- Hi, I'm Satori Shakoor and here's what's coming up on One Detroit Arts & Culture.

An artist reveals the meaning behind his latest exhibition, celebrating Detroit's rich history of punk rock, and a performance from Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove.

It's all this week on One Detroit Arts & Culture.

- [Narrator 1] Support for this program provided in part by the Kresge Foundation, the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

From Delta faucets to Behr paint, MASCO Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

MASCO, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Narrator 2] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEFoundation.com to learn more.

- [Narrator 1] Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, Nissan Foundation, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - Hi, and welcome to One Detroit Arts & Culture.

I'm your host, Satori Shakoor.

Thanks for joining me at the David Klein Gallery in Detroit where artist, Mario Moore, is showing his exhibition, Midnight and Canaan.

Coming up on the show, looking back on this year's Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue.

But first, I have the absolute pleasure to be joined by Mario Moore.

Mario, thank you for being here on One Detroit Arts & Culture.

- Well, I'm glad to be here.

- So what inspired this exhibition, Midnight and Canaan?

- So it was actually stumbling upon a book at my museum exhibition, and I found this book called A Fluid Frontier.

And it was about the Detroit and Canadian borderland.

What really caught my attention was a story about the Blackburns.

And the Blackburns were a young couple that escaped from Kentucky, made their way to Detroit, and a Black abolitionist and the small, but powerful Black community that was here helped to free them to get to Canada.

So, it really ignited in me an idea that helped me figure out, where does Detroit's Black militancy come from?

And, that story is kind of the origin of it.

And it starts this whole, kind of thunder roll of events that kind of change the dynamic between the Canadian and Detroit borderlands.

And also change the dynamic for Black people that are looking for freedom during the Underground Railroad.

So what happens from that moment forward, is that the Black community in Detroit, and also in Canada, kind of coalesce and create the structure for the Underground Railroad movement.

- So who are you depicting in these wondrous works?

- In a lot of the works, I'm really interested in the past and the present.

And trying to bridge and create a through line between what was and what is now.

Because I think oftentimes, when we think about the position we're in as a country, we ignore the past.

So there's no physical photograph or paintings of the Blackburns, so there's no known image of them.

So I used friends of mine to pose as the Blackburns.

But also to correlate some of the other paintings that aren't necessarily historical figures, like the self portrait of myself, or friends of mine like Tiff Massey or the great abstract artist, Allie McGhee.

That's really connecting us to now.

And it's kind of like a statement on these Black Detroiters that are here now, contributing to Detroit culture.

How do we make sure we're staking a claim for our place here as the city is constantly changing?

- What do you want people to know as they're looking at this exhibition?

- I would hope that as people come in, and they see the work, they can think about the contribution that Black people made here in the early 19th century.

And they can also continue to think about the cultural significance that Black people contribute to Detroit now.

Right?

Because the show really is about Black agency.

I think a lot of times when we are looking at a lot of these movies that deal with slavery and abolition, it's a lot of White saviors in the films.

And reading and doing research, it's so minimal, the amount of White people that helped, right.

Because you hear about, "Oh, they put them under a wagon and then there was a safe house here."

It was mainly Black people helping Black people.

And I really wanted to really highlight that for the show, and just kind of shine a light on some of these figures that don't get a lot of prominence.

There's a drawing in the show of Sojourner Truth.

Everybody knows Sojourner Truth.

But a lot of people don't know George DeBaptiste.

A lot of people don't know William Lambert.

I didn't.

And I think they're so important to our story as Detroiters, all Detroiters, in Canada, and Windsor.

So I think it's so important to understand who these people were and what they did, and what role they played.

Hey, I'm just hoping people come and be like, "Man, that's a dope painting."

- So you're gonna have an artist talk, and that's gonna be awesome for people to come here and actually meet you and hear you tell these stories.

When is that?

- So, the artist talk is October 29th and it's at 4:30 PM.

So I'm really excited for people to come and ask me any questions they want, about the history, about the work.

And just to see the work again, see the show again.

- All right.

Well mark your calendar, Saturday, October 29th, 4:30 right here at the David Klein Gallery.

Thank you Mario.

- Thank you.

- Now, we're gonna head to the Cadieux Cafe where the Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue took place back in August.

One Detroit's Chris Jordan was there to document the festival, and to speak to Smitt E. Smitty, host Michael Halloran, and several of the musicians who performed.

About the festival and Detroit's punk rock history.

- Woo ♪ Is there a meaning to the words that I am singing?

♪ ♪ Or just another wasted rhyme?

♪ (punk music) - Here we go.

The fourth Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue.

(electric guitar riff) - Events like this really bring people together, get people focused on the scene, get people focused on Detroit music.

- I think Detroit just has its own sounds.

It's kind of the birthplace of punk, with MC5 and the Stooges, and like everything kind of sprung out from here.

- It's a musical family, but it's made up of like so many influences, man.

We don't have one sound.

So when you say what's our influence, Detroit.

(upbeat punk music) - [Host] The Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue, a celebration of the underground side of Detroit music.

After two years off due to COVID, the event came back bigger than ever in August, as a two night festival at the Cadieux Cafe.

- People have been just so grateful and they're listening in a different way, a new way.

Like music kind of being stripped away from everybody, as well as all this other stuff we were losing.

It was like a wake up call I think.

- Not playing, just is is tough for me.

It's what I live for.

♪ Me and miles living to the graveyard.

♪ - It feels great.

It feels great, seriously.

(punk rock music) ♪ I want a prenup ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ - [Host] The event was organized by musician Smitt E. Smitty of Detroit's Figures on a Beach and was hosted by radio icon and former WDET Radios in Motion host Michael Halloran.

- This is the fourth one.

And after coming out of you know two, three years of COVID, I think everyone shot out of a cannon.

Being able to still do this and get together with our friends and up and comers, it really is a very beautiful thing.

- What I really like about this event in particular is it's essentially a building block foundational thing.

So younger bands can work with those older bands that have been established in the scene.

Kids basically in the School of Rock can you know they can work with bands like Cinecyde, that have been going for about 40 years.

- [Host] The fourth Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue featured a cross-section of bands from the full four and a half decade history of Detroit punk.

From some of the city's earliest punk bands to some of its newest.

And even some musicians of the future from the School of Rock in Farmington.

- The first one was really was a celebration, I didn't really have anything in mind other than getting a bunch of old school friends of mine from back in the punk days, late seventies, eighties.

And the moment we decided we were gonna do a second one it was kind of like, okay, well we did the one where we had mostly the old guard.

Now I really want to go after some of the new and young bands that are happening in the Detroit music scene.

- People who are elders of punk and rock and roll always have a leg to help lift up the next generation.

People in Detroit are so ready to give a leg up.

- Yeah, it was great to play with a lot of these legendary bands that have been around since the eighties, and there's a lot of young artists who are trying to come up with something new.

So, this is a good showcase of a lot of different bands addressing punk in a different way.

(punk rock music) - There is no music scene that even comes close to what the Detroit music scene is, it's like... And I have been around the world and visited every city.

Detroit without any question, is the number one music scene on the planet.

Everybody else is fighting for second place.

- Detroit was always on the map because of its music scene.

But the Detroit bands that were existing at the time were completely radically different, I think than what was happening in Cleveland with the Dead Boys in Chicago.

- Detroit has kind of a brand on it.

It can be raw, hard, compelling rock and roll.

Over the top sometimes.

And that punk rock scene that was surely all of that, but it was even more.

♪ It came down from outer space ♪ ♪ What's the humor human race?

♪ - I was listening to an interview that Barry Gordy gave when he was talking about why Motown songs sounded the way they did.

And it's because when he was working in the factories there was something about the stamping.

The big machines that were doing all this work that had a rhythm that got stuck in his head, which basically became that whole boxer beat four on the floor, you know... Pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat, pat.

- Like we can't get away from Motown, you know.

I mean, obviously cannot get away, Obviously cannot get away from I wanna be your dog.

- There's kind of a very like industrial, rough, raw pulse in the city that I think a lot of people tap into.

- Industry, blue collar, hard working.

It's that kind of energy and I don't know, just sort of the the rock and roll ethic, the MC5 and The Stooges.

Anywhere but Michigan, and they're not happening.

- Richie, our drummer in The Plugs worked at Gear and Axle, so as the drummer and hearing, kong, kong, kong, you have this rhythmic thing, so when you form a band, you're going to have a thing that is in your life, that basically drives your soul.

And with Richie it was that factory type thing.

(punk rock music) ♪ Well everyday, in the mirror I see your face ♪ ♪ Carry on that could take your place ♪ ♪ Trying to win but I know why ♪ - And that's in essence why Radios in Motion was born.

A lot of these bands from back in the day I tried to play on the radio as much as possible.

They were the people that were making Detroit cool and different.

It was a point of pride with me that Detroit had not stopped when Motown moved.

♪ I got an airplane ticket to California ♪ ♪ Gonna visit some friends ♪ ♪ Taking a trip down to Hollywood and wanna ♪ ♪ Pick up a couple of souvenirs ♪ (punk rock music) I kind of realized that that thread that started in the early city of Mutants, Cold Cock, RUR, Cinecyde were kind of like the beginning of a thread to me that we were able to attach ourselves on and then slowly moved down and then other bands came along, Vertical Pillows.

But that thread just keeps going.

Sometimes it gets super thin, sometimes it gets fattened up.

- There's always, you know, somebody stepping up and going, Hey, I've got something to say too.

And I think Smitty and I know myself we're, we're the mind that it's like, yeah, let's hear what you have to say.

Yes, yes, yes.

More, more, more.

(punk rock music) - The lineup for the Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue followed this thread across the last four decades sometimes branching off in unexpected directions.

- It is eclectic.

I mean you've got the amino acids, which is kind of like this, this kind of compelling punk surf band.

(punk rock music) You got the 3D Invisibles, which you know, man I think the 3D Invisibles should have been like, you know stars internationally.

♪ They won't stay dead ♪ ♪ They won't stay dead ♪ ♪ They won't stay dead ♪ - Smitty's in a couple, couple of the bands.

He's got Little Boy Lost and - Smitt E. Smitty and the Feztones that leads more into my like the art school guy starting a band and I probably have more in common with like Sparks and the B 52s and Divo because there's definitely an art element.

♪ I'm big fat boy uhuh ♪ ♪ Living large by definition ♪ ♪ Big fat boy uhuh ♪ ♪ Everyone's contemplation ♪ - Then flipping over you've got folky influence like Audra Kubat.

♪ Trust in the words you have given to us ♪ ♪ I will fight with my bones and my fists if I must ♪ ♪ Let's tear down the fences and take down the flags ♪ - I kinda think that folk and punk music are actually kind of aligned.

You know, maybe there's sort of like a different avenue for the music, but like the message is really similar.

I think it's sort of like being sort of fed up and ready for change and like angry about stuff and sad and broken and mad.

And so I think that folk music is actually kind of like punk rock.

♪ Trust in the words you have given to us ♪ ♪ I will fight with my bones and my fists if I must ♪ - It's good to sort of like bring in these different kind of styles under the same sort of energy of like what like punk rock or garage rock is, I'm seeing like a lot of young punk bands like kind of like springing up but like mixing it with a little bit of acoustic.

I think punk music is one of those musics, or even you know, garage rock that sort of lets everybody in.

(punk music) - My writing style is very cathartic.

It's just me trying to get my thoughts across and through punk I'm able to access a more kind of primal energy to it.

The energy is very much punk, but I don't know I try not to write in a box to try and write a song that is punk.

I just try to write a song and then see where it takes me.

(punk music) ♪ Bring it to the monsters at your bed ♪ Like there's definitely a lot of more experimental pop influences, a lot of influences, a lot of queer artists.

Myself being one.

Yeah, just trying to take the music I like and make my version of it and try not to stick to like one kind of formula, is really kind of what punk is.

Do your own thing.

(punk music) - I did really enjoy the younger, newer bands, Sugar Tradition.

(blues punk music) ♪ I'm just a ramblin' man ♪ ♪ I got to move on ♪ They opened for Jack White's band at Masonic - And you know, talk about right place, right time.

That was the night that Jack proposed to his- - Oh that was that night.

- So they just, you know I'll tell you that that's just their- - That's a historic weekend or a night or whatever it was.

But yeah, those, those guys were freaking amazing.

(guitar solo) - The Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue was also the debut concert performance by a brand new band formed by legendary Detroit guitarist Mary Cobra and two members of the art rock band Shadow Show.

- Of course everyone knows Mary Cobra from the Detroit Cobras and with the passing of Rachel Nagy was kind of like, oh geez, you know, Mary people love you they wanna see you perform, you know, what are you doing?

And then she told me about her band, GiGi ♪ I see you, walking away from me ♪ ♪ I know that you are even with a part of me ♪ ♪ Don't, don't, don't quit the band ♪ ♪ Don't quit the band ♪ - Well the best thing about GiGi, GiGi too is like we're all coming from different bands originally.

So this is like our, for lack of a better word, super group.

Hate that one.

- We are Detroit women dedicated to the power of an anthem.

♪ Don't quit the band ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ ♪ Don't quit the band ♪ - What I love about GiGi too though is like we have basically three generations of Detroit punk garage rock, whatever, because it's like you kinda started it.

- They say I was a legend.

- Yeah, you're, you're in the legend, you're in the legend era, I'm in the millennial era.

You guys are like borderline gen, Gen Z.

- We all have our individual influences but we all come together because of how much we love music how much we love the power of a song and what makes a song, a good song at least a great song.

You know, that's all that matters.

♪ I'm gonna take back the night ♪ ♪ I'm gonna take back the night ♪ - Take Back The Night was our first single that we released and that was inspired by a demo that Mary got ahold of.

That was something that Rob Tyner had been working on before he passed that Mary unearthed and we kind of breathed new life into it.

(punk rock music) ♪ You put the blame and the deed goes down ♪ ♪ And put an end to this injustice and if you gotta fight ♪ ♪ Come on and take back the night ♪ - I'm just so excited for when, when we finish our album and get that out because it really feels like that first song is more like an homage and this next song, High Heels, it feels like us.

It really feels like all of us.

- Another anthem.

- Oh it's an anthem.

(punk rock music) ♪ Don't be shy ♪ ♪ So do me and I have these high, high, high, high, ♪ ♪ High heels ♪ ♪ High, high heels ♪ ♪ High heels ♪ - I feel like punk, in its essence is just an energy.

It's just more of that kind of primal way of connecting to music I guess.

- This is like Detroit's finest.

Whether they've been around forever or just, you know popped up within the last year or two.

I mean this is like, oh this came from Detroit you know.

This, this isn't from LA, this isn't from London.

This isn't from New York.

And it's like, no, this is all Detroit.

(audience cheers) - Thank you.

- You can find full performances from the Detroit All-Star Garage Rock Punk Revue on the One Detroit YouTube channel.

And for more information about all of our Arts & Culture stories, go to our website@onedetroitpbs.org.

Thanks to the David Klein Gallery for having us here today and connecting us with Mario Moore.

I'm gonna leave you with a snippet of standup comedian Brett Mercer's performance on Detroit Performs Live from Marygrove.

Enjoy the laughter and I'll see you next week.

- Hello audience.

Hello.

(audience cheers) Hello audience and hello to the viewers at home.

Nice to see you.

My name is Brett.

I will be entertaining you for a little bit.

Let's do this.

I, I was reading in the newspaper, I'm lying.

I was reading this on newspaper.com.

I was reading that apparently there's something called inflation going on where everything's expensive right now and I thumbs down for me.

I don't like that.

I would prefer it if everything was cheap but that's just me.

I don't know.

But I was also reading on newspaper.com that we are going through a global helium shortage and I don't know how that could even happen.

Where is the helium?

Where is that going?

I gotta think that it's connected to the inflation.

I feel like inflation is why we don't have much helium left.

It's all the helium is going into the balloons but I don't know, I just don't get I don't get how you can run out of an element.

It's on the periodic table of elements, you know.

How do you, how do you mess that one up?

I got, I gotta think that there's like a, you know like a main science headquarters somewhere.

Probably like a scientist, like a lab.

I think they're called labs, probably.

Yeah, and like the main doctor is just like looking through some charts going like, oh this isn't good.

I gotta go talk to the helium department to see what's going on down there.

So like head scientist goes down there and he is like, helium, where's all the helium?

Where'd all the helium go?

And they're like I don't know.

(audience laughs) Inhaling it all, I guess.

Another thing I've been reading on newspaper.com is apparently the United States is like about to run out of money always.

And again, I just, I can't figure out how that's even possible or what that would even look like.

Like if we just do go flat broke, what do we, what do we have to like move back in with England?

(audience laughs) What do we gotta like tail between our legs?

Go up to Buckingham Palace and just be like can we crash for a little bit?

We ate too much avocado toast and couldn't pay our bills.

So- (audience laughs) - You can find more at OneDetroitPBS.org or subscribe to our social media channels and sign up for our One Detroit newsletter.

- Support for this program provided in part by the Kresge Foundation, the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

From Delta faucets to Behr paint, MASCO Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

MASCO, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEFoundation.com to learn more.

- Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, Nissan Foundation, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)