Launched in response to the growing crisis of narrative infrastructure, the Detroit River Story Lab is a collaborative, public-facing initiative that leverages the sociocultural, economic, and ecological centrality of the Detroit River corridor to reimagine it as an urban case study in narrative placemaking and civic renewal. Beginning with the premise that place-based storymaking is vital to sustaining democratic values and community capacity for self-determination, the Lab partners on projects designed to support the narrative capacities of local urban communities through the story-telling channels of community journalism, place-based education, and public history.

The Story Lab co-designs scalable interventions to strengthen community-based forms of narrative infrastructure. Participants draw upon archives and oral histories to document previously marginalized narratives centering the river. Drawing on this research, we prototype new approaches to place-based learning, within the university and beyond, to expand the publics involved in the production and circulation of local narratives of identity and urban memory.

The impact of the Lab’s work stems from its ability to catalyze ongoing narrative efforts throughout the Detroit River region. Results from our partnerships run the gamut from long-form journalistic pieces and curricular materials to interpretive signage for river-facing parks and web-based capsule histories, timelines, and data visualization tools. To date, they include seven publications, 10 conference presentations, an urban history curriculum field tested with 500 8th graders, 30 three-hour school ship outings for local high school students, and three river-themed boat-building workshops for teenagers on the urban waterfront.