Metro Times 06/21/23

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New Voices Fellow - Eleanore Catolico

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NEWS & VIEWS

We received comments in response to last week’s cover story about the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry by New Voices fellow Eleanore Catolico.

Eleanore, what an amazing work!!! I think I like this more than anything else you’ve written... Amidst racism, poverty and food insecurity, there’s still hope in humanity. It made me emotional. It’s beautifully written. Thank you! BRAVA!

—Tina N Cognito, Facebook

I would savor a story going back to the 1980s in Brightmoor at Fenkell/Lahsher, Detroit when I was a young pastor at 28 at Saint Christine Church. We started the

soup kitchen in the parish hall and a food, clothing, more pantry in the building we bought under the leadership of Deacon Ray Kunik, Sister Maria Kurrie, and Mr. A thriving grades 1-8 school staffed by Felician nuns was prominent. Now retired, I was pastor in Brightmoor for 10 years.

—Lawrence M. Ventline, email

[In] Detroit, Eleanore Catolico visits a food pantry serving a hard-hit neighborhood and finds America. It’s a tough story for a writer because nothing big happens, but in beautifully observed details, Eleanore shows us that nothing is really everything.

—Sarah Fenske, Executive Editor, Euclid Media Group

Sound off: letters@metrotimes.com

NEWS & VIEWS

Hamtramck City Council bans Pride flag from city property

THE ALL-MUSLIM HAMTRAMCK City Council banned LGBTQ+ Pride flags from being flown on all city properties on Tuesday last week, drawing criticism that the diverse city chose bigotry over inclusivity.

The so-called “neutrality flag resolution” also prohibits the display of religious, ethnic, racial, and political flags and states that the city won’t provide “special treatment to any group.”

The unanimous vote followed more than three hours of public comments and months of impassioned debate.

Dozens of supporters and opponents crowded into the council chambers and hallway at City Hall to speak out.

“I am a Lebanese person, and I support the American flag,” Hassan Aoun, an activist based in Dearborn, said. “We are not going to sit here and tolerate you guys coming in here and saying, ‘Oh, it’s Pride Month.’ If you’re gay, no problem. Be gay by yourself. Don’t sit here and throw it down my throat or anyone’s throat.”

But supporters of the flag criticized the council for invoking religion to justify a hateful action.

“I think the elephant in the room –the thing we all see and are not talking about – is that homosexuality is a sin, and I think that’s what’s weighing on people,” resident Russ Gordon said.

“That is an inappropriate reason for banning this flag. … It may be a sin, but it’s a reality, and a lot of gay people live in this city, and that flag represents them. It allows them to feel like they belong in this community.”

Others mocked the city for boasting about its diversity while banning a flag that celebrates inclusivity.

Wearing a clown nose, Rose Carver held up a sign that read, “Hamtramck welcomes you if you’re straight.”

“Allow me to humbly present a redesign of the Hamtramck city placard to underscore this brave council’s position on neutrality,” Carver said. “This new sign will ensure that visitors and resi-

dents know that this is a city that stands for diversity, so long as it doesn’t offend the religious beliefs and backgrounds of others.”

Carver then kissed her girlfriend Abi Inman in front of the crowd, many of whom were wearing traditional Islamic clothing.

City Councilman Nayeem Choudhury defended the ban, saying the city wants to “respect the religious rights of our citizens.”

“You guys are welcome,” Ghalib said of LGBTQ+ residents. “Why do you have to have the flag shown on government property to be represented? You’re already represented.”

Hamtramck officials removed the Pride flag from city property after the city council voted to ban it.

In January, Hamtramck swore in its first Muslim mayor and the first all-Muslim council were sworn in, making the Detroit suburb the only one in the country in which all elected officials are Muslims.

In a statement Wednesday, state Sen. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, urged community leaders to “show their support for the LGBTQ+ community.”

“Hamtramck residents of diverse backgrounds have lived side by side providing support and community to one another,” Chang said. “During this time when hate crimes and attacks on LGBTQ+ folks are on the rise, it is critical that we build communities where every person’s humanity is respected and where we provide an environment where every person can be their authentic self and not be afraid to come out and be who they truly are.”

—Steve Neavling

Cities rally behind LGBTQ+ residents

LEADERS OF CITIES neighboring Hamtramck sent a clear message to LGBTQ+ residents last week: You are welcome here.

The remarks came after the all-Muslim Hamtramck City Council banned Pride flags from all city properties.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan underscored that the state’s largest city displays its Pride flag outside of city hall.

“The City of Detroit proudly raises our Pride Flag at the start of every Pride Month and allows it to fly throughout the year to show our unwavering support for the LGBTQ+ community and the diversity within,” Duggan said. “It’s the role of city officials to ensure everyone feels welcome in their community, and everyone is welcome here in Detroit.”

“To the #LGBTQ, progressive, and/or inclusive residents and business owners of Hamtramck — Hamtramck may not want you, but you’re welcome in @ cityofhazelpark,” Hazel Park Mayor Pro-Tem Luke Londo tweeted.

Oakland County Executive David Coulter, who is gay, tweeted, “You’re welcome here. #OaklandCounty #AllWaysMovingForward.”

State lawmakers who represent metro Detroit communities also spoke out in support of LGBTQ+ residents.

“To Hamtramck LGBTQ+ community members and their families — please know that you have many allies throughout the city and state, and that includes me as your state senator,” said state Sen. Stephanie Chang, DDetroit. “You are loved, you are welcome, and you are valued. Hamtramck has had a long history of being a place of hope and opportunity for people of all backgrounds.”

State Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, called for unity.

“Standing with Hamtramck & MI-13’s LGBTQ+ community as your congressman,” U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, tweeted. “Committed to raising your voices & championing your rights. Together, let’s foster unity and inclusivity. Join me in showing support to our LGBTQ+ neighbors. United, we flourish.”

The Michigan LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus criticized Hamtramck’s decision, saying it sends the wrong message.

“Leaders who seek to stifle or deny Michigan’s essential diversity can not erase the reality that LGBTQ+ people exist in every city, town, and village across our state — and we’re not going anywhere,” the caucus said in a statement. “As Michigan’s LGBTQ+ lawmakers, we stand in solidarity with Hamtramck’s LGBTQ+ community and condemn the council’s divisive and sad resolution that only serves to divide and polarize this strong and unique community.”

Branden Snyder, executive director of Detroit Action, a nonprofit that empowers workers and people of color, was even more blunt, saying the “unwarranted resolution is a blatant attempt to sow division within our communities and create a hostile environment.”

“In recent months, there has been a wave of coordinated political backlash against the LGBTQ+ community and the important rights they have won over the last few years,” Snyder said. “Banning gay pride flags is a slippery slope that has the potential to not only limit the freedoms of the LGBTQ+ community in Hamtramck, but around the state as well. Ostracizing the LGBTQ+ community in any capacity shreds the fabric of Michigan and will force thousands into a life of uncert ainty and fear.”

—Steve Neavling

Protesters stage Hamtramck rally

LGBTQ+ RESIDENTS AND allies plan to converge on Hamtramck City Hall on Saturday afternoon to protest the all-male, Muslim city council’s decision to ban the Pride flag from all city properties.

In response, Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib on Sunday pledged the city would not budge and baselessly suggested the protesters were outside agitators.

“In the coming days, you will notice strangers demonstrating in your city and disturbing the public peace by provoking you with their actions and behaviors,” Ghalib wrote on Facebook, claiming “they are trying to create chaos, division and disrupt security in the city.”

Ghalib added, “Be confident that your government will not back down from its positions not even one step, no matter the pressure and threats from who was young or old on the street was or a government official, and will continue to serve everyone equally and not give special privileges to anyone at the expense of anyone.”

In a separate statement on Saturday, Ghalib criticized leaders of neighboring cities for expressing concerns about Hamtramck’s Pride flag ban and insisted the move was intended to convey neutrality.

“You do not know our city more than we do, and you will not know the consequences of opening the door for every group to fly their flag on city properties,” Ghalib said. “Our residents are all equally important to us, and we will continue to serve them equally without discrimination, favoritism or preferential treatment to any group. The city government will stay NEUTRAL and IMPARTIAL toward its residents.”

The controversy began in 2021, when then-Hamtramck Mayor Karen Majewski displayed the Pride flag outside of city hall, eliciting criticism from the community’s large Muslim population. Ghalib, who was running for mayor, turned the flag into a campaign talking point, saying he didn’t support it.

Ghalib defeated Majewski in November 2021.

Ghalib’s claim that the flag ban was about neutrality glosses over the rampant homophobia among many conservative Muslims.

Those views were widespread on Facebook, where LGBTQ+ residents were described as “sissies,” “sickos,” “mentally ill,” “unnatural,” “candy ass fruit,” “rapists,” “pedophiles,” “child groomers,” “homos,” and “fags.”

“No one is attacking your existence!” Mouhamad A. Naboulsi wrote. “We are tired of your narcissistic need to flash your vulgarity around and trying to force it on children.”

Others suggested Hamtramck was a community of Muslims and that LGBTQ+ people weren’t welcome.

“We are not blind or deaf like you, you wanna be gay go ahead don’t bring that shit to our community or kids keep it away from Hamtramck,” Shakil Islam said.

Abe Huss wrote, “Do what you do behind closed doors and don’t ever come out of that sick closet matter of fact! FYI god made two genders for a reason.”

Supporters of the Pride flag said city leaders sent a message of intolerance and bigotry.

“This political stunt is causing a lot of hate and division in our community,” Hamtramck resident Linda Ward responded to the mayor on Facebook. “Rather than being a peace maker and bridge builder, you’re ripping apart the fabric of our community.”

The protest will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Opponents of the Pride flag said they are planning a counter-demonstration.

—Steve Neavling

LEE DEVITO

Ferndale library targeted by ‘Hide the Pride’ campaign

METRO DETROIT GAYBORHOOD Ferndale doesn’t shy away from displays of LGBTQ+ pride during the month of June and beyond.

But for the first time this year, the Ferndale Area District Library was targeted by a bigoted campaign against LGBTQ+ books.

On Sunday, June 4, the Ferndale library’s youth and young adult Pride Month displays were completely emptied of their books, and several other LGBTQ+ titles were subjected to simultaneous checkouts.

It’s part of the nationwide “Hide the Pride” campaign, which was launched by the ultra-conservative group CatholicVote in 2022. It calls for supporters to identify queer books in library Pride displays and then check them out of the library so young readers can’t access them.

Assistant Director of the Ferndale Area District Library Jordan Wright tells Metro Times the books on display were replaced with “religious materials.”

“Additionally, many of our other LGBTQ titles, specifically focused on trans topics or with trans characters were pulled from the shelves,” Wright says. “There are lists circulating online that are often used by these people.”

CatholicVote’s hateful rhetoric includes messaging like “It’s June! Do you see rainbow-trans-BLM flags everywhere? Including in your public, taxpayer-funded spaces? We do. And we are meeting the challenge head on.”

CatholicVote Vice President Joshua Mercer praised the two Ferndale residents who allegedly checked out the books in an article published on the organization’s website.

“There’s been a wonderful grassroots effort by parents to ‘Hide the Pride’ and protect children from harmful filth in our public libraries,” Mercer said. “You would think this groundswell of opposition by parents would make librarians think twice about having these nasty X-rated books that are targeting our children.”

Some of the titles that were taken include A Queer History of the United States for Young People, The Transgender Child: Revised & Updated Edition: A Handbook for Parents and Professionals Supporting Transgender and Nonbinary Children, and So This is After Ever

Melissa (previously George) by Alex Gino, which is about a young transgender girl, was also checked out. Melissa is a frequently banned LGBTQ+ book.

CatholicVote instructs people doing Hide the Pride runs to return the

books after the checkout period ends. However, the Ferndale library immediately purchased replacements for all the titles taken. It also launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to buy backup copies in case something like this happens again.

In a strange flex, CatholicVote identifies the Ferndale residents who emptied the Pride display as Debra T. and Nick S. and makes fun of the library for replacing the books.

“In Ferndale, Michigan, they are sadly doubling down and begging people to go to Amazon so they can restock the shelves with smut for kids...Bizarre,” CatholicVote’s Mercer said.

Uproar over books deemed “inappropriate” for young readers, usually involving LGBTQ+ characters and subjects of color, isn’t a new phenomenon, but anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments have reared their ugly heads across metro Detroit recently.

Last year the Dearborn Public School District removed at least two LGBTQ+ books from school libraries following the demands of outraged parents and community members who flooded several school board meetings.

Wright says the Ferndale Area District Library hasn’t had any issues with the Pride display before and will continue to champion diversity.

“People come into libraries and don’t understand that we’re here for everybody,” Wright says. “I was a youth services librarian for almost 10 years and representation, particularly LGBTQ people in books, generally has improved so much. That representation is important and everybody needs to see themselves in materials in the library.”

Metro Times called the Royal Oak Public Library, Sterling Heights Public Library, and Dearborn’s Henry Ford Centennial Library, and none reported any issues or complaints around Pride Month displays. The Detroit Public Library also confirmed there has been no pushback at any of its branches.

Randiah Camille Green

Warren councilman goes on homophobic rant

A TRUMP-LOVING WARREN city councilman launched into a homophobic and transphobic rant last week moments before his colleagues voted on an anti-discrimination ordinance.

Councilman Eddie Kabacinski voted “absolutely not” on the ordinance, falsely claiming that LGBTQ+ people are “preying on the youth of our society to change their gender.”

“For religious reasons, I cannot get on board with endorsing the behavior of the [LGBTQ+] community,” Kabacinski said.

He added, “This is about indoctrination, and I will not allow this to happen in this city. I’m not going to allow you to do this to the children of this community. It’s not going to happen.”

The council voted 6-1 in favor of the ordinance, which prohibits discrimination based on age, race, disability, education, familial status, gender identity, gender expression, height, weight, and ethnic origin.

Council President Patrick Green

introduced the ordinance after Warren Mayor Jim Fouts’s administration was accused of telling a Bangladeshi group that it could not hold a festival on public space because it was “too ethnic.” Fouts later changed his mind and allowed the Bangladeshi American Festival to take place from July 22-23 at Warren City Square.

“It’s important that the city of Warren joins many other municipalities across the state who have antidiscrimination ordinances on their books,” Green said.

Kabacinski is no stranger to controversy. He was arrested for handcuffing a woman for posting Black Lives Matter stickers on a Trump yard sign in Eastpointe in October 2020, sentenced to one year of probation and required to attend anger management classes.

After his arrest, Kabacinski had two more run-ins with police. In September 2021, Kabacinski’s colleagues on the council called on state officials to consider disciplinary actions against him after he was arrested for a second

time in late August for selling Trumprelated merchandise without a permit in Utica.

Kabacinski was arrested for a third time for refusing to don a mask inside the former TCF Center in downtown Detroit. Kabacinski and a bushybearded cameraman wearing a Make America Great Again hat marched into the building without masks en route to a public hearing on redistricting. Detroit police stopped Kabacinski and said he must wear a mask, pointing out the building was used as a vaccination site. Kabacinski, who was wearing a “Conservative Values Matter” shirt, identified himself as a Warren councilman and called the officers “Gestapo” while demanding to enter the meeting maskless.

After about a minute of back-andforth with the police, he was handcuffed, whisked into a squad car, and taken to jail.

When asked to comment, Kabacinski called this reporter a “demonic rat.”

—Steve Neavling

COURTESY OF JORDAN WRIGHT

Fake grades scandal at U-M leads to accreditation board investigation

THE ACCREDITATION

BOARD that monitors the University of Michigan is investigating allegations that the school’s administration pressured department chairs to falsify grades while graduate student instructors were on strike over a labor dispute.

In a letter earlier this month, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) advised the graduate student instructors that it is reviewing complaints that false grades were submitted in classes taught by the striking workers.

The Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), which has been on strike since March 29 and withheld grades during the winter term, requested the investigation after emails showed that the university’s administration directed academic departments to issue grades, even though those faculty members had little to no contact with the students.

“Upon initial review of your complaint, HLC determined that the matter regarding University of Michigan raises potential concerns regarding the institution’s compliance with the Criteria for Accreditation,” wrote Robert Rucker, the HLC’s manager of compliance and complex evaluations.

He added, “Due to these potential concerns, HLC will conduct a further review of the institution based on your complaint.”

Rucker advised the union that it will give the university 30 days to respond to the allegations. Based on the university’s response, the HLC will determine what action to take.

“The administration committed academic fraud on a massive scale,” GEO President Jared Eno said at a news conference Thursday, flanked by an oversized, inflated fat cat smoking a cigar and clutching a bag of money. “They are so opposed to paying their workers a living wage that in the winter 22-23 semester, the administration forced faculty and staff to make up fake grades rather than negotiate with its workers in good faith. As far as we know, the move to falsify grades en masse is unprecedented in the history of labor disputes and higher education.”

University spokeswoman Kim Broekhuizen said the university is aware that the HLC received a complaint about grades and plans to cooperate.

“While we are confident the university has acted ethically and well within

legal bounds on all matters brought forth, we look forward to fully engaging with the Higher Learning Commission’s review and continuing a valued relationship that has extended for more than a century with this accreditor,” Broekhuizen tells Metro Times in a statement. “We will respond directly to the Higher Learning Commission within 30 days.”

Accreditation is important because it ensures that a university is providing a quality education. It also is a requirement for many forms of financial aid, including federal grants and loans. Loss of accreditation could also jeopardize the visa status of international students.

By giving automatic A’s, regardless of merit, the university is harming students and instructors in what amounts to academic misconduct, the striking graduate workers say. For language and math classes, for example, good grades determine whether a student is ready for the next level.

Striking workers said there was no

excuse for fabricating grades, pointing out that the administration knew months in advance that graduate student instructors could go on strike.

“When the end of the term rolled around, the only way they could get grades submitted was through outright falsification,” said Amir Fleis -

chmann, the GEO’s contract committee chair. “And outright falsification is exactly what they did. The dean and provost pressured, cajoled, and bullied department chairs and non-instructional staff into submitting grades for the students of striking workers.”

—Steve Neavling

Metro Times archives to be digitized by WSU’s Walter P. Reuther Library

SOON, A NEW generation will be able to see what life in metro Detroit was like in the 1980s and ’90s — or “What’s happenin’,” as the earliest issues of Detroit Metro Times phrased it.

Last week, Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library officially announced it will digitize a significant portion of the Metro Times archives. The project was made possible by Metro Times co-founder Ron Williams, who donated his printed collection to the library, comprising the first 16 years of the alt-weekly’s run.

The project encompasses the debut October 16, 1980 issue through September 27, 1995.

“I am delighted to make this gift to the Reuther Library, home to so many significant labor and progressive collections,” Williams said in a statement. “These early volumes of the paper reflect the contributions of countless people who out of sheer determination and pure talent created something extraordinary. This gift is intended to honor

them — it is so important that their work be preserved and safeguarded and not be lost when the history of Detroit is being told. I am grateful to the Reuther for making this material more widely available to the public and preserving it for generations to come.”

Metro Times and parent company Euclid Media Group give their full blessing to the project, with plans to integrate the archived issues into metrotimes.com.

The Walter P. Reuther Library was established in 1960 to collect and preserve original documents related to the U.S. labor movement, named for the eponymous progressive United Auto Workers organizer and president. Its mission also includes preserving records related to the civil rights movement, as well as material illustrating community life in metropolitan Detroit — both pillars of what Metro Times set out to chronicle.

“With progressive values embedded in the DNA of the paper’s editorial mission, we lifted up activists

and organizations that were fighting for social, environmental, and racial justice,” Williams added.

Williams co-founded Metro Times with Laura Markham “armed with a business plan, a burning sense of idealism, a boundless sense of naïveté, and about $5,000,” as he once recalled while commemorating the paper’s 20th anniversary. At the time, metro Detroit was plagued by an economic downturn and intense segregation.

“From the very first issue we fought the divisive concepts of black and white, city and suburb, us and them,” he said. “Eight Mile Road didn’t exist in our vocabulary — we were committed to create a journalistic voice that would be respected and welcomed into every home. We published to our own mythological urban construct: the Detroit metropolitan community.” He added, “For me, Metro Times was an act of love, a gift to the city that gave me so much, the city that I will always call my home.”

—Lee DeVito

COURTESY OF

NEWS & VIEWS

Obama and was the communications director in 2016 for Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. Palmieri wrote that Whitmer has “the talent, drive, and toughness to be a solid national candidate.”

“Whitmer describes herself as a progressive Democrat,” Palmieri wrote, “but observing her up close, I see her core ideology as getting shit done.”

O’Donnell, once a Democratic Senate staffer, is kind of an éminence grise among his party’s pundits.

In an interview of more than 10 minutes with Whitmer, he didn’t ask her about the White House, but he allowed her to plug her new “Fight Like Hell” political action committee for national issues, including next year’s re-election campaign for Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

“It’s the first time I’ve had a federal PAC,” Whitmer said. “It gives us the ability to help candidates whether they are Congressional or state legislature or the Biden-Harris campaign — and causes, as well, that are on the front lines.”

Lapointe

On the political freeway, Trump accelerates his police-chase phase

By Joe Lapointe

More than six years ago, after Donald Trump upset Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, some wise guy wrote: “It is as if it is closing time at the bar and we have tossed our car keys to the biggest, loudest, meanest drunk in the joint and said to him, ‘Here, Butch, you get us home!’” (OK, it was me.)

That metaphor survived and thrived last week when Bret Stephens wrote in The New York Times that Trump’s “entire presidency was a drunken joyride with a reckless driver careening around hairpin turns at high speed.”

Now, under legal indictment in two places with possibly more to come, Trump is in the next phase of the metaphor: Police cars are chasing him at high speed with lights flashing and sirens wailing.

But he’s still ahead of them and he threatens to pull a U-turn on the cops and chase them back and – Ha! — lock them all up in prison.

Meanwhile — back in reality — Trump has indeed promised that, if elected again, he will jail his enemies and release from prison the violent convicts who tried on Jan. 6, 2021 to keep him in power and overthrow

the government of the United States by lynching his vice-president, Mike Pence.

Assuming Trump again wins the Republican nomination, what happens if President Joe Biden doesn’t run for re-election due to health, age, or other reasons? What other Democrat might take on a political bully like Trump?

According to at least a couple straws in the Democratic wind, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer might be more than just a longshot. At the very least, she’s being touted as a prospect for 2028 as the first female President of the United States.

Two obvious hints dropped last week. First, Vanity Fair magazine published an extraordinarily flattering profile of Whitmer. Next, host Lawrence O’Donnell featured Whitmer on “The Last Word” on MSNBC.

“She is a strong female executive who could be elected president,” wrote Jennifer Palmieri in Vanity Fair. Her story was headlined “The Spartan: Why Gretchen Whitmer Has What It Takes for a White House Run.”

Palmieri is hardly a neutral observer. She worked for President Barack

Making it so ugly and scary, of course, is Trump, the metaphoric GOP elephant in the room who taunts his enemies and taints his allies by increasingly flinging dung.

Among Trump’s friends are the religious fundamentalists on the Supreme Court and gun groomers like Kari Lake. She is the failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate who still denies that she and Trump lost their elections in 2022.

Like Trump, the delusional Lake makes threats with Mob Boss inference.

In a speech to the Georgia Republican Party convention earlier this month, Lake issued threats to Biden, to Attorney General Merrick Garland, and to special counsel Jack Smith, as well as to “the guys back there in the fake news media, you should listen up as well. This one’s for you.”

Then she implied that a conviction of Trump might lead to gun battles.

Among those causes are abortion rights and gun safety. They have brought Whitmer success with Michigan’s new, Democratic-majority legislature and they are likely to be crucial in next year’s elections. In many places, these issues are trending liberal.

Whitmer’s PAC platform might bring her national money, power, and influence during and beyond her second and final term, which ends on Jan. 1, 2027.

“We can replicate what we did in Michigan but also beyond Michigan,” she said. “The fight for these fundamental freedoms does not end at the state line.”

Without mentioning the word “abortion,” Whitmer said: “You see some states rolling rights back, taking away freedoms. Michigan’s moving in the opposite direction and I’m really proud of that.”

Of gun safety, she touted “commonsense gun policies, simple things like background checks and secure storage laws as well as red-flag laws.”

Neither Whitmer nor O’Donnell mentioned Trump by name, but his presence wafted like an odor from the TV. Trump famously dissed Whitmer as “that woman from Michigan,” a state where right-wing militia members plotted to kidnap and murder her.

Referring to that and to the Feb. 13 gun massacre at Michigan State University, her alma mater, Whitmer said:

“This moment is still so very real and scary. We are in a very precarious moment in this country … This is an unprecedented moment in American history … It has been tough. The rhetoric’s gotten so ugly and scary.”

“If you want to get to President Trump, you’re going to have to go through me and you’re going to have to go through 75 million Americans just like me,” Lake said to laughter and cheers. “And I’m going to tell you, most of us are card-carrying members of the NRA. That’s not a threat. That’s a public service announcement.”

Lake — like Sarah Palin, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, and Lauren Boebert — proves that female politicians can be just as verbally reckless as men like Trump, who has increased the venom of his ad hominem attacks against “evil people” who dare to enforce laws against him.

“The prosecutor is a thug, I call him ‘Deranged Jack Smith,’” Trump said Tuesday, after being indicted with 37 counts under the Espionage Act for his defiant and deceptive handling of government secrets after leaving the White House. “I did everything right and they indicted me.”

As is often the case, Trump slandered his foes with exaggeration and spouted a grandiose opinion of himself.

“If the Communists get away with this, it won’t stop with me,” he said. “I am the only one that can save this nation.”

Perhaps, one day in a debate, an opponent like Whitmer will speak to Trump in his own, blunt tone of voice but with truth on their side and tell him:

“Mr. Trump, you are a sex creep, a greedy grifter, and a selfish, immature groupie for dictators. You are a dangerous buffoon. You are a sociopath. You’ve done enough damage. You scare people. Turn over the keys, please, sir, and step away from the car. Please place your hands behind your back, sir. Mr. President, you have the right to remain silent...”

Meanwhile, “That woman from Michigan” vows to “Fight Like Hell.” SHUTTERSTOCK

Admittedly, she was eavesdropping.

Catina Fogle, 50, confesses that the mom in her was concerned about the movements of her adult son, Montoya Givens, whenever he left home. Givens had been released from prison just a few weeks short of a year and, though he seemed determined to stay on a positive track, Fogle kept as close of an eye on him as possible.

“He was loyal to the wrong people,” she says. “His loyalty was the best thing about him.”

Tragically, Fogle’s worries would prove well-founded: Givens, 31, was found dead in an abandoned Detroitarea building days later, along with aspiring rappers Amani (better known as

“Armani”) Kelly, 27, and Dante Wicker, 31. The story of their Jan. 21 disappearance and triple-murder drew national attention and sparked significant social media buzz, including speculation by amateur sleuths. In five months authorities have announced no arrests connected to the killings, with Michigan State Police appealing to the public for help with their investigation back in mid-March.

As Fogle listened to Givens from nearby, she heard him debate with himself. She didn’t know much about the invitation her oldest son pondered, but she heard him say, at least, three times, “Naw, I’m not going.”

Then, moments later, he would change his mind again.

“Fuck it,” she heard Givens say. “I might as well go. I don’t have nothin’ else to do.”

Not long afterward, Givens received a phone call.

“What up doe?” he asked in popular Detroit-ese, meaning, “How you doin’?” or “What’s going on?”

Fogle’s translation from her son’s end of the chat let her know he was leaving his decision to fate. Givens told the caller he would go out with his girlfriend if the caller didn’t arrive to pick him up first.

Fogle wishes his girlfriend had come quicker.

Three roads traveled

It has been said that Givens, Kelly, and

Wicker met in prison, but only Givens and Kelly served at the same facility from August 2017 to March 2022, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records. Kelly had been paroled barely six full months before his disappearance. Of the three men only Wicker had been home from prison for more than a year — since 2015, in fact.

Of the victims’ families and associates, only Fogle agreed to be interviewed by Metro Times.

Kelly, who released rap tracks under the names Marley Whoop and 37 Marley Whoop, apparently was the caller inviting Givens to attend a show at a storefront night spot that doubles as a hookah lounge on Detroit’s east side. In a Facebook video from what’s believed

The unsolved rap murders that shook Detroit and captivated social media sleuths

By Eddie B. Allen Jr.

to be the night of the men’s disappearance Kelly tells two other young men there is “no solider dude” than Givens, and that he will be picking Givens up. The posting — while since removed from Kelly’s Facebook page, it has been “screenshot,” excerpted and dissected by social media users thousands of times — shows Kelly video-chatting with the unidentified men, all three of their faces concealed by ski masks.

Michigan State Police (MSP) have said the killings were gang-related and spokesman Lt. Mike Shaw says the investigation is active, declining an interview request. But most public speculation about motives for the killings has focused on Kelly and statements he makes during the video. His comments

TERROR

range from a monologue questioning those who fail to call out informants in prison to references to various men known by street names.

Kelly, who was paroled from Baraga Correctional Facility after serving seven years for armed robbery, was described as artistic and creative.

“Dreaming did not escape Armani,” reads an online obituary posted before Kelly’s Feb. 26 memorial. “He worked hard and had a strong desire of becoming a famous rap artist.”

“A natural comedian, he was always able to make people laugh,” states the tribute. “Armani had a heart of gold and would give the shirt off his back to help someone in need…He believed there is good in everyone, and he never

met a stranger.”

After his release from Baraga, Kelly enrolled at Alpena Community College and worked for Cooper Standard, an automotive supplier, according to the obituary. He lived with his mother and stepfather in Oscoda, a town of fewer than 1,000 residents, three hours north of Detroit, and certainly not a hotbed for rappers.

But Kelly, it seems, got around, and whether they were in Oscoda, Detroit, or parts in between, he spoke of having enemies, real or perceived.

“Bitch, I’m back!” he raps on a Spotify track from the HardRoad EP. “No more state blues, back to drippin’, back to niggas sayin’ they gon’ kill me!”

Though aggressive in tone, the lyrics

of “I’m Back” are, otherwise, no more provocative than those of countless other rap songs, and probably wouldn’t raise an eyebrow if not for Kelly’s tragic fate.

Wicker, of whom less seems publicly known, and who appears to have no social media profile of significance, was said to rap using the stage name “B12.” He pleaded guilty to armed robbery and felony firearm in 2011 but, like Kelly, loved ones say Wicker was much more than his criminal record suggests.

“My brother was a great boyfriend, amazing son, super uncle, and the best brother you could ask for,” reads a GoFundMe campaign page, launched by Chris Coleman, identified as Wicker’s “God brother.”

One of two GoFundMe efforts to raise money for Wicker’s burial, Coleman’s appeal adds, “I don’t care how you personally feel about him. Think of his mother and the woman he chose as his own. Help them sleep better. Please and thanks.”

A resident of Melvindale, Wicker’s name wasn’t familiar to police, according to a media report early in the murder investigation.

Givens’s name, on the other hand, was familiar to both the media and Detroit Police because of the highprofile carjacking and robbery of which he was convicted in 2012: The victim was Marvin Winans, Detroit pastor and member of the renowned family gospel group, The Winans. Givens, who was 19 at the time of the crime, pleaded guilty along with Christopher Moorehead and Brian Young in connection with the incident, during which the pastor’s SUV, Rolex watch, and $250 were taken.

Fogle vividly remembers the phone call she received from Givens, following the carjacking at a gas station. Her son was hiding in the closet of a house, Fogle says, and telling her that cops were closing in on him. He was about to flee, Givens told her.

“I said, ‘Son, please don’t run. If you run they’re going to kill you,’” recalls Fogle.

When their phone call ended Givens stepped out of the closet and turned himself in. It would be 10 years before Fogle saw him outside a courtroom or an inmate’s visiting area.

Prescient premonition

Though petite and youthful in appearance, Fogle had turned 50 on Jan. 19, two days before “Monty,” as Givens was called by relatives, went missing. He had struggled to find work since his release from Baraga, his mother says, as factory jobs in outlying areas of Detroit where the bus line was restricted were tough for him to keep.

Givens presented Fogle with a $10 pair of earbuds as a birthday gift, saying that he wished he could do more.

“It ain’t much,” he told her.

“That’s OK, son,” she said. “It’s the thought that counts.”

Givens smiled in response.

When he didn’t call to check on her, days after leaving home Jan. 21, Fogle knew something was wrong.

Until the lure of the streets captured him as a teenager, Givens helped raise four younger siblings while Fogle, a single parent, worked and went to school. Even during periods of homelessness when she says they all slept “on the street, in the snow,” or snuck onto strangers’ porches at night, Givens had been a dependable, young lieutenant.

At one point, the family survived by

selling candy, a side hustle that eventually blossomed into an enterprise netting about $350 a day.

“God was so good to me that that one thought turned into a business for 10 years,” adds Fogle.

It was only when college professors found her need to bring Givens and the other children to classes with her too inconvenient that she began leaving him in charge of the family.

“I wanted my kids to understand: No matter what it is you go through, don’t give up on what you’re doing,” says Fogle.

So, despite obstacles in stability after 10 years in prison, Fogle says Givens was still making an effort. His brother produced music, but unlike Kelly and Wicker, Givens turned down the opportunity to rap, saying he’d rather find steady employment, notes Fogle.

She says “Marley” was a name Givens mentioned when referring to friends and associates, but she’d not heard of Wicker until the trio went missing. Her last glimpse of her son was when he walked out to the vehicle reportedly driven by Kelly. There were already two other passengers, possibly three, Fogle says, not sure if one of them participated in the crime that took her son’s life.

By the time she heard from two detectives after filing a missing person’s report, Fogle says she’d had a vision of three figures in a basement “under something.” She told the investigators about it.

“They both looked at each other in

such awe...” she says. “After I told them that, that’s when they told me that he was buried under some rubble, or ‘debris’ as they called it.”

Givens’s body was discovered along with those of Wicker and Kelly, all reportedly frozen. They had been shot to death.

Clues and communication

A common pastime of inmates is chatting about what happens outside prison gates. Particularly among men and women who’ve walked the same halls or maybe even shared cells with parolees like Wicker, Kelly, and Givens, there tends to be a sense of connection and interest.

In prisons as far away as Saginaw Correctional, about 100 miles from Detroit in Freeland, inmates discussed the three bodies found in “the Pilla,” a nickname for the city of Highland Park.

“Don’t go down there” reportedly had been the warning on the street, apparently referencing Kelly’s distance from Oscoda to the Detroit area, but speculation about who was the main target abounds months later.

“If you exclude domestics and robberies, murder is also a form of communication. So somebody was talking to somebody,” says Ellis Stafford, a retired MSP inspector.

While MSP has offered no recent updates, Stafford says details about the crime reveal information that should result in it being solved.

The men were probably killed at a different location than where their bodies were found, he says.

“I don’t see a reason to go to a nonheated building in winter time,” Stafford adds. “There’s nothing there but a rat-infested building, so why would you go there? You wouldn’t.”

There’s also the potential that the bodies would be discovered more quickly if left at the initial murder scene, Stafford says, as opposed to transporting them elsewhere.

Based on statistics and experience, he doubts the men were killed one at a time, and says there was likely a “flash to bang” scenario — meaning that there was an emotional spark or escalation that preceded the actual killings.

In order to get into the “social space” of Givens, Wicker, and Kelly, there were probably multiple killers, at least one of whom was known to one or more of the victims, Stafford says: “You know how hard it is to kill three people by one person? You’re not going to get three grown men, all of good, fighting age, in a place by yourself.”

The greater likelihood of someone escaping or struggling with a single shooter and possibly surviving the attack also points to multiple suspects, he says.

Vast attention to Kelly’s Facebook page and his social media comments as factors in the crime might also be valid, as followers of the case have suspected, adds Stafford.

“Absolutely,” he says, “tons of beefs start on social media.”

he adds, “Remember: What we’re dealing with is a code of the streets. It’s a mindset that says, ‘My reputation is worth more to me than my life itself.’”

Statistically, a majority of people will spend most of their daily lives within a 10-mile circle, whether going to convenience stores, a friend’s house, or wherever their frequent destinations might be, says Stafford, adding that, at least, one suspect likely crossed paths with a victim engaged in his usual routine.

“They knew the person they went with” when they disappeared, Stafford says.

Fogle hears lots of rumors about who is behind the murders, but she has gathered much more from street sources than from police. Due to ongoing personal and health challenges, she says she hasn’t had time to properly grieve Givens’s death. But just as he was punished for victimizing Winans, Fogle says it’s only fair that Givens be remembered as a victim who didn’t have a chance to complete his redemption.

“The main message I want out of this whole thing is, ‘Stop judging people by their past,’” she says. “Judge them by where they are.”

Montoya Givens.

COURTESY PHOTO

EMPLOYMENT

ETAS Inc. seeks Fld App Eng (Mult Pos) (Plymouth, MI). REQS: BS or frgn eq in Elec Eng, Comp Eng or CompSci, + 3yrs prof work exp w/embedded SW dev in auto indus. Apply: https://www.bosch.us/careers/, search Field Application Engineer/ REF196614

EMPLOYMENT

Propulsion Control Systems Integration Engineer, Milford, MI, General Motors. Create &lead product plans &ensure ontime delivery of Heavy-Duty diesel truck embedded Engine Control Module (ECM) &Glow Plug Control Module &assure that softwr &calibrations are delivered according to product development gates. Use Vector Calibration Data Management, GM Soft Part Release &Soft Part Distribution tools to review, integrate, assure simulation functionality of new engine features, functions &simulations, &release ECM &GPCM embedded softwr &calibrations. Release embedded softwr &calibrations to Test Integration Engrs; to vehicle prototype builds; to production; &to Customer Care &Aftersales through various Vehicle Softwr Configuration Management gates. Provide ECM production intent calibrations according to calibration responsibility map, to Heavy-Duty Vehicle team to perform in vehicle performance, sfty &durability testing, &to vehicle assembly plant to assemble prototype &production intent heavy duty trucks, acting as First Point of Contact to gather technical resources to troubleshoot, perform root cause &solve softwr, calibration, &hardwr issues as they arise. Bachelor, Mechanical, Electrical, Automotive Engrg, or related. 24 mos exp as Engineer, testing &verifying ECM or Engine Control Unit specs related to softwr &hardwr, or related. Email resume to recruitingreply1@gm.com (Ref#10344).

Wed 6/21

HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE! PATIO BAR OPEN @ 5 PM LOBOS TEQUILA PROMO! happy birthday, CRITIA TROTTER!

Fri 6/23

DEATH CAT/BURN MARALAGO/ BLOOD CASTLE (ART PUNK/CLOWN PUNK/DOOMGAZE) Doors@9pm/$5cover

Sat 6/24

JOHN BUNKLEY/TIN SOUP/COCKTAIL SHAKE (SOUL/BLUES/ROCK’N’ROLL) Doors@9pm/$5cover happy birthday, BROOKE ALBERY!

Sun 6/25

MERLIN’S GRADUATION PARTY! 2-5 PM happy birthday, DEREK POLK, CHARLIE BROWN & SAM ADRAGNA!

Mon 6/26

FREE POOL ALL DAY D’USSÉ Cognac PROMO!

Tues 6/27

B. Y. O. R. Bring Your own Records (weekly)

Open Decks! @9PM NO COVER IG: @byor_tuesdays_old_miami

HOWLER HEAD BANANA WHISKEY PROMO!

Thurs 6/29

WDET 101.9 COMEDY SHOWCASE SERIES

“WHAT’S SO FUNNY ABOUT DETROIT?” SEASON 3 HOSTED BY CULTURE SHIFT’S RYAN PATRICK HOOPER FEAT. 6 DETROIT STAND-UP COMICS!! INFO & TICKETS @ WDET.ORG/EVENTS

Doors@6:30PM/Show@7:30PM

Coming Up:

6/30 The DeCarlo Family/Elephant Den/ Switchblade Vengeance

7/01 DJ SKEEZ & DJ BET

7/07 Hidebehind/Bend/Small Stresses

7/08 BANGERZ & JAMZ (monthly DJ dance party)

7/11 Annual DRINKING WITH DOGS @6pm JELLO SHOTS always $1

Old Miami tees & hoodies available for purchase! we are searching for a permanent general manager contact us: theoldmiamibarjobs@gmail.com

PATIO BAR OPEN FRI-SUN ALL SEASON! COME GET A SLUSHIE TO BEAT THE HEAT!

Advertorial/Sponsored Content

Red Bull Unlocked Detroit puts a spotlight on Detroit’s top bars, clubs and entertainers for one-night-only celebration at the Russell Industrial Center

By Metro Times Promotions

LET’S BE HONEST, A LOT CAN happen in one night, especially in Detroit. You may not have had definitive plans aside from catching some serious FOMO from the comfort of your social media scrolling, but in a Detroit instant you may just find yourself dining at one of the city’s newest hot spots and, before you know it, you’re summoned by the ol’ group chat to grab a drink, take in some art, catch a DJ set, track down an after party worth losing your usual 8 hours of shuteyeand maybe even grab breakfast. If New York is the city that never sleeps, Detroit is the city that never misses a beat, and no one knows this quite like Red Bull which is why they’re spilling the tea, er, Red Bull, and unlocking the ultimate Detroit night to remember (or forget, if that’s you’re thing, we don’t judge!)

Red Bull Unlocked Detroit, which will take place on August 11 at Detroit’s iconic creative hub, the Russell Industrial Center, is an opportunity to experience an expertly curated passport to all

things Detroit from food, drink and unmatched entertainment all under one roof for one night only. It may sound hella exclusive — because it lowkey is — but you can get in on the action by trying your luck via RedBull.com/DetroitSummer, where you can take the Red Bull Summer Quiz to reveal your Party Profile and then enter for your chance to win a premium Red Bull Unlocked Detroit experience for you and five of your closest friends, not to mention a frosty can of Red Bull. Trust us, you will need it.

The event, which is 21+, will host 15 of the city’s top bars, clubs, experiences and party purveyors, Paxahau, Deluxx Fluxx, Apartment Disco, Mutiny Bar, Second Best, Old Miami, Ladies of the Ink and the Social Club all of which will serve up a stellar experiences and drinks that scream of Detroit’s DNA (note: beverages are not sentient and will not be vocalizing anything). Don’t worry, there’ll be food too, because we wouldn’t expect you to party hardy without

some hearty fuel.

Will Lee, bartender, beverage program manager and owner of Brush Park favorites Grey Ghost, Basan and Second Best says people are still discovering Second Best seven years after opening the doors to his unassuming and inventive bar, due in part to the bar’s location which finds many a stadium-goer stopping by to throw back drinks on their way to-and-from games. Lee says being a part of Red Bull Unlocked Detroit serves as “an awesome opportunity” to let people in on the what Second Best does, well, best: batch cocktails served via a soda gun.

“The whole idea behind Second Best was to be able to bring high quality cocktails to the masses,” Lee says. “It’s like an homage to my early bartending days in the 90s and 2000’s.” Lee says the community and clientel help inform which direction to take when it comes to keeping folks lubricated.

“A lot of the guests are asking for old drinks from previous menus to be brought back,” Lee says. “ I

don’t really like bringing back old drinks, but I’ll take an old drink and gett inspiration from that to create something new. That’s when I look to the city for inspiration.”

While Second Best will be among the city’s best and booziest drink makers at Unlocked Detroit, we could not, in good faith, have a celebration without inviting some of the most vibrant entertainers that call Detroit their main stage. DJs and dance party hosts Haute to Death, along with Jerk x Jollof, HouseParty, DJ Sky Jetta, OneUpDuo and Sam Be Yourself, are among the vibe-setters and Unlocked Detoroit performers who will set the tone for what is sure to be the talk of the Motor City for summers to come. The only thing missing is, well, you! n

Tickets are limited and available for $30. For a complete list of participating businesses, artists, and to purchase tickets visit https:// preview.rb3ca-production.redbullaws.com/us-en/events/red-bullunlocked-detroit/

PHOTO COURTESY OF RED BULL UNLOCKED

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.

MUSIC

Wednesday, June 21

3 Doors Down - Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour 7:30 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $35-$150.

Ann Arbor Civic Band FREE Concert 7:30-8:30 p.m.; Burns Park, 1414 Wells St., Ann Arbor; no cover.

Chris Duarte Group 7 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15-$80.

Eric Roberson 7:30 p.m.; The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 E. Atwater St., Detroit; $15-$65.

Jenny Lewis 7 p.m.; The Majestic Theatre Complex, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $35.

lovelytheband 6:30 p.m.; The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $29.

Movie & Popcorn: “Dope, Hookers, and Pavement” w/ live

Tesco Vee Q&A and music 7-10:30 p.m.; Berkley Coffee & Oak Park Dry, 14661 W. 11 Mile Rd., Oak Park; $15 suggested door.

Ruel 7 p.m.; The Majestic Theatre Complex, 4120 Woodward, Detroit; sold out.

Thursday, June 22

An Evening with Yo La Tengo 7 p.m.; The Majestic Theatre Complex, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $30.

Angry Blackmen, Thermostat, Prostitute 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.

Detroit Has Talent - hosted by J Cutz 9 p.m.-2 a.m.; The Compound, 14595 Stansbury St., Detroit; $15.

Gable Price and Friends, Goldpark 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Lyle Lovett 7:30 p.m.; Meadow Brook Amphitheatre, 3554 Walton Blvd., Rochester Hills; $49.50-$125.

Sloan 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

Tragedy + Beatallica 7 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $15.

The Whitney Garden Party: Jen-

nifer Westwood & The Handsome Devils 5 p.m.; The Whitney, 4421 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $5 individual or $15 VIP reserved tables for parties of 2, 4, or 6.

PRIDE PAINT & POETRY ‘23 5-9 p.m.; Irwin House Gallery, 2351 Grand Blvd., Detroit; $5 donation.

Friday June, 23

Art of Conversation, Pink Sky, Ficus , Melodic Canvas 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $13.

Circle Jerks & Descendents 8 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $37.50-$65.

Don Toliver - Thee Love Sick Tour 2023 8 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $29.50-$79.50.

Fell Ruin, Oktas, Soros, Crune, A Death Cinematic 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $13.

Hardcore Cares: Lowcocks, High totals , Sals and Grand snake 9-11:59 p.m.; New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; $10 pre sale $15 door.

Man In the Mirror 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$99.

Matt Heckler 8 p.m.; downstairs at Joy Manor, 28997 Joy Road, Westland; $15.

Our Vices 6:30 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $15.

Shop, Rock N’ Stroll Downtown

Port Huron 6-10 p.m.; Downtown Port Huron, Huron Avenue, Port Huron; free.

Space Oddity- David Brighton’s Tribute to David Bowie 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$59.

MIDNIGHT CITY: Retro Indie

Dance Party w/ DJs Josh & Zumby 8 p.m.-1 a.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Saturday, June 24

Buddy Guy Damn Right Farewell Tour 7:30 p.m.; Meadow Brook Amphitheatre, 3554 Walton Blvd., Rochester Hills; $29.50-$125.

Counting Crows: Banshee Season Tour with Dashboard Confessional 7:30 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $39.50-$200.

Karley Davidson with Special Guest Satomi the Fox 9-11:45 p.m.; New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; $10 pre sale $15 door.

Koffin Kats 20th Anniversary Show with Special Guests 7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $20.

MC Magic, Baby Bash, Lil Rob 7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $50-$150.

Piper Rockelle noon; Flagstar Strand Theatre for the Performing Arts, 12 N. Saginaw St., Pontiac; $25.99.

Rise Up Detroit: Tosha Owens 8 p.m.; Cornerstone Village Bar & Grille, 17315 Mack Avenue, Detroit; $15.

Sandbar Summerfest 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Eastern Palace Club, 21509 John R Rd., Hazel Park; no cover.

Somewhere South of Here, Domestic Terminal, Tournament, No Fun Club 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $15.

The Fruits, JonPaul Wallace, Ursa Day 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $10.

The Mega 80s 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Train 8 p.m.; Caesars Palace WindsorAugustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $43-$128.

Waka Flocka Flame 8 p.m.; The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 E. Atwater St., Detroit; $36-$125.

SOULERO - MIKE “Agent X”

CLARK & POWDRBLU wsg/ OSUNLADE 8 p.m.-2 a.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Sunday, June 25

Sandbar Summerfest 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Eastern Palace Club, 21509 John R Rd., Hazel Park; no cover.

anees - The Summer Camp Album Tour 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

Ben Folds 7:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $56-$69.

Breaking Sound Monthly Singer

Songwriter Showcase Last Sunday of every month, 7-10 p.m.; New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; $15 pre-sale $20 door.

Sounds Like Summer 5 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $13.

Tuesday, June 27

Fen Fen, TVOD, Those Hounds 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $13.

Santa Fe Klan - Todo Y Nada Tour 7:30 p.m.; Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $35.50$95.50.

ZelooperZ: Traptastic Tour 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $20.

THEATER Performance

Meadow Brook Theatre Noises Off.

$46. Wednesday, 2 & 8 p.m., Thursday, 8 p.m., Friday, 8 p.m., Saturday, 2 & 8 p.m., and Sunday 2 p.m.

The Great American Trailer Park

Musical June 24-July 30. Sundays, 3-5 p.m, and Thursdays-Saturdays, 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Riverbank Theatre, 358 S. Water St., Marine City; $35.

COMEDY

Improv

Go Comedy! Improv Theater

$20. Fridays, Saturdays, 10-11:30 p.m.; $10 Sundays, 7 p.m.

Planet Ant Theatre Ants In The Hall present ShakespANTS In The Hall. Thursday Nights at 8 p.m.

Stand-up

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle

Comedian Vince Carone with Connor Meade and Steve Hansen. $5. Wednesday, 7:30-9 p.m. $20. Thursday, 7:30-9 p.m., Friday, 7:15-8:45 p.m. and Saturday 7-8:30 and 9:30-11 p.m.

Dance lessons

Beacon Park Hustle and Flow Keep moving and feel the music alongside experienced dance instructors from N’Namdi Movement Center as they walk you through the basics of non-partner dance styles including hustle, line, and ballroom dancing. The class is open to all skill levels. Saturday, 3:30-5 p.m.

The Village of Rochester Hills Movin’ & groovin’. Wednesday, June 21 from 10 a.m.-11 a.m.

FILM Screening

Michigan Theater Porco Rosso , Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Artist talk

Lost | Found: Michelle Andonian,

21-27, 2023 | metrotimes.com

Hunter Muldoon Hunter Muldoon

Saturday, 4-6 p.m.; Hill Gallery, 407 W. Brown St., Birmingham.

Cranbrook Art Museum Constellations & Affinities: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection. Museum Admission, free on Thursdays WednesdaysSundays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

David Klein Gallery Birmingham

An exhibition of over twenty of Al Held’s rarely seen works on paper from 1960. Through July 1.

Detroit Shipping Company Disco Walls Presents: The Art of Gary Horton. No cover. Through Aug. 1.

I.M. Weiss Gallery Play-Ability. IMWG is pleased to present the opening of Play-Ability. Jenna VanFleteren creates an exhibition of transformative textiles reminiscent of the domestically familiar. Exploring moments of play through color harmony, fabric manipulation and craft. Through July 8.

Irwin House Gallery LIVING HUES: Quadre Curry Solo Exhibiiton.

Janice Charach Epstein Gallery Stop Making Sense Plus One. Through July 12.

Lawrence Street Gallery Glenn “Fuzz” Corey: 50 Years an Artist. Through June 30.

Museum of Contemporary Art

Detroit (MOCAD) Gina Osterloh: Her Demilitarized Zone: Image Without Weapon. Through Sept. 4.; Girl Raised in Detroit. Through Sept. 3. A clearing

Through Sept. 3. Free Your Mind: Art and Incarceration in Michigan. Through Sept. 3. Café Pan-Soviético Americano

Through Sept. 3.

New Dodge Lounge Kate Dodson art installation. Through Aug. 1. Stamelos Gallery Center, UMDearborn Reparations of the Heart: Recent Work by Kristin Anahit Cass. Mondays-Fridays, Sundays, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

The Secret Garden Gallery Detroit The Secret Garden Gallery Detroit Outdoor Art Market. Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

WELLNESS

The Michigan Lavender Festival

Michigan’s 21st Annual Lavender Festival. Friday, 12-7 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. and Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; $10; themichiganlavenderfestival.com.

Block party

Beacon Park Family Fun Days and more. Family Fun Days are free and open to community members of all ages. Sundays.

Local buzz

By Broccoli and Joe Zimmer

Got a Detroit music tip? Send it it music@metrotimes.com.

New single from Zilched: “I wrote most of the song at Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit around the time it had been flooding in the city,” says Zilched, aka Chloe Drallos, of latest single “The Flood.” With the first single off of her upcoming album Earthly Delights, Drallos comes out swinging, enlisting acclaimed director Alex Ross Perry for the appropriately spooky music video. The lo-fi visuals, often displayed as a diptych, see Zilched roaming around a cemetery, admiring the more beautiful side of death. The camera hangs on flowers, huge arches, and ornate headstones while Drallos sings her goth-rock melodies directly to you. Zilched is strutting out on a small tour this month, to celebrate the lead up to the album’s release on Aug. 11. I’m sure we can expect an album release show closer to that date, but for now you can pre-order the album via Young Heavy Souls on Bandcamp to secure your red vinyl copy. —Joe

Free concert on Detroit Public Library lawn: The city’s huge annual pre-July 4 fireworks display draws an equally gigantic crowd to downtown Detroit every year, and although I’ve never been in person, it is reportedly quite a hellish driving

and parking experience. Why not make the evening less stressful, and start your celebration away from all the craziness a little further north? At the main branch of the Detroit Public Library, they’ve put together a little pre-fireworks show of their own, hosted on the underutilized green space in front of the building. Kicking off at 3 p.m., the showcase will feature live music from bands Day Residue (crunchy punk guitars with cutting vocals) and Of House (head-bobbing, dreamy shoegaze), with DJ duties handled by Wetdog It’s the perfect pre-party event for attending the fireworks show, while also not too close to the downtown chaos for anyone interested in a free concert from two consistently good local acts. You can see more details on the Detroit Public Library’s Eventbrite page, but really all you need to do is show up at 3 p.m. ready to rock.

roots festival should be doing. Plus they always bring in some notable outside talent, and this year they’ll be featuring Sukihana, Trina, and Rocky Badd to that effect. If you’re into Detroit hip-hop and you’re down to explore the breadth of experience that it has to offer, Backwoods and Bonfires is an event that is well worth attending. It’s all happening from 2-9 p.m. this Saturday, June 24, and tickets are available online at BNBFestival.com. —Broccoli

—Joe

Backwoods and Bonfires levels up: I remember going to Backwoods and Bonfires as a young “music journalist” 5-6 years ago, pulling up to some random spot where organizers were making a heroic attempt to outfit the space as a DIY festival venue, so seeing the event being hosted at the Russell Industrial Center this year is a true testament to the event’s progression. They are tapped in with local talent, they engage with vendors and co-sponsors, and they basically do everything that a grass -

DJ Qu, Ondo / Gusto, and Loren at TV Lounge: Whether you like Resident Advisor as a platform or not (there are a lot of opinions out there), most events that earn an “RA Pick” are at least worth considering when it comes to dance music. As far as that goes, their description of this weekend’s event at TV Lounge is as follows: “New Jersey-based psychedelic deep house maestro DJ Qu brings his unmatched and unique sound to TV Lounge for an unforgettable masterclass. Not to be missed.” Simple enough, and while I’m not an expert, the fact that the lineup also features Ondo / Gusto of Hot Mass as well as a set from Detroit’s own Loren is enough for me. The patio at TV Lounge is debatably one of the best in the city when it comes to dance parties, and wherever you end up experiencing the music that night, I’m willing to wager that it’s a safe bet for a good time. Tickets available via you know where. —Broccoli

Zilched, aka Chloe Drallos. COURTESY PHOTO

Boys don’t cry

Parking issues at Pine Knob caused fans to miss the Cure’s sold-out concert

By Lee DeVito

BY ALL ACCOUNTS

, English

rock band the Cure played an excellent show at Pine Knob Music Theatre last week on Tuesday — its first in the Detroit area in nearly 20 years. For the true goths in attendance at the sold-out concert, the rainy night at the outdoor amphitheater only enhanced the experience.

However, a good time was not had by all. According to numerous social media posts, parking at the venue was a mess — with fans still stuck in traffic well after the band started playing.

“This was our view for 1.5 hours after the show started,” one fan wrote on Twitter along with a photo showing a traffic gridlock, adding, “We would have loved to see the whole show instead of the last like 45 minutes.” Other fans accused Pine Knob of overselling the show, with another posting a photo showing cars parked on a grass median. “Pine Knob mishandled this one,” another fan wrote, saying they were stuck outside the venue for nearly two hours. “So I’m home now missing one of my favorite bands,” they added.

Kim Klein , vice president of marketing and communication for venue operator 313 Presents, denies that they

Here’s the music schedule for Hazel

Park’s Sandbar Summerfest

ARE YOU READY for Sandbar Summerfest?

This new Metro Times event transforms Hazel Park into a tropical getaway with music, refreshments, games, and more.

The block party will be held on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25 at John R Road and Nine Mile Road, adjacent to the newly reopened Eastern Palace Club, our partner in the event.

Live entertainment keeps the beach-theme going with reggae, ska, yacht rock, and more, including tribute acts Air Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffet ) and Raising the Dead (Grateful Dead). Local ska band Superdot will close out the fest with a 30th anniversary performance.

Here’s the full schedule:

oversold tickets.

“We’re a professional group,” she says. “We don’t oversell.”

Klein says she believes the traffic jam was caused by the weather coupled with a late-arriving crowd. (She says they’re looking into why cars were parked on the median.) She notes that the venue posts a schedule for all concerts ahead of time, and encourages fans to arrive early.

“We try our best to communicate to folks the details of the show,” she says. Indeed, the venue’s Twitter account @ PineKnobMusic tweeted a schedule earlier in the day, indicating that parking opened at 3:30 p.m., with general admission doors opening at 5:30 p.m. and music starting at 7 p.m.

Klein says she encourages people to get to the venue early to beat the traffic — and to check out the opening act.

“Part of the experience of Pine Knob is you come with friends, you get there early, you enjoy the full experience there,” she says. “Part of what everybody talks about what they love about Pine Knob is they’re able to come and hang with their friends.” (Of course, tailgating in the rain isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time.)

The last time the Cure performed in metro Detroit was in 2004 at Pine Knob, then known as DTE Energy Music Theatre, as part of its “Curiosa Festival.” There was huge demand for the latest concert not only due to the amount of time that had passed since the last time the band came to town, but also thanks to its insistence on low ticket prices that started at just $20. The band opted not to engage in the supply and demand-based “dynamic pricing” system that has seen ticket prices for acts like Taylor Swift and Blink-182 soar to thousands of dollars per seat. Instead, fans had to register as a “Verified Fan” with Ticketmaster in an effort to thwart scalpers.

After many fans became outraged by the hidden fees Ticketmaster tacked on — exceeding the cost of the $20 ticket — the band’s frontman Robert Smith said he was “as sickened as you all are,” and eventually persuaded Ticketmaster to refund up to $10 per ticket.

Still, many who made it to Pine Knob said the concert was worth it. “Seeing The Cure was amazing,” another fan wrote, “but waiting to park at Pine Knob for 1.5 hours and missing the entire set was not.”

Saturday

11:15 a.m. Tropical Beats Duo

12:45 p.m. Surf Zup

2:15 p.m. One Love

3:45 p.m. The Kroon Band

5:30 p.m. Air Margaritaville

7:30 p.m. Raising the Dead

Sunday

11 a.m. Sweet Willie Tea

12 p.m. Leaky Tikis

1:15 p.m. Belle Islanders

2:30 p.m. Yacht-Seas

3:45 p.m. Theo GridIron

5 p.m. Superdot 30th anniversary show

We’ll also be whipping up some summer cocktails and mocktails, and barbecue food vendors including Smoke Ring BBQ, House of Barbecue, Backdraft BBQ, and others.

The party runs from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. More information is available at sandbarsummerfest.com.

—Lee DeVito

The Cure frontman Robert Smith. SHUTTERSTOCK

Fried fusion

By Jane Slaughter

I SHOULD HAVE researched a bit more, before visiting Bonchon, to discover the differences between Korean fried chicken and Japanese fried chicken. Turns out there are quite a few.

I’d been expecting the delightful soft crunch of a well-breaded Japanese karaage, where a pre-fry bath of nongluten starch (rice or potato or maybe cornstarch) sticks to the bird’s ribs and to yours, too. I can’t say enough about the wizardry and comfort of that soft crunch when it’s done well, as at Mike Ransom’s SuperCrisp in Detroit. One internet commenter extolled karaage as “giving you the feeling of eating chicken and fries at the same time!”

Of course, recipes are going to differ not just country to country but chef to chef. Whether Japanese or Korean, they’re all going to be twice-fried, once in advance and again when the customer orders — which is brilliant — but is the chicken marinated, what type of starch is used, is there a glaze? At Bonchon, a Korea-based chain with stores in Southeast Asia, France, Australia, and the U.S., there’s no marinade, and the starch is regular white flour. A “Sig-

nature Sauce” is “hand-brushed” on at the end — Spicy or Soy Garlic.

That produces a finish that’s flat, sweet, and sticky rather than softcrunch-starchy. I prefer the latter. The chicken itself, in the drumsticks I ordered, was moist enough, but not squirty-moist as in the best karaage, or in the best Southern-style fried chicken either, for that matter.

But at this bare-bones place — eat off a tray with junior-size plasticware, get your drinks from a dispenser — there’s more on the menu than chicken. (Ignore Bonchon’s ambitious corporate website, where the list includes fried octopus dumplings, bibimbap, and udon soup, and is three times as long as what’s actually offered in Farmington Hills.)

There are two versions of potstickers, stir-fry, and a raft of fried side dishes. Veggie potstickers are crunchier than you expect potstickers to be. To dress them, choose the spicy mayo, ordered separately, rather than the Spicy sauce, which just tastes like hot+vinegar.

Japchae is marinated ribeye with glass noodles and stir-fried vegetables, a rather soft and undistinguished mix-

ture, though the extra-long noodles are good for slurping. The beef is slightly smoky.

The signature chicken sandwich is large and unwieldy; I can’t recommend it for carry-out. Its “toasted brioche” bun is just a regular hamburger bun, and the two fat strips of chicken tend to slip out of the bun as you bite down. Because the whole contraption had more going on than the plain drumsticks, what with the heaping coleslaw, I liked it better. As with all the chicken dishes, choose either Spicy or Soy Garlic sauce.

Other main dishes are fried rice, katsu (panko-breaded boneless chicken on rice), and Korean tacos. I liked the tacos despite the confusion inherent in this attempt at fusion: chicken or ribeye (bulgogi) is topped with lettuce, coleslaw, spicy mayo (an alarming orange), buttermilk ranch, and red onion, on thick flour tortillas. The beef was plentiful and nicely marinated and the three tacos overall a sizable meal.

Korean street corn is a fiery side topped with little scallion rings, more or less like canned corn if you dumped

Chicken wings $9.95 for six, plates $10.95-$13.95

in some chili powder, somewhat creamy, better than I’m making it sound. The small size is large. “Spicy fries” are just normal and numerous, dusted with Parmesan. Other sides are onion rings, coleslaw, kimchi, kimchi coleslaw, and edamame.

For dessert I tried a trio of mochi in strawberry, matcha, and salted caramel, and they were each the Platonic ideal of their flavors. Another night “Korean doughnuts” turned out to be two large cinnamony phalluses — neither doughnut nor hole — with the right balance of semi-crisp exterior and doughy insides and that exquisite fried-dough flavor.

What does it say when at a restaurant that wants to be known for its fried chicken, the reviewer says, “Try the beef tacos?” You tell me.

Bonchon means “My hometown, my roots.” There’s a second location in Troy at 738 East Big Beaver Rd.

Korean chain Bonchon is known for its fried chicken.

COURTESY PHOTO

FOOD

by the number of them now attaching automatic, 20% gratuities to tabs. Like many, I’m beginning to bristle over the new-normal nonsense adopters of this practice are asking us to swallow.

Chowhound

Are breastaurants exploitative?

By Robert Stempkowski

Chowhound is a bi-weekly column about what’s trending in Detroit food culture. Tips: eat@metrotimes.com.

BOOB JOBS: ON the look-but-don’ttouchy subject of so-called “breastaurants,” how do you feel about places like Hooters, Twin Peaks, and such? Obviously, perspectives often hinge on whether or not one carries the Y chromosome. As for me, I ate at a Hooters once years ago, in my late 30s and in the company of my young son, who was maybe 7 at the time. While on family vacation in San Diego, he got tired during a long walk on the beach with me.

“I’m hungry and thirsty, Dad,” he let me know, stopping us a few lifeguard towers short of our rental spot. Doing what any doting father might do in such circumstances, I sought sustenance and shelter from the sun for us in the first restaurant we spied over the seawall. At first blush, my decision seemed brilliant. Like walking a puppy in a park, bringing my blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy to this restaurant triggered an immediate rush of gorgeous young ladies in tight tops and short shorts to our table. These weren’t those obligatory table touches the company service manual requires, though. They were genuine fawnings over an apparently adorable innocence that proved

a refreshing change of pace from the constant, prurient glare Hooters Girls graciously face in their workplace.

“These wings are bad, Dad,” Tim concluded quickly after our order arrived, frowning crestfallen, even as an entire crew of cuties continued to hound him. He couldn’t wait to leave, and his turning a blind eye to all that attention due to a flaccid food experience served as a perfect parable on what libidinous eyes see in breastaurants that others don’t.

Purely for the purposes of refreshing myself on this subject matter, mind you, I stopped into a Twin Peaks most recently, where the all-waitress revue wears lumberjack flannel crop-tops and Daisy Dukes. Grabbing a barstool, I was immediately gutted by guilt over being there. It only got worse as I looked around at the crowd of company I was keeping: lots of loners, leering at the help. Next to no one was eating. Almost every guy just sat beady-eyed, nursing a huge mug of draft beer. Working girls walked in and out toting bags packed with costume changes, like dancers in gentlemen’s clubs do. My bartender’s genuine smile was big and beautiful. She didn’t seem to feel the same selfconsciousness as me. Nor did any of her co-workers appear affected by the collective and constant stare they surely must feel.

In the end, after I paid my tab and over-tipped, I slipped a note to Ms. Barkeep, letting her know I was a food writer working on a piece about her corner of the industry. Honestly, I thought she’d welcome the chance to get a few work horror stories off her chest; testimonials to the hostile work environment I imagined her dealing with every day, infested with sexually harassing superiors and lascivious, loser customers.

Truthfully, I haven’t heard a word from her.

At this point, I’m left torn on the topic of breastaurants. Yes, there’s something patently misogynistic to the business model. If the tables were turned, and someone opened a place called, say, The Purple Tube Steak, where male staff served footlongs in package-promoting Speedos, no, I wouldn’t go or even try to justify a visit to satisfy an appetite. Still, I’m stopping short of saying girls who make breastaurants work are being outright exploited. Perhaps there’s at least as much truth to the contrary. It’s men being exposed here again. We not only think with our dicks. We eat with them.

TIPS TURNED TARIFFS: During a recent roundup review of nearly a dozen noteworthy restaurants, I was surprised

Consider: the group of restaurants recently surveyed are all long-tenured, established and thriving. The majority are currently serving large numbers of well-heeled customers at high prices. Their menus list entrees approaching C-Note pricing. Their wine lists boast a preponderance of three-digit labels. Server commissions in places like these are both considerable and consistent. Frankly, I find it insulting to have a tipping percentage set for and enforced upon me. And it’s fairly infuriating how a new “additional tip” line has found its way onto the standard credit card receipt, coaxing and coercing even more money from my pocket for fear of being perceived as stingy for leaving it blank. Seriously.

Sorry, restaurant industry, but this new order of finishing up our business is bullshit. As a former waiter, bartender, and restaurateur, I’ve always tipped way more than generously. To a fault, if truth be told. But that’s up to me, the customer, as it should always be. Now, if you’re going to blame COVID and say the pandemic somehow left consumers infected with cost-of-living-triggered stinginess, I’m going to call you out again. While, yes, we’re tired of getting screwed in the pocket by every business disguising pure profiteering behind a COVID mask, where our favorite restaurants are concerned, we dug deeper to support a struggling food service industry. Now, you show your gratitude by insisting we keep paying extra?

Between those 20% auto-grats and the extra 5-10% we’re feeling obliged to ladle on in those damn “additional tip” lines, you’re raising a long-sinceagreed-upon standard unreasonably. For starters, any inflation-based arguments for a 25-30% revised gratuity standard are belied by the fact that, as menu prices have risen, so have tip commissions. Secondly, in guaranteeing a lofty service stipend, you take away the incentive to provide such duly rewarded levels of service. Lastly, never insult anyone’s intelligence, and this is a slap in the face to a dining public that knows full well how to tip without being prodded or forced to. The last impression a restaurant leaves on a customer shouldn’t be a taxing one.

A bartender at the Twin Peaks chain.

INSIDE THE MAGIC, FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

We not only think with our dicks. We eat with them.

FOOD

Bites

Smith & Co. closes to reopen as Vigilante Kitchen

DETROIT RESTAURANT SMITH & Co. quietly shut its doors earlier this month as a new concept prepares to move in.

A representative from Smith & Co. confirmed to Metro Times that the New-American brewpub shuttered on June 4 and is in the process of becoming Vigilante Kitchen, which will serve “elevated Midwestern food with Asian

influence and classical French roots,” according to its Instagram page.

A sign on the building at 644 Selden St., which still bears the Smith Welding Supply Co. sign of its heyday, reads, “Now Hiring Vigilante Kitchen.”

Vigilante Kitchen, as first reported by Eater Detroit, is helmed by Aaron Cozadd, a former executive chef at Union Joints Hospitality Group.

Cozadd, who has previously battled addiction, told Eater he wanted Vigilante Kitchen to be a sober-friendly space that would offer employees meditation sessions before the start of each service, gym memberships, and recovery meetings.

While he plans to offer a cafe and dry bar in the restaurant’s current waiting area, Eater reports Vigilante Kitchen will still have a full bar and serve beer from neighboring Nain Rouge Brewery.

Cozadd did not respond to our inquiries but Vigilante Kitchen’s Instagram page notes the restaurant plans to open on Friday, June 30.

Smith & Co. first opened in 2019, temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and reopened in 2022.

—Randiah Camille Green

MEX got a makeover

AFTER A DECADE in business, MEX, the Bloomfield Hills restaurant by local star chef Zack Sklar, just got an extensive remodel.

Located at 6675 Telegraph Rd., the restaurant had been closed since late 2022.

Achatz made a Faygoflavored

pie

HERE’S A MADE-IN-MICHIGAN match we didn’t know we needed.

Armada-based Achatz Handmade Pie Co. joined forces with Detroit’s Faygo to make a Rock and Rye Pie.

The “mini pies” are five inches in diameter and feature a traditional pie crust with a filling made from Faygo’s

vanilla and cherry Rock and Rye pop.

The pies ($8.99 each) are available for a limited time only and can now be purchased online. They will also be available starting on Friday, June 30 in Achatz stores.

Insane Clown Posse fans, take note — that’s just in time for the Gathering of the Juggalos.

Whoop whoop! —Lee DeVito

“We’re fortunate that MEX has always been a beloved restaurant in the area. The old concept was doing very well, but the remodel will offer a much bigger ‘wow’ factor,” said Sklar, corporate executive chef and owner of Peas and Carrots Hospitality. “We were a young company when MEX launched, and as with all restaurants, we grow — and grow up — over time. Our hospitality group has evolved, and we are heavily focused on elevating our concepts to evolve and meet the expectations and needs of our guests.”

The nearly 7,000-square-foot building now sports a modern design inspired by the American Southwest courtesy of Bethesda, Maryland-based firm Streetsense. It can accommodate up to 220 diners, including up to 40 at

the bar and up to 30 on the patio. An upstairs space that can be used for private events can accommodate between 35 and 45 diners.

The renovations also come with a revamped menu. While items like fajitas and fresh-made salsa remain on the menu, new items include housemade tortillas, whole branzino, chorizo empanadas, duck-carnitas tacos, and vegan corn-coconut tamales.

The beverage program has also been revamped, with new signature cocktails, fresh-pressed juice, and sangria, mojitos, martinis, and margaritas.

“We’ve been ideating and imagining these changes for quite some time now and are finally ready to share it with the community,” Sklar added. “I believe it will be our most beautiful restaurant yet.”

Peas and Carrots Hospitality also operates Beau’s in Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham’s Social Kitchen, Ferndale’s Como’s, Chelsea’s The Common Grill, and Bernie’s in Chicago.

More information is available at mexbloomfield.com. —Lee DeVito

644 Selden St. STEVE NEAVLING

MEX has been remodeled.

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Achatz Handmade Pie Co.’s Rock and Rye Pie.

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WEED

LIV Cannabis Co.’s Detroit dispensary opens

ONE OF DETROIT’S first adult-use cannabis dispensaries opened to the public over the weekend.

LIV Cannabis Co., located at 12604 E. Jefferson Ave., celebrated with a grand opening party on Saturday with deals, giveaways, food trucks and other vendors, and live entertainment from DJ Problematic Black Hottie, comedian HaHa Davis, and rappers Rocky Badd and Felix the Don.

“We’ve been working on it for years,” LIV Cannabis Co. chief retail officer Dennis Zoma tells Metro Times

“You want to be able to have access to safe, tested cannabis without having to drive a certain distance in order to get it,” he adds. “Now [Detroiters] can get it in their own backyard.”

While Michigan voters approved adult-use cannabis in 2018, Detroit was late to get into the game after attempts

to create an ordinance with an emphasis on social equity were caught up in court challenges. The city’s first adult-use dispensaries opened in January, long after adult-use dispensaries opened in other Michigan municipalities.

Detroit’s cannabis ordinance offers “legacy” licenses to Detroiters who have lived in the city for a certain number of years. For its “legacy” partner, LIV Cannabis Co. partnered with entrepreneur Jason Malone.

“When I first met Jason, we shared a lot of the same views and values and just the kind of impact that we want to make in the city,” Zoma says. “We’re going to be creating jobs, offering safe,

tested cannabis, at an affordable price. We’ve all been looking forward to having a footprint in the Detroit market.”

Zoma adds, “We have a community engagement initiative with all of our retail locations. Jason is a perfect fit for that. He knows what the needs are for the city and how we can make an impact there in addition to what can we do to be part of that community and truly make a lasting difference.”

“This venture represents all that a fruitful partnership should be, and together we will amplify the LIV Cannabis commitment to providing safe, high-quality and affordable cannabis products right here in the Motor City,”

Malone said in a statement. “Working together, we will remain focused on providing second-to-none customer service and creating a true entrepreneurial success story in the City of Detroit.”

LIV Cannabis Co. opened its first location in Ferndale in 2020, the city’s first adult-use dispensary. The company also recently opened a location in Grand Rapids, following others in Lansing and Lake Orion, with plans to open another in Westland later this year.

More information is available at livcannabis.com.

—Lee DeVito

Judge stops Highland Park from issuing adult-use cannabis licenses

A JUDGE HAS temporarily blocked the city of Highland Park from issuing licenses to recreational marijuana businesses following a lawsuit that alleges the city’s controversial cannabis ordinance is illegal.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Denise Qiana Lillard issued a temporary restraining order last week in what could be the first step before the ordinance is struck down.

Entrepreneur Marcelus Brice filed the lawsuit last month, arguing the city failed to follow the required steps in approving the ordinance and improperly gave the city clerk sole authority to dole out the licenses, which he argues exposes the city to corruption.

Highland Park Clerk Brenda Green was expected to soon begin issuing licenses. The city was accepting applications until June 19.

By issuing the temporary restraining order, the judge is acknowledging Brice

has a good case, his attorney Ryan Hill says.

“Lillard granted the temporary restraining order because she felt there was immediate harm if the city went forward with the applications and granted them,” Hill tells Metro Times “To issue the temporary restraining order, there has to be a likelihood of success based on the merits. In this situation, Judge Lillard made the right ruling.”

Lillard moved the case to Judge Susan L. Hubbard’s courtroom because she’s presiding over a similar case stemming from a lawsuit filed by Highland Park activist Robert Davis.

Both lawsuits allege the city violated the Michigan Zoning and Enabling Act by failing to get approval for the ordinance from the Planning Commission, which is required to hold public hearings on zoning changes.

The ordinance includes five zones

where dispensaries are permitted to open. One is a two-block area of Woodward Avenue, where “a major funder” to the mayor, clerk, and former council has a building, Brice says. The donor also has a cannabis processing license.

“If you look at the zoning ordinance, there are property owners who I think are being favored,” Hill says. “There are a few families that have vested interests, and it would seem, ties with the mayor or the clerk. It seems odd that some of these areas that were handpicked would benefit certain property owners … They have to make it fair for everybody.”

The lawsuit also alleges the clerk should not have the sole authority to accept and award licenses because it would open the city up to corruption and a lack of accountability and transparency. Municipalities typically empower a planning commission or

appointed board to determine who gets a license.

The city council, which has all new members, has tried to amend the cannabis ordinance to address the issues raised in the lawsuit, but Mayor Glenda McDonald has vetoed those efforts.

Brice says the temporary restraining order was “definitely a victory” and prevents the city from awarding licenses through a process that is likely illegal.

“It’s really hard to get a court to take away a license when it has been awarded when there is no fault by the applicant,” Brice tells Metro Times. “It could create a lot of problems in the future. It stops the city from sneakily giving away licenses.”

Brice adds, “We are very hopeful that Judge Hubbard will more than likely throw this ordinance out.”

McDonald has declined to comment on the ordinance.

—Steve

Neavling

LIV Cannabis Co.’s Detroit dispensary.

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CULTURE

Artist of the week

Bakpak Durden’s Intermedium is a cerebral experiment in time travel

By Randiah Camille Green

Thank you for reading the Intermedium travel experience guidebook. You’ve come a long way, and we have quite the journey ahead of us.

We’re going to be traveling through Detroit artist Bakpak Durden’s latest exhibit Intermedium at the University of Michigan’s Stamps Gallery. In this exhibit, the artist has developed a series of paintings, photos, and poetry scribbled on the side of their canvases that exist in the spaces between hope and hopelessness. Here, home is an illusion of space and time, instead of a safe place to rest.

This exhibit has depressive undertones, though they don’t feel oppressively heavy, as the artist’s struggles with suicidal ideation weave in and out of melancholy and solace.

“[Intrusive thoughts] are something I deal with every day,” Durden says. “There’s this tendency to avoid talking about suicide or needing to just leave or go away and having that be the only reprieve from the day-to-day of it all… But there’s a through line in all my work and that is transformation and transmutation. That’s surrendering, letting go so you can make way for new and bigger things. It’s the idea that time passes and that eventually it will work itself out.”

Intermedium is part of the Stamps Gallery’s annual Envision: Michigan Artist Initiative, which puts out an open call for art and shortlists three emerging or mid-career artists for a group exhibition. Durden was one of the finalists chosen for the 2023 cohort alongside filmmaker Parisa Ghaderi and Armenian-American weaver Levon Kafafian. The winning artist will be announced at a ceremony on June 29 where they’ll receive a $5,000 prize.

Paintings like “Sēdibus (pre) Frontalis” show the points where present, past, and future meet with segments of

Durden in black and gray overlapping a full-color portrait as they sit in their truck.

The truck is a focal point for several of the paintings and photographs on this voyage, which at a low point in their life, was the only place they felt safe.

“Leaving to just ride in my truck was my only safety because I didn’t have a place to be,” they say. “Being in my truck and calling hotlines or calling people, whose names have been redacted on the side of the [canvas], was my way of tapping in and making sure that someone knew I was OK. But also, I didn’t have to say exactly what I was going through if I wasn’t ready.”

In another piece, “Cerebellum Fixi,” Durden appears to be taking off a jacket as they enter their home. Or are they putting the jacket on as they leave? Are they coming or leaving? Are they surrendering to the warm embrace of death or tugging at the frayed seams of relationships and places that keep them anchored? The story doesn’t have to be linear. During your visit, think of all these moments in time existing simultaneously.

A message on the side of this piece fixates on the word “fix” with a story about Durden’s grandmother. It reads, in part, “I remember my grandmother always saying she was fixin’ ta do something or fixin’ ta go somewhere. She was the only person I knew that I said it (at the time). So naturally, I thought it very special & important (still do). I could never fix my mouth to utter the words I

didn’t think mine to say.”

“It’s the idea that ‘fixing’ myself is not something I could do,” Durden explains of the play on words, telling us, “I’ve got plenty of friends who are trans or whatever and I remember when I was younger I would say, ‘I’m so proud of what you’re doing, I just could never do it.’ They’d ask why, and I’d come up with excuses that were only circumstantial, just because of the circumstances that I was in, not because it wasn’t in my power to do it. So I started to interrogate what made me comfortable in these uncomfortable circumstances.”

If you get lost on your journey, find the information cards with the travel information hotline phone number, where you can choose the sequence you want to experience the exhibit.

Each painting has a corresponding number on the hotline’s menu and a prompt that will lead you deeper into the memories floating around in Durden’s consciousness. For example, dialing the hotline and pressing “1” for their painting “Cornu Fraternis” and then choosing option “4” takes you to a moment where Durden calls a friend from their car and says “I had that thought again.” Pressing “1” and then “5” leads you to a crisis hotline.

In “Cornu Fraternis,” Durden sits in their truck again as they make a phone call with an ammonite fossil, perhaps the only moment of stillness in the exhibit — a pause as you contemplate where to go next.

Don’t forget to write your chosen

sequence down and leave it in the mailbox to assist fellow travelers who will make their trip after you.

Durden’s exhibits are often openended questions, where you choose the order the paintings should go in and create your own narrative.

Intermedium is supposed to be a break in between their Eye of Horus show at Cranbrook Art Museum earlier this year and whatever their next big project is (which they wouldn’t give us details about in classic, cryptic Bakpak Durden fashion). This highly conceptual project is anything but a reprieve, however, as it leaves more questions than answers on this story of escapism Durden is trying to tell us.

They don’t do much to lead museumgoers… we mean travelers… down a specific road from beginning to end, either. Instead, they’re like an omnipresent creator who has birthed this work of art, left it behind for humanity, and given us free will to decide which path to take.

A question on the information cards poses the question to travelers, “Where are we going?”

We’re not entirely sure where we are going. All we know is, wherever Durden is headed, we want to be along for the ride.

Where to see their work: Intermedium will be on display as part of Envision: Michigan Artist Initiative 2023 until July 29 at the University of Michigan Stamps Gallery, 201 South Division St., Ann Arbor, stamps.umich.edu.

“Sedibus (pre) Frontalis” by Detroit artist Bakpak Durden.

RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

CULTURE

Rushmore meets Roswell

By Cliff Froehlich

Insistently eccentric, involuted, and reflexive, Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City will likely only reinforce his detractors’ animus toward the filmmaker’s elaborate but undeniably insular world-building, but admirers — and I’m among them — will delight in the dizzying variations he works on signature themes and tropes. Although Asteroid City sometimes comes perilously close to the Rube Goldbergian joke constructions of Steven Spielberg’s 1941 — with setups so baroquely complex that the payoff laughs are more theoretical than actual — it never tips over into selfindulgence. Like Anderson’s best work, the film adroitly balances comedy and melancholy, absurdity and profundity, and what might initially appear a feather-light, pastel-hued dessert confection instead proves an intellectually and emotionally rich multi-course meal.

In most of his previous films, Anderson used a variety of devices — narrators, chapter breaks, curtains, faux books — to foreground the constructed nature of his stories. That conceit seemed to reach its apotheosis in The Grand Budapest Hotel, with its Russian-nesting-dolls structure and mutating aspect ratios, but Asteroid City actually one-ups that predecessor in the deployment of Brechtian distancing effects. Beginning as a mid1950s TV show — in period-appropriate black-and-white and 4:3 Academy ratio — the film purports to offer a behindthe-scenes peek at the development of

Asteroid City

Rated: PG-13

Run-time: 105 minutes

a Broadway play, also named Asteroid City, by writer Conrad Earp (Edward Norton). The film then transitions to a staging of Asteroid City — in widescreen and color — and subsequently toggles between the theatrical production and the television show. The program’s host (Bryan Cranston) periodically offers explication and provides both re-creations and documentary footage — which, significantly, are never clearly distinguished — of key moments in the play’s evolution.

The play is set in the titular Asteroid City, a tiny burg in the Southwest that owes its modest existence to the ancient crater formed by the impact of the Arid Plains meteorite. The town, whose tight cluster of buildings includes an observatory presided over by Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton), hosts the annual Junior Stargazer Convention and Asteroid Day to celebrate the scientific achievements of several gifted teens. Among those arriving for the 1955 festivities are recently widowed war photographer Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) and his children, “brainiac” son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and three young but extremely willful daughters. Also filling up the lone motel’s cabins are movie star Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) and her precocious daughter, Dinah (Grace Edwards), who will both become roman-

tically entangled with the Steenbeck père et fils; three other prodigies and their parents (Liev Schrieber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park); Montana (Rupert Friend) and his stranded cowboy band; a teacher (Maya Hawke) and a busload of her 8-year-old students; and, belatedly, Augie’s crusty father-in-law (Tom Hanks).

The gathering of this diverse tribe, already enlivened by Midge’s glamorous presence, becomes even more eventful when a spacecraft suddenly appears during a group viewing of “astronomical ellipses” (yes, that would be three illuminated dots in the heavens, with Anderson shamelessly putting the “pun” in punctuation). As the stunned crowd gapes, a lanky stop-motion alien descends from the ship, plucks the meteorite from its resting place and unexpectedly spirits it into the sky. General Griff Gibson (Jeffrey Wright), conveniently on hand for the scientific proceedings, immediately places the town under quarantine and imposes an information blackout. But the military can’t thwart the teens’ collective ingenuity, and when they manage to leak word of the alien visitation to the world, Asteroid City soon becomes overrun with throngs of curiosity seekers.

If this summary seems unduly windy, be assured that it barely hints at the story’s many convolutions (or, for that matter, the jaw-dropping enormity of the film’s starry cast, which also includes Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Adrien Brody, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, and Jeff Goldblum). But plot, despite its superabundance here, isn’t really Anderson’s focus: Asteroid City is far more a witty meditation on theater and acting than a comic riff on Cold War paranoia, government secrecy, and coercion, or the militaryindustrial complex’s cooptation of scientific discovery (though it deals in all of those, too). Anderson’s interest

in the stage has figured tangentially in much of his work — see Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Moonrise Kingdom — but Asteroid City positions mid-20th-century American theater front and center (as in one of his symmetrical compositions). Anderson certainly pokes some gentle fun at that era’s innovative figures, whether writers, directors, or Method acting teachers, but the jokes in no way diminish his obvious affection and admiration.

The film is especially insightful on the acting process and its probing search for signs and meaning (an impulse it shares with the play’s scientists). In the first meeting between Earp and his play’s eventual lead, for example, actor Jones Hall (Schwartzman again) expresses confusion over what motivates Augie to impulsively burn his hand on a hot griddle. Because we haven’t yet seen that action, the question doesn’t fully register, but after the scene appears in the play, Asteroid City returns to explore it in the TV show when a distressed Hall leaves the stage in the middle of a performance to confront his director about whether he’s properly capturing the character: He’s still striving to grasp the significance of that self-mutilating gesture.

As impressive as Schwartzman is in his dual roles, Johansson merits particular praise in this regard: Not only is she also creating two distinct characters, but because she’s essaying the role of a movie star in the play, there’s yet another layer of artifice that requires peeling, and the remarkable scene in which she rehearses a bathtub suicide for a future film is a head-spinning astonishment.

In fact, “head-spinning astonishment” can just as appropriately serve as a description of Asteroid City — a film of ceaseless invention, visual splendor, and wry, often rueful amusement.

In Asteroid City, Wes Anderson stages an alien invasion as only Wes Anderson can.

COURTESY OF POP. 87 PRODUCTIONS/FOCUS FEATURES

CULTURE

Savage Love Marriage

By Dan Savage

: Q I got married in 2001. Our sex life was mostly fine, but it was always a little weird because I’m the only woman he’d ever been with — not only sexually, but in a relationship at all. I was 23, he was 30. We bought a house, had a couple of kids, etc., and our sex life settled into a great groove for a couple of years after the second kid was born. But in 2017 it hit the skids. He started having ED problems, but when I’d try to talk about it, he’d get angry and defensive. I tried to rewrite the sexual script, but that never worked. Finally in the fall of 2021, I made an appointment for marriage counseling. We were making progress at first, but then I realized that all he wanted to do was bitch about his job and his in-laws. He never came to me to initiate sex or conversations about sex, I had to do all the emotional labor around the issue, and it was like trying to clap with one hand.

I felt like I was watching a slowmotion train wreck with echoes of your column in the back of my mind. All the things: increasing emotional distance, my own lack of desire because I feel like I’d just get shot down again, my deteriorating sense of self-worth. In the end the thing that was the most painful wasn’t the lack of sex, it was our total inability to talk about the lack of sex. He refused to discuss it. Or he’d say he wanted sex but then do nothing about it or, even worse, sabotage my efforts. In one of our last sessions, our marriage counselor pushed him on the medications for ED. He said he would make an appointment but never did.

The lack of sex was like a cancer that metastasized and rotted out the core of my marriage. On the outside everything was great, we got along, we worked well together, and we were excellent co-parents. But inside I was dying. I couldn’t cheat, I’m too introverted for that. So, the rejections and hits to my self-esteem kept coming. My mental health deteriorated, but I couldn’t talk to him about that either.

Anyway, I ended it in February of this year. I now live with my mom about two miles down the road. And now we get along like good friends. We continue to co-parent well, we work together,

all that. Once I removed “marriage expectations” from the relationship, turns out he’s great! A really good and helpful friend! I now suspect he wanted out but couldn’t do the “end it” bit, so I had to be the bad guy. I’m spending a lot of time in therapy but it’s still hard. I mean, it’s way better now because I don’t want to “un-alive” myself anymore (as the kids say these days), but I still have a lot of grief.

I’ve been reading your column since I was a teenager. I wanted to let you know that all the stuff you’ve said about a situation where in a monogamous marriage one partner stops wanting to have sex is 100% true. It was so strange to know in the back of my head exactly what was happening to me and my marriage but also not to feel like I could do anything about it. I suspect you hear this type of thing on the regular. Tried Everything And Regret Staying

: A This is going to sound random, TEARS, but bear with me: there’s this meme that flies around Instagram and Twitter whenever a man does something stupid — it’s in constant circulation —that you’ve probably seen: “Men will literally [X] instead of going to therapy.”

Well, a tortured and not very funny version of that meme kept popping into my head while I was reading your very long letter: “Straight people will literally do anything to save their marriages —including going to therapy — but not fuck other people.”

I don’t blame you for leaving your husband, TEARS, and if anyone is to blame for the collapse of your marriage, it’s him. Constant sexual rejection can lay waste to a person’s self-esteem, particularly when we’re rejected by someone with whom we once enjoyed a strong sexual connection. Being left to wonder what the fuck is wrong — particularly when your spouse refuses talk about it or do something that seems as easy and obvious as getting ED meds can leave a person feeling terrible about their normal and healthy sexual desires even years after a sexless relationship ends. Your husband owed you an explanation, at the very least, and he couldn’t even give you that.

But a crazy thing happened once you left him: once you accepted that you couldn’t make the sex work and stopped trying — which you only did after you tried almost everything (spicing things up, taking the initiative, finding a couples’ counselor) — suddenly everything that worked about your marriage came into focus. You

started to get along again. You realized you still enjoyed his company. You could appreciate parenting with him. Once you removed your “marriage expectations” from the equation, once you dropped your sexual expectations, you could suddenly see — using your words here — that the man you married was still pretty great.

Don’t get me wrong, TEARS: your sexual expectations were perfectly reasonable. But we expect a lot from marriage-as-an-institution these days perhaps too much.

“Never before have our expectations of marriage taken on such epic proportions,” writes psychotherapist and bestselling author Esther Perel. “We still want everything the traditional family was meant to provide — security, respectability, property, and children — but now we also want our partner to love us, to desire us, to be interested in us. We should be best friends and trusted confidants, and passionate lovers to boot.”

When our marriages fail to live up to every last one of our expectations and no marriage lives up to every expectation — what do we then? It’s a question all married people face at some point. When our marriages fall short, when the person we married fails to meet or ceases to meet an important need, we have two options: We can adjust our expectations and make accommodations and allowances accordingly, TEARS, or we can end our marriages.

This is a long way of me saying… I think there was an accommodation you could’ve asked of your husband. You say you’ve been reading me for a long time, TEARS, so I’m a little disappointed that it didn’t occur to at least try adjusting your “marriage expectations” before you left. I’m not talking about cheating — you say you’re too introverted for cheating — but getting permission from your husband to get sex elsewhere. Since everything else was working (you get along, enjoy each other’s company, you parent well together), maybe the one thing you ruled out — fucking other people — was the thing that could’ve saved your marriage.

You’re not the first person I’ve heard from over the last 30 years (you’re not the first person I’ve heard from this week) with the same story: a sexless marriage, conflict, misery, and counseling, and then someone walks out — usually the one who misses sex and then everything that was good about the relationship, all the reasons you might want to stay in the marriage, come into focus. Once you the conflict over sex is removed, the relationship flourishes again.

Now, sexual incompatibility is a

perfectly legitimate reason to end a sexual relationship, TEARS, monogamy is important to many people, and some people would rather start over trying to find someone new — not easy for an introvert — than give ethical non-monogamy a chance. But more people might be inclined to give ethical non-monogamy a chance, and more marriages might be saved, if couples’ counselors, sex therapists, and sexadvice columnists didn’t insist that sexlessness marriages are a problem that can always be solved. Date nights, scheduled sex, pot edibles and wine are great but they’re not going to turn someone who still loves you but doesn’t wanna fuck you into someone who loves you and does wanna fuck you. (I recently saw a post by a sex therapist on Instagram extolling the benefits of scheduled sex — anticipation fuels desire! — but scheduling sex with someone who doesn’t wanna fuck you isn’t gonna fill that person with desire. It’s not anticipation they’re going to feel, it’s dread — dreading the sex they don’t want to have, and dreading the disappointment and hurt they’re going to inflict.)

There may have been too much damage done to save your marriage — too much rejection over too many years, too few answers, too little effort — but many more marriages become moreor-less companionate over time than anyone seems willing to acknowledge. (Well, anyone other than Amy Schumer in her new standup special on Netflix.) If we expected sexlessness in our marriages eventually and set our marital expectations accordingly, TEARS, those of us who are still fucking our spouses twenty years in would be pleasantly surprised and those of us who hadn’t fucked our spouses in years might feel less betrayed and devastated. And if we could wrap our heads around the kinds of accommodations that could make a sexless marriage less unbearable some license, some leeway, some safe and discreet outlets — more good, loving, and decent marriages like yours might survive.

: Q When I was seven years old, I was molested by a neighbor, who apparently was a serial pedophile. Years later, another of his victims killed him and is now doing 20 years for manslaughter. I reached out to him in prison, and we’ve been corresponding for several months. Even though I don’t approve of murder, I understand why....

Read the full column on Savage.Love. Send your burning questions to mailbox@savage.love. Podcasts, columns, merch, and more at Savage.Love!

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

When I was still an up-and-coming horoscope columnist, before I got widely syndicated, I supplemented my income with many other jobs. During one stretch, I wrote fortunes for a line of designer fortune cookies that were covered with gourmet chocolate and sold at the luxury department store Bloomingdale’s. The salary I got paid was meager. Part of my compensation came in the form of hundreds of delicious but non-nutritious cookies. If you are offered a comparable deal in the coming weeks and months, Aries, my advice is to do what I didn’t do but should have done: Ask for what’s truly valuable to you instead of accepting a substitute of marginal worth.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

My mentor Ann Davies said that of all the signs of the zodiac, you Tauruses are most likely to develop finely honed intuition. At least potentially, you can tune in to the inner teacher better than the rest of us. The still, small voice rises up out of the silence and speaks to you clearly and crisply. Here’s even better news: I believe you are entering a phase when your relationship with this stellar faculty may ripen dramatically. Please

take advantage of this subtly fabulous opportunity! Each day for the next 14 days, do a relaxing ritual in which you eagerly invite and welcome the guidance of your deepest inner source.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

New College in Oxford, U.K. has educated students since 1379. Among its old buildings is a dining hall that features beams made of thick oak trees. Unfortunately, most oak wood eventually attracts beetles that eat it and weaken it. Fortunately, the 14th-century founders of New College foresaw that problem. They planted an oak grove whose trees were specifically meant to be used to replace the oak beams at New College. Which they are to this day. I would love you to derive inspiration from this story, Gemini. What practical long-term plans might you be wise to formulate in the coming months?

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

In the Northern Hemisphere, the astrological month of Cancer begins with the sun in its greatest glory. Our home star is at its highest altitude, shining with maximum brightness. So then why is the sign of the Crab ruled by the moon? Why do the longest days of the year coincide with the ascendancy of the mistress of the night? Ahhh. These are esoteric mysteries beyond the scope of this horoscope. But here’s a hint about what they signify for you personally. One of your assets can also be a liability: your innocent openness to the wonders of life. This quality is at the heart of your beauty but can also, on occasion, make you vulnerable to being overwhelmed. That’s why it’s so important that you master the art of setting boundaries, of honing your focus, of quaffing deeply from a few cups instead of sipping from many cups.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

ICE COLD BEER

IThe coming weeks will be a delicate time for your spiritual unfoldment. You are primed to recover lost powers, rediscover key truths you have forgotten, and reunite with parts of your soul you got cut off from. Will these good possibilities come to pass in their fullness? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how brave you are in seeking your healing. You must ask for what’s hard to ask for. You’ve got to find a way to feel deserving of the beauty

and blessings that are available. P.S.: You ARE deserving. I will be cheering you on, dear Leo.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

Whether or not you have been enrolled in a learning institution during the past 12 months, I suspect you have been getting a rigorous education. Among the courses you have almost completed are lessons in intimacy, cooperation, collaboration, symbiosis, and togetherness. Have you mastered all the teachings? Probably not. There were too many of them, and they were too voluminous to grasp perfectly and completely. But that’s OK. You have done well. Now you’re ready to graduate, collect your diploma, and apply what you have learned.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

History has provided contradictory reports about Isabeau of Bavaria, who served as Queen of France from 1385 to 1422. Was she a corrupt, greedy, and indecisive fool who harmed France’s fortunes? Or was she a talented diplomat with great skill in court politics and an effective leader during the many times her husband, King Charles VI, was incapacitated by illness? I bring these facts to your attention, Libra, hoping they will inspire you to refine, adjust, and firm up your own reputation. You can’t totally control how people perceive you, but you do have some power to shape their perceptions — especially these days.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21: The next four weeks will be an excellent time to create and celebrate your own holidays. I recommend you dream up at least four new festivals, jubilees, anniversaries, and other excuses to party. Eight or more would be even better. They could be quirky and modest, like Do No Housework Day, Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day, or Write Bad Poetry Day. They could be more profound and impactful, like Forgive Your Parents for Everything Day, Walk on the Wild Side Day, or Stay Home from Work Because You’re Feeling So Good Day. In my astrological opinion, Scorpio, you should regard playful fun as a top priority. For more ideas, go here: tinyurl.com/CreateHolidays . . . tinyurl. com/NouveauHolidays . . . tinyurl.com/ InventHolidays.

By Rob Brezsny

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

In Greek mythology, Prometheus was a god who stole fire from his fellow gods and gave it to humans to help them build civilization. His divine colleagues were not pleased. Why? Maybe they feared that with the power of fire, people would become like gods themselves and have no further need for gods. Anyway, Sagittarius, I hope you’re in a fire-stealing mood. It’s a good time to raise your whole world up to a higher level — to track down and acquire prizes that will lead to major enhancements. And unlike what happened to Prometheus (the other gods punished him), I think you will get away with your gambits.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

Let’s discuss magical doorways. Each time you sleep, you slip through magical doorways called dreams. Whether or not you recall those adventures, they offer you interesting mysteries utterly unlike the events of your daily life. Here’s another example: A magical doorway opens when an ally or loved one shares intimate knowledge of their inner realms. Becoming absorbed in books, movies, or songs is also a way to glide through a magical doorway. Another is when you discover an aspect of yourself, a corner of your being, that you didn’t know was there. I bring these thoughts to your attention, Capricorn, because I suspect the coming weeks will present an extra inviting array of magical doorways.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

Psychiatrist Myron Hofer specializes in the mother-infant relationship. Among his findings: The first emotion that a newborn experiences is anxiety. Struggling to get out of the womb can be taxing, and it’s shocking to be separated from the warm, nourishing realm that has been home for months. The bad news is that most of us still carry the imprint of this original unease. The good news, Aquarius, is that the coming months will be one of the best times ever for you to heal. For optimal results, place a high priority on getting an abundance of love, support, comfort, and physical touch.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

Curious blends and intriguing juxtapositions are in the works — or at least they should be. Improbable alliances might be desirable because they’re curative. Formulas with seemingly mismatched ingredients might fix a glitch, even if they never succeeded before and won’t again. I encourage you to synergize work and play. Negotiate serious business in casual settings and make yourself at home in a wild frontier.

Homework: Is there any area of your life where you are not giving your best? How could you improve?

Enjoy the summer solstice and the longer days friends.

They are fleeting, if you’re not hanging out at the Gus as much during these warm sunny days, it’s understood.

We’re here when you need us.

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