- Coming up on "American Black Journal," we're gonna get the details on a Bridge Detroit community conversation about housing and home repair in the city.

Plus, Detroit's Poet Laureate is here to talk about her role with the city and her upcoming concert that honors Black women who rock, and we'll hear from the defending champion of Detroit's Collared Green Cook-off.

Stay right there, "American Black Journal" starts right now.

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(upbeat music) - Welcome to "American Black Journal."

I'm Stephen Henderson, your host.

Affordable housing, legal assistance for renters, and home repairs are critical issues for people here in the city of Detroit.

Our partner, Bridge Detroit, is examining these needs and possible solutions as part of its summer conversation series on August 20th.

The public is invited to attend a discussion on how residents can take advantage of resources for homeowners and for renters.

I spoke with Bridge Detroit's managing editor, Christine Ferretti, about the event.

Christine Ferretti, welcome to "American Black Journal."

- Hello Stephen.

Thank you for having me on today.

I appreciate it.

- It's great to have you here.

And we should disclose up front that you and I work together as part of the Bridge Detroit team.

Let's start here.

Talk about this series of conversations that the Bridge Detroit team is having with Detroiters.

This is one, the one that's coming up, is just one of several that are taking place across the city.

- Yeah, that's right, Stephen.

So this is our third year in a row of doing a summertime engagement.

The first year we visited every city council district in Detroit, and then we had like a final, citywide type gathering to really, at that point, just get public feedback.

We really wanted to just hear from people about what's going on, ask them some questions, have them share.

Last year we formulated what we're doing right now, which you referenced, which is our community conversation series.

So what we did is we really refined the top issues of importance to communities, and what we did along with that, instead of just allowing people to have a dialogue with us, we wanted to bring in people from organizations and the city to give overviews of programs and support alternatives and let people get things addressed upfront, face-to-face.

We felt that was a really good way to do it.

So this year, we have four conversations.

We are about to have our third on the 20th, from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, and we're holding that at Johnson Rec Center.

And this conversation is an issue that is always at the top of the list, and to be an understatement.

So it deals with housing resources, home repair, renter's rights, and renter's programming, things to help support people when they're facing an eviction or landlord problems.

Even programs for landlords that come into play with the city and having easier ways for people to be in compliance with the city's laws, to have habitability.

- Yeah.

- So we're gonna cover all that stuff.

We're gonna offer a free dinner and conversation and we hope that people will join us.

This is really important.

- And this is a big part of the Bridge Detroit model, is to talk with Detroiters about what they're experiencing, and what's going on in their communities, and then shape the news, the journalism that Bridge Detroit does around that.

One of the things that really stands out about this upcoming conversation is this idea of home repair and how much need there is for that in the city.

We talk about it a lot in Detroit, but we don't quantify it much, but the numbers are staggering.

- That's absolutely true.

I feel like in our recent reporting, we often reflect on, even a U of M survey from 2021, and it showed that, I believe it was almost 38,000 Detroiters have conditions that just aren't appropriate for them.

People have issues with their roof and with their plumbing and even just basic accessibility issues.

I mean, it kind of runs the gamut, but I mean, that was even just a few years ago and every time a program is created, and there are many, the interest level is extreme.

- Yeah.

- And we have multiple programs right now and we will have people speaking on behalf of those at our event, including Laura Granaman who's gonna talk, from the Gilbert Family Foundation, about a big $20 million program they had that immediately, when it opened, it had hundreds of thousands of people trying to get through and get in line for this.

- Yeah.

- And then also renew Detroit, which is another city program, and it's a similar outcome there.

You have so much people, this volume of people wanting this help and we have wait lists, we have programs closing with only being able to help a small group of this overall number.

- Yeah, yeah.

- It's a common theme.

- Yeah.

And then of course housing security is- - Absolutely.

- Is always an issue here.

And Detroit and Bridge Detroit has done a lot of reporting about housing security.

But at this conversation, people will be able to get information about how to make sure that they can maintain a roof over their head is still a big question mark for a lot of people in our city.

- And I will add on that note, one thing we are doing here that we really haven't done much of in the past, we did do it for our event last year, we have called on various organizations who are either participating in our panel talk, or just wanting to participate, we're gonna have resource tables for people.

So beyond just kind of hearing a little overview of these programs and what your opportunity even is to get involved in it, we will have tables set up at the event where people can go and get actual signups, paperwork, some linked up with people who can further guide them, for things that are available.

'Cause like I said, a common theme is that there are programs and either people don't know about them or how to get on these lists or into the program, or the programs fill up so quickly that the expectation just didn't even match what the real need is, and it's just another reinforcement of how vital this type of service is for Detroiters to have.

- And there's a new program that's been announced recently about the housing.

What is that?

- Yes.

This is super timely, actually, This week the city was talking about how applications are open for a new program, called the Detroit Home Accessibility Program.

So what that is is it's about 6.6 million in funding and they have some partners involved, and this is specifically for people in the city that have disabilities and who are low income.

So this will allow up to 250 people to get assistance with accessibility improvements to their homes, which is a whole other element of things.

You don't always hear that in the conversation, and people critical in this program were Detroit Disability Power, which is a group that works toward accessibility and other rights of people with disabilities, and Mary Waters, a council person, of course, and Fred Durhal were advocates to get this supported and in place.

And they're also advocating for allocations to go toward people who are blind or have low vision, and also seniors with disabilities.

So they'll all get prioritized in this new program, which, like I said, just was announced for people to start applying this week, and I'm sure we can bring that up at our discussion and inform people further about how you can qualify.

- Yeah, and if viewers want to attend the conversation, they just go to BridgeDetroit.com and sign up.

Isn't that right?

- Absolutely.

It's a free program.

Like I said, it'll have dinner, discussion, and resources available.

We keep hearing that this is such a priority and we're trying our best to meet the needs.

And please come, please give us feedback of what you want more of and how we can further help.

- Our next guest was named Detroit Poet Laureate by Mayor Mike Duggan earlier this year.

And in her new role, Jessica Care Moore is responsible for composing poems for special city events and occasions.

She's also the founder of "Black Women Rock," which is an annual show that honors women in rock and roll.

This year's performance at the Fillmore Detroit, on August 31st, is gonna mark the event's 20th anniversary.

Here's my conversation with Jessica Care Moore.

Let's start with the appointment to be the poet laureate of Detroit, which I just think is wonderful.

- Thank you.

- Tell me about it.

- I mean, it's exciting 'cause people ask me what it means.

We haven't had a poet laureate since Naomi Long Madgett, and so I of course knew Naomi Long Madgett since I was a little girl and a young poet, coming up in the reigns in my early twenties, and then other people said, "Well, what do you do?

Is it your job now?"

(Stephen laughs) So I feel like it is what you make it.

I'm honored for the title, but I have lots of plans.

But to do great work with the city.

I'm doing work with literacy.

I have a program that actually my son started, called "The 12 and Under Super Cool Poetry Open Mic," and he's outgrown it, King has gone to college, and we realized that that void isn't being filled anymore.

So I'm gonna host, we're gonna look for a new host, and I'm gonna do these workshops for young people 12 and under.

I think it's an underserved population.

- It is.

- Poetry is a great, great tool for learning, for increasing literacy, writing.

- So, you do so many different things.

Tell me what it is that draws you to poetry and what you get out of it.

- I can't seem to get it outta my body.

I feel like it's been in my body since I was nine or 10 years old.

The poems are in there.

It's a release, it's a healing, and I love how it touches other people.

You can read a novel and be moved, but when you hear a poet speak and you read a poet's work, I think it just inspires people.

And it's a very succinct thing.

Normally my poems two, three minute long stories, right?

And I think because that's accessible art, it's accessible in a way that I get it.

I read nonfiction and memoir, I don't read a lot of fiction, but poetry was something, as a little girl, I could get ahold of, and I understood Alice Walker early.

- Yeah, yeah.

- I got a hold of those.

Yeah and Ntozake Shange early, like 14, 15 years old, and it was something I could process.

And so I just like the fact this is an accessible art form and it's really for everyone.

- Yeah, yeah.

And of course, you were coming up on Black Women Rocks 20th anniversary.

That seems impossible that you've been doing this for 20 years, but that's true, right?

- Yeah, and clearly I started when I was a teenager.

- (laughs) Yeah, right.

- 20 years ago, in Atlanta, Georgia, I was a young producer for the National Black Arts Festival and I saw a void in the festival, and a lot of festivals, even with Black festivals that have writers and poets and playwrights, they didn't have an electricity.

They didn't have that thing that I was on the rock-sing in New York City and I wanted to bring some of that energy to Atlanta at National Black Arts Festival.

And I wanted to celebrate Betty Davis.

I learned about her through Questlove and some of the MCs Ateli Quali, they think I look like her.

Whatever, she could be my fine auntie with a Afro.

And I looked her up and I found her music and she did so much to inspire Miles Davis and help to create jazz fusion and really change Miles' work.

And she is an unsung hero of funk rock music.

So this concert, and I didn't expect to be doing it 20 years later because why should I still have to?

But the reality is these women, like Joy, like even Nona Hendricks or Kimberly Nicole, Stephanie Christian, these women who make music and it's their lifeblood, Divinity Rocks, Nick West, Nick West is coming up for Lenny Kravitz tour.

Divinity Rocks was musical director for Beyonce.

So these are not women who are not doing...

They've done stadiums, but they come and do this show with me because I put them in front.

and I know it's an all headliner show.

It's gonna be a master blaster.

It was my dream to have the Fillmore, I'm so grateful to the Fillmore to put me on that marquee because the women deserve the marquee.

And I'm doing this as a labor of love.

It's not like I have all this corporate sponsorship because I don't, I have very little money, using my own money this year to help make it happen, and it just means a lot to me.

- You said that you feel like you have to still do this.

- Yes.

- Talk about that dynamic.

Are things changing?

Have they gotten better, or do you feel like you're in the same spot you were 20 years ago?

- I mean, it's gotten better because we're better.

'cause this movement is bigger and that there's women saying, "Oh, Jessica, do you know Slees Henderson, oh do you know Jackie Vincent?"

So the beauty of us has grown.

Our community has grown.

We're growing.

The world has to catch up with us.

It's still the problem.

Black radio, urban Radio doesn't play Black rock music.

It's a ridiculous thing.

It's our music.

It belongs to us.

It don't play.

- We invented it.

(laughs) Right.

- Yeah, so we always do an art exhibition and you've been seeing the show.

It's a huge show.

We got full draw.

We got trombones and trumpets and saxophone this year.

Leslie Yvonner's coming out, she's been with Beyonce for many years now.

She started with us first.

She's coming to play trumpet with us.

And it's like 12 to 15 piece orchestra, and when do you ever see that with all Black women?

- Right.

- And yeah.

And the rock stations don't play us.

Shout out to Riff, like Riff, give us some spins, bring me on to talk about this thing, called rock and roll.

I went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a few years ago, and I saw Annie Lennox and I saw Pink and Dolly Parton.

They're all on stage, and I was like, do y'all see who's missing here?

- Yeah, (laughs) right.

- And really it's the elephant in the room that needs to get fixed.

So Rosetta Thorpe, we're honoring her this year, of course, with our exhibition "Up Above Our Heads" is the name of the exhibition.

That opens on the 28th of August.

So it's a full weekend, it's the 28th, we open at the Motivational Museum, a beautiful new gallery on Joe Campo and Ham Trammick.

Then my brother Khalil will have the art exhibition there, a kind of a timeline of the history of Black and rock will be included this year.

And then the concert's on the 31st, and on September 1st, we have a free community event where we have sound bath healing because this work is hard work, and so we wanna take care of each other.

We wanna have a safe space so women can tell their stories.

And truly, at the Sunday event, it starts at 9:30 in the morning and goes 'til 1:00.

Right before the women get on the planes, we just try to love on them and just gather and talk about this thing, called surviving being a black artist woman in America.

(laughs) It's a very real thing.

There's a lot of us.

When India got her deal, I remember, there's a lot of India Aries, India is magnificent.

There's other Black girls that play guitar.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Come on, you know?

And so it's a educational weapon, a concert disguise.

It's an educational tool disguised as a concert because we wanna change people's idea and perception of what rock and roll music is.

And so I'm excited to do it here in Detroit.

I'm very grateful.

- Yeah, it's a huge deal that it happens here.

Let's talk about the film that you've done.

Like I said, you do all kinds of things.

(laughs) You've got- - Yes, interdisciplinary.

- Yeah right?

(laughs) - For sure.

"He Looked Like a Postcard," I wrote the film.

Qasim Basir is my director.

I read him the script during Covid just to get some feedback.

He loved the script, he said, "Jessica, I wanna direct."

Or, "Can you find us a producer?"

So fast forward to 2022, I found a producer.

I realized I was a film producer.

I never produced a film before, now I know how to do it.

I've gotten this to the finish line in post.

It's still in post.

I'm really honored, we're nominated for a best feature at the Martha Vineyard Film Festival.

We were American Black Film Festival already.

A Detroit premiere has happened already, and I'm ready to get a distribution deal.

So it's a poet and a painter love story.

It's a love story to my city.

I show Detroit in a beautiful way.

All the muralists from Sidney James and Mario Moore and different artists, their work is inside the film.

Motown is the character.

He plays a painter.

But Ijania Cortez, it's her work that he's pretending to paint.

- Oh wow, wow.

- Yeah, and it's loosely based on my own life.

It's about me coming home to Detroit and trying to find a way to make a living as a poet here.

- Yeah.

- 10 month old baby.

And I have, but I didn't know how I was gonna do it at first.

- (laughs) Right, right.

- Just a self love story more than anything else.

- Yeah.

So film or poetry, which is the more satisfying for you?

- Oh, well, it's all a poem, you know.

Even the film is one long poem.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

Institution building is my thing, like I'm always gonna be a poet, but I like to build institutions, and I like to push other people forward.

So More Black Press, my publishing house since '97 now has this deal with Harper Collins.

And so I have a great poet named Brad Warran, with a book that's coming out called "Everywhere Alien."

A really important voice in the LGBT community, really important voice from the nineties, New York scene I came out of.

He's a fierce, fierce poet.

You've got Jericho Brown and Richard Spirit Jones and everyone endorsing this book.

He's gonna be published in "The Atlantic."

Really excited.

So if it's just me, it's not exciting for me.

I like the institutions, the film, what I love about filmmaking is that I couldn't do it by myself.

- Right, well, right.

- Yeah.

- It's quite an undertaking.

- It's hard work.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, but I think storytelling doesn't have to stop with books.

And we're a multimedia world, so visuals are just a part of it.

I think I'm just beginning as a filmmaker and I haven't touched the surface of what I'll end up doing.

I'm very excited and I'm co-star of the film, me and Tobias Truvillian.

Tobias is an amazing actor and I learned a lot working with him.

I was really nervous.

But I'm good live, on a theater stage, but film is very different.

- It's different, sure.

- Yeah, and my nephew is a child star.

Jayden Anthony Moore, my nephew auditioned and got the role of my son.

- Oh wow.

- And my son, King, is in the film.

He plays my son, Idris, later in life.

So just one scene, my big boy, King.

But my nephew is the child star in the film.

- Aw, that's really great.

All right.

Jessica, you have a million things going on.

They're all really interesting, all really great, but I'm glad you could come by and talk with us on "American Black Journal."

- Absolutely honored.

And then you come out and see me, please.

I'd love for you to be in the audience.

- Absolutely.

The second annual Detroit Collared Green Cook-off Championship takes place on August 15th.

The competition pits some of the city's best cooks against each other for the coveted title of Best Collared Green Chef.

The event is produced by Detroit.

It's different and the contestants use locally sourced ingredients.

Bridge Detroit reporter, Jena Brooker, and One Detroit's, Chris Jordan, caught up with last year's winner as he prepares to defend his title.

- My name is Chef Buddha.

I'm the owner and director of Buddha Foods.

I'm also known as the vegan gumbo guy across the world because I started off doing vegan gumbo.

I grew up on collard greens and if my grandma was here to taste those, she probably would've gave me that look, like how did you do this?

Because traditionally I wasn't taught that.

I just learned it from my buddy who learned it from somebody else, and I just took off with it.

- So what makes the recipe special?

- Pan frying it.

- Okay.

- Traditionally, in most families, people will boil their collard greens.

Me, I like to saute 'em, which is kinda equivalent to how they do over in the East and Africa, and the Caribbean.

They kind of pan fry that stuff with the callaloo and all that kind of stuff.

Not majority of the cultures, but some cultures will pan fry.

So I said, if we're going into the contest, everybody's gonna cook traditional collard greens.

Why don't I saute mine?

I had elders in wheelchairs holding my hand the whole time we were serving 'cause they was like, "How did you do this?"

- [Jena Brooker] On August 15th, Calhoun will face off against five other finalists at the Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center on Rosa Parks Boulevard in Detroit.

- Yeah, so these collard greens I got from D Town Farm.

- [Jena Brooker] Okay, great.

- I like to put sweet peppers and onions in mine.

I don't know, traditionally, I don't think we ever had it like that.

If we did, my grandma would cut up fresh tomatoes and fresh onions on the side and we'd just sprinkle it on top of the greens that were already cooked.

But me, I love cooking with sweet peppers 'cause it gives it such a great taste.

And I added shallots to this one today just because I had one shallot at home.

I said, "That's not gonna hurt."

So why not add that?

(knife tapping) Today we're gonna use avocado oil.

(food sizzling) - [Jena Brooker] So roughly what temperature do we want the pan at?

- Just hot enough to cook down the peppers and onions.

With the greens, we don't want to overcook 'em, so we're just gonna toss them around a few times.

Let it simmer for like, I'd say about eight minutes at the most.

I will tell you what I'm seasoning it with today though.

Chili powder and cumin.

- Okay.

- So that is kind of slash like a island flavor that most of the islanders might use.

(food sizzling) - [Jena Brooker] So was that a hot sauce or... - That's liquid smoke.

I have a secret ingredient.

I'm not gonna tell you guys what it is because I don't want- - What if we guess?

(laughs) - It's definitely vegetable.

(food sizzling) (pan clanking) I don't wanna overcook the greens, so I'll cook the peppers and onions first, then add the greens.

(food sizzling) And I think we're ready to roll.

Mm.

No sodium.

I usually do add like a Creole seasoning to it, which will probably bring it out a little bit more, but it's definitely good.

What you think?

- These are so flavorful and like you were saying, the texture's still there, or there's a little bit of a bite into it.

- So this year I got something a little bit special.

It's gonna be similar to the last year's recipe, but I'm gonna add something extra, something that people love.

- Okay.

- That I realized goes well with greens now.

So hopefully I'll come home again with the second trophy.

- That'll do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at AmericanBlackJournal.org, and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [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 also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations, committed to Michigan-focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at DTEFoundation.com.

- [Announcer] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation, and viewers like you.

Thank you.

(bright music)