Detroit Summer

CASS CORRIDOR: BROKEN HEART OF DETROIT?

2007-04-29T23:45:00.000-04:00

New Detroit Summer website

2007-04-09T21:03:00.000-04:00

Coming soon...
sit tight.

Potluck Thursday April 12

2007-04-09T20:49:00.000-04:00

NOT YOUR SOLDIER

2007-01-02T00:27:00.000-05:00

One year anniversary of DS potlucks

2006-11-06T22:14:00.000-05:00

The Hopes & Aspirations Survey: Giving voice to our dreams

2006-10-20T16:12:00.000-04:00

What are your hopes and aspirations for the children and youth of Detroit?

Detroit Summer is asking adults and youth across the city of Detroit this simple question. We invite you to share your response to this question by sending your answers to any of the following places:

Post it your response in the comment form below.
Mail of drop off at: 3611 Cass Ave. (north of MLK Blvd.)
Email detroitsummer@yahoo.com.

The upcoming November (11/9) Community Potluck will be the one-year anniversary since Detroit Summer first initiated potluck dinners at the CCNDC Community Center. As part of the celebration, your responses to the Hopes & Aspirations Survey will be read at the November Potluck on November 9th. Potluck dinner starts at 6 PM at 3535 Cass Ave.

GROW flyer

2006-10-12T00:17:00.000-04:00

GROW

2006-10-09T01:40:00.000-04:00

The Detroit Summer "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck Series and Catherine Ferguson Academy (CFA) Students
presents...

"GROW"

Tursday, October 12th
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
@THE CCNDC COMMUNITY CENTER
3535 CASS AVE (off MLK Blvd.), Detroit
All City. All Ages.

A community potluck and more. Food, CFA poets, Youthville DJ's, Hardcore Detroit Breaking Crew and local gardeners.

We've been growing a lot in Detroit. Celebrate the harvest with local community groups who grow their own food and lives in our city. In a community market atmosphere with youth poets, dj's, and breaking. Eat, buy, trade and learn about locally grown fresh food! Bring a dish (from your garden, if you can) for the potluck.

Join Detroit Summer the 2nd Thursday of every month for the "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck.

Tell a friend to tell a friend...spread the word...
upcoming potlucks: November 9 (one year anniversary of this potluck series!), December 14, January 11

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Call: 313-438-2254 for more information
www.detroitsummer.org
info@detroitsummer.org
myspace.com/detroit_summer

Boggs Center: Fall Conversation Series

2006-09-17T15:14:00.000-04:00

The Boggs Center is hosting a series of conversations about activism, community and movement building. All are welcome, please join us!

Location:
Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership
3061 Field St.
Detroit, Michigan

Sunday, September 24
Series Kickoff
Bringing Balance into our Lives, our Struggles, our Communities
3:00 - 5:00 pm

Saturday, October 7
Spirit and Struggle: Feeding our Souls, Revitalizing our Commitment
Special guests: Vincent & Rachel Harding and Valdina Oliveira Pinto
5:00-8:00 pm. Potluck Dinner

Sunday, October 29
Lifestyle choices: Financial education and health
3:00- 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, November 5
Beyond Capitalism: Creating Sustainable Community
Discussion with Gar Alperovitz
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 3
Consciousness raising and cultural work
3:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, December 17
Wrap up Session:
What will we do in this time of Great Turning?
3:00-5:00 p.m.

For more information:
Call the Boggs Center at: 313-921-0797
WWW.BOGGSCENTER.ORG

"Cracking the Code"

2006-09-11T00:32:00.000-04:00

SPREAD THE WORD...TELL A FRIEND TO TELL A FRIEND

The Detroit Summer "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck Series presents....

CRACKING THE CODE:
A speak-out/fashion show in response to the DPS dress code

"Why weren't the students asked?"
Come make you voice and your style heard.

Find a way to rock your uniform and still keep your style with help from Detroit's finest fashion designers.

THURS. SEPT 14
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
@THE CCNDC COMMUNITY CENTER
3535 CASS AVE

Part of the monthly Breaking Bread community potluck series, so as always, please bring a dish to share!

featuring:
~Youthville Djs
~open mic poetry
~Hardcore Detroit breakdancers
~and your chance to customize your uniform

Join Detroit Summer the 2nd Thursday of every month for the "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck. Tell a friend to tell a friend...spread the word...
upcoming potlucks: October 12, November 9, December 14

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Call: 313-438-2254 for more information
Or visit: www.detroitsummer.org
add us: myspace.com/detroit_summer

Community teach-in/speak out on Lebanon and Palestine

2006-08-08T14:56:00.000-04:00

LAMP Closing Ceremony

2006-08-07T19:54:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer presents...
The closing ceremony for the 2006 Live Arts Media Project:

THURSDAY, AUG. 10TH
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
@THE CCNDC COMMUNITY CENTER
3535 CASS AVE

The ceremony will be part of the monthly Breaking Bread community
potluck series, so as always, please bring a dish to share!

Join us for an evening of youth media and artistic expression,
featuring:
~Youthville Djs
~Poetry and hip hop performances
~live graffitti art
~Hardcore Detroit breakdancers
~and a special presentation by LAMP youth

The Live Arts Media Project is Detroit Summer's Summer Youth Leadership
Intensive. We have spent the past 6 weeks exploring questions around
"The Drop-out Crisis, Education, and The Future of Our City" through
interviews and creative workshops with youth and the artist-activist
community of Detroit.

Come out to see what we've been up to and help us celebrate all our
hard work!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Call: 313-438-2254 for more information
Or visit: detroitsummer.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DAY Project 3rd Annual Closing Ceremony

2006-08-07T17:41:00.000-04:00

(DAY Project is a close ally of Detroit Summer. Please check out this exciting event.)

The Detroit Asian Youth Project presents:
3rd Annual Closing Ceremony for the Summer Intensive Program

You are invited to the Closing Ceremony of the Detroit Asian Youth Project's 3rd Annual Summer Intensive Program. Meet this year's high school youth, who come from the northeast/Osborn area of Detroit, and who have been exploring "what it means to be Asian in Detroit". This summer DAY Project youth conducted interviews of various Asian American community members, including Grace Lee Boggs, Aurora Harris, Senator Hansen Clarke, and others. Come find out what they discovered about their lives, neighborhood and city this summer!

Date: Saturday, August 12th, 2006

Time: 12pm-2pm

Location: St. John/Conner Creek Health Center

4777 E Outer Dr, Detroit, MI

Food and refreshments provided.

Detroit Asian Youth (DAY) Project was launched in 2004 and works with Asian American youth in Detroit to develop leadership skills and raise awareness for social justice. DAY Project engages in community-based projects that foster a greater understanding of Detroit and its Asian American community.

The DAY Project Summer Intensive Program is co-sponsored by Asian American Center for Justice/American Citizens for Justice, who provides the annual Vincent Chin Justice Memorial Scholarship to each participating youth. DAY Project is also supported by the Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership, St. Raymond Catholic Church, St. John's/Conner Creek Health Center, and the University of Michigan Program in American Culture.

For more info:

Michelle Lin

mlinz@riseup.net

(313) 333-3112

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Directions:
From the West:
Taking 94 E exit Van Dyke and go north. Turn right at Outer Drive.
The hospital will be on your left.

or

Taking 96 East, exit Davison East. Take Davison East for a long time past I-75 until
you hit Mound. Take a left at Mound and then a right on Outer Drive. The St. John will be on your left.

From the North:
Taking 75 South, exit Davison East. Take a left at Mound and a right on Outer Drive.
St. John will be on your left.

From the South/Downtown Deroit:

Taking 75 North, exit Davison East. Take a left at Mound and a right on Outer Drive.

St. John will be on your left.

(7/22) LAMPshop: Artist-Activists Community Workshops

2006-07-19T12:09:00.000-04:00

LAMPshop

Live Arts Media Arts Project Community Arts Workshops

Join Detroit Summer’s Live Media Arts Project (LAMP) for weekly artist community workshops.

LAMP is a production of youth artists and adult artist mentors who have decided to respond to the crisis in education, particularly around the issue of drop-outs, emphasizing the critical voices of youth. Whereas mainstream dialogue on this issue reduces youth to mere statistics and puts forward a band-aid or reactionary solutions to the crisis, the goal of this project is to center the concerns and creativity of young people in the debate over the current crisis in education. The final product of the program will be an enhanced CD that expresses the voices and visions of youth, artists and activists from the Detroit community.

Since July 1, LAMP opens our doors, hearts and minds to the larger artist community in order to

collectively explore various aspects of the drop out crises and to make art. Each Saturday will focus on a different art form, from hip hop writing to stencil-making.

Join us this Saturday, July 22 for another exciting installment of LAMPshop, facilitated by local talent, poet/spoken word artists Angela Jones and Will Copeland.

Date: Saturday, July 22

Time: 1-4pm

Place: Youthville Detroit, 7375 Woodward, Room 1050

Facilitators: Poetry/Spoken Word, Angela Jones and Will Copeland

Parking available at Lothrop Parking Garage and can be validated at Youthville's front desk

Potluck Thursday (7/13)! featuring MOTEP and MIZ KORONA

2006-07-10T23:16:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck
Thursday June 13, 6:00 PM at the CCNDC Community Center, 3535 Cass Ave.(off of MLK), Detroit
FREE. ALL AGES. ALL CITY.

This month: "Summer in Detroit"
A fun community potluck featuring...

MOTEP (acoustic soul, folk and poetry from Chicago)
myspace.com/motepthepoet

MIZ KORONA (the one and only. hip hop, Detroit)
myspace.com/1mizkorona

plus performances by T.O.K.I.N, Youthville D.J.s, Hardcore Detroit.
Open mic, and live graffiti!

Bring your favorite dish, or try something new. It need not be fancy. Bring the whole family! No one turned away for lack of dish!

~~~
Join Detroit Summer the 2nd Thursday of every month for the "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck.
Tell a friend to tell a friend...spread the word...
upcoming potlucks: August 10, September 14, October 12

Calling young artists in the Cass Corridor!

2006-06-27T10:14:00.000-04:00

The Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation (CCNDC) and Detroit Summer (www.detroitsummer.org) is hosting an art mural summer program in the Cass Corridor. The program is a 2-3 week program that will start at the beginning of August. We are looking for 10-15 youth artists (ages 8-19), who will have the opportunity to work with local muralist Ron Cochran to create and design a large indoor wall mural inside of the CCNDC Community Center (near Cass Ave and MLK). Together, participants will develop a mural that is reflective of community-based values. The program will end with a celebration to unveil the mural to the community. Youth who are interested in the visual arts are strongly encouraged to apply. Sessions will be held 2-3 times a week, totaling 30 hours to design, develop and paint the mural. There is no cost to the program; deadline to apply is July 21, 2006.

To apply, or for more information, please contact Michelle Lin at mlinz@riseup.net.

Potluck Thursday (6/8): "Students & Young People Building Power"

2006-06-03T15:57:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer receives donation from Pearl Jam

2006-06-01T00:49:00.000-04:00

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 1, 2006
CONTACT: Michelle Lin, Detroit Summer
tel. (313) 333-3112
email: mlinz (at) riseup.net

PEARL JAM SUPPORTS YOUTH ORGANIZING IN DETROIT

Proceeds From Detroit Appearance donated to support Detroit Summer

Detroit – Detroit Summer is pleased to announce that the Vitalogy Foundation has donated proceeds from Pearl Jam’s recent Detroit concert to assist the organization’s mission to promote Detroit youth leadership and organizing. Throughout its current tour, Pearl Jam has contributed one dollar out of every ticket sold to local charities and social change organizations through its Vitalogy Foundation. Detroit Summer commends the Vitalogy Foundation and Pearl Jam’s commitment to giving back to the local community as they tour through our area.

The proceeds donated from Pearl Jam’s May 22, 2006 performance at the Palace in Auburn Hills will go to assist Detroit Summer’s Live Arts Media Project (LAMP), a summer youth leadership intensive that promotes arts and activism. LAMP 2006 is a 6-week summer program that will explore the issue of the education crisis in Detroit and the city’s high drop-out rate. The program will engage the critical voices of youth in exploring how the current education system has failed and what alternatives we can build in its place. Youth participants will work with local artists to create an enhanced CD that will feature interviews from community members and tracks contributed by local musicians around the issue of education and drop-outs.

---
Detroit Summer is a is a multi-racial, intergenerational collective fostering a youth-led movement to rebuild, redefine, and re-spirit Detroit from the ground up. Founded by Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs, along with other Detroit community activists, Detroit Summer was launched in the summer of 1992, to find visionary ways for youth to rebuild our dying cities. Detroit Summer engages youth in hands-on projects, including community gardening, public art murals, a community bicycle repair/recycle shop called Back Alley Bikes, community dinners, intergenerational dialogues and community organizing. We are building community amongst artists and activists in Detroit, to shape a vision for Detroit that includes a positive vision for social change.

###

Speak Out Against Violence!

2006-05-09T13:16:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck
Thursday, May 11, 6:00 p.m.
at the CCNDC Community Center (3535 Cass Ave., Detroit)

This month's potluck theme:
"Speak Out Against Violence in Our City"
with special guest, Rob Biko Baker (Campaign Against Violence, Milwaukee, WI)
You are invited to join Detroit Summer in speaking out about the effects of violence in our communities and how we can organize to stop it.

With music by Youthvilles DJs.
And breaking with Hardcore Detroit.

Join Detroit Summer the 2nd Thursday of every month for the "Breaking Bread" Community Potluck. Bring your favorite dish, or try something new. It need not be fancy. Bring the whole family! There will always be featured guests and opportunities to meet new friends. No one turned away for lack of dish!

Tell a friend to tell a friend...spread the word...
upcoming potlucks: June 8, July 13, August 10

Next DS Community Potluck: BUILDING NEW VISIONS OF INCLUSION & JUSTICE

2006-04-05T21:17:00.000-04:00

DETROIT SUMMER "BREAKING BREAD" COMMUNITY POTLUCK
APRIL 13, 2006
6:00 p.m. -- Bring a potluck dish to pass; but no one turned away for
lack of dish.

at the CCNDC Community Space
3535 Cass Avenue, Detroit

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FREE & OPEN TO PUBLIC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Youth Performers & Artists
DJs from Youthville
Open Mic
Live Art
Poetry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
featuring:
"YOUTH LEADERSHIP BUILDING NEW VISIONS OF INCLUSION & JUSTICE"

Naomi Ortiz, Kids As Self Advocates (KASA)
Poet and disability rights and pride activist from Arizona. Promoter of
inclusive education.

Weusi Olusola, Pioneers for Peace
Poet and President of Pioneers for Peace, a Detroit group whose members
are survivors of gun violence that resulted in permanent disabilities.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Grace Lee Project" film screening benefit this Saturday; event featured in Metro Times

2006-03-16T16:02:00.000-05:00

film premier:
"THE GRACE LEE PROJECT"
Do You Know Grace Lee? Questioning conventional stereotypes of Asian American women

Film Synopsis:
When award-winning Korean-American filmmaker Grace Lee was growing up in Missouri, she was the only Grace Lee she knew. But when she later moved to New York and California, everyone she met seemed to know "another Grace Lee." But why did they assume that all Grace Lees were nice, dutiful, piano-playing bookworms? Pursuing the moving target of Asian American female identity, the filmmaker plunges into a clever, highly unscientific investigation into all those Grace Lees who break the mold - from a fiery social activist to a rebel who tried to burn down her high school! With wit and charm, THE GRACE LEE PROJECT puts a hilarious spin on the eternal question "What's in a name?"

website:
www.gracelee.net

“Fun and offbeat! Told with humor and insight.”
-Los Angeles Times

“Delightful! A funny but complex meditation on identity, ethnicity, and cultural expectations.”
-Variety

Filmmaker Grace Lee will be in attendance at a Detroit screening of The Grace Lee Project, on Saturday, March 18, 2006. The film features an interview from Detroit’s very own Grace Lee Boggs, long-time movement activist who will be speaking at the event. Grace Lee Boggs has been involved in the Civil Rights, Black Power, environmental justice, and Asian American movements (www.boggscenter.org). All proceeds from the event will go towards Detroit-based youth organizations, Detroit Summer and the Detroit Asian Youth Project.

Event Details:
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Barth Hall in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (4800 Woodward)
6:30 pm VIP Pre-Screening Reception with Director Grace Lee (Tickets: $35)
8:00 pm Film Screening with Q/A session with Director to follow (Tickets: $10-20 Adults; $5 Students and Youth)

All persons named Grace Lee can attend the VIP Pre-Screening Reception and Film Screening free of charge. Please bring valid identification.
~~~~~~~

Detroit Summer is a multiracial, intergenerational organization fostering youth-led movement to rebuild, redefine, and re-spirit Detroit from the ground up. Co-founded by Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit Summer was launched in the summer of 1992 to involve youth in hands-on projects, including community gardening, public art murals, a community bicycle repair/recycle shop called Back Alley Bikes, intergenerational dialogues and community organizing. www.detroitsummer.org.

Detroit Asian Youth (DAY) Project was established in 2003 to engage Asian American youth in Detroit to develop leadership skills and awareness for social justice. DAY Project works with Hmong and other Asian American young people in the city to explore the youth’s identities, history, culture, and experiences through community projects and other educational forums.
~~~~~~~

The Grace Lee Project is reviewed in the current issue of the Metro Times. Read the review here.

Detroit Summer Collective members publish interviews in Critical Moment

2006-03-09T16:46:00.000-05:00

Beyond the Superbowl
Interviews with Progressive Detroit Community Leaders

by Jenny Lee, Ilana Weaver and Ben Chodoroff

The recent Superbowl XL and the years of redevelopment projects leading up to the event have sparked a great deal of debate and speculation about the future of the city of Detroit. Is the Superbowl the kind of development that the city needs, and if not, what kinds of development can we imagine that would make Detroit a more just, safe, healthy and beautiful place to live?

Before and after the games, Critical Moment, in partnership with the Detroit Summer Collective, interviewed several longtime Detroit activists to get their take on the problems facing Detroit and possibilities of rebuilding Detroit.

Click here to read the full article.

Click here to listen to a radio piece based off of the interviews.

Check out coverage of Grace Lee Boggs in Detroit Free Press in anticipation of upcoming "Grace Lee Project" event

2006-03-09T16:14:00.000-05:00

Activist Boggs learned from mom's regrets
March 9, 2006
BY DESIREE COOPER, Detroit Free Press

At 90, Grace Lee Boggs is a one-woman revolution.

Raised by her Chinese immigrant parents in a New York, upper-middle class family, she attended elite colleges in the 1930s. From a rat-infested room in Chicago, she joined the civil rights movement in the 1940s. Unlike many women of her day, she married late in life and never had children.

In 1953, Boggs met an African-American labor activist in Detroit: James Boggs. Together, they influenced a generation of civil rights leaders with their books, including actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.

A half-century later, Boggs feels the revolution is far from over.

"I see Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War and the Detroit public school dropout rate as atrocities on the same level," she said Friday. "They are all signs that we have to change."

What inspires her to continue to rail against the establishment?

"I've always felt a philosophical and spiritual connection to Hegel, Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi," Boggs said. "They all believed that change was not only necessary, but possible."

But there's one other person who unwittingly influenced Boggs' progressive politics: her traditional Chinese mother, Yin Lan.

One woman's prison

Boggs' living room at her home on Detroit's east side is like a professor's, each chair cuddled by stacks of books. On her aquamarine wall hangs a photo of her paternal grandmother from about 1934.

"She lived to be 104," Boggs said. "She had boys, so they said that she was 107."

The Chinese honored women with an extra year each time they bore a boy.

Boggs' mother, Yin Lan, gave birth to four boys, but she didn't always feel so honored.

Born in rural south China, Yin Lan had been sold into slavery as a girl. At 21, she escaped through an arranged marriage with Chin Lee, a successful Seattle restaurateur 20 years her senior.

Yin Lan gave birth to their first child on the ship steerage floor during their journey to the United States. Soon after the couple arrived in Seattle, Chin Lee decided to move his family to the East, escaping the racial violence against Asians on the West Coast.

"They had a child and a restaurant in each new place they settled after that," Boggs said.

Boggs was born in Providence, R.I., as the fourth of six children.

In New York, her father established two successful restaurants on Broadway in the 1920s. The success was bittersweet for Yin Lan, who felt increasingly saddled by marriage and children. "My mother saw all that was available here," Boggs said, "and the waste of her own life became overwhelming."

In the 1930s, Chin Lee put his business and home in his wife's name to protect his assets from creditors, Boggs said. "When my mother found out, she locked my father out of the house and never let him back in," she said.

Like mother, unlike daughter

Boggs wasted little time taking advantage of what America had to offer, fueling her mother's resentment. But she soon realized that for an Asian woman, freedom had its limits. In the 1930s, she was removed to the Jim Crow section of a train. Later the conductor returned and said he'd been mistaken, but she refused to move to the front.

Boggs was one of only three minority students at Barnard, where she studied philosophy and played sports. In 1940, she earned a doctorate in philosophy from Bryn Mawr.

"But I was Chinese and I was a woman," said Boggs. "There were no jobs waiting for me when I graduated."

Boggs resisted marriage, determined to sidestep the trap that had caged her mother. Instead, she got a library job at the University of Chicago, earning $10 a week. Unable to find anyone who would rent a room to an "Oriental," she accepted a free couch in a woman's rat-infested basement.

Soon, she became involved with Chicago's South Side Tenants Organization and A. Philip Randolph's call for a 1941 March on Washington to demand African-American access to wartime jobs. The movement's success convinced Boggs "to become a movement activist in the black community," she wrote in her 1998 autobiography, "Living for Change."

Living for change

Boggs migrated to Detroit in 1953 to work on a grassroots newsletter, the Correspondence. The editorial board chairman was James Boggs, an Alabama native and father of six who was going through a divorce.

Their first date was memorable. He arrived two hours late and thumbed his nose at her special lamb dinner. He hated the Louis Armstrong music she played, considering the trumpet player an "Uncle Tom." But before dinner was over, he proposed.

They married in 1954. On the way home from their northern Michigan honeymoon, they had to sleep in the car because no one would rent them a room.

Few of their inner circle objected to the marriage, but one of Boggs' close friends, West Indian Marxist C.L.R. James, worried that she would become a follower of her husband.

"I did follow Jimmy at first, consciously and openly," Boggs wrote. But eventually they interacted as peers, coauthoring "Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century" in 1974.

Boggs' parents never discussed the interracial marriage. Eventually, Chin Lee came to live with the couple in Detroit.

Yin Lan moved to Florida and seldom communicated with Grace and James. After her mother's death in Hawaii in 1978, Boggs discovered that her marriage to James may have prompted Yin Lan to shun her daughter.

Still mothering revolution

Grace and James, who died in 1993, never had children together. "I saw what having children did to my mother," Boggs said.

Ironically, Boggs seems to have an endless capacity for nurturing young people and obsesses about the need for education changes.

"I think that the dropout rate is really a walkout rate," she said.

Schools are designed for upward mobility, and that means leaving their neighborhoods behind -- something we can no longer afford, Boggs said. Instead, schools should engage children in urban farming and community cleanup.

"We need to teach them how to make a life, not make a living," she said.

Still a weekly columnist for the Michigan Citizen, Boggs is traveling to Milwaukee today to visit an urban farming youth group.

"The secret to my long life is that I am not afraid of change," she said. "And these days, the only other people who are willing to embrace it are the young."

Contact DESIREE COOPER at dcooper@freepress.com or 313-222-6625.
---

What's in a name?

To Korean-American filmmaker Grace Lee, it seemed that everyone knew an Asian woman named Grace Lee and thought of her as a dutiful, polite bookworm. That was the genesis of her documentary "Do You Know Grace Lee?" -- a film that explores the colorful, diverse lives of Asian-American women who hail by the same moniker. A standout among them is Detroit civil rights activist Grace Lee Boggs.
When: The documentary will be shown in Detroit at 8 p.m. March 18 at Barth Hall in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, 4800 Woodward. After the film, the director and Grace Lee Boggs will speak.
Tickets: Adults are asked to donate $10-$20. Donations are $5 for students and youths and $35 for anyone who also wishes to attend the VIP reception before the film, at 6:30. Anyone named Grace Lee may attend the film free with valid ID.
Proceeds will benefit Detroit Summer, a youth program for community involvement cofounded by Boggs, and the Detroit Asian Youth Project, a social justice and leadership development organization.
Details: Call 313-333-3112 or e-mail mlinz@riseup.net.

Upcoming DS event featured in the Detroit News

2006-03-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

Project shows how Detroit's Grace Lee stands out in a crowd
by Laura Berman, Detroit News
March 02, 2006

In a sea of 2,000 women named Grace Lee -- many of them fulfilling a stereotype (nice, quiet, forgettable) of "generic Asian girl" that filmmaker Grace Lee wittily explores in a new documentary -- it is the Grace Lee of Detroit who emerges as the unforgettable one.

This is Grace Lee Boggs, who at age 90, after 53 years in Detroit using words like "struggle" and "revolution" as often as most of us say "car keys," is forging a new identity as Asian-American role model.

The daughter of Chinese immigrants who owned Manhattan restaurants, Detroit's Grace Lee earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from elite Bryn Mawr, before moving to Detroit in her 30s and marrying Jimmy Boggs, an African-American activist whose radical vision of a better America matched hers.

In the 68-minute "The Grace Lee Project," one of Boggs' Detroit neighbors says, "We used to call her Grace X because she's such a revolutionary."

A world of Grace Lees

Director Grace Lee -- the Missouri-born daughter of Korean immigrants -- was searching databases for her "Grace Lee Project" seeking to belie the statistical evidence that the typical G.L. is an American-born 25-year-old woman, 5'3", probably has a master's degree and almost four years of piano lessons under her belt.

Frustrated by the common-ness of her name among Asian-Americans, the filmmaker sought proof that "we're not that Grace Lee," high-achieving, sweet and indistinguishable, one from the other.

In the world of Grace Lees, it was the Detroit version who uniquely identified with the struggle of African-Americans. Why not her own ethnicity?

Because, she answers onscreen, neither the Chinese-American nor women's movements had emerged when Grace Lee Boggs came of age. To the filmmaker, "who can't imagine a world that is not preoccupied with identity," and to the viewer, Boggs' long, historical perspective is a revelation.

Catalyst for change

Boggs lives on Detroit's east side in a house decorated with books, fine art and "End Apartheid" posters. Over the years, her house has been stripped by thieves of its beveled glass, statuary, and even an oak front door. She stays on "because it is home," and perhaps because she sees struggle as part of life and progress.

At 90, she is intensely, actively engaged by the world she still intends to change, working with university students, surfing Web sites and reading at a ferocious pace -- smashing stereotypes and refining her politics.

As Grace Lee, the director, says in a phone call from Los Angeles, "In the end … we all have the potential to be statistically average and to be Grace Lee Boggs." To be categorized and to defy categorization.

That's the reflective and ironic message of "The Grace Lee Project," and the story too of its longest-lived -- yet ageless -- subject.

Visit Detroitsummer.org for information about a March 18 screening in Detroit, with remarks by Grace Lee Boggs and director Grace Lee. All Grace Lees will be admitted free.

You can reach Laura Berman at (248) 647-7221 or lberman@detnews.com.

DS Community Potluck comin' at cha one more time

2006-03-07T18:38:00.000-05:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MONTHLY BREAKING BREAD COMMUNITY POTLUCK & DIALOGUE
2nd Thursdays of each month
Hosted by Detroit Summer

at the CCNDC Community Space, 3535 CASS AVE
(Corner of MLK Blvd and Cass Ave)

Please bring your favorite dish or try something new, it need not be fancy. Bring the whole family! No one turned away for lack of dish!
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Thursday, March 9, 2006, 6:00 p.m.
this month's potluck theme:
"LIVE ART", featuring:

-youth poets from Catherine Ferguson Academy
-hip-hop from the Philistines & N.O.M.A.D.S., Stacy Epps, and Detroit Summer youth leaders
-breakdancing by Hardcore Detroit
-dj set by Munk and the Youthville djs
-live art by Sterling Toles

tell a friend to tell a friend....
Upcoming Breaking Bread Community Potlucks: April 13, May 11, June 8
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“Do you know Grace Lee?”

2006-02-23T22:26:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Michelle Lin
Voice: (313) 333-3112
mlinz@riseup.net

Film Premiere: The Grace Lee Project – “Do you know Grace Lee?”
Questioning conventional stereotypes of Asian American women

Event Details:
Saturday, March 18, 2006 Barth Hall in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul (4800 Woodward) 6:30 pm VIP Pre-Screening Reception with Director Grace Lee, Tickets: $35
8:00 pm Film Screening with Q/A session with Director to follow, Tickets: $10-20 Adults; $5 Students and Youth

All persons named Grace Lee can attend the VIP Pre-Screening Reception and Film Screening free of charge. Please bring valid identification.

Film Synopsis:
When award-winning Korean-American filmmaker Grace Lee was growing up in Missouri, she was the only Grace Lee she knew. But when she later moved to New York and California, everyone she met seemed to know "another Grace Lee." But why did they assume that all Grace Lees were nice, dutiful, piano-playing bookworms? Pursuing the moving target of Asian American female identity, the filmmaker plunges into a clever, highly unscientific investigation into all those Grace Lees who break the mold - from a fiery social activist to a rebel who tried to burn down her high school! With wit and charm, THE GRACE LEE PROJECT puts a hilarious spin on the eternal question "What's in a name?"

Running Time: 68 min. MPAA Rating: Not Rated Genre: Education, Documentary, Media arts, Women
Website: www.gracelee.net

“Fun and offbeat! Told with humor and insight.”
-Los Angeles Times
“Delightful! A funny but complex meditation on identity, ethnicity, and cultural expectations.”
-Variety

Detroit Screening:
Filmmaker Grace Lee will be in attendance at a Detroit screening of The Grace Lee Project, on Saturday, March 18, 2006. The film features an interview from Detroit’s very own Grace Lee Boggs, long-time movement activist who will be speaking at the event. Grace Lee Boggs has been involved in the Civil Rights, Black Power, environmental justice, and Asian American movements (www.boggscenter.org). All proceeds from the event will go towards Detroit-based youth organizations, Detroit Summer and the Detroit Asian Youth Project.

Detroit Summer is a multiracial, intergenerational organization fostering youth-led movement to rebuild, redefine, and re-spirit Detroit from the ground up. Co-founded by Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit Summer was launched in the summer of 1992 to involve youth in hands-on projects, including community gardening, public art murals, a community bicycle repair/recycle shop called Back Alley Bikes, intergenerational dialogues and community organizing. www.detroitsummer.org.

Detroit Asian Youth (DAY) Project was established in 2003 to engage Asian American youth in Detroit to develop leadership skills and awareness for social justice. DAY Project works with Hmong and other Asian American young people in the city to explore the youth’s identities, history, culture, and experiences through community projects and other educational forums.

###

LISTEN: Detroit Beyond the Superbowl radio broadcast

2006-02-23T17:46:00.000-05:00

Detroit Summer Collective members Jenny Lee and Ilana Weaver created a radio piece for Black Box Radio a weekly progressive news program on 88.3FM WCBN Ann Arbor. The piece, originally broadcast February 14, is on visions of Detroit beyond the superbowl and features interviews with Detroit activist organizers Gwen Mingo, Ron Scott, and Maureen Taylor.

Click here to listen to this powerful radio piece.

The Detroit Beyond the Superbowl radio piece will also be broadcast on a Detroit radio station in the near future. Hopefully there will be more radio from DS coming out in future. Watch out.

See also this related commentary by Jenny Lee.

The Grace Lee Project

2006-02-17T21:58:00.000-05:00

Detroit Summer and the Detroit Asian Youth Project Present...

THE GRACE LEE PROJECT
"Do you know Grace Lee?"

Film screening in Detroit
Saturday, March 18, 2006, 8:00 PM
Barth Hall (in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul)
4800 Woodward (Woodward Ave. and Warren Ave.)

With remarks from long-time Detroit activist, Grace Lee Boggs
And a Q/A with filmmaker Grace Lee to follow
Adult: $10-20
Youth and Students: $5

Pre-Screening Reception @ 6:30 PM -- $35
Call in advance for tickets: (313) 333-3112

ABOUT THE FILM:
Filmmaker Grace Lee undertakes a unique and hilarious exploration by interviewing over 30 women named Grace Lee around the U.S. in search of a contemporary Asian American female identity, featuring Detroit's very own Grace Lee Boggs. This film shatters conventional stereotypes about what it means to be Asian American.

"...a funny but complex meditation on identity, ethnicity and cultural expectations..." --Variety

"The Grace Lee Project is a breezy first-person video essay that goes in search of the average Asian American woman, all the while wondering if there is in fact such a thing...[interviews include] Grace Lee Boggs, an 88-year-old Chinese American activist known in her Detroit community for her work in the black-power movement.."
--The Village Voice

For film info:
http://www.gracelee.net/
For event info:
(313) 333-3112

All proceeds will benefit Detroit Summer, a multi-racial youth organization dedicated to rebuild, redefine and respirit Detroit from the ground up, and the Detroit Asian Youth Project, a group promoting social justice and political self-development with predominantly Hmong and Asian American youth on Detroit's east side.

Beyond the Superbowl

2006-02-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

By Jenny Lee, Detroit Summer Collective member
February 4, 2006

In 1992, a group of community activists coming out of the organization Save Our Sons and Daughters began organizing against the idea that casino gambling could save Detroit. At that time, the city was reeling amidst a shattered economy, crack ravaging the neighborhoods and an epidemic of youth on youth violence in the streets. Then mayor Coleman A. Young challenged the anti-gambling activists to go beyond merely protesting the construction of casinos and to answer the question: if not casinos, what kind of development could save our city?

Detroit Summer was created as an experiment in answering that question. If given the opportunity, could young people transform their communities and themselves at the same time, through projects such as urban gardening, mural painting, house rehabilitation, block parties, and community dialogue?

As the Superbowl XL and all the development projects related to it come to town amid promises that top-down corporate-led development will save our city, the question of what kind of development can rebuild Detroit remains as vital today as it was thirteen years ago.

Untold taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize Superbowl XL and refurbish the facades of abandoned buildings. Homeless people are becoming casualties in a war over downtown's public space. Materialism is the reigning value professed through sky-high billboards. And amidst the frenzy of buying and selling spawned by the Superbowl, many have pointed out that Black-owned Detroit businesses have not received a just share of Superbowl-related contracts.

This model of development, advanced by corporate investors and city officials will take power further and further away from the people of this city in determining our future. And it's happening very fast. We need to come together and ask the questions: what kind of economy will be relevent and sustainable in our communities? What kind of schools must we build to address the current drop-out crisis? What kind of culture do we want to shape our relationships with one another, our relationships to the earth? Most importantly, how can we center the needs, interests and imaginations of young people in all of the questions we are asking about the future?

After the tourists leave, when there are no more free shuttle buses or parties for the homeless and all the storefronts stuffed with overpriced Superbowl merchandise are re-abandoned, will we feel like we have been rescued or ravaged?

This city knows what it is to be ravaged. It offered up the land and multiple generations of workers to fuel one of the country's most crucial industries. When the factories pulled out they took their power and their profits with them. We know that the NFL will do the same, no one expects otherwise. But will Compuware? Will the casinos? When the tax abatement honeymoon ends, and Detroit is no longer profitable to them will the corporations stick it out, 'try and make it work' and stay here just for the love of the city? Or will they move on to the next young thing?

Whichever way it goes, we can be certain that Detroit will continue to suffer if we stake our future on the promises offered by politicians and corporate leaders. We can not rely on any industry, election or benevolence from the suburbs to come to our rescue. We have to find ways of addressing the immediate needs of our communities while also advancing our visions of sustainability, justice and self-determination. We have to respond to the disasters at hand and begin to build the kind of world we want to live in simultaneously.

Join Detroit Summer the second thursday of every month for a community potluck and dialogue at the CCNDC Community Center, 3611 Cass Ave., where we will continue this discussion around the future of our city.

This writing was inspired by conversations with Grace Lee Boggs, Ron Scott, Maureen Taylor, Jackie Victor and the Detroit Summer Collective in the days before the Superbowl XL.

"What Can Detroit Learn from Venezuela?"

2006-01-31T14:35:00.001-05:00

Detroit Summer invites you to our fourth community potluck:

Breaking Bread Community Potluck* & Dialogue:
"What Can Detroit Learn from Venezuela?"

Thursday, Feb 9, 6:00 p.m.
3535 Cass Ave. (CCNDC Community Center), Detroit
Call (313) 333-3112 for more info

Featuring a discussion with
Chesa Boudin, activist and scholar of the Venezuelan revolution, recently returned from Venezuela bringing critical insights on the new forms of popular power emerging there.

Maureen Taylor, advocate of grassroots, direct action responses to poverty in Detroit.

*no one turned away for lack of dish. Detroit Summer Breaking Bread Community Putlucks happen the second Thursday of every month
at 3535 Cass Ave.

Images from the "Breaking Bread Community Potluck" in honor of Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr., featuring discussion with Grace Lee Boggs

2006-01-29T23:52:00.000-05:00

January Community Potluck:

2006-01-05T20:27:00.000-05:00

Breaking Bread

2005-11-01T10:13:00.000-05:00

Join Detroit Summer on the 2nd Thursdays of each month in Cass Corridor for Community Dinners. Each month’s dinner will have a special feature to help bring together and strengthen the community. Bring the whole family and a dish to share!
Email detroitsummer@hotmail.com for more information or to volunteer.

Detroit Summer Youth Space/CCNDC Community Center
3611 Cass Ave.
North of MLK Blvd.

6:00-8:00 PM

Dinner Schedule:
November 10
December 8
January 12, 2006
February 9
March 9

Cass Corridor Annual Halloween Party

2005-10-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

2005-09-14T13:30:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer sends our prayers to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Here's a useful link to a list of grassroots/low-income/people of color-led relief efforts.
http://www.sparkplugfoundation.org/katrinarelief.html

Fall programming coming soon...

2005-09-09T10:26:00.000-04:00

Now that the summer is over, Detroit Summer is starting up our year-round programming. If you'd like to get involved, please contact us! detroitsummer@hotmail.com or (313) 832-2904.

Thanks to all who came to support the August 26 Belle Isle event!

2005-09-06T12:13:00.000-04:00

"FOOD FOR THOUGHT" on Belle Isle: Artists & Activists for Environmental Justice

2005-08-10T19:20:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer is teaming up with the Campaign for State Action on Environmental Justice to promote environmental justice in Michigan! Check us out at Belle Isle on August 26, 2005!

ARTISTS & ACTIVISTS for ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE,
"FOOD FOR THOUGHT"
local artists & activists speak out
on the state of Detroit

Friday, August 26, 2005
6pm-10pm
Belle Isle Bandshell, Detroit

appetizers:
miz korona & 102.7 FM Lt. Dre
DJ Houseshoes, the music of Al-Mursalat: James Muhammad

main course:
Njeri Earth
Finale
(members of) Lola Valley
Blair (www.blairpoetry.com)
(members of) Detroit's Slam Team
Environmental Justice Poetry Slam
and much more!!!

dessert:
free refreshments and snacks
feed your mind, body, and soul with visions for a new future

Brought to you by: Detroit Summer & the Campaign for State Action on Environmental Justice

ENTER THE ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE POETRY SLAM!

2005-08-08T04:24:00.000-04:00

Look around Detroit...Abandoned lots. Empty buildings. Industrial factories. Toxic contamination. Is this urban renewal?

Children with asthma. High cancer rates in the city. Lead poisoning. Schools built on waste sites. Don't we deserve better?

What have YOU got to say about what you see around? What are YOU going to do? What kind of vision do you have for the city?

Environmental Justice Poetry Slam@ The Belle Isle “Food for Thought”

August 26, 2005

2 Rounds

Cash prizes and other giveaways

More info: mlin@accesscommunity.org or (313) 216-2229

Brought to you by: Detroit Summer & the Campaign for State Action on Environmental Justice

YOUTH BREAKING GROUND: Summer Intensive 2005

2005-05-01T19:43:00.000-04:00

Detroit Summer is now accepting applications for this summer's "Youth Breaking Ground" Summer Intensive (ages 14-25).

YBG will involve three main pieces:

In FREEDOM SCHOOL: you will learn about the many struggles for social justice in Detroit's past and present by going on field trips, dialoguing with elders and participating in workshops.

Through GARDENING AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING : you will be part of shaping a vision for Detroit and practice valuable hands-on skills. You will also learn how to plan events, about urban agriculture, run grassroots fundraising and simply build relationships with community members-- skills that you can apply to any community project for social change!

With LOUD & CLEAR MEDIA: You will build skills in independent media production and be able to voice your vision and creativity to the world... loud and clear.

You'll HAVE FUN: Detroit Summer is a space where, as young people we are free to get loud, be ourselves, act crazy, and take risks.

We are limiting the number of participants in Youth Breaking Ground to 15 youth. We will be accepting applications through June 15. If you are interested, please contact Detroit Summer for an application: Email detroitsummer@hotmail.com or call 313-832-2904.

Detroit Summer wants YOU!

2005-04-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

Are you a young Detroit between the ages of 14 - 25 who's got luv for the D but also a desire to change it?

Do you want to be able to say what you want for your school, your community, your city, your future, the world... and have people actually hear it?!

Sign up for the "Youth Breaking Ground: Summer Intensive", from June 20-July 29! More info and application to follow shortly.

Email:detroitsummer@hotmail.com or (313) 832-2904.

How to reach the Detroit Summer Collective

2005-04-24T18:55:00.000-04:00

Youth Space:
3611 Cass Ave
Detroit, MI 48201

The Office:
4605 Cass Ave
Detroit, MI 48201

Phone:
(313) 832-2904

Email:
detroitsummer@hotmail.com