Detroit on the map

Another article published recently in the Village Voice explores the connection between Detroit’s entertainers and it’s social history, focusing on the impact of artists such as Kid Rock and Eminem. Chuck Eddy examines the racial tension of the city from the riots in the ’60s to the white flight thereafter and alludes a correlation to the popularity of two white rappers coming from the city. He also analyzes the work of the artists. Find the article at villagevoice.com/issues/0027/eddy.shtml. Reading these glimpses on our city from the outside is like noticing a building on your daily trip to work that you’d never seen before. You become a tourist amid your routine. Detroiters need to read such stories critically for exaggeration or exploitation, but perhaps this outside attention will add coals to the fires of drive within the Motor City to bring on a new renaissance, one where we don’t tear down our past, our architecture or art. Maybe we could even embrace the life that’s here and feed it and encourage growth and more life.

Melissa Giannini writes about music for Metro Times. E-mail her at [email protected]