Detroit Deep Down

A Tribute to My Roots

Me at the opening reception of the Urban Requiem Project: A Tribute to Detroit’s Culturally Rich History at the Hannan Center’s Kayrod Gallery

I recently had a chance to participate in Urban Requiem Project: A Tribute to Detroit’s Culturally Rich History at the Hannan Center’s Ellen Kayrod Gallery here in Detroit. The event was a catalog of greatness and included some of the stories about what makes our city so great. I was deeply honored to be able to contribute. What you see in the photograph is my poem presented within a collage of personal photos which tell some of the story of my family and of my coming of age in Detroit.

Detroit Deep Down

I am Detroit
I am of this city
I am the fruit
Bore from deeply seeded roots

They came for a better life
For themselves and their family
Long before there was me
And before I was imagined

I am from the seeds carried by wind
And by wings and imagination
From a migration
Before it was called great

I am from people
That came from the south
My great-grandfather
And my great-grandmother