Cover Story
20 years ago, what is now Theatre Bizarre got kicked out of the Russell Industrial Center — today, it’s Detroit’s biggest freak show
John Dunivant has been told he’s crazy, that his crew is crazy — maybe not explicitly by any of the attendees of his annual Halloween party, but by his respective peers in the immersive theater community, from folks who pull off elaborate feats in entertainment from the scenes over in New York, Las Vegas, and…
Glow up at Bevlove’s monthly dance party at Deluxx Fluxx
Bevlove is the Detroit R&B singer so fabulous that she graced the cover of Metro Times twice in one year. And her fabulosity is also such that she holds down a monthly night at Deluxx Fluxx, where she performs between sets from a lineup of DJs curated by her. Saturday’s event features DJs Sky Jetta,…
Detroit’s Paint Thinner release second record of the year at Outer Limits Lounge
Detroit punk band Paint Thinner has been putting in the work. The band only released its first LP, The Sea of Pulp, in February, and is already dropping follow-up Hagioscope to the Heart this week, with a record release show on Saturday. While the band is new-ish to the scene, its members are not, featuring…
Detroit jazz royalty Joan Belgrave heads to Ann Arbor’s Blue LLama Jazz Club
Joan Belgrave was pretty much born to do this. The soulful jazz vocalist from Detroit began her music career at just 3 years old, soon receiving vocal training from University of Michigan professor Dr. Willis Patterson. Her career was taken to the next level when she started collaborating with her husband, the late jazz trumpeter…
Detroit’s Electric 6 celebrate 20 years of high-voltage jams at Small’s
This is a 20-year milestone double-whammy. Hamtramck bar Small’s and heavy-hitting rock band Electric Six were both founded in 1999, and both are now institutions in their own rights. Small’s celebrated its big 2-0 with a birthday bash last month. Meanwhile, E6 celebrated by doing the only thing it knows how to do: by releasing…
Ferndale becomes third city in Michigan to ban gay conversion therapy
Ferndale City Council voted unanimously Monday to make it a crime to perform so-called gay conversion therapy, a discredited practice that purports to change minors’ sexual orientation or gender. The ban comes about four months after Huntington Woods became the first city in Michigan to prohibit conversion therapy. In September, East Lansing banned the practice.…
Live entertainment announced for Shuck Yeah!, Metro Times’ oyster-tasting party on Sunday
We’ve been putting the finishing touches on Shuck Yeah!, Metro Times’ third-annual oyster-tasting event, set for Sunday, Oct. 20, at Ferndale’s Otus Supply. Now, we’re pleased to announce the afternoon’s live entertainment. Music will come from Phil Nathan of Grateful Dead tribute band Dead Again, who will perform a solo acoustic set. More tunes will be…
Detroit Free Press/TCF Bank Marathon will go the distance for 42nd year
Detroit might be the Motor City, but more than 26,000 runners from across the globe come here to travel by foot instead. The annual Detroit Free Press/TCF Bank Marathon returns for its 42nd year to give runners of all stripes an international workout, as the race traverses into Canada, taking runners over the Ambassador Bridge…
Detroit blogger and model Leah Vernon releases memoir ‘Unashamed: Musings of a Fat, Black Muslim’
While Detroit-born twerking superstar Lizzo has become the #YasQueen totem for encouraging body positivity — especially for women of color — another metro Detroiter is furthering the conversation (and looks damn good doing it). Style blogger, model, and public speaker Leah Vernon can now add author to her list, thanks to her healing and revealing…
Perfect your pelvic thrust before ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ screening and shadowcast at Michigan Theater
We just took a DNA test, turns out we’re 100 percent a sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania, filled with antici… pation because Halloween means one thing: It’s Rocky Horror Picture Show season. The campy 1975 film starring Tim Curry as the ravishing Dr. Frank N. Furter, Susan Sarandon as Janet (dammit!) Weiss, and babely boyfriend…
Historian Ibram X Kendi to bring latest book, ‘How to Be an Antiracist’ to Detroit’s Wright Museum
“The opposite of ‘racist’ isn’t ‘not’ racist,” explains Ibram X Kendi, Ph.D., a New York Times bestselling author, historian, 2019 Guggenheim fellow, and founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center in Washington, D.C. His latest memoir, How to Be an Antiracist, poses a vision of an antiracist society and how to achieve it. Through…
Rapper IDK contemplates God’s existence at Detroit’s El Club
While Kanye West is off galavanting around the country with his Sunday Service, claiming to be some MAGA-hat-wearing conduit of divine power or whatever, Maryland rapper IDK is conducting a different type of sermon. For his major label debut, Is He Real?, the formerly incarcerated tutor and barber muses on the existence of God amid…
National treasure and culotte-loving author David Sedaris brings ‘Calypso’ to Detroit’s Fisher Theatre
No personal opinion, observation, or neurotic musing is off-limits for prolific humorist and nonfiction writer David Sedaris, who, since taking to NPR in 1992 to read his now-famous essay “SantaLand Diaries,” during which he details his stint as a department store elf during Christmas, has made life a whole lot easier to laugh at. Though,…
Judge puts Michigan’s ban on flavored nicotine vaping on hold
A Michigan Court of Claims judge on Tuesday temporarily halted Michigan’s ban on flavored nicotine vaping products. Judge Cynthia Stephens granted an injunction requested by vape shop owners, who argue in a lawsuit that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer overstepped her authority by banning flavored nicotine vaping products without the approval of state lawmakers. The ban went…
Eddie Murphy is dynamite in ‘Dolemite’
In Dolemite Is My Name, Eddie Murphy makes a welcome return to comedic relevance after a decade of wandering in the wastelands on a self-imposed exile to the realm of tepid, family-friendly pap and fatsuit-clad horror shows. That stretch of unendurable mediocrity left fans wondering if the funnyman would ever find his groove again, and…
Edgefest returns to Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown Concert House to celebrate out-of-the-box jazz
Returning to push jazz to the limit is Edgefest — the four-day experimental avant jazz fest produced by Kerrytown Concert House, which makes its return to Ann Arbor with a roster of artists carrying the torch for the improvisational and collaborative genre. The award-winning fest, which was founded in 1997, will once again host dozens…
Street named for Black civil rights activist whose group fought Detroit housing segregation
On any typical corner, the addition of a new street sign may go unnoticed — but on the corner in front of the Detroit Association of Women’s Club, a secondary street sign represents monumental historical implications for the Black community. Named after civil rights activist Rosa Slade-Gragg, a new street sign made its way up…
Shri Thanedar is officially running for State House
It’s official: Multimillionaire businessman and failed 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shri Thanedar is running for state representative of Michigan’s 3rd House District. Well, Thanedar’s gubernatorial campaign wasn’t a total failure. Though he came in last in the Democratic primary, Thanedar earned more than 200,000 votes, and narrowly won Detroit. That, as well as the fact…
‘White Boy Rick’ may finally be a free man sooner than expected
Notorious teenage drug hustler and FBI informant Richard “White Boy Rick” Wershe Jr. may be a free man sooner than expected after spending more than three decades in prison on drug charges. Wershe, 50, is now scheduled to be released from a Florida prison on Aug. 17, more than eight months earlier than his initial…
No, Elton John and his husband haven’t used Eminem’s intimate wedding gift… yet
One is a glittery, hit-making “Rocket Man” and the other is an angsty hometown “Rap God.” All differences aside, Elton John and Eminem are just like a couple of cock rings in a pod, er, satin box. In an interview released by The Guardian on Saturday, during which the British publication flipped the script and invited…
Harry Potter-themed Wizard Fest is coming to Ferndale’s Magic Bag
Get in Mr. Weasley’s bewitched car loser, we’re going to Wizard Fest! If your idea of a good time is downing butterbeer and chomping on Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans while hopping around like a chocolate frog under a ceiling of floating candles and friendly poltergeists, the Magic Bag has gotchu. Whether you’re a Slyth, Gryff, Huff,…
Racial bias in facial recognition technology the focus of bill introduced by Rep. Lawrence
U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence plans to introduce legislation to require a deeper examination of the racial biases found in facial recognition technology. As more law enforcement agencies begin using the controversial technology, researchers are finding that the face-scanning technology is significantly flawed when used to identify people of color. In essence, the darker the skin,…
Michigan Supply & Provisions launches in Morenci with Detroit and Ann Arbor stores on the way
A new chain of medical marijuana provisioning centers launched last week that will soon expand to Detroit and Ann Arbor. Michigan Supply & Provisions opened its doors at 1096 East Main St. in Morenci, Michigan, located near the Ohio border. The 1,700-square-foot store is the first of seven to open across Michigan by summer 2020.…
‘Birth of the Cool’ is an uncensored analysis of jazz genius Miles Davis
Miles Davis towered over mid-century jazz, and was a relentlessly innovative and restless musician that constantly pushed his personal and creative limits to their breaking points. This compelling new documentary re-examines that legacy — not always in a strictly flattering way — and attempts to frame the very challenging man and the artist in a…
Michigan bill aims to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Michigan is among an increasing number of states trying to do away with Columbus Day in support of Native Americans. The second Monday in October has traditionally been a federal holiday commemorating Christopher Columbus. But a growing number of Americans believe the holiday celebrates genocide and ignores the people who were here before Columbus arrived.…
Bill aims to end painful experiments on dogs at Michigan public institutions
Michigan universities and public institutions would be prohibited from conducting painful or distressing experiments on dogs under a new bill in the state House. More than 700 dogs have been subjected to invasive experiments between 2015 and 2018 at public institutions in the state, according to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. State Rep. Sara…
Black Detroiter whose group fought housing segregation to have street named for her
When one door closes, open a different door on a perpendicular street. Back in 1941, Rosa Gragg, the president of the Detroit Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, as well as other members of the association, collected their funds to purchase the house located at 326 E. Ferry Street to serve as the group’s headquarters. The…
Vaping-related lung illness shows no signs of letting up as deaths surge to 26
The outbreak of vaping-related lung illnesses is showing no signs of letting up as the number of cases rose to 1,299, with 26 deaths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. That’s an increase of 219 cases and seven deaths since last week. The rise was even more dramatic in Michigan, where an…
Cheers! Michiganders have second-highest beer tolerance in nation
Michiganders love to drink beer, apparently. According to a recent survey from alcohol.org, we have the second-highest tolerance for beer in the nation, with participants saying it takes them on average 4.02 beers to feel drunk. Only Arizona was higher, with their residents reporting a tolerance of 4.04 beers. The state with the lowest tolerance…
Michigan marijuana testing lab reaches settlement to eventually reopen
A Michigan medical marijuana testing lab that was shut down for compliance violations in August reached an agreement with the state on Thursday that will enable it to eventually reopen. Walled Lake-based Iron Laboratories agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and update its procedures and practices as part of an agreement with the state’s Marijuana…
Detroit Cookie Co. details metro Detroit expansion, acquires commissary kitchen in Ferndale
There’s about to be more cookies in metro Detroit. Lauren and Tony Sevy, the married cookie connoisseurs that own the Detroit Cookie Co., just purchased a commissary kitchen in Ferndale that Lauren predicts will launch in spring 2020. The 4,000-square-foot building will allow the Sevys and their staff to host “cookie classes,” as well as…
Michigan’s ban on flavored nicotine vaping intact — at least for another day
A Michigan Court of Claims judge on Wednesday delayed a decision on whether to temporarily halt the state’s flavored nicotine vaping ban. After two days of testimony, Judge Cynthia Stevens said she needs more time to consider an injunction requested by Mark Slis, the owner of 906 Vapor in Houghton. Slis argues in a lawsuit that…
Olga’s Kitchen extends Strike Relief Program for UAW employees
Olga’s Kitchen has extended its Strike Relief Program to United Auto Workers for an additional two weeks, through Oct. 22. The offer includes $5 off any order over $20. It can only be applied for dine-in orders, and cannot be combined with other offers or discounts. To receive Olga’s offer, UAW employees must show their…
Crowdfunding campaign launched to fix Grande Ballroom roof
Last year, an inspection crowdfunded by a preservation group revealed that Detroit’s historic 1960s rock ‘n’ roll venue, the Grande Ballroom, was structurally sound — and revived hope that the storied venue could one day return to “kick out the jams.” However, the Friends of the Grande is now once again soliciting donations, this time to…
Rep. whose Detroit house was mysteriously demolished did not tell police she requested a bid to have it demolished
The plot thickens in the case of Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a vocal critic of Detroit’s demolition program who found a house she owned near the Brightmoor neighborhood had been mysteriously demolished last month. Detroit Police Chief James Craig held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to reveal the department has identified Sherman Gipson of Gipson Brothers…
Elton John returns to Detroit for another round of farewell shows
The sun has yet to go down on Elton John’s massive three-year farewell tour, which kicked off last year. It was announced Wednesday that the 72-year-old rocket man’s final trek, dubbed the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour would revisit Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena for a pair of dates next year on May 1 and 2.…
Heidelberg Project announces ‘Heidelburgers’ pop-up and tour
Detroit artist Tyree Guyton will unveil the latest phase of his Heidelberg Project with a pop-up dining event on Saturday, Oct. 19. Dubbed “Heidelburgers, an Edible Art Experience,” the event will offer a tour of the Heidelberg Project’s new campus while guests dine on “artfully crafted” gourmet burgers from Chef Jeffrie Toney. The event will…
Michigan police chief fired after alleged sexual assault on a party bus
A western Michigan police chief who was charged with sexually assaulting a woman on a party bus has been fired. The Fremont City Council terminated Randall Wright on Monday. In a news release Tuesday, the city said it “will have no further comment on this matter at this time.” The 48-year-old chief was charged Oct.…
How London-pop trio Kero Kero Bonito went from trampolines to wildfires
Unsurprisingly, Sarah Midori Perry (aka Sarah Bonito) says she and her fellow Kero Kero Bonito bandmates, Gus Lobban and Jamie Bulled, receive many handmade gifts from fans. She has a growing flamingo collection, of course, due in part to Kero Kero Bonito’s 2014 song “Flamingo.” She lovingly recalls being gifted a handmade shrimp, made from…
Savage Love: Food for vaginal play, relationships with an expiration date, and other quickies from Savage Love Live
We brought Savage Love Live to the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, the Barrymore Theatre in Madison, and the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis over three nights. As is always the case at live shows, the crowd had more questions than I could possibly answer in a single night. So in this week’s column, I’m going…
Horoscopes (Oct. 9-15)
ARIES: March 21 – April 20: You have mundane concerns that are testing your ability to put your money where your mouth is. When it gets like this, you wish you could spin straw into gold. Worry and fear have a tendency to feed on themselves. Repetitious thoughts act to multiply the angst, and because…
Some Black leaders are frustrated with Gretchen Whitmer’s urban policy
Just months into her tenure, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hit the African American-majority Benton Harbor School District with what many viewed as a harsh choice: Close its financially and academically struggling high school, or dissolve the entire district. The proposal sparked fury in Benton Harbor. To many, the brutish move seemed straight out of former…
The fish rots from the head, but everyone around Trump stinks
To believe that the president of the United States did nothing wrong in asking the government of Ukraine — and now, more openly, China — to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and/or a California company called CrowdStrike, which helped the Democratic National Committee after Russia hacked its servers in 2016, you have to believe…
Papelon Arepa Bar gets Southwest Detroit acquainted with a Venezuelan staple
What exactly is an arepa? It really depends on who you ask. “Venzuelan sandwiches” are a common description, though that doesn’t quite do them justice. Metro Times’ Jane Slaughter previously called them “sort of like a huge English muffin, but with flavor,” which seems closer. The internet likens them to everything from pancakes to tortillas,…
Detroit artist Sydney James is set to debut her first solo show
For her first solo exhibition, Detroit-based fine artist Sydney James has been trying her best to keep things under wraps — no easy task in the age of social media. “That’s what Tylonn did last year for his solo show,” she says of her friend, the fellow Detroit fine artist Tylonn Sawyer. “We walked in…
