Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgments
- one Introduction: why Detroit matters
- Section One Lessons from Detroit
- Intermezzo I You may not know my Detroit
- Section Two Practices from Detroit
- Intermezzo II My Detroit
- Section Three Conversations from Detroit
- References
- Index
Intermezzo I - You may not know my Detroit
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- List of figures and tables
- Acknowledgments
- one Introduction: why Detroit matters
- Section One Lessons from Detroit
- Intermezzo I You may not know my Detroit
- Section Two Practices from Detroit
- Intermezzo II My Detroit
- Section Three Conversations from Detroit
- References
- Index
Summary
If you’ve never slid down the GIANT SLIDE on a potato sack
you may not know my Detroit.
If you’ve never eaten a Coney at 3 a.m. you may not understand why it doesn't matter
how many games we win or lose
we wear our D HATS and tats year round.
Our streets were built to the rhythm of a
hand clap sound
I am a Detroit Lion on Linwood, a rebellious Tiger on Tireman
a Stanley Cup carrying Red Wing on Rutherford.
a Detroit Piston constantly putting up new nets around forgotten
white backboards and orange squares.
Rebellious cities never had it easy.
Innovative freeways aren't always paved in gold
Still, that thin strip of M-8 we call The Davison became a conduit to every future highway in our nation
and so is the assembly line steel & wheels of our cars.
Detroiters always kept this country moving.
Revolutionary people don't always get good press but it is in our DNA/it is our bloodline gift
to survive.
When the surface of your skin has potholes blasting Temptations’ records through
your pores
When your fingertips are blessed
by international water and you are now under the world's media microscope
constantly checking your arms for track marks and close ups
of how you might look once the
high was gone.
You are simply one city/built above crystals You are the river of freedom
You are the tenacity of Malcolm
The truth of Sojourner.
We are the fish fry at grannies The Swim-Mobile
The Brightmoor Soccer Team/Dynamo's Deli on Plymouth/The Boggs Center
The Aker School For Gifted Children
The old school sweet of Dutch Girl Donuts
The west side Sweet Potato Sensation cakes across the street
from the mural covered beauty
we call Artist Village.
We exist in the brilliance of our young debaters, our champion athletes, our self empowered rockers, our young farmers & dancers and scientists and Future social activists.
We are 5 E Gallery and Arise Detroit and
Black WOMEN Rock! We are N’namdi Gallery and
The Charles H. Wright and Goodwells and the opposite of white flight
Our babies are Ice Dreamers
Young souls on ice
Detroit hockey players up early
at Butzel on Wyoming and Lyndon.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Why Detroit MattersDecline, Renewal and Hope in a Divided City, pp. 177 - 182Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2017