Metro Times 08/30/2023

NEWS & VIEWS

Feedback

We received comments in response to Eleanore Catolico’s cover story about the inaugural Hoopfest at Curtis Jones Park in Northwest Goldberg.

I remember Curtis Jones! As a Pershing ’68 grad we watched him with awe (as well as Spencer and Ralph of course). So I was delighted to see the article about the new court and playfield in Northwest Goldberg. But, beyond that I really want to give a shout out to the author Eleanore Catolico for her vivid language and evocation of the event and players there. I hope to see more from her.

—Annette Frank, email

I know this neighborhood. I have roots there.

I wish I had time to attend.

—Ms. Real Marie (@real_marie), Twitter

“In the last 10 years, this is the best move my neighborhood has seen,” Dahviell Richardson says, believing it’s a spark for change. The good kind. “They’re restoring the ‘neighbor’ back to the ‘hood.’” Love this story from @e_catolico!

—Micah Walker (@Micah_walker701), Twitter

Check out @e_catolico latest piece. It’s a great read!!

—Tia Graham (@itstiatime00), Twitter

The fade design on that [cover] is sick.

—Malachi Barrett, @PolarBarrett, Twitter

Comments may be edited for length and clarity: letters@metrotimes.com

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NEWS & VIEWS

Activist files legal challenge to disqualify Trump from 2024 presidential race in state

A prominent citizen activist is filing a legal challenge Monday aimed at disqualifying Donald Trump from the 2024 primary and general election ballots in Michigan, claiming the former president is ineligible to serve another term because he had engaged in an insurrection or rebellion against the U.S. Robert Davis, of Highland Park, is urging Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to declare that under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, Trump is prohibited from appearing on the ballot next year.

The 14th Amendment is a Civil War-era addition to the Constitution. Section 3 of the amendment prevents those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. from holding office.

Davis argues that Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, his repeated attempts to overturn the election, and his continued financial support for people charged in the U.S. Capitol attack amount to engaging in an insurrection or rebellion.

“It is quite clear that not only did he engage in an insurrection, but he also aided and comforted those who either pled guilty or are currently charged

in the insurrection, irrespective of his conduct on Jan. 6 and his attempt to overturn the election in Michigan and elsewhere,” Davis tells Metro Times

In the challenge, Davis points out that Trump attended a fundraising dinner for Jan. 6 defendants at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club this month.

“Trump’s financial support of those individuals criminally charged in the January 6, 2023, attack on the U.S. Capitol is further evidence of Trump’s ‘aid’ and ‘comfort’ of individuals who have been deemed ‘enemies’ of the United States,” Davis wrote.

Davis’s request is one of the first in the U.S. to challenge the legality of Trump’s 2024 campaign. On Thursday, a tax attorney in Palm Beach County filed a challenge in Florida, also arguing that the 14th Amendment prevents Trump from running.

Legal scholars, including some conservative attorneys, have argued that the 14th Amendment would disqualify Trump from running for another term. In Davis’s challenge, he points to a forthcoming University of Pennsylvania Law Review article by two members of the conservative Federalist Society, William Baude and Michael Stokes,

who concluded that the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running.

“If the public record is accurate, the case is not even close. He is no longer eligible to the office of Presidency,” the article states.

In an Aug. 19 article in The Atlantic, J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals, and Laurence Tribe, a liberal law professor, endorsed the position advanced by Baude and Paulsen, saying Trump’s attempts to overturn the election “place him squarely within the ambit of the disqualification clause.”

“The disqualification clause operates independently of any such criminal proceedings and, indeed, also independently of impeachment proceedings and of congressional legislation,” they wrote. “The clause was designed to operate directly and immediately upon those who betray their oaths to the Constitution, whether by taking up arms to overturn our government or by waging war on our government by attempting to overturn a presidential election through a bloodless coup.”

Citing the 14th Amendment, a federal judge in New Mexico prevented Otero County Commission and “Cowboys

for Trump” founder Couy Griffin from serving last year after he was convicted of a misdemeanor for his role in the Jan. 6 riot. The judge described the events of Jan. 6 as an “insurrection.”

Last month, a grand jury in Georgia indicted Trump for his alleged efforts to overturn the election.

Davis says Benson “now has a legal obligation to address the merits” of his challenge so that there “is ample time for these questions to be adjudicated through the court.”

“It’s an important legal question on both sides that needs to be addressed promptly so it won’t cast a dark cloud over the presidential primaries and the subsequent election in November 2024,” Davis says. “This needs to be resolved quickly and promptly.”

Davis is asking Benson to make a decision within 14 days.

Davis was the only citizen permitted to intervene in a federal case that sought to impose sanctions against a team of lawyers who tried to overturn the 2020 election in Michigan. The case was successful, leading to a judge slapping the pro-Trump lawyers with sanctions in August 2021.

—Steve Neavling

Then-President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Battle Creek in 2019.

SHUTTERSTOCK

Muralist

pays

colorful tribute to wildlife along Dequindre Cut

A muralist and outdoor enthusiast is transforming a cement wall along Detroit’s Dequindre Cut into a colorful homage to wildlife that is native to Michigan.

The mural by Ed Irmen will feature eight different species on a wall that was part of the support structure for the former Grand Trump Railroad line near the intersection of Lafayette and St. Aubin streets. The old railroad line has since been transformed into a greenway for bicyclists and pedestrians.

So far, Irmen has painted a colorful sturgeon and porcupine. He also plans to add a pheasant and monarch butterflies.

The final four species will be revealed at the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy’s (DRFC) annual Detroit Harvest Fest and Food Truck Rally on the Dequindre Cut from Oct. 7-8.

At the conclusion of the festival, attendees will have an opportunity to add their personal touch to the white frames around the paintings of each species to illustrate their connection to wildlife, conservation, and the outdoors.

The mural was commissioned by

DRFC and the Michigan Wildlife Council.

Irmen is known for his artwork depicting birds and other species.

“Ed Irmen’s art illustrates the beauty that lies in the balance when we protect the natural world and provide opportunities for outdoor recreation by connecting with nature to promote physical and mental well-being,” said Rachel Frierson, senior director of programs and space for the DRFC. She called the

project a “perfect pairing of riverfront connectivity and conservation consciousness.”

Nick Buggia, chairman of the Michigan Wildlife Council, said the partnership with the DRFC “unites the mutual goals of our two organizations to increase awareness of the important work being done to preserve and enhance outdoor space.”

“Wildlife management plays a critical role in Michigan and the mural will

remind those enjoying the natural beauty along the Detroit Riverfront of the collaborative effort it takes to protect wildlife and preserve our out-of-doors space,” Buggia said.

The MWC is a governor-appointed public body created in 2013 to educate the public on the importance of wildlife management. The DRFC was created in 2003 to develop public access and recreational space along Detroit’s riverfront.

—Steve Neavling

EMS had difficulty accessing ‘extremely overcrowded’ Moneybagg Yo concert, causing it to end early

A Sunday, Aug. 20 performance by Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo at Detroit’s Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre was cut short after an emergency medical response crew was temporarily blocked by the crowd from treating someone having an emergency, the city’s fire marshal tells Metro Times — raising questions as to how the show apparently became over capacity.

“It was absolutely oversold, would be my viewpoint of it,” says fire marshal Donald L. Thomas of the City of Detroit Fire Department.

Thomas says that his department became involved after it received a call from the Detroit Police Department saying that the event was “extremely overcrowded” and that gates at the venue were locked, preventing EMS from treating someone who was having a medical emergency.

“At the time in which we arrived, there were an additional 200 people on

the outside of the gates at this ticketed event waiting to get in,” Thomas says. “So at the time in which we entered, it was extremely overcrowded, it was standing room only in a facility that’s basically fixed seating.”

He adds, “Additionally, the crowd was very rowdy, boisterous. We called for additional police units to assist us with crowd management and crowd control, and at that time, the office made a determination to close the event due to overcrowding.”

Ultimately, the emergency crew gained entry, and the person was treated and transported, Thomas says.

The outdoor riverfront music venue has a capacity of about 6,000, with a majority of the tickets seated.

“There were an additional 200 people on the outside trying to get in and complaining that they paid for tickets, they paid for the event, so they should be allowed in,” Thomas says. “So I would definitely have to say that that is what

happened,” he says, referring to the event being oversold.

Reached for comment, the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre says that the event was a rental organized by a group called IBGM Entertainment. But it’s unclear how it became oversold, because ticket sales are facilitated through Ticketmaster, which should limit the number of tickets sold, the venue says.

“The event was not oversold through Ticketmaster, which is the only ticketing system for the venue,” the venue says. “Those who rent the venue for paid admission events are required to put their tickets on sale through the Ticketmaster system only. Anything outside of that is violation of their contract with the venue.”

Metro Times could not reach IBGM Entertainment for comment.

Regarding the locked gates, the venue says, “the gates were closed to prevent unauthorized and [unticketed]

attendees from entering the venue. The gates were re-opened when order was restored.”

The venue adds, “We understand the focus on Sunday’s incident, last week, however, the broader picture includes Jeezy‘s book signing, The Sound Mind, Sound Body 1000 girl’s cheerleading competition, PJ Morton and Frankie Beverly’s sold out show, all within just the last week, with rave reviews. We’ve had over 40 shows this summer, with several being sold out, all without issue. It is always our goal to ensure our guest’s safety, while also providing exceptional events and stellar service.”

The live music industry has faced increased pressure to improve safety conditions following the tragedy at rapper Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival in Houston, in which 10 people died and at least 25 people were hospitalized after a massive crowd crush occurred during his performance.

—Lee DeVito

Ed Irmen is painting this mural along the Dequindre Cut.

STEVE NEAVLING

DTE’s Fermi 2 nuclear power plant shut down after leak detected

DTE Energy shut down its Fermi 2 nuclear plant in Monroe County earlier this month after a leak was detected in the drywell area that surrounds the reactor about 30 miles south of Detroit.

The public is not in danger, and the plant is in “safe, stable condition,” DTE spokesman Stephen R. Tait tells Metro Times

The plant was shut down on Sunday, Aug. 20 and will remain shut down until repairs are complete.

At 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 19, a

sensor detected the leakage of reactor coolant, according to a notice filed by DTE Energy with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The utility notified NRC at 6:30 p.m.

Shutdowns are required when there is pressure boundary leakage.

“As our notification to the NRC stated, this is a non-emergency event,” Tait says. “Our monitoring equipment and indicators worked as they should to inform operators of the situation; our operators followed the proper procedures and the plant performed as

expected during the shutdown.”

DTE workers discovered the leak was coming from a three-quarter-inch pipe, which is being repaired, Tait says.

“As always, our top priority remains the health and safety of the public,” Tait says.

About one-fifth of DTE’s power comes from the plant, which produces electricity by boiling water from hot nuclear reactions to create steam that drives turbines connected to generators. The electricity is channeled into DTE’s power grid, generating enough

power for one million homes and businesses.

In 2018, Fermi 2 was shut down after a valve issue was discovered.

In 1966, a partial meltdown occurred at Fermi 1, and it was the worst nuclear accident at a U.S. commercial power plant in the years before Three Mile Island’s mishap. Fermi 1 was decommissioned and is no longer in use.

The emergency inspired the song, “We Almost Lost Detroit,” by the late Gil Scott Heron.

—Steve Neavling

Opinion: Michigan must push back on warrantless drone surveillance

Michigan homeowner

Todd Maxon had questions when he noticed a drone hovering above his property on May 5, 2018. So he followed the aircraft to a nearby baseball field and found its owner.

The man working the controls refused to show his operator’s license, but Maxon learned what was going on when his local government sued him for alleged zoning violations. Officials in Long Lake Township, Michigan, had hired a drone company to surveil Maxon’s five-acre lot without his knowledge or consent.

The intrusion was part of a prolonged search involving three covert missions over a span of several months, starting in 2017. No part of Maxon’s property was off limits. Flying as low as the treetops, the drone photographed Maxon’s driveway, garage, backyard, and surrounding areas.

If anyone had been sunbathing, the drone would have captured that too. But the focus of the search was something else. Maxon fixes automobiles as a hobby, and zoning officials have tried for years to tag him as a nuisance. They thought they had him in 2007, when they accused him of running an illegal salvage yard. But their case fizzled, and the township paid Maxon’s attorneys’ fees.

What followed was a 15-year grudge. Unable to let go, the zoning police monitored Maxon’s property, waiting for any opportunity to pin some violation on his home. Trees and buildings obstructed their view, so they hatched the plan to watch from the sky.

The problem is they never obtained a warrant.

In their zeal to punish a backyard tinkerer, they trampled on the Fourth

Amendment, which guarantees “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.”

Maxon responded with a motion to suppress the drone footage. His case is strong. The warrantless snooping was intentional, repeated, and invasive — three strikes against the township. But the Michigan Court of Appeals set aside these concerns in 2022, holding in a 2-1 decision that zoning officials can violate the Fourth Amendment and still use the evidence they collect for civil enforcement. Under this interpretation of the Constitution, citizens are only secure from government overreach in criminal matters.

If the ruling stands, overzealous code enforcers could target any Michigan home for intrusive surveillance without probable cause or judicial signoff.

Maxon has a chance to restore balance at the Michigan Supreme Court, which has agreed to hear his case. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents him as part of our commitment to protecting Fourth Amendment rights.

The challenge increases as technology advances, creating new opportunities for the government to pry. Zoning officials in Humboldt County, California, have used satellite images from space to issue civil citations without ever making on-site inspections. Agencies elsewhere have used airplanes flying at 1,000 feet and helicopters flying at 400 feet to collect evidence. Now drones are hovering below 200 feet.

Height is only one issue. Drones not only fly lower than traditional aircraft, but quieter and stealthier. And they can carry advanced technology like

infrared cameras, heat sensors, motion detectors, and automated license plate readers. Whether using this technology for surveillance of homes requires a warrant remains up in the air, and the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision will set the early standard nationwide.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also weighed in, setting boundaries in 2001 after federal agents pointed a thermalimaging device at a suspected drug house in Oregon. But that case was a criminal matter. If courts carve out an exception for civil investigations, code enforcers could flaunt the Constitution’s protections.

Game and fish wardens already show what can happen. Many states allow these officers to conduct warrantless searches on private land away from the “curtilage,” the area immediately sur-

rounding a dwelling. Using this Fourth Amendment loophole, wardens have snuck past “no trespassing” signs and hidden spy cameras in the trees. The Institute for Justice has challenged this practice in Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

Drone technology could allow further intrusions into the places where people live and work. If code enforcers got caught, they would have a ready excuse. “Don’t worry,” they could say. “We’re just looking for civil violations.”

This would hardly be reassuring. The Fourth Amendment demands better.

—Michael

Greenberg and Daryl James

Michael Greenberg is an attorney and Daryl James is a writer at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Virginia.

Lapointe

Like Donald Trump, Jim Harbaugh just might beat the rap

In some ways, the circumstances of Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh resemble those of former President Donald Trump.

Both leaders are dancing one step ahead of the law in their current professions. Both hope to defy their respective authorities long enough to attain the greatest achievements of their checkered careers.

For Trump, that would mean a third Republican presidential nomination and second election to the White House, where he tainted and abused the United States of America for four tumultuous years.

Should he win, Trump could pardon himself and his cronies or throw sand in the gears of four felony indictments in four venues, including his attempt to illegally overthrow the 2020 election of President Joe Biden.

For Harbaugh, success would mean another victory over Ohio State, another Big Ten title, and — perhaps — his first national championship with the best team he has built in his nine tumultuous seasons.

Such success for Harbaugh would help his superiors and supporters overlook a few things like:

How one of his players got arrested with an illegal gun last season;

By Joe Lapointe

And that other player who had to apologize for his anti-Semitic social media post;

And how Harbaugh annually jobshops in the National Football League while making his bosses look meek and weak;

And how that assistant coach for Harbaugh got fired for snooping in the athletic department computers;

And the unfortunate dismissal of Bo Schembechler’s son as assistant recruiting director due to posts that “Schemy” passed on about slavery and Jim Crow being good for Black people.

But even an undefeated season would not make the National Collegiate Athletic Association ignore the accusation against Harbaugh, that he failed to be “forthcoming” when the NCAA investigated alleged recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That is a polite way to say he lied. In NCAA law, the recruiting violations would be misdemeanors, but the failure to be honest would be a felony.

As with Trump, Harbaugh may soon relearn Richard Nixon’s lesson in Watergate: The cover-up may be worse than the crime. In the meantime, the debate rages in the churning kingdom of college football over the imperiousness of the NCAA and the arrogance of

Michigan.

“It’s really been a disaster on both sides,” said Paul Finebaum, an ESPN commentator.

With the curious exception of the Detroit newspaper sports sections, Harbaugh’s discipline has been a major topic of opinionated commentary this month in American sports media.

“Michigan is a polarizing program,” wrote Austin Meek in The Athletic, “with a polarizing coach.”

The coach and his school thought they had a plea deal for a four-game suspension (game-days only) at the start of the approaching season against weak foes. (After this column was filed, Michigan suspended Harbaugh for three games.)

But the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions rejected the bargain with spite, and alluded to how Michigan fans and apologists have ridiculed this investigation by saying it is merely about the purchase of cheeseburgers for recruits.

“The Michigan infractions case is related to impermissible on- and offcampus recruiting during the COVID-19 dead period — not a cheeseburger,” the statement said.

Harbaugh’s lawyer, Tom Mars of Arkansas, complained that NCAA

investigations are supposed to be discreet. “Yet the NCAA can issue a public statement putting spin on the case?” Mars said. “Unreal.”

Harbaugh, at a league media event, would say only that he has “nothing to be ashamed of.” Last month, when it appeared that Harbaugh would accept a four-game suspension, Ari Wasserman in The Athletic called it “A glorified slap on the wrist . . . The penalty is a joke because the crime was a joke.”

Now that the equation has changed, Dan Wetzel wrote in Yahoo! Sports that Harbaugh would face a rigged trial.

“A kangaroo court, meanwhile, is a kangaroo court,” he wrote, “and the NCAA has signaled, quite publicly, that a kangaroo court is exactly what awaits [Harbaugh].”

Even if that is true, this amounts to a win-win for Harbaugh.

If his case takes a year to be decided, he can coach the entire season and, if successful, shop himself again around the NFL. Any severe penalties would land in the laps of athletic director Warde Manuel and school president Santa Ono.

And both of them must deal with football issues beyond their head coach. By adding Oregon and Washington to its capture of USC and UCLA, the “Ten” will soon become an 18-team league, at least until it expands to Europe and Asia.

This coincides with a major disruption in television money as customers and marketing shifts from cable bundles to streaming apps. While schools form new alliances to grab for this money, some players now get their share of it through payment rights for use of their name, image, and likeness.

Moreover, recruits who don’t feel treated right can enter a transfer portal and find another school and play right away, something they couldn’t do in Harbaugh’s years as Wolverines’ quarterback.

The backdrop lurking to all this current turmoil is the relatively new industry of legalized gambling, a pursuit that tends to attract cocky young men who love sports. That demographic includes college athletes.

How long before greed seeps deeply into the very marrow of games played by student-athletes?

Harbaugh’s mess is a matter that will hurt his school more than it will hurt him. Whatever penalties are assessed — sooner or later — will quickly be overcome.

Remember the stink around the “Fab Five” of U-M basketball in the 1990s? That was worse and Michigan basketball survived the Fab Five. To put it in quarterback terms, this, too, shall pass.

The Michigan football coach could enjoy a win-win.

MAIZE & BLUE NATION, WIKIMEDIA CREATIVE COMMONS

Red Bull Unlocked transformed Detroit’s Russell Industrial Center into a cultural playground

By Metro Times Promotions

WARNING: READING BEYOND this point may result in severe FOMO and/or the desire to craft a time machine so that you can snag a ticket to what was the hottest Detroit event of the summer because if you weren’t there, well, you did, in fact, miss out, like, on a lot

Like most cities in the summer, Detroit comes alive with dancing, late nights, good eats, lots of beats, and so much to see. Unlike other cities, however, Detroit is in a league of its own from its bar and club scene, to the tenacious art communities that keep the Motor City looking its best, to the creative and resilient people that occupy it. In other words, Detroit is a cultural playground and, on August 11, longtime champions of Detroit, Red Bull came to play.

Red Bull Unlocked transformed the city’s hulking, multi-use creative hub, the Russell Industrial Center, into an immersive and expertly curated Choose-YourOwn-Adventure style event that had an estimated 3,000 people raging into the morning hours and buzzing from the good vibes

for days after.

The event, which was for the 21+ crowd, embraced the eclecticism of Detroit’s art scene and incorporated interactive art experiences and installations at every turn, all of which made for Instagram-worthy backdrops and tapped some of the city’s favorite artists to make the atmosphere come alive.

At the heart of the event, and in true Detroit fashion, was, of course, music. Unlocked saw electrifying performances by internationally renowned and locally loved DJs and emcees including Sky Jetta, SamBeYourself, Chase B, Soulection’s Andre Power, and headlining duo, the Knocks who closed out the night with an explosive, upbeat, and summerfield set.

Perhaps the most unique offerings was the physical and immersive recreations of some of the city’s most diverse bars and clubs’ brick and mortar locations, including Deluxx Fluxx, Apartment Disco, Mutiny Bar, Second Best, and Old Miami, as well as experiences

by Detroit’s most skilled party purveyors like Paxahau and Haute to Death. Whether you’re already in the in-crowd and visit these spots regularly or you’re someone who has yet to check off “singing karaoke at Detroit’s only tiki bar” off your summer bucket list, Red Bull Unlocked provided an opportunity to experience the best of the best, under one roof, for one dynamic and Red Bull-fueled night, karaoke included, without having to leave the building.

“An unbelievable undertaking that was executed beyond my wildest expectations,” John Kwiatkowski, owner of Mutiny Bar said of Red Bull Unlocked. “Best party I’ve been to all year. The Red Bull team was effective and professional. Never have I seen such a large hat pulled out of such a small rabbit, metaphorically speaking, of course.”

For those who prefer making long-lasting and rather permanent memories, Black-owned traveling tattoo shop Ladies of the Ink were in the house and serving up ink-craving attendees — who

don’t mind a crowd of onlookers — with a variety of fun flash tats, some of which were Motor City-themed because when in Rome, er, Detroit one must consider getting a Detroit-style slice of pizza on their bicep because it is the superior pizza and everyone should know that (sorry, not sorry.) For those who may have needed a fresh fade or wanted to change up their look, the stylists from Ferndale’s HareCutz Barbershop were on deck giving people selfie-ready summer styles to slay the party and beyond.

What would a party be without libations? Because Red Bull Unlocked had the drink situation, well, on lock with their Red Bull-focused concoctions, some of which were served in glowing cups to up the ante on the surreal party atmosphere. And what would libations be without some classic Detroit fare to soak it up? In what can only be described as a food flash mob, the folks at Leo’s Coney Island made several appearances throughout the evening, waving flashing batons and signs, offering up trays upon trays of hot dogs and gyros for the taking, er, eating. Unlike other sprawling festival-style events, you didn’t have to find food, it found you and that detail is testament to how much thought went into pulling off what will go down as the hottest event of the summer. n

PHOTO COURTESY OF RED BULL UNLOCKED

Our 2023 fall festival guide

BY PETER WERBE

Even though there’s weeks left of summer, a Michigan winter lies ahead. The only thing that makes the dark, dull, slate-gray days at the end of the year tolerable is the holidays in those months. But, we all treasure our time off in any season.

Think of WRIF’s former afternoon DJ, Arthur Penhallow, leaving the airwaves on Fridays at 6 p.m. bellowing, “It’s the WEEKEND!” Or, Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend,” and the O’Jays’ “Living for the Weekend.”

The message from these cultural tropes is that we work too damn much, even if we like our jobs.

Americans are at work longer hours than any other Western industrial country. Adults working full time clock an average of 47 hours a week — and that’s an average! Whatever happened to the 8-hour day?

In the 1950s, a UAW caucus advocated a “30 for 40” work week from the thenBig 3 — 30 hours’ work for 40 hours’ pay. But in too many workplaces today we’ve gone in the opposite direction.

Working longer hours for less pay is the equation for enriching the 1%, and it’s been amazingly successful. For them. Not so much for us, though. We would like to spend less time at our desks, at a counter, or in front of a machine, and more at leisure and things we want to do!

Even 30 hours at labor would seem onerous to the pre-industrial people who lived here previously on the land our forebears seized. University of Michigan anthropologist Marshall Sahlins wrote in his classic, Stone Age Economics, that hunter-gatherer bands labored very little to sustain themselves to the extent that priests who accompanied the first European invaders were dismayed by how little tribal people worked and spent so much time lazing about.

Most of us aren’t ready for a return to tribal ways, so at least let’s see if we can

get a little more time off by agitating for more holidays!

There are plenty of days that need official recognition (and a few that should be retired), so here’s a monthby-month list which creates some new ones for time off with pay.

In January, New Year’s Day, and the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the third Monday of the year are definite keepers. The King celebration may be the most important holiday in contemporary America.

President’s Day, the third Monday in February, has got to go. Really, Republicans, do you want to celebrate Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden? And Democrats certainly don’t want to honor Richard Nixon, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. The first 15 presidents were slave owners. All of them since have been responsible for so many misdeeds — including theft of native land, lies about wars and suppression of civil liberties and civil rights — that we ought to forget about this one and replace it with a People’s Day. Celebrate ourselves, our diversity, and our communities.

Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, a tribute to love and romance — this needs to be an all-day holiday for re-invigorating our relationships and finding new ones. The 3rd century Bishop Valentine helped Christian couples wed and for his efforts was beheaded by the pagan Roman emperor Claudius II. Maybe this is where the expression “losing your head” over a romantic interest came from.

International Women’s Day, March 8; given world-wide recognition in 1975 by the United Nations, this celebration of the role of women was declared at a 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen. Women, who are paid less than men and often do double work on the job and at home, need a day off with pay!

Our 2023 fall festival guide

Spring Equinox, March 20. The date when the day and night are of equal length. Celebrated in many cultures as a day of renewal and rebirth.

Tax Day, April 15. A day off to reflect on where our tax dollars are going. A huge transfer of wealth occurs by taxing our incomes which the government turns over to Military-Industrial Complex corporations. For our generous contribution to the war industry’s bottom line, we deserve at least one day off.

Earth Day, April 22. A day on which we ponder what is happening to our planet and that everything bad that Chicken Little predicted is coming true. The sky is really going to fall unless we do something quickly. Also, on the happier side, celebrate what is left of the beauty of the Earth.

May Day/Beltane, May 1. This is both the date of the original Labor Day (the U.S. put ours in September to

avoid international worker solidarity), and an important pagan holiday of May Poles and fertility rites. Linked together they are the ideal holiday which needs the entire day to consider serious labor issues followed by pagan revelry.

Cinco de Mayo, May 5. Annual celebration to commemorate the Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire in 1862. A significant triumph over imperialism which also can be used to acknowledge that the U.S. ripped off the entire northern half of Mexico. People were understandably upset over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which is about 10,000 square miles. Arizona alone, part of the U.S. conquest, is over 100,000. Let’s treat ourselves to tacos and margaritas, but remembering that to Mexicans, this was land theft of enormous proportions.

Mother’s Day: Move to the second Monday in May so our moms get the

day off. The origins of the holiday go back to 1870 when Julia Ward Howe, an abolitionist who wrote “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” wanted to establish a Mother’s Peace Day. Howe dedicated the celebration to the eradication of war. Later, it became a sappy Hallmark card day, but still, mom always deserves to be celebrated.

Memorial Day, last Monday of May. Combine with Veterans Day. No disrespect to veterans, but two holidays devoted to wars that mostly shouldn’t have been fought doesn’t seem appropriate. For all their sacrifices, the men who fell in American conflicts mostly gave their lives in wars based on outright lies such as the ones in Vietnam and Iraq. And, really, can very many people conjure up why the U.S. fought the War of 1812, the Spanish-American War? How about World War I?

Father’s Day: Move to third Monday

in June. Let’s honor dad by giving him the day off.

Juneteenth, June 19, also known as Freedom Day, commemorates the June 19, 1865 announcement of the final abolition of slavery in the U.S. at the end of the Civil War. It became a federal holiday in 2021. It is considered an African-Americans holiday, but it should be one we all take part in since it marked the end of a hideous institution, one that enslaved millions of people and was defended tenaciously by the Southern states leaving threequarters of a million Americans dead.

Summer Solstice, June 21. The pagan holiday, Litha, celebrates the longest day of the year and is the first day of everyone’s favorite season. We should have the whole day to do what we please.

Independence Day, July 4. Can’t touch this one, but we should remem-

the return Of BlKOut Walls

When Detroit painter Sydney G. James first launched the BLKOUT Walls mural festival in 2021, people weren’t quite sure what to expect.

Many Detroiters were likely familiar with James’s work, including her popular “Girl with the D Earring” mural on the Chroma building, but she was planning to bring an entire festival of mostly painters of color to decorate the nearby North End neighborhood. Securing funding and walls for the artists to paint was like pulling teeth, she remembers.

But after James and the crew of artists completed their murals — a tribute to the late J Dilla’s Donuts, Black women with the entire universe in their fros included — the city knew it had something undeniably remarkable on its hands. We waited with bated breath for BLKOUT Walls festival to return to the streets of the city, and two years later, James is ready to do it again.

BLKOUT Walls is set for Sept. 7-17, where you’ll be able to watch muralists

BY RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

paint their pieces live. Seeing how the murals take shape day to day is half of what makes it fun to watch. Artist talks are scheduled throughout the ten-day festival and the whole thing ends with a huge block party at Chroma.

For its second installment, BLKOUT Walls has gone international as it welcomes Jamaican artist Taj Francis and Mohammed Awudu from Ghana.

They’re joined by Sheefy McFly, Miah the Creator, Jason Garcia, Bakpak Durden, Habacuc S. Bessiake, Birdcap, Cailyn Dawson, and Darius Baber, among others.

The second installment of BLKOUT Walls was supposed to be held in Oakland, California in September of 2022, but James says the funding fell through. This time around, back home in Detroit, money and resources weren’t a problem, as James had already proven what she was capable of curating. Now she counts the Kresge Foundation, the City of Detroit’s City Walls program, and the Knight Foundation as sponsors.

“We showed out, honey,” she says of

the 2021 festival. “Now people see what we did and they’re coming to me with money. And not just money, they’re asking ‘How can I support you?’ … The first festival did so well that business owners came to us this time to loan out their walls. I feel like we created something special and the community is really excited.”

As James was finishing one of several of the pieces she did during the 2021 festival, she says the owner of the Turkey Grill approached her and offered his business as a site for a future mural. So this year, James will be painting it in collaboration with fellow Detroit artist, and one of James’s many mentees, Ijania Cortez.

The pair started painting their wall on the longtime turkey-themed takeout spot and plans to wrap it up before the festival starts so James can be free to help the other artists as needed.

While the first BLKOUT Walls was confined to the North End area, this year’s imprint will stretch along Woodward Avenue from Midtown to

Highland Park. Artists will paint the M-1 Rail Penske Tech Center (where the QLine starts before Grand Boulevard), a DTE substation, and several businesses like the New Center Supermarket at the corner of Woodward and Seward.

James created the festival after being frustrated with the lack of Black representation in other festivals like Murals in the Market (now Murals in Islandview) in which she participated for several years, often as the only Black woman in the lineup, she says.

“Public art is a two-way conversation,” she says. “Whether you think it or not, you are being a servant to the community when you put anything in the public. When you go into a gallery or museum, that’s your choice, whereas [with] street art, your audience is whoever lives in the area and whoever’s visiting the area. The reality of Detroit is, it’s 85% Black… it’s a true disservice to the community and city when you just do a takeover and there’s no conversation or nothing reflective of anything culturally relevant that the people who

Sydney G. James’s Black-led mural festival has its second go with international artists. But these painters of color aren’t ‘marginalized’ — they’re resilient

Our 2023 fall festival guide

ber that one of the colonists’ complaint against King George was that he wouldn’t allow further expansion into Native people’s land. Also, that the Southern states signed onto independence almost solely because they feared England was going to abolish slavery. “In order to form a more perfect union,” the South insisted that slavery be enshrined in the U.S. Constitution in three places, which guaranteed them national political dominance until the Civil War.

We need at least one more holiday in July. International Kissing Day? Tell the Truth Day?

The dog days of summer are in August, so there’s nothing specific to celebrate. This month should be designated as when all workers get at least two weeks paid vacation.

Hiroshima Day; Aug. 6. A day of grim commemoration of the destruction of a civilian city at the moment

actually live there care about.”

More than just representation, James says she’s most excited for the opportunities that BLKOUT Walls creates for emerging artists to grow. For many younger artists participating, BLKOUT Walls may be the first time they’ve painted a mural.

“All most of us need is just opportunity and street art is one of the best art schools I’ve ever attended,” James says. “You get to learn. People share their techniques. If they see that you can do something better, they’re gonna offer it to you in a loving way, and they’re gone show you [how]. They’re not just gone say, ‘Ew, that’s ugly.’ They’ll be like, ‘If you hit the [spray paint] can at this angle you might be able to see what you need better.’ To be able to share that with younger artists is a blessing.”

Habacuc S. Bessiake is one of those young artists James is talking about. Bessiake painted his first-ever solo mural at the first BLKOUT Walls, even though he didn’t originally plan on participating. At the time, he had graduated from the College of Creative Studies three months prior, and had just met James earlier that summer. He had been painting group murals since he was in high school and James was impressed with his sketchbook.

When he came to the festival to see James in action, she told him to find Joe Cazeno (aka Cashiesh), who was painting a piece on Oakland Avenue, to see if there was any wallspace open.

“I went and showed him my sketchbook and he was like, ‘Oh, you’re dope!’” Bessiake remembers. “The next day I got a text from Sydney like, this is

Japan was about to surrender. It had no real military necessity, but rather was a notice to the Soviet Union that not only did the U.S. possess a terrible weapon, but was willing to use it. It will be a good time to consider that we and other countries still face nuclear destruction from possession of these insane weapons. I don’t want to ruin your day, but the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight.

Labor Day, first Monday in September. Yes, working people deserve two holidays to celebrate their labor.

International Peace Day; Sept. 21/ Fall equinox. ‘Nuff said.

Columbus Day, Oct. 12. This one has definitely got to go! By 1492, Europeans had ruined their continent with wars, environmental destruction, religious insanity, and was on the verge of social and economic collapse when they burst

beyond their geography and began looting what was, to them, a new world. On his first day on Hispaniola, Columbus wrote in his diary about the Arawak people who had welcomed him and his crew, “They will make fine servants.” The rest is well known; slavery, ethnic cleansing, and finally, genocide. New holiday in its place: Indigenous People’s Day.

Halloween, Oct. 31. We need the whole day for costuming and revelry. Come as your fantasy, but white people: no blackface or sombreros and mustaches or the like. Confused as to what is cool to wear? Google “Halloween: what not to wear.”

Veterans Day; Nov. 11 – gone. See Memorial Day. This originally was Armistice Day, marking the end of the World War I carnage.

Thanksgiving Day: This celebration has the same problems as Columbus Day, but like Christmas, its original

meaning is pretty much lost and is mostly a family event, so it stays.

Christmas/Winter Solstice, Dec. 25 So much of the Christmas stuff was taken from the pagan recognition of the Solstice marking the returning of the light, and its religious element is so minimized, that it is now a festival of gift giving, family, and feasting. So, it stays.

We really deserve a lot more days off than chronicled above, but let’s start with these and make them a reality. Let them all be marked by processions, festivals, dancing in the streets, and feasts. Workers of the world, relax!

Peter Werbe is the author of Summer on Fire: A Detroit Novel and Eat the Rich and Other Interesting Ideas. He lives in the Detroit area and is a member of the Fifth Estate editorial board. His website is peterwerbe.com.

your wall.”

Bessiake painted “A Leap of Faith” of a character that looks very much like himself jumping through the air at 7615 Oakland Ave.

“It felt like a time where I was making a big leap of faith to do the mural and to be a part of the whole of the festival,” he says, reflecting. “In 2021, I was at a point where I did not know exactly what I was going to do. I [studied] illustration, so I was supposed to be a children’s book illustrator.”

And yet, here he is painting murals.

Bessiake’s work tends to have a childlike air with a sense of play, which he will be bringing to this year’s festival as well. BLKOUT Walls’ theme for 2023 is “resilience” so Bessiake is painting the city of Detroit as a bounce house on the M-1 Rail center.

“It’s gonna be literally, children bouncing off of the city, kind of around the concept of bouncing back,” he says. “With my work I’m trying to push joy, prosperity, but also growth… The city is definitely bouncing back from some kind of reset.”

Bakpak Durden, who is also participating in the festival for the second time, wouldn’t tell us exactly what they plan on painting this year, and would only say it’s something they could only do for BLKOUT Walls.

“This design that I’m conceptualizing, I’ve been thinking about it for years,” they say. “This is one of those festivals where you have free artistic reign. A lot of commissions, you’re working off what their vision is of what they want on the wall. That’s probably one of the best benefits of the festival

The BLKOUT Walls mural festival first launched in 2021.

LAMAR LANDERS

Our 2023 fall festival guide

is that you get paid to paint what you want.”

Durden, a close friend and another artist who James has taken under her wing, has also participated in Murals in the Market and painted several pieces around the Detroit area. What sets BLKOUT Walls apart, they say, is that it’s not only Black-led, but women-led.

“It’s very maternal,” they say. “There’s a consideration and there’s compassion integrated into the programming. It’s coming from a place of access, and making sure that everyone is living their best life, everyone can shine, and that it’s gonna be fun… We as artists, are more likely to [want to] participate in something that we feel cared for within and throughout.”

Their piece this year will be at 12521 Woodward Ave. in Highland Park.

Sheefy McFly is participating in both BLKOUT Walls and Murals in Islandview, helmed by 1XRUN this year, which announced it will pay all participating artists for the first time this year. He chimes in that both festivals are working to beautify Detroit from differ-

ent perspectives.

“Sydney’s a painter so she’s thinking from both an artist and a Black Detroiter’s aspect to show that this is a career for us and we’re speaking to our own people as the blackest city in America,” he says. “Murals in Islandview has all Detroit artists on this one. It’s evolved to a place where they can really do something cool. I got love for Sydney James and I got love for 1XRUN.”

McFly will paint a shipping container outside of Chroma.

He adds, “Sydney the G.O.A.T. She really the only artist that learned how to do this around the world and brought it back to Detroit by creating her own festival.”

Always one to extend the olive branch to her fellow artists, James again emphasizes that the festival’s goal is not to make herself the center of attention, though there’s little that can stop her starpower from shining. It’s to give young artists of color opportunities they haven’t been getting until now.

“Mind you, Ijania and Bakpak, their first [mural] was in 2018 and look how

far they’ve come,” James says. “If I can plant even these tiny seeds and watch them blossom, that feels good.”

Even though BLKOUT Walls is a festival featuring mostly painters of color, James says she hesitates to use the word “marginalized” when referring to these artists. Instead, she refers to them as “resilient.”

“Are there attempts to marginalize me? Sure. But they don’t matter because we go around them,” she says. “You don’t have to describe me as marginalized. I went to [a] whole ass art school, and whatever I get, I give away. Even the people around me that you’re trying to marginalize aren’t marginalized because I give them access if I’m able to do so. So resilient is something that we are because we have to be. Now, I’m tired of working out of resilience, but maybe the more we do this, the less we have to work out of resilience.”

She adds, “I feel like a Detroit characteristic is to prove people wrong. Like, alright fuck it, I’ll go around you and Imma do it anyway.”

For more information on the 2023 festival, see blkoutwalls.com.

BLKOUT Walls Schedule

TUESDAY, SEPT. 12

Artist Talk:

Future of Street Art

7 p.m.; Chroma, Chroma, 2937 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 13

Artist Talk:

Women on the Walls

7 p.m.; Chroma, 2937 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit

THURSDAY, SEPT. 14

Artist Talk: The Business of Art

7 p.m.; Chroma, 2937 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit

SATURDAY, SEPT. 16

BLKOUT Block Party

Live DJs, vendors, food trucks, meet and greet with the artists

11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Chroma, 2937 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit

arts, Beats & Weed

BY STEVE NEAVLING

The Soaring Eagle Arts, Beats & Eats festival is catapulting public cannabis consumption to a new level by offering an exclusive area to buy and smoke marijuana over Labor Day weekend, making it the largest event to do so in Michigan.

The four-day festival, which begins Friday, Sept. 1, usually attracts about 350,000 people to downtown Royal Oak for art, music, and food.

The designated space will feature a lounge area with sofas, music, ambient lighting, LED clouds, fog, glow sticks, ventilation fans, and expert jointrollers, and as many as 40 products will be for sale, from gummies and vapes to prerolls and flower.

Festival sponsor House of Dank is managing the operation, dubbed “High in the Sky,” and the retailer is going out of its way to ensure attendees have a blast.

“This is our Super Bowl,” Mike DiLaura, chief corporate officer at House of Dank, tells Metro Times. “We spend all year on this. This is not just another event on our calendar. This is the event

that we plan our calendar around.”

The enclosed space will be situated in an alley between 6th and 7th streets and Washington, with an age-verification entrance and robust security.

The cannabis space, which has a capacity of 362 people, is intended for everyone from seasoned enthusiasts to curious newcomers.

With no comparable event of this size in Michigan, organizers are in uncharted territory and have the opportunity to pave the way for other future events to feature cannabis zones.

“To be truthful, we don’t know what to expect,” DiLaura says. “No one has ever done this before.”

Since recreational marijuana was legalized by voters in November 2018, the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency has issued 31 licenses for temporary marijuana events. All of them were for much smaller events, and a vast majority were for marijuana-related festivities.

Saying the cannabis space is “absolutely trend-setting,”Arts, Beats & Eats producer Jon Witz is keenly aware that

this event could have future implications for the cannabis industry.

“This is a mantle that will set the tone for other events and communities,” Witz says. “We are being watched by other cities and departments and producers of events and venues, and there is a responsibility to do it right, and that’s what we’re focused on.”

DiLaura says he envisions a future in which consumption areas are available at concerts, sporting events, and other large festivals, much like alcohol is.

“We’re seeing the walls come down with the stuff you can do,” DiLaura says. “When I signed on [with Arts, Beats & Eats] in 2021, people were shocked we were even allowed to sponsor, and now we have media coverage, and we are selling at the event. As cannabis enters the mainstream more and more, you are going to start seeing this at more events and concerts. I think this is a precursor to that.”

DiLaura says he can even envision a consumption zone at Comerica Park in a few years, where Detroit Tigers fans could watch a ballgame while toking.

Getting this far wasn’t easy.

Since 2021, House of Dank was a major sponsor of Arts, Beats & Eats, but the company was prevented from selling cannabis and providing an area to smoke it. Instead, House of Dank offered music from DJs, CBD products, T-shirts, and promotional materials.

But the fun part – actually consuming it – was forbidden.

In 2022, the company asked the Royal Oak City Commission to sign off on a designated cannabis zone to allow for sales and consumption. By a 4-to-3 vote, the commission rejected it after the new police chief, Michael Moore, opposed the plan.

Over the next year, the company forged a relationship with Moore and council members, assuring them that the cannabis zone would be safe, secure, and away from family entertainment. On Valentine’s Day, the commission voted unanimously to allow for cannabis sales and a consumption area for a one-year trial period. Moore told the commission he would not oppose or endorse the plan.

For the first time, Royal Oak’s Labor Day festival will feature a cannabis sales and consumption area

o ur 2023 fall festival gui D e

“This first year is just a test,” Witz says. “We are taking a look at it. We’re not making it really big. We’re being really careful about how we’re doing it.”

The cannabis zone is located away from family attractions, food, and most vendors, and a filtration system will keep smoke from blanketing the area. Most attendees probably won’t notice it unless they’re looking, organizers say.

Event organizers emphasized that art, food, and music will continue to be the focal point of the festival, and the cannabis zone is not meant to over-

shadow that.

“We are not going to try to transform what the festival is by turning it into a cannabis celebration because it is not what we’re doing in any way, shape, or form,” Witz says.

The legalization of cannabis could not have arrived sooner for Arts, Beats & Eats, which has lost major sponsors, especially from the auto industry.

“That level of support has gone down,” Witz says. “We’ve lost critical dollars. When cannabis became legal in Michigan, we were approached by House of Dank. It was very exciting,

and they brought in the type of revenue as a sponsor that really helped us since we didn’t have a six-figure automotive sponsor. House of Dank became a major partner of ours.”

With a positive experience with House of Dank, Witz says it was “natural to take the partnership to another level, which is to allow the products they sell to be purchased.”

House of Dank already extended its sponsorship contract with Arts, Beats & Eats another three years.

Until the event starts, no one knows for sure what to expect.

“We’re hoping to see a few thousand people a day, and I think that’s conservative,” DiLaura says. “But we just flat don’t know yet.”

Arts, Beats & Eats launched in Pontiac in 1998 and moved to Royal Oak in 2010.

This year, more than 200 music acts and family entertainers will perform on nine stages. The event will be headlined by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Halestorm, Russell Dickerson, and Bell Biv DeVoe.

Dozens of restaurants, food vendors, and artists will also be on hand.

Dance as emotional expression

Detroit Dance Collective will be performing at the upcoming Detroit City Dance Festival

BY LAYLA M c MURTRIE

Dance is a thought-provoking art form that has been used to convey emotion throughout time. Unique to the sound of music or viewing a visual art piece, dance is a more immersive experience of expression through movement of the physical body. Anyone who attends the upcoming Detroit Dance City Festival (DDCF), hosted by local dance nonprofit ArtLab J, will have a chance to witness that.

The event will be happening Sept. 8-10 for its 11th year at two venues: the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Detroit Opera House.

Detroit Dance Collective, or DDC Dances, is one of the companies participating in the festival.

Four women started the nonprofit dance studio in 1980, and one of them, Barbara Selinger, is now the company’s artistic director and principal choreographer. Selinger, who has been a dancer her entire life, is super excited for her organization to be performing at the festival.

To be a part of the event, the agency submitted a piece of choreography and was selected to perform in the Choreographers Showcase on the Detroit Film Theatre stage. Two dancers from the nonprofit, Lauren Bobo and Jaiden Kruse, will be performing a duet titled “Captive,” which Selinger says reflects the mission and beliefs of the organization.

“Dance is a powerful means of communication; it really totally affects our artistic lives, our intellectual lives, our

emotional and physical lives. It has a profound ability to heighten human expression,” Selinger says. “[‘Captive’] reflects what I call ‘the victims of humanity.’ It’s a beautiful duet that shows

compassion for each other, struggle, and love.”

Bobo, who moved to Detroit from South Carolina in 2019 and got involved with the dance collective in 2021, says

she and her dance partner are excited to do the number in front of a new audience.

“I think dance is so important to human experience in general, but for me specifically, it is how I can connect most with myself and my body,” Bobo says. “I think that dance is a very innate part of the human experience and my goal with my dance is to be able to communicate lots of different topics and emotions in a mode that is nonconfrontational.”

Bobo feels that dance is a more approachable way of having difficult conversations and evoking change in the world. She wants her art form to be open to interpretation from the viewer but hopes that it can leave them feeling impacted and empowered in some way regardless.

“I want whoever’s observing the experience to have their own experience,” Bobo says.

When it comes to Detroit specifically, the dancer feels that the immense amount of culture in the city means the festival is located in a prime place to connect with people of all backgrounds.

Often, attending dance shows can be costly, but the free festival at a central downtown location allows the Detroit community to be easily involved.

“What’s lovely about DDCF is that it sort of breaks down those barriers and it makes dance and live art way more

“Captive” is a duet performed by Detroit Dance Collective’s Lauren Bobo and Jaiden Kruse. COURTESY PHOTO

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o ur 2023 f A ll fe S tiv A l G uide

accessible to the community and it puts it in a way that’s very welcoming,” Bobo says. “I think for Detroit, since we are so rich with culture, it’s only going to be that much more of a connection point.”

Even for community members who may not be familiar with dance, attending the festival can be a way to find out if it’s something that interests or moves them.

“A lot of times there are first-time viewers and they’re always surprised at how much they like it, how beautiful it can be, how thought-provoking it can be,” Selinger says. “It’s not just about music, it’s music and dance together and I think it’s just really, really important to collaborate and have all of these art forms, all of these art disciplines blend together so beautifully.”

The three-day community festival will showcase the talents of more than 58 artists, including local, national, and international performers. The festival’s program will feature a total of 15 events, kicking off with the Choreographers Showcase on Friday, followed on Saturday by a series of performances at the Rivera Court Stage, as well as a College Showcase and the second Choreographers Showcase at the DIA’s Detroit Film Theatre.

The festival will also offer six master classes on Saturday taught by experienced instructors in various dance styles including ballet, jazz, west African, and contemporary fusion.

ArtLab J’s broader mission with the festival is to educate audiences about the significance of dance and contribute to Detroit’s reputation as a global dancing hotspot.

“I think when you get to go see dancers at this caliber, at this level … different cultural dances, different choreography perspectives, it’s a really unique experience for people to be able to be inspired and for people to be able to discover something new about their city or about themselves, so I think attending DDCF, to me, is a no brainer,” Bobo says. “I think immersing yourself in arts that are existing within your city is such a magical experience. You’re getting to see what’s a part of your city, you’re getting to feel more connected with your city, and you’re allowing the world to also see what Detroit is about and I think Detroit is a pretty fantastic place. I’m excited for the Detroit residents to show up and support our community as a whole and show the world, the dance world at least, what we’re made of.”

A new GreAt AmericAn SonGbook

Artist-in-residence Karriem Riggins brings hip-hop to the Detroit Jazz Festival, including J Dilla tribute

WhenKarriem Riggins performs with Chicago rapper Common as the artist-in-residence of this year’s Detroit Jazz Fest on Sunday, it will be something of a full-circle moment for the Detroit-born drummer.

Common will join Riggins for “J Dilla Lives Forever,” a tribute to the influential late Detroit hip-hop producer who they both worked with starting in the late ’90s. Riggins first met Common while drumming with jazz trumpet player Roy Hargrove, and Common would later introduce Riggins in a professional capacity to Dilla.

“Every week he would go to this jazz showcase to see a show,” Riggins says of meeting Common. “When we came to town, I guess he had never seen a band with all young musicians. So he was really into what we were doing. He came to our dressing room, and when he came in, I was like, ‘Wait a minute, who’s this?’ I had just bought his album maybe six months prior. So I knew a lot of his music.”

Though Riggins had previously met Dilla in passing at a club, one day he accompanied Common to Dilla’s basement home studio in Detroit’s Conant Gardens neighborhood. The two quickly bonded, both having grown up in jazz households — Riggins’s father is keyboardist Emmanuel Riggins, while Dilla’s father Beverly Dewitt Yancey was a jazz bassist, and his mother Maureen, aka “Ma Dukes,” is a former opera singer. Though Riggins is primarily a live drummer and Dilla is best known for his pioneering use of the Akai MPC drum machine, the two swapped tips and tricks and collaborated up until Dilla died in 2006 at age 32, following a battle with a rare blood disease.

“I feel like every opportunity that we meet like-minded people that we work with is life-changing,” Riggins says. “I learned a lot from him, and we created a lot of music together, and he

BY LEE DEVITO

was a brother to me. I feel grateful to have crossed paths with him. He was a special, special person.”

Riggins grew up watching his dad perform with jazz greats like Marcus Belgrave, and as a kid played trumpet in his school band before switching over to drums. But he says he also listened to plenty of hip-hop, and merging the two was a natural progression.

“I was always into hip-hop,” he says. “I started listening to hip-hop before I could even speak on my instrument. So once I started to play drums, that was already there. The things I listen to come out in my instrument. We are what we listen to.”

After meeting Common, Riggins served as bandleader for the rapper’s live band, dubbed A Black Girl Named Becky, and also appeared on Dilla’s albums. Riggins also joined forces with Dilla collaborator Madlib, a California producer and rapper. Their project Jahari Massamba Unit was described by Pitchfork as “experimental jazz” that “feels like a beat tape.”

“I feel like hip-hop may be one of the only genres that’s an umbrella of all different genres that fuse into hiphop,” Riggins says. “Jazz is definitely one of the elements of hip-hop. It’s a fusion of classical, a fusion of rock, a fusion of afrobeat. And that’s what’s really dope about hip-hop, is that we can go anywhere.”

Riggins will kick off his Detroit Jazz Festival artist residency at 9 p.m. on Friday at the Carhartt Amphitheater stage in Hart Plaza with a set called “Interplay,” which will feature Madlib along with L.A. DJ J. Rocc and Detroit guitarist Sasha Kashperko. “We’re gonna be just taking a ride through a lot of different genres, a lot of different styles and sounds,” he says.

The residency continues with “J Dilla Lives Forever” at the JPMorgan

Chase Main Stage at Campus Martius at 9:15 p.m. on Sunday. The tribute will feature other artists from the Dilla extended universe, including Detroit poet jessica Care moore and T3, who founded the rap group Slum Village with Dilla and the late rapper Baatin.

“I want to revisit a lot of Dilla’s repertoire to keep his name alive, especially for people who don’t even know who he is,” Riggins says. “We’re trying to create awareness of Dilla because his music is so important. I feel like it’s the new standard. We kept the Great American Songbook alive, so I feel like we have a new songbook that should come alive and stay alive, and that’s why I call it ‘J Dilla Lives Forever.’”

Riggins’s artist residency ends at the JPMorgan Chase Main Stage on Monday with a set starting at dubbed “Karriem and the Erratic Specialist,” which starts at 7:40 p.m. and features special guests like singer BJ the Chicago Kid, Atlanta vocalist PJ, Nick Grant, and Common collaborator DJ Dummy. “We’re going to mix it up and bring different colors and sounds to the festival,” Riggins teases.

Though Riggins has performed at the Detroit Jazz Festival many times before, this is his first year as its artist-in-residence. He praises Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation president and artistic director Christopher Collins for having the vision to present hip-hop prominently at the festival. This year has been declared the 50th anniversary of the genre.

“Chris Collins totally understands what I do,” Riggins says. “And he gave me free reign to do exactly what I do. The music that I present is music that’s close to my heart. That says a lot about him and what people want.”

He adds, “I think they’ve given me the platform to do this because they know that this is in my soul.”

WHAT’S GOING ON

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

MUSIC

Wednesday, Aug. 30

Alex G, Alvvays 6 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $35-$69.50.

Daniel Caesar Presents Superpowers World Tour - Leg 2: U.S. & Canada 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $49.50-$89.50.

Kari Faux 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $20.

Kelly Price, Kevin Ross 7:30 p.m.; The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 E. Atwater St., Detroit; $15-$65.

DJ/Dance

Vinyl Nite w/ DJ Horrorshow 7 p.m.-midnight; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Thursday, Aug. 31

2023 Detroit Jazz Festival Global Connect All-Stars: The Hurricane Trio 6:30-9:45 p.m.; The Blue LLama Jazz Club, 314 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $15.

Adrian + Meredith 8 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $20.

The Whitney Garden Party: The High Strung 5 p.m.; The Whitney, 4421 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $5 individual or $15 VIP reserved tables for parties of 2, 4, or 6.

Friday, Sept. 1

Ace Enders, Vinnie Caruana, In A Daydream 8 p.m.; Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $20.

Adel Ruelas featuring Luna 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Big Bubble Rave 7 p.m.; The Crofoot Ballroom, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $20.

John E. Lawrence Summer Jazz

Concert Series: John E. Lawrence 7-9 p.m.; Ford Lake Park, 7200 Huron River Dr., Ypsilanti; no cover.

Knock for Six, Horror Movies In

The Morning, Shadow of the Talisman 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $10.

Jim McCarty & Mystery Train w/

DJ Sanford, open bowling & pinball 8 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Harmolodics 10 p.m.; Garden Bowl Lounge, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; no cover.

Ruby The Hatchet 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $16. Shop, Rock N’ Stroll Downtown Port Huron 6-10 p.m.; Downtown Port Huron, Huron Avenue, Port Huron; no cover.

Waka Flocka Flame, Rich Homie Quan, Travis Porter, F.L.Y., OJ da Juiceman, Rocko 8 p.m.; The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 E. Atwater St., Detroit; $36-$125.

Saturday, Sept. 2

Cinecyde w/ The Hi-Tones + DJ Danton, open bowling & pinball 9 p.m.-midnight; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

Daniel Champagne 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.; 20 Front Street, 20 Front St., Lake Orion; $25.

Harmolodics 10 p.m.; Garden Bowl Lounge, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; no cover.

The John E. Lawrence Summer Jazz Series: Duane Parham and John E. Lawrence 6 p.m.; Ford Lake Park, 7200 Huron River Dr., Ypsilanti; no cover.

Jimmie’s Chicken Shack 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Left To Suffer, Distant, Justice For The Damned, Cabal 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $18.

Little Image 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $16.

Matt Stell 8 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $20-$30.

Ragheb Alama Arabian Nights 9:30 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $225-$500.

The Nude Party 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $18.

Ursa Day, Routine Fuss, Saving Throw, Pizz 8 p.m.; Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $13.

Sunday, Sept. 3

Boyz II Men, Joe, Shanice 8 p.m.; The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre, 2600 E. Atwater St., Detroit; $49.50-$150.

Harmolodics 10 p.m.; Garden Bowl Lounge, 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; no cover.

Kurt Travis, Amarionette, Predisposed, Giveaway 6 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $25.

Portrayal of Guilt, Gag, Secret Shame, Felon Class, The Sissy Boys 6 p.m.; Edgemen, 19757 15 Mile Rd, Clinton Twp; $16.

Sky Covington’s Sunday Night Jam Sessions every Sunday with band Club Crescendo 8 p.m.-midnight; Woodbridge Pub, 5169 Trumbull St., Detroit; donation.

Snooze, Sincerely, Clipboards, Adventurer 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $12.

Monday, Sept. 4

Weedeater, King Parrot, Rebreather, Child Bite, Bonginator 6 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $23.

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

Tuesday, Sept. 5

Corey Taylor 6:30 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $45-$75. The Pretenders 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $49.50.

DJ/Dance

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

COMEDY

Improv

Go Comedy! Improv Theater

All-Star Showdown. A highly interactive improvised game show. With suggestions from the audience, two teams will battle for your laughs. Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. $25.

Planet Ant Theatre Ants In The Hall. Pay What You Want Thursday. 8-9 p.m.

Stand-up

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle

Maurice Benard. $45. Thursday, 7-8:30 p.m.

ARTS

Artist talk

Artist Talk with Cody Norman Join Isabelle Weiss and Cody Norman for a look into Norman’s practice of elevating plastic “trash” into art and design objects. Saturday, Sept. 2, 4-6 p.m.; I.M. Weiss Gallery, 2857 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit; imweiss.gallery.

Art exhibition opening

Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA)

Guests of Honor: Masterpieces of Early Italian Renaissance Bronze Statuettes from the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.Through March 3.

Lawrence Street Gallery Sherry Adams Foster: Light Dance On The Persimmon Tree. Sunday, Sept. 3, 2-4:30 p.m.

Playground Detroit Mike Han: United by Design. Sept. 2-30.

Continuing this week

Color & Ink Studio Amanda Koss: Conversations With Myself.” Through Sept. 22.

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) Sydney G. James: Girl Raised In Detroit. Through Sept. 10. Jennifer Harge + Devin Drake: A Clearing. Through Sept. 10. Free Your Mind: Art And Incarceration In Michigan. Through Sept. 10. Liz Cohen: Café Pan-Soviético Americano. Through Sept. 10. Gina Osterloh: Her Demilitarized Zone/Image Without Weapon. Through Sept. 10. Flint Institute of Arts On Press: Women Printmakers of the Early 20th Century. Through Oct. 8.

Galerie Camille Gilda Snowden: Florals: Urbana & Baroque. Through Sept. 4. Janice Charach Epstein Gallery Her Story. Through Sept. 13.

Library Street Collective Gary Tyler: We Are The Willing. Through Sept. 6. Louis Buhl & Co. Davariz Broaden. Through Sept. 6.

The Secret Garden Gallery Detroit The Secret Garden Gallery Detroit Outdoor Art Market. No cover. Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

University of Michigan Museum of Art Unsettling Histories: Legacies of Slavery and Colonialism.

SPORTS Baseball

Comerica Park Detroit Tigers vs. New York Yankees. Wednesday, 7:10 p.m. and Thursday, 1:10 p.m.

Critics’ picks

‘Horizon’ at Beacon Park

ART: Futuristic egg-shaped structures with blue-tinted lighting, calming sounds, and unique visuals will soon be placed around Beacon Park for Detroiters to sit in and use to relax. The innovative art installation “Horizon” by Canadian artist Olivier Landreville will soon be unveiled via the Downtown Detroit Partnership. The exhibit, which will run from Sept. 1-24, aims to provide visitors of all ages with a peaceful experience and a space for contemplation and inspiration. It offers three distinct visuals “inspired by the sky,” each presented in a cocoonlike structure with rocking chairs for relaxation. According to a press release, the use of wood materials, along with blue lighting and immersive soundscapes, creates a soothing and natural environment. “Horizon” is open to the public and free of charge, catering to families and individuals alike. For an optimal viewing experience, evening visits are recommended.

—Layla McMurtrie

From 6 a.m.-10 p.m. daily at Beacon Park; 1901 Grand Ave., Detroit; downtowndetroit.org. No cover.

Detroit Month of Design

ART: September means we’re closer

to trading blazing heat for crisp fall weather, apple picking, and pumpkin spice (I don’t care how basic it is, I love it). It also means it’s Detroit’s annual Month of Design, and this year there are over 80 studio tours, exhibits, activations, workshops, and panels around the city. Detroit is the only UNESCO-designated Design City in the country, which is a fancy way of saying our creativity is unmatched and we are gonna brag about it for an entire month. This year’s theme is “United by Design” which encompasses sustainable fashion, land justice, visions of the future, and fine art. There’s everything from an experimental “Trashion Show” on Sept. 3 to the popular Eastern Market After Dark on Sept. 21 and even a tour of Michigan’s first 3-D printed home. A slew of art exhibits will also be on display throughout the month including Mike Han’s United by Design at Playground Detroit, Fiber Club* Detroit’s inaugural exhibit at The Convent, and Custer Studios’ open house with work from Tony Rave, Ellen Rutt, Patrick Ethen, Sarah Wondrack, and more. It all kicks off with an opening party and design crawl on Sept. 1 across LoveITDetroit (1001 Woodward Ave.), Space Lab Detroit (607 Shelby St., Suite 700), and Rossetti (160 W. Fort St.). It’s a lot to see, but you have the whole month.

—Randiah Camille Green

Various dates, times, and locations from Sept 1-30. See designcore.org/ month-of-design for more information.

High in the Sky

WEED: You can say goodbye to the summer with a cannabis party featuring DJs and a scenic view of downtown Detroit on Thursday. The event is organized by Cannababe, a new experiential marketing company that regularly holds marijuana-related events intended to connect cannabis brands with weed consumers. The event, dubbed “High in the Sky,” will include a cash bar, 11 cannabis sponsors, and two trending DJs at an undisclosed location. Interested in going? You can get on the guest list by following Cannababe on Instagram (@cannababe.detroit) and sending them a direct message. Cannababe has held several events this year, all of which raise money for nonprofits. Some of the proceeds of “High in the Sky” will help Women at Risk, International, a nonprofit organization for survivors of sex trafficking. The organization is run by Mary Sharp and Jenna Kaltenberg, two queer women who strived to bring the diverse cannabis community together while raising money for people in need.

“For both of us, nothing was handed to us,” Sharp tells Metro Times. “We

came from rough backgrounds. The fact that we’ve done this on our own, I’m really proud of. We don’t come from money. We just went for it, and it blew up really fast.”

—Steve Neavling

From 9 p.m.-1 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31 at an undisclosed location in downtown Detroit; instagram.com/ cannababe.detroit. No cover.

HouseParty Detroit

HouseParty Detroit is back in the Belt alleyway for Labor Day weekend. On Saturday, HouseParty will take over The Skip with sets from resident DJs Măsquenada and JHOUSE plus special guest Blaaqgold. Expect all the hip-hop, R&B, and Afrobeats you can handle (in case the recent Afro Nation festival wasn’t enough for you). With summer wrapping up and (hopefully) cooler temperatures upon us, we’re savoring any final opportunities to be outside that we can. There will also be ice cream on deck from MJ’s North End Ice Cream. No cover charge as long as you RSVP on Eventbrite.

—Randiah Camille Green

From 4-10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 2; The Skip, 1234 The Belt, Detroit; instagram.com/housepartydetroit; no cover with RSVP..

A rendering of the art installation “Horizon” by Olivier Landreville. COURTESY OF BEACON PARK

Wed 8/30 PATIO BAR OPEN @5pm

Thurs 8/31

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARCUS BARNES!

Mon 9/04

HAPPY LABOR DAY! OPEN NOON-2AM FREE POOL ALL DAY

Tues 9/05 B. Y. O. R.

Bring Your Own Records (weekly) Open Decks@9PM NO COVER IG: @byor_tuesdays_old_miami

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KELLY SPREITZER!

Sat 9/09

THE DIRTIEST MOST BIZARRE ART SHOW NOT IN THE ALLEY EVER FEAT. 30 CREATIVE ARTISTS FROM DETROIT/8 BANDS/LIVE PERFORMERS/ GIVEAWAYS/KARAOKE CONTEST FOR $$/ POLE DANCING/BBQ & MORE $5 12p-5p / $20 after 5p

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Local Buzz

By Broccoli and Joe Zimmer

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

The Armed chisels away at the fourth wall: If you haven’t heard about the newest album from The Armed that came out last week, where have you been? The band has recently graced the covers of some of the most esteemed music publications in the biz, from The Fader to The New York Times arts section, among others. Critics have pointed out that Perfect Saviors seems to represent a turning point for a band that is punk enough to throw a house party for the sake of a video shoot but has enough massappeal to open on tour for Queens of the Stone Age, and for good reason. There’s enough self-awareness in the lyrics and song structures to make the album more than just a maximalist, modern take on arena-ready rock music, and the band doesn’t take itself so seriously. The record is like a slap in the face, but one that makes you feel good, and maybe even makes you want to hit the gym to train for vengeance.

—Broccoli

Late-night Jazz Fest afterparties: After all the world-class performances

at the Detroit Jazz Festival this weekend, Spot Lite is hosting parties that highlight the best of our local scene. Friday will blur the line between traditional jazz compositions and electronics, with sets from DJ Kyle Hall, saxophonist Kasan Belgrave, sound artist Sophiyah E., and special guest Angel Bat Dawid. Dawid is the only non-Detroiter on the bill, but for good reason – she is a tour de force of the modern American jazz landscape. The multi-instrumentalist and vocalist is known for her enthralling live performances and improvised spiritual jams. Friday’s bill also includes DJ sets from Meftah and Julion De’Angelo, associated with Theo Parrish’s Suond Signature label. On Saturday, Shigeto will return to Spot Lite after his recent allnight set, along with a live ensemble that will be familiar to anyone who saw his mind-melting set at Movement this year. The performance will feature Calvin Scruggs, Marcus Elliot, Ian Finkelstein, Dez Andrés and a flurry of special guests. Then, on Sunday, the trifecta is completed by De’Sean Jones and the Urban Art Orchestra. Jones has said this is your last chance to catch this iteration of the Urban Art Orchestra this year, and the event also serves as an official vinyl release of the group’s latest limited wax. Check out the full list of all the players and buy advance tickets (recommended) for these shows via Spot Lite’s page on Resident Advisor.

—Joe

Zastava merges discordant postpunk with shoegaze on “Two Songs”: Before embarking with Zilched to support her on her current summer tour, Zastava has shared two new tracks of post-punk heat. The aptly titled Two Songs is reminiscent of The Strokes’ distorted vocals and shoegaze-punk guitars from early Iceage tracks. This latest offering serves as a follow up to the band’s 2022 Honey EP, and as a lead-in to new material they hope to release next year. Your next chance to catch Zastrava live is this Monday, Sept. 4, at Hamtramck Labor Day Festival — they play at 3:30 p.m. on the North Stage. —Joe

THRG Labor Day takeover: Local dance music collective THRG will be at Marble Bar this weekend for a two-day celebration of heavy-hitting DJ sets from artists at home and abroad. New York (by way of Philly) artist Baltra will headline Friday night with local support from Father Dukes, Sabré, Dust, Uncle Sean, and Nico, while UKG tastemaker Conducta and Detroit’s own “Techno Renaissance Man” DJ T-1000 will coheadline Saturday night with support from Loren, Auntie Chanel, Sapphyre, and Jeff Garcia. Expect two full nights of great sets spanning the range of what electronic music has to offer, and with a long weekend to recover afterwards, you might as well buy the two-day pass to save a little money at the door. Tickets available on Resident Advisor. —Broccoli

The Armed. AARON JONES

FOOD

The society of the spectacle

If you’re a restaurateur and you’re gonna roll out an opulent eatery with an over-the-top, sybaritic vibe like that at Mad Nice, the new-ish upscale Italian-inspired spot in Detroit’s Cass Corridor, then it should be backed up by plates that bang, sing, and impart flavors worthy of the surrounding hype. If not, you may pass muster with some who came for an experience first and a meal second, but discerning diners, those concerned with culinary excellence over interior design wheelies and loud minimal house, may find the whole thing a bit chachi and amatuerish.

It’s a big risk to take.

The crew behind Mad Nice was brave enough to take that chance. The restaurant is the latest concept from restaurateur Jeremy Sasson’s Heirloom Hospitality, which also does the Townhouse restaurants in Birmingham and downtown Detroit, as well as Prime + Proper, also in Detroit. The latter, a high-end steakhouse notorious for its rowdiness, holds an interior and pose that are not quite as bonkers as Mad Nice, but anyone familiar with Prime + Proper wouldn’t be surprised that Mad Nice was Sasson’s next step.

The setting he and the interior design firm Parini created is unlike any-

By Tom Perkins

thing else in Detroit, as is the experience. The coral, sea green, and opulent white palette across whimsical modern furniture is undeniably interesting. And the people-watching is fantastic. Looking at my notes, a co-diner and I used descriptives like “Candy Land,” “Jersey Shore nightclub,” “sex dungeon door,” “Circus Circus,” “Barbie,” “South Beach mall,” “high-end Cheesecake Factory,” “whose ego?,” and so on.

It’s a high-energy dining experience with loud music and young diners ripping shots at the bar, and it doesn’t feel so much like a pre-club stop as much as the first club of the night.

Mad Nice at times brings to mind the short-lived Midtown French restaurant Savant, which offered caviar and edible gold “bumps,” a dollop served on the customer’s fist — as one would consume cocaine — in an item called “The Finer Things in Life” that also included a Champagne chaser. Sure, it was fairly wacky, but Savant backed it up — it turned out some of Detroit’s finest dishes for a moment, before everything went south and it went out of business.

So does Mad Nice’s food match the spectacle? The menu, by executive chef Myles McVay of Ferndale’s former Otus Supply, has some intriguing options among a mix of plates like oysters,

crudo, pizza, whole branzino, heavy duty meats, and pasta like ravioli with black truffle, chili, and kombucha and egg yolk. A pleasant surprise was the “Huge MF short rib” which we had to get on the name alone, and, indeed, it’s a massive portion of fairly tender short rib on a The Flintstones-esque bone, all of which is enhanced with sweet and complex mole and an herby chimichurri that worked surprisingly well together. The package is crowned with roasted squash ribbons, though a co-diner said it at best reached “decent wedding food” level.

At the bar, the mezcal in the Detroit Aristocratic Club cocktail was hard to detect, but the green chartreuse, lemongrass, grapefruit, and lime blended beautifully. There’s a long selection of Italian wines, a short beer list, and a decent number of amaros and aperitifs.

The raw items should be avoided. What makes beef tartare great is the interplay between the flavor and texture in the meat and whatever it’s mixed with. The bites of the tartare ranged from mealy and bland to mushy and overly garlicky, but at no point did the beef’s flavor shine through, nor was there ever any effective interplay with the pickled mustard seed or olives. I powered through the patty because it

Mad Nice

4120 2nd Ave., Detroit 313-558-8000 madnicedetroit.com

$10-$84

Wheelchair accessible

seemed like the plate had potential, though a co-diner only took a bite before giving up. The scallop crudo came with a huge portion of scallops, but they were a bit fishy and the strawberry mix that laced it tasted like a Glade PlugIns air freshener.

The smoky, tender pork shank was complimented well with an herby, acidic bean and asparagus salad, but two sides held what proved to be the meal’s best bites. A cucumber and dill salad reminded me of a version of an Eastern European vinegar-soaked cucumber plate my mom used to make. This arrives with sesame, dill, kohlrabi, and acid from the lime, and here the acid, creaminess, and crunch all jibed. We also enjoyed sweet and hot broccoli drenched with tamari honey and hit with spiced sunflower seed. Put this on a meat and you’ve got a hit entree.

The service wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t reach the level one expects for a restaurant that presents itself as Mad Nice does. And that was the theme. Mad Nice went big, and it’s not terrible — it just doesn’t live up to its own hype

Mad Nice’s “Huge MF short rib,” right, is indeed a massive portion.

VIOLA KLOCKO

Chowhound

Everyone has an opinion. So why do dining critics matter?

By Robert Stempkowski

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

Critical mass: Food and restaurant writers are afforded a bully pulpit. Preaching from it is sometimes hard to resist. After all, the job typically comes with a “critic” title that’s essentially a license to do so. Even so, the trick of this trade is to engage without giving sermons. They’re snooze-worthy. We lose people when we pontificate. They just stop paying attention. To gather and hold an audience, I work at drawing interest by sketching caricature studies we all see ourselves in. Bar and restaurant scenes offer parable portraits of who we are as social animals. Food writers have ringside seats at that societal circus, yet our reporting from that vantage point often reads like more distanced views from way above it all.

Some better bits of advice I was offered as an aspiring food scribe came compliments of two of my fellows from the Phoenix market: Nikki Buchanan, longtime restaurant writer whose work still graces the pages of Phoenix Magazine while she further informs on the state of dining in Arizona via her

radio show and regular appearances on morning news TV, and Howard Seftel, venerated voice of epicurean authority for The Arizona Republic and Phoenix New Times, now retired.

“You have to put that Satan behind you,” Seftel demonized sarcasm, for his part, in answering a question posed during a roundtable Q & A on the craft of restaurant reviewing, which I mediated in a trade publication piece years ago. The question concerned making light of perceived shortfalls in restaurants’ performances through humor.

“I subscribe to what’s been said of sarcasm,” Seftel seconded. “We needn’t go so low to make points.” In a 2015 exit interview with a reporter from his own paper, Howard — lifelong culinary explorer the world over — summed up what separates essential credibility in restaurant reviewing from the prandial pablum posted in review forums across the online universe:

“Everyone has an opinion.” He observed. “Not everyone has an informed opinion.”

On the topic of judging vice and virtue in victuals, Buchanan spoke to credentials as well.

“The measuring sticks become com-

parison and consensus. A professional eater, I’ve sampled so many offerings of all kinds of cuisine, over and over again. Any authority to what we say is earned through experience. I’ve had cassoulet enough times to know what’s worked well and what hasn’t in contrast. The next time I order it, I’ll measure the effort then weigh-in in that context. People might think we’re just making subjective pronouncements, but that’s not what I do.”

Since taking Nikki and Howard’s standards to heart, I’ve come to practice my own writer’s credo religiously. My belief is that talking about who we are through what, how, and where we choose to eat tells much of the story of us, from both the working and consumer sides of the table. I have profound respect for those in business who make the sometimes soul-sucking efforts it takes to serve one’s heart on a plate to a hungry/hangry public, day-in, day-out. Anyone who can come to work at 4 a.m. and cook eggs to order for hours on end has my admiration. Dining room crews dealing with demanding customers who routinely demean their efforts by treating service professionals like indentured servants deserve better and

their fair due in my purview, along with chefs and owners who open themselves daily to the slings and arrows of outrageous attacks by social media vigilantes left butt-hurt over perceived slights that didn’t return effusive enough apologies and a complete meal comp. On the other hand, as a kid raised by three women who cooked their asses off for everyone they knew and loved, along with everyone else they fed from the neighborhood (my grandmother served our mailman hot lunches and shots of Old Grandad during winter), there’s nothing I have more appreciation for than a place at the table among others seeking the purist pleasures of breaking bread and making merry in simple, communal bliss. Bottom line: What I hope most to communicate through my craft is what we all crave when we sit down to eat socially; an experience that nourishes us a bit, body and soul. That happens here in the Detroit area every day. My job is to ferret out the vibes and vittles in the coffee shops and fine dining cathedrals all across town that folks like us frequent for one reason or another. As an advanced scout, I provide lay-of-the-land perspectives on, yes, the most pertinent particulars (food, service, and ambience), but more, samplings of the virtual flavor as I saw it; the crowd, their conversations (both overheard and eavesdropped), and all the other first impressions we love to take in a little wide-eyed during evenings out over dinner and drinks. Again, I pick places and paint their portraits. You decide where to go from there.

There’s nothing more subjective to us than our tastes. When I started as a food writer 25 years ago, I had a dozen years of food and beverage work under my belt and one regular customer who wanted to put me to work reviewing restaurants for her magazine. These days, I’m still plying two trades. That doesn’t make me qualified to pass judgment as either a foodie or a writer. May I never become so professionally arrogant as to consider myself someone’s critic, let alone anyone’s judge. At the risk of going all-in Jerry Maguire here, I’d like to submit to my publishers and all my peers that we drop that pretentious job title once and for all. Unlike Jerry did, I won’t suggest that indulging me might result “in a few less clients.” To the contrary, it could earn us measurably more respect from an industry that’s long questioned what qualifies us to subject its goods and services to our scrutiny. I can’t argue. Card-carrying culinary critics should bring more to the table than mere press credentials.

That’s my say. I’m done preaching. It’s time to move on. Who’s with me?

Card-carrying culinary critics should bring more to the table than mere press credentials.

SHUTTERSTOCK

New owners breathe life into Kelly’s Bar in Hamtramck

In many ways, Kelly’s is still the same bar that has for more than a century sat across from the neon glow of the giant Kowalski Sausage Co. sign on Holbrook Avenue. Claimed to be one of the oldest operating pubs in Hamtramck, it was sold to husband and wife Garrett Ragsdale and Kiersten Schilinski in 2021. Ragsdale is also an owner of the Marble Bar nightclub, which reopened in 2015 after a past life as a gay leather bar.

“A buddy of mine was driving by and saw a ‘for sale’ sign, and he knew that I was looking for another bar,” Ragsdale says of Kelly’s. “And we had been talking about wanting to open up a dive bar for a little bit. It was perfect timing, I guess.”

“We’re very dive-bar people,” Schilinski says. “Obviously, he owns Marble Bar, and that’s a different beast. So we wanted something more chill.”

The bar reopened earlier this year with some improvements, the most recent being a kitchen that is now officially up to city code.

“It was just in really bad disrepair when we walked into it,” Ragsdale says.

The two have come up with a menu that includes smash burgers, wings, and pierogi from Pietrzyk Pierogi. They say they plan on sticking to the bar’s blue-collar history by aiming to feed nearby industrial workers.

“We do get a lot of people already from Kowalski, and there is GM’s Factory ZERO, and [American Axle & Manufacturing] is right there,” Schilinski says. “American Axle still has a smaller office right there too.” The owners say they also plan to run wings specials on Wednesdays and Fridays, as well as more food specials during the football season. They also brought in new equipment so they can serve boozy frozen drinks. Aside from that, Kelly’s is still largely a low-frills shot-and-a-beer kind of bar.

Other notable improvements include new flooring, siding, and roofing. But perhaps the most visibly noticeable change is the bathrooms, which have been completely modernized with new tile. “We have the cleanest bathrooms in Hamtramck,” Ragsdale boasts.

The building has reportedly operated as a bar since 1917, though Ragsdale and Schilinski note that its title document says 1921. Regardless, such

an old bar unsurprisingly needed quite a bit of work.

“We didn’t really know the depth of what the building needed until we actually got in there, and cans of worms turned into bigger cans of worms,” Ragsdale says. All the work was done by Ragsdale and Schilinski and their friends, they say.

Former owner Brad Ruff had owned Kelly’s since the early 2000s after previously working at American Axle, and was also an avid motorcyclist. Tragically, he was killed just days after selling the bar in a motorcycle crash in Eastpointe, which also left his wife Patti Banas critically injured. Ruff was 64.

Eric J. Compton, who was driving the car that crashed into Ruff’s motorcycle, faces drunk driving charges with a trial set for Nov. 14.

The Eagle has landed

A new fried chicken spot is nearly ready to open in Detroit.

The Eagle Food & Beer Hall plans to open on Friday, Sept. 8 on the ground floor of the Woodward West building at 3461 Woodward Ave., Detroit.

The restaurant says the first 50 customers will get a $50 gift card.

It’s the latest offering from Cincinnati-based Thunderdome Restaurant Group, which first opened the Eagle in that city in a former post office.

Ragsdale and Schilinski say they want Kelly’s to be a biker bar, and to that end have hosted recurring biker nights on the second and fourth Thursdays of the month.

“We know a lot of bikers,” Schilinski says. “There’s a lot of young people our age who ride them who aren’t associated with clubs and whatnot and just want to be around other bikers.” The owners have also rolled out other themed nights including Wednesday karaoke and “Sungays,” where $5 “Trash Daquiris” are served.

Under Ruff, Kelly’s had become known as a hotspot for rock ’n’ roll shows, but the new owners say they want to deemphasize live bands because they don’t want to turn off potential customers with a cover charge.

“We want the bar to be open for

The restaurant group also runs the nearby Bakersfield taco restaurant in Detroit, which opened in 2017, also on Woodward Avenue.

“We’re excited to bring The Eagle to Detroit,” says Joe Lanni, co-founder of Thunderdome Restaurant Group, in a statement. “We felt so much love from the city after opening Bakersfield, and we always knew we wanted to bring a second concept to the area.”

“Guests can expect the same unmatched service and great dining experience that Detroit has already come to know and love at Bakersfield,” adds co-founder Alex Blust.

everybody,” Ragsdale says.

They did install a new DJ booth, however, and invite guest DJs to play tunes during on Sungays. And they also welcomed Ash Nowak of the DJ duo Haute to Death to launch a rock ’n’ roll-themed monthly happy hour from 6-9 p.m. on the last Thursdays of the month, dubbed “Heaven Was Full.” In a departure from Haute to Death’s penchant for danceable house, disco, and new wave music, Nowak’s happy hour at Kelly’s is billed as playing grunge, country, glam, and an aesthetic otherwise playfully described on a flier as “Down Riviera.”

Ragsdale says vinyl records are preferred, and that he steers DJs away from playing electronic dance music.

“No techno,” he says. “That’s what Marble Bar is for.” —Lee

DeVito

The Eagle is focused on Southern comfort food and craft beer, featuring house-brined, hand-dredged fried chicken. Its menu also offers sandwiches, salads, and sides.

The restaurant will be open for dine-in and carryout.“The space will be as grand as the Food & Beer Hall tag would indicate,” co-founder John Lanni, Joe’s brother, said in a statement. “We’ve designed it to be the ideal space to hang out, share a beer or a cocktail and a great meal with family and friends.”

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

Kiersten Schilinski and Garrett Ragsdale recently purchased the old Kelly’s Bar in Hamtramck. VIOLA KLOCKO

CULTURE

Davis, a born-and-raised Eastsider, first picked up the camera as a student at Michigan Technological University. He never finished his degree at MTU, but he continued to take photos, drawn to the inner-city landscape that he knows firsthand and the young people who flourish there.

His photos show moments of Black fatherhood, kinship, and coming-ofage moments in private and public spaces. A little boy flaunts his bowtie and suspenders as a group of his suitand-tie-clad elders dance and pose behind him. They have his back no matter what.

A toddler sits in the backseat of a car with stacks of cash and a puppy on his lap. He is likely unaware of what the racks mean. Is it drug money his parents got from gangbanging? Maybe. Does it make this young child any less innocent? Any less human? No.

In order for young Black kids to know their worth, as Davis pointedly titles the photo of young prom goers, they have to see themselves. To be told that growing up in the hood, playing with a water hose in the backyard on a hot day, popping a wheelie in a corner store parking lot after dark, and hooping in a neighborhood basketball court aren’t “ghetto.” They’re simply how we live and ways that we find moments of happiness in urban life.

This is Where I’m At and this is what I’m doing is a traveling show with plans to exhibit across urban areas like Chicago later this fall and New York for Black History Month in 2024. Elonte will do a two-to-four-week residency in these cities before each exhibit to document local youth in each location.

Artist of the week

Elonte Davis captures intimate portraits of Black youth in first solo show

By Randiah Camille Green

Normalize Black joy in Detroit: young girls smiling in their heart-shaped cornrows, teenagers headed to a dance decked out in Cartier glasses with fresh curls and long eyelashes popping.

Emerging photographer Elonte Davis captures these moments that may seem mundane in ways that make everyday Black Detroit life look like a high fashion magazine spread. His first solo exhibit This Is Where

I’m At and this is what I’m doing at the Carr Center features 50 candid images Davis took of Black youth. The work was commissioned by Steed Society Art and organized by Irwin House Gallery.

“Together, we hope that Davis’ unfiltered photographic eye will engender empathy and appreciation between Greater Detroit’s diverse populations while serving as a historical record of life in the city for many Detroiters and turning an eye towards Black futures across the globe,” Irwin House Gallery Director, Misha McGlown said in a statement.

Davis started exhibiting his photography around Detroit in 2021. His work has been featured at the Detroit Historical Museum, Irwin House Gallery, Canfield Consortium, Riverside Detroit, Dearborn’s ImageWorks, and with Composing Detroit. He has shot photos for the Motown Museum, Detroit Deltas, and Rolling Out Magazine.

Where to see his work: This is Where I’m At and this is what I’m doing is presented in partnership with Irwin House Gallery and is on view until Sept. 2 at the Carr Center; 15 E. Kirby St., Detroit.

Elonte Davis

JEFF CANCELOSI

CULTURE

Right on track

By Craig D. Lindsey

Gran Turismo

Rated: PG-13

Run-time: 134 minutes

As we wind down this very crazy summer of movies, where the two biggest hits were a gonzo, feminist manifesto starring an iconic toy doll and a time-twisting biopic about the guy who invented the atomic bomb (that is, when he wasn’t getting butt-bald-nekkid with Florence Pugh), I think it’s best we close things out with some good ol’ earnest, energetic entertainment.

Thankfully, Gran Turismo, which was originally scheduled to come out a couple weeks ago (the Barbenheimer blitz made Sony push it to the end of the month), is here to provide some high-speed melodrama during these dog days of summer.

Yes, it’s based on the racing simulation video game, but it’s mainly about Jann Mardenborough (played by Archie Madekwe), a Welsh teen who actually became a professional racer thanks to years of playing the game. He wins a

spot in the GT Academy, a competition set up by a Nissan marketing executive (Orlando Bloom) who takes sim racers and gives them the chance to get on the track for real and probably turn pro. In the film, the whole thing is overseen by Jack Salter (David Harbour), a hardon-the-balls, American engineer whose racing days are long behind him.

As we follow Mardenborough’s journey from ridiculed gamer to legit racer, Gran Turismo becomes another fact-based tale of a nobody proving to everyone — from stuck-up racing rivals to his own family — that he’s not a bum. Our protagonist mainly goes on this journey to show his disapproving, working-class, ex-footballer dad (Djimon Hounsou) that he didn’t spend his entire youth in his room figuratively and literally jerking off. (BTW, his mom is played by Geri Halliwell Horner — Ginger Spice herself!)

Once he’s at the academy, he puts up with prima donna contenders and Salter’s rigorous regimen of back-breaking training, racetrack-driving lessons and

condescending taunts. Eventually, he perseveres and works his way through various global races, where he attempts to use his sim-racing skills and tries not to kill himself or others in the process.

This underdog story has been kicking around Tinseltown for a decade; Top Gun: Maverick’s Joseph Kosinski was even once attached to direct. Eventually District 9 director Neill Blomkamp took a break from doing dystopian sci-fi flicks and went into director-for-hire mode for this one. He took the script Alex Tse (Watchmen) wrote — later rewritten and polished by Jason Hall (American Spider) and Zach Baylin (King Richard) — and made the sort of high-octane, feel-good movie that’s perfect to watch with your dad.

The drama is enveloping both on and off the track. Along with cinematographer Jacques Jouffret and editors Colby Parker, Jr. and Austyn Daines, Blomkamp serves up adrenalinepumping racing sequences that keep us enthralled, mostly because they feel authentic and not CGIed all to hell. (As

Tom Cruise now proves every summer, people still like it when actors look like they are actually doing realistic, dangerous shit in movies.)

When he’s not speeding all over the gotdamn place, Madekwe plays his reallife character with just the right amount of charismatic humility. He’s such an eccentric, baby-faced go-getter (before every race, he gets in the zone by listening to Enya and Kenny G — two artists who are on Mardenborough’s actual playlist), you can’t help but be with him every step of the way. Even Harbour’s crabby cynic takes a shine to the kid, pushing him to become the best while Bloom’s publicity-minded exec — yeah, Katy Perry’s boo is more self-absorbed than studly in this — works to make the boy a sports sensation.

Basically, Gran Turismo is the type of crowd-pleasing, fact-based sports movie Disney used to make before the uber-studio shifted its attention to Marvel, Star Wars, and other IP it can’t stop milking for all it’s worth. Although its story of a regular kid who overcomes unbeatable odds to become a competitive star has been told oodles of times before, thanks to Blomkamp and company, Gran Turismo makes all the right turns.

David Harbour (right) teaches Archie Madekwe how to take his talents from sim racing to the real deal.

SONY PICTURES

CULTURE

Savage Love

Blow Over

By Dan Savage

Q: Does your standard advice about sexless marriages extend to orally sexless marriages? My wife and I have been together for a couple decades. We met in our late teens, and we are each other’s first and only sexual partners. Oral sex used to be a regular part of our sex life, for the first decade or so, but the BJ frequency has declined to once every couple of years. I’m still game to give and always offer and often go down on my wife as foreplay. But my wife is basically no longer interested in blowing me, even though she’s great at it and I love it. We have a really strong relationship but busy lives with kids and jobs, which definitely impacts her sex drive and energy. It’s not a relationship-ending thing for me, but the thought of not getting my duck sucked more than a few more times for the rest of my life, well, that fucking sucks to think about. I’ve raised it with her a number of times, but she just doesn’t think it’s important and, most frustratingly, plainly isn’t interested in trying to get interested again. We’re committed to monogamy, and outside sexual partners just wouldn’t fit in our lives. I’ve got to imagine this is pretty common. Do I just have to resign myself to a fellatio-deprived future? Or should I expect more?

—The Headless Husband

A: You can expect more from the woman you married — you can expect all the blowjobs you want — and that might be a reasonable expectation on your part, THH, considering that blowjobs were once a regular part of your marital sex life. But the woman you’re married to now doesn’t wanna suck your dick anymore and/or doesn’t wanna suck your dick more than biannually.

So, what can you do?

Well, you can do what you’re supposed to do. You can communicate your wants and needs to your wife without pressuring her to do anything she doesn’t wanna do. In other words, THH, you can soft beg your wife for oral sex without being pathetic (no one wants to suck pathetic cock) and without being coercive (no one wants to suck cock under duress, no one should want their cock sucked under duress).

But you’ve already tried that — you’ve raised the subject a number of times — and she’s given you her answer: she’s not that interested in sucking your dick anymore and she’s not interested in getting more interested again. And since your wife isn’t Magic Eight Ball, THH, you can’t just turn her over, give her a shake, and get a different answer.

You also have the option of doing what you’re not supposed to do… and I don’t have to tell you what that is. You open by asking if my “standard advice” to people in marriages that are happy but sexless or inescapable but sexless do what you need to do to stay married and stay sane — applies in cases of orally sexlessness marriages. But you close by emphasizing your commitment to monogamy before declaring outside sexual contact a bad fit. So, it really doesn’t matter if my “standard advice” for people in sexless marriages applies in a case like yours, THH… which, for the record, it doesn’t, since your marriage isn’t sexless. (Suckless ≠ sexless.)

And as much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news… based on years of listening to straight married men complain about not getting their dicks sucked and straight married women complain about being expected to suck dick… it’s highly likely blowjobs will come further and further apart, THH, and the enthusiasm with which they’re performed to diminish along with their frequency until they stop altogether.

As for how common this is…

It’s so common I honestly think it may not be realistic to expect frequent and/or enthusiastic oral sex two decades into a marriage — particularly if we’re talking about blowjobs to completion and not a little oral-asforeplay, which is all the oral your wife gets. Just as the desire for extended make-out sessions seems to fade the longer we’re with someone, the urge to inhale someone’s dick — the desire to do the hard work of getting a guy off with your mouth — seems to fade with time, too. While we can look at that drop and conclude there’s something wrong with our spouses… or something wrong with our marriages… it might be better if we accepted that enthusiastic blowjobs, like those long make-out sessions, come with NRE and fade away along with NRE.

Something else to consider: the longer you’re together, the older you get, the older you get, the longer it takes to get you off. There’s a huge difference between a ten-minute blowjob and thirty-minute blowjob — mostly for the giver. The experience of pleasure is

roughly the same for the receiver, but the effort required to suck off a man in his forties is exponentially greater than the effort required to suck off a man in his twenties. A man might not realize it’s taking him a lot longer to come from oral as he ages, but the person who blows him is painfully aware of that fact — and may be understandably hesitant to initiate blowjobs when “to completion” is the expectation.

Another thing to consider: If you only go down on your wife as foreplay before pivoting to PIV… you’re probably getting off each time you two have sex. If your wife isn’t getting off every time or as often as she would like (not everyone needs or wants to get off every time), she may resent you for ignoring her basic needs and not feel particularly motivated to meet your extra-credit needs.

Anyway, THH, the right thing to do is to soft beg your wife for more frequent oral — and you’re likelier to get oral more frequently if you’re as willing to accept oral-as-foreplay as she seems to be and if you’re making sure sex is as pleasurable for her as it is for you. And when you do want a blowjob to completion, you’re likelier to get one of those in your forties if you’re willing to help get yourself there, i.e., if you’re willing to work in a little self-stroking to give her breaks and get yourself closer. And just so we’re clear: my standard advice for sexless marriages doesn’t apply in cases like yours, THH, as your marriage isn’t sexless, just suckless.

Dear Readers: I asked the married straight women who follow me on Twitter and Threads why they weren’t sucking their husbands’ dicks anymore. Obvious answers poured in — oral wasn’t reciprocated, poor personal hygiene, no longer in love, guilty admissions that sucking dick was a strategy — so I rephrased the question and asked again. I wanted to hear from women who 1. still loved their husbands and 2. used to love sucking cock and 3. no longer sucked cock to explain what changed. Here are a few of their letters…

My husband and I have been together for twelve years. We have a loving relationship and I’m not looking to go anywhere but have to admit that I would be a bit more excited to suck some new-to-me dick. I’d also wager there’s some fucked up purity culture fallout involved — I was raised in the church and tend to fantasize about the forbidden, and there’s nothing forbidden about sex with your husband.

Blowjobs are fantastic. I love giving them — but at this point, I’d rather give a stranger a blowjob than my husband. I don’t think there is any issue with the act, but with all the cultural bullshit women are exhausted by — blowjobs are something men feel entitled to, yet another act of service women are expected to perform. In reality, a married woman’s entire day is an act of service. I do all of the emotional labor and take on the entire mental load of running a family and household, all while also having a full-time job. I miss giving blow jobs for fun.

My husband got a blowjob on a work trip. He doesn’t know I found out, and I don’t plan to tell him because I don’t feel betrayed. I feel relieved. But I think he would be upset to learn that I’m not upset. I love him (very much!) and I want him to be happy (and I make him happy in lots of ways!), but I don’t want his penis in my face ever again. Knowing he got a blowjob and could get another sometime makes me feel less guilty. But since I want this to be a very rare thing, I think it’s better he doesn’t know that I know and certainly not that I approve. We still have good and frequent PIV and use toys. Still fantasize about performing oral sex on a man, but it’s never my husband in my fantasies.

I love my husband. We’ve been married for a decade, we have two children, and I actually think we are having the best sex of our married lives now. We’ve actually been getting kinkier and more adventurous as we get older. That said, I do not like giving head anymore, not at all. And I know I’m not alone, since many of my married girlfriends have told me they feel the same way. It’s hard to find an angle that doesn’t pinch my neck or hurt my knees, and it’s not fun to be reminded that your body has gotten older and creakier in the middle of sex. And since it’s not very fun for me, I don’t think it’s fun for my husband. Maybe head is just a young person’s game.

My relationship to the almighty BJ has changed. The hubs and I have been married for fifteen years in October. I’m in my late 30s and he’s in his early 40s, and we have four awesome kids. To be honest, I’ve used to enjoy giving head...

Read the full colun at Savage.Love.

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

CULTURE Free Will Astrology

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

Climate change is dramatically altering the Earth. People born today will experience three times as many floods and droughts as someone born in 1960, as well as seven times more heat waves. In urgent efforts to find a cure, scientists are generating outlandish proposals: planting mechanical trees, creating undersea walls to protect melting glaciers from warm ocean water, dimming the sun with airborne calcium carbonate, and covering Arctic ice with a layer of glass. In this spirit, I encourage you to incite unruly and even unorthodox brainstorms to solve your personal dilemmas. Be wildly inventive and creative.

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

“When love is not madness, it is not love,” wrote Spanish author Pedro Calderon de la Barca. In my opinion, that’s naive, melodramatic nonsense! I will forgive him for his ignorance, since he worked as a soldier and celibate priest in the 17th century. The truth is that yes, love should have a touch of madness. But when it has more than a touch, it’s usually a fake kind of love: rooted in

misunderstanding, immaturity, selfishness, and lack of emotional intelligence. In accordance with astrological factors, I assign you Tauruses to be dynamic practitioners of genuine togetherness in the coming months: with hints of madness and wildness, yes, but mostly big helpings of mutual respect, smart compassion, tender care, and a knack for dealing maturely with disagreements.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

Gemini author Iain S. Thomas writes, “There are two things everyone has. One is The Great Sadness and the other is How Weird I Really Am. But only some of us are brave enough to talk about them.” The coming weeks will be a favorable time to ripen your relationship with these two things, Gemini. You will have the extra gravitas necessary to understand how vital they are to your full humanity. You can also express and discuss them in meaningful ways with the people you trust.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

A self-fulfilling prophecy happens when the expectations we embrace actually come to pass. We cling so devotedly to a belief about what will occur that we help generate its literal manifestation. This can be unfortunate if the anticipated outcome isn’t good for us. But it can be fortunate if the future we visualize upgrades our well-being. I invite you to ruminate on the negative and positive projections you’re now harboring. Then shed the former and reinforce the latter.

LEO: July 23 – August 22

The holy book of the Zoroastrian religion describes a mythical mountain, Hara Berezaiti. It’s the geographic center of the universe. The sun hides behind it at night. Stars and planets revolve around it. All the world’s waters originate at its peak. Hara Berezaiti is so luminous and holy that no darkness can survive there, nor can the false gods abide. I would love for you to have your own version of Hara Berezaiti, Leo: a shining source of beauty and strength in your inner landscape. I invite you to use your imagination to create this sanctuary within you. Picture yourself having exciting, healing adventures there. Give it a name you love. Call on its invigorating presence when you need a sacred boost.

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

Virgo journalist Anthony Loyd has spent a lot of time in war zones, so it’s no surprise he has bleak views about human nature. He makes the following assertion: “We think we have

JAMES NOELLERT

freedom of choice, but really most of our actions are puny meanderings in the prison yard built by history and early experience.” I agree that our conditioning and routines prevent us from being fully liberated. But most of us have some capacity for responding to the raw truth of the moment and are not utterly bound by the habits of the past. At our worst, we have 20% access to freedom of choice. At our best, we have 70%. I believe you will be near the 70% levels in the coming weeks, dear Virgo.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

Libra poet T. S. Eliot wrote the iconic narrative poem “The Wasteland.” One part of the story takes place in a bar near closing time. Several times, the bartender calls out, “Hurry up, please — it’s time.” He wants the customers to finish their drinks and leave for the night. Now imagine I’m that bartender standing near you. I’m telling you, “Hurry up, please — it’s time.” What I mean is that you are in the climactic phase of your astrological cycle. You need to finish this chapter of your life story so you can move on to the next one. “Hurry up, please — it’s time” means you have a sacred duty to resolve, as best you can, every lingering confusion and mystery.

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21

Addressing a lover, Scorpio poet Margaret Atwood says, “I would like to walk with you through that lucent wavering forest of bluegreen leaves with its watery sun & three moons, towards the cave where you must descend, towards your worst fear.” That is a bold declaration. Have you ever summoned such a deep devotion for a loved one? You will have more power and skill than usual to do that in the coming months. Whether you want to or not is a different question. But yes, you will be connected to dynamic magic that will make you a brave and valuable ally.

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

Sagittarian theologian N. T. Wright writes, “The great challenge to self-knowledge is blind attachment to our virtues. It is hard to criticize what we think are our virtues. Although the spirit languishes without ideals, idealism can be the greatest danger.”

By Rob Brezsny

In my view, that statement formulates a central Sagittarian challenge. On the one hand, you need to cultivate high ideals if you want to be exquisitely yourself. On the other hand, you must ensure your high ideals don’t become weapons you use to manipulate and harass others. Author Howard Bloom adds more. “Watch out for the dark side of your own idealism and of your moral sense,” he writes. “Both come from our arsenal of natural instincts. And both easily degenerate into an excuse for attacks on others.” Now is a good time for you to ponder these issues.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

Capricorn playwright and novelist Rose Franken said, “Anyone can be passionate, but it takes real lovers to be silly.” That’s interesting, because many traditional astrologers say that Capricorns are the least likely zodiac sign to be silly. Speaking from personal experience, though, I have known members of your tribe to be goofy, nutty, and silly when they feel comfortably in love. An old Capricorn girlfriend of mine delighted in playing and having wicked good fun. Wherever you rank in the annals of wacky Capricorns, I hope you will consider expressing these qualities in the coming weeks. Romance and intimacy will thrive if you do.

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

As I work on writing new books, I often draw on inspirations that flow through me as I take long hikes. The vigorous exercise shakes loose visions and ideas that are not accessible as I sit in front of my computer. Aquarian novelist Charles Dickens was an adherent of this approach. At night, he liked to walk around London for miles, marveling at the story ideas that welled up in him. I recommend our strategy to you in the coming weeks, Aquarius. As you move your body, key revelations and enriching emotions will well up in you.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

The coming months will be an excellent time to build, discover, and use metaphorical bridges. To get in the mood, brainstorm about every type of bridge you might need. How about a connecting link between your past and future? How about a nexus between a task you must do and a task you love to do? And maybe a conduit between two groups of allies that would then serve you even better than they already do? Your homework is to fantasize about three more exciting junctions, combinations, or couplings.

Homework: Do you have the power and know-how to offer beautiful forms of love?

Hey Folks!! The carnival is in town! Stop by for an ice cold beer between sets… and remember, the sweat of the worker makes the dream a reality. Happy Labor Day.

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BCI Walk In Tubs are now on SALE! Be one of the first 50 callers and save $1,500! CALL 844-514-0123 for a free in-home consultation.

AUTOMOTIVE CARS FOR KIDS

DONATIONS

DONATE YOUR VEHICLE to fund the search for missing children. FAST FREE PICKUP. 24 hour response. Running or not.

Maximum Tax Deduction and No Emission Test Required! Call 24/7: 877-266-0681.

HOME IMPROVEMENT

GUTTER

GUARDS AND REPLACEMENT

GUTTERS INBOUND

Never clean your gutters again! Affordable, professionally installed gutter guards protect your gutters and home from debris and leaves forever!

For a FREE Quote call: 844-499-0277.

ADULT

ADULT ENTERTAINMENT HIRING SEXY WOMEN!!!

Hiring sexy women (& men). Highly Paid Magazine, Web, and Movie/TV work. no experience needed, all sizes accepted. 313-289-2008.

SERVICES

WANTED

MEN’S SPORT WATCHES WANTED

Advertiser is looking to buy men’s sport watches. Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Patek Philippe, Here, Daytona, GMT, Submariner and Speedmaster. The Advertiser pays cash for qualified watches. Call 888-320-1052.

INTERNET SPECTRUM INTERNET AS LOW AS $29.99

Call to see if you qualify for ACP and free internet. No Credit Check. Call Now! 833-955-0905.

MOVING

MOVING OUT OF STATE?

Licensed and insured, fullservice, nationwide movers. Call now to get a free, instant price quote on your next move. 1-866-590-6549