(timer beeping) - [Will] Coming up next on "One Detroit."

We'll visit a market filled with products created by Muslim small business owners to celebrate the holy month of Ramadan.

Also ahead, a local gallery hosts an exhibition in memory of well-known Detroit artist and mentor, Gilda Snowden.

Plus, the Great Lakes Now team shares the history behind a treasured lighthouse in the Straits of Mackinac.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

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(upbeat music) - [Will] Just ahead on this week's "One Detroit."

She was an educator and mentor to thousands of young artists.

Now, the late Gilda Snowden is being honored at an exhibition that bears her name.

We'll take you to the Scarab Club for the event that recognizes the talents of local artists and the impacts Snowden had on the art community in Detroit.

Also coming up, an aging lighthouse in the Straits of Mackinac is getting a new lease on life.

The team at Great Lakes Now has the story of the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse and how it was rescued by a group of preservationists who hoped to turn it into an educational center.

But first, Muslim business owners come together for a festive market welcoming the holy month of Ramadan, which begins April 2nd.

Decorations, food, clothing, and other handcrafted wears created by more than 20 Muslim vendors were on sale at the event in Westland.

The PBS news hours, Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, reports for "One Detroit" about bringing entrepreneurial spirit to what might become a new holiday tradition.

(upbeat music) (people chattering) - [Frances] A March Saturday in Westland, Western Wayne County.

It's a Ramadan Market, a gathering of makers, artists, and entrepreneurs, mostly women, selling their wears in anticipation of the upcoming month of Ramadan.

- And what makes us really unique is that we're a woman-only business, and we wanna provide a platform for other women through our collaborative to join us so that we can eventually become a full service event venue, where people can come in and find catering and baking, and all of that.

So that is our goal right now.

- [Frances] Michigan Ramadan Market, a new idea for Metro Detroit.

The women of Aynaa Events and Decor helped put the event together.

Housewares, clothes, art, and a lot of food.

Caterer, Zafreen Chowdhury is here from the east side with some Bengali dishes.

Can you tell us about the food you made?

- This one is beef hulim.

It's made with three kind of daal which is lentil with the beef.

It's like soup, but it's a little bit thicker.

And this one is our chickpea, three type of chickpea, and mixed sweet potato or tomato.

So this is one kind, and I have a lot of frozen item too.

You know, when Ramadan coming, people do have like to have a lot frozen item to stock up in the fridge so they can just take out and fry 'em, but we eat lot of fried food on Ramadan.

- The name of the business is Taste of Egypt.

We hope to grow it and to open our own place one day.

I'm introducing today some Egyptian desserts.

I'm doing kunafa cupcakes and some holiday desserts.

I do kunafa.

Kunafa is like a shredded phyllo dough.

This is the Egyptian style with cream and raisins and coconut inside.

- [Frances] Ramadan, this year beginning April 2nd, ending May 1st, for Muslims a month of daily fasting.

- It was revealed in almost every religion, but here in Islam, we do it a little bit different, which is, we fast from before dawn to sunset.

During this month, it's very important to stop not just eating food and drink, we are also prohibited from committing any bad deeds, such as saying bad words, all these bad habits.

We learned from the prophet that during the last 10 days of Ramadan there is a holy night.

It's called the Night of Power, which is Laylatul Qadr, This Night of Power, if you pray in it and constantly work so hard between you and your Lord, you'll be forgiven.

- [Frances] All that fasting brings an emphasis on food, good food.

Amanie Mheisen makes Ramadan themed pastries with bigger plans ahead.

- This market is nice 'cause it gives us some ideas of how we can gift other things to our families and our friends and our communities.

It really brings the communities together.

These are sweet cheese topped with fresh honey crisp apples.

- [Frances] Has it been hard the last two years with COVID?

- It was really difficult with COVID.

We're here now, we're gathering now, so that's always good.

- [Frances] Yeah.

- Because of the fact that in the last two years, because of COVID, we haven't had the chance to have anything in person, and some of these businesses are actually new.

They've been, like myself, I started during COVID.

So this is actually my first opportunity to meet with small businesses within Michigan.

- Bushra Murad Barakah Boutique is geared for youngsters.

How important is it to have these sort of culturally-specific books and toys for children?

- So I think the idea and the hope is to kind of keep them with a strong connection that they can have with their faith, and through these product, the hope is that through these items the children can kind of connect more with their faith as they practice living in the U.S. - [Frances] This Ramadan market, not unlike Christmas markets that come around each December, perhaps this is the start of another holiday tradition.

- I really feels like it's a great idea, then we can showcase our kids, our next generation, how our tradition is, how we bring it all together, how like this is a diverse, it's very diverse, this is very important.

(people chattering) (people chattering) - [Will] It's Women's History Month, and one of Detroit's most well-known African American female artists is being remembered at the Scarab Club in Midtown.

the Gilda Snowden Memorial Exhibition highlights the diverse works of local artists, some of whom were influenced or taught by the late educator and mentor.

"One Detroit" contributor, A. J. Walker, visited the exhibit and met some of the artists.

(upbeat music) - [Walker] Beauty and passion adorn the walls of the Scarab Club for an event that is not just an art show, it's a monument to a woman who gave so much to the art world and the community around her.

- She had a tremendous love of her family and her community.

She was in her own right, an amazing artist and just a very prolific artist.

She was a teacher, a mentor, a colleague and friend to so many people, just countless people, and she always had just an enormous generosity of spirit.

- [Walker] The legacy she leaves behind at what is now named the Gilda Snowden Memorial Exhibition is giving artists a chance to show their work and take a moment to remember the woman who blazed the trail ahead of them.

Before the opening of the exhibition, we stopped by the Scarab Club to meet some of the artists and speak with one of the people who knew Gilda on a personal level, Treena Flannery-Erickson, it's gallery director.

She said this was the perfect exhibition to name in Gilda's honor.

- The Silver Medal Exhibition, which this exhibition used to be called, was her favorite exhibition of the year.

And she loved it so much because she felt that it was so inclusive.

It was unthemed, all media, a juried exhibition, open to all artists.

It could be anything.

It could be absolutely anything.

She loved the idea that students and their teachers might be hanging in the same space.

She loved the idea that it was emerging artists and established artists, and that it was an opportunity for artists to have their work seen.

- [Walker] Renowned quilt maker, April Anue Shipp, made this quilt in Gilda's image.

It's on display at the exhibition.

She was inspired by Gilda, even though they had never met.

- When I started doing this piece, I was free.

I let Gilda to tell me what she wanted to have on this quilt.

So I used fabrics and flowers and hand embroidery on it.

There's silk on there, there's gloss on there.

I just threw everything at it.

I think I thought she would like that because from what I heard about her was that she loved color.

And so I wanted to honor her with just giving her my all, giving her all this beautiful color.

- [Walker] One of the things Gilda was remembered for besides her beautiful art, was her passion for her community.

That's something April and Gilda have in common.

Helping to serve your community through art, and I know Gilda did that, and it sounds like you do that too.

- Trying, trying.

When Philando Castile was murdered by the police, my first instinct was to sew.

And so I cut a bunch of squares and I would sit and sew by hand, and that gave me peace, right?

I did a quilt entitled, Say Their Names.

And it has the names of the African-American men, women, and children who were murdered, who, unarmed, murdered by the police.

And I would invite the community to come and pin the names of the victims on this piece.

- [Walker] The Gilda Snowden Memorial Exhibition opened during Women's History Month, a time when great women like Gilda are being recognized and appreciated in the art world and beyond.

For April, when this exhibition is over and Women History Month comes to an end, she looks forward to her work continuing to be displayed in galleries like this one.

- This is a great time to be an artist right now.

Most of my friends who are artists are in shows across the city, this is a great time, and they're mostly women painters and sculptors and they run the gambit.

So I think it's a great time to be a black woman and to be a black woman artist.

I'm having a ball.

I'm enjoying my life.

I'm having the time of my life, trust and believe.

- [Walker] Trina says, she's glad that artists of all genders and races are now having their work recognized.

She says art is a part of the conversation that is opening doors for equality and it should be.

Artist, Eno Laget, agrees.

- It's not so much about the object as a piece of art.

It's about the conversations that may happen, the opportunity to have the conversations about things that I think are really important, particularly now when we seem to be reliving a lot of the ugliness that occurred when I was a kid.

- He created this stencil of Rosa Parks also on display at the exhibition.

Well, we're standing here.

We're looking at your work that is paying homage to an African American pioneer.

And I just think it all lends to the advancement of women, and women of color, and just women around the world, even though I know we still have so far to go.

- What makes me so freaking happy, because what's the history of this place?

It's more than a hundred years old.

You guys wouldn't have been in here at all.

Or if you were, as Trina said, you would've been carrying a tray.

So women weren't allowed in, people of color were not allowed in, and here we are in 2021, and we have a show that's dedicated to a woman of color who had been very active in the community for many years, beloved by many people.

And it's a little piece of a testimony to how things have changed, but at the same time it's everywhere.

There's still so much work that needs to be done.

- [Walker] The exhibition named in honor of an African American woman who paved the way for other artists is a part of that work, Gilda Snowden, who hoped she was making a difference in the world.

- One of the things that she said to me is that we think we have forever, but we don't.

And so we have to identify what are the most important things in our lives and what we need to give our attention to, and that's what we need to do.

- [Will] Lighthouses have been guiding sailors on the Great Lakes for more than two centuries.

Some are showing their age, but at one remote site in Northern Lake Huron, a lighthouse is undergoing a massive renovation, thanks to a group of volunteers.

Great Lakes Now's Nick Austin, has the story of the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse in the Straits of Mackinac.

(upbeat music) (gentle music) - [Nick] Lake Huron and Lake Michigan come together in the straits of Mackinac, long considered one of the most treacherous waterways on all of the Great Lakes.

For nearly 150 years, the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse has guarded ships passing through the Straits.

It sits 12 miles and a world away from the mainland.

(gentle music) - You can see the Straits of Mackinac all up there.

- [Nick] Patrick McKinstry is the president of the Spectacle Reef Preservation Society, a nonprofit organization he and a group of lighthouse enthusiasts created to restore and preserve the light.

- So, Northern Lake Huron buoy has six-foot seas, Great Duck Island has four, which means the light right now has four to five.

(gentle music) (seagulls squawking) The lighthouse was sold at auction 2014 to a private individual who's a friend and he offered me the lighthouse.

I wanted to buy the lighthouse for myself, but I believe they should be in public hands because these were built with taxpayers dollars to save the lives of the public.

And the people who lived there should be remembered as public servants.

We put a team together of lighthouse historians, restorationists, enthusiasts, and the society raised the cash and purchased the lighthouse.

(horn honks) (indistinct) - [Nick] When we caught up with him, Patrick and a group of volunteers were getting ready to take the 17-mile trek from Sheboygan to the lighthouse, hoping to make up some restoration work before the weather makes such trips too dangerous.

- This crew is a very good crew and all of our volunteers are fantastic.

We've got 157 volunteers to have joined the organization this season.

- [Man] Would have been bad- - All their knowledge and skill sets all play a role.

The one thing that's impressed me is just the amount of passion that people have for this organization that's saving this lighthouse.

(suspenseful music) (waves crashing) - [Nick] But working on a lighthouse that's this far off the shore isn't easy.

The first challenge, just getting there.

- [Patrick] My greatest fear is the same thing that the keepers experience, it's the weather out here.

There are days where you think it's great and then a storm kicks up.

- [Nick] And though the weather on this day looked pleasant enough, the threat of a sudden storm with high winds and heavy seas forced the crew to return to the marina.

The lighthouse would have to wait.

- [Man] I'll give it my (indistinct).

(gentle music) (car door slams) - [Man] Well, you don't retain it all.

- [Nick] Fortunately, by the next day conditions had improved.

(boat engine revving) - [Patrick] If you look down the water, you'll see the reef plain as day.

- [Nick] Spectacle Reef Lighthouse gets its name from the shallow reef it was built on.

There are two shoals with a ridge between them that resemble a paint air of eyeglasses.

The design of the lighthouse makes it even stronger in severe weather.

- The lighthouse is built out of giant limestone blocks that are two foot tall, and their width and their radius differs based on where they're in the light tower.

But the way it's built, they have these edges that are cut almost like puzzle pieces so that when the waves hit the tower, it actually mushes it all together, making the joints stronger over time.

- [Nick] Spectacle Reef was considered a technical Marvel when it was built in 1869, and it became a model for lighthouses built throughout the Northern Great Lakes.

- The technology in the base camp that was built for Spectacle on government island built every other offshore lighthouse up in the Straits in Mackinac, particularly the Lake Huron side.

But all the technology that was developed and engineered for Spectacle makes her kind of the grandmother of every other offshore lighthouse on the Great Lakes in the end.

(gentle music) We are on top of Spectacle Reef Lighthouse, about 97 feet above Lake Huron on the lower parapet.

There's two parapets, an upper and a lower.

Were on the lower side right now.

The entire next level was just the lens.

and the level below was the service room, where they kept oil on wicks and material, had their little office to take care of their logs each night when light was lit when the fog horn went off, that type of thing.

(whimsical music) So when you're out here at night, you'll see, if you include this, I believe it's 10 or 11 lighthouses flashing out here at night, and gives a kind of a real idea why these were so important being out here in the middle the lake, you know, and how the flash patterns are all different.

So people knew what they were looking at.

Nowadays it's hard to tell 'cause you got all these radio towers and whatnot, but when they were built, of course, it was pitch black out here.

And the only source of light you had was the lighthouses.

(whimsical music) (indistinct) (suspenseful music) The steel boards (indistinct).

- [Nick] The goal of the Spectacle Reef Preservation Society is to create a learning light where people can come and experience the life of a lighthouse keeper and learn about the history of lighthouses on the Great Lakes.

- That we can take all of this.

This thing is kinda cool.

It says for spec, ortho-tooth iodine.

If you pull label back on here it's just some kind toothache medication.

So in '64, a guy had a baby on shore and the wife sent him the footprints of their child.

And so these prints are still here.

The engineering and the history there is important, but really it's the stories of the people that were tough enough to survive working at a lighthouse 18 miles away from port, 12 miles in the middle of the lake with no human contact from months on end, and some of whom gave up their lives to protect sailors out there.

Those stories need to be preserved and taught over and over again, and the lighthouse is the perfect conduit for that since that is where they were based and that was their home for years on end.

(gentle music) (metal scraping) - [Nick] The first step of renovation was making the station safe for the people working on it.

That meant filling holes in the floor and remediating lead paint.

(gentle piano music) (metal scraping) Next came structural repairs, waterproofing, and other basic fixes.

It all paves the way for the restoration and cosmetic work that will happen in the future.

- This one's cracked behind me.

There's another one up top here that's cracked.

I was gonna replace those today too and we'll take all plexiglass off that's yellow, but these five over here, six, excuse me, five, they were all shattered with holes in them, and we replaced all those last weekend with a brand new glass.

It's in here.

So it's bulletproof, allegedly a bulletproof (indistinct), so it should take a pounding from the ice and the wind out here pretty good.

But we are in the lantern room of Spectacle Reef.

This is our beautiful light.

It's out here.

It's an LED light that flashes right every five seconds.

So one second on, four seconds off.

(alarm beeps) (gentle music) - [Nick] The light is still maintained by the U.S. Coast Guard and can be seen for 11 miles, but the Fresnel lens that was in place when the lighthouse was automated in 1972 had a far greater reach.

- This piece comes to us from our light Spectacle Reef This is one piece of it.

And our lens had panels inside it that rotated around the eight foot diameter light that made it flash every four seconds.

- The lens was a second Fresnel and it had a red shroud attached to it on the outside.

So it is actually the heaviest Fresnel lens ever used on the Great Lakes.

And when it was installed, it could be seen for 29 miles.

- Just needs a lot of tender love and care.

- [Nick] Carl Jahn is known as Keeper Carl.

He's a lighthouse keeper re-enactor and a member of the Spectacle Reef Preservation Society.

- Makes you look a little more official.

(laughs) It's a love for lights for whatever reason that draws people like me and Patrick and different ones.

- This is my weirdness, right?

You put your ear up against it sometimes, it is almost like she kinda talks to you.

- Oh!

- In a weird way.

- Maybe- - "Come back," she says.

- [Man] Above the lake about two square miles- - We've got volunteers coming all the way from Texas, Wisconsin.

Families come over here to spend time to help us restore this light, paint, scraping paint, sweeping floors, paint and stuff.

It's enjoyable.

There's nobody comes out there and has to work this six, eight hours that we can spend on station.

You're there to have as much fun as you do help us get the light preserved.

Down here and see if I can find a way.

(indistinct) - Out here at the lighthouse, it's pretty much whatever you can do to make it work and make everything stick.

(gentle piano music) (indistinct) - [Nick] Mark Lee lives 20 miles across lake Huron from the light, and he can see it from his home.

He's a masonry specialist who does foundation repair and brick work and he's a volunteer.

- You just gotta give it one of them.

Today I patched a couple holes that were pretty significant holes in the stairwell going up to the tower on the first floor.

And then I did a little bit of caulking and getting stuff ready for paint and making sure things are waterproof for the winter.

- [Man] I can count on him.

- [Nick] The crew of volunteers had intended to stay and work until late in the day, but once again, the weather had other plants.

(gentle music) (door squeaking) - We've got a storm coming in right now.

We're trying to beat it back to the shore.

And we'll lock her up in a couple minutes and we're outta here.

- Well, we got 20 minutes to leave before we may get caught in the weather.

I'm still trying to get ahead of the weather.

Otherwise, you guys might get wet on the way home.

I don't wanna repeat what we did two weeks ago, where we were out here in eight foot seas for three hours, 'cause that was awful.

This far offshore at the second most remote lighthouse on the Great Lakes, and third in the country.

- [Man] You don't that.

- Mother nature calls your shots.

Let's be ready to pull, go.

(gentle music) - [Nick] Patrick and his crew of volunteers will be back to continue their efforts to preserve the Spectacle Reef Lighthouse and to build a new generation of guardians of the great lakes.

- [Patrick] What I want to achieve is build that generation, so when I can no longer walk and be in a wheelchair or whatever, you know, and I can't climb that ladder anymore, I know it's in good hands and she'll still be there in great shape teaching people to story of Spectacle Reef, teaching people on shore some history, teaching techniques and methods of how to restore lighthouses.

That I can sit back in my retirement home and know she's in good hands.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) - [Will] That will do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for joining us.

Make sure to come back for "One Detroit Arts and Culture" on Mondays at 7:30 PM.

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.

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Visit DTEFoundation.com to learn more.

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(upbeat music) (gentle piano music)