Normally the people in Sean Mann’s Detroit neighborhood come together to fight blight or organize for political reasons. Mann figured there had to be a better way to get the people in his city to unite. So he created the Detroit City Futbol League. That story here:
Sean Gabriel Photography
From Erin G’s simple & sweet union…
Down
We Go
Into Blue
Beach Jam
Farm
Sis on Farm
Me & 2 Erins
Sleep Here
Tagging along with the Travel Club was pretty cool, and club founder Sonya Hollins profiled the entire trip in this article. There are also some great pix of everyone in action:
http://comvoicesonline.com/2249/home-page/npr-radio-features-local-girls/
A slimmer version of the piece aired on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Listen here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128443452
Student Tori Zackery gives me the scoop
I stumbled upon the Merze Tate Travel Club while sifting through the Kalamazoo Gazette. The paper had an article about the travel club and how they had learned to make and can applesauce.
I find a lot of my stories this way–as little mentions in local papers (that’s how I got the idea for the story about the Johnny Cash impersonator). As a reporter, I’ve always got to have an immediate spark when I first come across the idea–and this travel club idea grabbed me right away. Also, who is Merze Tate, I wondered??
Many phone calls later, and after a very fun train trip with the travel club members, I have this story…
I’ve never take classes or hung out at the Smart Shop Metal Arts Center in Kalamazoo. But I got to meet the center’s founder, Holly Fisher, and get a tour of the space. The place reminded me of my junior high shop class–a place I loved and a place that simmered with the potential of creating real things out of wood and metal, with my own two hands.
But more than just a shop, this place was colored alive with the the energy & vision of its founder. The walls were painted in clean, bright tones of red and white and green and pink. Funny posters from communist China and other eras hung on the walls.
Smart Shop
If this place were in my town, I def would have enrolled as a student. But that will not happen now, because the Smart Shop has closed it’s doors. That story here…
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/michigan/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1659933&pid=144&sid=9
Meanwhile here’s a piece of art by longtime Smart Shop student Kathy Kreager.
Windsong by Kathy Kreager, photo by Carolyn Fink
About half of kids in Michigan high schools have had sex.
Meet a group of teenagers who have been trained as “peer leaders,” which means they co-teach sex-ed classes with adult health professionals. So they teach other teens an array of sexual health material.
Teen & adult educators
These young people were knowledgeable, articulate, and comfortable talking about sex, abstinence, birth control, STIs, and relationships. Listen to the story here:
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Two Peer Leaders Prepping Material For Class
“Hales To The Victor”
HALES
Here’s a shorter version of my Johnny Cash piece that aired on NPR’s Weekend Edition.
