My Thoughts On Detroit

I am writing this in response to this article which I read today: "16 Things You Have to Explain to Out of Towners About Detroit" aka "Detroit, It's Not That Bad"

Me in one of sarees on Belle Isle, Photography: Diane Irby

I'm not "from Detroit," but I think I've found my little niche here pretty nicely. I love the art community, I love the community in general, I love the cultural diversity, I love that there are saree shops I can drive to, and I love the friends I've made here.

But honestly, if you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd be moving here, or even 5 years ago, I probably would have looked at you like you were crazy. I never liked big cities and obviously I see Detroit as a big city (though I know there are many even bigger cities). I grew up in Knoxville, TN which is fairly forward and not what most people think of when I say I'm from TN. But that was as big a city as I wanted to be in. I always wanted acres of land, a big Spanish style house, and horses with neighbors too far away to see or hear. And then I came here. I was immediately welcomed into the community. And after my recent, at that time, issues at having been run out of an artistic community in TN, I was really relieved. I learned that Detroit creatives were very different from the ones I'd met in my hometown. The Detroit artists I met had jobs if they could, or at least found ways to support themselves and their families, they actually had goals and were working towards those goals. There was (and is) still some people in the community who don't like other people, but from my point of view, people here handle it better.

My modeling didn't turn out how I had planned, but it's taken it's own little road and I discovered self portraiture and people actually recognize me here, and they follow my work. I was thrilled to meet some of the people I had only seen on the ModelMayhem forums before. The models I've met are generally nice and friendly and they support each other. Back in TN a lot of the other models, even before I was shunned (which I'm not going into, but it had to do with a certain photographer/model there and an ex of mine spreading rumors about me and such), always seemed to look at me with a little distaste. I'm not sure if it was because I was fairly well known in the community or because I posed nude or what. And I do miss being one of the top models in my area, and I miss the paycheck that came with that from booking shoots all the time. The market here in Detroit for the sort of model I am has been slim to nonexistent and coupled with my health issues that has guided me to change my gears. I do a lot of one or two day group shoots and shoot myself, but I'm cautiously venturing back into freelance shoots now too.

But creative stuff aside, there is so much awesomeness here! I love the zoo. The Knoxville Zoo still remains one of my favorite places in the world that I have been to, but the Detroit Zoo is pretty magical too. I've only been a couple times and didn't get to go at all last year, but I'm hoping when it warms up I can go back again this year. And the Detroit Institute of Arts is amazing. When I went there I saw art work that was featured in the books I've read about art. And there are so many other galleries and places to see art too.

Reflecting Detroit, Photographer: DVS

And that brings me to the events I work with. I'm going to link you to the events so you can find out more what they are really about, but here I'm going to focus more on what I do with them. The big event is in October and its called The DAMNED Show, featuring darker, introspective art, butoh & similar performances, and dinner options. We also have a masquerade ball on the third night. We get art from all over the world as well as from local artists. One of the first things I do every year is to open up and inspect the art that is shipped in. I have a nice little check list with a number for each piece of art and one of my primary jobs is organizing the art. Once the show set up begins, usually two weeks before the show, I am also in charge of volunteers and "The List" which is, as you might have guessed, a list of all the things that need to be done. And then once the show in underway, I spend the night in some fancy outfit, usually based on an evil queen, running around checking on the door people, managing the Devil Girls & Guys who sell raffle tickets for Burners Without Borders (BWB) to raffle off a ring by Atelier Gothique, chatting with patrons, watching to make sure the art is safe, and making sure people eat. I say this like I do a lot, but really, the two curators/creators of the show do a ton more than I do with hanging the art, building things, handling the administrative stuff, etc. I just do what I can do to make their jobs easier so they can focus on the jobs only they can do (which are so numerous I can't list them).

We also have other shows like Corpus Illuminata, an art show based around anatomic interpretations, which is especially lovely for me since my background is in biology, immunology, physiology, etc. I also handle the art and volunteers for this show, and the others to follow. Purgatory is our film exhibition in a similar vein theme-wise to DAMNED. At the end of the year we have Noche de Los Muertos (our Day of the Dead afterparty) and Krampus Night (our holiday/anti-holiday party and Toys for Tots & BWB benefit ). And this year we are having another tiny art show called Small Wonders along with a variety show event.

Obviously, I love this which is why I just wrote you a mini novel about it ^_~ I love organizing things and I love managing people. Last DAMNED a certain someone told me I was really good at managing people and totally made my day. I try really hard to only give people tasks they can handle and to always say thank you. We do reward our volunteers, of course, but I always try to keep in mind that they are there because they want to be and I want them to continue to want to help. And all of this brings me around, though perhaps a bit indirectly, to the fact that I have dreamed of running events for a long time. I'm not sure it was ever one of those in your face dreams, but I thought I would maybe be good at it and I knew I would enjoy it.

So Detroit has also let me follow that dream. And it has allowed me to become a more social person with awesome, supportive friends. Sure the roads are bumpy, and there are areas that I would not be comfortable going, but if I can come here and actually love it, I think it deserves at least some respect. So maybe it's not your cup of tea, but really "It's not that bad" ^_~ I really could go on and on about places that I like to go and places I like to eat, but I think I'm going to save that for another time. Let me know in the comments if that's something you'd be interested in reading.

So in closing, to me Detroit is about community, ethnic diversity, and art. It's about a new start and exploring myself. And I like it just fine.

One of my self portraits which I likely never would have taken had I not moved to Detroit