Cover Story
Backlash against General Motors is helping plant the seeds for a green revolution
For thousands of General Motors autoworkers, there was little cheer to be felt this holiday season — which is why, on a Friday evening in early December, a small group of them braved the bitter cold to air their grievances in front of Detroit’s United Auto Workers Solidarity House, not far from GM’s Detroit headquarters.…
Cher is coming to Detroit and she’s going to sing ABBA songs and all is right with the world
“Do you believe in life after love?” Fuck yes, we do. And more than that, we believe in Cher. Following her performance as Meryl Streep’s mom (wait, what?) in 2018’s Mamma Mia sequel, Cher announced her “Here We Go Again Tour” in support of her ABBA tribute album, Dancing Queen. The 72-year-old Oscar, Emmy, and…
Learn how to be the mixologist of your dreams with Detroit Cocktail Camp’s Saturday series
Summer camp is for kids. Detroit’s Cocktail Camp is for thirsty adults looking to shake (and stir) it up this winter. Starting Saturday, DCC will post up at some of metro Detroit’s most popular bars and distilleries, giving guests the chance to learn from master mixologists for six consecutive Saturdays. Brunch drinks will kick off…
Time to bend and snap, y’all — ‘Legally Blonde: The Musical’ will be in Detroit this weekend
Long live Elle Woods — the patron saint of “OMG!” Ever since Reese Witherspoon stepped out as Legally Blonde in, like, 2001, golden-haired babes are no longer dismissed as being dim-witted or dull. Nor are they incapable of winning a court case as a freshman law student based solely on knowing that one cannot wash…
Roses are red, violets are blue, Handmade Detroit will host a Valentine’s Day market for you
Every kiss does not begin with Kay, OK? And who the heck is this Jared guy, anyway? Keep your Valentine’s Day gift-giving local, handmade, and free of blood diamonds. For seven years, VLNTNSDYMRKT has put together an independent market for creatives and the creatively challenged looking for a special way to say ILY IRL. Handmade…
Twiztid’s Astronomicon returns to metro Detroit with Linda Blair, Bam Margera, and Dee Snider
Who says you can’t celebrate Halloween in February? Detroit horrorcore rappers Twiztid return as hosts of the newest pop culture convention — Astronomicon. Once again, the weekend-long event will be held at the Wyndham Garden Sterling Heights hotel, but for Astronomicon’s second iteration they’ve enlisted a celebrity roster that will make heads spin. Bam Margera,…
Claude VonStroke will light up back-to-back nights at the Magic Stick
Voted ‘America’s Best DJ’ in 2016, Claude VonStroke is coming back to Detroit for a “Double Dip” at the Magic Stick. The conductor of booty-poppin’ tech house who has developed a frenzied fanbase with his Dirtybird record label is making his return after mastering a main stage headlining set at Movement in 2018. Dress to sweat…
Detroit police commissioner: Chief Craig must resign as deputy mayor and focus on crime
Detroit police commissioner Willie Burton is calling on Chief James Craig to resign as deputy mayor and focus on reducing slow police response times. And if Craig, who is the acting mayor this week while Mayor Duggan is out of town, can’t “curb violent crime” and reduce police response times by next year, “let’s get…
Get sloppy on Valentine’s Day — American Coney Island will host ‘Coneys by Candlelight’
Lovers can have their own Lady and the Tramp moment this Valentine’s Day but with a deliciously messy and budget-friendly Detroit twist. (On second thought, maybe leave it to spaghetti.) Downtown Detroit’s American Coney Island will host “Coneys by Candlelight” during which couples that don’t mind some gnarly onion kisses can dine on the ultimate…
Wanda Sykes’ Detroit performance could be included in upcoming Netflix special
America needs Wanda Sykes. The queer and black comedian, actress, and advocate has grown accustomed to walkouts from Trump supporters during her recent stand-up shows. Thanks to her no-holds-barred stance on the Cheeto-in-Chief, she took no issue walking away from a high-paying writing gig on the reboot of Roseanne after Roseanne Barr tweeted some racist…
New study claims that Detroit violence is ‘forced and structural’
A new study published by the grassroots organization Force Detroit found that Detroit violence is “forced and structural.” The study by Force Detroit (Faithfully Organizing Resources for Community Empowerment) compiled previous research data and conducted a survey of Detroit residents to bolster the hypothesis that there is a correlation between poverty and violence. The survey…
Metro Times’ United We Brunch event returns to the Majestic Complex
In a nation divided, only one meal dares to bring us together — and that is a little ol’ thing called brunch. Metro Times’ annual brunch-tasting extravaganza, United We Brunch, has expanded to take over the entire Majestic Complex in Midtown for an afternoon of bites from metro Detroit’s best brunch eateries like The Morrie,…
Award-winning author of ‘Behold the Dreamers’ Imbolo Mbue will speak at the Detroit Public Library
The latest installment of the Detroit Public Library’s free winter author series welcomes Imbolo Mbue, author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers. The novel — which earned the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction and the Blue Metropolis Words to Change Award, as well as a featured spot on Oprah’s Book Club — explores…
‘Motor City Muckraker’ Steve Neavling joins Metro Times
Metro Times is pleased to welcome Steve Neavling to our team as a full-time investigative reporter. His first day is today. Lovers of local news will likely recall Neavling’s name from Motor City Muckraker, the independent news website he launched in 2012 after getting fired from the Detroit Free Press for yelling at then-Detroit City…
Tlaib joins Detroit protest against Marathon oil refinery malfunction
Rain pounded the dozens of protesters in Southwest Detroit on Monday afternoon as motorists passing by 1001 Oakwood honked in solidarity. Marathon Petroleum security, meanwhile, kept a watchful eye. A panel of residents, community organizers and state representatives stepped in front of the crowd to air grievances regarding the handling of a weekend malfunction at…
Florence + the Machine to kick off Memorial Day weekend with metro Detroit appearance
Florence + the Machine have announced a North American tour supporting their 2018 album High as Hope that includes a stop at DTE Energy Music Theatre on Friday, May 24. The show comes almost three years since their last stop in Michigan — also at DTE — when the band toured in support of their…
Structural inspection reveals Detroit’s historic Grande Ballroom holds promise for restoration
Kick out the jams, motherfucker — the Grande Ballroom recently passed inspection and has been deemed viable for restoration efforts. The future of legendary venue and rock ‘n’ roll palace has teetered since its closing in 1972. For nearly 45 years the Grande, located at 8952 Grand River Ave., has remained synonymous with the sex,…
‘Real Time’ comedian Bill Maher heads to Detroit’s Fox Theatre this summer
Popular comedian, talk show host, and, at times, liberal whack job, Bill Maher is plotting his course for Detroit this summer. The Real Time with Bill Maher star, who is known for verbally going toe to toe with his political counterparts Ann Coulter and Ben Shapiro, has garnered an astonishing 41 Emmy nominations for his caustic…
Winter Blast returns this weekend with 30-foot slide and free ice skating
Winter Blast is returning to downtown Detroit for a weekend of fun this Friday, Feb. 8 through Sunday, Feb. 10. This weekend metro Detroiters will get a chance to test their bravery by taking on the Winter Blast Polar Plunge, where attendees can take a charitable dive into chilly winter waters to benefit Special Olympics…
Here’s the Super Bowl ad GM didn’t want you to see
Despite the efforts of General Motors to cease and desist, Canadian autoworker union Unifor went ahead and aired a 30-second ad critical of the company during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Titled “GM Leaves Canadians Out in the Cold,” the spot reminds viewers that the Canadian government spent nearly $11 billion bailing the company out…
Kid Rock’s Made In Detroit restaurant is being sued for racial discrimination
A black former bartender at Kid Rock’s Made In Detroit alleges that she was fired by the restaurant’s management for wearing her hair in an afro. The bartender says a manager told her she was let go for overpouring a drink, but she says the real reason had to do with her hair. She alleges…
Mayor Duggan is on vacation, DPD Chief Craig is now in charge
A city spokesman confirmed that Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan has left town to go on vacation, leaving Detroit Police Chief James Craig serving as acting mayor in the interim. Spokesman John Roach confirmed Duggan left Friday to go on vacation next week, but declined to say where the mayor went or why. Under an unusual…
State of Michigan recalls marijuana strains after testing for cadmium, arsenic
While over 250 Michigan municipalities have banned recreational pot shops from sprouting up in their neighborhoods, the state continues to enforce rigorous testing for existing marijuana provisioning centers. Last month, Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs flagged Kalamazoo’s Compassionate Care by Design and Detroit’s Green Mile for products that failed to meet stringent testing…
Sterling Heights erects $300k ‘Golden Butthole’ — spreads criticism and satire
If the city of Sterling Heights wasn’t on the map before, it is now, thanks to a very expensive and gaping monument erected earlier this month. In an attempt to rebrand the city, a golden 35-foot-tall steel and aluminum circle was constructed in a median along M-59 near Lakeside Mall (between Art Van Furniture, Old…
More than 250 Michigan communities have banned marijuana shops — at least for now
Even more Michigan communities have decided to ban the sale of recreational marijuana. According to a new analysis by MLive, more than 250 Michigan municipalities have now banned pot shops, an increase from 60 that were reported earlier this month. In metro Detroit, that includes cities and townships like Pontiac, the Grosse Pointes, Livonia, Troy, Rochester, Birmingham,…
Sen. Debbie Stabenow votes to protect Israel instead of free speech
Democratic Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow voted this week to advance a bill that encourages states to punish businesses and individuals who participate in boycotts against Israel and Israeli companies. In other words, the federal government is attempting to suppress free speech. The Combatting BDS Act is an effort to strengthen similar state laws already on…
Critics call for overhaul after Consumers Energy CEO, who makes $6.8M, asks Michiganders to turn down heat
On Wednesday night, as temperatures dropped to -43 degrees with the wind chill, Consumers Energy sent an emergency message to Michiganders’ cell phones asking them to turn down their thermostats to 65 degrees. That followed a similar plea from Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe, who reported a Wednesday explosion that damaged a Consumers Energy facility…
Michigan officials address energy preparedness, warn consumers of scammers in wake of state of emergency
Amid a state of emergency that called on Michigan residents to conserve heat amid sub-zero temperatures, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is now calling for a review of the state’s energy supply and preparedness. On Thursday, Whitmer called upon the Michigan Public Service Commission to conduct a review following a recent fire that occurred at the Consumers Energy…
For God’s sake Michigan, please keep your thermostat turned down until midnight
On Wednesday evening, Michiganders got an emergency phone alert instructing Consumers Energy customers to turn their thermostats down to 65 degrees until noon on Friday. The call was made due to a fire at the company’s compression station in Macomb County — which couldn’t have come at a worse time, as a blast of arctic…
Detroit Restaurant Week announces 2019 lineup
Detroit Restaurant Week is making its return in 2019, offering residents an opportunity to taste test restaurants sprinkled throughout several Detroit neighborhoods. On Thursday, DRW announced 25 restaurants that will be participating this year, including the return of favorites such as Roast, Cliff Bell’s, Grey Ghost, La Dolce Vita, and Central Kitchen + Bar. The…
Ten years later, it’s still so cold in the D
On her instant classic “It’s So Cold in the D,” T-Baby posed the eternal question: When it’s so cold out, “How the fuck do we supposed to keep peace?” Now, more than a decade later, the track is as relevant as ever. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has called a state of emergency as another dangerous polar…
White Detroit Police officer reassigned after taunting young black woman in Snapchat video
A white Detroit Police officer is under internal investigation following a Snapchat video during which the officer can be heard saying “Bye, Felicia” as he records a young black woman walking home in frigid temperatures. Corporal Gary Steele of Detroit’s sixth precinct stopped driver Ariel Moore for expired registration on Tuesday night, near Stout Street…
ICE ran a fake college in metro Detroit to trick undocumented immigrants
On Wednesday, unsealed federal indictments in Detroit revealed that the Department of Homeland Security established a fake university in Farmington Hills to lure foreign students that wished to remain in the U.S. using phony documents. In 2015, the undercover operation “Paper Chase” created the fictional University of Farmington as an elaborate ruse to catch “recruiters”…
Spooky Detroit event will honor the occultist Cagliostro
To honor the 50th anniversary of the death of great occultist Cagliostro, his “allegedly” haunted 19th-century rectory is opening its doors for a free night of conjuring and congregating. The one-night event Cagliostro: A Haunted Exhibition will transform the Rectory into a gallery space which will feature spooky and seductive art from Legerdemain (Brian Sheehan),…
Dem leader: Palestinian-American Tlaib should ‘learn’ about Palestine
Rep. Eliot Engel, a corporate New York Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is displeased with Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and he’s in the media with some patronizing advice on how she should talk and behave. Tlaib is the nation’s first Palestinian-American congresswoman, and in December she announced that she’s planning to take a congressional…
Former Lafayette Coney Island owner dies
George Keros, the former owner of Lafayette Coney Island, died on January 24, 2019 at age 87 in his home in Naperville, Illinois. Keros was the son of founder Vasili “William” Keros, who immigrated to Detroit from Greece with his wife, Anastasia. The elder Keros founded Lafayette Coney Island in 1924 next to American Coney…
Detroit Foundation Hotel faces lawsuit over racial discrimination
A civil rights lawsuit filed against the Detroit Foundation Hotel alleges management refused to promote black employees or allow them to participate in company functions, calling them “too dirty.” The downtown boutique hotel, which opened in 2017 in the old Detroit Fire Headquarters and was featured in Time Magazine’s World 100 Greatest Places of 2018,…
Matt Knio says Detroit French pastry shop Cannelle will open Friday
Birmingham French pastry chef Matt Knio’s second Cannelle location opens on Feb. 1 in downtown Detroit’s Capitol Park. The new shop is at 45 Grand River Ave. across from Lovers Only. Knio has already established himself as one of the city’s best pastry chefs, and the shop will offer a range…
Dwight Schrute, aka Rainn Wilson, is coming to Motor City Comic Con
When it comes to sitcom characters, few can evoke the level of irritating endearment as The Office’s Dwight Schrute, the hopelessly naïve wise-ass and Assistant to the Regional Manager at Dunder Mifflin. The character, played by Rainn Wilson, has become permanently embedded into fans’ memories for his devastating center-part and unwavering loyalty to a paper company…
Detroit’s Fyre Festival LARP already got banned from Belle Isle, is now even more like actual Fyre Festival
When you associate an event with the infamous failed Fyre Festival, it’s bound to encounter some roadblocks — and it looks like the previously reported Fyre Festival LARP tentatively scheduled to take place on Detroit’s Belle Isle is almost instantly off to a rocky start. In fact, it’s already appropriately shaping up to be a total…
Michigan may vote on eliminating the lame duck session
A bipartisan group of legislators is co-sponsoring a resolution for a constitutional amendment that could lead to the elimination of the state’s controversial lame duck session. HJR-C comes a month after the conclusion of a lame duck session in which the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed a raft of constitutionally questionable legislation aimed at stripping power…
Savage Love: ‘Is it OK to lie to men about not using birth control to get them to use condoms?’
I’m a 21-year-old woman, and I have an IUD. I’ve had sex with quite a few men, and one thing seems to be almost constant among them: trying to fuck without condoms. Many of the men I’ve been with seem to be perfectly fine and terribly eager to have sex without condoms. This has always…
John Sinclair launched a lawsuit to declassify cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug
You let folks smoke marijuana, and the next thing you know they’ll want to declassify it and get the cops off their backs. That’s what’s happening with a lawsuit filed against the state of Michigan last week by longtime marijuana activist John Sinclair and others calling for the state to declassify marijuana as a Schedule…
Chandra revives her pre-teen post-punk band, more than three decades later
When most people are 2, they finger paint. When Brooklyn-born Chandra Oppenheim was 2, she was enlisted to participate in the conceptual work of her father, famed artist Dennis Oppenheim. The piece was called “Color Application for Chandra” and it involved a parrot teaching Chandra color names. Her father taught the parrot the names, which…
Horoscopes (Jan. 30-Feb. 5)
ARIES: March 21 – April 20 Everything has just reached critical mass. This is either feeling bad or good, depending on how much of the truth you have been willing to face. Those of you who have made it through the gauntlet with your integrity intact are probably breathing a sigh of relief that you’ve…
Review: What it’s like to eat at Ingham County Jail
Ready your appetites. With generous support from the Poor Peoples Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and assistance from Judge Frank DeLucca of 54-A District Court, we sent our intrepid reporter Bill Wylie-Kellermann incognito into the Ingham County Jail for a 10-day excursion to sample its hostelry and cuisine. His report follows. I always…
Nancy Pelosi is way better at this game than Trump is
If Donald Trump were a better politician, this all could have been avoided. I’m not speaking of his administration’s breathtaking incompetence or his inability to grasp even the basic points of actual governance. The last two years have demonstrated an avalanche of ineptitude from tip to stern. Rather, I speak of the thing the president…
Review: Period romance ‘Cold War’ lacks love, depth
“After so many years, even the fire of passion dies, and with it what was believed the light of the truth,” wrote Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco in The Name of the Rose. Eco’s writing contemplates the relationship between time, emotion, and personal certainty, as does Polish writer-director Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War. Loosely based…
