Blog

  1. Notes from the Field: Fellows in Detroit, Morning 1 Monday, November 09, 2009

    “Take the leap. Go as far as you can. Try staying out of touch. Become a stranger in a strange land. Acquire humility. Learn the language. Listen to what people are saying.”

    Wise words from Paul Theroux, and not totally off the point during this trip to Detroit, a city both familiar and foreign, a place we’re very interested in learning from and about. I’m joined here by four other LeadHere fellows: Elana Gulas, Trey Meyer, Melinda Taylor, and Bijan Dhanani, and over the next two days, we’re visiting a host of inspiring, cutting-edge programs that aim to celebrate Detroit for what it is: a major epicenter for the arts, creativity, and innovation.

    Today is Day 1.5, and we’re spending it at the Russell Industrial Center, one of the Midwest’s largest arts community, an “Art Mecca/Small Business Haven.” The RIC hosts over 125 tenants, including architects, painters, clothing designers, glass blowers, wood craftsman, metal sculptors, graphic designers.

    After, we’ll be visiting with Design 99, a retail space for experimental design and contemporary architecture. The space is a “storefront for new ideas, products, projects, and untapped talent.”

    Regardless to say, we’re pumped.

    Day .5 (yesterday for me, last night for my fashionably late colleagues) was spent downtown, one of the strangest, most beautiful, haunting cityscapes we’ve encountered. Maybe it was the lull of Sunday Quiet, or maybe the 15-story skeleton skyscrapers, evidence to a very recent history of wealth, and another more recent story of decline. Something was spooky, but something was surprising, too.

    Detroit isn’t dead, as some news agencies may lead us to believe: there’s animation, for sure, in small corners everywhere. Unusual window displays in otherwise empty buildings, breakfast joints overflowing on a quiet street, and the faint cry of Greek music everywhere, echoes of Detroit’s flourescent, effervescent Greektown.

    We’ll have more this afternoon. Until then, love a city, for us.

    Posted by Administrator