For the first time since the City of Detroit emerged from bankruptcy, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, now-retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stephen Rhodes and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan will share a public stage. “Detroit Bankruptcy: One Year Later” is presented by the Detroit Journalism Cooperative (DJC) and takes place on Wednesday, Dec. 9, from 6 to 8 p.m. (doors open at 5:30 p.m.) at Wayne State University’s Community Arts Auditorium, 450 Reuther Mall.
The event, hosted by Stephen Henderson from WDET’s Detroit Today and Christy McDonald from Detroit Public Television’s MiWeek, will include one-on-one interviews with the key players in the largest municipal bankruptcy in United States history. The program will also feature panels discussing the filing’s community impacts as well as a question-and-answer session with DJC reporters.
Funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Renaissance Journalism’s Michigan Reporting Initiative and the Ford Foundation, five nonprofit media outlets formed the DJC to focus on community life and Detroit’s future after bankruptcy. The DJC partners are Bridge Magazine, Detroit Public TV, Michigan Radio, New Michigan Media and WDET.
The event is part of ongoing DJC media coverage of the bankruptcy in which the cooperative’s partners produce print, radio, television and digital media content to help audiences understand the continuing effects on and recovery of residents, neighborhoods, city government and policymakers. Follow fact-based coverage from the Detroit Journalism Cooperative at nextchapterdetroit.com.
Detroit Cody High School students will kick off the evening by sharing poetry they wrote after studying the bankruptcy as part of a program partnership between WDET Radio, the InsideOut Literary Arts Project and the Center for Investigative Reporting.
“Detroit Bankruptcy: One Year Later” will be recorded and streamed live by Detroit Public Television.
The event is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required.
Follow the discussion on social media at #DETNEXT.