Work Description

Date: 31 December, 2023

Dataset Title: DREAM of Detroit: Detroit Revival Engaging American Muslims

Dataset Creators: Mark Crain

Dataset Contact: mark@dreamofdetroit.org

Funding: The Michigan–Mellon Project on the Egalitarian Metropolis

Research Overview:
The 2023 DREAM Street Fair was a free, family-friendly festival celebrating our neighborhood’s spirit of community, entrepreneurship, arts and culture, and healthy living. Hosted by Jermaine “Big Fresh” Carey and rising comedian Nadirah Pierre, and headlined by multi-platinum recording artist Freeway, the event featured performances by Khalil Ismail, Ain’t Afraid, Journalist 103, Tariq Toure, and Hardcore Detroit. It was an afternoon of empowering poetry, soulful vocals, classic hip-hop, world-class break dancing, and fun interactions with the crowd. Nearly 40 vendors, including some of the area’s best food trucks, set up shop to interact with 3,000 attendees over the course of the day. And children were treated to bounce houses, button-making, book readings, and outdoor video gaming.

Primarily hosted by Dream of Detroit, a local organization combining community organizing and development to revitalize a Westside neighborhood, the Street Fair was a true community partnership. The Detroit Repertory Theatre, the city’s longest-running neighborhood theatre, opened up their lot to sell treasured props from 60 years worth of performances. The HUDA Clinic, our local free health care center, offered dental screenings, health assessments and referral services. And, at the HUDA Urban Garden, attendees picked fruits and vegetables, and learned creative ways to make tasty and healthy meals and snacks. Putting on a free neighborhood festival of this scale would have been impossible without the support of Egalitarian Metropolis and sponsors like Mercy-USA. Plainly put: these types of events don’t usually happen in neighborhoods like ours. That’s why, for nearly a decade, Dream of Detroit has been working toward a truly inclusive Detroit recovery where the idea that “every neighborhood has a future” is more than just a political slogan.

Our goal with this event was to host an excellent celebration for our community members, and to shine a spotlight on the community-led placemaking and development happening in our neighborhood. The DREAM Street Fair stands alongside other initiatives like the DREAM Community Land Trust, our partnership with ProsperUs Detroit Entrepreneurship Workshop, and our membership in the Coalition for Property Tax Justice, as just some of the programs we are involved in to do our small part in creating an Egalitarian Metropolis.

More information about DREAM of Detroit can be found at https://dreamofdetroit.org/.

Methodology:
The data in this deposit are primarily photos (JPEG) and videos (MP4) documenting the 2023 Street Fair hosted by DREAM of Detroit. The event took place on August 12, 2023. The images and videos were captured by professional photographers hired by the DREAM team, as well as staff and Street Fair attendees. A representative set of items were posted to the Egalitarian Metropolis site (https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/egalitarianmetropolis/).

Instrument and/or Software specifications: NA

Folders contained here:
-DREAM of Detroit.zip
> Materials on Web contains the images, videos, and text of the DREAM of Detroit project page on the Egalitarian Metropolis website.
> Press.zip contains news coverage of the Street Fair by local media outlets.
> Professional Photos.zip contains the sub folders Sister Malikah Street Fair Pics and Sister Tasneem Street Fair pics. Both subfolders contain images of the Street Fair. The Sister Tasneem subfolder is further organized into six additional subfolders, each one documenting an aspect of the various events that took place during the Street Fair. These six subfolders are: 3-on-3 Basketball (a basketball tournament game), Aint' Afraid (a twin sister singing group), Day of Dignity (a yearly event organized by Islamic Relief USA where non-profit organizations such as DREAM of Detroit work with other local partners to provide neighbors with essential household and personal items for the colder months), Hardcore Detroit (a Detroit based dance collective), HUDA Clinic (a free health clinic in Detroit that had a booth at the Street Fair), Journalist103 (an American rapper who performed at the Street Fair).
> Promo Materials.zip contains promotional flyers and posters advertising the Street Fair.
> Social Content.zip contains videos taken by attendees and uploaded to social media site, Instagram.
> Staff Photos.zip contains the subfolders Photos and Videos. The former contains images of the Street Fair taken by various, uncredited, staff members. The latter contains videos of the Street Fair taken by various, uncredited, staff members.

-DreamOfDetroit_EgalitarianMetropolis.html- HTML capture of project page from Egalitarian Metropolis site
-DreamOfDetroit.html - HTML capture of linked project page on Dream of Detroit (destination page of "Dream of Detroit" button on Egalitarian Metropolis project page)

Use and Access:
This data set is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license (CC BY-NC 4.0).

To Cite Data:
Crain, M. DREAM of Detroit: Detroit Revival Engaging American Muslims [Data set], University of Michigan - Deep Blue Data. https://doi.org/10.7302/zq9k-rw31