Impressions of Southwest Detroit

Impressions of

SouthweR Detroit

edited by tinne van loon

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Copyright 2010 Tinne Van Loon. All rights reserved.

All photographs are copyrighted to the respective photographers.

Impresions of

SouthweR Detroit —

Edited by Tinne Van Loon

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I Introduction 7 8

Preface Welcome to the Neighborhood

Writing by Kelli Kavanaugh & Photography

by Erik Howard

Community Insight 34 40 52 56 68 74 76 78 86 88 92 94 96 104 108 114 122 124 132 134 140 160 162 170 174 180 188 196

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Cruising the Streets Marilyn Chapman Hot Spots Marilyn Chapman Murals Tinne Van Loon Hand Painting Tradition Tinne Van Loon Family Portraits Tinne Van Loon Neighborhood Textures Pedro Lopez Parks Tinne Van Loon Kids of Clark Park William Deuparo Cinco de Mayo Sean Doerr Día de los Niños Stevon Rendon May 1, 2009 - Yes we can! Claudia Sanchez St. Patrick’s Day Sean Doerr Ephemera Tinne Van Loon $1 Treasures Tinne Van Loon The Special Tinne Van Loon Puestos Tinne Van Loon Honeybee Exotica Mary Laredo Herbeck Nice Price Tinne Van Loon 100% Cowboy Tinne Van Loon Hip Hop Fashion Tinne Van Loon Youth & Summer Erik Howard Everyday Lives of Residents Tinne Van Loon The Everyday Life of Tracy The Everyday Life of Jabari The Everyday Life of Ana The Everyday Life of Cindy The Everyday Life of Stevon The Everyday Life of Christina

Artist Interpretations 202 212 226 234 242 252 256 262 270 282

Faces of Southwest Alesia Zettlemoyer The Firehouse Tinne Van Loon Sudoeste Tom Stoye Illuminating Southwest Detroit David Schalliol Young Nation’s GrafikJam Erik Howard Pershing Street Mural Alesia Zettlemoyer Delray Decay Jon DeBoer Holy Redeemer Erik Howard Lowriders Erik Howard Youth Viewpoints Focus on the Mission

Writer Interpretations 8 48 102 210 268 280

Food, Culture, and Community in Southwest Detroit Kelli Kavanaugh Barrio Boom Louis Aguilar Middle Schooler’s Passion Tina Calleja We Came to Work Elena Herrada Dreaming and Cruising Low and Slow Louis Aguilar Kadeem Erik Howard

RESIDENT VOICES 38 84 120 138 178 194

CREDITS 238 238

Peter William Lennon Ryan Kasak Rhonda Guttierez Mary A. Luevanos Cindy Tobias Olivia Chavez

Contributors Editor

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K Streets lined with bustling mom and pop shops, hand painted business signs adorning the side walls, street vendors selling their goods, lowriders cruising the streets, and flea markets popping up on the weekends; where else could this take place in Detroit but the Southwest side?

Southwest Detroit is the most ethnically diverse area of Detroit, as well as one of the only areas in the city that has seen an increase in population over the last few years, largely due to the great influx of Hispanic immigrants. Though struggling with many of the same problems as the rest of the city, such as crime, decay, unemployment, gangs, and homelessness, this working class neighborhood has continually maintained a sense of community with a certain air of old world charm.

Part of what makes the area so unique is that there is a distinct Southwest Detroit culture that has emerged. It is a hybrid culture that brings many traditional Latino sights, with a handful of Middle Eastern influences, into the post-urban landscape of Detroit.

Perhaps a blessing in disguise is the fact that the neighborhood seems difficult to access to outsiders, which ensures that the distinct culture present on the Southwest side stays intact and authentic.

With the creation of this book, I attempted to collect a great number of cultural artifacts that make the neighborhood unique, to celebrate the distinct culture, while keeping a realistic eye. In order to gain an authentic perspective, I invited area photographers, artists, and residents to contribute and submit work. While contacting people, I was always warmly welcomed and within minutes people started brainstorming ideas and directions. If they could not submit work themselves, they would give me names and numbers from their network of people and organizations that could help. This excitement and eagerness to help exemplified the passion found in the neighborhood.

In the following pages you will find a mixture of small photographic studies as well as artist and writer interpretations documenting the neighborhood. The common thread between all pieces is the humanistic viewpoint taken by the creators.

Preface 7

Welcome to the Neighborhood

writing b kelli kavanaugh & photography b Erik Howard originally published on the insidesouthwest website food, culture, and community in southwest Detroit

If Southwest Detroit were a food, what would it be? Take your pick: pierogi filled with potato and cheese, tamales brimming with shredded pork, cheese-filled papusas or doughy gnocci topped with pesto? And I’m sure I’m missing some kind of cuisine – for my money, one of the best things about living in the area – and I’m on its bleeding eastern edge, Corktown – is the food. And it’s not just the restaurants, it’s the mercados with produce and meats sometimes fresher than Eastern Market, it’s the parking lot taco stands and the bicycle-propelled ice cream “trucks.” It’s bakeries and bar-b-que and cerveza and ceviche and even falafel.

And if food represents anything, it is culture – and Southwest Detroit is blessed with that in spades. Consistently regarded as Detroit’s most diverse area and comprised of several distinct neighborhoods, it is boisterous and prayerful, religious and sporting, a late-night party and an early-morning tree planting all at once.

Its Anglo, Latino, African-American and Middle Eastern mix make its high school halls look like none other in the city. And Southwest Detroit would not have it any other way. All the way to the east, in Corktown, you’ll find Irish pubs and old wooden homes proudly preserved and in Hubbard Richard, the city’s oldest church and a brand-new State of Michigan welcome center and marketplace. Hubbard Farms has stately homes and a strong reputation for activism. The Michigan Avenue Corridor presents snippets of its Polish past evolving into a new Latino future and Delray, a snapshot of post-industrial history alongside a remarkable military artifact, Fort Wayne. Where else can you, in a three-block walk, find halal meat and hear bells calling faithful Muslims to prayer, stroll past a historic cemetery, pop into a brand-new Detroit Public Library and finally, slide into a taqueria? That would be W. Vernor near Patton Park.

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It is an urban community with many issues, including homelessness, poor air quality, crime and blight. But is politically active and growing – it was the only area of Detroit to grow in population between the 1990 and 2000 census. And that growth brings hope and a reason to continue to strive for a new Southwest Detroit that exists in solidarity with the old.

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Welcome to the Neighborhood

Writing by Kelli Kavanaugh & Photography by Erik Howard

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Community Insights —

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Cruising the Streets b Marilyn chapman

Marilyn Chapman

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Vernor Highway at the Michigan train station

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Cruising the Streets Marilyn Chapman

Vernor Highway at Woodmere cemetery

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Marilyn Chapman

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Michigan Avenue at Wyoming Avenue

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Marilyn Chapman

Michigan Avenue at The Lodge Freeway

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Who could live in SW without having used DC cab once or twice or a hundred times? I know that thousands of you did because I was behind the wheel of one of those ugly beasts for a while.

Back in ‘92 after returning from a long stretch out west I came home to the old hood (Lafayette/Green baby!) to get reacquainted with family and friends.

I needed a job real quick and was referred to DC by one of their drivers. The thought of driving a cab in Southwest seemed a little crazy (night shift no less) but I did it anyway because, well... money talks and unemployment sucks. Now to say that I was nervous at first would be only too obvious I mean let’s be honest, SW ain’t exactly Southgate or Trenton and having been raised there I knew the potential hazards only too well. Still, as most of us do, I adapted with time and ended up staying with the company for two years until a head on collision at Michigan and Livernois took me out for good. But in those two years I experienced SW in such a way that brought the neighborhood and all it’s aspects, good and bad, to the forefront of my heart and mind forever. Think about it. How could it not? Suffice to say... It wasn’t just a job... It was an adventure!

I saw things in those cabs that would fit into a horror story one day and then a romance novel the next.

Sometimes in the same day. Everything from having a gun put to my head outside a house on Military near

Regular and rescuing some naive suburban kid, in way over her head with some crackhead by Clark park, to watching a young Latino family get reunited at the Greyhound bus station on Porter. They were crying and jabbering so hard I thought they were going to break the windows. I couldn’t understand a word they said but I knew it was all about The Love! They even made me stay for dinner. Long stories in short slices of life in SW Detroit... Nope, not just a job!

Mostly, though, it was about the everyday people and the everyday things that SW put in front of you... everyday! The people who lived and worked there because they chose to and the ones who stayed there because they had no other choice. The ones we saw all the time at places like Duly’s, The Donut Shop, Lawndale Bar and Mexican Village, etc. and the ones we saw only once in the time it took to know a person, if only a little, for the space of a five dollar fare. They left us with a face and sometimes a name we would soon forget or sometimes a story that would prove to be entirely unforgettable.

Who remembers The Bandit? He was the owner of the company in those days. A round, gruff little man with a demeanor that could pound nails and a heart that bled for the neighborhood he’d known all his life.

Peter William Lennon

Hot Spots

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Restaurants

Hot Spots

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Car repair shops

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Grocery Stores

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Liquor Stores

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Bars

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Barber Shops & Hair Salons

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All businesses

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Barrio Boom

b Louis Aguilar Originally published in The Metro Times in 2002 Right above his tight little Mexican cowboy ass, Felix Vanegas declares his place in the world: Detroit Jalisco. The two words, stitched into the back of his fancy belt, blend this Midwestern city with a Midwestern state of Mexico.

“Detroit is ugly, stinky. But I am thankful to God for what it has given to me,” says Vanegas, 32. He works 10-hour days for a cement company and has earned $32,000 annually for the past five years. It’s more than this immigrant with an eighth-grade education ever dreamed of making.

When he wears the belt outside the barrio of southwest Detroit, most people don’t know what Jalisco (ha-LEASE-co) means, and mangle the word when they ask about it. But in southwest Detroit, the state’s oldest and largest barrio, people smile.

Vanegas explains all this while standing in the long line of people waiting outside the pink cinder block Club International. Every weekend, an estimated 6,000 people pay up to $40 cover each to hear live Mexican bands. Numbers like those make this, by far, the most popular Latino club in metro Detroit. Few patrons are Anglo or black. Most of the men wear cowboy hats and gaudy shirts like the one Vanegas has on. The music is hard-core – banda, narco-corrido, ranchera, cumbia and norteña. Don’t expect it to cross over to MTV, or even WDET, anytime soon.

The honky-tonk is on an ugly, stinky part of West Fort Street. Until it opened a few years ago, a crowd probably hadn’t gathered there since the ‘67 riots.

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Detroit connection

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Meanwhile, back in Vanegas’ hometown of San Ignacio Cerro Gordo, Jalisco, the entire town of 12,000 pays homage to Detroit at an annual fiesta in late January. It is generally believed that at least one-third of the families from San Ignacio, as well as the nearby town of Jesus Maria, have a relative living and working in the Detroit area. (Neighboring Arandas has a similar if smaller link to the Motor City and, in particular, southwest Detroit.) In San Ignacio, thousands gather on the last day of January under the town’s pink Romanesque arches. They were built, in part, by U.S. dollars earned through jobs many U.S. citizens don’t want – nonunion and often seasonal construction and factory work, jobs as landscapers, maids, cooks, busboys and so on.

Two years ago, the fiesta’s procession began with a float built in the image of Tiger Stadium and I-75 (many of the town’s emigrants worked on the road crews). The town’s pristine church also underwent major renovation thanks to Detroit money – Vanegas and his family gave $150. In that church, the revelers thank God for the opportunities they have been given in Detroit, arguably the poorest and most blighted major U.S. city.

No wonder people in southwest Detroit smile at the belt. Vanegas is among tens of thousands of new Latino immigrants, predominately Mexican, who have arrived in metro Detroit in the past decade. More than 40,000 moved to Michigan last year alone, and most ended up in southwest Detroit, says Salvador Monroy, consul of Mexico in Detroit. Many believe the number of Latinos in the area is somewhere near 100,000. Southwest Detroit is ground zero.

In the last decade, every state and every major U.S. city witnessed significant growth of its Latino population, from 10 percent to more than 100 percent.

In five years, Latinos will surpass African-Americans as the nation’s largest minority group, according to U.S. Census projections. By mid-century, they will account for about one-fourth of the U.S. population.

In places such as New York and the East, they are pioneers, expanding and diversifying the Latino presence. In places such as Los Angeles and other parts of the West and Southwest, they have become the majority and, in turn, often face severe backlash.

In southwest Detroit, they can be regarded as working-class heroes, a community which carved out what is arguably the first stable, vibrant blue-collar inner-city neighborhood Detroit has had in decades.

Southwest Detroit is generally defined by Michigan Avenue on the north, the Detroit River on the south, the Ford Rouge Plant on the west and Tiger Stadium on the east. Despite the community’s explosive growth, Latinos remain a small part of metro Detroit’s population, which is one of the reasons why southwest Detroit is so distinct. Nowhere else in the metro area does Latino culture dominate.

The sheer number of people in the area has inspired community groups, small businesses and even the auto industry to keep raising the bar on what is

possible for the barrio. Statistically, the barrio has one of the lowest crime rates of any Detroit neighborhood. It is also the most densely populated and the one with the most densely developed commercial districts in the city, according to a 1998 study by the University of Michigan School of Public Policy.

Up from nothing

History rebuilds itself Southwest Detroit has been the starting point for immigrants for almost a century – Jews, Irish, Germans, Greeks, Eastern Europeans and then, beginning in the 1920s, Mexicans. The others stopped coming in large numbers decades ago, but Mexicans, some Puerto Ricans, and other Latino immigrants continued to trickle in even as the neighborhood succumbed to recession in the ‘70s and then the crack-infested, abandoned-home plague of the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

The turnaround began six or seven years ago, thanks to the booming U.S. economy. And as the number of people moving here increases, so do the ambitions of businesses and neighborhood organizations.

The auto industry has played a role in the revival, and the effort is being fueled in part by such public incentives as renaissance zones, where most taxes in a given area are waived for a period of 10 to 15 years.

The largest project is the Clark Street Technology Park, where four Detroit businesses – General Motors Corp., Farbman Group, WalbridgeAldinger and SHG Inc. – are redeveloping the former headquarters of Cadillac Motor Car Company into an 88-acre research and manufacturing center at the corner of Clark and Michigan. In terms of people, Mexicans are the driving force, but Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Dominicans and Central Americans have a growing presence. Young bohemians and struggling artists are also beginning to reach critical mass.

All this comes to the fore on Sundays on West Vernor Highway. The bustle starts when people pile out of the 9:30 a.m. Spanish-language Mass at Holy Redeemer, and does not end until after the 7 p.m.

Spanish-language Mass at St. Gabriel’s.

louis aguilar

Sundays on Vernor

Barrio Boom

And yet, it is still inner-city Detroit. Many streets look embattled. Trashy slumlord properties and graffiti-marred empty houses fester alongside immaculate homes with Virgin Mary statues lording over small pampered gardens.

Even on bustling West Vernor Highway, the main business strip, there remain ravaged storefronts and mean, ugly bars. The latter are sometimes referred to as malo muerto – bad death. Already this year, there have been reports of a drive-by shooting and an attempted robbery of the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church rectory. The gangs are also getting more organized and sophisticated in their drug-running, according to several nonprofits that do gang outreach.

Still, overall, no one denies el barrio is on a roll.

“What I find so refreshing is that so many seem happy,’’ says Rev. Marc A. Gawronski, pastor of St. Stephen/ Mary, Mother of the Church, one of four Catholic churches with standing-room-only attendance at its Spanish-language Masses.

His church once was mainly Polish, but a few years ago it merged with the Puerto Rican-dominated Mary, Mother of the Church in order to survive. More recently, Mexican immigrants became the main group of churchgoers.

One of Gawronski’s parishioners, Ana Camerena, 24, explains why she is happy here. She says she and her husband left Chicago four years ago because the Mexican/Chicano community of Pilsen was expensive, dangerous and competitive.

Many recently arrived Mexicans seem to have first tried their luck in Chicago or parts of the Southwest, which might help explain all the cowboy types in el barrio.

Here, her husband quickly found steady work in construction. They were able to afford to buy a house for cash, which is common here. They now have a baby son.

At first, their street was populated by the type of families that often needed police to settle disputes. Now, half the block are young immigrant families from the same part of Mexico as Camerena and her husband.

It’s still a loud street. Lot of kids run around, and occasionally too many men gather at someone’s house to drink and blare ranchera music. But it no longer seems dysfunctional.

Camerena sums up: “Detroit takes a lot of getting used to. It’s very unfamiliar and it looks not so nice many times. We miss our families in Mexico. But we are very grateful (for Detroit). It has given us a lot.”

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In between, different sections of the 46 blocks of West Vernor Highway are abuzz. Everyone from low riders to suburban families in SUVs clog the street.

Everything looks jam-packed: The stores that sell most items for a dollar; auto repair shops and small grocery stores with money wire services and Mexican music and videos, most of which seem to be about men with guns and pickup trucks.

The authentic, inexpensive taquerias and bakeries have ever-shifting demographics. Sometimes half the crowd is black and then it’s black/Latino and then it’s white and Asian and Arab, and then back to all Latino.

E&L Mercado took it to another level last year.

Right behind its old store, it built a new $1 million-plus supermercado. That was the first of several ambitious projects planned by small businesses in the barrio.

A young Latino couple, Leonard Artola and his wife, bought half a block of storefronts on nearby Springwells Avenue. The Olde Coffee Shop, the kind of place that has poetry nights, has opened. One entrepreneur is planning a jazz club and someone else a martini lounge.

Mexicantown Community Development Corporation is busy as well. It plans to build an $8 million Mexicantown International Welcome Center and Mercado, pinned around the Michigan Department of Transportation’s construction of a pedestrian bridge that will rejoin Bagley Avenue where it was severed

by I-75 near the Ambassador Bridge. The first phase of streetscape improvement begins this spring.

Many consider this project quite a victory for el barrio. It could mean that the first thing visitors from Canada see when they arrive in Detroit would be a thriving open-air marketplace and retail area based on Mexican culture. It would not only be a validation of el barrio, but also of the sheer force and scope of Latino culture in the United States these days.

Cosmopolitan charm All of these big dreams are based on the idea that the charm of southwest Detroit can be translated to outsiders.

Pilar Uribe McMurray moved to Birmingham from her native Mexico City eight months ago, after her husband Jaime, a marketing executive, was transferred here. She has been to Vernor on at least a dozen Sundays. On one recent visit, she begins her day at one of the taquerias.

It is not just the food, she explains. The warm smell of the kitchen, the stark decor and coziness of the eateries remind her of home. She sits there and writes a letter to a college friend, whom she met during a semester in Paris, and tells her that “every stereotype we held towards the U.S. suburbs is sadly the truth.”

At E&L Supermercado, she enjoys being chatty in Spanish with the people at the deli. As she pushes her cart down the aisles at a leisurely pace, she hums along to the Luis Miguel bolero playing over the store’s loudspeakers. While looking over the avocados, she runs into the couple, Alex and Juan, she met at Eastern Market a month ago. Big hugs and kisses.

She will finish her Vernor trip by going to one of the bakeries to buy Mexican pastries, but, really, for one last chance to soak up the atmosphere.

“I cannot imagine having moments like this in the suburbs,” she explains. “If we stay here, Jaime and I have decided to move downtown. (He) is from Madrid and so we are both ... urban people. We do not prize conformity above all else. We enjoy architecture, cultural events and crowded market places. That is the way to feel together with a city.”

For the future Even so, many residents – including arty types who’ve moved here for the combination of rich community life and inexpensive housing – mix their optimism with concern about the future. There are formidable obstacles, one of which is the task of getting acknowledgment from the larger community.

The first vital step will be Census 2000. The vast increase in population is obvious to anyone who lives in the barrio, but, traditionally, Hispanic communities are sorely undercounted. If that occurs this time around, it will sharply undercut the neighborhood’s ability to get the kind of services it would need to ensure stable, continued growth.

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There are educational and social issues, too.

A number of local educators, who request anonymity, say promoting college is still not a major priority in this community.

Says one local high school teacher: “I worry about the cultural gap between the children raised here and their parents. Many of my students are very bright, wellbehaved and have bilingual skills. Those are tremendous assets, but too many parents want the sons to work construction, or go into the family business, and the daughters to get married shortly after high school.”

Says another high school teacher: “It’s easy enough to get the students excited about the Internet.

(But) their parents still think it’s a toy” that their children do not need.

Then there is the task of keeping the barrio real.

Some residents are starting to worry that the place may soon be in danger of becoming trendy, which means it will no longer be affordable for many artists and immigrants. Already, parts of Corktown, a historic enclave near Tiger Stadium, is beyond the reach of most here, with lofts that rent for $1,000 a month and some new houses selling for as much as $189,000.

That aforementioned potential jazz club is currently the headquarters of the Xicano Development Center, home of the Brown Berets. They are a small group of 20-something leftists who do things such as support the United Farm Workers, take all-night bus rides to Washington to march for immigrant rights, and speak out against police brutality. They appear to be the only group of young Latinos here attempting to raise social and political consciousness.

In January, they were told they had 60 days to vacate. They have found temporary shelter above the Olde Coffee Shop, and are attempting to raise funds for a permanent space.

It seems an example of the next stage for the barrio. Southwest Detroit and the Latino community have gained a larger presence in Detroit. Now, they have to learn to fight for power. That will be the story of this decade.

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Murals

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Murals

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Hand Painted Tradition

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Hand Painted Tradition

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Family Portraits b TINNE VAN LOON

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The following portraits are painted by fourth grade students in Boyne Elementary School. They were given the assignment to paint their family portrait.

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Family Portraits

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Neighborhood Textures

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Neighborhood Textures

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Parks

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Weiss Playlot

Macomb Park

Delray Park

Boyer Playfield

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Romanowski Park

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Riverside Park

Patton Park

Clark Park

Parks Tinne Van Loon

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Roosevelt Park

Kids of Clark Park b William Deuparo

Surrounded by historic homes, schools, busy shops and local services, Clark Park serves as the “town square” of a thriving area in southwest Detroit. It regularly hosts festivals, concerts and special events for the most ethnically diverse community in the city, while serving as a popular meeting place for family picnics and gatherings. Year-round activities are regularly enjoyed by the neighborhood’s youth.

An oasis of nature in the middle of the city, Clark Park was staffed solely by the Detroit Recreation Department until 1991 when it as closed due to the city’s financial crisis. Concerned parents and other local residents succeeded in forming the Clark Park Coalition, which, in partnership with the city of Detroit’s Recreation Department, has been able to keep the Clark Park Recreation Center open since joining efforts.

Today, Clark Park and its recreation center remain a centerpiece of the community, providing four seasons worth of programming for more than 1,200 youth annually through the efforts of the Clark Park Coalition. The Coalition operates the only regulation-sized outdoor ice hockey rink in Metro Detroit during winter, and provides free lunches to more than 100 youth daily throughout the summer.

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Clark Park’s value and contribution to the surrounding community are evident each and every day of the year as hundreds of youth and families utilize the facilities and programming at the park. Clark Park is truly a place where the community is teaching our youth to dream.

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Kids of Clark Park

William Deuparo

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My parents grew up in Southwest Detroit. I remember spending my summers and holidays at my grandparents’ houses on Michigan and Martin and on Parkinson and Mercier. Walking to the candy store, Georges and Senates Coney Islands… all round the neighborhood, enjoying the intensity of the “old neighborhood” as opposed to the dull draining life I had to experience in the suburbs.

I can recall all the church masses and events at Our Lady Queen of Angels and St. Hedwig. The pride in the neighborhood as residents fought the decay happening in other parts of the City has stayed with me to this day. I often return to the area just to remember those amazing childhood feelings, to grab a burger at Telway or even, as I did last year, volunteer time to fix up baseball fields for the areas little league teams.

The neighborhood has changed a lot, but when you are there you can still feel the same pride from the residents and the energy from the dynamics of the urban environment. The area was and IS a strong part of who I am and it is the root of the dedication and pride I feel for the city of Detroit.

What is Southwest Detroit to me…it is my roots, the roots of my family here in America, and the place that our family’s story in this country began. It is the roots of my belief in the city and all of the promise that it’s future holds.

Ryan Kasak

Cinco de Mayo

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Cinco de Mayo

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Día de los Niños b STEVON RENDON

Children’s Day/Book Day, also known as El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Día), is a celebration of children, families, and reading held annually on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

Día is an enhancement of Children’s Day, which began in 1925. Children’s Day was designated as a day to bring attention to the importance and well-being of children. In 1996, nationally acclaimed children’s book author Pat Mora proposed linking the celebration of childhood and children with literacy to found El día de los niños/El día de los libros.

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The event is so important to our community and more importantly, to our children. This free event celebrates children; encouraging traditional cultural activities where children learn about Mexican heritage, the importance of literacy education, and the spirit of community.

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Día de los Niños

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May 1, 2009 - Yes we can! b Claudia Sanchez

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It’s important to show people in the world that it has been hard to gain our justice but I know we will gain it!

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May 1, 2009 - Yes we can!

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St. Patrick’s Day

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St. Patrick’s Day

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Ephemera

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Middle Schooler’s Passion is Art b Tina Calleja Originally published on The insidesouthwest website

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In today’s judgmental society, middle school is often the most difficult transition a young person will make. Students at this age often have a hard time finding their way, figuring out who they are, experimenting with life, and finding a passion.

Miguel Diaz, an 8th grader attending César Chávez Academy Middle School, has found his passion. His passion is art! Miguel is autistic. That is one of the many challenges he faces in addition to his age and the struggles of growing up. His struggles to fit in, socialize, and be accepted, however are not apparent as he is accepted by his peers just like everyone else. Although autism may bring some challenges, it certainly doesn’t prohibit Miguel from learning, expressing his feelings and growing as an individual.

When Miguel first began school at CCA he was a shy, yet loving child. He has since blossomed into a talented, friendly, more social young man. His imagination and creativity is amazing and his share is more than the average middle-schooler.

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Soon he will be entering 9th grade which will bring a whole new world of challenges. Miguel’s passion and love of art will assure that he will continue to express his thoughts, feelings and will allow him to learn and accept the challenges that he is faced with.

Art is a way he soothes his soul and it allows him to express himself even when he unable to verbally. He has a passion and it really shows.

Middle Schooler’s Passion is Art

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$1 Treasures b TINNE VAN LOON

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Detroit Athletic Company — 1740 Michigan Avenue

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Mexicantown Bakery — 4300 vernor highway

Lockeman’s Hardware — 7630 Jefferson Avenue

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Creaciones lina — 3444 Bagley Street

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$0.80 — The Telway Hamburgers — 6820 Michigan Avenue

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$5.57 — Taqueria Lupitas — 3443 Bagley Street

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$11.66 — Taqueria Aranda’s — 1807 Livernois Avenue

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$2.45 — Vernor Coney Island — 4430 WEST Vernor Highway

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$9.55 — O’Blivions — 1800 Michigan Avenue

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Vernor Highway & Hubbard Street

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Southwest Detroit represents everything I am as a person. Growing up there taught me to be appreciative, humble, and strong. Being from Southwest Detroit means that you are part of a distinct family. A family where we are all the same. No one is better or worse than anyone. We all lived day by day trying to make it through everyday life. Without the streets, I would not be street smart or resourceful. The friends I made there cannot compare to people anywhere else in the world.

These are true friends that truly know me...past, present, and future. Although I have moved on and out, I often visit and miss my culture and my people.

There’s no place like home.

Rhonda Gutierrez

Honey Bee Exotica b Mary Laredo Herbeck

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The Honey Bee Market is this health seeker’s oasis in the fresh food desert that is Detroit. Where else can you find ripe papayas and young Thai coconuts in town? They even have organic spinach and lettuces. Not only that, the manager of the produce department clearly loves his job and tries to always accommodate his customers’ requests. Because of the Honey Bee Market much of my food-buying dollars remain in Detroit.

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Nice Price b TINNE VAN LOON

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Nice Price is a fun mom and pop shop run by a Middle Eastern family that gives value to the word cheap. The store is often packed with diverse shoppers from a variety of backgrounds, because at Nice Price they cater to all kinds of cultural background and consumer needs. This is a place where you can find everything from Muslim to Catholic merchandise to brightly colored bras and panties that would make Caligula blush. Nice Price is the perfect example of what happens when two vastly different ethnic groups live closely together and become comfortable with each other.

The store is an artifact of their conglomerate culture.

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Hip hop Fashion

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Southwest Detroit is a plethora of memories past as well as in the moment, Chilton’s Drug Store on the corner of Vernor and Stair looked just like the one in the Historical Museum. The Marble top counter and stools made us feel comfy especially when Mr. Chilton made our favorite hot chocolate with creamy scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Memories are made of sights, color, smells and sounds.

Today there are the dingling sounds of the paleteros wheeling their carts on a hot summer day. Following by is the elote man who asks “How do you want your elote? Con chile? Mayonesa? Rebanado? Not far behind are the little round doros that you sprinkle with chile or the fruit cart with the man who slices a mango and puts it on a stick.

In the “olden” days things were somewhat similar with the street vendors. The smell of warm waffles drifting behind wagons that sold them sprinkled with confectioners sugar, As I recall, the wagons were horse drawn. Wilson’s Dairy used to be on Waterman, in the Southwest Solutions Building. I can remember the horse drawn carts and then changing to motorized trucks.

And...what would Southwest be without Patton Park? The Fourth of July Parade, the Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Party and all of the many sports. Patton was our home, away from home. We teenagers danced there, picked up tickets for the Jack the Bellboy show on Saturday mornings on Channel 7. We used to see some of the world’s greatest musicians like Ella Fitzgerald and Errol Garner.

Barney Moosekian use to drive us to hay rides, which seemed so very far away – Taylor, Michigan! Southwest Detroit is so very full of memories and so many more in the making. It is the community where when needed, people come together to make life better. Granted there are a lot of difficulties, but I have always felt that when a community is in crisis, Southwest folks come together.

Mary A. Luevanos

Youth & Summer

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Everyday Lives of Residents b TINNE VAN LOON

What does the everyday life of a Southwest Detroiter look like? Are there themes carried throughout all lives of residents in the area? Are their lives any different than residents in other neighborhoods? To find out six disposable cameras were handed out to randomly selected residents I met while exploring the neighborhood. The following six accounts are fragments of the lives of Ana, Tracy, Christina, Stevon, Cindy, and Jabari.

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My favorite area is Hubbard Farms community garden. It’s a hopeful area, because it went from being a lot with garbage and concrete to becoming a garden where we can see things grow. And we now have food to eat from it too.

If you feel hopeless about anything you can just go down there, and it’s hopeful. It’s a safe space, nobody’s trashed it or tagged it.

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Southwest Detroit means a lot to me. The order of things in my life are: 1. God, 2. My Son, 3. Family, 4.

Detroit. Detroit comes before food, which if you know me, you would be shocked. But I was born and raised in Southwest Detroit and everything I have learned has been from living here. To me, this city is beautiful and has so much history. This city is full of amazing people that people just look past.

When people hear you are from Detroit, they get scared. I like that because it makes me feel strong. But this city has made me who I am and I plan on raising my son here. There is so much to do and so many friends to make here. There are so many things waiting for you to discover them.

Life is about playing the cards you are dealt. And I was dealt the lucky cards of living in Southwest Detroit.

And I wouldn’t change it for the world. Detroit is where my heart is. Even if things happen where I live, I will always live here.

God has given me a purpose and a destiny. And both are taking place in the 313!

Olivia Chavez

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Faces of Southwest b Alesia zettlemoyer

A living mosaic. That can be the only phrase to adequately describe the vibrant community of Southwest Detroit. It is a microcosm of the America to come–with a multitude of faces, customs and traditions transplanted from foreign lands to form a unified collective of familiarity. The people possess a profound dignity even in the face of extreme poverty. They are a testament to the foundations that have shaped their lives–family, faith and the strength of the community.

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We Came to Work

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b Elena Herrada Originally published on The New York Times website in 2009

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I am a lifelong Detroiter. My grandparents came here from Mexico in 1920. My grandfather worked at Ford Motor Co. He was laid off in 1922. That should give you a little hint of how long this has been going on.

He later got hired at various other shops, and years later retired from Chrysler. My father also retired from Chrysler and my uncles retired from Ford. Almost everyone in Detroit of my generation (I am 52) worked in auto or our parents worked in auto.

We came from the poorest people. We believed then and we know now that the U.A.W. was responsible for the good lives we had.

I am a grass roots activist. I spent years doing jail and prison advocacy after graduating from Wayne State University with a degree in criminal justice That work was motivated for me by the loss of a loved one to the drug trade. My boyfriend, Gilbert Gutierrez, was killed in a multiple execution murder in 1977. He was 26. Killings like this were rampant in the years of heroin here, and many lives were lost in the violence.

After the overwhelming sadness of identifying bodies, burials of victims and watching the sentencings, I found myself questioning the entire structure of society. One way I found to deal with my grief was to work with people who sought solutions to the root causes of poverty and injustice. And I continue that work today.

My theory about the Detroit gene pool is this: Everywhere in the country and in the world, people left their beloved homelands to try their luck in this cold, faraway place where all you had to do was be willing to work. Whether one came from the segregated South, post-revolutionary Mexico, Europe, Kentucky or the Virginia mines, everyone who came here was ready to work. And there was plenty of work to go around.

This was an amazing place, a Promised Land, where with nothing but hard work — not political connections, not silver-spoon wealth — one could buy a house, a car, even two, raise a family and take vacations. Anyone could earn an honest day’s pay.

The union contract protected every worker from the tyranny of nepotism, favoritism, racism, sexism, and every other evil -ism that has ravaged society since the beginning of time. Of course it was not perfect, but it was a lot better than it would have been without the Battle of the Overpass, the Flint Sit Down, the Ford Hunger March, and countless other battles our parents and grandparents told us as bedtime stories.

We grew up walking every picket line in town, whether my parents worked there or not. We took food to strikers, talked Union at the dinner table, and to hear my family tell it, the working class would save the human race.

Many people who came to Detroit to work in the 20s and 30s were recruited from Mexico. My grandparents were among the 15,000 who arrived in Detroit during the early years of Ford recruitment.

Some had made their way from Texas to Kansas, working in the fields and on the railroads until they arrived here for the promise of $5 per day.

When the Great Depression hit, there was a forced “repatriation” of thousands of Mexicans from Detroit and about one million around the country. My family was among the many who left and among the few who returned to Detroit. We still do not know how many people were affected by this tragedy. Shedding light on this important part of American history has become part of my own life’s work. It has also informed my own current work with immigrants arriving recently to Detroit.

I left my position as a local union president representing cafeteria workers in auto plants four years ago. After 9/11 the plants started cutting back on food services and our little local began to spiral into debt to the point that we were no longer sustainable. It was a very hard decision to leave a long standing solvent local, started by the dedicated trade unionists to insure that workers were protected on the job, that women who spent their lives in this service would receive pensions. All that is gone now. No longer is longevity rewarded; older workers are run out, replaced by employees who must work for less. Two tier contracts are the rule now, not the exception. Older workers in high wage industries under collective bargaining agreements are an endangered species. They will not reproduce.

They are nearly extinct.

I left my local and started, with a dedicated group of activists, a center for immigrant workers.

We hold legal clinics, English classes, some cultural events, and search for people picked up by I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), post bonds and accompany people to court.

Recently, a friend and I drove a young woman and her six-month old baby to a Southern state because there is no work here. She joined her husband, who had not yet seen their daughter. The couple will likely be picking tomatoes and then on to the next crop. The couple faces deportation, but they cannot leave the country because they have no way of feeding themselves and their families. I have never been so aware of the privileges of citizenship as I have since I started waiting in detentions, posting bonds, driving a car, all things many of my neighbors cannot do. We wait in hopeful anticipation of immigration reform for an end to this madness.

Still, thousands of U.S.-born children face the same fate as our families did in the 1930s — deportation. The big difference is this: We are here, and we will not stand by while innocent people are detained, incarcerated, hunted down and separated from their children, parents and loved ones. Children witness this every day. What are we to tell them? If I have learned anything as an oral historian, it is that small acts of cruelty and small acts of kindness are remembered as historical events. What we do will be remembered.

We are in a deep malaise here, but this is not new. It’s often said that in the private sector that Detroit is not the place to start a “service industry.”

When you hear that the service is terrible in Detroit, imagine us raising our collective glass in cheer, because we did not come here to serve anyone.

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Sudoeste b Tom Stoye

Photography has a way of affording you access to a variety of experiences. What you do with that access will reveal just how successful you’ll be in developing a story. True access can only be gained by deep trust and lasting friendships. This has been a reoccurring theme in my experience as a photographer.

In the summer of 2005, I met a young graffiti “writer” who was painting in the abandoned Packard Motor Company plant on Grand Boulevard in Detroit. At the time, I had developed a curiosity about graffiti art, but my knowledge of it was minimal at best. I was fascinated by the mystique surrounding graffiti culture, and often wondered what motives drove kids to paint illegally in the middle of the night. He told me he was part of a graffiti crew who painted out of southwest Detroit. After a short conversation, I told him of my desire to take pictures of him. I gave him my phone number expecting never to hear from him again.

Eventually, to my surprise, I got a call back. We arranged a meeting and he brought with him another graffiti writer friend, a young man from southwest Detroit who introduced himself as Loaf. It was through Loaf, that the idea of documenting graffiti writers in southwest Detroit started to become a reality. Thus began a five-year journey that allowed for complete access to all facets of graffiti culture as it related to Loaf and his circle of friends. What started out as a documentary about graffiti, eventually began to unfold into a much larger project, as Loaf introduced me to his wide circle of friends and family who lived throughout southwest Detroit.

Southwest Detroit is an ethnically diverse, well-established neighborhood in Detroit, where a strong sense of community pride co-exists with problems that afflict many urban areas.

Residents of southwest Detroit display a strong and realistic resolve in dealing with the many problems that plague their neighborhoods. The presence of churches, schools, restaurants, public art, and a variety of family owned businesses comprise a sea of humanity unlike any neighborhood in the city of Detroit. There is an urgency and a liveliness to southwest Detroit that make it uniquely endearing to anyone who comes in contact with the area.

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The people and places I’ve photographed in southwest Detroit are not only a representation of what exists, but also a record of the many experiences I have had in taking the photographs.

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Illuminating Southwest Detroit b David Schalliol

When I moved from Chicago to Southwest Detroit for the summer of 2009, I was determined to photograph more than the ubiquitous Detroit “urban exploration” scenes.

To do so, I developed strategies to photograph the built environment that could contribute to the discourse about Detroit rather than simply reinforce the dominant perception of Detroit as something like an urban wasteland.

One strategy was borne from reflecting on the few functioning streetlights off of the arterial routes. While most every neighborhood in Chicago is fairly well illuminated, Detroit neighborhoods are not. Even my street in an active neighborhood in Mexicantown was totally unlit until about a month into the summer, when one light bulb was installed in one of the many streetlight posts.

One consequence of this neglect is that residents often provide their own light. Porch lights and commercial floodlights punctuate darkness nearly as frequently as do public utilities. Streets take on a patchwork appearance from the hues of private light sources: the bluish whites of fluorescent signs, reds of neon gas and pale yellows of porch lights.

This private provision of a public utility is maintained like so many other services in Detroit: perhaps as equally from altruism as protection. Consequently, the relationship between individuality and community that is obscured elsewhere by the passivity of the disinterested taxpayer is exposed by the immediate need for action.

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As such, the images in this series do not dwell on the absence of streetlights; instead, they focus on the relationship between lightness and darkness. In so doing, I hope that they serve as a reminder of the commonality produced by casting light into one’s community.

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Young Nation’s GrafikJam b Erik Howard originally published on the insidesouthwest website

What happens when you take youth from southwest Detroit, 100 cans of aerosol, a sanctioned outdoor canvas for painting, positive youth development, and knowledgeable, excited adults to facilitate a summer’s worth of memories? GrafikJam! Expressions, a program of Young Nation, recently developed and carried out an exciting and innovative program for youth at risk for the physical and legal risks associated with involvement in aerosol art in the southwest Detroit community. The Skillman Foundation’s Good Neighborhoods Initiative provided the necessary funding to carry out this program last fall.

Young Nation identified and recruited young people who were involved or interested in aerosol art for participation in this program. To start, each youth completed an enrollment form with a parent or guardian. This helped to explain the program in more detail to the youth and the adult. Then each week for 8 weeks (and then two more weeks beyond the program’s anticipated end) GrafikJam created opportunities for youth to participate with their peers in hands-on learning, instruction, self-expression, and creation of urban art. Youth in the program had access to a sanctioned canvas of garages at Woodmere between Falcon and Avis in the southwest Detroit community. This area is called ‘The Alley’. Each session of the program began with instruction and discussion. Various urban art and design topics were focused on and basic art principles that apply beyond the immediate project were emphasized. This helped to introduce the participants to the wider world of art through the door that graffiti-style art opened. Using urban art as a starting point and a medium youth learned about basic drawing techniques as well as touched on such fundamental competencies as shape and form, the elements of design, creativity, color and composition, context, and energy and movement as well as explore concepts of community responsibility.

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The space used for painting in The Alley is donated by homeowners with garages that would prefer to see youth creating art than the typical gang graffiti and obscenities that existed before the project began. During the course of the program the space available for creating art was increased. With help from the neighbors, the sanctioned canvas space in The Alley was increased through the installation of several wood panels which became available for painting alongside the garages. This contribution lived beyond the period of GrafikJam. It still stands as a reminder of the important role of community buy-in for the success of The Alley.

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Youth in the program also participated in the clean up and maintenance of the area where the activities occurred. This was intended to help to foster a sense of responsibility for the immediate area where they benefit through the program. Additional service took place outside the immediate area of the program with the purpose of encouraging the same sense of responsibility for other locations in the greater community. Together they worked to clean areas and removed non-permissive graffiti.

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Pershing Street Mural b Alesia zettlemoyer

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When you enter Southwest Detroit from any direction you are instantly reminded that you are no longer in the suburbs anymore. The community is a virtual canvas adorned with colorful murals, hand painted signs, and graffiti tags. Often the artists are anonymous, others, veterans of the Detroit art scene and those who write language only understood by fringe underground element. The x-factor they share in common is a unique sense of storytelling that anyone, regardless of education or nationality, can easily decipher. The art of Southwest Detroit is a collective story of a diverse people who live, work, love and die in a foreign land they now call home.

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Delray Decay b Jon deboer

This series of photographs focuses on several abandoned small businesses on Jefferson Ave in the heart of Delray in Detroit. Delray is a desolate and heavily polluted neighborhood in southwest Detroit. It may look like a ghost town, but there are still a small number of people living here. This neighborhood in particular has lost many residents in the same way that much of Detroit has, but the heavy pollution from the wastewater plant and the steel mills of Zug Island has driven out countless homeowners and businesses. Residents complain of nausea and headaches from the smell that fills their homes from neighboring Zug Island.

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It would seem like a ghost town, but then you notice just how many cars and trucks keep driving by.

Hundreds of people passing by; many of them probably without giving any of this a second thought.

Just another abandoned, burned out building. Yet here these storefronts stand; in the shadow of industry, in a city built on industry. They are reminders of how quickly we impact the landscape we live in and how quickly things change with the passage of time.

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Dreaming and cruising low and slow b Louis Aguilar originally published in the Detroit news in 2002

Another lowrider club congregates in the other corner of the parking lot. They are 20-something dudes, who by the looks of their late-model sedans with half-painted exteriors and dull rims, have yet to spend thousands of dollars and toil hundreds of hours on their rides, like Good Times members have.

At one point, a ‘64 Chevy Impala – the icon of all lowrider icons — enters the parking lot.

Two hours roll by before the Good Times members get around to the point of their meeting.

Where do they show off their cars next? This weekend, it’s Saginaw. In two weeks, it’s the Dream Cruise.

But lowriders always dream about cruising.

Dreaming and cruising low and slow

You crouch deep, almost into fetal position, to get into Potente’s ride. The ‘48 Chevrolet Fleetline is inches from the ground because Potente, which is Spanish for powerful, has radically dropped the car’s suspension — classic lowrider style.

“You’re driving and people (are) waving at you and smiling,” Potente says. “You’re going slow. The world is moving past you like in a dream.”

You get in the chocolate-and-cream classic Detroit auto and you’re eye level with the door handle of a normal sedan. With the Fleetline’s little windows, you feel submerged in some other world -- one with an immaculately restored interior. “Pretty and clean, you know?” Potente says, explaining his ride.

“You’re driving and people (are) waving at you and smiling. You’re going slow. The world is moving past you like in a dream.”

Potente’s alter ego, Gilbert Diaz, usually drives an Astro minivan, but on a recent August night he’s at the heart of where men dream lowrider dreams: southwest Detroit’s Clark Park.

He’s hanging with the Good Times Car Club, whose members hold their bimonthly meeting at the Western High School parking lot next to the park.

There’s Edgar “Cholo” Becerra with the ‘90 Lincoln Town Car he bought from Salvador “Chavo” Figueroa, who now owns an ‘83 Cutlass Supreme that can jump 80 inches in the air. There’s Abel “Nano” Perez, who recently finished painting Alejandro “Villa” Villasenor’s ‘82 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. Beside them is Ricardo Martinez, who recently shipped his ‘93 Lincoln Town Car, with its three TVs, DVD player and a slew of upgrades, back to his native Tepatitlan de Morelos, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico.

“I’m going to feel like a rich man,” Martinez says of the day he will drive his lowrider in his hometown.

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b Erik Howard Originally published as an audioslideshow on THE INSIDE SOUTHWEST WEBSITE

Erik Howard

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My name is Kadeem Whitehead. I am 18 years old, I am a senior in Detroit public schools. I’ve been in Detroit public schools since pre-school to 12th grade, so about 12- 13 years. Education is the most important thing in this world right now, so that’s the reason why I want to go to college.

I’ve lived in Detroit all my life, I moved to southwest Detroit when I was 12. I moved from over at 6 Mile, it was a really quiet neighborhood. Right now I live on Lafayette and Lawndale, it’s a real quiet block.

There’s not that much violence going on. I used to live on Elsmere, there was a whole bunch of violence, shootings, killings. It’s not like that over here. Money is really important to me right now, because first of all I have a son, I have to take care of him, make sure he’s okay, make sure he has diapers, wipes, clothes, and that I can feed him. And I need to help take care of my mom. She doesn’t have a job so I basically take care of her, with things around the house; and I try to save a little for myself, for my own apartment, save a little money for school. I’ve been working at McDonald’s about 3 years, since 9th grade.

I’m told that I have to have good grades to get a scholarship, play sports to get a scholarship, there’s different things you can do to get a scholarship.

I really wanted to play sports, and I’m good at sports, but I couldn’t do that because working and going to basketball practice isn’t going get me a good check to take care of all the responsibilities that I have to take care of.

If somebody gave me a scholarship right now, I’d be happy because after all the stuff I’ve already been through, it would really mean something for me, because I try my best in school and work my hardest.

The reason why college is important is that without an education, you’d be nowhere, making minimum wage is not going to take care of you for the rest of your life.

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Kadeem

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Youth Viewpoints b focus on the mission

The following images were taken by student participants in Focus:HOPE’s Focus on the Mission youth program. Students were involved in a cultural photo shoot day where they travelled from neighborhoods in Dearborn to Detroit’s East side, using their cameras to express what they saw. These selected photos were captured while our youth were exploring and learning in Southwest Detroit.

Focus on the Mission is an annual diversity and leadership program that incorporates the art of photography and challenges tri-county high school students to address the role of multiculturalism in society and their own lives. Since its inception in 1995, over 800 students from Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties have experienced hands-on diversity and leadership training through the program’s creative activities and dialogue sessions, and exciting photographic fieldtrips.

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The Community Arts department at Focus: Hope was established in 1995 as part of a national initiative sponsored by the Ford Foundation. For the last fifteen years the Community Arts department has made significant contributions to the cultural vitality of metro Detroit through its innovative and award-winning arts programs, concerts, diversity workshops, and art exhibits. Throughout its history it has witnessed the arts play an integral role in shaping and inspiring community members to realize their personal potential and in promoting cultural understanding and racial reconciliation.

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Youth Viewpoints

Amber Baker

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Caitlin Parent

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Kali Nickless

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Dane Wittig

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Catherine Belletini

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Christen Minnick

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Michelle Trombley

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Katherine Kina

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Xavier Wright

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Ahlan Vazquez

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Contributors Louis Aguilar

Mary Laredo Herbeck

Louis Aguilar is an award-winning business reporter for The Detroit News specializing in the economy and labor.

He has worked in Detroit since June 2004.

Mary Laredo Herbeck is an artist and founding member of the Southwest Artists’ Network of Detroit (SWANDetroit) whose mission is, in part, to promote art and art education in the southwest Detroit community while providing opportunities for working artists and workshops for youth. Laredo is also a breast cancer survivor who refused conventional treatment and is writing a book about her experience with natural therapies and nutritional healing. She is always on the lookout for wholesome, natural, unadulterated foods as her primary source of sustenance.

Marilyn Chapman Marilyn Chapman is a recent graduate of the College for Creative Studies. There she studied Graphic Design and Art History. Her work is sincere and whimsical.

Jon Deboer Jon DeBoer is a graphic designer and photographer in the Detroit area. The majority of his photographic work is focused on the changing urban landscape and forgotten buildings of Detroit.

William Deuparo William Deuparo has been involved with the Clark Park Coalition for more than 15 years and currently serves as treasurer on the organization’s Board of Directors.

William volunteers practically every day of the week, at the Clark Park Recreation Center. His time and skills are invaluable to the center, helping community youth stay active and safe.

Sean Doerr Sean Doerr has been documenting the city where he lives, works, and plays since the age of 14. The Midtown Detroit resident’s photographs have been featured in many publications and websites, such as the Detroit Free Press, Michigan History Magazine, the Yahoo!

Directory and CAM Magazine.

Focus on the Mission Focus on the Mission is an annual diversity and leadership program developed by Focus: HOPE that incorporates the art of photography and challenges tri-county high school students to address the role of multiculturalism in society and their own lives. Since its inception in 1995, over 800 students from Wayne, Macomb and Oakland counties have experienced hands-on diversity and leadership training through the program’s creative activities and dialogue sessions, and exciting photographic fieldtrips.

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Elena Herrada Elena Herrada is a Detroit community activist leader and the Director of the Oral History project of the Fronteras Norteñas organization.

erik howard Erik Howard is a photographer and community activist from southwest Detroit who combines his passion for youth and community development with his love of photography. Using group activities such as low riding and graffiti art as a mentoring tool, Erik has been able to reach out to young people in the community of southwest Detroit. Erik Howard’s photographs document his personal relationships with these youth and his interactions in the neighborhood.

They capture the excitement of young people in their process of self discovery and development with southwest Detroit as the backdrop.

Kelli Kavanaugh Kelli Kavanaugh is a Corktown resident and Detroit booster who has freelanced full time since 2006 and written poems, articles and more since high school. modeldmedia.com and metromode.com, a pair of weekly electronic magazines keep her busy with development news, while writing articles for Metro Times, Crain’s Detroit Business, Metropolis and Women’s Adventure.

Editor pedro lopez

Tinne Van Loon

Pedro Lopez is a Southwest Detroit artist who can be found helping children at the Clark Park Coalition every day of the week.

Stevon Rendon

Tinne Van Loon is a graphic designer who explores artifacts of culture and the relationship between location, culture, and humanity. She has lived in downtown Detroit for four years while attending the College for Creative Studies.

Stevon Rendon is currently a senior at Western International High School who was born and raised in southwest Detroit. He is part of a program called Real Media that helps broaden student knowledge on multi-media purposes and their uses. He is about to attend the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and major in social work and photography.

The idea of documenting Southwest Detroit came up when she first visited the neighborhood in 2007. She instantly became infatuated with the hybrid culture that brought traditional Latino sights, with a handful of Middle Eastern influences, into a part of the post-urban landscape of Detroit.

claudia sanchez

Find out more at www.tinnevanloon.com

Claudia Sanchez resides in Southwest Detroit and assists David Conklin with pantimime, contributing language arts to middle and elementary schools. She also has five years of photography experience, two years at Crockett Technical Center and three years at Focus: Hope photography program.

David Schalliol David Schalliol is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago who is interested in the role of inequality in the construction of the built environment. He is currently working on a variety of projects exploring the transformation of urban centers. Visit www.davidschalliol.com for more information about his work.

Tom Stoye

Alesia Zettlemoyer Alesia Zettlemoyer has been pounding the bricks with her camera since she was a young girl documenting the pathos and the accomplishments of an ever evolving community.

Contributors & Editor

Tom Stoye is a social-documentary photographer who has been documenting southwest Detroit since 2005. Tom’s primary interest in photography, is the use of the camera as a narrative tool to tell stories derived from his own personal experiences.

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Streets lined with bustling mom and pop shops, hand painted business signs adorning the side walls, street vendors selling their goods, lowriders cruising the streets, and flea markets popping up on the weekends; where else could this take place in Detroit but the Southwest side?

This is a collection of cultural artifacts and studies that show the unique culture present in Southwest Detroit.