Detroit Summer
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Detroit Summer is a multi-racial and intergenerational collective based at The Boggs Center in Detroit, Michigan, with the goal to empower local youth to improve their communities. The program was founded in 1992 by James Boggs, Grace Lee Boggs, Shea Howell, and others.[1][2] This also coincided with the founding of the Boggs Center.[3]
Activities
In response to Detroit Mayor Coleman Young's plan for casinos to revitalize the city's declining economics, James Boggs and Grace Lee Boggs attempted to recreate the effects of the Mississippi Summer by recreating a similar program for youth in Detroit.[1] In an interview, Grace Lee Boggs recounts being influenced by Martin Luther King, Jr., "He proposed that young people ‘in our dying cities’ needed programs that were designed to change themselves and their society."[1][4] The goal of Detroit Summer was to develop a program where area youth could learn to become leaders to help shape the city's future. Boggs recounted, "our hope was that Detroit Summer would bring about a new vision and model of community activism- one that was particularly responsive to the new challenges posed by the conditions of life and struggle in the post-industrial city."[5]
For Grace Lee Boggs, Detroit Summer was to be a space where local youth could learn through practice and through engaging with others from different generations of activists and educators.[5] It was intended to be a small-scale, independent organization sustained through participant engagement.
Teens and volunteers involved in Detroit Summer participate in numerous activities from street cleaning, urban gardening, recycling waste, repurposing abandoned lots, repairing homes, education and outreach, and creating and coordinating public art in areas designated as "urban blight."[4][5] Many also gain work experience working with local initiatives and community-based enterprises, such as the Back Alley Bikes shop.[4] Participants gain manual skills, recycle post-consumer waste, and conduct outreach and education with the community.
Youth organizers with Detroit Summer also attend the Allied Media Conference, now held annually in Detroit, where they interact with community organizers, media activists, educators, and scholars.[6] Many will organize panels, attend sessions and workshops, and create community-oriented media.[6]
Public art projects engages school age children in efforts to beautify Detroit communities and imagine possible hopeful futures.[4] These projects encourage youth to develop positive feelings towards their communities.