Girl Gang Gets Dirty: Day 4

A grand hello to our loyal readers- 

Once again, we come to your interwebs with a late post to satisfy your Detroit ABST updates.  This morning, we started our day around the dining room table sharing in conversations, breakfast and hair braiding by Kristen and Kaitlin in full preparation for a day of dirt, potatoes, and Motown history.   We arrived at Earthworks and immediately put our limited farming skills to the test.  But no worries, Tyler was there to guide us as we cultivated the dirt around some onions, celery, broccoli, swiss chard, and collared greens.  Tyler facilitated some fun (and equally frustrating) riddles to make our morning work go by quickly.  We ended a little earlier than expected and walked over to the soup kitchen where we were greeted by a friendly volunteer staff serving deep dish pizza for lunch! Our group was also so excited to see that the Capuchin Soup kitchen was also hosting a vaccine clinic on site where community members could walk-in and immediately get vaccinated!

After eating lunch, we headed back to the field to cultivate and weed some empty beds in order to prep for the rest of the season.  We had a few more tasks like digging walking paths between the beds and planting red potatoes. We really lucked out with amazing weather for the entire day and Jess even got tan lines of her mask! During our work, we met a local volunteer, Sue, who made conversation and shared stories about her 8 grandchildren.  

After parting ways with Sue and Tyler, we said hello to Motown. The Motown Museum welcomed us with the most wonderful guide, Derrick.  Derrick led us through the house-turned-museum with songs, dances, and a vast history of  Motown.  The Girl Gang was pleasantly surprised by all that Motown brought to Detroit and the music industry. We were dumbfounded at some of the famous names that stood in the very same recording studio that we had the privilege to sing a very poor rendition of "My Girl".  We left Hitstown U.S.A. and came back to our AirBnb to cook a dinner of chicken, rice, and broccoli.  

I think our group can all agree that some of our best conversations have happened around the dinner table after one of our home cooked meals (which is exactly why this post is so late).  We chatted, reflected, played an intense board game (where An came out of nowhere with her super imposter skills), and prepared for our time tomorrow with Mosad who is so kindly hosting us for a Sunset prayer at the American Moslem Society Friday evening.  They are also hosting us for dinner after another long day at the farm.  The Girl Gang is prepared to get dirty and learn more as we spend out last full day in Detroit tomorrow.   

Girl Gang Listens and Learns: Day 3

 Hey all you cool cats and kittens, we're back! 

We started out our day by heading to Earthworks for our first day of service. Upon arriving at the farm, we were welcomed with much enthusiasm by Tyler and Wendy, two of the permanent staff members. Wendy spent the morning talking to us about Earthworks, what they do, and how things have changed since the pandemic. Earthworks is an entity of the Capuchin Monastery here in Detroit. They have two city blocks devoted to farming and cultivating crops to support the Capuchin's soup kitchen. They are the only urban farm in the city of Detroit that is organic certified (mostly due to money and political issues). In addition to the farm and soup kitchen, the Earthworks site offers a bike repair shop and free showers. Prior to the pandemic, the soup kitchen served as a safe haven for food and socialization among the community. People could hang out between meals, get a shower, and make any needed repairs to their bikes all in the same place. Now, people have to leave the premises in between meals and the bike repair shop has been reduced to an air pump with a couple of tools. Wendy then gave us a tour of the farm, and we got to see all of the different things they have growing! Currently they are harvesting arugula, collard greens, kale, and swiss chard. After breaking for lunch, we spent the better part of a half hour trying to solve Tyler's riddles. We rounded out the rest of the day learning about the history of urban farming in Detroit. Historically, urban farming efforts have come and gone.  However, for the past twenty years, urban farming through Earthworks has been a constant presence.

After a day filled with learning, we left Earthworks and visited Belle Isle, an island in the Detroit River. We then spent the late afternoon reflecting and unpacking all of the things that we saw and learned over the last three days, while Kylie taught us how to make friendship bracelets.  Those important conversations continued over a delicious taco dinner cooked by chefs Kylie and Kaitlin.  After dinner, we ventured out to enjoy a late night ice cream treat.  We had ice cream at Burk's Igloo in Hamtramck.  Hamtramck is a predominantly Muslim neighborhood.  We were lucky enough to be there during sundown prayer, and were surprised to hear the call to prayer being projected throughout the area. We capped off the evening with more important conversations around food, race, and justice - and a little more bracelet weaving. 

Tomorrow we return to Earthworks to start planting potatoes for the fall harvest.  We're so excited and looking forward to getting our hands dirty.

Girl Gang Dives into Detroit's History: Day Two

 Hello guys, gals, and Gannon pals!

Settle in folks! This day was jammed packed with everything Detroit! 

Our day started with coffee, conversations of weird noises heard by Kylie and Kristen throughout the night (both thought it was the others phone going off--still unsure of what it actually was), and Sarah deciding to put a questionable white powder into her coffee (don't worry, we confirmed it was actually powdered coffee creamer.)

First on our list was On The Rise Bakery for cinnamon rolls as big as our faces! (See the pictures below for reference!) On The Rise Bakery is a local bakery that hires individuals just out of prison or substance abuse treatment programs. Their goal is to give these individuals a second chance and an opportunity to work and get back on their feet. When we walked in we were greeted with warmth, kindness, and the incredible smell of fresh bread! 

Following the bakery we headed to the Heidelberg Project, an outdoor museum-like exhibit on Heidelberg Street. Tyree Guyton created the Heidelberg Project after he returned to his family's neighborhood from the army and found that his neighborhood had deteriorated since his childhood following the 1967 race riots. In protest of the aftermath of these riots, Tyree began creating exhibits that reflected the loss of childhood innocence and the shift to corruption and division. 

Driving past the street, it may just look like large piles of trash everywhere. However, each item has a message, a story, and a purpose. Throughout the entire exhibit are clocks and specific times. We learned that the use of clocks and time symbolize how it is time for change. One house, Dotty Wotty, was painted by Tyree and is filled with circles that represent the circle of life, the sun, the moon, the cell, and how all things in life are connected and repeat. The equation "2+2=8" could be found in multiple places along the exhibit to represent creating your own reality. Shoes were hanging from the trees symbolizing the souls of those who were lynched. An entire lot of land was piled with household items in place of one of the nine houses on the street that were destroyed by arson during this time. This powerful outdoor museum touched our entire group, leaving us all curious to learn more about the project and the history of Detroit during the time of racial protests. We reflected on how events leading to the creation of this project are eerily similar to events we have witnessed within the past year. 

After the Heidelberg Project, we went to the Henry Ford Museum where we were immersed into the world of planes, trains, cars, and American industrialization. We walked exhibits looking at the evolution of Presidential cars, saw the actual bus Rosa Parks sat on when she was arrested for not moving seats, and learned so much about how the automobile industry changed throughout our history. 

We finished our day with intense games of UNO, spaghetti, and Italian ice! We almost witnessed a man propose to his significant other downtown, but he left before we could could witness the event. And afterwards we went to a lookout and looked at Canada from across the river (during which we came to a consensus that Rachel is not allowed to take panoramas anymore...long story on that one) We are all looking forward to sleeping and then starting our service at Earthworks tomorrow!

Girl Gang Takes on Detroit: Day One

Well hello, friends and family of the Detroit ABST squad!

Our group of 7 (amazing) women piled into a big van bright and early to begin our journey to Detroit, MI!  The car ride was filled with some major jams, potholes that seemingly came out of nowhere, and an iced tea that all 7 of us were unable to open! (Until we ran it under some hot water.)

We passed through Detroit, and headed to Frankenmuth in order to cross off a major bucket list item of one of our amazing accompaniers Kristen: Bronner's. The biggest Christmas store IN THE WORLD! It did not disappoint! Our group embraced the "Christmas in May" spirit getting lost in endless ornaments, Christmas trees, and every Christmas decoration you can think of (we literally got lost.) After soaking in all things Christmas, we headed into town to experience the world famous chicken dinners of the Bavarian Inn! After grabbing a much needed coffee, we headed back to the van when we ran into a Gannon Alum of the class of 1959! He noticed one of our members wearing Gannon apparel and stopped us to talk! He shared with us (an all female group) of how when he went to Gannon there were no females there! On our way out of town, Rachel spotted a lion that was actually a tiger and we all just realized Rachel needed some sleep. 

After leaving Frankenmuth, we headed to our Airbnb in Detroit where we were completely blown away. Each of us moved room to room full of excitement over how cute the rooms were, how nice the place is, and how excited we were to have a place to ourselves! 

We went grocery shopping for meals for the week, settled in, and went into an amazing night of reflection! Our group fully embraced the spirit of vulnerability and community, and we are so excited to further build this community through service in the days to come!