This episode was recorded remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic and before the August 4, 2020 tragedy in Beirut, Lebanon.

About "The Detroitist"

The Detroitist is a new anthology of Marsha Music's essays and lyric poems, focused on Detroit's history, mid-century transition, and contemporary changes. This anthology brings together the personal and the historical through writings on John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, and Detroit techno - as well as the 1967 Rebellion, and her years as an activist and labor leader. The Detroitist features “Requiem for a Record Shop Man,” Marsha’s narrative about her father Joe Von Battle’s record shop, Black Bottom; Hastings Street; 12th Street; and the Black experience in Detroit.

About Marsha Music

Marsha Music was born in Detroit and grew up in Highland Park, Michigan. She is the daughter of legendary pre-Motown record producer Joe Von Battle and West Side Detroit beauty and music lover Shirley Battle. Marsha is a former activist and labor leader and a noted speaker. She has contributed to significant Detroit narratives, including Untold Tales, Unsung Heroes: An Oral History of Detroit’s African American Community, University of Michigan’s Living Music oral history project, and Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies: Lafayette Park, Detroit, as well as an HBO documentary on the Detroit Tigers. In 2015, she was commissioned to create a poem about Detroit for Tod Machover’s acclaimed Symphony in D, which she read in performances with Detroit Symphony Orchestra. A Detroit cultural luminary, Marsha was the opening speaker for the July 2016 launch of the Detroit '67 project at the Detroit Historical Museum and was commissioned to create a poem for the Belle Isle Conservancy. Music received a 2015 Knight Arts Challenge award and was a 2015 New Museum IdeasCity Detroit fellow. In 2018, she lost her husband, the artist David Philpot, and she feels his supportive spirit in this project.

About "Raising Carlito"

Raising Carlito is a documentary that highlights the challenges of imprisoned women of color raising their children. The film follows 10-year-old Carlito as he is being raised in Detroit by his paternal aunt, maternal grandmother, and imprisoned mother. The documentary takes a deep and personal look at the challenges he and his caregivers navigate both inside and outside of prison walls. Raising Carlito gives voice to the children and families navigating the complex circumstances and relationships stemming from incarceration.

About T. Miller

Natasha T. Miller is a performance poet, writer, LGBTQ activist, film producer, and founder of Artists’ Inn Detroit, a bed and breakfast for artists. Natasha is a three-time Women of the World Poetry Slam finalist and has been part of four national slam teams. In 2010, she starred in a national Sprite commercial and started her publishing company All I Wanna Say Publishing. Since then, she has published two books, Dreams of a Beginner and Coming Out of Nowhere, a social networking memoir about homosexuality, religion, and cyberbullying. Natasha has been on three national tours and performed at renowned venues across the country. She believes her purpose is to create change and peace like so many great leaders before her.

About "marratein, marratein"

marratein, marratein is a film about two cities: Detroit and Beirut. It is a film about belonging, diasporas, and the uncertainty of returning to a place to which one has never actually been. Shot on Super 8 to evoke the feeling of home movies, with voice-over excerpts from Lebanese American poet Etel Adnan, the film comments on the performance of tradition and the struggle of finding or creating one’s own sense of identity and cultural belonging at a time when such things have taken on renewed political and social significance.

About Julia Yezbick

Julia Yezbick is a filmmaker, artist, and anthropologist. She received her PhD in media anthropology and critical media practice from Harvard University and an MA in visual anthropology from the University of Manchester. Her artistic work is grounded in long-term engagements with people and places and is often a critical part of her academic pursuits exploring labor and the body, the materiality of postindustrial urban landscapes, the senses, processes of creative knowledge production, and housing and the built environment. Her audio and video work has shown at the Berlinale Forum Expanded, MoMA PS1, the New York Library for Performing Arts, Pravo Ljudski Film Festival, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Mostra Internacional do Filme Etnográfico, The International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. She is a recipient of a Dan David Prize for plastic arts. Yezbick is the founding Editor of Sensate, an online journal for experiments in critical media practice, and co-directs Mothlight Microcinema. She lives and works in Detroit.

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