Published: 11/18/2009
Boom, boom, boom, boom, gonna shoot you right down. —John Lee Hooker I was taking a brisk health walk on Belle Isle, avoiding the goose dung that seems to be everywhere, when a van with tinted windows pulled up next to me. The window rolled down and my pal Mulenga Harangua waved from behind...[MORE]
Published: 11/4/2009
The 2010 United States Social Forum is planned to be really big. Organizers expect 20,000 to 30,000 grassroots progressive activists to converge in Detroit June 22-26 for meetings, demonstrations and get-your-hands-dirty work around town. Members of hundreds of progressive groups around the world ar...[MORE]
Published: 10/21/2009
Types: News, Race & Prejudice
Sometimes it's funny what people find funny. Some people can take a serious issue and have you laughing uncontrollably before you stop for a moment and wonder just what you're laughing at. Comedian Wanda Sykes does just that in her recently debuted HBO concert special I'ma Be Me. Her work pokes ho...[MORE]
Published: 10/7/2009
It wasn't long after I heard that Tyler Perry would be bringing Ntozake Shange's groundbreaking For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf to the screen that I began to wonder which color Madea would get. The characters in Shange's Obie Award-winning play don't have name...[MORE]
Published: 9/23/2009
My telephone answering machine was blinking like a Christmas tree with some 12 messages when I got home from a walk Friday afternoon. I was pretty surprised since I'd only been out for an hour. I pushed the play button. "Where you at, man?" I heard the voice of conspiracy theorist extraor...[MORE]
Published: 9/9/2009
I often live in a New Orleans state of mind. It's not that I have an endless Mardi Gras party bubbling in my brain, but my family hails from there and the cultural connections still reverberate through my life. A series of coincidences made those vibrations rumble louder as we neared the fourth anni...[MORE]
Published: 8/26/2009
Types: News, Race & Prejudice
Sometime in the mid-1980s I was with a group of poets at a café. We were young and excited because Dudley Randall was among us. Randall, poet laureate of Detroit, founder of Broadside Press and editor of the exciting anthology The Black Poets, was a gigantic figure in my mind, although his calm, nea...[MORE]
Published: 8/12/2009
I was watering my garden the other day when I heard some rustling behind the homemade trellis where my green beans grow. I immediately aimed my spray of water to the area expecting to chase out a cat or squirrel. "Hey, man, stop that," said a high-pitched voice. Out stepped a dripping Mul...[MORE]
Published: 7/29/2009
Types: News, Race & Prejudice
If the po-po shows up at Madea's house, we all know the larger-than-life movie sista is going to jail. We also know that she is not going quietly into the still night. Talk about getting loud! Madea is going to spread the pain far and wide before she goes down. Madea is a fictional character. Henr...[MORE]
Published: 7/15/2009
Types: News, Race & Prejudice
I didn't catch the Black in America series on CNN last year. Apparently I had my head in a hole, or maybe I was busy watching Kwame Kilpatrick go up in flames. However, I've already watched this season's Black in America 2 twice — and it hasn't even aired yet. I saw the not-quite-finished ve...[MORE]
Published: 7/1/2009
Types: News
You know death don't have no mercy in this land. — The Rev. Gary Davis Singer Michael Jackson, 50, is gone. The suddenness of his passing was shocking. Not that anyone entertained the fantasy that Jackson could defy death. Just as the old blind bluesman Davis sang, you know that someday deat...[MORE]
Published: 6/17/2009
As this is the Summer Guide issue of Metro Times, I cast my eye toward the warmer months and speculate. Things have already heated up this season, with urban camping, certainly a thrill in this water winter wonderland of ours. You've probably seen pictures of the tent city at Grand Circus Park, wher...[MORE]
Published: 6/3/2009
Types: News
Is there a really good song out there for Detroit, a theme song that can capture who we are and what we're about? The folks at Radio One — home of prominent stations WCHB, WHTD, WDMK — seem to think so. They're running a "Write Detroit's new theme song and win $5,000" contest....[MORE]
Published: 5/20/2009
Types: News, Environmental
I'm not the biggest meat eater around, but consuming dead animal flesh is OK with me — in moderation. I was a vegetarian for about seven years but gave in when I started craving meat. I read somewhere that your body will tell you what it needs, and I decided to listen. Or as funkmeister ...[MORE]
Published: 5/6/2009
When I say el zocalo, I'm not talking about the restaurant on the southwest side of Detroit, although I have eaten there and enjoyed the food. However, I am talking about something Latino residents in the area may well remember from back home.The zocalo is a sort of a combination park and town s...[MORE]
Published: 4/22/2009
This electing-Detroit-City-Council-based-on-districts thing is exciting me more than anything else in local politics in a long time. Why? Because I think it is high time we have representatives who are more directly accountable to the people, and council by districts will do that. There are t...[MORE]
Published: 4/8/2009
Types: News, Government
Talk about a dysfunctional City Council. Last week's dust-up between President Monica Conyers and council member Sheila Cockrel — just in time to entertain visitors for the NCAA Final Four games — is just another reason for Detroiters to be fed up with the way politics works &mdash...[MORE]
Published: 3/25/2009
Types: News, Race & Prejudice
It's difficult for me to say Cobo Center. That's not because I have a speech impediment. It's just that I'm a native and lifelong Detroiter and I grew up calling the place Cobo Hall. Even after some 23 years of a not-so-new name, it just doesn't roll off my tongue.But, these days, it's hard to...[MORE]
Published: 3/11/2009
Here's a thought to make you wonder what kind of radical nut job Larry Gabriel is: What about legalizing marijuana in Michigan and making hemp a part of our agricultural and industrial economy?I'm not talking about creeping up on the idea in increments. I'm talking full-blown twisting up a doo...[MORE]
Published: 2/25/2009
Types: News, Environmental
Gardening was probably the last thing on the minds of most folks around here last Saturday when heavy snow cut fantasies of an early spring as short as the little heat wave that cruised through town a couple of weeks ago.Any tender green things that may have crept toward the surface surely shr...[MORE]
Published: 2/11/2009
When it comes to lust, deep-down-gotta-have-it, do-anything-to-get-it lust, money can't be beat. Sex is all right, but that's just a fringe benefit of having lots of money, a distraction. Money-lust is what makes the world go round.And when big money, millions and billions, is in play, the lust ...[MORE]
Published: 1/28/2009
My next-door neighbors have recently been the victims of a mini-crime spree. It started a couple of years ago when someone pushed in a French door from their back porch. The next time it was a rear window. The thief stole some video games.A few months ago I was at home when I heard a heavy thump...[MORE]
Published: 1/14/2009
Types: News, Government
The common attitude about metro Detroit is that this is a morbid, decaying Rust Belt city. That's the impression one would take from the opposition in Washington and across the country to the idea of government loans for Detroit automakers. But Soji Adelaja, director of Michigan State Universi...[MORE]
Published: 12/31/2008
Things are bad all over. The international economy is in shambles. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created fear and loathing around the world. Here in the United States it seems that right and left shall never come together. And in Detroit, will the city and suburbs ever bury the hatchet...[MORE]
Published: 12/17/2008
Types: News, Politics, Election
I expected last week's mayoral forum at University of Detroit Mercy to be a circus. What else would you expect in an event with all 15 candidates invited? I figured someone, especially one of the lesser-known contestants, would do something over-the-top to garner attention and headlines.As it ...[MORE]
Published: 12/3/2008
Mike Wimberley stood with a pickax in his hand as he looked over a vacant lot on Baldwin Street. He wore a pair of insulated coveralls and a hooded sweatshirt against the Saturday morning November cold. A group of student volunteers from the University of Michigan scurried around this and a ne...[MORE]
Published: 11/19/2008
Types: News, Race & Prejudice
I feel a lot better post-election 2008 than I did the last two times around. In 2004, it was weeks before I could watch the news for fear of seeing George W. Bush and his smarmy smirk.This year, as the euphoria ebbs over electing Barack Obama next president of the United States, talk has moved...[MORE]
Published: 11/5/2008
Types: News, Government
Detroit moving forward, the new Detroit or the next Detroit, whatever you want to call it, will be highlighted as we go through our dysfunctional and expensive, yet legally mandated, four mayoral elections over the next 12 months.Kenneth Cockrel Jr. is the temporary mayor until we elect another ...[MORE]
Cuisines (1781)
City (1780)
Neighborhood (79)
Reviewed (501)
Critic's pick (175)
Open 24 hours (25)
Late dinner (392)
Brunch (154)
Takeout (652)
Delivery (142)
Outdoor dining (226)
Kid friendly (411)
Food (1185)
Microbrew (237)
No alcohol (88)
Dance floor (849)
Darts (625)
Billiards (698)
Games (759)
TV (1075)
Outdoor seating (402)
Wheelchair access (852)
 |
 |
 |
 |
NewsBlogsBest of Detroit |
MusicArtsCultureScreens |
EventsFoodClubs |
WebArchives |
ClassifiedAutomotiveReal Estate |
Contact UsMetro Times StuffRSS Feed |
|---|
© 2009 Metro Times
Full Feed
