The Howard Family Bookstore is a dream realized for Detroit native Jerjuan Howard. He created the non-profit aimed at supporting students with literacy and interpersonal communication skills as a part of his mission to better his community with the next generation at the center.

Howard is also the founder of the Umoja Debate League. In 2025, Jerjuan joined The Metro to talk about 7-2 Day, a yearly celebration his Puritan Ave. neighborhood. While chatting about the celebratory day, Jerjuan talked about his future plans for a bookstore. 

Fast forward a year, Howard Family Bookstore is open.

Howard currently acts as the city of Detroit’s director of Youth Affairs. Due to the position, he took a step back from the day to day operations. The management of the bookstore is handled by Jerjuan’s aunt, Jamie Howard. 

In this conversation, we listen in on a past conversation, learning about his goals. In the latter half, we hear from Jamie and learn more about the importance the shop holds in the community. Jamie says watching her nephew grow into the man he is today is no surprise.

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Some cities raise you. Detroit claims you. That’s true for so many who’ve called this city home. It starts early, with the way you walk, the way you talk or the particular pride you carry when you sport the city’s iconic symbols like the old English D on a hat or a Tigers jersey. 

Jeremy Xido knows this. He grew up in an unstable home. A family that lived nearby recognized his situation and took him in and raised him in his early years. Some years later, he and his biological family moved to a different part of town and he lost touch.

Xido is a white man who was embraced by a Black Detroit family. In his film “Sons of Detroit” he explores what happened to that family.

The film took Jeremy on a 10 year discovery, not just of self but of community, love and connection. It’s part love letter, part detective story in which Xido reckons with the love he has for the city he left behind.

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BasBlue is a community driven nonprofit rooted in Detroit. Its goal is to reimagine what opportunity can look like for women and nonbinary individuals. 

It brings together mentorship, professional development, and community in one space, designed to spark growth and connection. In 2026, BasBlue celebrated five years in Detroit with more than 600 active members and counting.

BasBlue CEO Ellen Gilchrist stopped by The Metro to explain how spaces like BasBlue are helping close long-standing gaps in opportunity.

 

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There’s something special about the way nature creates its own art and it’s even more special how creativity can live, breathe, and grow right alongside those green spaces.

Visitors will get that experience as it comes to life at Palmer Park with Art and Music in the Trees. It’ll turn the old growth woods themselves into an open air gallery. The festival is a celebration of sustainability, community, and the power of art to transform how we connect with the world around us.

Mark Loeb is the president of Integrity Shows. He joined me to talk more about the Earth Day experience that is Art and Music in the Trees at Palmer Park. The event is on Saturday, April 25.

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Bookstock Michigan, one of the largest used book and media sales in the country is back.

Each year at Laurel Park Place in Livonia, thousands of volunteers help collect, sort, and organize hundreds of thousands of donated books and media items. The result is an affordable marketplace for readers of all ages.

But beyond the size of the sale, the collective effort behind it, from neighbors, to educators, and community members keeps the spirit of Bookstock alive.

Proceeds from sales go directly back into literacy and education programs across the region, helping expand access to reading materials and learning opportunities.

Honorary Bookstock chair Neal Rubin joins The Metro to share more about the annual event. 

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Young people have stories to tell. The Detroit Teen Truth Film Festival is a place for them to share those stories. It started in 2019 and has been growing ever since.

Teens from Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties create films that are just fifteen seconds long.

Watch the 2025 grand prize film from the 2025 Detroit Teen Truth Festival, directed by Johan Calderon.

Fifteen seconds to share a perspective. Fifteen seconds to express what matters to them. Each year, the festival chooses a theme. The teens help pick it, so it reflects what they care about most. The films are creative, honest, and often really powerful. This year’s is “My Mental Health, Myself.”

Finalists can win cash prizes and scholarships. But even more important, they get a chance to be heard. These films help communities see the world through young people’s eyes. It gives teens a voice and empowers them to share it.

In this conversation, we were joined by Y Arts Executive Director Margret Edwartowski and Y Arts Board member Nicolas Cucinella. We learned more about the importance of giving teens space to express their ideas.

The 2026 festival is Saturday April 25 at 2:00 p.m. at the Marlene Boll Theatre at the Boll Family YMCA.

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Food is more than what’s on your plate. It’s a direct reflection of identity, of history, it’s a reflection of access and or lack of justice. 

In communities across this country, where you live can shape what you eat, how you eat, and even how long you live. The truth is that our food systems are rooted in histories that include displacement, inequity, and harm.

Who’s responsibility is it to actively repair these systems, when we all collectively share this knowledge? 

The Joy Project is not only asking those questions, but working to create space for education, and community healing through food.

Founded by Detroit native Gabrielle Knox and Oakland California native Josmine Evans, The Joy Project wants to reconnect people with ancestral foodways and land practices. They aim to educate and spread joy through building historical and cultural relationships between Black, brown, and Indigenous communities and the soil.

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This summer, up to 200 Detroit high school students will have the chance to turn their creativity into a paycheck.

Through the Summer Arts Employment Training program, also known as SAET, young people ages 14 to 17 will receive hands-on arts training, while gaining real-world job experience. 

The program is led by Heritage Works in partnership with Detroit Excellence in Youth Arts (DEYA), along with Grow Detroit’s Young Talent and over 10 arts groups across the city.

Program leaders say the goal is simple: to create pathways to success. The program runs from late June through mid-August with funding support from the State of Michigan and Grow Detroit’s Young Talent.

Nafeesah Symonette is the co-founder and executive director of DEYA.  Alvin “AJ” Lockett is the founder of Que Blackout Youth Theater. Both joined The Metro’s Tia Graham to talk more about summer jobs and having a space for teens to learn and grow.

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This week is national Black Maternal Health Week. It’s not only a time to raise awareness, but a time to have honest conversations about what families are experiencing right now.

In the U.S., Black women are still significantly more likely to face serious complications or even die from pregnancy-related causes. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was nearly 45 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024.

What would it look like to center families, to bring birth back into the community? What would it look like for families to have options like birthing centers? 

Leseliey Welch is the co-founder of Birth Detroit  and Birth Center Equity. She is a poet and social entrepreneur. She joined The Metro’s Tia Graham to explore the culture of birthing in this country and what needs to be done to protect Black moms.

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We all know music can be a powerful conduit to tell stories, exchange energies and connect across cultures. One note can paint a thousand pictures or tell thousand year old histories. 

Xiao Dong Wei is an internationally recognized erhu master. Her journey into music began in China at the tender age of 5. Her work has taken her across the globe and landed her in the Detroit area. 

She blends traditional Chinese instrumentation with contemporary styles like jazz, rock, and orchestral performance, playing over 20 instruments.

On April 24, 2026, the Michigan Philharmonic presents “Sounds of the Pacific Rim,”. It invites audiences to explore the sounds of the Oscar-winning score for Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning film “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

The concert creates a space for global conversation with local connections. A pre-concert talk, featuring Pacific Rim instruments, erhu, and Japanese taiko drums. 

Xiao will also premiere her own piece “Hometown Reflections.” Xiao and Charles Ezra Ferrell joined The Metro to talk more about her music and global connections in Detroit. 

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The Anishinaabe alliance makes up the the Three Fires Confederacy. It includes Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi. This land was and remains spiritual.

It was a place to gather and hunt. A place to convene with nature and flow with the river, no matter where it led. 

A new land acknowledgement plaque is being unveiled this weekend at Greenfield Village. It’s a step toward visibility, toward truth-telling, and toward honoring a history that too often goes untold.

But moments like this are about more than a plaque, they’re about the ongoing work of making Indigenous voices seen and heard.

Heather Bruegl is the curator of political and civic engagement at The Henry Ford. Travis Schuyler is director of programming for the North American Indian Association of Detroit. They joined The Metro to talk about the unveiling and the new plaque.

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Detroit is a city where culture doesn’t just live, it moves like the river that shares a name. And this weekend, that energy comes together in a powerful way in Waawiyaatanong.

The Curved Shores Concert: A Native Artists Showcase takes over Spot Lite Detroit on Saturday, bringing together a unique lineup of Native American artists and storytellers.

It’s part of the larger Concert of Colors Neighborhood Programs, an effort to bring global sounds and meaningful conversations directly into Detroit’s neighborhoods. 

SouFy is a Southwest Detroit native and Native American hip-hop artist. When he’s not on stage performing, he’ll be helping bring this entire experience to life as co-founder of Vibes With The Tribes, the producers of the showcase.  

Charles Ezra Ferrell, the director of neighborhood programs for Concert of Colors and SouFy, joined The Metro to talk more about the event and its importance to Detroit’s diverse Native community.

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About 1 in 31 children in the U.S. is now diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD. Behind every statistic is a family trying to figure it out in real time, searching for support, resources, and spaces where their children feel understood and included.

One Detroit mother hustled harder for more. 

After her eldest son was diagnosed with autism, Tiera Moultrie saw first-hand just how much was missing for families like hers.

In 2020, she founded Autism In The D, with a mission to build community and create safe, inclusive spaces for children on the spectrum and their families. Since its founding, Tiera has had three children, with two living with ASD. The work she does is personal but it’s about more than her family. 

Autism In The D is hosting its 6th annual Weekend of Inclusivity, one of Detroit’s largest autism awareness walks. It’s not just about awareness, it’s about access to resources, connection, and making sure families don’t feel alone. This year will also welcome Detroit’s first autism-inclusive adaptive kids gym.

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