Evidence of colonization is embedded in the United States government. Through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or the U.S. territories that are governed by colonial administration models, like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The place we now call Detroit, or, Waawiyatanong, the ancestral and contemporary homeland of the Three Fires Confederacy,has a unique place in United States’ colonial history.
The people of the Three Fires Confederacy—the Ojibway, Ottawa and Potawatominations, or collectively Anishinaabe people, were subjects of colonialism, violence and displacement. First by European settlers, then by the United States government. That process was carried out and documented by bureaucratic process, what scholars call colonial administration.
Maggie Blackhawk is the Moses H. Grossman professor of law at the NYU law school. She’s an expert in colonial administration, law, and history.
She spoke to Metro producer David Leins about what we can learn today from the bureaucratic records of the past to better understand colonialism in the U.S. and Michigan.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald is a tragedy that is remembered with reverence and intrigue across the Great Lakes every year.
Twenty-nine sailors lost their lives on November 10, 1975, and the exact cause of the sinking remains a mystery. Gordon Lightfoot’s epic retelling, “The Wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” firmly placed the story of the Fitz’s in the national public consciousness.
But, the Edmund Fitzgerald—the largest freighter on the Great Lakes at the time— was always part of Detroit history. It was built, christened, and launched in the Detroit River. It carried record-breaking loads of iron ore and was known as a workhorse in Great Lakes shipping. It’s intended stop before sinking was Zug Island.
The pop-up exhibition “Gales of November, Rembered” on display at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.
This year marks 50 years since the Edmund Fitzgerald sank, and the ship’s Detroit connection took center stage at several events over the weekend.
Victoria Stewart is Assistant Director of the Humanities Center at Wayne State University.
She created a pop-up exhibition “The Gales of November, Remembered: Detroit and the Edmund Fitzgerald.” It was on display at the Dossin Great Lakes Museum and Mariners’ Church in Downtown Detroit to commemorate 50 years since the ship sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975.
Stewart spoke to The Metro about the ship’s Detroit connections and the timelessness of it’s story.
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On Nov. 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior, killing its entire crew of 29 and becoming the largest shipwreck in the Great Lakes. The tragedy was immortalized in a Gordon Lightfoot ballad, and in the decades since a number of theories have been put forth about what caused the ship to […]
The Carr Center is a hub for the visual and performing arts in Detroit focused on promoting and sharing the work of Black artists. For the last 3 decades, it has thrived on collaborations with local community groups and organizations.
The Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club is a local art enthusiast group that supports the fine arts in Metro Detroit.
Recently, The Carr Center and Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club teamed up to present Bridges: Because of Them – Honoring the Past, Uplifting the Present, Shaping the Future.
The show is curated by co-founder of Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club, Henry Harper, local art buyer Kendale L. Jones and multi-disciplinary artist Andre Reed Jr.
Oliver Ragsdale Jr. is the CEO of the Carr Center and Henry Harper, the co-founder of Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club, and owner of Harper Galleries of Art and Interior.
Henry and Oliver joined The Metro to talk more about the exhibition and Detroit’s fine arts scene.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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The Masonic Temple is a popular a venue on the edge of the Cass Corridor that hosts events and concerts. It opened in 1926 after being designed by architect George Mason. In addition to being a venue, it serves as a meeting space for the Free Mason fraternity.
Around this time of year, rumors typically begin to spread about the history of the temple, George Mason’s passing and whether the building is haunted.
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Cemeteries are the last place one might look for things to do over the weekend. But, if you appreciate reflection and history over busy bars and music, Elmwood Alight at the historic Elmwood Cemetery in Detroit might be the thing for you.
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James Boggs has the Detroit story. He was born into a sharecropping family in Junction, Alabama. He moved to the city and worked in the auto industry for over 20 years. His wife Grace was a Chinese American philosopher who was born in Rhode Island and lived in New York.
James and Grace Lee Boggs would go on to lead a movement of self-resiliency and working together as a community. They were instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement through the 60s and 70s and further into the eras with the Black Panther Party. The two remained married for 40 years, until James’ death in 1993.
Grace Lee Boggs carried their legacy and continued their work until her death in 2015 at the age of 100. She was an author, feminist, philosopher and social activist who inspired and changed the minds of so many, and made sure Detroit thrived with love and community.
This month, The James and Grace Lee Boggs Foundation is celebrating with a 10 year memorial of her death. The gathering will honor the life and legacy of the civil rights activist and take a look at how to move forward in this moment in time we’re in today.
Donald Boggs, son of James Boggs and Alice Jennings, J.D. joined Metro host Tia Graham to talk more about the 10-year memorial honoring the life of Grace Lee Boggs.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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During the Great Depression, auto workers organized a march from Detroit to the Ford Rouge Factory in Dearborn. Thousands of people took to the streets to fight for jobs when nearly half of workers in Detroit were unemployed. The event is now known as the Ford Hunger March, and it was one of the most significant events leading to the creation of the United Auto Workers union.
Friends of the Rouge and the Fort Rouge Gateway Partnership joined forces to construct the Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park to celebrate those who fought for workers rights and commemorate that pivotal moment in labor history.
The first phase of the park project was completed in 2020 and construction for the second phase of the project started in mid-September.
Paul Draus, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and a board member of the Friends of Rouge joined the show to discuss the importance of this park and the history it honors.
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Detroit Outdoors has taken a group of students and teachers to Yosemite National Park for the second time.
The Detroit to Gloryland journey is designed to introduce youth to outdoor activities like camping and rock climbing and pick up on some history.
The group travels to Yosemite in late July so they are in there during National Buffalo Soldier Day, and within reach of the park system’s expert on the history of Buffalo Soldiers in the park.
Shelton Johnson is a native Detroiter, an alum of Cass Technical High School and a park ranger. He has worked to collect the narratives of the Black and other non-white soldiers who served as Yosemite’s first rangers and share their individual and collective stories.
Park ranger Shelton Johnson helps guide the Gloryland students and teach them the park’s history.
WDET’s Sascha Raiyn got to travel with the students both years. You can hear stories from the first Detroit to Gloryland trip and learn more about Shelton Johnson in 2024 here.
‘Gloryland’ veterans speak
Jaiden Nedd, Cameron Thomas and Arcia Quinn in Yosemite.
Listen: ‘Gloryland’ veterans speak
It was Cass Tech High School Junior Tiffany Orr’s first-time camping and first-time in Yosemite. She interviewed the three students who came on the trip for a second time: Jaiden Nedd, Cameron Thomas and Arcia Quinn.
Expressing Yosemite: a poet’s guide to being in nature
Poet and author Jacqueline Suskind traveled to Yosemite with the students.
Listen: Expressing Yosemite: a poet’s guide to being in nature
Poet and author Jacqueline Suskind traveled with the students. Suskind’s work focuses on her relationship to nature – and on teaching others to explore their own relationships to nature — through writing.
Students had an inside guide to Yosemite this year
Listen: Students had an inside guide to Yosemite this year
Students learned some photography skills from professional Rodel Fessehatzion.
Robel Fessehatzion is a landscape photographer who works at and with Yosemite National Park.
He met the students who traveled from Detroit to Yosemite on the 2024 trip.
This year, Fessehatzion introduced the students to the people, places and history that shape his relationship to Yosemite.
He also gave them a little lesson in landscape photography.
A look at how Detroit Outdoors gets it done
Moving more than 20 people across the country to camp is a big undertaking.
Listen: A look at how Detroit Outdoors gets it done
Moving more than 20 people across the country to camp — many for the first time — is a big undertaking. We take a look at the logisitcs of the trip.
‘Gloryland’ first-timers speak
Pershing student Eva Effinger and Hamtramck High grad Nora Algahaim in Yosemite.
Listen: ‘Gloryland’ first-timers speak
Sascha Raiyn gave her recorder to Pershing student Eva Effinger and Hamtramck High grad Nora Algahaim. They interviewed each other — on the one night the campers had very loud neighbors. They talked about their first camping experience and starting the trip not feeling so well.
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The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation announced a new platform that will match entrepreneurs with the best fitting lender.
The website is designed to help small businesses navigate financial options through partnerships with local Community Development Financial Institutions.
Applicants visit the website, submit the criteria for the type of loan and amount they need, and the algorithm will match them with the best lenders.
DEGC Senior Vice President Derrick Headd calls the hub a central command center for the city’s small business ecosystem. “One place where you can find financing options, technical assistance, and service organizations. Everything you need to have a thriving company.”
Lenders participating in the hub include ProsperUS, Detroit Development Fund, Invest Detroit and more.
Eligible applicants must be located in the city, have documented cash flow, and cannot be affiliated with any business prohibited by federal law.
Additional headlines for Thursday, September 25, 2025
Pastors seek high voter turnout this mayoral election
Detroit voters will elect the city’s first new mayor in 12 years this fall. A coalition of pastors is working to educate and mobilize their flocks to decide between City Council President Mary Sheffield and Reverend Solomon Kinloch.
Organizers say 12 churches took part in the Lift Every Voice and Vote campaign in the August primary. They want five times that number mobilizing voters in the general election.
Al Williams leads Lift Every Voice and Vote Detroit. He admits its hard motivating voters in the city. “I think that the history of our mayoral elections, past two or three mayoral elections, have shown us that the excitement has gone down every single mayoral election. Yes, it has made it a challenge.”
Less than 20 percent of eligible Detroit voters cast ballots in the August primary.
Proposed ordinance requires body cam footage be made public
A proposed Detroit ordinance would require police to release body camera footage within 30 days of police shootings and other incidents including the use of non-lethal weapons like tasers, pepper spray, tear gas, bean bags and rubber bullets.
Under the proposed ordinance, footage must be posted on a public website. Exemptions would be allowed upon written request from the Detroit Police Department or Wayne County prosecutor.
Exceptions apply to footage captured during federal or state task force operations, footage prohibited by court order and footage determined to be prejudicial to a civil matter.
James Baldwin Sidewalk Libraries
The City of Detroit and the Detroit Public Library will be hosting the James Baldwin Sidewalk Libraries across the city. Detroit ACE and the Charles H. Wright Museum also partnered to launch the reading campaign.
Boxes designed to help residents find or donate books by and about author James Baldwin will be placed in Detroit neighborhoods.
The initiative completes the work started by artist Sabrina Nelson, whose landmark exhibit on Baldwin debuted last fall.
The initiative is being launched during Black Reading Month in Detroit.
Fashion business management degree now offered at CCS
The College for Creative Studies in Detroit is now offering a fashion business management degree. The degree will take 90 credits and just over three years to complete.
Students will learn merchandising, styling, marketing strategy, brand development, trend forecasting, and fashion communications. No portfolio is required for admission.
Visit the College for Creative Studies and look under the listing of undergraduate programs more information and to apply.
Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
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WDET’s CuriosiD series answers your questions about everything Detroit. Subscribe to CuriosiD on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
In this episode of CuriosiD, listener Martha Rotter asks the question:
“What happened to Chamberlain Bakery and their sour rye bread recipe?”
A loaf of sour rye baked by David Alkevicius.
The short answer
The Chamberlain Bakery was opened in 1924 by Lithuanian baker and owner Stanley Vasilauskis. It was located on a residential street in Southwest Detroit.
The bakery was owned by family members over the years, until about 1980, when Werner Lehmann purchased it. In 2002, the company Alexander & Hornung purchased the bakery. It was closed between 2008–2009.
A nostalgic walk through Chamberlain Street
On Detroit’s Chamberlain Street, people would wake up to the aroma of freshly baked sour rye bread from the Chamberlain Bakery.
It was opened by Lithuanian baker Stanley Vasilauskis (who also went by Wasilauskis) in 1924. He brought the recipe with him when he moved from Chicago, where his family owned the Wasilauskis Home Bakery.
Archived newspaper clipping about Chamberlain Bakery.
Livonia resident Martha Rotter remembers eating the bread with her German husband’s family during gatherings.
“Every time we got together, whether it was a potluck or just a regular family dinner, there was Chamberlain Bakery bread there… And they all agreed it was the best bread,” she says.
John Micallef, the CEO of Oakland Macomb OBGYN, grew up in Southwest Detroit near the Chamberlain Bakery. He worked on a paper route in the 1980s, close to the bakery.
“I remember stopping there on the way, doing the route, grabbing a snack. Sometimes in the morning, they would give you a cookie or something. We were really young back in the day,” he reminisces.
Newspaper clipping about Chamberlain Bakery from the Detroit News circa 1997.
Micallef says the bakery was a gathering space where people knew you on a first-name basis.
“It was just a great neighborhood type of bakery, the kind you don’t really see too much anymore, but the smell was always wonderful. People were friendly. They knew you by your name.”
The bakery was sold again in 2002 to Alexander & Hornung, a sausage-processing company. Then-president Bernie Polen says the bakery was on its last leg and he purchased it to keep it alive.
At the time, they baked about 800 loaves of bread daily and distributed them to stores in metro Detroit. Polen says he closed the bakery around 2008 or 2009 because it wasn’t financially viable.
A second act for Chamberlain Bakery bread
David Alkevicius also grew up in Southwest Detroit on the sour rye bread from Chamberlain Bakery. He says many times he was the designated person in the family to grab loaves of bread for special occasions.
When he learned the bakery had closed down, he decided he needed to learn how to make the bread.
“Honestly to begin with, it was more selfish because I wanted it and I didn’t know anywhere to get it,” he laughs.
Loaves of bread baked by David Alkevicius.
He began reaching out to people who formerly worked at the bakery to learn the recipe and make the sour rye bread.
It turns out the sour rye bread has a large fan following, in part due to how it was baked in a brick oven heated up to over 425 degrees. The coal burning oven stayed on practically all the time, until it was changed to a gas oven after Polen acquired the bakery. He says the oven would be turned off once a year to cool down and to allow a mason to patch the brick.
Alkevicius says the rye bread has a unique formula.
“Most rye breads that you buy from the store are 15% (rye). The sour rye from Chamberlain Bakery, they had a half and half, which was 50-50, and then their actual sour rye was 75%, and so it’s a heavy, dense bread, but still very soft,” he explained.
It took him about five years to perfect the recipe. He also made a few adjustments.
“You’d mix the hot, boiling water with the rye flour, and once it cooled, you added it to the mother dough. And I think it just changed the whole, you know, the whole composition of the bread, because I tried making it the traditional way, where people just mix flour and water, and it never came out right,” he said.
Alkevicius says it’s hard to find a similar bread in stores.
He began selling his bread at the Wilson Barn farmer’s markets for two years. Then he opened Alkevicius Breads in 2016, a bakery in Livonia located on Five Mile and Farmington Road that operated through 2018. He hopes he can bake the breads again someday.
Exterior of Alkevicius Breads in Livonia.
Inside Alkevicius Breads in Livonia.
Although it’s been nearly two decades since the Chamberlain Bakery has shut down, many people still talk about it on Facebook and Reddit threads.
It holds a special place in people’s memories, with many hoping they can get another bite of the one-of-a-kind sour rye bread.
The Chamberlain Bakery on Chamberlain Street in Detroit circa 1991.
The location where the Chamberlain Bakery once was on Chamberlain Street in Detroit circa 2025.
Kaunelis grew up in Southwest Detroit on 25th and Vernor Street. His parents moved to Detroit during World War II. He says sour rye bread is popular among Lithuanians in the area.
“My parents ended up at a displaced persons camp in Germany, like a lot of other Lithuanians, and then eventually had a godmother in Detroit. And so, they settled in the Detroit area, which a lot of other Lithuanians did, because there were good automotive jobs that they could get and start earning a living right away.”
He too grew up eating bread from Chamberlain Bakery, which his family purchased from a local Lithuanian store that carried the bread.
Years later, he and his wife Patt volunteered their time to deliver about 25 loaves to All Saints Church on Fort Street on Saturday afternoons. The bread was donated by the baker until it shut down.
Today, Kaunelis says there are about 30,000 Lithuanians living in metro Detroit.
Lithuanian crest hung up in Manoogian Hall’s Lithuanian Room.
About the listener
Livonia resident Martha Rotter remembers having Chamberlain Bakery bread with her German husband’s family during gatherings. She says it went well with different pairings. She hopes the bakery opens up again someday, or that someone sells the bread once again.
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In this conversation, The Metro’s Tia Graham spoke with Satori Shakoor, host of The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers. Satori talked about the importance of storytelling and the importance of strong public media.
This particular conversation also included information about an upcoming show at The Wright on the theme of colorism. It explored the effects of colorism across cultures and how people process related experiences.
Hosted in front of a live audience, Satori helps create a space of vulnerability, honesty and compassion.
Take a listen to the conversation and learn more about The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers and the impact of sharing intimate life experiences.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
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Detroit City Council’s Historic Designation Advisory board is nominating the Bagley-West Vernor commercial district in Southwest Detroit for the National Register of Historic Places.
The board will present to nomination to the neighborhood on September 11, and answer questions about the benefits of receiving the designation.
A spot on the register could open up many federal dollars for the area to restore and revive many of the buildings in the corridor.
Michael Gutierrez is a resident of the area and a journalist with the El Central Hispanic News. His family also owns Mexican Village Restaurant on Bagley.
“Mexican Village wasn’t just serving food,” Gutierrez said. “Upstairs they were also hosting labor union meetings in the 1950s where Latino workers were fighting for better conditions.”
Gutierrez says many of the buildings and businesses in the area date back to 1800s. It’s been a cultural, social, and economic hub for the Latino community for a long time and recognition through this designation would provide a sense of validation.
“There’s something to be said, when you’re walking on the streets of your own neighborhood and you know that there’s this is kind of like, not just the beating heart of the Latino part of your city, but that you know that this place has roots, that that really go back for a long time.” Guiterrez said.
If approved, the designation would open the corridor up to financial incentives and tax credits up to 45% for renovations and restoration of the buildings.
It could also attract more visitors to the area, which can provide a boost for small businesses.
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Last Monday, tens of thousands of people walked across the Mackinac Bridge as part of an annual Labor Day tradition. Beneath their feet was nearly 70-year-old metal that for the past few years has been slowly getting replaced and then sold off.
So, who ends up buying pieces of the Mackinac Bridge? And how far those pieces end up traveling around the globe?
A beloved landmark
You may have an early childhood memory of crossing the Mackinac Bridge for a trip Up North or maybe you’re a transplant to the state who was wowed seeing the Mighty Mac for yourself for the first time.
Kim Nowack is the director of the Mackinac Bridge Authority. She says when the MBA began replacing the decades-old grating that millions of people drive over every year, people would call asking if they could have it. ”Everybody seems to have some kind of story about the Mackinac Bridge. And so just getting a piece of it for themselves, whether it’s large or small, is on a lot of people’s list of things to do. ”
For a while, the authority would send those folks to a scrap yard. But that changed around 2018.
“We realized that there was a market for these pieces, and many people were interested in having them,” says Nowack.
The MBA now sells different sizes of grating, from small pieces at its office to auctions of 40-foot-long cuts of metal.
In local business
And if you search websites like Etsy, you’ll find many listings for jewelry, wall art and other metalwork all made from these pieces of the bridge. One of those small businesses is Atomic Rabbit Iron Work based out of Charlotte.
James and Megan Race are in their home blacksmithing workshop where James is heating up a piece of the bridge in a red-hot forge, so it’s malleable enough for him to shape it into a bottle opener on his anvil. “Getting these pieces, every time you touch it and you work with it, it just reminds you of going to the UP and all those great memories.”
The Races have shipped their creations, the bottle openers as well as keychains and necklace pendants to all 50 states and even internationally.
“With the people that we sell it to, the stories are so fun,” they say. Like a couple who used a piece as part of a cake topper for their wedding on Mackinac Island. Or a woman who buys one for her husband for every time he participates in a certain bike tour.
DeWitt resident Jan Brnitnall also bought a small piece of the bridge from the Races. It looks like a little cross, cut from where two pieces of metal met for the bridge grating. “It has on it different colors of paint, of the different coatings of paint that have been applied to it over the years,” Brnitnall points out.
In the 18th century, her ancestor came from France to the region to trade fur. “My third great grandfather traversed the straits in a voyager canoe. And I wanted a piece of that to remember him.”
Going to the ends of the Earth
Just as people have come from across the globe to Michigan, it seems like the Mackinac Bridge has made its way worldwide, and even to the South Pole
Indiana resident Brendan Fisher helped incorporate some medallions cut from a piece of the bridge into the ceremonial South Pole marker while working a heavy equipment job in Antarctica.
He describes the marker. “It’s surrounded by 13 flags of different company countries that signed the Antarctic Treaty. you can take a picture with the reflective ball of the marker, and you have the South Pole Station as your backdrop.”
In a video a colleague took, the winds whips around Brendan and the flags as he fits the ball onto the white and red striped pole. You can see his breath as his friend cheers him on.
“Once you start making things out of history, you’re kind of making double the story,” says Fisher.
Fisher’s Bridge medallions were also added to the 2024 geographical South Pole marker, which gets replaced every year as the pole shifts.
“Now it’s in a display case down there at the South Pole. When that display case gets too full, there they ship maybe 10 at a time, to the Smithsonian where it’ll live till eternity,” says Fisher.
The Mackinac Bridge may only span 5 miles, but with the help of some of its biggest fans, its reach is worldwide.
On August 28th, 1963, nearly 250,000 people from around the country marched to the Mall in Washington D.C, to hear remarks from civil rights activists. The climax of the event was Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
Detroit was well-represented at the March – with hundreds of area residents attending the event. Among them was the Reverend Nicholas Hood, Senior – then pastor of Plymouth United Congregational Church. Back in 2013, he shared his memories of the day with WDET’s Jerome Vaughn.
Hood said the day was electric.
“It was the most amazing experience. As far as you could see, there were buses loaded with people from all over the country, coming into Washington DC. It was just unbelievable.”
Hood said it was a joyous day, but no one knew what to expect. Civil rights leaders reviewed their speeches, writing and re-writing remarks. But Hood said there was just one speech that people remembered.
“Well, I’m telling you, he just mesmerized the audience. He electrified the audience. And when he got to the ‘I have a dream’ portion, there was a rhythm to it. And when he got into the rhythm, people all throughout the mall got into the rhythm with him. ‘I have a dream. I have a dream.’ And he was saying something.”
Hood said hearing Dr. King’s speech was a spiritual experience. He said it was a day where Blacks felt like human beings. This was during the struggle for Civil Rights, where Blacks were beaten and even killed in Southern states for speaking out against injustice. “It was a day when we were given a moment of relief from the daily burden of racial segregation.”
The Reverend Nicholas Hood, Senior attended the March on Washington in August 1963. He worked with Doctor King and other civil rights leaders in the 1950’s when he lived in New Orleans. Hood said he had no idea the march would be a historic event.
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The Trump administration wants American museums to be less critical of our history.
On Tuesday, the White House called for a “comprehensive internal review” of eight Smithsonian museums. They want institutions to celebrate American exceptionalism instead of discussing race and America’s racial history, and to avoid negatively discussing the president.
Already, one Smithsonian museum changed its exhibit about President Donald Trump. It omitted that the president made false statements challenging his 2020 election loss, as well as a statement that said Trump delivered a speech encouraging lawless action at the Capitol.
The current administration says it wants our museums to end partisanship and to “restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.” But many worry that, instead, the president is stoking an already-heated culture war and limiting free speech.
How should these museums respond to political pressure? How should American museums react to criticism and make appropriate changes? And, what is their role in critiquing and celebrating American life?
We asked Devon Akmon, Director of Michigan State University Museum and core faculty member in MSU’s Arts, Cultural Management & Museum Studies program for his perspective.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
Founder Dr. Charles H. Wright was well known throughout the city, having worked in the maternity ward of the Hutzel Women’s Hospital
The Charles H Wright Museum of African American History has been a staple for generations of Detroiters.
It’s been 60 years since The Wright first opened its doors in 1965, the same year that the Voting Rights Act was signed into law.
Through the years, The Wright has been a place of learning and a frequent field trip destination. The museum offers visitors the chance to learn histories that are often left out of major cultural institutions.
Director of Design and Fabrication Kevin Davidson spoke with The Metro’s Tia Graham about the legacy of The Wright.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
A Wayne State success program is providing an evening of jazz an poetry to raise money.
The Crockett-Lumumba Scholars provides assistance to incoming freshman as they transition to college. Students in the program are also enrolled in courses that teach them about their cultural roots, community building, and social responsibility.
This Saturday, August 16th, Crocket-Lumumba Scholars will host Homegrown: An Evening of Detroit Jazz and Poetry at the Gretchen Valade Center for Jazz. The fundraiser will feature renowned artists Marion Hayden, Michigan’s Poet Laureate Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd, Allen Dannard, and Tariq Gardner.
David Goldberg, the director of Crockett-Lumumba Scholars, and Dr. Melba Joyce Boyd joined the show to discuss the program’s importance.
Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.
WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
This week’s events range from relaxing sound baths and poetry readings to high-energy concerts and festivals. Plus, a celebration for a unique Detroit landmark. Read on to learn more.
An outdoor poetry performance at the museum’s Heritage Garden in partnership with Field Trip, a Hamtramck-based poetry group. Performers include Eleni Sikelianos, Aditi Machado and Jamaal May. The event goes from 6–8 p.m.
An alternative-indie-rock concert featuring bands from across Michigan. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to public radio. Doors open at 7 p.m.
A weekend-long outdoor festival featuring an art show, live entertainment, carnival food and family-friendly activities. The festival is open from 8 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and from 6:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
A celebration of National Barbecue Weekend featuring grilled meats and live performances by R&B and soul singers. The festival is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. all weekend. Admission is free until 4 p.m. on Friday and until 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. After that, admission is $15. Kids under 12 get in free all weekend.
A women’s empowerment conference featuring expert-led conversations, guided networking activities and locally-sourced goodies. Themes include financial freedom, finding confidence and building community. The event goes from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and space is limited.
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit
Sunday, Aug. 10
$15 for museum members, $25 for non-members
An immersive sound bath experience coinciding with the museum’s exhibition, “Luminosity: A Detroit Arts Gathering.” There are two one-hour sessions at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Participants are asked to bring their own mat for seating.
A family-friendly festival celebrating the history surrounding Palmer Park’s Log Cabin. There will be Civil War-era activities, live musical performances, storytelling, reenactments and free ice cream for the first 500 visitors. Festivities go from 1–4 p.m.
A musical showcase featuring Detroit’s top Tiny Desk Contest performers of 2025. The lineup includes powerhouse soul vocalist BETH, folk singer-songwriter Corazon Szell, innovative multi-instrumentalist Samuel Nalangira, and jazz fusion group Tariq Gardner & the Evening Star. Gates open at 6 p.m. and music starts at 7 p.m.
A spin-off of the Charivari Detroit Festival featuring over 50 artists and dozens of events across the city in celebration of electronic music culture. Featured artists include Delano Smith, Rimarkable, Jon Dixon, Problematic Black Hottie, Rebecca Goldberg and more. Individual events range from $12–$35, and all-access passes are available for $92.
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WDET strives to cover what’s happening in your community. As a public media institution, we maintain our ability to explore the music and culture of our region through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
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