Authentically Detroit

Donna and Orlando sit down with sitting Wayne County Treasurer, Eric Sabree to discuss the recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling - Rafaeli v. Oakland County - the impact on Wayne County, Tax Foreclosure Policy and Practices, and the upcoming August 4th election. Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

Donna and Orlando welcome Officer Dani Woods of the Detroit Police Department (DPD) who serves as the LGBTQ Liaison Officer for the force to talk about DPD's relationship with the community. Chase Cantrell, recovering attorney and executive director of Building Community Value joins the coversation to talk about the latest iteration of Mayor Duggan's neighborhood improvement proposal.  S...

Donna and Orlando welcomes Yusef Shakur and Teferi Brent to give their perspectives on the state of police and community relations in the city of Detroit given recent police involved incidents.  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

On the heels of cell phone video surfacing that shows a police vehicle driving through protestors in southwest Detroit, Orlando and Donna talk with local activist, Tristan Taylor to hear his take from on-the-ground. Tristan joins live from the daily protests he leads.  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

A special episode with a full show of Fresh Off The Press topics!  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

It's a cross-city exchange! City Administrator for D.C. Rashad Young joins us to talk about the new Black Lives Matter mural on what was formally 16th ST. but is now known as Black Lives Matter Plaza. Rashad responds to activists demands and shares his learning to what is happening in cities like Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis.  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebo...

Orlando and Donna welcomes special guests, Rochelle Riley, director of the City of Detroit Office of Arts and Culture and Neil A. Barclay of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History to discuss arts and culture in Detroit.  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

"The truth is that as much democracy as this nation has, it has been borne on the backs of Black resistance." -Nikole Hannah-Jones Black resistance is in happening in cities all over the United States including America's largest majority Black city, Detroit. Protestors by the thousands have flooded the streets of Downtown Detroit and nearby neighborhoods to express dissent with a sy...

Orlando's got a new gig at BridgeDetroit! His new boss, Stephen Henderson and his colleague Catherine Kelly came on to tell us all about the newest journalism and engagement organization in town!  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

We can't believe it's been a year since we got started! We invited two people who have played a key role in the content that we've discussed over the past year to celebrate with us! We are all Authentic Detroiters! Enjoy!  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

We had a conversation about what's actually happening in the prison system in the state of Michigan. The Detroit Free Press released and article detailing a class-action lawsuit that the Michigan Department of Corrections is facing because of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 1,400 inmates have contracted the coronavirus in Michigan prisons.  Support the show Follow us on Insta...

A conversation about white privilege in the age of COVID-19 pandemic. What does it mean to be white? How does the abuse of white privilege show up in Detroit? What do we do about it?  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

Detroit has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an overwhelming amount of loss, trauma and grief that pervades in our city. No matter what your status is in Detroit, you've somehow been affected by this virus. It's a dark time with seemingly no expiration date but in this episode we wanted to provide a glimmer of light, hope and levity in this new reality that we've all...

THIS EPISODE WE ARE HONORING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF OUR DEAR FRIEND AND DETROIT CHAMPION, MARLOWE STOUDAMIRE. MARLOWE APPEARED MANY TIMES ON AUTHENTICALLY DETROIT AND WE HAVE PUT TOGETHER AN EPISODE FULL OF “MARLOWE-ISMS.” THINGS THAT ONLY MARLOWE CAN SAY IN HIS VERY “MARLOWE” WAY. NOTHING ABOUT THIS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IS NORMAL. OUR NORMALCY HAS BEEN STRIPPED FROM US, AS WERE THE TRADITIONAL WAYS...

COVID-19 has made its way to Detroit. What do we do? How do we slow the spread? Is government responding in an equitable way? This episode Donna and Orlando spoke with Kim Trent, Deputy Director of the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity in charge of Prosperity and Ned Stabeler, President/CEO of TechTown Detroit to get their perspectives.  Support the show Follow us on Instagram...

On this special episode, Donna and Orlando speak with former Detroit Director of Health, former Michigan Gubernatorial Candidate, CNN Political Analyst, and Author, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed concerning the COVID-19 pandemic and America's response. Donna and Orlando also spoke to Chief Medical Officer for the Michigan Department of Corrections, Professor and Assistant Dean at Wayne State University M...

This week we were joined by Ederique Goudia, owner of the new Gabriel Hall restaurant coming to West Village, Rafa Wright, serial entrepreneur and the owner of Neighborhood Grocery, and Kwaku Osei-Bonsu, founder of Black Metro Eats and Detroit's Black Restaurant Week. We had a conversation about food equity, food apartheid, public health, and black owned grocery stores and restaurants in Detr...

This week we were joined by Michigan State Representative Sherry Gay-Dagnogo to talk about her visit to the White House to hand deliver a letter requesting President Trump to pardon former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick who is currently serving out a 28-year sentence in federal prison. We even asked her about her plans to "maybe" run for Mayor of Detroit. We were also joined by ECN staff...

This week we sat down with Maggie DeSantis who is the Initiative Manager of Building the Engine of Community Development in Detroit. We talked about the state of community development work in Detroit and learned about the work she has been leading to create a sustainable system for community development work in Detroit.  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

Donna is back! This week we sat down with Kevin Ryan of the Ford Foundation and Meredith Freeman of Fisher Foundation to talk about how philanthropic institutions show up in Black cities like Detroit. Who's at the board table, who is in c-suite, who gets to make the decisions? We asked all of the juicy questions you've always wanted to ask to demystify the philanthropic world.  Support t...

Donna we missed you! This episode Orlando sat down with Kalisha Davis of the Detroit Historical Society and Andrew Colum, filmmaker and principal at Century Partners to talk about how they are collaborating to honor the legacy of Dr. Ossian Sweet this Black History Month!  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

The City of Detroit has a new Chief Storyteller and his name is Eric Thomas!. We spent this episode speaking with our friend Eric talking about his tumultuous journey to finally obtaining his dream job!  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter . 

Authentically Detroit is live at Co. Act Detroit in partnership with Urban Consulate to talk about Orlando's globetrotting experience traveling across the world to Europe as a Marshall Memorial Fellow (MMF) with the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is joined by Yodit Mesfin Johnson, CEO of Nonprofit Enterprise at Work who was also apart of the Detroit Delegation last Fall. Yodit...

This episode we sat down with Gary Anderson, Founder of Plowshares Theatre who just celebrated their 30th organizational anniversary last year and is the only professional African American Theatre company in Michigan. Michael Rafferty, CEO of New Detroit Inc. and Lauren Hood who is the new Program Director also joined us!  Support the show Follow us on Instagram , Facebook and Twitter .