Articles by

Julie Edgar

  • Communities

    Detroit Development Fund revitalizes neighborhoods with ‘character lending’

    Above: Ayanna Williams-Jones, owner of Pedicure & Shoes 2 Go, also received an award from Motor City Match, a Knight-funded program that matches business owners with properties. Photo by Shawn Le/Courtesy Detroit Economic Growth Corp. Convincing a skeptical landlord that women like pedicures and new shoes, ideally in combination, was far more difficult for Ayanna Williams-Jones than getting a loan to open her business in downtown Detroit. Seriously. The Detroit Development Fund took a chance on Williams-Jones, despite her having a personal bankruptcy in her past, loaning her […]

    Article · October 21, 2015 by

  • Arts

    ‘So many people hungry for creative impulse’: Nick Cave’s Detroit takeover

    Above: An earlier performance by Nick Cave. Photo credit: Cranbrook Art Museum. A dreamlike dirge accompanied the horses as they filed into a corral hemmed by a crowd of several hundred Detroiters enjoying the balmy breezes coming off the Detroit River. Despite the rather discordant score, the mood was giddy at Milliken State Park Saturday […]

    Article · October 1, 2015 by

  • Communities

    What makes a city successful: Lessons from the Knight Cities Summit

    What does it take to make a city more than a collection of buildings and bodies? How can we ensure they are vibrant places to both live and work?  That’s a serious challenge. But free up a little money and see what ordinary city dwellers think up. It’s remarkable what happens. The Knight Cities Challenge […]

    Article · June 22, 2015 by

  • Communities

    Bringing big ideas to life at the Knight Cities Challenge Summit

    Photos: Carol Coletta, above; Theaster Gates, below. The old, neo-Colonial bank is a husk of its former self, long empty but still grimly squatting along a city block on Chicago’s south side. It’s the kind of neighborhood artist/urban planner/University of Chicago professor Theaster Gates likes to work in. And it’s the kind of building he […]

    Article · June 19, 2015 by

  • Arts

    Film festival builds a community of indie film lovers

    Detroit isn’t exactly a hotbed of independent cinema. While there is a handful of “art house” theatres that serve more adventurous viewers, many films never make it to the local market. A film festival in its fourth year hopes to establish a cultural touchstone that satisfies cinephiles and whets the appetite of moviegoers who can […]

    Article · June 5, 2015 by

  • Arts

    Detroit’s Mosaic Youth Theatre takes center stage with musical ‘Tempest’

    Oskar Eustis, Dr. Shirley Brice Health and Rick Sperling at a forum on how classical theatre can foster community cohesion. A windstorm. A canceled flight. A play rehearsal. Fate surely stepped in and delivered an amazing – indeed, a Shakespearean – opportunity for the Mosaic Youth Theatre in Detroit. That chain of events led to […]

    Article · May 7, 2015 by

  • Communities

    Detroit convening of Knight grantees spotlights how city is moving forward

    John Bracken, Knight Foundation’s VP/media innovation (right) speaks with Beth Niblock, Detroit’s chief information officer. Rebuilding a city requires epic fortitude: the ability to face down pessimism and rejection, overcome entrenched biases and sometimes start at the very beginning. Beth Niblock joined Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s cabinet as chief information officer a year ago, arriving […]

    Article · April 30, 2015 by

  • Communities

    Boot camp for entrepreneurs boosts minority businesses in Detroit

    David Blaszkiewicz, president and CEO, Invest Detroit; Katy Locker, program director/Detroit, Knight Foundation; and Rodrick T. Miller president and CEO, Detroit Economic Growth Corp., present awards to winning contestants. Photos courtesy Detroit Economic Growth Corp.  Ruth Bell was so nervous about pitching Chugga’s, her wholesale bread-baking company, she had to be shoved into the room […]

    Article · April 21, 2015 by

  • Communities

    Knight Cities Challenge winner connects people rebuilding Detroit

    Brick + Beam photo by Julie Edgar. A trio of Detroit building preservationists, along with a crew of urban designers, had the opportunity to test-drive an idea that propelled them to winning a grant in the nationwide Knight Cities Challenge. An Urban Prototyping Lab, funded by Knight Foundation earlier this year at Parsons School of […]

    Article · April 2, 2015 by

  • Arts

    Fiber artists plan to dress up Detroit’s Avenue of Fashion

    Livernois. The Knight Arts Challenge Detroit is now accepting applications for the best local ideas for the arts. Here, writer Julie Edgar catches up with past winner Detroit Fiberworks. Like so many others who see Detroit as a wide-open frontier, Mandisa Smith and Najma Wilson are pushing against urban blight and indifference to achieve their […]

    Article · March 31, 2015 by

  • Arts

    A rich library of African-American poetry goes digital

    The Knight Arts Challenge Detroit is now accepting applications for the best local ideas for the arts. Here, writer Julie Edgar catches up with past winner Broadside Press. Amid the social upheaval of the 1960s, when protests were brutally quashed, Detroit’s Broadside Press was quietly turning out the works of African-American poets who were telling […]

    Article · March 23, 2015 by