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They call Patricia Lay-Dorsey "Grandma Techno." She's nearly 73 years old, and she's has been a fixture at detroit's Movement Electronic Music Festival since she first attended on a lark in 2005. She can almost always be spotted with her motorized scooter and a camera. The younger festivalgoers have seemingly welcomed her with open arms.
"They call me Grandma Techno and take hundreds of pics of us together," Lay-Dorsey says in a press release. "They give me hugs and ‘kandi,’ the beaded bracelets they make themselves. They clear a path so my mobility scooter and I can get up to the front of the jam-packed stages, parting the crowds like the Red Sea. They lift me out of my seat to I can stand to dance while holding tight to the barricade — and boogie down beside me, grinning from ear to ear."
Lay-Dorsey will exhibit her photos from the festival in They call me Grandma Techno at the Heidelberg Project's POST-HAB gallery, which has an opening reception on Friday. "The photos you see [in They call me Grandma Techno] document all those years and, hopefully, will continue until I take my final breath,” Lay-Dorsey says.
Lay-Dorsey's enthusiasm aligns perfectly with Heidelberg Project founder Tyree Guyton's philosophy, "Heidelbergology." "In many ways, Patricia’s story of overcoming obstacles and using art as a medicine mirrors the story of the Heidelberg Project itself,” says POST-HAB chair Julie MacDonald in a release. “For that, and many other reasons, I could not be more excited to have the inspiring, talented, and vivacious Grandma Techno as the inaugural photographer in exposure.”
They Call Me Grandma Techno opens from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, June 5 alongside artist Daniel Cicchelli’s paintings. The POST-HAB gallery is located at 3632 Heidelberg St., Detroit; more information is available at heidelberg.org. Runs through the end of June.
Read more about Grandma Techno in a recent profile over at Vice.
Staff writer Lee DeVito opines weekly on arts and culture for the Detroit Metro Times.
About The Author
Lee DeVito
Leyland “Lee” DeVito is the editor in chief of Detroit Metro Times since 2016. His writing has also been published in CREEM, VICE, In These Times, and New City. He once asked porn star Stormy Daniels to spank him with an issue of Metro Times. She obliged.
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