Edition No. 40
In this Edition
Arts and Culture
This next month, explore the Sidewalk Festival—Detroit’s four-weekend event featuring unique and interactive art pieces, that celebrate and embrace the natural landscape of the city.
American Democracy
Read a fascinating Times column from Noble Laureate Paul Krugman, as he considers the radically different perceptions of the health of the US economy held by self-identified Republicans and self-identified Democrats.
More American Democracy
Visiting Annapolis, Maryland soon? Visit the Westin Hotel to view their unique exhibit: Hall of the Presidents Before George Washington.
Street Festival: Healing. Revival. Party.
It’s summertime, and that means festival season. Each weekend, we fill our time with various lineups of art shows, food fairs, and music festivals. And thankfully for us, Detroit is not a city that strays away from a great street party. Kicking off this past week, Sidewalk Festival is a unique event in metro Detroit, which features local artists embracing the streets, alleys, gardens, and sidewalks of the city to create and perform jaw-dropping pieces of art.
Sidewalk Festival occurs over four weekends and celebrates the unique spaces across the city of Detroit. Marketed as “an arts festival meets neighborhood block party,” this event invites artists from around the city to find inspiration in the landscape around them. For the next three weekends, guests are invited to come and experience these interactive art forms. Artists are exploring three themes: healing, revival, and party—all of which seem aptly appropriate after the past 18 months.
A few of the featured artists include Studio Detroit, Freddy Diaz, and Thornetta Davis. Below we’ve included the various locations over the next three weeks (including our neighboring community, Jefferson-Chalmers) and a brief description of what each event will feature. More information can be found at the link below.
July 31
Chadsey-Condon
6900 McGraw Ave, Detroit, MI 48210
2-8pm
It’s lush greenway meets street art in this unique location, the site of the future Braden Street Greenway. Serving as a connecting road between two beloved community parks, this green linear path will be celebrated with music, dance, theater, interactive mural making and site-specific installation. In partnership with Bridging Communities.
August 7
Joy-Southfield
18917 Joy Rd, Detroit, MI 48228
4-10pm
An innocent parking lot becomes the staging space for an innovative night market featuring installations for the night, dance workshops, vendors, lively community singing and an immersive street mural experience. In partnership with Joy-Southfield CDC.
August 14
Dexter-Linwood
259 Manistique St, Detroit, MI 48215
2-8pm
Surrounded by the beauty of Detroit’s canal district, we will enjoy the colorful green landscape of the Manistique Creative Empowerment Garden and Treehouse. Experience healing bubbles, sound baths, avant-garde dance, and music spanning jazz, blues and classical..
Economics in a Post-Truth Nation
“The economy that voters perceive no longer bears much relationship to reality.”
In his Times column, Noble Laureate (in Economics) Paul Krugman considers an intriguing aspect of America’s current hyper-partisanship—radically different perceptions of the health of the US economy held by self-identified Republicans and self-identified Democrats. Krugman writes, “We appear to have become a country in which a large chunk of the electorate won’t even judge a president by short-run (economic) performance because those voters’ perceptions of the economy are driven by partisanship unrelated to reality.” There is also an interesting local angle to this story as it is rooted in the University of Michigan Institute of Social Research’s long-running Survey of Consumers. Please note: Subscriptions may be required to read the full article.
Just For Fun:
The Hall of the Presidents Before Washington
Disney has a “Hall of the Presidents” attraction in both its California and Florida parks. Both feature Animatronic versions of our chief executives beginning, not surprisingly, with George Washington. A recent Atlas Obscura article, however, took readers to Annapolis, Maryland, and a very different hall of the presidents. There, the Westin Hotel has converted an actual corridor into an exhibit they call the Hall of the Presidents Before George Washington.
George Washington, our 15th President?!
Because American students are routinely taught that George Washington was our first President it may come as a shock to some readers that fourteen men had already held the title of “President” before Washington was inaugurated in 1789. Those first fourteen American Presidents served during two Continental Congresses (1774-1781) and under the Articles of Confederation (1781-1788). Only two of the Presidents before Washington, however, are likely to be familiar to most Americans. The first is John Hancock who served as President twice, including when the Declaration of Independence was adopted and became the Declaration’s first signer. The second is John Jay who, along with Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, wrote the Federalist essays arguing for the adoption of our present constitution.
While the title may be the same, the office occupied by our first fourteen Presidents was actually very different. They were the presiding officer of Congress, making their role more analogous to today’s Speaker of the House than President. But, as they’re not considered to be the first fourteen Speakers, they remain neither fish nor fowl and so are honored in a hotel hallway rather than in “America’s Happiest Place.”
Inspired Thoughts is a collection of highly curated content that embraces the spirit and purpose of The War Memorial: arts and culture, community enrichment, leadership, and patriotism.
Derived from the notion that learning from others is the key to success, Inspired Thoughts is meant to shine a light on those making a difference in the world around them. This collection features artists, poets, writers, architects, and every thought leader in-between. Inspired Thoughts is the strongest reflection of what The War Memorial stands for, and what we aim to be.
The content featured on Inspired Thoughts is curated by War Memorial leadership — we also look forward to featuring special guest curators in the near future. If you are interested in providing content for Inspired Thoughts, please email our Communications team at jkaminski@warmemorial.org.