The United States of an African

This post was originally written in September 2016.

With every city I find myself in, I make effort to explore every nook and cranny, from the safe cliche tourist attractions to the weird hidden gems. The Heidelberg Project is definitely one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in any city. Weird as in it involves a burned down house with a basement filled with nappy haired doll heads and random shoes. It’s “art”.

“The Heidelberg Project is an outdoor art project in Detroit, Michigan. It was created in 1986 by artist Tyree Guyton and his grandfather Sam Mackey (“Grandpa Sam”) as an outdoor art environment…The Heidelberg Project is in part a political protest, as Tyree Guyton’s childhood neighborhood began to deteriorate after the 1967 riots. Guyton described coming back to Heidelberg Street after serving in the Army; he was astonished to see that the surrounding neighborhood looked as if “a bomb went off”.” – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_Project