Friday, April 30, 2021

Hip in Detroit's Picks for the Weekend: April 30 - May 2

Detroit X Detroit: Originals - Friday, April 30th @ 8 PM:

For years, DETXDET has celebrated Detroit's music scene with current Detroit acts paying homage to other Detroit musicians. This year, like most events, DETXDET has moved to a virtual format and it's switching things up a bit. The streaming event will feature over a dozen bands and musicians playing one song each. The lineup includes School of Rock, Mac Saturn, Ally Evenson, The Fruits, Matt Dmits, Allye Gaietto, The Social Bandits, Ohly, Alison Albrecht, Handgrenades, Levi Bootcut, Keynote Sisters, Jackamo, Jacob Sigman, and GOODWEATHER. The stream starts at 8 p.m. It is free to watch, but donations are being collected for a special scholarship at School of Rock, helping form Detroit's future rock stars. 


Vintage Alley Opening @ Vintage Eastern Market - Saturday, May 1st:

Vintage Eastern Market is already one of the coolest antique shops around. But, when the weather breaks, the shop gets even better, expanding into the alley behind the store. This Saturday, Vintage Alley will officially open for the season, adding even more vendors and treasurers to the shop. The alley will be open from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Vintage Eastern Market is located at 1515 Division St. Suite B, near the Eastern Market Parking Garage and Shed 3. 



Ferndale Flea @ Vogue Vintage - Saturday, May 1st:

This weekend is all about antique shopping! The parking lot of Vogue Vintage will be transformed into the Ferndale Flea this Saturday from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. Vogue Vintage is another amazing antique shop in the area and this weekend they will have even more vendors and awesome finds on site! Vogue Vintage is located at 2141 Hilton in Ferndale. 



Tuesday, April 27, 2021

The D Brief is Back + Calling All Creatives


It's been a long lonely year for a lot of us. Connecting with the people we already know has been difficult which makes the concept of meeting new people to create and collaborate with feel nearly impossible. But, the vaccine is rolling out and we can see ourselves re-emerging someday soon, we're just not there yet. Thankfully, The D Brief has come up with a new networking night that combines the best things about virtual connection with some pre-COVID methods of meeting someone new to give you back the possibility to creatively connect with someone you don't know in Metro Detroit for the first time in over a year.

The D Brief Networking Night seeks to connect a wide range of Detroit creatives, from musicians and mixologists to curators and comedians. To do this, they have put together a special night that celebrates art, creativity, and collaboration. The night begins with short videos that some of the participants have submitted before the event (optional) before breaking off into smaller tables so that people can mingle and get to know each other. Attendees can virtually move from table to table throughout the event to meet new people or you can find a connection and spend the entire evening chatting about something you might want to work on together.

These virtual networking events are FREE to attend, but there is a catch. You MUST BE a creative in Metro Detroit to attend. 

If this sounds like something that might help you make some meaningful new connections, sign up for the next networking night on May 6th @ 7 pm.


If this sounds like a little too much for you to jump into, but you're eager to get back into the local Metro Detroit creative scene, you can dip your toe in the water by listening to the latest episodes of The D Brief Podcast. Hosts Seth and Becky have finally turned their mics back and began interviewing. You can listen to their latest episodes and all their previously recorded content here.

We also suggest following them on Instagram or Facebook to stay in the know!



~S

Friday, April 23, 2021

Hip in Detroit's Picks for the Weekend: April 23-25

Livestreams from PJ's Lager House: If you want to check out some live music, but you don't really feel like being there live and in person just yet, there are a couple of live streams coming to you from the stage at PJ's Lager House this weekend. First, on Friday night, PJ's Lager House will be one of the venues bringing you music for the DIME Keep Detroit Music Alive live stream event. The show will start at 8 p.m. and Ally Evenson will be performing from PJ's. Also on the stream are Erno, hynün, Au Gres, and Metawav. Get all of the details here. Then, on Sunday night, PJ's is hosting a houseparty with performances from The Hourlies, Sugar Tradition, and The Loveseats. The show starts at 8 p.m. and is brought to you by No Experience. Get details on that show here





Village Vinyl's 4 Year Anniversary & Sale - Saturday, April 24th: Time flies and somehow Village Vinyl is already 4 years old! This is the perfect reason to head out and pick up some new records for yourself! The shop will be open from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m. and will have 20% off select items and 10% off almost everything else. Plus, Raquel’s Cocina taco truck will be on site and you can get a dollar off a beer at Kuhnhenn Brewery across the street! The first 30 paying customers will even get a free poster commemorating the event. 

Glam Night at OLL: NEVER TOO YOUNG TO ROCK - Saturday, April 24th: Outer Limits Lounge is hosting a glam rock party on their patio Saturday night! The DJs start at 7 p.m. Then, there will be an outdoor screening of Never Too Young to Rock at 9 p.m. Glam attire is highly encouraged to fully round out the theme for the evening. Masks are required. Cover is only $5. 



~C

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Missing Art and Culture? Visit a Gallery!

The number one thing we miss about pre-COVID life is art and culture. Thankfully, most of Detroit's galleries have reopened with precautions so that you can make an appointment to visit to see their current exhibit(s). Here is what some of our favorite spots currently have on display.


The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD):

DUAL VISION - Dual Vision is an expansive, forty-person group exhibition featuring artists living in or otherwise engaged with Detroit. Framed as a series of visual conversations that explore various methodologies for collaboration between practitioners, Dual Vision includes twenty individual projects produced by forty artists working in pairs—each work representing dual creativity as one. This exhibition underscores the nature in which contemporary artists communicate visually as a means of crafting a collective message. Dual Vision exhibits a robust intersection of disciplines and practices—from painting and sculpture to sound, fiber, and lens-based media—with contributions by artists at varying stages of their careers.

February 5th - August 8th, 2021


LENI SINCLAIR: MOTOR CITY UNDERGROUND - Motor City Underground presents the photographs of Leni Sinclair, best known for her work chronicling radical movements of Detroit since the 1960s. A founding member of the White Panthers, Sinclair is both an activist and longtime witness to social justice organizing in Detroit. Her images are among the most iconic and thorough records of the city’s countercultural history.

February 5 – May 2, 2021


BLACK ART LIBRARY - Created in February 2020 by independent curator Asmaa Walton, the Black Art Library was born from Walton’s desire to create a tactile means for communities to engage with Black artists and Black art history. A living archive of global Black creativity, the collection includes artist monographs, exhibition catalogs, children’s books, artist memoirs, artist biographies, art history texts, and other art-related ephemera. As a mobile collection and interactive installation, Black Art Library provides a platform for community accessibility and engagement with the rich legacy of Black art, aesthetics, and history.

February 5 – May 2, 2021


DETROIT NARRATIVE AGENCY: RADICAL REMEDIES - As our communities face the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and severe anti-Black racism, what do resilience, resistance, joy, grief, and collective care look like? Detroit Narrative Agency (DNA) invited Detroiters and Michigan residents to creatively respond to this question through short videos. Radical Remedies, organized in collaboration with Detroit Narrative Agency, amplifies community stories to build collective healing

February 5 – May 2, 2021


M Contemporary Art:

RASHAUN RUCKER: UP FROM THE RED CLAY

Solo Exhibition
March 26 - May 1, 2021


Upcoming:
KENNY KARPOV
A SMALL CORNER OF HELL
POP-UP BOOK SIGNING
MAY 15, 12 - 6 PM


Library Street Collective:

ANATOMY: NATALIE WADLINGTON - Anatomy: Natalie Wadlington features new paintings by the Texas-based artist, who creates vibrant oil paintings that are based in story-telling and figuration. Her characters are wide-eyed with wonderment and fear as they navigate various environments and encounters with both wild and domesticated animals. Within her paintings, humans and animals come together in symbolic scenes that mirror our own complex interpersonal struggles for understanding.

March 16 - April 27, 2021

— NATALIE WADLINGTON

FADE TO FADE: JULIA WACHTEL, PAUL PFEIFFER, AND WENDY WHITE-Through the lens of the American stage, Fade to Fade challenges the passivity of our contemporary self-image at a time when manipulation through social and news media has reached dizzying heights. Through the deconstruction of pervasive imagery within media and popular culture, artists Julia Wachtel, Paul Pfeiffer, and Wendy White present a dismantling of the pageantry of commerce, performance, and policy to reveal the axioms and essential flaws that lie beneath.

April 10 - May 8, 2021
Paul Pfeiffer — Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (06), 2001-2018



Detroit Institute of Arts:


ROBERT BLACKBURN & MODERN AMERICAN PRINTMAKING-Robert Blackburn & Modern American Printmaking celebrates both the artist and the democratic and diverse creative community he developed. Born of Jamaican immigrants and raised in Harlem, Blackburn was an innovative printmaker and influential teacher. Blackburn explored avant-garde ideas while promoting a new collaborative approach to printmaking. The exhibition contains more than 75 works, including lithographs, woodcuts, intaglio prints, and watercolors by Blackburn and the artists with whom he collaborated, including Elizabeth Catlett, Grace Hartigan, Robert Rauschenberg, and Charles White.

Sat, Mar 20, 2021 — Sun, Sep 5, 2021


DETROIT STYLE: CARE DESIGN IN THE MOTOR CITY 1950–2020-Detroit designers have always led the way in car design. The futuristic concept cars, roaring muscle cars, and sleek racers designed in and around the city shape our ideas of what a car can be. Working on paper, in clay, and in metal, their ideas drive American car culture and inform the way we get around every day.

Sun, Nov 15, 2020 — Sun, Jun 27, 2021


RUSS MARSHALL: DETROIT PHOTOGRAPHS, 1958-2008-The Detroit Institute of Arts presents a survey of over 90 photographs by Russ Marshall whose black-and-white imagery was inspired by the Motor City’s streets, architecture, music and factory workers for over 50 years. Marshall was born in 1940 in the thriving coal-mining town of South Fork, Pennsylvania to a family of coal miners, farmers and industrial factory workers. His family relocated to Detroit in 1943. By the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, Marshall had begun to photograph the city’s streets, its passersby, Thanksgiving Day parades, its Michigan Central Station (MCS) and even a rare “Love-In” staged on Belle Isle in the late 1960s.

Sun, Nov 15, 2020 — Sun, Jun 27, 2021


EXPERIENCE AND EXPRESSION-To create the art of our time, artists often draw on their own experiences of the world—from the personal to the political, from the aesthetic to the commercial, from the individual to the collective, from the spiritual to the material.

Sat, Jan 30, 2021 — Sun, Oct 3, 2021


Cranbrook Art Meseum:


2021 GRADUATE DEGREE EXHIBITION OF CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART-The most innovative work from the next generation of architects, artists, and designers will be on display at the 2021 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art. The Degree Exhibition showcases pieces that are the culmination of two years of studio work from a diverse group of graduates as they launch their careers.

April 17 – May 16, 2021



Playground Detroit:


MISE EN ABYME: RACHEL PONTIOUS SOLO EXHIBITION-Rachel Pontious is a fine artist based in Detroit, Michigan. She uses paint to explore nonlinear narratives that speak to the ways we relate to one another, to the objects around us, and to the spaces we inhabit. Pontious does this by weaving abstracted and unnavigable spaces with figures and objects of different planes and perspectives. Her work investigates the Venn diagram of what objects we keep close and the personal mythologies that they create, subtle and exaggerated modes of communication (e.g. body language and theatricality), as well as threshold/transitional architectural spaces and portals.

On view through May 15th


Red Bull House of Art:


AKEEM SMITH: NO GYAL CAN TES-Drawing upon his experience growing up between New York and Jamaica, Smith harmonizes disparate elements from this extensive archival documentation, which chronicles this seminal era from the early 80s through y2k, conjuring a collective memory that otherwise would have only existed on the threshold of the artist’s own. Part poem, part anthropological homage, No Gyal Can Test forms a layered exploration of spectral coloniality, diaspora, and the voyeurism that results from transposing these artefacts across cultural, economic, and temporal divides.

April 16–July 30, 2021


~S


Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Celebrate 4/20 with a Happy Deal from Joebar

Do you remember the excitement of getting a Happy Meal when you were a kid? Not only did you get your own perfectly portioned burger or nuggets with fries and a drink, but you got a surprise toy too! Sure, you knew what the theme was, but would you get the toy that you really wanted? 

Joebar in Hazel Park is bringing back that excitement we experienced as kids, but to adults. Every Tuesday, they offer a $10 Happy Deal. The deal usually is comprised of an amazing specialty burger, fries, and a Miller High Life. And, of course it wouldn't be happy if there wasn't some sort of surprise that came along with the meal. So, Joebar teams up with other local businesses to offer a "toy" for adults that comes with each meal.

This week, in honor of 4/20 and those that like to celebrate with a little flower, Joebar has an extra special Happy Deal. They have teamed up with their neighbor New Standard Cannabis for this week's toy. The burger is also extra special and is called The Luau. It features classic Joebar patties topped with American Cheese, Pineapple Chutney, Lettuce, and Honey Sriracha. 

If you want to celebrate 4/20 with a $10 Happy Deal, you have to pre-order your meal here. Pre-order starts at noon and pickup begins after 4 p.m. Joebar is located in Hazel Park at 23839 John R. To stay in the loop on Joebar's weekly $10 Happy Deals, follow them on Facebook and Instagram


~C

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Spruce Up Your Spring Wardrobe by Shopping Local

Spring is finally here and the warmer weather has come along with it! We're all in the mood to venture out a bit more and maybe even get dressed before we leave the house. Plus, with many people getting vaccinated, it's just a matter of time before you will be seen in public again. 

If you feel like your wardrobe could use some revamping for the season, check out these spring looks that were sent to us from a few of our favorite local businesses! For a list of more local clothing stores, check out our Shop Small or Die Guide

Youngbloods
24918 John R., Hazel Park, MI 48030
youngbloodsshop.com
Instagram: @youngbloodsshop

Youngbloods specializes in menswear, plus you can get a trim at their barbershop while you're there! Although they mainly carry men's clothing, there are quite a few accessories and items that everyone can pull off. Check out some of their favorite looks for spring below. 



Old Soul Vintage
3627 B Cass Ave., Detroit, MI 48201
shopoldsoulvintage.com

After the Flu of 1918, everyone was ready to get out of the house, live life, and look fabulous during the Roaring '20s. Old Soul Vintage's new collaborative clothing line "Charades" will let you have fun with your clothes, after wearing sweats and pajamas for most of the last year. The collaboration is between OSV, Leslie Graver (Bitchin Stitchin), Crying Heart Craft Co., and Shadow Show. Make sure you stop by the shop to see what vintage treasures you can find too! 

Photo credit: @punkypies


Brightlytwisted
1418 Michigan Ave., Detroit, MI 48216
Instagram: @brightlytwisted

If you're not quite ready to give up the comfy clothes just yet, Brightlytwisted is the perfect fit. Their tie-dyed clothing looks great and feels great, with everything from dresses to hoodies. Check out some of their latest items below and head to their website to see their full clothing line. 



Friday, April 9, 2021

Hip in Detroit's Picks for the Weekend: April 9-11, 2021

More people are getting vaccinated and the weather is getting nicer. That means, for the first time in over a year, we have some events to share as our picks for the weekend! Please keep in mind, that COVID-19 numbers are still up. So, if you go out, please be safe, wear a mask, socially distance, and keep your hands clean. 



Saturday, April 10th - Heavy & Beyond @ Small's: 

Heavy Metal returns to Small's this Saturday night with Heavy & Beyond! They will be supplying the tunes, while Renegade Kitchen serves up some tasty eats. The menu for the night is stoner themed, with items like Pizza Poutine (pizza rolls, cheeses sauce, pizza sauce and pepperoni) and Hamtramck Hot Tots (think Nashville Chicken on tots w/ cheese). Small's will also have $1 off tallboys and $3 16 oz. Bring Out Your Dead IPA on special. Hang out on Small's new patio and enjoy some socially distanced hangs! Cover is $3 and doors open at 7:30 PM. 






Sunday, April 11th - Fleatroit Spring Outdoor Flea Market @ Outer Limits Lounge:

Outer Limits Lounge will be taking the fun to their patio as well this weekend, with the Fleatroit Spring Outdoor Flea Market. The market will feature vintage clothing, accessories, jewelry, housewares, books, records, and more. It is free to attend and its open from noon until 6 p.m. While you're there, grab a pasty and a drink too! The bar is open 'til 11 p.m.





Final Weekend for the Monroe Street Drive-In:

If you haven't heard, there has been a pop-up drive-in movie theatre Downtown for the last few months. Monroe Street Theatre has featured newer films, family films, and classics during its run, but sadly that run is coming to an end. This is the final weekend to check out the theatre. Friday's movie is Shrek 2, Saturday is The Croods, and Sunday is Forrest Gump. Tickets are $20 per car and can be purchased at DetroitDriveIn.com

Don't forget! You can even order carryout from your favorite Detroit restaurant and have it delivered to your car during the movie! Get more details on that here


~C

Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Revisit the Art of Experience at Willis Show Bar this Weekend

 

It's been almost four hundred days since Willis Show Bar's house band has filled their legendary room with music. It's been almost thirteen months since their mixologist has shaken up one of their signature cocktails and it's been way too long since any of us has had the kind of classic night out on the town that only Willis Show Bar can offer. Thankfully, this weekend that all changes because WSB is ready to welcome everyone back for a socially distanced experience that you cannot find anywhere else.

Willis Show Bar will be open for service this Friday and Saturday, April 9 and 10th. They have always had limited seating, but in order to keep everyone safe and make sure that they have a good experience, their seating will be even more limited. They also have a new menu and their house band will be taking the stage to entertain you two times a night from 7-8 p.m. and 9-10 p.m. Their house band is comprised of some of the city's best artists, which means that they never disappoint. This isn't just a bar or venue reopening, this is the art of the experience returning to Motown.

Following this weekend's reopening celebration, Willis Show Bar will be open Thursday-Saturday from 5 p.m. - 11 p.m. The house band will be performing from 7-8 p.m. and 9-10 p.m. nightly and there is a $5 cover, all of which goes directly to the performers. Please note, you do not need reservations to visit unless you have a party of 5-6 people. Also, there is no cover before 6 p.m. and Happy Hour starts at 5.

Willis Show Bar is officially ready to welcome you back for a classic night out on the town!


~S

Friday, April 2, 2021

Support Local Artists and Businesses at the Michigan Artist Market


This Saturday, over 50 artists and vendors will come together for the Michigan Artist Market. The market will be held at 516 Piquette St. in Detroit. Social distancing will be in place, allowing for customers to feel comfortable while shopping and supporting local artists. Old Soul Vintage and Custom Comic Box are just a couple of the vendors that will be on site, along with artists like Planet and Matthew David Forsgren. There will also be food available from Renegade Kitchen and the Imperial food truck. Get a sneak peek of everyone that will be at the market here

The Michigan Artist Market will be open from noon - 8 p.m. this Saturday, April 3rd. Admission is free. Support local artists and businesses and have a fun day out of the house!



~C