Claire Thomson

As cliché as it sounds, these nine weeks have gone by incredibly fast. I’ve gotten to meet so many awesome people, see different parts of Detroit, and learn a lot about so many topics–agriculture, history, culture, and beyond. When I started at the DPFLI, I had zero experience in urban agriculture (or agriculture in general) […]

There have been many different pieces to this experience, and all of them have progressed greatly over the past eight weeks. I have surveyed 16 Detroit farmers for my research project, most of those through in-person interviews and tours of their operations. All of these responses have been organized into a spreadsheet, and I have

One guest speaker who particularly stood out to me (although all of the speakers gave very insightful presentations!) was Dr. Gloryvee Fonseca-Bolorin, who spoke about mindful organizing and planning. In her presentation, she discussed how to incorporate self-reflection and awareness of one’s emotional and mental state into planning processes. Rather than simply listing every single

Searching for something to blog about for this week, I found the article “‘Rationing justice’: Legal aid programs struggle to meet high demand” reported by Nushrat Rahman for Bridge Detroit. The article discusses the inability of existing legal aid organizations to meet the demand for their services in Detroit. These groups do not have sufficient

When I accompanied one of my mentors to a speaking event at Eastern Market during my first week as an intern, I was amazed by how many people he knew. Walking through the market, it seemed like every third person stopped to say hello and have a quick chat. Visiting farms around Detroit these past

Hi everyone! Reading P. E. Moskowitz’s How to Kill a City has given me a lot to think about these past few weeks. First, How to Kill a City caused me to consider wealth and racial inequality in a different light in order to understand the root causes of gentrification. Rather than gentrification being the

I’ve been exposed to many different parts of Detroit over the past three weeks, and have been lucky enough to talk with a variety of community members in Brightmoor through my internship. One of the most interesting lessons occurred just today, as I toured the Brightmoor Farmway (an area of the neighborhood with an abundance

Now in my second week as an intern at the DPFLI urban farm and research site, I am starting to better understand the day-to-day operations of the site and my responsibilities. The primary goal of the DPFLI is to educate community members about urban agriculture and food systems, which is accomplished through a variety of

Hi everyone! My name is Claire and I’m a rising sophomore double-majoring in Chemistry and Earth & Environmental Sciences. I am working at the MSU Extension Detroit Partnership for Food Learning and Innovation (DPFLI for short), which is an urban farm and research site in the Brightmoor neighborhood. To me, community is, broadly speaking, a