Detroit Design Festival

Something you should know about Michigan:

In Michigan, we are very conscious that our urban hubs are not L.A., New York or Paris. They are metro centers, embedded between Great Lakes, with a little too much grassroots and heartland to fit the kind of edgy enigma that grows up around some cities.

There is economic struggle here and yes, cold winters that–no matter how clever the hold-your-hand-up-and-show-people-where-you-live bit is–make you wonder every February why you choose the act of scraping ice off your car.

And of course, the automobile industry has been dis- and reassembled, requiring many of Michigan’s industries to dismiss or reinvent themselves.

But, it is often times of great limitation that require people to rise to creativity. To innovate new components of their identity, their livelihood, and their vitality.

Occasionally, I can’t help spilling a little local spirit onto the blog, letting some Ann Arbor film festival or other endeavor bleed out just so you know, there are good things happening in Michigan.

Yesterday launched Detroit’s first ever Detroit Design Festival–seven days of fashion, photography, art, and multi-media exhibits spread across three kick off parties, countless festival environments, galleries and other creative spaces around the city. Above is a quick glimpse of what was happening in New Center Park. And below is some of the behind the scenes set up work at the Red Door Gallery, one of the places where I am volunteering, to prep for Sunday’s fashion show and photo exhibit by Fuzzytek.

Locals will also find me volunteering alongside college friend, Erik Howard, next Wednesday at the Alley Project.

I’m not sure how this is relevant to non-residents except for that sometimes life doesn’t bring natural hotbeds of creativity to us. Sometimes it calls upon us to find and celebrate the creative in it.