Metro Times 12/28/22

We received comments in response to Randiah Camille Green’s story about the upside-down braille signs on the QLine stops in Detroit. The community is divided over whether the signs are incorrect.

Not only is the QLine useless, is inaccessible to differently abled folk wonderful. —David Andres, Facebook

I kinda feel bad for the blind dude who determined how and where these should be placed his reasoning makes sense, but it also makes sense why people are so ba ed. —Richard Landgren, Facebook

If the sign is below waist level, and the

blind person is “reading” the braille with their hand extended upside down, then maybe it makes sense to hang the sign that way... But would be better for the blind reader if the braille lettering was on the top of that rail. —Bayard Saunders, Facebook

I know Braille since I taught students with visual impairments. ven W R they put Braille can be an issue. For example, I’ve seen labels on the walls behind a copier. ike... is someone going to leave over a huge copier to find it I kinda think they might figure out the copier is there first... —Patti Smith (no, not that one), Facebook Have an opinion? Of course you do! Sound off etters metrotimes om

A New Year’s prediction for 2023

…as told by Detroit’s fortune tellers

By Zoë Villegas

We pulled cards from the Rider-Waite tarot deck to prepare ourselves collectively for the year of 2023 – the challenges that may be present and some highlights that may bring us hope, in an era defined by a pandemic. What will this new year bring us?

Detroit’s brujas conducting this reading are Hanniyah Cross, Sonia Alvarado (owner, Calavera Rose Shop), Alejandra Villegas (GemInEye Tarot), Raven Martin, and me, Zoë Villegas of Detroit Magick. This reading opened with the ight of Pentacles.

Sonia Alvarado: “I really feel that this card is showing us that we are in the process of working hard and using the resolutions that we made to our advantage as a guideline for success — working with the ebbs and flows of things, and remaining adaptable.”

Hanniyah Cross: “The energy here does not feel brand new. More like a continuation of the last three years. It feels like the consistency that we have been trying to establish, following lockdown. It also feels like the last bit of planning that is necessary before Mars goes direct.”

Alejandra Villegas: “I agree here with the sequence of these cards. It all feels very much like a reconstructive effort. Plugging along with a sense of fatigue to our spirits and bodies, but continuing to move forward.”

Raven Martin: “Strategic planning from what we learned. So many people

bought flowers and plants during the pandemic, and it was an intuitive connection to healing their heart. There was grief and loneliness. The heart and lungs are also the literal source of illnesses during this pandemic and people continue to work without fully healing Sustaining your health, in all the ways this is the message. We are trying to move forward, and that’s hard to do without a sense of justice. But it is coming.”

Hanniyah Cross: “It’s like a start-stop energy here. We look at the first four months of the year and you can see the progress but also there is frustration because you are going to be met with obstacles and that’s going to define the pace. Those obstacles are appropriate and will lead to development, but it’s frustrating.”

Zoë Villegas: “This also feels like more mutations of the virus, and so the pandemic and grief stay present, and continue to pose a threat to our most vulnerable, regardless of how much we may have normali ed this pandemic. I see the Ace of Wands following, as a reminder of the consciousness we need, to defend and protect those who are vulnerable. We may have regained some of our strength, but where is it necessary to apply it ”

Alejandra Villegas: “The year started off with a dreary tone, but with the Page of Cups and the Nine of Pentacles, it feels like there is a hopeful mes-

sage. There’s a coming of age for some younger people that revitali es us.”

Hanniyah Cross: “There could be some government money relief at that time of year. Taxes or unemployment. This could be help extended to people who have really been struggling in the previous eight months or so. People will probably have to apply for help and really push for it, though.”

Sonia Alvarado: “It’s possible that this feeling of a little economic boom is also representing student loan forgiveness.”

Zoë Villegas: “It feels like the Wheel of Fortune card and the Six of Cups reversed represent a tension between generations, and this is going to fuel election platforms which are building.”

Hanniyah Cross: “Then what I see in the summer is that there’s a huge push for real estate development in Detroit. It’s either a large move forward or a halt to a project which involves a huge parcel of land in the city. ots hanging in the balance, where land is involved.”

Sonia Alvarado: “I’m looking at revelations of secrets and scandal, towards the beginning of gall. It feels like this could be concerning past leadership… Trump.”

Hanniyah Cross: “I agree. It feels like a lot of information is coming forward around corruption. The consequences, I question. But whatever information

comes out could mean that it’s not possible for Trump to run for President. This King of Wands and Ace of Pentacles feels connected to war and debt.”

Alejandra Villegas: “I feel that also with the Six of Wands, a battle card, appearing and the opposing Strength card.”

Raven Martin: “The fall and winter feels like there’s a question around security and our financial institutions. The cards feel like they’re indicating financial institutions falling apart in a public way, but this is not a bad thing if it means that necessary changes are being made.”

Sonia Alvarado: “We know that things are going to be adversarial, but we can end the year with our sanity if we are prepared. What do we see for the end of the year? I see us being stronger than when we started.”

Hanniyah Cross: “We are moving into the Age of Aquarius, and a lot of what that represents is tied to the collective and our tribes, so-to-speak. So this reading started with a rugged individualism and then as the year moves on, we see more of us getting rooted and grounded together, taking care of the people who were consistently there for us in the last three years. Also, hella babies showing up here. And the babies are planned. More people starting families and an uptick of people choosing to have children without a partner.”

Alejandra Villegas: “Relationships are coming from a deeper place of selfknowledge, rather than urgency forging something that comes from social pressure. The cards show us checking in and finding what our desires are, versus what we are told we want. Relationships are being engineered. They’re being designed with intention, as we have become more independent, and that feels true and authentic.”

Sonia Alvarado: “We are creating happiness in our lives through our relationships as we’re getting to truly know ourselves. We are deciding what we want, and are breaking through to obtain something that puts us more in control of our decisions. Traditional values of partnership and connection might be changing and we are finding happiness because we’re aligned with what we learned we actually want, which is much different than we originally thought.”

Hanniyah Cross: “And it may not all be perfect. But it comes pretty damn close.”

Detroit’s brujas, from left: Hanniyah Cross, Sonia Rose Alvarado, Zoë Villegas, Raven Martin, and Alejandra Villegas. ROSA MARIA ZAMARRÓN

EMPLOYMENT

Hardware in the Loop (HIL) Simulation Integration Engineer, Milford, MI, General Motors. Create & integrate HIL environments to enable verification & validation of ICE passenger vehicle & BEV intelligent embedded Electronic Brake Control Module for Chassis HIL lab, in C language, & using MATLAB, Simulink, Vector CANalyzer/CANape, & IBM RTC tools. Create complete vehicle plant, vehicle dynamics & physics in CarSim software & integrate CarSim exported S-Function in Simulink environment. Comprehend new features & rqrmnts rolled out to controller prgrms. Integrate dynamic plant models for HIL real-time closed loop simulation, based on those reqrmnts & features. Work w/ HIL bench users, including various Engineers to ensure HIL simulation meets their testing rqrmnts. Develop & integrate subsys models, such as sensor & actuator models, serial data communication - CAN, LIN & ECU behavioral models. Work closely w/ plant modeling & SIL teams to ensure common models & other simulation assets are shared between HIL & SIL simulations. Master, Electrical, Mechanical, Automotive, or Mechatronic Engineering. 12 mos exp as Engineer or related, performing, or involved in, algorithm development utilizing SIL & HIL & vehicle environments, & working in C programming, MATLAB/Simulink, Vector CANalyzer/ CANape, or related. Mail resume to Ref#403, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

EMPLOYMENT

SOFTWARE IN THE LOOP (SIL) SIMULATION INTEGRATION ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Perform & validate embedded ECU testing & integrate ECU in SIL environment, using MATLAB, Simulink, SimDriveline, Embedded Coder, ETAS INCA/MDA, CANalyzer/CANoe, & GMSIM, tools. Integrate high-fidelity plant models using GT Suite & GT Power, CarSim, & Amesim tools, low-fidelity models using SimDriveline, & ECU models in Embedded C & C++, w/ controller SW source code & perform virtual system simulation. Gather technical requirements, & design battery electric vehicle BEV embedded SW focusing on serial data communication & diagnostics for ECUs in External Object Calculation Module, Electronic Brake/ Engine/Integrated Chassis/Processor/ Transmission Control Modules, & others. Set technical objectives & tasks to implement production intent SW for infrastructure & platform SW components supporting communication for ECUs in Embedded C & C++, Eclipse IDE, using Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, gcc compiler, gdb debugger, IBM RTC. Master, Automotive or Mechanical Engineering, or related. 12 mos exp as Engineer, integrating high-fidelity plant models, using Simscape, GT-Suite & AmeSim, & low-fidelity models using SimDriveline, to improve simulation capability; & generating embedded C & C++ source code, using Simulink & Embedded Coder for SIL testing, or related. Mail resume to Ref#2772-922, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

The 2022 Dooby Awards

Recognizing Michigan’s top 10 most dubious newsmakers

By Metro Times staff

Another year on the books, which means it’s time for one of our favorite traditions. No, we’re not talking about drinking Champagne and pretending that we know the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne,” although we do love that, too. That’s right readers, it’s time for our annual Dooby Awards, where we recognize the best of the worst, at least when it comes to making news. It was another year of steep competition, so without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s most dubious.

The giant slide

Riding a dusty potato sack down the Belle Isle giant slide has been a summer rite of passage for Detroiters for decades. But when it reopened this summer after being closed for several years, videos quickly spread of kids violently flying down the slide. We remember getting our asses burnt on the slide in the blistering sun growing up, back when it was covered in yellow plastic, but we don’t remember

being skyrocketed into space like these kids were. It got so bad the Michigan Department of Natural Resources took to Instagram to instruct people how to ride without getting hurt, and the slide was also temporarily shut down for “adjustments” to slow riders down. The out-of-control slide even made national news, appearing on CNN, The New York Times, and USA Today. Like a wise man once said, “you could break your back on the giant slide.” That wise man was Detroit rapper Gmac Cash, who unsurprisingly went viral for his humorous “Giant Slide” song. The track won Clip of the Year on Jimmy Kimmel Live, where Gmac Cash performed and posed with Kimmel, who donned a pair of coveted Cartier Buffs.

—Randiah Camille Green

GOP’s historic fall

The Michigan Republican Party embraced far-right, Trump-worshiping conspiracy theorists – and they paid for it. In historic fashion, the Republicans

lost control of the state House and Senate for the first time in nearly 40 years, and they didn’t come close to unseating the incumbent Democrats for governor, secretary of state, and attorney general in the November election. Instead of taking responsibility for the losses, Republicans blamed voters and are doubling down by trying to keep Trumpers in control of the party.

—Steve Neavling

to offer except for outdated “pro life” notions that apparently end once a fetus is born. In our eyes, her campaign ended during her final debate with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, in which Dixon railed against books in schools “that are describing to children how to have sex.” (That’s called “sex education,” and it helps prevent the need for abortions.) At one point, Whitmer asked Dixon, “Do you really think books are more dangerous than guns?” followed by a pregnant silence.

Tudor Dixon

Even though we already recognized the Michigan GOP’s contributions to this year’s dubious achievements, an extra special honor goes to gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon, who ran a terrible campaign focused more on a fake moral panic over alleged “radicals [who] want a drag queen in every classroom, indoctrinating our children.” (We think “Fix the damn roads” had a better ring to it!) In a year when abortion rights was a major issue, Dixon and the rest of the GOP had nothing

—Lee DeVito

Wyland’s wailing

Robert Wyland is an artist known for his paintings of whales around the world. Hailing from Madison Heights, Wyland painted the large mural on the side of Detroit’s Broderick Tower in 1997 as a part of his “Whaling Walls” project to raise awareness about environmental conservation efforts. Earlier this year, Bedrock purchased the advertising space on the side of Brod-

Belle Isle’s out-of-control giant slide has been the butt of jokes since it reopened this year.

DREW TARVIN FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

erick Tower and covered the 25 year old mural with a brighter, livelier temporary image of smiling faces done by native Detroiter Phil Simpson. People were upset, some even going as far as threatening Simpson, despite Michigan not even having whales in its lakes and Wyland being a non-Detroiter who, according to his Wikipedia page, now spends his time split between the Florida Keys, California, and Hawaii. The backlash became even louder once the news eventually got back to Wyland, who went on a white tears press tour expressing his disgust.

— Alex Washington

rights violations.) The council actually listened to residents for a change, but it left Detroit in a terribly awkward position.

—Randiah Camille Green

Corruption in Detroit

residents can’t afford homes and housing in neighborhoods many have fond memories of, who’s about to move in?

—Alex Washington

Everything that caught on fire

listed for as high as $5 million.

—Randiah Camille Green

Eastpointe mayor’s meltdown

Transdev

Detroit City Council was placed with an impossible decision — renew a contract with Transdev, the city’s subpar paratransit service, or leave the city’s disabled residents without free transportation. Many members of the disability community were against a renewed contract with Transdev, leading to council to reject it before a new operator could be secured. Mayor Mike Duggan initially said the city would have no choice but to reduce paratransit service by 70% in 2023, until the Federal Transit Administration said Detroit was violating federal law by failing to fully fund rides for disabled residents. To avoid federal oversight, Duggan then used his emergency powers to set up temporary paratransit services through four different companies while the city seeks bids for a permanent provider. Duggan lambasted the council, calling them “dysfunctional,” but blind Detroiters told horror stories of dealing with Transdev’s chronically late drivers who frequently dropped them off at the wrong location. (The U.S. Dept. of Justice is investigating possible civil

An ongoing FBI investigation into corrupt ties between the towing industry and the city of Detroit dubbed “Operation Northern Hook” led to bribery charges against at least five current and former cops this year. Also, Detroit City Councilman Andre Spivey was sentenced to two years in prison in January for his role in the scheme. The bureau also raided the homes and offices of Councilman Scott Benson and former Councilwoman Janeé Ayers, though they have not yet been charged for any crimes.

—Steve Neavling

A $1.8 million Corktown Condo

As one of Detroit’s oldest neighborhoods, Corktown is truly an experience and a community all its own, home to local dining favorites, one of Detroit’s oldest bars, the Saint Patrick’s Day parade, and the once abandoned, now revamped Michigan Central Station. You can also purchase a condo in this historic neighborhood for a mere $1.8 million, a price that’s nearly triple what other condos in the area are going for. While we love to talk shit about the price of the condo, the listing price adds to the flames of gentrification and pads the conversation about who Detroit real estate is listed for. According to the 2020 Census, the median income for the city of Detroit is $34,762, with almost 32% of residents living below the poverty line. If Detroit’s legacy

It’s been a bad year for many staple restaurants in Detroit, with several long-standing eateries like Cass Cafe buckling under the weight of postpandemic woes. What’s strange and unfortunate, however, is the number of restaurants that were destroyed by fires. Southwest Detroit favorite Taqueria El Rey was destroyed in January when a fire in its outdoor grill shack spread inside the restaurant. The family-owned taqueria has since been operating as a pop-up at Batch Brewing Company, with plans to come back as a food truck and eventually a new location in Lincoln Park. Traffic Jam and Snug was ravaged by an early morning fire in May, resulting in a total loss. It still stands, boarded up with scorched walls at the corner of Canfield Street and Second Avenue where it operated for over 50 years. Detroit’s oldest LGBT hangout The Woodward Bar and Grill closed after a devastating fire during Pride month, leaving patrons questioning whether the fire was a hate crime. The bar had been around since the 1950s. Corktown’s Mudgies also briefly closed after it was set ablaze by an arsonist. Then there’s the holdout house near Little Ceasars Arena that burned down in a suspected arson. It’s not a restaurant, but the crumbling house was one of the last residential properties in the area that hadn’t been bought out by the Illitch family. It had a $2.5 million price tag at the time of the fire, though it had previously been

Eastpointe Mayor Monique Owens was sued in November after refusing to let four residents criticize her during a public meeting. The first-term mayor insisted the residents had no right to criticize her. Owens is accused of violating the residents’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. In December, Owens agreed in a court filing to shut up when she’s criticized during meetings. We’re told she’s abided by the order so far.

—Steve Neavling

The miseducation of Prop. 3

The 2022 election season in Michigan was a wild one, but perhaps no topic rattled the state more than Proposal 3. Due to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, reproductive rights in Michigan were threatened by a reverting to the state’s 1931 abortion ban. Proposal 3 called for the state constitution to be amended to give people the same reproductive rights that they gained under Roe v. Wade, which one would think would have been an easy pass, considering we’ve been living in a post-Roe country for nearly 50 years, but it wasn’t. Election season saw lies being spread from the Catholic church, highway billboards, and many candidates in Michigan’s GOP. In a race that was too close for comfort, Proposal 3 passed with 55.5% of the votes.

— Alex Washington

Bonus: See metrotimes.com for more winners.

We can tell you exactly when Tudor Dixon’s campaign was over. SHUTTERSTOCK Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit City Council ended the year on a bad note. SHUTTERSTOCK

Grosse Pointe Park foundation wants to turn historic Detroit land into parking lot

By Steve Neavling

A PROMINENT CORNER of historic Detroit land is in danger of becoming a parking lot as Grosse Pointe Park and a nonprofit ignore city officials’ insistence on preserving the property.

At issue is a vacant lot and building at ast Jefferson and Alter near the border of the two cities in what is known as the Jefferson-Chalmers istoric Business istoric District.

The grassy lot with trees used to be occupied by the historic Deck Bar, a building that Grosse Pointe Park owned and demolished in spite of opposition from preservationists and the Detroit istoric District Commission.

In response to the proposed demolition, the city of Detroit created the historic district in 2008 in hopes of erecting another building that complements the history of the area.

A historic district is set up to ensure that a property cannot be significantly altered without approval from the commission. But the Grosse Pointe Parkbased Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation (URIF) wants to build a $35 million performing arts hall and adjacent art gallery next to the vacant lot in Grosse Pointe Park.

The plan for the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Center for the Performing Arts and the Richard and Jane Manoogian Art gallery calls for paving over the historic lot to make way for 26 parking spaces and demolishing a building that is partially in Detroit and the historic district. The rear of the art center and a loading dock would face Detroit, which some consider a slight to the city.

Although the property is not owned by Detroit, the land is subject to the rules of any historic district in the city

The Detroit istoric District Commission must approve any changes.

Detroit’s top preservationist urged the commission to reject the request, which the nonprofit then withdrew and is operating as if it already has approval. In several Grosse Pointe Park City Council meetings, Mayor Michele odges and the council’s attorney repeatedly suggested falsely that the city of Detroit already approved the project.

“The Planning Commission of the city of Detroit did approve this project, and it’s checked all those boxes, so it’s proceeding as it should,” odges said at a Sept. 19 meeting.

While Detroit signed a tentative agreement called a memorandum of understanding, Mayor Mike Duggan’s office tells Metro Times that the city has not approved the project because the ultimate authority belongs to the istoric District Commission.

“The istoric District Commission does have the authority to approve or reject the parking lot because it is in a local historic district,” mayoral spokesman Dan Austin says. “The mayor’s office respects the independent role of the DC and the authority of its members to determine based on appropriate criteria whether this project as presented should be approved.”

In a scathing report, Detroit’s istoric Preservation Director Garrick Landsberg criticized the project as “historically inappropriate” and said it “destroys the historic character of the property.”

“The City of Grosse Pointe Park, via the design of this project, appears to have missed a real opportunity to create a gateway facility that respects the historic context, while celebrating and

joining both of our cities,” andsberg wrote. “Instead, the proposed design enshrines in concrete and steel the imbalance often symboli ed by this fraught municipal boundary.”

Landsberg recommended that the commission deny the proposal “in its entirety.”

e suggested the best solution for the land is a building that compliments the historic character of the area.

“A surface parking lot at this prominent corner makes permanent the loss of density and characters caused by the controversial and unnecessary demolition of the Deck Bar building,” andsberg said. “In staff’s opinion, the only appropriate redevelopment of these vacant parcels are public-facing buildings similar in scale, massing and density to what was once there, built to the front lot line with no setback, and consistent with the existing street-engaging historic context of the Jefferson-Chalmers istoric Business District.”

Developed largely in the early 1900s, the commercial strip on Jefferson is one of the few remaining early 20th-century neighborhood commercial districts and contains architecturally significant buildings. It has been targeted for revitalization and is the site of the popular Ja on Jefferson Festival. The district is surrounded by intact neighborhoods and includes more than 50 buildings, including two ballrooms, retail stores, banks, apartment buildings and four churches.

In an interview with Metro Times, Jaime Rae Turnbull, interim executive director for the Schaap Center and adviser to RIF, insisted Detroit had signed off on the parking lot, and the

istoric District Commission has no impact on the future of the project.

“It doesn’t play any role in our planning process because of our commitment from the City of Detroit,” Turnbull said.

Duggan’s office disagrees and doesn’t understand why Grosse Pointe Park continues to say it has permission to turn the land into a parking lot.

“As for the confusion, our team is not sure why GPP folks have a different understanding,” Austin says. “I am told the City of Detroit has communicated with them on multiple occasions about this.”

At an Oct. 17 meeting, Grosse Pointe Park City Council attorney Thomas J. owlett downplayed the role of the Detroit istoric District Commission.

“There’s a question about whether those approvals are even required,” owlett said. “We do have written approvals from the mayor of Detroit.”

The only Grosse Pointe Park council member to raise questions about the project is ikas Relan, who questioned why his colleagues were green-lighting the project without ensuring Detroit was O with it.

“I was appalled,” Relan tells Metro Times. “It’s a shame.”

Grosse Pointe Park resident Graig Donnelly, a vocal critic of the project, tells Metro Times that there is a “pattern at Grosse Pointe Park to be aggressive toward Detroit,” pointing to the numerous times that the suburb blocked off streets at the cities’ shared borders.

“On a philosophical level, Grosse Pointe Park is Detroit’s neighbor and vice-versa, and how you treat your neighbor says a lot about you,” Donnelly says. “I think a majority of people

The proposed A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Center for the Performing Arts along the Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park border. RAYMOND CEKAUSKAS ARCHITECTURE LLC/SMITH GROUP

in Grosse Pointe Park want to have a good relationship with Detroit and are not interested in more walls. Our communities are fundamentally stitched together.”

For decades, Grosse Pointe Park has had a complicated and contentious relationship with the city of Detroit. ntil the 1960s, the suburb to the north barred Black residents from living there. Sixty years later, people of color still complain that they are disproportionately pulled over by police and treated suspiciously.

ear the border of the two cities, a developer is bulldo ing affordable housing to make way for another parking lot.

In 2014, two blocks from the proposed art center, Grosse Pointe Park began blocking off ercheval, a main road joining the two cities, by dumping mounds of snow on ercheval. For the next two years, despite opposition from the city of Detroit, Grosse Pointe Park continued to raise blockades, from piles of snow to a farmer’s market.

At the time, Duggan said, “It’s obvious we can’t trust Grosse Pointe Park leaders. They don’t mean what they say.”

ow with the Schaap Center, city officials are experiencing d j vu.

The 424-seat theater would be the long-term home of the Grosse Pointe Theatre and Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra. The Richard and Jane Manoogian Art gallery would feature a private art collection with rotating exhibits.

The theater would be named after A. Paul Schaap, a philanthropist, retired Wayne State niversity chemistry professor, and founder of umigen, Inc., as well as his wife, Carol Schaap.

Boosters of the project said they expect it to draw 50,000 guests annually.

The foundation behind the center has struggled to raise enough money to begin construction. nder the original plan, construction was supposed to start in May 2021, with a grand opening in the fall of 2022.

The group has raised $39 million of its $45 million goal to cover capital costs and create a $10 million permanent endowment.

Grosse Pointe Park Residents have long complained that the project lacked transparency. City officials, including then-City Manager Dale rajniak, were members of RIF’s boards, raising questions about conflicts of interest.

Since then, Grosse Pointe Park has sold property for the project at a deep discount.

“A significant number of residents in Grosse Pointe Park do not see this as a good project for our neighborhood,” Donnelly says. “There has been significant public outcry about this not being the development we want to see, but they aren’t listening to us.”

How Detroit got the world’s largest Kwanzaa kinara

FOR THE FIRST time, a large wanzaa kinara stands in downtown Detroit’s Campus Martius Park, joining the 65-foot Christmas tree and the 26-foot-tall anukkah Menorah that have marked the holiday season in the Motor City for years. The 30-foot tall kinara monument is believed to be the largest in the world, and it now stands in one of the largest Black-majority cities in the .S. wan aa was developed in 1966 by activist Dr. Maulana arenga as a new African-American holiday, based on various African harvest festival traditions. Detroit’s new kinara monument comes two years after Metro Times asked in a 2020 cover story why Detroit did not celebrate wanaa with a large kinara downtown, as it has for years with a large Christmas tree and menorah. Gregory Mc enie, the business development coordinator at community organi ation Alkebu-lan illage, Inc., tells Metro Times that the gears started turning in December 2021, when Detroit City Councilman Scott Benson reached out to Alkebu-lan illage founder and C O Marvis Cofield to see if they could work together on a large-scale kinara.

“ e just sort of inquired what his thoughts were about having a kinara at the scale of the menorah, at the scale of the Christmas tree, to represent the nearly 0% Black African American population in the city of Detroit and their cultural celebration wan aa,” Mc en ie recalls. “Marvis Cofield said, Of course we can we built the pyramids ’” McKenzie reached out to architects and engineers that he knew, and they started developing the idea further. By February of this year they had a final design.

The pyramids quip wound up being apt. The final kinara monument design is pyramid-shaped, with candles representing the principles of wan aa, or the gu o Saba, like steps leading up to the Black candle at the peak representing moja, or unity.

“We always wanted a kinara that represented sort of like the graduated steps up to the unity candle, like a step pyramid, if you will,” Mc en ie says. “So that was the spirit behind

the design. We wanted to lean into a step pyramid look for the kinara.”

Mc en ie says the initial concept called for a steel structure that was durable and could be used over and over again. The design was simplified to a wooden structure with a steel frame to keep both weight and costs down. e says the project cost about $100,000 to build.

“The question emerged, O , but who’s gonna pay for it ’” Mc en ie says. “And then the question also emerged from that was, Well, who paid for the menorah, who pays for the Christmas tree ’”

The group approached the Downtown Detroit Partnership, which helps fund both. “We said, Would this be something that you would be willing to finance ” Mc en ie says. “And they enthusiastically accepted to do so. And not only did they accept the responsibility to do so, they also stepped forward with the financial commitment in advance of the funds being raised, so that the project could happen. So they’ve been essentially forwarding the money to us to do this in advance of us actually really collecting that money from those commitments that we have out there. They’ve been a tremendous financial partner in this.”

Mc en ie says the project was partially funded thanks to sponsors like the Charles . Wright Museum of African American istory, the Detroit Pistons, Target, and McDonald’s. “We’re probably about halfway there with the fundraising,” Mcen ie says. “So we very much need other interested sponsors to jump on

board.” (Those interested can reach out to Soula.Burns DowntownDetroit.org to get involved. People can also donate to Alkebu-Ian illage at alkebulanvillage.com.

“It’s starting to get a lot of traction and interest, and folks are starting to call and inquire,” Mc en ie says.

McKenzie also gives a shout out to Bryan Cook from developARC IT CT R , Juan Snead of JMS ngineering Services, odjo ee of Family First Solar, carpenter Steve Mason of Semi nergy Renovations, and wood carver John Cloud of Star 9 uality Services for their work on the project.

“A team came together to produce this that represents the best of the professionals in Black Detroit, from architects, to engineers, to carpenters, to solar, to woodwork carvers,” he says. “This team assembled and made this idea turn into a physical reality. I can’t overstate the amount of work that’s gone into the project.”

The kinara will be on display for the entire seven days of wan aa, which lasts until Jan. 1.

Mc en ie says he hopes the kinara monument will become a longstanding tradition in Detroit.

“Being really close to it, managing it, and sort of watching it develop and evolve, and you know, get modified, and then us learning as we go nobody’s ever done this before,” Mc en ie says. “There’s no blueprint. There’s nothing, no precedent to follow, and pioneering the way forward and letting the structure tell us how it needed to come out it’s just been a tremendous experience.”

—Lee DeVito

Downtown Detroit now has a massive Kwanzaa kinara. COURTESY PHOTO

COURTESY OF STARZ

A Detroit story

BY KAHN SANTORI DAVISON

Historically,

America romanticizes the gangster’s paradise a lot harder for everybody except for 19 0s AfricanAmerican dope boys. Everyone from Al Capone to John Gotti gets the superstar Hollywood treatment, while Maserati Rick and Rayful Edmond are just footnotes. Even in Detroit, ask any suburbanite about Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone and then Milton “Butch” Jones, and we’re sure you’ll get two different answers.

Enter season two of the Starz series BMF , which hits screens in early January. Produced by Detroiter Randy Huggins and rapper-turned-mogul 50 Cent, it’s based on the lives of the Detroit-born brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory, who ran BMF (Black Mafia Family starting in the late 1980s. They were less corner boys, and more like Pfi er eventually, BMF evolved into one of the biggest drug-trafficking organi ations in the U.S., which prosecutors alleged distributed mountains of cocaine in 11 states, raking in more than $270 million in profits. The Star series begins the brothers’ story from their early childhood in Southwest Detroit, and it’s just as much of a family story as it is an urban crime drama.

Last season ended with the brothers in the midst of a sibling rivalry-styled argument while walking

Da’Vinchi (as Terry Flenory) and Demetrius Flenory Jr. (as his father, “Meech”) in BMF.

through Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit, with Terry (Da’Vinchi) telling Meech (played by Flenory’s real-life son Demetrius “Lil Meech” Flenory Jr.) that he was leaving the dope game to start a limo business with their father, and Meech trying to convince him otherwise. The brotherly and not so brotherly love has not just been an accompanying undertone to a dope boy storyline — it’s actually the thread that ties every episode together.

“I think Terry’s had enough,” says Da’Vinchi in an interview via Zoom. “He almost died, got locked up — look, ‘I’m tired of taking all these chances, let me just try and do things the right way.’ I think this was the first time he reali ed how serious that life could be.”

“I feel like my brother knows that he can’t be nothing else than a dope dealer,” adds Flenory Jr. “We started this and we’re going to end it that way. But I feel like Meech and Terry are two different people. My dad is a gladiator, he’s going to do what he said he’s going to do. And Terry is calm, cool, collected. He’s going to think about everything before he does it.”

Things change but smooth out in season two. “Afterwards we start realizing we need each other again, but it’s on different grounds,” says Da’ inchi. “Meech develops a different kind of respect for Terry this season than he did last season. He sees him more as a partner than a little brother.”

The brothers’ issues are paralleled by those of their parents Lucille and Charles Flenory, portrayed by veteran actors Michole Briana White and Russell Hornsby.

“She’s the matriarch of the family, somewhat dutiful,” says White of her character. “She’s like this quiet storm that leads from behind. I just connected to her. There was something so familiar and so comfortable about her that it was just kismetic.”

The Flenorys are an 1980s Detroit couple struggling with the traditional western society roles of marriage. Charles’s difficulties at being a breadwinner bring out his own insecurities. Those frustrations are shared by his sons, who’ve watched their father struggle for most of their lives and ultimately pushed them to the streets. His wife questions his leadership and decision making, and that drives a wedge between them.

“What does Wu-Tang say? C.R.E.A.M. — ‘Cash rules everything around me,’ right?” says Hornsby via Zoom. “And so when you don’t have it, it can make for an unstable, unhappy at times, unhappy home or unhappy environment. ... When you’re constantly looking for the money to pay the bills, to get the things in the house fixed, you have no time for each other. You have no time for your spouse.”

The Flenorys’s on-screen presence is rich and moving, as Hornsby and White have a perfect chemistry.

“He and I had done two August Wilson plays together and have known each for many years,” White says. “We did the original production of Jitney off Broadway.”

The issues that have Flenorys in a flux are both authentic and triggering to longtime Detroiters. The 1980s oil crisis and recession sent Detroit’s auto industry jobs to record lows just as the crack era was underway. Black husbands and fathers all over the city and beyond were faced with the reality of not being able to provide for their families while losing their sons to the streets.

Charles Flenory is a representation of that. His

heavy blue-collar presence throughout the series is made up of equal parts of love, desperation, and ego. Like many of our Detroit fathers, he’s giving his family all he has, and it’s not enough.

“[Those] men worked hard, they raised their children with a certain tone, and they loved hard as well,” says Hornsby. “And that was the time, and that was the kind of men that were needed, and that’s reflected in Charles. It was very important that audiences feel that. I wanted audiences to know that there were fathers that were present.”

“But this season [Lucille’s] really learning to be more vocal about how she feels, just more forthcoming and forward, and learning to honor herself in a new way,” says White. “This is a real family and they were raised well. This is a side of this kind of lifestyle that you don’t normally see, how important family is. They didn’t come from a broken family, they came from a broken neighborhood.”

It’s about getting it right

No one familiar with the story is surprised that millions of viewers are watching BMF . As the real-life crime saga came to a close in the mid-2000s with the Flenory brothers convicted and sentenced to prison (Terry was released in 2020, while Demetrius is scheduled for release in 2029), you got the feeling right away that it was only a matter of time before the story found its way onto either the big screen or the small screen. Even without the obvious Hollywood exaggerations, the honest version of BMF has all the trappings of the classic American stories of all time — the Detroit beginnings, the yin and yang brothers, a larger-than-life illegal operation, rags to riches themes, celebrity alliances, wiretaps, and cops-and-robbers chase-downs. Before a script for season one was ever written there was the book, BMF by Mara Shalhoup, several unauthorized DVD documentaries, and many BMF members sharing their sides of the story on podcasts and YouTube.

The most surprising thing about Starz BMF is how quickly it’s been able to carve out its own piece of real estate on the crowded genre of urban crime T dramas. The season one finale was watched by almost million viewers on the Starz app alone. That’s a major win for an inner city show based in Detroit, since cities like Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago have been mainstay settings for crime dramas for half a century (and that’s no exaggeration . The New York-based Law Order (ABC) has been around for 22 freaking seasons, and Chicago has their own damn franchise on NBC (Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., and Chicago Med). Even a lukewarm show like the L.A.-based Bosch (Amazon Prime) made it to seven seasons.

If you want to compare shows with almost identical content, then go no further than FX’s Snowfall (set in L.A.), or Starz’s Power (New York) and Power Book IV: Force (Chicago). The only true outlier has been the Baltimore-based The Wire (HBO). Often cited as one of the best television series ever, The Wire created a cult following by cultivating clever storylines and layered characters. But most significantly, it showed viewers an authentic and raw version of an inner city many hadn’t known before. BMF has been able to duplicate that same

energy and substance with Detroit. With Huggins and his team at the helm, viewers across the globe are finally witnessing a Detroit on screen that gets it right.

Now, we’ve kind of been down this road before. ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7 (2010) was a missed shot at best. The show was canceled after one season, leaving memories of the character Pooch saying, “You just drank the last of my soda” in its wake. (We drink “pop” in Michigan, not “soda.” ext was AMC’s Low Winter Sun (2013), which still felt like a Hollywood interpretation of Detroit, not what Detroit is actually like. In fact, the only recent show that truly embodied the genuine culture of Detroit was Comedy Central’s Detroiters (2017).

The one knock against BMF is that too much of the series hasn’t been filmed in Detroit, in favor of Atlanta. But you can blame that on Slick Rick Snyder’s signing of House Bill 4122, which ended Michigan’s tax incentive program for films. evertheless, this season has 10 episodes featuring scenes that were filmed in Detroit, including locales like the Detroit City Airport, the Fox Theatre, the historic Raven Lounge, the upscale Roostertail, and a lengthy scene that was shot at the iconic St. Cecilia gym.

“Randy really is the heart and soul and voice of this show, and it’s authentic because of what he brings,” executive producer eather uhlke says at a Dec. 14 preview screening of the new season.

Scenes were also shot at the original house that the real Flenory family lived in. “My dad in his family lived in that small house for a long long time in that hood, and everybody knows that house,” says Meech Jr. “So it was really great to go there and not just have some made-up house, and my family being around the feeling of that. That’s what we needed to make the show good. My grandmother was crying the whole time we was there. She just kept telling me and 50 how much it reminded her of my dad and T back in that day. That’s what we need, because that means we’re doing something right if she can feel it.”

The real-life connections between the cast and the people they portray has impacted their performances significantly. Da’ inchi says he and Terry frequently discussed his relationships with Markisha (played by La La Anthony) and Lawanda (Sydney Mitchell). And White developed a special bond with Lucille Flenory.

“Even when I was on set, I would call her and ask, ‘How do you feel about this?’” says White. “Or she would send me a verse from the Bible or say, ‘You got this.’ I feel so connected. I feel like I understand. I met her in Detroit for the first time. It’s like we’ve known each other from another lifetime.”

“I talk to my dad like every day,” adds Meech Jr. “While I’m filming, he calls me everyday just to make sure if I got any questions, or if I need help understanding where his mindframe was at this time, or if it’s something I need to understand he’ll tell me.”

It’s about the small things

During season 1, BMF incorporated elements and language unique to Detroit’s street and hip-hop culture. The greeting, “What up doe” was said several times, and Ghettotech music, block parties, and jit dancers were highlighted. That trend continues in

season two. Places like Coney Islands, Carl’s Chop House, the Brewster-Douglas Projects, Brightmoor, Devil’s Night, and Hamtramck are mentioned. During the first episode of season 2, the most stand-out conversation occurs between detectives Veronica Jin (Kelly Hu) and Von Bryant (Steve Harris).

“I got sick of the ’burbs, I miss the smell of the streets and the spirit of the D,” Jin says.

“ ou grew up in this raggedy muthafucka’, you already know,” Bryant replies.

“But it wasn’t always like this,” Jin continues. “My sister and I used to ride our bikes all over the place when Chinatown was still around. And then they started displacing us to Cass Corridor ”

The exchange is short, but the topic is heavy. The “suburb” that Jin is referring to is Southfield, which at the time was the city of choice many Detroit residents moved to during the 1980s and ’90s. The Chinatown nod speaks to the city’s Chinese-American community, which 1950s government leaders in Detroit tried to relocate, and the whole thing backfired. It wasn’t one of Detroit’s finer moments, and oftentimes gets overlooked at how it impacted Detroit’s Chinese-American residents.

Detroit’s unique sense of fashion is also on display. Men are rocking four-finger rings, gator skin shoes, Pelle Pelle leather jackets, high-top fades, pompadours, and low naturals. Women are sporting denim jackets with tassels, Gazelle glasses, large bamboo earrings, French rolls, and asymmetrical hairstyles. ative Detroiter and famed fashion stylist Marv eal worked on the BMF set assisting costume shopping for scenes for Meech and background actors.

“ obody dresses like us or has that swag,” says Neal. “It’s the way we dance and walk and have our clothes draped. The dope guys would merge to those cities to do business and those cities liked how we looked. It’s well-documented.”

Neal’s assessment is spot on. In the ’80s and ’90s Detroit swag masters were known for combining

elements of various fashion styles, whereas cities like .A. were known for Dickies and Chuck Taylors, and ew ork had a heavy Ralph auren influence. Whether dope boys or college students, you would see everything from silk suits and shearling coats to Filas and parkas.

“I feel like they caught the essence of what us Detroiters remember,” says eal. “We are now at the age where we remember seeing the dope boys move like them, the minks, the Forums, Adidas, the Sergio Tacchini fits. So they are taking us back to what we love.”

Everything goes back to writer and producer Randy uggins. e’s a 50 year-old St. Martin DePorres grad and former Coleman A. oung Foundation scholarship winner. After working as an elementary school teacher post-college, he attended the New

York Film Academy and began working his way through the entertainment industry. Huggins connected with 50 Cent while working as a writer and producer on Power.

“I’m from here, and what’s really interesting is that Meech is three or four years older than me, and Terry is one or two,” uggins said during a panel discussion at last year’s Sept. 21 premiere. “I went to prison in Oregon to visit like three or four times, and what’s really interesting is we connected on everything. Everywhere he was at, I was trying to get in. I didn’t have access, but I was trying to get in there. All the fashion he was talking about, the silk shirts, snakeskin belt, the colored Levi’s. As much as this is Meech and Terry’s, it’s my story, it’s Detroit’s story. So obviously this is a drama, so I take creative license where I have to, but it all came from Big Meech. It’s not anything in here that I didn’t hear from him. ow I may have went left when he wanted me to go right, but I gotta tell my story the way I see it.”

It’s about Detroit

Outside of Detroit’s princess of hip-hop ash Doll (who plays Monique, a love interest of Meech and a brief cameo by a minem as White Boy Rick (made to look younger with the use of special effects , no other cast member is from Detroit, and many had never spent any significant time in Detroit before shooting BMF. Many fans have assumed Meech Jr. was born in Detroit by the swagger he brings to the role and because his family lineage here, though he was born and raised in Miami. But all the main cast members in one way or another have had Detroiters reach out and tell them how well they are portraying us.

“Some people actually thought I was from Detroit, which is kind of dope and a hell of a compliment,” says Da’ inchi. “Because it’s one thing when people just compliment you, you know, and they’re not even from that area. But if someone is from that area and involved in the story and they’re like, ‘Bro, you killed that,’ that’s like damn, that’s a compliment. Because you know Black people just don’t loosely give compliments. So if they are saying that, they’re not just chatting they mean it.”

“There is a lot of pride in the city,” says ornsby. He adds, “I understand that ‘Detroit vs. Everybody’ attitude and mentality, because I feel like how the city thrived at one point there was a steep economic downturn, they were almost left for dead. People of Detroit had to band together, find themselves, and create a way out of no way.”

As more layers of the characters and storylines unfold in more Detroit locations, season two should be able to capitalize on the substance and momentum generated from season one.

“One of the biggest differences is that it gets better and better,” says White. “Randy always says season two is about elevation, so every character on the show is going to the next level and the drama gets heightened so much.”

BMF season two airs on Friday, Jan. 6 on Starz.

Left: Detroit rapper Kash Doll as Monique. Below: Demetrius Flenory Jr.speaks at a BMF screening in Royal Oak.

BELOW: AARON J. THORNTON/GETTY

IMAGES FOR STARZ

EMPLOYMENT

SOFTWARE ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Design, develop, test & document embedded serial data commn apps in C language & SAFe environ for controllers in psgr vehicles. Supply common solutions across all in house controllers incl apps dev, feature implementation, & SW updates for CAN, LIN, Partial Network & Automotive Ethernet vehicle networking subsyss. Utilize automated test tools in build environs, benches, & vehicles to verify functionality at Function, Controller & System level. Use HIL & SIL benches to conduct cmpt level & sys level testing for developed functionality. Design, integrate, release & debug, using DOORS, Rhapsody, RTC, & Jira, conventional psgr vehicle & BEV embedded SW focusing on serial data commn & diagnostics for ECUs in Body/Electronic Brake/External Object Calculation/Engine/Integrated Chassis/& Transmission Control Modules & related vehicle modules. Bachelor, Electrical, Computer, or Electronics & Communication Engrg, or related. 60 mos exp as Software Engineer, Technical Lead, Technical Architect, or related, gathering SW technical reqmts from internal & external supplier team to analyze & formulate SW reqmts; using embedded C or C language; & following Agile or SAFe methodology, or related. Mail resume to Ref#22610-103, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

EMPLOYMENT

CONTROLS DESIGN ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Engineer, define, develop, implement & validate math-/ physics-based algorithms for Hybrid & Battery Electric Vehicles embedded Electronic Brake Control Module (EBCM) & embedded Hybrid Control Processor ECUs for U.S. & global psngr vehicles, using MATLAB, Simulink & Stateflow models, Embedded C language, & Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, & Artifactory tools, in SAFe methodology, for future vehicle prgrms, & global markets (NA, China, SA, & RoW). Define rqrmts, & design & develop SW for brake control strategies to select most efficient & optimal vehicle operation to achieve optimal/ robust/stochastic control, AI, steady state optimization & state estimation techniques incl. numerical methods & optimization techniques, in Embedded C, using Eclipse, PacMan, MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, Jenkins, ETAS INCA, & Vector CANape tools. Generate C code using Simulink autocode generation tool for SW developed in Simulink. Validate SW builds by flashing on the EBCM. Bachelor, Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics & Telecommunication, or Computer Engrg, or related. 60 mos exp as Engineer or related, designing or developing SW for brake control strategies to select most efficient & optimal vehicle operation to achieve optimal control, in Embedded C, using Eclipse, MATLAB, Simulink, Stateflow, & CANape tools, or related. Mail resume to Ref#47318, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

EMPLOYMENT

CONTROLLER TEST ENGINEER, Milford, MI, General Motors. Develop controls test plans & procedures, using automated test procedures that can be run on Hardware (HIL)/Software (SIL) in the Loop & in vehicles. Perform embedded ECU testing on Powertrain, Engine, Transmission & Battery Control Modules & ~10 related vehicle modules using dSPACE HIL, GM Sim SIL, ETAS INCA, VSpy, CANape/CANoe tools, & neoVI FIRE & Lauterbach HW, to verify functionality at Function, Controller & System levels prior to production intent release. Execute verification & validation testing on time & w/ qlty to meet prgrm milestones. Provide validation status to leadership & prgrm teams. Support Technical Review Board by developing test procedures to accurately test controls SW. Develop, document & review reqmts to design an automotive controls system. Review & debug Embedded C, using MATLAB, Simulink, Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, Eclipse, IBM RTC, following MISRA CERT C standards. Bachelor, Mechanical, Automotive or Aerospace Engrg, or related. 24 mos exp as Engineer, debugging Embedded C or updating calibration values based on changing algorithms in Embedded C, using Simulink, Eclipse, & RTC, following MISRA CERT C standards, or related. Mail resume to Ref#3152-101, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

EMPLOYMENT

Software Engineer, Milford, MI, General Motors. Review & analyze MATLAB, Simulink & Stateflow models & autocode generated SW for chassis features incl. torque control & diagnostics. Design, develop, validate, debug & integrate conventional ICE, HEV, & BEV psgr vehicles chassis & electrification torque monitoring & vehicle & sys remedial action safety SW, in Embedded C & C++, using Git, Gerrit, Jenkins, Eclipse IDE, IBM RTC, DOORS, & Rhapsody tools, following MISRA CERT C stndrds. Design, review, integrate & verify SW to meet vehicle specific architecture, syst, security, & safety reqmts of current/future global ICE & BEV psgr vehicles. Improve customer & driver safety by supporting new controls strategies, diagnostics, & controller communications. Perform embedded ECU testing on test bench & in vehicle, using ETAS INCA, Vector CANalyzer/CANoe tools, & Lauterbach HW, to verify functionality at Function, Controller & System levels prior to production release. Bachelor, Electrical, Computer, or Electronics & Communication Engrg, or related. 12 mos exp as Engineer, developing & debugging embedded ECU SW in Embedded C & C++ for ICE psgr vehicle & HEV or BEV psgr vehicle Chassis ECU, Electrification ECU, or Powertrain Control Unit feature, or related. Mail resume to Ref#24910-305, GM Global Mobility, 300 Renaissance Center, MC:482-C32-C66, Detroit, MI 48265.

WHAT’S GOING ON

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

Wednesday, Dec. 28

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Jason Janas: Monk’s Fruit feat. The Marion Hayden Trio 7:30 p.m.; Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $25.

Latin Jazz Wednesday: La Experienca p.m.; The Blue LLama Ja Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $15.

MJ LIVE - Michael Jackson Tribute p.m. Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit $2 -$40.

Sevendust with Nonpoint, Ill Nino and Another Day Dawns p.m. Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit $35.

DJ/Dance

(More than) Punk Nite w/ DJs Nips & Horrorshow 8 p.m.; Bowlero anes ounge, 4209 Coolidge wy., Royal Oak; no Cover.

COMEDY

Stand-Up

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle Bill Bushart’s “Best In Michigan Stand p 2022.” $10. 7 30-9 p.m.

SPORTS

Little Caesars Arena Detroit Pistons vs. Orlando Magic $30 . 7 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 29

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Bohemian Queen, The Music of Queen p.m. Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit $2 -$40.

The Colton Weatherston Quartet 7 30 p.m. Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $25.

Jerry’s Tone | Raising The Dead p.m. Blind Pig, 20 S. First St., Ann Arbor $10.

The Music of Fela Kuti Comes to Life p.m. The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $20.

SOUL CYCLE p.m.; The Blue LLama

Ja Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $15.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve 3 7 30 p.m. ittle Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit $29-$99.50.

Tropidelic with Passafire & The Palmer Squares 7 p.m. Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale $20 .

V*A*S*E EP Release Party

Featuring: Antighost, Animal, Hutch p.m. $10 pre-sale, $12 at the door (21 1 -20 ($15 at the door . 1 show.

The Colton Weatherston Quartet 7 30 p.m. Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $25.

Friday, Dec. 30

MUSIC

Live/Concert

The Colton Weatherston Quartet -30, 7 30 p.m. Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $25.

Crossroads Ceili p.m. The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $25.

Duke Charelle (P-funk) + DJ Pinknoise 8 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes ounge, 4209 Coolidge wy., Royal Oak free.

GARETH EMERY 9 30 p.m. lektricity ightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac $20.

Haskins with Fictional Violence p.m. Blind Pig, 20 S. First St., Ann Arbor $10.

In the Tradition Presents “A Jazzy Kwanzaa Night” 7 30-10 p.m. Aretha’s Ja Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit $22, 5.

Keller, Kocher & Company 6 30 p.m. The Blue ama Ja Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $35-$75.

KMS 35 Year Anniversary with Kevin Saunderson and more 9 p.m. Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit $20.

Larry McCray p.m.; The Token ounge, 2 949 Joy Rd., Westland $20$120.

The Freezer Bees, Darcy Moran, Seaholm, Weekend Hours p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac $12.

Saturday, Dec. 31

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Detroit rock scene to honor late guitarist Robert Gillespie

DECADES’ WORTH OF Detroit rock ’n’ rollers are heading to the Cadieux Cafe for a tribute concert next Friday in honor of guitarist Robert Gillespie, who died on June 14 at age 6 .

A talented guitarist, Gillespie played in a number of Detroit bands since the 1970s, including with Mitch Ryder, the post-MC5 Rob Tyner Band, the supergroup Scott Morgan’s Powertrane, the Motor City Rockers featuring Jimmy Marinos of the Romantics, and the all-instrumental band the Detroit Daggers.

But in a 2002 interview, Gillespie told Metro Times that his favorite project was the Torpedos, a band he formed in 197 with frontman Johnny Angelos that mixed elements of Motown soul with 1970s punk rock. The band released just one single and an P, which were eventually reissued along with some live recordings in a 2001 comp No Re lls “ obody liked us at first,” Gillespie previously told Metro Times, adding that despite Angelos’s drug-fueled antics, the band always played in tune, setting them apart from many other Detroit acts in the scene.

The Torpedos broke up shortly after Angelos left the group in 19 1, and he died by suicide in 19 4 at 36. In the years since, Gillespie became

a guitar teacher, helping raise a new generation of Motor City musicians.

Those who knew him say Gillespie’s health deteriorated rapidly following a diabetes diagnosis.

“I knew something was wrong, but didn’t know what,” says Mike Marshall, who played bass with Gillespue in the Rob Tyner Band, the Torpedos, and most recently, the Detroit Daggers. e says Gillespie was in and out of the hospital in recent years. “ ou talk about a decline in health,” he says. “It was unreal.”

The free tribute concert will include bands playing music that Gillespie either wrote or was known for playing, and will include special guests. It will be hosted by Doug Podell from 106.7 W .

“We’re gonna be doing Detroit music history at this show,” says John Marantic, who is helping organi e the event. “ e’s the guy that grew up playing the guitar and died playing the guitar. And his legacy is huge.”

Gillespie is survived by his wife Susan, daughter Roxie, and brother Don.

—Lee DeVito

e Robert Gillespie Tribute Show will be held Friday, Dec. 30 at the Cadieux Cafe, 4300 Cadieux Rd., Detroit; 313-882-8560; cadieuxcafe. com. Doors at 8 p.m. No cover.

A Very Metal New Years Eve 9 p.m. $12 at the door.

Early New Year’s Eve Dinner & Show ft. Olivia Van Goor p.m.; The Blue ama Ja Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $150.

Electric Six p.m. Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale $25.

Eptic p.m. Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw,

Pontiac $30.

Gatsby New Year’s Eve Gala p.m. The oving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale $25-$300.

Late New Year’s Eve Dinner & Show ft. Brandon Rose & Soul Therapy 8:30 p.m.; The Blue LLama Ja Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $250.

Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly & The Isley Brothers 9 30 p.m. Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit $54.50 .

No Cover New Year’s w/ Screw (Sex Pistols Tribute) + In The Flesh (Blondie Tribute) + DJ Tangent p.m.-2 a.m. Bowlero anes ounge, 4209 Coolidge wy., Royal Oak; free.

Nye 2022 At The Blind Pig with The Macpodz | Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds | Chirp | Act Casual 7 p.m. Blind Pig, 20 S. First St., Ann Arbor $20.

NYE 2023 w/ GETTER 8:30 p.m.; lektricity ightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac $35.

NYE 2023 With The Offbeat and Don Mecca 9 30 p.m. The Morrie Royal Oak, 511 South Main Street, Royal Oak $20-$25.

NYE BASH with DEREK ST. HOLMES 8 p.m.; The Token ounge, 2 949 Joy Rd., Westland $15$1 0.

DJ/Dance

Golf Clap NYE 9 p.m. eland City Club, 400 Bagley Street, Detroit $20-$75. An Interdimensional New Years / presented by I.T. & Marble Bar p.m. Marble Bar, 1501 olden St., Detroit $30-$ 0.

NYE Celebration featuring Tony Hightower 7 30 pm Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $50.

SPORTS

Wayne State Arena Motor City Cruise vs. Windy City Bulls $5-$150 6 pm.

Little Caesars Arena Detroit Red Wings vs. Ottawa Senators $65-$325.25 pm.

Sunday, Jan. 1

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Michigan Hardcore 10 for $10.00 5 pm Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, amtramck $10.

Sunday Jam Sessions Hosted by Sky Covington & Friends 8 pm-midnight Woodbridge Pub, 5169 Trumbull St., Detroit donation.

Wednesday, Jan. 4

SPORTS

Little Caesars Arena Detroit Red Wings vs. ew Jersey Devils $39-$209.25 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 5

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Blue Rodeo p.m. Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 . Riverside Dr., Windsor $3 -$73.

Friday, Jan. 6

MUSIC

Live/Concert

A Night of Renaissance (Beyonce Night) 7 p.m. Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac $15.

Brandon Williams Quintet 7:30 p.m. Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $25.

Domestic Problems with Knee Deep Shag 7 p.m. Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale $17.

Left Lane Cruiser, Edison Hollow 7 p.m. Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, amtramck $15.

The RFD Boys p.m. The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $11, $10 members, students or seniors.

Songwriter Showcase: Steve Taylor, Mia Green, Dan Cafferty, Michelle Held 7-9 p.m. Berkley Coffee, 14661 West 11 Mile Rd, Ste 50o, Oak Park $10 suggested door.

SQUAREBASS COLLECTIVE TAKEOVER 9 30 p.m. lektricity ightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac $15 imited Free w RS P Before 11PM.

Saturday, Jan. 7

MUSIC

Live/Concert

Brandon Williams Quintet 7:30 p.m. Cliff Bell’s, 2030 Park Ave., Detroit $25.

Escape Plan, 30 ON 6, The Reckless Scamps, Black Tie Event 6 p.m. Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff, amtramck $10.

JohnPaul Wallace/The Fruits/ Wally Dogger at Otus Supply -11 45 pm The Parliament Room at Otus Supply, 345 ine Mile Rd, Ferndale $10 adv $15 door.

Mark Jewett & The Strategic Advisors -10 p.m. Berkley Coffee, 14661 West 11 Mile Rd, Ste 50o, Oak Park $10 suggested door.

NEXERO 9 30 p.m. lektricity ightclub, 15 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac $15 imited Free w RS P Before 11 p.m.

Yellow Room Gang pm The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor $20.

Local buzz

By Broccoli and Joe Zimmer

To round out 2022, we’d like to highlight a few of our favorite releases that we haven’t had the chance to mention yet this year. Thank you for rocking with us in this new column as we celebrate the rich local music scene in and around Detroit. In the words of Inner City, “we’re having big fun” see you next year

From Joe:

The AM — Black Majik EP (Tresor): For The AM (real name Ann-Marie Teasley, also known as AMX , 2022 was non-stop. er Culture Code residency at The ighDive provided devoted techno-heads with their required monthly dose, while also playing out at high-profile events like Tresor Berlin 31 and Boiler Room Detroit. Somewhere in between all that, Teasley released two Ps of recorded material, culminating in a career-long goal to put out music on the esteemed underground techno label Tresor. Over Black Majik ’s three tracks (and one swirling remix from Scan 7 , The AM pushes every boundary of the classic techno sound while packing in so much personality that it never feels stale. Black Majik is the sound of Teasley’s unshakeable point-of-view, as she pulls from her decades-long dancefloor pedigree and shares her glee for all of us to revel in. dream beach — Randy’s Mar ket (Bruiser Brigade): Released earlier this year, dream beach’s Randy’s Market continued the Bruiser tradition of slow-burning, mindexpanding hip-hop. As the first fully instrumental release on Danny Brown’s label (and also executive produced by the enigmatic rapper , the mixtape had a lot to deliver on — and boy did it. Clocking in at just under 20 minutes, Randy’s Market starts off squarely rooted in lo-fi hiphop, with crunchy samples and loops, but quickly spins out and sheds any notion of genre. At times emotionally devastating (listen to “window shopper” into “vito” and footwork-inducing (“salt eclipse” , I find something new to head nod to on each listen. dream beach also has tons of material on his Soundcloud, since Randy’s Market is sure to give you an appetite for more.

Honorable mentions: Although he’s found success outside of just the local scene, my favorite Detroit releases would be incomplete if I didn’t mention Quelle Chris’s DEATHFAME. I also really enjoyed Beige’s beautifully blended AMEN! Vol. 1 mixtape for ris Drew’s T4T RG label, and the super duo Jonah Baseball and 2Lanes first installment of their Overtone Series project. My brain is still processing Theo Parrish’s monumental DJ- icks comp,

plus Waajeed’s latest Memoirs of Hi-Tech Jazz P and Acts of Love: Act Three P.

From Broccoli: Tunde Olaniran — EPHEM ERRREALITY : Blink and you may have missed it, but Tunde Olaniran lowkey dropped one of the most starstudded releases of the year this past September. EPHEMERRREALITY is a trip to say the least, exhibiting unapologetic maximalism and oozing with confidence, bringing the listener through two years of work between Olaniran and collaborator Stephen Saputo. Fans of Detroit music will certainly recogni e some of the names, including Supercoolwicked, Ahya Simone, Milfie, SPR , Shara ova (My Brightest Diamond , Bevlove, Britney Stoney, and believe it or not, even more than that. There’s even a Tune- ards feature tucked in there, adding to the allure of one of Detroit’s most impressive and seemingly slepton releases of the year.

Amber Chene — Golden Ratio: Detroit renaissance woman Amber Chene has had a heck of a year — fashion campaigns, running her own clothing brand, hosting parties all over the city, the list goes on. On top of all that, in February of this year she released her long-awaited album Golden Ratio, a triumph in storytelling and sonic curation that is the result of years of hard work and dedication to her craft. From the opening monologue of the title track (produced by longtime friend and collaborator Gulley and featuring vocals from Cjay Hill , Chene waxes poetic on life, love, and knowledge of self, exploring her vocal range with smooth singing parts interspersed with dextrous rap verses. If you didn’t know, now you know

Honorable mentions: We’ve written about them before, but of course no Detroit year-end list is complete without mentioning HiTech and Theo Parrish’s DJ-Kicks. I also loved Live from Nanna’s House by Toughie (formerly known as Perpetual Care , Sara Marie Barron’s Angel Numbers, and Apropos’s Black oi$e-produced single “Simple”, to name a few more.

Got a tip about Detroit’s music scene? Hit us up at music@merotimes.com!

metrotimes.com | December 28, 2022-January 10, 2023 19

There’s a reason Metro Times reviewers always visit a restaurant twice. The first time I went to Pastaio, I was fairly “meh.” The second time, I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Was it the choice of dishes ad Chef Rob Maola upped his game that much in a couple of weeks Whatever the reason, I feel comfortable recommending the place, though note its relatively high prices.

One reason is the welcome return of free bread, brought without your asking. And what bread it is My companion and I went through two baskets warm ciabatta shipped in from ew Jersey, where owner Pasquale amarra is originally from. It’s holey, tender but crusty, garlicky, and dressed with olive oil and plenty of Parmesan. The carb scare of the late 1990s, which continues today, just about did away with bread as a starter, but I am happy to see it return when it’s done this well.

That’s just one way Pastaio is a bit old-fashioned. Almost all the menu items, even the cocktails, are listed as

Free bread!

By Jane Slaughter

$x.95. I know that’s a time-honored way to make the customer think she’s paying $1 rather than $19, but I thought most restaurants at this level had moved on to classier whole numbers.

Royal Oak’s Pastaio, meaning “pasta maker” and pronounced pahs-TI -oh, is one of three Pastaios, the other two being in Florida. A sign at the entrance says “ at Pasta, Run Fasta,” a great reason to ignore the low-carb nags.

Small plates are suggested to share “pre-meal.” I would order the savory eggplant stack every time. The eggplant is breaded with panko and baked with roasted red peppers, fresh moarella, spinach, and tomato sauce, and garnished with micro-basil. The eggplant is silky, there’s no sogginess at all. ven my non-eggplant-loving friend fought me for his half of the dish.

A kale Caesar was nothing remarkable, perfectly fine, with large croutons. The pear salad, the Misto, I found too wet with vinaigrette.

Though it contains goat cheese and plenty of walnuts, the flavors weren’t intense enough. Other starter possibilities are fagioli, carpaccio, burrata either fried or in a salad, and, if you want to go heavy, meatballs or ribs.

Rigatoni Boscaiola was a disappointing dish not enough pancetta or peas or mushrooms, as advertised, but manager Antonio Marino says it’s popular. Gnocchi, too, which are made with ricotta and flour rather than potatoes, were nothing special. These were both from my first visit. The second time, we asked the server what he liked, and he said the staffers often ask for carbonara. Well. I found out why. It’s made with the least interesting of Pastaio’s many different housemade pastas spaghetti but who cares It’s so rich with pancetta and Parmesan, olive oil and egg yolk, wholly satisfying.

When I make carbonara, I break the egg at the last minute and stir fast so the hot pasta cooks it quickly. (And full disclosure, I use the hot bacon grease as the liquid, instead of cream. This is a

Pastaio

208 W. 5th St., Royal Oak 248-565-8722

eatpastaio.com

Small plates $14.95-$19.95, pasta $19.95-$32.95, entrées $19.95-$34.95

down-market carbonara. Pastaio instead places a glistening golden overeasy yolk atop the heaped spaghetti and serves it that way, so you break it up yourself. It’s lovely and it works.

Cavatelli with Sunday Sauce was also magnificent, in a different direction lots of meat. The tomato sauce incorporates not only infinitely tender pork ribs on the bone but sausage and very tender meatballs. The spicing is just right maybe some cloves

Pastaio also serves classic entr es like chicken or veal Marsala or piccata or Milanese, and brick-oven pi as. We’re warned that the pi as are cooked “well done,” so “the crust may appear more golden brown than you are accustomed to.” ou can build your own or get specialty pies like quattro formaggi, mixed mushrooms, shrimp pesto, or kung fu chicken, which commits two sins in the same pi a pineapple and barbecue sauce.

Speaking of classics, we had a wonderful five-layered tiramisu, of ethereal lightness and a strong coffee essence. Other desserts are chocolate cake and cannoli.

The wine list is extensive, more American than not. I don’t like my wines soft, like Chardonnay, and I enjoyed a Pinot Grigio and an Italian Sangiovese-Merlot blend that was my kind of acid. My friend praised her aperol sprit as “pleasantly astringent” and pointed out that “it doesn’t have that many ingredients, so they all should be good.”

One thing you can’t get to Pastaio from here. It’s on a pedestrians-only block near the railroad tracks, and Google Maps does not know what to tell you. The best marker is the big red “Fifth Avenue” sign high above the restaurant across the street. one in on that and circle around till you find a parking space, then walk in. (It’s the site of the former opCat, if that helps.

Although the service I experienced was nothing but fine, Pastaio is part of the lamentable recent trend for restaurants to act as if the customer is not always right. Management “may ask for your table once you’ve finished your meal” very un-Italian They’ll add $5 to your bill if you ask the kitchen to split an entr e, and 3.25% if you use a credit card. These warnings are in small white type on the menu. And now you know.

Pastaio places a glistening egg yolk atop its carbonara, which you break up yourself. It’s lovely and it works. TOM PERKINS

Upscale bistro and music venue Soul on Ice opens in Detroit

By Lee DeVito

A NEW SOUL food-inspired bistro and lounge that will also host live music has opened on Detroit’s west side.

Soul on Ice opened to the public last week at 8867 Livernois Ave. in a space south of the Avenue of Fashion that was formerly known as the Varsity Lounge and the Penthouse Lounge.

Owners say the menu will feature soul-food inspired dishes and cocktails, and will also host “music from internationally known Detroit based DJs such as Bruce Bailey, Kelly Holmes and Vernon English, live jazz, house, old school hip-hop, blue-eyed soul, R&B and other soulful musical performances.”

The 2,400-square-foot project is the latest development from Herb and Danielle Sanders, a long-time westside couple known for hosting charity events like “The Not Just Knee-Deep Funky Ski Lodge Party.” Herb is founder of Sanders Law PLLC while Danielle is in real estate and property management.

“We’re opening just in time for the Christmas holidays as a gift to the city that has given us so much over the years,” Herb Sanders said in a statement. “Our family is happy to create a place for people to gather with their friends in a warm, inviting space celebrating African-American culture in a way that welcomes people from all backgrounds.”

The $500,000 project was partially funded by a $35,000 grant from the

Motor City Match program. The owners say Soul on Ice will hire 15 residents of Detroit, and add that the entire project was built by minority-owned contracting companies.

“We were born, raised, educated and started our own family here,” Danielle said. “We know and love the city. That’s why we decided to take a leap of faith and create an experience we felt was missing for us as a couple in Detroit. Soul on Ice will be a catalyst for extending the success of the Livernois Avenue of Fashion from Seven Mile to Joy Road. And as a result, spur more business and residential investment in neighborhoods south along Livernois.”

“This is a place where people can hang out, feel comfortable and chill,” said Herb. “Relax and have some soul on ice with your friends.”

Detroit restaurant The Peterboro is reopening soon

COME FRIDAY, DEC. 30, The Peterboro’s almond chicken will be back on the menu.

The contemporary Chinese American restaurant in Detroit’s Cass Corridor shut down over the summer to focus on repairs and is finally reopening with new(ish owner Chuck Inchaustegui at the helm.

Inchaustegui was a managing partner of the restaurant when it initially opened in 2016 and has taken over ownership of the restaurant ahead of its reopening.

The restaurant posted about the reopening on social media along with an upcoming $100 New Year’s Eve dinner that includes a red dragon welcome shot, small plate buffet, midnight champagne toast, two drink tickets, and sounds from DJ Crate Digga.

Inchaustegui told Crain’s Detroit Business the restaurant will have a refined menu focusing on staples like almond chicken, fried rice, and lo mein.

“It got to a point where we were doing too much,” Inchaustegui told Crain’s. “We’re going to try to just do a few things really well, rather than do a bunch of different things and hope they’re good.”

The temporary closure in July came as a surprise to both patrons and staff who were reportedly informed the same day it closed.

At the time, owners cited “trying restaurant times” as the reason for the closure, noting they would be reimagining the space and reopening soon.

The Peterboro is located at 420 Peterboro St., Detroit, and is taking reservations online. More info is at thepeterboro.com.

—Randiah Camille Green

Detroit Soul opens second location

POPULAR SOUL FOOD joint

Detroit Soul has a new location in Jefferson Chalmers.

It’s the second outpost for the restaurant owned by brothers Samuel Van Buren and Jerome Brown. While the first Detroit Soul location — which opened in 2015 on E. Eight Mile Road — focuses on takeout and catering, the new spot has more space for dine-in customers.

The farm-to-table eatery adds a healthy spin to classic soul food and 90% of its ingredients are sourced locally.

“This whole idea of sourcing food for urban communities ties into our commitment to help our community eat healthy,” Van Buren said in a media release. “We want to encourage people to eat well by eating better. Many of these areas have poor health because there is a lack of healthy food options. Detroit Soul brings this healthier twist to soul food, utilizing ingredients that are better for you and less harmful to your health.”

In true Detroit fashion, the brothers made the opening a whole affair with a ticketed preview gala

in November and ribbon-cutting with Mayor Mike Duggan, before officially opening to the public on Dec. 14.

Brown and Van Buren received a $60,000 grant from Motor City Match to help open the new spot inside the historic Kresge Building Department Store at 14300 E. Jefferson Ave.

They also worked with nonprofit organi ation Jefferson ast Inc. to host public engagement sessions in the neighborhood and found that residents wanted family-friendly dine-in options and businesses that would hire from within the community. So Detroit Soul did just that — all the employees at the new restaurant are Detroiters.

“In opening the location of this soul food restaurant, we aspire to build more community, economic growth, and employment within the area,” Brown said in the release.

“We hope our restaurant will become that third place that you can come – whether you’re a janitor or CEO – and band together as equals while enjoying nostalgic food and conversations.”

—Randiah Camille Green

WEED Michigan’s cannabis prices have hit an all-time low

ACCORDING TO THE Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, the price of pot is the lowest it’s ever been in the state.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Detroit issues rst round of licenses for adult-use cannabis businesses

By Steve Neavling

THREE YEARS AFTER adult-use cannabis sales began in Michigan, Detroit finally began issuing licenses last week for retail businesses to open.

Of the 90 applications the city received, 33 were awarded a license to open a dispensary, microbusiness, or consumption lounge.

The licenses were awarded on the same day a federal judge denied a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against the city’s recreational marijuana ordinance.

“This is definitely a day for the history books,” Detroit Councilman James Tate, who introduced the city’s recreational cannabis ordinance, said at a news conference Thursday. “This has been a very, very, very challenging time to get to this point. very step of the way, there was criticism, people said you’re doing it wrong, you are trying to make something perfect that can’t be perfect. Why are you fighting Why is this important Just move on.’ Today is why we fight.”

Issuing the licenses is a big step toward making the cannabis industry more equitable in Detroit. The city adopted an ordinance that requires half of the licenses to be issued to people who live in communities, like Detroit, that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

The licenses are a long time coming. The Detroit City Council postponed issuing licenses until it could create an ordinance to make it easier for Detroiters to join the industry. What followed were several lawsuits and two separate ordinances, one of which was struck

down in court in June 2021 because it gave licensing preferences to Detroiters.

The city’s second ordinance, which offers two tracks for licenses so that “equity” and “non-equity” applicants aren’t competing with each other, led to at least two lawsuits because the city prohibited medical cannabis dispensaries from getting a recreational license until 2027.

While there’s still a chance that one of those lawsuits could prevail, Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett struck a positive tone, saying he doubts that litigation will prevent the new licensees from opening early next year.

“We’re going to fight this fight day in and day out for as long as we have to,” Mallett said. “We are not going to be intimidated by the number of the lawsuits or the frequency of the lawsuits.”

Several of the winning applicants spoke at the news conference Thursday, with some of them in tears.

quity applicant imberly Scott, who received an application to open Chronic City, said the licenses are a major win for minority-owned businesses.

“I fought took and nail, every single day for this so Black folks and cannabis and the city of Detroit could benefit off this industry,” Scott said. “I wanted to see people like me where I come from be able to benefit and purchase cannabis in their own city. I am so overwhelmed and overjoyed.”

Another equity applicant, Abdullah Muhammed, who received an application to open Gage 313, said the licenses are a victory for moving forward after decades of unjust marijuana laws.

“We are here to rectify over 0 years of people being disproportionately impacted by a law that never should have existed in the first place,” Muhammed said.

The 33 licenses were issued in the first of three rounds. In all, the city’s ordinance allows for the issuance of up to 160 recreational cannabis licenses.

In each of the second and third rounds, the city will approve up to 30 licenses for dispensaries, 20 for consumption lounges, and 20 for microbusinesses.

The second round can begin 120 days from the end of the first round, as long as the city council approves it.

Detroit Deputy Mayor Todd Bettison said he’s excited about the positive impact of the cannabis industry.

“The recreational marijuana industry has tremendous potential to generate wealth and income for our city, as well as personal and generational wealth for those who participate,” Bettison said.

Since the city is late to entering the industry, however, it could pose problems for prospective businesses. The market is flooded with cannabis products, growers, and dispensaries, causing prices to hit all-time lows and forcing some businesses to sell at a loss.

The winning equity applicants are

House of Zen

I Cannabis

Motor City ush

iberty Cannabis

igh Profile Cannabis Shop

Chronic City Cannabis

Plan B Wellness Center

Dacut

Blue Wave

The Remedy

Cloud Cannabis

Gage 313

Detroit erbal Center

Nuggets

Livernois Provisioning

Inhale

TJM Enterprises

The Herbalist

In ovember, the average price of weed was $95.12 per oz., a 50% decrease from the same time last year, or $100 lower.

While many other sectors have seen prices rise due to inflation, Michigan’s cannabis market has seen a decrease in prices. That’s because the large number of cannabis licenses issued by the state has caused businesses to lower prices to be competitive, sources in the industry say.

“In January of 2021 we saw about 1,200 licenses and that number has now grown to roughly 1, 00 throughout the state,” the Fire Station Cannabis Co. co-owner ogan Stauber told W C-T .

While the price drop is good for consumers, it’s been hard on small growers and dispensaries, who say it’s difficult to compete with the bigger corporate players.

The Fire Station’s Stauber says despite the plummeting prices, business has still been good for Michigan’s cannabis industry.

“We’ve seen about a 3 % increase statewide,” he told W CT . “ ast year in 2021 the state as a whole did about 1.3 billion in sales and right now, we’re on track for $2 billion in sales closing the year .”

Prices are expected to stabili e, as has happened in other states with regulated cannabis industries like Colorado, Oregon, and Washington.

—Lee DeVito

Ivy eague SJTC nterprises

The winning non-equity applicants are uxury oud

T C Detroit

JARS Cannabis

Detroit Natural Selections

House of Dank

SMO

O Cannabis

MPP Services

West Coast Meds Cookies

Southwest Meds eaf and Bud Playa ind

CULTURE

Artist of the week

Cyrah Dardas weaves ceremonial alchemy into first solo show

By Randiah Camille Green

T is eat re i i i t a iffere t art ist each week. Got someone in mind you think deserves the spotlight? Hit us up at arts@metrotimes.com.

Cyrah Dardas is a queer multimedia artist, curator, and art educator living in Waawitaatanong, aka Detroit. Her art is informed by her work as a care worker and steward of the land. To view Dardas’s work is to engage in a ritual — sometimes literally, as a live ceremonial installation that’s happening before your eyes, and other times as the byproduct of her spiritual practice and reclaimed ancestral traditions.

Dardas was a 2022 Emerging Artist Fellow at Playground Detroit and an artist in residence for Womxnhouse Detroit 2022. They are also the co-founder of Paper Street Press, which produces zines

highlighting Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC), and disabled BIPOC artists.

Her Womxnhouse installation, “Practices of re/ belonging” included a patchwork quilt and shawl the artist hand-dyed and stitched. Her tools were also part of the installation — plants, herbs, flowers, and salvaged bricks found in Detroit that were used to create the dye colors.

It’s hard to define Dardas’s work as they utilize a range of materials and techniques. But whether she’s creating tapestries, watercolor paintings, portraits in ceremonial ash, or flower altars, her art is rooted in divine cosmological expansion that calls us home to connection, community, and communion with the earth.

Our Craft of Care, their curatorial

project with literary and visual art coworking space the Room Project, focuses on artists with regenerative and restorative practices. It encourages us to find rest, a most sacred and loving act in this world of capitalist-fueled assault on the senses we call life.

In a powerful celebration of the Divine Feminine, Dardas also curated a multimedia group exhibit called Theotokos: New Visions of the Mother of God that featured work by local faves Sydney James, Sabrina Nelson, BreAnn White, Olivia Guterson, Darryl Terrell, Xavier Cortez, Zeinab Saab, Bree Gant, Ijania Cortez, and more at the Schvitz in 2018.

After countless group shows, Dardas finally has her first solo show Birth of Mithra, which includes watercolor paintings, mirrors, and an experimental film.

“I consider my practice as a ceremonialist as an alchemy that can rebuild and remember sacred relationships, patterns and processes,” she says in an artist statement. “Curiosity, learning, and connection are integral to this practice as it is reflective and relational. I seek a re-belonging to this land that can only be possible with deep study and rigorous listening. I do this for personal liberation and to move toward a regenerative way of being on this land and with others who also inhabit it.”

It was fittingly unveiled on the darkest night of the year, the winter solstice, at Cedar North farm and gallery.

Where to see their work: Birth of Mithra is up at Cedar North until March of 2023. 2312 E. Kasson Rd., Cedar; cedar northtc.com.

Cyrah Dardas.

COURTESY PHOTO

I’m going to say it… ‘Black Panther 2’ sucked

By Rosalind Early

In August 2020, I was doom scrolling when the news popped across my feed that Chadwick Boseman was dead. I googled it, but there were no obituaries yet, so I texted friends.

“Did Chadwick Boseman really die?”

They confirmed it, and in the next few minutes, so did news organizations. I was shocked when Kobe Bryant died. I was shocked with Robin Williams died. But I didn’t take the deaths personally. It never felt like I had lost something. In other words: I did not cry.

When I saw the photos of Boseman, though, and even now writing about it, my eyes started to burn. I wasn’t even sure why. He played King T’Challa/ Black Panther in the film Black Panther, which I thought was fine. I didn’t go see it a bunch of times. I had also seen him in 21 Bridges, which I hadn’t thought much of. So why was I crying?

Part of me thinks the trauma of 2020 had finally ground me down. It was another loss in a year of so many losses. Not just death, but the time we lost together, the trips that were never taken, the events we couldn’t hold. The jobs that were lost. The civility that we threw away without a second thought. Humanity seemed to be teetering on the brink of disaster, and now we’d lost

a really good man. Boseman had famously been sick and still working, not telling anyone as he cranked out films about black heroes like Jackie Robinson (42 ), Thurgood Marshall (Marshall) and James Brown (Get on Up ). As the Twitter meme said, Boseman understood the assignment.

And now he was gone, and I grieved.

But there was something to look forward to. Boseman wasn’t yet gone forever. There was another Black Panther coming out, and that would be our chance to see him one last time and say goodbye.

When the trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever came out and I saw the funeral scene, I was assured this was going to be a fitting tribute. I teared up at the beautiful moment when “No Woman No Cry” morphs into “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar. I felt all the things: excitement, Black pride, sadness, joy ... it was going to be hard to wait to see the movie.

I finally saw Wakanda Forever on ovember 10. The first thing that happens is that Black Panther, a.k.a. King T’Challa, a.k.a. Boseman, dies off-screen of a mysterious illness. We’re in the lab with his sister Shuri (Letita Wright) as she does some crazy (very fake looking) science to try to save him.

Then the Marvel logo comes up and it’s all snippets of Boseman as Black Panther. The theater was perfectly silent, and it was the one moment of genuine emotion as we saw exactly what we had lost.

Then we see the beautiful funeral procession and watch Shuri touch her brother’s coffin before it is lifted into space and flown away (a little odd . Then the film cuts to black, and it’s one year later.

That’s all we get of Boseman. The studio never pieced together footage so we could have one more scene with him. This is the same company that CGI’d Samuel L. Jackson’s face so he would look 30 years younger in Captain Marvel, but they couldn’t find a few snippets of T’Challa to have him visit Shuri when she went to see the ancestors?

Instead, the rest of the movie becomes a bloated mess about Namor, an underwater god (or something), who wants to wage war with Wakanda because the movie has to be about something...

Some people probably thought the funeral, where everyone was in their funeral whites and drummers were playing in front of a beautiful mural of Boseman, was enough of a tribute.

I am here to tell you it was not. I wanted catharsis. I wanted it to feel like a hero had fallen, someone irreplaceable and imbued with such significance, such resonance, that no one knows exactly what to do next.

In a meta way, I got that. Because Wakanda Forever is definitely a movie in search of a hero (and plot). But the movie has no tension. No deaths really matter, not even T’Challa’s. And you know most of the characters won’t die, like Namor, Shuri, the girl who will be the next Iron Man, and so on. There is one surprise death (no spoilers), but it is framed in such a way that it leaves us feeling nothing.

There are a ton of other problems with the movie. There are two young female scientists in the film, three women acting as bodyguards, and two FBI agents. All of these duplicate characters keep the run time bloated, as do all of the long and tensionless action sequences and Namor’s backstory. (Which, as with all underwater storylines, makes less sense the more the movie tries to explain it.)

But that’s not why I’m mad at Wakanda Forever. I’m mad because this was the one chance to pay tribute to Boseman and we got five minutes at the beginning of the movie and then nothing. Do Marvel folks know what catharsis is? Do they know what it means to lose the first big-screen, franchise-carrying Black action hero?

We needed to see Wakanda fall.

We needed to see them lose their hero and then lose almost everything else when he was gone. We needed to see a country and people lost and pushed to the brink and unsure if they could come back, or how, without their champion.

We needed there to be stakes, and we needed those stakes to be high, dammit.

Because what we really needed to see was a hero to emerge from the chaos and all of the stupid loss. A hero who wasn’t certain that she could save her country, and we needed to root for her, even as we too were uncertain that she could do it.

And then she would win, but at a great cost. It would tell us that even in the midst of a season of loss, even when our hero has fallen, there is still hope. There is still the ability to rise again. And even though we’re in the darkness, we’ll once again have our time in the sun.

Few critics are willing to call the movie bad. (It’s even the topic of a Vul ture podcast.) But it is bad. Chadwick Boseman deserved better.

Rosalind Early is editor in chief of our sister paper, the St. Louis Riverfront

Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever MARVEL STUDIOS

CULTURE

Savage Love Quickies

By Dan Savage

There is more to this week’s Savage Love. To read the entire column, go to Savage.Love.

: Q How long after a divorce does someone become “emotionally available” for a new relationship?

: A Someone who initiated a divorce — someone who made up their mind, got a lawyer, and filed the paperwork — is probably going to be “emotionally available” a little sooner than someone who was blindsided when their spouse “asked” for a divorce. (It’s not really an “ask,” since you don’t need someone’s permission to divorce them. But if the person who initiated the divorce was being abused, they may need more time to recover from the marriage than the “blindsided” abuser they left. And if a marriage wound down after a decade or two and the decision to divorce was mutual and amicable, both parties could be “emotionally available” before they’ve taken their rings off, much less finali ed the divorce.

: Q Is being a “vaginaphile” an acceptable thing in 2023? Regardless of the other person’s identity?

: A Absolutely. Dick is nice, I’m a fan, but dick isn’t for everyone. Same goes for pussy. I find it strange that it’s often the same people who insist demisexuality is valid (and it is and sapiosexuality is valid (and it is and asexuality is valid (and it is who will turn around and insist that homosexuality (being attracted to members of the same sex or heterosexuality (being attracted to members of the opposite sex somehow aren’t valid (and they are .

: Q Pro-tips for someone who’s never eaten ass before but wants to?

: A We’re not going to run out of ass — our strategic national ass reserves are well-stocked so don’t feel like you have to eat all the ass the first time you try. Take it slow. Suck the dick or eat the pussy of your freshly showered

partner, wander down to the taint, then go deep take a couple of swipes at the ass with your tongue before retreating back to the taint, giving yourself time to assess, and then dive back in if you’re enjoying it as much as your partner is.

: Q I’m living with my boyfriend’s parents for a few weeks. I need to get laid. Suggestions please?

: A I would suggest fucking your boyfriend. If you don’t feel comfortable fucking him in his parents’ house, fuck him on their roof, fuck him in the showers at the gym, fuck him in the nearest bar with a single-stall restroom and a door that locks. Obstacles can frustrate desire, yes, but they can just as easily fuel desire so long as you have the right attitude about them.

: Q My relationship with my husband — with my everything — is in trouble. We were together for a few years, then he got busted with drugs and wound up in prison, and we lost contact for years T e sa is ro e o Facebook and we wound up talking for a long time. I hate blowjobs in part because I was forced to give this guy a blowjob when I was a teenager. He says blowjobs are what he desires the most. He has to have blowjobs, that’s his bottom line. I gag. I throw up, I get angry and feel sad. He can’t even get it up most of the time. I want him to fuck me so bad, but it’s just not in the cards for me. He is horny all the time and I’m going through menopause and have no desire. He thinks I don’t love him anymore! Please help! We don’t want to lose each other! At least, I don’t want to lose him. He is fucking me up mentally. He is very persistent. He wants a blowjob every day. Whenever he can get it. I can’t last long enough to make him cum. My jaw is dislocated from my ex-husband. You are my last chance to save this.

: A Anyone who sees their partner weeping in a puddle of their own puke after they’ve performed a particular sex act and then says, “I’m gonna need you to do that every day for the rest of your life or we’re through,” is an asshole. Call his bluff tell him he’s free to go but if he chooses to stay, there will be no more blowjobs. I can’t promise you he won’t leave but whether he accepts your terms (and stops demanding

blowjobs or makes good on his threats (and good luck to him finding blowjobs elsewhere , you’ll be better off.

: Q Is it normal for a gay guy to not be interested in penetrative sex?

: A Most gay men enjoy penetration (fucking, getting fucked, flip fucking , but not every gay man is into anal sex. “Some men prefer what’s called outercourse, which is everything except penetration,” said Dr. Joe ort, the psychotherapist and author who went viral earlier this year after coining a term for gay men who aren’t interested in penetrative sex. “Other people might think of outercourse as foreplay, but that implies that the main act is intercourse, but some gay men aren’t tops or bottoms. They’re sides.”

: Q Best lube for PIV?

: Q Foreplay.

: Q 1. How many people have had sex with more than one member of the same family? 2. Anyone had sex with every member of the same family? 3. Including the parents?

: A 1. Don’t know. 2. Don’t know. 3. ope not.

: Q Gay guy here into threesomes and playing with gay couples. How do you tell someone that you hooked up with in a threesome (half of a couple) that you would rather hook up with him solo because you’re not that into his partner? This has happened to me a couple of times recently.

: A Be direct with the one you’re into without being cruel to the one you’re not “I would like to hook up with you again, but just the two of us.” If he asks why, be honest “I’m into you but not your partner.” If they “only play to -

gether,” if a one-on-one hookup would constitute cheating in the context of their relationship, well, then you’ll either have to fuck them both again (which you’ll regret or you’ll have to go find someone else to fuck (which shouldn’t be that hard .

: Q Am I a bad guy for dating a married man in a sexless marriage who has kids in college?

: A ope.

: Q Does bottoming make your butt bigger? More muscular?

: A Bottoming squats that’s cum you’re having injected into your ass, not steroids.

: Q I’m curious what type of guys Dan Savage is most attracted to. Also, does Mr. Savage like receiving explicit pics from his fans?

: A Mr. Savage is primarily attracted to men with what Mr. Savage has described as “Muppet faces,” i.e., men with large mouths, big eyes, and other exaggerated facial features. ot one of the men that Mr. Savage has ever dated and/or married regarded “Muppetfaced” as a compliment, despite Mr. Savage’s sometimes frantic efforts to explain that “Muppet-faced” was not just meant as a compliment, but it was the highest compliment Mr. Savage could possibly bestow. For the record Mr. Savage does not require his sex partners to wear fu y body suits, spray chocolate chip cookie crumbs all over the bed, or pop out of garbage cans to heap verbal abuse on him. Mr. Savage welcomes explicit pics. Men with Muppet faces are encouraged to submit.

: Q A young gay male friend has referred to his ass as his “cunt” in front of me, a cis female, and he was not having sex at the time. (You wrote last week that this was something young gay men do while having sex, with their sex partners, and not with their woman friends.)

o t is offe si e a to im so He rolled his eyes. Now what? I don’t want to spank him but I might have to.

: A I’m happy to spank him for you provided he’s got a Muppet face and a nice cunt.

Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love. Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love!

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor,” writes Aries author Anne Lamott. “It will keep you cramped and insane.” I think that’s a key theme for you to embrace in 2023. Let’s express the idea more positively, too. In Navajo culture, rug weavers intentionally create small imperfections in their work, like odd-colored beads or stray pieces of yarn. This rebellion against unattainable exactitude makes the art more soulful. Relieved of the unrealistic mandate to be flawless, the rug can relax into its beauty.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

Here are my four decrees for you in 2023, Taurus. 1. You are cleared to be greedy if it’s in service to a holy cause that fosters others’ well-being as well as yours. 2. It’s permissible to be stubborn if doing so nourishes versions of truth and goodness that uplift and inspire your community. 3. It’s proper to be slow and gradual if that’s the best way to keep collaborative projects from becoming slipshod. 4. It’s righteous to be zealous in upholding high standards, even if that causes less diligent people to bail out.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

In 2023, many interesting lessons will arrive via your close relationships and collaborations. You will have the potential to learn more about the art of togetherness than you have in a long time. On occasion, these lessons may initially agitate you. But they will ultimately provide more pleasure and healing than you can imagine right now. Bonus prediction: You will have an enhanced talent for interweaving your destiny together with the fates of your allies.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

Here are some projects I’d love to see you pursue in 2023: 1. Teach your allies the fine points of how to cherish you but not smother you. 2. Cultivate your natural talent for appreciating the joys of watching and helping things grow: a child, a creative project, a tree, a friendship, or your bank account. 3. If you don’t feel close to the family members that fate provided you with, find others you like better. 4. As you explore territories that are further out or deeper within, make sure your Cancerian shell is expandable. 5. Avoid being friends with people who are shallow or callous or way too cool. 6. Cultivate your attraction to people who share your deepest feelings and highest ideals.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

the possibilities.

JAMES NOELLERT

ness nature to serve you even better?

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

How’s this for a New Year’s resolution my vice riddled amigos?? Don’t change a damn thing, accept your faults, revel in your imperfections and shortcomings. Ignore all who wish to ‘improve’ you. You are just fine the way you are. After all… you made it this far.

Mystic teacher Terence McKenna said, “You have to take seriously the notion that understanding the universe is your responsibility, because the only understanding of the universe that will be useful to you is your own understanding.” This will be key advice for you in 2023. You will be wise to craft an updated version of your personal philosophy. I suggest you read a lot of smart people’s ideas about the game of life. Make it your quest to commune with interesting minds who stimulate your deep thoughts. Pluck out the parts that ring true as you create a new vision that is uniquely your own.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

How should we refer to your romantic adventures in 2023? We could be whimsical and call them “Ritual Mating Dances on the Outskirts of History.” We could be melodramatic and call them “Diving into the Deep Dark Mysteries in Search of Sexy Treasures.” Or we could be hopeful and call them “A Sacred Pilgrimage to the Frontiers of Intimacy.” I think there’s a good chance that all three titles will turn out to be apt descriptors of the interesting stories ahead of you — especially if you’re brave as you explore

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

“Coddiwomple” is an English slang word that means to travel resolutely and dynamically toward an as-yet unknown destination. It’s not the same as wandering aimlessly. The prevailing mood is not passivity and vagueness. Rather, one who coddiwomples has a sense of purpose about what’s enjoyable and meaningful. They may not have a predetermined goal, but they know what they need and like. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, the next six months will be an excellent time for you Libras to experiment with coddiwompling.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21:

In the theater of ancient Greece, the term anagnorisis referred to a pivotal moment when a character discovered a big truth they had previously been unaware of. Another Greek word, peripeteia, meant a reversal of circumstances: “a change by which the action veers round to its opposite.” I bring these fun ideas to your attention, dear Scorpio, because I think 2023 could bring you several instances of an anagnorisis leading to a peripeteia. How would you like them to unfold? Start making plans. You will have uncanny power to determine which precise parts of your life are gifted with these blessings.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

Winters are cold in Olds, a town in Alberta, Canada. Temperatures plunge as low as 24 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. But an agronomist named Dong Jianyi has built a giant greenhouse there that enables him to grow vegetables year-round. He spends no money on heat, but relies on innovative insulation to keep the inside warm. In 2021, he grew 29,000 pounds of tomatoes. I propose we make him your inspirational role model for 2023, Sagittarius. My guess is, that like him, you will be a wellspring of imaginative resourcefulness. What creative new developments could you generate? How might you bring greater abundance into your life by drawing extra energy from existing sources? How could you har-

In accordance with your astrological omens in 2023, I’ve chosen a quote from Capricorn storyteller Michael Meade. I hope you will make it one of your core meditations in the coming months. He writes, “All meaningful change requires a genuine surrender. Yet, to surrender does not simply mean to give up; more to give up one’s usual self and allow something other to enter and redeem the lesser sense of self. In surrendering, we fall to the bottom of our arguments and seek to touch the origin of our lives again. Only then can we see as we were meant to see, from the depth of the psyche where the genius resides, where the seeds of wisdom and purpose were planted before we were born.” (The quote is from Meade’s book Fate and Destiny, The Two Agree ments of the Soul.)

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

In addition to my career as a horoscope columnist, I have written novels and other books. I have worked as a singer-songwriter in rock bands and performed a one-person show in theaters. As I survey my history, I always break into sardonic laughter as I contemplate how many businesspeople have advised me, “First, you’ve got to sell out. You’ve got to dumb down your creative efforts so as to make yourself salable. Only later, after you have become successful, can you afford to be true to your deepest artistic principles.” I am very glad I never heeded that terrible counsel, because it would have made me insane and unhappy. How are you doing with this central problem of human life, Aquarius? Are you serving the gods of making money or the gods of doing what you love? The coming year will, I suspect, bring you prime opportunities to emphasize the latter goal.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

I’ve chosen a sweet taste of advice for you to keep referring back to in 2023. It’s in rapt alignment with upcoming astrological omens. I suggest you copy my counsel out in longhand on a piece of paper and keep it in your wallet or under your pillow. Here it is, courtesy of author Martha Beck: “The important thing is to tell yourself a life story in which you, the hero, are primarily a problem solver rather than a helpless victim. This is well within your power, whatever fate might have dealt you.”

This week’s homework: What one element could you add to your life that would bring a major enhancement?

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