When constructed, Michigan Central Station was the tallest rail station in the world. By the middle of the 20th century, more than 200 trains would come and go each day carrying a diverse array of passengers, including American presidents, soldiers, teachers, nurses and artists, like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Writer and Kresge Artist Fellow Louis Aguilar ‘s work “The Troublemakers” reports that while sitting outside of the station in April 1932, a Detroit News reporter asked Kahlo if she was an artist. Her response, “Yes, the greatest in the world.” It’s been more then 20 years since the last train’s departure and in clear view of the empty structure, about 40 audience members gathered in a space between two once-abandoned houses and a dilapidated motel to hear Aguilar and a collection of community leaders participate in a multimedia presentation of “The Troublemakers.” The hour-long performance is an “epic tale of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Depression-era Detroit,” using the artists’ own words to describe their experiences. Aguilar sets the stage with a score of sounds collected from the Ford Rouge Plant by Jessica Hernandez, narration by Jessica Care Moore, Sarah Lipinski and 2011 Kresge Artist Fellow Bruce Giffen (to name a few), accompanied by a slide show prepared by award-winning filmmaker Stephen McGee.

The venue for the reading was provided through an exchange with the The Imagination Station and a Montreal-based collective called DARE-DARE. Aguilar added, “It was an honor to be in such a raw space. Showing four-story images of Frida arriving at the Michigan Central Depot, which is just around the corner from the site, is a joy. My family lived in Corktown during the Depression and it’s why I know the huge controversy of the artists in Detroit. The performance is really the outline of my book I’m writing now. I am in talks with the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts) to perform again in Rivera Court early next year — this time with more local musicians composing songs for different sections of the performance.” The Imagination Station consists of two blighted houses at the end of the block closest to the train station. It has been utilizing the one on the left for site-specific art installations and plans to rehabilitate the other into a media center and residency space. It is looking for other Detroit artists to participate in the exchange. More information can be found on its website, http://www.facethestation.com.