When people across the world, the nation, and even Michigan speak of Detroit’s comeback, we as Detroiters understand something different: We stood on business because we never left. Detroit is more than a place. It instills a signature belief, understanding, and confidence that moves us beyond possibilities into action. As Detroiters, we’ve made Detroit a verb and an adjective. Most places are simply nouns. Detroit is something we do, something we embody, and something we carry wherever life takes us.

At the 13th annual Detroit Homecoming, presented by Crain’s Detroit Business, September 23–25, 2026, Detroit is Different brings these stories to life through conversations hosted by Khary Frazier and Candace Cox-Wimberly of I Am a Genius. From Grandmont Rosedale and the North End to Cass Tech and the Avenue of Fashion, these conversations explore how Detroit’s neighborhoods, families, institutions, and cultural traditions inspire global achievement and hometown investment.

Entrepreneurs, filmmakers, artists, engineers, community organizers, and business leaders share journeys connecting personal ambition to collective responsibility. Their experiences reveal a Detroit where innovation extends beyond technology, cultural preservation creates economic opportunity, and lessons learned from parents, neighbors, and elders become foundations for leadership. Each story challenges the notion that Detroit’s greatest value lies in redevelopment rather than the people who have sustained its culture for generations.

“I really love black people.” That simple declaration tells you plenty about Teron Haynes., but his journey to advocating for Detroiters is anything but simple. Raised in the St. Louis Metro East area, Teron enlisted in the Army at 17, earned his degree from Methodist University, and eventually made Detroit home. His father instilled a love for Black people, while his mother’s advocacy for his two younger brothers with autism demonstrated what lifelong commitment looks like. Now serving on the Renaissance Center and East Riverfront Projects Neighborhood Advisory Council, Teron is questioning who benefits when billions in development reshape Detroit’s riverfront. “Oh, I got elected,” he explains about entering a process where community voices too often struggle to influence decisions. From Southern Baptist family roots to organizing for economic fairness, Teron connects generations of Black advocacy to Detroit’s future. His conviction is clear: “Detroiters don’t deserve it,” when development creates harm instead of opportunity. Hear why representation means more than having a seat at the table.

“Voting in your local elections actually matters the most.” Sheila Cockrel has spent a lifetime understanding how power works in Detroit and why everyday people must have a voice in shaping it. From growing up in Detroit’s Catholic Worker movement to organizing against the notorious STRESS police unit, her story connects the city’s radical organizing traditions to the responsibilities of citizenship today. After 16 years on Detroit City Council, Cockrel joined Dr. Irvin Reed to establish Citizen Detroit, bringing neighbors together through dinner, dialogue, and civic education. Her belief is simple: “Detroiters want reliable, trustworthy, factual information to make informed decisions.” The conversation explores the organizing legacy of her late husband Ken Cockrel Sr, the influence of Coleman Young, neighborhood inequality, public education, and the political choices facing future generations. When democracy feels distant, Cockrel reminds us that “people are going to make the right choice” when trusted with facts. This is Detroit political history with lessons for the next generation.

“When I arrived in Detroit in 1984, I thought I had come to another country.” Desiree Cooper remembers discovering a Detroit the national story rarely showed: Black people owning, leading, creating, gathering, and finding joy. Detroit is Different recorded this special Father’s Day event on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at Source Booksellers, celebrating the release of Cooper’s Black Summers, published by Wayne State University Press. Through stories and poems, Black Summers explores generations of Black Detroit summer experiences, tracing Black joy alongside the racial boundaries that shaped who could move, play, and experience summer freely. Cooper, a journalist who wrote for the Metro Times and Detroit Free Press during the 1980s and 1990s, introduces Sarah Elizabeth Ray, a daughter of the Great Migration who challenged segregation on the Boblo Boat and “won at every single level of American court till the US Supreme Court ruled Boblo can no longer withhold admission of Black people,” yet she never boarded the Boblo Boat. Cooper also honors the late Luther Keith through his memories of alley baseball, getting his first glove from Kresge, and growing up in a community that nurtured possibility even when institutions did not. From swimmobiles and Belle Isle to block parties, journalism, Detroit’s Black middle class, and neighborhood self-determination, Cooper reminds us that Black Detroit history cannot be reduced to struggle: “That is not a story of lack. That is a story of victory and ingenuity.” Listen for a Detroit summer where Black joy becomes history worth preserving.