Browse News & Feature Stories

International BAIT: Think local, think global, go 'glocal'

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 1/27/2010

Types: News, Media

I stopped in at the office of Project BAIT the other day. No, I wasn't looking for worms or minnows. BAIT stands for Black Awareness in Technology. At least that's what it stands for today. In 1970, when BAIT's For My People black public affairs television show first aired on Channel 50, it stood fo...[MORE]

Adaptive Obama: Why we shouldn't give up on change just yet

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 1/13/2010

Types: News, Politics

I fall solidly on the "L" side of the political spectrum. You can translate that to liberal or leftist, however you please. Let's just say that I'm not ashamed to come from that side. Never was, even when folks tried to hide behind the "P" (populist or progressive) monikers back ...[MORE]

Beyond bubbles: Growing Detroit from the soil up

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 1/6/2010

Types: News, Business

The last two decades have been economically characterized by bubbles. The 1990s brought us the tech bubble. You remember that don't you? That's when all your computer-savvy friends were walking around with smug grins making all sorts of pronouncements about the dawn of a new era and claiming to be m...[MORE]

Fighting athlete abuse: More satirical oddity from the Harangua files

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 12/30/2009

Types: News

I haven't heard any crazy conspiracy theories lately, so I thought I'd drop in to see my pal Mulenga Harangua and catch up on the latest paranoid rumors. I figured there is plenty of fodder out there with the recent arrest of Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab for allegedly attempting to blow up Nor...[MORE]

Detroit's inferno: Imagining circle of hell for our many rogues

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 12/16/2009

Types: News, Government

The devil came to my hometown Made everything fall down If you ain't seen chaos and destruction Just take a look around The frigid weather that swept in this past week has folks zipping up their overcoats, slipping on gloves and pulling their hats down tight. Which in Detroit begs the question: ...[MORE]

Raking the bottom: Neighborhood problems, the health care debate and more

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 12/2/2009

Types: News, Law

Everybody has some sort of screen for calculating just how bad things have gotten around here. When I started hearing about people breaking into houses and stealing food, I knew the desperation level had ramped up. I got more peeks at the carnage the past couple of weeks. First, I heard about a grou...[MORE]

Motown gunslingers: When the council comes packing, it sets the tone for our favorite crank

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 11/18/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

Getting youth-enized : Organizers exude energey as the 2010 U.S. Social Forum draws nearer

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 11/4/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

LGBT safe and centered: How the Ruth Ellis Center helps at-risk youth

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Enuf cash for girls: When Tyler Perry talks of bringing Ntozake Shange's classic to the screen, look out!

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 10/7/2009

Types: Culture, Media

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]

Council conspiracy?: Why council's rejection of district voting proposal could be self-interested

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 9/23/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

Detroit vs. NOLA: Their city may be bouncing back, ours still seems to be falling

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 9/9/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

Gift of a poet: Clarity: How Dudley Randall used poetry to express the truth elegantly

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Garden-variety politics: On finding a conspiracy-monger in the shrubbery

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 8/12/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

Gates goes to jail: When communication breaks down with the po-po

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Back to black: What a CNN special, coverage of MJ's passing and a 401(k) study says about the state of African-Americans

By Larry Gabriel

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]

The ghost in the mirror : Motown in the shadow of Michael Jackson

By Larry Gabriel

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]

The stadium's last gasp: ... and other musings on the state of Detroit

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 6/17/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

City song: Why efforts to promote Detroit through music strike a sour note

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Meaty matters

By Larry Gabriel

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]

El zocalo: For Detroit to rise, walkable neighborhoods are key

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 5/6/2009

Types: News, Business

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]

Get it right

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 4/22/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]

Real representation

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Mighty whitey

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Home-grown $$$

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 3/11/2009

Types: News, Law

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]

Greens and greenbacks

By Larry Gabriel

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]

Money lust

By Larry Gabriel

Published: 2/11/2009

Types: News, Politics

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]