Most of the time I’m in Midtown because my placement is there as well, so on evenings and weekends I’m excited to get out into other parts of Detroit and be a part of the wonderful culture of Detroit. Through Fresh Corner I’ve been to community centers around the city proper, and via bike I’ve been able to get all over the place. The other weekend I went on a spectacular adventure with Charlie on our bikes. We met a couple other cohort members for lunch at a bar in Corktown, and biked down through Southwest to the industrial park area and Zug Island. Heavy industry is something mesmerizing, and seeing the plants and factories spurred some great conversation about how much manufacturing is an identity for so many people who grew up in the 20th century.
We spent a few hours following train tracks, climbing on train cars, getting as close to plants as possible, and eating mulberries from their trees. I felt like a big kid on an even bigger playground. The conductor of one of the trains that went past us threw us some water bottles, which amplified the feeling. The setting was so different from the deciduous forests I’m used to doing my hiking in. I felt like I was happily lost and prancing around in the industrial grime like some kind of desert creature.
Eventually we had to head back to meet other cohort members for dinner in Southwest and on our way we ended up in Delray. This is where my relationship with Detroit began. In the fall I took a course called Community Research and one aspect of it was volunteering for two hours a week in Detroit. I was placed at PCS Delray and helped oversee a youth after school program. At the moment when we slowly passed by the community center I volunteered at, I felt a wave of nostalgia and caught a glimpse of what longtime Detroit’s must feel when they see the neighborhoods they used to live in. Of course the sentiments and involved experiences are much different, but for me I felt like I was seeing my experiences come full circle as this internship is very much like an extension of that class.
Here’s a picture of Zug Island.
