DAW 50th Anniversary celebration

The Detroit Artists Workshop was founded at 1252 West Forest in Detroit on November 1, 1964 and moved after fire destroyed the original premises in May 1965 to a storefront at 4865 John C. Lodge where the Artists Workshop Press was established next door at 4867 John C. Lodge.

We will commemorate this auspicious event with the Detroit Artists Workshop 50th Anniversary Celebration now being scheduled for the week of October 31-November 7 at disparate venues in Detroit and Ann Arbor to feature surviving DAW members and their artistic confederates in a series of free concerts, poetry readings, art exhibitions, film screenings, seminars and workshops.

This effort is being organized by the Detroit Artists Workshop steering committee chaired by Cary Loren and including John Sinclair, Leni Sinclair, Laura Grimshaw, Becky Derminer (recording secretary), Emma Velasco (fiscal officer), M.L. Liebler (poetry coordinator) and RJ Spangler (music coordinator).

Our aim is to honor the founders and members of the Detroit Artists Workshop and their work of the past 50 years, with a salute to members who have passed on and a spotlight on the surviving artists: the poets, musicians, writers, playwrights, painters, photographers, film-makers, graphic artists and other members who have continued to grow and develop from their roots in the DAW.

Our intention is to involve a wide range of local cultural institutions in the celebration, including the Detroit Institute of Arts, Wayne State University, Center for Creative Studies, Museum of African American History, Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, MOCAD, Scarab Club, Music Hall and others.

–John Sinclair, May, 2014