Culture Canvas: A deeper dive on Detroit books

Hey Detroiters! Welcome back to Culture Canvas. 
 
Did any of you make it out to the Detroit Festival of Books this past weekend? I did and it was so much fun! As a life-long bookworm, being in a place surrounded by books was like heaven. I ended up taking home four books: “Sing, Unburied Sing” by Jesmyn Ward, “The Chicken Sister” by KJ Dell’ Antonia, “The Curious incident of the Dog in the Night Time” by Mark Haddon and “Detroit in 50 Maps” by cartographer and DETROITography founder Alex B. Hill. 

Last week, I talked to Hill as well as author, documentarian and Detroit native Curtis Chin about their presentations at the festival’s “Bookfest at the Main” event at the main branch of the Detroit Public Library. Chin released his memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant” in 2023. Hill released his latest book, “Great Lakes in 50 Maps” in June.

“Everything I Learned” is a critique on the social and political forces in Detroit that influenced Chin’s life growing up as a gay, first-generation Chinese-American in the Motor City. That also includes his experiences inside his family’s former restaurant Chung’s, located in Detroit’s Chinatown neighborhood.

Meanwhile, “Great Lakes in 50 Maps” explores the five bodies of water in four categories — history and culture, ecology, infrastructure and physical. And “Detroit in 50 Maps” takes a unique approach to examining the city, from maps of the new coffee shops in town, areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, to all of the Coney Island restaurants located in the city. 

There were many other topics the two talked about that didn’t make the story, so I’m sharing them here. Hill and Chin talked about the inspiration for writing their books, what the research process was like and why they believe readers enjoy learning about Detroit. 

Editor’s note: This transcript was lightly edited for length and clarity.BridgeDetroit: Alex, I know you do work as a cartographer for your website and you’re the Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) director at Wayne State University. Why did you decide to write a book? 

Hill: The Detroit book was kind of easy. I had done a one-off map for journalist Aaron Foley’s Detroit neighborhood guide. And then the publisher (at Belt Publishing) said, ‘Wait a minute, you have a whole website full of maps.’ They had done “Cleveland in 50 Maps” and were trying to figure out how to make it a series and expand it to a new city. So they said, ‘Hey, do you want to try?’ I call it the millennial trajectory. I taught myself a new skill, started a blog about it and then wrote a book. 

Then, I started as kind of a cartographer-in-residence for the “Great Lakes Now” program on Detroit PBS. And the publishers saw that I was generating some interesting maps about the Great Lakes region, and said, ‘Hey, would you want to try doing a map series on the Great Lakes?’ That’s the first regional book that they’ve done, and the first one that’s not a city as the focus. I feel more of an affinity to the Great Lakes than I do saying that I’m from the Midwest or something like that. My family would always vacation at a spot in Ontario every summer; we had cousins that we would take the long road trip through both halves of Michigan to get to Duluth in Minnesota. Chicago was an annual spot that you go to maybe once or twice a year. We were very much in tune with the region, but that was the first time I’d really ever sat down and tried to hunt down data for the region. I go through everything from early European exploration to interesting things like pumpkin cultivation across the region or shipwrecks and lighthouses. One of my favorites is I pulled in all of the different locations and businesses across the region to see which ones used Great Lakes in their name. 

BridgeDetroit: Curtis, can you tell me the inspiration behind “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant?” Why did you feel like it was time to write your story?

Chin: It really started off as a family project. It really wasn’t for publication. I was just collecting stories for my nieces and nephews, because after my dad passed away, we actually had to sell the business. When this next generation of our family was coming around, I just thought it was really sad that they wouldn’t know anything about this wonderful childhood that their parents had growing up in Detroit. And so, I just started jotting these stories down. After spending a number of years doing that, I was like, ‘I’m spending a lot of time doing this. I should probably get paid for it.’ So that’s when I said, ‘OK I gotta figure out what it means to be a published author,’ and then learning that whole world and finding an agent, working on a proposal and all that stuff. 

It’s tough. I mean, publishing is really, really difficult. I had to approach over 90 agents before I actually signed with one who was interested in my book. We worked together on it for about a year. When we finally took it out to what’s called “being on submission,” it was great. We had this giant bidding war for the book amongst all the big five publishers, and it sold for six figures (with Little, Brown and Company). Publishing is this really crazy business. Everybody can reject you, except the one person who finds you and likes you and makes it work for you.

BridgeDetroit: Research is a big part of both of your books. What did that process look like for “Everything I Learned” and “Great Lakes in 50 Maps?” 

Chin: Including that (Detroit) history was very important to me because oftentimes if you read about Asian American history, it’s based on California or New York. You don’t really think of Asians being in the Midwest, but my family’s been here since the 1800s. I just wanted to honor that history, and that’s how I start off the book is talking about how my great-great-grandfather moved from Canton, China to Canton, Ohio before realizing there weren’t any Chinese people there, and then moving up to Detroit and just that journey of being in Detroit in those early times. But in terms of the writing about the time period I was growing up, I thought it was really important to weave it (that history) in. For me, being able to say, ‘Oh, this is when Hudson’s department store closed. Oh, this is when the Tigers won the World Series, and this is Devil’s Night.’ It connected me to the city, but also to the other readers who are from that area. You pick up the book thinking that, ‘Oh, I’m going to learn about this Chinese kid who grew up in the (Cass) Corridor.’ But instead, you’re actually learning about the city of Detroit. You’re learning about your own history, your own experiences. I felt like that was important for me because it’s helping the reader a little bit in terms of making that connection of why your life should matter to them. You’re building those bridges, you’re making it easier for them to make that leap of understanding how your life could impact theirs. 

Hill: For both Detroit and the Great Lakes, it’s part research, but then also part data hunting. For things in the Detroit book, I was lucky. I had years of content to pull from, and I had those years of data to hunt down. Oftentimes, people would ask me about my DETROITography site, ‘How long does it take to make one of these maps?’ It really depends on the data access. Some might take a day or an hour and others it might take six months to track down the right people with access to the right data. And so, that was a big pivot for me for the Great Lakes book because I needed to find where those data sources were for the Great Lakes. And thankfully, we have a lot of groups that are funded by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And entities like the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory put out a lot of really great data on the Great Lakes that they share publicly and make usable. I think I had a list of 75 maps that I wanted to make and some of the ideas just weren’t possible because the data wasn’t there or was going to take too long to find. And so, if one didn’t work out, I could just pop to the next one. 

BridgeDetroit: Why do you think readers around the country and around the world are interested in learning more about Detroit? Why do you think it’s so captivating for them? 

Chin: Detroit just occupies this symbolic place in American history. It really is connected to the Industrial Revolution, the manufacturing explosion and America during that time period. When I travel abroad, there’s this curiosity about Detroit. They’re very fascinated because I think Detroit represents America in a way that other cities don’t. They don’t think of New York and LA as being representative of America, but cities like Detroit occupy that identity. 

Hill: Any knowledge creation on Detroit, I feel like people gravitate towards you. That’s been true just having a blog about Detroit, but now a book. It’s a heavy burden because I’m not originally from here. In a lot of cases, the data work that I try to do has been focused on a lot of myth-busting, so I’m hopeful that that’s what the maps and the data really bring to folks who maybe want to learn more about Detroit, or understand how Detroit became what it is today. They’ll have more context to change their perspective. It’s easy to just hold on to those negative assumptions of Detroit. 

As always, have a great week!

Until next time, 

Micah

313 scene

• With Greektown ongoing a $20 million makeover, local businesses have joined forces for a summer-long weekly happy hour. Drink and appetizer specials will be available at participating businesses from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays. Participating restaurants include A Bar, Firebird Tavern, Fishbone’s Rhythm Kitchen Cafe, Level Two, Mati, Old Shillelagh, Redsmoke Barbeque, The Greek, and Who Loves Ya Baby. (Detroit Metro Times) 
• Eminem’s long, sometimes complicated relationship with his most diehard fans is the subject of a new documentary hitting U.S. cinemas next month. “Stans,” directed by Emmy Award-winning documentarian Steven Leckart, will arrive at AMC Theatres on Aug. 7 for a limited-time screening. Advance tickets, including showings at AMC’s five metro Detroit locations, are available now. (Detroit Free Press)
• It will be a who’s who of Detroit’s culinary and culture scenes at the upcoming Hospitality Included Fest next month at Detroit Design District in Milwaukee Junction. After a two-year break, the food and drink festival is set to return the afternoon of Aug. 24. The Detroit-based industry group Hospitality Included will host 30 of the city’s hottest bars, restaurants and pop-up chefs as vendors at this outdoor festival that also has music and visual art. (The Detroit News)
• For the second year, the James Beard Foundation’s Taste American culinary series will come to Detroit for a pop-up dinner showcasing the culinary talent and ingredients of the region. Set for Sept. 23, tickets are on sale now for the Taste America dinner featuring chefs Sarah Welch and Alison Heeres at cozy, canal-side restaurant Coriander Kitchen & Farm. Heeres is the chef there, and Welch is a nationally recognized chef who is known for her work with Marrow and Mink in Detroit. (The Detroit News)
• Craft spirit maker Detroit City Distillery expanded its brand this month with the unveiling of 100 Proof, a new venue next to its production facility, the Whiskey Factory. The distillery will be able to offer it as a venue for weddings, corporate events and other parties for those who want a chic-yet-industrial event that speaks to those who appreciate spirits and craft cocktails. (The Detroit News) 

What’s going on in the D?

• The organization LGBT Detroit is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its annual Pride event Hotter Than July from Tuesday-Sunday. Activities throughout the week include a film festival Thursday at the Northwest Activities Center, a mayoral candidate forum Friday at the University of Michigan Detroit Center, a picnic at Palmer Park Saturday and a worship service Sunday at One Church Detroit. The festival has a range of free and paid events. 
• Pewabic Pottery is hosting its annual summer sale 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. Folks can shop for seconds and unique finds under the big tent for up to 50% off. Seconds are items Pewabic makes that haven’t passed their quality assurance for reasons ranging from imperfections on the glaze surfaces, cracks and fractures. Saturday’s sale is for Pewabic members only and Sunday’s sale is open to the public. 
• The Palmer Woods Association is hosting its annual home and garden tour 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday. This year, the tour will feature 10 locations, varying from garden-only experiences, full-home tours, or combinations of home and garden. Highlights include a restored 1925 Tudor Revival and the gardens of the Frank Lloyd Wright Turkel House. There are a few tickets left on Eventbrite, beginning at $44. 
• The Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee is hosting its first annual Chinatown Block Party 12-8 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of Cass Avenue and Peterboro Street. The event will feature live DJ sets, food vendors, games, traditional and contemporary cultural performances and informational booths about the history and revitalization of Detroit’s Chinatown neighborhood. The block party is free, but people can register on Eventbrite. 
• Detroit is Different is hosting its third annual Collard Green Cook-Off 2-6 p.m. Saturday at Chandler Park. Seven contestants are competing for the title, including Chef Bee of Sisters on a Roll, Kenyatta Brown and Chef Moe Vito of A Thoughtful Plate. Attendees will receive a complimentary taste ticket, but additional tickets come with a cost. Five tickets are $12, while 10 are $21.