DETROIT RE-ENERGIZED THE MOVEMENT

Written by Jacqueline Kook Wednesday, 23 June 2010 14:05

DETROIT RE-ENERGIZED THE MOVEMENT: PPH in Detroit for the Allied Media Conference and 2010 United States Social Forum

At first glance, across parts of the East Side of Detroit, four-lane avenues stretch open with ease to accommodate the few lazy cars on a summer afternoon. Most Wayne State University shops and restaurants are closed for the summer, empty lots skip every few blocks, and graffiti scrawls sit on brick backgrounds. This is about just 3 square miles, though Detroit City spreads for about 143 square miles.

Still, the slogans are surfacing, "Another Detroit is happening," a play on the 2010 U.S. Social Forum theme "Another world is happening." Allied Media Projects (AMP) and their many partners, which includeDetroit natives like Detroit Summer and the Grace Lee Boggs Center,will attest Detroit has been and is busy creating art, pioneeringalternative economies, growing their own food, trying new educationalmodels, producing media, and answering despair and recession with theirown community-visioned solutions.

For the past few years, People's Production House has been honored to be a part of some of these processes. Each summer Detroit shares its city with the AMP-sponsored Allied Media Conference: a gathering of organizers, educators, artists, individuals, organizations, and media makers. This year, the Motor City will also host the second United States Social Forum, which is expected to draw about 10,000 from across the country and even internationally. Our reporters, trainers, members, and staff from the Community News Production Institute and Radio Rootz attended both.

Click here to take a listen and look at the many stories that are happening in and inspired by Detroit.

Reporting for the USSF was possible with support from New York Foundation, North Star Fund, and the Funder's Collaborative on Youth Organizing.