All week, students from Wayne State University have been working to uncover history at a home that once belonged to Malcolm X. The archaeological dig is looking to give new insight into the home and the surrounding neighborhood. Very few places that the civil rights leader resided in are still standing today, but thanks to members of an Inkster neighborhood, X’s early 1950s home is still up. “We have no expectations,” said Wayne State University professor and project manager Tareq Ramadan. “We’re hoping to find something maybe linked to the family or to Malcolm himself.” So far, they’ve found things like a stroller, picture frames and even an old Faygo can that will eventually fill the home once it is restored and turned into a museum. “We hope to fill the house with both materials we collected from the actual dig, but also stuff that we’ve collected,” Ramadan said “We have people who are donating period furniture and appliances from the 1950s to make the house look like it did when Malcolm would have lived here.”  

Sitting atop a hill overlooking Italy’s capital, the American Academy plays host to a range of artists, composers, writers and scholars who gather in this distinctly Italian setting aimed at stimulating creativity and collaboration. Elena Past, a professor of Italian at Wayne State University, is among the artists and scholars working in fellowship at the American Academy. “It’s about creating community amongst the fellows – giving you a chance to talk about your work, your progress, to talk through problems, but also simply to deepen the relationships you have with the people around you,” she said. Past, a recipient of the Rome Prize scholarship, is writing a book and came to study the film stock of Italian cinema. “I’m thinking about analog and technologies – the materials that make the 20th century legible and memorable to us,” Past said.  

The Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance, a program within the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, will present “Head Over Heels,” featuring songs by the Go-Go’s. Performances will run April 15-24.    

By Stephi Wild  The Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance, College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts at Wayne State University, is proud to present “Fairview,” the 2019 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama by Jackie Sibblies Drury. The production is directed by Billicia Charnelle Hines, associate professor of theatre and assistant chair/artistic director of the Black Theatre and Dance Collective, and performs live on-stage from February 25 through March 5.   

The twists and turns of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fairview” will take center stage Feb. 25 through March 5 at Wayne State University’s Hilberry Theater. The play, written by Jackie Sibblies Drury, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and examines family dynamics and the insidious impact of racism. Directed by Billicia Charnelle Hines, associate professor of theatre and assistant chair/artistic director of the Black Theatre and Dance Collective at Wayne State University, the play begins with the planning for a “perfect” birthday party, which is challenged by family drama. The play brings the United States’ long-standing racial tensions to the forefront by overlapping different viewpoints of reality on the stage. It will leave audiences with questions and conversation-starters, and confront privilege and power as well as frustration and rage, as the play travels from familiar stereotype to chaos and discord. Tickets are not available; Covid-19 protocols require proof of vaccination, completion of a health screener, and a mask.  

There’s plenty of talk about what words we use too much, but what about the words that have fallen out of usage and haven’t been used in a few decades – or centuries? The Wayne State University Word Warriors have compiled a list for 2022 of the top 10 words that have fallen out of usage and that make the English language a little bit more eclectic. Chris Williams, assistant director of editorial services for Wayne State’s Office of Marketing and Communications and head of the Word Warriors program, said it’s more fun and productive to think of the words that have fallen out of usage that would be great to bring back into our writing and speaking, instead of thinking about what words to get rid of. Word Warriors is in its 13th year of accepting words and selecting 10 to be released. “Each year, I’m surprised by the variety of the submissions we receive from around the world,” Williams said. “Our Word Warriors once again provided a batch of words to make our language richer. The English language is so versatile and unique, and we’ve ended up with another list of 10 great words.”   

By R. Khari Brown, assoicate professor of sociology, and Ronald Brown, associate professor of political science.  On June 5, 2020, it had been just over a week since a white Minnesota police officer, Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd, an unarmed, African American man. Protests were underway outside Central United Methodist Church, an interracial church in downtown Detroit with a long history of activism on civil rights, peace, immigrant rights and poverty issues. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the church was no longer holding in-person worship services. But anyone walking into its sanctuary that day would have seen long red flags behind the pastor’s lectern, displaying the words “peace” and “love.” A banner reading “Michigan Says No! To War” hung alongside pictures of civil rights icons Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as labor-rights activist Cesar Chavez. In line with her church’s activist tradition, senior pastor Jill Hardt Zundell stood outside the building and preached about her church’s commitment to eradicating anti-Black racism to her congregants and all that passed by.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit partnered with Wayne State University's anthropology department to conduct an excavation on the museum's grounds as part of an ongoing art exhibit entitled "All Monsters" by Chicago native Jan Tichy. Random household items, including pieces of a clay pot and an old medicine bottle, were unearthed by Wayne State students and will be transformed into works of art. The exhibit is located in artist Mike Kelley's "Mobile Homestead," a full-scale replica of Kelley's 1950's ranch-style home in Detroit, which sits on a plot adjacent to the archeological site that was once a women's prison and a place that housed homeless women and children. Wayne State University professor of anthropology Krysta Ryzewski said the team wanted to incorporate the land's history into the exhibit. "He (Tichy) though that archaeology might be a really interesting way to connect with the art that's on display in his part of the homestead," she said. "So we thought it might be a way to dig underground and bring up the stories of this property and the people who used to live here and utilize the space and many of those people are not known to Detroit's history...We are literally excavating other histories that have been rendered inaccessible because of the changes to the landscape and Detroit over time." 

The Snow Queen opens this weekend at The Hilberry Theatre to bring magic and fun for the holiday season to Detroit. The play runs from Nov. 19 to Dec. 11. "The Snow Queen is a really love adaptation of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson. In it, we follow Gerda as she goes on a quest to find her friend Kai, who has been taken by the Snow Queen," said director Michael J. Barnes. "It shows how the innocence of a child is able to overcome hurdles to renew a love and friendship that can last a lifetime after it has been taken by the adults.  

The static and buzz had become so severe at Joan Isabella's house in Farmington Hills that she had stopped listening to WDET-FM (101.9) on the radio. Since she is the station's program director, the annoyance must clearly have been considerable — and the relief was evident Tuesday as the public radio mainstay's new, $150,000 transmitter, funded by the Kresge Foundation, replaced one machine that's old enough to drink and a backup that's nearly old enough to run for president. As WDET served celebratory donuts and cider in the shadow of its 550-foot-tall Midtown tower, Isabella and other staffers said the lengthy replacement process helped tell a tale of both the condition of the station's city and the devotion of its listeners. Under previous and prescient leadership, said General Manager Mary Zatina, the station made significant digital investments in the past few years, crafting platforms such as podcasts and music on demand and hiring staffers to oversee them. While a new transmitter might seem like a giant step toward the past, she said, "We think about 80% of our listening happens on traditional radio. While people might have been well-intentioned to think about a digital future, we're not there yet." 

By Lee Devito  It's been quite some time since we last saw Dlectricty, Detroit's biennial-ish festival of eye-popping light-based art installations. First launched in 2012, the fest returned in 2014, but the 2016 edition was postponed by the construction of the QLine streetcar. Then a plan to return in 2020 was scrapped due to the pandemic. It could be the start of a new rhythm for the festival. "You know, there doesn't really seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason between these years," Annmarie Borucki, director of arts and culture at Midtown Detroit, Inc., tells Metro Times. "It could change over time, but I think because of the amount of time and the amount of money it costs to do this, it really will either be a biennial or triennial moving forward." Borucki says the proposal would complement a master plan for a reimagined campus for Wayne State University, and the two plans would share various design elements for a more cohesive whole. Some of Dlectricy's programming extends onto WSU's campus, including a Tron-like installation in WSU's Prentis Building by the Japanese artist Takatuki Mori, which covers an ultraviolet-lit space with a grid, making it look like you're walking into a virtual reality space.     

The Detroit Jazz Festival, the world’s largest free jazz festival, is typically held outdoors in downtown Detroit on Labor Day weekend, but it has been forced at the last minute to become a virtual event again this year as a result of a surge in COVID-19 cases. The four-day event will be streamed live from three soundstages at downtown’s Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center under COVID-19 protocols. “We’ve got a highly diverse roster of acts ranging from legends to serious up-and-comers, and a number of very special projects,” said Chris Collins, president and artistic director of the Detroit Festival Foundation, and a professor of music at Wayne State University. “And we’re excited about the format we’re working in. We’re so uniquely positioned to do a top-quality virtual festival because, first of all, our festival has been free admission for 42 years. Second, we’ve invested in the technology to do this right. The jazz festival team is doing a herculean effort here, and it’s not simple or cheap. This is a serious pivot…when people tune in, they’re getting extremely high-quality audio and video by leading Detroit professionals, and when you’re experiencing this jazz, you’re experiencing the spontaneity. You’re experiencing the moments at the same time they’re happening, live. It’s a true, live jazz experience.”   

Vincent Chandler is native Detroiter, who was a protégé in Detroit’s jazz scene during one of jazz music’s peaks in the city. He studied under some of Detroit’s most influential jazz musicians and is now passing on what he has learned as a lecturer in jazz studies, trombone, at Wayne State University. Chandler joined Jackie Paige on Community Connect to talk about the importance of passing on the history of jazz to the next generation and how jazz music has influenced the Black community since the genre’s conception. While speaking about jazz music’s history, Chandler points out the opportunities that the popularity of jazz gave to Black musicians, as the music helped start a foundation for eroding racial prejudice and breaking down barriers. Although the fight for racial equality continues today, jazz fueled the Civil Rights Movement in a way that no one thought music could. “What the Black community has done for music when it comes to America… you’ll see that throughout history it has given us opportunities that transcend even slavery.”

Fifty years ago, vibrating with agitation and energy, Marvin Gaye headed down the wood steps into a Detroit studio and made his anthem for the ages. “What’s Going On,” a poignant musical masterpiece crafted in a season of unease, persists as a timely backdrop to another heated time, half a century later, when the world feels upside down. Racial tensions, police controversy, environmental anxieties, a globe on edge — they were the topics on the front burner when Gaye rebooted his musical career and took control of his creative vision inside Motown. “People always talk about various influences out of Detroit. This really was a hometown effort that went worldwide. It captured that community sensibility and coming-together during a challenging time,” said Chris Collins, a music professor and director of jazz studies at Wayne State University. “The production — the openness of the music involved — was a pretty spectacular example of what can come out of that.” Collins said his 20-something son is enamored with the song and album. “It's in his musical life as a young person,” said Collins, also director of the Detroit Jazz Festival. “I think that speaks to the power and sincerity of that recording. It spans generation and communities.” At Wayne State, ethnomusicologist Josh Duchan’s course on 20th century popular music zeroes in on “The Message,” the pioneering 1982 rap hit by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. “A song like that — which is much more explicit in its lyrics — is kind of the extension of what Marvin Gaye and ‘What’s Going On’ did years earlier,” he said. “It’s looking around at the world and saying: These are not the conditions we all hoped for.” 

Theatre and Dance at Wayne, the producing arm of the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University is sharing its first virtual dance production, "Dynamic Perspectives" through its website 5 p.m., Saturday, Jan 23. "Dynamic Perspectives" is a virtual storytelling presentation that combines the work of Dance students from the Fall semester. The presentation is a commemorative reflection on the Wayne State dance community's efforts to navigate the present moment as the world grapples with the impacts of COVID-19. The project is devised, organized, and executed by students in the Virtual Dance Collaboratory (VDC) - a new company created to give students creative space to process, dialogue, and create work about the present moment and future possibilities. VDC is a student-driven collective whose structure has been built from the ground up.

Small, personal stories can actually make big statements about important, universal issues. That's the driving notion behind the three-day virtual workshop "The Power of I — First Person Storytelling in Times of Crisis," presented by Wayne State University's Department of Communication in partnership with Freep Film Festival.

Fifty years ago this summer, vibrating with agitation and energy, Marvin Gaye headed down the wood steps into a Detroit  studio and made his anthem for the ages. “What’s Going On,” a poignant musical masterpiece crafted in a season of unease, persists as a timely backdrop to another heated summer, half a century later, when the world feels upside down. Racial tensions, police controversy, environmental anxieties, a globe on edge — they were the topics on the front burner when Gaye rebooted his musical career and took control of his creative vision inside Motown. “What’s Going On” was richly Detroit. Gaye had been “all over the city, soaking up Detroit’s vibes and moods as he was recording,” wrote the Freep’s Bob Talbert, who was tight with Gaye at the time. With its seasoned jazz and big-band players, Motown’s ace Funk Brothers and the DSO, the track was a collective hometown feat. “People always talk about various influences out of Detroit. This really was a hometown effort that went worldwide. It captured that community sensibility and coming-together during a challenging time,” said Chris Collins, a music professor and director of jazz studies at Wayne State University. “The production — the openness of the music involved — was a pretty spectacular example of what can come out of that.” Collins said his 22-year-old son is enamored with the song and album. “It's in his musical life as a young person,” said Collins, also director of the Detroit Jazz Festival. “I think that speaks to the power and sincerity of that recording. It spans generation and communities.” At Wayne State, ethnomusicologist Josh Duchan’s course on 20th century popular music zeroes in on “The Message,” the pioneering 1982 rap hit by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. “A song like that — which is much more explicit in its lyrics — is kind of the extension of what Marvin Gaye and ‘What’s Going On’ did years earlier,” he said. “It’s looking around at the world and saying: These are not the conditions we all hoped for.” 

Melba Boyd is a native Detroiter and a distinguished professor in the department of African-American Studies at Wayne State University. An award-winning author of 13 books, her poetry, essays, and creative nonfiction have appeared in anthologies, academic journals, cultural periodicals, and newspapers in the United States and Europe. Today (Thursday) at noon, Boyd will be joining other community leaders for Wayne State University’s George Floyd in America: Black Detroiters on George Floyd event. The virtual event is part of a new series — called George Floyd in America — that is presented by the university’s Office of the Provost, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Law School, Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Prior to the event, Hour Detroit spoke with Boyd about the ongoing protests, how the country has responded to the killing of George Floyd, and the future of policing.

Rapper Big Sean’s philanthropic foundation continues to support a program created to deal with student homelessness at Detroit’s Wayne State University. The school recently announced a gift of $10,000 from Sean Anderson Foundation to the HIGH (Helping Individuals Go Higher) Program. The foundation created a $25,000 endowment for the program in 2016 and followed with financial gifts in 2017 and last year. The HIGH Program, created in 2013, provides short-term help to students in need to provide some stability and help them complete their degree. Big Sean, a Detroit native, formed the foundation in 2012 to help improve the quality of life for young people and their families.

Big Sean continues to put on for his city. The Detroit native donated $10,000 through his Sean Anderson Foundation to benefit Wayne State University’s HIGH (Helping Individuals Go Higher) program. This isn’t the first time that Sean has helped out in support of the program. In 2016, the foundation created a $25,000 endowment for the program. In 2017, the foundation donated $15,000 and then followed up with $10,000 in 2018. The Sean Anderson Foundation’s executive director spoke on the impact of this commitment. “We are pleased to continue our commitment to the HIGH Program in support of its dedication to students facing hardships,” said Myra Anderson. “The HIGH Program touches the lives of students, helping them as they pursue their higher education goals.” Jacqueline Wilson, who founded the HIGH Program in 2013, said, “The Sean Anderson Foundation has been a consistent supporter of the HIGH Program through its financial support. The foundation’s resolve to provide funding helps us pursue our mission to ensure that no student abandons their dream of earning a degree at Wayne State University solely because of housing or financial challenges.”