Metro Times 09/20/2023

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NEWS & VIEWS

artstar!

—Damom FirstBorn, Instagram

We received comments in respons to Randiah Camille Green’s cover story about sculptor Austen Brantley in last week’s fall arts guide.

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Love this! ❤️Great article!

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Enjoy your talent & keep pushing as hard as you can- best to you!!!

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

Equestrian

center aims to serve local youth

Local nonprofit Detroit Horse Power is getting closer to its vision of establishing an equestrian center for youth within the city.

Recent fundraising efforts have executive director David Silver optimistic that the necessary funds will be secured, with plans to break ground on the $8.1 million, 14-acre facility within the next year.

The equestrian center plans to serve hundreds of Detroit youth through focused programs, with the long-term goal of ensuring that every student in Detroit Public Schools has the opportunity to interact with horses at some point in their educational experience.

‘However long it takes,’ longtime Ford worker says of the UAW strike

As the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against the Detroit Three enters its fourth day, workers say that they are in it “for the long haul.”

Samantha Litton of Taylor has worked at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant for three years.

“It shouldn’t take eight years to get top pay,” Litton told the Advance on Monday.

The UAW represents about 150,000 members across the country. For the first time in the union’s 88-year history, all three Detroit automakers — Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors — are the strike targets.

The union has three initial strike targets: Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant, GM’s Wentzville plant in Missouri, and Stellantis’ Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio.

The labor union is fighting for increased wages, a 32-hour work week, and better pension benefits, among other issues such as an end to tiered compensation between workers with

different lengths of service.

Darnell Littleton and Edgar Litton, Samantha Litton’s father, are both Ford Michigan Assembly Plant workers for decades who also were on the picket line Monday morning. One of their concerns is that UAW members have a two-tier compensation system that offers vastly different pay and benefits between workers based on their lengths of service. UAW members say tiered compensation hurts workplace morale and cripples their union.

“We are in it for the long haul,” said Edgar Litton of Taylor, who has nearly 35 years of work experience at the plant. “However long it takes.”

Ford faces another strike in North America. The company’s contract with Unifor, a trade union representing Canadian autoworkers, expires Monday night.

A number of state and national politicians have come out to support union workers, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Gov. Gretchen

Whitmer, U.S Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), U.S. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.), and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.).

Meanwhile, UAW Local 2500 members who work at Blue Cross Blue Shield in various positions, including the company’s customer service call center department, seemed resolute in their decision last week to go on strike.

“We are asking for increases in wages and how long it takes for a new-hire employee to go to max pay,” Derrick Jackson, UAW Local 2500 vice president, who represents about 600 members, speaking with the Advance on Thursday in downtown Detroit. “You can be an employee for 15 and 20 years and not get max pay.”

Jackson also said that job outsourcing outside and Michigan, and in some cases the United States, has reduced the number of his union workers.

—Ken Coleman, Michigan Advance

“There is a growing body of research showing that for young people, animal-assisted activities like working with horses have physical and mental benefits, including the growth of social-emotional skills,” Silver said in a press release. “We know that students with greater social-emotional competencies are more likely to graduate from high school, graduate from college, and persist in their chosen career paths.”

Currently, Detroit Horse Power caters to approximately 100 youth aged 11-18 annually, providing them with school-year and summer programs that involve traveling to supportive stables as far as Davisburg and East Lansing, while utilizing classroom and administrative space on the Marygrove campus. With the establishment of a dedicated facility, the organization aims to impact a significantly larger number of local youth, potentially offering horse-related experiences to ten times as many individuals as they do now.

The organization maintains an extensive waiting list and hopes that the center will make horses more accessible.

“Having consistent exposure to the same horses and greater involvement with their care takes the rider-horse bonds and their benefits to an all-together higher level,” Silver said. “Opening this new facility will mean horses play a far greater role in our student’s lives, at a space our students can count on and where they can take ownership. We are building an asset for the community and a launching pad for students to have successful futures.”

The forthcoming Detroit equestrian

Samantha Litton of Taylor has worked at the Ford Michigan Assembly Plant for three years. KEN COLEMAN, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

center, modeled after similar facilities in Los Angeles and Philadelphia but on a larger scale, will include classrooms, administrative spaces, an indoor arena with bleachers, multiple outdoor riding areas, and paddocks for horses to graze.

It will be situated on vacant land leased from the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) at the former Paul Robeson Academy location, which was demolished more than a decade ago following a fire. The site is located near Fenkell and Linwood, close to the Focus: HOPE campus in the Hope Village neighborhood.

Community members in the neighborhood are enthusiastic about the area’s development.

“From the very beginning, Detroit Horse Power has been deliberate about actively engaging the residents

in Hope Village,” Jeffrey Jones, Hope Village Revitalization CDC’s executive director, said in the release. “Over the years, the neighborhood feels like real partners with DHP in this endeavor. Hope Village is excited to see this new facility open because it represents a transformational investment in our community that will impact generations of kids across the region.”

Growing up in the affluent suburbs of New York City, Silver saw how such opportunities like this could benefit communities and young lives and wanted to level the playing field for Detroit’s youth

“Looking back, it’s crystal clear to me that horses shaped me into the person I am today,” Silver said. “We say that equestrian training builds PERCS – perseverance, empathy, responsible

risk-taking, confidence, and selfcontrol.”

Having made the long treks to Detroit Horse Power’s partner stables in the program themselves, Cass Tech senior Le’Airra Jones and organization alum DaVion Sherman expressed that they believe having the center in the community could be a life-changing experience for many people of Detroit, as it was to them.

“We have significant fundraising yet to do, but we have momentum now,” Silver said. “We invite any individuals or organizations who want to contribute to youth opportunity and community revitalization to join us.”

More about the planned equestrian center is available at detroithorsepower.org.

—Layla McMurtrie

Activist files lawsuit to force Trump off the ballot in Michigan

Prominent civic crusader

Robert Davis filed a lawsuit Friday afternoon to force Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot in Michigan on the grounds that the former president violated the U.S. Constitution by engaging in an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

The lawsuit in the Michigan Court of Claims comes three days after Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson declined Davis’s request to remove Trump from the primary election ballot, arguing she didn’t have the authority to do so.

In his lawsuit, first obtained by Metro Times, Davis contends Benson is “constitutionally obligated to determine whether a presidential candidate is eligible” to run for office.

“I think this is an open-and-shut case,” Davis tells Metro Times. “What I’m asking is for the court to require her to do her job. She is trying to sidestep the issue because she’s afraid of Trump and his supporters. This will make her do her job and not throw it off to the judiciary. She wanted the job, and now she has to make the hard decision. If she is afraid to make a tough decision, then she needs to reign.”

Davis argues that Trump is ineligible to serve another term because Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prevents those who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against the U.S. from holding office.

He says Michigan election law clearly requires the secretary of state to determine a candidate’s eligibility.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in Florida, Colorado, and Minnesota.

Without offering her opinion on Trump’s eligibility, Benson said in a letter to Davis Tuesday that she lacks the

Updated COVID-19 vaccines available

An updated vaccine formulated to protect against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 will be available starting this week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said Thursday.

The news comes as COVID cases have ticked upwards in the U.S. in recent weeks, and days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the new vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. MDHHS recommends the vaccination for everyone 6 months and older, regardless if they were previously vaccinated.

authority to remove the former president from the ballot.

“Under the Election Law, the Legislature did not expressly authorize the Secretary of State to make eligibility determinations as to whether a candidate for president is ‘disqualified under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution,’” the letter states. “Accordingly, even assuming the request meets the requirements of Section 63, the Bureau declines to issue a declaratory ruling,” she added, referring to Michigan’s Administrative Procedures Act.

Benson’s office has declined to comment on her decision, but in a column for The Washington Post on Wednesday, she argued that too many legal questions remain unanswered, and therefore, the decision on Trump’s eligibility should be determined by the courts.

“The appropriate forum for deciding whether a candidate qualifies to serve in office under the Constitution is the courts — and, in a case with national implications such as this one, the Supreme Court,” Benson wrote. “Though it would be best for the country if that resolution came soon, it’s not a given that the court will pronounce on it before the 2024 primary season ends.”

Citing the findings of the House Jan. 6 select committee and the opinions of “well-esteemed, respected” legal scholars, Davis says it’s clear that Trump violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

“The oath office in which Benson took requires her to uphold the United States Constitution,” Davis says. “She has a

clear constitutional, legal duty to make a determination as to whether a presidential candidate has satisfied the eligibility requirements set forth in the United States Constitution.”

In his lawsuit, Davis also takes aim at Michigan’s new primary election date. On Feb. 1, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill that moves the primary election from March 12, 2024, to Feb. 27, 2024.

But Public Act 2, which changed the date of the election, does not become effective until the 91st day after the adjournment of the 2023 legislative session, Davis says. Since the state Senate and House don’t plan to adjourn until mid- to late-December, 91 days won’t pass before the primary election date of Feb. 27. Therefore, Davis argues, Benson cannot hold the primary election in February.

Benson “does not have the constitutional nor statutory legal authority to enforce a law that has NOT become operational in accordance with the” Michigan Constitution, the lawsuit states.

Davis says the issue is important because he claims Benson is sowing distrust by abusing her legal authority.

“She is failing to follow the law for political purposes, and this has to stop,” Davis says. “This is what gives Trump and his radical supporters ammunition to challenge the validity of the elections here in the state of Michigan when you have a secretary of state deliberately not following the law, all for political purposes.”

Benson’s office declined to comment for this story because officials have not yet seen the lawsuit.

—Steve Neavling

They are tailored to protect against the XBB.1.5 subvariant of the virus, which has been found to be the most transmissible variant yet and has been nicknamed “the Kraken” after the mythical sea beast. Despite the scary name, COVID infections appear to be becoming less severe over time.

Still, COVID hospitalizations and deaths are rising, though the numbers are relatively low. Officials hope that COVID will become something like the flu, and are encouraging people to get vaccinated for COVID annually the way many people get flu shots in the fall and winter.

“Updated COVID-19 vaccines are going to be the way we protect ourselves and our loved ones each fall and winter virus season,” MDHHS chief medical executive Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian said in a statement. “It is important to make sure our families are up-to-date on all routine vaccines to prevent the spread of severe illness and disease. Now is a great time to check with your health care provider to make sure you are up-to-date on all your vaccines.”

Most Michigan residents can still get a COVID-19 vaccine for free, and residents who don’t have health insurance or health plans that cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccinations can reach out to a health care provider or local pharmacy participating in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Bridge Access Program, their local health department, or see vaccines.gov for additional information. There is also a Vaccines for Children program for eligible youth.

More information is available at michigan.gov/COVIDvaccine.

—Lee DeVito

Whatcha Wanna Eat is Detroit’s first inner-city food hall full of minority-owned businesseses

Detroit’s new Whatcha

Wanna Eat Food Hall is packed on a Thursday afternoon. Lines of people crowd the walkways and indecisive diners inch their way through, squinting at menus on the wall, spoiled with, perhaps, too much choice. Rows of people stand against mural-covered walls and get cake slices from the sweets shop while they wait for their hibachi plates and tacos to be ready elsewhere.

This is Detroit’s first inner-city food hall, and all nine businesses inside are minority-owned. It’s located at 10625 West McNichols Rd., just had a grand opening on Sept. 8, and has already proved to be extremely popular.

It took Bobby and Gena Bailey two years to bring the food hall to life, but they’ve been in the food business for over 30 years, including owning Detroit’s tricked-out potato place Spud Headz. All of the businesses inside

Whatcha Wanna Eat Food Hall are either first-time ventures for budding entrepreneurs, or food trucks that finally have a physical space.

They are Heavenly Chicken and Waffles, Delectabowl, Your Perfect Blend, Wing Fellas, Crazy Burgers, Poon’s Hibachi Grill, Borderline Tacos, Detroit Wild Pit, and Life is Sweetz.

Crazy Burgers serves up thick burgers with toppings like mozzarella sticks

and Detroit Wild Pit brings the BBQ. Your Perfect Blend balances it out with smoothies, raw juices, and acai bowls.

“Getting businesses that are already established would have been kinda boring,” Bobby tells Metro Times. “We wanted to give the city something new. A lot of these cooks, I call them ‘social media cooks.’ I see them post all the time, they’re cooking at their home. They’ve got great ideas, they just didn’t have a platform to show it. I wanted to put them in a licensed kitchen so they can get big catering contracts and grow their business.”

Gena adds, “To open a restaurant would be over $140,000. Some people don’t have that. So my husband built this out and gave them the opportunity to have their own restaurant without a brick and mortar.”

“I look at them and I see myself,” Bobby says about the restaurants. “I’ve been cooking in the food industry now for 30 years so I just wanted to give back.”

Spud Headz, is down McNichols (or Six Mile as real Detroiters call it) about five minutes away. Bobby grew up in this neighborhood and wanted to bring something nice to the area instead of opening downtown.

“This community has always showed me love for 20 years, so I said I’m gonna

do it right here where I know people will appreciate it,” he says. “When you think of Six Mile, I want you to think of food. There are a lot of good restaurants over here.”

Before turning the space into a food hall, Bobby operated it as an event venue for over 20 years. When the hair salon next door closed, he bought that building, tore down the wall, and went to work on Whatcha Wanna Eat.

TikTok food reviewer Keith Lee (who’s from Detroit) tried the most popular items from each of the restaurants in Whatcha Wanna Eat on a recent visit. He rated the waffle bite bowl — pieces of a fluffy Belgian waffle topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and caramel drizzle — an 8.5 out of 10.

Alexis Bailey, the owners’ daughter who runs the sweets shop, wasn’t there during Lee’s visit, but Gena was. She didn’t know who the TikToker was but was shook when he left a $200 tip and an additional $200 to pay for the people in line at each restaurant.

Gena was the one who recommended the waffle bites to Lee’s sister, who ordered the food so he could remain anonymous.

“When she came back, I’m like ‘Hey girl, you’re back for more!’ and she’s like ‘I’m here to bring you Keith,’” Gena says. “That was a blessing. He did not

have to do that. We are very, very, very grateful. He put it on Instagram and it blew up.”

Alexis, a culinary school graduate who makes most of the sweets herself, has been working at Spud Headz with her dad since she was 13, but this is her first time running her own business.

Menu items at Life is Sweetz have kitschy names like “Shake What Ya Mamma Gave Ya” for milkshakes, “You Got Served” for soft serve ice cream, and “Brown Knee” instead of brownies.

“I didn’t even realize the impact of it until we opened and someone told us, we’re really the first inner-city food hall, especially one that’s all minorityowned. It’s really dope,” she says. “My dad’s always been an innovator… I think this is what he’s really been going for the whole time. I’m so proud of my dad.”

She adds, “I’m the only one with something sweet in this place, so you’ve gotta come to me when you come here.”

In his TikTok, Lee blasted local media saying “there were no news or media outlets” at Whatcha Wanna Eat’s grand opening. Gena says, however, that the couple chose not to contact the media because they wanted to focus on finally opening the doors and getting the businesses settled after waiting two years.

“We were supposed to open up before but it took us so long to get our paperwork, to get so many inspections done, to deal with DTE. [Bobby] was just so stressed out, he didn’t have time to go to the media,” she says. “And that wasn’t his biggest thing, anyway. He literally just wanted to open the doors.”

It’s been a long road for the Baileys who funded the place entirely by themselves. Gena says they only asked for help from the City of Detroit in fixing the busted sidewalk in front of the building. They were told there was a five-year wait, so Bobby hired someone to lay the concrete so they didn’t have to keep waiting.

“But we are finally here and since September 8, we have not had a slowdown day,” she says. “We’re there every day. I help my step daughter with Life is Sweetz and my husband is in the kitchen with Detroit Wild Pit.”

The businesses all have one-year leases with Whatcha Wanna Eat, and Gena hopes they will continue to thrive long past that.

There are a few counters and chairs inside the food hall, but it’s most suited for takeout.

“My wife and I are always asking each other what you wanna eat, so here we can just come and go in opposite directions and find something good,” he says.

—Randiah Camille Green

A crowd of people wait for their food from Poon’s Hibachi.

RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

Lapointe

Is MSU football coach Mel Tucker the real victim here?

Even if Mel Tucker forced phone sex on that rape counselor, she has no right to complain. No, the real victim here is Tucker himself, the suspended football coach at Michigan State University.

This opinion may be rare in the Great Lakes State. But you could hear it loudly and clearly last week on 910AM Superstation, Detroit’s newest and most strident “conservative” media outlet. Also known as WFDF, it plans to out-shout WJR (760-AM) on local radio’s right wing.

For instance:

After bragging that billboards around the Motor City are promoting himself and his partner, Buck Sexton, afternoon co-host Clay Travis this week defended Coach Tucker, who could lose more than $80 million if his university fires him from his long-term contract after disciplinary hearings in October.

“He says she enjoyed it,” said Travis, speaking of the sex talk, which both sides acknowledge. “I think she liked it. She turned him in. She claims she panicked and couldn’t hang up the phone . . . It’s a total sham.”

Travis didn’t mention that the alleged victim – Brenda Tracy – said she was gang-raped by athletes while in college and uses that as the basis for her campus cause. And he barely mentioned that she’d lectured the Spartans and other athletes about boundaries for sexual behavior. He downplayed the coach’s masturbation.

By Joe Lapointe

Instead, Travis said, Tracy ratted out Tucker because Tucker didn’t invite her back to his East Lansing campus for another paid speaking engagement. According to Travis, Tracy and Tucker had 27 different phone conversations that averaged 30 minutes each.

Travis cited no source for this. He said allegations against Tucker will not be contested by most reporters and commentators in the news media because they are too intimidated by “Me Too” allegations of sexual abuse from women.

Although they spoke of this Michigan issue last week, the Travis & Sexton show (noon to 3 p.m.) is nationally syndicated, as are most of 910AM’s hosts. The station switched format two weeks ago after a brief summer fling with syndicated sports, which replaced Black talk and “urban” issues programming.

It will take a lot to challenge WJR, the haughty “Hate Voice of the Great Lakes,” a passive-aggressive propaganda fountain where the major question every day seems to be “Is this news good for the Republican Party or is it bad for the Republican Party?”

But owner Kevin Adell of WFDF said WJR made a major mistake by jettisoning syndicated programming like Dan Bongino and replacing it with local hosts, at least from morning through evening.

“It’s a great station,” Adell said of WJR. But he also said he wants 910AM

to be a top ten station, the way WJR used to be. “They went down,” Adell said. “Now they’re a top 17 . . . They’re not really conservative. They changed their format. They went more to middle-of-the road.”

Due to that tone shift, he said, 910AM will fill a void with proven, right-wing audience grabbers like Glenn Beck (9 a.m-noon), Sean Hannity (3-6 p.m.), and Bill O’Reilly (9-10 p.m.).

Between Hannity and O’Reilly comes Jesse Kelly (6-9 p.m.), who blends grievance and paranoia with the polished elan of a man hearing voices in his head and talking in tongues.

He said the female “nutball governor of New Mexico” – seeking to ban guns in Albuquerque – would have “triggered a lynch mob” in the era of the Founding Fathers. He said “liberal white women are the most evil creatures on the planet.”

He also said imprisoning Jan. 6 rioters is “a disgusting injustice.” In one of his most famous quotes, Kelly – a former Marine and a veteran of the Iraq war — explained to Carlson on Fox News Channel how soldiers should think.

“We need a military full of Type A men who want to sit on a throne of Chinese skulls,” Kelly told Carlson.

Last week, Kelly teased a random story with “Why are there drag queens in Oklahoma?” and said liberals “Cook up a bunch of race crimes that don’t really exist in America.” (All hosts on

910AM appear to be white males).

By contrast, WJR’s most extreme host is the syndicated fire-breather Mark Levin, who still rants on weeknights against President Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal. Perhaps WJR should just run recordings of Father Charles Coughlin, the “Radio Priest” from metro Detroit whose hate-radio DNA lives on a century later in the “Golden Tower of the Fisher Building.”

Curiously, 910AM offers only one local show on weekdays, hosted from 6 a.m. until 9 a.m. by Justin Barclay, most recently with WOOD in Grand Rapids. Adell said Barclay will continue broadcasting from West Michigan for now and will be the only “local” show.

Last week’s editions of the morning show included Barclay’s imitation of Dr. Anthony Fauci (“I’m as giddy as a school girl” over the new COVID vaccine); a long audio clip of a Tucker Carlson speech in suburban Detroit; sound effects and other “shock jock” noise gimmicks; and a long interview with Pastor Ralph Rebandt, who ran for governor of Michigan as a Republican last election and said he reads the New York Times and the Bible every day to see who is winning.

“Satan is deceptive and smart,” the preacher told the 910AM audience.

A regular guest who also files news reports to the Barclay show is Henry Payne, an automotive reporter for the Detroit News. Payne assessed the transition away from gasoline-powered cars and their political ramifications.

“The Democratic Party and the Environmental Protection Agency want to turn the automobile industry into a utility,” Payne said. “The Democratic Party has been taken over by a religious cult.”

Speaking of religious cults, host Barclay steered a different conversation about abortion funding into a pianobacked parody of a “Pure Michigan” commercial. He attacked Governor Gretchen Whitmer (the “Wolverine Queen”) for supporting a woman’s right to choose.

“You can kill your baby on demand,” he said. “Come to Michigan, where the lakes are great and you can kill your baby at any time. Stop at Dr. Death’s office. Let your freak flag fly. Pure Michigan.”

Others could share the “Pure Michigan” sarcasm by saying the slogan should include suspensions of football coaches at both Big Ten schools, declining population, timid and disappearing news media, falling test scores for school kids, and a dangerously deteriorating infrastructure. Oh, and what about those damn roads? Choose your side, choose your station; there’s lots to talk about.

Detroit’s newly conservative talk radio station 910AM rebuts allegations of sexual harassment against MSU’s Mel Tucker. ZUMA PRESS, INC. / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

It came to him on a psilocybin mushroom journey. Shaman Shu was told that he would open a church, to spread the gospel of healing in Detroit. He had never been to Bushnell Congregational Church on the city’s west side before purchasing it. But as he explored the chapels and community rooms of the 60,000-square-foot campus, he came to understand it was meant to be.

Shu leads us down a long hallway inside the empty church to a room with a picture of revered Detroit psilocybin teacher Kilindi Iyi on the wall. Pictures of an anthropomorphic mushroom and his wife Ayana Iyi riding a boat on a purple sea, a mountain of crystals in the background, are taped below it. Kilindi and Ayana are the hosts of the Detroit Psychedelic Conference, with Ayana leading the charge after Kilindi’s death in 2020.

“This building called me, in the spiritual realm, to it,” Shu says, pointing to the photos. He says he did not know Kilindi personally but was familiar with his work. “This was in this building before I actually had access to it. I show up in here and I’m like, wait a minute, there’s a mushroom that’s here.”

Shu is setting up his Soul Tribes International ministry inside the long-vacant complex at 15000 Southfield Freeway. Here, psilocybin mushrooms are the congregation’s holy sacrament — along with other naturally occurring “entheogenic” or psychoactive fungi and plants.

“Our whole ministry is based upon healing,” he says. “So whether you’re Muslim or Christian, or Buddhist, whatever you believe, we believe in healing. This ministry is all about, I like to call it, the ‘Michael

Jackson’ — seeing yourself and starting with the man, or woman, in the mirror.”

Shu purchased the church three months ago and has big plans to host psilocybin, ayahuasca, and iboga ceremonies on its grounds. He also wants it to be a retreat center for yoga, meditation, and breathwork, with saunas and cold rooms onsite. It’s the first psychedelic church of its kind in Michigan and, perhaps, the largest in the country.

When we’re introduced to Shaman Shu via email, we imagine a Peruvian healer dressed in a traditional chullo hat and poncho, but when we arrive, we’re greeted by a born and raised Detroiter wearing a baseball cap with “Soul Tribes” written across the front. He wears a necklace of gemstones in rainbow colors for the seven chakras, mirroring the “Chakras Knowledge” diagrams hanging in the building’s mushroom dispensary — or “sacrament center,” he corrects us gently.

Shu intends for the church to be fully operational by November, but Soul Tribe’s sacrament center — where they sell dried psilocybin, capsules, gummies, and, eventually, mushroom-infused chocolate made in-house — opened over Labor Day weekend. All the products are from mushrooms Shu grows himself.

Tapestries depicting Egyptian deities and a slug crawling through a field of mushrooms against a starry sky cover the walls. Shu hands us a packet of magic mushroom gummies branded “Wakanda Blue,” with a cartoon of the superhero character Black Panther on it. A stack of fliers for the shop reads, “WE GOT SHROOMS! Join the Tribe.”

The church is legally protected under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to sell mushrooms and host psilocybin ceremonies.

“We have a right to our sacrament. We have a right to our belief system,” Shu says. “We’re a small indigenous belief system that believes we can heal the world with these techniques and our plants. You become a member of our church, just like you would any church, temple, or mosque. We’re no different.”

Becoming a member of Soul Tribes gives people access to all of the classes, retreats, and ceremonies Shu is planning to host there.

Shu is also behind Proposal E, which Detroit voters approved in 2021 and decriminalized entheogenic fungi and plants like psilocybin, DMT, and ayahuasca. Cities like Ann Arbor, Ferndale, and Hazel Park have also decriminalized entheogens in recent years. Indigenous cultures have used these plants in ceremony to connect with the spirit realm as far back as 1,500 BCE, but psychedelics have seen a major boost in popularity in the last few years as people begin to understand their reported mental health benefits. A psilocybin journey can range from feelings of euphoria, the horrific reliving of past trauma, visual hallucinations, and even the sensation of meeting “god.”

Shu says ayahuasca told him to write Proposal E during his first experience with the medicine on a retreat in Costa Rica two years ago.

Soul Tribes International is located in Bushnell Congregational Church on the Westside of Detroit.

COURTESY PHOTO

“I wrote the actual legislation based upon what the ancestors told me to do,” he says. “I was sitting in Costa Rica and I was like, ‘What? You want me to do, what?’ I never expected that… I hired a lawyer, hired a lobbyist. I didn’t raise any capital. I did it all myself on these shoulders because I wanted the people to have liberation. Everybody can’t afford to go to Costa Rica. I want people to have access to it in urban areas.”

Shu came back from the ayahuasca ceremony, determined to follow what his spirit guides told him, but he only had two weeks to collect enough signatures to get Proposal E on the ballot, which he did. He says the Detroit City Council didn’t believe that his signatures were legitimate and he had to threaten to sue the city before they allowed it. Detroiters voted to pass it by 61% percent.

In 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused him, along with two other business associates, of running a misleading crowdfunding campaign for a cannabis real estate company, though those charges were eventually dismissed.

“Thank God for America that we live in a system where we get second chances, and I used my second chance to turn around and heal our community,” he says about his past. “That’s what I’m doing.”

Looking back, Shu says he has been doing shamanic work his whole life. He’s a reiki master and acupuncturist who has studied breathwork and meditation extensively. He and his wife have taken over 150 people on psilocybin journeys in Detroit completely free of charge, at an undisclosed location.

Now that using entheogens as mental health therapy isn’t as underground, he wants to “bring Costa Rica to Detroit” through the church. The ceremonies won’t be free anymore, but he plans to charge around $750, which is cheap compared to psychedelic healing centers in Colorado and Oregon that charge up to $4,000.

“We’ve taken murderers through the process,” he says about the ceremonies. “We’ve taken drug addicts through this process. We’ve taken CEOs of 100- and 200-million dollar companies through this process. We’ve taken vice presidents and executives of Fortune 100 companies through this process, and they all come out in gratitude.”

He adds, “You have to look at yourself in the mirror and deal with the trauma that has been embedded. We say that all trauma is spiritual. If you go back and read the Koran and the Bible, the Upanishads, they didn’t call it trauma. They called it spirit… We’re spiritual beings rocking leather suits. Some people got light-skinned suits.

Some people got dark-skinned suits, but we’re all spiritual beings in this dimension having an experience. What the sacred plant does is it gets you out of the suit and takes you to the spiritual realm.”

The man in the mirror

Shu’s trauma came in the form of homelessness and molestation at a young age. He was born into what he called a wealthy, “Huxtable family,” but when his younger brother drowned when Shu was eight, it ripped the family apart. His father moved to Texas, leaving him and his mother homeless.

“We were squatters,” Shu remembers. “We found a house on the Eastside that was boarded up and we moved in.

All through that process, every day my mother would pray. I didn’t understand it. I was going through depression just trying to figure out our lives.”

Then, while his mother left him alone in the house, Shu was molested. Though he locked away that debilitating trauma as a child, his pain was manifesting in broken relationships and fits of anger.

“My molestation came from women. How close could I get to a woman when I was violated at a young age?” he says. “It wasn’t until COVID happened. The beginning of it made me go through a sort of rehab where I couldn’t get on a plane. I had to sit and see my ugly self during that time period. I had to face me, and let me see me in ways that I loved about

me and in ways I didn’t. And I was like, ‘I need to fix this.’ And from that point, I went right to Costa Rica.”

Initially, he went on the trip to watch over his then-girlfriend with whom he had been in a tumultuous relationship. But he says the journey split his soul wide open, forcing him to overcome what had been holding him back since he was a boy. At the end of the experience, he and his now-wife got married on the spot and decided to become facilitators of psychedelic healing.

“I wasn’t even thinking about me, but [the ayahuasca] said, ‘Gotcha. You’re supposed to be here,’” he says about that first experience. “I would have still been saying, ‘That’s for somebody else. I’m straight.’”

He clearly wasn’t “straight,” but can now look back on his life with gratitude, despite how painful his childhood was.

“I’m glad that it happened,” He says. “I went through being homeless and abandoned, and molestation because [now] I can talk to people that went through those things. I know what it’s like to be poor and I know what it’s like to be rich. I understand both aspects of

Shaman Shu wrote Prop E, which decriminalized entheogenic fungi and plants in Detroit. Now he owns the psychedelic church Soul Tribes International. RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

“It really will be a healing center. It’s not just about the mushroom. I call it the fivefold ministry — we’ll teach fire, earth, air, water, space… We’ll teach people breathwork, how to sit with a candle and meditate, and take your mind to another place."

the same coin… So there are no excuses. You can’t come to me and say, ‘Well, I’m poor, I can’t make it.’ Guess what, I know what that life looks like. You can’t tell me you’re rich and you’ve got it together.”

He adds, “My mentor was a guy who was rich. He was a billionaire and he committed suicide. And I realized one thing, I never asked him who he was,” he pauses. “All these lessons along the way brought me to where I’m at today. I am a Shaman. I am a healer. And I am a businessman.”

The experience in Costa Rica changed his life, but it was back in Detroit where he was guided to purchase the church. How he came to find Bushnell, specifically, is an unbelievable story and Shu repeatedly replies to our disbelief with “I can’t make this up.”

One night he was lying in his bed meditating after taking psilocybin to prepare for a ceremony that he and his wife were about to lead, when he says he was told by the medicine, ancestors, or whatever you want to call it, that he would get a church. Later, one of the ceremony’s participants told him, “Man, I saw you with a church. As a matter of fact, our collective friend’s father was a pastor of a church.”

Six weeks later, Shu led another journey where a second participant saw the church and told him it was Bushnell Congregational. After that, he sat with a friend, whose father happened to be a pastor at the church. He swears his friend never mentioned his father being a pastor, even though they’d known each other for 30 years. Then Shu asked about buying Bushnell.

“He said, ‘You know, I’m not really into psychedelics, but I wish my dad were here so we could see if he would be comfortable with it.’ But you just saw that picture [of Kilindi Iyi and the mushroom] in the corner,” Shu says. “It

was there when his dad was pastor.”

The final culmination was when he realized one of the teachers who taught him breathing techniques to help him climb Mount Kilimanjaro with asthma in 2013 was on the board for Bushnell Congregational. They gave Shu their blessing.

“They connected the dots that it was me who wanted to do this work here, and I’ve been doing this work in the community for years,” he remembers. “[They said], ‘We’re going to work with you.’ That’s how it happened… This is an example of a true manifestation of something that I couldn’t write the script [for]. I couldn’t write the script that there’s a mushroom in the corner of the building over there.”

So far, Shu has installed new plumbing, electricity, and a roof on the 100-yearold church, which he says had essentially been abandoned since 2015. We walk past a gym full of clothing, shoes, and small appliances that he’s getting ready to offer to people in the community in need. On the second floor, Shu shows us countless rooms, sitting empty for years, that he plans to turn into temporary housing for veterans or anyone struggling with mental health.

The church will also host classes on meditation and spirituality.

“It really will be a healing center. It’s not just about the mushroom,” he says. “I call it the fivefold ministry — we’ll teach fire, earth, air, water, space… We’ll teach people breathwork, how to sit with a candle and meditate, and take your mind to another place. We’re bringing the best minds from all over the world to teach these courses.”

The entrance to Soul Tribes’ sacrament center is located at the north end of Bushnell Congregational Church next to the Valero gas station. Just look for the parking lot sign that says “thou shalt not park here.” You totally can park in the lot, just not in that spot.

Shaman Shu (far right) and Soul Tribes staff in the sacrament center which sells capsules, psilocybin-infused gummies, and dried mushrooms. RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

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, Sept. 20

American Aquarium 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $25.

Asking Alexandria & The Hu 5:30 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $45-$75.

Bishop Briggs, MisterWives, Raffaella 6:30 pm; Majestic Theatre, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $37.50-$164.50.

Dean Lewis, Sara Kays 7 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $27.50.

Durand Bernarr, JeRonelle 7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $22.50.

John Craigie, Taylor Rae 8 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $25.

Pinkshift 6 p.m.; Pike Room, 1 S. Saginaw, Pontiac; $16.

The Waco Brothers 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

Thursday, Sept. 21

FAME ON FIRE, THE CHAOS TOUR

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

Front Line Assembly, Synthia Looper 7 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $30.

Garnet Rogers 8 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $20.

half alive, Thomas Headon 6:30 p.m.; Saint Andrew’s Hall, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $35.

Megadeth, Biohazard 8 p.m.; Caesars

Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom, 377 E. Riverside Dr., Windsor; $43-$103.

The Glorious Sons 7 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $25-$50.

Friday, Sept. 22

80s vs 90s - MEGA vs CLASS 8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20.

All Time Low, Gym Class Heroes, Grayscale, Lauran Hibberd 6 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $35-$75.

Ashnikko 8 p.m.; Royal Oak Music The-

atre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; Brass Transit (Chicago tribute band) 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $35-$69.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra Free Concert 10:45 a.m.; Greater Grace Temple, 23500 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit; no cover.

Devon Gilfillian, Oh He Dead 8 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $30.

Friday Night Live! The Firewalkers

7 p.m.; Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; no cover.

The Ghouls with Cicada, OWN, The Bores 7 p.m.; Corktown Tavern, 1716 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $5.

HUMBLE PIE - 50 Years of Smokin’

7 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $30-$200.

Mott, Motown & More: Celebrity Lip Sync Reunion Tour 7 p.m.; The Capitol Theatre, 140 E. Second St., Flint; $35 - $85.

Patrick Droney, Cecilia Castleman

7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $25.

RED NOT CHILI PEPPERS, Lou Fighters 7 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $18-$28.

Sarah and the Safe Word, Bullpup, The Picassos, The Antibuddies 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $13.

Willie Nelson’s 2023 Outlaw Music Festival tour with Willie Nelson & Family, Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros. Featuring The Wolfpack, The String Cheese Incident and Waylon Payne 5:55 p.m.; Pine Knob Music Theatre, Clarkston; $35.

Saturday, Sept. 23

97.9 WJLB Block Party featuring Ludacris, Lil Jon, and Juvenile 7 p.m.; Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill, 14900 Metropolitan Pkwy., Sterling Heights; $54-$179.50.

ANGEL OF MARS w/ SONIC SMUT

+ DJ Liz Warner (Copeland) 9 p.m.; Bowlero Lanes & Lounge, 4209 Coolidge Hwy., Royal Oak; no cover.

¡Luis R Conriquez en el Gran Jaripeo de Pontiac! 3 p.m.; Aaron Perry Park, 345 Edison St., Pontiac; $80-$400.

Brad Russell 8 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $12.

Brian Culbertson 5:30 p.m.; Detroit Masonic Temple Library, 500 Temple St, Detroit; $39-$200.

20-26, 2023 | metrotimes.com

Califone, Setting, Chad Golda 8 p.m.; Lager House, 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; $17.

Detroit Symphony Orchestra Free Concert 8 p.m.; The Hawk - Farmington Hills Community Center, 29995 Twelve Mile Road, Farmington Hills; no cover. Dvořák Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” 7 p.m.; Hill Auditorium, 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor; $25-$90.

Gino Vannelli 8 p.m.; Andiamo Celebrity Showroom, 7096 E. 14 Mile Rd., Warren; $32-$76.

Harley Poe, The Homeless Gospel Choir 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $20.

Hollywood Casino @ Greektown Present Ohio Players 8 p.m.; The Music Hall, 350 Madison Ave., Detroit; $30-$65.

Mick Flannery 8 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $20. Morris Day and the Time 8 p.m.; Sound Board, 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; $55-$68.

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils

8-10 p.m.; The Capitol Theatre, 140 E. Second St., Flint; $20-$100.

Squeeze, Psychedelic Furs 7 p.m.; The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $35-$99.50.

T Swift Dance Party with DJ Myint

9 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $10.

The Swans with Norman Westberg

8 p.m.; Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $35.

Sunday, Sept. 24

Breaking Sound Monthly Singer Songwriter Showcase Last Sunday of every month, 7-10 p.m.; New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; $15 advance, $20 door.

Noah Cyrus: The Hardest Part Tour

7 p.m.; Magic Stick, 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $29.50-$125.

Shreya Ghoshal 7 p.m.; Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; $54-$254.

The Devil Wears Prada, Fit for a King, Counterparts, Landmvrks

6 p.m.; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $29.50-$49.50.

Tom Paxton & The DonJuans 7:30 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $30.

Monday, Sept. 25

The Dinah Washington Tribute

Starring Nina Simone Neal 7-11 p.m.; Aretha’s Jazz Cafe, 350 Madison St., Detroit; $35.

Jesse Jo Stark, Rachel Bobbit

Krissy Booth 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $20. Larry & Joe 8 p.m.; The Ark, 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; $25.

Saliva, Drowning Pool, Adelita’s Way, Any Given Sin 6 p.m.; District 142, 142 Maple St., Wyandotte; $25-$35.

Satanic Planet, Thantifaxath, Sunless 7 p.m.; Sanctuary Detroit, 2932 Caniff St., Hamtramck; $20.

Tuesday, Sept. 26

Alastair Greene, Chris Antonik 7:30 p.m.; The Token Lounge, 28949 Joy Rd., Westland; $15.

Billy Talent 7 p.m.; The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; $18.

Brad Phillips 6:30-7:30 p.m.; Alpino, 1426 Bagley St., Detroit; $10.

Explosions In the Sky 7 pm; Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; $36.50-$75.

Head Automatica 7 p.m.; The Shelter, 431 E. Congress St., Detroit; $30.

THEATER

Little Caesars Arena Disney On Ice. Sept. 21-24.

Musical

Funny Girl Tuesday, Sept. 26, 8 p.m.; Fisher Theatre, 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; $35-$135.

COMEDY

Improv

Go Comedy! Improv Theater Pandemonia — The All-Star Showdown: A highly interactive improvised game show. Fridays and Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. $25.

Planet Ant Theatre Ants In The Hall present “ The Mesh Brothers Save the World.” Thursday, Sept. 21, 8-9 p.m.

Stand-up

Caesars Palace Windsor - Augustus Ballroom Andrew Schulz: The Life Tour. $38-$93. Saturday Sep. 23, 8 p.m.

Fox Theatre Katt Williams: The Dark Matter Tour. $59-$350. Friday Sep. 22, 8 p.m.

Cathedral Theatre at the Masonic Temple Anthony Jeselnik. $54. Saturday Sep. 23, 6 & 9 p.m.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle Drew Lynch. $35. Saturday Sep. 23, 3:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m.

The Independent Comedy Club at Planet Ant Eyes Up Here Comedy Show.

$20.Saturday, Sept. 23, 9-10:30 p.m.

Mark Ridley’s Comedy Castle Hypnosis Unleashed starring Kevin Lepine. $20. Tuesday, Sept. 26, 7-9 p.m.

Tangent Gallery & Hastings Street

Ballroom Tangent Tuesdays: A Comedy Showcase. $5-$10. Tuesdays, 8-11 p.m.

DANCE

Dance performance

Riverside Arts Center An exciting evening of Indian classical dance and music on Saturday, Sept. 23 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and $10 for students; rasafestival.org.

FILM

Screening

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Live in Concert. The Academy Award-winning film from Sony Pictures Animation will be accompanied by a live orchestra, band, and turntables with a scratch DJ playing music from the score and soundtrack. Joining the tour is The Broadway Sinfonietta, an all-women and majority women-of-color orchestra. Sunday, Sept. 24, 3 p.m. $89.

Detroit Film Theatre (DFT) Joyland

Saturday, Sept. 23, 3 & 7 p.m., and Sunday Sep. 24, 2 p.m. $9.50.

Flint Institute of Arts Friends of Modern Art Film Series: You Hurt My Feelings $5 for FOMA members, $6 for FIA members, and $7 for non-members. Sept. 22-24.

Film festival

Historic Redford Theatre Noir City Detroit. Sept. 22-24. See full schedule at redfordtheatre.com/events. Tickets range from $15 for multiple features to $50 for an all-access pass.

ARTS

Artist talk

Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other –Closing Panel Conversation And Reception Sonya Clark will be joined in conversation by Renée Ater, Provost Visiting Associate Professor, of Africana Studies at Brown University who contributed the essay “The Monumental Work of Sonya Clark: Community, the Everyday, and Reshaping History” to the catalog for the exhibition. The conversation will be moderated by Joey Quiñones, Cranbrook Academy of Art’s newly appointed Artist-in-Residence and Head of the Fiber Department. Free and open to the public with gallery admission. Saturday, Sept. 23, 2:30-5 p.m.; Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 N. Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills; free with Museum Admission.

Critics’ picks

Noir City

FILM: Noir City Detroit returns for its sixth year to Detroit’s iconic Redford Theatre with a focus on films from 1948 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the gritty, black-andwhite movies. All eight screenings will be hosted by Eddie Muller, a noted author, president of the Film Noir Foundation, and a leading figure in film restoration and preservation. Muller also will be signing copies of his latest book, Eddie Muller’s Noir Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the World of Film Noir, at 7 p.m. on opening night on Friday. The festival screenings begin at 8 p.m. on Friday with two 35mm presentations — John Huston’s Key Largo and Anthony Mann’s Raw Deal. Anatole Litvak’s suspenseful Sorry, Wrong Number will play on Saturday afternoon, while Saturday evening’s features are Robert Wise’s Odds Against Tomorrow and Nicholas Ray’s tender tragedy They Live by Night. The festivities will be finished off by a matinée double feature on Sunday — John Farrow’s nail-biting The Big Clock and Frank Borzage’s haunting Southern Gothic noir Moonrise. A $50 all-access pass provides entry to all eight films, a commemorative poster, and a private reception and onstage Q&A with Muller at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

—Steve Neavling

From Friday to Sunday, Sept. 22-24; Redford Theatre, 17360 Lahser Rd., Detroit; full schedule at redfordtheatre.com/events. Tickets range from $15 for multiple features to $50 for an all-access pass.

Funky Ferndale Art Fair and DIY Street Fair

ART: Ferndale is so funky that it gets two art fairs. This weekend the longstanding Funky Ferndale Art Fair and DIY Street Fair will crop up in downtown Ferndale with art vendors, live music, food, and more. DIY Street Fair is celebrating 15 years with more than 150 local vendors ranging from painters, jewelers, fashion designers, and more, along with live performances from big-name national acts like Ted Leo, Joe Hertler & the Rainbow Seekers, the Beggars, and others. Meanwhile, the Funky Ferndale Art Fair is celebrating its 19th annual fair with a juried show of some 140 artists, including the internationally renowned street chalk artist David Zinn, who will create 3D illusions out of chalk drawings, among others. In

all, the show includes artists working in every medium you can think of, including painting, sculpture, jewelry, mixed media, fiber, clay, and more. There’s even an Authors Tent featuring a dozen local authors and their books for children and young adults and an acoustic jazz stage in case the indie rock at DIY Street Fair isn’t quite your thing. —Lee

workshop, R&B yoga, and brunch, plus a separate wellness workshop for men led by Jason Mayden, Kenneth Anand, and Trevor Edwards.

—Randiah Camille Green

DeVito

From Sept. 22-24 in downtown Ferndale; see full schedules at funkyferndaleartfair.com and ferndalediy.com. No cover.

The Black Footwear Forum

FASHION: Hosted at Detroit’s HBCU Pensole Lewis College of Business & Design, the Black Footwear Forum will feature a host of panel talks and wellness events. This year’s guest speakers include costume designer Ruth Carter —who won two Academy Awards for her work on Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — and hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Caz. It opens on Thursday, with a ribbon cutting for a new studentdesigned Pepsi x Frito-Lay Refresh and Relax Lounge at Pensole Lewis College. Grandmaster Caz will give a keynote speech “Culture is Currency: Know Your Worth” on Friday, followed by a hip-hop design panel led by fashion designer April Walker. Saturday will include opening remarks from a surprise guest followed by “Black Genius Conversation” sessions with Nike executive Larry Miller. It ends on Sunday with a wellness day for women that includes a leadership

From Sept. 21-24; Pensole Lewis College of Business and Design, 200 Walker St., Detroit; full schedule at blackfootwearforum.com. No cover.

Mutt Strut

DOGS: Local nonprofit Friends for Animals of Metro Detroit is hosting the 18th annual Mutt Strut on Saturday. The dog festival and street fair will celebrate the five-year anniversary of the organization’s new facility and will feature food trucks, local exhibitors, and other family-friendly activities. The event allows local pet lovers to support Friends for Animals by registering to create a personalized fundraising page for people to donate to the organization. Anyone interested can sign up for Mutt Strut as an individual or grab some friends and join in as a team. Proceeds from this event will go toward Friends for Animals Metro Detroit’s General Operations Fund, dedicated to providing the nonprofit’s animals with the best medical care, food and love possible until their time of adoption.

—Layla McMurtrie

From 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23; MaryAnn Wright Animal Adoption and Education Center, 16121 Reckinger Rd., Dearborn. Registration is $35 per person and includes an exclusive 2023 Mutt Strut T-shirt or a suggested donation of $5.

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in Key Largo ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

MUSIC

PATIO BAR OPEN FRI-SUN THROUGH OCTOBER!

Fri 9/22

Velvet Snakes/Sick Like You/Pussy Maggot (psych garage rock/punk)

Doors@9p/$5cover

Sat 9/23

Three Spoke Wheel/Vellows/Old Mountain Acid Test (rock/grunge/honky tonk)

Doors@9p/$5cover

Sun 9/24

BACARDI HOSPITALITY PARTY

Indoor & Outdoor DJ sets/merch/free swag

Dussé, Bacardi Mango Chili & Cazadores PROMOS!

‘The Egg Hunt’ Food Truck

Doors @8pm/NO COVER Mon 9/25 FREE POOL ALL DAY

Tues 9/26 B. Y. O. R.

Bring Your Own Records (weekly)

Open Decks@9PM NO COVER IG: @byor_tuesdays_old_miami

Fri 9/29

Howdi Saloon Pres. HOWDY FEST II

feat. local and traveling bands/mechanical bull rides/square dancing/lasso/hobby horse rodeo/vendors & outfitters/screen printing/contests/LGBTQ+ inclusive event!

Doors@5p/$20 cover pre-sale tiks: eventbright.com

BBQ Whiskey/Modelo, Dickel, Bulleit & Patron Ranch Water PROMOS!

Coming Up: 9/30 My Ways/ Pete Dio/Jo Serrapere & The LaFawndas

10/6 Conor Lynch/A Go Go/Checker/The Long Stairs

10/7 BIZARRE(D12)/FoulMouth

10/13 Superdevil/I Are Citizen/Pepper and the Heavy Boys

10/14 BANGERZ & JAMZ (monthly)

10/21 Big B&The Actual Proof/Miller&The Other Sinners/Matt Bastardson

10/23 Friendship Commanders/TBA

JELLO SHOTS SPECIAL $1

WE ARE SEARCHING FOR A PERMANENT GENERAL MANAGER

Contact us: theoldmiamibarjobs@gmail.com

Local Buzz

By Broccoli and Joe Zimmer

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

A vinyl-only listening club in an urban garden: DJing with old-school vinyl and turntables comes with certain barriers to entry when compared to all of the easier-to-use digital software and gear available these days. However, if you hang around Detroit’s dance scene long enough, you’ll notice extra reverence given to those who create new soundscapes and blends using just two black, flat discs. It’s not only the technical aspect that Detroiters love about vinyl beatmatching, mixing, and scratching, but the texture, warmth, and depth that radiates from needle to speaker. The soul of vinyl is what’s appealing, and Foxglove aims to pay homage to exactly that. The new “listening garden” combines the founders’ love for dance music with urban garden design, hosting gigs in a beautiful outdoor space and garage. They hope to take the technical onus off of their selectors, inviting them to play records they typically would not in a club setting. The next opportunity to dip your toes in falls on the autumnal equinox on Friday, Sept. 22, with one of the best selectors in the city: Whodat, equally regarded for her pumping, mind-expanding house sets as she is for deep, intentional vinyl selections. Rounding out the bill is Mr. Twista,

September 20-26, 2023 | metrotimes.com

who Foxglove says is often cited as “the guy who taught [folks] how to mix records,” Hood, and RO-YO B2B goblin grrl. Tickets are $12 in advance via Resident Advisor, and more at the door on Friday. (Location to be revealed to ticket-holders the day of the event.) —Joe

A different side of Scott Grooves: While most know Scott Grooves for his singular DJ sets and fiercely independent attitude around releasing music, he does not box himself in. Simply put, he “creates things based on ideas,” and those things can take many forms, including his upcoming artwork installation this Friday. After The Dance: Art Exhibition by Scott Grooves will be hosted at Red Door Digital (7500 Oakland Ave., Detroit) on Sept. 22, featuring a music performance by experimentalist Sam Hooker. The event is totally free and a great opportunity to meet and chat with Scott, who has been charting his singular path through the Detroit arts scene over the last 30 years. You can follow Scott for frequent updates via his Bandcamp page. —Joe

Sleep Olympics celebrates a year of tastemaking: Local producer, DJ, and all around musician dream beach started his event series Sleep Olympics last September at Hamtramck’s Ghost Light. In the year since, he’s worked with close friend and collaborator Raphy to bring a broad range of musical talent to Detroit — some that audiences already know, but many that they wouldn’t know otherwise. The art of being a good show curator is strik-

ing that balance of giving people what they want, but also giving them things that they don’t know they want yet. By stacking up lineups with tried-andtrue artists mixed with newcomers as well as mainstays of the local scene, Sleep Olympics has found a formula that works, and their 1 year anniversary show this Friday is evidence of that. Headlined by Chicago footwork originator RP Boo, the lineup will also feature Chicago up-and-comer Cqqchifruit, local standout Something Blue, a live performance from Ziggy Waters, and a b2b set from residents dream beach and Raphy. Leland City Club is where you’ll find it all going down; grab your tickets via dice.fm. —Broccoli

Texture at the freshly renovated Dreamtroit space: Over the past seven years or so, Texture has been throwing some of the best dance parties in Detroit, bringing world-renowned talent to the city to play in unique spaces that are intricately designed for full aesthetic immersion. Jacob Park heads the music programming, while artist Patrick Ethen bathes the spaces in powerful displays of light, making for an experience that has gained a reputation both locally and on the world stage. This weekend, Texture is bringing Lena Willikens and Vladimir Ivkovic for a massive eight-hour back-to-back set to celebrate their latest trip around the sun, hosted at the newly refurbished Dreamtroit space. This is a party you won’t want to miss, so grab your tickets via Resident Advisor and we’ll see you on the dance floor. —Broccoli

Foxgloveis a new urban garden in Detroit.

COURTESY PHOTO

FOOD

Detroit is a town that lacks in terms of excellent high end options — they exist, but often the dishes don’t live up to the price. With that in mind, skepticism is my default mode when a new spot opens where I can drop several bills on a meal.

Basan has been serving up Asianinspired fare next to Little Caesars Arena for about a year now, in a dimly lit, contemporary space in the former Hotel Eddystone. It’s a product of the same group behind Detroit’s Grey Ghost and Second Best Bar, and the kitchen is now helmed by chef Eric Lees, who moved here from Chicago for the job.

His menu and delivery vanquished my skepticism. Basan’s busy dishes harmonize, and are texturally interesting. Japanese language holds far more descriptives for texture than English, and that seems to be reflected in many of Basan’s plates. The menu is divided into four sections — “buns,” “skewers,” “small,” and “large” — but don’t be fooled, the small is not that small, and the large is very large.

The best of the bunch was the scallop motoyaki with buttery, smoky scallops, miso mayo, lemon, smoked salt, olive oil, smoked trout roe, and garlic

A cut above

By Tom Perkins

chips. The scallops are torched on the grill, imparting even more smokiness — one of the top dishes we’ve tried this year so far.

The Thai lamb wraps came requiring some assembly with ground lamb that was pleasantly funky from the addition of “tons” of fish sauce, providing a substantial umami dose. It benefits from a purée of chopped garlic, ginger, and lemongrass, and is further enhanced with lime juice and brown sugar with pops from pickles and green onions, while the bib lettuce provides a nice crunch and backdrop.

The kung pao cauliflower comes with deep fried nuggets that are a bit sweet, savory, and a smidge sour, while the peanut adds textural and flavor depth, but it was advertised with Sichuan peppercorns that I couldn’t detect.

If I see the mouth-numbing spice on a menu, I want my mouth to tingle, like it does at Trizest in Sterling Heights.

Basan’s short list of skewers includes a smoky octopus doused in a sweet, garlicky gochujang sauce and textural contrast from fried garlic chips — if gochujang is your thing, then don’t pass on this. I preferred the chicken thigh skewer, smokey and briney after

marinating in a flavorful shio koji marinade which Lees says helps break down the meat a bit. It takes a run on the robata grill and once charred it’s slathered in a pickled plum barbecue sauce that is black pepper-forward with cardamom, star anise, and a long list of other spices, though the final effect is flavorful, not spicy. The skin is taken off, cooked to a chicharron texture before being re-added to the skewer.

Perhaps the only bummer of the meal was the hamachi kama,or yellowtail collar. It wasn’t bad, but the collar is a fatty, flavorful, slightly rich cut that’s pulled from behind the gills, and I want to savor that. Basan’s version came in a rice dish and the fish got lost in all the flavors from the orange-yuzu kosho, pickles, kimchi, carrots, citrus barbecue sauce, etc.

The bao buns were solid versions of this Chinese staple. There’s a dearth in Detroit — I go out to Ann Arbor’s Bao Boys or Slurping Turtle to itch that scratch. Basan’s is up there with the best. The twice-fried chicken is buttermilk-marinated, fried once in a batter with corn flakes, oyster crackers, and more to enhance the texture, then sits over night, then is fried again

Basan

2703 Park Ave., Detroit 313-481-2703

basandetroit.com

$6-$60

for the order and served with a simple yellow curry and pickled carrots. That thick, crunchy crag pops against the soft buns.

The pulled pork is a barbecue dish made with fermented kumquats, pickled plum barbecue sauce, and gochujang. It’s smoked then braised, leaving it super tender. Napa cabbage and fried potato sticks provide the contrasting crunch, and aioli provides a creamy counterpoint. Excellent.

The branzino was perhaps the most pleasant surprise — the seared slab is light and flaky and hit with a Thai curry sauce, and served with pineapple and a salad of watercress, raw turnips, and pickled snap peas.

On the drink menu is a solid sake selection and a cocktail menu developed by Will Lee — especially the Bangarang Spritz with Chinese five spice in support of Aperol, blanco tequila, yuzu umeshu, grapefruit, lime, cava and rose water.

Basan has been serving up Asian-inspired fare next to Little Caesars Arena for about a year now.

JOE HENDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY

Chowhound

A few seasonal recipes

By Robert Stempkowski

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

Autumnal appetites: With cooking, I tend to work seasonally. Tastes can change with the weather. Mine do. As clocks spring forward and fall back, my warm and cold weather menus adjust accordingly. Nearly forty autumns in Arizona taught me a thing or two. For one, only license plate colors change in the desert come start of tourist season. Between things I learned there and here during my Michigan boyhood, there’s a mixed goodie bag I can go to when the calendar calls for it. This time of year, I’ll be reaching for things like butterscotch, dried corn, and crisp apples when my raking hands are free, and turning leaf-colored yams, sweet potatoes, and yellow-gold squashes into recipes pairing well with what God’s serving up outside. Here are a few, fairly-quick and easy preparations me and mine love that serve every occasion from late-season barbecuing and Halloween-treating to Southwesternstyle holiday table-trimming and warm, fuzzy nights of snowbound, TV snacking:

Side dish for the year’s last backyard barbecues

Thyme and Peppercorn Yam & Sweet Potato Planks: Thin-slice (1/8”) an even mix of yam and sweet potatoes, lengthwise and unpeeled. Soak your long slices in water for at least an hour afterward (important). This helps render crispier planks by removing some starch that can result in soggier fries. Either sheet-bake (400 degrees) in single layers (again, for crispiness’ sake) or oil-fry (ditto, in small batches). Immediately after planks are cooked, liberally season with dried thyme, salt, and fresh-cracked peppercorns (any kind or color you choose). These cooked planks curl and color themselves into the appearance of toasty woodchips. I serve mine on cookout platters of ribs, chicken, other grilled meats, and tuna steaks, pretty as a picture. It creates a real campfire feel on a plate. Your

planks can be prepared in advance (up to a few hours). Just be sure to let them cool to room temperature before storing them in a sealable container, so Michigan humidity doesn’t leave them limp come mealtime.

While we’re on the subject, here’s a super dipping sauce for those planks (it’s also a spectacular salad dressing and tangy dip for raw or cooked vegetables)

In a blender or processor, combine ½ cup each: red wine vinegar, mayo or (I say Miracle Whip), vegetable or canola oil, ketchup, sugar, with 3-4 cloves finely-chopped, fresh garlic and two tablespoons dry mustard powder. Blend until smooth. Refrigerate overnight. I bottled this stuff in Phoenix. It’s fire.

Halloween Haystacks (cookies): Easy, nobake, 4-5 ingredients (makes 3 dozen)

In a simple, stovetop double-boiler, melt equal parts butterscotch morsels and peanut butter until liquid and smooth. (I use two, 16-ounce packages morsels and two standard, 18-oz. jars of P.B.)

In a large mixing bowl, combine enough of your melted fondue to coat an equal mix of mini-marshmallows and broken (in half) pretzel sticks (I find four cups each of mallows and sticks is perfect). Working quickly, spoon tennis ball-sized portions onto wax-papered cookie sheets. Allow to chill and firm-up overnight. (When I

make batches too big for my fridge, I use my garage!)

If you’d like something even sweeter, top your haystacks with toasted coconut immediately after spooning onto the cookie sheet. First (maybe do this the day before), toast coconut flakes (sweetened or unsweetened, doesn’t really matter) layered 1-inch thick (pan or sheet) at 325 degrees until the top layer browns. Coconut underneath will remain white, creating appetizing color contrasts once tossed together.

Butterscotch-peanut butter fondue is also great with Granny Smith apples, either sliced for dipping or skewered and coated as candy apples. So, reserve a little of your fondue batch. Pour into microwaveable portion cups, then cover and refrigerate for later. Cold, firm fondue softens quickly in microwaves, so be careful not to serve lava-hot! Where swirling candy apples in it’s concerned, try a few sprinkled with chocolate chips (think Reese’s). And apples coated simply with melted semi-sweet chocolate and untoasted coconut taste like fruity Mounds Bars. And guess what happens if you add crushed almonds?

Visually vibrant and Sonoran-spiced side dish

Twice-Baked Green Chile Potatoes: Cut some large, whole poblano or Anaheim chiles into canoes by removing some top skin and hollowing-out pulp and seeds, then blanch in simmering water until softened slightly (about 15 min.). Pipe them with mashed potatoes (yours) mixed with grated or finelyshredded Parmesan or Asiago cheese and enough puréed, canned chipotle peppers (in adobo, as they come) to turn your mashed potatoes a beauti-

ful, burnt orange color, at which point, they’ll register about a 5 on a 1-10 spicy scale (by all means, adjust to your taste/ tolerances). Again, served on platters alongside your favorite, cold-weather proteins, they’re as gorgeous as they are good to eat. Blanching the chiles makes their deep or bright greens pop, and piped with pumpkin-colored potatoes inside can help decorate your table in creative, Southwestern-style and seasonally pretty plating.

Hydie-Ho Popcorn

Years ago, I had a girlfriend who got addicted to a simple, savory popcorn I’ve since named after the effect it seemed to have on her. She insisted it was downright aphrodisiacal. I made it often. Try it with someone special. While I’m not promising any specific results, I do hope you’ll find it a home run:

1. Shower. 2. Make popcorn. 3. Toss in bowl with some melted butter and season liberally with garlic powder, salt, and chili powder. 4. Share over Netflix and enjoy. 4. Relax for a few. 5. Make seconds. I’m curious to see if this stuff works for anyone else.

And just this last little tip before we zip up here

When entertaining and really looking to show your stuff: Sprigs of fresh rosemary contain natural oils that can start the ends of their needles glowing when lit directly under broiler heat or by brulee torch. Once lit and walked to the table atop plates of rosemaryappropriate fare, air currents keep them aglow and twinkling until they’re set down, at which point they douse themselves in an aromatic puff likely to trigger applause. Voila!

Served on platters alongside your favorite, cold-weather proteins, peppers are as gorgeous as they are good to eat. SHUTTERSTOCK

FOOD

Room Project to be replaced by Little Liberia restaurant

We were crushed by the news that Detroit’s women and nonbinarycentered co-working space Room Project is closing in November.

It turns out that the beloved community space is being replaced by a restaurant. African-fusion pop-up Little Liberia has announced its first brick-and-mortar will open in Room’s current space at 6513 Woodward Ave. in Detroit’s New Center area. The grand opening is expected to come in mid to late 2024.

Owner and Chef Ameneh Marhaba started Little Liberia as a pop-up in 2016. It serves an array of fragrant Liberian dishes like groundnut stew and palm butter, Liberian country dry rice, cassava leaves, and plantain chips.

“I am excited to bring Little Liberia’s flavors to a permanent location in the heart of Detroit,” Marhaba said in an announcement. “The support and love we’ve received from our community have been overwhelming, and I’m excited to create a space where our guests

and fellow immigrants can experience the essence of West Africa whenever they please and feel safe doing so.”

Marhaba won a 2022 Hatch Detroit award for Little Liberia’s brick-andmortar. According to a press release, the chef “recently signed her building lease with the support of Midtown [Detroit] Inc.” who owns the Woodward Avenue space.

Midtown Detroit Inc. did not respond to our request for comment

when Room Project first announced the closing. Metro Times has reached out to them again and will update this article if they respond.

Room Project founder Cristin Lee tells Metro Times when Room initially rented the space it was grant underwritten, which has allowed the organization to pay rent well below market rate.

“[Midtown Detroit Inc.] gave us a home for 5.5 years and allowed some -

thing to happen that is so rare and distinct and magical and there’s a deep appreciation but we have to hold that with a deep sadness about the nature of the commercial realities that are dictating Detroit,” she says.

Lee stepped away from Room Project about a year ago.

We’re happy for Little Liberia and Chef Ameneh Marhaba, but our heart still cries for Room.

—Randiah Camille Green

Sammy Hagar launches Detroit-based brewing company

Rock & Roll Hall of Famer

Sammy Hagar, known as the “Red Rocker,” is stepping into the craft beer scene with the grand opening of Red Rocker Brewing Co. in Detroit. The brewery’s inaugural beer, a Mexicanstyle lager named Red Rocker Lager, is set to debut with a bang during a live concert featuring Sammy Hagar & The Circle at the Fillmore Detroit on Monday, Oct. 23.

“Rock ’n’ roll is at the heart of Red Rocker Brewing Co., and there’s no better place to brew our beer than in Detroit Rock City,” Hagar said in a press release. “We created Red Rocker Lager to not only honor the fans but to also pay tribute to the soul of Detroit rock ’n’ roll.”

Hagar has previously entered the spirits industry with brands like Cabo Wabo Tequila and Sammy’s Beach Bar Rum, but is now turning his attention to beer.

Red Rocker Brewing Co. is a collaboration with the Michigan native brewer, Cameron Schubert, who has 13 years of brewing expertise. Together with his father, Eric Schubert, they’ve created a golden, medium-bodied Mexican-style lager that pays tribute to Hagar’s Cabo San Lucas roots.

“Our head brewer Cameron Schubert and I worked together for months tasting, tweaking, and reformulating our beer until we got it to be exactly what we’d envisioned,” Hager said. “I can’t wait for beer lovers in

Michigan and all around the world to try it.”

Red Rocker Lager boasts a crisp and refreshing profile with just a hint of sweetness, making it the perfect addition to Detroit’s growing craft beer scene, according to a press release. It will be available in 4-packs of 16-ounce cans and sold in liquor stores and bars throughout Michigan. For beer enthusiasts beyond the state’s borders, the brew will soon be available for shipping to select states across the U.S. via online orders on the Red Rocker Brewing Co. website.

At the Fillmore performance, Champtown and the Big & Stout Band, an all-female rock band with Detroiter Champtown at the front,

will make their debut as openers for Hagar.

“This show is gonna be incredible. We all know Sammy Hagar is the most soulful rock singer in rock history. I call him Sambone,” Champtown says. “Sambone is a Rock God and I am honored that he hand-picked me to be his special guest for the Red Rocker Brewing launch party.”

Presale tickets for the concert go on sale on Tuesday, Sept. 19, while general on-sale tickets will be available on Friday, Sept. 22 via livenation.com.

Additional information about the event and Red Rocker Brewing Co. can be found on redrockerbrewing. com.

—Layla McMurtrie

Little Liberia started as an African-fusion pop-up in 2016.

ALEJANDRO UGALDE/ FEATHERSTONE

CULTURE

Only in Detroit

Comedian T Barb’s videos are the most Detroit thing we’ve ever seen

By Randiah Camille Green

Tiffany Barber is sitting quietly in front of her laptop at the North End’s Black Coffee Cafe when I arrive to meet her. She greets me with a hug like a long-lost auntie. I halfway expect her to say “What up doe!!” like she does on her Instagram videos, but her natural voice is softer and upbeat — with just a touch of hood.

You may know Barber better as T Barb, the comedian who makes those “Only in Detroit” voiceover videos showing things like guys riding in a car with no doors.

“What up doe!! Only in Detroit do we give a new meaning to the word ‘buzzing,’” she says in a video of a sex toy vibrating in a circle in a rain puddle as the theme from Unsolved Mysteries plays. “It’s some girl digging in a City Trends purse right now mad as hell.”

Her “Eastside Power Ranger” series of a man dressed as the Black Ranger at the corner of Cadieux and Harper is one of her most popular, with nearly 50,000 likes. The content in the videos is real, but T Barb’s commentary is what takes them to the next level. It’s the epitome of reality being stranger than fiction, with just a touch of embellishment.

“‘Only in Detroit’ presents another exciting episode of Eastside Power Ranger,” she says in one episode, singing the words like it’s the theme song for a spin-off of the ’90s TV show. A shirtless man taunts the Black Ranger in the middle of the street, smashing what looks like a long piece of wood on the ground. “As you can see, today we have a villain… but he’s no match for Eastside Power Ranger or that Suburban because guess what? He has the thrifty tools to keep us all safe on the east side of Detroit. Get ready, get ready. HADOUKEN,” she says as the “power ranger” throws a piece of concrete at the “villain.”

“You’d be surprised at the things that you see just riding through the city,” T Barb says back at the coffee shop. “People always say, ‘How did you see that?’ I don’t know! Then you get flack, with people saying, ‘Oh, you’re making fun of these people,’ but they are doing it for the notoriety. If you on the corner and you dressed up as a Power Ranger, you probably wouldn’t mind if a billion people saw you actin’ a fool.”

T Barb has been a stand-up comedian for seven years but says she started

making the Only in Detroit videos just a few years ago. Initially, they were green-screen TikToks, but she came up with her trademark voice and catchphrase as she started posting more consistently.

At first, she would come across random things and record them herself, but now people send her videos. She also uses content from Instagram media pages like Crime News in the D and Metro Detroit News.

“You know, ‘Let’s get ready to rum-

ble?’” she says, mimicking legendary boxing announcer Michael Buffer. “I did a couple like that and then I wanted to put my own spin on it, so I came up with ‘What up doe!!’ … It’s kinda like if I was a news reporter reporting this on hood news. If you’ve ever watched L.A. traffic videos [where] they got the helicopter man, when they’re chasing people the commentary is next level. It’s so serious, but it’s funny because it’s serious, so that’s kinda how I do the videos.”

Comediean T Barb is making a name for herself with her funny “Only in Detroit’ videos.

COURTESY PHOTO

Retired hoodrat?

T Barb considers herself a “retired hoodrat,” though she makes sure to point out that “relapse is a part of recovery.” She switches in and out of character without blinking throughout our long conversation and sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s a joke and what’s not.

Barber grew up on Joy Road and says she didn’t have the best upbringing. Her parents met fresh out of prison and her mother struggled with mental health issues, which landed her back behind bars several times.

“I grew up real hood — gang banging, fighting, and all that kind of stuff,” she remembers. “I started making jokes as a defense mechanism. You know, I grew up when “Yo Mama’s on Crack Rock” was out. So imagine yo mama really was on crack rock and then here comes the song and it’s like, we bout to scrap. So it’s either let’s laugh or imma beat your ass. Which one you want? You wanna be friends or imma stomp you? At that time, I lacked emotional intelligence.”

After high school, she caught a Greyhound bus to New Orleans and attended Dillard University where she says she “discovered a new way of life.” There, she studied to become a social worker so she could help kids who came from troubled families.

“My mother grew up in foster care and I think that caused a lot of her issues, so I thought I’d be a community advocate,” she says.

So she moved back to Detroit and worked for Wayne County for about 14 years in foster care and protective services.

“I was still goofy even on the job,” she remembers. “I felt like I understood people. If I come over to your house from protective services and I walk off the porch and we all laughing, that means I got a gift... You know any time child protective services is coming to your house, it’s not a good, happy thing.”

She adds, more seriously, “I’ve bought people hotel rooms. I’ve bought people food because they didn’t have nothing. Who wants to take somebody’s kids because they can’t afford to feed them? I’m not making light of it, but it’s true. It was a lot of stuff I probably would have gotten in trouble for but my thing is, if all you need is a ride over your auntie’s house because your lights got cut off then I’m gone take you over there… After doing it for 14 years, it was just a lot.”

T Barb got her first taste of comedy when a fellow social worker who did stand up on the side invited her to a show. Entranced by the stage and laughter from the audience, T Barb

asked if she could try it, so her friend gave her a three-minute spot at the former Maccabees Trader on Woodward, which is now a Shield’s Pizza.

“It was a Friday and I invited everybody I knew, crackheads included,” T Barb says. “I already talk fast because I definitely got a little ADD… I had like 27 minutes of jokes that I put in that three minutes. After that, I was like ‘I really wanna do this’ and I never stopped.”

In addition to being a social worker and exploring her newfound love for stand-up, T Barb had another side hustle — a hot dog cart called “Delicious Dogs” that she ran in downtown Detroit for 15 years. She started in Cadillac Square, moved to Randolph Street, and then switched to private events after the pandemic.

“I just did [an event] yesterday in a girl’s backyard,” she says. “People always recognize me like, ‘Is that T Barb?’ Yes, bitch, now do you want a hot sausage or Italian? Ketchup or mustard?”

She adds, “I’m the hot dog princess,” noting that she’s actually vegan.

T Barb did stand up for about a year before she decided to leave her job with Wayne County. She kept doing shows locally, grew her social media presence, and started booking tours for herself. When we meet for coffee, she’s just gotten back from Los Angeles where she did a string of gigs. She averages anywhere from five to 25 stand-up shows a month, but still says, “I ain’t made it big yet!”

Family ties

Besides having a natural knack for making people laugh, T Barb is also breaking a generational curse.

“I would have been the third generation of people incarcerated in my family,” she says. “One of my grandmothers was institutionalized, the other one went to prison, both of my parents went to prison. So we were the first generation not to go to prison or be institutionalized. I love laughing, I love smiling, and I’m just happy to be here.”

She also has family ties to comedy

that she didn’t realize when she first started performing. It turns out her great grandparents were the 1930s-era comedic duo and vaudeville act Butterbeans and Susie.

She didn’t know about them until her aunt, shocked that T Barb was now a comedian, called her one day.

“She said, ‘I can’t believe this. I just wanted to share this with you,’” T Barb says. “My aunt is 73 and for one Christmas she made me a binder with their whole history, their CDs, all the newspaper clippings she had been saving. They sang songs together, and they have one called ‘I Want a Hot Dog for My Roll.’ Yes, they was nasty freaks back then in the 1930s.”

The lyrics read like an old-timey version of Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP”:

BUTTERBEANS: Come and let me straighten you out

Now here’s a dog that’s long and lean

SUSIE: Oh-oh, that ain’t the kind of dog I mean

BUTTERBEANS: Now here’s a dog, Sue, that’s short and fat SUSIE: But I sure need somethin’ different from that

By working as a standup comedian, T Barb feels she’s continuing her family’s legacy. And yes, some of her jokes can get dirty.

The irony isn’t lost on T Barb that she’s a comedian who runs a hot dog cart and whose great grandparents made naughty vaudeville songs about one stuffing their hot dog in the other’s roll. The joke just writes itself.

And yet, innuendos aside, T Barb still finds a way to give back to her community. Her nonprofit T Barb and Friends does a yearly hygiene drive for a different underfunded school every year where they collect items for students like deodorant, toothpaste, menstrual products, laundry detergent, and quarters for the laundromat.

It goes back to her being a social worker and wanting to help people, but it’s also personal as she knows how embarrassing it can be to go to school without clean clothes.

“A lot of kids are coming to school

and aren’t performing well because they have hygiene issues,” she says. “We didn’t have a washing machine so I used to wash my jeans in the tub. Do you know how hard it is to get soap out of jeans? I’m talking like Farmer Jack overalls, trying to rinse Palmolive dish soap out because we didn’t have the right soap. So just thinking back, I’m like, it’s somebody else going through that now.”

T Barb and Friends also hosts an event where they feed the homeless and give away clothing around Thanksgiving and Christmas every year.

“I grew up on hand-me-downs,” she says. “We never really had a lot of new stuff like furniture growing up and I remember all of that. If somebody wouldn’t have given us an extra bed, I probably would have been sleeping on the floor.”

Despite her community efforts, more people know T Barb for her stand-up and silly voiceovers than her good deeds or even her downtown hot dog cart. This isn’t always a good thing, as she’s had several people attack and threaten her online because they find the videos offensive.

One time she posted a video poking fun at a house that was for sale that also had a teddy bear memorial for someone who was killed in front of it. People who knew the murder victim found the video and sent T Barb messages threatening to kill her.

“It wasn’t about somebody getting killed, it was about the real estate agent posting this house not thinking, who wants to buy this house where somebody was murdered?” she says. “But that’s when I knew I had to watch my back, even though it wasn’t my intent to be disrespectful. I’m not going to take the original one down, but I don’t repost it for that reason.”

She’s also had people trash her, saying that her videos reinforce stereotypes of Black people and spread negativity.

“I’ve done the work,” she says responding to her critics. “I’ve been out here for years keeping Black kids in Black homes. I’ve helped a lot of homeless people get on their feet. So I don’t pay attention to that because you probably ain’t never did nothing for nobody, nowhere. I’m still on the ground doing things for the community.”

You can catch T Barb as part of the “Eyes Up Here” tour starting at 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 23 at the Independent Comedy Club; 2320 Caniff St., Hamtramck; planetant.com. Tickets are $15-25. More information is available at tbarbisfunny.com.

The irony isn’t lost on T Barb that she’s a comedian who runs a hot dog cart and whose great grandparents made naughty vaudeville songs about one stuffing their hot dog in the other’s roll. The joke just writes itself.

CULTURE

I.M. Weiss Gallery but is located in the space next door.

Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 7, 12-5 p.m.; 6540 Saint Antoine St., Detroit; imweiss.gallery.

Fiber Club*, Mending the Net Fiber Club* (yes, with the asterisk) is a new meetup for textile-based artists in Detroit. The group’s inaugural exhibition is on display at the Convent, a former convent for Polish nuns in Detroit’s Banglatown neighborhood that’s been converted into art and wellness studios. Mending the Net includes a web of work from Fiber Club*’s 50-plus members.

Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through Sept. 24; The Convent, 13301 Mound Rd., Detroit; conventdetroit.com.

Designing Justice + Designing Spaces pop-up

Artists of the week

Detroit Month of Design events for people who are overwhelmed by it all

By Randiah Camille Green

Can I tell you a secret? Even though I’m an arts and culture writer, I don’t particularly enjoy attending art openings. There are way too many people and energy to manage for an introvert like myself, and awkward moments fretting over what to say to that person I’ve seen on social media but don’t actually know in real life. I’d rather contemplate the art in peace. On top of that, the city’s art scene is always popping off with an art opening, concert, artist talk, or DJ night somewhere and it sends my anxiety through the roof trying to catch them all.

We’re spoiled for choice when it comes to art in this city overflowing with creative energy that inspires you to embrace life’s infinite possibilities. But when I’m presented with too many options it’s like information overload, my brain crashes and I opt to stay home with my cat instead. No other time is this truer than the annual Detroit Month of Design where there’s an art exhibit or activation happening every weekend, and too many artist talks to count.

So for this week’s Artist of the Week column, I chose five Detroit Month of Design exhibits for those who don’t feel like combing through a long list of events with cryptic descriptions on Design Core Detroit’s website. You have a life and can’t be bothered trying to attend every single thing. I get it. And if you’re like me, the fewer people there are to interact with, the better. These events are a bit more lowkey but still worth your time.

The Prelude, NOVA 24 Photo + Film Festival

Over at former church-turned-coffee shop The Congregation, a series of photos printed on the building’s brick facade have been catching my eye. They’re a precursor to the forthcoming NOVA 24 Photo + Film Festival that’s set for July. The outdoor photography exhibit, called The Prelude, was curated by festival co-founders Mara Magyarosi-Laytner and Raymar. You may have casually seen the photos on a visit to The Congregation, but

it’s worth it to take your time and actually appreciate each one. Ian Solomon’s portraits and Lo Braden’s angel triptych in the Congregation’s chapel window are almost like mini murals. Experimental film installations are also being shown in the Congregation’s basement. Through Sept. 30; The Congregation, 9321 Rosa Parks Blvd., Detroit; thecongregationdetroit.com

Ergo Itself

This solo exhibit by Detroit-based artist Paula Schubatis is an immersive experience that feels like a brightlycolored womb of plastic scraps and fabric. Enter the nest filled with found and repurposed objects that attempt to make you feel at home, but sit on the verge of some kind of warped dimension instead. Models wander about the space wearing sculptural garments and “intuitive interaction” is encouraged. The exhibit is hosted by

Beyond just art exhibits, part of the Detroit Month of Design is imagining the future in terms of sustainability, land, and social justice. Architecture and design firm Designing Justice + Designing Spaces is giving us a peek into their plans for a social justice hub at Grand River and 14th Street with this pop-up. It will feature three zones: a “peace and alternative justice center” with conversations on restorative justice featuring therapeutic steel tongue drum music by Demetrius Thomas; “food and retail ecosystem” space with free samples of locally made treats and handmade items from Detroit-based vendors; and a “digital media and fabrication” zone where you can build public seating with Sit-On-It Detroit. 1-4 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 23; 2223 W. Forest Ave., Detroit; designcore.org.

Mike Han : United by Design

In his first Detroit gallery show, Mike Han uses his graffiti-inspired patterns to give new life to discarded Minoru Yamazaki and Albert Kahn blueprints. The blueprints are of buildings that date back to the 1920s, and painting on them is Han’s way of creating new from something old. The exhibit also includes some of Han’s past design collaborations like wall art and working speakers with Leon Speakers, rugs made in partnership with Art Van, sunglasses with SEE eyewear, and 3D-printed tables through Haddy. Even if you realistically aren’t going to purchase one of the $3,500 tables, their wavy, knobby texture is pretty cool. Through Sept. 30; Playground Detroit, 2845 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; playgrounddetroit.com.

Lo Braden’s photography is part of The Prelude by NOVA 24 Photo + Film Festival at the Congregation.

RANDIAH CAMILLE GREEN

CULTURE

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3

Rated: PG-13

Run-time: 92 minutes

You know these are strange times for moviegoers when legacy sequels borne of the 2000s and 2010s are now old enough to get legacyquels of their own. The concept dates back to at least the 1980s, with Psycho II (1983) and The Color of Money(1986) reintroducing a new generation of viewers to iconic characters from culturally significant films of the past. However, this 21st-century resurgence of an ’80s trend (hardly the only instance of such a phenomenon, to be sure) has seen a new wrinkle unfold as the ’20s progress: legacyquels to legacyquels.

First Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), then Dial of Destiny(2023). The long-awaited Toy Story 3 (2010), then Toy Story 4 (2019) for good measure. Wes Craven’s swan song Scream 4 (2011), then the echoic Scream (2022) and Scream 6 (2023). Now, a third My Big Fat Greek Wedding. One common theme permeates these nostalgic sequels to reverent reboots: They only offer mere morsels of what made the originals so worthwhile. It’s like some kind of cinematic equivalent to Plato’s allegory of the cave.

If you don’t recall the events of My

All Greek to us

By Kayla McCulloch

Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) — or, as many may say, simply never saw it — you have nothing to feel bad about. I just caught up with the sequel earlier this year, and already I’ve forgotten most of what happened. The latest entry makes no effort to catch you up, save for an opening montage of stills from the previous two films seen hanging on the wall. (Always makes me laugh to see this sort of thing. Who took those photos? No one had a camera out in that scene!) Instead, it’s right into the action: Portokalos family patriarch Gus (Michael Constantine) is dead, and his dying wish was for daughter Toula (Nia Vardalos) to deliver his journal to his three childhood friends in Greece.

Accompanying Toula on the trip? Husband Ian (John Corbett), daughter Paris (Elena Kampouris), brother Nick (Louis Mandylor), aunts Voila (Andrea Martin) and Frieda (Maria Vacratsis), and Aristotle (Elias Kacavas) — a young man of ambiguous relation to the Portokaloses. Is he the son of a family friend? Paris’s ex? A plot convenience? It’s never quite clear, nor does it ever really matter. He’s there to be paired with Paris, as evidenced by his introductory scene and every scene he shares after that.

Upon arrival, they meet Victory (Melina Kotselou): the so-called mayor of Gus’s hometown who turns out to be one of just six residents left after the area’s water supply dried up. What

follows is not unlike the later acts of the prior films: alternating hangout scenes and bits galore. (And, inevitably, a marriage ceremony.) The jokes miss more often than they hit, and moments of sincerity are devoid of the intended emotion nine times out of ten, but who’s more at fault here? Writer-director-producer-star Nia Vardalos, who has only ever helmed a feature one other time in her career, nearly 15 years ago? Or me, the person expecting more from this trilogy-capper arriving two decades after a first installment that sufficed just fine by itself and definitely would have been better off standing alone?

If it sounds like I’m harping on Vardalos, I don’t mean to. To her credit, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 does have its saving graces. Namely, Corbett and Martin’s characters. Ian has never had very much to do in this series but stand there and keep his cool, but Corbett does it so well. (See also: his character Aidan Shaw in Sex and the City, Sex and the City 2, and And Just Like That…. They keep bringing him back for a reason, you know.) Similarly, Martin makes scene-stealing seem effortless. It’s no wonder, either. Her comedic chops have been known since her SCTV days in the late 1970s. “I will be your favorite,” she declares to Victory outside the airport. Unsurprisingly, she’s right.

Rampant callbacks and mildly pleasant vacation vibes aside, there’s a mess

going on with the technical components here. Editing is both choppy and hurried, leaving little room for any emotional beats (let alone punchlines) to resonate with the audience before the film quickly heads to the next scene. Camera coverage is just as incoherent at times, with certain shots appearing so out of place that they look like shrapnel from hastily deleted scenes. Sets and locations look convincingly lived in — thanks in large part to an on-location shoot in gorgeous Athens and the surrounding countryside — but that can only take a viewer so far.

Does this movie need to exist? Did any sequels ever need to come out of the record-breaking, critically acclaimed, treacly sweet 2002 film? The answer is obviously no. However, this isn’t the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Universe, the Star Warsuniverse, or some other billion-dollar franchise spanning tens of theatrical and streaming releases that pressures you to keep up with every new addition to the canon. Those who wish to see the newest developments in the lives of the Portokalos family will show up (and would show up for more after this, too — me included). Those who don’t, won’t.

There are no stakes here. Just 90-something minutes of harmless diversion as flavorful as a fast-food gyro — yet, somehow, still vaguely appetizing.

Say “cheese!” — or is that “feta!”?

COURTESY OF YANNIS DRAKOULIDIS/FOCUS FEATURES

CULTURE

Savage Love

Didn’t Happen

By Dan Savage

: Q I used to loudly proclaim that all this crap about black men being better in bed was pure bullshit. My ego said it [was] a bunch of propaganda. The thought of me being a cuckold was never going to happen. Then my wife’s workplace hired a black man, and he was among several of her coworkers that went for drinks after work one Friday evening. I never knew that my wife harbored a desire to see for herself if everything people said about black men was true. She went with him & had sex. It was her most exciting and rewarding sex of her life. He really did her like no one had ever done her before. It was obvious to me that something had changed. Once we finally got it out in the open, I was angry, frustrated, humiliated, and embarrassed. It took

me weeks to get over it and to accept that my wife needed this black man in her life and bed. No way was I going to divorce her because then I would have to explain the reason why our 15-year marriage was ending. So, now I have no option but to admit I am a cuckold. My question is: Is this normal and common?

—Cuckolding Has Upended Marital Parameters

A: It’s not normal, it’s not common — and it didn’t happen.

Oh, you might be a cuckold, CHUMP, and you might have a wife and your wife might have a lover who might be a Black man that she met at work. But if you’re lucky enough to be living the version of the cuckold dream that appeals to you most — cuckolding with a racial overlay — it didn’t come together the way you described.

Lots of wannabe cucks fantasize about their wives turning them into cuckolds against their will, e.g., the husband gets presented with a fait accompli — the wife has taken a lover and won’t give him up, she has the upper hand and divorce isn’t an option, the husband has no choice but to accept his fate — but no man has ever become a cuckold like that. That may be it happens most often in a cuckold’s fantasies, CHUMP, but in reality, men who are living out their cuckold dreams had to beg their wives to fuck other men, sometimes for years.

A wife turning her husband into a cuckold because it’s what she wants? Maybe that’s happened once or twice, but otherwise that only happens in porn and in letters horny wannabe cucks send to advice columnists while they’re beating off. So, when a married woman is fucking a neighbor or a coworker or her husband’s best friend or all the above with the consent of a husband who has embraced being a cuckold… yeah, his consent wasn’t reluctantly given; it wasn’t extracted under duress, it wasn’t an offer he couldn’t refuse, and it wasn’t her idea. It was his idea. A wannabe cuckold’s wife may have warmed to the idea over time she might’ve come to love it and can’t imagine going back — but it was his fantasy, not hers.

So, nice letter CHUMP, total bullshit, hope you enjoyed the wank. Now, I’d like to zoom out for a second...

There are lots of straight white men out there with cuckold fantasies that include problematic racialized elements, like CHUMP’s here. (Interestingly, gay men with cuckold fantasies

are a lot less likely to care about the race of their husband’s other sex partners. I’m sure a lot of my Black readers were offended by CHUMP’s letter and a lot of my white readers were offended on behalf of my Black readers. (Bracing myself for the outraged emails.) But I have to say… there are Black men out there who enjoy being fetishized by white male cucks because it turns them on, too. And if you don’t believe me when I say there Black men who 1. enjoy fucking the wives of white cuckolds and 2. either don’t mind being objectified in this way or really and truly get off on it, well, maybe you’ll believe podcasters like The Keys and Anklets Podcast and porn stars like Shadow Dimitri1, and content creators like the Pagan Black Bull.

And with that said…

There’s something about CHUMP’s fantasy that strikes me as… well, a lot more fucked up than most cuck fantasies with racialized elements. He’s not just aroused by stereotypes about Black male sexuality — power, size, prowess — that some Black men also find arousing and enjoy exploring with white couples who see them not just as objects, but also as three-dimensional human beings with needs, feeling, fantasies, and their own inner lives. No, CHUMP is turned on by the idea of being trapped (common cuck fantasy) in his marriage because the whole world would know his wife was fucking a Black man if he left her — because where he lives men who divorce their wives are required to post their real reasons on at least three billboards outside of town — and it would be so obviously humiliating (according to CHUMP) if people knew that he has no choice by to stay. CHUMP doesn’t present this piece as something fucked up about his fantasy that he enjoys toying with but obviously isn’t how he really feels, but as the real reason he can never leave his wife.

Blech.

If I were a Black man, I wouldn’t fuck CHUMP’s wife (assuming she exists) if that was how he truly felt about Black men fucking his wife. But I’m not a Black man — or a straight man — and Black men are allowed to make their own choices about whose wives they wanna fuck.

: Q I’m a 34-year-old cis bi guy who recently moved to Colorado after getting out of a rocky, dead-bedroom marriage of nine years. As part of this big life transition, I decided to work up the courage to hire a professional mommy domme to live out my ABDL fantasies for the first time. You can’t believe my surprise when I discovered that one of the local dommes is my former high

school girlfriend. We were together for a little less than a year in the state where we grew up together before we parted ways to go to college. We haven’t kept up with each other since. Dan, she’s super hot and does ABDL sessions, and I can’t think of anybody who I would trust more for my first time visiting a sex worker. I also worry that she would find it super fucking weird to get a session request from an ex-boyfriend from high school. Should I contact her? Or should I look somewhere else and let her do her thing in peace?

—Anxiously Babbling Divorced Lad

A: I ran your question by Mistress Matisse, a sex worker with decades of experience, a tireless advocate for the rights of sex workers, and a friend of mine for more decades than I feel comfortable assigning a number to.

“It’s been over ten years since they graduated, everyone is a grown up now,” said Mistress Matisse. “Obviously, he needs to be honest and say, ‘I feel like this could be a great and safe experience for us both. But if you feel like this is too weird, I understand and I won’t contact you again. I also won’t tell any possible mutual acquaintances about your career, which I have the utmost respect for.’ And he should abide by her decision and stick to those promises.”

Your ex most likely knows other sex workers in your area who provide the similar services — there’s a lot of solidarity among sex workers — so, even if she doesn’t feel comfortable booking a session with you herself, ABDL, she might be able to refer you to a colleague. The more consideration and tact you demonstrate when you contact your ex, the likelier she is to refer you to a trusted friend if she doesn’t feel comfortable diapering you herself. (Feel free to copy and paste Mistress Matisse’s suggested language!)

Follow Mistress Matisse on Twitter and BlueSky @MistressMatisse.

: Q I’m a 36-year-old woman and my boyfriend is a 46-year-old man. We’ve been dating exclusively for over a year, and we are planning on moving in together soon and, if all goes well, marriage. We don’t want to have children at the moment, but we might change our minds. I love him so much, but I don’t love a choice he made ten years ago to become a sperm donor. If we ever do want to have children, I don’t like the idea of my child having up to a hundred half siblings....

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

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CULTURE Free Will Astrology

ARIES: March 21 – April 19

So it begins: the Building and Nurturing Togetherness phase of your astrological cycle. The next eight weeks will bring excellent opportunities to shed bad relationship habits and grow good new ones. Let’s get you in the mood with some suggestions from intimacy counselors Mary D. Esselman and Elizabeth Ash Vélez: “No matter how long you’ve been together or how well you think you know each other, you still need to romance your partner, especially in stability. Don’t run off and get an extreme makeover or buy into the red-roses-and-champagne bit. Instead, try being kind, receptive, and respectful. Show your partner, often and in whatever tender, goofy way you both understand, that their heart is your home.”

TAURUS: April 20 – May 20

From May 2023 to May 2024, the planets Jupiter and Uranus have been and will be in Taurus. I suspect that many Taurus revolutionaries will be born during this time. And yes, Tauruses can be revolutionaries. Here’s a list of some prominent rebel Bulls: Karl Marx, Malcolm X, activist Kath-

leen Cleaver, lesbian feminist author Adrienne Rich, Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, artist Salvador Dali, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, and dancer Martha Graham. All were wildly original innovators who left a bold mark on their cultures. May their examples inspire you to clarify and deepen the uniquely stirring impact you would like to make, Taurus.

GEMINI: May 21 – June 20

Gemini writer Joe Hill believes the only fight that matters is “the struggle to take the world’s chaos and make it mean something.” I can think of many other fights that matter, too, but Hill’s choice is a good one that can be both interesting and rewarding. I especially recommend it to you in the coming weeks, Gemini. You are poised at a threshold that promises substantial breakthroughs in your ongoing wrangles with confusion, ambiguity, and enigma. My blessings go with you as you wade into the evocative challenges.

CANCER: June 21 – July 22

Author Crescent Dragonwagon has written over 50 books, so we might conclude she has no problem expressing herself fully. But a character in one of her novels says the following: “I don’t know exactly what I mean by ‘hold something back,’ except that I do it. I don’t know what the ‘something’ is. It’s some part that’s a mystery, maybe even to me. I feel it may be my essence or what I am deep down under all the layers. But if I don’t know what it is, how can I give it or share it with someone even if I wanted to?” I bring these thoughts to your attention, Cancerian, because I believe the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to overcome your own inclination to “hold something back.”

LEO: July 23 – August 22

Our government let six billion $$ go for 5 of our citizens to come home. This country has its problems, but being an American has its advantages…do they have to pay that back? That’s a lot of dough-re-mi’s!!

56 SEATS 100ISH BEERS

In her book Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface, psychologist and author Martha Manning says she is more likely to experience epiphanies in “grocery stores and laundromats, rather than in the more traditional places of reverence and prayer.” She marvels that “it’s in the most ordinary aspects of life” that she is “offered glimpses of the extraordinary.” During these breakthrough moments, “the baseline about what is good and important in my life changes.” I suspect you will be in a similar groove during the coming weeks, Leo. Are you ready to find the sacred in the mundane? Are you willing to shed your expectations of how magic occurs so you will be receptive to it when it arrives unexpectedly?

VIRGO: August 23 – Sept. 22

“These are the bad facts,” says author Fran Lebowitz. “Men have much easier lives than women. Men have the advantage. So do white people. So do rich people. So do beautiful people.” Do you agree, Virgo? I do. I’m not rich or beautiful, but I’m a white man, and I have received enormous advantages because of it. What about you? Now is a good time to tally any unearned blessings you have benefited from, give thanks for them, and atone by offering help to people who have obtained fewer favors. And if you have not received many advantages, the coming months will be an excellent time to ask for and even demand more.

LIBRA: Sept. 23 – Oct. 22

My favorite creativity teacher is author Roger von Oech. He produced the Creative Whack Pack, a card deck with prompts to stimulate imaginative thinking. I decided to draw one such card for your use in the coming weeks. It’s titled EXAGGERATE. Here’s its advice: “Imagine a joke so funny you can’t stop laughing for a month. Paper stronger than steel. An apple the size of a hotel. A jet engine quieter than a moth beating its wings. A home-cooked dinner for 25,000 people. Try exaggerating your idea. What if it were a thousand times bigger, louder, stronger, faster, and brighter?” (P.S.: It’s a favorable time for you to entertain brainstorms and heartstorms and soulstorms. For best results, EXAGGERATE!)

SCORPIO: Oct. 23 – Nov. 21:

If you buy a bag of popcorn and cook it in your microwave oven, there are usually kernels at the bottom that fail to pop. As tasty as your snack is, you may still may feel cheated by the duds. I will be bold and predict that you won’t have to deal with such duds in the near future — not in your popcorn bags and not in any other area of your life, either literally or metaphorically. You’re due for a series of experiences that are complete and thorough and fully bloomed.

By Rob Brezsny

SAGITTARIUS: Nov. 22 – Dec. 21

Writer George Bernard Shaw observed that new ideas and novel perspectives “often appear first as jokes and fancies, then as blasphemies and treason, then as questions open to discussion, and finally as established truths.” As you strive to get people to consider fresh approaches, Sagittarius, I advise you to skip the “blasphemies and treason” stage. If you proceed with compassion and good humor, you can go directly from “jokes and fancies” to “questions open to discussion.” But one way or another, please be a leader who initiates shifts in your favorite groups and organizations. Shake things up with panache and good humor.

CAPRICORN: Dec. 22 – Jan. 19

Novelist and astrologer Forrest E. Fickling researched which signs are the worst and best in various activities. He discovered that Capricorns are the hardest workers, as well as the most efficient. They get a lot done, and they are expeditious about it. I suspect you will be at the peak of your ability to express these Capricornian strengths in the coming weeks. Here’s a bonus: You will also be at the height of your power to enjoy your work and be extra likely to produce good work. Take maximum advantage of this grace period!

AQUARIUS: Jan. 20 – Feb. 18

The British band Oasis has sold over 95 million records. The first song they ever released was “Supersonic.” Guitarist Noel Gallagher wrote most of its music and lyrics in half an hour while the rest of the band was eating Chinese take-out food. I suspect you will have that kind of agile, succinct, matter-of-fact creativity in the coming days. If you are wise, you will channel it into dreaming up solutions for two of your current dilemmas. This is one time when life should be easier and more efficient than usual.

PISCES: Feb.19 – March 20

“When sex is really, really good,” writes Piscean novelist Geoff Nicholson, “I feel as though I’m disappearing, being pulverized, so that I’m nothing, just particles of debris, smog, soot, and skin floating through the air.” Hmmmm. I guess that’s one version of wonderful sex. And if you want it, you can have it in abundance during the coming weeks. But I encourage you to explore other kinds of wonderful sex, as well — like the kind that makes you feel like a genius animal or a gorgeous storm or a super-powered deity.

Homework: Spend 10 minutes showering yourself with praise. Speak your accolades out loud.

JAMES NOELLERT

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