The Metro

The Red: Children’s Art Museum and Gallery nurtures and displays the work of kids who want to exercise their creative skills. Yvette Rock is the founder and executive director of the gallery. She has been working with young artists for decades, encouraging them to develop their skills and exposing them to career artists right here in Detroit. 

The museum re-opened in March in time for the summer season, so Rock joined the show to talk about the museum’s work and how she develops young artists.

Roberto Clemente is a baseball icon. Over his 18-year career he won two world series, acquired 12 golden gloves, four batting titles, and is one of only 33 players in baseball history to collect three thousand hits in his career. Clemente’s resume jumps off the page. 

But what Clemente was able to accomplish on the field may not even be his greatest contribution. Clemente’s record as an advocate for civil rights and helping others in communities is as synonymous with his reputation as his athletic achievements. 

"Roberto Clemente: A Diamond Within" is an original play written by Candido Tirado. The play is being  produced by Plowshares Theatre Company and it runs from June 12 through June 28 in the Marlene Boll Theatre at The Boll Family YMCA. 

Gary Anderson, Producing Artistic Director of Plowshares Theatre Company, joined the show to explain why he's bringing this take on Clemente's life to a Detroit stage.

Michigan will be enacting a statewide school phone ban for students from kindergarten through 12th grade this fall.

Many schools already have some form of phone restriction in place during the school day. Three researchers from the University of Michigan wanted to know what could be learned from different phone ban policies prior to the statewide mandate going into effect.

Justin Heinze, Brian Jacob and Elyse Thulin compared nearly 800 schools in Michigan with phone use limits in place and shared their findings in an article published by The Conversation Detroit. In their article, they examine what different bans districts use and key points to consider when picking a policy.

Eleanore Catolico, editor of The Conversation - Detroit joined The Metro to discuss what Heinze, Jacob and Thulin found.

Read the full article here.

Women-led organizations marched on Washington during their historic efforts to achieve social, political and economic equality. Yet, not all women were included in the conversation. Many of the early women's suffrage groups excluded Black women and women of color.

Discrimination in the movement led to the formation of Black-led organizations like the Detroit Association of Women's Clubs (DAWC).

Founded in 1921 at Ferry and Brush at the height of the women's suffrage movement, the DAWC made it their mission to fight for their own version of equality—one that centered both gender and racial parity.

So what happened to the DAWC, its founders, and its mission? 

Every year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation compiles its list of the 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in America. 

This year, in honor of our nation's 250th anniversary, the organization is centering its selections around the theme of equality—protecting and preserving spaces that have advanced the idea that all people are created equal.

The DAWC earned a place on this year's list. Executive Director Candace Calloway joins the show to share what the designation means, and why its essential to preserve this historic space.

Michigan has a lot of women in power — a woman governor, a woman attorney general, and the first woman to lead Detroit was elected last year. So why does Detroit entrepreneur Danielle North say some of the hardest setbacks of her career didn't come from men? She joined The Metro's Robyn Vincent at the Mackinac Policy Conference to talk about scarcity, solidarity, and how to keep the door open for more women.

Michigan picks its next governor in November, and the Democratic frontrunner is Jocelyn Benson.

Benson made her name as Secretary of State when she refused to overturn Michigan’s 2020 election — even when armed protesters showed up at her Detroit home while she decorated a Christmas tree with her four-year-old son. The John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award followed. So did the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Now she wants to replace Gretchen Whitmer in a state that voted for Donald Trump just 18 months ago.

Her path got easier last week when independent Mike Duggan dropped out, citing low poll numbers and fundraising struggles. It got harder when her own Democratic attorney general ruled she’d broken state campaign-finance law launching her bid — and when the Trump Justice Department sued her for Michigan’s voter rolls.

The Metro’s Robyn Vincent had 15 minutes to find out what this all means.

A Professional Women's Hockey League team is coming to Detroit – a milestone that was inevitable. The hockey fans here are passionate, the championships are plentiful and the hockey history here is long. Considering the city’s deep connection to hockey, it’s fitting for Detroit to be one of four cities joining the PWHL in its fourth season.

Maya Smith, a journalist with the women's athletics platform The IX sports, joined the program to discuss how it happened.

Democratic Senator Elissa Slotkin is one of the most closely watched politicians in her party right now.

A former CIA analyst, she took three tours in Iraq alongside the military, and spent years in national security under both Republican and Democratic administrations before she ran for office. Then she won a House seat in a Trump-led district, followed by a Senate seat in a state President Trump carried. When her party needed someone to deliver the Democratic response to President Trump’s address to Congress, they picked her.

She’s been called a centrist. A pragmatist. A rising star. She's also been called too cautious — not progressive enough, not tough enough — at a moment when many Democrats argue the party must get louder. The Metro's Robyn Vincent spoke with her at the Mackinac Policy Conference.

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"Black Summers" - a book about growing up in the urban outdoors -  is a compilation of writings from Detroiters. In it they detail what it’s like to experience a summer here. But it’s not just about playing tag at the park or barbeques on Belle Isle. The book balances the joys and freedoms that come with the season while remaining very aware of how our racial history at one point restricted it. 

The 33 entries in the book range in their style and depth. Together they paint a picture of what it's like to be outside in Detroit. Desiree Cooper is the editor of the book. She joined the program to explain how she weaved these pieces together. 

How much has politics changed in the last 20 years? That was a different time— a time before President Trump and MAGA, before the wealth gap continued expanding, before we were as polarized as we are today, and before algorithmic media took hold. But how different were things, really? What can we learn from that era of politics? And what are the things that we should be happy we’ve left behind? Jennifer Granholm was the governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011. She was also the energy secretary under the Biden administration. She’s on Mackinac Island, and will be speaking at this year’s policy conference. She spoke with The Metro's Robyn Vincent.