- Coming up, we got a great show for you on "American Black Journal", Detroit Artist, Tiff Massey, is gonna talk about her groundbreaking exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Plus, the Detroit Association of Black Organizations launches a speaker and music series with some really special headliners, Reverend Horace Sheffield, III is here with the details.

Stay right there, "American Black Journal" starts right now.

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(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "American Black Journal", A new exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts combines black identity with Detroit history and culture in a first of it's kind art installation, it's called Tiff Massey: Seven Mile and Livernois, and it features 11 works from the Detroit artist, who creates jewelry, sculpture, performance videos, music, and immersive art environments.

Massey is the first African American woman to earn a Master of Fine Arts in metalsmithing at Cranbrook Academy of Art.

I spoke with her about the exhibit, and about her artistic journey.

Tiff Massey, it is always great to see you, welcome to "American Black Journal".

- Thank you, I'm happy to be here.

- Yeah, so, Seven Mile and Livernois, I know why you've titled your exhibition this, but tell our viewers why that's the title of your show.

- So the name of the exhibition is Seven Mile Livernois, because that's my home, that's where I grew up, that is probably like some of the first inspirations that I've seen, blackness, opulence, you know, people going outside with their best attire because, of course, like, we're Detroiters, we like to stunt, we, you know, all of us are a celebrity in our own rights.

(Stephen laughing) And so we all, you know, tryna put on a show, essentially is what it is.

So it's, you know, fashion, it's the avenue of fashion, and you know, really it's a call to blackness.

Usually, when you hear native Detroiters talk about like where they are from, a lot of times the intersection of Seven Mile Livernois comes up, and so I think it just made all the sense in the world to basically represent, you know, the area that basically made me, and to actually highlight other, you know, black Detroiters, essentially.

- So when I think of Seven Mile and Livernois, I also think about African Americans and African American history, but I think of an intersection of different parts of our history in the city.

I mean, on those four corners, you do have this really broad spectrum, you know, of the black experience in Detroit.

How much of that are you trying to communicate in the exhibit as well?

- Well, really it's like representing.

So, I'm the youngest artist to ever exhibit at the DIA, and I might be the second black woman to exhibit, and so like, I'm gonna represent to the fullest and so like, if I say Seven Mile and Livernois, it's just really, you know, for the people who know what that is.

- Mhm.

- You know what I'm saying?

And then, it's for everybody else who does not know what that is, to come to the DIA and find out, you know, how I've been inspired from growing up in this area and to create the objects that they see.

- Yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about what's in the exhibit, and how you tell that story of this intersection, this corner.

- Okay well, I'm saying it's really not about the corner.

The corner is just the call to blackness.

You know?

- Right, right.

- [Tiff] And so, like, I'm a jeweler, I'm an interdisciplinary artist, and that's how my art practice formed.

And basically I started to take the body outside of the wearable experience and started to adorn walls, landscapes, and things like that.

And so one of the largest pieces in the exhibition is 15,000 pound necklace.

- Mhm, yeah, yeah.

Let's talk about the firsts here, as you point out, your age, the fact that you're a woman, the fact that you're a black woman, these are all important details about the DIA deciding even to feature this and to feature it for as long as they are, it's a full year.

It's a big, big deal for the museum and for our city.

- It is, to have, you know, the largest platform in the nation, the DIA is, you know, just named the top museum in the nation, and so yes, it's a serious platform to give to Detroiters, but we, Detroiters, deserve all of the platforms.

There's a lot of sauce that is here, and I think it is very much so present, the level of skill and craftsmanship that I possess in my art practice of why I have that platform.

- Yeah.

So, how do you put together an exhibit of this scale?

Like, when you think about what goes in, what doesn't, and why, where do you even start with something this big and expansive?

- Well, you get a little help from your friends, because there's no way that you can actually produce an exhibition on this scale on your own.

- Yeah.

- You know.

Usually with a lot of art practices, once you get to certain scales, and there's certain galleries or exhibition halls, you have a team, and so that is definitely what I have.

I think it was a team of five, initially, and then there were three or four other studios that were contracted to help facilitate the exhibition.

There was a rigging group that was hired from Chicago that basically deals with large scale installation and de-installation of sculptures, and so they were called in to assist too.

This is not a game, so, this is serious business, and you gotta have all the professionals basically on deck to facilitate it.

- Yeah, yeah.

So sculpture happens to be my favorite art medium, it's the one that speaks to me more than anything else, and so I'm always curious about what draws artists to that form.

Talk about how that became the medium, or at least one of the mediums, that you work in, this idea of 3D form and the messages that you can send with it.

- Well, I got into sculpture primarily being the medium that I work because I basically increased the scale of the jewelry.

I'm a classically trained metalsmith, I made jewelry ever since I was 16.

I picked up the torch for the first time attending Mercy High School in Farmington Hills.

- Mhm.

- And basically I picked up the torch again when I was pursuing a Bachelor's of Science to break up the monotony of learning all of these formulas, I wanted to be a veterinarian.

So, once realizing how rare I am for the amount of talent in metalsmithing and not seeing reflections of myself and, you know, participating heavy in contemporary art jewelry, and realizing that they haven't seen reflections of myself and realizing that the industry has a level of racism, that it was nothing that I actually wanted to participate in, so basically, you know, you can't put me in the contemporary art jewelry category if the jewelry isn't wearable.

So I took the body out, made the jewelry larger, wasn't necessarily interested in having the individualized experience of making one of a kinds, or smaller objects, and so usually I will make some objects for myself, and then instantly they need to be larger.

So- - Mhm.

- You know, you see examples of that in the exhibition, I have a room that is dedicated to my jewelry box, and is basically referring to the times that I would actually go and get custom jewelry made with my father, because that's what we do on Seven Mile, we get custom stuff.

(Stephen laughing) We don't want anybody to look like us at all, and that's my influences, that's what it is, it's pure blackness, the diaspora, growing up in the '80s, hip hop, jewelry, you know, just seeing the scales there.

And so basically it's like, how many people can I adorn at once?

I mean, if I have a necklace that is 15,000 pounds and each links are basically 10 feet tall, then that means I can adorn multiple people at once.

- Yeah, yeah.

What do you want people to take away from this exhibition, people who go see it?

- I want them to tell me.

You know, my Instagram is "Tiff_Massey", y'all let me know what y'all feel.

I mean, I have some quotes and things that are on the walls, but, you know, I'm not tryna tell anybody how to feel.

And so we're scheduling a artist talk, probably during the month of design, so stay tuned to that, that is in September.

So then I can tell everybody what I felt, but, you know, it's really not about me once I birth these objects, it's really about what does everybody else feel.

- Yeah, yeah.

Okay, well, Tiff Massey, it is, as I said, always great to see you, and it's especially great to see you in light of this new exhibition, which again, is a major, major achievement, not just for you, but also for the museum, turning that corner and featuring an artist like yourself.

Thanks so much for being with us here, on "American Black Journal".

- Yes, thank you.

You have a good one, take care.

hosted by the Detroit Association of Black Organizations.

The event features appearances throughout the year by well-known speakers, performers, and thought leaders, who are focused on social change.

I sat down with the organization's CEO, Reverend Horace Sheffield, III, to learn more about this year's lineup and the goal of the series.

Reverend Horace Sheffield, III, always great to see you, welcome back to "American Black Journal".

- It's always good to reconnect, as our predecessors have- - Yeah, right.

- So do we.

(Stephen laughing) - That's right, that's right, your dad and my grandfather were- - Absolutely.

- Very close friends and associates.

- Absolutely, and one of the reasons that working people to this day receive a living wage.

- Yep, absolutely, absolutely, they did really critical work together.

- Yep.

- So tell me about DABO, before we get to what you're doing with DABO this year that's so critical.

- Well, we're doing a lot, we're breaking ground on the brand new community center on the corner of Kentucky and Grand River, so we've expanded our physical plant footprint.

We're also doing housing, we're doing recovery housing for veterans who have had a drug problem.

So we put them up in an environment that's away from where they, you know, did their drugs of choice.

We have a tremendous health program, a neighborhood health center, and we also have our own health clinic in our building where we are working with some major organizations.

We have an award-winning blood pressure control program that's been cited as the most successful in the world.

80 percent of our people reduce their blood pressure within two weeks and keep it there for over a year, through our program.

And Tom Frieden, the former director of CDC, has partnered with us, United Health Group, Wayne County government is now funding it in the out county areas, American Heart Association, so we're doing a lot of great work.

- Yeah, yeah.

And all of that is a nice backdrop, actually, those issues are a nice backdrop to this speaker series that you have going this year, given all of the critical choices that we're about to make in November, and of course the very big one at the top of the ballot, the Presidential election.

- Yeah, so I was blessed, you know, my sister, my younger sister, who's older than me, she was my youngest of three sisters, passed, and so how was I going to honor her or deal with the grief?

And I chose to buy a library, the old McGregor, the Gabriel Library, I'm sorry, on the corner of Grand River and Livernois.

Beautiful building, so many people have told me that they read there.

- Mm.

- And we put about $750,000 in that building, and if you haven't seen it, you need to see this, absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking.

Gonna give a shout out to Gary Turgo, who partnered with me to make that happen.

- Mhm.

- So, you know, we wanna do cultural things, so I decided to create the Community Empowerment Speaker Series.

I'll also let you know we also created the Community Music Series.

- Mhm.

- We've had Ezinma, Grammy Award-winning violinist, we've got Kayla Cox coming, who's the lead singer for SOS band, and then in October, Champagne King.

- Mhm.

- But the most important thing is how do we make critical decisions without the information we need?

So we launched this speaker series, we've had Jamal Bryant, we've had Dr. Cornell West, my professor, Michael Eric Dyson, we had the good pleasure of having Joe Madison come, before he passed.

- Mhm.

- And, in fact, he kinda kicked it off.

We have celebrity chef Ameer Natson, who cooks for Jay-Z, and that whole aggregation, Pharaoh.

So, and we've got some good people coming, we just had Jericka Duncan, the evening anchor of CBS news here.

- Mhm, mhm.

- Donnie Simpson will be here.

- Mhm.

- We've got, you know, Mumu Fresh, who's a award-winning, you know, cultural icon in the music industry.

And we do this absolutely free, Steve.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, first of all, that library is in the neighborhood where I was born, and The Tuxedo Project, which is the nonprofit I started in the home where I was living when I was born, is right around the corner from there.

And we looked at that library as a potential community space as well.

I was really glad to see you take it, because that meant you had to go raise the money to fix it, and not me.

(Stephen and Horace laughing) - Yeah, here's the good thing, man, I'm a person of faith, and there's never been a project that I started out with that I didn't have apprehension and trepidation.

I did not know how I was gonna do that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Perfectly honest with you.

I mean, we're talking about $900,000, we purchased it and paid cash.

Roof, we've done everything in that building.

The windows were 86,000 because we wanted to put era tempered glass in there- - Yeah.

- So it didn't look like a modern building, I would never put glass block in the building like that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- We preserved the rafters.

The rafters were 106,000, because the building been closed for 12 years, no leaking.

- Wow, wow.

- But we had to absorb moisture out of those rafters, put grease in them, so they would take a stain.

I mean, you really had to come and look, but I'm glad to know that.

And if your Tuxedo Project needs a place to be situated.

- Yeah, right.

- We're happy to have you - We would love to use the space, yeah.

So, talk about the people you're bringing and the message that you're trying to sort of put out in our community this year, and why that's important in 2024.

- Well, let me just start with Roland Martin, who will be our last speaker in December, and the theme is telling our own story, right?

There's a whole variance now of perception about whether media can be trusted.

- Mhm.

- What the aim and purpose is of the messaging that we see.

And if you don't watch that with a critical eye, and then do some of your own research and verification of information, you could be led down a primrose path.

And so our goal is if we get people in, don't make them pay, allow them to ask questions, and have my speakers address specific things.

- Mhm.

- For example, Jamal Bryant, we've had him talk about, you know, is the church relevant anymore?

- Mm, mm.

- I mean, we gather, all these people gather every Sunday, but what is the impact of them coming?

I mean, if a little yeast leaven the whole loaf, what are they doing in their communities?

I mean, why aren't we leveraging millions of dollars, billions of dollars, that comes into the coffers of black church churches every Sunday- - Mhm.

- And redeveloping our neighborhoods?

So, the goal is to get people to faint.

Now, what we've done, and by the way, Michael Eric Dyson is our consultant on this, you know, I love the brother.

- Mhm.

- Is we're putting some kind of study guide together, post-presentation.

- Mm.

- With an action plan that each organization, or each person who comes, can go back and say, "As a result of hearing what Dr. Cornell West said."

You know, he's running for president, but I do agree we need to impact political parties more.

We don't leverage, there's no real impact of our aggregation.

Right?

- Right.

- There needs to be some demonstration of our aggregation and some compensation for our aggregation.

So those are the kinda things we're trying to do, not just a one day display where people come and hear something, and they feel good.

- Mm.

- They got a little tingling in their thinking, and they leave and go on about their business.

- Yeah, yeah.

So, the thing that occurs to me, that's a terribly important about this, is the concern that we have about Detroiters showing up this fall.

- Yeah.

- That we need people to feel like they matter, and that their voice matters.

- Mhm.

- And one way to get them to feel more like that is to make sure they're more informed about the choices that they're making.

- Sure.

Well, you know, my granddaughter does a commercial, you know, this ain't no joke, you gotta vote.

And I have a commercial I need to share with you, with my dad down in Selma organizing voters, and you can hear the protests and the singing, he's there with King, and he asked, "Well, how many people are eligible to register?"

And they say like, 30 some thousand, "Well, how many have we been able to register" "through this movement?"

Only 600 people.

Right?

- Mhm.

- And so, I figure like this, if we were registered to vote, we ain't gotta keep asking these white folks for something, we just gonna go up there and take it.

- Right.

- People have lost the connection between what they don't have.

- Mhm.

- And the exercise of their franchise.

Now, whether or not you vote Republican or Democrat, you know, that doesn't matter, but you have to vote.

Now, I think there's gonna be a difference in this election.

I think there's a sense of things brewing in Detroit, my good friend, primarily because I think a lot of folks feel that they've been left outta Detroit 2.0.

- Mm.

- This whole notion of super re-gentrification, I mean, on steroids.

(Stephen laughing) And whether or not the resources that have been pumped into this town have really gone to people who sustained this town, who never left.

That's not just black folks, that's Hispanic folks, and white people- - Sure, sure.

- Who've never left.

And I think as that conversation continues to ensue, that I'm finding more people who are understanding that we need to elect folks who are connected to some overall agenda that we can therefore hold them accountable for.

- Yeah.

- I'm encouraged.

- Yeah, you know, I hear a lot of people fretting about turnout and I think the combination of the reforms that have been made, that have made voting way easier.

- Mhm.

- And the things you're talking about, I think we could actually end up with a very good turnout in Detroit, and maybe a record turnout in the state, which is what we wanna see.

- Well, Mike Epps, my business partner, is coming in the third weekend of July, from a Thursday to a Sunday, and we're doing seven shows at one mic.

But what we're also gonna do, and I'm working with my daughter and some other folks, a good clerk, who by the way, interpreted the law, so now you don't have to apply for an absentee ballot every time.

- Right.

- Is to go and have some community crawls, where we go into neighborhoods like Dexter and Elmhurst, or wherever.

- Mhm.

- And we set up shop, and we have people registering folks, I mean, Mike will draw people.

He's talking about bringing some other people with him.

- Yeah.

- I mean, whatever it takes.

We did this when I was much younger with the Jackson Five, and some people who worked in the Carter administration, and we registered like 50,000 people at concerts.

- Wow, wow.

- We gotta go where people are.

- Yes.

- And then, more importantly, we gotta be true to our word and come back to them and show them what impact we've had.

- Yeah.

- Primarily due to their participation.

- Yeah, yeah.

Okay, Reverend Horace Sheffield, III, always great to catch up with you and great to hear about this series- - All this is on the website, www.dabodetroitinc.com, www.dabodetroitinc.com.

The speaker series, the entertainment series, come out and join us.

- All for free, all for free.

- All for free, it's free to get in, but the price is your butt in the seat.

(Stephen laughing) - That's right.

All right, thanks for being with us - All right, thank you, my brother.

- Yep.

That'll do it for this week, you can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org, and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care, and we'll see you next time.

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