Dear faithful readers,

We did very little evangelizing today. Instead, we indulged in the polar opposites of tourism: the Detroit Institute of Art in the afternoon and the Detroit Tigers game in the evening.

In an review about the current “Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit” exhibit, The Wall Street Journal described the Detroit Institute of Art as “the world’s most visitor-friendly museum”. Megan compared the experience to visiting the Museum of Modern Art in New York City where “people will tell you to move to the next painting if they think you’re taking too long.”

The Diego Rivera room is breathtaking

Well, that was not the case today at the DIA: we got in no one’s way as we perused the art to our hearts’ delight. Even friendlier still, the ticket guy let us in for FREE since today was national museum day (fate?). There were fun eye-spy games to engage with and a large portion of the art was out in the open instead of hiding behind protective glass.

Also, there were very guards, unlike many museums where your every move is scrutinized for signs of potential vandalism. The DIA guards were very laid back, even when they told us we were breaking the rules (chewing gum, drinking from water bottles). Does this reflect the personality of the city or a lack of funds? Unclear, but from what we could tell the WSJ was right.

However, not so friendly is the fact that the city was going to sell many of the great, irreplaceable pieces in the collection. Kirk had this to say: “They were going to sell Rembrandts for pennies on the dollar to get us out of bankruptcy. Turrible! But the donors stepped in and paid for it” Read more

Before that, the Socialist Equality Party organized a protest called “Defend the DIA”. Read more.

“Yeah, this is the Detroit I’ve been experiencing.”

It is safe to say that this trip was eye-opening for all of us.

We made our way through several wings of art from other continents (wonderfully located on the ground level, before you reach anything from modern America). We then entered a photography exhibition called the Detroit Walk-In Portrait Studio by Corine Vermeulen.

The exhibit was quite breathtaking. The mission statement read:

This exhibit shows the best of what we see in Detroit: heart and potential. As we have stated, we came to the city not to scope out business prospects; we knew those existed before we got here. We want to know if this city can provide the inspiration we need to do the work we want to do and if its people will support us with their attendance.

This artist seems very inspired by the Detroiters in her photographs.

Check some of them out here: (especially the really expressive suped-up bikes).

The most interesting part of the exhibit, though, was a stack of notecards that read “What do you see happening in Detroit? What does it mean for the city?” Beneath that was a blank space to answer. Next to these notecards were two books that held myriad responses to those questions; some were written, some were drawn.

We each had very specific experiences reading them.

From Megan: “The anonymous note cards were important to get the perspectives of anyone who came in and wanted to share their experience. I’m not sure how diverse the museum’s audience is as a whole but it seemed that there was a wide range of ages and statuses represented. I think it’s really important to have positive and negative points of view. And one of the cards was right: some of the pictures seemed really staged and didn’t reflected Detroit as it is. But looking at the bike pictures made me think “yeah, this is the Detroit I’ve been experiencing.””

From Ryan: “That exhibit really moved me. It kind of overwhelmed me for the rest of the day. Reading about all those stories really got me inspired to want to tell my stories and talk with those people. Also, there’s that mentality of not trying to save the city but join it. There’s so much that is in progress here that, just like the pastor, we have to know what our purpose is here.”

From Rory: “Reading the cards written by children expressing the hurt caused by the condition of the city touched me deeply. I have an overwhelming impulse to reach out to those children and help them learn to stand in the face of that hurt. This is not exclusive to Detroit; I feel this about childhood suffering in general. However, there is something unique about Detroit in that people here have become desensitized to certain hard facts early in life: life is hard; crime is real; people die. Many of the cards (written in a childlike scrawl) said things like “people die every day and no one cares”. Next to them, though, were other cards that said “I see hope” or “I luv Ditroit!”. There is a pride that pervades the people here. Does it come from a sense of accomplishment of beating the odds maybe? I don’t want to put that on the people, but I’ve heard it in their own words: you have to hustle harder here. My question is do I want that hustle? Is that hustle better for me than the hustle of New York City? I don’t know yet. But I think I can safely say that I can find inspiration here.”

We had to stop but we could’ve spent hours reading all of them.

After this exhibit, Ryan went to get the artist’s contact information.

We perused for a while longer until it was time for the museum to close.

 

The DIA theater is beautiful! 

Gary strikes again

On our way out who do we run into but…Gary, ticket in hand, poised to slap us with another $45 inconvenience.

The same guy!! What are the chances?! We were nowhere close to the last spot.

Of course we tried to haggle again (and this time he didn’t even compliment our hairstyles). “It’s already printed, man. If it hadn’t printed we’d be having a different conversation.”

Honestly, we deserved the ticket. But let’s be real: it sucks.

“I just rang you guys up for two llamas, is that okay?”

After we left the parking space we thought we’d lift our spirits with a dinner recommendation from Ray at Inland Press: Green Dot Stables. Pretty much everything on the menu was $3, from the appetizers to the single-serving entrees. They had lama-shoulder sliders, quinoa patty with kale sliders, grilled cheese sliders and more. Just amazing. Thanks, Ray!

“Go Tigers!!!”

Then we went to the game!

Actually, then we went to the parking lot…a mile from the stadium. The problem was we couldn’t tell if any given space had a working parking meter, or if any given parking lot was truly in operation. And we weren’t going to risk seeing Gary twice in one day.

So we made the hike…in the cold…and took our seats for what looked to be an exciting game.

And it was! …the Tigers lost… but it was a good time!

The interesting thing was that it was just like any other professional baseball game in a big city: huge stadium, LOTS of fans, crowded restrooms, millions of dollars changing hands — there was no indication that this stadium was in a city containing 40,000 unoccupied buildings.

Although, the lack of diversity theme rang true here too: over 80% of the fans were white.

And there was camouflage! Did not expect that this far north, but a baseball game would be the place to see it.

All in all, an amazing day.

Unfortunately, we’re losing Megan in the morning to ridiculous things like a job and a life outside exploring the awesomeness of theatre in a new place. The upside is the Motor City seems to have begun to grow on her. Maybe we’ll make a Detroiter of her yet!

All the best,

R&R&M

At least we got $5 Parking!