COMMUNITY
.5
JEWFRO
Repair the World:
Welcome To The Workshop!
By Ben Falik
E
ven if you weren't present for the
Grand Opening of The Workshop
— perhaps you were walking/
running for Israel, Lagging b'Omer or
pollinating at Flower Day—you were
there in spirit. So thank you for being
there in spirit (and for leaving the
Honeybee Market guacamole for the
rest of us).
And you should thank the 300 at-
tendees for representing you and the
diverse communities and constituen-
cies Repair the World seeks to engage.
They ate the guac.
Just some of the VIPs in attendance:
•Carla Underwood: our friend and
neighbor who is finishing eighth grade
at Amelia Earhart Middle School and is
diplomatic enough to be a fan of MSU
and still put up with Michigan Hillel
students.
•Vito Valdez, the DIA-affiliated mural-
ist responsible for so much of the iconic
artwork in the neighborhood.
• Ronald Feimster of Bagley Book
Brigade fame.
• Ellery Rosenzweig, PeerCorps
mentor and Temple Israel Youth Group
leader, who led her fellow YFTI mem-
bers, churros in hand, over the Bagley
Pedestrian Bridge to The Workshop
to write all over the chalk- and white-
board walls.
• Derek Aguirre, who runs Racquet
Up, a youth development program
based at the former Meyers-Curtis JCC
(which is still located at Meyers and
Curtis).
• Lori Fithian, purveyor of participa-
tory percussion through Drummunity
(drummunity.com).
•Sam Marvin, making his Repair the
World debut as Workshop coordinator,
fresh off of a 13-hour Saturday to get us
ready for the Grand Opening Sunday.
•Audra Carson, whose organization
De-tread (de-tread.com ) facilitated the
removal of more than 700 tires from
the area around B'nai David Cemetery
last month.
•Jay Rayford, co-founder of Social Su-
shi, which will soon have a permanent
home a few blocks away in Corktown.
• Bobby Siporin, a newly minted Mas-
ter of Social Work from the Jewish Com-
munal Leadership Program at U of M.
•A gentleman in a bowtie whose
pediatrician was my grandfather.
•And Raquel Castarieda-Lopez, the
dynamic city council member for the
6th District (the first to serve in the
council-by-district era), who smiled
politely when I messed up her name in
front of the assembled group.
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Joel Millman, Carly Sugar, Coco Spencer,
Michael Evers, Aj Aaron, kneeling, Nora
Feldhusen, Samuel Marvin and Ben Falik
So, now that you're disappointed you
weren't there to rub elbows with the
Who's Who of Detroit, you may be won-
dering the same thing many of them
were: What is The Workshop?
Indeed. It's a lot of things to a lot of
people — most of which (and most of
whom) we don't know yet.
What we do know is the space —
2701 Bagley Ave., nestled in good
company between Michigan Central
Station and the Ambassador Bridge —
is open to our neighbors, volunteers,
partners and pretty much everyone
else, except the guy who owns the
bridge and train station.
And that it is a big, beautiful brick
building, though you're more likely to
notice the metalwork by Disenos Or-
namental Iron (dironwork.com ), whose
Diego Rivera-inspired lily entrance and
gazebo next door make the space a
landmark and work of art.
What we don't know — and what
we won't know until you tell us — are
all the many splendored ways we will
make 5,000 square feet (not includ-
ing the gazebo) a community asset.
Volunteering there or briefing and
debriefing when volunteering around
town; meeting, greeting and eating
with like-minded people from unlike
places; workshops with our neighbors
such as greening with Detroit Farm and
Garden, acting with Matrix Theatre and
screen printing with Detroit Design
Screen Printing; bike tours and Pac-
Man (because we have bikes and Pac-
Man) — all and more can be done.
Let's work it out together, shall
we?
Upcoming event at The Workshop: "Documentary
and Dialogue: Very Young Girls," in partnership with
Alternatives for Girls (alternativesforgirls.org), June
11 at 7 p.m. Free.
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