We are reflecting on what it means to create networks of care as we celebrate Detroit-rootedness with our in-person Seeds Series gatherings and hold space for grieving and mourning the manufactured climate suffering that has visited our region this summer.

The intersecting heartbreaks of the present moment call on us to renew our commitment to systemic change and uplift the Detroit-rooted teachings about transformation and grounded connection through the power of community and grassroots organizing.

This Thursday’s Seeds event, Hood Work: Neighborhood as Resistance, centers the vision of our ancestor Grace Lee Boggs’ potent organizing principle of “One Inch Wide, One Mile Deep” as we consider the resources and networks of care and creativity needed for our communities to thrive. In the case of unsafe conditions, the event will be moved to a virtual platform and registered guests will receive instructions on how to access the virtual stream.

We look forward to gathering at MoCAD for Hood Work: Neighborhood as Resistance, a conversation between neighborhood-rooted artists driving Detroit’s cultural renaissance. Hear from Asia Hamilton of Norwest Gallery, Bryce Detroit of Detroit Recordings, and Tyree Guyton of the Heidelberg Project as they discuss how they’re proudly creating from the hoods of our city while resisting gentrification and erasure with creativity, innovation, and community care. The conversation will be moderated by artist Scheherazade Washington Parrish.

For more information regarding the content of this week's event, check out these interviews:

• Listen in to this conversation with Liz Kennedy and Tyree Guyton on Michigan Radio regarding the Hood Work event (the interview starts at about 13:02). 
• AMP Seeds was also featured on Culture Shift (WDET). Bryce Detroit and Nandi Comer in conversation with Tia Graham (Friday, July 7, 2023).

Save the date and RSVP for all of these special events taking place this summer in Detroit! All events take place at 7 pm.

Community Nourishment: “Gather” Film Screening

August 3rd, 2023 | 7:00 PM | Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

Here on occupied Anishinaabe land and beyond, food is one of the most powerful tools we have to build community and repair lineages lost to genocide, colonization, and assimilation. Join us for a special screening of Gather, a 2020 film that captures the growing and vast food sovereignty movement of Native Americans across Turtle Island building community, restoring ancestral foodways, and reclaiming Native food and agriculture systems. Stay after the film to hear from “Gather” chefs and activists Twila Cassadore and Nephi Craig  alongside local food sovereignty activist and farmer Kirsten Kirby-Shoote as they reclaim and heal their spiritual, political, and cultural identities through food. This panel will be moderated by Black agrarian activist and Detroit farmer shakara tyler.
 

Waging Love: Building an Environmentally Just Detroit 

September 14th, 2023 | 7:00 PM | LOVE Building

From summer floods to widespread power outages, all Detroiters are impacted by the escalating climate crisis and unjust environmental policies facing our city. This community panel will bring together an intergenerational coalition of organizers from Detroit’s environmental & climate justice movements dedicated to amplifying the solutions we need to ensure safety and equity for all.  Rooting in Detroit activist and water warrior Charity Mahouna Hicks’ call to “wage love,” we’ll share fellowship, strategies, healing, and visions for an environmentally just Detroit.

 

Honor Disability Pride Month with Detroit Disability Power

On July 26, 1990 the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law and every July since we’ve  celebrated Disability Pride Month in the U.S.! The passing of the ADA was monumental for the disability community, but it was only the beginning and we still have a lot of work to do to ensure equity for people with disabilities. As our partners at Detroit Disability Power put it, “The ADA is the floor, not the ceiling. We organize to build on the wins of the ADA, and create a more accessible and inclusive community for everyone.”

In honor of the 33 years since the passage of the ADA, here are 3 facts about disability:

1) Disability is a normal, beautiful part of human diversity. 

2) Disabled people are part of every community on earth–always have been and always will be! The disability justice movement is, therefore, inherently intersectional.

3) People with disabilities account for over 20% of the population–our community leaders must organize with this in mind.

Learn more about disability inclusion and dismantling ableism by checking out these resources compiled by our partner, DDP and support DDP in moving into the LOVE Building!

Core City is Under Attack!

EVERYONE OUT! Core City is under attack.

Join the Monday July 17th Board of Zoning Appeals public hearing online or in-person at 9:45am to stop Murray Wikol's concrete crusher from going in RIGHT beside Core City homes, businesses, churches, and schools.

No Detroit community should be used as a sacrifice zone for 3-5 seasonal jobs and a whole lot of profit for an industrial developer from Bloomfield Hills. It'll create toxic fugitive dust and bring 10-60 dump trucks to our community A DAY. This is environmental racism and economic discrimination in plain sight.

A free bus is available and will leave from Core City. All Detroiters are welcome.

RSVP now: https://bit.ly/july17corecity

Indigenous People’s Day in Detroit

Please join us in urging the City of Detroit to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official city holiday by making public comment during the Formal Session meeting on Tuesday, June 27 at 10am:

• In-person: Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, 2 Woodward Ave., 13th Floor
• Via Zoom: bit.ly/det-council
• By phone: 929-436 2866 OR 312-626-6799 | Mtg ID: 85846903626

The theme of Afrofuture Fest 2023 is Communal Sufficiency. Join us as we celebrate African Liberation by uplifting our existence outside the realms of capitalist infrastructure. All proceeds go to Feedom Freedom Growers and supports our farm, wellness, political education, and organizing programming. 

For more info on FFG, view our latest documentary produced by Visionary Organizing Lab.