cohesive.“Thefocus is a little clearer, I think, with each one (album)” Starr says. “I guess that’s bound to happen when a band’s been playing together for years and years. I hope the songwriting has grown. I feel like it has. It makes me feel good. I can go back to our first album and think, as a songwriter, think ‘Oh, well I wouldn’t have done that that way now’ or ‘I wouldn’t have said that exactly that way.’ But that’s just getting older, I guess. There are aspects of our first couple of records that I still love dearly, that, you know, youth and exuberance. But then I put on ‘You Hear Georgia’ and there are songs where I’m like we can still lay it down like we did when we were in our 20s.”
24 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
MUSIC
Blackberry Smoke perform at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre on Friday. JOE LOPEZ
Blackberry Smoke performs with Jamey Johnson and Megan Moroney on Friday, Sept. at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre; 14900 Metro Pkwy., Sterling Heights; 313-471-7000; 313presents.com. Event starts at 6:15 p.m. Tickets start at $25.15.
Throughout Blackberry Smoke’s two-decade career, play ing live has been the lifeblood of the band. So being forced off of the road by the pandemic wasn’t easy for the group. “It’s a tough habit to kick, playing music in front of people,” Charlie Starr, singer, guitarist, and main songwriter for the band, says in a recent phone interview. “We even, before we even started to do those kinds of shows, my buddy Benji (Shanks, who is a touring guitarist with Blackberry Smoke) and I were playing for my neighbors in my backyard. OK, any port in the storm.” In fact, when the Atlanta-based group formed in 2000, getting the chance to tour and play shows was the central goal, and it pretty much has remained the band’s focus ever since. “We knew what we could control was taking our music on the road and playing for people, which was really the most important thing,” Starr says.
Smokeshow Even a Blackberrycouldn’tpandemicstopSmokefromperforming
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It was only because of steadfast devotion to my readers that on my sec ond visit to Galindo’s, I swerved from the torta menu — 22 choices — and sampled the tacos and fajitas that are better known in these parts. The choice was heart-wrenching because the two tortas I did get to try — the specialty Galindo’s is known for — were so damn good.Chef-owner Erik Galindo is from Mexico City, where apparently they will put anything between bread, including tamales, chile relleno, or chilaquiles. Tortas (sandwiches) are sold by street vendors there and prepared at the cart on the spot.
The Russian, inexplicably, uses breaded steak, pork, and American cheese.
The bread, which is flatter than a usual bolillo, rectangular rather than oval, comes from Sheila’s Bakery on Springwells, and isn’t sold in the store. Each torta is thus more than plenty for two people.
FOOD
The difference, Galindo says, is that in Mexico City the tortas are even larger than in Southgate. I didn’t bring a ruler, but I’d say each half of a Galindo torta — thank god they’re cut in two — is about 7 inches by 4-and-a-half inches.
The fillings are hearty. All include the mild Oaxaca cheese, quesillo, and one, two, three or four kinds of meat.
By Jane Slaughter
Get that bread
The Chupacabra incorporates five proteins: breaded chicken and steak, pork, salchicha (frankfurter), and egg.
This is all on top of mayo, tomato, thick slices of avocado, and occasional flashes of jalape o. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Was the pork in the Acapulco marinated? What had been done to the mushrooms in this relatively simple torta, just three ingredients? Was it the fried egg in the three-meat Cubana (salchicha and breaded chicken and steak) that pushed it to stardom? My companions and I agreed that there was some kind of secret sauce that lifted these sandwiches way above the norm. They come with fries or rice and refried beans, the latter being eminently Imissable.alsoadored the chilaquiles, listed as an appetizer but often a breakfast dish.
“Chilaquiles” can mean some widely varying takes, depending where you are in Mexico, but Galindo’s Mexico City style (and his mom’s) is to toss tortilla chips in salsa verde and top with queso fresco, onions, cilantro, and a bit of sour cream. The crowning glory, don’t leave this out, is a fried egg, which Chef Galindo makes perfectly with crisp edg es and a runny yolk. The result is soggy on the bottom and crisp on top, and I couldn’t come close to finishing it. More stand-outs: Horchata. Made from scratch, by soaking the rice in-house, it’s strongly reminiscent of vanilla (though there isn’t any, in fact) and cinnamon. This is the best horchata I’ve had since a Salvadoran version some years ago, with morro seeds. And the pale green, creamy jalape o salsa looks and feels like it should contain avocado but instead is somehow deeply smoky and complex based just on the hot pepper and cilantro. Also superior is guacamole a big chunky bowl with lots of tomato is $6.50. Tortilla chips are fried fresh every day and served warm with four salsas jalape o, verde, “mild,” and “hot” each of which has a lot more going on than just heat. On my next visit I’ll be taking home a full cup of the jalape o sauce for $2.50. Although the tortas are what makes Galindo’s special, you can also order tacos, enchiladas, flautas, tostadas, salads, fajitas, burritos, or quesadillas. A few boast an ominously named “baja ranch” sauce. I ordered a pork Taco de Ciudad — Ciudad refers to Mexico City — which meant topped with fries. Your reaction to such excess might be either “Why?” or “Oh yeah.” I found my simple tilapia taco with onion and cilantro to be more generous with the fish than most, on doubled crisp tortillas.
If you order fajitas — which are TexMex, not Ciudad de Mexico — you’ll get a huge pile of sizzling meat over mild peppers and construct the dish using your own proportions of lettuce, guacamole, and sour cream. Desserts are also from Sheila’s Bak ery, including a dense, eggy, generous flan and a moist, generous tres leches cake with bonus nuts. You are sensing the common theme: portions are very large. Galindo’s also has two food trucks that go all over Downriver and a loca tion at Little Caesars Arena Grosse Ile is eyed for expansion. The Southgate store is imminently simple, with just four tables and a brisk carry-out busi ness, but it’s just expanded to an addi tional, larger location a bit up the road, at 1297 Fort St. in Wyandotte. Erin Galindo, wife of Erik, says some smaller portions are available there. Galindo’s 13754 Fort St., Southgate tacosSandwiches1111galindosmexican.com734-324-1141a.m.-9p.m.Monday-Saturday,a.m.-8p.m.Sunday$12-$16,$2.75-$4,entrées$8-$14 Galindo’s in Southgate is known for its tortas.
MARC KLOCKOW
28 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
FOOD
Detroit nurse to transform Linwood-Dexter block into business complex starting with fresh food market
WHEN SONYA GREENE noticed a lack of healthy food options in Detroit’s Linwood-Dexter area, she decided to take responsibility by opening her own grocery store, Linwood Fresh Market. “Back in the day, I’m sure we all can remember the local corner market that helped our families make it through the week that offered various grab-and-go items,” Greene says. “Who didn’t take a leisure stroll to the corner store? It was a simpler time and I wish to recapture the nostalgic feeling Linwood once had.”After 27 years as a registered nurse, Greene knows the positive impact of healthy nutrition and proper diets. It was made more evident that people needed healthier food options during the COVID-19 pandemic, Greene says, which had a disproportionate impact on Black communities. “We were greatly affected due to underlying health conditions that have plagued us for years, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, vascular diseases, asthma,” she says. “This [was] coupled with poor diets, lack of exercise, little to no relationship with a physician or healthcare provider.
By Darlene A. White
“I have two local residents that are very excited about the store,” Greene says. “They approached me early on and asked for a job. They are both young in age, so I am super excited to be able to work with them.” Green says she has also started a nonprofit organization called the Inua Organization. “The name Inua’ is Swa hili, and it means to ‘raise’ or ‘lift,’” she says. “This is what I intend to do in that community.”Greene’shope is that she makes a difference and positively impacts the lives of the community residents. One of her missions is to inspire young children to think big and show them the benefits of remaining “Determinationdetermined.andpersistence is key,” Greene says. “As a child, I was taught by my parents that you live what you learn.’ That sentiment holds true in me today. I was taught, loved, and nurtured by no-nonsense individu als. Their life lessons have blessed me tremendously. I would like to share what I know both personally and professionally.”Tothatend, Greene recently came up with an idea to place a mural on the side of her building. “I wanted something to speak to the youth,” she says. “I found the mural online and it actually was created by an artist in Nairobi. I asked a young artist, Bryant aldez of Southwest Detroit, to make me something similar, and he did.”The mural features a woman, and behind her head are newspaper articles about tragedy, disaster, and despair. But she’s wrapped in newspaper covered in messages of hope, love, encourage ment, and perseverance. The final green light in opening the market will be granted by the City of Detroit, along with the Detroit Health Department.“Iamoptimistic that the grocery store will open soon, but I am not sure how soon,” Greene says.
So, combine all of these issues together with a respiratory pandemic, and boom —Thedisaster.”1,800-square-foot market will offer fresh food, including healthy and healthy grab-and-go meals with a walk-up counter for made-to-order smoothies and juices. It will also stock Michigan-made products, beer, and wine.Greene’s late uncle Elmer Fuller had a barbershop in the space for nearly 40 years, and she purchased it from her aunt in 2017. To honor that, Greene’s plan for the site includes a three-chair beauty salon, along with four residen tialWhenapartments.Greene initially started the project, she says she was told that it was going to be virtually impossible to secure a loan. “I am grateful to have been taught early on the importance of making smart financial decisions,” she says. “Because of those decisions, I was able to remodel the market without any financial assistance from banks or lenders.”Sheadds, “Now don’t get me wrong, initially I sought out loans and grants to fund this project, but they proved to be either a ‘dead end’ or a ‘hamster wheel.’ Banks are very reluctant to loan money to new start-up businesses, so I used my own.”
“The name ‘Inua’ is Swahili, and it means to ‘raise’ or ‘lift,’” she says. “This is what I intend to do in community.”that
SE7ENFIFTEEN
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April Lockett, a former radio per sonality on HOT 107.5 and host of Ask A.P., grew up in the Linwood-Dexter neighborhood and is thrilled for the new transformation coming to the area. “I believe it’s a great idea not just because I grew up in this community but because this community deserves it,” Lockett says. “This area doesn’t get the appreciation it deserves so many great things and people were birthed in this area, and I think people have forgotten about that. I’m super excited that Ms. Greene decided to keep something for us and by us in this area where this community can see that we deserve good things, and that this is only the beginning to rebuilding the DexterLinwood area.” As Greene continues to work on the market, she plans to hire people from the community to assist with operating the market once it opens.
Linwood Fresh Market will be located at 12752 Linwood St., Detroit. More information is available linwoodfreshmarket.com.at Sonya Greene’s Linwood Fresh Market is expected to open soon.
“The judge came back yesterday and not only said that we were fair, but we were right,” Tate said. He added, “I am excited at the fact that we are on the verge of having Detroiters and other equity applicants in the city of Detroit having a fair process that will allow them to participate in this multimillion-dollar industry. It is complicated, it is challenging, but it is now possible, and that’s the beauty of this fight that we have gone into.” Cannabis companies JARS Cannabis and House of Dank filed lawsuits against the city that halted recreation al cannabis applications. The city was set to start accepting those applica tions on Aug. .
At a press conference last week, Mayor Mike Duggan said the city was now “on the verge” of allowing adultuse cannabis businesses. It will begin accepting applications for licenses at 8 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. , what Duggan called a “historic day.” The application process will be open for a month.
JARS alleged the ordinance violates state law, but Smith said the law does not limit a municipality from developing its own scoring system and criteria for“Althoughapplicants.the city’s 2022 marijuana ordinance is a complicated scheme, it is unambiguous and provides a fair licensing process,” Smith wrote in a decision on House of Dank’s lawsuit. Meanwhile, applications for unlimited licenses, which include businesses like recreational grow facilities and transporters, have been processed since April.Michigan voters approved adult-use cannabis sales in 20 8, and communities across the state have since allowed dispensaries to open and sell to anyone age 2 or older as long as the communities chose to opt-in. Adult-use cannabis sales have been a boon to these communities thanks to the tax dollars they generate. But in the time that Detroit has struggled to pass its own adult-use ordinance, cannabis operators have multiplied across the state, bringing the price of cannabis down and causing downsizing in the nascent industry.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (right) and Detroit City Council President Pro Tem James Tate. CITY OF DETROIT, FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
The creation of the cannabis ordinance was helmed by Detroit City Council President Pro Term James Tate, who Duggan praised on Wednesday.
By Randiah Camille Green and Lee DeVito
DETROIT’S BACK-AND-FORTH FIASCO over recreational cannabis could finally be over now that a judge dismissed two lawsuits challenging the city’s latest adult-use marijuana ordinance last Tuesday.
“Congratulations to the Monroe Lume workers who voted to orga nize. These workers stood together because they know that having a union contract is the way to create a sustainable future as a cannabis worker.” Washington
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Detroit is closer to getting recreational weed
Workers at Michigan’s largest cannabis company voted to form a union THE LAST FEW months have seen a rise in food and retail workers filing petitions to organize a union at their respective stores. And now, workers in the cannabis industry are joining, too.
—Alex
“I stood here with Councilman Tate almost three years ago, and he pre dicted that the fight to have inclusion and equity in the marijuana business was going to be a hard fight,” Dug gan said. “And when I stood here, I listened to him say, We are going to fight this fight till hell freezes over, and after that we’re going to fight on the ice.’ Well, Councilman Tate was prescient because right now we’re fighting on the ice. But with the court rulings yesterday dismissing these cases, we’re fighting and we’re starting to win on the ice.” This is Detroit’s second go at trying to legalize recreational pot. The new ordinance was approved in April after the first try was tabled after a federal judge deemed the social equity provisions “likely unconstitutional.” nder the original proposal, long-time city residents would have been given priority in licensing. The new ordinance avoids that by setting aside social equity licenses to “equity” and “nonequity” applicants aren’t competing.
WEED
The FCW says it intends to organize more workplaces in the cannabis industry, and created a website for the campaign, ufcw.org cannabis.“Weare very pleased to announce the newest addition to the FCW 8 family,” FCW 8 President Dan Pedersen said in a statement.
At issue were provisions in the ordinance meant to help what are known as social equity applicants, or people from communities like Detroit that have been harmed the most by the racist war on drugs. nder the new ordinance, the city will award 00 licenses during the first phase, with half of the licenses reserved for social equity applicants.
Both suits took issue with the social equity provisions, in addition to a provision that they allege prevents existing medical dispensaries from applying for adult-use licenses until 202 . But Wayne County Circuit Judge Leslie im Smith ruled Tuesday that the ordinance does not give preferential treatment to equity applicants since non-equity applicants can apply at the same time, and both groups are limited to 0 licenses.“Whether or not they are deemed equity applicants, they are still afforded the opportunity to compete for one of the 0 licenses available in each category,” the judge wrote.
“Every single person is entitled to start applying tomorrow, but we are going to make sure that there is equity,” Duggan said.
Last week, workers at Lume Cannabis Co.’s adult-use dispensary at 9 S. Dixie Hwy., Monroe, an nounced they had elected to form a union. The nited Food and Com mercial Workers FCW Local 8 says it is the first of Lume’s locations to Lumeunionize.Cannabis Co. is the largest cannabis company in Michigan. “ nions built Southeast Michigan and we’re honored to be the newest part of the rebuilding effort,” said Michael, a “Luminary” at Lume’s Monroe location, in a press release. “A unionized Lume means better working conditions for employees, better relationships between the store and corporate management, and an improved experience for can nabisnionenthusiasts.”effortsbegan in early July, and came to a vote on Aug. 2 . The company has retail locations in more than 0 cities including Mount Pleasant, alamazoo, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids. Metro Times could not reach Lume Cannabis Co. for comment.
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Film Blast spotlights – and funds – a rising slate of Detroit filmmakers
By George Elkind
“I think an important part of build ing a filmmaking community is people meeting in person,” says Houser, point ing to the importance of film-centric events open to the general public. “Because this is powered by the audi ence, right? We need strong audience support, we need a lot of people to come out.”
A still from “Delineation” by Rishi Guddyguriki.
The event begins at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 9 at Planet Ant’s Ant Hall, 2320 niff St. mtr mc more in o t lin tr.ee lm l st. ic ets re .
“I see in the future a lot of opportuni ties. I would love to move on to find a way that I can move on to show feature films, I would love to incorporate all the other great Detroit artists that are here new work,” says Houser. “If they have good work, we want to play it.”
COURTESY PHOTO
Made in the Motor City
Local opportunities to make, screen, and watch movies can often feel inaccessible, cutting off filmmakers and audiences both from sources of engagement and support. But Film Blast, a Detroit-centered festival of local work opening this Friday at Hamtramck’s Ant Hall, is aiming to address those concerns. The event aims to bring audiences and creators together for a practically-minded panel on distributing work online, a block of short works, and a newly premiering pair of commissioned films with an afterparty to follow. For festival founder and organizer Ted Houser also a filmmaker him self), the goal in putting together the festival wasn’t just to help build up a local filmmaking community, but to do so ethically and sustainably. In Film Blast’s case, that meant paying all col laborators, whether they’re members of the screening committee, filmmak ers showing their material, or artists showing newly commissioned works funded by the festival itself: a rarity on the festival circuit. “I’m really excited about the opportu nity of working directly with filmmak ers to make content that will premiere at the festival,” Houser tells Metro Times. “I’ve never really seen a festival work with its films in this way.” He describes one of the films as a buddy comedy (as Houser puts it, Broad City meets Friday”) and another as a parody inspired by a certain local lawyer familiar to metro Detroiters, and expresses an aim to feature more commissions down the line. “What I hope is that [over time] we have more sponsor support and we can move into production so we can have consistent, high-quality work from local filmmakers,” Houser says. The festival’s funding model also returns 40% of ticket sales to the artists featured, an amount comparable to what they’d see from a standard theatrical run. “That’s a super important part to me of mak ing this event,” Houser says. “Because it’s not just a place to just show up and watch a movie, it’s a place that’s actively supporting the local filmmaking com munity.”Houser hopes for a future iteration of the festival that would occur as often as three times a year, envisioning some thing like an even split between newly commissioned and locally produced works being featured. This reflects these two production modes being equal priorities for the showcase, each being a vital path for local artists seeking to produce and show their work. Houser is enthusiastic about the fest’s first round of submissions, too a grouping of work as varied in perspec tive and approach as the scenes from which they’ve risen from. “What I like about the lineup of films is just how diverse it is in genre, in representa tion, but also just emotion. Even with the filmmakers that I’ve been following for a while, they’ve really impressed me,” says Houser, who suggested to mem bers of the fest’s rotating committee of programmers that they lean into their own tastes and not necessarily privilege production value in what they chose. “I was looking for things that were really authentic — and interesting and engag ing,” he says. With Film Blast’s shorts encompass ing process-centered meditations like “Blackbird Mother” alongside the threeminute, stunt-focused science fiction “Omicron 2042,” the works share both a sense of currency and responsiveness to the present while retaining strongly individualized methods and approach es. The showcase includes, too, jaggededged and dystopic “Powerful Solutions” and the much lower-key interpersonal drama “Arrivals Departures.” Together, the submitted works for all their variety add up to just under 70 minutes of work. “Over this one calendar year, [we have all of these different genres of films being made,” he says. “All these very diverse aesthetic tastes, narrative tendencies: all of these things are going on simultaneously. And we just get to see it all at once.” Singling out Brett Miller’s domestic horror film “Devils” as one of his favor ites, Houser expresses a sense that some of the artists involved in this year’s Film Blast may soon make the jump from shorts to features, even finding purchase both at larger festivals and the national scene.“It’s very strong — the camera’s always in the right place,” Houser says. “It’s super tense and there’s barely a word spoken in the whole thing. And I really feel like Brett is a filmmaker who’s re ally coming into his own. So I feel very excited to see what he makes next.” But he also notes that the elevation of local artists can for Detroiters be bit tersweet, pointing to the work of Qasim Basir (of 2018’s Sundance pick A Boy, A Girl, A Dream s and 2011’s Danny Gloverstarring Mooz-lum) as an example of an artist who, after achieving a certain level of success, has largely left the area to pitch and produce work in places like Los Angeles or New York, the industry’s traditional centers. (It Follows director David Robert Mitchell provides another example, and there will surely be more to Regardlessfollow.) of where each artist goes down the line, though, Houser hopes to make the recurring festival a regular fixture in Detroit’s arts community, fostering an atmosphere of healthy col laboration and creative exchange. For anyone in attendance, from the opening panel on through the fest’s afterparty, Houser hopes that Film Blasts can pro vide a sense of consistency, filling a void in the local scene.
If the festival is successful, he says, it will provide opportunities for “grass roots filmmakers without a connection” to submit and show their work, creat ing a regular local space for connecting with audiences and collaborators both.
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c n t fford to et c u t see in se online and the time and energy to date before disclosing my sexual preference sounds exhausting. I don’t want another apple-themed gift. I want my pussy licked.
—Teacher After Cunnilingus Only A: Why would anyone want to be a teacher these days?
@FakeDanSavage.Lovecast.ListenAsk:questions@savagelove.net.toDanontheSavageFollowDanonTwitter
Q I’m a 38-year-old cis het woman who is also a public high school teacher in a small town. After a string of unsatisfying relationships in my 20s, I realized that I’ve only experienced sexual pleasure without a partner. Despite being excited by the idea of partnered sex, once there’s a dick inside me, I hate it. Only one thing still seemed appealing: receiving oral sex. I’d love that with someone skilled. By age 33, I gave u d tin since ndin rtner onl interested in going down on me seemed ot im ossi le nd sel s . ut ll m energy into my career, my family, and m communit . ter e rs o tin the fascism that is gaining hold in our public schools, I’m burnt out and my standard self-care routines aren’t cutting it. I’m considering seeking companionship once again. Is there an easy way to nd rtner interested in e tin me out but not (or only rarely) anything else? I know the best options are the apps but there are parents as well as former students on those. I already have a target on my back as a liberal teacher.
According to ABC News, fewer and fewer people these days do want to be teachers. There are 300,000 teacher and school staff vacancies in the nited States right now, a situation the Washington Post describes as “catastrophic,” with red states and Trump counties experiencing the worst shortages. Which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, as red states and rural areas are overrun with precisely the kind of deranged Trump supporters and other assorted conspiracy theorists who keep attack ing teachers and school librarians and administrators.Butthereare shortages of teachers in more progressive places too, TACO, which means you could easily get a job in a big city in a blue state. Not only would you be less likely to be spotted on the apps by a parent with a kid in your school in a blue state (because there a lot more people on the apps in big cities), you would also be far less likely to be attacked by a parent who did spot you on an app. (Less likely to get attacked, more likely to get licked.) And just as the governors of blue states think you should be able to teach about, oh, slavery and redlining and segregation and Jim Crow (and the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japa nese internment camps during WWII and the Trail of Tears and on and on), most blue state governors would be fine with you getting your pussy licked — on your own time, by other consenting adults — if that’s what you want.Hoping to get some tips from other teachers, I shared your email on Twit ter. Suggestions ranged from getting on FetLife, which can be a problematic place, to checking out — and perhaps posting on — the r/RandomAct sOfMuffDive subreddit on Reddit. And more than a few of my followers wondered whether you might prefer a woman to a man, seeing as you never really cared for dick. Being a gay dude, however, I know plenty of people who are attracted to men but don’t enjoy getting fucked. (Some guys are tops, some guys are sides.) Luckily for you, TACO, there are straight and bi men out there who only want to eat pussy. I’ve heard from scores of them over the years. Some had severe erectile dysfunction and preferred succeeding at cunnilingus to failing at vaginal intercourse; oth ers were straight male submissives who wanted to orally service a woman without getting anything in return; and more than a few were men who loved eating pussy and somehow wound up married to women who hated oral sex and these men wanted to find women to go down on — and just go down on — outside their relationships, with their wives’ permission (in some cases) or without it (in most cases). But to find them you’re going to have to get on the apps, TACO, which may mean getting out of your small town. :Q Gay kinky sub here and after quite a few years of meeting guys in bars, online, apps, etc., I’m questioning if there are Go to Savage.Love to read the rest.
LoveSavage CULTURE
Schooled me once By Dan Savage
:
Outraged parents, shit pay, shittier governors, racist demagoguery, book bans, “don’t say gay” laws… and on top of all that, not being free to look for sex where everyone else does these days — on the apps — because you might get spotted by a parent who is also looking for sex on the apps and then get attacked at a school board meeting that makes the local news and goes viral and then have to endure a month of death threats after getting dragged on Libs of TikTok and Fox News.
36 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com
There is more to this week’s Savage Love. To read the entire column, go to Savage.Love.
metrotimes.com | September 7-13, 2022 37
GEMINI: May 21 – June 20 When you Geminis are at your best, you don’t merely tolerate duali ties. You enjoy and embrace them. You work with them eagerly. While many non-Geminis regard oppositions and paradoxes as at best inconvenient and at worst obstructive, you often find how the apparent polarities are woven to gether and complementary. That’s why so many of you are connoisseurs of love that’s both tough and tender. You can be effective in seemingly contradictory situations that confuse and immobilize others. All these skills of yours should come in handy during the coming weeks. Use them to the hilt.
ARIES: March 21 – April 19 Aries-born Kareem AbdulJabbar was one of the greatest basket ball players ever. He excelled at most aspects of the game. Some experts say his rebounding was only average for a player his size — seven feet, two inches. But he is still the third-best rebounder in National Basketball Association history. And he played for 20 years, until age 40. What tips might Abdul-Jabbar have for you now? Here’s a suggestion from him that aligns with your current astrological omens: “Work on those parts of your game that are fundamen tally weak.” The implication is that you have a lot of strengths, and now it’s time to raise up the rest of your skill set.
TAURUS: April 20 – May 20 As a Taurus, you are always wise to be reverent toward your five senses. They are your glorious treasures, your marvelous superpowers, your sublime assets. In the coming weeks, they will serve you even better than usual. As you deploy them with all your amaze ment and appreciation unfurled, they will boost your intelligence. They will heighten your intuition in ways that guide you to good decisions. You will tune into interesting truths that had previously been hidden from you. I suspect your sensory apparatus will be so sharp and clear that it will work almost as extrasensory powers.
38 September 7-13, 2022 | metrotimes.com Ah yes, folksoftenofseason….thatFootballtimeyearbartendershavetocutoffbefore4PM.
VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22 “To love oneself is hard work,” declares Virgo author Hanif Abdur raqib. He adds, “But I think it becomes harder when you realize that you’re actually required to love multiple versions of yourself that show up without warning throughout a day, throughout a week, throughout a month, through out a life.” Let’s make that your inspirational strategy, Virgo. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to refine, deepen, and invigorate your love for all your selves. It may be hard work, but I bet it will also be fun and exhilarating.
AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18
OktoberfestBeeronDraft
LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22
SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21
There are blessings in every abyss. You, of all the signs in the zo diac, have the greatest capacity to find those blessings and make them yours. Likewise, there is an abyss in each blessing. You, of all the signs, have the most power to make sure your experi ences in the abyss don’t detract from but enhance the blessing. In the com ing weeks, dear Scorpio, take maximum advantage of these superpowers of yours. Be a master of zeroing in on the opportunities seeded in the dilemmas. Show everyone how to home in on and enjoy the delights in the darkness. Be an inspirational role model as you extract redemption from the messes.
PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20
This week’s homework: Which of your past mistakes provided you with the most valuable lessons?
By Rob Brezsny
In the coming weeks, logic may be of only partial use to you. Informa tion acquired through your senses might prove less than fully adequate, as well. On the other hand, your talents for feeling deeply and tapping into your intuition can provide you with highly accurate intelligence. Here’s a further tip to help you maximize your ability to understand reality: Visit a river or creek or lake. Converse with the fish and frogs and turtles and beavers. Study the ways of the crabs and crayfish and eels. Sing songs to the dragonflies and whirligig beetles and lacewings.
CANCER: June 21 – July 22 Author Jean Frémon says Cancerian naturalist Henry David Thoreau “always had two notebooks — one for facts, and the other for poetry. But Thoreau had a hard time keeping them apart, as he often found facts more po etic than his poems.” Judging from your current astrological omens, Cancerian, I suspect you are entering a time when facts will be even more poetic than usual. If you open yourself to the magic of reality, the mundane details of ev eryday life will delight you and appeal to your sense of wonder. Routine events will veer toward the marvelous. Can you bear to experience so much lyrical grace? I think so.
SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21 One of my favorite Sagittarians is practical mystic Caroline Myss, who was born with sun and Mercury and ascendant in Sagittarius. In accordance with current astrological omens, I’ve gathered six of her quotes to serve your current needs. 1. There isn’t anything in your life that cannot be changed. 2. When you do not seek or need approv al, you are at your most powerful. 3. Healing comes from gathering wisdom from past actions and letting go of the pain that the education cost you. 4. The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. 5. What serves your spirit enhances your body. What diminishes your spirit diminishes your body. 6. What is in you is stronger than what is out there to defeat you.
The coming weeks will be a favorable time to dream up creative solutions to problems that haven’t fully materialized yet. Then you can apply your discoveries as you address prob lems that already exist. In other words, dear Aquarius, I’m telling you that your uncanny facility for glimpsing the future can be useful in enhancing your life in the present. Your almost psychic capacity to foretell the coming trends will be instrumental as you fix glitches in the here and now.
CULTURE Free Will Astrology
JAMES NOELLERT
LEO: July 23 – August 22 “What good is it if you read Plato but never clean your toilet?” writes author Alice Munro. To which I add, “What good is it if you have brilliant breakthroughs and intriguing insights but never translate them into practi cal changes in your daily rhythm?” I’m not saying you are guilty of these sins, Leo. But I want to ensure that you won’t be guilty of these sins in the coming weeks. It’s crucial to your long-term future that you devote quality time to being earthy and grounded and prag matic. Be as effective as you are smart.
How to be the best Libra you can be in the next three weeks: 1. Make sure your cool attention to detail never gets chilly. Warm it up now and then. Invite your heart to add its counsel to your head’s observations. Tenderize your objectivity. 2. Always be willing to be puzzled. Always be entertained and educated by your puzzlement. Proceed on the theory that nothing ever changes unless somebody is puzzled. 3. Practice, practice, practice the art of moderation. Do so with the intention of using it as a flexible skill rather than an unthinking habit. 4. Applying the Goldilocks principle will be essential. Everything must be just right: neither too much nor too little; neither overly grand nor overly modest.
CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19 I have always felt you Capricorns are wise to commune with rocks, dirt, mud, sand, and clay. I think you should regularly touch the actual earth with your hands and bare feet. If I’m out hiking with a Capricorn friend, I might urge them to sniff blooming mushrooms and lean down to kiss the exposed roots of trees. Direct encoun ters with natural wonders are like magic potions and miracle medicine for you. Moreover, you flourish when you nurture close personal relation ships with anything that might be described as foundational. This is always true, but will be extra true for you in the coming weeks. Your words of power are kernel, core, gist, marrow, and keystone.
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