The Ypsi Area Street Rods (YASR) was founded in 1974 and was originally formed to benefit one child with muscular dystrophy. In light of this child’s cause, 12 couples got together to host a benefit car show. From this show, YASR was formed and continues to host events that support several charitable causes. Current President … Continue Reading →
When Eva Nelson-McClendon first moved to Detroit’s Birwood Street in 1959, she didn’t know much about the wall across the street. At 6 feet tall and a foot thick, it wasn’t so imposing, running as it did between houses on her street and one over. Then she started to hear the talk.
By Michael Hodges / The Detroit News Has there ever been a more seductive view of the future? The 1930s might have been a time of global depression, but that didn’t stop the design industry in its optimistic rush toward that more abundant life just around the corner. This glittering vision, in all its elegance … Continue Reading →
By Bill Loomis / Special to The Detroit News It was not long after the first steamboat, “Walk in the Water,” docked in Detroit in the summer of 1818 that emigrants from Europe and New England, tourists, soldiers and other visitors began pouring into the small town. By 1835 there were hundreds of newcomers daily; … Continue Reading →
By Michael Hodges / The Detroit News Could the world’s first abstract painter have been a Michigan fruit farmer and not, as art history has it, Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky? A recent gift of a Manierre Dawson abstract painting to West Shore Community College in Scottville, near Ludington, close to where artist-farmer Dawson had his … Continue Reading →
Eighty years ago, the Detroit Institute of Arts debuted “Detroit Industry,” the monumental murals by Diego Rivera that he intended to be a tribute to Michigan’s innovative technology.
The Bob-Lo Island Pavilion on the Detroit River was one of the most popular dance halls in the swing era. There was a time when glittering palaces were vibrated by thousands of dancing feet, making Detroit one of the busiest of ballroom cities. These palaces now are empty abandoned hulks where a footfall is seldom … Continue Reading →