{"id":2743,"date":"2018-09-12T00:00:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T04:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2743"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:45:21","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:45:21","slug":"sept-12-some-400-expats-and-local-guests-are-expected-crains-september-9-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2018\/09\/12\/sept-12-some-400-expats-and-local-guests-are-expected-crains-september-9-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Sept 12, “Some 400 expats and local guests are expected” Crain’s, September 9, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, \u00a0September 12, 2018 \u00a0\u00a0\u201cFlocking back to the D: Detroit Homecoming 2018\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is this the third or the fourth Detroit Homecoming? \u00a0 3 high-profile days when former Detroiters, now successful and resourceful, are invited back for a three day pitch to re-learn (and re-invest in?) the city.\u00a0 Among other events last year, expats took one of three immersion tours in three neighborhoods (outside downtown and Midtown) where serious revitalization efforts are underway. \u00a0University District (see below) is one. \u00a0 I can see it out my office window. \u00a0 The excitement of a busload of expats with \u201creal money\u201d coming to our neighborhood, plus Brightmoor, and Dexter-Linwood is real. \u00a0 It\u2019s worth the effort to show off this come-back city.<\/p>\n

It is also worth the effort to remember the decades when the wounds in these neighborhood emerged; \u00a0to remember the blight of fear of violence and of contempt for the city. \u00a0These thoughts led me to bring back Detroit poet Jamaal May\u2019s blunt \u201cThere are Birds Here.\u201d \u00a0 Like every strong poem, the poet\u2019s search for precise, flint-hard words can renew a reader\u2019s imagination and vocabulary, \u00a0that, along with work on our neighborhood across the street, also counts as \u00a0rebirth.<\/p>\n

Every poem does best when read aloud, with pauses.<\/p>\n

Have a blest day,
\njohn sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post \u00a0\u201cFor Detroit\u201d \u00a0<\/strong>Jamaal May<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

There are birds here,
\nso many birds here
\nis what I was trying to say
\nwhen they said those birds were metaphors
\nfor what is trapped
\nbetween buildings
\nand buildings. No.
\nThe birds are here
\nto root around for bread
\nthe girl\u2019s hands tear
\nand toss like confetti. No,
\nI don\u2019t mean the bread is torn like cotton,
\nI said confetti, and no
\nnot the confetti
\na tank can make of a building.
\nI mean the confetti
\na boy can\u2019t stop smiling about
\nand no his smile isn\u2019t much
\nlike a skeleton at all. And no
\nhis neighborhood is not like a war zone.
\nI am trying to say
\nhis neighborhood
\nis as tattered and feathered
\nas anything else,
\nas shadow pierced by sun
\nand light parted
\nby shadow-dance as anything else,
\nbut they won\u2019t stop saying
\nhow lovely the ruins,
\nhow ruined the lovely
\nchildren must be in that birdless city.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamaal May, \u201cThere Are Birds Here\u201d from\u00a0The Big Book of Exit Strategies. Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Jamaal May. Reprinted by permission of Alice James Books. Source:\u00a0The Big Book of Exit Strategies\u00a0(Alice James Books, 2016)\u00a0http:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/26196185-the-big-book-of-exit-strategies<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

p.s. \u00a0University District<\/p>\n