Democratic vote is overrated.  

Outsider history at IS, secret-squirrel status, anti-social tendencies and severe character disorders prohibit EnoLaget from the registration of an idea on this form.

Authorization is for the weak and fearful.

Before this form existed, she was and will be.

Stay out of trouble. ;)

Through objects common to multiple cultures, Witness (working title) will explore past and present indigenous peoples of this area--their identity, their aesthetics, and relationship to the land. A working definition holds that Indigenous people are a group of people whose members share a cultural identity that has been shaped by their geographical region and whose right to self-determination may be materially affected by later-arriving ethnic groups. Objects such as masks, baskets, drum heads, and textiles are common to the current and ancestral traditions of Detroit peoples. Although common to many cultures, these objects take on different forms, illuminating the life experiences, cultural aesthetics and world view of each group. Witness will place these objects in relationship, using new and existing text of the past and present, and context to create narrative. Much as a masquerade or spectacle in traditional cultures results in a common experience and remembrance for participants, the goal of this project is to create shared meaning and experience for participants.

Frida Kahlo outside the Michigan Central Depot in April 1932.  A Detroit News reporter asked her if she was an artist. Her answer. "Yes, the greatest in the world."

Photo: The Detroit News

Station performance pitch:

To stage a multimedia reading that tells the true, epic tale of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Depression-era Detroit. More than 100 rare images- ranging from the first day the artists arrive at Michigan Central Depot; Rivera creating the DIA murals and Kahlo creating her first masterpieces; violent labor strikes paralyzing the city - can be cast in huge size on an Imagination Station wall.

Under the images, Kresge Literary Arts Fellow Louis Aguilar and WDET reporter Martina Guzman co-narrate a reading, called The Troublemakers, based on the passionate words said by the artists during their stay, along with the voices of their fierce critics and defenders.  Also on stage will be community leaders who will read the true words of the artists as well as architect Albert Kahn, UAW founder Walter Reuther and the conservative leaders who helped convince tens of thousands of Detroiters the murals must be destroyed. A musical score based on factory sounds collected at Ford Rouge has been composed by Jessica Hernandez. 

The fight ignited by Frida and Diego is a prototype of how we fight today. In this tough factory town that was deeply divided politically and seemingly on the verge of economic collapse, the artists became lightning rods. Some of the  words critics used to attack the artists: Class warfare. Socialist. Unamerican. 

The artists’ legacy: Groundbreaking, modern art.  

The Troublemakers: Frida and Diego in Detroit is the work of Louis Aguilar, whose mother lived in Corktown during the time Kahlo and Rivera spent 11 months in Detroit. 

 Aguilar is an award-winning journalist, a former director of an independent Latino film festival, a former programming consultant to the Smithsonian Institution, and author. In 2010, he was awarded a Kresge Literary Arts Fellowship to pursue his research on Rivera and Kahlo.

An article of Aguilars' work 

http://detnews.com/article/20110406/ENT01/104060365/Detroit-was-artists’-muse

Critics agree a young Frida Kahlo produced her first masterpieces in Detroit. Below: "Me Standing on the Border of U.S. and Mexico."