Skip to main content

Detroit's history of independent media

A strong current of independent media runs throughout Detroit’s activist history. The living legacy of independent media in the city includes:

  • In the late 60s, the League of Revolutionary Black Workers' takeover of The South End (the Wayne State University student newspaper), the publication of the Inner City Voice newspaper, and production of the legendary documentary "Finally Got the News";
  • The Fifth Estate, the longest running English language anarchist publication in North America;
  • The Detroit Sunday Journal, the weekly newspaper and independent labor voice published during the five-year-long Detroit newspaper workers' strike of the late 90s;
  • Labor Notes, the national voice of the union democracy movement;
  • Community newspapers and newsletters in the 80s and 90s that advanced the argument that rebuilding neighborhoods was about more than rebuilding housing, including The Awakening, published by Save Our Sons & Daughters, The Neighborhood Information Exchange, and The Core City Connector;
  • The many newspapers serving and mobilizing Detroit's Latino community;
  • The newspapers of the area's Arab community (the largest outside of the Middle East), including The Arab American News, the oldest and most respected Arab American newspaper in the U.S.;
  • The Michigan Citizen, a weekly newspaper with a large circulation, serving the local African American and progressive community;
  • Strong social justice programming on the city's NPR station during the 70s and 80s;
  • Microcinemas and independent film theaters;
  • The tradition of muralism, from Diego Rivera's “Detroit Industry” mural at the Detroit Institute of Art, to Mexican public art traditions expressed in Southwest Detroit, to Detroit Summer's youth-painted murals found throughout the city;
  • The Heildelberg Project, a found-art installation that takes up multiple city blocks and reflects on both the decay of the city and the hope for transformation;
  • The Afrocentric images found on signage throughout the city and the belief that public aesthetics should be reflective of the population;
  • Strong community theater institutions such as the Detroit Repertoire Theater, Matrix Theater Company and Mosaic Youth Theater;
  • Publishers like Broadside Press who for four decades have promoted the power of the written word in the struggle for self-determination;
  • Documentaries like "Poletown Lives," which shows a neighborhood's struggle for survival against the bulldozer of "redevelopment";
  • A profound and unique poetry and spoken word scene;
  • World-renowned music, from Motown to Techno to Detroit Hip-Hop.

That gives you a taste of where we are coming from. Contact us if you've got something that you think should be added to this list.

MORE DETROIT INFO

  • Welcome to Detroit
  • Getting to Detroit
  • Getting around Detroit
  • Places to stay
  • Places to eat