Sidewalk Festival is one of those events that reminds everyone there's more to celebrate in Detroit than just the downtown area.
The free annual art and community festival is slated for Saturday, July 29, in the East Canfield neighborhood and Saturday, August 5, in Joy-Southfield.
The first day takes over the Canfield Consortium, surrounding attendees in a luscious flower garden with performance art, playscapes, and site-specific installations. The final date of the festival will turn a parking lot into a night market full of local vendors, workshops, and more art installations.
Organizers announced New York-based environmental artist Jordan Weber as this year’s artist in residence on Wednesday. A press release describes Weber’s work as operating “at the intersection of social justice and environmental apartheid through grassroots arts collaboration in industrially polluted neighborhoods such as St. Louis, Minneapolis, Boston, and Des Moines.”
We dig Weber's “American Dreamers (Phase 2)” installation, in which he filled a rundown cop car with a fruit and vegetable garden following the 2014 unrest in Ferguson surrounding Michael Brown’s murder.
Weber is a recipient of the 2023 Guggenheim Award, 2022 United States Artist Award, 2021 Harvard LOEB Fellow, 2020 Joan Mitchell Award, and 2019 Creative Capital Award. His regenerative work is fitting for Sidewalk’s “LUSH/SANCTUARY” theme, which asks attendees to imagine “how one can experience a lush life in the midst of economic insecurity and systemic injustice.”
For Sidewalk, he’s planning an installation in East Canfield Village of architecturally constructed crowns that will honor Queen Idia of Benin and Queen Ranavalona III of Madagascar for their fight against colonialism. It will serve as the entryway to the festival.
“Detroit is one of the beacons of light in the Midwest, which through the arts has endured and overcome many oppressive elements,” Weber said in a statement. “I'm honored to be able to add to this legacy, with the support of Sidewalk Detroit. Like St. Louis, Detroit is an epicenter of historical Black excellence that our communities have been stripped of by oppressive elements of state-sanctioned violence on our lands and bodies.”
East Canfield Village sits in the shadow of the Stellantis-Mack Assembly plant and has some of the highest levels of asthma in the country, according to the release.
Beyond Weber, Sidewalk Festival will also showcase the work of over two dozen local artists including past Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients.
Sidewalk Festival 2023 takes place on Saturday, July 29, 2-8 p.m. in the East Canfield Village neighborhood, 4405 Lemay St, Detroit; and Saturday, August 5, 4-10 p.m. in the Joy-Southfield neighborhood,18900 Joy Rd, Detroit.
For more information, see sidewalkfestival.com.
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