Today, Hoon and I went to the Trumbleplex, “Detroit’s sexiest anarchist collective.” Let me tell you it was sexy. 4210 Trumbull is an historic building, and we were lucky enough to have a tour of the house. The rooms were beautiful; the aesthetic closely resembled a punk house you’d see in a movie…light burst through the windows to brighten the spines of a packed bookshelf, plants everywhere, paintings, art, numerous guitars set loosely against the wall, a bed parked on the floor without a box spring…However, if any of you are jumping to conclusions, this was NOT a squat house…The Trumbullplex is a cooperative. Hoon and I were able to glean some of the goings on from our ‘tour guide.’ He mentioned how carefully they considered prospective tenants with other co-op members. They want to have women and men equally represented. He reported high straight and gay integration. He approximated that gay residents comprise about 50% of the household. A call for more diversity regarding race though was important at the moment. Most residents are white, but a Korean American is living there too, or maybe he said half-Korean American….
The grounds around the house are pretty interesting. There’s a bus parked in the lush backyard shrubbery called, “Blue Bird.”
They have a chicken coop
And really sweet graffiti on the back of the house…right next to the “theatre” entrance. The Zine Library is next to the stage where bands play…for real.
I didn’t take any pictures inside…I didn’t think that’d be appropriate…but there’s a show tomorrow night to celebrate the re-opening of the zine library! Doors at 7pm, show at 8. I made a zine donation myself, just a little something I picked up on my backpacking trip to Portland in Powell’s books entitled, “Mob Action Against the State.” It chronicles Mayday commemoration events in Chicago.
Apparently the Trumbullplex is only one in a “Venn Diagram” type partnership of co-ops that communicate and host events for one another. There is another co-op down the street, supposedly comprised of younger members, but we weren’t able to find it.
I picked up plenty of ephemera. Check it:
I plan to get a little more clued into the zines they carry tomorrow at the re-opening…technically they weren’t open today due to remodeling, pero tuve un probar!
I briefly looked through what one of the members deemed a classic; it looks like this:
One of the entries detailed something resembling the following argument Brownies are like Punk cuz they come out of the oven all crusty.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9pB2B9hO2w]
