During our August 7 community lunch, we held a conversation about summer in Detroit. Our inspiration came from Black Summers: Growing Up In The Urban Outdoors, a new book from Wayne State Press that features contributions by longtime Green Garage community members Keith Owens and Pamela Hilliard Owens.
Edited by Desiree Cooper, Black Summers is an anthology of essays and poetry that explores the diversity of Black Detroiters’ experience of summer. Inspired by the book’s emphasis on diversity, we encouraged lunch guests to share their own experiences of summer in Detroit, knowing that each of us would have our own unique reflection to offer.
Pam and Keith kicked things off before we opened it up to the group. Pam—a former educator as well as a writer, entrepreneur, podcaster, and columnist for the Detroit Free Press—spoke about her love of the Boblo Boat. She referenced Desiree Cooper’s introduction to Black Summers, which reminds readers that in the 1940s, people of color didn’t go to the Boblo Island Amusement Park because they were not allowed on the boat. Pam shared the story of Elizabeth Ray, a Detroit secretary who was kicked off the Boblo boat for being Black in 1945. This led to a historic Civil Rights case that went before the US Supreme Court and helped pave the way for Brown vs. Board of Education in 1954.
Keith—a musician, communications manager, and columnist for the Detroit Free Press—spoke about his formative experience attending the Detroit Jazz Festival in the 1980s. Originally from Denver, Colorado, his visit to the Jazz Festival was a life-changing experience that opened up the city’s rich music scene to him, and helped draw him to Detroit as a permanent resident. Now, all these years later, he’s the founder of the Detroit Music District, an initiative that seeks to create a central hub for Detroit’s local music scene.
Many others shared their own summer experiences in Detroit, like the prevalent smell of barbecue permeating neighborhoods, the swimmobiles, trips to Belle Isle, the Dally in the Alley street festival, the Michigan State Fair, and biking everywhere. One theme that emerged was how much more free-range childhood in Detroit used to be, with one participant recalling that her mother would often ask, when she finally came home from being outside all day, “Did you forget where you live?”
Time constraints ended the discussion, but it could easily have continued another hour. We were grateful to our neighbors Janet and Allyson from Source Booksellers, who had copies of the book on hand for us to purchase, and to everyone who opened up and shared. The picture we painted together was varied and vibrant, and reminded us how fortunate we all are to enjoy the special magic of summer in Detroit.