October 28, 2021
The Detroit News
Oct. 26, 2021
Maureen Feighan
Detroit poet Jessica Care Moore is one of several artists and business owners featured in VH1’s “Growing Up Black: Detroit.” Daniel Mears, The Detroit News
An array of Black artists, poets and entrepreneurs are sharing their experiences growing up in Detroit on the latest installment of VH1’s Youtube series, “Growing Up Black.”
“Growing Up Black: Detroit” premieres at 4 p.m. Tuesday, featuring Detroit poet and author Jessica Care More, rapper Payroll Giovanni, Detroit Vegan Soul co-owner Erica Boyd, artist Sheefy McFly and others.
A digital series, “Growing Up Black” first debuted in December 2020 with “Growing Up Black: New Orleans.” Since then, it’s also focused on New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The show describes itself as an unfiltered and “in-depth look at the differences in the Black experience from one city to the next across the country by interviewing locals, community members and leaders to explore issues like their personal experiences around systemic racism, what it is like growing up Black in America.”
In a trailer, Detroit vs. Everybody founder Tommey Walker Jr. said the way Detroit can preserve its culture is by staying “authentic to ourselves as Detroiters.”
“I like to say Detroit makes the best people. It’s a balance here,” said Walker.
Moore, the poet, said everything that’s great about Detroit came from Black people.
“That’s why it’s still sexy,” she says in the show’s trailer. “That’s why people still want to live here because we have the concentrated Black population.”
The show premieres at 4 p.m. here.
