Olayami Dabls in front of his African Bead Museum

…was the first stop in the first hour of my first day in this really real, amazing/puzzling, invigorating/unnerving, fascinating/shocking, picturesque/grotesque town with a real ‘edge’ as they say, I have heard so much about but never seen (where I am giving a talk tomorrow at Wayne State University and spending some time teaching and doing projects next fall) – which was so appropriate, since Olayami Dabls’s museum and bead gallery, plus the collaboratively created facade murals, vacant lot installations, public stages, and elaborately decorated abandoned buildings (founded 1985, and in it’s current location since 1998) epitomize all that is amazing and unique about how artists are working expansively and collectively in this city today. (read Vince Carducci’s Motown Art Review for local insights and check out Dabl’s website for more info)