- The 19th annual ARISE Detroit!

Neighborhoods Day takes place on Saturday, August 2nd.

This year's theme for the citywide celebration is a day of pride and power.

Community groups, block clubs, faith-based institutions, and others will all host improvement projects, giveaways, art and music festivals, resource fairs, and more.

This year's event will honor the memory and legacy of ARISE Detroit!

's late founder and executive director, Luther Keith.

Here to tell us more is the vice chair of ARISE Detroit!

's Board of Directors, Dr. George Swan III.

George, great to have you here.

- It's a pleasure to be here!

- You know, every year for the last, I don't know, decade or more, I have had a conversation with Luther in advance of Neighborhoods Day.

It's a sad moment, I guess, that I'm talking to you this year instead of him.

But you know, I am glad that you're here and I'm really glad that this is still a powerful and important event in Detroit.

And Luther would want that.

- He is an inspiration behind this, but also inspiring so many other people.

You know, we grew before the pandemic.

They had more than 400 different organizations giving simultaneously thirty events on a single day.

- [Stephen] On a single day.

- And if you think about that, this is the only such event in the country, so we have a lot of good organizations that are making attempts to do neighborhood cleanups.

They're doing things to bring together certain communities.

They're able to inspire all types of activities, but not on the same day citywide.

- [Stephen] Right.

Right.

- And if you think about the power that suggests, it all came from a vision of Luther saying, "We ought be part of the change.

Let's do something that's going to be creative, inspirational, that's gonna bring people together, bridge the intergenerational gaps."

And it's kind of hard with his infectious nature to tell Luther, "No."

- [Stephen] (laughs) It was, it was impossible.

- It was impossible, right?

And so, I have no question.

- You tried!

- I tried, I tried, yeah.

- So let's talk about this year and what might be different about the Neighborhoods Day.

I suspect there will be a very different feeling about the celebrations this year.

But every year, Luther would talk about things that maybe we weren't gonna have, what maybe were happening this year that didn't happen the year before.

- Well, first of all, we have patent back in the growth mode.

So right after the pandemic or during the pandemic, we had a whole experience of, Create in your own space.

- [Stephen] Right!

(laughs) - So it's sort of- - You couldn't see each other!

- You couldn't see each other.

We also knew that there were people who were very comfortable and some who were not very comfortable in having public events and doing things.

And so that became a very constraining, kind of period of time.

But now we are growing and more people seem to be interested in celebrating Luther's legacy and they're signing up, and the joy of it is that there is a sense of excitement, of energy, of compassion, and commitment that this is indeed going to continue.

And we're looking at the 20th as being a little celebration of the fact that this all started out with a dream on a napkin.

- [Stephen] Right!

(laughs) - Luther would told the story, you know, he just said, "Something has to change, and so, be part of the change."

He actually came up with a word that we were using called a ARISEcification.

- [Stephen] Yeah, I've heard him use that.

- Yeah, and the idea is that, it's not just a static kind of thing, it's an ongoing movement, and so we actually encourage people to be part of the change to arise, to become, to embrace ARISEcification.

Not just on that one day, but throughout their lives and throughout their communities.

- All the time.

- All the time.

And so it's amazing when you think of the fact that there are so many organizations, so many people, who are looking at creative ways of expressing themselves.

So whether it's it's music, whether it's cleanups, whether it's doing volunteer work, whether it's helping seniors, helping young people learn new skills, whether it's artists who are having their own shows and try and do demonstrations.

- [Stephen] You might know a little of that.

- I might know a little bit about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That shameless plug, on my Docswan.

But the idea is that they're doing things that help to educate, to enlighten, to create some joy and sense satisfaction, and being part of the city, being part of communities and being able to know each other.

You know, we live in an environment where a lot of folk don't know the person who lives next door to them.

- [Stephen] Right!

- And so this brings people into their yards and on their porches into the streets, into parks and into places that, hopefully, they will continue to use and to communicate with each other to facilitate the- - Even if it's just to say hello.

- Just to say hello!

It's amazing!

I remember there was a time when I first got onto the board and I tried to get to so many events at one time, see, I mean, I could make it, and it was interesting.

(Stephen laughing) I was driving all across the city, it was, and I was like, "All right!"

Because different events started at different times.

You know, I was speeding somewhere and thinking, "How am I gonna tell law enforcement, 'Well, I'm doing this because we're ARISE Detroit!

You know, like, this especial organization.

I don't, you know, you can't stop me now!'"

- "I've gotta make it!"

- "I've gotta make it there!"

But this just tells you the kind of energy and people are doing things and we are a small organization.

That's the other side to it.

Is that Luther ran a very tight ship, a very small staff ship.

But we had hundreds of volunteers.

And that's the magic of it all, is that you don't have to pay people to do things that express their joy, express their satisfaction and their- - It's just incredible.

- It is.

It really is.

- So, I wanna talk just a little about the organization and it's future.

You know, lots of people start lots of things and when they're gone, there's sometimes a question about, "Well, can we continue this?"

And it's really good to see that, that ARISE just is rolling on.

It keeps going.

- If we didn't have ARISE, we should create an organization like it.

- [Stephen] We would have to invent it.

- That's right.

That's right.

And it's not to say there aren't other organizations that are trying to do, or doing, not trying, they're doing things that are similar.

But again, they're very unique, they're very individual.

There's singular types of things.

And we have a commitment as part of the board as well as part of the organization to ensure this continues that legacy of Luther, that ARISEcification, that we have people understand they can be part the change.

And so we are committed to celebrate it.

We're committed to maintain the, to continue it.

And we're planning now for the 20th ARISE Detroit!

Neighborhoods Day.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

What do you tell people who wanna do this, who maybe haven't participated before?

Because each year you have more people.

- That's right.

- Who stand up and say, "Our neighborhood's gonna be part of this!"

What do you tell 'em about that energy?

To just go and do it.

To not worry about whether it's gonna work, or whether it's gonna be big or small.

Just to lean into the idea of it.

- What's nice is that there's no sanctioned event, there's no authority from up high- - You do what you want.

- telling you what to do.

But we do make sure you wanna do things that are safe for people.

That you ensure- - No fireworks.

- No fireworks shows, you know?

No running off of, pulling off of bridges, things like that.

But you can do things that are very simple, even in your own yard.

Planting flowers, showing young people how to grow vegetables.

Those are the kinds of things that you can start small.

Cleaning up a park, being able to go pick up the trash along a block or a street and then having others walk along with you while you do that.

Those are the kinds of things that help build a community.

- They're all possible.

- They're all possible.

So it doesn't mean that you have to have thousands of volunteers.

You have to have a budget of millions of dollars.

You can start with a budget of zero and your feet and your arms and your hands and your thoughts and your energy and you can make it happen.

- Yeah.

- Yeah!

- All right, well, George, it is great to have you here.

We look forward to Neighborhoods Day and great things from ARISE Detroit!

- Thank you so much for having me.

- Yeah.

- Thank you.