I know that I have started to fall behind as a blogger but this rainy day gives me a chance to catch up. Even though I have officially left the Trumbullplex as a house guest I haven’t really left yet. After every day at the farm I’ve headed back to the Trumbullplex to hang out with the collective. The other night we went bowling as a collective and never stopped putting on punk songs on the juke box. It ended up being a dance party with bowling on the side. It also happened to be a really slow night at the bowling alley so the owner let us keep going for 3 hours for the price of one game. There was also a really bad show at the theater the on Monday night. The bands were all really lame except for one of our friends’ bands. The real problem with the show was the people who showed up were all really big jerks. Most of the collective headed inside and hung out inside around the wood stove and came back periodically to check up on the show.

Even though the show stunk, the Trumbullplex got some bigger donations for their magazine library.

The Farm, on the other hand, has been really great as well. Greg is a really inspiring person to be working with. He started the Trumbullplex back in 1992 and embodies the entrepreneurial lifestyle I want to pursue. It has been really nice to talk to Greg about his past with movements and how they can really disillusion you.

Greg is also a former teacher, fired after he supported some students with their idea to hold a sit-in to change the school cafeteria. We have been collaborating on a new project to build a compost screener that can be moved over the beds as a direct application. It’s really nice to work with Greg and see a teaching style that is a perfect balance of freedom and instruction.

Today, however, has been rainy and there hasn’t been much that we can do on a day like today. Tonight I’m going to head back to Back Alley Bikes to volunteer.

Peace,

Henry

Hello everyone,

The last couple of days have been really great. My last night at the Trumbullplex for this visit happened to land on a great hip hop show. The first act was a classical piano and the second was a sludge band but the last three was really good hip hop. The whole show was a benefit for Bradley Manning. He is an openly gay man in the military who leaked tons of documents to Wikileaks. After only a few hours of sleep I went with a collective member to eastern market; the world’s biggest and best indoor farmers market. It happens every Saturday and there is nothing quite like it.

I got picked up by Greg for the move to Brother Nature Produce. I met two local high school girls who have applied to all Ivies but they drove out of the suburbs to the farm to try to “do something that’s not for a college application.” It was funny to hear their view-point. Two suburban girls who had never really been in Detroit farming for the first time, in a city. After they left Greg and I did a little bit more farming and showed me around his house. I crashed in my new room (which has a BED!!) for a couple of hours. I got up from my nap and made dinner with Greg. I accidentally touched my eye after cutting some Habanero peppers and Greg whipped up a citrus concoction to wash out my eye to stop the burning. As I hung out with a paper towel soaked in OJ Greg told me stories of getting pepper sprayed as a younger activist at marches and demonstrations.

Tomorrow we’ll be working bright and early and I’m going to head back to the Trumbullplex around 12 to help out with a theater work day.

Peace,

Henry

Hello all,

Today the sun finally decided to come out. I went for a long bike ride before going to Back Alley Bikes to volunteer again. Afterwards I came back to the Trumbullplex to make some dinner. I went for a walk out to what’s called Pheasant Run. It’s an entire large block without buildings. In the last couple of years pheasants have come back to Detroit because of all the vacant land. After I came back a collective member took me to one  local high school for pregnant teens and young women. Next to the school is a farm with chickens, a horse, goats, rabbits, and apple trees. The idea is to teach them about taking care of a living creature. We milked the goats and fed them. I came back and some folks had made extra dinner so I ate a second one. A while back while cleaning I found a movie called Salt of the Earth. It’s an old pro-union movie, the acting isn’t great but it was blacklisted in the States at one time. Tomorrow I’m going to Earth Works again and then to a rally against budget cuts to Wane State then back to Back Alley Bikes.

Peace,

Henry

Today I woke up late after a late Saturday night. I hung out with a lot of the collective who were playing music in one of the rooms. My camera can only take 3 second video clips for some reason, so the clips are short. Later I finished splitting all of the wood in the side lot and stacked all of it neatly away to dry. Tonight the Terminal Orchestra played. They were a 10 piece band; 3 drummers, 1 violin, 1 bass and 5 guitars. They had an amazing sound and the whole community came out as usual. Afterwards people hung out for hours.

Peace,

Henry

Hey everyone,

Today is Saturday and I worked again at Back Alley Bikes this morning from 10-12. We took all of the rusted and unusable bike parts to the local scrap center for cash. Afterwards one of the volunteers took three of us out for the best Arab food I have ever had. Then to the Arab version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I’m lying here at 5 in the afternoon still digesting. Last night however I went to a party at the Trumbullplex’s sister collective called The Crow Manor. 12 people are packed into one house that is constantly creating art and playing or blasting music. It was a really cool site. I didn’t have my camera on me last night or today but I met a really great guy named Scott who told me about a documentary he was in. I just looked it up and its the best thing I have seen yet that can describe what Detroit is all about.

Peace,

Henry

Hello everyone,

I realized that I forgot to post a link to Earth Works in case readers want to get a better understanding of just how amazing this place is. http://www.cskdetroit.org/EWG/.

On Thursday I woke up pretty early after having stayed up pretty late with a lot of the collective hanging out by the wood stove. Nights here are really fun since the house is so cold everyone hangs out in one of the three rooms that have wood stoves and then around 2 or 3 makes a mad dash for their covers. Anyway, after waking up I made some breakfast and went out to get some groceries. Just like most walks out of the house, I can’t leave without deciding whether it’s time to explore a little further or go in a new direction. I walked through a lot of the neighborhoods that one were. Everything abandoned for blocks, huge vacant lots all around you with people scattered through the streets. While the images of these parts of the city are supposed to be haunting, I found them rather endearing. I circled around behind the stadium and went to the downtown area for the first time. I had heard some people talking about how weird the developments downtown had been the past couple of years. It was a New York city wanna-be huge street. Big bars with businessmen and the likes enjoying heavy food while beggars waited outside. This was not the nice shopping area that complemented the street interspersed through the neighborhoods. This was a murder of the neighborhoods!

I stopped off at a work clothes store and found a pair of overalls in my size which I was pretty excited about. I headed home after that. The walk ended up being about 8 or 10 miles. I ate some organic wheat crackers with some peanut butter made from local Detroit zen monks (I have plans to check this place out later) with some sunflower sprouts on top. I headed out to Back  Alley Bikes after the grub. Back Alley is the top floor of a huge bike shop called the hub (http://thehubofdetroit.org/). They salvage bikes and parts from every where. There were probably over 3,000 bikes in tact with organized and un-organized parts everywhere! I only snapped two pictures because I was having so much fun but this place is incredible. They run a lot of awesome programs for little kids through adults, teaching them how to fix and build bikes. At the end of the program you get to keep your bike. The work I helped with was mostly striping parts and organizing them into ones that were junk or should be kept.

After having way too much fun at Back Alley,  The Hub announced that it was having sprint races down at a local place at nine. I came back to Trumbull and ate some way to much food and headed over. Only about five people showed up for the races but it was fun to try out the stationary bike hooked up to the computer and just hang out. I came back to the Trumbull at around midnight and hung out with the collective till about 2. I don’t have anything planned for today but Saturday I’ll be helping The Hub again in the morning and then either going to another farm to help out or to a protest in support of Planned Parenthood whose federal funding is getting cut.

Peace,

Henry

Yesterday I cleaned out a hallway that was filled with all kinds of junk, sorted it, and cleaned the space. The next step is to paint. I also found out about a volunteer day at an urban farm called Earth Works. They farm about 10 acres all over vacant lots. I pruned apple trees and pear trees. We also started some bed prep. The guy who runs Earth Works called me up later for some extra help. After a free lunch from the farm I headed towards a location one of the Trumbull folks told me to check out but not what would be there. It is this massive art project that has taken over a vacant block! I came back to the Trumbull and split fire wood all afternoon. Tomorrow night I’m going to help out at a bike co-op called the Hub.

Peace,

Henry

Hello all,

It’s Tuesday afternoon and I’ve just done all of the dishes in the house. There was a house meeting last night after dinner and we talked a little bit about projects the two houses might need help with. I might be installing a new bathroom and tiling the whole thing along with various other projects that need some attention.

One of the members took me out for breakfast yesterday at a cafe that buys their produce in the spring and we ate a nice breakfast. I did a lot of shoveling around the house. I also went for a walk around the city. Nothing was

shoved or plowed which made getting around a little sketchy with cars sliding around all over the place.

Peace,

Henry

I have finished packing and I’m ready to wake up at 4:00am for a 5:30am Greyhound out of Philadelphia. After 16 hours I’ll arrive in Detroit at 9:45. I’ve packed a lot of books I’ve been meaning to read, now with this long travel time I’ll get a chance to break into some of them.

Peace,

Henry