Journey to the Heart of Blight: 24 Hours in Detroit

Last month, I was invited to the Eastside Reading Series at Coffee and ( ) by Detroit writer Aubri Adkins. The coffee shop, which is totally worth a visit, is in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood where every other brick house is vacant. Aubri and her husband moved to Detroit from Chicago and bought one that had been vacant six years and now they're fixing it up. She has a great story about the homeless guy she found living there when they were days away from closing. 

While we in the neighborhood, Katherine and I had lunch at Rose's Fine Foods on Jefferson and took a stroll through the neighborhood park, which is in disrepair but pretty. We took these pics at the spot where the Detroit River empties out into Lake St. Clair. We never made it to Belle Isle because we ran out of time. 

Good crowd, the other readers were fun to listen to, and I sold a couple books. Afterwards, Detroit writer Kelly Fordon put us up at her house and entertained us by showing us Hamtramck and bringing us to the Public Pool art space. If you brought a potluck dish, you can read for two minutes. Since we came with Kelly and she brought some awesome Middle Eastern food, I got to read my poem "In Medias Res." 

The next morning, I got up early and walked along Lake St. Clair. After coffee and breakfast with Kelly, we checked out the Diego Rivera murals at the DIA before having brunch with Uncle Mike and his wife Amy at the Grey Ghost. We wanted to stay longer, but were grateful for our quick 24 hours in Detroit. After brunch, we headed home to pick up the kids at my parents' house.