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
The Resilient Heart of Detroit's Neighborhoods with Tammara Howard, Chandra McMillion and Quincy Jones
This week, Donna sat down with the Founder and Executive Director of What About Us Inc., Tammara Howard, and two of the leaders behind Detroit's Inaugural CDO Expo, Chandra McMillion and Quincy Jones.
Tammara Howard, founder of What About Us Inc., has had a 55-year journey on Belvidere Street, where she's created a grassroots organization serving Detroit's Gratiot Woods neighborhood. From a youth block club started in 1999 to today's five community spaces including a resilience hub, Howard demonstrates how resident leadership creates lasting change.
Quincy Jones and Chandra McMillion are two of the leaders behind Detroit's CDO Expo, which brought together 37 community development organizations to showcase their collective impact. Held at New Lab in Michigan Central Station, the event highlighted the professional, data-driven work these organizations are doing across Detroit.
The conversation reveals how these grassroots leaders are reclaiming Detroit's narrative by proving neighborhoods can be revitalized without displacing residents. Their work represents a powerful counterpoint to the notion that people must leave Detroit to find a better quality of life.
If you want to support What About Us Inc., contact 313-918-9604 or send donations to the cash app $1234WhatAboutUsInc.
Detroit By The Numbers With Alex B. Hill:
Up next. Authentically, detroit welcomes the founder and executive director of what About Us Inc. Tamara Howard, and two of the leaders behind Detroit's inaugural, or actually second, cdo Expo Shandra McMillian and Quincy Jones. But first our new segment with Alex B Hill of Detroitography Detroit by the Numbers Keep it locked. Authentically, detroit starts after these messages. Certainly.
Speaker 2:Detroit starts after these messages. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events or resource fairs? The MassDetroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents and businesses and organizations options at MassDetroit. Contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecn-detroitorg or 313-331-3485. 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. Now let's start the pie.
Speaker 1:It's so bright in the dark. Hello Detroit in the world. Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's East Side at the Stoudemire Wellness Hub inside of the East Side Community Network headquarters. I'm Donna Givens-Davidson. Thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices to real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Thank you, and Quincy Jones, executive Director of the Osborne Neighborhood Alliance. We also have Alex B Hill of Detroitography on the line for a new monthly segment Detroit by the Numbers. Welcome to Authentically Detroit. Thank you Glad to be here. Thank you Glad to be here. All right, how is this blessed day finding everyone this?
Speaker 4:is wonderful Very very nice, I love it.
Speaker 3:Yes, very nice the studio. It's beautiful, this is wonderful. Oh, thank you, glad to be here.
Speaker 1:Thank you, really glad to have you here, and you know, quincy and I go back.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, I don't want to say how many years, but it's more than one, that's okay.
Speaker 1:You are a North End native? Yes, and I was at Vanguard Community Development Corporation when we connected the first time. Yes, and you were part of the Skillman Foundation Good Neighborhoods Initiative, representing the North End before the North End got kicked out of that initiative.
Speaker 3:Right, right, you know it's funny because I actually grew up in Osborne community.
Speaker 5:Oh, wow, I went to.
Speaker 3:Fleming Elementary Von Steuben and then we moved. But I grew up over there until I went to high school and then we moved to the North End during my high school years.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you know All right, so you've lived, you're back working where you grew up Correct and you but are you still living in the North?
Speaker 3:End Still there and you but are you still living in the North end? Still there, and you own other property, you're a landlord and all that good stuff. My whole family lives over there. My mother lives on Melbourne, my sister lived next door to her and I live on Chandler street, so we're all right there.
Speaker 1:And then Tam and I go back to when I first got to Eastside Community Network. I always tell this story. I got here and I'm working here and I met this woman. Every time we had a meeting she put on her gloves and she's serving me food. She was like the most amazing volunteer before I got to know what About Us Inc. And Tam is a board member of ECN, a longstanding board member of ECN. But before I got to know what About Inc, I knew this amazing, sweet, just generous, kind, positive person, always smile on her face and always welcoming me to ECN. Thank you, and that's just your basic. And since then, of course, we've known each other in many other ways and your work has just grown tremendously in these past nine years. So I'm really excited to have conversations with both of you. But first we're going to start with Detroit by the Numbers. Have conversations with both of you, but first we're going to start with Detroit by the numbers. Alex.
Speaker 1:This is a segment where we highlight significant data and numbers from the past month for Detroiters. We're here with Alex B Hill of Detroitography and newly minted chairperson of the city's GoData Commission Congratulations. The GoData Commissioners are a diverse group of stakeholders, including data experts, community leaders and representatives from various sectors. We are dedicated to ensuring that the city's open data initiatives serve the needs of all residents and promote informed decision making. Sometimes there are numbers and data points in the news, but it's hard to know the context behind them. Let's talk about them and dig in. What numbers do you have for us this month, alex?
Speaker 5:Yeah, thanks for having me again. The first number I've got for this month is 90% and that's not a good number. That's the overwhelming majority of polling places that have accessibility challenges. So this number comes from Detroit Disability Power and they do a regular poll audit and they just recently updated it because there was about 30 or so polling places that changed from the last election. So we're actually really excited because we just built in the accessibility data set to our VoteDetroitorg tool so you can check your polling place and check your polling place's accessibility at the same time.
Speaker 1:All right, thank you. And then the next number.
Speaker 5:The next one is 144 million and that's the total investment that has gone into Belle Isle since 2014. So there's an effort right now with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Belle Isle Conservancy. They have a survey that's open through Labor Day where folks can rank the potential new investments to the island, as they've kind of claimed to handle a lot of the outdated things that really needed to get addressed.
Speaker 1:So Belle Isle is a lot nicer physically than it was, you know, when the state took over. I think that's undeniable in many ways. Right. There's still things I miss about Belle Isle, Like I miss the Belle Isle Zoo. Oh, my goodness, I love the Belle Isle Zoo. Taking my kids on field trips to the Belle Isle Zoo was always the best, and we went to the playscape, took our grandsons to the playscape a few weeks ago and the major playscape near the giant slide could use a facelift.
Speaker 1:But the article that Alex pulls this number from is one that was featured in Planet Detroit and I'm actually on the cover story of that article. It came to my assistant, sent to me this morning like great photo, Donna. But you know there's one thing they got wrong. Before we move on to the next number, I just wanted to point that out. I criticized the island and the state for closing the island down at 10 pm and the person I believe the officer in charge of policing the island said that it's always been a 10 pm curfew on the island and that they just now had enough money to enforce it. That curfew was established when the state took over, when I was a kid, there was no curfew on the island.
Speaker 1:If you grew up in Detroit, you were on Belle Isle till you— Midnight, Midnight, 2 o'clock, I don't care. There was never—nobody ever got escorted off. You went to Belle Isle, didn't you Tam? Yes, I did, yeah, so we weren't curfews and my parents were Detroiters and they used to sleep on Belle Isle when it was hot outside. You know there's so many Belle Isle stories. So for a real Detroiter, we know that that's false information. I just want all the new Detroiters who might be listening to know no, there was no curfew. The other thing is we did not use at least I don't know many people who used the Belle Isle Beach. Like, when we went to the beach, were we going to Belle Isle? No, no, we were going to Metro, right, Metro.
Speaker 4:Beach. I was going to Metro Beach. No, we went to Metro Beach.
Speaker 1:That was our beach. Belle Isle Beach was not a. Thing.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a thing, it wasn't a thing You're driving to the island.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at, I'm looking, I'm like, who are these people? It's packed, packed Everywhere, everywhere, and it's like, wow, y'all are on Belle Isle Beach. I think we all thought Belle Isle Beach Was not very clean or too small, or too small, small, not clean. I just never. It was just never attractive. So the idea that people are on Belle Isle Beach is funny to many native Detroiters, I think. I mean, it's packed, yes, but it's not packed with native Detroiters, right? Not people who grew up here. No, we're still going to Metro Beach and we go to the beach. All right, I love that Anyway.
Speaker 5:Next number, Alex. Go on. Now they've got a robot that cleans the beach.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I won't. That'll be for another time. I'll find some data. Okay, I want to get the data, robot data, all right, so then events.
Speaker 5:Yeah, our next number for this month is 96. And that's the number of events that happened for Detroit's Month of Design, which is coming up September, and I guess that's a loose number because it could be more, could be less, depending on what happens during the month. Sometimes they add some folks or add some venues and events as they go, but if folks want to look at all those events back to 2019. Design Corps Detroit did share that data set on detroitdataorg.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and then your final number.
Speaker 5:Final number for this month is $2 million, and that is the amount that's been spent by mayoral candidates in the election so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so far yeah. Is it safe to say that the majority of that was spent by one candidate or?
Speaker 5:you know, more than half. So that's the total that was spent and it was, I think, closer to 2.5 million that was raised and 1.3 million of that was raised by Mary Sheffield and I guess the way to kind of measure where that's at is, you know, in Duggan's last two re-election bids he raised about 1.1 million 1.2 million around the same time as Mary Sheffield.
Speaker 1:So she's on pace, Although I'm guessing that Samuel L Jackson did not contribute to his campaign. Duggan's campaign.
Speaker 2:She got some Hollywood royalty in hers.
Speaker 1:I was looking through some of those numbers. One of the other things that's really interesting in this race is the amount of outside money spent on this race, and I don't know if we have a number for that yet, but it would be nice next month to look at outside money. And the other thing I'm hoping that we can get at next month is to get at where people voted, who voted, if we can dig a little bit down into the demographics of who's showing up at the polls. Yes, because I think we all have some idea and there was a report, but I think it was a free press or the news that tried to correlate Detroit News.
Speaker 1:Detroit News tried to correlate, you know, voting in certain precincts with candidates and it looked like high wealth folks supported some people. The problem with the Detroit News map is I couldn't tell who was where. The map didn't really help. It was confusing to me, but I'm really interested to see where voters are showing up, especially in light of the free press story that speaks to. Spoke to people really feeling like they were not being represented in elections.
Speaker 3:What was the numbers for the primary I mean the primary election that's passed. What was the numbers for that For people coming out to vote?
Speaker 1:Oh, I think it was something like 17%, something like that. It was actually higher than it was in the last primary, which was no shock to me. It was a couple of percentage points higher. I thought it was going to be higher than that. Anytime you have a real contested election, you're going to have more people showing up. You don't have an incumbent in and it made sense to me the more people would show up. A lot of people thought there were fewer or there would be fewer, and it's kind of hard to know what elections look like on election day, because I think I was like number 18 at my place.
Speaker 4:I was seven on election day, because I think I was like number 18.
Speaker 1:At my place I was seven, but a lot of people vote early and a lot of people vote through absentee. With all of those new voting methodologies, you're not going to see the same number of lines at a poll.
Speaker 5:Yeah yeah, it was just under 17% for this primary and the last one had a 14% turnout. Is that good or bad? Yeah, I was surprised the Detroit News went with their maps and analysis because the precinct level data hasn't been finalized or released yet, so they were doing their analysis with incomplete data. So, yeah, we, we keep watching that.
Speaker 1:We trust our data partner to bring us the real um, I'd rather wait and get the real information and make it, you know, something that people can interpret right, because it makes it really difficult when you're showing especially some of the areas that are right near Eastside Community Network. Look like they may have gone for Kinloch or they may have gone for Mary Sheffield and I couldn't really tell where. But it's interesting to me and because we're friends, because I'm a data geek anyway, and so I want to know the numbers. But thank you so much for Alex, for giving us numbers, actually giving us accurate numbers, because accuracy counts.
Speaker 1:And the only final thing I'm going to say about the turnout before we let you go just you know, before we close out this segment is that I do want to point out that democracy is down in America. People don't show up in the polls like they used to, and there's all kinds of reasons for that. That, and so I think that the city of Detroit took offense to a story by the Detroit Free Press that said that you know, turnout has gone down and whatever, and they said well, it's down in the suburbs too. I think the other important thing, though, is to say that if we don't vote, we don't have influence over public policy, and so it's not okay just because other people don't vote, when we don't vote, and you know. So I'm glad that those of us do vote.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming those of us in this room did vote right. So I don't like to preach to the converted, and probably most of the people who listened also voted, but I do think that it's important for us to figure out why people aren't voting and reach out to them and get them more connected to democracy, and you know the power that that represents. Thanks a lot, alex. We appreciate you and we will talk to you next month.
Speaker 5:Thank you, yeah, thanks so much.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to take a break and when we come back, we're going to have a conversation with our friend, long-term partner, tam Howard, who will share with us her work and her views about how we work together in our community.
Speaker 2:Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true. Formerly known as the Deep Network and located inside the Stoudemire, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network offers studio space and production staff. To help get your idea off of the ground, just visit authenticallydetcom and send a request through the contact page.
Speaker 1:Welcome back. We're going to talk with Tam Howard, founder and executive director of what About Us Inc. A resident-led grassroots organization founded in 2015 and dedicated to building neighborhood connectedness and capacity to lift up the voices of residents who feel marginalized. Founder and Executive Director, tamara Howard is committed to strengthening the physical, mental and emotional health of Detroit youth and their parents through the services of what About Us Inc. What About Us primarily serves the Gratiot Woods neighborhood, but services are open to all Detroit residents. They have successfully offered a range of programming and workshops to Detroit residents, programming such as GED prep, conflict resolution, lgbtq community awareness, family building activities, freedom of Information Act training classes, parental involvement activities workshops, freedom of Information Act training classes, parental involvement activities, workshops, I know health fairs and workshops for twice exceptional children. So, tam, thank you first of all for joining us, but also thank you for all of the work that you do for your community.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much. Hello everyone, and Donna already gave me that great introduction and thank you, donna. And Donna already gave me that great introduction and thank you, donna. I'm honored to be here today to share the impactful work of what About Us and the Belvedere Community Youth Block Club. I want to leave my community out.
Speaker 1:Can we stop for a minute? Yes, ma'am, youth Block Club. Yes, ma'am, how many youth block clubs exist in the city of Detroit? I never even heard that term before. You had a youth block club and I thought, wow, can you talk about why a youth block club?
Speaker 4:Well, I started the youth block club in 1999 because, you know, I'm a mother. I have three sons that I love very much and they had friends and everybody wanted to be a part. We would sit down and talk and do different things, and I was in the schools as well, working with parents and families. So I said, you know what? We're all in a community together and we need to start coming together to help make some decisions from where we live, you know, and we come together for the good and the bad. But we always planned of the things that we wanted to do in our community, like cleanups, and we had celebrations. We had Health and Safety Fair started back then. Actually we had our 19th annual last month. So we started back then and it really helped our community grow so that we can get to know each other. And now all of those young people are are grown and they're bringing their children.
Speaker 1:And you know, I met one of those young people here. You brought her to a community meeting and she talked about how you would influence her development, how influential you have been in her life, I think she recently got her degree and she's, you know, intelligent, well-spoken, youoken young leader and you played a significant role in that. That's amazing, the Youth Black Club experience. So I want to commend you for that. Thank you, Before you talk more about your work, I want to know about Tam Howard. Who are you?
Speaker 4:Well, I am like I said again. I'm a mother of three sons and I do have four grandchildren and I've been on Belvedere for 55 years. The house that I raised my children in my mother was raised in there. She raised me, my sister and my brother and I raised my children. So I've really had a great investment in my community and I do know the goods and the bads and how we build. I've seen the worst and the better, but now we're doing good, you know, and it's just knowing people, you know being empowered, showing people that we are, we can be empowered together. That's my main thing and everybody being happy and we are working together. So, through all of my initiatives, of the love that I have for the community, I started what About Us? Because I had people that would come by and be like what y'all doing on Belvedere. Well, I don't live on Belvedere.
Speaker 4:Well, you don't have to live on Belvedere, because we got what About Us and that's everybody, so nobody's left behind. Like we say, where families matter, everybody matters. So that's why it's such a great pleasure to be sitting here today.
Speaker 1:Well, absolutely, and you've done some amazing work. I've been to your resilience hub a few times and just looked at the many ways that you engage people in activities. You can see pictures all over the walls. You can see artwork by the students. There's a computer lab in there. You feed them. You do all of that and you started that work. That work you've been doing since 2015. And then you were in our first class of sustainability fellows.
Speaker 4:Yes, I was, and I'm glad. Oh, that was such a great program.
Speaker 4:Sacramento Network has always had my back and I love you all for that, because I was a sustainability fellow and I got blessed to open up one of the areas down the street of a community space where we had health and wellness classes and workshops, gardening and just a whole lot of space for us to come together. So we actually have like five spaces now. We have our Resilience Hub, which is a trailer, a 12 by 50 trailer and when you hear trailer you be like a trailer. Oh, but when you come see this trailer we got it going on. I mean, people love it. We have workshops. We have after-school programming for the children where they do their teams homework. We have, you know, the computers for the parents to try to find jobs and hook to different sites to help get their bills paid. We have arts and crafts. We have a lot of things. We have cooking demos. We plant in the garden. We have an apple orchard slash mini farm that we just opened up on Warren in Holcomb.
Speaker 1:We just really have a lot going on over there. You have something. One of the most interesting things you have is your music park. Yes, Can you?
Speaker 4:talk about that. Yes, oh, we have a space for the young people, for the gifted and the talented, where they can make music, make sounds, to make music. We have music on walls, like down in the area, where they can make noises, and it just really makes the kids want to sing and come together. And then we have, like on the tables, picnic tables we have where they can make music that way and it's not just for children, you know, it's for gifted and talented anybody. You know anybody is welcome.
Speaker 1:When you say gifted and talented, you're not speaking about the you know black excellence. You're speaking about something different Define how you see gifted and talented.
Speaker 4:Well, we have people children and young adults that have disabilities, you know, and I feel that they have voices and they never can be left out, because they are a part of the community and I never want them to ever be left out, because that's very important and I make sure that they don't. Yeah, we have spaces for them and everybody just come together and work with each other.
Speaker 1:That's the main purpose of it. You know, when I think about what community life was like before capitalism, before imperialism, when we were, you know, were kidnapped and brought here, I think everybody in the community had a role. Everybody mattered. You didn't have throwaway people and you didn't put people on a label in a separate classroom. You just found a role for them. And I think we're differently abled, but we call different abilities disabilities because they don't fit into our world as we see it right now. I have a friend who has an autistic daughter and he frequently shows her sing. She's got a beautiful singing voice, absolutely gorgeous, and yesterday she was in a fashion show, I suppose, and she was dancing to Aretha Franklin. You Better Think. And when I tell you her dance, it brings smiles to everybody's face. She's part of something and she's connected. But easily in this world she could be pushed in a corner, a source of shame, or somebody who's treated like they were a mistake and not God's children. So the fact that you lift them up is so important.
Speaker 4:They are very important. They are people like everybody else, absolutely, and I don't want nobody left out.
Speaker 1:You know, we're all different. If we're being honest, like we're all different, we all have different gifts and you know, and ideally in the right world, we talk about diversity and inclusion and usually we're talking about race or whatever. But you know, diversity and inclusion includes people with different abilities and I look at the world sometimes like a puzzle, like we all have our piece and none of us has the same shape or design, but our design we come together creates a beautiful mosaic, and you're doing that on Belvedere.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, and I'm continuing to grow in and're having a lot of things with our resilience hub where, when the power go out, people can come, residents plug up their cell phone, medical equipment, put their medicine in the refrigerator. We have a small heating and cooling center. We do a lot of things to help empower the community. We talk about air quality, where we watch the numbers, where we'll know if the numbers are safe or if they're not, or what we need to do. You know, we just really are being a community family and that's what we need to have everywhere. That's true.
Speaker 1:And what excites me about the way that you approach your resiliency work is your educational pieces. You really educate. You want people to know things, and so you have health and wellness workshops that you're working on. Can you talk about those health and wellness workshops?
Speaker 4:We have our health and wellness workshops, thank God, every year. So we just had our 19th one last month, on the 23rd, where we have health agencies come out and you know they test people's blood pressure, diabetes, and then we also have health insurance. People come out and sign people up and, like people, come, help pay the bills and gardening programs. Just a whole lot of things that people need the fire department. Talk about fire safety, because we do know that when there's a fire, children get scared when they see you with all that gear on and they run and hide. And we don't want them to run and hide. So when they come out we make sure that they let them see the gear. Talk to them about it. You know some of them put it on, you know the helmet or whatever.
Speaker 1:You know, that's something I didn't know. Never thought about children running and hiding. Yeah, they hide middle, whatever. That's something I didn't know. Never thought about children running and hiding.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they hide Right.
Speaker 1:Because it's scary to them. Well, I mean, it makes sense, it's just the kind of stuff that you just never think about.
Speaker 4:Right, so that's what we really we talk about. We talk about gun safety. You know, we give out gun safety. You know locks and stuff.
Speaker 1:And when she's talking about these health awareness fairs, they're not a little small. This is not a little small fair. How many people come to your fairs?
Speaker 4:You have 300, you know people in and out 300. We block off one block, warren to Moffitt, and we have agencies on both sides in the streets, people, you know, dancing, eating and learning, taking this information back to their homes. Then we have people like seniors, that some of them can't come out. We have them go to them and talk to them and give them information. So it's just so everybody can get what they need. You know, empower everybody, nobody is left out.
Speaker 1:One of the fun things I love is when the little kids come. Yes, because, um, you know they say it takes a village, but you create that village. Also, you know you have a trailer, but you have a porch to that trailer. It's a deck right and so when you see these kids come up this deck and it's, you know, so it's completely accessible, which a lot of places would not be right. But when you see the little kids, it's so cute watching the older kids, watching younger kids and it's kind of like the way we grew up, right when everybody on the block. You know, when I was growing up, you know the 8-year-olds didn't play with each other and the 10-year-olds here, the 8-year-olds and 10-year-olds would play with each other. The 5-year-olds would be watching us, you know, and I see you recreating that kind of community in your space.
Speaker 4:Yes, we have areas on the deck porch where we put tables and the children sit there and they read, they have activities, they talk, they dance. So it's just a lot of engagement and the older children know to help keep an eye on the little ones, and they do. They come and they just like we love it here. They be knocking at the door. I've seen it. When they get out of school, before they even go home, they be wanting to come to the hub and knock at the door. I've seen it with my own two eyes.
Speaker 4:And it's so nice, you know. I just like them to know that this is their space. This is their space, you know, to come to and have a good time, learn, and you know socialization is important for young people, you know, and they're getting those skills as well and for grown people to understand that we're not going to always agree, but we got to learn to agree, to get along so we can be together and be safe and learn, and you know it's enough for all of us. That's true.
Speaker 1:So what other projects are you working on right now? Because you are the most ideas. Every time I talk to Tam, she's got a new idea. So what's the?
Speaker 4:new stuff. Well, I'm working on still trying to. You know, I'm being sustainable with the hub and we're still having workshops and after school. School just started today, but we was having programs through the summer and we're working on health and wellness, cooking demos, having them more often, Because we need to know what we grow in the garden, how to cook it to make it taste good.
Speaker 4:There's nothing called nasty, it's just I don't like the taste and that's what I talk about with the young people and the grown people. You know we can make a meal together and we have. We have ate and made meals for kids. I'm like tomatoes Girl, don't you know that tomatoes was just in that spaghetti you ate and they be like oh, we really like this. So we're doing health and wellness. We're talking about air quality. That's very important because we live right off Warren, where all them trucks and all that stuff come through, so we're watching the numbers for that. We also, like I said, we have our community mini farm slash apple orchard, where we have apple trees and they're dwarf trees but they're actually growing apples, so we love that. We have our collard greens.
Speaker 1:When did you put the apple trees in?
Speaker 4:We did the apple trees back last year in.
Speaker 1:March. So in a couple of years those trees are going to mature and it's going to be really amazing.
Speaker 4:It's really nice. So we're working on a lot of basically more so the resilience of the hub being accessible for everybody at the time of emergencies, because we lose power all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, I mean we're in an emergency right now. Right, we don't know it yet, but we're in an emergency state. I was just reading that in October, I think, the federal government is going to be directing states to tell people who have Section 8 vouchers that if they've been living in their spaces with Section 8 for more than two years, they have to move out. They have to move out, and that's going to be so incredibly disruptive, not just for people who are living there, but for people who rent houses. And the scary thing is there may be people who decide I'm no longer going to be in this real estate business in the same way because I can't collect my rents, because what Section 8 has provided is a stable source of funding for landlords as well as a stable source of funding for the tenants who live in those properties. That's scary.
Speaker 1:And then we know that SNAP benefits and healthcare benefits are all at risk, and I want to ask you how you and your leadership role lean into those crises, because resilience and I want to talk about food real quickly, right? If you only eat certain types of foods and the certain types of foods are foods you can no longer afford you might go hungry. And so the importance of expanding people's willingness to eat fresh fruits and vegetables and understand the correlation between what you grow and what goes into your body has never been more important. But how are you leaning into the moment right now, where people are really scared about what's happening and they might even be feeling some effects?
Speaker 4:Well, what we're doing now is we've been blessed to partner with Bailey Park, who brings us the Easter market food boxes twice a month, and we're doing the Focus Hope boxes where we're passing out food and stuff so people won't never feel like they won't have nothing to eat, because they will. We're going to work together. Then the garden they're coming to the garden and they're getting more vegetables like collard, greens and peppers. Them peppers are oh my goodness, what kind of peppers Hot them, real, real red hot peppers, okay, and I have to keep the kids from eating them because I said, no, hold it now, baby, you got to put that in some food, because they'll just eat them.
Speaker 1:I guess it's better than eating hot Cheetos, though right them.
Speaker 4:Cheetos are hot.
Speaker 1:But I mean listen, it's amazing that children have an appetite for hot stuff right?
Speaker 4:Yes, they really, we have them. Our families come and they're getting their bags and they're filling them up with vegetables and taking them home cooking be like oh, this is just so good to know that we have fresh vegetables and we know where these vegetables came from, because they help plant them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's what they really enjoy. You know what I took ownership, I helped with this.
Speaker 1:You know, my understanding is that when young people grow things, when people grow things, it's not just good for physical health, it's good for mental health.
Speaker 4:Yes, it is.
Speaker 1:And so you are contributing to the all-around health and wellness in your community. Are there anything other things before we transition to our next segment? Yes, first.
Speaker 4:I would like to thank you all, the Sacramentary Network, for all your support. You all have really helped me a lot to be able to provide more for my community and to show me other ways that I can be able to help them, because I don't have no funding or nothing. But you all have supported us and helped us and we really appreciate you all. The young people here are great. Everybody who works here is great and I really appreciate that because we are a community family. This is my second home and I love being here. It's welcoming and I really love the things that you all are doing to help everybody. Nobody's left out, and that's what's great about it Nobody. It don't matter what happened to you in your life or whatever. You're still human and I'm glad that you all treat people like that. So I just wanted to tell you thank you, oh, thank you, and I love you all.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we love you too, tam, yes, and.
Speaker 4:I really appreciate you all. Now, what about us? You know we are ran on like donations and grants and we really need some support. Yeah, you know, because we want to keep our programs running and be able to give more, keep giving to the community and be able to give more. So I'm asking if anybody would like to donate, you know, whether it's money or time or supplies. We really would appreciate that. And I will give you my phone number and our cash app and our address. Our phone number is 313-918-9604. And our address is 5013 Belvedere, and that's Detroit, michigan, 48213. You're always welcome to come by, check us out, come by, join us, bring some ideas or just come and have a good time. And this is our cash app. It's dollar sign 1234,. What About Us Inc? So if you would like to donate or just come by, we really would appreciate it.
Speaker 1:And you know, I sent you a link to a grant application the other day and told you. I'm going to be supporting you in troubling with fundraising because it's just too important Before we. You know, segue, you know segue. You know Quincy and I both sit on the Detroit Residents First Fund, and so and you were, one of our partner organizations.
Speaker 4:And I thank you all so much so good.
Speaker 3:Congratulations on all your good work. Wow. So we need to support you, connect you and make sure people know all the good work. I mean I love that the resilient hub and the eating healthy To me that's so important and all of the kids coming and feeling safe. You know that's the big thing too, kids. Just the grown folks don't feel safe. So making sure that families feel safe and come in there, I think it's huge.
Speaker 1:So congratulations, it's absolutely huge, really proud of you for what you do no-transcript.
Speaker 1:We're not on Belvedere, you are, and the people on Belvedere and Belvedere are being helped by you, and anything we're doing for you is done for the people there, because we rise together. We rise together or we fall together, and we cannot afford to fall together. So, Tam, thank you so much for just being that bright light. You got grant money and that grant money went right back into the community and I think people need to understand that. I hear people saying that you know nonprofits. If you have a nonprofit, that's the easiest way to get rich, and I think about people like you who live where you were born.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 1:You never stopped investing where?
Speaker 4:you are Right, because we have a lot of people that have a lot of medical problems high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, you know and we come together because we have to find ways to be healthy, and not always with a pill, that's right, you know. Try to work together. So I thank you so much for letting me come on here and talk about the great things that we're doing, and I thank you all for your support.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, we're going to take a break and when we come back we're going to bring on Quincy and Chandra and Tam. You are welcome to stay and join in this conversation too.
Speaker 4:Okay.
Speaker 2:Detroit One Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with one million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people Good journalism costs. Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to support Black independent reporting.
Speaker 1:Welcome back everyone. Earlier this summer, on July 19th 29th I'm sorry Shandra McMillian and Quincy Jones hosted Detroit's second CDO Expo at New Lab at Michigan Central, and I'm part of that CDO group, but I don't do all the work that you all do, I just show up. The day of this is kind of the first of its kind event. An exhibit premiered to promote greater understanding of community development and showcase the collective impact of the Detroit CDO Fund. Organizational Partners and Leaders there were when we started Detroit 21, and now Detroit 26,. We haven't changed our name. The event offered a unique opportunity to connect, collaborate and celebrate the impactful work of community development organizations across Detroit. Together they highlighted our shared successes, explored opportunities for new partnership and charted a collective path forward for stronger, more resilient communities. Chandra, welcome to Authentically Detroit. All right, looks like we have a little bit of a glitch here, so I'm going to say Quincy, welcome to the segment.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Thank you, I'm glad to be here on the show. Oh, there she goes, ok.
Speaker 6:Were we muted? I'm sorry. Yes, ok, thank you, it's great to be here. Quincy just spoke for me.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, so Chandra's out of town and so she had to call in being out of town. But tell us about this expo, the genesis of this expo, how it started. Now, this is the second time we've done it, but it's the bigger. We did it, bigger this time, right, can you talk about how this started? The seeds of all?
Speaker 3:of this.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, Sharjah.
Speaker 6:Well, so technically, this is the first annual expo, but it was inspired from an event in December which was a five-year anniversary of the Detroit 21, an appreciation event for all of those who are a part of the CDO ecosystem. So it was an opportunity literally to just highlight how 25 organizations have been working together for many years. It began with 21. It expanded to, you know, to 25, 26 organizations and just really wanted to acknowledge, because oftentimes people talk about oh, you know, CDOs community cannot work together, and this has been organizations consistently working together on behalf of citizens for well over five years. The name Detroit 21 was established five years ago and so it was the official five year anniversary for the name, but the group has been working together since 2017, 2016, 2017.
Speaker 3:All right and one of the things that I love about our group and about the Detroit 21, first one Detroit 21 appreciation was that there's enough work for everybody. Everybody's working together. No one is trying to compete, you know, in this work Because everybody's doing something to bring up our community and you don't have to go outside of Detroit to get service. So it was really great to see all of that across all neighborhoods. That's something I didn't know. Got a chance to see it all in one setting in the beautiful New Lab and seeing the good work.
Speaker 1:Now, where's New Lab? Talk about New Lab.
Speaker 3:You know, new Lab is located at the Michigan train station, so it's a newly renovated location where individuals from around the city, around the state, come and come up with new ideas technical ideas about technology, but really just bringing innovative ideas to the city of Detroit or to Michigan, and so we were able to rent the whole space and really just showcase our work as a community-based organization Very professional, I think. A lot of times, donna, you mentioned it people tend to say, oh, nonprofit work is easy as this, but you know, it really showcased how professional we are and really passionate about the work using data. I think you are like our data queen when it comes to data and really looking at data. So you know, people know that nonprofits are just not some soft work. This is hard work, quantitative work that we're doing to transform our community.
Speaker 1:And you know the right wing has started these mindsets I think I can't remember this guy's name, but there are these mindsets people have that the nonprofit industrial complex, nonprofits have more money than for-profits and we give them all of this money and they haven't fixed Detroit yet. And it's such a ridiculous statement. And we have to fight for our right to be recognized and respect for what we do. All of us right, not just us. Tam Howard has to be respected, not just us, but Katrina Watkins has to be respected. If you took away all of the work we were doing across the city, detroit would be a very different place right now. And I don't care who is mayor, who's running for mayor. You better recognize that we are making this community livable and better for everybody. And one of the great things about Detroit 21, or 22, 23, 4, 5, 6, is we're all over the city Still the name Detroit 21.
Speaker 4:Right, I know I'm just joking, I know I'm just joking, but over the city Still the name Detroit Citywide. Right, I know I'm just joking, I know I'm just joking, but we're citywide.
Speaker 1:We're in most neighborhoods not in every neighborhood, but we are in most neighborhoods in the city of Detroit, especially most low-income neighborhoods. So I mean we don't necessarily have a chapter or a member in Palmer Woods right now, but we have members in places where people have unmet needs. That's true, and some of the areas Go on.
Speaker 6:No, no, I didn't mean to cut.
Speaker 6:I was gonna say if I could jump in on your prior question because there's something that I really appreciate that Quincy didn't mention, but it really was his heart.
Speaker 6:So the new lab is part of a significant, like one of the largest, investments in Detroit in terms of transforming the train station, but it is designed to be a space for innovation and it's really a very modern version of, you know, henry Ford Village, now just called the. You know, like the Henry, so I know that it was part of. You know his thought that, like, hey, this actually has this grand museum-like feel. It's a place where cutting edge technology is being brought together. But people don't always think about nonprofits in that way is to give people an opportunity to actually see what is the great work and even the innovative work and the collaborative work that is happening across the city. So we actually thought it was a really great space because, again, it's often highlighting high tech, but obviously there's nothing more important than human technology and all of the unique and innovative ways that you know nonprofits across the city are really working to make sure that residents of Detroit are being served in the ways that they deserve to be served.
Speaker 1:You know, when you go to some cities I was in Chicago recently there are parts of some cities which residents who look like us don't show up. Right, it's like, ok, you're in this area and there's no black people there and I'm like integrating the area, sitting in there like, wow, where are we? Unless we're serving people, right, but Detroiters, we have a responsibility to not to let that happen to our city. Okay, this is our city and we belong everywhere. By us going to New Lab and claiming our place in New Lab Not to say that there are not people employed that we know are employed African-American people in high positions at New Lab. But I think it's important for us to show up in those spaces as they're developed. It's our money too.
Speaker 1:Next year I want to be in the Hudson's building. You know what I mean. Like, if you're developing this with our tax dollars, we own a piece of this right and so I'm glad you took us there. I'm glad that this is the second time that we've been there and there's no place we don't belong. That's right. The great thing I thought was that people came together. Let's talk about some of the exhibits, each of the nonprofits that had a table. We had a lot of exhibitors.
Speaker 3:How many did we have?
Speaker 6:Charger go ahead Well. So we actually have 37 total organizations that were represented in one form or fashion as a part of the grantees of the Detroit CDO Fund. But then we also had an additional 13 neighborhood-based community-committed led by resident businesses, that were there to provide a great variety of, you know, food and refreshment so that was also part of the experience, as well as some entertainment. So there were several components you know to the day, but there were just some amazing exhibits for people again to be able to learn about each other. And then it was open, you know to. We ended up having almost 400 RSVPs and we definitely had over 300 people attending to come and just check out what is happening across Detroit with both the nonprofits and with the neighborhood-based businesses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love the neighborhood-based business part and this is the second time we've done that, and I think you organized this again, because how did we get the businesses connected to this work? What was the process for getting the businesses connected?
Speaker 6:Well, the vision was go ahead, no, go ahead, Sharjah Go ahead, Quincy.
Speaker 3:No, go ahead. I like your voice over the phone.
Speaker 6:The vision and intention was to really highlight businesses, first and foremost, who were based in the neighborhood, who were committed to the neighborhood, who were residents of Detroit neighborhoods and also because of one of the nonprofits or they were a key partner in you know the nonprofit, you know like work. So there were many that potentially could have been chosen, but those who were identified were literally recommended by the you know the CDOs that were involved, because they're like hey, we know that this leader, that this organization is really making a difference in community and so let's showcase this business and, ideally, have people taste what's great and then also so that they can continue to support their business on an ongoing basis.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so we had food. We had some bartenders Blackman bartenders they are one of whom I know Teresa Mitchell from. Detroit Parent Network. Wow, that's really great. We had entertainment. There was a segment where we went into the broader area and New Detroit came in. Can you talk about the roles? What was happening in the presentation space in the auditorium room?
Speaker 6:Yeah, so part of setting the atmosphere because you touched on another key element was music. So the only Detroit community radio station served as the DJ for the event. So that was another element of the experience, but there was a portion that was just to support the nonprofit CDO leaders and the CDO Fund. So we did begin with a presentation from New Detroit to just really be in conversation around the importance of race, even in the midst of all that is happening nationally and globally around race, but just the importance that the race really does matter in terms of understanding the history and understanding the history and understanding the importance of working together, and that's what we're all committed to. And then we had a policy conversation that was led by Enterprise and was facilitated by CDAD, where places that we had visited before in terms of New Orleans and also the Baltimore DC area, Leaders were participating virtually and really hearing about what is the latest that's going on in the political landscape and being in conversation around some policy matters.
Speaker 3:One of the things, too, that I thought about this the last expo was bringing everybody to the table the whole CDO fund no, the whole 38 organizations and then also collaborating and sponsoring it. So every organization contribute towards the event, which is great because that's showing financially we can collaborate as well too to put on an event and then also giving. I think we give everybody a chance to speak directly. You know directly to the audience about exactly what are you doing and talking about your work in more detail. So people can get a chance to look at your displays, but also you can talk about your work as well too. So I love that everybody had the opportunity to say, hey, this is what I'm doing in my neighborhood, here's how you can get involved, you know. So it was really a place where people can really just see across the board of what's happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know about other people, but we actually had to upgrade our look, you know, because we're going here and we're going to be in this exhibit hall.
Speaker 1:Right, so we better order some stuff. Y'all really encouraged us to think through how we want to present who we are to update it Right. It becomes stale. And now you know and I thought it was just a beautiful setting you saw so many beautiful exhibits where people were, you know, showing their work. Our staff members got to know each other. It was a really, really beautiful event.
Speaker 1:And the other organizations. There's the corridor Can you talk about the? There's key corridors, I believe it's what it's called, and then there's another one for emerging community development organizations that are also part of what Enterprise funds, In addition to the community development organizations that constitute the Detroit 21,. There are Key Corridors initiatives, and there are about four of those organizations and I don't know eight or so organizations that are part of the emerging organizations.
Speaker 1:Emerging yes, and so it was a great event. Congratulations. It takes a lot of work and effort and I know, quincy, you're a great collaborator. Shandra, you've been bringing us together for nine years now, or almost nine years. Almost nine years, so we've been doing this for a minute. I hope everybody keeps in mind the significance of community leaders helping to make our community strong.
Speaker 6:Well, and as we've mentioned, who all was collaborating. We definitely also want to acknowledge all of the funders, so there, are eight funders that are part of the work as well.
Speaker 6:So again, it all began with the support from the Kresge Foundation, Then it was with the Ford Foundation, Then Enterprise is both an intermediary and a funder and coordinator you know of the work. And then they were able to bring in others, so the Kellogg Foundation, Hudson Weber Foundation, the Rousey Wilson Foundation, Gilbert Family Foundation and the Balmer Group. So they were also a part of the event as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, hats off to our philanthropic community for also coming together and saying we can come together as one when they support this work. The support does not come directly from those organizations, not for the operating support Now, they support different organizations for different things, but this funding comes collectively, just like the Detroit Residence First Fund came collectively, and it's a reminder that we are stronger together and that, you know, we all want to shine and we all want to show, and earlier in our segment we talked about different gifts. We were talking about differently gifted people, but there are differently gifted organizations and we come together. We do great things. I would be remiss if I did not talk to one of my gifted partners here, quincy, who's sitting right across from me, about the work you're doing in Maple Ridge.
Speaker 3:Yes, OK, well, thank you. Like I said, shonda, you got to come to the studio. It is amazing here, really amazing.
Speaker 6:I look forward to it.
Speaker 3:Yes. So the Maple Ridge Project. Let me go back. You know, when we first started, donna, you know we started with the Skillman Foundation, all youth work, but Osborne, you know, during that time the mortgage crisis, people were coming up and saying, hey, are you seeing the neighborhood? Are you seeing what's going on with the neighborhood? You know, you come down a block, one month is good, three months later it's gone. You know, and you know, back then people were getting mortgages out of these homes, putting on the roof, and you go down a house, you see a new roof, no windows, no doors. So all of this scheming was going on and after a while blocks just got ate up, I mean just to the point where two residents are on a block. So residents were coming with saying you know you're doing good youth work, but what you going to do about the neighborhood? You know what's going on with that.
Speaker 3:And so we just done a lot of over the years, cleanups, board ups. And once we began boarding up we decided let's zero in on a particular area and not just do board ups and clean up all over. So we decided to do it on the Maple Ridge, right by the Matrix Centers. Typically, when you do development, you want to see it and touch your development. So we did a massive board up, clean up in that area. We were able to use the hardest hit funds, the ones that was left over, and get some of those buildings torn out. And we just adopted that area and really made that ground zero. And once we cleaned it, cleaned up the area, people was like this is a nice area that we can just start doing having community events.
Speaker 3:And then we eventually moved and doing a rehab house. So our first rehab was at 13700 Maple Ridge. No one believed that someone would move on that block and, donnie, you remember what that block looked like. I think you toured it before it got renovated and at that time it's 25 parcels on that block. At that time when we first made contact there was only five active houses on that block and now all the homes are renovated there's just two left that two other developers are doing. So we took a street that was in a negative and flipped it to a positive and then just went from doing that one home to doing the duplexes. It took a very long time and you know we were part of the Detroit Future City and that's kind of how rebuilding homes kind of came out of it. But all that time was even before the COVID. You know we started meeting in 2017, 2018. You remember the conversation we had meeting at the Detroit Future City office.
Speaker 1:We actually started before that. This was actually part of the building community. Maggie DeSantis. Yes, building the engine of community development in Detroit and one of the work groups was around how government could work with community organizations to change neighborhoods. And that morphed into Rebuilding Home Together, which was with the Sklimmon Foundation before it went to the Detroit Housing Network. Yes, but yeah, that work goes back to 2016. 2016.
Speaker 3:Right, so we're talking almost 10 years ago, you know close to 10 years. So you can see in one way, development is happening but it did take a while for the Maple Ridge project to take off. Happening but it did take a while for the Maple Ridge project to take off. So took off. The city loved the project where we renovated duplexes, sold it back at families at 60 to 80% AMI and then these homeowners become landlords and the landlords will get Section 8 vouchers to rent out in their second unit. So all the homes sold and all of them have Section 8 tenants except one. So hopefully the individual will be coming real soon. So we've got one person that's going to be moving into the last house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so we've got to fight for Section 8, right We've got to fight for. Section 8.
Speaker 4:If.
Speaker 1:Section 8 somehow gets dismantled or changed, it's going to impact the people who own these homes, who are renting those second homes. It's a fight. I think we've own these homes, who are renting those second homes. It's a fight, I think we've got to just have.
Speaker 3:We can't just let this happen. It's crazy to me and I know the Detroit Housing Commission is aware of that and they said that they're trying to—.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the Detroit Housing Commission is government. Yeah, the community has to show up and fight for the community. Okay, because government, city government cannot fight the federal government. I don't even know what the community can cause. They're sending police into the streets. But I do know this either we fight back or we get taken over. And I, you know, I'd rather fight than just be a coward and let things happen. That's why I keep on speaking out, even though I know it's politically incorrect.
Speaker 1:A couple more things, though. Two things. One you know, we toured your development in January. Every year in January we do as part of our annual staff retreat. We tour and look at other organizations and ideally we're looking to see what other people are doing so that we can be aware that we're not the only ones doing work in the community. And yours is our first stop. Okay, and so you didn't know that you were our first stop this year, and one of the gentlemen in this room, um, saw the development oh yes and ended up putting a bid in and purchasing one of your homes.
Speaker 1:One of our staff members, um, was so moved that he was like, well, I want to do this and he's a you know Westside. So he came East for you. Come East, jay. And just so you know, jay has been part of our production staff for a couple of years now and so he's now working at ECN. He was an intern while at business school at Wayne State when we met him. But, yes, that's amazing, the connections, the way that we, you know, connect, and that's not even like collaboration, it is really just we're touching each other. But the other thing is you have something exciting coming up, is it this week?
Speaker 3:Next week Next week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, talk about it.
Speaker 3:September the 9th. So we have the Maple Ridge screening and it's really talking about how, what does it take for nonprofits to do grassroots development and all of the collaborations and the good, the bad and all of the individuals that made it and made it happen. So we're going to talk about residents, talk about the homeowners, talk about the struggles, talk about just getting the resources to make it happen. So it's really a good documentary. The quality, sound, everything is top notch. So hopefully it just can inspire other nonprofits, individuals, just to take hold of your neighborhoods. One of the things that I get motivated, donna, is that I don't like to see people down our city. I've always been like that. It's since I was a kid Like we don't have to leave our city to get a good quality of life. For those that leave, it's no issue, but I don't want people to say I'm leaving because of you know, I left and I came back and my quality of life improved.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it Right. Right, so it's not about leaving.
Speaker 3:I just don't like people down in the city and said I'm leaving because I don't like it here, because of the quality of life, but people have been sold this American dream that is a lot more of a fantasy than it is a reality.
Speaker 1:The people in Detroit are like none other, and just the way that people come together yeah.
Speaker 1:The people here. Come on now. You're not going to have Tam Howard in communities where everybody's behind locked doors, doesn't come outside and connect with anybody. And the people here are the heart. And you know I really do. I honestly believe that's how God intended us to be is connected to each other and supporting each other and loving each other. That's where we find satisfaction. But we believe it's through material acquisition. So I don't want to stop you, I just had to jump in with that commercial.
Speaker 3:No, I love it. No, I love it. So I just wanted to say that we can turn around neighborhoods, no matter what it looked like. Maple Ridge is a prime example. It looked like Nightmare Elm Street, I mean, you know what it looked like before, but like before. But with the right collaboration, the right resources, getting the right families into these communities that want to get involved, not just be homeowners, but I want to get involved, you know, in the community. So I'm just excited. So September the 9th at 6 pm at the Matrix Center, please come out. You're going to enjoy yourself, and our goal is to inspire individuals to get excited about being in the city and becoming homeowners and renters as well too. So we're excited.
Speaker 1:All right, so you know before we close. Before we close, I'm excited about how you got this made. I don't even know Chandra. Do you know who collaborated with Quincy on making this documentary? I do. Ok, ok you know, can you talk about it?
Speaker 3:So so you know Mike Randall for Grandma Rosedale. He is a highly trained filmmaker and I don't know if you remember when we're in New Orleans he had that camera. I don't know if you saw the camera, but it was high quality and I kept looking at it. I'm just like this guy is serious, like it was something like a Hollywood camera. So I just said, do you make film? You know, he was just like, yeah, I just do it for a hobby. But he said I know how to make film.
Speaker 3:So I said you know what I want to film, our Maple Ridge project. This is like almost two and a half years ago. And he was just like, yeah, let's just meet and let's just see what happens. So you know, we met. He said he walked me through all the steps of what filming is and I said, oh, you know exactly what you're doing. We were able to get a grant from Fifth Third Bank. Fifth Third Bank gave us a grant for the filming of the Maple Ridge project. So we bought more equipment, hired a few more people and the rest is history. I mean, it took a year and a half of filming to get this done. We had an editing company that came in and edited it. So yeah, mike, and so our film company is called Reflective Films.
Speaker 1:Okay, so now you have a film company.
Speaker 3:A film company now, okay, so this is our first. All right now.
Speaker 1:So this is our first production that is really exciting and we're going to have to reflect over here on this part of the East. Side too, yes, you know I'm really proud of you, quincy and Tam, for all of the amazing work that you do. It is what makes me happy every day when I come to work is knowing that I'm working among good people.
Speaker 1:I look at some people working corporate jobs, and I think I'm so blessed yes, I am so blessed. Listen, if you have topics that you want to discuss 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. All right, now it's time for shout outs. Let's start with Tam. Do you have anybody you want to shout out?
Speaker 4:I want to shout out Katrina Watkins of Bailey Park, yeah, and of all the wonderful work that she's doing and how she has really partnered and helped me with what About Us and it's, you know, a great pleasure to be working with her in Detroit Resident First Fund Because you all helped me be able to get everything in order for what About Us, our hub and everything, and Eastside Community Network. Donna Gibson, davidson, I love you all so much because you all have really helped us with funding, support, just everything, and I really appreciate that because you all are my community family, oh, and you are ours. Thank you, and Quincy.
Speaker 3:I love you. Yes, when I see you, I'm like, oh, we're going to connect.
Speaker 4:Thank you and.
Speaker 1:Quincy.
Speaker 4:I love you?
Speaker 1:Yes, when I see you, I'm like we're going to connect. Thank you, quincy.
Speaker 3:Of course, Donna, this is amazing. I mean this studio and all the work that you're doing and your knowledge around political and data. I've always, like, admired that you know. So you know that stuff at the back of your hand. So shout out to ECN. A shout out to ECN, A shout out to the Matrix Center. I mean, they have come a long way. It's been renovated. They got a new director, Mr Gary, which is excellent. We partnered and we still partner. I'm still a tenant there, you know there. So it's been a great partnership. But a lot of things are happening at the Matrix Center. They got a new renovated incubator for businesses. They got a new renovated incubator for businesses. The lobby's been renovated. So it's running. It looks good, Very nice, professional. So shout out to Gary, the director for the Matrix Center.
Speaker 1:I'm going to shout out somebody a blast from the past, if you don't. I don't know if you remember Clementine Barfield from the Save Our Sons and Daughters. So sad.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:I sat down at dinner with my husband. I sat down with her, her son and some other community leaders. She is looking to archive her exhibit. She's an amazing community leader who developed a whole peace curriculum after her son was shot and killed in 1986. And, as it turns out, she was very good friends with my mother-in-law my late mother-in-law and so she wanted to connect with my husband because she knew of his work at the museum. She actually knew him when he was in college and he was just starting with Dr Wright, and so she wanted to know how can I take all of my, the things that I have gathered over the years and turn that into some type of exhibit? How can we memorialize those contributions? It's so important that we remember the contributions of black folks. We don't usually make history books, we don't get names on doors, and black women are almost never recognized for the contributions we make to our community.
Speaker 1:So shout out to Clementine Barfield what a wonderful surprise, what a wonderful way to spend my Friday evening. It just gave me life. I love it. So listen, I want to thank you all for listening. Love on your neighbor.
Speaker 4:And we'll talk to you next time. Thank you, amen, amen, thank you. Thank you To the east side. There's a deal of the heart in the sky. Moving on To the east side, we finally got a piece of love. It's so bright in the kitchen. I've seen some burn on the grill. Took a whole lot of trying Just to get up back here.
