Metro

AROUND TOWN

Celebrating Diversity

Young professionals gather for a multicultural evening of food and music.

At the multicultural event are Rachel Lachover of West Bloomfield, Efe Bes of Detroit (a drummer in a traditional

Jennifer Satovsky and Kevin Fantich, both of
African mask), Gabe Neistein of West Bloomfield, Yoav Raban of Bloomfield Hills and Craig Trudel of West Bloomfield. Bloomfield Hills

I

t was like taking a trip around the world without ever leav-
ing town. There were African drums, a Mariachi band, danc-
es from the Asian Pacific and Turkey, and ethnic foods from
local restaurants, including enchiladas, hummus and Turkish
meatballs.
More than 300 young adults gathered at the Virgil H. Carr
Arts League of Michigan in Detroit's Harmonie Park Oct. 9 for
"Detroit Harmonie," a multicultural evening of dining, drinks
and music meant to celebrate diversity.
"Our goal was to start the conversation between the young
professionals of the city and suburbs so we can begin working
together to create one voice said Justin Jacobs of Bloomfield
Hills, founder of the intramural sports league ComePlayDetroit.
"Many of the different cultures in our communities are working toward the same goal
of bringing young people back to Detroit, but none of them have been working together."
Jacobs says Detroit Harmonie started that conversation. Now the plan is to provide
relevant programming to continue keeping young adults engaged. The event, which
also included a demonstration of the Afro-Brazilian art of Capoeira, which combines
martial arts, music and dance, was jointly organized by ComePlayDetroit, the regional
Young Professional Leadership Council and CommunityNEXT, a Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit initiative that began earlier this year.
"This is a great start in our effort to retain and attract young professionals',' said
Jacobs. "ComePlayDetroit has signed up more than 1,000 participants for basketball,
kickball, soccer, bowling and volleyball in just the past eight months. By providing these
opportunities to be social and active, we're changing the culture for local young adults
and making our community a more attractive place for people to live'
Spotted in the crowd were: Jodi Beals, Arthur Bricker, Kevin Fantich and Rachel
Lachover, all of West Bloomfield; Brad Steel, Stephen Weisberg, Diane Meranski,
Melissa Smith and Laurie and Justin Hiller, all of Birmingham; Rachael and Scott
Sadoff of Northville; and Heather Kerwin, Mindy Swartz, and Jennifer Satovsky, all
of Bloomfield Hills. ❑

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November 11 • 2010

Benjy Gordon of Huntington Woods, Amy Friedman of Birmingham and Marjorie

Rudick of Ferndale

For additional information about CommunityNEXT, contact Rachel Lachover
at (248) 203-1467 or rachel@communityNXT.com . For information about
ComePlayDetroit or to sign up for a league, go to comeplaydetroit.com or
contact Justin Jacobs at justin@comeplaydetroit.com .