Detroit is Different

  • Latest episode: “I Set Up Shop and Built the Vision, Jason Phillips on Art, Ink, and Detroit Legacy”
  • Latest episode: “Breaking Curses, Building Community: Inside the Modern Day High Priestess with Ber-Henda Williams”
  • Latest episode: “From Scripts to Fatherhood: MJ the Don on Creativity, Patience, and Legacy”

  • Latest episode: “I Set Up Shop and Built the Vision, Jason Phillips on Art, Ink, and Detroit Legacy”
  • Latest episode: “Breaking Curses, Building Community: Inside the Modern Day High Priestess with Ber-Henda Williams”
  • Latest episode: “From Scripts to Fatherhood: MJ the Don on Creativity, Patience, and Legacy”

“I wanted a red brick house in Detroit. That’s all I wanted.” In this Detroit is Different studio sit-down, Misha Stallworth West—Senior Program Officer at the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation—traces a five-generation arc from Selma to Detroit and family full of community organizers. She remembers a “stoic” grandfather, and a grandmother Alma Stallworth nicknamed “the Rep,” whose fierce love for children helped shape the Northwest Activity Center, Beaubien Junior High, and the Black Caucus Foundation of Michigan’s drug, tobacco, and violence prevention work. Misha explains how growing up in meetings made her “a well-trained introvert,” and why she’s “never asked herself if I’m allowed to speak in any space—ever.” From Grant Park Chicago IL on election night of Barack Obama, to part of Detroit’s first school board after emergency management, she connects Legacy Black Detroit’s political education to today’s care economy. Her current focus is caregivers of older adults: “every time you go get a box for my auntie house, I’m talking about you,” and “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” This episode is a blueprint for how Detroit’s past-built institutions can power our next future. and how we honor elders.