Cover Story
Detroit is Afro Nation
When we asked the organizers of Afro Nation to describe the vibe of the festival, they looked at each other speechless. “You just have to experience it,” they finally replied. “It’s [like] nothing you’ve ever seen before.” Afro Nation is touted as the world’s largest Afrobeats festival, and it’s coming to Detroit this weekend. Calling…
Detroit Vegan event runs alongside Detroit Foodie Fair
Detroit Foodie Fair is hosting its fourth annual event at Eastern Market this year, and for the second year in a row, a Detroit Vegan event will be held alongside the festival to raise awareness about vegan living and offer a wider range of food options. The fair is happening on Sunday, Sept. 10 from…
New Ypsilanti business Bloodroot Herb Shop hopes to be a community resource
Indoor plants, zines, and jars filled with herbs line the walls of this new small business in Ypsilanti. Bloodroot Herb Shop, founded by Corinne Denomme and Alex Rae Crofoot, stands as a testament to the duo’s lifelong dreams of fostering a resilient and joyful community space centered around the power of herbs, education, and holistic…
In defense of Leo’s Coney Island and Coney culture
Places like Leo’s Coney Island stand for something. For Michiganders, they’re monuments to working-class food culture. Two “Detroit-style” restaurants opened in Phoenix years ago, where I had been living. Of course, I was curious. One promoted pizza à la Buddy’s and Jet’s. The other advertised itself as our kind of Coney Island. I popped in…
The Best of Detroit 2023 reader’s poll is now open!
It’s that time of the year again… time to vote in the annual Metro Times “Best of Detroit” poll! Now’s your chance to celebrate everything that you love about metro Detroit, including food and drink, arts and entertainment, shopping, cannabis, and more. You can vote once a day until the poll closes at midnight on…
Muralist pays colorful tribute to Michigan wildlife along Dequindre Cut
A muralist and outdoor enthusiast is transforming a cement wall along Detroit’s Dequindre Cut into a colorful homage to wildlife that is native to Michigan. The mural by Ed Irmen will feature eight different species on a wall that was part of the support structure for the former Grand Trump Railroad line near the intersection…
Greensky Bluegrass announces mini Michigan tour
Jam band Greensky Bluegrass has announced a string of Michigan dates, including a New Year’s Eve show in its hometown of Kalamazoo. The Michigan dates include Thursday, Dec. 28 at the Temple Theatre in Saginaw, Friday, Dec. 29 at the Fillmore in Detroit, and Saturday, Dec. 30 and Sunday, Dec. 31 at the State Theatre…
City ends Moneybagg Yo’s Detroit show early due to capacity issues
While Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo recently canceled a string of tour dates allegedly due to low ticket sales, his latest Detroit show appears to have had the opposite problem. The Sunday concert at the Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre was cut short due to a large crowd. “Fire Marshalls shut down Moneybagg Yo’s show due to over…
Afro Nation festival donates $100k to Detroit’s Motown Museum
After a weekend of celebrating global Black music in Detroit, the international Afro Nation music festival donated $100,000 to the city’s Motown Museum. Festival organizers held an afterglow party for its staff at the museum on Monday, where they presented the funds. “We’re very proud to be making a charitable donation of $100,000 dollars to…
DTE’s Fermi 2 nuclear power plant shut down after leak detected
DTE Energy shut down its Fermi 2 nuclear plant in Monroe County on Sunday after a leak was detected in the drywell area that surrounds the reactor about 30 miles south of Detroit. The public is not in danger, and the plant is in “safe, stable condition,” DTE spokesman Stephen R. Tait tells Metro Times.…
Don’t sleep on Baker’s Keyboard Lounge in Detroit
Got a Detroit music tip? Send it to [email protected]. Good vibrations: Self-described “multi-sensory artist” Sophiyah E. is probably best known for her textured live compositions she makes with sound bowls and electronics. She knows a thing or two about how vibrations and frequencies work together to massage our brain and make us happy — you…
Lawsuit: Soup served with a rat’s foot at Macomb County Olive Garden
A Madison Heights man ended up in urgent care after he nearly swallowed a mouthful of minestrone soup that contained the claws of a severed rat’s foot at an Olive Garden restaurant in Warren, according to a recently filed lawsuit — a claim the Italian-style casual dining chain denies. Thomas Howie was having dinner with…
Bob Dylan announces Grand Rapids tour date
Bob Dylan has announced a string of new tour dates, including a stop in Grand Rapids. The beloved singer-songwriter, now 82, is set to perform at the DeVos Performance Hall on Saturday, Oct. 14. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday at ticketmaster.com. Dylan is touring in support of his 39th studio album,…
Movies will once again be affordable on National Cinema Day
Gone are the days of casually catching a film at the movie theater that wouldn’t hit you right in the budget. Now, we must pay over $20 in exchange for having a full experience (which we’re not mad about) — kicked back chairs, full meals, larger-than-life screens, you name it. But, on National Cinema Day,…
Stiiizy celebrates first anniversary in Michigan with freebies, deals, product drops
Stiiizy, the popular cannabis brand that opened its first dispensary in Michigan last year, is celebrating its one-year anniversary in Ferndale with giveaways, deals, prizes, product drops, and some free grub this weekend. The celebration will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday at Stiiizy’s dispensary at 624 E. Nine Mile Rd.…
‘Gran Turismo’ tells the thrilling (true!) story of a video gamer who became a race car sensation
As we wind down this very crazy summer of movies, where the two biggest hits were a gonzo, feminist manifesto starring an iconic toy doll and a time-twisting biopic about the guy who invented the atomic bomb (that is, when he wasn’t getting butt-bald-nekkid with Florence Pugh), I think it’s best we close things out…
Lapointe: At a late-summer day’s Dream Cruise, some rides more welcome than others
So this gray-bearded guy wearing shades, camo clothing, and a “Vietnam Veteran” cap drove down the west side of Woodward Avenue Saturday and parked his Jeep in the driveway of a restaurant lot. This was at the Dream Cruise, in the noon hour, just south of 14 Mile Road in Royal Oak. But his vehicle…
Dark Capricorn Rising is the Heavy Rock Band of the New Millennium!
If you are looking for a rock band that can deliver powerful, professional, and polished music with a dark and dynamic edge, you found it! Dark Capricorn Rising is a neo heavy rock band based in Canton, MI and is the perfect choice for record companies and other entities who want to work with talented,…
Kid Rock was caught drinking Bud Light and we can’t stop laughing at him
LOL. Last night Kid Rock was pictured drinking a Bud Light at a concert after he led an effort to cancel the company. It wasn’t long ago he shot up a case of Bud Light with an AR-15. https://t.co/HpQS6DHyri pic.twitter.com/fPW2rG64M7 — Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) August 18, 2023 Michigan native Kid Rock joined a cancel culture…
Afro Nation Detroit festival set times announced
Afro Nation, the international African music festival descending on Detroit for the first time this weekend, has announced its artist set times. The event celebrates the sounds of the African diaspora, with acts ranging from afrobeats, hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and more. They include headliners like Nigerian star Burna Boy, with hometown Detroit additions including rapper…
Ex-Detroit cop charged with kidnapping and raping a relative
A retired Detroit police sergeant has been charged with kidnapping and raping a family relative and was a fugitive for two weeks before authorities recently caught up with him out of state. James Everett Sharpe Jr. was charged with kidnapping, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, two counts of third-degree criminal sexual misconduct —…
Ebony Riley returns to her hometown of Detroit following debut EP to perform at Afro Nation
Ebony Riley left Detroit, where she grew up, to pursue modeling in 2011. Bright-eyed with her life packed in a few suitcases, a young Riley auditioned for America’s Next Top Model, hoping to get her big break. Her entry into stardom didn’t come with the reality TV show like she had hoped, however. Riley didn’t…
‘Landscape with Invisible Hand’ envisions alien invasion as corporate takeover
A black-comic story of an alien invasion — or, more exactly, an alien insinuation — Landscape with Invisible Hand can’t be faulted for a lack of ambition. Through its science-fictional funhouse mirror, the film manages to reflect a number of urgent contemporary issues — primarily income inequality, but also the deformation of our behavior by…
Aretha Franklin’s longtime bassist tells all in ‘My Friend the Queen From Her Court Jester Ralphe Armstrong’
She is still among us. Our magnificent waterfront amphitheater, hailed as one of the top 100 concert venues in the world, bears her name. A major motion picture and TV miniseries have been based on her life. Her voice is the soulful soundtrack of a generation, seemingly heard everywhere across the music radio dial and…
Alarming racial disparity found in Ferndale arrests and traffic tickets – again
Black drivers are disproportionately ticketed and arrested by Ferndale cops along the Eight Mile Road border with Detroit, according to a two-year investigation by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI). The report, titled “Lifting the Veil on Racial Profiling in Ferndale,” found that police in the suburban city engage in “predatory”…
Kenny Tudrick releases new single in tribute to late Detroit Cobras singer Rachel Nagy
Somewhere along the banks of the Black River in rural Sanilac County, Kenny Tudrick is fixin’ to light out for the territory. After a decade of laying relatively low and helping raise a family with his partner, musician and photographer Drea Duchene, Tudrick is ready for the country. But before he hits the road this…
Cass Corridor’s Simone DeSousa Gallery changes name to Matéria, adds second location in Core City
Simone DeSousa Gallery is re-entering the chat as Matéria. The Cass Corridor gallery is not only changing its name but is adding a second location in Detroit’s Core City neighborhood at 4725 16th St. Just in time for the Detroit Month of Design, the Core City Matéria will open with two concurrent exhibits on Saturday,…
Detroit’s Beacon Park welcomes world premiere of art installation by Olivier Landreville
Futuristic egg-shaped structures with blue-tinted lighting, calming sounds, and unique visuals will soon be placed around Beacon Park for Detroiters to sit in and use to relax. The innovative art installation “Horizon” by Canadian artist Olivier Landreville will soon be unveiled via the Downtown Detroit Partnership. The exhibit, which will run from Sept. 1-24, aims…
ShiangMi serves up red-hot authentic Chinese cuisine in Farmington Hills
The cuisine of Hunan province is less well known here than some of the other Eight Great Traditions of Chinese cooking, though more famous than others — ever heard of Anhui or Zhejiang? It’s very different from the milder dishes of its neighboring Guangdong province, home of the Cantonese style, and is usually compared to…
Muslim advocacy group calls for boycott of Michigan cider mill over Islamophobic remarks
A Muslim rights group on Wednesday urged Muslims and others to boycott an orchard and cider mill in Monroe County after the owner made Islamophobic remarks that were caught on video. Joe Mahmoud, his wife, and their three young girls took a recent trip to the Erie Orchards & Cider Mill in hopes of picking…
Afro Nation adds DeJ Loaf and Detroit DJs, but fans are getting antsy over lack of information
Afro Nation, the world’s biggest Afrobeats festival and celebration of African culture, is making its way to the Blackest big city in America this weekend. (Yes, we are still claiming that title for Detroit. We don’t care what you say.) But while the festival continues to firm up details, fans are taking to social media,…
Potawatomi tribal council reaches consensus to establish 12-nation confederation
A national gathering of Potawatomi tribal council members in Battle Creek voted on July 27 to form a historic confederation of 12 Nations representing tens of thousands of members across North America. The gathering, hosted by the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi (NHBP), saw seven out of 12 Tribal Councils voting in favor of…
Is the rising price of pork due to greedy corporate pigs?
Chowhound is a weekly column about what’s trending in Detroit food culture. Tips: [email protected]. Reminds me of Animal Farm: As a consequence of a newly passed California law, pork prices are expected to rise in coming months, perhaps exponentially. In a nutshell, the statute now requires the state’s pig farmers to adopt a more humane…
Free Will Astrology (Aug. 16-22)
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 is a hollow globe of aluminum launched into Earth orbit in 1965. Fifty-eight years later, it continues to circle the planet — and is still doing the job it was designed to do. It enables ground-based radar devices to perform necessary calibrations. I propose we celebrate…
