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Vol. 37 | Issue 31 | May 10-16, 2017

News & Views News............................................... 8

Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor-In-Chief - Lee DeVito

EDITORIAL

How an alleged snitch scheme led

Managing Editor - Alysa Offman Senior Editor - Michael Jackman Music Editor - Mike McGonigal Staff Writer - Violet Ikonomova Dining Editor - Tom Perkins Web Editor - Jack Roskopp Contributing Editors - Larry Gabriel, Jack Lessenberry Copy Editor - Esther Gim Editorial Interns - Rachel Bidock, Chloe Michaels, Daniel Siwka, Kay Sumner Contributors - Sean Bieri, Stephanie Brothers, Doug Coombe, Kahn Santori Davison, Aaron Egan, Mike Ferdinande, Cal Garrison, Curt Guyette, Mike Pfeiffer, Sarah Rahal, Dontae Rockymore, Shelley Salant, Dan Savage, Sarah Rose Sharp, Rai Skotarczyk, Jane Slaughter

Detroit police to wrongly land

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Politics & Prejudices.................... 12 Stir It Up....................................... 18

What’s Going On........................ 22

Feature

dozens behind bars ........................24

Food

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NEWS & VIEWS

Michael Allen Horton, 27, convicted of a pair of winter break-ins in Corktown.

COURTESY WAYNE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Nemo’s Bar on Michigan Avenue has been broken into at least three times this year.

VIOLET IKONOMOVA

Corktown crime wave continues

by Violet Ikonomova

Thieves have hit yet another

business along Michigan Avenue in Corktown — the latest incident in a wave of break-ins in the area that began early this year. Detroit police say four men pulled up to Nemo’s in a pair of dark-colored SUVs just before dawn on Saturday, May 6, forcing open the bar’s back door to crack open a safe and steal an ATM machine. It’s unclear how much money they made off with.

Break-ins have become routine at Nemo’s. Earlier this year, prosecutors say a 27-year-old named Michael Allen Horton forced his way into the business twice while it was closed.

Horton was also charged with breakins at neighboring retailers, Detroit Artifactry and Metropolis Cycles. Jail records show he was booked after committing three of those crimes then bonded out by paying $250.

While he was out, Horton broke into Nemo’s, sparking concern within the Corktown business community over the strength of penalties doled out for such crimes.

“There should be some penalty to discourage people from continually committing crimes,” Debra Walker, of the Corktown Community Organization, told Metro Times last month.

“If you bond him out at $250 and the door they broke at Metropolis is worth more than that, then the victims aren’t getting any justice. You’re also not helping the criminal at all

because they’re going to continue to do it.”

The series of break-ins occurred in January and February. Popular eatery Katoi was broken into and set on fire during the same stretch of time, though Horton is not charged in that case.

More break-ins at trendy Detroit establishments were added to the police blotter last month, with two businesses under the same ownership targeted. This time, the crimes were perpetrated just outside of Corktown, at Johnny Noodle King on Fort Street and Huron Room on Bagley Avenue in Mexicantown, where the perpetrators took liquor. The two restaurant break-ins happened within a 24-hour stretch. Also broken into nearby within that period of time was a used car dealership on Michigan Avenue.

Police have released surveillance video of two men believed to be behind the Huron Room break-in and say that the incident does not appear to be related to the Johnny Noodle King incident. That suggests there are multiple thieves, or sets of thieves, at work throughout the area.

As the search for a suspect continues, Horton is behind bars for 120 days or less. He had two of the four charges against him dropped in exchange for a guilty plea and was sentenced to the jail time and five years of probation. Drugs apparently played a role in his decision to steal

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or attempt to steal from the four Michigan Avenue businesses.

Corktown is about to look very, very different

by Violet Ikonomova Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit businessman Tony Soave are ushering in a new era for Corktown: one that will have a handful of blocks at the northeast corner of Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue looking a little more luxurious.

On Monday, the pair broke ground on what Soave’s company, Soave Enterprises, is billing as Corktown’s largest development in decades. It involves building hundreds of apartments and lofts that will, as per the renderings hung throughout the area, have Corktown bustling with even more young, affluent life.

The project has received $7 million in state financing from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation because it is considered a community revitalization project. A spokeswoman with Soave Enterprises says approximately 20 percent of Elton Park’s residential units will be classified as affordable for people living at 80 percent of average median income, or AMI. AMI in the DetroitLivonia-Warren area is about $53,000 for a family of four.

Phase one of the $45 million Elton

Park project will span five blocks and be comprised of six buildings with about 150 rental units and 13,000 square feet of retail. But there’s plenty more new construction to come: Crain’s Detroit Business reports Elton Park will eventually boast more than 400 residential units and up to 30,000 square feet of retail space.

You may be saying to yourself, “But where over there is there room for that?!” Soave’s team will be building upon parking lots and a few vacant plots of grass to make this happen. It will also rehab the old Checker Cab building.

2018 Michigan marijuana legalization ballot effort reaches Lansing

by Lee DeVito The group behind the latest effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan has taken the first step to putting the issue before voters. The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol submitted a petition in Lansing on May 5, that, once approved, will allow them to begin collecting signatures to create a ballot proposal. They’ll have 180 days to collect 252,523 signatures from registered voters throughout the state.

The proposal would allow adults 21 and over to legally possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and keep up to 10 ounces in their homes. Public consumption and driving under the influence would be illegal.

Marijuana would be taxed at a rate of 10 percent in addition to a six percent sales tax. Revenues would be split among K-12 education, roads, and communities that choose to allow marijuana businesses operate.

As we reported in a cover story last month, big money forces are backing the initiative. The RMLA ballot committee has so far raised about $140,000, mostly from three donors.

They are retailer Smokers Outlet Management (or Wild Bill’s Tobacco), Lansing real estate developer Sam Usman Jr., and Andrew Driver Jr., who owns an electric company in Gaylord. The coalition was organized by the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington, D.C.-based group behind a recent wave of successful legalization initiatives throughout the country.

The new RMLA effort follows MI Legalize’s failed effort to get legalization on the 2016 ballot. The group successfully gathered more than 350,000 signatures but did not meet the state’s 180-day deadline for securing those signatures.

While MI Legalize supports the new effort, board member Jamie Lowell last month expressed concern over the influence of big business on the proposal.

“It sets up this scenario where the infrastructure for a distributorship is created,” he told us. “If you look at these exclusionary licensing requirements, it’s hard to imagine who all has those credentials except 10 or 12 companies. This is where the special interests come in. They’re paying for exclusivity for that segment of the market.”

Gov. Snyder has still not seated marijuana board

by Violet Ikonomova Gov. Rick Snyder is well past a March deadline to seat a five-member board that will oversee the licensing of Michigan’s soon-to-be commercialized medical marijuana industry.

The holdup, according to Snyder spokeswoman Anna Heaton, is a “thorough vetting” of the candidates, three of whom will be appointed by the governor himself, and two of whom will be recommended by the state’s Senate majority leader and House speaker. Heaton says Snyder is trying to ensure that the people he seats to the board are free from conflicts of interest, because “they’ll have the power to license and regulate a new industry.” Synder, she says, would also like to see different sectors represented on the board, particularly the legal community.

The board will implement the

state’s new Medical Marihuana Facilities Licensing Act, which creates licenses for dispensaries, large-scale grow operations, processing centers that make edibles and oils, lab testing sites, and secure transporters.

Another 17-member advisory panel established by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) will make rules recommendations to the board.

Under the law, board members cannot be active lobbyists or hold public office. They cannot have interests in a licensee or marijuana facility, or have a family member who is applying for a license. Additionally, a board member cannot have recently been employed by a licensee or person with an application pending.

In March, the Detroit Free Press reported that Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof had nominated former House Speaker and lobbyist Rick Johnson to be on the board. According to the Freep, Johnson worked on the medical marijuana legislation passed last year by giving free advice to, among others, the then-chief of staff of Rep. Klint Kesto, who sponsored one of the bills. Johnson in March was negotiating the sale of his stake in a lobbying firm and considering selling it to Kesto’s former chief of staff, who had left the post to become a lobbyist. The Freep reported the sale raised concerns over whether marijuana industry lobbyists could seek to curry favor with a potential board member through the price paid.

As the state delays seating the board, Cannabis Counsel of Detroit attorney Matt Abel says municipalities are being forced to put off adopting ordinances that will allow commercialized medical marijuana facilities to operate within their borders.

“Without knowing what the rules are, it’s hard to design an ordinance without running the risk of having it need to be re-written,” he said.

LARA has been issuing questionnaires to people within the medical marijuana community to gather input on possible rules. Abel says LARA has signaled that it will have applications for licenses available online in December as planned, whether the board is seated or not. The agency has the authority to enact emergency rules if a board is never appointed. news@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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on sale now:

upcoming concert calendar: 5/13 – emo night brooklyn: detroit 5/13 – ab-soul @ the shelter w/ the bake factory

5/14 – choking victim @ the shelter w/ pure hiss, j. navarro & the traitors

5/18 – bleeker @ the shelter may 31

st. andrew’s

w/ beware the darkness, telegraf

dr. octagon - live experience

5/19 – yngwie malmsteen

feat. kool keith & dan the automator

w/ ignoring the echoes, tiles and the raskins

5/20 – decades collide 80s vs. 90s

on sale friday:

feat. dj biz markie

5/22 – wale w/ phil ade, tdot illdude, cammie lee 5/23 – the record company w/ smooth hound smith

5/24-5/25 – Seether presented by wrif

w/ letters from the fire, kaleido

july 14 this wild life the shelter

july 18 cane hill the shelter

w/ my enemies & i

5/26 – dreamcar w/ superet 5/28 – com truise & clark @ the shelter 5/30 – marian hill w/ opia 6/1 – urban cone & nightly @ the shelter

july 26 the aquabats st. andrew’s

oct. 11

st. andrew’s

paul weller

6/2 – jackyl 6/3 – mike stud @ the shelter w/ matt citron 6/8 – aaron carter 6/13 – chon w/ tera melos, covet, little tybee 6/14 – the wailers w/ leaving lifted 6/15 – saliva w/ the everyday losers

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NEWS & VIEWS Politics & Prejudices

Does Virgil Smith Jr. deserve another shot?

by Jack Lessenberry

If you are perverse enough to like

a good story that makes Detroit look bad, Virgil Smith Jr. is the gift that keeps on giving.

You may have thought you were done hearing about him last year, when he left the state Senate and went directly to jail.

But he’s out of the can — and back on the campaign trail, thanks in part to a Michigan Court of Appeals panel that seemed dreadfully ignorant of the news.

More on that later. But first — a little recap regarding the Virgil follies.

Two years ago (May 10), the then-state senator got into a bit of a scrape with the law after he repeatedly blasted his ex-wife’s Mercedes with an assault rifle in the wee hours of the morning.

Virg, it seems, called the woman up and suggested she come over for sex, something most men don’t tend to expect of their ex-wives. Apparently she came over and was scandalized to find he already had some woman in bed; Smith the younger never was very good about keeping those pesky details straight.

Well, one of the women allegedly attacked the other, a fight ensued, Smith repeatedly started beating his ex, and Virgie then showed his leadership qualities by blasting away at her car.

Nobody was hurt, but the car didn’t survive.

With that, you might have thought Smith’s career in politics would have been over. He was charged with a raft of felonies, and it seemed that he’d be on his way from the Senate to the Big House in Jackson, or somewhere.

He should have been. But the old boy network has coddled and protected Smith for most of his sad and sorry 37 years. Smith, you see, is the son of Virgil Smith, Sr., a former legislator and now a circuit court judge.

After an undistinguished career at Michigan State University, notable mainly for shoplifting convictions, Virg minor got elected to his father’s old legislative seats, first the House, then the Senate. While a lawmaker,

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Virgil Smith Jr. COURTESY PHOTO

he was notable mainly for drunkdriving convictions, and for selling out to the insurance lobby. They gave him thousands; he became the only Democrat to support taking full benefits away from victims of catastrophic car accidents. There’s much more, of course.

I’ve written about Virgie’s squalid life in greater detail before, and hoped not to have to do so again. But he’s now fighting to be in a position that could help torpedo Detroit’s fragile comeback: He’s running for City Council.

Now, it’s easy to see why he would want to do this; he really has no skills of any kind, and given his resume, a private employer would have to be cracked to hire him.

Smith the lesser did promise not to run for any office for at least five years, as part of a plea bargain to avoid serious felony time in a major state prison, where he might have gotten to be someone’s involuntary boyfriend pretty quick.

But promises and ethics never meant very much to Virgie, who frequently sold his own caucus out and voted with the Republicans in the year and a half he clung to office after the shooting episode. He wasn’t going to give up his seat voluntarily; he was making $71,685 a year. He only quit as part of a plea bargaining deal,

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NEWS & VIEWS Detroit, as all the world knows, badly needs jobs. What we don’t need is any more tax dollars spent on Smith. and then only until after his cell door shut.

That plea bargain also specified that Smith not run for any office for at least five years, the period of his probation. But Wayne County Circuit Judge Lawrence Talon said the requirement was improper, and voided it.

Wayne County prosecutors knew instinctively that if this were allowed to stand, Smith would move to get attached to the public teat in some way or another as soon as possible.

They went to the Michigan Court of Appeals to ask them to revisit the requirement that Smith not run for five years, something he had signed off on last year.

But on April 18, a three-judge panel of the appeals court dismissed that appeal, saying it was moot, since “he appears to have no intention of running for public office during his term of probation.” In other words, judges can be fools.

In this case, they were fools who didn’t follow the news. Smith had already picked up petitions to run for Detroit City Council. The judges’ signatures weren’t even dry before he turned them in. That’s right. Little Virgie wants to go to council.

That would be a disaster. For the last four years, a generally sober, hardworking group of Detroit City Council members have mostly worked hard to rehabilitate the reputation of a body that for many years was a bad joke.

Yes, George Cushingberry — the incumbent Smith is taking on in District Two — isn’t the best ad for good government. He has had his law license suspended more than once for professional misconduct, and a bunch of other problems.

But think what a message putting Virgil Smith Jr. on the council would send. It would take us back to the days of Child Molester Charlie Pugh, Sludge Felon and Class Clown Monica Conyers, Crooked Kay Everett, and Clueless Martha Reeves.

Is this the best Detroit can do?

Detroit, as all the world knows, badly needs jobs. What we don’t need is any more tax dollars spent on Smith.

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Fairness is for wimps You have to say this for Arlan Meekhof, the thoroughly despicable creature who is the Senate majority leader. He doesn’t even feel the need to pretend to be fair and balanced, or to care about the Constitution.

Whether that’s a consequence of having not much education isn’t clear, but with Anal Arlan, what you see is what you get, whether he’s trying to destroy teacher unions, or do everything he can to make it harder for people to vote.

Late last month, he rammed a bill through the state Senate under which Michigan would collect and distribute money to various antiabortion groups. They’d do that by selling a new “Choose Life” license plate, collecting the proceeds, and sending it to whatever pressure group someone selects.

That’s probably illegal under both the federal and state constitutions, but Arlan don’t care none. There are those who say he is especially passionate about this issue because he was adopted himself, back before abortion was legal.

Not being an amateur psychologist, however, I’ll just quote what his fellow Republican Candice Miller said about him recently; “Term limits can’t come fast enough for some people.”

Meekhof did say that supporters of a group like Planned Parenthood could try to get a bill through mandating their own license plate, but immediately followed that by indicating he’d never never vote for it.

This has been tried before, and we were saved from lawsuits and statewide embarrassment by the state House of Representatives, which hasn’t voted on this yet.

Hopefully, they’ll bail us out again.

Otherwise, you can always hope Gov. Rick Snyder will veto this, but I have been told by a reliable source that last week, a leaf blew onto his desk from his right wing office window, and he signed it.

letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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NEWS & VIEWS Stir It Up

The difficulty in defining 1967

by Larry Gabriel

Anyone who thinks the tumult of Detroit’s summer of 1967 — or the aftermath — is simple or easy to sort out is simply wrong.

The one thing easily agreed upon is that there was violence. What that violence meant is where the divergence emerges. The last Stir It Up column asked the question, “Why are we still obsessed with 1967?” It got a lot of response from internet readers.

“We’re obsessed because it’s wrongly and simplistically become identified with Detroit’s transition from city to Third World villages,” wrote Gary Zirulnik on Facebook.

“Racists define it as the point of transition from white to black control.

Many falsely remember it as the start of ‘white flight,’ which I recall as being well underway on the northwest side.”

That’s a good point, although I wouldn’t call people who see it as a transition “racists.” But there are people who posited that it was the beginning of the city’s decline. Detroit’s population began declining in the early 1950s and has steadily continued on that route since then. It dropped by about 180,000 from 1950 to 1960. We lost 140,000 manufacturing jobs from 1947 to 1963, when Big Three carmakers still didn’t take the Japanese companies as a serious threat. So all those trends were solidly in place well before 1967.

The population dropped by 158,000 from 1960 to 1970, and by 300,000 from 1970 to 1980. The bigger chunk of that 300,000 came after Coleman Young became mayor in 1974. So there was an uptick after 1967, but to say the floodgates opened right after 1967 would be incorrect — not to mention the continuing job losses driven more by technology than anything else.

Also, the complicity of many business interests spurred white flight on. Notably the real estate industry, which had a standard practice of scaring the shit out of white homeowners to get them to move. They would actually pay black women to walk around white neighborhoods 18 May May 10-16, 10-16, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com 18

with baby carriages so they could call white folks to tell them they better move before they lost the value of their homes.

Home ownership is touted by many as the best investment people can make and the cornerstone of most families’ economic welfare.

When you scare them by saying that they are going to lose their top investment, you can create a lot of fear — and scared people do extreme things. Add to that the highway system that was built in the 1960s enabling that trend, and you find more pieces to the puzzle.

A respondent on the Metro Times website, disqus_KeMsCyMCgm, pointed out another factor that has plagued the city. “What is true then was there were businesses, like the hardware store on Livernois near Seven Mile, that was torched by the owner to ease his exit from the city,” they wrote. “There is also a high number of homes [whose] asking prices couldn’t be [met], that ended up as torched houses; or cars with out-of-city ownership that [were] dumped and burned within the city limits.”

I’m pretty sure the place on Livernois near the Avenue of Fashion was a paint store where the CVS is now located. It was the only place anywhere near my home that I saw was burned. I don’t know anything about how that happened, but the phenomenon of property owners burning their own property to collect the insurance was a real part of all that for decades.

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NEWS & VIEWS There were elements of a riot involved, but when you look at more than 750 uprisings across the nation, something much deeper was going on.

I witnessed this around 1990 when I lived in the Brightmoor neighborhood. Across the street from me there were vacant lots where the houses had burned down, so I could see the rear of houses on the next street.

Looking over one day, I noticed a big brand new pickup truck in the yard of one of those houses. Two white guys came out of the house and drove off. A couple of minutes later, smoke started pouring out of the house. I called the fire department. After they put out the fire I told a fireman that I saw the people who lit the fire. He didn’t want to be bothered about it.

Actually, the reason those empty lots were there is because my white neighbor, who spent most of his days sitting in front of his house drinking beer, burned them down. He burned the first down because some crack dealers had taken it over. Later he burned the other two houses when they became empty as precautions so they wouldn’t become crack houses.

It’s amazing what you can hear from your neighbors when they sit outside drinking with their friends.

No, I’m not saying that white people burned down the city. My basic point this week and in my last column is that this stuff has been ongoing for a long time, and from a lot of different sources. For instance, how long did it take to get super-rich guy Matty Moroun to clean up the area and secure the old Michigan Central train station building? Now think about absentee owners of properties across the city who cooled their heels for decades waiting for their property values to go up. It’s pretty tempting to not bother about upkeep and taxes unless forced to; and I have to admit the city wasn’t very good about that.

Look at the giant Packard Plant, possibly Detroit’s biggest eyesore. That’s not because somebody was running around burning houses.

And then there’s the race card.

Geoffrey Jacques wrote on Facebook: “One important factor in the racial conflicts of (southeast Michigan) that has been far too little noted

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was that, in one sense, they were neither uniquely northern nor urban conflicts, but were actually southern conflicts carried to the north, as a large portion of the working and middle classes, both black and white, were actually southerners who had migrated to the city over the previous half-century.”

Well that’s a perspective your average person doesn’t put into the equation. Especially when automakers specifically played black southern workers against union organizing a couple of decades earlier. Was 1967 part of a drama that has been played over and over? I think so. I don’t think that racism was hands down the only inducement to leave (remember that home values thing), but racial tension made it easier.

Race was among the most important issues of the 1960s, along with the war in Vietnam and hippies. It witnessed the culmination of the civil rights movement and the emergence of the black power movement. There were more than 750 riots from 1964 to 1971.

As MT respondent Rebecca Eatmon bluntly claimed: “[It] was a riot plain and simple. Property was burned and looted and some lost their lives.”

Well there were elements of a riot involved, but when you look at more than 750 uprisings across the nation, something much deeper was going on.

Jacques addressed that in his post: “The life of Detroit and its neighboring communities has been ... fundamentally bound up with the questions of democracy, its essence, character, and practice.”

That’s the reason I think 1967 resounds so strongly in our minds.

It was part of a decade when people called into question who we are as a nation, and judging from what we’re struggling with from Detroit to Capitol Hill, most of that has not been settled yet. letters@metrotimes.com @gumbogabe

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UP FRONT What’s Going On: A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them

by MT staff

SATURDAY, 5/13 Red Bull Hart Lines @ Hart Plaza

A group of the world’s best skaters will descend upon Detroit’s Hart Plaza to participate in a unique competition.

This year things are a little different, and all qualifying rounds will take place on Saturday from pro skaters Ryan Sheckler, Nyjah Huston, and Felipe Gustavo, among others. This year’s competition will also include a “Shop Best Trick” competition that will have local skate shops battling out for the title.

Runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 1 Hart Plaza, Detroit; redbull.com; free.

Red Bull Hart Lines.

COURTESY PHOTO

FRIDAY, 5/12

FRIDAY, 5/12

SATURDAY, 5/13

SATURDAY, 5/13

The Social Runway

Best of Detroit Party

Cycle into Spring

@ the Madison Building

@ Motor City Casino

@ Maheras Gentry Park

Ponyride Market Summer Series

Designed to bring metro Detroit and Canadian designers together for a unique evening of upscale, inventive, and high-end fashion, the Social Runway will feature Rochester-based designer Cynthia LaMaide. LaMaide works with fibers, often creating and painting her own fabrics. Her work is whimsical and romantic, and has been worns by the likes of Jennifer Aniston. The show will take place on the rooftop of the M@dison Building and will also feature a performance by the Brandon Williams Experiment.

A portion of proceeds from the show will benefit the Butler Foundation and the Urban Arts Collective.

Want to rub elbows with the best of Detroit’s best? Metro Times Best of Detroit party is definitely the place to do it. The event will feature food, music, and other entertainment featuring our 2017 Best of Detroit winners. Tickets include access to tastings from over 20 local awardwinning eateries, including Bistro 82, Le Petit Zinc, Rock City Eatery, and more. For music, enjoy the sounds of '80s hair metal tribute act Rockstar and Tosha Owens' Motown review.

Cocktail-chic attire is recommended.

Forget breakfast in bed, treating her to a mimosa-filled brunch, or showering her with jewelry — definitely take your mom on this 20-mile bike ride through Detroit this Mother’s Day weekend.

According to a press release, “Cyclists will pedal from the Detroit River to Eight Mile and back along the Conner Creek Greenway (CCG), nine miles of cycling infrastructure that traces the original Conner Creek and links people, parks, green spaces, neighborhoods, schools, and shops.” The ride is suitable for adults and older children. Tickets include entry and a T-shirt, but lunch will be available at an extra cost of $10.

Vegan, vegetarian, and gluten free options are available.

@ Ponyride

Starts at 7 p.m.; 1555 Broadway St., Detroit; 313-757-1081; thesocialrunway.com; tickets are $40.

Starts at 7:30 p.m.; 2901 Grand River Ave., Detroit; mtbestof2017.com; tickets are $25; 21 and older only.

22 May 10-16, 2017 | metrotimes.com

Starts at 9 a.m.; 12550 Avondale St., Detroit; tour-de-troit.org; tickets are $30.

Some people will tell you that local entrepreneurs can’t and won’t save the economy. We’re not 100 percent inclined to believe them, especially as we’ve watched local crafters and makers become an integral part in Detroit’s economic renaissance. The Ponyride Market Summer Series is a way to get some face time with the folks who are crafting some of your favorite goods as well as discovering new products to enhance your life. This series takes place from May until October, featuring a rotating lineup of vendors. Check Ponyride’s website for more info.

Runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; 1401 Vermont St., Detroit; ponyride. org.

SATURDAY, 5/13 Cyrano @ Detroit Opera House

If your first inclination is to believe that a story about a man who is too afraid to pursue his beloved because he has a big schnoz is a comedy, you’d be wrong. It’s actually an emotion-filled opera that promises to deliver “delayed passion,” something Americans know nothing about. The performance is the culmination of a farewell season dedicated to Michigan Opera Theatre Founder and Artistic Director David DiChiera, who retires at the end of May. DiChiera wrote the opera based on Edmond Rostand’s play Cyrano de Bergerac and it was first performed by MOT in 2007.

Cyrano.

COURTESY PHOTO

Starts at 7:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway, Detroit; 313-237-7464; michiganopera.org; tickets are $29 to $152.

SATURDAY, 5/13

SATURDAY, 5/13

SATURDAY, 5/13

SUNDAY, MAY 14

Michigan Cask Ale Festival

The Comedy Get Down

12th and Clairmount screening

Formosa Circus Art

@ Joe Louis Arena

@ Ashley’s Beer and Grill

Spring is here and the living is getting easier. As the weather warms, there is nothing we Michiganders love more than to sip a cold brew while enjoying the great outdoors. The Michigan Cask Ale Festival allows you to do just that, while also getting you in proximity of some super cool state-made cask ales.

This festival is a quick one — just three hours for general admission. If you’d like some extra sip to enjoy the beers, normal tickets are $35.

Runs from 2 to 5 p.m.; 7525 N. Wayne Rd., Westland; micaskfest. com; tickets are $35.

@ Rivera Court, DIA

@ Redford Theatre

When the world is as dark and tumultuous as it has felt these last three and a half months, the importance of comedians is greater now than ever. The Comedy Getdown, part of Joe Louis Arena’s final season, brings together some of the best comedians in a generation. Cedric the Entertainer, Eddie Griffin, George Lopez, and D.L. Hughley will all take the Joe’s legendary stage this Saturday and hopefully give the crowd a few good guffaws.

Starts at 8 p.m.; 19 Steve Yzerman Dr., Detroit; 800-745-3000 olympiaentertainment.com; tickets are $20, $49.75, $65.75 and $89.75.

Dive into the summer of 1967 in Detroit — a time of turmoil and social unrest — during a screening of 12th and Clairmount. The documentary was created by The Detroit Free Press, Bridge Magazine, and WXYZ as part of a reexamination of those now iconic riots. Using home movies from locals who resided in the area of 12th and Clairmount during 1967, the film shows what life was like in the neighborhood 50 years ago. Following the screening, there will also be a question and answer session with filmmakers.

Doors open at 7 p.m.; show starts at 8 p.m.; 17360 Lahser Rd., Detroit; 313-537-2560; redfordtheatre.com; tickets are $10.

Combining acrobatic stunts, modern dance, and live theater, Formosa Circus Art will put on a unique performance in celebration of Asian Heritage Month.

Formosa gained acclaim by performing locally and internationally. Their acrobats, jugglers, drummers, and martial artists are a favorite at festivals in Asia and Europe and the troupe has performed Festival Villeneuve en Scène, Festival Pisteurs d'Etoiles, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Tini Tinou Circus Festival, among others. Want to learn more about circus stunts? Following the performance, Formosa will invite audience members to a short circus act workshop.

Starts at 2 p.m.; 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-7900; dia. org; free with admission.

metrotimes.com | May 10-16, 2017

23

FEATURE

Manufactured murders?

STEPHEN WILLIAM SCHUDLICH

How Detroit police allegedly used a ring of jailhouse informants in the 1990s to wrongly implicate dozens

by Ryan Felton

The night 18-year-old Ber-

nard Howard was hauled into Detroit police headquarters he was unequivocal: He knew nothing. Police had heard a man nicknamed “Snoop” — something Howard’s friend on the east side called him — might’ve been involved in a triple homicide, but Howard was clear: He didn’t know a thing. So he was released. Three days later, when officers brought him downtown again, they’d changed their tune. He was being held overnight for murder.

That was July 1994. At the time, Howard was a young man with a family to take care of and a prospective job at a

General Motors plant in the works.

But instead of working on a car production line he has been imprisoned ever since, fighting a murder conviction that he maintains was manufactured

by Detroit police and an enterprising jailhouse informant.

More than that, Howard and defense attorneys in similar cases say that he wasn’t alone in suffering his fate; that police and this informant led prosecutors astray and potentially landed dozens of innocent Detroit men behind bars — or secured convictions that would not have happened otherwise.

“The whole case was fabricated

24 May 10-16, 2017 | metrotimes.com

against me from inside 1300 [Detroit police headquarters],” Howard told me in an interview at the Michigan state prison he has resided in for years.

“Nothing came from the crime scene.”

Detroit has a history rankled by violence, and 1994 was no exception.

There were 541 homicides that year in a city with a million people — New York City’s murder rate was less than half that.

So by then, the directive from City Hall to homicide detectives was crystallized: Close cases, at all costs.

For Howard, there was a sinister twist for the city achieving that goal. Rather

than chase down every lead possible, Howard and several prisoners say, Detroit police relied on a few jailhouse informants to close cases for them.

That wasn’t clear to Howard when police dragged him into a downtown precinct in the early hours of July 20, 1994. Two detectives placed him in an interrogation room on the fifth floor around 1:30 a.m., handcuffed him to a chair, read him his rights, and bombarded him with questions.

The interrogation dragged on for hours. Officers kept leaving and coming back, convinced Howard had a shred of knowledge about what trans-

pired. Howard tried to remain calm.

But in the face of two officers shouting him down about what life in prison would be like, he soon found himself cracking at the seams.

“I told them I had nothing to do with it, and I know nothing about it,” Howard said at the Muskegon Correctional Facility in west Michigan.

Now 41, Howard — a tall, lanky man with a bald head and a neatly-trimmed goatee — speaks almost imperceptibly, fidgeting with a stack of documents he racked up over time for a murder case he maintains he had no part in.

After hours of questioning, Howard found himself on the department’s ninth floor, where inmates were held upon being booked. There, he briefly met a fellow prisoner named Joe Twilley. Though Howard describes their interaction as fleeting, Twilley spun a different narrative to detectives. Howard, Twilley claimed, had admitted to his involvement in the murders.

When Twilley took the stand to testify during a preliminary hearing in the case, Howard said he was stunned to find a man he’d met in passing was pinning him to a grisly killing.

But just as Howard’s trial was set to begin in February 1995, prosecutors were airing similar concerns, describing in one memo an apparent ongoing scheme with Detroit police in which jailhouse informants lie “about overhearing confessions” to “obtain police favors.” One name to be aware of? Joe Twilley.

The thing is, Howard never knew that prosecutors had concerns about the police department’s use of informants — not until long after his conviction.

Howard’s story makes for a complex tale, one that the Detroit Police Department and Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, which oversees the city, declined to address directly when asked for comment.

“The use of informants can raise many potential issues and so they are always closely scrutinized,” Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy told me in an emailed statement. “Whenever an informant comes forward, first and foremost we must establish whether they are credible, reliable, and if the information can be independently corroborated. If we are not able to do so, the information cannot be used.”

Asked if its policy toward jailhouse informants has changed since the 1990s, a spokesperson for Worthy pointed out that the prosecutor’s office was described, in memos I obtained through court records about the alleged informants, as being “clearly” against the use of jailhouse informants who received any kind of special consideration by Detroit police.

“It is also noted in the memos that the police did not disclose this [special consideration] to prosecutors at the time,” the spokesperson said.

Over the last two decades, Howard has amassed an arsenal of documents that revealed Twilley’s name has popped up in several murder cases.

Some of the convicts say they never met Twilley, while others, like Howard, say they crossed paths, but their interactions were wholly inoffensive.

Howard’s case is further complicated because, after relentless questioning by police, he gave a confession — one he maintains was false and coerced.

That alone could impugn Howard’s credibility — indeed, judges have repeatedly declined to accept an appeal because of his statement — but an immense amount of research in recent years has highlighted the phenomenon of false confessions.

For example, one in four people wrongfully convicted and later exonerated by DNA evidence made a false confession, according to the Innocence Project, a nonprofit firm that reviews potential wrongful conviction cases.

(In fact, the officer who obtained his confession, Monica Childs, later sued the city as a whistleblower by saying the homicide division had a long-held practice of coercing statements out of suspects, just as Howard said she had with him. The case was eventually settled.)

But in Howard’s court filings, it’s the alleged over-reliance of jailhouse informants by Detroit police that stands out. After coming across Howard’s case, I filed several Freedom of Information Act requests and reviewed the documents he filed in his appeal. What emerged was a scheme that — if true — is paralleled only by the Los Angeles Rampart scandal in the 1990s, as well as an ongoing situation in Orange County, which has been roiled in recent years by an informant problem of its own.

That’s because Howard’s not alone.

There are at least five pending appeals by convicts in Detroit who say they’re spending life in prison almost entirely because of Twilley and other informants.

“They became police agents, willing to lie, because they didn’t care,” said one of the informants, Jonathan Hewitt-El, of Twilley and others linked to the alleged scheme. Hewitt-El is linked to at least three cases in the 1990s but documents show he refused to testify at those trials, instead asserting his Fifth Amendment rights and saying, “it was all a set up.”

The alleged scheme, described in hundreds of pages of documents and court files, worked by Detroit police rampantly misusing jailhouse informants — from having them manufacture testimony wholesale with the help and at the behest of homicide cops,

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FEATURE to knowingly committing perjury in multiple murder cases.

After jailhouse informants allegedly fabricated testimony to tie suspects to murders, the records indicate, prosecutors were able to bolster cases light on evidence with the newfound testimony, oftentimes securing convictions as they did in Howard’s case.

In exchange for their cooperation, two of the informants have said, homicide investigators worked to alter their sentences. And, they added, during their incarceration on the ninth floor, they received whatever they wanted, be it sex, drugs, or food.

Records and interviews suggest dozens of more cases — at least 33 and as many as 100 — were filed during the mid-1990s in Detroit in part due to informant testimony. I identified a dozen cases linked just to Twilley, Hewitt-El and two other informants; of those, five defendants received life sentences and are still fighting their convictions.

In 1994, Howard was 18, enjoying the life of a young man on Detroit’s east side. He played basketball, listened to R&B, and, without access to a vehicle, enjoyed carrying his young son on his shoulders wherever they went. At the time, he worked as a janitor at his probation officer’s facility after he received a concealed weapon conviction as a juvenile.

Despite this run-in with the law, he had hopes of going to work at a GM plant like some in his family and many in Detroit had done; a good job that put food on the table. He had an uncle and a stepfather who were working to get him a position there, he said.

On July 16 that year, court records show he was dropped off at his friend Jameel Spencer’s house, where a group of friends met to hang throughout the night. They walked two houses down to the home of Tyiesha Washington.

From there, until about 2 a.m., it was a typical night of friends drinking and playing cards. According to Spencer’s testimony, he left an hour later; Howard stayed at the house with Washington. (The account was later corroborated by Washington, who also said in an affidavit that she was never contacted by Howard’s attorney to testify at trial.)

When dawn broke, Howard said he walked back to Spencer’s house and fell asleep. In the morning, Spencer mentioned a triple murder that happened across town while they were playing cards.

According to Howard, Spencer mentioned one of the victim’s names, Marcus Averitte, and asked, “Isn’t that a guy you’ve known forever?” “[Averitte] grew up with my family,

Bernard Howard.

MICHIGAN OTIS

‘They became police agents, willing to lie, because they didn’t care.’ so he knew me when I was a little boy,” Howard said.

According to police, the triple murder that Howard is imprisoned for played out like this: Just after 1 a.m., the aunt of Averitte’s girlfriend ReShay Winston stopped by Averitte’s house to give her a message from her grandmother. When she arrived, three men were on the porch. She couldn’t make out the face of who said it, but the aunt later told police that she believed a man named Kenneth McMullen said her Winston was inside.

Minutes later, after delivering the message, the aunt left.

It’s then prosecutors say the men on the porch entered the home and fatally shot Averitte, Winston and a roommate. When officers arrived later, they found the home — which police said was a drug den at the time — trashed, along with Winston’s 2-year-old son unharmed.

The following day, Howard willingly went down to the police station for an interview. Detectives were apparently told a guy known as “Snoop” might know something about the murders.

That’s what Averitte called Howard, and why police reached out.

But it was an innocuous conversation. An officer asked Howard what he knew about the shooting. Nothing, Howard said; he didn’t hear about it until Spencer told him earlier in the day. The officer asked if his nickname was “Snoop.” Only to Averitte, Howard said, “Everybody else calls me Bernard.”

The officer continued: Did he know a guy named Kenneth McMullen?

Howard previously met McMullen

26 May 10-16, 2017 | metrotimes.com

through Averitte and often saw him at the house. According to his statement, Howard said McMullen sold drugs for Averitte. Then the interview ended.

It’s then that police began to develop a narrative wholly divergent of Howard’s initial take on what happened.

That’s why, three days later, Howard found himself being questioned again.

For eight hours, two homicide detectives drilled him about the case.

But Howard adamantly maintained he knew nothing. Around 9:45 a.m on July 20, a separate officer, Monica Childs, entered the room. With her, she brought a calmer demeanor.

“I’m in tears,” Howard told me. “I’m telling her I didn’t do anything.”

According to Howard, Childs explained that McMullen had given police a statement, saying he and a friend, Ladon Salisbury, concocted a scheme with Howard to rob Averitte. The three went over and took $700 and a pound of marijuana from a safe, according to McMullen’s statement.

McMullen claimed that while he stood guard, Howard fatally shot Averitte’s roommate with a sawed-off shotgun. Salisbury killed the other two — Averitte and his girlfriend ReShay Winston. A few minutes later, they packed a van full of belongings from the house and drove off.

Howard was frozen. McMullen knew he owned a sawed-off shotgun, he told me, so he felt cornered when Childs said the statement had placed him at the scene. (McMullen, at trial, said his statement was coerced.)

So, Howard told me, Childs offered a solution: Sign a statement of your

own, and you’ll be released. If he didn’t, the officer said, McMullen will lie and put the case on him. Howard said that he went through details proffered by Childs, who wrote out the statement, which he signed without reading it over.

Childs told Howard his mother was outside waiting for him. After hours of relentless questioning, he felt drained.

He didn’t think twice about it.

“I felt that was the only option I had to get out of there,” he said.

What Howard — who had a ninth grade education and says he was functionally illiterate at the time — didn’t fully grasp was the enormity of the situation: He had just signed a confession admitting his involvement in the triple murder.

Childs immediately reversed course, Howard said. Instead of being released, Howard said she told him that he needed to be held overnight at the police department’s headquarters in downtown Detroit. (Multiple attempts to reach Childs were unsuccessful.)

“I didn’t know nothing,” he told me.

“I didn’t even know the amount of trouble I was in.”

Despite that concealed weapon conviction as a juvenile, Howard said that it didn’t provide any insight into the situation he now found himself in.

“I went straight to the juvenile [court], and then I went to boot camp” back then, he said. Nothing like this before.

And yet several inconsistencies exist in the statement Howard signed.

Unlike McMullen’s version of events that Child cited, in this statement, Howard said he was the lookout, while McMullen and Salisbury fired the fatal shots. What’s more, Howard’s statement describes the scenario as having taken place in the early hours of Saturday, July 17, not Friday, July 16.

“Who would forget the night they were involved in a triple murder within two days?” Howard said. “That’s like tragic... that’s not something you just forget or mistake.”

Police didn’t chase down every lead, either, documents show. Howard’s nickname “Snoop” led police to initially question him, but witnesses and Howard said they told detectives about another guy in the neighborhood who also went by Snoop and happened to be dating one of the victims, ReShay Winston, just months before the shooting.

“They went to school together,” Winston’s aunt Darmetia Bolden, said at trial, clarifying she wasn’t talking about Howard.

But an investigator in the case testified at Howard’s trial that police didn’t interview anyone else who went by Snoop. Only Howard.

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FEATURE Housed on the ninth floor in a facility that could hold about 60 prisoners, Howard came across Joe Twilley, an inmate afforded extra privileges by the detention officers who was serving a sentence while awaiting to testify as a witness in an arson case. As a “trustee,” a common role for some inmates in prisons and jails, Twilley was granted extra familial visits, a TV in his cell, and the ability to move about the night floor freely.

For Twilley, the informant role wasn’t unusual.

An investigator testified that Twilley assisted Detroit police in more than 20 homicides with first-hand knowledge obtained from inmates.

In return, Twilley was rewarded for his help: A second-degree murder sentence that he had been incarcerated for since 1988 was summarily reduced in 1994.

At the time, court records show, defense attorneys for murder suspects charged as a result of Twilley’s state-

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May 10-16, 10-16, 2017 2017 || metrotimes.com metrotimes.com 28 May

ganizations. Two sources with knowledge of the police department said Twilley’s months-long presence on the ninth floor raised concern internally about the use of jailhouse informants, with one source saying it prompted an internal investigation.

A “full and complete” report was completed, the source said, and “I guarantee you, it got buried.”

(In response to several Freedom of Information Act requests, the city of Detroit said that records showing what cases Twilley was involved with is exempt from disclosure. The city quoted me $53,000 to even search for a copy of the report.)

Twilley had a peculiar relationship with top Detroit homicide personnel as well. Records show a lieutenant in the homicide division at the time, Bill Rice, personally went to the judge who oversaw Twilley’s murder case and asked for his sentence to be reduced — a highly irregular move. The judge complied and resentenced Twilley before ordering the hearing suppressed.

Rice himself was sentenced in 2014 for

Individuals Twilley had just met suddenly — and inexplicably — would allegedly make confessions to him about committing violent crimes, again and again. ments took note of the peculiar consistency in his narrative: Individuals he’d just met suddenly — and inexplicably — would allegedly make confessions to him about committing violent crimes, again and again. Twilley said in court that he heard 40 to 50 confessions during his stay on the ninth floor. (Efforts to reach Twilley for comment were unsuccessful.)

Despite being warned by defense attorneys about the questionable testimony of the informants, records show the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office continued to pursue murder cases that turned primarily on testimony from jailhouse informants. Just a week before Howard’s trial began, for example, a top official in the prosecutor’s office warned in a March 1995 memo that the situation “could cause tremendous problems” and lead to “prompt reversal” of cases in which police struck a deal with an informant without telling a prosecutor.

Four sources with inside knowledge of the police department and the prosecutor’s office at the time said the concern about the use of informants by Detroit police was prevalent in both or-

perjury after prosecutors said he gave false testimony in a hearing for the case of Davontae Sanford, a teenager from Detroit who was charged and later exonerated in a quadruple murder.

The concerns over Detroit’s use of jailhouse informants also went all the way up to the county prosecutor at the time, John O’Hair. In a September 1995 letter, a defense attorney warned O’Hair about the apparent scheme. The letter described one particular murder case and conveyed to the prosecutor that an informant — Jonathan HewittEl — had recanted his testimony in more than four cases and said he lied at the behest of a homicide personnel.

In an interview, O’Hair told me he doesn’t recall the letter. He said that if an informant simply overhears a confession and then passes it along to police, there’s not a “real problem there.” But, he continued, the practice of directing informants to speak to inmates and glean whatever information they can, or to manufacture wholly fabricated testimony, would be overtly problematic.

But with the number of convicted murderers potentially implicated as a

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FEATURE result of the alleged informant scheme, O’Hair said what’s described is cause for alarm.

“It’s a terrible situation,” O’Hair said, “if all of this is true.”

Twilley was convicted of seconddegree murder in 1988. But by the time Howard was detained in July 1994, he had lived in the lockup on the ninth floor for several months. Twilley said in court that he had been receiving threats in the state prison where he’d been housed for agreeing to testify as a witness in an arson case.

“Listen man,” Howard said Twilley told him after he approached his cell.

“These police are setting you up.” The trustee offered him a cigarette and a sympathetic ear.

“Setting me up?” Howard responded.

Twilley told him: “They’re gonna put these murders on you.”

“I just sat on the bench, smoked a cigarette, and just dropped my head,” Howard said.

That was, according to Howard, his only interaction with Twilley.

But within weeks, Howard learned that was all police needed to pin the triple murder on him, along with the confession he maintains was coerced.

Whether it was because of this or not, Twilley soon received good news.

Within two weeks, records show, after speaking with Howard, Twilley’s second-degree murder sentence was reduced.

At Howard’s preliminary examination the following month, Twilley testified that Howard admitted his role in the triple murder and robbery in a conversation the two men had. Prosecutors had no physical evidence of identification linking Howard to the crime.

When a trial jury convened to deliberate Howard’s fate in March 1995, Twilley’s testimony bolstered Howard’s confession, questionable as it was.

Howard was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder, three counts of armed robbery and a felony firearms charge.

In a series of interviews in recent months by phone and in-person at the west Michigan state prison where he lives, Howard reflected on what he said was a corrupt — yet, at its core, simple — practice that allowed police to implicate men in Detroit for murder.

“You can do this to 100 people,” he said, “if this all it take to put a person in prison.”

Detective Rice first met Twilley in the late 1980s, when he was on trial for that second-degree murder. Twilley was sentenced to 25 years maximum

in prison. Under Michigan law, he was required to serve a minimum of 12 years before becoming eligible for parole.

But Twilley and Rice would meet again. Just over five years later, in the fall of 1993, Detroit police took authority of Twilley’s incarceration. Like other inmates, Detroit homicide personnel housed him in the ninth floor lockup.

A month after he was transferred, court records show, he was designated a trustee.

Within six months, Twilley testified in numerous cases, inmates started opening up to him. There was Walter Givans, a Detroit man who served 15 years for second-degree murder based on testimony largely delivered by Twilley. Ramon Ward received a life sentence after allegedly confessing to Twilley his role in a double murder.

And in Howard’s case, Twilley’s testimony aided prosecutors in building a case that roped in two co-defendants, Kenneth McMullen and Ladon Salisbury.

In July 1994, only one week after Howard was arrested, Twilley’s attorney filed a new motion to reduce his murder sentence, claiming his plea to the murder charge was not given freely and voluntarily.

In a letter from prosecutor Rosemary Gordon to John Shamo, the judge in Twilley’s case, Gordon suggested a hearing should be held. “Based upon the facts,” she wrote, “I believe [it] may be in everyone’s best interest.”

Except nothing in the hearing pertained to Twilley’s plea. Oddly, when the hearing began, Shamo noted the sensitivity of the situation and sealed a transcript of what transpired.

“This hearing is going on in chambers,” Shamo said. “It’s a suppressed hearing. I don’t want this transcript released to anybody.”

The hearing, later uncovered in an appeal of a case linked to Twilley, focused on the informant’s extensive cooperation with police. Shamo noted that he held a conversation about resentencing Twilley, in June 1994, with a member of the prosecutor’s office who later became Michigan’s attorney general, Mike Cox, as well as Detroit homicide detectives Rice and Dale Collins.

At the hearing, Collins said Twilley had been an immense help to homicide detectives.

“Defendant Joe Twilley has assisted the Detroit Police Department homicide section on a number of homicides in the City of Detroit,” Collins testified. “And he has always cooperated in basically anything that we wanted him to do.”

Collins told the judge that Twilley had testified in “several cases” and helped out on “at least 20” homicides.

30 May 10-16, 2017 | metrotimes.com

Bill Rice.

Judge Shamo said he believed, based on the testimony, that he should reduce Twilley’s sentence by a few years “to save the gentleman’s life.” “[O]ne of the factors is how well he’s done within the prison system ... what he has done to redeem himself, and to cooperate with law enforcement,” he said toward the end of the hearing.

With that, Shamo ordered Twilley released.

Documents show the decision to push for Twilley’s reduction in sentence wasn’t sparked by prosecutors at all, but Collins and Rice.

In a memo dated Feb. 8, 1995 and first reported on by Truth-Out, Wayne County deputy chief prosecutor Richard Agacinski said he was contacted by several defense attorneys about “the practice of some police investigators to place prisoners on the ninth floor of 1300 Beaubien [the prisoner lock-up] in the expectation that they will overhear confessions of other suspects and testify to these jailhouse confessions in court.”

Three problems could arise from this arrangement, Agacinski noted.

If “snitches” initiate the conversation with prisoners, it would violate their Miranda rights; if detectives promise leniency, it would violate the prosecutor’s office policy, as it is them who are to determine sentencing and charging; and, he said he had been told that some of the informants were knowingly lying about overhearing confessions and fabricating admissions to “obtain police favors or obtain the deals promised.”

In particular, Agacinski noted, one defense attorney, Bob Slameka, introduced him to two informants “who were kept on as police prisoners on the

MICHIGAN OTIS

ninth floor, and obtained confessions in several cases that I am aware of.” One of the informants was Joe Twilley.

Agacinski went on, saying that “Dale Collins and Bill Rice of DPD homicide asked us to have Mr. Twilley’s sentence on a murder conviction reduced. We wouldn’t.” So the pair bypassed the prosecutor’s office and went to Judge Shamo themselves.

O’Hair, the chief prosecutor at the time, said it would be highly unusual for police officers to directly approach a judge about reducing a sentence.

“The prosecutor’s the ones that’s representing the people,” he told me.

“It’s not the police department.”

Rosemary Gordon, the prosecutor at Twilley’s re-sentencing, recalled little about the case, as she was only asked to stand in for the motion. But she remembered Twilley as an alleged “snitch.”

(Slameka, who lost his bar license after pleading guilty to breaking and entering into his ex-girlfriend’s home, didn’t respond to numerous requests for comment. Reached by phone, Shamo’s wife said the now-retired judge suffers from dementia and would have no recollection of the case. Cox didn’t respond to requests for comment. A series of questions was sent to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, where Collins is now employed, but a response wasn’t received.)

Three weeks after Agacinski expressed his concerns in writing, Timothy Baughman, the head of the Wayne County prosecutor’s appeals division, followed up in a separate — previously unreported — memo on March 1, 1995.

He wrote that the situation described

by Agacinski, “if true, could cause tremendous problems, not the least of

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FEATURE which the police have no authority to make ‘deals’ with prisoners in exchange for them acting as ‘listening posts.’”

He added any conviction “would be subject to prompt reversal.” (Baughman couldn’t recall details of the memo when I reached him last fall by phone.)

Indeed, in the case involving Ramon Ward, which turned almost entirely on Twilley’s testimony, disclosure of the informant’s sentence reduction became relevant.

In response to a 2001 motion by Ward to reduce his life sentence for murder, a research clerk wrote to the judge overseeing his case that Twilley “had received tremendous benefit from having testified against defendants and/or acting as an agent of the police.”

In failing to disclose his reduced sentence result during his testimony, the clerk wrote, “Twilley had perjured himself in defendant’s trial.”

Despite the clerk’s insistence that Ward’s motion was legitimate, the judge denied his request without issuing an opinion.

That scenario seemed to realize fears expressed by Baughman years prior, in his 1994 memo.

At the conclusion of the March 1 memo, Baughman wrote: “Besides

During his stay, homicide detectives routinely checked Twilley out of the ninth floor to play basketball, or, even more unusually, to take him out to dinner. discussion of the matter with the police department, I would suggest in the meantime that any case which depends on a jailhouse statement made to a fellow inmate be very carefully scrutinized.”

One week later, on March 8, 1994, Joe Twilley took the stand in the case against Bernard Howard.

Within four years of his release in 1998, Twilley was arrested in California on drug charges. The case was later dismissed. The now-56-year-old has been in and out of prison, and as recently as spring 2015 was charged in Detroit for drug possession. He has yet to be arraigned on those charges.

Two sources with knowledge of the police department who spoke on condi-

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tion of anonymity said homicide detective Rice caused considerable problems internally for holding Twilley on the ninth floor for almost a year, a practice the U.S. Justice Department later ordered the Detroit police to address.

One source said Twilley’s testimony — in a case with similar circumstances to Howard’s — sparked an internal investigation. During his stay, the source said, homicide detectives routinely checked Twilley out of the ninth floor to play basketball, or, even more unusually, to take him out to dinner.

The source described how Twilley would be utilized by homicide cops in a hypothetical scenario in which three suspects were being held for a murder.

Detectives would put the suspects on the ninth floor, and then tell Twilley to discuss with them “what’s going on”

in their case and to “let us know what they’re saying.”

“So by the time they bring these three guys down to interrogate them, they kind of already know who did what… and they end up getting confessions out of these guys,” the source said.

“It’s inherently illegal,” the source continued. “When you tell him go find out this information, if he sits there and listens and these guys are just talking in front of him, that’s one thing. But if he goes up there and starts targeting them… he’s acting as a police agent and Miranda would attach. And that’s police investigations 101.”

Rice, who was recently released from prison after serving a 2-20 year sentence for perjury, declined to comment.

The homicide division’s efforts to secure confessions was a central issue in a whistleblower lawsuit later filed in 1997 by detective Childs, the one who allegedly coerced Howard’s initial admission to the triple murder.

In the suit, Childs said she was being pressured by a superior to lie in sworn testimony about statements given by alleged murder suspects.

The city maintained a practice and custom of “instituting and maintaining a de facto policy whereby officers

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FEATURE are forced to perjure themselves in order to obtain convictions of criminal defendants,” the lawsuit said. That superior — who denied the allegations, according to reports — didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

But not only did Childs admit to lying about the statements of murder suspects, she’s also linked to several cases involving the alleged misuse of informants by Detroit police.

One alleged jailhouse informant, Edward Allen, claimed Detroit police filed over 100 murder cases as a result of testimony from jailhouse informants.

In an interview with a private investigator, Allen said that, unlike jail and non-police witnesses on the ninth floor, informants — like Twilley — received preferential treatment that even trustees would not normally expect.

“Allen received hot food and drugs from the outside often while on the ninth floor,” the investigator wrote in a summary of a January 2013 interview with the informant. “Allen did drugs and sold them while working as a police witness. Police officers would arrange for police witnesses to invite guests to the police station and to have sex in the witness rooms located on the lower floors of the police department.”

The affidavit continues, “The police would also supply police witnesses with the discovery packets and allow them to read up on the case so that eventually testimony would match the government’s allegations.”

Then-prosecutor O’Hair was told by a defense attorney in a September 1995 letter about Jonathan Hewitt-El, a witness in as many as four murder cases.

O’Hair said he had no recollection of the letter or the so-called “snitch” memos from his deputies.

“If they were sent to me I definitely would have acted on them,” he told me.

Standard operating procedure would’ve called for communication about the issue with the head of Detroit’s homicide division, O’Hair added, but it’s possible nothing was put in writing beyond his deputies’ memos.

In 2010, Howard had a breakthrough in how to approach challenging his case. Time and again, he watched other inmates, guys he grew close with over time, exit prison after serving their sentence.

“It gave me hope and inspiration, seeing, if they can go home, I know I can go home, because I didn’t do anything,”

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he said. A jailhouse lawyer encouraged him to start learning the law and file a new appeal. From there, inconsistencies Howard never saw before began to emerge.

It’s a fight he’s waged almost entirely on his own. With no source of income, he has been left to act as his own attorney. He said the state permits inmates to visit the law library two days a week, an hour each time. He used to run every day, but a lung disease inhibited him from staying active. Nowadays, he keeps his nose pressed to case law and legal opinions, and reads on. When he was 14, Howard said his father died; he went over to his house and found he had been shot and stabbed to death.

In 1999, his mother died. In 2008, his stepfather followed.

“I didn’t really know who my father was in my life, as I was young, and I had swore that I would always be a part of my children’s life,” he said. “So for me to get caught up in this type of situation it went against everything I was trying to accomplish as far as being a part of my kid’s life.”

In March of 2017, a federal judge rejected Howard’s appeal for a new hearing. The judge agreed that Howard arguably had “impeachment evidence”

for Twilley’s testimony that would’ve been favorable to his defense at trial — if he had been aware of it at the time.

But, “While such information, if admissible, would have served as impeachment material, it would not have affected the outcome at trial,” the judge, George Caram Steeh, ruled in his opinion last month. Steeh said Howard’s confession was more than enough proof to secure his conviction.

Howard said he’s planning on filing a renewed motion in state court, armed with new evidence he recently obtained. He said his efforts to study the law, and the sight of other inmates leaving prison and returning to life outside, keep him optimistic.

“It’s always good to see somebody go home,” he said. “It gives you hope, thinking one day it could be you.”

This story was originally published at Jalopnik, where Ryan Felton is a transportation and technology reporter. He is a former Metro Times staff writer.

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not-too-heavily-battered bites of moist, white fish-like meat hold a spice blend that doesn’t over- or underwhelm. The wings and the bites aren’t too greasy, and there’s the interplay and balance that makes fried food worth eating.

It should be swabbed through the spicy cayenne sauce, as should the cajun fried catfish, which calls out for a little lemon and/or Crystal hot sauce. Fried okra is always a risk, as it’s often slimy or its small-ish flavor is defeated by gobs of greasy batter, but it’s done properly here. The acidic, smoky, vinegar-marinated green beans are some of Detroit’s best, and, as they should be, Faustina’s red beans and rice are outstanding.

Beyond that, the soul-cajun hybrids are also worth checking out. Order any dish with lobster in a Detroit restaurant and you’re running a risk of leaving bummed, as even reputable kitchens are known to stoop to using imitation lobster meat, the hot dog of the sea.

Faustina’s is above that, and shreds of crustacean hang out in a rich mac and cheese driven by a mix of three gooey cheeses. It turns out the cajun wings make up the fried chicken portion of the chicken and waffles. They’re balanced by super soft and sweet madefrom-scratch waffles, and shouldn’t be missed if sweet and savory is your thing.

The only mark against Faustina’s TOM PERKINS Cajun wings, red beans and rice, and mac and cheese from Faustina’s Creole & Soulfood. occurred with the seafood gumbo. The base was solid, but, beyond that, its identity grew a little fuzzy. On a return trip, we got the chicken gumbo and the 16155 Wyoming Ave., Detroit roux-thickened bowl was flavorful and rich. So we’re assuming the first bowl

by Tom Perkins 313-397-8010 was an off batch and giving Faustina’s a faustinasdetroit.weebly.com mulligan.

Wheelchair accessible 11 a.m-8 p.m.

Tuesday-Thursday, Though the location only opened Even so, it should be clarified that The common sins that you 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday-Saturday, in 2013, the Faustina’s name is one Faustina’s isn’t a straight-up creole encounter when it comes to cajun and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Sunday, closed Monday that’s known in Detroit. Faustina is a restaurant, as it also deals in cajun creole cooking in the north are underEntrees $6-$30 fifth-generation cook, and his father, food. A common misconception is that spiced dishes or one-dimensional, Leonardo Faustina III, was Mayor strong thyme and garlic presence that’s the dishes are synonymous, but they’re lazily prepared meals. There’s a misColeman Young’s personal chef. The assisted by the sweetness of tomatoes not. Creole recipes like jambalaya conception that “creole” is Louisianian and a cayenne kick. Faustina also thick- late, elder Faustina also ran several are tomato-based, while cajun dishes for “salt and cayenne bomb,” and after northwest side restaurants, and both ens the dish with the roux, and that are traditionally thickened with roux the cuisine’s heyday in the ’80s and generations of Faustinas do catering alone takes four hours to prepare. The (pronounced “roo”), a combination of early ’90s modern America’s collective shrimp and crawfish are mixed in along (including ice carvings and fruit arcooked down fat and flour. Creole is image of the cuisine developed into a rangements) for musicians at venues with spicy beef sausage — no pork in found in the city, while cajun is typiRed Lobster caricature. this restaurant. cally country cuisine. Faustina’s dishes In reality, “ragin’” isn’t common to like Joe Louis Arena, Fox Theater, the A lot of Faustina’s cajun dishes are are a crossover — you’ll find elements the Louisiana lexicon and cajun and Palace, Masonic Temple, and Music of both, as well as plenty of Detroit soul fried, which could be a bad thing in creole food is complex and full-flaHall. Faustina recently prepared food the wrong hands, but the restaurant food favorites. vored, rich from properly applied roux, for Mike Epps, Babyface, and Erykah actually achieves the right balance But there’s enough creole and cajun and built layer by layer off a base of the Badu, though he says his favorite group among batter, juicy meat, a cajun spice territory on the menu that you’ll expe“holy trinity” of aromatics — onion, to cook for are classes of kids in Detroit blend that radiates a little heat, and an rience tastes that are otherwise hard to celery, and bell peppers. For whatever Public Schools. Unless you’re booked acceptable level of sea salt. come by 1,200 miles north of the Delta, reason, Detroit sees very little of that at the Fox, or in fifth grade, head to the The meaty chicken wings are a good and that’s what we focused on. Of kind of cooking, but it can be found.

Wyoming Avenue location. example of that, as are the alligator course, the jambalaya is the best spot The kitchen of chef Anthony Faustina bites, and not just because the latter is to start. Faustina’s version is deep, with in Faustina’s, a small carryout spot on eat@metrotimes.com something exotic in Detroit. (Fishbone’s shifting flavors. It’s built off the celeryWyoming Avenue just north of the @metrotimes onion-bell pepper base, and possesses a is the only other spot that serves it.) The Lodge, is one of the only places.

King of creole

Faustina’s Creole & Soulfood

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From left: Cedric and Gowhnou Lee at Detroit’s Tou & Mai.

SARAH RAHAL

Thinking big (in a small shop)

Detroit’s first bubble tea shop hopes to bring Asian culture and delicious drinkable desserts

by Sarah Rahal

A drink that originated in Taiwan

has made its way to Detroit.

Before Tou & Mai opened in Midtown last week, the closest specialty bubble tea shop was in Ferndale (though nearby Shangri-La has the item on its menu).

Now Detroiters have more ways to enjoy the Asian treat, which features large pearls of tapioca slurped through an oversize straw. And there’s more to the new store than colorful drinks — Tou & Mai doubles as an Asian mini-mart.

Gowhnou and Cedric Lee, owners of next-door Go! Sy Thai, say they had the idea for about a year. The couple (ages 31 and 36, respectively) have been married for almost 10 years, and say when they lived in Detroit they wished they had a place like this to shop.

“Because we used to live down here, we know how hard it is to get the basic necessities that we’d have to go to the suburbs for,” Cedric says. “We wanted to do something to complement something

we’re already doing by specializing in a dessert.”

Tou & Mai’s bubble tea comes in regular, milk tea, or smoothie options. Their specialty shaved ice desserts include their own version of Halo Halo (renamed “Hello Hello”) and Tricolour Tapioca, a desert made of pandan-flavored tapioca strings, mini tapioca pearls, ruby chestnuts, and coconut milk. Customers can customize almost any drink, and there are gluten-free and vegan options. In addition, the shop also sells lattés, available as ice, frozen, or hot.

The couple embraces their Hmong culture. Traditionally, Hmong people live in isolated highlands of southeast Asia. They were heavily recruited by the CIA during the Vietnam War to assist the United States in their fight against communism.

Fearing persecution, many Hmong people migrated to the U.S. after the war. Cedric says while they migrated, the

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Hmong people picked up different specialties of other cultures and included a mix into their own heritage. In the shop, one can find Japanese and Korean candies along with tofu, apparel, gifts, kitchenware, and more.

“Although our store specializes in boba tea, the establishment is highly influenced by our culture and heritage,” he says. “You can see it in the interior decor, (the) name of the establishment, and products on the shelves, such as vintage Hmong embroidered wallets and purses.”

“Tou” and “Mai” are very common names for a Hmong male and female.

“This shop is dedicated to them,” Gowhnou says. “For every Hmong boy and girl who simply has the chance and opportunity to be who they are — to be Hmong.”

The traditional boba are tapioca pearls. Tou & Mai also carry “litchi jellie,” “mango popping boba,” “grass jellie,” and “basil seed” flavors.

When they opened Go! Sy Thai in 2013, they already had an established brand with guidelines to follow, and are currently opening a second location in Capital Park. But with Tou & Mai, they saw it as an opportunity to have a clean slate.

“It was an opportunity to introduce our culture and heritage, which was wellneeded since we lack diversity in Detroit and in Cass Corridor,” Cedric says.

“We own a Thai restaurant and we wanted to embrace our Hmong culture. I call it a mini-mart because we’re a small shop, but with a big thought,” Gowhnou says.

Tou & Mai Boba Tea and Mini Mart is located 4240 Cass Ave., Detroit next to Go! Sy Thai; touandmai.com.

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Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. COURTESY PHOTO

Sounds like dirt

Dub pioneer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry brings true sonic wizardry to Detroit

by Ana Gavrilovska

With a human as magical as the 81-year-old Jamaican music producer, singer, and songwriter Lee “Scratch” Perry, it might not be so ridiculous to suggest a cosmic connection between the word “legend” and the name “Lee,” starting with the same two letters as they do. We’re not stoned, at the moment, so hang with us here for one second, please.

“Music is happiness,” Perry tells us

on the phone from his current home in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. “Music makes you dance. Music makes you sexy.

Music makes you want to have sex.

Music makes you want to dance forever.

Makes makes you happy forever. Happiness is a cure. Sadness is stress. Music is life. Music is happiness.”

Along with King Tubby and a couple of other folks, Perry invented the musical genre dub, which posited that the

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recording studio can be the most important element in creating a record. In turn, this not only helped to influence hip-hop and spawn techno, but led to the ProTools and phone apps which create every hit country song and every hit rap song you listen to today.

Originally an offshoot of reggae, dub music — which you might already recognize as referring to a copy, as one meaning of the verb “dub” is to make a copy of material from one recording to another — is remixed reggae with the vocals removed (although vocals can be re-added) with the drum and the bass severely accentuated. The beauty of dub is in the manipulation, the way a track is developed and transformed, with the mixing console acting as the producer’s instrument.

Enter echo, reverb, delay, and other

effects to create space-filling soundscapes, often ghostly and haunting, with a concentration on repetition. The genre is in cultural conversation with Afrofuturism, the cultural aesthetic and philosophy that combines elements of science fiction, history, Afrocentrism, and magical realism with non-Western worldviews to examine and critique both modern-day problems faced by black people and historical events.

This is put carefully in focus by music historian Luke Ehrlich in the oftquoted 1982 essay “X-Ray Music: The Volatile History of Dub”: “With dub, Jamaican music spaced out completely; if reggae is Africa in the New World, then dub must be Africa on the moon.”

It’s not even remotely a surprise that dub went on to influence everything from hip-hop to techno and house

to punk and post-punk. But before it could do that, it had to be invented, and Perry is one of the original mad dub geniuses — and yet, in the late ’70s or early ’80s, he allegedly burned down the place where most of not only the dub magic but also his earlier focus on straight up reggae had occurred: the Black Ark, a studio he had built in his backyard. The set-up was rudimentary, and some of the gear quite dated; people now speculate that the utterly unique sounds he was able to both create and obtain may have had something to do with the literal decay of the space and equipment.

At the Black Ark, he produced or recorded everyone from his house band the Upsetters to Bob Marley and the Wailers to the Heptones to even Paul and Linda McCartney with Wings. Still,

Perry had always been a thoroughly enigmatic and superstitious individual, with some rather unorthodox practices — such as consecrating his equipment with mystical invocations and spraying tapes with fluids to embellish their spiritual properties — so it’s not entirely a surprise that he takes credit for the fire that destroyed everything, which he often states was a sacrifice he made to cleanse the space of “unclean spirits.” (Others claim it was simply an electrical fire after rewiring had gone bad, but there’s something cosmologically fitting to the notion that Lee torched the place himself.)

If you don’t have time to watch one of the films about him — the one you’ve probably at least heard of is the 2011 documentary The Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry, narrated by Benicio Del Toro — before his performance at El Club on Monday, join us as we take a brief trip through the twists and turns of his voluminous musical past in preparation for a performance that is likely to leave us scratching our heads with mystical wonder.

Born Rainford Hugh Perry in Jamaica, he took off down a musical path in the late 1950s selling records for Clement “Coxsone” Dodd’s sound system (in Jamaican culture, the collective name for a group of DJs, engineers, and MCs playing ska, rocksteady, or reggae). Dodd was extremely influential in the evolution of ska and reggae in the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond. You might better know the name of the recording studio and record label he founded: Studio One, which has been described as the Motown of Jamaica. Perry eventually logged many hours there, recording almost 30 songs for the label.

Growing disagreements caused him to leave; thus was born his moniker the Upsetter, so named after his song “I Am The Upsetter,” a direct musical jab at, and dismissal of, Dodd.

A brief stint at Joe Gibbs’s Amalgamated Records followed. It wasn’t until 1968 that Perry formed his own label, Upsetter Records. His first single on his own label, “People Funny Boy,” was another sonic jab at a former boss, this time Gibbs. The track is now renowned, not only for its inventive use of the sample of a crying baby, but also for the fast-paced rhythmic shuffle we today recognize as reggae, a nascent sound at the time.

In 1973, Perry built the Black Ark studio in his backyard in order to exercise more control — in the numerous bizarre and beautiful ways that control was manifested — over his work. Access to his own studio enabled his productions to expand in scope and become increasingly unusual. For

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MUSIC instance, Perry surrounded the drum booth with chicken wire to augment the sound, and also buried microphones at the base of a palm tree to capture a perplexing bass drum effect produced by rhythmically thumping the tree itself.

“The truth is the sun, the moon, and the stars, the clouds, the rain, the rainbow, and the weather; the earth is a magician,” he says.

The marvel of his songs is in the layers and layers of subtle effects added in production — ­ everything from rainfall and the sounds of broken glass to crying babies and cow noises ­— which were not actually recordings of cows, but rather the baritone voice of reggae singer Watty Burnett as fed through a tin foil-laced cardboard tube.

To name just two landmark dub albums of the time would be 1973’s Blackboard Jungle Dub (originally released as Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle), featuring Perry’s singular mix of quavering guitar effects, obscured rhythms, and horns that seem to be miles away; and 1976’s Super Ape, half the pure essence of raw dubs, half featuring re-done vocals that almost lean into a jazz sound.

Perry worked his magical mixing console for many years, greatly contributing to the highest points in the history of reggae — until the fire, of course. With the destruction of the Black Ark came an end to one of Jamaica’s most creatively fertile and musically innovative eras.

“I went away from the Black Ark for a while because there were too many vampires trying to suck me dry,” Perry says. “I don’t want them to suck them dry, I don’t let them suck me dry. So the Black Ark Vampires, they are losing.

The vampires lose.”

In the 1980s and beyond, Perry spent time in both England and the United States, performing live and making records with numerous collaborators, including British producers Adrian Sherwood and Neil Fraser (better known as Mad Professor), who helped solidify Perry’s career again; the Beastie Boys, on whose 1998 track “Dr. Lee, PhD” he was a guest vocalist; Andrew W.K., who co-produced Perry’s 2008 album Repentance; and Keith Richards and spiritual brother George Clinton, who appeared on his 2010 album Revelation — to name just a few.

Solo albums and collaborations combined, the array of Perry recordings is dizzying, and he is still as prolific as ever; his latest release is this year’s Zion Funky Rock. While he has traversed

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all the manifestations of reggae and dub throughout his life, these days you would do just as well to call him a performance artist.

“I’m coming to have a good show; I’m coming to see my fans, I want to see people there,” Perry says. “Everywhere I go, I have a full show, a full house.”

His live shows are often described as exceptional experiences, utterly weird and totally mesmerizing, featuring a combination of digital music and live performance. Here in Detroit, he is joined by the Subatomic Sound System, a Brooklyn collective composed of musicians, producers, and DJs that combine new technology with traditional instrumentation in an effort to adapt the Jamaican sound system culture to today’s genres and forms of live performance — in other words, the perfect people to perform with Perry in the modern world.

The group is his go-to band when playing in the United States, with their masterful ability to recreate the imaginative sonic architecture of the Black Ark sound on stage.

“We’ll have a good time,” Perry says.

“We’re coming to bring peace to the people, peace in America … so I’ve come to have a peaceful party and I hope they are happy. A party that is part reggae, and part dub. We will mix reggae, dub, hip-hop, and soul.”

In addition to all of this musical work, Perry also had his first ever solo art exhibition in 2010 (appropriately titled “Secret Education”); received Jamaica’s sixth highest honor, the Order of Distinction, Commander class, in 2012; and has appeared everywhere from the dub radio station the Blue Ark in Grand Theft Auto V to several Guinness commercials. Is there anything this man cannot do?

Perry now lives and works in Switzerland with his wife and children. Not only did he wish to escape the poverty of Jamaica, but the mountains, with their naturally occurring echos, seem to be the perfect home for a dub genius — which makes his rare appearance here in Detroit that much more exciting. When will you get another chance to see a true genre innovator? You better take this one.

Lee “Scratch” Perry and the Subatomic Sound System play El Club Monday, May 15; Doors at 8 p.m.; El Club, 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit. com; $26. music@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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Mike Hadreas is Perfume Genius.

COURTESY PHOTO

Smells like clean spirit Perfume Genius plays Magic Stick

by Tom Perkins

Perfume Genius is the stage

name for Seattle-based solo artist Mike Hadreas. His show at the Magic Stick Wednesday, May 10 opens his tour in support of his new album, No Shape, the singer-songwriter’s first since 2014’s acclaimed Too Bright. It’s a bit of a shift in direction toward a more experimental sound that’s at times joyous, weird, and haunting. We caught up with Hadreas, one of indie rock’s most outspoken gay artists, as he prepared for the tour.

Metro Times: Are you going to be selling the “Effeminate Eminem” tee-shirts at the Detroit show?

Mike Hadreas: No, those are a rarity now. But I think I’m going to be cooking something new up.

MT: That’s too bad — you’d make a killing off those here.

Hadreas: (Laughs.) That’s true; I never thought of that.

MT: For the Detroit readers who might

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have missed it, but will definitely appreciate it, can you tell us a little about why you made the shirts?

Hadreas: Oh, man. I still get a lot of shit from Eminem fans for that. I don’t even know what search line they’re using in Google to find it. It wasn’t that big of a deal, but somehow they’re really digging.

We disabled the comments on one of my videos because of it. I’m not a fan of people who pass off misogyny and homophobia as a joke. I think that there’s funnier stuff; there are jokes that don’t involve that.

MT: The new album has a different feel. There’s a lot of joy where the other albums were a little more dark. Was that a conscious decision, or is that what came out while you were writing?

Hadreas: A combination of both, I think. The first song I wrote for the album was a little more warm, and it was the one out of a batch of songs that I was trying to write that I felt was the most inspired. So I sort of started building on that. But I thought of it as a challenge in some ways, because I’ve

always liked movies and music that are heartwarming and joyous and free. And I think it’s a lot more difficult to make music like that and have it not be corny, or have an after-school special kind of feel. So it was a fun puzzle to write music that would make you feel that way.

MT: Did the lyrical content follow suit?

Hadreas: The lyrics came after, which is weird. I’ve traditionally done that the other way around. The lyrics are happier, but there’s alway a thread of something kind of dissonant underneath all the songs that maybe all sound warm at first, but if you listen there’s something bubbling underneath that’s not so nice. I think the lyrics are kind of approaching happiness, but you never really quite get there.

MT: I read an interview after your last album, Too Bright, in which you said you were listening to a lot of Otis Redding while writing that album, and one can hear a lot of Otis’ influence in it.

Were you listening to anyone in particular while recording this album?

Hadreas: I’m always listening to a lot of old soul and a lot of 4AD music, like Cocteau Twins. But I think for this album I kind of liked the idea of doing my version of Bruce Springsteen’s stadium anthems, and there are a couple songs like that, or Elvis — crooner-y dudes. If I were thinking of a direct reference, it would be those two for sure.

But I didn’t worry to much about making it into any one way. I kind of went with whatever influences, even if they were conflicting or from different time periods. I didn’t worry about them all coming out on one song, and my producer is kind of the same way.

We like music that’s kind of all over the place and we’re not really super music nerds about one era.

MT: Why did you decide to work with Blake Mills and how did that impact the sound?

Hadreas: A lot of the songs could sound like more traditional, band-y rock songs, and I wanted a certain amount of that, but I wanted it to be more fucked up, and a lot of his recordings have that. Like they’re instantly familiar, but there’s still something strange and new about how the guitar sounds, or how it’s played, and I wanted some of that.

I sent him all my demos and he wrote pages of notes, and a lot of the references were exactly what I was going for, though some of them were surprising but made a lot of sense. So I felt like

he understood the spirit of what I was doing and what the songs were about, and he could technically push it and wouldn’t be scared to make it genreless and kind of fucked up.

MT: This sentence was included in the press pack as an explanation for your music: “God is all around, actually, and some of these songs are about being equal, and some are about the witchcraft of believing.” That’s interesting, can you expand on that a little?

Hadreas: That’s pretty deep. I didn’t write that. Can you say it again?

(Laughs) I thought of a lot of the music as kind of sacred, like hymnals. I’ve always written like that. I’ve always been obsessed with choral church music, but never felt like I was included in any of it. What was weird to me is church always felt very witchcraft-y, though it’s supposed to be the opposite. It’s a bunch of people chanting and invoking something. I was very into that part of it, but I wasn’t into the part where I was going to hell.

So I like the idea of making music that has that feel, but is a little more inclusive for me and other people — others who needed it, but who never felt they were allowed in.

MT: You’ve been sober for a long time. How does that impact or help or hurt your creative process?

Hadreas: It’s different for everyone, but, for me, I didn’t make anything when I was using. It was a void, really.

It was enough for me to be doing that stuff. I didn’t want to add something like a song on top of it. That was fulfilling enough, and that’s why I did it — it kind of took care of that need to figure things out. It created enough of a dramatic feeling inside me that I didn’t feel the need to dramatize anything else by painting.

But I think mostly it allowed me to commit to follow through on stuff.

Maybe I had a lot of ideas throughout the years, but I never really sat down and worked. And I think getting sober helped me actually work, which I’ve kind of learned is actually very important. I thought for a long time that I was going to fall into something, or it would just happen, without having to do anything.

Perfume Genius performs on Wednesday, May 10 at the Magic Stick; Doors at 8 p.m.; 4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; majesticdetroit.com; $16. music@metrotimes.com @metrotimes

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MUSIC

THURSDAY, 5/11 Lil Wayne @ Fox Theatre

Lil Wayne is, at this point, a living legend. He’s been at it since the age of 9, and since then has been one of the biggest rappers of all time. Hell, even President Obama is a fan. He’s come a long way since his days featuring on Destiny’s Child’s “Soldier” and is a bonafide platinum musician. Tha Carter III hit number one on the Billboard Hot 200 within a week, and became the fourth highest sold rap album of all time. Frankly, you know if you’re a Lil Wayne fan or not, and if you are, don’t miss this show.

Livewire

This week’s suggested musical events

Doors open at 8 p.m.; 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; olympiaenertainment.com; Tickets are $59.50 and $79.50.

by MT staff Lil Wayne. COURTESY PHOTO

THURSDAY, 5/11

THURSDAY, 5/11

FRIDAY, 5/12

SATURDAY 5/13

Doug Tuttle

Dirty Bourbon River Show

The Black Lips and Omar Souleyman

JR JR

@ Otus Supply

@ El Club

Dirty Bourbon River Show is one of the most New Orleans-ian New Orleans bands to ever exist. They call themselves “gypsy circus rock,” and that’s pretty fitting. Their music feels larger than life, and in a lot of ways, it is. The band has released seven albums and has played a number of shows and festivals, keeping them constantly busy. Members Noah Adams, Charles “Big Charlie” Skinner, Matt Thomas, Jimmy Williams, and Dane “Bootsy” Schindler are a talented bunch, and this show is going to be lively and exhilarating, just like their music.

The Black Lips, Atlanta’s best garage punk band, definitely knows how to amp up a crowd, all with a signature Southern drawl. Starting out in 1999, the band quickly built a firm fanbase that helped keep them afloat when tragedy struck in 2002, when their lead guitarist, Ben Ederbaugh, was killed in a tragic car accident right before the start of a Midwest and East Coast tour. The band will be joined by the great Omar Souleyman, Syria’s most successful musician overseas, and you must get there in time to see why. Souleyman brings hypnotic dance music with him everywhere he goes, and sometimes where he goes is SXSW or the Nobel Peace Prize Concert.

@ UFO Factory

That lovelorn debut LP of his on Trouble in Mind from 2013 was a stunning thing in a realm (indie pop-rock equally influenced by garage, psych, and country) that feels so played out, especially since Sic Alps imploded, and Ty Segall up and lost his damn mind. New Hampshire’s best followed up with It Calls on Me (2015) is definitely where he shines the brightest.

“Make Good Time” features some of the best harmonies around, while “A Place for Me” is the standout upbeat track, and maybe, if you are good, he will play it just for you tonight.

Doors open at 12 a.m.; 2110 Trumbull St., Detroit; ufofactory. com; Price unavailable.

Doors open at 9 p.m.; 345 E. 9 Mile Rd., Ferndale; otussupply. com; Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

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Doors open at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com;Tickets are $26.

@ The Chapel at the Masonic Temple

Formerly Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., JR JR, one of Detroit’s best indie-pop bands, is set to put on a pretty great show. The trio consists of Daniel Zott, Joshua Epstein, and Mike Higgins. They’ve even been featured on Comedy Central’s excellent show Detroiters. Their most recent album, 2015’s JR JR was great and their live shows are pretty cool. They’re super energetic, and you’re definitely going to want to hear “Gone” and “Morning Thought” live.

Doors open at 7 p.m.; 500 Temple St., Detroit; themasonic.com; Tickets are $25.

SATURDAY, 5/13 Royal Trux, Negative Approach @ El Club

Here’s one way to celebrate. Get two of the 1980s’ most influential, uncompromising (and still unmissably excellent live) bands to play your club. That’s what’s happening at El Club, where Royal Trux and Negative Approach will play the venue’s first birthday party on Saturday, May 13.

Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty’s uncompromising Royal Trux essentially distilled the essence of early 1970s junkie rock and roll music, then poured it down the sink as soon as they got bored with the stuff. They began as some sort of offshoot of the excellent noise-rock act Pussy Galore, then quickly surpassed them. This very rare reunion show by Trux is a big deal. And as well all know, never miss a chance to see Negative Approach.

Doors open at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit. com;Tickets are $25-$30.

Royal trux. COURTESY PHOTO

SUNDAY, 5/14

TUESDAY, 5/16

TUESDAY, 5/16

WEDNESDAY, 5/17

Mac DeMarco

Mastodon

Subway Moon

Hall and Oates

@ Wayne State University Community Arts Auditorium

@ Joe Louis Arena

@ Royal Oak Music Theatre

@ Royal Oak Music Theatre

Oh, Canada. For every Avril Lavigne it subjects the U.S. to, it gives us someone like Mac DeMarco. DeMarco is an awesome jangle-pop songwriter who has released two excellent albums: 2 (2012), Salad Days (2014), and released what is sure to be another great full-length album on May 5 entitled This Old Dog. The newest album has already given fans two great singles in “My Old Man” and “This Old Dog.” DeMarco played all of the instruments on the thing, which is a testament to his talent.

Loved by iconic bands like Metallica and the Melvins, Mastodon has been honing their unique style of hard rock for nearly two decades now. Touring with their latest album, Emperor of Sand, which was just released this year, fans can expect a good miss of awesome new music, as well as past favorites from their six other albums. They’ll be joined by the always fantastic Eagles of Death Metal.

Doors open at 7 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; royaloakmusicthreatre.com; Tickets are $29.50-$35.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; royaloakmusictheatre.com; Tickets are $32-$67.50.

In a pretty cool exchange, students from Detroit’s Central High School will host fellow students from New York City’s Institute for Collaborative Education for the 15th installment of Subway Moon. Subway Moon is a musical and video project that puts high school students in collaboration with professional jazz musicians and filmmakers. Students get the chance to write and perform their own music at different venues across the country, which is pretty rad. The project has been around since 2007, and it’s been helping out kids ever since.

Doors open at 6 p.m.; 450 Reuther Mall, Detroit; SubwayMoon.com; Event is free.

It turns out that you can go for that (if “that” is a Hall and Oates show). Daryl Hall and John Oates are — for better or worse — the defining songwriting duo of the 1980s. Ask anyone on the street about Hall and Oates, and you’ll never be met with blank stares. Truly, it’ll make your dreams come true.

They’ll be joined by, oddly enough, Tears for Fears — which, have very little in common with Hall and Oates (other than being a duo). They’re definitely awesome in their own right though. You’ll be “Head over Heels” for them.

Doors open at 7 p.m.; 19 Steve Yzerman Dr., Detroit; ticketmaster.com; Tickets are $35-$161.

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ARTS Drawn together

Reflecting on the life and work of Detroit street artist Jordan “Tead” Vaughn

by Lee DeVito

Detroit’s art community

is still healing following the death of popular street artist Jordan Vaughn, perhaps best known by his alias “Tead,” who died at the age of 34 last week.

The artist was critically injured on Sunday, April 30, after falling through the roof at Detroit’s sprawling Make Art Work complex while working on art with permission from the building owners. The Detroit Free Press originally reported the artist to be in critical condition as of last Wednesday, but later a Henry Ford Hospital spokeswoman told the paper he had died on Monday, May 1. According to sources close to the situation, Vaughn had made the decision to be an organ donor and was kept on life support while arrangements were being made.

The Trenton native’s untimely death comes just as he was starting to reach a wider recognition as a gallery artist, a career which he had been working toward for the past 20 years.

“People were really starting to identify his work — from the graffiti, to the murals, to the gallery work — because his style was very unique to his own,” says Jesse Cory of Detroit print shop 1xRUN, which has exhibited Vaughn’s work as part of its Inner State Art Gallery and employed Vaughn for a time as a production assistant.

A recurring motif in Vaughn’s work were industrial silhouettes, juxtaposed by bursts of color. Cory says it was a reflection of the artist’s views of Detroit, which included driving past the Marathon oil refinery on his way north from downriver and writing graffiti on freight cars in rail yards. “The tranquility and the sense of solitude and peace that happens in those rail yards is something that I understood ... he was very drawn to,” Cory says. “Those were just quiet places in the middle of nowhere.”

Cory says it was Vaughn’s pride in his work that drew admiration from both within and outside of the graffiti community. “So much about being a graffiti writer and participating in the graffiti movement is it's a craft, and in that comes craftsmanship, which is a lot of time shared through mentorship and sharing knowledge with others,” he says.

Jordan “Tead” Vaughn at an exhibition of his work at Detroit’s Inner State Gallery, 2013.

One of those younger writers who followed in his footsteps is Freddy Diaz of Detroit. Diaz, now 24, says he met Vaughn when he was just 15.

“Before I even met Jordan, I admired his work,” he says. “As a kid, I was like, ‘Man, I don't know who that is, but I want to paint like that.’”

Diaz says he first became interested in Detroit’s graffiti at a young age.

“Graffiti's always been a big subculture in Detroit,” he says. “All the art school programs in Detroit are really underfunded. And it's ironic because our art culture’s so rich. There's a lot of talent, but as far as that went, we never really had an outlet.”

Diaz was introduced to Vaughn through a mutual friend. “I was a little nervous because I was just a kid,” he says. One day, Diaz says he was watching Vaughn painting on train track walls. “Jordan was like, ‘Hey, you want to get on this wall and paint with us?’” he says. “I couldn't believe it. As soon as I was done, he said, ‘Hey man, we're going to paint another wall tomorrow. You want to come with us?’ After that I never left their side. I was like a little brother.”

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Diaz says Vaughn served as a mentor for him over the years, teaching him new techniques and building him up as an artist. “Every time I did something cool, or started to do better work, it was like the best thing ever for him,” he says.

Another thing Diaz says he learned from Vaughn was perseverance. “He always wanted to do art ... but Detroit didn't even really have any money to sustain itself alone,” he says. “It was really rough. He made a lot of sacrifices in terms of trying to be a great artist.

But he jumped in nose-first, because he really wanted to be an artist. He really wanted to make a living off of art, and nobody was telling him how to do it.”

And it was Vaughn who helped Diaz realize he could take his art to the next level. “He explained to me things like doing graffiti for the love of it, for the love of being good at what you do, not just going out and vandalizing people's stuff,” Diaz says. “His thing was, ‘If my stuff's going to be painted for the public viewer, it better be good.’ I didn't want to be around graffiti artists

SAL RODRIGUEZ

who were just vandalizing. I wanted to be around somebody who was going to make me better every day. I didn't want to half-ass it.”

Most recently, Vaughn and Diaz worked on a high-profile commission for the Lear Corporation’s new building in Detroit’s Capitol Park, where they each were paid to paint the center’s stairwells.

“He set a bar for being a graffiti artist to being an artist,” Diaz says. “You're either one or the other, in most cases.

But he was so versatile. He'd write it in a way that was so universal that people would look at it and say, ‘That's not a graffiti artist. That's art.’”

A GoFundMe campaign was started to raise funds to release a retrospective book of Vaughn’s work. It has already surpassed its $10,000 goal, and organizers say any further money donated will go to Vaughn's family: gofundme.com/ jordan-tead-vaughn-retrospective ldevito@metrotimes.com @leedevito

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CULTURE

SHUTTERSTOCK

Savage Love

Traps and triggers

by Dan Savage

Q:

My husband is nearly 20 years older than me, which was never an issue early in our relationship. However, for approximately the last eight years, we have not been able to have fulfilling sex because my husband can’t keep an erection for more than a few thrusts. I love my husband and I am committed to our family, but I miss full PIV sex. I’m still fairly young and I enjoy sex, but I feel like I am mourning the death of my sex life. I miss the intimate connection and powerful feeling of sex with a man. My husband tries to please me, but oral sex is just OK and toys don’t have the same effect. We have tried Viagra a few times, but it gave him a terrible headache. I try to brush it off because I don’t want to embarrass him. I am curious about casual relationships, but I fear they wouldn’t stay casual. Also, I would feel guilty being with another man, even though my husband said I could do it one time. On one hand, I feel like I should be able to have a fulfilling sex life. But on the other hand, I don’t want to be a cheater.

—Now On To Having Awkwardly Realistic Discussions

A:

It’s not cheating if you have your husband’s permission, NOTHARD, but fucking another man could still blow up your marriage — even if you manage to keep it casual.

Story time: I knew this straight couple. They were good together, they loved each other, and they had a strong sexual connection. (Spoiler alert: my use of the past tense.) The woman was all about monogamy, but her boyfriend had always wanted to have a threesome. She

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didn’t want to be the reason he never got to do something he’d been fantasizing about since age 13, so she told her boyfriend that if the opportunity ever presented itself, he could go for it. So long as the sex was safe and he was honest with her, he could have a threesome one time.

The opportunity presented itself, the sex was safe, he was honest — and my friend spent a week ricocheting between devastated and furious before finally dumping her devastated and flummoxed boyfriend. During a drunken postmortem, my friend told me she wanted her boyfriend to be able to do it but didn’t want him to actually do it. She didn’t want to be the reason he couldn’t; she wanted to be the reason he didn’t. So her permission to have a threesome “one time” was a test (one he didn’t know he was taking) and a trap (one he couldn’t escape from). I urged my friend to take her boyfriend back — if he would have her — but he’d touched another woman with the tip of his penis (two women, actually), which meant he didn’t love her the way she thought he did, the way she deserved to be loved, etc., and consequently he couldn’t be allowed to touch her with the tip of his penis ever again.

Back to you, NOTHARD: My first reaction to your letter was “You’ve got your husband’s OK to fuck some other dude — go for it.” Then I re-read your letter and thought, “Wait, this could be a test and a trap.” You say you’ve brushed off the issue to spare your husband’s feelings, but he may sense it’s an issue and, consciously or subconsciously, this is his way of finding out. If you take him

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CULTURE up on his offer “one time,” and you make the mistake of being honest with him about it, he may be just as devastated as my friend was.

So don’t take your husband up on his offer — not yet. Have a few more conversations about your sex life instead and address nonmonogamy/openness generally, not nonmonogamy/openness as a work-around for his dick. There may be some solo adventures he’d like to have, there may be invigorating new sexual adventures you could enjoy as a couple (maybe he’d love to go down on two women at once?), or he may rescind or restate his offer to let you fuck some other dude one time. Get clarity — crystal clarity — before proceeding.

Finally, NOTHARD, there are other erectile dysfunction drugs out there, drugs that may not have the same side effects for your husband. And low to very low doses of Viagra — doses less likely to induce a headache — are effective for some men. Good luck.

Q:

Partner and I adopted a 2.5-year-old mutt a month ago. We are also trying to get pregnant and are having sex every day for 15-day stretches a

month. Dog does NOT like being shut out — we love dog but do not love the idea of him being in the room. Should we get over it? Should dog get over it? What is dog/human sexual privacy etiquette?

— Don’t Oversee Getting It On

A:

I’m not into pups, human or otherwise, but I live with two actual dogs and, man, if those dogs could talk.

Some dogs loudly object to their owners fucking, others don’t. If your dog barks when you’re fucking, I can see why you’d want to keep him out of the room. But if he just wants to curl up in a corner and lick his ass for a minute before dozing off, what’s the big deal?

Q:

I am a 30-year-old woman with some sexual hang-ups I’d like to get past for the sake of my husband. When I was 14, I was in a relationship with a guy who wasn’t nice to me. One particular incident sticks in my mind: He pulled my hair and tried to force my head down while I was saying no and trying to get away. He shoved me and called me a prude. Another time, he convinced me to let him go down on me (I finally agreed) but then bit me. I eventually broke up

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with him after spending too much time putting up with the crap. For a long time, I hated oral sex and freaked out at any sexual interaction. I had a great college boyfriend who always asked “Is this OK?” and was generally very attuned to any “no” signals I gave, which was a turn-on for me. I got over my past crappy experiences. My husband is all about what gives us both pleasure, but he has always been up-front about being interested in some (tame) kinky stuff. I am still turned on by “Is this OK?” and eye contact during sex, but any time we try to do anything even a little off the wall — me tied up, blindfolds, etc. — my ears start ringing and I feel like I can’t breathe. I’m trying to find a way to spice things up and fulfill my husband’s desires, and I cannot find a way around it. How do we move past “just” vanilla?

— Reconsidering Otherwise Unlikely GGG Habits

A:

If your shitty early teenage sexual experiences — if those violations and sexual assaults — are still affecting you 16 years later, ROUGH, that suggests PTSD. Getting past this will be gradual, it may require therapy — counseling, a

support group, a shrink.

While you’re getting help, ROUGH, you and your partner can explore some mild non-vanilla moves. Mindful breathing, like the kids are into these days, may help, and so will incorporating some soothing sensory input, e.g., soft lighting, calming music, scented something-or-other if you enjoy scented somethings. And whatever your husband is doing — whatever you two are doing together — he can and should ask “Is this OK?” at every step. It turns you on and it makes you feel safe. You need to feel safe and in control. Slowly, slowly, slowly you may be able to advance to more aggressive play. It’s possible, however, that rough sex might be permanently off the table for you, ROUGH, and that’s not something you should feel guilty about. There are other ways to spice up your sex life, other (tame) kinks that don’t trigger you.

Check out Dan on Blabbermouth — The Stranger’s political podcast: thestranger.com/blabbermouth. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

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Horoscopes

CULTURE ARIES (March 21- April 20):

The next round of business is about to test your patience. As far as you are concerned, you’ve been patient enough, but it looks like you have to continue to pump out concerted efforts for the next four months. Take a deep breath, knowing that all of this is worth it. The need to travel in order to make ends meet, or bring yourself closer to those you love, will intensify an already full schedule. Never fear: Time on the road will offer the chance to reflect and make it possible for new impressions to awaken your senses to whatever it takes to inspire the work that lies ahead.

by Cal Garrison

LEO (July 21-Aug. 20):

Between a rock and a hard place, many of you don’t know what to do. This isn’t easy. In situations like this, it’s best to remain still and become like water. It also helps to remember that everyone else is going through their version of the same thing. In the meantime, as you wait for the future to weave itself together, you could see this as a golden opportunity to totally rewrite your script.

For some of you, none of this applies, and there is a much different story going on. In either case, it’s about what needs to change in order for your dreams to take you where your heart wants to go.

TAURUS (April 21 -May 20):

VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 20):

So much is coming to a head. If it feels overwhelming, the deeper part of you has been through enough to know that you can handle this. For more than one reason, it might be best to let others figure out how to cover their own issues. You can’t be there for them every minute. The work situation is fraught with all kinds of politics. You keep wondering if it’s your job to keep making other people rich. If you’re too afraid to strike out on your own, you might want to realize that choices that are based on fear get us nowhere. Change is in the wind. It can only get better from here.

You have a lot going on. Up till now, there hasn’t been enough time to stop and think about where things are going.

In the last few days, all of a sudden you’ve begun to wonder what it’s really about.

Periodic reality checks are mandatory. This one is bringing up all kinds of questions. Do you need to shift your focus? Your direction? Your location? Changes in plans and changes in the lives of your nearest and dearest are bound to cast ripples in your perfect pictures. This is one of those times when everything will go better if you remain open and flexible about everything.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20):

You can’t please all of the people all of the time. You can only please some of the people some of the time. Whoever’s expecting you to dance to their tune is driving you nuts. This is a time when the tendency to get buffeted around by other people’s issues could do you in. For someone who has a tendency to scatter their energy, it would help to haul back far enough to return to center and maintain your position. You got stuck with a can of worms. Figuring out how to sort this out will require you to pull your strength from a higher power and remain true to your self.

CANCER (June 21-July 20):

You’ve been holding down the fort and pulling it all together. With or without any kind of support, no matter how it looks, you guys are doing well in a situation that is by no means simple and clear cut. As the way things are opening the space for you to keep going, deeper forces call you to take everything one step further. What you have poured yourself into for the last eight months is finally ready to walk and talk on its own.

So the next question might be: Is there more to life than this? New horizons are coming into view as we speak. Further explorations may be in order.

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LIBRA (Sept. 21-Oct. 20):

There’s no doubt you have a lot going on. As much as peace and harmony is your strong suit, you always seem to find yourself in situations that are far from it. Of late, your efforts to strike out on your own, and your desire to finally begin to reap what you have sown are ready to bear fruit. If you are surrounded by changes that are hard to explain, it’s because your whole life is about to turn a corner. As events begin to take shape, many of you will need to relocate and some of you will wind up being in two places at once. Keep the faith. Things are a little nuts for a reason.

SCORPIO (Oct. 21-Nov. 20):

You have so much invested in making this work, if the power of the human will was enough, it would happen in a heartbeat. Life doesn’t happen the way it does on TV. Your intentions are one thing; time and the actions of others are another. Getting things into a place that works for everyone is the name of the game. All you can do is the best you can.

No effort you put out will go unrewarded, and what rises from the ashes of deliverance will show you that the will of heaven works in mysterious ways. It’s time to lighten up enough to remain open to anything.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 21-Dec. 20):

Too much too soon seems to be the issue right now. The artificial fast track has managed to suck you right in.

If you could slow down and take a good look at whatever you’re trying to prove, you would realize that your life doesn’t depend on this. Even if you succeed at making your point, or get this off the ground, you will soon find out that it takes more than hot air and steam to get things to fly. Haul back and give this a break, or allow patience to teach you that when things are divinely ordered they sprout wings and learn how to fly independently, in their own sweet time.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 20):

If the need to forgive and forget is an issue, it’s time to let it all go. Whatever you’re stuck on isn’t worth the energy it takes to suck that much love from your experience. All of us have been programmed to believe that we are entitled to our anger or whatever it is that ties us up in knots, but nowhere are we taught that we are just as entitled to let all of that stuff go. At this moment in time, whatever you’re holding on to is only making it harder to swim in the sea of changes that are rocking the planet right now. It’s time to drop it kids; peace and love man, let it all go.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 21-Feb. 20):

Navigating your family dynamics is on top of the stack right now. Don’t expect this to be easy. There’s enough going on for the issues of the past to be swirling around in an already difficult soup. With all of this, your ability to detach and rise above it all will come in handy. One particular person seems hell-bent on making themselves the centerpiece in a situation that would turn out better for everyone if they knew enough to take a back-seat role. For now, if you are able to keep your thoughts to yourself, and let them play out their drama, it will save you a heap of trouble.

PISCES (Feb. 21-March 20):

Maybe it’s time to reconsider.

You’ve seen enough of this to know that you can’t keep pushing. Normally an expert at letting go, whatever’s keeping you here is about what others will say if you change your mind. The gist of this comes down to making a few corrections on errors in judgment that took you down this rabbit hole. Your original plans could have been based on incomplete information. In any event, time and experience have changed the scenery enough for you to need to wake up and make a few adjustments. Do whatever it takes to free your soul.

metrotimes.com

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May 10-16, 2017

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