Untitled, photo by metroDevious.
Check out the Detroit gallery at metroDevious.com or his mDv DETROIT slideshow on Flickr.
Yow!
Exposure.Detroit November 2008 Exhibition
Broken Alley, photo by Kcjacoby.
The photo is part of Ken’s Packard Plant set (slideshow) and you should check it out bigger right here. Please feel free to deluge him with comments asking him to post the other photos from his trip to the plant faster. ;)
The next Exposure.Detroit show opens next Friday (November 14) from 7-10 PM at the Bean and Leaf Cafe in Royal Oak. In addition to Ken Jacoby, the photographers are:
Rebecca Gutierrez (Luna’s Eyes)
Poster designed by Ajit.
A War Worth Waging and A Vote Worth Casting
A War Worth Waging – HFM, photo by MikeRyu
View it bigger on black and see more photos in Mike’s Henry Ford Museum set (slideshow).
Seeing this photo and realizing it’s been less than 100 years that women have enjoyed the right to vote made me think about how tirelessly they worked to secure the right to vote. Here’s a snapshot of women’s suffrage in Michigan courtesy the H-Net Chronology of Michigan Women’s History:
1849 A Senate committee, led by Senator Rix Robinson of Ada, proposes a universal suffrage amendment but it is not acted upon because of the “unusualness” and “needlessness” of the franchise for women.
1866 The state’s first bill on woman suffrage is defeated by one vote.
1867 The Michigan Legislature grants women taxpayers the right to vote for school trustees but rejects total woman suffrage.
1912 Governor Charles S. Osborn successfully urges the Michigan State Legislature to put the suffrage question before the all-male electorate in November. Clara B. Arthur of Detroit leads the campaign and the proposal appears to win. However, the opposition steals the election under suspicious circumstances.
1917 Governor Albert E. Sleeper signs a bill on May 8, granting Michigan women the right to vote in presidential elections.
1918 Michigan male voters approve a state constitutional amendment granting suffrage to Michigan women.
1919 Michigan women vote for statewide offices for the first time.
1920 The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting the vote to women, becomes law on August 26. Women vote for the first time in the presidential election on November 2.
It also made me wonder how something (each of our rights to vote) that has been bought and paid for time and again with far, far too much blood, sweat and tears can be treated with such disdain by many.
Your vote is your voice, please speak up today.
More about voting in Michigan from Absolute Michigan.
A Haunting at Historic Fort Wayne
A Haunting at Historic Fort Wayne, photo by milminedesign.
On the last Wednesday of every month, Absolute Michigan has a “Weird Wednesday” – a day dedicated to sharing creepy tales and strange photos from all across Michigan. Today is no exception and you can click over to read the legend of Dog Lady Island, a special excerpt from the great book Weird Michigan by Linda S. Godfrey.
Linda doesn’t have a corner on the unexplained though – here’s a photo from the Absolute Michigan pool by Karen who writes:
I took this photo on a sunny spring day in early April. Late afternoon at Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit. No one was in front of me when the photo was taken, nor did I see this apparition until reviewing my photos. I am an investigator with Metro Paranormal Investigations here in Michigan and we were preparing for an investigation. Notice that the figure does not have a head. Pictures taken immediately before and after this one show normal lighting and look nothing like this one. This photo has been analyzed many times by several individuals and the current conclusion is that it is unexplained.
At the Metro Paranormal Investigations you can check out paranormal reports and more photos in their gallery.
The Wikipedia entry for Fort Wayne in Detroit doesn’t mention any hauntings, but you should probably go there to check! One thing I do know about Fort Wayne is that the whole facility is in peril due to a lack of funding for historic preservation. You can learn more about that from the Historic Fort Wayne Coalition and at Save Fort Wayne.
The cities we love
The Water Board, photo by Allan M
“The cities we love we cannot build anymore.”
– City philosopher Charles Landry
Landry was one of the keynote speakers at the Creative Cities Summit in Detroit and he wondered why we usually build monolithic and ugly boxes when that’s not the architecture we say we love. Here’s a look at some of the amazing architecture of Michigan’s cities courtesy the Absolute Michigan pool.
Allan (an architectural student) says that one of his favorite buildings downtown is the often overlooked Water Board Building. This photo is part of his Downtown Motown set, which is best seen as a slideshow I think.
houston we have liftoff
houston we have liftoff, photo by suesue2.
OnSunday night I had the very great honor and pleasure of spending the evening with some folks from the Flickr based photo group Exposure.Detroit.
After dinner at Slows BBQ (three words: “baby back ribs”) we went downtown and enjoyed shooting Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza on a beautiful October evening.
Sue’s photo of the Dodge Fountain is just one of many that you can check out in this nifty slideshow.
Creating Cities in Michigan
Lansing, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Traverse City, Marquette and Kalamazoo are by no means all of Michigan’s cities (or even the largest). Each, however, seems to be an anchor for its region – a center to which people look to for culture, entertainment and commerce.
October 13-15, 2008, lovers of cities large & small from Michigan and all over the country will head to Detroit for the Creative Cities Summit 2.0 (CCS2), an exploration of what our cities could become and how we can work to make them. Organizers have chosen Detroit, a city so deeply forged in America’s industrial fires that it’s been devastated by the flickering of that flame. I’m headed down there and will try to bring some of the ideas back to you through Absolute Michigan – I hope that some of you can join me there.
The Photos (left to right)
- Downtown View – Lansing, Michigan by Mario.Q
- Motor Within a City by SNWEB.ORG Photography, LLC.
- Partly Cloudy by GR58
- Old Flint (HDR) by Hemicuda82
- Traverse City, Michigan by farlane
- View from Mt. Marquette by fastbird232
- The Kalamazoo Radisson by bill.d
Creative Cities Summit 2.0 in Detroit on Oct. 13-15, 2008
CCS2 will present a dynamic and engaging conversation about how communities around the world are integrating innovation, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, arts & culture and business to create vibrant economies. Full conference registration is $300 for the two and half day event, and there’s also a “no frills” registration that is only $100. There’s also a free “Unconference” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) on the 12th for designers, urban planners, civic leaders, entrepreneurs, artists, students, community leaders to explore and discuss what’s possible for Detroit.
Keynote speakers include:
- Bill Strickland, MCG-Bidwell Corp.
- Richard Florida, Author Who’s Your City
- Charles Landry, Author The Art of City Making
- John Howkins, Author The Creative Economy
- Dean Kamen, Inventor, DEKA
- Majora Carter, Sustainable South Bronx
- Doug Farr, Architect and Author Sustainable Urbanism
- Ben Hecht, Pres. & CEO Living Cities
- Tom Wujec, Fellow, Autodesk
- Carol Coletta, CEOs for Cities
- Giorgio Di Cicco, Poet Laureate, City of Toronto and Author, The Municipal Mind
- Diana Lind, Editor, Next American City magazine
Breakout sessions on topics such as:
- Race and the Creative City
- Cities, Universities & Talent
- Marketing, Media and the Creative City
- Measuring New Things – ROI in the Creative Economy
- Creative (Small) Cities
- New Ideas in Urban Amenities
- Community Vitality: The Role of Artists, Gays, Lesbians & Immigrants
- Midwest Mega-region: How the Midwest Can Compete
- Transportation Innovation for Cities
- Making the Scene: Music & Economic Development
Much (much) more at creativecitiessummit.com.
Detroit Nighthawks: the core at night
the core at night, photo by g. s. george.
When not vanquishing evil, it appears Spiderman likes to indulge in a little photography.
You can (and should) see Geoff’s photo bigger in the Detroit Nighthawks group slideshow.
Victory Eagle, Marshall Fredericks
“Victory Eagle” at Former Veterans Memorial Building–Detroit MI, photo by pinehurst19475.
Anthony Lockhart writes:
This monumental sculptural relief (twenty-eight feet tall) by Marshall Fredericks is on the north wall of what was the Veterans Memorial Building. It symbolizes both sacrifice and victory. The building is now the UAW-Ford National Programs Center. It was designed by the firm of Harley, Ellington and Day and dedicated in 1951.
He has many more statues & sculptures from Detroit (view slideshow)
Editor’s note: I’m always surprised when I find that I’ve never featured a photo from a photographer whose work I follow closely. This is one of those times – if you’re looking for architectural photographs of Detroit and the surrounding area with informed commentary … look no further.
Barack Obama in Detroit – Labor Day 2008
Detroit Loves Obama, photo by Maia C.
Maia writes that this is just part of the crowd gathered in Detroit’s Hart Plaza to show their support for Barack Obama on Labor Day, 2008.
The Detroit News has a great panorama by photographer Anne Savage and there’s a nice photo gallery on the Freep as well. There’s some video at the Freep and (when that gets removed) on YouTube from tdndavid. Nice to see Michigan get as little national face time looking sunny & fun!
You can see a lot more photos from Obama’s Labor Day visit to the Motor City on Flickr (slideshow).
Note: Not trying to be partisan here, just documenting a major Michigan story. As an aside, I’ve been looking all summer for pics from John McCain in Michigan – nothing has been shared with Absolute Michigan yet. So get out there, you McCainiacs and get clicking!
Michigan in Pictures 