Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AuthenticallyDetroit!
Authentically Detroit
From Trees to Art: Detroit's Creative Renaissance with Brooke & Casey Oberg and Megan Kashat
This week, Donna and guest host Chase Cantrell sat down with the founders of Detroit Mulch, Brooke & Casey Oberg plus multi-talented artist, Megan Kashat.
Brooke and Casey started Detroit Mulch with the mission of recycling trees as sustainably and efficiently as possible, while creating local jobs in the process! Together, they’re transforming Detroit’s landscape in an innovative and eco-friendly way. To learn more about Detroit Mulch, click here!
Megan Kashat is a multifaceted Arab American artist based in Detroit. Her artistic journey fuses music, dance, and painting to express her Detroit roots on the global stage. Megan's artistic journey has been marked by significant achievements, including features in renowned publications like Billboard Magazine and Rolling Stone. To learn more about Megan and her artistic journey, click here!
FOR HOT TAKES:
MICHIGAN LAME-DUCK LEGISLATURE: HOUSE DEMOCRATS REVOLT AGAINST SPEAKER TATE
DETROIT MAYORAL CANDIDATE WOULD PUSH ENTERTAINMENT TAX TO OFFSET PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
Up next. Authentically, detroit welcomes guest hosts Chase Cantrell, plus the founders of Detroit Mulch Casey and Brooke Oberg, and recording artist Megan Cashott. But first this week's hot takes from Bridge to Michigan and Bridge to Detroit. Michigan lame duck legislature. House Democrats revolt against Speaker Tate and Detroit mayoral candidate would pose entertainment tax to offset property tax relief. Keep it locked. Authentically, detroit starts after these messages.
Speaker 2:Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions.
Speaker 3:Now let's start the show.
Speaker 1:Hello Detroit in the world. Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's East Side at the Stoudemire inside of the East Side Community Network headquarters. I'm Donna Givens-Davidson and I'm Chase Cantrell.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for our real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Happy holidays, everyone. Orlando is under the weather today, so we're wishing him a strong recovery. In his absence, we have our friend guest host Chase Cantrell, with us for our final podcast recording of 2024. We're also joined by three very special guests the founders of Detroit, mulch Brooke and Casey Oberg, along with multi-talented artist Megan Cashott. Welcome to Authentically Detroit everyone. Thank you, thank you. So it's a great day outside, but I'm happy to have you here, really glad to have my friend Chase here to discuss politics. It's one of our favorite things to do together and this is a very political day.
Speaker 1:How is the day finding all of you?
Speaker 5:Cold, rainy, but good.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it's nice to be here with all you smiling faces. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great to be here. This is where the warmth is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, you know, when it's 11 degrees outside, you forget how cold Detroit used to be Right, and now it's like a balmy 36. And it's like yes.
Speaker 5:I feel like we either get surprised like it's 50s one day, then the next day it's like negative two, and there's just no way to prepare for this, absolutely.
Speaker 1:There isn't, so I just try to roll with it, but hopefully not too many more great days.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, it's time for today's hot takes. We're going to run down some of this week's top headlines in the city of Detroit, and actually one of them is from last week. The first one is Michigan lame duck legislature. House Democrats revolt against Speaker Tate. It really should read Karen Woodset revolts against Speaker Tate.
Speaker 1:Democratic State Rep Karen Wood says she no longer has faith in House Speaker Joe Tate or her party's ability to get things done after she abruptly walked out of a rare Friday House session that lasted 13 hours. She's not the only House Democratic publicly criticizing Tate. At a time when the party cannot afford to lose a single vote, should they hope to make any progress on policy? In the final days of the Democratic trifecta control, coupled with the House Republican walkout over failure to advance changes to the state's sick leave and minimum wage laws, the last scheduled full week of lame duck currently looks bleak for Democrats. Tate, meanwhile, is pushing the blame back onto conservatives, telling reporters following session Friday the reason voting fell apart was because Republicans wanted to play political games. Tate highlighted past accomplishments from the Democratic trifecta, including expansion of the state's earned income tax credit and repealing the so-called senior pension tax, calling those proof of all the work that we've done. He also lauded passage of Democratic bills to expand unemployment benefits. Telling reporters work is still going to continue as long as I'm in this room, but internal divisions could prevent final passage on a number of party priorities this week, including Senate-approved government transparency reforms and plans to hike state trash dumping fees, regulate short-term rentals and reform Michigan's housing and zoning laws.
Speaker 1:In a scathing Sunday interview with Gongra News Service, whitsett said she felt forced to put her foot down Friday after Tate asked Democrats to vote on bills that have never been through committee. Before I open this up, ironically, one of the bills that's never been put through committee was a bill that she introduced on expanding the unemployment weeks from 30 to 36 or whatever. I think that's the correct number. Whatever she voted for this expansion, she introduced the bill, it got passed and it never went through committee. So how ironic that she is opposing other bills going through that same process. But if you've been a follower of Karen Whitsett, as I have over the years, you can find that she sometimes stands in strange positions from my point of view. What do you say, chase?
Speaker 2:Well, this is a moment when all Democrats need to be. This is all hands on deck right. They're running out of time. We don't know when we're ever going to see a Democratic majority again. It took almost all of my lifetime to get to this point where we had it, we didn't, we didn't. We got some things done but didn't necessarily spend all that time well. So now we're at the last minute and it's just not the right environment to have Democratic state reps to you know, exhibiting this kind of behavior when really everybody should be working together. If there are disagreements, I think the disagreements need to be happening even within the caucus, and not necessarily in the press.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's so irresponsible of her to say things like I'm glad Democrats lost, it's the best thing that could have happened. You know Democrats have been losing for 40 years. Let's not act like. This is a. You know, this is a once in a lifetime thing. I mean in my adult voting life this is the first time we've ever had that trifecta and the expectations placed on Democrats to move everything and to repair all of the damage of 40 years of, you know, neoliberal rule in, or just conservative rule in, lansing.
Speaker 1:It makes no sense to expect that to change in one term. But it really bothers me when there are outliers like Karen who I used to call it Karen Whitless because she would do things that made no sense to me and it makes me angry. She represents the city of Detroit, she's representing a Detroit community and sometimes she comes out on things not most of the time, but sometimes she comes out on things that are on the wrong side of the issues and it concerns me. I was looking up her voting record and she does not have a really strong environmental justice voting record. She does not have a strong voting record on things like energy, controlling energy, the utilities, so there's ways where she has continued to let me down.
Speaker 1:This is not a reflection on Joe Tate. This is a reflection on her and people like her who refuse to work in coalition with others, and I'm not necessarily. This is going to be a conversation today about two potential mayoral candidates, joe Tate being one of them, and I'm not always a fan of everything he's done in Lansing, but this is just betrayal of the worst order, not of him but, in my opinion, of the party and of the people that she represents on the west side of Detroit.
Speaker 2:And for me, now that Joe Tate has announced that he is at least exploring being mayor of the city of Detroit, I have to wonder, behind the scenes, if this kind of rhetoric, this kind of activity is to in some way defame him.
Speaker 1:Well, if you've looked at her behavior over the years, you'd say this is just one of those things. And I get it.
Speaker 1:You know, being a black representative in the state Democratic Party, I know it's difficult because there's not a lot of diversity in the leadership. And then you get Joe Tate, and Joe Tate is not necessarily an ally of people who have felt marginalized in this state, and so sometimes people get frustrated and they speak out and they act out. This is just not the time. It's just not the time. I don't care what the agenda is, but again, I've been following her for years.
Speaker 1:She's made me angry on a couple of votes, years ago, even at one point really seeming to side with Donald Trump in his first term and sitting down with some of his supporters and I said, well, what's up with that? You know you are representing the West Side of the city and this idea. Well, I'm not going to choose sides, you know. Well, I have a side and my side is Detroiters, and there's no respect that we get from some of the people who she's deciding to align herself with just to oppose some of the people within her own party who make her angry. I just look at it as political immaturity. I don't necessarily look at this as being any intentional. You know, I don't necessarily look at this as being any intentional. I don't think it's a strategy.
Speaker 5:I think it's a temper tantrum that undercuts her viability as a political leader.
Speaker 1:That's my very unstrung political point of view. Anybody who I'm joining I know this is one of those days and I'm feeling after November 5th. I'm very emotional. I was telling somebody I don't even agree with myself every day, all day, because my feelings are coming from so many different directions. On the one hand, I strongly agree with people who are not happy with some of the you know lethargy on the left, the failure to move certain things forward they really should be moved forward in terms of justice in our nation, in our state and in our city and on the other hand, I see people aligning themselves with people who only mean us harm. In my opinion, and I don't see a lot of the allegiance, a lot of the coalition building, a lot of the collegiality between people. It just feels like there are attacks that only harm causes. I care deeply about, like housing justice, like environmental justice, like all of the things that we have been unable to move forward around anti-poverty bills, and I look at what's going to happen in our state and it scares me. I think also when I look at the mass deportation, it's so scary to me to think of what's going to happen inside of our community while we're pointing fingers at each other on the left. So anyway, that's the first story. The second one is a little bit more exciting to me in some ways and that is that the Detroit mayoral candidate would push entertainment tax to offset property tax relief, and that's by Malachi Barrett with Bridge Detroit. The first article was from Bridge Michigan. I forgot to mention that, but Malachi Barrett is speaking about an entertainment tax.
Speaker 1:If elected mayor, one of the first priorities Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield would take is convincing state lawmakers to pass an entertainment tax on downtown events to offset a property tax cut for residents. Sheffield, who last week formally launched her long-awaited 2025 campaign for Detroit Mayor, said she's found a surprising amount of support for the concept among the business community. Charging fees on sporting events, concerts and other downtown activities could bring more benefits for Detroit's neighborhood. She said Reports from the Citizens Research Council of Michigan show entertainment taxes are widespread among states and major cities across the country. Detroit can't impose a tax by itself.
Speaker 1:The Michigan legislature will first need to pass authorizing bills. Last year Sheffield asked District Detroit developers to volunteer a 2% surcharge on ticket sales from events at facilities managed by Olympia Development of Michigan. They declined. Detroit Corporation Counsel, comrade Mallett, said then that the state law makes it impossible to voluntarily pay an unauthorized tax or surcharge. Previous attempts to authorize taxes on sports and entertainment tickets tickets in michigan failed under republican control of the legislature. Democrats didn't take up any bills when they held majorities. Republicans will again control the state house when the next mayor's term starts in 2026, but there are signs of growing bipartisan support for the idea. Governor gretchen whitmer signed a bill allowing voters in historically Republican Kent County to increase the hotel tax to fund sports and entertainment venues. Other Detroit council members have backed the idea. Council member Angela Whitfield Calloway, who had a front row seat at Sheffield's campaign launch, was working with state Senator Sylvia Santana, democrat from Detroit, and Senator Mallory McMorrow, democrat from Royal Oak, to craft legislation. What say you, Chase?
Speaker 2:So that last part is the most interesting. Well, it's all interesting, but that last part noting that there were Democrats who were crafting the legislation. We will no longer have the majority come January. So where will this sit? There may be bipartisan support, but once Republicans are back in full control of the legislature, we're going to have an uphill battle to get this passed. But entertainment taxes as Citizens Research Council has been saying for a very long time, they put out a report in 2018. Eric Lufer, the president of CRC, has been talking about this. He was on WDET this year talking about it. It is something that makes sense, right? There are communities across the United States that use similar kinds of tax strategies. In terms of our taxing structure in Michigan, we're often behind the time. So if we can find Republican allies to do it, great. But for her to, for this particular mayoral candidate, city Council President Mary Sheffield, to suggest this first thing, something that's not clear that we can actually get past is a question mark for me.
Speaker 1:I mean I feel like we can get it passed if we want it. I think that we could get it passed if what we're doing is willing to negotiate. I think the way you exercise power in the state. We certainly have gotten transformational brownfields tax credits passed in the state and other types of improvements. We certainly got the convention center tax to pay for the Q line.
Speaker 1:Those are the benefits of the billionaires right Q line and so if we can get billionaires and others on board and it sounds like she thinks she has some support for that. You know, I've been supporting the entertainment tax. I wrote an op-ed in 2017 when I first got here, wrote an op-ed saying we needed an entertainment tax. But my thinking for the entertainment tax and Mary Sheffield seems to suggest this in some of her language was that that entertainment tax would support the, would offset the losses of income that neighborhoods have because of the Downtown Development Authority and the tax capture that somehow we've got to replenish our communities. To give a little context all of the property tax increases since the 1970s mid-1970s, all the property tax increases have been used to benefit downtown and captured in a tax capture that is controlled by the Downtown Development Authority. Tens of millions of dollars are captured every year that can only be spent downtown. Now the Citizens Research Council of Michigan actually issued two reports on that.
Speaker 1:The most recent study was the most useful, discussing the fact that when the entertainment tax was introduced, downtown was a ghost town and the idea was to stimulate, to catalyze downtown development. Downtown is catalyzed Right now. What we need is investment in neighborhoods. But the reason why it's okay to keep on, you know, promoting these tens of millions of dollars in tax abatements to corporations, and what the city and the corporations say to us is that's not your money anyway. When we cut those taxes, those taxes would not ever go to fund transportation, recreation centers, roads, bridges, housing. Those taxes are restricted by state law to be spent downtown. So the idea of an entertainment tax was to create a new tax and people say, well, that's crazy. But then you look around and you see it's everywhere. If you had a 3% tax and you know the pushback I've heard is well, people wouldn't come downtown if they were taxed.
Speaker 2:Which is ludicrous.
Speaker 1:Which is ludicrous. I was at Fort Field. We didn't buy those tickets because you know that's not on my budget, but we had those tickets. My husband won them at work. So we are for a field. But you know the tickets that you pay, that you get for Fort Filt. Not a single dollar for those tickets goes to taxes. Ticket master makes money.
Speaker 5:Yeah, there's so many fees on fees, on fees.
Speaker 6:Fees on fees.
Speaker 5:It's insane. And I just wonder, if they were to add a tax, then would ticket master go? And you know, if it's on the person like, what would that do to the actual price of the ticket? Nothing, the actual price of the ticket? Nothing, Would it just be added on to it what? Would the artist be then somehow?
Speaker 1:I don't know. All I know is that I don't want Ticketmaster making money that Detroit residents can't make, because Detroit residents own these stadiums, especially LCA. We pay for it to be built. The Illich's aren't even paying us rent money for that. At some point pay us back for our investment, and that's the way I feel. Ticketmaster did not invest anything. I don't think that we should feel like we can't charge taxes because it might harm Ticketmaster. Maybe we need to limit what Ticketmaster can charge in terms of fees, which some municipalities do so that we can charge taxes.
Speaker 1:But look at it, you have you been down to out to dinner? You two people going out to dinner in many restaurants downtown, one drink, a meal per person. You're spending 80 easily. Okay, a three percent tax is how much? Two dollars and 40 cents. If you can afford an 80 meal, you can afford an 82 and 40 cent, you can afford an $82.40 meal. It's just ridiculous that we don't do that, especially because these places get special consideration from everything, and so they have not just the Detroit police forces down there and our general fund tax dollars pay for that they're not required to pay for policing but also they have their own police. They have the parts of it. Parts of this area are also policed, I believe, by the Detroit Medical Center police, and also the Downtown Development Authority has a private police force. It's the most over-policed part of the city.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When you're down there, police are everywhere police part of the city. When you're down there, police are everywhere. And while you're down there, paying ticket master, but not the citizens of the city of Detroit. A citizen in the city of Detroit, on the far east side, calls the police and they have to wait on a response time because the police are all stationed in a place where people who don't pay taxes inside of Detroit congregate. Because, I'm going to tell you, I was at Fort Field yesterday. I'd say a good 90% of the people who are sitting near me, at least, are not from the city.
Speaker 5:For sure, especially downtown. But, then I guess that raises the question of if they're going to start entertainment taxes, they're going to be a threshold as to what type of event they're going to charge it for. Is it going to be all events all across the board, because you have smaller events that happen, like inside of the shelter, when you're going to St Andrew's Hall, where there's maybe 100 to 200 people, as opposed to like something maybe at Ford Field, which I don't know how many tens of thousands?
Speaker 1:65,000.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so like, is there going to be like a limit or is like all events downtown?
Speaker 1:If you are in Chicago, if you are in New York City, if you are in Los Angeles, you're paying an entertainment tax when you are in the entertainment district and the entertainment tax is proportional to whatever you're paying. So let's say you paid $15 on a ticket at the shelter, right? Or let's say 20, make the math easy on me right? That's 60 cents, so 20,. 60 instead of $20,. The reality is that when you're there, you're getting preferred police protection, preferred ambulance protection, preferred street cleaning, all of the things that are invested in that. Citizens of Detroit cannot get on the blocks where they live in and they pay property taxes and if they have a job, they pay income taxes to support you being down there in a space not you personally, but people being down there in a space where they don't feel like they should have to contribute anything.
Speaker 5:They're definitely neglected because of how much is going on downtown and there's just a lack of help and obviously, like you said, when there's an event going on, or five events going on, all the police officers are stationed there. They have to be, which is terrible. No, they don't have to be.
Speaker 1:They don't have to be. That's a choice because there's private security they could get that they have. It's a choice to put all those police officers. I live right off the Riverwalk, right, I'm on the Riverwalk any day in the summer and it's like I'm tripping over police officers. I'm like, why are there so many police officers here? What are you trying to stop? And they have. You know, right off of the Riverwalk there's a tunnel I just learned about and there's a police station right there. There's a choice in how we deploy our police officers, and I think not just police, but also fire and ambulance services. I just think that there is a decision. There's got to be equity and parity, no-transcript. So I just think we need to do a better job of spreading the wealth and I think an entertainment tax is a good first step. Would you agree with that, chase?
Speaker 2:Well, one of the things is I know that you're also passionate about the DDA that you just explained, starting with the entertainment tax. That requires the legislature to actually pass new legislation. To make this happen is interesting when we already have money in the DDA that we can turn to, and the city of Detroit could reset the baseline for the DDA and begin to take in some of those dollars to use for the general fund. So why use something that we need to go to Lansing for versus something that we can do ourselves?
Speaker 1:I mean, I think we need both. I think that we can restructure the Downtown Development Authority. I think we can and we should. We can do that ourselves and I think we can have new taxes. I think that the Citizens Research Council for Michigan argue for both. Actually we need both. I think that in her speech I missed it. I was sick last week.
Speaker 1:Mary did speak to both. She didn't speak to one or the other. However, she also spoke to a land value tax and having the entertainment tax kind of replace the land value tax. That I'm not crazy about. I don't know if anybody knows what the land value tax is, but it was a tax that the mayor was trying to put forward, or it was a tax reduction the mayor was trying to put forward for parcels of land that are occupied by a structure, that those you have a tax reduction on those parcels and if there is no structure then you'd have to pay more, or something like that. And so the idea is that the entertainment tax would offset the tax cuts. So she's talking tax cuts, not supplemental tax. I'm not necessarily in favor of the use.
Speaker 2:I'm in favor of the concept. So this is the thing. When people are talking about new revenue for the city, what I want to see these mayoral candidates discuss is what they will do with the money.
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 2:Right, it's not just important to get more money in the coffers, we do need it. Arpa is running out, so the federal dollars that we got, you know that's going to be all spent by 2026. So the on this first candidate for talking about how we get more revenue. What are we going to do with the dollars?
Speaker 6:That's really what we need to be asking all of these candidates. It's very interesting when I think about 2024, I was overwhelmed with the number of concerts and events there were. It's been more than I've seen ever in my lifetime, so it would be substantial.
Speaker 1:It would be and love it. I think my issue is also that in a lot of instances, people cannot even afford who are residents can't afford to go down there, like the Movement Festival. The Movement Festival used to be almost free and now it's $100 a day, and so Detroit residents can't go down there. It's heavily policed, heavily supported, and I just think we need more equity. I think it's great that we't go down there. It's heavily policed, heavily supported, and I just think we need more equity. I think it's great that we have festivals down there.
Speaker 1:I'd love to see all of the excitement. I love all of that. I just want to make sure that we are thinking through how we're going to use all of this entertainment platform that we've built to generate new income for the city of Detroit and, honestly, we do have to use that income more effectively. We do have to put it in neighborhoods, we do have to put it in housing, we do have to spread the wealth and spread that, and I think we have to be very, very clear with people who are running for office what we mean. Now is the time for us to clarify exactly what our expectations are. I don't want to wait and see what they're going to do. I want to say here's what I think you need to do so that we're real clear what this means. Because empty check, blank check you know, let's get all this money and you spend it on your pet projects or your friends is not good governance, that's right.
Speaker 6:Right.
Speaker 1:All right, so all right. I think it's time for our first break.
Speaker 7:Thank, you, pop-up events, the Neighborhood Tech Hub and more. Members who are residents of the Eastside have access to exclusive services in the Wellness Network. Join today and live well, play well, be well. Visit ecndetroitorg.
Speaker 1:Welcome back everyone. Brooke and Casey Oberg are the dynamic duo behind Detroit Mulch, a homegrown company transforming Detroit's landscape in a seriously cool way. Casey and Brooke founded Detroit Mulch with a simple mission in mind Recycle trees in Detroit as sustainably and efficiently as possible and create some local jobs in the process. Now they're turning fallen city trees into high quality mulch, giving new life to Detroit's greenery while making the city more sustainable. Their mulch is not only beautifying backyards but also playing a role in Detroit's urban renewal, from small gardens to massive city projects. They're passionate about going green and supporting local businesses, and their mission is as inspiring as it is impactful. What an exciting project.
Speaker 1:I have to tell you I was at this exhibit at the Charles Wright Museum. I don't know if you saw their D tree exhibit. They did a whole examination on trees. They had a dead tree on their grounds and they were like, what should we do with this dead tree? And so what they decided to do was to study what you could do with dead trees and they educated everybody on all the uses, on the expense of going up north to get mulch and bringing it down here, the transportation mulch and the fact that we have so much wood in our own community and reusing that and I thought, as many complaints as I hear residents make about dead trees, wouldn't it be great if we found a way to recycle them? And then I heard about you guys. Can you talk about Detroit Mulch and how you got started?
Speaker 3:Well, and that's kind of how we did get started was Brooke's a native here and I was transplanted here by her and we were driving up and down the streets of Detroit and it's like, you know, what can we do to give back to the city that we live in? And that's really how the foundation of Detroit Mulch started was how can we utilize a tree and I'm a farmer by trade coming here and trees have such a great nutrient content, so how can we recycle this and give back to the city?
Speaker 1:Wonderful. Okay, so that's how you got started. Now, where are you from?
Speaker 3:I'm from northern Minnesota.
Speaker 1:Northern Minnesota okay, Not too far from Fargo. Oh wow, Okay, from a TV series. How long have you been here?
Speaker 3:I moved here in 2017.
Speaker 1:All right, and so you came here and you brought with you some of the small town sensibilities, rural sensibilities, or was this your idea?
Speaker 3:It was definitely 100% my idea to start. All right. Thankfully, Brooke had a job that supported us as I got going with my dream ideas of how I could create this business within the city.
Speaker 6:I'm a city girl. I had to learn these farm ways.
Speaker 2:So talk about how one gets the mulch right. Is it in stores? Do you have contracts with the city, with other businesses, Like what sets your business apart from other mulch businesses?
Speaker 3:So currently we are the only one in Detroit, are the only one in Detroit and we actually supply a large majority to Lowe's Home Depot Menards. We supply the wholesale baggers.
Speaker 6:So a lot of times when you go to the stores it'll be our mulch and we also support a lot of landscapers or landscaping companies that are in Detroit and spread the mulch at the Detroit. Riverwalk the Costco locations in Michigan. So how they get it is they go to our website or they come visit us, and we love to see new companies coming by, because the more mulch we can sell, the more trees that we can service and we are a service so so say, say more about why mulch right.
Speaker 2:Are there other uses that you could use dead trees for? Like what? What brought about the particular idea of mulch?
Speaker 3:so, when you look at the concept of mulch around your garden beds, around your trees, the nutrient content will actually break down and it'll give back to that tree and that's where, like our whole concept, is giving back more than what we receive.
Speaker 2:And how about impact on the community? Are there other ways that you work with residents in the city of Detroit directly, like I assume? With a name like Detroit Mulch, it goes beyond just the basic business.
Speaker 6:Yeah, most of our employees are Detroit residents and we also try to support different community events, whether it's donating compost, mulch or processing their trees.
Speaker 6:We don't just take trees from the city um and process those, but we also take trees from residents and um so basically, if you, as a resident of detroit you have a tree fall in your yard, you might have two options the maybe put it on the curb and detroit will come get it and they bring it to us, or you can bring it yourself to us. So we're servicing your tree and helping you clean up your yard, and because where else would it go if we didn't help with that service?
Speaker 2:So that's great because this literally just happened to me about a month and a half ago. So huge tree actually. My neighbor's tree across the street actually fell on her car, so that was terrible. So we all sort of all the neighbors came out. We were scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. I called my district two manager. She was actually helpful in the process. We got the city of Detroit out there the same day. They did a great job. So I don't often give credit where credit is due, but the city of Detroit did a great job. They showed up within a couple hours, got the limb cleaned up everything, but didn't know where that went after. So does all of those dead trees go to Detroit Mulch or is it spread out amongst other organizations as well?
Speaker 6:If the city of Detroit came to get it, it would come to us. And that's the funny thing, because people usually don't care where it goes, they're just glad it's no longer in their yard.
Speaker 2:Which is how I felt yeah.
Speaker 6:So we're happy to take care of that service and help the city of Detroit in that way.
Speaker 2:So, brooke, you said there was a learning curve for you, right? I know nothing about mulch either, growing up in the city. How about the other employees for Detroit Mulch? You said that many of them are Detroit residents. Do they also have to learn about this ecosystem and how mulch works?
Speaker 6:They do. It's a very niche field. So most times when we hire people, we don't necessarily look for them to have mulch experience, but just look for a good attitude, great customer service and willingness to learn, because they will have to learn. We have various truck sizes, mulch types, mulch colors. I think we have two or three different color browns that we have to differentiate. So, yeah, but it's exciting because it's a lot of fun to learn something that's just so common, but you're deep diving into it and you can do even a little bit yourself with your own mulch or your own compost.
Speaker 2:What is this entrepreneurial journey been like for you? Right, so you have the idea. How do you go from concept to a partnership with the city of Detroit? That's pretty, pretty huge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know it's. I just took the training that I got as a child when we grew up farming. The same core is now within Detroit Mulch, where we've seen the benefits, we've seen the nutrients contents that will create the sustainability for our soil. And then you know, with our mission being how can we give more back than we take from the, from every category that we go into? And when you start to see, year over year, the benefits of composting and mulch into your garden beds, you'll see your yields go up, your plants will have more, the flowers will get bigger, better, brighter, all around. It's just a fantastic soil amendment.
Speaker 2:So you're both husband and wife, right. What is it like leading an organization like this as a couple?
Speaker 3:Well, we learned pretty quickly to differentiate Like I manage the yard and the production and Brooke handles the office.
Speaker 6:Yeah, the gate staff. So yeah, we kind of have both of our roles so that we're not working together every day. We can come home and say, hey, but yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:That's good. So I have a question. So many people have dead trees. I was on your website. I was really curious about that. Like, if I have a dead tree, can I call you and have you pick it up, or do you have to wait until it's fallen? What is the process for somebody with a dead tree issue having it removed?
Speaker 6:So we do not collect the dead trees, but the tree companies or the city of Detroit will bring the trees to us and we then process them with grinders. Grind it up and then from there we either mix it with with the basically make mulch from that tree so what is the cost of having a private company?
Speaker 1:do you know?
Speaker 3:remove a tree it varies yeah, it's very size dependent and what the accessibility to that tree like. If you have one fall in your backyard where they're going to have to have a boom truck come and get it, that cost is going to be more than what it would cost if it was in the front yard, very easily accessible.
Speaker 6:I was just going to say. I think that people can sometimes underestimate the weight of trees because, you can have a very tall, skinny tree that may not weigh as much in processing or bringing it down, or you can have a very wide tree that you can't even wrap your arms around and the process and the cost to cut that chip, that chip it up into pieces and transport it to us would be sizable. It would take several trips, so that all goes into the cost. So what is the?
Speaker 1:value of that tree, so you're turning it into mulch. Are you able to extract enough value to justify the cost in some instances? Or is it one of those things where it really is better if people just bring you branches and smaller items because it is too expensive to haul? Like, how much mulch can you make out of a tree? A single large tree.
Speaker 3:So typically, like your standard dump trailer, which is 7 1⁄2 feet wide, 4 feet tall, 14 feet long, that's about 10 yards of mulch when it's all ground up. If you fill that trailer completely full and to break down the yardage, that would be about a 10 by 30 piece of property three inches deep, oh wow.
Speaker 1:So what is the value of that? How much would somebody have to pay for that that much?
Speaker 3:To bring it to us.
Speaker 1:No, as a customer what would it cost to pay for that much To bring it to us, Purchase it as a customer? What would it cost?
Speaker 3:For natural mulches, or $20 per yard, $200 to $300.
Speaker 1:$200, $300? Yeah, oh, that's very reasonable. That's a lot less expensive than if you go to Home Depot, right? Yes, Okay, so it's recycling and it's affordable, but it's not one of those industries where it makes sense at this point to actually remove the trees and do all of that other heavy lifting. So how do you get it?
Speaker 3:So we have relationships with tree contractors and the city of Detroit and their different tree divisions that they will bring it to us and we're a better resource than the landfill.
Speaker 1:It's much better than the landfill.
Speaker 2:So I'm curious, though DTE is also doing a lot of tree trimming. Do you have a relationship with DTE or what was happening with those trees? Do you know?
Speaker 6:Well, it's not quite DTE. It is DTE, but it is the tree companies that are contracted by yeah, so it depends. Some of them have their own yards, not in the city, and they take them there and process them from there. But some of them, a lot of them that are in the city, we process the trees for them, so we're providing that service for the city Got it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you are reusing the trees, keeping them out of landfills, right, you are putting them back to productive use. Is that contributing to healthy soils or is that something separate? I know with composting we talk about soil health as well as the productivity of the soil. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. If you start getting more into the benefits of soil amendments with tree waste and with yard waste, the grass clippings, the leaves, and you don't notice it the first or the second year, you start to notice that the third, fourth years go on. Your soil will continue to get better. And what happens with the synthetic? So you start taking your grass clippings off, you start taking your leaves off. You're not putting anything back. Over time you'll start to see your grass turning brown quick. It doesn't retain moisture. So if you look at a yard and you don't have it watered for three, four days in the summertime, you can really tell the difference between compost yards and non-compost yards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I lived in this house and my yard was perpetually brown. It did not matter what I did to that. I mean I tried everything. I tried putting all kinds. I didn't know about the chemical damage, okay, so don't All kinds of chemicals. I paid for a company to put soil borings. Nothing would work and I didn't realize then what I do. Now is very possible that the soil was just really unhealthy and that we needed to replace the soil. So is this part of this movement to help restore our ecosystem and protect?
Speaker 3:Absolutely and protect Absolutely. You know, you start thinking, like my wife likes to do her hair, and you start thinking about if you used a chemical that dried your scalp out and your hair started getting brittle and it didn't work like it, it worked unhealthily would you keep just doing the same thing? So when you start seeing your grass not doing as good, you start seeing your flower beds they don't look right. Well then you got to start thinking like, okay, I got to try something different and just try composting, where you can see the benefits, the second and third year, and you'll get like a rich. Look to your soil, where it'll be like a Detroit is famous for a clay brown type of soil. And when you start getting that rich black look, that's where you're going to start to see it. It'll really retain the moisture so you can water once a week, maybe once every other week, as your soil gets better.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's really awesome. That's really awesome because it also is protecting our water sources, right.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you know? One more question about this the you know environmental benefits. When you have water that's flowing through healthy soils, that also protects the groundwater, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah, so when you think about when you walk across, like a hard clay, the water actually doesn't even seep into the soil. It goes into your roadways and goes into the sewer drains, but with a healthy soil very little of it will be into the runoff. It absorbs it and it holds there for the roots to come and retain it.
Speaker 1:Beth Dombkowski. Wow, is this a successful business for you all, or is it still real new and you're still trying to figure it out?
Speaker 3:So for all the entrepreneurs that have started a business, the first few years usually aren't very good, and it took us about four years before we seen a profit. And then our fifth and sixth year now Brooke was able to leave her secular job and come and help me, so I really appreciated her value to what she's brought to it. She really her skillset really compliments mine because I'm not good with the computer or doing office work, and so it's been a very good partnership.
Speaker 1:And I take it, she is not the person doing all of the work with the mulch and the soil.
Speaker 6:No. We've got a division of labor going on here, right, yes.
Speaker 1:And I imagine that would help you as husband and wife work together because you have your own specific areas of emphasis and skill sets.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I understood pretty quickly when we got married too. Brooke's much smarter than me, so she's usually right, and we kind of live by that motto.
Speaker 2:So where can people find out more about Detroit Mulch?
Speaker 3:We've got a really nice website and also we love people coming to the yard and just asking questions too. We've had a lot of like tours just for people coming to see how it all works.
Speaker 6:Where are you located? We're on Prairie Street, off Livernois and Linden. It's not too far from the future. Joe Lewis Greenway.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I think I've actually seen your site because I was doing a tour of the Greenway, a driving tour, awesome. What is your website?
Speaker 6:It's Detroit Mulch Company company spelled all the way out dot com, All right.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting to see a new green business getting started in Detroit and doing all the things that we need to protect our environment here. I do have one more question, I'm sorry. Is there an air quality impact as a result of doing this and if so, can you talk about the air quality impact of all of this?
Speaker 3:I don't know if there are any adverse or benefits there are to it any adverse or benefits there are to it.
Speaker 1:I imagine more greenery means better air quality, because trees and bushes and greenery helps to absorb pollutants, and so I just always like to think of that, because we like to promote environmental justice here, and projects like this really reusing trees, reusing shrubs and all of that and leaves helps to protect our environment, and so I want to thank you for that, because you're doing well by doing good.
Speaker 6:Yeah, thank you, and some say that in cities where they stockpile the wood or have it in landfills. It's what we're doing by processing.
Speaker 1:It is better for the air quality than having the dead trees just sitting piling and imagine producing some type of gas because of decay and all of the decay mechanisms that you protect against.
Speaker 6:Yep.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you for coming on.
Speaker 6:Thank you for having us.
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Speaker 1:Welcome back everyone. Megan Kashat is a multifaceted Arab-American artist based in Detroit, whose artistic journey has been shaped by her global experiences. Her introduction to the world of art happened unexpectedly in 2016 during her time in New York while in a training program at the Broadway Dance Center. One of the unique aspects of Megan's artistry is her integration of music, dancing and painting. Megan's artistic journey has been marked by significant achievements, including features in renowned publications like Billboard Magazine and Rolling Stone. Megan is currently signed to 23rd Precinct in Notting Hill Music. Welcome, megan, we've got a star in our midst. Thank you, it's nice to star in our midst. Thank you, it's nice to be here, nice to meet you. Okay, so tell me about your music and your background. Your music and your art. I guess.
Speaker 5:Sure, yeah. Well, I was a former backup dancer for Charlie Wilson and I was with him from the age of 19 to 21.
Speaker 1:Uncle, Charlie, yeah Uncle.
Speaker 5:Charlie.
Speaker 2:All right, yeah, uncle.
Speaker 5:Charlie. So I really started as a dancer and that was kind of like all I wanted to do. But I was also like in the choir and I was like a closet songwriter. Nobody really knew that I was writing music. And then when I was on tour with him, I remember just sitting down with his music director and I was like I want to get in the studio, how much are you going to charge me? And of course he gave me a great discount and three songs and I was offered a record deal from Charlie's management. And of course he gave me a great discount and three songs and I was offered a record deal from Charlie's management.
Speaker 5:So I kind of had an epiphany like at that point, like what? I guess I'm meant to be more than a backup dancer. So that's kind of how everything started. I didn't end up signing. Unfortunately, I still love them to death. But yeah, now I've just been on like this journey of independent artistry, which is it's an up and down, depending on the day and the hour, but it's been wonderful. I mean I've spent my life now in my 30s Like I've just I've loved everything that I've done with my life so far and I hope to just continue doing it.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:So what are some of the influences on your music? You said that you were, you know, an undercover songwriter. Like who are you listening to? Who made you excited to write music?
Speaker 5:You know what? I never wrote music because I was excited. I wrote it because I needed an outlet to express myself in a way that I couldn't do it as a dancer. I feel like every realm of art speaks to a different part of the soul, whereas dancing is something I did when I didn't want to communicate through words, and writing was something I did when I didn't want to communicate through words and like writing was something I did when I didn't feel like using my body and like singing was always a vulnerable thing for me, because dancing is so interesting.
Speaker 5:It's such a weird perspective, like you could look at someone and they could be a phenomenal dancer, but if you know nothing about the technique, you're gonna look at it and be like I don't know what she's doing. You you know, and it could be strange. But also when you listen to somebody sing, you know if they can sing or not. There's no like, oh well, maybe she's good and I just don't have an ear. You know, I don't know, maybe nowadays because there's so many different styles and things and techniques.
Speaker 1:I mean, I listen to Taylor Swift and I don't get it Okay, okay.
Speaker 5:And people say she's a great.
Speaker 1:No, I believe she's a good singer, she's just not for me. You know what I mean For sure.
Speaker 5:For sure, for sure. But it's another thing like okay, and I agree I'm not a huge Taylor Swift fan but like if somebody's off with the music, like me, yeah Well, I mean it, people are less critical of it. You could see somebody who has zero technique and be like, oh my God, they're amazing, whereas me I've been dancing for 30 years. I'm like actually no, they suck, or whatever. Not to be unforgiving.
Speaker 1:What's the dance show? The one from the 1990s where the lady was a dancer and everybody laughs at it. Now they're like Abby, she was the dance mom's one. No, it's not that there's a TV. There was a movie about a woman who was this. She loved dancing. It came out in the 90s, early 2000s, and people reflect back on it and realize she really couldn't dance.
Speaker 5:Was it oh man?
Speaker 1:Was it that ballet one? Yeah, I think so. And so my daughters all laughed Like, oh my goodness, we thought she could dance. We thought she was great, she really wasn't. So that's to your point. There's certain skill sets that you have in dancing that people who are dancers can tell is great 100%, but non-dancers cannot.
Speaker 5:Exactly, and with music it's just so obvious. You don't have to be a musician to know if someone's off key. You know it's like this just doesn't sound right, you know like. You just know something's off.
Speaker 1:So you followed Charlie Wilson yeah.
Speaker 5:You liked his music. I was a backup dancer for him, right, so you liked the music you were dancing to. You know what cast for that? I had no idea. I grew up listening to you.
Speaker 5:Drop the bomb on me the gap band right, exactly as far as Charlie was with his independent career, I was like wait, who? What are you talking about? And then I, well then, after touring with him, I was like oh my god, I love this stuff. I was singing it, you know, when we were traveling in between shows, but going into it I wasn't like a Charlie fan, I was just going to a dance who were you, who were?
Speaker 5:you listening to. I was all about pop music. I could listen to anything from Metallica to Britney Spears. I have a huge palette for music. When it came to songwriting, I was always very inspired by Sarah McLachlan. She's such a spiritual writer. I'm big on words. I would read her lyrics and be like this woman's on another level. You know what I mean. The like, read her lyrics and be like this woman's, like on another level. You know what I mean. But I could also, like the, the inner dancer in me could listen to Britney Spears and just want to rock out, even though those are, like you know, surface type of lyrics. Where it's not, you're not going to cry listening to it but it's fun, yeah.
Speaker 5:It kind of just brings you upbeat Like you. Just you just want to have a good time. So I feel like there's different moments in life where different types of art can kind of cater to whatever's going on. But because I'm a very emotional being, I can have a great day, I can have a horrible day, so I could listen really to anything. Nowadays I'm not really too much into the hard rock because I'm not in that mood anymore, but at one point I was. I had a phase like that.
Speaker 1:So who are you?
Speaker 5:listening to today. I love Hosier, which is interesting because I write electronic dance music primarily right now. So when I listen, like I could be listening to. You know, an Afro house artist like Nico de Andrea he's new, you might not have heard of him, he's wonderful and then the next day I'm like listening to Hosier. So it kind of just depends. Hosier is really a huge influence on me right now Because in current day there's not too many artists that are in the mainstream that are writing the way he writes. Like his lyrics blow me away. I'm just like how did this, like how did this guy think of that? You know what I mean, but he's he's doing it in a way where he's really reaching the masses, and that is hard to do. Most people don't have the attention span for things that are super deep these days. So I super appreciate him. I'm listening to him all day long right now.
Speaker 5:So you're in Detroit. Did you grow up in Detroit or near Detroit? I didn't grow up in Detroit. I grew up in Metro Detroit. I kind of was like all over the place. Like we grew up I, my parents, we lived in Novi, then we moved to like commerce, then we were in like St Clair shores gross point. But I was kind of traveling so I left and went to LA when I was 19. And that's when I was with Charlie and I sort of like went around the world from there. I came back last year and so recently I was in Grosse Pointe, which was probably the closest I've been to Detroit. I love it there. It's like my favorite place in the world. Honestly, if I could just be in Grosse Pointe until my last day on earth, I'd be so happy. It's so peaceful. Which one At Grosse Pointe proper? Yeah, okay, yeah, I love it there. It's just beautiful by the water. It's a nice neighborhood. You can get to the city easily. You can get to the suburbs easily. It's just beautifully situated.
Speaker 1:So where do you perform?
Speaker 5:So I did Dally in the Alley this summer and then I also did one man I'm drawing a blank on the name did what was it called? I should know this. It was a showcase that I just did recently Breaking Sound, sorry, breaking Sound. I did that. Where was that located? They did it at a place in Hamtramck. It was Dodge New Dodge Lounge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hadn't been there before so you mentioned Dally first, though for listeners who may not have ever gone to Dally in the alley and I'm surprised by Detroiters who may not have ever gone- my siblings didn't even know it existed. I'm like, yeah, it's been going on for decades, right? How would you describe Dally in the Alley?
Speaker 5:Dally in the Alley is like man, it is just like a weekend for hippies. It's just it's in, it's in an alley. There's like you're in the middle of just a bunch of really interesting alleyways where you kind of get like the essence of people who live there, like you get the essence of the way that they're living. It's like you know the alleys of like Midtown. It's amazing, it's such a vibe. And then you have like all these just random food and and music and just knickknacks and I don't know. It's just such a random event and I love it.
Speaker 1:So what is your experience with the Dally and the Alley I?
Speaker 2:mean similar, like I enjoy the just diversity of people, diversity of music. Right, you can encounter all kinds of different kinds of genres. My introduction so I used to live not far right, I used to live near Midtown and I would go. There was always a record shop that was set up shop at Dally and I would go to buy vinyl. So that was my sort of introduction, I feel like there's some of everybody there.
Speaker 1:It's not just hippies, it's everybody right, and so it's this real melting pot of Detroit. I see a lot of that now on the Riverwalk, but you used to never see that anywhere but Daly in the alley. That was the one place you could go and just see Detroiters come together, especially, I'd say, millennials coming together. So it's still a great event and taking place over several blocks. I haven't been for a couple of years, but I've always enjoyed it every time I've been there.
Speaker 5:I mean, I took my son, I brought him on stage with me. He's three years old, so he's like a young hippie. But yeah, it is like any type of person could go to daily and like I I don't know anyone that would go and not enjoy it.
Speaker 1:It's like there's something for everyone there like you said, yeah, I think it's a um. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, um, so what you paint, dance and sing at the same time.
Speaker 5:I do, yeah, how does that work? Well, I started implementing painting live on stage because somebody called me years ago to perform at an event, but it was almost like an audition call. He's like, yeah, you know, we have a lot of people doing electronic dance music. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm a dancer, I was trying to sell myself. I was like what am I going to tell this guy? I was like what am I going to tell this guy? I was like look, I'll paint live on stage. I don't know where this idea came from, but I just wanted the gig. And he's like that is really cool. And I didn't tell him that. Like you know, actually I've never done this before. But then it turned into me like touring with that whole organization because I loved it so much.
Speaker 5:Um, when I do abstract painting, there's no premeditated thought on it. I'm literally throwing color until I like what it looks like. So for me, like being on stage, singing and dancing is already second nature to me. So I'm like let me add some color to this. So I kind of just like dance my way through the painting. While I'm singing my music, I usually gift the audience with the painting. I haven't done it for my last couple of shows, but I definitely plan to continue implementing that because it's just a lot of fun for me and I love the reaction from the audience and I feel like it's me. You know it explains everything that I do.
Speaker 1:I think live art is really cool, yeah, and it just speaks to the difference between people who are artists and me, right, because it's like who could even think of all of this stuff, right? I'm like. It's like who could even think of all of this stuff, right?
Speaker 5:I'm like watching it like, ooh, that's wild, no-transcript, doing all that. You don't have time to be like, oh, should I use purple or pink? It's like maybe you just grab a damn color and you put it on there. You know what I mean. Like you don't have really the, you don't have the luxury of contemplating with yourself when there's an audience in front of you, and I think that's what makes it so thrilling and exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm curious you lived in LA. You lived in New York as well, right?
Speaker 5:I did. I lived in Istanbul, Turkey. I lived in London. I lived in Brazil and Spain.
Speaker 2:OK, so you've been back to Metro Detroit for about a year.
Speaker 5:What brought you back to Michigan. You know what it was. I had no choice. When I was coming back last year, I was actually in a pretty tough position. I was out in London for five months. I had some family issues going on and some things happening in my marriage and I was like I got to go back home. So I did, and I'm glad I did, because it kind of just grounded me and gave me a chance to just like reconnect with family, reconnect with my city and like think about what my next steps would be.
Speaker 5:I was off the scene for a while. You know, I got married, gave birth and everything. That definitely changes things, Like when you're in the entertainment industry and then you become a mother. It's like, well, you know you weren't prepared for that. So yeah, so I've been back for about a year now. I'm glad I came back. It's been nice. There's so many new things happening in the city. I'm always impressed because every time I leave and come back, it's like Detroit is a new Detroit. You know there's things going on that, like you, just I don't know. There's so many innovators here and there's so many opportunities to continue creating in this town, especially with the space and I think, like with all the hardship that Detroit went through, it was really an opportunity for us to create something new again.
Speaker 2:When you were living in other places and you told people you were from here. What would the general reaction be from folks?
Speaker 5:It kind of depended on who I was saying it to. Like when I lived in Istanbul it was more like, oh, she's from America, like everyone just loved that I was American but like most people didn't really know what Detroit was. I think more when you're getting into Eastern Europe and the Middle East and stuff, it's not like Detroit is not so much on the map as when you're talking to somebody in London, for example, like, oh, what was Detroit? Like. There's more of like, although there are more Middle Eastern people in Detroit than anywhere in the United States.
Speaker 1:And so we do have a big concentration.
Speaker 5:We have the largest Middle Eastern community in Metro Detroit, as we do anywhere in the US, it's true. So it does baffle me as well going to places like Istanbul where people are like, oh, what's Detroit? I'm like, oh, it's like only one of the greatest towns in the world.
Speaker 5:But, there's not really a huge Turkishkish community to their defense. It's more like turkish community and the arab community are completely different. We definitely have a lot of lebanese people here, a lot of iraqis here, a lot of people from yemen, but um turkey is more like you would find that more in like miami new york, chicago definitely not as many people from turkey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I grew up very close to what they used to call Chaldean town. I'm Chaldean, yeah, so that was like right at Woodward and Seven Mile If you go on East Seven Mile. All of the signs there were bilingual and so that was my childhood.
Speaker 5:That's where my family, my parents, grew up there. When they came from Iraq, they went straight there.
Speaker 1:I imagine we know some of the same streets and then you know since then people have moved out. But and then my, my children went to school in Southfield and some of them had went to school in West Bloomfield, and so they always had a lot of friends from the Middle East.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So there was those connections, but it's no longer as concentrated in the city as it was when I was a young person. Right, it's true. So who listens to your music?
Speaker 5:You know what? I have a really big following in Turkey, which is interesting because I had it before I went there. But I don't know. I would love to know who listens to my music. I mean, according to Spotify, there's like 173 countries, but I think I do have a bit of a following here and in Los Angeles as well. I hope everyone listens to my music someday, but I don't think I'm quite there yet.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't mean it like that, I just meant what kind of audiences you said EDM.
Speaker 5:Right, it is EDM, but it's more of like. It's not so much like commercial EDM, it's more like I wouldn't say indie EDM. I'm doing a lot in progressive house um, a lot in afro house now and I did a lot with like middle eastern sort of influences in the house music as well. So pretty much people who listen to that music is, I'm guessing who's streaming my songs now. I am working on an album now that's more like adult contemporary. When I first started music I think I had more of a following for like adult contemporary and like traditional pop, whereas I kind of veered pretty far off getting into dance music. I've been top lining dance music for seven years now, so I'm trying to kind of get back to that and I wonder how the audience will respond, because my new music is like nothing like what I've been releasing. So in my head I've been like I hope this is a good thing so what is 23rd Precinct Notting Hill?
Speaker 5:so 23rd Precinct is a publishing company out of Glasgow and we're partnered with Notting Hill Music and they're out of London. They're a wonderful publishing company we do a lot with. I know 23rd does a lot with Scottish artists, being that they're in Glasgow, but we do a lot in the dance music scene. Notting Hill does a ton in the dance music scene. So I signed to them in June. I met Billy he's the owner of the company back in March and it was just a wonderful connection. He really liked my writing and I just liked the conversation and the opportunities that he was bringing and so, um, yeah, I've been with them since June and it took me nine years to get a publishing deal, so I was very happy. I was very happy with that.
Speaker 5:I imagine your parents were very happy too. Right, you know, my mom was super happy. My dad is kind of out of the loop. He's just like oh great job, megan.
Speaker 1:Like he doesn't. If I said, dad, I got a publishing deal, he'd be like what's that? My parents are not super like um you, they. I have middle eastern parents. What can I say? So your first generation, you have those first generation struggles.
Speaker 5:What about your siblings, my siblings? Um so my sister, she is very much praised. My brother is is you know, he took down the family business. So I'm kind of like the black sheep of the family, I would say, in that I kind of just went off and did my own thing. I don't know that it was appreciated, but I did what I had to do.
Speaker 1:We'll just call you the creative spirit, right, exactly, and sometimes in some families the creative spirit is always not appreciated initially, but then over time people are like wow, I have a cousin who plays a guitar and he was the creative spirit in my family.
Speaker 1:And his dad was never really. And then one time we were going to see him and he's amazing. He's got like 30 guitars or something. He's a social worker by day but he's a guitarist at night. And my uncle, he's like, wow, he's really good, but it took him like 30 years to finally see that his son was good. Yeah, luckily before he passed away he was like really impressed.
Speaker 1:So sometimes that happens in families and you know you represent something new in Detroit and that is melding in Detroit. Because when I grew up people who lived in Grosse Pointe did not say they lived in Detroit. Yeah, they were like, oh no, I live in Grosse Pointe. You said they lived in Detroit. It was like fighting words, right, yeah. And now Detroit is the metro area to many people. They feel very connected to the city. Yeah, I feel connected to the city.
Speaker 5:I don't understand why anybody would have an issue? Yeah, probably. Let's be really clear.
Speaker 1:Racism, yeah, racism, like I'm not black, I'm not connected to black people. I mean, that was the feel and it was. You know that Detroit had this ghetto image, this image of being. All of these negative things were always piled onto Detroit and Detroit has always been wonderful people. I grew up in Detroit. I always loved Detroiters. I'm proud Detroit I know Chase is and Kitiana over there is proud of Trader and Jalen. So you know we're all proud of Traders. But I think that for so long we had this reputation that was undeserved. That had a lot to do with the way media frames people.
Speaker 1:And now people come in and see, wait a minute. These people are some of the best people, not just, as you said, in the world not just in the state, but in the world.
Speaker 2:I see that reflected in the students I teach. Right, they're in their 20s. When I was in school, people would not rep Detroit at all. Right, they were from Grosse Pointe and other places and they would not rep the city. And now folks want to live here, they want to visit here, they're excited, they want to study Detroit. They want that to be in the material that we teach.
Speaker 5:It's like a hip thing now.
Speaker 1:I teach a class at Columbia University about Detroit. Okay, students enroll in my class about Detroit, not just students from the United States, but international students Very interested in Detroit, and it's always fun for me to help draw connections between what's happening here and what's happening where they live. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, and I think it's important for us to understand that we are all citizens of the world and we have a mutual responsibility to take care of each other, and so I'm really glad to see you here helping to contribute and bring your unique music style and contributions and artistry into our community. Having started with Charlie Wilson you know, listen, don't you dropped the bomb on me. That's my generation. Okay, that was my music. So Uncle Charlie is the man and I'm just so proud of him for the career he has. Anyway, thank you for coming on here.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much for having me, and I want to learn more about you.
Speaker 1:Where can people learn more about your?
Speaker 5:music you guys can go to, or you could find me on Spotify, megan Kashot. So it's cash with a K-A-T. You can find me on Spotify, apple Music, youtube, and then my paintings are at megankashotcom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can we see, like can we go to YouTube and see you do it all, like the music, the painting, the dancing?
Speaker 5:Yeah, probably. I know I had some older videos up of me doing all that. There will be some new stuff coming up in 2025 as well.
Speaker 1:All right, well, you've heard it from Megan. You can go on to Spotify. I guess everybody can go on Spotify. You have an album coming out soon. I do Adult Contemporary, yes, okay, well, that's exciting. Congratulations, and we look forward to learning more about your music.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 1:All right. If you have topics that you want discussed on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit, on Facebook, instagram and Twitter, or you can email us at authenticallydetroit at gmailcom. Now it's time for shout outs. Let's start with you, chase. Do you have any shout outs?
Speaker 2:I do have a shout out. So I want to shout out a member of our community named Kejah Gray. Kejah is just a wonderful, beautiful soul and you know we've been talking more about all sorts of things lately, about love, about family, about just meditation. And actually she went on Facebook Live yesterday and did an amazing, amazing, I don't know 15 minute, 20 minute sort of morning. I thought of it as a morning meditation, but she talked about parenting and family and community and love and all the things. So just in her retirement she's spreading love throughout the city and beyond. She's originally from Canada, so she goes back and forth and travels a lot.
Speaker 1:But just shout out to Keisha yeah, you know, listen, every time I see Keisha she gives me the best hugs, right, and she's the kind of person who just always makes you feel good. She has that kind of personality. She gives so much love away and she's so joyous and she's part of the Stoudemire community. I don't know if you know that, but she's up here all the time. She takes dance up here, ballroom dance hustle, so she's always very connected to us, great friend and a great person to shout out. Do you have anybody to shout out?
Speaker 5:I'm sure I could find someone I would like to shout out my best friend, leslie Juvett. She's wonderful, she's actress. She's just doing so many great things right now. She's just one of those people that every artist needs. A friend like her. I feel like she really pushes me to do a lot more, which helps me help others.
Speaker 6:I want to shout out my grandmother, she's 92, coming to record here. She lived just up until a couple years ago right around the corner, not too far on Vinton, here in.
Speaker 1:Harper.
Speaker 6:And many summers were spent there, and she's so supportive of all of our endeavors.
Speaker 1:So are you an Eastsider?
Speaker 6:I am yeah actually I grew up on it was over by Whittier, but I moved to Southfield. And went to. Southfield schools. I went to Blackwell Elementary. I was on Shoemaker.
Speaker 1:I would like to shout out the staff team at Eastside Community Network For the Winter Festival On Saturday. It was phenomenal. It was, I think it's the best work we do every year. We gave out toys. We gave out, I think we got toys, clothes, food, lots of giveaways. We had lots of musicians and we had, you know, people selling things in one room. We had movie rooms.
Speaker 1:The community came in and it was the whole community, like not one part of the community, but I felt like the whole community was here and we were taking care of people, seeing families, little kids here. It feels so good to feel like, you know, we're ending this Christmas season giving love out to the community, and I was literally a guest. I didn't go to one planning meeting, nope, I showed up and I just got to enjoy it, which is really great for me, because I always feel like everything I'm not trying to micromanage anything, I'm not managing anything. I had no control over it. It was beautiful. So hats off to ECN for the commitment and the love and the real concern and joy they have in giving to the community. It makes me really proud to lead this organization. That's awesome. All right, thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 1:I will say that we did have Playlist Live the day before Thanksgiving, but we will not be doing that again until the new year and we have a book club coming up in the new year. So this is the end of our year. We have two new things. We started in 2024. One is our book club, and I believe our next book is by our friend Bernadetta Tuhene Professor Bernadetta Tuhene and it's called Plundered how Racist Policies Undermine Black Homeownership in America, or something like that Is her book already out.
Speaker 1:It's coming out on January 26th, I believe, is the release date. She is going to have a book tour, a book signing, on the 31st. We're trying to finalize the location for that, but we're going to be studying that. If you don't know who Bernadetta Tuhene is, learn about her. She is one of the most brilliant academics in our midst and sometimes people don't get celebrated as brilliant academics when they live in a place. She's not from here, but she is here. She's also a professor of law at USC and so she is doing this. She came here to study some of her housing issues, ended up on the tax foreclosure crisis and documenting that and forming organizations and building movements to change laws and policies. So she says I'm our best PR person. I try to be, but anyway, that's going to be our next book in February, I believe. So shout out to Bernadette as well.
Speaker 1:But we started our book club this year and we also started a music club called Playlist Live, where we come together and we listen to our favorite artists with Kari Frazier. So Orlando, kari and I get together. We each have a genre, so one person does old school, one person does new school and the other person does local artist. We each play three songs that we like from an album of an artist that inspires us, and we explain why. But the most important thing is the people who come share their music, and then we put together a Spotify playlist that includes all of the music. Not only that we selected, but the people who joined us selected. So stay connected.
Speaker 1:In 2025, both the book club and Playlist Live are going to be housed at the Stoudemire Wellness Hub and we're going to have refreshments and all that kind of stuff so that we can celebrate right here on the East Side in our community. So, thank you, have a Merry Christmas. If you celebrate Christmas, happy Hanukkah, kwanzaa, kwanzaa, happy Kwanzaa and also Happy New Year, and if none of that matters to you, just have a good day. Thank you, outro Music.
