Hamtramck : Buzz

The Michigan Film Office says How to Catch a Monster, a feature film that marks actor Ryan Gosling’s writing and directing debut, was awarded an incentive of $1,750,909 on $6,238,922 of projected in-state expenditures. The project is expected to hire 104 Michigan workers with a full time equivalent of 30 jobs.

The film will shoot in Detroit and other metro locations and features Christina Hendricks (Mad Men), Saoirse Ronan (Atonement), Eva Mendes (The Place Beyond the Pines) and Matt Smith (Doctor Who). 

Also approved for a state film encentive is Landlord, which shoots in Hamtramck, and follows the tale of Elvis Martini, a widowed landlord dealing with spiritual conflict and the abduction of his daughter.

Follow news from the Michigan Film Office here.

There's lots going on in the Hamtramck art scene, including a show seeking entries at HatchArt.

Every six to eight weeks we can't help but say something nice about Hamtramck's Public Pool. The storefront art space has too many damn fine shows by Detroit (and soon to showcase out-of-town) artists.

The blog ArtHopper recently popped in to see Contorted, an all female show curated by Jessica Frelinghuysen.

An excerpt: 

Having peeked at what I guessed I was not meant to see, I realized all the work in Contorted keeps the inner workings under wraps. Experiencing women retreating into mystery with a humorous wink, demands that the viewer look closer for the kernel of conflict. In Nicola Kuperus’ photographs, all titled Fools, uncomfortably tight cropping cutting off portions of extremities, and nightmarish crimson bags covering the figures’ heads quickly counter the somewhat clownish poses of the unitard-wearing ballerinas. The work echoes documentary photographs of prisoners of war, as well as Picasso’s eyeless woman husks.

Read on here.

Fat Tuesday is big, we mean huge, in New Orleans, Rio de Janeiro and ... Hamtramck? That's right, except here it is properly known as Paczki Day, the day before Lent begins in the Polish Catholic religious calendar.

It's become so wildly popular (bands, DJs, food, drink) that organizers thought a run would be a nice addition to the schedule -- four days before Paczki Day. Get ready to burn some calories before Fat Tuesday by participating in the inaugural PaczKi Run in Hamtramck this Saturday, Feb. 9. The 5K run begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of Holbrook and Joseph Campau. Each person finishing the race fittingly receives a paczek and a beer. The PaczKi Run is presented by Tour-De-Troit in partnership with the Hamtramck Downtown Development Authority.            
 
Several Hamtramck businesses will be offering runners a “bib discount” after they cross the finish line on this Saturday, they include:
 
$1 domestic draft beers @ New Dodge Lounge, 8850 Joseph Campau
$1 beer specials @ Whiskey in the Jar, 2741 Yemens St.
35 percent off the regular retail price of clothing @ Chiipss, 10229 Joseph Campau
10 percent all items @ Detroit Threads, 10238 Joseph Campau

And: Free samples @ Srodek’s Campau Quality Sausage, 9601 Joseph Campau
Free Prince Polish candy bar @ Polish Art Center, 9539 Joseph Campau
$1 off records @ Record Graveyard, 2610 Carpenter St.
$5 off any purchase of $15 or more @ Amici’s, 9842 Joseph Campau     
 
Advance registration only costs $25 and is available through Tuesday, Feb. 5. That's today, runners. Sign-up early here. 

All proceeds will benefit City of Hamtramck’s non-motorized trail plan.

Impressive group of sponsors, too: Detroit Threads, Talmer Bank, McClure's Pickles, Jurkiewicz & Wilk Funeral Home, Whiskey in the Jar, The Belmont Bar, Polish-American Chamber of Commerce-Michigan, Simply Suzanne Granola, New Dodge Lounge, Record Graveyard, Polish Art Center, New Palace Bakery, New Martha Washington Bakery, Sam's Market, Alexis G. Krot, P.C., Plante Moran, Glory Supermarket, Miller Canfield and Giffels Webster Engineers.

Chicago art dealer and collector David Lusenhop, who has been working and now living in a studio space belonging to former Hamtramck mayor Gary Zych, has been hunting down notable works of revolutionary African-American Americana for the past 12 years.

The coveted collection -- 44 works by 26 artists -- was just acquired by the Brooklyn Museum, reports the New York Times:

When the curator of American art at the Brooklyn Museum began work on an exhibition to coincide with next year’s anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, she happened on a trove of works from the Black Arts Movement, the cultural arm of the black power movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This was an area of the art market long neglected but recently attracting attention. Great stuff.

Read more here.

The linguistic, social and ethnic diversity of Hamtrmack never fails to charm us here at Model D HQ. It's great to hear that the realities of the community have inspired what looks like a nice piece of theatrical art at Planet Ant.

An excerpt: (Writer) Edwartowski’s blend of quirky characters and realistic dialogue might lead one to believe she penned much of her script by eavesdropping on Hamtramck citizens as they came and went from any of Hamtramck’s dining establishments -- it’s that natural.

Good stuff. Read more about the production here.

There is a nice show on right now at Hamtramck's Public Pool, where neighborhood artist George Rahme is sitting daily tinkering with his huge, multi-colored collages and planning some good tunes (Rahme is an accomplished DJ as well). The Knight Arts blog takes favorable notice.

Read the whole story here.

If you haven't had a chance to check out some of the colorful, edgy street art popping up around Detroit and Hamtramck, then get out there and see it now. It's splendid.

Curbed Detroit knows what it's all about. Go here and enjoy.

We know ballplayers who once played at this hidden gem, an historic stadium once a playing field for the old Negro League. Now, thanks to community leaders, volunteers and preservationists, the stadium has made it on the National Register of Historic Places.

Well done everybody. The Hamtramck Review has the rest of the story here.

Some of you might have first attended the Hamtramck Festival, three days of urban fun in the Labor Day weekend sun, since 1980. That's a good, long run we want to see continue for decades to come.

The festival is under threat because of cutbacks in the city's budget. A solution not available 32 years ago is the best option to raise funds: Kickstarter.

Go here and throw a few bucks in the pot to keep the street party alive and kicking.  

Some of the best news we heard all last week was about the extention of the Dequindre Cut, from Gratiot to Mack Avenue, and the creation of the Midtown Loop, which will take the trail through the heart of Wayne State University and Brush Park. Also in the plans: a connector that will link Eastern Market with Hamtramck.

Pictures tell even a better story. Take a look at these accessed from the Mode Shift Move Together site.

This story in the Detroit News confirms what we knew already -- that the street art that went up on Detroit and Hamtramck buildings this spring is radically beautiful and that the idea was hatched by a Hamtramck-based group called Contra Projects.

An excerpt: 

Hamtramck officials and property owners were so accommodating to the Beautification Project that most of the murals went up there first. It's part of the city's plan to spotlight its artistic side, head off illegal graffiti, and, perhaps grab a little of the global cool Detroit has been enjoying on the international art stage.

Jason E. Friedmann, Hamtramck's director of economic and community development, said the town has long been an art haven for creative types, but that side hasn't always been visible to outsiders.

"We're trying to get our underground creative thing out in the open to underline that this is part of what Hamtramck is all about," he said.

Well said Jason, well said.

Read on here.

We've been following the progress of this Hamtramck tree planting project for the past month or so, and we're happy to see that the ground-breaking of Hamtown Farms was a success. Check out this excerpt: 

Dozens of hands dug, pulled, rolled, shoveled and tamped the rock-hard earth in the hopes of eventually harvesting a pawpaw orchard, hazelnut bushes and vegetables near the flowers and open space of Michigan’s most densely packed city.

Wow, love that description, by Detroit Free Press staff writer Megha Satyanarayana. And the picture of cool Mayor Karen Majewski, ready to dig in. Read more here.

Hatch: A Hamtramck Art Collective purchased an abandoned building from the city of Hamtramck for $1 with plans to convert it into an art center.  The building was initially a dormitory for nuns from the 1920s to the late 1960s, then became a police station (complete with jail cells and the rumor of ghosts).