Detroit Culture Crisis

It seems as if the cultural community in the D has been quickly losing ground as of late. A few things we’ve seen in the last couple weeks… Detroit’s long-time music-oriented public radio station WDET changes formats and does away with the majority of music programming in favor of competing with UM’s Michigan Radio in the talk market. Young Soul Rebels, one of Detroit’s only music stores, announces its closure. The United Artists Theatre, owned and abandoned by the Illitch empire, finds its landmark graffiti (arguably one of the city’s most interesting art attractions), stripped in order to create the illusion of cleanliness in time for the Super Bowl. Again under the misguided notion of Super Bowl Beautification, the Motown Buildings (2457 Woodward), a historically significant structure once slated to be a Motown Museum, are rumored to be quickly demolished in time for the big game. We should note that this last item is an unconfirmed rumor.