The South End PDF Edition April 17-23

Starts on Page 5

APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1967 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I DETROIT, MICHIGAN I FREE

NEWS 5221 GULLEN MALL - STUDENT CENTER SUITE 50 - DETROIT, MICHIGAN 48202 ADVERTISING: 313-577-3494 THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

STAFF CONTACT LIST EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

EMILY MORMAN • EMILYMORMAN@GMAIL.COM MANAGING EDITOR

DONNA MUSOLLI • DONNAMUSOLLI@GMAIL.COM DESIGN EDITOR

COREY WHEELER • COREY.WHEELER@WAYNE.EDU NEWS EDITORS

WISAM DAIFI • WDAIFI@GMAIL.COM ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

NICK PIZANA • DV6425@WAYNE.EDU SPORTS EDITOR

FUAD SHALHOUT • DW8385@GMAIL.COM FEATURES EDITOR

JENNIFER CLINE • EK2441@WAYNE.EDU COPY EDITORS

VALERIE SOBCZAK • VALERIE.SOBCZAK@GMAIL.COM SYDNEE THOMPSON • THOMPSONSYDNEE@GMAIL.COM MULTIMEDIA EDITOR

JON ADAMS • ED6239@WAYNE.EDU ADVERTISING MANAGER

NATALIE DIXON • NDSOUTHEND@GMAIL.COM

LETTERS TO THE EDITORS

The South End welcomes letters to the editors regarding all inquiries and concerns from the Wayne State community. Please limit letters to 500 words. All submissions are subject to editing and may be published. Please email emilymorman@ gmail.com.

CORRECTIONS

The South End corrects all factual errors published online or in print. Please email emilymorman@gmail.com.

ONLINE POLICY

The South End publishes articles online and in print. Visit our website at thesouthend. wayne.edu. While we support the right to free speech and expression, there are guidelines for morally and socially acceptable content. Comments and feedback deemed offensive are subject to editing or removal.

PUBLICATION

The South End is published Wednesdays during the fall and winter semesters by Wayne State University students. Copies are available free of charge at various locations throughout campus. The Student Newspaper Publication Board, established by the Wayne State University Board of Governors, acts as the publisher of The South End. The board establishes and ensures compliance with publication, editorial and news reporting guidelines.

All complaints, comments and suggestions concerning the student newspaper should be directed to doso@wayne.edu.

CAMPUS

Wayne Law scores high transparency WSU among 46 schools to offer accurate information to students, public SARA MCKAY Contributing Writer As of March 4, 46 law schools earned a 100-percent transparency rating from the American Bar Association. The Wayne State Law School was one of those schools.

According to the Law School Transparency group on March 6, approximately 46 percent of accredited law schools are failing to post correct information regarding student scholarships and employment, or are posting misleading information.

Law School Transparency is a nonprofit legal education policy organization dedicated to improving consumer information. The law schools’ online data are analyzed for compliance with new standards set by the American Bar Association’s section on Legal Education, according to Assistant Dean of Admissions Ericka Matthews-Jackson.

The ABA’s Standard 509, the title of basic consumer information, requires all consumer information released by law schools to be complete, accurate and non-misleading.

Standard 509 requires the following information to be published in a “fair and accurate manner reflective of actual practice:” (1) Admissions data.

(2) Tuition, fees, living costs, financial aid and refunds (3) Enrollment data and graduation rates (4) Composition and number of faculty and administrators (5) Curricular offerings (6) Library resources (7) Physical facilities (8) Placement rates and bar passage data At Wayne Law, Matthews-Jackson said administrative offices work collaboratively to ensure that the data provided is current, accurate and clearly presented. The Career Services Office provides the employment outcomes data, while the Dean of

2 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

Students Office and Admissions Office provide the data on scholarship and retention.

The communication between teams ensures the information that appears on the website is, “up to date, accurate and easy to locate,” Matthews-Jackson said.

“Providing 100-percent transparency is essential to help law students make informed decisions about which law school is the best fit for them,” Matthews-Jackson said.

Matthews-Jackson also said that because law school requires such an investment of a student’s time, talent and resources, the school owes it to them to provide truthful and accurate information.

“There is no benefit in hiding information or manipulating data because students will eventually learn the truth,” she said.

Kelly wants Wayne Law students and alumni to be proud of their school and believes that can best be accomplished by ensuring everything is being done to be transparent.

Michael Serra, a third-year law student at WSU and managing editor of the Wayne Law Review, admits he did not look at transparency when he made the decision to attend Wayne Law but said he should have.

“There are many law students who are now swimming in debt and disenfranchised with the profession and their law school because their school has not been transparent about its policies,” Serra said.

Serra said these disenfranchised students believe they were promised six-figure jobs when they graduated, but are now struggling to find work while debt piles up. Serra does not know any students at Wayne Law who feel this way.

Matthews-Jackson credits her colleague, Assistant Dean Krystal Gardner, for her leadership in ensuring information is submitted in a timely manner. She also acknowledges the law school’s communication team, including Carol Baldwin and Paula Neuman, for making sure data charts are current, accurate and easy to find on the school’s website.

“The fact that it was a team effort makes it that much more rewarding,” Matthews-Jackson said.

CAMPUS

5 women ‘Stand Out,’ serve as model leaders Event informs students of opportunities REBECCA SANCHEZ Contributing Writer Five women exemplifying leadership joined Wayne State students April 10 at an event called “Stand Out: Being a leader in any field.”

The event presented by Blackstone LaunchPad, Inforum and WSU Front Door was geared toward female students, although all students were able to attend.

“This event’s purpose was to translate the things learned in college to the business world,” said coordinator Jill Tines.

The panel moderator was Margaret Williams, dean of the School of Business Administration at WSU. The panel included Nabelah Ghareeb, chief strategy and administrative officer at the Children’s Center; Blaire Miller, CFO and co-founder of Eaton Rapids Castings LLC; Nancy Philippart, chair of WSU’s Engineering Ventures at the College of Engineering and Carla Walker-Miller, president and CEO at Walker-Miller Energy Services LLC, according to Williams.

Special speaker Phyllis Vroom, deputy president of WSU, opened the event with her thoughts on what it takes to be a great leader.

“One of the most important things is the ability to connect with people, which is not be confused with being liked,” Vroom said. “Effective leadership develops over time.”

The panel was asked questions about leadership and personal experiences they faced to get where they are today. Three things, Walker-Miller said, make a good leader: willingness, vision and passion.

“No one does everything well,” Walker-Miller said.

“Bring something new to the table.”

Not everyone sets out to be a leader, according to Philippart. “Leadership is all about practicing,” she said.

“A big part of leadership is earning respect.”

When experiences pull you off track, Miller said, the way to deal with them is to have a “Plan B.” “You have to be resilient. You have to crowd out the noise. You have to ignore people labeling you,” Miller said.

Another opportunity for discounted student memberships for female students was given by Terry Barclay, president and CEO of Inforum and Inforum Center for Leadership. Inforum is a women’s economic club with more than 2,000 members of business professionals and entrepreneurs.

This event was geared toward women, but men can also encourage the women to be successful.

“The stigma that there is a glass ceiling for women is not necessarily true,” said WSU alumni and local business owner Kal Farah. “The CEOs of IHOP, Facebook and Yahoo are all women. It shows that many fast-growing and successful companies are empowering women.”

NEWS RESEARCH

Yoga study explores effects on cancer

Michigan researchers use new grant to find link between stress levels, lung cancer prognosis PIERRETTE DUPLESSIS Contributing Writer Known as “Dr. J,” Judith Fouladbakhsh and her research team received an award from the National Cancer Institute for their R15 research called “A Pilot Study of Yoga for Breathing and Quality of Life of Lung Cancer Patients.”

Fouladbakhsh previously developed a smaller study involving a single group for yoga breathing and lung cancer patients. Due to the success of her smaller study, she was able to conduct a larger study with two groups. The study is specifically for Stage 1 to Stage 3a non-small lung cancer patients who have already had surgery. Once they come back for their six-month check-ups, they are recruited to the Karmanos Cancer Institute at the University of Michigan.

The patients are then enrolled in a two-group study for 12 weeks. The groups are composed of patients doing yoga and/or exercise to measure how much they are breathing. Spirometry is used as a way to measure the breathing and how the patients exhale.

A patient’s mood, stress and sleep will also be measured in this study because they are all related.

“Yoga works a lot on breathing and to relax people,” Fouladbakhsh said.

The research team is composed of doctors from Wayne State’s College of Nursing, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, University of Michigan’s health system and University of Texas Anderson Cancer Institute.

Each researcher plays a valu-

able part in this study. Consultant Lorenzo Cohen of the University of Texas Anderson Cancer Center gained much of his yoga knowledge from his grandmother, Vanda Scaravelli, a famous yoga teacher.

Scaravelli (1908-1999), learned yoga from B.K.S. Iyengar in Gstaad, Switzerland. During her years of yoga teaching, her health improved and she felt better. In her book, “Awakening the Spine: The StressFree New Yoga that Works with the Body to Restore Health, Vitality and Energy,” Scaravelli touches on how she got started in yoga and insight on what yoga is about.

“I understood the importance of breathing from yoga teacher Desicachar,” Scaravelli said. Desicachar’s father could stop and start his heart just from yoga breathing.

Statistician Hossein Yarandi of WSU’s College of Nursing also plays a key part in this study. Not only is he a co-investigator in the study, but he also handles any grants received for the research, sample size, selecting the subjects, managing the data and deciding how to analyze the data. He currently teaches three courses on applied statistics to Ph.D. students in nursing and has also added a new degree called DNP. “The DNP is equivalent to a Ph.D. A Ph.D is a research degree and a DNP is a clinical degree at the doctorate level,” Yarandi said.

Like Yarandi, Fouladbakhsh is working on another study involving teen headaches and reflexology, a massage technique on the feet.

The study will occur in May. Teens can enroll in the study by emailing Fouladbakhsh at dr.judi129@gmail. com.

CAMPUS

Pharmacy association donates funds to WSU for Arabic student fellowship Arab-American community accounts for up to 25% of college’s population, associate department dean says VANIA HALABOU Contributing Writer Wayne State’s Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences received a donation of $225,000 from the Arab American Pharmacists Association. This donation is to support a three-year fellowship.

The AAPA’s mission is to assist healthcare needs of the Arab-American community and develop the delivery of care by community pharmacists to meet those needs. In addition, it will also prepare future Arab-American pharmacists for successful careers.

Dr. Linda Jaber, professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, is the director of this fellowship and is honored to have received this donation.

“I am proud of this achievement. It supports a fellow for a great position, which is good for academia. Above that, it provides a model for the connection between academia and the Arab-American community. That is the key value outside the money. Wayne State is an urban university, and we reach out to our community. In this case, this is very successful for us,” Jaber said.

The AAPA was established in 1996 by a group of pharmacists who wanted to be known as “Independent Arab Pharmacists” and has as many members as the Michigan Pharmacists Association. According to the AAPA website, the membership has a steady increase of 25 percent annually and is composed of 225 registered pharmacists, 50 pharmacy students and 115 independently owned pharmacies mainly located in Southwest Michigan.

Because this association is popular, it is currently expanding into other states.

Jaber’s colleagues praised her efforts and service while listing her many contributions to the department.

“Dr. Linda Jaber brings decades of research experience, teaching excellence, mentorship, clinical practice skills, service to the univer-

sity and her community and an in-depth cultural understanding of the Arab-American community. Linda’s abilities and leadership, the solid academic resources of Wayne State University, and the energy and support of the Arab American Pharmacists Association will place us at the forefront of this particular field of research in academic pharmacy.

Once again, various initiatives such as this move us toward the achievement of our vision, mission, and strategic plan,” said Dr. Brian Crabtree, professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice.

Richard Slaughter, associate dean in the department of pharmacy, is also very pleased to have received this gift from the AAPA. “It means a lot to partner up with the AAPA. They have supported over $50,000 in scholarships to over 40 students since 2008.

Our relationship with the AAPA is strategically important for us because of the very long standing support that we have had from the Arab American community,” Slaughter said.

According to Slaughter, who started at WSU in 1989, about 20-25 percent of the university’s student population has come from this community.

“The funds from this gift will go to support a community health outcomes research fellowship directed by Dr. Jaber. This donation will work collaboratively with AAPA to evaluate how health outcomes can be improved through patient interactions through AAPA networked community pharmacies,” Slaughter said.

JON ADAMS/ THE SOUTH END The Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has 16 programs students can study.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 3

NEWS

A&E

CAMPUS

WSU tests the waters

FILM

Engineering College breaks ground in Great Lakes research TAYLAR KOBYLAS Contributing Writer While still considered relatively young, the Wayne State College of Engineering’s multi-disciplinary Urban Watershed Environmental Research Group is making tremendous strides in local research, united by the common thread of water.

Culminating in 2009, “the group became the byproduct of a former Great Lakes interest group,” said pharmacologist and UWERG codirector Dr. David Pitts.

“I am interested in climate change and got support to do a climate change conference at Wayne State in 2008,” Pitts said. “As someone who recreates in the Great Lakes area, all that I could think after the conference was ‘we need to do more.’”

Thus, according to Pitts, with the collaboration of fellow co-directors Dr. Carol Miller, hydrologist, and Dr. Jeffery Ram, microbiologist, common interests evolved into UWERG itself.

Among other aspects, some of the most important parts of the group’s vision remain “to participate in initiatives that promote and enhance water quality and quantity and lead to healthy aquatic ecosystems.”

Today the group consists of 16 members of various academic disciplines, all of whom conduct highly diversified research.

“The common link for all participants is water quality and water quantity,” Pitts said.

“Our research projects involve invasive species, emerging contaminants, sustainable water supply, the water/energy nexus, stream and lake sediments, nutrient loadings and algal blooms,” said fellow co-director Dr. Carol Miller.

“We study all kinds of local urban watersheds, particularly the Huron to Erie corridor and rivers that run through urbanized areas like the Clinton, Rouge and Huron rivers,”

Pitts said.

What is more, the group wants and is willing to educate others.

“We would like our campus to know what’s going on with us,” Pitts said.

“The group has hosted national water conferences and workshops at WSU, has initiated the WATER@WAYNE seminar series, has involved faculty and students in significant urban watershed projects in the St. Clair River, Detroit River, Lake St. Clair, Lake Erie and Lake Huron, just to name a few,” Miller said.

Collaborating on a data exchange network, the group intends to “showcase regional water contaminant information through a mutually beneficial data exchange browser,” Pitts said.

The group is also currently facing issues like monetary funding and governmental cuts.

“Each participant has his own source of funding,” Pitts said. “I’ve heard of several peoples’ grants and support being cut back due to the government sequester and other problems.”

Pitts said the state of Michigan requires a lot of data reporting, and the group meets these needs.

We’re beginning to seek funding from other external sources such as The National Science Foundation and groups of the like,” he said.

In addition, the group sees the need for collaborative efforts and is working towards that end.

“We’re … in discussion about starting to cross cut themes across the whole group,” Pitts said. “Collaborative efforts really are key.”

According to Miller, despite some setbacks, the group seems to be progressively moving forward.

“A local field station is definitely a possibility for the future,” Miller said. “We’ve raised the profile of WSU’s water expertise and have plans to continue to do so.”

4 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

‘Free Angela’ hits select theaters

New documentary chronicles actions of late 1960s civil rights activist STEPHANIE GIBSON Contributing Writer Drums beat; soft moans usher in the tall, black silhouette of a woman wearing the iconic Angela Davis afro. A white backdrop enhances the figure. The soft moans intensify into loud cries and the drums resonate in the empty theater. Graphic images of Americans being attacked and brutalized flash across the screen.

The blinding white light causes your vision to fade as news clippings attack you with the word “communist.”

Blink. Grab your soda. Take a sip. Swallow.

The revolution has begun. Will Smith, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jay-Z bring “Free Angela & All Political Prisoners” to select AMC theaters.

“I never thought I would be dismissed from UCLA for being part of the Communist Party. I mean they did bring me there to teach Marxism,” said Davis.

“Free Angela” is a documentary directed by Shola Lynch, chronicling the 1969 events that put political revolutionary Angela Davis on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list and turned an afro-wearing girl from Birmingham, Ala., into a historical legend.

“This is the story behind the afro,” Lynch said.

The year was 1970. Jonathan Jackson, a 17-year-old writer and political activist, along with accomplices, stormed a California courtroom. Guns in hand, they demanded the release of four inmates, including Jackson’s brother, George, a close friend and confidant to Davis, who was arrested 11 years prior and served

seven of those years in solitary confinement for allegedly stealing $70. A standoff ensued, ending with the death of Superior Court Judge Harold J. Haley in which Davis was implicated.

“It was a very sad situation … He became so frustrated his brother was behind bars for stealing $70,” said Davis.

In the one hour and forty minute documentary, Lynch utilizes archived video recordings and black-and-white photos as she takes you on an expedition of Davis’ attempts to evade police. The journey starts on the steps of UCLA, continues to Chicago and navigates toward New York. The fervor is displayed in fast-paced reels and heart pounding music composed by Vernon Reid, and finally ends where it all started: a California courtroom.

Watch as Lynch paints a vivid picture using court drawings of Davis’ proceedings. Hear commentary from her lawyers, Howard Moore Jr., Leo Branton, Jr. and Doris Walker; friends; President Nixon and then-California governor Ronald Regan. The documentary even covers issues that are prevalent today such as the right to bear arms and economic policies.

“I grew up during those times … It was a fight for human rights,” said Salome Bey, a 73 year-old Moorish American who traveled from Pontiac, Mich., to Southfield, Mich., to get a glimpse of the life of Angela Davis.

“Free Angela” is a fist-pumping, edge-of-yourseat documentary, ripped from the pages of history and told through the eyes of an afrowearing, fist-raising icon who empowered a nation.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 5

Meet WSU’s creative minds MEGHA JAGANNATHAN Lead Features Correspondent

Christian Davis “I’m not where I wanna be, but I’m proud of where I am, and I’m definitely on my way up to the top,” said Wayne State filmmaker Christian Davis.

Davis, a junior, is a film major and photography minor and has been making films for as long as he can remember.

“Going back to when I was a young boy, I used to steal my grandfather’s camcorder and make little movies with my action figures, and that kinda developed with me going into high school,” he added.

After a high school injury that ended his basketball career, Davis’s mass media teachers took him under their wing, and he hasn’t looked back.

Since enrolling at WSU, Davis has made several successful sorority and fraternity films, and even two horror films, “Eternal” and “Eternal 2.” His favorite film project to date, “Eternal 2,” has exceeded his own expectations.

“Everybody who has seen it so far has said it’s better than the first one. I’ve really come a long way,” he said.

In the future, Davis hopes to own his own production company, though he is experimenting with different areas of filmmaking.

“I like to direct, I like to be in front of the camera, I love to edit, I like to do cinematography. As far as what I wanna do in the field, I feel the sky’s the limit,” he said.

Grace Yamin “For my whole life, I’ve been creative.

I’ve been doodling little designs since I could hold a pen,” said Grace Yamin, founder and owner of Cedar Forest Henna.

Yamin is a senior majoring in fine arts

and has held a love of henna tattooing since she was five and her mother first did traditional Indian “mehandi” on her hand.

“When I was a lot older, I got a hold of some henna myself and just started practicing, and I realized I could really do this,” Yamin said.

Yamin founded Cedar Forest Henna about one year ago, and began doing professional henna as well as incorporating henna designs into her school projects. Cedar Forest Henna has seen phenomenal success, and Yamin finds herself with plentiful work as she balances her passion for her business and her WSU courses. After she graduates, Cedar Forest will be Yamin’s primary focus.

“I feel that my life is a path, and by starting my own business, I can allow my life to go where it needs to go,” Yamin said. “(Cedar Forest Henna) was created out of love for creativity, and it’s beyond money. The most important income that I can have from it is the happiness of doing what I love.”

For more information, visit http://cedarforest. webs.com/.

Emer y Jones “When I was 13, in middle school, I would keep singing to myself, and I also loved poetry. Then I realized I could bridge the two together,” said Emery Jones, a senior majoring in film who also releases recordings as an alternative hip-hop artist.

“I started saying rhymes around the house, at the bus stop,” he said. “Then I started sharing it with my friends, and they said, ‘Hey, that’s pretty good, you should start recording some of that.’”

Jones has come far from his middle school days, with the release of his first successful recording project last summer titled “SuperCal,” as well as with the release of a collaborative debut album with the group Phresh Heir. “’SuperCal,’ I feel, is really organic because I’m rapping and singing, and Mike, my comedian friend from L.A., is also on there … it’s a fusion of music and comedy,” Jones said.

Jones is currently recording the second installment of his series titled “UberCal: The Life & Times of a Starving Artist,” and has also recently

6 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

developed a clothing line “Emle” in conjunction with his online web series “The Weekly Holiday.”

Jones’s diverse skills are represented in his future goals in film, as he one day wishes to screen a project featuring his score, writing and clothing design.

“Wayne State is a hub for young minds to come together and collaborate — inspire each other.

You walk through Gullen Mall in the springtime, see people breakdancing … it’s great,” Jones said.

To get updates on Jones’s work, follow him on Instagram at Em_JxDOPE and visit his website at iamemle.com.

Aleksey Kondratyev “My interest in photography started in high school, and then around last year, I got interested in publications, and how publications can promote a certain type of photography,” said Aleksey Kondratyev, a senior majoring in photography at WSU. Since fall 2011, Kondratyev has been co-publishing a quarterly photographic journal called “Stand” that showcases photographers from around the world. Before “Stand,” Kondratyev was a practicing photographer. He then conceived the idea of a photographic journal with friend Andrew Colville.

Originally, the pair decided they would create a small handmade journal. However, they soon realized “Stand” had the potential to be significantly more substantial, and Kondratyev and Colville began their successful publication.

Since founding “Stand,” Kondratyev says the biggest challenge has been locating funds to complete the printing, and in the future, he ultimately wants “Stand”’s campus audience to increase.

Kondratyev is appreciative of the WSU faculty.

“I have a class with Millie Tibbs right now, and she gives me really helpful feedback,” he said.

Kondratyev will also continue to develop his own personal portfolio by returning to his native country of Kyrgyzstan this summer to work on a project, which he is currently researching. After graduation, he plans to take some time off before attending graduate school, and he hopes to continue seeing Stand’s success.

Visit Stand online at http://standquarterly. com/.

Fun and games with Arts & Scraps Local organization helps turn unwanted refuse into afternoon art

B

JILL LUBAS Staff Writer

efore throwing out that bag of tube sock toes and unwanted cardboard tubes, talk to Peg Upmeyer and the team at Arts & Scraps. They may be able to turn your unwanted items into educational art projects for children.

For the past 24 years, Arts & Scraps has been serving the Detroit area by mixing art and education, propelled by the ideology that kids learn better hands on. The organization started off working out of a Sunday school room in 1989.

Now they have a 13,000-square-feet building at 16135 Harper on Detroit’s eastside.

Materials used by Arts & Scraps range from adhesive foam pieces, the toes from old tube socks, carnival tickets, and many other safe and unusual industrial scraps donated from more than 180 different business all over the city and country.

Arts & Scraps seeks to spark imagination and teach kids how to develop creative problem solving — skills that they will be able to carry into every aspect of life.

“Kids need to know that they are unique and important, and that they have ideas,” said Upmeyer, Arts & Scraps’ director. “They need to be introduced to that in a way that is safe, and somebody isn’t holding something in front of them saying, ‘Make it look like this.’ They need the freedom to venture out.”

There is a variety of curriculum for teachers and parents to choose from that teach an educational lesson, as well as promoting creativity and original ideas. They can do up to five programs in a day. One example of the many programs that Arts & Scraps offers is called “Healthy and Mutated Insects.”

“Healthy and Mutated Insects” starts by having kids review the attributes of insects that they have previously learned in class. Then kids get the opportunity to create an insect that no one has ever seen — as opposed to creating a standard dragonfly or ladybug — using the unique materials provided Arts & Scraps. After that, kids make the mutated version of their one-of-a-kind insect,

Local boutiques offer edgy, alternative fashion Peacock Room, Showtime serve growing WSU customer base PARIS GILES Contributing Writer

Nestled neatly in the Park Shelton is a mysterious room filled to the deciding whether the insect brim with beautiful peacocks. Well, mutated in a way that will cause not exactly. What is being offered it to thrive or die out. Through a

by The Peacock Room, 15 E. Kirby variety of events, workshops and St., however, is just as interesting. programs, Arts & Scraps impacts Just beginning to sprout its wings, about 275,000 kids each year. The this shop was opened on Noel organizations works with schools Night 2011 and specializes in edgy, throughout Detroit, bringing handsfeminine, vintage-with-a-modernon enrichment to students since twist garments and accessories. money for field trips is sparse.

Wayne State alumna and Students also get the opportunity owner Rachel Lutz calls Midto go “shopping” in the scrap-mobile, town her “adopted neighborfilling bags with glue, scissors and other hood.” Lutz is a secondsupplies they may not have at home. Stugeneration Midtown and a dents can also take home supplies to share fourth-generation Motor City with siblings. About 18,000 kids come business owner. Because through the scrap-mobile each year. there is a lack of retail in the “Our goal is to be a source for materials area, she said, her store was and ideas for people working with kids. It “a needed business.” Lutz can be in a creative atmosphere, it can be in says she never considered a school, it can be in church on the weekend another location.

— kids learn better hands on. Kids need to Just steps from camlearn to think and explore their ideas, and we pus, WSU students and try to do that in a way that’s nonthreatening. faculty frequent the shop, We’re the starter organization for creativity — Lutz said, but,not as we are the launchpad,” Upmeyer said. many as she would like.

Along with working with the schools, Arts & Still, “we’re a part of the Scraps is also part of community and private community,” she said. events for people of all ages and all income Many “Midtowners” levels. They also provide volunteer opportunities want to shop loduring events and in their warehouse putting kits cally, but don’t know together; volunteers get free admittance to events where to do it. Lutz and a kit to take home to work on. “Very Special insists that all it Volunteers” is a program for people of all ages takes is an accidenwith disabilities. tal stumble into The Arts & Scraps store offers four interactive The Room and stations called Scrap Junction that allow families they’re hooked. to come and work on projects together. The cost is The WSU com$5 per participant, or you can go visit www.michimunity seems ganadventurepass.com and download a pass for to be especially free admission. excited to have Serving the community of Detroit for more another retail than two decades, Arts & Scraps is a chance option. for kids, and parents alike, to cultivate their Lutz isn’t imaginations and unique ideas. The organizajust luring tion has had the privilege of seeing former Detroiters students return with their own children to with her share this one-of-a-kind experience. tailored dresses

and evening clutches. While the store was opened with the idea of catering to local urbanites, it has unexpectedly earned the loyalty of many suburban dwellers, according to Lutz. She is amazed that they will bypass the plethora of other shopping opportunities to come to The Peacock Room. Many shoppers want to make a conscious effort to spend money in the city, Lutz said.

“How cool is that?” she asks. And it’s, of course, the one-of-a-kind style that the shop offers justifies the commute.

“Detroiters really have a style of their own,” Lutz said. For Lutz, the biggest compliment she receives is when three generations of women walk into her store.

“We try to cater to all women. We have pieces that a 20-year-old woman would wear … a 40-year-old woman would wear … and a 60-year-old woman would wear,” she said.

Former WSU student and current Midtown resident Gabriel Lemoine is familiar with The Peacock Room. Lemoine is a true staple of the neighborhood, and according to him, the fashion community is very active. Gabriel cites the numerous young WSU designers who are constantly creating and participating in area runway shows. Lemoine talks of his friend Levon Kafavian who recently held a show at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.

As for his personal tastes, Lemoine frequents Cyperoptix Lab Ties. He’s attracted to their eclectically printed ties, T-shirts and other Detroit-inspired gear, he said. But when asked what his favorite place to shop is, he’s quick on the draw: “Showtime Vintage.” Lemoine’s intrigue is clear, considering the life-sized replica of Gene Simmons in full KISS mode, tongue and all, which greets patrons at the door. This “alternative” place is unique in everything from its décor to its garments. WSU fashion and design students are often employed seasonally at the store, according to owner Daniel Tatarian. This rock ‘n’ roll outlet is far from new to the neighborhood, though. They’ve held claim to 5708 Woodward Ave. for 24 years, Tatarian said.

According to him, Showtime will be sponsoring and contributing to the Detroit Music Awards.

It’s important that WSU continue its efforts in maintaining and building relationships with local businesses and residents, Lemoine said.

“The more active they are with the people that live around there,” he said, “the better and stronger the community is.”

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 7

by Jerry Herron (1995) Wayne State University Press

$29.94

DONALD BARNES Senior Writer

DETROIT IN

PRINT

8 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

Jerry Herron’s “AfterCulture: Detroit and the Humiliation of History,” is a tale about the city and its lost luster. Herron, born in Abilene, Texas, is the dean of the Irvin D. Reid Honors College at Wayne State. He writes from a first-person point of view, touching on the woes of the city and providing explanations for those who have relocated to surrounding suburbs hoping to avoid the disaster that lay ahead of Detroit.

Herron refers to the city as a project, claiming that newcomers’ outlook on their stay will be one of change and will provide progression to a city of lost hope. He credits Mayor Coleman A. Young as the door opener for the outstanding amount of media negativity that’d be soon to come.

Local government scandals, city crime and poverty-stricken neighborhoods are Herron’s ammo. With Herron being involved in a college located in the middle of Detroit, he has an inside view of the city and its decay. He mentions the riot of 1967, using it as a sign of early destruction and calling it “the most costly of the urban disturbances to take place that summer.”

Written in 1993, the position and tone of the book may offend those who are born-and-raised Detroiters. A lot has changed since the time of the original publishing, much of it for the worse. It’s almost as if Herron’s second and last published work was a faint cry from a slowly dying city. Considering the current condition and decline of the area in the past decade, it

seems as if Herron was trying to warn city dwellers.

With the automakers filing for bankruptcy and the media circus Kwame Kilpatrick started, the city has seen brighter days. Herron uses symbolism to draw up the book’s themes, and he does this cleverly. Herron doesn’t sugarcoat his intentions, warning readers in the preface: “This is a book about Detroit … unavoidably, a book about representation because Detroit is the most representative city in America” he writes. “Detroit used to stand for success, and now it stands for failure.”

Herron tried giving Detroit the “kick in the pants” it needed before things got messy. Although the book is written as an academic text, it carries some of Herron’s personal disappointment in the city. The words in which he chooses to relay his message hold the weight of stern thrashing. I believe Herron may have had good intentions when writing his art, but the read makes it a drag to deal with. Published through Wayne State in 1995, the book is considered a textbook and collection of essays. It can be purchased online. “AfterCulture” is 199 pages, not too long of a read for a person brave enough to pick it up. It’s safe to say Herron may have had a good idea, but went about it the wrong way.

EMILY MORMAN The South End Love him or hate him, you’ve got to admit that Charlie LeDuff knows how to tell a story.

His latest work, “Detroit: An American Autopsy,” takes readers through the back streets of the city, far away from the publicized shiny developments in Midtown and downtown to the areas with vacant lots, shoddy public services and rampant criminal activity.

He starts with the case of Johnnie Redding, the man found dead and encased in ice at the bottom of an elevator shaft in an abandoned warehouse. The circumstances of the body not being called in to police for weeks while men played hockey around it made a strong impression on LeDuff – he titles the second section of the book “Ice.” Leduff takes an always-critical, sometimes-humorous look at the everyday people who inhabit the city, and, more importantly, the leaders who purport to run it during and immediately following the Kwame Kilpatrick scandal. From then-City Councilwoman Monica Conyers to the men of the Engine Co. 23 firehouse, a station so underequipped that the men’s boots have holes and the building lacks a screen door to keep out the flies, LeDuff calls it as he sees it.

“Detroit” is titled as a book about the city, but it’s just as much, if not more, of an autobiography about LeDuff’s journey of self-discovery while working for The Detroit News.

It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a book whose author is featured front and center in the cover illustration.

Readers get a pretty complete idea of what kind of guy LeDuff is from his writing style.

Equal parts street-savvy reporter and downhome average Joe, LeDuff paints himself as an easily relatable blue-collar everyman, excellence in profanity included. He spends a good deal of time on how he and his siblings grew up on Joy Road in Livonia and seethes with righteous anger over how his brother, and other members of the working class, now have to scrape by to make a living.

As he covers the city during and after the Kilpatrick scan-

by Charlie LeDuff (2013) The Penguin Press

$27.95

dal, the events in LeDuff’s life away from work mirror the turmoil Detroit is going through, particularly as he comes to terms with his family’s past. LeDuff seems to consider himself a rough-hewn man of iron, and indeed, the book carries considerable grit in its details. LeDuff takes readers through the senseless death of a hero and a domestic dispute with his wife, all the while seeking closure for the death of his sister years prior.

LeDuff isn’t the kind of reporter who only writes down what he observes and calls it a day. Rather, he takes it upon himself to use his position to correct injustice where he sees it, and often helps make the news as much as he reports it. When the mother of a dead girl has no money for a proper burial, he writes a story that results in enough money being raised for the girl’s remains to be buried.

When a burned vacant house is left standing after a fireman died inside it, LeDuff makes calls until a city official finally orders it destroyed.

If Detroit were the Wild West, LeDuff would be the cowboy, the lone mountain man, taking the city by the reins and exposing wrongdoing where he sees it. He expresses frustration with the city for not being better than it is and at corrupt or incompetent leadership for failing to help the people entrusted to their care.

“Detroit” is not a book of happy endings, but it does provide a close look at the incompetence in leadership at the highest levels of the city and the consequences it has for the everyday people living in Detroit. LeDuff may be eccentric in his methods, allegedly prone to urinating in public and quick to temper, but he does one thing exceedingly well – looking out for the little man in a city that’s teetering on the brink between rejuvenation and ruin.

by Mark Binelli (2012) Metropolitan Books

$16.50

JENNIFER CLINE The South End As the auto industry’s financial collapse hit national headlines in 2009, journalists from around the world flocked to Detroit to get a better glimpse at the Motor City.

For Rolling Stone contributing editor Mark Binelli, the assignment brought him back to a place filled with childhood memories.

“Whenever I told people I’d grown up in metropolitan Detroit, they expressed morbid curiosity, as if I’d revealed having been raised the next town over from Chernobyl,” Binelli wrote.

His book “Detroit City is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis” shares his in-depth analysis on Detroit’s past and present, highlighting the city’s key historical happenings, landmark buildings and alarming statistics alongside the stories buried in the lives of Detroiters. In the 304-page book, Binelli reviews the city and the community that give it its vibrancy with a skeptical eye.

Covering the North American International Auto Show and the auto industry for “Rolling Stone” prompted Binelli to take a closer look at Detroit. After finishing his article assignment, the Michigander-turned-New Yorker moved into an Eastern Market apartment and immersed himself in the city’s community in every way possible.

The writer had the advantage of having a dual view of the city. As a teenager, he worked for his father and made deliveries throughout Eastern Market, giving Binelli an insider’s view of Detroit’s past and a quick link to the people in the community. As a respected journalist, he also has the ability to tell a story uninterrupted by racial biases and untangled with the majority of the media’s notes.

“I wanted to think about how Detroiters struggled mightily to solve these problems – historically, yes, but more importantly right now,” Binelli wrote.

Beneath the defeating finances, years of lousy leadership and crime rates that shock national headlines regularly, Binelli found hope for the future of Detroit in the people he encountered. His research touched on topics that make easy headlines, such as the Heidelberg project and Dan Gilbert, but Binelli also took a

closer look at things often missed by the mass media – stories of perseverance throughout the city, initiatives produced by local Detroiters that work to make the city strong again and the optimism that many hold for the city’s future.

“The ongoing catastrophes had, in a strange way, bequeathed the place of unexpected asset, something few other cities of its size possessed: a unique sense of possibility,” Binelli wrote.

“Detroit City is the Place to Be” touches on many of the city’s problems – the crime, failing school system, corrupt leaders, abandoned buildings and neighborhoods and so forth – and tries to understand the root of the city’s shortcomings, offering history lessons and pointing out common misperceptions.

“People incorrectly isolate the 1967 riot as the pivotal Detroit-gone-wrong moment, after which nothing went right,” Binelli noted.

The book travels through 300 years of Detroit’s history, and references countless outside articles and publications to tell a vivid story of the city’s background. Binelli’s visual language encompasses an essence of Detroit that most temporary visitors would miss.

After viewing DIY projects, landmarks of ruin porn, urban gardening and meeting a plethora of interesting Detroiters, Binelli leaves the city sharing the same optimism that he encountered throughout his stay.

“It didn’t make rational sense, I knew, but I found myself edging over to the side of the optimists. I couldn’t say why, it happened gradually, on the level of anecdote. I caught myself noticing and relishing slight indicators that in aggregate (or perhaps viewed through lenses with proper tinting) couldn’t help but make you feel like Detroit’s luck, despite such unimaginable obstacles, might still turn,” Binelli explained.

Binelli’s book shares the spirit of Detroit in a new and inviting way, truly illustrating why Detroit city is the place to be.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 9

by Tim Wendell (2013)

by Dan Austin (2012) History Press $14.00

DaCapo Press

$14.99

ANNIE DERBABIAN Senior Writer When the clock atop Detroit’s Old City Hall needed to be wound, it took 1,512 steps by a staff member on a treadmill-like device.

Ninety years later, at 7:48 p.m. on Aug. 14, 1961, Old City Hall fell to a wrecking ball, and the clock upon which so many people relied was silenced.

Dan Austin’s taste for detail allows him to deliver a rich history of Detroit’s lost architecture with love and compassion through the pages of “Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit.” The sadness of these buildings’ ultimate destruction is almost palpable, but he breaks it up with a welcomed wit not found in similar historical writings; especially since it’s not at the city’s expense.

He has a natural thirst for knowledge as a journalist with the Detroit Free Press and years of research under his belt as the storyteller behind HistoricDetroit.org.

Austin guides the reader on a tour of these glorious ghosts. He digs through historical rubble and dusts off the details to provide a complete history for each one from inception to destruction. When these buildings were constructed, they mattered. People flowed in and out of them, marveled at them, took pictures of them and lived their lives around them. They helped shape Detroit into what it once was, and Austin is the guardian of this heritage even when mayors and decision makers of the past fought to strike it down.

The inclusion of photographs from sources such as the Library of Congress and the Burton Historical Collection put the reader exactly where the building once stood – and sometimes inside it – even if no words are read. Though none of the photographs have been printed in color, the striking images tell a story of

PHILIP HOWELL Contributing Writer

people, commerce and destruction where written words cannot.

In each building-focused chapter, he writes not only about the subject’s specs and purposes, but about the people as well. Quotes are pulled from old newspaper articles and long-dead mayors who all had something to say on either side of the demolition debate. With chapter section titles such as “An Esteemed Steamer” and “The Bar that Put the World on Wheels,” he waxes poetic about the cultural significance of these lavish jewels in the hopes that the few remnants from Detroit’s past left standing can be appreciated.

A recurring theme isn’t barbarism on the part of the people – it’s the desire to be up-to-date. Many of the buildings Austin highlights were admittedly beyond repair due to decay or, as in the Union Depot’s case, vandals and scavengers. Others, like the Hammond Building, were noticably dwarfed by their surroundings as the years passed on and the need arose for “bigger and better.” These would be replaced with functionality at the cost of beauty (the author likens the bank building that rose in place of the Hammond to a cheese grater).

“When buildings are erased from Detroit’s skyline,” Austin wrote, “their history and the stories of those who lived, worked and played there are lost with them.” Though no longer standing in brick and mortar, the silenced structures of this influential city’s past can tell their story through “Forgotten Landmarks of Detroit.”

10 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

In the book “The Summer of ‘68,” author Tim Wendel examines one of the landmark years in the history of the game of baseball, now known as “The Year of the Pitcher.”

Wendel attempts to not only examine the amazing feats by pitchers that year, but also take the reader back in time to one of the most turbulent times in the history of our nation. It was a year that saw the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and fellow civil rights activist Bobby Kennedy within months of each other, and witnessed bloody turmoil in Chicago just a year after Detroit almost collapsed under the weight of one of the worst riots in American history. These turning points are retold through eyewitness accounts from ex-players and those involved in the game at that time.

Many baseball fans will begin this book with the expectation that it will merely be a summation of the “Year of the Pitcher,” glossing over statistics, records and one of the greatest Fall Classics ever played between two of the most loaded teams in baseball history, the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals.

Wendel takes it so much further than that.

His telling of the events looks through the eye of a country during a period of civil unrest, examining the deaths of civil rights leaders King, whose death prompted the delay of opening day in its observance, and Kennedy, whose death led many ballplayers to consider sitting out the day after his assassination. He objectively examines these events and illustrates an American sports landscape that was slowly losing its image as the national pastime with the NFL and burgeoning AFL coming closer to being the most popular game in the country.

For the avid baseball fan, this is not the only examination of that definitive year. Wendel take the statistics and records approach, but he crafts it into an intriguing narrative that takes us

through the season, from Don Drysdale’s once record shutout innings streak, to the back-to-back no-hitters thrown at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Denny McLain becoming the first pitcher to record 30 victories in decades, and Bob Gibson setting a modern day record with the lowest earned run average ever recorded in a single season.

The records and accolades aside, what Wendel does best is build this narrative of unrest and unhittable pitching, climaxing with the eventual clash between the Tigers and Cardinals in the Fall Classic. For those unaware, the 1968 World Series was won by the Tigers in a dramatic comeback from a three games to one deficit. All of the key moments are masterfully brought to life by Wendel; Willie Horton throwing out the untouchable base stealer Lou Brock at home in game five in what many consider to be the turning point in the series, to manager Mayo Smith’s famous decision to move centerfielder Mickey Stanley from centerfield to shortstop to find at-bats for Detroit legend Al Kaline (who would have many big hits in the series) and building the drama of what was deemed “The Great Confrontation,” the matchup of pitching aces Mclain and Gibson. All of this is crafted in such a way that Wendel truly gives one the impression they are in the right field overhang at Tiger Stadium, taking it all in.

“The Summer of ‘68” is a wonderful piece of nonfiction that takes us back to one of our nation’s most tumultuous times, showing us a country torn apart by centuries old ideals and presenting it through the lens of one of the greatest seasons Major League Baseball and its fans ever had the joy of experiencing.

ELI HOERLER / CONTRIBUTING WRITER Visitors to the Red Bull House of Art browse the exhibition on opening night

An artist’s haven

Gallery provides local artists with much needed resources, support ELI HOERLER Contributing Writer

The basic principle is simple: Give artists a chance to make art. There is no catch. There is no commission taken.

That, for many artists, was the reason the Red Bull House of Art seemed too good to be true.

Every three months, eight Metro Detroit-area artists, chosen by curator Matt Eaton, are given a place to work, as well as a hefty sum to cover their materials. Over the three-month span, they complete a body of work, which is displayed in the gallery’s opening. After the opening, the artwork remains on display until the next cycle of artists is ready to give a show. All profits from art sales go entirely to the artist.

Between gallery openings, the House of Art is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m, along with the other sporadic events. The gallery hosts artist talks and workshops, and takes part in Third Thursdays, a citywide effort to boost art gallery attendance by extending gallery hours and host-

ing special events on the third Thursday of every month.

Events are usually announced on the gallery’s Facebook page, which is their alternative to a formal website.

The most recent gallery opening was April 12, and displayed the works of Ellen Rutt, Greg Siemasz, William Harris, Kristin Adamczyk, Lisa Poszywak, Ty Sawyer, Kevin Skinner and Lindy Marie Shewbridge. Openings at the House of Art are typically a 2,000-to-3,000-person affair, with free admission and drinks. The artists and curator roam through the crowd, taking questions and compliments. The next opening will be at the beginning of August.

Matt Eaton, an artist himself, is curator and director of the Red Bull House of Art. He was born in Los Angeles, but spent a good deal of his upbringing in London. After living and working in New York City, he has found a home in Detroit.

Eaton is responsible for finding and selecting artists for the show. Most are found by word of mouth, or by Eaton’s exploration of college art departments and gallery shows.

Few people seek him out. “I only get about one of those every week or two,” he said.

Personality and will were two big factors in the selection process.

“From the beginning, I wanted to explore all levels of ex-

hibition experience and skill, and cater to different groups of people and different kinds of art,” Eaton said.

Kobie Solomon was in the second round of artists.

“It was a lot like being back in school ... but in a really good way,” he said. “Just people creating for the sake of creating, without ... the constraints of, ‘I can’t afford this material,’ or, ‘I don’t have this facility.’”

Eaton can’t pick a favorite out of the 24 artists that have come through the House of Art. “I genuinely enjoyed every single one of them. Every single one of them has kicked ass,” he said.

The nearly 30,000-square-foot building that houses the House of Art was built in 1891, and was a brewery up until 1960. According to the sign out front, it was “one of the last surviving Detroit breweries after World War II.” In 1970, it was converted into some of Detroit’s first lofts, and now, of course, it’s an art gallery.

In the hyper-competitive world of art, it is difficult for an aspiring artist to make a name. The House of Art hopes to give artists a chance, and to encourage them to stay in Detroit.

“It’s a good place for growth for them. It’s kind of like a blank canvas in a lot of ways,” Eaton said. “So much talent comes out of Detroit ... Finding more reasons to retain people here is important.”

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 11

WHITDEL ARTS

Located in Southwest Detroit, Whitdel operates as part of the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, although it’s across town from its sister gallery.

Although relatively new, Whitdel has made a name for itself, with their quirky exhibitions.

The gallery is located in a residential apartment building. Its expansive floor of the Whitdel is cozy and ideal for showcasing art. In a room removed from the gallery lay the few telltale signs of the space’s former life as a residential area, such as a kitchen.

The original name for the space was “Lady Bug Gallery” because of Lady Bug Studio, an adjacent building and another part of the CAID. Despite the proximity, the name didn’t stick.

“When it was called Lady Bug Gallery, people thought it was for kids,” said JenClare Gawarn. “It’s got a grownup name now.”

Gawarn is the president of the Board of Directors for Whitdel.

She received her bachelor’s in art education at Michigan State, and attended Wayne State to receive her master’s in printmaking.

She is currently a member of WSU staff, working in the office of the Art Building.

Gawarn became a part of the gallery in 2010, but even in the three years she’s worked there, she’s seen the gallery expand and become more established.

“When I started, it didn’t have as many people as it does now.

is kind of a newer gallery, we can do whatever.

We’re building the history of the gallery,” Gawarn said.

Exhibitions at Whitdel focus on local talents, but past shows have included work from artists as far away as Sweden. The exhibitions range in terms of subject matter.

“Sometimes they’re based on medium — like paintings or photos, but lately we’ve been trying to take it further—into conceptual shows,” Gawarn said.

An example of this was a show they put on earlier in the year, titled “M.A.P.,” which focused on the concept of movement and position, a theme that artists were encouraged to interpret loosely.

“It could mean movement, as in your physical position, but also something like your social movement—your social geography,” Gawarn said.

Another show focused on collaboration, when artists who were members of the gallery came in and were randomly teamed up with another artist to collaborate through a bingo-style lottery.

With summer on the horizon, Whitdel has several exciting shows planned for the future. Their current exhibition “Containment: A Life of Hoarding and Hiding,” showcases work from New Yorker Undine Brod and Clare Fox of Detroit, and centers on the theme of consumption and collection, and will run until May 11. For more information visit whitdelarts.com.

Courtesy Alonso Del Arte Academy Award-nominated animator Gary Schwartz poses with a soft sculpture at Whitdel’s current exhibition.

It was me and three other co-directors; now it’s myself and seven board members, and five staff members,” Gawarn said.

For Gawarn, and the rest of her staff members, working at Whitdel is a labor of love.

“It was, and still is a nonprofit. We all volunteer — none of us get paid.”

While administrating a gallery for free may not sound like fun to some, this presents a unique opportunity that Whitdel has embraced openly. Between their free labor and the rent-free space, Whitdel has the chance to try new and funky exhibitions that other galleries can’t risk trying out, and art is all about taking risks.

“We always try to do different shows each year. Since Whitdel

KUNSTHALLE DETROIT

Kunsthalle Detroit, the country’s first light and multimedia museum, sits just a mile away from Wayne State’s campus in Woodbridge, the in opposite direction from long established art institutions like the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Charles Wright Museum.

Officially opened in 2010, Kunsthalle Detroit has found its niche in Detroit’s ever-expanding art scene. The museum specializes in lightbased art, a broad variety of expression ranging from photography and videography to more conceptual works done with LED and neon.

The term “Kunsthalle” is recognized as meaning “Art Hall,” in German. Kunsthalles are located around the world, and are typically nonprofits, which is true for Kunsthalle Detroit as well. Having the status of Kunsthalle brings with it trusted reputation in the international art world.

“We’re an educational institution,” said Dr. Tate Osten, director and chief curator for Kunsthalle Detroit. “We do not sell art, we only show art.”

According to Osten, the mission of Kunsthalle is to establish an exchange between Detroit and the international art community.

“People don’t travel overseas all the time, so it would be nice to have the overseas come here, she said.

With a background as a corporate art consultant, Osten has plenty of experience with the art scene on the other side of the Atlantic. In her previous occupation, Osten managed art collections for medium-sized law firms and corporations in New York City, where she lived for 17 years before moving to Detroit. Her exposure to light-based art came after 9/11, when many of the city’s firms were forced to relocate to other parts of town due to damage from the destruction of the World Trade Center.

These firms needed to redecorate their new spaces, and started looking into more contemporary art forms such as light art.

Courtesy Kunsthalle Detroit The exhibit “Who are you? How are you?” by Tim White-Sobieski is currently on display.

In 2009, Osten felt she had a lot to offer the city, with connections to artists and galleries across the world. “ It shocked me, the first time I saw Detroit, the tremendous conflict between the beautiful architecture of the past and current destruction — how everything was burned down. My feeling was to help the economy get back up, there would need to be a major cultural breakthrough,” Osten said.

Osten has seen the transformative power of art firsthand both in New York and Berlin.

“Berlin was much like Detroit, and is now a cultural capital of the world,” she said. “In Chelsea, change happened right before my eyes. Art breeds change.”

12 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

To create the change, Kunsthalle Detroit has sought direct involvement with the surrounding Woodbridge Community. The museum’s current location at 5001 Grand River is in the renovated bank, originally built in 1913. The building sat empty for nearly 30 years before being repurposed. The structure needed massive renovations, and the Kunsthalle staff had to get resourceful, using found materials and receiving help from neighborhood locals.

Kunsthalle Detroit plans to continue bringing light and life to the city. For its next exhibition, the museum will be participating in an international art event called “Slow Art” day, which focuses on leisurely observing pieces, taking time to enjoy all the details in an artwork. The show will feature soft light based displays and neon signs alongside hard, weighty sculptures, playing on the contrast between them.

The museum also plans to transform the landscape of the city by installing light sculpture pieces throughout the city. These sculptures, which the museum hopes will be solar powered, would be placed throughout Detroit with the intention of illuminating some of the less well-lit parts of town. The idea behind the luminous installations is that they would make help people feel more comfortable exploring the city.

“Aside from the downtown, the city isn’t really lit up. It doesn’t make people feel safe,” Osten said. “It would make people stay out late at night, and businesses could keep their doors open later.”

As Detroit’s creative scene expands, institutions like Kunsthalle have a bright future.

“I think we really have a young generation of those who can make change,” Osten said.

Kunsthalle’s next exhibition opens April 27 and is free to the public.

The museum will also be selling brown bag lunches for $5. For more information, visit kunsthalle-detroit.org.

NICOLE HAYDEN The Motown Beat

The Motown Sound The Vonneguts — Q & A with Miles Hubbell With an easy-jamming yet mosh-ready throwback sound, The Vonneguts are made for intimate house parties. Their strength as a band comes from their history of playing and growing together since high school. They mix a series of rock sounds from classic chords to Brit-rock hooks to reggae undertones in order to birth a radical head-nodding resonance. They’ve got the style down, too, with the classic white shirt, black suit, skinny tie look that makes the ladies swoon. Midtown hipsters, look forward to drinking some chilled PBR with these boys this summer. Check them out: http://www.reverbnation.com/ thevonneguts.

Q: Where is your favorite Detroit venue to play at?

A: Elijah’s Gallery at 2750 Yemans, Hamtramck.

Q: Other Detroit bands that you like?

A: Growing Pains and Fake Surfers.

Q: Favorite Detroit eatery?

A: Campau Tower.

Q: Perfect Detroit summer day?

A: 55 degrees.

Q: Summer plans for the band?

A: Playing throughout New York City, the five boroughs, all summer.

The Hounds Below — Q & A with Jason Stollsteimer With their addicting pop-radio sound The Hounds Below creates a formulation that is not only intoxicating when experienced live but also perfect to listen to while dancing in your kitchen this summer. Beneath their tailored sounds is the grittiness of livability and the reminder that our young blood is only young for so long — yet there is an anxious, happy energy wrapped around that grey tone of reality. It’s like a more energetic version of The Shins, a bit of the early 2000s, very slightly late 90’s.

Check them out: http://thehoundsbelow.com/ Q: Favorite Detroit venue to play at?

A: The Loving Touch Q: Other Detroit bands that you love?

A: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr., Flint Eastwood, FAWN, FUR, Passalacqua Q: Favorite Detroit eatery?

A: Anything in Mexicantown.

Q: Perfect Detroit summer day?

A: Running along the waterfront on a mid-summer’s day.

Q: Summer plans for the band?

A: We are heading over for our first UK tour in May/ June.

Phantasmagoria — Q & A with Lianna Vanicelli The electronic pop duo, Phantasmagoria, mixes in electrotribal earthly elements in order to create their unique sound.

Their tracks are happy and poppy yet eerie and atmospheric — think ancient meditative spirituality meets a minimalistic nature sound. The duo — Lianna Vanicelli and Chris Jarvis — met through mutual friends, then started playing in another band together for two years before it dwindled down to just the two of them. They discovered their name when Jarvis was reading “Into the Wild” — they looked up “phantasmagoria” and thought the definition and uniqueness was a perfect fit for them. Check them out: http://phantasmagoriamusic.com/.

Q: What is your favorite Detroit venue to play?

A: Magic Stick in Detroit, New Dodge Lounge in Hamtramck, The Loving Touch in Ferndale Q: Other Detroit bands that you like?

A: Jamaican Queens, Lord Scrummage, Passalacqua, James Linck, Tunde Olaniran, Coyote Clean Up, Doc Illingsworth, Eddie Logix, Doc Waffles, SelfSays Q: Favorite Detroit eatery?

A: Bucharest Grill Q: Perfect Detroit summer day?

A: Wake up, meditate, bike ride, smoke down, work on music, drink beers on the porch, hang out with friends or go to a show/the bar

Flint Eastwood — Q & A with Jax Anderson With a perfect balance of synthesizers, electro-tremolos and a pulsing drum, Flint Eastwood’s sound gets under your skin making your body shake with energy. Their tracks have a professionally mixed quality while their live performances explode with passionate energy. Check them out: https://www.facebook.com/FlintEastwoodMusic Q: Where is your favorite Detroit venue to play?

A: Any house party.

Q: Other Detroit bands that you like?

A: Passalacqua, The Hounds Below, The Hand in the Ocean, Greater Alexander, James Linck, and pretty much every other project Chris Jarvis is involved with.

Q: Favorite Detroit eatery?

A: Cass Cafe Q: Perfect Detroit summer day?

A: Sitting on a front porch having good conversation, riding your bike on open streets, grabbing a coffee at Great Lakes, and hopefully hitting up some sort of dance party in the evening.

Q: Plans for the band this summer — concerts, tours, etc?

A: We’re releasing an EP this spring which will be followed by a mass amount of regional shows and music videos.

Q: Summer plans for the band?

A: We’re releasing our new album “DAYZE” in June and we have a bunch of shows including Movement Electronic Music Festival in Hart Plaza, Metro Times Blowout, and High Vibrations at the Loving Touch on May 23.

Nam Kook and the Typhoon — Q & A with Adam Padden Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. — Q & A with Josh Epstein Fitting for the indie rock radio waves of recent, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. refuses to set restrictions for themselves, giving them room to encompass multiple genres. This creates a synthetically organic 60’s pop sound with a few electro strings of energy. Semi-parallel to the current likes of Passion Pit and the Lumineers, they have a quiet perfection. Check them out: http://www.daleearnhardtjrjr.com/ Q: Where is your favorite Detroit venue to play?

A: The Fox Theater. It sounds incredible, and has a huge stage.

Q: Other Detroit bands that you like?

A: Jon Zott is incredible. If you haven’t heard him, you really should.

Q: Favorite Detroit eatery?

Roast is the perfect meal each and every time.

Q: Perfect Detroit summer day?

A: Jet skiing on the Detroit River is perfect.

From a messy juxtaposition of voices creating a sultry, sexy vibe to a sweet lullaby of 70’s James Taylor sounds, Nam Kook and the Typhoon fuses multiple aspects of classic rock. Padden noted that “this was a project I started after building up a collection of songs over the past couple of years. It started as a side project and will probably remain one for some time. Who knows what the future holds though?” Check them out: http://namkooklee.wordpress. com/ Q: Where is your favorite Detroit venue to play?

A: The Lager House is always a fun place to play!

Q: Other Detroit bands that you like?

A: The Hounds Below, Citizen Smile, The Handgrenades Q: Favorite Detroit eatery?

A: I happen to love Russell Street Deli.

Q: Perfect Detroit summer day?

A: We don’t really have anything planned at the moment. We’re all in other groups that will likely be busy for the summer.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 13

Art hub goes through renaissance HUMBERTO MARTINEZ JR. Lead Sports Correspondent When thinking of the premier place to view art in Detroit, the Detroit Institute of Art readily comes to mind. But, located just across the street, there’s another place to take in beautiful displays of art.

Housed inside the northern-Italian-style building that sits at 217 Farnsworth St. is the Scarab Club, which was founded in 1907 by automotive designers, advertising illustrators, graphic artists, photographers, architects and automobile company owners, according to the club’s website.

“There were two major reasons that they (the founding members) got together,” gallery director Treena Flannery Ericson said. “The biggest one is that they wanted a place to be able to show and exhibit their work. And then also, they wanted to fill their resources to pay for a model so they could draw live models because that’s really the basis of all art. If you can draw the figure you can really draw anything.”

Formerly known as the Hopkin Club in honor of Detroit marine painter Robert Hopkin, the Scarab Club started out as an exclusive, men’s-only club. The “Scarab” moniker wasn’t adopted until 1913 when director John Swan changed it.

“Anything that had to do with Egypt was really popular,” Ericson said. “So they decided to change it to the Scarab Club because they thought that would symbolize the constant rebirth of the arts.”

The building that now houses the Scarab Club opened in 1928. Before that, members would rent out buildings in the Detroit area to hold their meetings. Designed by Detroit architect Lancelot Sukert, it is on both the Michigan and National Register of Historic Places.

The clubhouse has three levels. The first level is the main gallery, the second is a lounge and the third houses six artist studios.

The main gallery, which hosts eight showcases a year, is a white-walled room with old, hardwood floors and gallery lights that illuminate each piece of artwork. Two glass doors lead out to a brick-walled garden which, when the weather permits, holds weddings and other events.

Walking up to the second floor, you are greeted by a large, gold fresco on the ceiling of the lounge’s lobby. Painted by Philip Sawyer in 1928, it is titled the “Four Domains of Art.”

JON ADAMS / THE SOUTH END The Scarab Club is located on 217 Farnsworth St, Detroit and was founded in 1907.

It’s one of a few frescos in the building. This one was found by happenstance.

“That we just found by accident,” Ericson said. “There was a leak on the third floor and some of the plaster fell away and we found it.”

A wonderful example of American Arts and Crafts style, the lounge has a dining room, a sitting area with a piano and a lively mural from 1928 over the fireplace called “The Scarab Club Family Tree,” done by the artist Paul Honore.

“It just depicts different things in the Scarab Club,” Ericson said. “It’s kind of amazing that it’s still so vibrant after all these years.”

The most intriguing features of the lounge are the nine wooden beams that are covered in signatures from local, national and international artists. The likes of Diego Rivera, Norman Rockwell and Marcel Duchamp grace the beams in black and white ink. Each September, a new name that has “made significant and lasting contributions to the arts” is added.

As the years have gone by, the Scarab Club has changed

14 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

from its exclusive, men’s-only beginnings, and is trying to achieve more traction with the general public.

When Swan changed the club’s name, he was inspired by his collection of carved Egyptian scarabs, symbolizing “resurrection of life,” according to the website.

The Scarab Club can serve as a microcosm for the city it calls home. As the club has gone through a rebirth, so has Detroit.

“The idea of the scarab as rebirth, I think it really is fitting because it is constantly changed by the people who are members, by the influence of the organizations and individuals we work with,” Ericson said. “It’s a work in progress. Even after 100 years, it’s a work in progress. And I think that’s a really good thing.”

Don’t be intimidated by the “club” in the name. Ericson was sure to note that you don’t have to be a member, nor an expert in the arts to enjoy what the Scarab Club has to offer.

As much as it is about art, the Scarab is about much more.

“Our focus is art,” Ericson said, “but our goal is to build community.”

TOM CULVER / LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER An urban putt-putt course brings fun and wild imagination to Corktown.

Up to par Urban putt-putt course brings fun, social awareness NADY BILANI Staff Writer Kids can have the most fun with the simplest of things. They can find items that were thrown away and turn them into something to play with. A box becomes a fort, a tire is a swing, a rope to jump, and all it takes is a little imagination to make it happen. That’s exactly what a group of Lawrence Tech students did when they created a free urban putt-putt course, right in Corktown.

A group of graphic design students was given the opportunity to do a direct study, by building a putt-putt course located across 14th Street from Michigan Central Station on land donated by a group called Imagination Station. Gathering a mixture of supplies from junk yards, the students put a creative spin on the

game. The idea was not to represent Detroit as trashy, but rather highlight some problems that do affect the city: litter, construction, abandoned cars and homes.

“For one, it makes a really interesting theme for a putt-putt course. For two, it’s stuff that we’re surrounded by and dealing with, so I think to have fun in those scenarios might be able to change some perceptions,” Steve Coye, a major contributor to the course, stated in a press release for the project.

The items found on the course range from a broken down car, rims to mark the hole numbers, tires used as obstacles and traffic barrels. Mike Hall, a student working on the course, thought the idea of using trash was ideal for what they were trying to do.

“Turn nothing into something was what it was all about. It was the greenest possible course with the lowest amount of money,” Hall said.

None of the students has ever handled a project of this size.

Funded by Kickstarter, the group raised a little over $3,000 from donors and local businesses. Ponyride, a nonprofit that takes ideas for the city and turns them into reality, was another resource used to raise money for the project. While some

donated money, others, such as Phil Cooley, owner of Slows Bar BQ, helped in the construction of the course.

“It’s a good start and it’s great that it’s a free asset to the community,” Cooley said. “They’re a few things that still need to be touched up and landscaped, but once that’s all finished, I’m optimistic that it will be a fun attraction for the neighborhood.”

Their grand opening, The Polar Bear Classic in December of last year, was a bigger turnout than expected.

“We had few hundred people out there, some kegs. We had blast. It was a great family environment,” Hall said.

Now that the snow has melted, the group of students is continuing their project by adding on new details to the course as well as a way to store putters for people to use. Right now, people will have to bring their own putters and balls to the course, but hopefully soon designated putters for each hole will be established.

Upon completion of the 17th hole, don’t be surprised if you have trouble finding the 18th hole on the course. In fact, don’t bother — the hole doesn’t exist. When asked about the nonexisting hole, Hall responded: “It’s just not the urban way.”

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 15

Detroit’s Café Culture ALLISON KOEHLER Contributing Writer

Astro Coffee Located in the heart of Corktown and tucked in a row of brick facades is Astro Coffee, a comfortable coffee house offering a delightful selection of organic baked goods and sandwiches made from scratch using natural, local products. The selfdescribed “Coffee Land” has a menu that changes daily and can’t be missed on its larger-than-life chalkboard wall. Staff and customers alike enjoy displaying their chalk art as well, which changes just about as often as the menu. Three doors down from the popular Slows Bar BQ, Astro offers a variety of coffees from across the country.

Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Bean Bar Just steps from Cobo Center, Bean Bar has created a buzz in the downtown area since its opening in 2007. The cozy spot presents fresh goods baked daily, from mini Danish to delectable pound cakes, as well as soups, wraps and salads.

And you mustn’t forget about the tasty selection of specialty coffees and large menu of refreshing smoothies. Patrons from even as far as London and California have reviewed the Bean Bar and it has become well liked for the mango smoothie and affordable prices.

The Bean Bar is open weekdays only, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and offers take-out services.

Cafe 1923 Spotlighting the walls of Hamtramck’s historic Cafe 1923 is artwork from the local art collective Hatch, which keeps a variety of pieces coming in and out about every six weeks.

“If you had to go to the same workspace everyday … with the ever-changing artwork, it’s like walking into a new place every month,” said Shannon Lowell, owner and Wayne State alum.

He built the espresso machine that services his cafe, affectionately called “Goldie,” which makes creating coffee an art form in itself.

The cash only cafe is open Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., weekends 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Cass Cafe Detroit’s alternative restaurant and art gallery boasts a full bar stocked with neighbor Motor City Brewery’s draft brews and other favorites from around the world. The affordable menu offers everything from salmon, tuna and sirloin to curry-roasted chicken breast, wings and cheese tortellini. There are plenty of options for vegetarians and the Cass Avenue grilled five-cheese cheese melts in your mouth.

“We structured the design of the place around the white walls so that the art displays well,” owner and WSU grad, Chuck Roy, said.

Cass Cafe, 4620 Cass Ave., will celebrate its 20-year anniversary this December.

Hours are Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. and Sundays, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Manila Bay Cafe Opening its doors in 2010, Manila Bay Cafe has quickly become a hot attraction, showcasing artwork from local artists as well as all over the world. Clientele will also find vendors exhibiting handmade jewelry and clothing lines, as well as popular poetry night events.

In addition to the cafe and art gallery, the location is also a venue which can host up to 150 people for any occasion, concerts, book release parties and more.

Open Fridays from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. All ages are welcome.

PHOTOS BY TOM CULVER & KRISTIN SHAW/THE SOUTH END

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 17

MICHIGAN & WABASH

MICHIGAN & WABASH

GRAND RIVER & AVERY

Off the c on the

DALZELLE & 14TH ST.

PONYRIDE

18 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

ROSA PARKS & CALVERT

GRAND RIVER & 15TH

VERMONT & CAMULET PHOTOS BY ASHLIE DUNN

canvas, e walls

ROSA PARKS & GRAND RIVER

ROSA PARKS & GRAND RIVER

ROSA PARKS & GRAND RIVER

ROSA PARKS & GRAND RIVER

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 19

Undergrads showcase talents

WSU Art Department holds annual reception, recognizes students’ creations

Musical group offers unique sound, attracts attention of Jack White The Thornbills, composed of Tamra Finlay, Jim Wiegard, picks up steam in music realm ALLISON KOEHLER Contributing Writer Pinpointing the sound of The Thornbills is not an easy task. “We don’t feel like we have to have some kind of genre represented,” said vocalist Tamara Finlay.

“With us, no one has been able to put a finger on what we are – including us,” Jim Wiegand, vocals and guitar, said. “We never came in thinking, ‘We need to be of this genre,’ so we can just let it go.”

The Thornbills feature an folky sound mixed with a sense of dark style. The fivemember band includes vocals, guitar, violin and bass. The Thornbills are indeed their own blend.

The group name was a little easier to come up with. “I was looking at birds online that sing in harmony and also wanted a name that didn’t seem like an obvious choice for a band name,” Finlay said.

“I liked the fact that the word thorn is in there, because our music has a bit of an edge to it. We have that harmony sound, but it’s a little dark too. It’s pretty but it’s pokey,” he added, laughing.

Cousins Finlay and Wiegand just started playing music together in the last four or five years.

“I started taking voice lessons from her dad (Gordon Finlay, vocal teacher at Wayne State). Gordon had been saying for years that we should sing together,” Wiegard said.

“He had been harassing us forever,” Finlay said. “For every one idea that he has that’s great, there’s 10 really bad ones.”

After all of that, their coming together was kind of accidental. “I was trying to work on a solo album and had Tammy come in to do harmonies on one song,” Wiegand said.

“It just sounded so good that we dropped everything and started working together.”

“I like harmony-driven stuff,” Finlay continued. “But he keeps that from getting too cute. Because he’s got a harder edge.”

They began recording their first fulllength album in late march and should wrap up in a couple of months.

“We came in with a couple of songs; really just the skeleton was there … We spent a good five hours just figuring it out,” Wiegand said. “It was cool, this is going to be good. It’s kind of neat going into something with just an idea of how you want it to be and see how it turns out.”

Summer 2010 was one of fantasy for The Thornbills. Jack White invited the group to record on his label, Third Man Records.

“It was a magical time,” Wiegand said.

“I’m pretty good at this story,” Finlay said. “We got an email from Ben Blackwell (White’s nephew and member of Detroitbased rock band the Dirtbombs), ‘Jack White wants to get a hold of you.’ And I was like, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ We had only ever played one show, so I was thinking, that’s silly.”

“Then I get this message from Jack White asking if he could call me. Surely this was a joke,” Finlay said. “So I talked to Jack and he really liked our song (Inside of Our Heads). He wanted us to come down to Nashville and record a single.

“We still didn’t think it was real,” Finlay said.

White never would share with the pair how he stumbled upon their music. “‘I don’t like to disclose my sources,’” Finlay recalled White saying.

Hear for yourself. The Thornbills will be playing the Metro Times Blowout in Ferndale, the nation’s largest all-local music festival, May 2-4. For upcoming dates and album-release info, visit www.thethornbills. com.

20 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

CHRIS EHRMANN Lead News Correspondent The Wayne State Art Department held its annual 2013 undergraduate exhibition opening night reception April 12 to showcase the artwork students have created.

Throughout the gallery there were pieces from all different kinds of mediums, ranging in category from industrial design and sculptures to paintings and digital media arts. There was even one piece of artwork, entitled “Endearment” that dealt with shadow art.

The ceremony gave out more than 33 scholarships and awards to students and also included awards for best design and best in show. One of the award-winning students was Joe Culver, a first-year WSU student, who won best of show for Fine Art. According to Culver, his artwork dealt with the idea of reflections.

“It’s just about exploring alternate realities and reflections, basically. What I did was I took the concept of a reflection and I just imagined what was reflected, what would actually exist in physical form,” Culver said.

Culver also said he was excited to be in the show, and for what it could mean for his future. He joked by saying that winning best in show meant bragging rights to him.

The exhibition is an annual event that has been around for quite a while; the WSU Art Department was founded about 90 years ago, according to the department chair and professor John Richardson.

CHRIS EHRMANN / LEAD NEWS CORRESPONDENT Art enthuistists stroll through student showcase during the annual WSU Art Deptarment exhibition

“It gives students an opportunity to share with the public what they are creating in our studios. It also gives them a chance to introduce them into the Detroit art community,” Richardson said.

Gallery director Tom Pyrzewski explained why they host this event.

“We always put this exhibition on towards the end of the academic year, that’s when students are completed with their department. We really want to represent our department,” Pyrzewski said.

Stanley Rosenthal, a senior professor in the art department, said he felt that every year is just as good as the last in terms of art and talent by students.

“This show’s probably the highlight of the year … every year (is the best); the work changes and the students change but the venue stays the same, it’s like watching a news reel go by,” Rosenthal said.

Shirljean Miller is another student who was featured in the exhibition. Looking back on her time at WSU, Miller, who is in her last year, said, “With art it’s just been learning the new processes; I wish I could continue, I wish I could still take classes.”

“It’s been a lot of fun, there’s a lot of great faculty teaching here — John Richardson and Stanley Rosenthal — they are both great,” Culver said. “They both have great senses of humor, they let us do what we need to do without interfering.”

The undergraduate art exhibition will run until May 10 in the Art Department Gallery in the Art Building.

Local woman blogs to promote city Area entrepreneur Kim Mango is true Jane-of-all-trades in Detroit community ALLISON KOEHLER Contributing Writer

K

im Mango wears a coat of many colors; she’s an entrepreneur, writer, blogger, traveler, painter, photographer, clothing designer. She’s done and does it all.

“I’m just trying to make a positive impact in De-

troit,” Mango said.

Her blog, Fashion Loves Detroit, originally launched in November. In just the handful of months the blog has been live, it’s grown in leaps and bounds.

“This isn’t just a hobby for me anymore, people read this,” Mango said. “People want to buy ad space and write guest blogs. People from all over the world want to send me their clothes and have me review them.”

She loves her travel blogs the most.

“I love to travel and see what’s going on in other places,” she said. “My blog posts about traveling to Chicago or New York or wherever, that’s where I get the most readers because they also want to see what’s going on in other places in relation to Detroit.

“I really want to develop the blog into a resource,” she added. “I love helping people succeed. It’s not just about the fashion and the products; it’s about the journey to get there. The blogging community here is awesome. I just want to be different than that. I want mine to be more focused on resources. I’m talented, but you’re talented — and I want to give something to you.

“I love doing street-style photos. I stop people in the street, ‘You are freaking cool. I need to take your picture right now.’”

The blog will be rebranded and will re-launch in May. Mango said she has an ongoing list of things she plans to blog about. With rebranding, Mango said she’s constantly thinking of new stuff for the website and ways to grow it.

“There is so much going on. Totally gold-plated problems,” she said with a laugh.

Mango is a multi-tasking extraordinaire. She has to be.

“I’ve always wanted to do everything,” she said.

Fashion Loves Detroit is just one thing in her bag of tricks. She and her husband, Josh, own two

Courtesy Kim Mango Multitalented Mango is doing her part to have a positive impact in the city of Detroit

other businesses: eDetroit (www.edetroit.co) and Michipreneur (www. michipreneur.com). eDetroit is a content-based marketing agency, which works with small business owners and start-ups in Detroit and surrounding cities in web site development and publishing.

“We educate our clients to become their own publishers, or we just do it for them,” she said.

And to think, she originally wanted to be a doctor.

After attending school for pre-med, Mango said she decided to go after what she loved doing.

She has an amazing story. “Through my whole childhood, pretty much, I was getting high; I was addicted to heroin.”

After getting sober when she was 19, Mango said

she now goes to Alcoholics Anonymous to support her recovery.

She’ll be attending College for Creative Studies this year as well, and she’s looking forward to the educational aspect of it far more than the degree on a piece of paper.

“I don’t know the industry standards on how to do things,” she said. “I sewed and baked with my great grandma growing up. I know how to do it from how I was brought up doing it. Having that education of the formal way of how to do things … Things are always changing and there’s more efficient ways I can do things,” Mango said.

You can find Kim Mango — well, all over. Online, you can check her out at www.fashionlovesdetroit.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 21

JON ADAMS / THE SOUTH END Signal-Return, a nonprofit organization located on 1345 Division St., helps individuals create printed products.

Local art shop presses on, offers printing classes, engages community Signal-Return opens printmaking studio to Detroiters, bringing people together through creation MEGAN KRUEGER Senior Writer Gutenberg-style letterpresses sit in a large open workshop next to tables and drawers filled with wooden and metal blocks. Each block has a different letter carved into it. Each letter is of a different font and of a different size. There isn’t a computer in sight.

No, this isn’t a 15th century print shop.

This is Signal-Return, a letterpress shop in Detroit’s Eastern Market in 2013.

Signal-Return, a nonprofit, is part workshop and part print shop, but mostly serves as an educational facility to teach individuals and groups the art of letterpress, said Ryan Schirmang, who has been director of Signal-Return since May 2012.

The nonprofit, located at 1345 Division St., teaches people how to make posters, postcards and greeting cards with a letterpress, and they have also offered workshops in book binding and two-color stenciling, their website says.

“It’s a crossroads for the print art community,” Schirmang, 33, said. “It’s really letterpress-based.”

Schirmang said the goal of Signal-Return is to engage people by encouraging them to make cards and posters by hand rather than on the computer, where he says people already spend so much of their time.

“It really gets them back to working with

their hands and getting really involved in what they’re doing, and not just hitting ‘undo,’ or ‘delete,’ or ‘do-over,’” he said. “It’s like you really take your time to compose something and feel a good connection to it in the end.”

Even though they do use some digital files to transfer to wood and cut out with lasers, the art itself is all made by hand. Each letter used for printing is kept in a drawer and labeled by font type and size.

“It’s similar to opening up your computer and opening up Photoshop and finding 24-point Bodoni,” Schirmang said, adding that letterpress uses “the same ideas and the same terms that you use typesetting on the computer. It comes back to this.”

He explained that although print-making has a structure to it, “you can explore it to whatever ends you’d like.”

“Really, there are no bounds to it,” he said.

A little more than two years ago, Chief Creative Officer Toby Barlow at Team Detroit, an advertising agency, had an idea.

“He wanted to collect some resources from the foundation world and the advertising world and academic world to create something for print artists and for the visual community in Detroit,” Schirmang said.

Learning of this, Schirmang — who came to Detroit from Chicago to study architecture at the University of Michigan

22 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

— jumped on the project as the project manager.

The team was familiar with a letterpress shop and museum in Nashville called Hatch Show Print, and Schirmang said Team Detroit “wanted to try out a Detroit version of this.”

“We decided to make it nonprofit and have it really be about teaching people how to do this and building this resource, and then having the resource be used by as many different folks as possible,” he said.

Team Detroit assembled people from the College for Creative Studies, Lawrence Technological University and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit for Signal-Return’s board of directors, Schirmang said.

“With that board of directors then we’ve been able to secure some grant money from the Knight Foundation and find a space, build it out, and talk to people who could teach here and get them involved,” he said.

In November 2011, Signal-Return Press opened its doors to Detroit, welcoming city-goers with some salvaged presses and materials from Detroit’s own Cass Technical High School and old Fosdick Printing Company.

More than a year later, Signal-Return is servicing everyone from individual artists to high school groups who want to learn a new art form, Schirmang said. They’re open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and they plan to add more days in the future, he

noted.

The shop’s newest feature is the open studio option, which Schirmang said “worked out great” during the winter, when business typically slows down.

“Originally, we were just doing workshops, and they could take the workshops, and come back and take another one or sort of never do it again,” he said. “Then this idea of the open studio (is) you sign up for two and then you can come in and use (the studio). Now people want to sign up for two.”

The shop is up to about 45 open studio members, Schirmang said, adding people come in and “love” print-making at the shop because they’re able to leave with something they’ve made.

“I mean, you could have done that on a computer, and printed it out, but it wouldn’t have the same feel, and you wouldn’t have the same connection and pride for it,” he said.

Schirmang walks around the shop, holding up laser-cut stencils and examining handmade posters with unique and colorful designs so intricate, they look like they could have been digitally made.

“The hope is that someday, people who are looking to graduate and leave Detroit will think, ‘There’s one more thing going on in the city that might keep me here,’” he said. “I know it’s really ambitious, but I think it’s also possible on some level.”

Death experiences resurrection Local band created political-themed music in its heyday, is now rediscovered NICK PIZANA The South End Although known worldwide as The Motor City, Detroit’s musical legacy has gotten the world moving in a different way for decades. In a city that’s given birth to generations of talent, the story of Sixto Rodriguez, also known as “Suger Man,” shows that sometimes even the brightest gems can get overlooked.

The 1970s punk rockers “Death” are another act that could be added to that list. The three-piece outfit formed in 1974, started by brothers Bobby (bass, vocals), Dannis (drums) and David (guitar) Hackney.

Death is regarded by some as one of the country’s first all black punk bands, predating legendary acts such as Washington D.C.’s Bad Brains, though it’s not necessarily a label they would give themselves.

“In 1971 we were a funk band up until 1973,” Bobby Hackney said. “In 1974 and 1975 the term ‘punk’ for rock ‘n’ roll did not exist. We always referred to ourselves as a rock ‘n’ roll band.”

According to Hackney, the brothers got their start influenced by a variety of musical styles.

“When we were small children, our mom and dad brought a lot of music into the house from the Chess Record days in the fifties, so we grew up hearing a lot of blues and gospel.

Of course Motown came along and our whole family was grooving off of that,” he said.

“It was my Dad who told us to sit down and watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan that legendary night in February of 1964 because he wanted us to witness history being made and that really set our very young minds in the direction of wanting to be musicians.”

Death recorded songs for the album “For All the World to See” in 1974, and although it’s less than half

an hour long, the album is infectious.

Hyper tapping snare drums pop in the background as a grooving bass line hums opposite the guitar spitting forceful riffs.

“Everybody that heard our music liked it, but we were very misunderstood. By friends and family, by our production company we were signed to, by record labels, disc jockeys, program directors, club owners,” Hackney said. “They all had one thing in common — they all liked the music but they did not like the name Death.”

Despite the band’s grim moniker, the subject matter and mood of the tunes varied from the ambient and carefree “Let the World Turn,” to the aggressively political “Politicians in My Eyes,” in which Hackney sings “Reaching out and shaking hands/ Making friends and other plans/ Some will rise/ and some will fall/ some won’t even answer calls/ See the twinkle in their eyes/ politicians tell me lies/ can’t you hear the people cry?”

Today the band still plays and records music. After moving to Burlington, Vt., nearly 30 years ago, the group released two gospel rock albums in the early ‘80s under the name The 4th Movement. Bobby and Dannis formed the reggae band Lambsbread shortly after, and former lead singer and most vehement supporter, David, returned to Detroit, where he lived until his death in 2000.

Nine years after his passing, the group began to find new fame. Chicago-based independent label Drag City Records released the band’s original sevens songs as the EP “For All the World to See,” and last year the band was featured in the documentary “A Band Called Death.” The Hackney Brothers have even played three concerts in recent years as Lambsbread, as the band enjoys new life after Death.

Local rapper Phrayzer is set to stun Listeners dive into ‘Fountain of Youth,’ latest release from Detroit MC LEJLA BAJGORIC Contributing Writer “Fountain of Youth” may be a cliché line in music today, but there is nothing ordinary about aspiring rapper Phrayzer’s mixtape. Instead, it is a fitting foundation for his career, a necessary step in an attempt to reach a level of recognition worth boasting about. He cites Nas, DMX, and Biggie Smalls as just a few of his inspirations on the title track, so it makes sense that Phrayzer’s own style would be just as distinct as that of his favorites.

Looking at the track list, it’s hard to ignore the notable array of features, from the standout single “Frankenstein,” with its impressive verse from P.L. and invigorating production by Johnny Juliano, to the ode-to-home, “Detroit’s Back Remix,” with appearances by Kid Vishis and Sayitainttone, where Phrayzer paints a picture of himself, “Ridin’ through [his] city like a Detroit Lion, turned up playin ‘Detroit,’ man I’m Big Sean-in’, pause it… flawless.”

The tracks are attention-getters, undeniably, but it’s on the other songs where Phrayzer is able to capture more than just temporary attention, but genuine interest from his audience.

On “I Love It,” producer Damu the Fudgemunk provides a beat that samples old-school LL Cool J lines and classic scratching, while Phrayzer brings youthfully optimistic and hungry verses to the table — the perfect complement. “Hoes” and “Regret” are Phrayzer’s attempts at experimenting with different styles of hip-hop and reveal that the artist is still evolving and developing a sound of his own. But he doesn’t use the upbeat song

“Hoes,” as an excuse to spit mediocre bars, and even apologizes for “getting all deep on the pop song.” The deepest song of all is “Taylor Made,” with an Outkast-sampled beat that focuses on our generation’s obsession to be anything but outcasts, living with a motto of “cut the real s**t off, we’re just trying to have some fun.” Phrayzer’s maturity is impressive as he recognizes how big of an impact under-the-influence artists have on today’s teens. “Can’t blame ‘em, but you can’t save ‘em.”

Phrayzer’s style in one word is refreshing.

On “Last Summer,” my personal preference, he shares that he’s “got pads full of flows, and the metaphoric crack for your nose, smell me, they say I’m dope, find someone who doesn’t know.”

The potential is evident. For an artist to have a “belly full of hunger” and distinct sound so early on is promising. The most impressive part of the tape is that he shines where most artists struggle, over the relaxed true-school hip-hop beats that serve as ideal backdrops for those long car rides where people find themselves deep in thought.

But at the same time, it’s not the typical vibe you would expect from such beats. Phrayzer’s youthfulness is what makes him so relatable and memorable in an era of clones.

“I’ve seen so many give up, but that’s less taking my place, so many people who rely on me, see the pressure build on my face, just wanna live life like a kid, get a frat house with my crew, my whole life in this rap shit, the real fountain of youth.”

The fifteen-track tape is available for free download on phrayzer.bandcamp.com.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 23

FEATURES COMMUNITY

Symbol of inner-city struggles to be demolished NICK PIZANA The South End

Its rigid brown walls housed several famous Detroiters, such as Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and the Supremes and later this year, it will be reduced to rubble. It’s no surprise that Detroit’s skyline has been shrinking in the past few decades. As the city struggles to consolidate its declining population, many historic buildings have fallen to construction crews and scrappers alike.

Groups have risen to save the likes of Tiger Stadium and Michigan Central Station, but there’s one landmark many Detroiters aren’t sure to miss.

The rotting Brewster projects overlook I-75 and are highly visible to anyone using the interstate to get downtown. The projects haven’t been the focus of nearly as many photographer portfolios as the aforementioned train station, despite the fact that the two buildings have shared a similar fate — an inside gutted by scrappers, and painted outside from top to bottom by taggers. For many, the Brewsters have stood as a symbol of poverty and inner-city struggle, but behind this temple of decay is an incredible story.

Originally known as Frederick Douglass Homes, the buildings were envisioned as housing for poor, working-class blacks. The Fredrick Douglass Homes were made to accommodate the swelling black population that grew during the 1930s to work for Detroit’s then booming manufacturing industry, with many moving from the South. For many families, this would be their first introduction to the city. The homes would also shelter former residents of the black neighborhood Paradise Valley, who were displaced after it was demolished to build the I-75 freeway in the early 1950s.

Construction of the Frederick Douglass Homes began in 1935, with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt breaking ground. The first phase was completed in 1938, and the buildings were initially townhouses. Expansions continued into the early 1950s, ending with the four apartments that tower over the other structures. At its peak, it is estimated that the projects were home to somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 Detroiters, like a colony of its own in the middle of the city.

Initial tenants had to meet a set of qualifications in order to be allowed to live there

— for example, every family had to have at least one working parent.

“I had some pretty good times there,” said Darrin Thompson, who lived in the Brewster projects from 1967 until 1980. “You had to worry about violence sometimes, but it was a community. You knew everyone, and got along with everyone. We were all in the same economic situation.”

The area fell to disrepair by the ‘60s and ‘70s, many citing relaxed tenant selection along with a rise in drug culture as the main reasons for the area’s decline. “(It was) owards the end of when I was living there in the late ‘70s that it really started to go downhill. My mom was always trying to get us out, but that’s when it really started to deteriorate,” Thompson said.

“When we moved, I never came back.”

As they are now, the buildings stand in total disrepair and are slated for demolition.

The four remaining towers stand 14 stories tall and have stood without legal tenants for more than four years. The carcasses of the buildings have fallen prey to the next step of the urban ecosystem.

“Early first quarter we should see the wrecking ball,” said Detroit Mayor Dave Bing during a press conference held in front of Brewster projects last year. “It’ll probably take us the better part of the year to get everything down.”

The wrecking ball comes thanks to a $6.5 million federal grant, part of a $7 billion program known as “Strong Cities, Strong Communities,” which seeks a “bottom-up” approach to revitalizing several areas of the country. The demolition would create 18 acres of land for redevelopment. The mayor also thanked President Obama.

“Transformation is on its way. There are a lot of good things that are starting to happen,” the mayor said before reminding Detroiters of the promise he made to demolish 10,000 dangerous abandoned properties by the end of his term.

The buildings are relics from a time when blacks had restrictions on where they were allowed to live. Although Bing acknowledges the importance of the history, he reminded his opponents that this was about moving forward.

“I don’t think we can always hang onto history, we’re going to have some good memories about this place, but today this has been standing here empty … we’ve done

24 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

Brewster Projects hold memories of Detroit’s rich, rocky past

ALEC LINTON / CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER The Bewster Projects that overlook I-75 were initially envisioned as housing for poor, working-class blacks.

nothing with it, it’s become an eyesore of a place where a lot of negative things have gone on,” he said. “We’ve got to think about now and our future, and our future is demolishing that.”

“We don’t want to forget about what happened here, but we’ve got to think about the future,” he added.

The Brewster Recreation Center, however, is expected to stand, although according to Bing there’s no official word on what will become of the place where boxer Joe Louis first honed his right hook.

“We don’t have enough rec centers in the city of Detroit, and we’re not looking to close any, or tear any down; however, we’ve got some work to do on that,” he said.

The Brown Bomber has been said to have visited the Brewster Recreation Center many times in the beginning of his career, and it is attributed as the place where Louis got his start in the ring. He hid his boxing gloves from his mother in a violin case.

“I know there’s a lot of history here, I’m sure people would even say these shouldn’t come down, but as we look at changing the face of Detroit, it’s going to start with this,” Bing said Bing said demolition of the structures would also lessen the burden on police and

firemen, who often have to respond to calls in the area. In 2009, a pair of Dutch journalists were carjacked while shooting in the Brewster Projects for a three-part program for the Netherlands-based VPRO Radio. Despite this heavy reputation of crime, investors are looking forward to moving into the areas and continuing the trend of redevelopment in downtown Detroit.

“Once this is demolished, I’ve already had some recommendations from developers who want to come here and have some different kinds of ideas on what ought to happen,” Bing said. “They’re starting to line up and I think that’s very, very healthy.”

Thompson, like many Detroiters, hopes the history of the area is never forgotten, but still acknowledges the importance of progress.

“I think it’s time for them to be demolished because they’re trying to revitalize the area,” Thompson said. “I was driving past there a while ago and they just look awful. I would hope there would be some monument to commemorate the area, though.

“It was the only place for poor people to live for so long,” Thompson said. “I think it would be a great place for them to make the new Illitch hockey arena. I think that would be a positive step.”

COMMUNITY

Company helps Detroit urban farming take root Hantz Farms to start planting trees in 2 blighted areas to improve neighborhoods NICOLE HAYDEN Senior Writer

Dirty fingernails and the moist scent of the earth — the connections to our origins. Our origins, that is, before Detroit’s air was filled with gas fumes and the growl of engines.

Hantz Farms’ goal is very simple: “To make Detroit neighborhoods more livable. Our mission statement is to help people achieve their life dreams, and to build more livable communities, through agricultural business development,” said President Mike Score.

Detroit once thrived on the production of automobiles — there was no need to harvest the land. However, now the city must re-evaluate the best use for its land.

Hantz Farms is the world’s largest urban farm, and it’s planned for the city of Detroit.

The goal is to be sustainable with a new, green economy in mind.

“I believe that Detroit will integrate agriculture into its broader economy. This, over time, will make Detroit a global leader. As global populations expand, cities with some capacity to produce food and agricultural goods will become increasingly attractive places to visit and live,” Score said.

The initial focus will be on making neighborhoods more livable, with trees and maintained open space.

“We do not have any intentions to move on to other crops, but we will be responsive to the needs and interests of our neighbors over time. If there is strong public support for including other types of agriculture in the future, we will consider those interests,” Score said.

Hantz Farms is being created with great regard to the community. However, there has been opposition to the development, with professional activists identifying them as capitalists. The professional activists who were opposing them “suggested that all capitalists are evil and cannot be trusted,” Score said.

“However, our strength comes from our relationships with people who live in the areas where our work will take place. More than 90 percent of area residents are thrilled that our work will make their communities more livable.”

Not only will the future farm make a more livable community, but it will also contribute financially to the city.

The parent company of the future farm is a successful financial services company. Be-

COURTESY HANTZ FARMS Hantz Farms will be the world’s largest urban farm and it’ll be right here in the city of Detroit.

cause of this, the financial groups were able to afford purchasing surplus property, pay taxes on the land and invest in the land and property maintenance over time.

“We will demolish dangerous structures, remove brush that has grown up on vacant land, clean up trash that has been dumped over the years, mow parcels regularly and plant trees,” Score said.

The object of this venture is to become a forprofit business. As of right now, Hantz Farms is not currently considered a farm. In order to become an actual farm in the city of Detroit, it would have to go through a separate public process and be approved by the city government as a commercial farm.

“We will use farm best management practices, but for the moment we are just planting trees on residential and commercial properties. This is a use by right under city zoning ordinances,” Score said.

Even the process of beginning to plant

trees has been an interesting one. This is the first time the city has had to go through negotiations for such a large land sale.

“In fact, for several years the city was reluctant to sell even single parcels. Government had fallen into a pattern of accumulating land even though they had no clear purpose for doing so, and lacked funding for basic property maintenance,” Score said. “We had to make up the process as we negotiated to purchase surplus properties.”

This plan-as-you-go process was expensive and time consuming, but was the only way to work with the city in order to change precedent.

There are two initial areas where the work is to begin: Mt. Elliott near Davison, and the area bordered by Mack, Jefferson, Van Dyke, and St. Jean. The Mt. Elliott area is adjacent to the Hantz Farms offices.

“The area was a blighted, declining neighborhood in an industrial area. We used this

site as a proof of concept project that helped city leaders understand the potential benefits of using natural resource management as a tool for repurposing vacant land,” Score said.

The larger area, near Indian Village, was then selected by city leaders because of the scale of vacancy and blight in that part of the city.

“Because of neglect of the publicly owned land, the area had become unattractive to companies that might otherwise invest in neighborhood improvement,” Score said.

But now the goal is to foster energy for neighborhood improvement. The properties will remain open and unfenced. If the public is interested, tours can be taken as well. In the future, once the business increases in girth, opportunities for community involvement will be available for groups of volunteers.

Going back to the city’s agrarian roots and fostering a strength in the community are both steps towards improving the city.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 25

FEATURES PROFILE

Made with Michigan pride

TOM CULVER / LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Carrying items ranging from books to apparel, Detroit Mercantile Co. offers shoppers variety in their purchases.

JENNIFER CLINE

E

The South End

ach weekend, as many as 40,000 patrons mosey through the six sheds that are the core of Eastern Market. A perimeter of stores surrounds the sheds, a cluster of one-of-a-kind diners and markets. The special Detroit community offers a fascinating supply of locally grown and produced goods. Russell Street and surrounding blocks are lined with an experience unmatched by anywhere else.

A few blocks away from the nucleus of the market sits a bold brick building that previously housed the Eastern Market fire station. With American flags flying proudly from its roof, most of the historic building now houses fully renovated loft spaces. And last May, the beautiful building got a vibrant ad-

dition that further elevated the building’s cool factor.

Located at 3434 Russell St., Detroit Mercantile Co. offers an eclectic mix of modern and vintage products. Items that were typically stocked in an oldtime general store affix every space, from floor to ceiling. Designed to mimic styles and items popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the shop carries everything from books to apparel, jewelry, wood crates and more.

“We have a philosophy that guides our purchases and assortment. It’s different than some retail. All of our new products are Detroit, Michigan and U.S.-made items. And that’s what makes the store different from the iterations of Detroit and Michigan retail that have come before us. We hope that’s what drives people to come in,” Robert Stanzler, co-owner of Detroit Mercantile, said.

The last year has proven the value of the store’s philosophy, drawing in so

26 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

Detroit Mercantile Co. offers locally crafted goods

TOM CULVER / LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER The store has proven to be so popular that its owners are planning to add 300 more square feet to the layout.

many customers that the three owners realized a need for growth. Stanzler, Robert Jameson and Sherri Lawton Jameson are working to add an additional 300 square feet to the store’s footprint, and will soon have 1,200 square feet to hold the nostalgic collection of goods.

“We hope that we complete the expansion of the store while preserving the character of the environment that we set out to create,” Stanzler said.

Despite the added space, the owners are very selective on what items are offered. Several elements are considered in product purchases. Staying true to the buy-local philosophy, the three owners hunt for products they are passionate about, but also items that might not easily be found in other locations.

“We want our items to pass the test of, is it something unique enough that people will seek out,” Jameson said.

Because they want to carry a large

range of product types, the owners are choosy about how many of a particular item they will care. For example, there are oodles of bike manufacturers and accessories. However, the shop offers a limited supply of only high quality, U.S-made bikes. Additionally, the shop gets a wide range of customers, and the owners hope to offer something interesting for everyone that stops in.

“I try to help the female voice. With two men and one female owner, there needs to be a balance of the items we carry,” Lawton Jameson said. “I think we do a good job of doing that. We want to drive sales to as many great Detroit and Michigan craftsmen and products as we can.”

Many of the items available at Detroit Mercantile tell a story of city’s history, such as the Detroit De-Nailed picture frames from Urban Ashes. Each frame is crafted with repurposed wood from deconstructed Detroit homes.

The wood, which would have other-

TOM CULVER / LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Before Detroit Mercantile Co., co-owner Robert Stanzler created the Made in Detroit Brand and sold it to Kid Rock.

wise been put in a landfill, still has the holes from nails that held the structures together. A tag attached explains the home’s history including when it was constructed and family information of those who resided there.

Another popular item at the shop is Heart Soul Detroit, a book featuring photography from Jenny Risher and interviews from a wide range of celebrities.

“Everyone in (the book) has some kind of connection to Detroit,” Jameson said. “There’s everyone from Jack White to Nicklas Lidström. They all have great stories to tell.”

The rear section of Detroit Mercantile houses a large warehouse, which the shop has used to host a variety of events such as the Metro Times + Detroit Mercantile Merry Market during the holidays. The market welcomed an assortment of brands to sell their items. As a part of the store’s expansion, the event space will also be getting renovations.

“We’re working to add a kitchen and bathrooms to the space. Right now, there’s a lot of consulting with an architect that works with historic buildings,” Lawton Jameson said.

With hopes of having the space completed by the end of the summer, the shop will host another market during the warm season to highlight 20-25 local craftsmen. Store owners already have some enlisted sellers and are still searching for viable participants.

“One of the missions of the store is exposing people to new vendors. We’re happy to expose people to new brands, especially Michigan brands and artists. The markets give us a really great chance to do that,” Stanzler said.

Additionally, the nearly 7,000-square-feet space can accommodate weddings, corporate events and more. Event participants can enter the space through a separate entrance or by passing through the shop.

The idea to create Detroit Mercan-

TOM CULVER / LEAD PHOTOGRAPHER Located in Eastern Market, Detroit Mercantile brings a unique collection of Michigan-made items.

tile came about when Stanzler and the Jamesons met as vendors at Rust Belt Market in Ferndale. Selling antiques found throughout the state alongside Michigan-themed goods designed by the married couple, the Jamesons were looking for ways to take their company, Jameson Hard Goods, to the next level.

Known for the design of the Made in Detroit brand, Stanzler sold the apparel line to Kid Rock and launched Detroit Manufacturing. Stanzler was hoping to transition his company’s offices and distribution area into a storefront, and was pleased to find partners with his same vision in the Jamesons.

Being located in such a unique community gives Detroit Mercantile a strong customer base year round. As a popular summer location, Eastern Market also attracts folks for the holiday season and special festivities.

“I thought that there would be a lot of days that Robert and I just stood at the counter and stared at each other and

play lots of checkers. But that wasn’t the case at all,” Jameson said.

Another appeal of the location is the rich Detroit history shared in the buildings, people and stories told. Jameson said customers regularly stop by to check out what new items have been added to the shelves and share a bit of the city’s history.

“We like to talk to people about their stories. A store like this brings up so many memories and reminders of the city. We hear just as many stories about Detroit as we tell,” Jameson said.

Impressed with how the first year of business has gone, Detroit Mercantile owners said they plan to continue evolving the business in new ways.

“Everything about our business — the number of customers, the character of the guests we’re seeing, the purchases that they’re making and the volume and growth of our business, it has far exceeded anything that we would have dared to project,” Stanzler said.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I 27

SPORTS SOFTBALL

BASEBALL

Baseball rolls to ninth straight win

Softball has rough week going 1-3 in conference Warriors overwhelmed by Ohio Dominican, Grand Valley State ZEINAB NAJM Staff Writer The Wayne State softball team continued to play through their GLIAC conference games.

On April 7, the Warriors battled Ohio Dominican University at home. They split the doubleheader losing the first game and winning the second.

WSU pitcher Brianna Lee earned the loss but struck out a career-high 13 batters and gave up only one run.

Both teams had their chances to score but failed to put runs on the board.

WSU went 1-for-10 with runners on base.

The game then went into extra innings. Ohio Dominican’s Lizzy Weber scored the only run of the game in the eighth inning after Kelsey Albanese batted her in. The Warriors would go on to lose by the score of 1-0.

WSU brought their bats to the second game scoring 10 runs. They went 7-for17 with runners on base.

The Warriors scored their runs in the first, third, fourth and seventh innings. Emily Bryce and Jade McGarr each had two RBIs and Amanda Burnard had four RBIs to lead WSU. Pitcher Mackenzie Boehler threw a shutout on her way to her 11th win of the season as WSU defeat-

ed Ohio Dominican, 10-0.

The Warriors were scheduled to play a doubleheader at Findlay April 10. Rainy weather caused both games to be postponed but they will be rescheduled.

WSU faced 12th-ranked Grand Valley State on April 13 and lost both games of the home twinbill.

GVSU won game one 7-2 and they got the scoring going early. They scored three times in the second inning followed by a home run by Miranda Clear off pitcher Lee. WSU scored their only runs in the fourth inning when Lee hit her first collegiate home run with Stephanie Forman on base.

The second game was a short one. It ended in the fifth inning because of the run rule.

Grand Valley hit two grand slams in the game, one coming in the first inning and the other in the second.

Starting pitcher Boehler was pulled from the game after the second inning but it didn’t stop GVSU from scoring. They put up nine more runs in the third and fourth innings to complete their overwhelming victory.

The Warriors’ two runs came in the fourth inning on hits from Bryce and Burnard. The final score was 17-2.

Warriors improve to 12-4 in GLIAC play; Chris Gebara hits homerun in each game FUAD SHALHOUT The South End The Wayne State baseball team (22-10, 124) won its eighth and ninth straight games, sweeping the doubleheader matchup at Hillsdale (12-18, 5-12) on April 13.

GAME ONE The Warriors scored two runs in the second inning thanks to a RBI-double by Daniel Peake. They added another run in the top of the third.

The Chargers came charging back with a five-run third inning to take a 5-3 lead. They had six hits and WSU committed an error in the inning.

WSU didn’t blink, though. Brad Guenther had an RBI-single in the fourth inning to inch the Warriors closer, 5-4. They then tied the ball game the following inning after Kyle Zimmerman singled home Peake with a hit.

Chris Gebara stepped up in the clutch and delivered a solo home run in the seventh inning to break a 5-5 tie and propel WSU to their eighth straight win.

Clayton Ruch picked up his GLIAC-leading eighth save of the season and Ethan Vasiliaus-

28 I APRIL 17 - APRIL 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

kas (5-2) went six strong innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out six.

Guenther finished 4-for-4 with a RBI.

GAME TWO This one wasn’t as nail-biting. The Warriors powered its way to a 10-4 win to pick up its ninth straight win.

Eric Cunningham began the second inning with a leadoff single, followed by Jimmy Jackson scoring him with a RBI-double to right field. With Gebara up next feeling good, he hit his second home run of the day to give WSU a 3-0 lead early on.

The Chargers got on the board with a tworun triple from Mike Vanchieri in the third inning.

The Warriors had a monstrous fourth inning due to a Kasey Koster three-run home run to right field. In total, WSU had five hits to score five runs to extend its lead to 9-2.

Hillsdale scored two runs on two hits in the bottom of the fourth and Cunningham had a RBI-single for WSU’s 10th run of the game.

Pitcher Alex Pierse (5-1) allowed four earned runs and had five strikeouts. Pitcher Brock Bates then tossed a shutout in the final inning to secure the win.

TOM GORMAN / WSU SPORTS INFORMATION Ethan Vasiliauskas picked up his fifth win of the season on April 13, going six strong innings.