"Inside Southwest Detroit': Resident Interviews"

Over the past ten years Inside Southwest Detroit's article content has primarily been a collection of pieces written about the area by outside media sources. This narrative is supplemented by photos and social discussions created by current and past residents. While a strong community narrative came be formed from understanding and discussing outside media depictions, the "Inside Southwest Detroit: Resident Interview Project" aims to further supplement the story by facilitating resident-created insider content.

One perception that is often held by area outsiders is that southwest Detroit is a single neighborhood, outsiders often speak of Mexicantown and Southwest Detroit synonymously. In reality Mexicantown is one distinct neighborhood that exists within Southwest Detroit. The Interview Project will assist in creating an alternative narrative that highlights the fact that southwest Detroit is actually comprised of at least 7 distinct neighborhoods The goal of the project is to seek out and interview at least two residents from each of the distinct neighborhoods. Since not all residents agree on neighborhood names the project will identify each resident's neighborhood by cross-street and zip code. (i.e. John Doe, Michigan & Livernois, 48210)

A secondary goal of the project is to highlight that longtime, working-class residents have an equally important voice in the recent discussions that centered around redeveloping the City. The dominant voice in recent redvelopment discussions has been that of the new, young professional. This project hopes to balance the dialogue.

The content of the interviews will often be guided by the person being interviewed but will have a general theme of "Tell us about your neighborhood." The Interview Project's content will be published as completed on InsideSouthwest throughout 2013. The end goal is to accumulate a body of work that is as diverse as the City itself.

Funded by Detroit, MI (December 2012)