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CITY GUIDE
On the cover
Detroit’s Belt alleyway, photographed by EE Berger.
Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor in Chief - Lee DeVito
Intro
Editorial
Myths about Detroit • 8
Culture The best Detroit selfies • 12 Favorite spots to shop • 14 Sports, the Detroit way • 20
Travel Urban getaways • 26 The rebirth of Flint • 32
Food Ethnic dishes • 36
Music Guide to Detroit venues • 42 Deep cuts • 46 Detroit’s hip-hop history • 50
Attractions Annual events calendar • 54 Detroit Metro Times 30 E. Canfield St. Detroit, MI 48201 www.metrotimes.com Editorial - (313) 202-8011 Advertising - (313) 961-4060 Circulation - (313) 202-8049 Detroit Distribution – The Detroit Metro Times City Guide is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Copyright: The entire contents of the Detroit Metro Times are copyright 2018 by Euclid Media Group LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Publisher does not assume any liability for unsolicited manuscripts, materials, or other content. Any submission must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope. All editorial, advertising, and business correspondence should be mailed to the address listed above. Prior writte n permission must be granted to Metro Times for additional copies. Metro Times may be distributed only by Metro Times’ authorized distributors and independent contractors. Subscriptions are available by mail inside the U.S. for six months at $35/ Third Class, $65/ First Class. (Canadian subscriptions cost $75/First Class for six months.) Include check or money order payable to - Metro Times Subscriptions, 30 E. Canfield, Detroit, MI 48201. (Please note - Third Class subscription copies are usually received 3-5 days after publication date in the Detroit area.) Most back issues obtainable for $5 at Metro Times offices or $7 prepaid by mail.
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Managing Editor - Alysa Zavala-Offman Senior Editor - Michael Jackman Staff Writer - Violet Ikonomova Dining Editor - Tom Perkins Music and Listings Editor - Jerilyn Jordan Copy Editor - Dave Mesrey Editorial Interns - Mallary Becker, Malak Silmi, Anthony Spak, Miriam Marini, Jack Nissen
Advertising Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Regional Sales Director - Danielle Smith-Elliott Senior Multimedia Account Executive Jeff Nutter Multimedia Account Executive Jessica Frey Account Manager, Classifieds - Josh Cohen
Business/Operations Business Manager - Holly Rhodes Controller - Kristy Dotson
Creative Services Art Director - Eric Millikin Graphic Designers - Paul Martinez, Haimanti Germain
Circulation Circulation Manager - Annie O’Brien
Euclid Media Group Chief Executive Officer - Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers - Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Creative Director - Tom Carlson VP of Digital Services - Stacy Volhein Digital Operations Coordinator - Jaime Monzon www.euclidmediagroup.com National Advertising - Voice Media Group 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com
INTRO
STRAIT TALK
THAT’S US.
COURTESY PHOTO
DETROIT HAS A MILLION MYTHS — AND SOME ARE EVEN TRUE! BY MICHAEL JACKMAN
The Nain Rouge was a red devil, horns and all: False Nobody ever said anything about the city’s mythical bearer of bad news being a devil. The actual English translation of the French “nain” is dwarf, not devil. In fact, we might almost think of him as looking less threatening than, say, the Vernor’s gnome. Nevertheless, the folkloric figure often crops up in modern interpretations as an adult-sized demon.
There was no slavery in Michigan: Not so fast! 8
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In metro Detroit, we’re used to thinking of slavery as something that took place far away among the plantations of the antebellum South. After all, Detroit was the last stop on the Underground Railroad, a magnet of the Great Migration, and eventually became the sophisticated Motown of the civil rights era. But it wasn’t always that way, as University of Michigan history professor Tiya Miles makes clear in her new book, Dawn of Detroit. From roughly 1760 to 1815, not everybody was free, and Native Americans, Africans, and indentured
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servants were considered the property of some of Detroit’s first families. Slavery was technically against the law of the land, so terms such as “indentured servants” were used, incorrectly, to describe these people kept in legal bondage.
Belle Isle was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted: Not so fast! Frederick Law Olmsted was a righteous dude. He was the designer, journalist, social critic, and public official whose role in creating such green spaces as
Manhattan’s Central Park, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park have helped him earn the title “the father of American landscape architecture.” And so it makes sense that people want to credit him with the design of our island oasis. In fact, Olmsted did create a design for the park in the 1880s, but only parts of it were incorporated into the park’s layout, and its design has changed with a changing city. In its 1940s heyday, it was more like an overcrowded fairgrounds than an urban oasis, and during the Cold War it even
sported underground missile bases. These days, half the park is closed in the springtime when crews set up for the screaming, highspeed IndyCar races of the Detroit Grand Prix.
Detroit’s street design is based on the layout of Washington, D.C.: Almost completely false
Popular Detroit Mayor William C. Maybury once said: “Few Detroiters are aware of the fact that after the great fire of 1801, this city was laid out according to the original plans of Washington, D.C.” Actually, the good mayor got his facts wrong: The fire was in 1805, and the original Woodward Plan, named for its designer, territorial judge Augustus Woodward, no doubt borrowed some inspiration from Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s plan for Washington, D.C. But the plan was abandoned by 1818, and the city has scant few blocks downtown showing off Woodward’s unusual street design. The city was largely laid out without any plan at all. In fact, Maybury’s quip inspired one Detroit newspaper columnist to erupt that “graft, indifference, incompetence, and plain idiocy have conspired to make of our street plan an unsolvable puzzle.”
Some buildings apparently have incorrect street numbers carved in stone: True
More than 100 years ago, it was not uncommon for building designers to work the names of the buildings and their street addresses into the stonework that decorated their entrances.
But after all city addresses were renumbered in 1921, the original numbers were obsolete. Sometimes, they were left, as on the exterior of the Renaud apartment building on Second Avenue.
There are countless tunnels beneath Detroit: Sometimes true
Detroit never got a subway like New York and Boston, but there are plenty of good reasons for Detroit to have tunnels even if few rail vehicles rumble under the city (more on them later). First of all, Detroit’s “subways” without exception are underground pedestrian passages to keep people crossing during heavy traffic or to allow passage from building to building in foul weather. There used to be an underground passage beneath Second Avenue at Peterboro Street. One remains under West Grand Boulevard between the Fisher Building and the old GM Headquarters. There were large tunnels underneath large institutions, such as tunnels for transporting patients under Wayne County’s Eloise Hospital, or service tunnels beneath Northland Mall. There were tunnels at Ford’s Highland Park factory. Ford seemed to especially love tunnels, and had them installed at his plants and at his beloved Greenfield Village in Dearborn. Of course, in the 1930s, at the time of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping, some may have been designed for personal safety. Some are alleged to have been built by bootleggers, such as the rumored tunnel connecting Busy Bee Hardware with its warehouse across Gratiot Av-
enue. But there is at least one proven tunnel connecting the basement of downtown Detroit’s Tommy’s Bar with a nearby church, said to be a relic of the days of the Underground Railroad. That “underground railroad” of course, was metaphorical, but dozens of trains a day still do rumble underground, on their way to and from Canada, via a pair of portals due south of Vermont and Porter, visible from the Bagley Street bridge behind Michigan Central Station.
There are 40 square miles of vacant land in Detroit: False
Every so often, somebody repeats the myth that a third of Detroit is vacant. That would mean Detroit had 46 square miles of vacant land. Yes, that’s true — if you include cemeteries. And public parks, like Belle Isle and Rouge Park. And every other city park. You see, our friends over at Michigan Radio looked into the issue more than three years ago, and published actual research debunking this figure. The actual figure, as estimated by the numbers-crunchers over at Data Driven Detroit, is 21.39 square miles.
Tricky currents and undertows make swimming in the Detroit River Detroit had more dangerous: False theater seats than If on some unlucky any other city except summer day you were to New York: Not so fall into the Detroit river, fast! chances are you’d be able to swim to the shore — provided you had a minimum of swimming skills. What proves deadly is when people fall in and attempt to swim back where they were. Only the most talented swimmers can slice through the stately but steady current of a few knots. Another danger is all the junk that’s at the bottom of the river: dumped waste, old cars, even rumors of accumulations of waste once called “Chickenbone Reef.” The sections of the old 1889 bridge to Belle Isle that weren’t destroyed when the bridge burned in 1915 remain a hazard. And there’s also one more thing people may not realize: A smaller version of Belle Isle buried just slightly underwater, sitting between the mainland and Belle Isle Park. On navigational charts, it’s called Scott Middle Ground, and you can make it out hazily on Google satellite view.
Other cities have made this claim, including Cleveland, Houston, and Minneapolis. But Detroit’s “theater district” arguably goes from downtown to New Center, and does include more than a dozen theaters seating 500 to 5,000, for a total of about 25,000 seats. How does that stack up with Cleveland’s more tightly focused theater district? Those are good questions. Perhaps Detroit would do better to tout its downtown sports seating instead?
There’s a salt mine beneath Detroit: Technically true
Really only a part of it is beneath Detroit. The mine sprawls under Melvindale and Allen Park too, but it’s so far down as to be another world entirely. It’s 1,200 feet down – roughly an Empire State Building, give or take a few stories – and covers about 1,500 acres down there, connected by five miles of tunnels. n
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SMILE! D
DETROIT’S BEST SELFIE SPOTS BY MT STAFF
o people even selfie anymore? The answer is yes. And what better way to take a selfie than in front of a seriously iconic Detroit landmark? The city is known for its skyline, unique outdoor art installations, and, well, the Fist — but also, so much more. Here’s a roundup of the best spots for Instagram-worthy selfies to prove to the Internet that you’re a Detroiter.
Joe Louis Memorial (The Fist)
The Joe Louis Fist might be the most easily recognized symbol in Detroit iconography. It’s in the heart of downtown Detroit, and a selfie here proves you’re in the middle of the city’s ongoing renaissance. Photo via Instagram, berrrrr28
Creative Studies, or an artist looking to make a living in the Motor City. Photo via instagram, alecaretakis
Hamtramck Disneyland
Photo via Instagram, berrrrr28
Dally in the Alley
This summertime staple takes place in Midtown and attracts a bevy of creatives and fun-seekers. A selfie here proves you’re part of Detroit’s creative class, whether you’re a student at Wayne State University, the College for
In front of murals
Much like this work of art — it’s named “Illuminated Mural” — Detroit’s many bright murals are the perfect spot for a quick selfie that proves Detroit is home to more than ruin porn and car factories.
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This colorful display created by Dmytro Szylak in the 1990s is something of a “hidden gem” in the small Detroit suburb. A selfie here proves you really know your way around town. Photo via Instagram, fexd
Movement Electronic Music Festival
Detroit is the birthplace of techno and a selfie at this annual Memorial Day weekend festival proves you’re into the city’s music history and, well, partying. Bonus points if you get the Renaissance Center in the background. Photo via Facebook, nightmoves.me
Tigers Opening Day
Love it or hate it, Opening Day is a rite of passage around these parts — whether you’re simply trying to get to work and avoid the crowds, or getting so drunk you pass out
on the sidewalk. Photo via Facebook, Carlos Perozo
Hipster Beach
This “secret beach” on Belle Isle is a beloved destination for the hip young folks who call Detroit home. Snap a selfie here to prove you belong to the in crowd. Photo via Instagram, whskeybreth
QLine
Detroit’s new streetcar will take you in a 3.3-mile loop around downtown and Midtown, making it something of an icon for “New Detroit.” It doesn’t move particularly fast, so you’ll have plenty of time to snap the perfect self portrait. Photo via Instagram, jessicasapothecary
Detroit’s hottest dining spots. Photo via Instagram, brownboyswag
Snap a selfie here to prove you’re into Detroit’s weird and wonderful art scene. Photo via Instagram, tdoyle_design
studious selfie. Pro tip: Rivera Court has the best lighting. Photo via toddhansmann
The Belt
This alleyway is lined with works of art and perfectly lit with strings of Edison bulbs, making it the ideal spot to snap a selfie. Photo via Instagram, dragonzmd
Michigan Central Station
The Z
This 10-story parking garage in the heart of Gilbertville features 27 colorful works of art — all of which make the perfect backdrop for a stunning self portrait. A selfie here tells everyone you’re headed out to enjoy the fruits of the city’s recent renaissance. Photo via Instagram, d_baghdadi21
Tailgating for the Detroit Lions
Slow Roll
Every Monday night in the warmer months, the streets fill with thousands of locals who careen through the city on two wheels. A Slow Roll selfie proves you’re not afraid to explore the city, but you’d rather do it with an army of fellow cyclists. Photo via Instagram, rexfordimages
Takoilet
We’re not quite sure why this is a thing, other than that “takoilet” is a really cute name for the can inside Takoi. Snap a selfie inside this popular Corktown restaurant’s lavatory to prove you’re dining at
Detroit Institute of Arts
The DIA could very well be considered the crown jewel of Detroit. The art museum is home to many famous works of art that would make the perfect backdrop for a
We couldn’t care less that the Lions will likely never win a Super Bowl — we love spending a Sunday basking in the Motor City sunshine with a beer in one hand and a grill spatula in the other. Photo via Instagram, xfuturehendrix
The looming train station might be the best embodiment of Detroit’s decline — and the promise of the bright new future being built in the city’s many historic buildings. Photo via Instagram, mybrightestdiamond
The Spirit of Detroit
The Heidelberg Project This outdoor art installation has a slew of backgrounds to choose from, each one more recognizable than the next.
Located in front of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center on Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit, the Spirit has become a symbol of the city — and one of its most iconic landmarks. Bonus points if you snap a selfie while the 26-foot monument is sporting a Detroit sports jersey. Photo via Instagram, leitoxxx n
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SHOP AROUND HERE’S WHERE TO FIND THE MOST INTERESTING SHOPPING EXPERIENCES IN METRO DETROIT BY ALYSA ZAVALA-OFFMAN
P
eople, it’s your duty as conscientious Detroiters to shop locally and the area’s (sometimes literal) flora and fauna of independently owned shops will not leave you disappointed. There’s essentially a shop to suit every need — making trips to Target just an ugly memory. Here’s a breakdown:
NICKELS ARCADE
JOHN KANNENBERG, FLICKR
Nickels Arcade 328 S. State St., Ann Arbor This section of State Street near the University of Michigan in downtown Ann Arbor affords shoppers an all-encompassing experience. Just down the street is the State Theatre, a recently renovated movie house where you can catch an art flick or two. Down Liberty you’ll find the Michigan Theater, Dawn Treader Book Shop, and Underground Sound. But Nickels Arcade might be the most magical
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of all the shopping experiences in this little hub. Built in 1918, the glass-covered block features a rotating cast of small boutiques where one can shop for antiques, old prints, or women’s clothing. During the winter months, the atrium is hung with garland and other festive decorations, and shoppers can take rest at one of several cafe tables parked along the brick pathway. Discount Candles 1400 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; 313566-0092; easternmarket.org/ district/discount-candles Need to banish your boyfriend’s side chick? Got to get the police off your back? Do you need to dominate that upcoming work presentation? Eastern Market’s Discount Candles has a candle to help you achieve all those aspirations and more. Donna Adams has run this 7-Day candle shop on the corner of Gratiot and Russell for 25 years and despite recent rumors the shop would soon shutter, she says she’s not going anywhere. The store is cherished within the community, due largely to the fact that Adams often prays over the candles and with her customers. On its metal shelves you’ll find varieties that include “Bitch Be Gone,” “Law Stay Away,” “Spider Queen,” “Fast Luck,” and “Money Release.” For an extra couple bucks, an employee will anoint your candle with special oils, and a little glitter, to give it that extra oomph.
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XOCHI’S
COURTESY PHOTO
Xochi’s 3437 Bagley Ave, Detroit; 313-841-6410; xochis.net Shoppers looking for some Mexican flavor will find it inside this 30-year-old gift shop tucked into the streets of Mexicantown. Sparkly sequin Virgins de Guadalupe and some Frida Kahlo imagery can be found in the back room, along with donkeyshaped planters, sugar skulls, and other forms of artwork. Near the register are baskets upon baskets of small wonders that will delight children — maracas, bracelets, wooden snakes, stones, rings, and more. Ever wondered where those ceramic chili peppers that so often hang in Mexican restaurants com from. The answer? Xochi’s. Oh, and they have strands of garlic, too. Katrina dolls and handmade nativity scenes are also for sale in this independently owned shop.
Sfumato Fragrances 3980 Second Ave. Unit E., Detroit; 313-305-1442; sfumatofragrances.com It’s quite likely there is no other place in the world where you can shop for perfume, then sip a cocktail made to match your favorite scent’s fragrance profile. Sfumato owners Kevin Peterson and Jane Larson opened their Midtown flagship in a renovated mansion on Second Avenue and added a concept they’re calling Castalia Cocktails. The shop is open during the day, and the same space converts to become an 18-seat cocktail bar in the evening where mixologists craft scented cocktails using housemade tinctures, juices, and mixers along with rare and locally made spirits. Sfumato’s eight signature perfumes are already based on culinary flavor profiles, and the cocktails add another layer of sensory adventure.
BOSTON TEA ROOM JESSICA YORK
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HENRY THE HATTER COREY LAMONT
Boston Tea Room 224 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; 248-548-1415; bostontearoom. com You’ll find all things occult inside this downtown Ferndale shop, so it might come as a surprise to know the original owner was a Catholic woman who enjoyed reading tea leaves for customers at her son’s restaurant. That was nearly 40 years ago, but the Boston Tea Room is still known as a place to get a psychic prediction and pick up a pack of tarot cards or a magic candle. The shop offers a variety of spiritual products, including those that will appeal to the most benign Christians. It’s run by the original owner’s great niece, who uses the store’s witchy reputation to promote a compelling agenda for intersectional feminism and inclusivity. Conant-Caniff Market (Rock ‘n’ Roll Liquor Store) 11303 Conant St, Hamtramck; 313-892-3685 Metro Detroiters in the know occasionally skip their corner party store to make the trek out to Conant-Caniff Market instead, lovingly referred to by locals as “The Rock ’n’ Roll Liquor Store.” That’s thanks to the store’s reputation for blaring classic rock and for a selection of wares so diverse it borders on absurd. This
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is a liquor store on steroids — the place is filled to the brim with just about anything you could possibly need for a night of partying, stored on 20-foot high shelves, with some items even dangling from the ceiling on wires for maximum efficiency. Henry the Hatter 2472 Riopelle St., Detroit; 800591-4343; henrythehatterdetroit. com This hat shop has been a beloved staple for over 100 years and has seen celebrity clients like Steve Harvey, Kate Moss, and several U.S. presidents, but last year it seemed unclear whether a Detroit location would remain open after news broke that owner Paul Wasserman could no longer afford the rising rent costs associated with a downtown Detroit location. Luckily, he found a spot in Eastern Market where the shop relocated after being closed for several months. Stop by the Riopelle store during a Saturday morning at Eastern Market and pick up a new felt fedora or a rabbit fur topper — this hattery has something for everyone. While a large selection of well-made hats is a huge draw, it’s the old school service that has long wooed customers. A sales associate will measure your noggin to ensure you get the perfect fit, clean your new hat, and wrap
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WARBY PARKER
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it in a cardboard box to make carrying it home a cinch. Warby Parker 1449 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 248-721-4126; warbyparker.com Normally we wouldn’t bat an eye at a national retailer with a location in a busy downtown district, but Warby Parker’s Detroit store is truly something special. The eyeglass makers snatched up a space on Woodward Avenue that used to be a pharmacy owned by James Vernor — you know, the guy who invented Vernor’s Ginger Ale. They’ve completely renovated the interior and it looks like Wes Anderson died and went to heaven (we mean that in a good way). You’ll find a variety of affordable frames on perfectly white walls, and you can sip Vernor’s Ginger Ale straight from the tap while you do it. Eastern Market Antiques 2530 Market St., Detroit; 313259-0600; easternmarket.com/ district/eastern-market-antiques If you have an afternoon to spend poking through three stories of vintage finds, this is the place to do it. This towering antique store found just outside of Eastern Market’s sheds is
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packed to the brim with architectural salvage, decor, lighting, clothing, furniture, and a host of untold treasures just waiting to be discovered. You’ll need ample time to wander through the nearly 15,000 square feet — but they’re only open until 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays, so we suggest you start your weekend shopping early. Pot+Box 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Suite 130, Detroit; 313-212-1869; potandbox.com Lisa Waud is a botanical designer best known for her groundbreaking “Flower House” art installation, but you’ve likely seen her stunning arrangements elsewhere too. She’s the mastermind behind Detroit Flower Week, and she recently opened a brick-and-mortar store inside the Fisher Building. Pot+Box serves as a hip florist where you can pick up a super special arrangement that will turn your drab dining room into a place of beauty. Waud has more than 20 years of experience creating avant garde designs, and it shows. Do your mom a favor and skip the trip to Thrifty Florist this year — she’ll love a break from the ordinary. n
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GAME FOR ANYTHING
XOCHI’S
MT FILE PHOTO
FROM OLD CLASSICS TO NEW-FANGLED FUN, DETROIT HAS SOME SURPRISING SPORTS TO EXPLORE BY MICHAEL JACKMAN LEXUS VELODROME.
D
JORDAN BUZZY
etroit has more than its share of unusual sports to offer. From quaint Old World sports like Belgian feather bowling at east side fixture Cadieux Cafe to modern innovations such as whirlyball — a combination of lacrosse and bumper cars — at Joe Dumars’ Fieldhouse, you think of an offbeat pastime and chances are Detroiters will embrace it. Here are some over-the-top ways to test your skill and burn off a few calories. By now, everybody is aware that the Hamtramck-Detroit border is the place for Fowling — that unusual sport in which you toss a pigskin at tenpins hoping to knock them all over. But much more awaits upstairs at the 6,500-square-foot
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Gamer’s Gallery. That’s where you’ll find console electronic games, air hockey, karaoke, board games, and something special called “footpool.” It’s a game dreamed up by thirtysomething Hamtramck natives Aaron and Ashleigh Brock that bills itself as “The first humansize footpool experience.” The husband-and-wife team has constructed several 12-by8-foot platforms where you can essentially play nine-ball, only with foot kicks instead of cue sticks. You punt a white soccer ball as your cue ball, aiming to get your balls in the holes, with the black ball last, just like in billiards. To reserve a table for your group, see thegamersgallery.com. Up in Ferndale, there’s plenty of unusual competition to draw you to the Corner Tav-
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ern and Game Room. It’s a quirky spot, with a full-service, fine-casual restaurant downstairs with a complete bar and an in-house donut machine. What’s upstairs? Oh, plenty: pinball machines, dart boards, shuffleboard, bumper pool, traditional arcade games, and 12 lanes where you can enjoy the sport of ax-throwing. Aside from the 15-inch-long, 1.5-pound hatchet you hurl toward a wooden target, it’s scored very similarly to darts. It’s said the sport began to gain popularity in Canada, and now there are several in U.S. cities, from Philadelphia to Denver. It’s a nationally regulated sport, one governed by the National Axe Throwing Federation. The Corner Tavern and Game Room is at 344 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale.
Detroit is also home to some pretty cool rarities, such as the Lexus Velodrome. It’s an indoor arena for cycling, with an oval track that features two steeply banked 180-degree curves, allowing cyclists to reach speeds of 50 miles per hour. These bicycle courses were popular in the late 19th century, and there are many of them in Europe. This 64,000-squarefoot, $4 million facility is a project of the Detroit Fitness Foundation — you can see it for yourself at 601 Mack Ave., Detroit. Or see Detroit’s other, abandoned version, the Dorais Velodrome. Built in 1969 for $50,000 with mostly volunteer labor by the Michigan Bicycling Federation. It’s rough, but a wonderful piece of bicycling history. It’s located
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DETROIT CITY FC. JON DEBOER
in Dorais Park, at the corner of East Outer Drive and Mound Road. Similarly, another European phenomenon had a sturdy foothold here in Detroit, and that’s futbol. Building on the success of the Detroit City Futbol League, in which neighborhood-sponsored teams played for bragging rights, organizers created Detroit City FC, a minor league soccer club. The club owners are especially proud of being young Detroiters, not the billionaire corporate welfare artists who own Detroit’s other sporting teams. And they put their money where their mouth is: The club’s supporters helped raise funds for a careful and ongoing restoration of Hamtramck’s Keyworth Stadium, a 1930s WPA project that had seen better days. And that ain’t all, folks: This September, the club hopes to open Detroit City Fieldhouse, a 75,000 squarefoot multi-sport indoor playing space for the Detroit sports community at 3401 E. Lafayette St., Detroit. Perhaps you like an extreme sport, one that literally requires balls of steel? We’re talking about, of course, the French sport of petanque, as played
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by the Detroit Petanque Club. A fancy-pants cousin of the Italian sport known as bocce, it’s a variant of a game played since Roman times. But where bocce is more about rolling the ball down the course, petanque is more like horseshoes, tossing the balls with a palm-down motion so they land with a bit of backspin. If you think you’ve got what it takes, seek out these amateur weekday players around noon to 1 p.m. in Cadillac Square. When it comes to steeltip darts, Detroit has it over other cities by a mile. Metro Detroit is home to the Detroit Open Dart League. Founded in 1960, it’s the oldest continuously running steel-tip dart league in the country. The league has two 12-week seasons of league play and tournaments for teams and individuals. They play at locations in Berkley, Royal Oak, and Eastpointe, but the atmosphere is best at Warren’s Commonwealth Club, the oldest British club in the United States, which features a cozy pub and weekly fish fries. For more information about the league, email webmaster@ dodl.org. n
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TRAVEL
LIKE A MIDWESTERN VENICE, CANALS LINE DETROIT’S HARBOR AND KENT ISLAND COMMUNITIES.
STAY-CATION
JUSTIN MACONOCHIE
YOU CAN GET AWAY FROM IT ALL, RIGHT IN THE HEART OF THE CITY BY VIOLET IKONOMOVA
Canal district To call the enchanted community tucked away at Detroit’s southeastern-most point a “hidden gem” would be an understatement. If it’s a gem, it’s Detroit’s blue diamond. The man-made canals made possible by the waters of Fox Creek carve out the “island” communities of Harbor and Klenk, often drawing comparisons to Venice. But unlike their Italian counterparts, Detroit’s canals are virtually unadulterated in terms of pollution, rich in vegetation, and home to a fair amount of wildlife. When traveling them by light water craft, it’s not uncommon to find a cormorant bobbing around nearby, sort of like a personal sidekick. Lily pads and seaweed line the waterways, as do the
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backyards and boat launches of people so friendly you’d think they were on permanent vacation (some of them are). If you don’t own a boat or aren’t one of the perma-vacationers lucky enough to live there, you’ll do best to explore the canals via kayak tour. Detroit River Sports offers tours that start and end at a neighborhood marina, where, if you strike the right timing, you can score an outdoor farm-totable meal under the golden glow of Edison light bulbs after your journey. The Riverside Kayak Connection also offers historic canal tours that detail the district’s Prohibition lore — a tower on a Spanish-style house at the end of Harbor Island is said to have once served as a lookout point for patrol boats; an island-dweller is said to have
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created an underwater cable strong enough to pull vessels loaded with booze across the river from Canada. If you have independent access to a watercraft and can pull off some autonomous canal-cruising, pay homage to a world where booze is readily available with a trip up Fox Creek. At the point where the water cuts off at Jefferson Avenue lives a dive bar, Marshall’s, where you can dock and hop in for a drink.
Palmer Park This centrally located, 300acre park offers an easy-to-access reprieve from the unsightly concrete that defines our roadclogged metropolis. Designed with help from Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architectural great behind New York’s
Central Park, Palmer Park offers miles of pathways that meander through towering beech and oak trees planted centuries ago. A newly restored log cabin along the park’s southern border near Woodward Avenue and McNichols anchors its place in history. Built in 1855, it was once owned by lumber baron and U.S. Sen. Thomas Palmer, who deeded the acres of surrounding land to the city of Detroit around the turn of that century. Today the park’s features include a butterfly garden and a splash pad for kids. You can also get up-close-and-personal with some regal-looking horses, as the park is home to the Detroit Mounted Police. The animal adventures continue on Lake Frances, where geese, ducks, and frogs provide an immersive
TRAVEL choral experience, particularly at dusk, when their fever-pitched honks, quacks, and ribbits manage to replace the sounds of nearby traffic with euphony.
Historic Fort Wayne
A visit to this sprawling, starshaped military fort in Detroit’s Delray feels not only like a trip out of town, but a trip back in time. Built on about 90 acres of land after the war of 1812, Fort Wayne once served as a line of defense for any aggression from Canada, which was under British rule. Today, it’s a place for people to take in some history while viewing old military architecture that can’t be found anywhere else in the region. Guided tours chronicle the various uses of the land over the years, starting with its origins as a native American burial site 1,000 years ago, through its 125 years as an army base, and its more recent use as a temporary shelter for Detroit families following the 1967 riots. Features open for visitation include the original limestone barracks building constructed in 1848, the star fort built in 1845, the restored Commanding Officers house, the SpanishAmerican War guard house, an ancient Native American burial mound, and the Tuskegee Airmen Museum. The complex fell into disrepair after the city came to own it several decades ago, but a renovation effort is underway. The vision for Fort Wayne’s future involves renovating about 30 military buildings using them to house community and cultural organizations and other tenants.
Rouge Park
It’s often easy to forget about big Detroit parks beyond Belle Isle, but if you’re willing to trade in a skyline view for the sense that you’ve really left a metropolis for the wild, there’s no better place than Rouge
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Park. The 1,200-acre park on Detroit’s west side is unparalleled in terms of size (it’s larger than both New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park), and its intertwined network of prairies, woodlands, farms, rivers, and creeks, which make it one of the most ecologically diverse places in the city. Rouge is the only park in the Motor City that offers camping, mountain bike trails, horse rides, and a “Butterfly Walk.” As a bonus, you won’t have to worry about some of the drawbacks of the ever-popular, state-owned Belle Isle (think state police, speed traps, and Grand Prix setup and teardown), meaning you can truly get lost in the wilderness and relax at Rouge Park.
Lower Rouge River While it may not be an urban getaway per se, and rather more of a straight shot right into the belly of the beast, a kayak trip along the Lower Rouge River provides a rare and fascinating close-up of where nature meets industry. The tour, run by Riverside Kayak, begins at the Melvindale boat launch and follows the river’s windy route all the way to Belanger Park in River Rouge. Along the way, paddlers are surrounded by v-shaped concrete walls, built along the lower Rouge several decades ago by the Army Corps of Engineers to prevent flooding. Trees grow up through the concrete slabs and blue herons can be spotted along the river, signs of renewed life in a section of the river that was once so polluted it caught fire. As paddlers approach the Ford River Rouge Complex — a 600-acre site composed of factories and steel mills — they’ll hear the sounds of the automotive industry reverberate over the calm waters. n
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THE FUTURE OF FLINT THE BELEAGUERED CITY’S NEXT BATTLE: TO BECOME COOL SCOTT ATKINSON
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OAKLIN MIXON STANDS IN HIS RECENTLY OPENED GOODBOY CLOTHING STORE. SCOTT ATKINSON
n 2014, Oaklin Mixon was working in The Flint Crepe Co., a small restaurant that, at the time, may have symbolized whatever it was that was happening in downtown Flint — revitalization? Rebirth? Hipsterization? It was tough to say. Over the past 10 years or so downtown Flint had gone from a boardedup ghost town to a place where you could get dinner, expensive coffee… and suddenly even something as fancy as a turmeric veggie crepe. Inspired by what was already happening, Oaklin had bigger plans than flipping crepes. He wanted to open his own business, a clothing company, and he wanted to open it in Flint. Mixon was born in Niagara Falls, New York, and later
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moved to Detroit to be with family before he entered the foster system and came to Flint as a teenager. “I fell in love with Flint,” Mixon says. “And so I figured with my creative ability and the skills that I have, why not invest in a place that needs it, versus going to a bigger city. … I wanted to actually pioneer another avenue of business here.” Mixon is a big man who practically leaks positivity, and he’d learned a good deal about business at the crepe shop. But if anyone told him he was crazy to open a clothing store it would have been easy to believe them. Flint hadn’t been much of a shopping destination since around the ’60s or early ’70s, when nearby malls were built and the shop-
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ping district that was downtown began to wither. Later, when General Motors began hemorrhaging jobs, things continued to slide downhill downtown and elsewhere. Now, standing in his second-floor clothing shop, Mixon remains as positive as ever. GoodBoy Clothing now employs 10 people, and is part of what might be the next step for Flint’s development. Sure, people might eat lunch downtown or go for a cup of coffee — but would they come for more? It looks like that answer is yes. There have, in fact, always been things to do in Flint. Longstanding institutions like the Flint Institute of Arts, the Sloan Museum, and Longway Planetarium, which make up
much of the Flint Cultural Center campus just outside of downtown, have been there for years. There were brave businesses like The Lunch Studio that opened in 2001, and bars like the Torch Bar & Grill and Churchill’s Food & Spirits weathered the economic hurricane that devastated much of Flint. But they were the exception, rather than the rule, and have long known the stigma that comes with being in a place that has been called the U.S. Murder Capital or the city where the water was infamously poisoned with lead. The stigma that surrounds Flint isn’t unearned — the city still struggles from too few police officers, crime, blight, poverty, and a host of other issues, including the ongoing Flint water crisis. In terms of the downtown area, however, and some tendrils that are beginning to reach beyond, things are happening. “Come visit downtown. You’ll be pleasantly surprised,” says Tim Herman, the CEO of the Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce. “If you want a personal tour, give me a call. It’s 810-600-1411.” Herman is also the president of the Uptown Reinvestment Corporation, a nonprofit that started in 2002 with the idea of revitalizing downtown Flint. Since its inception, Uptown has ushered in the move of the Flint Farmers Market to downtown; the Wade Trim building, which houses a local TV station as well as loft apartments; a pediatric center for the nearby Hurley Medical Center; Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, which took over the former Flint Journal building (the Journal moved into a smaller, more modern space on Saginaw Street); and put in several loft spaces. Herman estimates that around
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1,300-1,500 people now live downtown. Uptown also donated the 340,000 square-foot Riverfront Residence Hall to the University of Michigan-Flint, located downtown. The building houses students and is also home to the university’s School of Management. Jennifer Johnson moved to Flint about three years ago, leaving her job as a professor at Brown University to work in the downtown Flint Michigan State University office. She interviewed for jobs coast to coast, and almost kept her prestigious Ivy League job. But she chose Flint, and said she has no regrets. “I love that Flint is passionate, it’s engaged, it’s committed,” she says. Working as a clinical psychologist with at-risk populations (she’s secured millions in research funding, garnering her colleagues and herself international attention) while having a downtown office gives Johnson a unique perspective. She’s no stranger to Flint’s woes,
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but has also seen areas where there’s progress, whether that’s in terms of the development near her office, or the kind of work she, her colleagues, and various community members are doing out in struggling neighborhoods. When she was having talks with MSU about a potential job, she said members from various community groups were present from the beginning. “To have that sort of investment and ownership from the community is incredible,” she says. Another one of the bigger players downtown is Skypoint Ventures, an organization started by Phil Hagerman, who owns the Flint-based Diplomat Pharmacy, and his wife, Jocelyn. Skypoint has bought and renovated two downtown buildings, putting in office space, a deli, a coffee shop, and other spaces. One of the more exciting recent developments, Herman says, is the reopening of Flint’s Capitol Theatre, another proj-
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ect that’s being spearheaded by Uptown. The Capitol, sitting in the center of downtown, just a block off Saginaw, had been shuttered for about 20 years. Easily identifiable by its architecture (done by John Eberson, an architect known for designing movie houses) the building seats 1,600 and is across the street from a handful of restaurants that could be benefitting from shows as early as this summer. Uptown oversaw the renovation but handed management over to the Whiting Auditorium, which sits a short distance away on the Flint Cultural Center campus. Jarret Haynes, executive director of The Whiting, said he’s looking forward to watching the two theaters complement each other. The Whiting, he says, is better for Broadway shows and other big productions, while the Capitol, with its horseshoestyle seating, is better for more intimate shows, like comedians or productions with smaller sets or fewer people involved. “The Capitol feels like an intimate vaudeville house, which is what it started as,” Haynes says. Downtown Flint, it should be noted, is not big. It’s perhaps a dozen blocks long, and practically two-dimensional. When the Flint Farmers Market relocated to the downtown area, it wasn’t just seen as a giant boon to downtown business, but a way to get people walking beyond the main drag of Saginaw Street. The market is two blocks away. But that appears to be changing as well. One of the other big players in Flint’s recent developments is Kettering University, which is about a mile and a half drive down University Avenue (changed from Third Avenue by the city
council in 2008 in an effort to promote Flint’s college town identity) from downtown. Since Kettering’s president, Robert McMahon, took up his position in 2011 he’s made one of the university’s goals to get more involved in the community. It’s the kind of thing that sounds like a nice PR line, but Kettering has put its money where its mouth is, buying and renovating an 11,000-seat stadium along University Avenue, as well as properties on a formerly blighted corner that used to be a hotspot of drug dealing and prostitution. Now it’s home to a Jimmy John’s and a Little Caesars. “It’s inspirational,” says Ken Van Wagoner, owner of The Good Beans Café in Flint’s Carriage Town, a historic district that sits between downtown and Kettering. He opened his café 17 years ago — not a time when there was much to do downtown, let alone in Carriage Town, which is still dotted with vacant homes. Van Wagoner says he remembers when the house across the street used to be a place where drugs were sold and prostitutes came and went. Now the property, and others in the area, have been rehabbed into beautiful homes. The former fire station down the street, once abandoned, is now a brewery. He says he’s not sure if the new developments have necessarily resulted in more cups of coffee sold, but these days he sees more and more new faces. He has nothing against downtown. He just liked the idea of opening up a business that was a destination, rather than a convenience. “I wanted to be worth the find when you found us,” he says. Perhaps that’s something people will soon be saying about Flint. n
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DISHES FROM THUY TRANG IN MADISON HEIGHTS.
AROUND THE WORLD D
TOM PERKINS
SIX DISHES THAT PUT DETROIT’S MULTICULTURALISM ON DISPLAY BY TOM PERKINS
etroit isn’t a city that’s known for its multiculturalism in quite the same way as places like New York, Los Angeles, or Toronto. But it’s home to a growing number of immigrant communities and underrated kitchens run by Vietnamese, Mexicans, Jamaicans, Hondurans, Lebanese, Egyptians, Bangladeshis, and more who are turning southeast Michigan into a far more interesting place to dine. Here are six of our favorite dishes that put Detroit’s culinary diversity on display.
Honduran catrachos 36
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at Antonio’s Coney Island in Ypsilanti
Honduran food is one of the more underrated cuisines of the world, and though it’s not well-represented in metro Detroit, there are several spots to find the Central American nation’s excellent dishes. Among those is Antonio’s Coney Island in Ypsilanti Township, where there’s an ever-growing population of Honduran, Guatemalan, and Mexican immigrants. At Antonio’s, try the catrachos, which are billed as chicken enchiladas, though they’re likely not what you expect. Honduran-style enchiladas at Antonio’s come on a crunchy,
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deep fried shell and resemble a taco or tostada. The shell is topped with a rainbow mound of moist ground beef, crunchy bright pink and orange cabbage slaw, hardboiled egg slices with slightly runny yellow yolks, soft green wedges of avocado, red tomato slices, and a dusting of white parmesan cheese. 2896 Washtenaw Ave., Ypsilanti; 734-905-7321
Vietnamese Bun Bo Hue at Thuy Trang in Madison Heights
Perhaps the closest thing metro Detroit has to something like Seattle’s Interna-
tional District is the sea of 1970s strip malls and midcentury real estate developments that are the fabric of Madison Heights That’s where you’ll find the region’s best Vietnamese cuisine, and the go-to dish in the northern suburb is pho. But another soup that shouldn’t be overlooked is the bun bo hue, a wild bowl native to the central Vietnamese city of its origin, Hue (pronounced “way”). It’s for those who won’t mind pig knuckles bobbing in their broth, and no one should, because those knuckles and their marrow, along with the chunk of coagulated pig’s blood that
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looks like a small slice of dark jello in your soup, produce a funky, ferric flavor that complements the soup’s lemony base. Thuy Trang serves it under a small pile of green and white onions with round rice noodles, and the package is infused with a hit of sate, a chili and garlic oil, leaving a spicy broth with a volcanic color pallete. 30491 John R Rd., Madison Heights; 248-588-7823
The re-invented shawarma at King’s in Dearborn Dearborn once held the world’s largest population of Middle Eastern expats (a title now held by Los Angeles), and the biggest group to land here and lay roots several generation back are those from Lebanon. Over the years, they’ve turned the city into a food mecca, and there’s no more well-known export from their cuisine than the shawarma sandwich. Though there’s not a lot of reason to tinker with a classic, King’s Bakery — a small mom-andpop Lebanese shop in Dearborn — did just that. Its chefs made small-but-transformative adjustments to shawarma sandwiches by swapping out the pita for manoush, a Lebanese flatbread that it coats with a thick layer of mozzarella or achawi cheese. A manoush is traditionally served under a layer of meat, cheese, or za’atar, but it turns out that it wraps well around shawarma, as well. The bread differs differs from pita in that it’s pressed semi-thin and cooked quickly in an openflame oven that gets as hot as 1,000 degrees. That high heat and short stay in the oven leaves the bread with char spots that take on a “leopard print” pattern and render the outer edge of the bread a little crisp.
The best place to start on King’s menu is the chicken shawarma “manouwhich,” which is stuffed with charred shreds of salty chicken pulled from the spit, filled with pickles, and arrives exploding with garlic sauce. Adding a layer of stringy, fatty, oily cheese to that mix — think of it as a pizza folded over, if you really need a reference — changes the chicken shawarma experience. 4618 Greenfield Rd., Dearborn; 313-551-3027
Oxtail at Motor City Soul Food in Detroit Detroit is a city that’s 80 percent African-American — thus there’s arguably no better place in the country to find rib tips, greens, macaroni and cheese, whiting and other Southern and soul food standards. Motor City Soul Food in Northwest Detroit is where you’ll find some of the best soul food, and the brightest spot on its menu is the Mississippi-style oxtail. An order comes with around a dozen 2-inch bones covered in loose, fatty, gelatinous meat that borders on decadent. The gravy in which the kitchen submerges the tails is big on flavor and salty, like nearly everything in the restaurant’s menu. While delicious in any weather, oxtail is really a classic comfort food and something to look forward to ordering again during the winter. 12700 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit; 313-863-7685
Mahshy at Lolo Potluck in Troy Troy is perhaps not the place where you’d expect to find a fine representation of Indian, Oaxacan, Guatemalan, and Mediterranean cuisine. Yet it’s becoming one of metro Detroit better culinary
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MAHSHY FROM LOLO POTLUCK IN TROY. TOM PERKINS
cities for its diversity. If you’re familiar with metro Detroit cuisine, then you know that when we say Mediterranean food, we almost always mean Lebanese. But there’s more to the Mediterranean Sea than Lebanon, and the Egyptian Lolo Potluck is proof that the region’s other cuisines are worth a look. The small restaurant bills itself as a Mediterranean-Egyptian eatery, and it specializes in mahshy, a common, colorful Egyptian plate that’s similar to grape leaves. But Lolo’s replaces the grape leave wraps with cabbage, eggplant, or green pepper, and Egyptian grape leaves — unlike those of Lebanon — are always vegetarian. The meat won’t be missed because Lolo’s stuffs the wraps with a super fragrant, red mix of rice, tomatoes, onions, parsley, dill, and cilantro along with a hit of cumin. It’s cooked for an hour, which breaks down the purple eggplant or white cabbage shells a bit and leaves the package soft and warm. 3950 Rochester Rd., Troy; 248-817-6763
El Parian Taco Truck in Southwest Detroit It’s hard to find a properly
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prepared al pastor taco in Michigan, even in Southwest Detroit, where the city’s signs are in Spanish, and ancho and guajillo peppers are sold by the sack. But one of the best sports for the slightly sweet and salty pastor pork — the kind with brightness and depth — is El Parian taco truck on Vernor in Southwest. That’s partly attributable to Parian charring its pork and carving it from a spinning trompo, a Mexican spit similar to what we usually see used with gyro meat. That gives it the right and proper texture and flavor, though utilizing the trompo is a semi-rare practice in Detroit, as many seem to lamely favor the griddle. Parian’s al pastor comes laced with caramelized onion, covered with the requisite layer of diced onion and cilantro, folded into a warm corn tortilla, then served next to more caramelized onions and a grilled jalapeño. Don’t forget the acidic marinated onions, carrots, and radishes. (A truck is usually parked in front of a party store at Vernor Highway and Ferdinand Street. Another El Parian truck is usually parked at the corner of Vernor Highway, Waterman Road, and Dix Street.) n
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Having started out as a bakery in 1914, the speakeasy disguised itself as a furniture store during Prohibition and became a biergarten in 1965. Then came punk and the ’90s. Now, PJ’s Lager House is one of the Motor City’s top rock ’n’ roll havens.
HERD AND HEARD DETROIT MUSICIANS’ TOP SPOTS FOR LIVE MUSIC BY JERILYN JORDAN
ROYAL OAK MUSIC THEATRE.
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COURTESY PHOTO
emember when the Fillmore was called the State Theatre? Were you one of those lucky ducks who got to see the White Stripes at the Gold Dollar before they ever had a record out? If one thing is true of Detroit’s live music scene it’s that we all have a sweet spot for a certain space. These Detroit music makers give us the low-down on the best venues in metro Detroit:
Ghost Light
Hamtramck Approaching its one-year anniversary, the venue has booked some of the city’s most beloved local acts and has quickly earned a reputation for being hip without the attitude. This everchanging space is supported by the Planet Ant complex and serves up music, theater, improv comedy, and film. Zee Bricker of Tart: The vibes at Ghost Light are so good. It’s warm and intimate yet totally unpretentious. We held our EP release party there last August and it was killer. The room was
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packed and everyone was dancing. Having everyone in that space creates a party feel. The coolest thing about Ghost Light is that they host a variety of not just music but theater, art, and comedy. An environment like that encourages real performance and experimentation — there are no expectations. I really loved the way Fallout Fest was hosted there. There were performances happening in Ghost Light, Ant Hall, and in a smaller back room, creating these three really awesome and different spaces. It was so much fun to bounce back and forth between environments. 2314 Caniff, Hamtramck; 313-265-4948; facebook.com/ ghostlighthamtramck
The Loving Touch
Ferndale Since 2008, the Loving Touch has given us all the feels. As a pool hall, booze haven, and one of the most intimate music venues in metro Detroit, the Loving Touch has served up some of the most memorable local shows in recent history.
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Matthew Milia of Frontier Ruckus: Our shows at the Loving Touch have been really rewarding. Frontier Ruckus has always been admittedly more about suburban malaise than trying to represent any urban authenticity, and the Loving Touch is conveniently located on the borderline of those two worlds. We’ve released two albums there to nice crowds. For our last album release, my mom brought lots of flowers that we put around the room and stage so I got to feel a little like Morrissey, and a little like I was back at my 6th grade talent show. I saw Teenage Fanclub there, one of my all-time favorite bands, and sang along from the front row as they played enthusiastically to a pretty modest crowd considering how legendary I envision them to be. 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-820-5596; thelovingtouchferndale.com
PJ’s Lager House
Detroit Few Detroit venues have as much history as Corktown’s own punk palace, PJ’s Lager House.
Craig Brown of The Craig Brown Band (and, like, a million others): Lager House is my favorite venue because it’s one of the best little rooms in the country. The setup is perfect and throughout the years there really has been some magic in there. Good sound. Great staff. I’ve worked there for nine years but I’ve been playing there for 15. It’s one of the only places in the country that pays the sound guy and door guy from bar sales. Bands get just about 100 percent of the door. My favorite memory is probably one I don’t remember, or every time I’ve played there. 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-961-4668; facebook.com/ lagerhouse
The Blind Pig
Ann Arbor Nirvana played here. We repeat: Nirvana. Played. Here. Not only did they play at the Blind Pig in 1989, but during an MTV interview they later said that it was their favorite venue — ever. Nirvana aside, the Blind Pig is still the coolest place on campus. Ben Collins of Minihorse: If you’re a rock band in the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor area, the Blind Pig is king. I grew up in Ann Arbor, so the folklore of the Pig hit me heavily in high school. I started going regularly right when I turned 18 and it was super loud and fun. Some of the workers were rude to me, but it just made the place seem cooler. My favorite memory was maybe the time Lightning Love played a show after Stella, which was one of our favorite comedy things ever.
The Blind Pig seems to cater to any independent music, but it’s probably most famous for rock shows. One of my favorite shows was probably a Starling Electric show, maybe circa 2008. Every BANG! was amazing too. 208 S. First St., Ann Arbor; 734-996-8555; blindpigmusic. com
Marble Bar
Detroit Off the beaten path, Marble Bar is a bit of a hidden gem to those not in the know. And for those in the know? Well, it’s one of the most versatile performance spaces in the city. Kaylan Waterman of Vespre: When Marble Bar opened, I felt a decided shift in nightlife options in Detroit. From great local talent to touring bands I never thought I’d have the opportunity to see in Detroit, Marble fills the gap of the “mid-sized” venue. Living in the New Center and North End area, it’s great to now have a venue nearby with events I’m interested in. Also, a giant, gorgeous, and continually evolving patio is a game changer for me. My favorite memory from Marble would probably be from last summer when they hosted one of the Allied Media Conference afterparties. There were musical acts on the indoor stage, DJs on the outdoor stage, and food being served on the patio, giving the night a super relaxed and fun festival vibe. This venue is aimed at all genres, but has a solid partnership with Paxahau, which brings a lot of electronic music events through. I have seen everything from soul and funk DJs to rock and R&B acts to monthly parties like Motor City Soul Stomp and Haute to Death. 1501 Holden St., Detroit; 313338-3674; eventseeker.com
Royal Oak Music Theatre
Royal Oak If you’ve been here, the likeli-
hood that one of your favorite shows took place here is pretty high. Originally a film house built in 1928, the Royal Oak Music Theatre began hosting live entertainment in 1978. How a space can be both intimate and spacious is beyond us, but the Royal Oak Music Theatre manages to curate an experience to remember. Stef Chura: I’ve only played here once, to open for Mac DeMarco, but it’s definitely one of my favorite shows. It didn’t really hit me until I was there how much history I have with the venue. I’d been going to see shows there from the time I was a teen. It was sentimental to play at the venue itself, but the crowd and Mac’s fans are so high energy and positive. Lots of clapping along to songs. People screaming and throwing balloons. I signed hats. I was like “I am ruining your hat?” I saw Sonic Youth there almost 10 years ago. Someone elbowed me in my boob so hard that it still hurts. I also saw Animal Collective there a similar amount of years ago, and it was kind of surreal. 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; 248-399-2980; royaloakmusictheatre.com
El Club
Detroit Located in the heart of Southwest Detroit, El Club went from zero to 60 in record time. Chalk it up to insanely diverse booking, a state of the art sound system, party-friendly patio, or its divine pizza offerings, El Club holds the key to many hearts. Vanessa Reynolds of River Spirit: One of our favorite venues to perform is El Club. They always book some really amazing acts, and I appreciate having been able to watch people perform in such an intimate setting. They also have a photo booth. A favorite memory at El Club is the time that we opened for
Aldous Harding. It was really great to be able to hang with her in the green room and swap tattoo stories. El Club doesn’t seem to stick to a particular genre, but I’ve seen shows ranging from dub reggae, to hip-hop, to folk, and experimental electronic music. A favorite show that we’ve seen at El Club was Kelela and Lafawndah. It was especially awesome because Ahya Simone opened Kelela’s set with her amazing harp playing. I was invited by Ahya to hang out after the show. We danced, collectively serenaded Kelela with her song ‘Rewind,’ and we were all blessed with one last song after the DJ handed her the mic on the dance floor. It was such a special moment. 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 313-279-7382; elclubdetroit. com
Trinosophes
Detroit Though totally low-key and hyper-caffeinated, Trinosophes is not your typical coffee shop. This space can convert itself into an upscale art house or can fit the needs of top-billing acts, up and comers, as well as spoken word readings. David Vaughn of Wasabi Dream: Wasabi Dream’s record release. It was our first record and we recorded it ourselves. Our friends from Wildcatting came out of retirement to play the show, and my sister’s band, Violets, opened. The room sounds large, unforgiving. It’s perfect. As a drummer, the room provides a lot of harsh versatility and dynamics. If you play quietly, your drums can sound massive. I would say the venue is best for bands who can keep a leash on their stage volume, regardless of genre. My favorite show was the Dirty Three. It was the first big show at Trinosophes, and they hadn’t played in Detroit in over
10 years. It was wild. Trinosophes is located at 1464 Gratiot Ave., Detroit; 313737-6606; trinosophes.com
UFO Factory
Detroit Cue Sarah McLachlan’s “I Will Remember You,” because UFO Factory is the city’s most missed venue. The club was forced to close following a construction accident last year when the crew of the $45 million Elton Park retail and housing development destroyed the UFO Factory’s foundation. Though it’s been a slow process, UFO will reopen. While we await, let’s remember just why UFO Factory is out of this world. Fred Thomas of Failed Flowers, Hydropark, and Tyvek: UFO Factory is hands-down my home-base and the place I’ve played the most and spent the most time. Even living outside of the country between 20152017, I still managed to play and hang there constantly. I’ve known the founders since I was a kid and one of them officiated my wedding. It’s one of the most community-minded and beautifully open establishments I’ve ever known. Genres are pretty open and shift, though detractors might say otherwise. I’ve seen plenty of experimental, punk, lonely songwriter, and electronic shows there. Favorite show I’ve seen there is also hard to pin down, but there was a gig summer of 2016 on a Monday night — TAL Sounds and Matchess from Chicago and Dominic Coppola opening the show. There were maybe six people there but it was more incredible and connective than any sold out show I’d been to in ages. I don’t feel like that exact energy could have happened anywhere else. 2110 Trumbull Ave., Detroit; Updates regarding the venue’s reopening will be posted at ufofactory.com n
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DETROIT’S DEEP CUTS
YOU KNOW THE BIG NAMES IN DETROIT MUSIC, BUT DO YOU KNOW THE OTHERS? BY MICHAEL JACKMAN
SHUTTERSTOCK
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hen it comes to the sheer amount and variety of music produced, not many cities can hold a candle to Detroit. Talk about “kicking out the jams” — from Motown to Iggy and the MC5 to techno to the White Stripes, Detroit done kicked ‘em out. And just as rock ’n’ roll has always been a melding of black and white roots music, the racially mixed working-class town seemed to thrive on that fusion, throwing off white soul screamers like Mitch Ryder or the spare and tantalizing sounds of such Afro-futurists as Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson.
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A lot of Detroit’s greatest hits straddle the past and the future at the right time, such as a backward-looking rock quartet like the Romantics crashing the new wave 1980s or a scrappy, bluesinfluenced rock duo like the White Stripes challenging the slick, pop-inundated turn of the century. That helps make these bands so memorable. But then there’s the stuff you never, ever expected Detroit to have produced. Guess what? If you look through the bins, you’ll find it, right where you least expected it, hiding in plain sight — among all the ethnic recordings, hillbilly regionalism, scummy punk, doowop, wacky rap, crazy pop,
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red-hot jazz — and plenty of it is better known among niche fans today than it ever was. Heck, you might not even realize that ditty you know from oldies radio came out of Detroit. Maybe a few of these songs are like that: Since 1927, when the Buckeye combo McKinney’s Cotton Pickers came north to Detroit, the city gained an edge on the still-young art form. That attentiongetting rhythm provided a canvas for the captivating solos heard on such discs as 1929’s “Will You, Won’t You, Be My Babe” helping turn up the musical heat in Detroit’s Paradise Valley. Another jazzy group with a big, big sound owes a
debt to McKinney’s Cotton Pickers – the group’s pianist started his own big band, Todd Rhodes & his Orchestra. The group’s “Redskin Rhumba,” recorded for Sensation Records in July 1947, is hard-to-find but essential listening. One of our critics once called it “a souped-up version of ‘Redskin Rhumba’ (itself based on “Cherokee”) [that] fuses elements of gospel, jazz, R&B, and rock ’n’ roll, creating three minutes of drivin’, high-energy Detroit music.” Perhaps you’ve heard Rhodes’ band’s 1952 ditty, “Rocket 69,” on the soundtrack to Fallout 4. During the 1940s, the Great Migration saw tens of thousands of Southern
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MUSIC African Americans pour into Detroit — along with about the same amount of Southern white people. Given the way Detroit’s music business was integrated with jukeboxes and bars, Detroit had a ready-made market for homegrown country music. Aside from a few novelty hits that were never forgotten, such as “My Hamtramck Baby” by Ray Taylor or “Hamtramck Mama” by the York Brothers,, that unsung history got shined up for a brand-new generation in the 2013 book Detroit Country Music: Mountaineers, Cowboys and Rockabillies by Craig Maki with Keith Cody. Detroit also had a serious polka scene back in the day. Of course, few take the music very seriously, but Hamtramck’s ethnic band scene included such forgotten names as Johny Sadrack, Stas Wisniach, and Wally Duda. Their contributions were mostly unheralded, especially when they joined other bands as session musicians, ranging from jazz to country to rock. But if you have the chance to pick up a Decca recording of “There’s a City Called Hamtramck” by Ted “Horn Man” Gomulka (“There’s pierogi, kielbasa, kapusta/ And a lot of other food you won’t be used to.”), see if you don’t crack a smile. Detroit had a few notable recording artists during the doo-wop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Take Nolan Strong & the Diablos, for instance. Give 1956’s “You Are” a spin and you’ll be struck by the agile vocal gymnastics. It’s a spare arrangement, without the cruise control glide of later Motown, but the raw tal-
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ent lays the foundation for the later finesse. The cool style of Jack Scott is more subdued, with none of the ear-piercing vocalization of a Nolan Strong, but that crooning tenor with the skinny tie had a charm all his own. Called Detroit’s first white rock star, he was actually an Italian lad from across the river in Windsor. Perhaps his charm was best expressed in 1959’s “The Way I Walk,” which Lux Interior of the Cramps would later derange with his psychobilly stamp of approval. (Now you know what song we’re talking about, right?) The city’s back-catalog also includes a few “missing link” soul combos, such as the Falcons. In 1962, the interracial harmony combo put out “I Found a Love,” which mixed a big, gospelinfluenced soul sound with some very basic electric guitar. The group never got the traction, but the single is now a collector’s item that will keep you listening until the final, scorching, impassioned scream. The most serious Motown fans will already know all about how the HollandDozier-Holland songwriting team left Motown in 1967 to start Invictus and Hot Wax, and set up the group Chairmen of the Board, featuring quirky General Johnson on lead vocals. But if you know them only for that one song they play over and over on AM 580 (the group’s Harrison Kennedy was Canadianborn), realize that the trilling, hiccuping vocalist on “Give Me Just a Little More Time” is another piece of Motor City musical history. Another Motown heavyweight, a member of the
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Funk Brothers studio band, was a guy named Dennis Coffey. In 1971, his instrumental single “Scorpio” became a super-hit, selling a million copies. The next year, Coffey helped produce a good-time, soft-rock hit for Detroiter Jim Gold’s band Gallery, called “It’s So Nice to Be With You.” Though the tune still gets airplay as a golden oldie, nobody today seems to recall Gallery as a Detroit band. Meanwhile, Coffey, in his late 70s, still plays around town. Can you believe there was ever a “Hamtramck sound”? Some people argued that there was such a thing, embodied in the stage-stompers at Lili’s 21 on Jacob Street in the late 1970s and early 1980s by such bands as the Reruns and the Mutants. Today it all sounds so innocuous, but their hooky, upbeat power pop and good-time (if winking-eyed) rock ’n’ roll was a little bit too edgy in the days when Huey Lewis & the News ruled the charts. Since the days of big documentaries like American Hardcore or oral histories like Why Be Something You’re Not, throw a fistful of rice and you’ll hit somebody who knows what Negative Approach is. That and a slew of other Detroit bands, including the Meatmen, and Ohio’s the Necros for good measure comprised the first wave of American hardcore punk. Consisting largely of searing, 60-second songs written in two minutes by musically untrained 18-yearolds, the musical movement imploded before it could ever hit the big time. These days, Negative Approach plays for crowds in Europe.n
MUSIC
BACKSPIN D
TALIB KWELI AT SAINT ANDREW’S HALL. KAHN SANTORI DAVISON
REMEMBERING NOTABLE LOCALES AMONG DETROIT’S HIP-HOP HISTORY BY KAHN SANTORI DAVISON
etroit’s hip-hop history and relevance has not only been embodied by hundreds of talented artists, but also by the venues in which they performed, sharpened their lyrical swords, and congregated. Every era of Detroit hip-hop had a record shop, clothing boutique, or performance venue that meant just as much to the hip-hop culture as the people within them. Some are vacant, some have been renamed, and others are still a part of the nucleus of Detroit’s hip-hop scene.
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Future Funk Records
In 1983 Jerry Flynn Dale befriended Carl Mitchell, owner of Future Funk Records on West Seven Mile Road between Montrose and Forrer. Mitchell allowed Dale to set up a makeshift stage and mic on Saturdays so the neighborhood’s aspiring emcees could rap. The set-up was basic, but Dale’s youthful vigor and Mitchell’s storefront were enough to inspire ambitious hip-hop artists from all over the west side of Detroit. “It was such an amazing time during the early years of rap music,” says Dale. “We
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could do anything at Future, I dreamed about the future of making Detroit’s first hiphop record. I was like 12 or 13 when I first went in Future Funk, I lived on the same street as the record shop.” Future Funk was a key component in empowering and encouraging emcees during the years when Detroit hip-hop was still in its genesis. Emcees would battle, test out new songs, and could even sell their records at the store. Kalima Johnson (known as Nikki D during her emcee days) credits Future Funk for her early development.
“It taught me survival of the fittest in lyricism,” she says. “It was my formative years and it taught me that black men who had very little could do so much. I learned more about humanity when the owner let some rappers in the hood live in the back of the store because they were homeless.” Future Funk closed its doors in 1992 and the storefront has changed names and businesses many times over the years, but its legacy lives on. “No Future Funk records, no hip-hop records being made in Detroit,” Dale says.
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MUSIC The Hip-Hop Shop
Saint Andrew’s Hall
Just six years after Future Funk closed, Detroit entrepreneurs Maurice Malone and Jerome Mongo opened up The Hip-Hop Shop, a clothing store located directly next door to the old Future Funk storefront. Malone was an upand-coming fashion designer and a promoter of hip-hop music. He had previously sponsored hip-hop nights at Stanley’s Rhythm Kitchen and Saint Andrew’s Hall and decided to bring that same energy to Saturday evenings at the Hip-Hop Shop (hosted by the legendary Big Proof). The Hip-Hop Shop is one of two venues that highlight Detroit’s golden era in hip-hop, the other being Saint Andrew’s. Slum Village, Black Milk, D12, Elzhi, Killa Hawk, B-Flat, Dirty Ratt, Royce da 5’9”, Eminem, and 5Ela are just a few of the emcees that graced the mic. Even though the venue was no more than 1,500 square feet, it featured many notable emcee battles and kind of became a headquarters of sorts for everything hip-hop. “A lot of cats were really honing their skills [at the Shop],” says longtime Detroit hip-hop artist Leaf Erikson. “They didn’t know it, but they were actually building their networking skills. And on the mic, if you could survive at the Shop, you could survive anywhere at anytime. This was the era when open mic meant freestyle.” The shop closed in 1997, and would later reopened in 2005 (under different ownership) and again in 2014, but the storefront at 15736 W. Seven Mile is currently vacant. Footage from the ’90s era at the Hip-Hop Shop can be enjoyed at thehiphopshop.com.
For more than 20 years Saint Andrew’s Hall has been the most historic, unifying, and recognizable venue for Detroit hip-hop (and arguably for hip-hop overall). Saint Andrew’s was originally built in 1907 and used as a meeting place for the Saint Andrew’s Scottish Society. By 1994, ownership had changed and Saint Andrew’s was using its three floors of fun to host up to 500 music shows a year. The notable history and hip-hop moments that venue could tell would be enough to fill a 900-page book. Maurice Malone was one of
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(and still is) heavily used by national artists, it also has seen Prince grace the stage. There was also a secret Jay-Z show. And then there was the basement of Saint Andrew’s, better known as the Shelter. The Shelter is a grimy, grungy space where heated rap battles occured. The Shelter’s culture was highlighted in the movie 8 Mile starring Eminem in which they filmed rap battle scenes on a soundstage built to look like the actual Shelter. Detroit hip-hop has always been an environment where the artists supported each other, even when fan
Detroit hip-hop has always been an environment where the artists supported each other — even when fan support was questionable. the first to sponsor hip-hop performances there. Detroit promoter and label exec Ironside Hex talks about DJ Godfather, Q, and Mike Scroggs holding it down Sundays for WDRQ while DJs Don Q and Jewels spun on Friday nights for WJLB. DJ House Shoes would crack whack LPs against the wall while the crowd cheered and jeered and Proof hosted battle rap bouts in the Burns room on the third floor. The venue was so in touch with the needs of the hip-hop community that it opened at 10 a.m. the day after Big Proof was shot dead so Detroit artists and emcees could congregate and mourn. Although the venue was
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support was questionable, and the history of Saint Andrew’s embodies that. Saint Andrew’s still stands at 431 E. Congress.
Lush From the late ’90s through the mid 2000s, Lush Lounge was Detroit hip-hop’s Regal Beagle. “Lush was our generation’s Hip-Hop Shop and the last true breeding ground in the city,” says Derek “Finale” Cooper. With the Hip-Hop Shop closed and as groups like D-12 and Slum Village were touring the globe, Lush personified the souls of Detroit’s newest and notable emcees who were just discovering
their voices. “The Lush was for emcees who emcee,” says Orlando “V-Stylez” Vesey, a regular during Lush’s prime. “It was like you had to prove yourself there if you wanted respect. Raw Collection, Slum, myself, Big Gov, Obie Trice, and The Cardi Boyz — it was like a who’s who of Detroit emcees that all rocked out there.” Lush Lounge, located at 10241 Joseph Campau Ave., closed in the mid-2000s. The storefront briefly reopened in 2008 as Trowbridge House of Coffee, but is currently vacant.
The Air Up There showcase The Air Up There Hip-Hop Showcase is a phenomenal series started by superstar millennial artist Sheefy McFly in 2009. The showcase features the talents of newer Detroit emcees, as well as those from previous generations. McFly hosted the first 40 showcases on the last Saturday of the month at Bob’s Classic Kicks, a sportswear store located at 4717 Woodward Ave. in Detroit. “It seems unreal that it was virtually 10 years ago. You could see Dej Loaf, Danny Brown, Phat Kat, Guilty Simpson, Clear Soul Forces, and Miz Korona all at the same show,” says McFly. McFly has limited The Air Up There to a once-a-year event held at various venues, but acknowledges that the Bob’s era was the best. “We had the shoe store so packed people would be in the middle of Woodward partying,” he says. “I still do it once a year to preserve my generation’s hip-hop culture, and to have a platform for emerging emcees in Michigan.” n
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ATTRACTIONS
ALL BOOKED UP
MARCHE DU NAIN ROUGE. COURTESY PHOTO
CONSIDER YOUR CALENDAR FILLED — HERE ARE METRO DETROIT’S MUST-DO ANNUAL EVENTS JANUARY
North American International Auto Show 2019 TBA; Detroit; naias.com Glitz, glam, and the latest industry auto offerings, Detroit’s annual auto show always draws a huge crowd and puts the pedal to the metal. Meridian Motown Winter Blast 2019 TBA; Detroit; winterblast.com Originally devised as a backdrop to help populate downtown Detroit during Super Bowl XL in 2005, the Meridian Motown Winter Blast
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has now grown into a strong annual tradition featuring live music, a snow slide, and all of the s’mores. Ann Arbor Folk Festival 2019 TBA; Ann Arbor; theark. com Folk yeah! For 42 years the Ann Arbor Folk Festival has showcased some of the most influential folk acts of our time, and of course, has shined a spotlight on up-andcoming strummers.
FEBRUARY
The Dirty Show 2019 TBA; Detroit; dirtydetroit.com
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Jerry Vile’s international erotic art show features burlesque performances, the Cinerotic Film Festival, and a bevy of titillating paintings, photos, sculptures, and other odes to erotica. Cupid’s Undie Run 2019 TBA; Detroit; cupids. org The only time of year that running around in your underwear won’t get you arrested. The Cupid Undie Run is both a charitable event and a cheeky one.
MARCH
Hamtramck Music Festival
2019 TBA; Hamtramck; hamtramckmusicfest.com Dozens of Detroit-area bands, DJs, and solo artists take over Hamtramck’s bars and nightclubs for a threeday showcase that’s likely the largest local music festival in Michigan. Motor City Tattoo Expo 2019 TBA; Detroit; themotorcitytattooexpo.com Got ink? The Motor City Tattoo Expo is not your typical gun show. This event draws tattoo aficionados from all over, featuring seminars, vendors, live music, and, yeah — tattoos.
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ATTRACTIONS Autorama 2019 TBA; Detroit; autorama. com Since 1953, the grit, grease, and muscle of Autorama has been known as America’s greatest hot rod show. The event offers a glimpse at custom rides, celebrity guests, car tips, demonstrations, rockabilly, and pinup girls.
FoolMoon and FestiFools April 6 and 8; Ann Arbor; wonderfoolproductions.org On FoolMoon, the streets of Ann Arbor are invaded with illuminated costumes and contraptions. On the sister event, FestiFools, a “flash mob” army of papier-mache puppets takes to the streets for one kooky celebration.
60th Annual Detroit St. Patrick’s Parade March 11; Detroit; detroitstpatricksparade.com We’re seeing green! Corktown’s long-standing annual celebration of its Irish heritage continues with a parade, traditional music, beer, and shamrocks galore.
MAY
Marche du Nain Rouge March 25 from noon to 3 p.m.; Detroit; marchedunainrouge. com It’s only fitting that a city as unique as Detroit would host such a devilish event. Marche du Nain Rouge, though the new tradition on the block, is a blend of Mardis Gras and mythology as the city rallies together to banish the dreaded Red Dwarf. Ann Arbor Film Fest March 20-25; Ann Arbor; aafilmfest.org Calling all cinephiles! Now in its 56th year, the Ann Arbor Film Fest is the must-see event for lovers of independent and experimental film.
APRIL
Ann Arbor Hash Bash April 7 at high noon; Ann Arbor; hashbash.com Held each year on the first Saturday of April, the Ann Arbor Hash Bash is a toking good time. The herbal celebration preempts 4/20 festivities with this annual blown-out blowout of all things marijuana-related.
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East Lansing Art Festival May 19-20; East Lansing; elartfest.com It’s an art thing, baby. Since its inception in 1964, The East Lansing Art Festival has morphed into a community undertaking that offers hundreds of artists, performers, and craftspeople the chance to show off their work to thousands of art-hungry visitors. Stratford Festival May-October; Ontario, Canada; stratfordfestival.ca OK, so it’s not in Michigan but thanks to our neighbors to the North-ish for putting on dozens of plays each year with an emphasis on Shakespeare. The Stratford Festival is North America’s largest repertory theater company. Movement Music Festival May 26-28; Detroit; movement.us It’s all the rave! Lovingly referred to as “Techno Christmas,” the Movement Electronic Music Festival draws fans and DJ’s from all over the world. Considering Detroit is the undisputed capital of electronic music, there’s only one place you should be Memorial Day weekend. Cinetopia International Film Festival May 31-June 10; Ann Arbor, Detroit; cinetopiafestival.org Cinetopia honors the rich heritage of cinematic culture
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and Michigan’s proud legacy of outstanding cinema artists through special film events, panels, and presentations.
JUNE
Ferndale Pride June 2; Ferndale; ferndalepride.com Hoist up those rainbow flags, Ferndale Pride is taking over. The event is the ultimate celebration of our local gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities. Hoedown June 1; Clarkston; wycd. cbslocal.com Hey, y’all. Brush off your cowboy boots and brush up on your two-step, the annual Hoedown returns. Full of country-fied entertainment and vendors galore, the Hoedown ropes in thousands of bumpkins. Detroit Chevrolet Belle Isle Grand Prix June 1-3; Detroit; detroitgp. com If fast is your speed then the Detroit Chevrolet Belle Isle Grand Prix is right up your track. Detroit’s Belle Isle is transformed into a world-class IndyCar racing event. Motor City Pride June 9-10; Detroit; motorcitypride.org Let your pride flag fly! As Michigan’s largest pride event, Motor City Pride turns up with an average of 40,000 participants to celebrate the LGBTQ community with a blowout like no other. Ann Arbor Summer Festival 2018 TBA; Ann Arbor; a2sf. org Ann Arbor’s massive festival practically takes up all summer with 22 nights and more than 150 events, featuring music, art, film, and more.
Electric Forest June 21-24 and June 28-July 1; Rothbury; electricforestfestival.com Once again, a psychedelic neon hippie commune is erected in rural Michigan featuring electronic music, jam bands, and a literal electric forest for all of your tripping needs. Summer Solstice Jazz Fest June 22-23; East Lansing; eljazzfest.com Returning for its 22nd year, the Summer Solstice Jazz fest features hours of top-notch jazz performances and includes youth and community education programming. GM River Days June 22-24; Detroit; riverdays. com The Detroit riverfront comes alive with music, special events, food, and plenty for the kids. It’s also a great way to see how the city’s RiverWalk has transformed the waterfront over the last 15 years.
JULY
Michigan Elvisfest July 6-7; Ypsilanti; mielvisfest. org If you can’t help falling in love with “The King,” Elvisfest is for you. Celebrate the hunk of burnin’ love with some of the country’s best Elvis impersonators. Wyandotte Street Art Fair July 11-14; Wyandotte; wyandottestreetartfair.org It’s all going down — Downriver that is. The walkable artfilled event annually enlivens the heart of Wyandotte. Pig and Whiskey July 13-15; Ferndale; pigandwhiskeyferndale.com Name a more iconic duo. Pig and Whiskey offers up some of the area’s best barbecue joints
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ATTRACTIONS paired with whiskey, beer, and a music lineup that is sure to keep you roasted. Motor City Steam Con July 13-15; Romulus; motorcitysteamcon.com Put a clock on it. The Con serves up the ultimate steampunk experience. Concert of Colors July 14-17; Detroit; concertofcolors.com A cultural kaleidoscope, Detroit’s annual diversity festival enters its 25th year and features world music, ethnic cuisine, and more. Ann Arbor Art Fair July 19-22; Ann Arbor; artfair. org Stroll the streets of downtown Ann Arbor to browse a dizzying display of contemporary fine arts and crafts in one of the country’s top-ranked art fairs. Michigan Summer Beer Festival July 27-28; Ypsilanti; mibeer. com Crack a cold one. (In fact, grab us one.) Escape the summer heat with a celebration Michigan’s best local brews.
AUGUST
Renaissance Festival Aug 18-Sept. 30; Holly; michrenfest.com Huzzah! Rejoice as medieval worlds once again clash with fantasy realms for the ultimate throwback reverie. Costumes, jousting, and turkey drumsticks shall be plentiful. The Woodward Dream Cruise Aug. 18; various; woodwarddreamcruise.com The best damn traffic jam, the Woodward Dream Cruise combines classic cars and the cruisers that love them at this annual parade down metro
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Detroit’s main drag. APBA Gold Cup Aug. 25-26; Detroit; detroitboatraces.com More than 100 years strong, the Gold Cup is the oldest active motorsports trophy, featuring high-speed hydroplanes on the Detroit River. Michigan State Fair Aug. 30-Sept. 3; Novi; michiganstatefairllc.com Nothing can stop the 160-year-old family-friendly state tradition. The Michigan State Fair may have been canceled in 2012, but it immediately rose from the dead with all the family-friendly fun you’ve come to expect. Detroit International Jazz Festival Aug. 31-Sept. 3; Detroit; detroitjazzfest.com Spanning several city blocks downtown, Detroit’s International Jazz Festival honors the art form with an incredible lineup, fireworks, jam sessions, and more. Arts, Beats & Eats Aug. 31-Sept. 3; Royal Oak; artsbeatseats.com Good things come in threes. Such is true of the Arts, Beats & Eats festival. Local artists, national music acts, and the best restaurants come together for a tasty experience.
SEPTEMBER
Dally in the Alley Sept. 8; Detroit; dallyinthealley.com Celebrate the spirit of the Cass Corridor as a historic block is cordoned off to make way for multiple stages, vendors, artists, and libations. Art & Apples Festival Sept. 7-9; Rochester; pccart. org The city of Rochester trans-
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forms the 30-acre Rochester Park into one of the nation’s top fine-art fairs with over 290 exhibiting artists from across the country. DIY Street Fair Sept. 21-23; Ferndale; diystreetfair.com You can do-it-yourself without doing it alone thanks to the DIY Street Fair in Ferndale. Live music, food, and vendor booths hawking all manner of art. Funky Ferndale Art Fair Sept. 21-23; Ferndale; funkyferndaleartfair.com Keep it funky and head to everyone’s favorite Ferndale stretch of fun when Nine Mile Road becomes immersed with metro Detroit’s eclectic art scene.
OCTOBER
Theatre Bizarre 2018 TBA; Detroit; theatrebizarre.com The freaks come out at night — well, technically they come out for two weekends every October as the Masonic Temple is transformed into a wicked wonderland, and the “Greatest Masquerade on Earth” commences just in time for All Hallows’ Eve. Detroit Fall Beer Festival Oct. 26-27; Detroit; mibeer. com/detroit-fall-festival Head over to Eastern Market to sample the finest craft brews the Great Lakes State has to offer.
NOVEMBER
Youmacon Nov. 1-4; Detroit; youmacon. com Metro Detroit’s annual anime convention seems to grow every year, featuring guest speakers, cosplay costume contests, concerts, live gaming, live art, deal-
ers, vendors, and even such “live-action gaming” versions of Mario Party and Donkey Kong. Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Nov. 22; Detroit; theparade. org As one of the country’s largest and most spectacular parades, Detroit’s Thanksgiving Day Parade lures hundreds of thousands of spectators along historic Woodward Avenue to take in the larger-than-life sights.
DECEMBER
Detroit Urban Craft Fair 2018 TBA; Detroit; detroiturbancraftfair.com This well-established craft fair is absolutely enormous and, arguably, the best of the bunch based on its sheer size. It usually takes place at Detroit’s Masonic Temple for two days in early December. Noel Night 2018 TBA; Detroit; noelnight. org All is calm, all is bright. Welcome to Detroit’s beloved Noel Night. Catch carolers, ice sculptors, horse-drawn carriages, all while checking your list (and checking it twice,) because, yeah, the shopping is out of this world. Motor City New Year’s Eve Drop Dec. 31, Detroit; motorcitynye.com It’s the final countdown — of the year, that is! Celebrate New Year’s Eve Detroit-style with the dropping of a giant illuminated “D” and a party you will want to remember but probably won’t (thanks a lot, champagne). n
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