Detroit is Different

“I've reached a point I think in my life that I'm looking at making sure that my legacy is solid.” Rob Brown has spent decades making sure Detroit sounds good, but his story begins long before the big stages and festivals. From summer visits to Meridian, Mississippi, where his uncle Paul worked in radio, to building homemade speakers and learning turntables in a neighborhood basement near the Univ...

"Accessibility is key. We need access to the funders. We need access.” Najah Woods understands that opportunity means little when the people doing the work cannot reach the resources. Her story stretches from family roots in Alabama and Black Bottom to Inkster and Detroit, carrying the legacy of her grandmother Grace Rita Hampton, whose UAW advocacy opened doors for Black workers and neighbors. “T...

“If you got an older family member now with the technology, just record them, record those stories.” Quan Neloms understands that preserving Black Detroit’s history begins with listening to our people. Born to parents who migrated from Georgia and Florida in the 1970s, Quan grew up in the Medical Courts near Eastern Market before moving west, where hip-hop, neighborhood friendships, and community...

Black women to heal. A Detroit triplet and Cass Tech graduate, Alandra traces her family history back six generations, including a great-great-great-grandmother remembered as an early Black woman realtor near Tireman and Beechwood. Her path through Michigan State, social work, therapy, and nonprofit leadership eventually brought her back to a childhood love of art and creativity. “The shit's not g...

“I felt like I could truly have a greater impact if I came back here.” Antonice Strickland’s journey from basketball, to college, to Washington DC, and back home is a story of Black excellence, relationships, and the power of controlling our own narratives. At 98Forward, Antonice helped lead communications and public relations for Mary Sheffield’s historic campaign to become Detroit’s first woman...

“That work ethic that you get from those Southern people, that's in our blood as Detroiters.” Andre Terrell carries that legacy from his grandfather, who migrated from Macon, Georgia, and built Simmons Brothers from a wheelbarrow and shovel into a successful construction business. Growing up in Detroit, Andre discovered photography while attending Mumford and Crockett Vocational High School, event...

“I really love black people.” That simple declaration tells you plenty about Teron Haynes., but his journey to advocating for Detroiters is anything but simple. Raised in the St. Louis Metro East area, Teron enlisted in the Army at 17, earned his degree from Methodist University, and eventually made Detroit home. His father instilled a love for Black people, while his mother’s advocacy for his two...

“Voting in your local elections actually matters the most." Sheila Cockrel has spent a lifetime understanding how power works in Detroit and why everyday people must have a voice in shaping it. From growing up in Detroit’s Catholic Worker movement to organizing against the notorious STRESS police unit, her story connects the city’s radical organizing traditions to the responsibilities of citizensh...

“If my cat or you were hanging over a cliff I’m sorry man.” Jeff Horste returns to Detroit is Different with the kind of conversation where comedy becomes cultural criticism before anybody notices the turn. From remembering the Lions’ 0–16 season to breaking down Detroiters, navigating Los Angeles auditions, voiceover work, streaming culture, and the cartoons that shaped generations, Jeff moves be...

“I didn’t know how poor we were until really much later in life.” Wafa Dinaro came to America from Lebanon at three years old and grew up near Wyoming and Warren in East Dearborn, where Detroit was always part of her world. She remembers going to Focus Hope and experiencing assistance with dignity—an early lesson in what it means for resources to actually reach people who need them. Years later, t...

“When I arrived in Detroit in 1984, I thought I had come to another country.” Desiree Cooper remembers discovering a Detroit the national story rarely showed: Black people owning, leading, creating, gathering, and finding joy. Detroit is Different recorded this special Father’s Day event on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at Source Booksellers , celebrating the release of Cooper’s Black Summers, published...

“I would come down here and tear out the walls and do the demo myself after I got off work from the Bank.” Richard Hosey didn’t enter Detroit development simply moving money—he grabbed a crowbar, sledgehammer and Sawzall and put his own hands on his first building. “I had to get hit in the head with something before I got a hard hat,” Hosey laughs while describing tearing down walls, hauling debri...

“I knew instantly that Detroit needed this flavor.” After experiencing a Hearth Summit at Omega Institute in partnership with the Harlem Wellness Center, Dr. Demarra West knew this gathering needed to come to Detroit. Now Hearth Summit Detroit arrives October 8–10, bringing together 200 social entrepreneurs, artists, educators, funders, mental health and holistic practitioners around individual, c...

“I think my non-traditional journey through academia through life is all a result of God’s bigger purpose for my life.” Dr. Madeline Walker Miller’ s story moves through family, faith, environmental justice, entrepreneurship, and a Detroit legacy she now feels responsible for carrying forward. Raised in Palmer Woods near Seven Mile and Woodward, with roots stretching through her father’s Detroit f...

“I just knew I wanted something different from what I had seen growing up.” Councilmember Latisha Johnson ’s story is about discovering Detroit, serving Detroit, and eventually helping shape Detroit’s future. From Kettering High School’s Benjamin Banneker Honors program and summers studying at U of M to working with Detroit’s visitors bureau, Johnson gained a wider view of the city while building...

“Detroit the city is not a monolith” Norris Howard ’s story moves from Great Migration roots in Birmingham Alabama and Dalton Georgia to a family stretched across Detroit’s east and west sides and his own coming of age in Brightmoor. A Michigan Bell union mother taught him that “Black women are superheroes unto themselves” while his father a Navy veteran and psychiatric nurse at Receiving Hospital...

“If we don’t care about us who will” Lazar Favors asks, placing the mission behind Taste of Black Spirits Detroit Amplify 2026 in plain language: Black ownership means more when Black communities intentionally build the relationships, distribution, knowledge, and buying power to sustain it. In this special edition of Detroit is Different, Lazar joins Khary Frazier to reflect on a journey that grew...

In this special edition of Detroit is Different, Khary Frazier sits down with Marshalle Favors to celebrate the 7th Annual Detroit Black Film Festival and explore the power of Black filmmakers telling our stories through our own cultural lens. Taking place September 23–27, 2026, the festival returns with the theme “Sincerely Detroit,” showcasing 89 films from around the world, including 16 films f...

“Detroit probably had the highest concentration of Black owned retailers anywhere in America.” Rufus Bartell’s story moves from a South Carolina family lineage shaped by the Great Migration to Greater Bethlehem Temple, Drew Middle School, Mackenzie High School, real estate, and more than three decades in Detroit’s garment industry. Fashion started at home, where his father “kind of set the trends,...

“We have been locked away from our history all these years.” Olayami Dabls ’ journey into Detroit history begins long before the African Bead Museum became a landmark at Grand River and West Grand Boulevard. Arriving in Detroit in the 1960s, Dabls settled on 12th Street, worked at Grace Hospital, witnessed the 1967 Rebellion, and was arrested while simply trying to understand what was happening ar...

“If we don’t care about us who will” Lazar Favors asks, placing the mission behind Taste of Black Spirits Detroit Amplify 2026 in plain language: Black ownership means more when Black communities intentionally build the relationships, distribution, knowledge, and buying power to sustain it. In this special edition of Detroit is Different, Lazar joins Khary Frazier to reflect on a journey that grew...

“I was taught how to organize at church.” Imani Foster’ s story is about what happens when faith, family, education, and Black Detroit community organizing become parts of the same practice. At 26, Foster carries lessons from parents who taught her that “good is not enough better is possible” and that meaningful work rarely happens overnight. Those lessons show up in her education justice organizi...

“I wanted to come back to the city that raised me.” Jasmine Brooks’ commitment to Detroit students is rooted in a life shaped by family, faith, education, dance, and service. Raised near Aretha Franklin’s childhood home, nurtured at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church, educated at Renaissance High School, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State, Jasmine traces how Detroit institutions and Black c...

“I had a knack for putting things together with my hands.” Before the architecture schools, international travel, installations, and Studio M, Melinda Anderson was a Detroit child turning shoeboxes into houses, coffee creamers into tiny toilets, and dioramas into whole worlds where “people [were] swinging from the ceiling.” That imagination became a calling. Raised on Detroit’s east side, Melinda...

"I'm old school." That simple declaration opens a conversation that quickly becomes a masterclass on why history, creativity, and community are inseparable. Artist, educator, gardener, mother, and cultural storyteller Halima Cassells returns to Detroit is Different to reflect on a lifetime of creating work that invites people to slow down, look deeper, and rediscover Detroit through a ne...