Midwest MiniTour: Minneapolis to Detroit

I've decided to experiment with a little series of thoughts and experiences from my travels. I'm starting here with a trip I started two days ago to Detroit and back through Chicago. The first leg through Detroit is set up through a Cultural Exchange with Collective Wisdom Detroit.

Prelude:The day before I left I screen printed a bunch of merch and even made a bit of jewelry. After teaching me how to screen print by hand last year, Katherine invited me to her studio at Redeemer (her church and an important part of our community in North Minneapolis), where I helped her put the finishing touches on a screen press build (!). Once we figured that out with any instructions, it made quick work of the printing, and I gotta say, this batch looks even better than the last. I then went home and dove into the jewelry supply box and started creating. I stayed up entirely too late, but really dig the pieces I came up with. It was all a bit of a freestyle, and I'm still experimenting and learning, but I personally dig what I'm comin' up with...someone else has gotta feel it too, right? So the next day, I scraped myself together and barely made it out of the door. I stopped for a bag of sambusa and a burger (from the new spot on Glenwood which is a+), and while I waited, ended up buildin' with the owners Sara and Osman. Sara has been cooking at another spot over south for 17 years, and has lived over North for decades, so she's finally making the leap and running her own kitchen. Osman talked about bringin' art into the space and how he's tryin' put people on from the neighborhood. While that took way longer than I anticipated, the food was bomb and I had what I needed to cover me for the first part of the trip along with some apples and some random jello my pops gave me (lol). It was snowing and rush hour was just getting started...

Yo...after 9 hours for a 6.5 hour trip through terrible road conditions, a few terrifying moments with semis, and a path littered with spun out cars, crashes, and emergency vehicles, I made it to my overnight stay, and got back on the road yesterday, beautiful cup of coffee in hand and bomb breakfast sambusa (just sambusa for breakfast) waiting for me. *Then I realized I was losing an hour in Detroit and made a harrowing arrival *just in time for a delightful workshop with a dope circle of humans. I did my pyramids workshop on identity and opening up moments of our story through poetry for Riverwise Magazine at Cass Corridor Commons (connected to me by William Whole Note and #CollectiveWisdomDetroit). A lovely elderly woman incidentally offered the most insightful and profound feedback on the workshop, and I was so honored and moved to be in community there. After everything it took to get here, I knew this was right.

After that, I met my housemates for the next few days at the warm and welcoming Taproot Sanctuary, where I felt like a ghost walking into the most intimate birthday gathering with song by candlelight. Once everyone floated away on the magic they came in on, I made brief plans to help with some repotting, herb organizing, and wedding art in the way of earning my keep.

It's been a slow start today, but I'm enjoying my time and getting a little work done as I prepare for tonight's performance and video premiere of 'So Called Prez' at NANDI'S KNOWLEDGE CAFE'. I am so spent, but also feeling so very blessed.