Crop Up! | Anthony “Utē” Petit BFA ID / Tex ’18
On September 9, 2017 the Oakland Avenue Urban Farm hosted Crop Up! an event featuring artists Andrew Black, Dr. Kno, Makeeba Ellington, and myself, along with various Detroit musicians including Emily Rogers and Mahogany Jones. The event took place in a former liquor-grocery store, where community could enter to view the collaborative master plan of the North End spearheaded by ONE Mile. 
The exhibition envisioned how the farm can be programmed beyond traditional operations. In what ways can farmland become gallery, entrepreneurial incubator, or innovation hub? The beauty of the exhibit was that it envisioned the North End from community perspectives, rather than an outside one. More importantly it shows that growth and innovation can, and does happen from the ground up. ONE Mile will be instrumental in championing for the North End, and pioneering community based organization. Crop Up! left me feeling hopeful, and excited for the next phase of ONE Miles plans.
I developed wallpaper and prints inspired by the crops grown at the Oakland Avenue farm, drawing from American car parts. Traveling Detroit by bike, through fields and meadows, My mind dreams how nice it would to find love among the pheasants and wild carrots. I think about Moonlight, and the quote “in moonlight black boys looks blue,” and I think about all the queer folk up and down Woodward. What would it look like for us to be hugged by chicory and lace, amongst pheasant and cricket. I think about Erykah Badu’s “green eyes” to me characterizing the beginnings of queer love and longing, and the complications in navigating the world. My wallpaper is the setting of this story in Detroit. Love is what the wallpaper conjures for me, and after seeing it installed I believe it represents that.
Masterplanning Anthony “Ute” Petit, BFA ID/Tex ‘18
In gearing up for our masterplan unveiling, O.N.E. Mile has been working to address ways in which agricultural production can provide infrastructure for other cultural modes of engagement. Given the context of the urban farm, they tend to be in areas of minority populations who tend to see less amenities than white Americans living in the suburbs. Specific to Detroit, a major issue is the lack of grocery stores, being only 3 major grocery stores within the city limits, (not including independent stores). Many people are left to source their food from liquor stores and corner stores to find sustenance, which in the long run can really add up.
The urban farm in this “post-apocalyptic” landscape creates a great opportunity to think beyond typical agricultural structures. One aim of our work has been to tackle the trauma that Black people have with land. By creating curiosity surrounding the fauna of agriculture, we hope to engage the community to learn more about the fruits of the land we inhabit. We also consider the historical context of the crops we grow, as means to foster a relationship with other living organisms which sustain us. Consider the number of fruits and vegetables we eat today that were introduced as a result of the transatlantic slave trade; watermelons, squash, yams, greens, plantain, etc.
As the masterplan process and model comes together, centering African culture is a priority as the project grows. In conversations with some of the artists in the neighborhood, it is important to consider how we can move beyond the prescriptive narrative that has been crafted for Black Americans. How do we reclaim our story and begin to truly create new ones? Afrofuturism is impossible without imagination, which is why our upcoming unveiling is so crucial to the soul of ONE Mile. By reimagining what is a farm, it becomes possible to grow far more than just fruits and vegetables.
Our event will pay homage to that, as a collective of community members, farmers, performers, musicians, artists, and designers, will all contribute to creating that future. We will carve out a new space in time, in continuity with our ancestors, and those who are to follow. “Crop Up!” will feature an orchestra using farm tools as instruments, an installation 100 handmade masks, among other programming. It will be an example of what ONE Mile will continue to pioneer far into the future, and how community initiated growth can extend far and wide by using food as the medium. That is Afrofuturism.
Gentrification as Narrative Strategy in Detroit O.N.E. Mile, Anthony “Ute” Petit BFA Tex/ID
I sat in on a discussion fostered by O.N.E. Mile in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Cultural Center, who brought various fellows and the band Mokoomba (who were in town for Detroit’s Concert of Colors), as a part of facilitating a connection with Detroit and Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwe cultural center facilitates a residency in partnership with Njelele Art Station in Harare, Zimbabwe; where artists exchange between the respective geographies to execute projects on both sides of the ocean [http://zccd.org/residence/]. We discussed the parallel struggles we share in terms of corruption, class differences, and political suppression. We also discussed the uplift and power of our culture, and how cultural collaboration maintains solidarity and community building.
Entertainment activist, producer, and rapper BRYCE Detroit laid it down best, where he laid out the situation in Detroit at this nexus in time. “Gentrification is a narrative strategy that operates primarily, but is not limited to, the following principles:
1. Corruption is equated to emptiness; the vastness of vacancy is correlated to the race of political leaders. When our leaders are black, there is no hesitation to villainize their leadership. Looking at any post colonial history, we see that darker, and indigenous bodies are criminalized and evalued. A pandemic issue rooted in white colonialism that has evolved decade after decade, but never left.
2. Ruin porn; Detroit’s landscape of vacant buildings and structures had been the best international content for people to continue to appropriate from a city that has given so much to society as we know it. Detroit is not, will never, and has never been dead. Selective depictions of ‘ruins’ in Detroit is a way to signal a final frontier, hence the rapid land grab that is well underway. Contrary to popular media, Detroit has always had people who cared, who fixed, who survived here. Its been 50 years since conspiracy to destroy Black enclaves in the city backfired on whites who have since vacated the municipality. This strategic propaganda leaves out the hundreds of thousands Black folks who have and continue to live here. Who laid the foundation and fixed what no one else wanted to.
3. Savior complex: an invitation has been extended to white folks to reinhabit Detroit, the beginning of a new chapter. We see this in Downtown where the majority of parcels are owned by a single entity. We see this in “Midtown” originally Cass Corridor, where new stadium is being constructed with taxpayer money, while our schools are in a unacceptable state. It goes without explanation when our Mayor touts this city as being “for everyone” but the money trail says otherwise. The city does not need saving, there is plenty of work to be done, but it is an issue of equality not “capability.” It always has been.
So how do we stop *gentrification,* quite a trendy word of the past decade. Well, gentrification is always an issue of a community of peoples laying the foundations for the success and life of their culture, and kinfolk. That community then becomes
. ~ * poppin * ~ .
and outsiders begin to look in. Eventually the creators of the space are pushed out, who bring their culture with them, and what once was becomes diluted or erased . Soon they realize what the came for is no longer, and the cycle continues to the next neighborhood. This narrative is most often disseminated via the internet, or television. What’s necessary is a reclamation of the narrative, and building the stories of those that have not been told. O.N.E. Mile has been building the story of the North End and the residents of the community.
None of this information is groundbreaking or revolutionary, this is basic American history. In every city, in every state, this cycle is happening, its how we break the cycle while upholding values of diversity and cultural exchange.
Alot more to come soon!
Peace
Submerge, O.N.E. Mile, Anthony “Utē” Petit, BFA ID/Tex 2018
I recently attended a meeting with members of the Underground Resistance and legendary Techno artists: Theo Parish, Mike Banks, Omar-S and Underground Resistance manager Cornelius Harris, North End community members, and Mayor Duggan at Submerge Records. The discussion pertained to how Detroit could better support it’s night time economy.
The conversation was centered around the future of Detroit’s East Grand and Oakland Avenue (“The North End”) as most development has been centered around 3 neighborhoods (Downtown, Midtown, and Corktown). The electronic music industry originates from Detroit in the 80s. The historically black and now 7.1 billion dollar industry has since been appropriated elsewhere.
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As a means of reclamation, members of UR pointed out that Detroit’s nighttime economy is limited by by last call hours of 2AM. A step in the right direction would be to extend the hours to 4AM, and designating the North End as an area eligible for 24 hour licensing, where the nightlife could operate akin to Berlin, New York, and Tokyo. 
As it pertains to O.N.E. Mile, the collective project has been well on it’s way to restoring the legacy of African American music along Oakland Avenue. With city support, this would open the door for further black entrepreneurship in the neighborhood. While no updates have come from the mayor’s office yet, we will see where they stand with time.
O.N.E. Mile, Anthony “Utē” Petit, BFA ID/Tex 2018
This summer I will be joining Agence Akoaki contributing to the complex project that is: The One Mile Mile Project (O.N.E. Mile) in Detroit. The project is a multi-disciplinary collaborative effort to support the cultural programs and socio-economic activity of Detroit’s North End neighborhood. I plan to assist in developing a masterplan to present to the City of Detroit by the end of the summer.
My first week in Detroit involved meeting a lot of people from the neighborhood. This can always be a bit nerve racking at first, but I quickly felt more at home in this beautiful “Afrotopia” as Mayoral candidate Ingrid Lafleur puts it. One component of the O.N.E. Mile Project is the Oakland Avenue Urban Farm. Arguably “ground zero” of the project, this is where most day to day operations take place. The first project I executed was developing jam labels for Ann Carter’s strawberry “AfroJam.” One of the products made on site. The final design is not quite ready, but updates to come on that.
My second week of settling in I was able to meet with my ‘mentor’ for the summer: Anya Sirota. She gave me and a group of students for University of Michigan a in depth tour of the site. We have been tasked with designing the function of three buildings that are in a state of transition. I will be working on a former liquor and grocery store, which will become the site of the masterplan unveiling come August or September. So far this consists of developing patterns, and thinking of formal interventions that can preserve the integrity of the neighborhood. In addition to that i’ve been tasked with developing patterns that reference the fruits, vegetables, and local fauna of the neighborhood (There’s a lot of wild pheasants).
Interior of “Shoeshine” : One of three buildings in transition
I intend to develop a collection of fabrics that can be used for interior (hostel, upholstery, wallpaper) and exterior (greenhouse, street painting, mural) uses. They need to be “almost wrong” in Anyas words, and I want them to be pure Detroit, which means it needs to be gangster and opulent. Heres the initial two i’ve come up with:
A personal goal i’ve set for myself this summer was to research what other changemakers were doing outside of the O.N.E. Mile Project. My first step was attending the Allied Media Conference, a 4 day event “bringing together a vibrant and diverse community of people using media to incite change.” The set of the conference involves a series of workshops, lectures, discussions, and parties to facilitate an exchange of knowledge and organizational strategy.
The summer so far has been full of growth and new knowledge; my love of Detroit grows strong. There have been so many beautiful people I’ve met who have been contributing to the city’s “rebirth” since before the term began to enter headlines. Im anxious to see what else the summer has in store, and am curious to see how this relationship between Downtown and the neighborhoods progresses with mayoral primaries coming soon.
Photo courtesy of O.N.E. Mile
Photo courtesy of O.N.E. Mile
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