- [Host] Just ahead on One Detroit.

Our contributor Satori Shakoor talks about her new solo theater production focusing on her journey through the change of life.

Plus, we'll check in on the city's plans to redevelop I-375 and the reaction from Detroiters.

Also ahead, the founder of the National Arab Orchestra talks about introducing Arab culture to audiences through music.

And we'll offer some suggestions on fun things to do in Metro Detroit this weekend and beyond.

It's all coming up next on One Detroit.

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(uplifting music) - [Host] Just ahead on this week's One Detroit.

We team up with BridgeDetroit for a special report on the redevelopment of Interstate 375.

Plus, the founder of the National Arab Orchestra talks about bringing people together through global music.

And with summer in full swing, Dave Wagner of 90.9 WRCJ has a list of events and activities in Metro Detroit this weekend.

But first up, one Detroit contributor Satori Shakoor is taking to the stage for the premiere of her one woman standup storytelling concert at the Detroit Public Theater.

The production is called Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale.

And it takes the audience for a thought-provoking journey through the change of life.

One Detroit producer, Sarah Zintarsky, sat down with Shakoor to find out more about the inspiration behind the monologue.

(bass transition music) - It's the summer of '99.

I'm living in Toronto at the time and I am hot!

45.

Fit.

When people tell their stories, they automatically create a community in the wake of their words.

♪ Biological clock is ticking ♪ ♪ Pushing me in directions I don't want to go ♪ ♪ I'm a cougar, a man eater ♪ ♪ A femme fatale ♪ - I come from a long line of storytellers.

Old black women from the Alabama, Mississippi, Jim Crow South.

And that's how they used storytelling.

To teach, to warn, to entertain, to impart.

I am the producer, the founder of The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers.

Which is a live story storytelling event.

I always say until you tell your story, we can never know your glory, your greatness, your trials, your tribulations.

So we need each other to show us how we get through struggles, through challenges, through good times and bad.

I wanted to come out and tell this story, Confessions of a Menopausal Femme Fatale, to extend my story to the world.

♪ I'm betwixt and between ♪ ♪ I start to notice things like ♪ ♪ All of a sudden I'm hot ♪ ♪ Jump out of my skin hot, can't sleep ♪ ♪ Night sweats ♪ ♪ Chills ♪ - When I was first noticing the symptoms of menopause, they call it perimenopause.

I was able to recognize myself.

I was having mood swings, these hot flashes would happen.

And when I ask around, older women who would've been able to tell me, they would say oh I don't remember.

My mother says I don't remember.

Women who were older didn't want to admit that they were at this stage or at this age of life.

And so there was no information.

So I wanted to write about it then.

But I hadn't gone through it.

So now on this side I have a perspective.

And now I can share that journey that I took.

- I believe it's courageous what she's doing.

Because people don't talk about it.

They're shy or embarrassed to talk about some things and she's really taken that first step.

I believe for a lot of people, men and women, to have these conversations that should, I believe, be normal for society.

- It's scary.

Ooh, you at the beginning of the change of life.

What I really want to do with this show, besides tell my story, is to remove the stigma.

And honor.

It should be a rite of passage.

In other cultures it may be a rite of passage, but here we want to be youthful, and we can be youthful for a long time.

But youth is a state of mind.

And wisdom is something you earn and you pay for with your life with the blood, sweat and tears of your life.

♪ 'Cause I'm alive ♪ ♪ Oh I'm alive ♪ - We began last year.

When my husband and I are boarding the plane to go to Hawaii, to the island of Oahu.

And I have a panic attack on the plane.

Which isn't really a panic attack.

It just triggers memories of when I left Detroit to go to Hawaii, changed my name, and basically committed a crime that I was trying to forget and escape from.

So I realize before we take off, I'm going back to resurrect and reclaim this former self.

My name used to be Jeannette McGruder.

When I was with P-Funk and that whole past.

So I'm going back to resurrect and reclaim.

Forgive and integrate that part of my life so that I can have full power and I go, and then we flash back to these symptoms of perimenopause and we move forward to what I learned in the end.

Well at first, his words, they hurt me.

They take the wind right outta my sails.

I'm too much?

And then it sinks in, what he's saying.

I'm too much.

That means I'm not dead.

I'm not complacent.

See, 'cause I'm going for being way too much.

I'm going for being over the top alive!

- Her stories that she's going to be telling throughout her performance, I believe everyone is gonna resonate.

There's many funny moments.

One of my favorite moments is almost like, it's the moment where she's reclaiming her womanhood.

Because of another man's assumptions about her.

And it is hilarious.

- I made it a solo standup storytelling concert because I wanted to incorporate everything that I am.

I'm a standup comedian, I'm a singer, I'm a storyteller.

It has music, song.

It has comedy.

It has tragedy.

It has all the elements of a powerful story.

♪ If I'm too much ♪ ♪ Why not go for being way too much ♪ - [Satori] All of the storytelling songs, I wrote those songs.

There's different styles and moods of music which help to tell the story and have the emotional position that I'm in at the time.

- Really her voice, I would say, is even more musical than the music itself.

People should come to the show because they're gonna be entertained, they're gonna get a great story, they're going to laugh.

They may cry.

They're gonna be shocked.

They are going to be sad.

They're gonna feel all - the full range of emotions they're going to feel in this show.

- I hope they take some part of my story and allow it to make a difference.

To let it ruminate.

Let it free them.

You don't have to be shamed or uncomfortable about being a woman.

And being at this powerful, powerful stage of life.

With all these other years ahead of you if you're lucky.

♪ I'm too much ♪ - [Host] And you can see Satori Shakoor's production at the Detroit Public Theatre July 21st through the 23rd.

Let's turn now to the city of Detroit's plans to redevelop Interstate 375.

Considered to be the shortest highway in the country.

Its construction was responsible for the destruction of two thriving African-American neighborhoods known as Black Bottom and Paradise Valley.

BridgeDetroit reporter Jena Brooker and I teamed up for a report on the goals of the redevelopment project and the community's reaction.

(bass transition music).

- [Jena VO] I-375.

The highway that destroyed a thriving epicenter of black life in Detroit is going to be filled in and replaced by a six lane street level boulevard with bike lanes and wide sidewalks.

Once filled in, approximately 30 acres of prime real estate will open up.

Last year the state began hosting monthly meetings with stakeholders and community members about the process.

Federal and state officials say the boulevard will reconnect the community destroyed by the highway and be a reparative process.

But various community members have concerns.

Ranging from the physical design.

To if the process will really be reparative.

- I think we've all kind of toyed around with the idea of getting rid of 375 for a long time.

The fact that this is, that it's happening in a way now I think is both exciting, but also like it makes me a little anxious because I don't know that all the things have aligned here to make this project as transformational as it should be.

- [Jena VO] At a February meeting more than 50 residents and stakeholders shared their thoughts on the project.

Some already feel like it isn't properly centering equity injustice.

- As urban planning practitioners you're not required to have a social justice background or a critical consciousness about race.

So it should be no surprise that when we get to projects like this, you know, there's a whole, you know, there's a whole line of thinking that isn't included 'cause those people aren't trained with that.

So is it their fault?

I don't know where the problem needs to be addressed, but it's a recurring theme especially in cities like Detroit where our community development and urban planning issues are so deeply intertwined with like race and justice.

- [Jena VO] An analysis was done of the intergenerational wealth lost when a highway similarly displaced a black community in St. Paul, Minnesota at the same time Detroit's highway went in.

The analysis found that at least 270 million of intergenerational wealth was lost.

- So given that and that history, do you think that it's possible that this project could actually be reparative?

- It can be again because I feel like those technicians that are leading this charge are open to receiving different kinds of ideas.

I think you have to make a data-driven case though.

I used to think, you know, in racial justice work you could appeal to people's moral compass or their empathy.

That ain't gonna do anything.

You need to make a data-driven case for those folks to behave differently and I think it's possible.

- [Jena VO] Others have critiques of the physical design of the boulevard.

That the state is prioritizing traffic over connectivity, pedestrians and safety.

With nine lanes at some points, it's wide.

And replicates the effect of a highway.

- So can you touch on that?

Do you think that it will lessen the divide that the highway currently creates between the neighborhoods?

- In some ways yes.

In other ways we still have some concerns.

I'd say one of the biggest benefits it's gonna have is the reconnection of Downtown to Eastern Market.

'Cause right now I often say that if you're in Downtown and someone asks you for directions to Eastern Market, by bike or walking, it's basically no one really knows.

- [Jena VO] According to Todd Scott of the Detroit Greenways Coalition, there will be a nice connection from Ford Field to Eastern Market, and during off-peak traffic hours it should be more pedestrian and biking friendly.

- So what do you think of the current design of the redesign of the highway right now and what would you want it to look like?

- I would want it to look very different.

So I would say it's not a design...

It's not a smart design.

It's not an urban, it's not a design that really lends itself to any level of like vibrance, urban vitality, density.

In a lot of ways the road design that they presented would be more dangerous for pedestrians than the current configuration as a freeway.

- [Jena VO] Paul Jones III, freelance urban planner, remains skeptical of transportation leaders, pointing to the Woodward Avenue Q line project that left many Detroiters disappointed.

- What are some of the things that are like realistic to come out of this project that could be reparative?

- I've heard, you know, folks talking about land trust.

I think that could be interesting.

So there's supposed to be 31 acres of developable land.

That are a result of the highway resurfacing.

It would be great if we could figure out how like Detroiters could financially benefit from that.

People are also talking about, you know, could we have a black business corridor, you know, in honor of the black businesses that were destroyed in Black Bottom and Paradise Valley.

That's a thing.

I really would like to hear what ideas citizens have.

I think planners like to talk to planners.

I want to hear what people, you know, that are differently oriented have to say.

I want to hear what artists, you know, we just need some more creative thinkers on what is possible.

- I think the most important thing is that you have a facility where you can bike or walk without a lot of delay.

And when that happens you increase bikeability and walkability 'cause you can go much further for the same amount of time.

What we don't want to do is have a facility where you have to stop every block, push a button, wait a minute or two to get a walk signal before you can continue on because it's gonna take you a long time to get anywhere.

And so I mean on paper those plans look like you're connecting things, but given the amount of delay they can introduce to people walking and biking, they're really not connecting anything.

- [Jena VO] The highway is expected to be removed by 2027.

Until then, state officials are hosting monthly meetings with community members and stakeholders to give input on the design and the process.

Despite stakeholder requests to reduce the width of the boulevard at every step of the project, state officials have noted that they will not do so.

One major decision that is still up in the air though.

Who gets the 30 acres of land that will open up valued at $50 million?

This decision and more will shape if the project can really address the harm caused by the highway.

- [Host] The annual Detroit Concert of Colors takes place at several venues around Metro Detroit on July 19th through the 23rd.

The family friendly event celebrates diversity and features music and dance from around the world.

The National Arab Orchestra is performing this year and one Detroit contributor, Cecelia Sharpe of 90.9 WRCJ, sat down with the group's founder and music director Michael Ibrahim to talk about the importance of uniting communities through global music.

(bass transition music) (Indian oud music) - Michael, you are a musician, composer, educator, Kresge Fellow and founder of the National Arab Orchestra.

Thank you so much for coming, taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to me today.

- Thank you.

Wonderful to be here.

- Before we jump into the Concert of Colors, you started off playing the oud.

How did your musical adventure unfold?

- (chuckles) You know, when I was a kid, my parents would take us to church.

We grew up Greek Orthodox.

And I would just remember listening to my grandfather chant.

He was the priest at the church down in Berkley, Michigan.

And I just remember those sounds really sticking in my ear.

So I got fascinated into those sounds and my dad had an oud at the house.

He couldn't play, he just kinda strummed on the instrument.

But I got really fascinated with it.

And it wasn't until after my last trip to Syria in the '90s.

I came back and I really wanted to learn.

So they got me an oud and I started taking lessons with the local cat in town.

And from there it's just been kind of this cultural journey of discovery.

- You've committed to it ever since.

- Yeah.

I mean I kind of got away from it.

- Did you?

What did you do?

- Well when I got into high school they asked me what I wanted to do and I was like can I play oud in the orchestra?

They're like no, but here's a saxophone.

So I got into western music.

And then I went to school with the intent of getting a Music Ed degree.

So when I got to my undergrad, that's when I really started to have this cultural reawakening and I started to express that through Arab music.

- [Cecelia] You founded the National Arab Orchestra in 2009.

What prompted that?

- I got a call from somebody at U of M. Alison Jones.

And she wanted to restart an ensemble that was there and I was a part of it.

And it kind of went on hiatus for about a year, a year and a half.

And she asked me to take it over so we started from scratch, we held auditions, we got in students, and so this whole thing started as a student group at U of M. It wasn't until the second concert I did the following year.

And I saw how excited community members from the Arab American community were.

That's when I took it upon myself, I borrowed money from my dad and I started the nonprofit and from there I started to get board members and then we started the NAO.

Started off as the Michigan Arab Orchestra.

And in 2014 we changed to the National Arab Orchestra.

(Indian oud music) - Since you started the orchestra in 2009 you added an ensemble, the Takht Ensemble.

You've added school programming.

You really seek to introduce Arab culture to audiences through music.

What do you hope that audiences learn from their experience?

- I hope that Arab American kids will be able to use this platform as a way for them to get in touch with their culture.

Kind of like how I did.

For the non-Arabs, we hope to create opportunities for people to understand the culture better.

'Cause, you know, what people hear on the news is one thing.

And what the reality of a culture is is another.

- I remember I met you at Detroit School of Arts and you did a residency with the orchestra students there.

And they were kind of taken aback.

(Michael laughs) - By the idea of playing non-western music on their instruments.

- It's always a joy to do programs like that with students.

Because you can see the transformation that takes place.

And it's always the same cycle of events.

Whenever I first walk into a new school they're like what's going on?

- Yeah.

- And then once they get used to me and they get comfortable, then they start working on the music.

Then they learn more about the culture.

Then when they get to the performance they're ready and they're excited cause they know they're gonna be singing with like a 30 piece orchestra.

And then afterwards they feel really good.

You know, the more we do programs like this the more we see how much the arts can impact especially in the realm of education and in bringing people together.

- You're preparing for the upcoming Concert of Colors.

Why is it so important for the National Arab Orchestra to be a part of this upcoming Concert of Colors?

- Well Concert of Colors is a world music festival.

And the NAO is one of the leading figures of world arts in Detroit.

You know, it's an institution that not only performs in Michigan, but it goes all over the country.

The fact that we get to represent Arab culture in that form is important.

We're also really really excited to be working and partnering again with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to put this on.

And I'm really excited about this particular program 'cause we're bringing an amazing jazz legend, Yehia Khalill.

He was credited with actually bringing jazz to Egypt.

The Arab world is so diverse and there's so much different beauty depending on the region you're in, so there's a lot to cover there.

(solo violin music) (Indian oud music) - [Host] And the week long Concert of Colors is a free event.

You can check out the schedule at onedetroitpbs.org.

There are also several things to do this weekend in Metro Detroit.

Here's Dave Wagner of 90.9 WRCJ with some entertaining ideas on how you can spend your leisure time in today's One Detroit Weekend.

- Hi, I'm Dave Wagner with 90.9 WRCJ.

You know, the weekend is just around the corner.

And there's a lot to see and do in and around the city, so let's get to it.

Now on July 14th through the 16th head up to Blake Farms in Armada to see the return of their annual Lavender Festival.

There will be over 200 artisans boasting their handmade crafts.

Do-it-yourself make and take workshops with lavender.

And plenty of lavender-infused eats and drinks.

You know, you can almost smell the festival from here.

It's so lovely.

Also this weekend is the 40th annual African World Festival at Hart Plaza.

The celebration aims to show off the beauty, strength and spirit of the African diaspora through music, food, live demonstrations and more.

Yet another festival is taking place July 14th through the 16th called Hotter Than July.

This festival takes place in various venues across Detroit and is brought to us by LGBT Detroit.

It's the world's second oldest black LGBTQ+ pride festival.

Then if you're interested in even more music, go to Aretha's Jazz Cafe at Music Hall on July 15th for an evening with Bobbi Storm.

This is Bobbi's first headlining tour.

Where she takes the audience through her life experiences through her music.

And of course there's so much more going in and around Detroit.

So here are more events.

Have a great weekend.

(electro beat music) - [Host] That will do it for this week's One Detroit.

Thanks for watching.

Head to the One Detroit website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

- [Announcer] 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.

Support for this program is provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

- [Announcer] 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.

- [Announcer] Nissan Foundation.

And viewers like you.

(electro beat music) (piano melody)