Category: Detroit
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Weekly Wanderings: September 1, 2024
The final train departed Detroit’s Michigan Central Station on January 5, 1988. The Beaux Arts building had been an architectural marvel when it opened 75 years prior—designed by the same firms that had collaborated on Grand Central Terminal and, at 18 stories, the tallest train station in the world at the time. At its peak…
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Weekly Wanderings: May 19, 2024
Recent Goodreads Reviews Recommendations China Stories Gordon Corera, “The escaped dissident still pursued decades on by China”Helen Davidson and Chi Hui Lin, “Lai Ching-te, the political brawler who went from a Taiwan mining village to the presidency” The truth of whether the Wangs were small-time innkeepers or a secret weapon in Beijing’s decadelong effort to…
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Weekly Wanderings: April 7, 2024
As Willy Wonka said, “We have to get on, we have to get on! We have so much time and so little to do—scratch that, reverse it. This way, please!” First, I’m giving a virtual talk on Tuesday afternoon (Eastern Time) as part of the CHINA Town Hall program organized by the National Committee on…
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Weekly Wanderings: February 4, 2024
Yesterday I got to attend a preview of a new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts, “Regeneration: Black Cinema, 1898-1971.” Previously on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, “Regeneration” is now in Detroit until late June, and I hope it will travel to museums elsewhere. Telling the many stories…
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On the Riverfront
I often find myself walking to the riverfront when I’m in downtown Detroit; it’s a guaranteed place to find a bench where I can read or eat or think while enjoying the calming water views. I hadn’t, however, ever thought very much about when or how those benches came to be installed until this past…
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Weekly Wanderings: Random Things I’ve Read Edition
A bunch of things I’ve read and want to share, with a bit of commentary here and there … ▪ Wait inside the McNamara Terminal at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and you’ll notice the same announcement playing every ten minutes or so: a reminder (first in English, then in Japanese and Chinese) that Detroit is in…
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Detroit Field Trip #1
Thanks to those on Twitter who sent me additional titles for my Detroit reading list—I now have several more books on reserve at the library. After reading so many hundreds of pages about the city, I was itching to get there and see it in person. The Saturday of Labor Day weekend provided the perfect…
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Bookshelf: My Mini-Course on Detroit
When I decided to move to southeastern Michigan—a place I had never been before—I realized I needed to learn more about the region, especially its history. I live in Ann Arbor, but there aren’t too many books written about Ann Arbor (I checked). Detroit, on the other hand, has long been an object of authorial…
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 