An internationally significant Black historic site where world-altering music was recorded is to be put at risk for a highway service road. Is this OK?
Is a service road more important than our City’s world-renowned musical legacy?
Preservation
Invited: African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
Some good news! Earlier this year, we submitted a letter of intent to partially fund the restoration of the Legendary Blue Bird Inn through the National Trust for Historic Preservation‘s very competitive African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The grant is worth $50-$150,00. The National Trust got 537 other letters so we are honored to […]
Sounds of Our Town
We are proud to announce that our Executive Director Dr. Carleton Gholz will be traveling to Wollongong, Australia this fall to participate in “Sounds of our Town.” “Sounds of our Town” will explore the role of popular music heritage in the revitalization of cities that have experienced industrial decline. Featuring panelists involved in popular music […]
A Sonic Desert?
Has Detroit become a sonic desert? Musical expression has been a long-standing pivot point for debates about Detroit’s successes and failures. Though the Detroit area has a wide range of cultural expressions for which it is associated—including art, design, architecture, literature, and, critically, industrial production—music has been the dominant site for articulating exactly how Detroit […]
Red’s Jazz: Surveying Summer-Fall 2017
This summer, I consulted for Oakland Avenue Urban Farm which had just purchased the abandoned Red’s Jazz Shoeshine Parlor located at 9148 Oakland Avenue. The business itself still exists further south at 8348 Oakland. Our friend Jean-Louis Farges and his team, working on behalf of the farm, had discovered a stage in the back of […]
The National Theatre: A Facade of Silence
On Monday September 11th, the property management company Bedrock Detroit publicly announced their plans to demolish the National Theatre and move a portion of its façade to serve as a pedestrian walkway. We are deeply concerned. On August 24, the first public kickoff meeting for Bedrock’s proposed Book Tower and Monroe Block development projects was […]
United Historic Marker Celebration
We just got a great message from United Sound Systems: Greetings United Sound Supporter! We are very excited to announce that United Sound Systems Recording Studios has been deemed a Historic site by the Michigan Historical Commission! We invite you to celebrate this great milestone with us on Sunday, June 25, 2017 from 4pm-6pm at […]