ShesOpinionated.com

 
(or whatever you wanna call it)

Highlights:

• Seeing my best friend.

• Handling the business of my organization (that consisted of both pleasure and pain)
• Meeting one of my best guy friends (I’ve known him for 5 years, but we’d never met)
• Greektown! Namely the casino. CHEAP/STRONG drinks……my favorite combo.
• Motown!……GREAT museum. I think we spent about 2 hrs in Hitsville, USA - just taking it all in. Thinking about all the great talent and music that was birthed in that very location……it was surreal to say the least. Definitely worth the visit, and one of the highlights of my trip.
   

• I also visited the Charles H. Wright African-American Museum (largest African-American Museum in the world). Beautiful museum. I could’ve spent hours in there, reading every piece of literature that was present. The section on slavery was the most compelling. Every Black person in America needs to see that exhibit. As many times as I hear the stories and read the tales……it never gets old and never ceases to amaze me just…how…unreal that time in our history was. But the museum makes it a VERY real experience for all who visit.

  My only criticism of the museum, was that in the later years, it focused more heavily on Detroit, and by the time I went to the museum, I had had enough of Detroit. But its inspired me to get off my ass and go see the African-American museum here in NY, and learn Black history in the city I reside in. (its a crime that I never went to the one in LA……and I lived down the street from it for YEARS…passed by it numerous times…never took my ass in *smh*)

   

• ETA: Raheem DeVaughn performance (that man is truly gifted and a joy to watch)

   

• ETA: Dr. Ian Smith’s presentation on the state of health in the Black community. Very informative, very encouraging, very inspiring, very thought-provoking. That man is on a mission to improve our quality and longevity of life, and I do believe he will succeed.

   

   

  (see, it wasn’t all negative)

   
  *ahem*

   
  And now for the……

   

  Lowlights:

  Let’s start at the very beginning……a very good place to start.

   

• The Airport…(can I even call it that?). It looked like the first airport ever. No upgrades since it opened - oh, except for the snazzy new vending machines that accept credit cards. We see where their priority lies. As Andrea so eloquently put it……the airport looked like a bus station. NOT impressed.

   

• Faygo. Anyone ever heard of it? Anyone?

  Yeah, its a drink. And a RED SODA DRINK at that (or do they call it pop?). But not strawberry, not red kool-aid……just a random red drink. With its own billboard…that they only make in Detroit. Sus-pect. (and what kinda name is that for a drink?)

   

• The demographic. *sigh* Detroit is like a wannabe urban city, but its filled with country folks who aren’t slickers. Nearly everyone there migrated from the South, and its like they never figured out how to de-countrify themselves, even though they’re supposed to be in this urban metropolis. Just con-fused!

  And they can’t dress. AT ALL! I don’t know how many fashion crimes were committed in my short time there, and yall know I ain’t no where near being a fashion guru. But some stuff should go without saying. Style is not a word that should be used anywhere near Detroit. I think it all left with Motown in the 70’s, and folks been messed up ever since. (Pictures would be MUCH more helpful, I know)

   

• The “social scene”. We got a brief glimpse of the “happenin” social scene in downtown Detroit, as we attempted to enter a club/bar/lounge near our hotel. They were charging $20 to get in, and from what I saw at the door (the folks waiting to get in)……please. Low-budget, at best. Sho wasn’t payin’ to mix and mingle with more of that. And from what I saw through the window (folks grinding on the walls to “Funky Y2C” - yeah, yall remember that song)…uh huh, I was extra cool. (what respectable DJ actually has that song in his library? And PLAYS it? And in MOTOWN? For shame!)

   

• The questionable conversation my best friend and I had with 3 local Detroit brothers (actual related brothers), originally from North Carolina. One was married (and tryna hit), one was divorced (and on lithium), one was a pimp (who thought he could sleep with us within 3 days). They were age 35 and up.

  For real??? 0 for 3.

   

• The Middle America syndrome. I can’t explain it, but there’s something off/wrong/ill about not living near a coast. And by near I mean…right up ON it!

  I felt like I was trapped, caged, enclosed in a box, or a time-warp or something. I felt restricted and detached from the rest of the world. I think living in those conditions distorts and limits the minds of its inhabitants, and thats why so many break for the edges. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again……I needs to live on a COAST. I need an ocean, a large body of water within my view so I can visually expand my horizons, and see past the remote world I know.

   

   

   

   
  And the number one reason I’m not going back to Detroit……

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  ……that bum-ass MAYOR!

  

   

   

  Hi-YA!

   
  (thats me kicking Kwame’s face on the side of the Detroit People Mover)

   

   

   

   

  Oh snap, I forgot about the DPM! Well, not much to say about it. Its a $.50 ride to get you around downtown Detroit. It was cool, cuz it took us to GREEKTOWN!