PRESS
History as Healing Work: DETROIT 48202
There’s a moment in Pam Sporn’s powerful documentary Detroit 48202: Conversations Along a Postal Route when Julia Putnam, co-founder of Detroit’s The Boggs School, describes an experience that’s as familiar as it is painful for Detroiters born after the ’67 Rebellion. It’s that moment when an elder describes Detroit’s glory days, but in the past tense. A forever past tense.
But are Detroit’s golden days forever gone? ...read full article @ Medium.com
Wendell Watkins delivers the letters and compassion in ‘Detroit: 48202’
There are so many intriguing, interesting ways to examine the urban landscape of Detroit, and Pam Sporn and Tami Gold in “Detroit 48202: Conversations Along a Postal Route” have tapped into the daily routine of mail carrier Wendell Watkins, who for a generation has more than lived up to the postal creed. Along with the letters and parcels, Watkins delivers a warm, gregariousness to the residents that is both an aperture to his life and theirs.
The documentary had a personal resonance for me since I lived on many of the streets in the zip code, and it brought back a flood of memories. ...read full article @ MIChronicleOnline.com
Film Debut: Meet Wendell Watkins 'a Careful Listener, a Compassionate Man'
An imaginative documentary premiering in Detroit this weekend looks at the city's decline and revitalization through a veteran mailman's perspective on his New Center rounds.
"Detroit 48202," directed by former Detroiter Pam Sporn, is part of the Freep Film Festival. Screenings are at the Detroit Film Theater in the Detroit Institute of Arts on Saturday night and at the Detroit Historical Museum on Sunday morning, both followed by discussions. ...read full article @ DeadlineDetroit.com
EXPLORE THE ISSUES
Organizations
We The People of Detroit
In 2008, We The People of Detroit (WPD) was founded in response to Emergency Management over the city of Detroit and Detroit Public Schools. As a community-based grassroots organization, WPD aims to inform, educate, and empower Detroit residents on imperative issues surrounding civil rights, land, water, education, and the democratic process.
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The Detroit People’s Platform
DPP works for REAL Community Benefit Agreements, advocates and organizes for truly affordable housing and public transit that responds to the needs of Detroiters.
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The James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership
The mission of The Boggs Center is to nurture the transformational leadership capacities of individuals and organizations committed to creating productive, sustainable, ecologically responsible, and just communities.
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The People’s Water Board Coalition
The People’s Water Board advocates for access, protection, and conservation of water. We believe water is a human right and all people should have access to clean and affordable water.
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Detroit Black Food Security Network
DBCFSN works to build self-reliance, food security and justice in Detroit’s Black community by influencing public policy, engaging in urban agriculture, promoting healthy eating, encouraging cooperative buying and directing youth towards careers in food-related fields.
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Detroit Historical Society – Detroit 67: Perspectives Exhibit
The Detroit Historical Society convened diverse groups and communities around the effects of a historic crisis with its Detroit 67: Looking Back to Move Forward project. The Detroit 67: Perspectives exhibition allows visitors to better understand the events of July 1967, what led up to them, where we are today and how to connect to efforts moving Detroit forward.
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The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History
The Wright Museum houses over 35,000 artifacts and archival materials and is home to the Blanche Coggin Underground Railroad Collection, Harriet Tubman Museum Collection, Coleman A. Young Collection and the Sheffield Collection, a repository of documents of the labor movement in Detroit.
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City of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department
The mission of the City of Detroit’s Planning and Development Department is to build a city secure in its future, grounded in its roots and hopeful in its present state. The vision that supports this mission is a healthy and beautiful Detroit, built on inclusionary growth, economic opportunity and an atmosphere of trust.
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Books, Articles, and Other Resources
The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit
Thomas J. Sugrue
Redevelopment and Race: Planning a Finer City in Postwar Detroit
June Manning Thomas
“Anatomy of a Takeover: Examining the Body of Evidence in Detroit’s Bankruptcy Trial,” by Curt Guyette
Read article @ MetroTimes.com
“Mapping The Water Crisis: The Dismantling of African-American Neighborhoods in Detroit”
Find out more @ WeThePeopleOfDetroit.com
Detroitography.com
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