A car-free Motor City? Detroit to try Open Streets program
Starting this fall, for two Sundays, Michigan Avenue and Vernor Highway from Campus Martius through Corktown and Mexicantown could be closed to traffic.
Detroit Institute of Arts partners with Art in The Park festival in Plymouth
Live entertainment, children’s activities, and interactive displays will be featured throughout the weekend.
Cross-country popup champagne tour to hit Detroit this summer
Because summertime is reason enough to pop open a bottle of bubbly, the the nationwide Veuve Clicquot Journey popup champagne tour is coming to metro Detroit on July 15 and 17. The festivities kick off 5 p.m.-7 p.m., July 15 at the Plum Market North Campus location in Ann Arbor. Unwind with a live DJ set,…
Dead Moon’s Fred and Toody Cole to play El Club in September
We’re excited to see them play a stripped-down set of material from throughout their careers.
Edsel Ford II will not be charged after Grosse Pointe Farms arrest
Ford spent about 12 hours in custody and was released shortly before noon Tuesday.
105.1 is now Detroit’s Throwback Hip Hop and R&B station
And it’s playing 10,000 songs in a row to kick things off.
Update: heartbreaking news from the wizarding world of Harry Potter
Say it isn’t so, J.K. Rowling! You may remember a few months ago that Harry Potter author and all around Queen J.K. Rowling announced a slew of magical schools of Witchcraft and Wizardry from around the world – including one special North American school called Ilvermorny via Pottermore. Rumors swirled the Internet faster than a Nimbus…
Free Detroit music camp explores the interplay of music and literacy
The next generation of Detroit hitmakers have a chance to enroll in a free summer camp, thanks to Eminem and Carhartt. We know, keep reading. Verses: Exploring Literacy through Lyrics and Song is a program offered by the Michigan State University Community Music School-Detroit (CMS-D), located on Woodward Avenue in Midtown., that explores the interplay of music and literacy,…
Urban beer garden to open in Detroit
“Most backyards are boring AF, Old Miami and a few others excluded,” says Mark R. Beard. Beard is a co-founder of Stadt Garten, an urban beer garden that’s set to open up in Midtown on Saturday, July 16. It will not be boring AF. Stadt Garten, which translates to “City Garden,” will serve beer made…
Hawaiian 8th grader offered football scholarship from U-M
Eighth grade quarterback Sol-Jay Maiava may be on the 2020 U-M football roster, after being offered a scholarship from Coach Jim Harbaugh directly at the U-M satellite camp in Hawaii. As Youth1 reports, Maiava is 6 feet and 1 inch tall, and weighs in at 180 pounds (170 according to his Twitter though). This year he will…
Michigan’s newest education fight: Public aid for private schools
If you thought the charter vs. public debate was bad, get ready for the next frontier in ed wars …
Farts and Erections: How the most absurd movie of the year is also the most poignant
I had this debate with myself while my dog was shitting. It was about whether or not I choose to be lonely. Half of me said: “You have no patience and little interest in the mundane nature of others, so you avoid them and that’s why you’re lonely.” I nodded, and replied with a long…
Detroit Sports 105.1 is dead, and Jeff Moss is PISSED
In a veritable tirade posted on DetroitSportsRag.com, Detroit sports blogger Jeff Moss spoke out on last night’s flipping of 105.1 WMGC, a former Detroit sports radio station, to an oldies station. Moss details at length his perceived mismanagement of the radio station from its beginnings three years ago, his disappointment at being left with the…
Yeah, Michigan’s #1, but f*ck this old Thrillist list for real
Apparently some site named Michigan the No. 1 state last year, and everyone’s writing about it. Again. Since we didn’t write about it last year, and since everyone’s writing about it again, we figure now’s as good a time as ever to throw our 2 cents in. About this list: yes, yes, it’s great that…
Michigan is almost the least patriotic state in this great nation
We at Metro Times are patriots, believe it or not. This fine country allows us to the right to write about things like this, and like this, and to post ads in the back of our book that have some alleging we’re part of international crime organizations, and for that, we celebrate. Of course, this…
Detroit native returns home to open indoor cycling studio
Amina Daniels was 11 when she started her first business. It was a concession stand she manned during baseball games in Roseville, and the young entrepreneur handled everything from the inventory list to the cashbox. Now, the metro Detroit native is using her lifelong entrepreneurial spirit to bring the first contemporary indoor cycling studio to the city. After graduating with…
Charges dropped against graffiti artist/human fedora Shepard Fairey and he’s probably disappointed
On Wednesday it was reported that felony charges lobbed by the city against mainstream graffiti artist Shepard Fairey had been dropped by a Wayne County Circuit Judge. For a quick recap, the story of Fairey and his illicit Detroit-graffiti-escapades began last spring (May 2015, to be exact), when, in a totally by-the-books, sort-of-boring fashion, Dan Gilbert’s…
Parallels between Flint and New York village with tainted water supply
It appears officials in a New York village knew of possible health risks but failed to warn citizens.
Hip-hop supergroup Ugly Heroes release second album
“We may not be the heroes this world needs, we’re definitely not the heroes this world wants, but at least we’re here.”
Late night host Samantha Bee visits Dearborn to find out why its residents don’t report terrorists
To some racists people (cough, Donald Trump), Muslim Americans in Dearborn (and the rest of the nation) are not doing a good enough job of tracking down extremists in their midst. While most of us in metro Detroit understand how fucking idiotic this is, there’s no harm in a little late night TV coverage…
Ouch! 3-year-old finds glass in her Wendy’s burger
This is not what we would call a happy meal.
Chain & the Gang release new video featuring local experimental musicians
The song was recorded here in Michigan at the now-defunct World Class Tapes studio in Ann Arbor.
Detroit’s Mosaic Youth Theatre performs at the Apollo and Carnegie Hall this week
Our acclaimed homegrown ensemble scores another coup, this one the very definition of the hitting the big time.
Horoscopes (June 29-July 5)
CANCER (June 21-July 20): You feel like you’re chained to a post when in reality, you have all the freedom in the world. Shell shocked, and maybe even a little gun shy, it’s almost easier to stay stuck than it is to break away. At the same time, part of you is already awake to…
Corktown Strut music festival takes over Detroit’s oldest neighborhood
Nationally speaking, music festivals have become the surest way to see as many bands and singers as possible in a given weekend. But while national festivals like Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo are the perfect way to see the recording artists that are owning the airwaves, Detroit has created its own variety of local music festivals showcasing…
Angel’s Place is an homage to Puerto Rican home cooking
There’s something so comforting about Grandma’s cooking that we can’t resist. It’s the love and tender care that goes into it; the recipes have never been written down, but are tattooed in her mind. It’s the way that she insists you eat, even if you just had something, and fixes you a plate anyway. You…
Chicago artist draws inspiration from MOCAD’s Mobile Homestead
When the late, legendary artist Mike Kelley constructed a full-sized replica of his childhood home at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit in Midtown, the goal was to create an open house for creative use. Since it opened its doors, it’s been a venue for children’s community classes, musical performance, and served as an exhibition…
Fake Surfers keep it direct on new LP
Fake Surfers aren’t wasting anyone’s time. In a world where so much of our time is wasted, this is nice, even if “nice” is not a word you would ever use to describe their music. If you’ve seen them live, you know what I’m talking about. Adam Hunter, on guitar, and Jake Kmiecik, on drums,…
Can the Republican Party be saved?
The Republican Party is lurching toward Cleveland, where, in three weeks, it will nominate a narcissistic liar for president, an arrogant braggard without a single day of experience in government who spews racism and stirs up fears. Think about that. Yes, we have had bad candidates and bad presidents before. But never in modern times…
Douche moves | Savage Love
Q Is it a super douchey move to pretend to be a lesbian to avoid unwanted male attention? I’m a straight single woman in my mid-30s and a very plausible lesbian in terms of sartorial stereotypes. Occasionally a guy will hit on me in an awkward or creepy way and I’ll trot out a line…
Inside the transformed El Club with Graeme “Baby Gatsby” Flegenheimer
Detroit’s hottest new club is El Club, and it has everything: ice sculptures, clones, freaks, mole people, a Russian man on a prepaid cell phone, a sheepdog that looks like Bruce Vilanch, and a wise old turtle that looks like Quincy Jones… Wait — that can’t be right. I’ve been watching too many reruns of…
The blue collar history of the Detroit ham sandwich
In discussing Detroit’s food culture, we often love to talk about the lore of the coney dog or square pizza. We’re also inclined to give mention to the many ethnic cuisines that have helped elevate us from our reputation for being pedestrian in our tastes. And of course, we’ve been flirting with the idea that…
The Sammies: informal and unscientific awards for some of the best sandwiches in metro Detroit
Who doesn’t love an awards ceremony? Nobody: That’s who. In fact, people love awards so much, we figured we could cut right through all the voting and judging and skip right to the glory and folderol. So we grabbed an assortment of random people, deputized them as “panelists,” and then quizzed them on what their…
2016 election is a test of American democracy
It’s been a world-shaking couple of weeks, much of it magnified because we are in the midst of a presidential election at what seems a crucial time. The Brexit vote and the negative market reaction that followed; the Democratic congressional sit-in; and the horrifying massacre of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, Fla.…
