“We gotta be the change, Detroit!”

–Invincible/Complex Movements, from Beware the Dandelions

I have just spent the last few weeks promoting the third year of the Knight Arts Challenge Detroit. Related Link

“Acres of Diamonds: New Documentary on Detroit’s Grassroots Artists fueled by the Knight Arts Challenge Premieres” — press release, 3/30/2015

Each year, Knight Foundation reaches out and invites our Detroit community to tell us their best idea for the arts.  And the result?  Remarkable, inspiring, heartwarming, powerful, excellent ideas.  In the last two years, Knight Foundation has granted nearly $5 million to 114 arts projects in Detroit. They have represented all corners of Detroit, all kinds of people of Detroit, and all kinds of stories of Detroit.

At 7:30 p.m. on April 7, a wider audience will get to see a slice of what has inspired me about the challenge. Detroit Public Television will premiere “Acres of Diamonds: The Story of the Knight Arts Challenge in Detroit.” The half hour documentary follows the projects of local artists after they receive challenge funding from Knight Foundation to make their ideas to reality.

I had the opportunity to get a sneak peek and, as a Detroiter passionate about our arts, it filled me up.  The film features so many of our great winners and those touched by the Challenge:

• Satori Shakoor and Dwight Stackhouse (performer), Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers;
• Jeff Sturges, Mt. Elliott Makerspace, with partners Piper Carter, 5e Gallery, and Ralph Taylor, Caribbean Mardi Gras Productions;Invincible, Wesley Taylor, and Carlos LO5 Garcia, of Complex Movements;
• Richard Wohlfeil and Todd Albright (performer), Lo & Behold! Records & Books;
• Haleem Rasul and the McGhee brothers, Pioneers of the Jit; and
• Artlab J.

These are just a few of the winners enlivening Detroit over the last few years with renewed energy as a result of the Knight Arts Challenge. Satori Shakoor, the founder and leader of Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers, says, “….Artists are becoming more proud of what we do and that we can go and talk to people about it.  We can put our thing next to some other thing and feel that our thing is important.” 

And that is what I love about the Knight Arts Challenge.  People who never thought their idea would be chosen get Knight funds but, and often more importantly, they get celebrated and their story gets told. 

The Knight Arts Challenge is of Detroit. It is for Detroit.  It expresses love for Detroit and for all that Detroit has to offer.  The title of the film comes from Dwight Stackhouse’s story about Detroit told at a Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers performance.  He beautifully sums up the future of our city.

“It is acres of diamonds. It is about to be reborn.”

The Knight Arts Challenge Detroit is open for applications through April 13.

Katy Locker is Detroit program director for Knight Foundation. Knight staff and winners of the 2014 Knight Arts Challenge Detroit.