Helping the homeless in Detroit
Michigan Radio's Kyle Norris has been been spending a lot of time in Detroit lately to report on stories of people doing things to help the homeless in the city.And this week Michigan Radio will be...
View ArticleStateside: Med team brings "street medicine" to Detroit's homeless
Several Wayne State University students started Street Medicine Detroit in May.They’d heard about a similar program in Pittsburg and they were inspired. They partnered with a Detroit non-profit called...
View ArticleStateside: At-risk, LGBTQ kids find safety through vogue dance
Matthew Dawson is the kid wearing sunglasses inside, in the middle of the day. He’s in a room full of about twenty kids who flip, dip, and cat-walk in a dance style known as “vogue.” (For a quick...
View ArticleStateside: Homeless shelters get a makeover
Imagine what you might know about physical space and tranquility if you lived in a drug house, an abandoned building, or jail.That’s the experience for many of the women who stay at the Women and...
View ArticleWhy are Great Lakes birds dying from botulism?
Imagine walking down a picturesque beach along Lake Michigan, and stumbling upon the carcasses of dead birds. That’s a very real and unpleasant problem along Lakes Michigan, Huron, Ontario and Erie....
View ArticleYpsilanti family finds happiness in living off the land
Meet the Gold family. They're modern day homesteaders. Their goal is to live as self-sufficiently as possible on their three-acre farm in Ypsilanti. (They often say they use yesterday's knowledge...
View ArticleNative American organization struggling but hopeful
A new organization in Ypsilanti that promotes cancer awareness for Native Americans is struggling to stay afloat.Shoshana Beth Phillips is executive director of Heritage of Healing. It incorporates...
View ArticleSlow enrollment for Obamacare in rural counties
People in rural areas trying to enroll for health insurance as part of the new Affordable Care Act can face special challenges. Registration must happen online, and many people in Michigan’s rural...
View ArticleChildren's opera performed in concentration camp coming to Detroit
The Michigan Opera Theatre Children’s Chorus will perform Brundibar this weekend at the Detroit Opera House. The children's opera was originally performed in a concentration camp during the Holocaust....
View ArticleHow diversity can help Michigan arts organizations
Gabriela Frank is probably not what comes to mind when you think of a contemporary classical music composer. For starters, she considers herself a hippie.“I was born in the 1970s in Berkeley,...
View ArticleThis is what it sounds like when a neighborhood church closes
St. Henry’s in Lincoln Park held its first Mass on June 3, 1923 and its last Mass on March 2, 2014.At the end of the church’s final Mass, parish members took the most important objects and walked them...
View ArticleStudent learns that music is joy, from Ypsilanti teacher
What stories should we tell about the arts?That's a question we sometimes ask on our Facebook page. Jason Towler suggested we profile Ypsilanti music teacher Crystal Harding and he had a good reason to...
View ArticleBig increase in the number of fatal drownings in the Great Lakes
Swimmers and boaters in Michigan need to be more careful on the water."We're at 23 fatal drownings on the five Great Lakes so far this year. It's about 50% up from last year at this time," says Bob...
View ArticleWhat's the song that saved your life?
There's a reason I've been asking this question.I do a lot of reporting where I interview artists and people in the arts communities about why the arts matter. I believe there is great value in these...
View ArticleCan a song really save your life? For Jason Towler, it actually did
I've been asking people a question lately. What's the song that saved your life? It's a personal question, and there are a lot of ways to interpret it. On Monday, I wrote about why I wanted to ask the...
View ArticleA pop song helps battle depression
All this week I'm doing a special series about music. Why? Read this.I'm asking people a pretty personal question: What’s the song that saved your life?So far, people have told us why R. Kelly, Bryan...
View ArticleIf your job is emotionally intense, songs can save you
This week, you may have heard me on the radio asking people a question.What song saved your life? It's not something people are asked very often, but I've found that it gets some pretty intense...
View ArticleElectronic musician inspired by family & place
Michigan has a history of some pretty sweet music. One surprising genre that is Pure Michigan is techno. The art form was invented by three young men from Belleville in the 1980s (specifically Kevin...
View ArticleRe-thinking creativity's role in education
It’s probably pretty stressful being a high school principal, for all kinds of reasons.But Eric Alburtus, principal of Portage Central High School, spends a big chunk of his time worrying about the...
View ArticleAn arts class helped this teen discover his passion for sculpting
Eighteen-year-old sculptor Austen Brantley makes some pretty impressive art. But don't take our word for it, check out these photos of Austen's work, at the Michigan Radio Picture Project....
View Article