Cover Stories
Tuhfa Kasem used her salutatorian speech to speak out against her Detroit charter school
Tuhfa Kasem wanted more. A senior at Detroit’s Universal Academy charter school, Kasem, then 17, had become disenchanted with the way her school was being run. Her favorite teachers were fired during her freshman year, there was a lack of certified teachers to teach her throughout her high school career, and she and her peers…
In between school and work, Detroit’s Tayiona White is an all-around activist
At 17, Tayiona White is busier than most adults — and she doesn’t seem to mind. A junior at Cass Technical High School, Tayiona heads from the classroom to the Potbelly Sandwich Shop every weekday for a four-hour shift before ending her long day with homework. It’s on the weekends when the 16-year-old directs her…
Budding Broadway star Antonio Cipriano is here to remind you about ‘Jagged Little Pill’
Antonio Cipriano admits he had no idea who Alanis Morissette was when he received a Facebook message from casting director Stephen Kopel asking the 19-year-old performer to audition for the role of Phoenix in the Jagged Little Pill Broadway musical. “I was like, who the hell is this Alanis Morissette person?” Cipriano says. “My mom…
Virtuoso Alexis Lombre is helping to keep jazz alive
At 22, Alexis Lombre has the work ethic of a veteran jazz star. The jazz pianist and vocalist should be exhausted given her touring schedule the past year — all while keeping up with the demands of her senior year at the University of Michigan (she graduates next spring). When not on the road, Lombre…
Generation Z is already changing the world (and Michigan) in both large and small ways
It’s 2019, and Millennials are still getting stereotyped by the media as a bunch of whiny little entitled kids. OK, Boomer, we have some bad news for you: The oldest Millennials are nearly 40 now — far from whiny little entitled kids — and that makes you hella old. It also means that there’s a…
As Little Miss Flint, Amariyanna ‘Mari’ Copeny continues to shine a light on the water crisis
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny — better known on social media as Little Miss Flint — is carrying empty cardboard boxes out of Grand Blanc’s Woodland Park Academy into a recycling bin. She and other volunteers have just finished unloading toys, electronics, and food for a holiday drive for local families. As…
Master collaborator DJ Logic brings shapeshifting set to Ferndale’s Otus Supply
Having emerged from the ’90s hip-hop scene in New York City, Jason Kibler, who performs as DJ Logic, has a whole musical history under his belt. Both a turntablist and musician with a strong foundation in jazz, DJ Logic, 47, has collaborated with the likes of Bob Weir, the Roots, Mos Def, and Carly Simon,…
Never saw the Beatles live? 1964 is the next best thing, and it’s headed to Ferndale’s Magic Bag
If you got to see the Beatles perform, we have two words for you: Suck it. OK, maybe that was a bit harsh, but we’re just super bitter that we’ll never get to see a live performance by what is arguably the most influential band in the history of music. With John Lennon and George…
Hamtramck’s Independent Comedy Club to host Esteban Touma, who has some thoughts about squirrels
Alka Seltzer micro-doser, teacher, writer, and comedian Esteban Touma lost his damn mind when he first saw a squirrel. As a Palestinian and Latino immigrant from Ecuador, Touma had never seen a squirrel and assumed it was just a rat headed to prom. Touma, who became a U.S. citizen last year, has some relatable musings…
Queen biopic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ will get the sing-along treatment at the Michigan Theater
OK, so last year’s Academy Award-winning Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody may not be one of our favorites (we prefer Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There or Gary Busey in The Buddy Holly Story), but what the film managed to do was pretty remarkable. Not only is it the highest-grossing music biopic of all time, but it…
Artist Sean Lynch revives haunted alias No Body with new record and Ann Arbor performance
He’s lived, he’s died, he’s buried, burned, and resurrected himself and others, and has painted his dreams in shades of black and purple. Artist Sean Lynch has served as an actual undertaker, frontman to the deceased dream-pop outfit 800beloved, and, for his latest release as his alias No Body, a disappearing act. 2019’s overlooked The…
With ‘American Idol’ in her rearview, Jena Irene Asciutto continues to forge her own path with Ann Arbor performance
The last time we caught up with Jena Irene Asciutto, it was 2017 and we were getting high. No, really. Back in 2017, after the Farmington Hills native and American Idol finalist — and thankful American Idol loser— had just released her debut record, Cold Fame, we lit up a fat one and celebrated Asciutto’s…
Detroit’s Deadbeat Beat bring jangly jams to the Loving Touch with Junglefowl, Vacation, and Macho Detroit
It’s been a big year for Detroit rock ’n’ roll trio Deadbeat Beat. The band released its third LP, How Far, over the summer, which finally saw critics shed the lazy “surf” descriptor for the more accurate “jangly.” They toured the Midwest, East Coast, West Coast, Canada, and Texas, where the sound guy allegedly said,…
Cirque du Soleil’s ‘AXEL’ is a rock ‘n’ roll circus headed to Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena
Robotic dogs, lasers, figure skating, and the Bee Gees might sound like an ill-fated Xanadu reboot, but we assure you that is not the case. The latest — and 48th — spectacle to come from the creative masterminds of the Cirque du Soleil performance company is the story of self-proclaimed extraterrestrial Axel — artist, musician,…
Dilla’s Delights donut shop plans expansion — but first it needs help
Just weeks after Dilla’s Delights owner Herman Hayes revealed he had been diagnosed with cancer in an Instagram post, the donut shop launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money so it can move to a larger location. “I recently battled cancer and I’m currently recovering,” Hayes wrote on the crowdfunding page. “Due to my recent…
Audio: Warren Mayor Fouts allegedly complains about Black people calling 911, committing crimes
Warren Mayor Jim Fouts allegedly suggested to an appointee that Black people likely call 911 and commit crimes at rates higher than white people. “I can’t say this publicly. I’m wondering how many of the bullshit calls are Blacks,” Fouts tells an appointee in an audio recording obtained exclusively by Metro Times. “They call for…
2020 Budget: Michigan’s kids need more support
Michigan heads into 2020 with a months-long budget impasse behind it, but some analysts contend unresolved funding issues still need attention. Recently signed supplemental spending bills restored budget dollars from K-12 and higher education, public safety, and rural health care. But Alex Rossman, external affairs director with the Michigan League for Public Policy, says lawmakers…
New tax code leaves workers paying higher tax rate than corporations
A new report says 91 of the nation’s largest corporations didn’t pay any federal income taxes in 2018, the first year of the Trump administration’s new tax law. The study, by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says even though the corporate tax rate was lowered to 21%, legal loopholes allowed the corporations surveyed…
AG Nessel says 7 priests were charged in 2019, with more on the way next year
As Attorney General Dana Nessel’s team continues its clergy abuse investigation, her office has shared an update. Seven cases have been charged of abuse so far, and more are on the way in 2020, according to a press release. Two of those priests, Patrick Casey and Brian Stanley, have pleaded guilty. “Our office has made…
Snowflake white supremacists target wrong home in Michigan, horrifying a young family
Dawn Shea was shocked when an FBI agent and cop knocked on her front door in Dexter. She and her family had recently moved from Denver to enjoy a simpler life in a small town. She was pregnant with her second child. The law enforcement officers told her that white supremacists had shared the address…
Detroit police identify 22-year-old suspect in brazen donut stunt on I-94
Detroit police are searching for an Allen Park man accused of brazenly doing donuts as others blocked off traffic on westbound I-94 in Detroit. Police said they suspect the driver of the orange Camaro, featured in a viral video on Sunday, is Devin Cronk, 22. In the Instagram video, a spectator yelled, “We’re on I-94…
Greta Gerwig makes her version of ‘Little Women’ her own
Lines of dialogue sail back and forth across rooms in Greta Gerwig’s new adaptation of Little Women, inflected by stylings personalized with the combination of force, momentum, and innate expression you’d find in sport. Each member of the cast brings to the film a nervy richness in style, postures, and tones that feels stirred and…
Lucas Hedges and Shia LaBeouf grow up in ‘Honey Boy’
The biggest shock of Honey Boy is that Lucas Hedges is — suddenly, improbably, it seems — an adult. Having starred in countless films over the last few years from Boy Erased to Lady Bird and, unfortunately, Three Billboards, he’s been cast quite reliably as a meek and sweethearted teenager, making it a shock to…
Source of toxic ooze on I-696 was supposed to be cleaned up. Instead, it seeped into the ground
The toxic, bright green liquid discovered oozing onto I-696 in Madison Heights came from a shuttered factory that environmental officials spent about $2 million and nearly a year to clean up. So how did the green slime, which was groundwater contaminated with cancer-causing hexavalent chromium, end up on a freeway? State and federal regulators are…
Bill Gates — yes, that Bill Gates — ends up as Michigan woman’s Reddit Secret Santa
Windows 95, anyone? Secret Santa gift exchanges can be quite the gamble. Even more so for folks who partake in online exchanges like the one on Reddit, where participants across the globe are matched up at random and have nothing but a gift questionnaire and the user’s post history to go off of. While some…
‘September’ songwriter Allee Willis has died at age 72
Allee Willis, the Detroit native and award-winning songwriter who penned hits like Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” and the Friends theme song, died Tuesday at her Los Angeles home. She was 72. According to Variety, the cause of death was cardiac arrest. Willis’ other credits include The Color Purple Broadway score, the Pointer Sisters’ “Neutron…
Savage Love: It’s time to put this dumb, messy, shitshow of a relationship behind you
I’m a mid-20s cis straight man. After my girlfriend and I finished college, she moved overseas to start her job. We’ve broken up twice and gotten back together twice. We are interested in opening up our relationship, but I have reservations. She wants the freedom to throw herself into her new world without the constraint…
Horoscopes (Dec. 25-31)
ARIES | March 21 – April 20: Close others may have too much to say about what you “ought” to be doing. It’s not in your nature to be beholden to anyone. Still, the feeling that you need to bow down to those who think they know what’s best for you is filling up your…
The 2019 Dooby Awards: Celebrating Michigan’s most dubious newsmakers
As much as we’d like to just flush 2019 down the drain, it’s tradition at the Metro Times to take one last look back and dole out the Dooby Awards, honoring “the most dubious, foolhardy, baffling, hilarious, or just plain bad stories” of the year. In that sense, 2019 didn’t disappoint. This year’s trophy is…
The best films of 2019 were offbeat, intimate
This year I felt drawn less to spotless, unimpeachable works than I did offbeat, personally inflected ones — few of these choices feel perfected or staid. Even 2019’s awards favorites (Parasite, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Marriage Story) read to me as somewhat intimate, works not shy about showcasing a point of view. Like…
Bill Barr could be a bigger threat to America than the man who appointed him
One of Donald Trump’s few substantive defenses against the allegations that brought about his impeachment last week is that he didn’t try to extort an investigation into Joe Biden and a crackpot DNC server conspiracy theory for his own political benefit, but rather, he sought “a favor though” for the good of the country. The…
The best things we ate in and around Detroit this year
We’re getting hungry just thinking about these memorable dishes. Aunt Dotty Oysters, served at Mabel Gray, Otus Supply, and other fine metro Detroit restaurants See our feature, “In search of Detroit’s best oysters” The complex Aunt Dotty oysters from Massachusetts’ Island Creek Oyster company hold meaty little nuggets that start off briny, then throw a…
The best music of 2019, according to us (duh)
Cue the Succession theme song, because like the characters on the HBO series, popular culture was mad with power…ful music. There was the pastel pop of starry-eyed lover Taylor Swift; Lil Nas X, the chart-topping queer Black hip-hop cowboy who lassoed our hearts — and ears — with a trip down “Old Town Road”; Ariana…
