Rust Belt to Artist Belt III Conference, Detroit

My head is spinning! I just left the Rust Belt to Artist Bell III Conference. In its third year, the conference was sponsored by the College of Creative Studies, Artserve and Tech Town. Its purpose? To exchange ideas, provide insight, learn from and be inspired by the presenters to reach our full potential when we put the creative industries to work in post-industrial cities. It. Was. Amazing. Inspiring. Period. I'm from Detroit, okay. I admit it. Born and raised in Detroit. I'm from Detroit, y'all. I live here now, dammit. I'm saying it loud and saying it proud after my experience today. World renowned city that Detroit is I ran away from it in the mid 1980's. Crack. Death. Decay. No possibility. I needed to get out.

Self-exiled for many years, I created things in other cities and countries. Produced a television show in Hawaii to showcase all the wonderful artists I'd met. I wanted everyone within reach of the Honolulu cable signal to know who they were and what they dreamed of. I had never produced a television show before. It didn't seem important. It only seemed important that I try. It was easy. It was so easy. I had no idea that I was producing something. It didn't seem important. It was just so much damn fun! All I had to do was be deliriously happy and encouraging to the so many people who were doing so many different things. Things, art, what they loved to do and abracadabra Satori's Tea Room was born. I was so captured by the synergy I forgot to write a part in the show for myself. It didn't seem important. It wasn't about me anyway. The other day I watched the videotape from "Satori's Tea Room" with original soundtrack from those many years ago. I chuckled because mostly what I'm doing is answering the door, smiling and listening to their dreams as they walk around my curio shop. After we taped, I didn't sleep for three days unpacking all that stimulating love and joy.

I moved to California, in my first year of doing stand up comedy, I traveled around to poetry readings and anywhere else two or more people were gathered. I wanted to try out a new joke, tell some old ones and make them laugh. There were so many amazing poets and spoken word artists. I would sit in the audience waiting my turn to perform and think, "Why don't I know this person, personally?" After a couple of more times of me running into the same poet I asked her, "Why don't I know you? And would you be interested in bringing together other artists, poets, visual artists and writers?" She said yes!

And boom. Boom. BOOM! The Black Avante Garde was born. Thirty-three amazing artists, (I keep saying amazing but there's no other word) who came together just before the Rodney King Riots and set about to heal the city in a special edition of High Performance Magazine. We didn't know how to heal a city. It didn't seem important. It only mattered that we tried. We did so many projects around the city. Taping the stories of blacks and Koreans in South Central, Los Angeles where their voices and stories were heard as part of an installation art project in a gallery at Beyond Baroque.

In Toronto, it was out of sheer frustration I gave up trying to get a play produced by the existing theatre companies there.  Another frustrated actress and I pulled together a team of twelve powerful, diasporic Afri-Canadian actors and founded Obsidian Theatre Company. We didn't know how to found a theatre company. We were artists, actors. It didn't seem important. It just seemed important that we tried. It was an incredible experience! Oh, the creative tug of wars! Yowza! Don't you just love it? Now, eleven years later, under the artistic direction of Philip Akin, it thrives and grows and provides a level of theatre that serves up thought-provoking, human stories by prolific playwrights, who audiences claim through laughter and tears are cathartic and entertaining.

When I relocated back to Detroit, just before 9/11, I came back to a tragedy. I did not embrace my roots willingly I didn't go gracefully. Detroit was a bombed out city in fast decline. It was a painful reflection of my own personal and devastating loss. I escaped, as much and as often as possible. Performances from one part of the country to the other and back to Canada, my homeland too. Go, go, go, anywhere in the world, anywhere but back there. Home. Eight years pass and I realize I still had not embraced Detroit. I put it on my list of things to do... one day. Then, slowly over the last two years I began to take an interest. I started to see the sprouting of fresh new ideas, renovated structures, agricultural gardens, city art and endearing community art. Beauty peaking out, obscuring the more prevalent blight, it was a glimpse of a something possible, a sign that someone was invested. And. It. Was. Stunning! Stunning to my senses. So unexpected. So full of promise. So, hopeful and inspiring. Just like today.

The Rust Belt to Artist Belt Conference pushed me off the fence I had been sitting on. Inspired, I've emerged from my apathy and cynicism. What do I do with all this energy? I met so many folks today and asked myself that question of old, "Why don't I know these people and don't mind if I do?" Social media makes so many necessary things possible. Admittedly, I've been frustrated with this city, its management, the drama and politics, I've been pissed at Governor Snydley Whiplash Snyder. But today... today the conference changed all of that for me. My attitude is adjusted, y'all. Sorry for the delay. I've been a Humbled Diva for too long.

Today, I committed to be part of the collaborative, artistic energy that networks to uplift Detroit. I made the commitment to create with other like-minded individuals. Artists that see beyond the bombed out corridors of our city, the poor economy, homelessness and the exodus of people and resources. In the beyond, a vision becomes a compelling force, an opportunity to create, to innovate, remember and celebrate the history of Detroit and its people. World renowned for its innovative spirit. Automobiles, jazz, Cobo Hall where Dr. King gave his "I Have A Dream" speech, where dreams are possible, Motown, The Funk Brothers and Eminen. Today, I wrapped my arms around my roots, Detroit, the city that shaped me. Today I'm pouring my inspiration, seeds of ideas into this soil, into burned out places joined with others to rebuild it, love it, nourish it back to health and vibrancy, return it to its former glamour and glory.

Did you know that Jerry Bruckheimer was born in Detroit? Found that out today. Hey Jerry, I was born and raised in Detroit, too. We're connected, like friends on Facebook. Detroit. 313. Hike! There is nothing else to explain and so, so much to do!

Thank you, Detroit and the Rust Belt to Artist Belt III conference. You made my day. You made a difference in my life.