- A celebration of Black philanthropy is coming to Detroit this summer.

The Detroit Historical Museum is hosting a display titled "Giving Back: the Soul of Philanthropy Reframed and Exhibited" beginning on June 2nd.

The exhibit features portraits and stories of more than 90 Black Detroit philanthropists.

It is presented by the volunteer collective known as the Soul of Philanthropy Michigan.

I got all of the details from steering committee co-chairs Collin Mays and Nikia Washington.

So I love the idea behind this exhibit.

It's the kind of thing that I think has always been there and is out there, but lots of people probably have no idea about some of the people that you're trying to celebrate here.

Let's start with where you could come up with this idea.

Where does the Soul of Philanthropy come from, Collin?

- Sure, well, the exhibit was actually created by woman named Valaida Fullwood who's based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the exhibit has traveled to over 30 communities at this point since it's inception, and we have had the opportunity to kind of see other cities and how they've modeled the exhibit, and we wanted to add our own spin to it.

So it's first time it's coming to Detroit to tell the story, at least to begin to tell the story in the long history of the Black philanthropy.

- Yeah.

And Nikia, as I said, this idea of Black philanthropy, for lots of reasons, doesn't get the air that other kinds of philanthropy gets, and so lots of people just don't think of African Americans when they think of philanthropy.

I feel like one of the aims of this exhibit is to show them just how wrong they are.

- Yeah, that's exactly right, Stephen.

I mean, philanthropy really, I mean, a lot of us think about it in terms of big names, big dollars, but it really expands beyond treasure into time, talent, testimony.

And as Black folks in this country who have been, you know, historically marginalized from gaining capital, we've had to show up in different ways with our philanthropy, and we've done so in really phenomenal ways.

But even when we look at dollars, a report by the Kellogg Foundation in 2012 still reported that Black folks per capita were the most philanthropic racial group in the United States.

And then when we look at, you know, volunteer time, even the Lilly School, which is another one of our partners, also reported that Black folks are more likely to volunteer than other racial groups, so we're showing up with our time, talent, treasures, testimony in so many ways, and we're so excited to celebrate and call out those unheard stories.

- Yeah.

So Collin, one of the other interesting things about this is, of course, the connection between Black philanthropy and the history of discrimination and segregation and things that held African Americans back.

The focus for so many of these folks is on erasing inequality.

Talk about that nexus, and how important that is in our community.

- So as Nikia said, you know, we have historically, as Black Americans, have been philanthropic not just with dollars, but with time, talent, and treasures.

And really just kind of reshaping the narrative of what it means to be a philanthropist, it's not what you may think it is.

It's not what you may hear it is.

It's everyday action and everyday thought that we put in and pour into our communities, which is what we tried to do with our local component of these exhibits.

So it's gonna be two parts.

We're gonna have the full fledged exhibit which was created by Valaida, and then we're going to add our local content, which is gonna focus on those hidden gems, or maybe not so hidden gems in Detroit philanthropy.

- Yeah, so let's talk about some of the folks who people will get to know better in this exhibit.

- Well, we have six key categories that we focused it on.

So we had clergy, community champions, education, service organizations, which is really important for Nikia and I, business, of course, providing a break about right business people past and present, and last, but certainly not least, the divide net line, which both Nikia and I are affiliated with.

And it's important that we showcase and tell their story by giving all of those six various sectors.

- Yeah, yeah.

And Nikia, it's important, I think, that this is at the Detroit Historical Museum, which is a place that, of course, we've struggled for a long time to be more inclusive, to feature more about African Americans and our community.

I feel this is kind of a milestone.

- This is a milestone, and it's, you know, I started my journey of Black philanthropy study research at the Charles Wright Museum, and we were partnering at that time back in 2016 to tell the story of the Detroit 67 rebellion, and so we, you know, what is it, six, seven years later, it's so amazing to see where Detroit Historical Museum and the Detroit Historical Society has come in wanting to tell these stories.

I mean, they have been such an amazing partner, going above and beyond our ask.

This comes in, you know, after a number of exhibits that they've done to showcase Black business owners that they just had, and entrepreneurs.

I just went up there the other day, and they were telling stories about incarceration.

So we're really excited to be included in this journey.

It was a yes from them from the beginning.

They have a great team over there.

We have folks that's on our steering committee.

So we are really excited to be along with them on this journey of further inclusion and connecting with Detroit in a deeper way.

- Yeah, yeah.

I also always wanna point out how different and special we are as Detroiters, (chuckles) that this is a unique space on the face there, and I imagine that there are things in this exhibit that will jump out at us because it's about Detroit.

Talk about how Detroit kind of shines in this space differently than others, Collin.

- Well, for us, Detroit, of course, is historically one of the Blackest, I guess you could say the Blackest city in America, and we wanted to showcase how we historically have given in Detroit beyond just the dollars.

It goes back to giving service and giving up time.

And when you think of philanthropy, that's what we want you to take away from this exhibit is that everybody is a philanthropist.

Stephen, you're a philanthropist.

Nikia's a philanthropist.

I'm a philanthropist.

Everybody watching is a philanthropist, and we want them to have that takeaway once they leave the exhibit, once the summer concludes, 'cause it's gonna be a big party, Stephen, but you gotta come out and celebrate.

- Yes, I absolutely will.

Okay, so congratulations on putting all of this together and bringing it to us at the Detroit Historical Museum.

Talk quickly, Nikia, about how people can get involved and come see it.

- Absolutely, so we open on June 2nd, and we'll be there through August 27th, so all summer you can visit us.

We have a big focus on youth, and we will be doing partnerships with different youth programs to make sure as many young people get into that exhibit.

So it's totally family friendly, it's interactive, and we really want youth to understand at an early age their contributions to philanthropy, and to be able to see themselves as philanthropists as well.

So please bring out your family and children this summer.

We have over 15 programs, a huge program on Juneteenth that we're so excited to partner with Detroit Historical Museum as the official public opening.

So we have a ton of things planned for that.

One that I'll drop is Urban Art Orchestra will be performing.

They also talk about framing, you know, our contributions in a different way in terms of music, so really excited to partner with them.

But other than that, we would invite you all to go to TSOPmichigan.org, click get updates so you stay in the loop about all of our programs, and then also the button right above that is donate.

We are in our crowdfunding portion of this to continue not just our efforts in Detroit this summer, but thinking about where does this go after the exhibits here.

This is a continued conversation.

So we invite folks to come out, celebrate with us, stay updated, and give where you can.