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The Conduct Slip

by 09/15/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

“Kneel. Sit. Stand. Kneel. Sit. Stand. Kneel. Sit. Stand!” Sister Mary Angelina bellows these words to a congregation of frightened eighth graders at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church in southwest Detroit sometime in the mid-1980’s. Almost twenty years later, those angry commands from the most powerful nun known to the class of 1985 have not been […]

Smiling at the Rain

by 08/25/2005
Neighborhood: Central Park

Have you ever had a great experience or adventure and you want to share it with every one you know, but you just don’t know where to begin? Well, that seems to be my particular problem right now. I’ve been staring at my laptop for at least an hour and I still can’t seem to […]

The Red Room

by 08/08/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

She did not call him. She leaned back, listened to the music and examined the ceiling. slicing eyes. beauty and envy in one frame. “I’m here,” she tossed. “Seriously?” “Yeah. In the Red Room.” Her pink, dainty pumps wept silver jewels in the fronts. Her hair was maybe too big but it worked. The drive […]

Should Have Worn Boots

by 08/07/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

I pull on my brand new Calvin Klein white cashmere coat, wrap a cozy hand-knitted scarf around my neck, and then pull the matching mittens over my hands. I glance outside into the snowy night and curse because my hair will frizz in the snow. I scurry out the door of my apartment building and […]

Industrial Ruins, Digital Gallery: An Interview with Lowell Boileau

by 08/05/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

“Athens has got ruins, Rome has got ruins. Ours are bigger, but there’s no guidebook to them.” —Lowell Boileau Part collage, part museum, part mausoleum, and all constructed around a series of intricately conceived online “tours,” detroityes.com depicts Detroit’s past and present in a library containing thousands of vivid photographic images. For many, the centerpiece […]

The Crayola of Misfortune

by 07/30/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

“Hey, can you spare some coin?” The guy sounded pleasant enough as he approached our car. Todd was tucking his spare keys into the ashtray and I was applying Mac lipstick (ooh baby) to the sounds of John Briggs (a local jazzy techno artist). We climbed out of Todd’s shiny 1998 Pathfinder, we were summer-drunk […]

Inhaling the Distractions on the Yellow Interstate

by 07/15/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

Cops. The left lane is for passing only, did you know that? I must have forgotten since driver’s ed class, like I’ve forgotten to take speed limits seriously. Even when you literally can’t afford not to, even in daylight. Which I can’t and which it is. But I’m going ninety in the left lane and […]

Lesbian Night in Ferndale, MI

by 07/07/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

In a small Detroit suburb referred to as Ferndale is a bar known as “Como’s.” It sits just off Main Street, which is quiet, solemn. Streetlamps give off an orange glow over a trash-littered sidewalk. Empty storefront windows line the street. Faded signs stand out from the few businesses that struggle to remain open. Buildings […]

My Life as a Kid: A Nostalgic Look Back on Raves in the 1990’s

by 07/07/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

The first time I ever went to a rave it was in the old Packard Plant. I didn’t know the name of the Plant at the time, nor did I know where it stood in relation to the city at large. I was told that the event was “at Packard,” not realizing that this was […]

Detroit Tourists

by 07/07/2005
Neighborhood: Uncategorized

For reasons that involve politics, religion and the pursuit of life’s persistent questions, I found myself gardening in front of my Church one Sunday afternoon in June 2005. First Church is located in Detroit, on the side of Forest Avenue where students rarely park, lest their cars turn up missing when they return from class. […]