(crickets chirping) (saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) - [Narrator] What is it that you seek?

(saxophone solo) Do you stay?

Keep the acres of land given by former master Erbie?

Do you go north for a better life?

Or stay south and claim what's yours?

(saxophone solo) What is it that you seek?

(saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) They left something for you in their wake.

In the land they used to sow Cotton, pecans, pigs, and hay.

I hope you find it.

(saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) Whatever it is that you seek Great-grandchild of that red Mississippi soil.

I hope you find it.

(saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) (saxophone solo) (crickets chirping) (train whistle blowing) (crickets chirping continues) (bright music) - Arab music is just pure emotion.

It was really the time that I spent learning this music, playing it, really diving into the history, into the sounds, into the different styles, that I began to really appreciate who I was as an Arab American.

So I use music as a way to connect with my own Arab values.

I'm the founder and director of the National Arab Orchestra, and I've dedicated my entire life to the study and performance of Arab music.

(choir singing in Arabic) I've learned to play on multiple instruments, starting off on oud, going over and playing other things like the ney.

(gentle music) Started the orchestra in 2009.

My life just took this direct path on really doing outreach with Arab music, trying to build bridges between communities to create some awareness around Arab culture.

(bright music) Finding my voice has been a process of listening and working with music for the last 20-some years.

- Today, I am Arab American.

- In Western music, you don't see conductors outwardly emoting so much in a way where they try to engage the audience.

For me, I love to play.

I love playing my instruments.

I love playing with the group.

(gentle music) The essence of Arab music is that connection between the performer and the audience, and the whole idea is to get this feeling of musical ecstasy that actually has a term in Arab music, and we call it tarap.

(pensive choral music) The goal is to try to bring the audience into that same emotional state that is, that the music naturally brings forth.

(gentle music) One of the things I take pride in with my work in the NAO is the fact that we've been able to create a platform for cultural engagement, a platform for Arab Americans to get in touch with their culture, a platform for non-Arabs to get to know who we are, and a platform to share the beauty that the Arab world has to offer.

Even though if it's just through music, I'm really, really proud that I have a hand in that.

(pensive choral music) (drum solo) - Drums and rhythm, that's the heartbeat of the music.

You know, that's the life of the music.

The tempo, the rhythm section.

That's what I refer to, the cats in the band, the other cats in the band.

Everybody has to hold a rhythm together in the tempo, you know?

You always have to listen.

Okay?

What's extremely important in any form of music is that you're listening to not only what you doing, but you have to be listening to everybody else in the band and playing to accompany those people all at the same time.

(drum solo) You have to care about the music.

You have to care about what you playing, what they're playing, and how it all comes out.

You can't start playing your instrument, only be concerned about you and you playing whatever you want to play.

Because whatever you playing may not be in context with the rest of what everybody else is playing.

The context is important.

(drum solo) You gotta make statements that's related to the whole.

You just a part of it, you know?

But your effort is to create the whole thing.

It's like you ever listen to a lot of rhythms coming outta Africa, okay?

You might have 20 or 30 people playing drums, and they all playing a different rhythm.

But they all know that rhythm, and that all those rhythms come together to make one.

And it's the same thing with playing this music, you know?

You have a responsibility and you gotta execute.

Simple as that.

It's a lot to do.

(drum solo) Different forms of music will require you to do different things as a drummer, okay?

But in particular kind of music that I've been playing all of my life, you have to be very sensitive to the rest of the band members.

If you want to be a musician, you have to make a commitment to the music.

(drum solo) (rhythmic beat) - I'm an animator, storyteller, music producer, and also, most importantly, a s * * * talker.

So, I created Sandra Blands With Capes: Protecting the Black Youth From Police a long time ago when I was a child, unaware.

So, with Sandra Blands With Capes is a world I built, a place where Blackness, queerness, and heroism can show Black experiences with no limitations.

I built this world from a Black queer Southern perspective where Blackness can exist in multi-facets.

So, this world is inspired by my Black queer Southern experience and with characters that represent my family, my friends, my mother, all the people in my family, and my community.

So, with this world, through fragmented storytelling inspired by music videos, movies, sitcoms, cartoons, and even video games, I show Black heroes in a very non-traditional sense, where they can be carefree and not give a * * * *.

You can just bleep right there.

With “Sandra Blands With Capes ”, it is fragment storytelling through 3D animation and music, which I deem as glitch hop soul, which is inspired by crunk, house, ballroom, soul, hip-hop, maybe a little gospel, you know.

It was important for me when making Black heroes that they was solving real world problems that we're dealing with now.

Not only police brutality, but microaggressions and fighting for us to be free to say whatever we wanna say, be who we wanna be, be protected, be loyal, have fun, rejoice.

And that's where this work stands.

With my way of world building and storytelling, I take pieces of the past/present to dictate the future that I wanna see for all of us.

Detroit is like the Blackest place in America, and here has been the place where I've felt support and love out of anywhere in the world.

And here you can be your Blackest self, be your truest self in your truest form, and that can be supported here, and that's what I love about Detroit.

(discordant electronic music) ♪ How do I forgive ♪ How do I let live ♪ I want to breathe deeply and openly again ♪ ♪ I want to love without fear ♪ ♪ Sing from my belly ♪ Dance without care ♪ Push out ♪ Open up ♪ Leave your doubt ♪ Open up ♪ Push out ♪ Open up ♪ Leave your doubt ♪ Open up yourself ♪ Open up yourself ♪ Open up yourself ♪ Open up yourself ♪ How do I forgive ♪ How do I let live ♪ I want to breathe deeply and openly again ♪ ♪ And I want to love without fear ♪ ♪ Sing from my belly ♪ Dance without care ♪ Push out ♪ Open up ♪ Leave your doubt ♪ Open up ♪ Push out ♪ Open up ♪ Leave your doubt ♪ Open up yourself ♪ Open up yourself ♪ Open up yourself ♪ Open up yourself (pensive music) (pensive music continues) (reel flickering) - Well, I'm Carl George.

I am an artist, experimental filmmaker, and curator.

(upbeat orchestral music) I actually started really working with a whole group of friends.

We all got to know each other in the East Village and Allied Productions was a nonprofit that we set up.

The film part of Allied Productions was called Naked Eye Cinema.

We all acted or performed in each other's experimental film works.

Experimental film represented a total artwork.

And for me it incorporated everything that I felt I needed to say.

Super 8 film was the perfect medium because it was affordable.

I would edit the film at home at my desk using Ziploc storage bags and keeping a journal, a log of what was in each bag and then piecing them all together literally taping the film together.

I would explore whatever I was particularly interested in at that time and stories, oral histories would give rise to societal structures.

Art and the process of making art is undervalued.

Artists contribute in substantial ways to society in the same way that doctors do and lawyers do and nurses and any other profession and need to be given the same level of respect.

And artists, to me, are some of the most profound thinkers in society.

They not only study art and art history but they study sociology, philosophy, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, because all of it feeds back into the making of art.

Coming back to Detroit after having been away for 35 years living in Manhattan, has been wonderful.

I mean, it's been a revelation really.

In the last four to five years there's some real foundational change that's happening, some good, really foundational change that's why we're seeing such a horrendous backlash by certain groups and powers in the United States.

They will not prevail.

They will not prevail.

You can't stop progress.

You can give us a gut punch and knock us down but we'll get back up and keep moving forward.

The function of the artist in society is to open windows and doors and not close them.

Leave that dirty work to those awful people who are doing it.

They're doing a fine job.

They don't need our help.

We have to stay together, stay strong and keep moving forward.

(upbeat orchestral music) (audience cheering) - We ain't even played a note yet.

It's like that?

It's like that, Detroit?

Yeah, that's what I'm talkin' about.

- [De'Sean Voiceover] I am not who I am today without the city of Detroit.

(upbeat music) - Tremolo, tremolo, tremolo, tremolo.

- I am De'Sean Jones, Detroiter, composer... Father.

I want the music to be as organic and I want the music to be (One, two, three, four, one.)

as sincere to the moment (upbeat music) as possible.

I want us to tap into that collective ancestral memory.

But through a modern context.

(De'Sean yelling) We wanted to do something that would be kind of a hybrid between a live performance that does have some sort of educational element to it but also like this party.

We want it to feel very much like a DJ set.

(orchestral music) (orchestral music continues) (audience cheering) (orchestral music continues) (orchestral music continues) I hate genre.

I can't stand genre because it's a false construct that really is designed to segregate artists, one from another.

There is no genre.

There's just music.

And more importantly, the impact of the music on the people.

What is it?

Is it just hip hop?

What happens when we break it down to just strings?

Is it just classical?

What happens when we go into this crazy section and it feels like a (indistinct) section?

Is it gospel all of a sudden?

No, it's just music.

And it's deeply influenced by my Blackness, our collective Blackness.

I wanna celebrate Black art.

I wanna celebrate Black culture and I wanna be very intentional in the ways in which we do that and very much unapologetic.

I'm not gonna back down from it.

Before, during, and after all this music stuff, man, I'm just a human being, you know?

Just a regular guy and my greatest achievement in life are my three sons.

I know that I'm not gonna be here forever.

So I wanna make sure that the work that we do in our community and the work that we do through our art is something that is uplifting and sustainable to carry on into the future.

(audience cheering and applauding) Urban Art Orchestra is Detroit's orchestra.

Period.

This is for us.

(audience cheering and applauding) - Many of the popular dances from Brazil, from Africa, Afro-Caribbean are rooted rhythmically in West African music.

(bright music) It's been a personal journey of mine and a lot of other people to start to kind of tie those dots together and really track back the roots of the dances we do.

(bright upbeat music) I started dancing when I was in college.

I always say, I'll try anything twice.

So this was my first time trying a dance class, and the first class was salsa and fell in love with it.

Starting with salsa, which is an Afro-Latin dance, the rhythmic structure from salsa comes from Africa.

Seeing how it's evolved and blending with the jazz music from New York, and you have the Cuban musicians that came to New York for that Mambo era and watching the beauty of all these different cultures and communities blend together, it's definitely been a focus and an aim of mine to help preserve that history.

I've had the pleasure to have traveled to over 35 countries, winning multiple world championships in different Afro-Latin dance genres.

I've been in music videos with Janet Jackson and Daniel Santacruz.

Yeah, just the thought of and the feeling of being able to have this passion to inspire other people, to travel the world, and to continue this legacy, it's an amazing feeling.

Dance is a language, but without words, and that's one reason that it resonated really well with me and one thing that I really try and impart on all of my students as well.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Having our studio, Detroit Dance Loft, and having all these different cultures of people, ages, races, and being able to create a space where someone who feels like, "Oh, I have two left feet.

I've never moved in my life.

I don't really understand the language of this music.

I'm not of the culture," but to make an accepting environment where people can feel like they have this opportunity to try.

That was very important to have that be part of my long-term goals.

And it's a pleasure to be able to share that love with as many people as possible.

(upbeat music) (no audio) (upbeat electronic music) (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Separate your things (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Dirty and the clean (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Tidy up the house (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Button up your blouse (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Can't seem to focus ♪ For long (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Nothing but news to feed on (upbeat electronic music continues) ♪ Can't seem to focus ♪ For long ♪ (anxiety) ♪ Nothing but news to feed on ♪ (anxiety) ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Attack, attack ♪ No way back ♪ The enemy that you can't see it could be in your family ♪ ♪ Attack, attack ♪ No way back ♪ The enemy that you can't see it could be in your family ♪ ♪ Attack, attack ♪ No way back ♪ The enemy that you can't see it could be in your family ♪ ♪ Attack, attack ♪ No way back ♪ The enemy that you can't see it could be in your family ♪ ♪ Attack, attack ♪ No way back ♪ The enemy that you can't see it could be in your family ♪ ♪ Attack, attack ♪ No way back ♪ The enemy that you can't see it could be in your family ♪ (upbeat electronic music continues) (calm music) ♪ Back, back, back, back (upbeat electronic music) ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ Hold it together for someone ♪ is coming (indistinct) (upbeat electronic music continues) (instrumental music) (instrumental music continues) - When I became aware of sonoluminescence... which was brought to us by some of the whales in our oceans.

Sonoluminescence is... emissions of light... from the agitation of sound.

When this happened with me, I shifted gears and... everything became about frequency and we manipulate the frequencies that we have been given.

We can actually open the door to cosmic technology, where sound can transport matter and heal the broken.

(instrumental music continues) (instrumental music continues) So, it's been my quest, expectation to... up my consciousness and in fact, become a... part of the global conscious upgrade, if you will.

So in doing that, it is necessary to... understand that music goes beyond entertainment and into... or it's already into the areas of life, if you will.

If we manipulate our... bio-friendly frequencies... then we can heal ourselves.

Not only that, we can communicate with our massive environment, that being the planet.

So having said that... we would do well to keep our connection.

And our connection is very easily done if we pay attention to frequency.

(instrumental music continues) (traffic humming) (birds chirping) (water splashing) - [Leith] When you're listening to sound, there's a grammar out there.

Just not a lot of people know it.

Just like how the music has a narrative.

(person snapping fingers) That's what I hear in these places.

(traffic humming) I listen for these different forms of information.

So like, the pedestrian bridge over the Lodge, you can't hear the rest of the city as much.

But all of that sound is reflected upwards and you get to, like, take in that full sound as it's blended inside that gigantic bowl.

(traffic whirring) At the DIA, if you sit at the bench that's right evenly at the corner of the museum, and behind you, you've got these two gigantic reflective surfaces.

(person snapping fingers) it turns the street sounds into this enveloping sort of noise as it passes you and reflects back off and comes back to the ears changed.

(traffic humming) (mysterious music) If that's not what we do when we listen to a symphony, I don't know what is.

You lose yourself, you know?

(jazzy saxophone music) We sample the grammar of music actively in the process of listening.

And I just choose to attempt to assemble the same sort of grammar from the world when I'm sitting listening to it.

And it's a really rewarding experience.

(eerie music) It's in that joy that, that joy of place, that singularness that each place has, if you listen very closely, it's what ultimately leads me to the place on the lake.

(person in red jacket snaps fingers) 'Cause you're sitting underneath this gigantic ancient tree and the sound just shimmers around you.

And with the waves lapping up and echoing against the bottom of the boardwalk, it's this lovely impressionist splash of sound that I find hard to ignore.

(water splashing) This appreciation of sound being not just a thing you just sit there and passively listen to that goes left to right over the page, and left to right over our consciousness.

Music is a place.

(water splashing) Sound is a place.

A place we are inhabiting.

(traffic humming) (gentle jazz bass solo begins) - I was never into the art for the sake of art, but how it related to our struggle and how it related to our ability to tell our own story and to take control over our own narrative.

Music is innately political in that way, even if you don't mean to be.

So, I couldn't disconnect what I was trying to do then with what I was trying to do with the music.

And I still don't understand people who think, "All we doing is makining sound.

” You know?

That doesn't make any sense.

Most of the people who helped me were saxophone players.

I started out learning... Any degree of musical common sense that I think I have came from Kamau Kenyatta, one of the first people that taught me about harmony and the fundamentals of music.

My first jazz record that I bought was, "Ascension," by Coltrane.

The second one was, "Atlantis."

I do not understand the musically incurious.

So I walked into Vaughn's Bookstore and saw this record with this guy standing there with these rays coming out of his head and wearing all this space stuff.

I didn't know who the heck it was, but I instantly bought it.

And that turned out to be, "Atlantis," by Sun Ra, which was one of the most important things I could have heard at that time.

Harold McKinney, Ray McKinney, there was a famous family of incredible jazz musicians who would be important in any story about Detroit history.

And Harold was playing with Kenny Burrell on the same bill as Sun Ra, and he knew I was into Sun Ra, so he said, "Well, you know, why don't you come up and hang?

You might get to meet the cats."

So I went up there to Hill Auditorium before they hit and come to find out Sun Ra didn't have a bass player.

So they immediately went to Ray McKinney, a world level, incredible jazz bassist.

And they said, "Well, listen, Sun Ra doesn't have a bass player.

Do you wanna do the gig?"

And he immediately looked at, pointed to me and said, "No.

This is who you need to, you know," and that was very magnanimous.

And I went home and got my bass and came back that night and it was Sun Ra.

A couple days later, they called me to go on the road.

And then I moved into the house in Philadelphia, and that kind of changed it.

This was always REB-uhl mju:zik.

There was always somebody saying, "Don't do this."

And we're like, "No, we're gonna do this because that's how we, you know..." And then of course once it's established, everybody, "Oh, that's wonderful.

We always loved this."

No, I have a book this thick of Coltrane reviews that are all bad, because when he did it, nobody was there yet.

Now people look back and go, "Oh, isn't this the greatest thing ever?"

Yeah, but you didn't say that at the time.

Because artists like that, Miles, 'Trane, people like that, they don't wait around for people to catch up to them.

You know, by the time another record came out he was doing something else.

And they still wanted, you know, "'Round Midnight".

You know...

It's just as important to know when NOT to listen to people.

The more jazz comes away from its roots, the more universal it gets.

But when it gets down to the real nitty gritty of what makes it do what it does, still don't nobody do it like we do.

- I love this culture and I'm thankful for the love it's given me back.

I've definitely taken the road less traveled but I'll do it again if I had the chance.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) I define jit by three words, grit, soul, and legacy.

The grit keeps me grounded.

The soul keeps me in love with it and legacy is what I aim to build.

(upbeat music continues) Jit's not just a dance.

It's really a lifestyle.

From Detroit to Inkster, to Highland Park, to Ecorse we all sharing something special that we pass from generation to generation.

This is our culture.

This is Black culture.

From the talent shows basement parties to the clubs this is something that comes from us and it's truly for us.

(upbeat music continues) Growing up in Inkster, I wasn't aware of how much an impact art can have on your life.

I had to trust the process trust those who embarked on this journey with me and open myself up to the possibilities.

This gave me purpose, understanding, discipline, patience and most importantly, family.

I've matured as an adult through this culture and when I had nothing else to fall back on jit was there and I will forever be thankful for that.

This dance saved me, so I will forever use myself as a vessel to preserve it and share its power with the world.

Giving back to something that gave me so much is what motivates me to create at a high level.

At a time when jit was facing erasure my team and I put this culture on our backs and we refused to let it die.

As leaders of this renaissance, we demand a commitment to excellence and it motivates us to work tirelessly to help push this culture forward.

You have to move as a unit because the goal is bigger than the individual.

Being the queen of jit is more than a title that I earned at a local battle.

It's a way of life for me.

They say one person can change the world but we'd rather do it together.

(upbeat music) The House of Jit is where jit happens.

(upbeat music continues) - This is the most challenging role of my entire career.

- Good, keep smelling.

What is it you smell?

Feel your weight, yes, down, good, yes.

Once again, power, you are the bear.

Your muscles are so heavy.

Tell him you will rend his flesh.

(actor roaring) Yes.

- Right now we're in rehearsal for Nature Bear Exxxtreme.

I will be playing the role of the bear and the director will be playing the role of the narrator.

We've decided to do an outdoor durational performance in which I will transform into the bear for a full 24 hours.

I will become fully, really beautifully the bear.

I've done everything, Lear, Prospero, Scrooge, and when I got bored of that, I reprised all my roles naked.

It was at a performance of "Naked Lear" where I met the director.

- It's about a lot of things.

It's about the human-animal relationship.

It's about how capitalism and dualism have ripped us from nature, stranding us in a sea of consumption and drowning in ourselves.

It's about the catastrophe of climate change unraveling those final threads of meaning from us as the world that we have depended on abandons us.

But mostly, it's about bears.

Hi, there's a performance tomorrow, I hope to see you there.

We added the exxxtreme to appeal to energy drink companies for sponsorships, but no bites.

I guess Monster isn't interested in durational experimental performance right now.

Hi, there's a performance tomorrow, I hope to see you there.

That's okay.

I printed a hundred flyers, so if I give them all out and everyone who takes one brings a friend... Oh, hi, there's a performance tomorrow, I hope to see you there.

He seemed interested.

It's just me today, the bear is getting into character.

(actor roaring) It's gonna be great to see everyone at the performance tomorrow.

Hello and welcome to Nature Bear Exxxtreme.

Now we will begin.

Next, let us look, for example, to the bear.

(actor roaring) (bird crowing) (siren wailing) (gentle music) (funky music) (funky music continues) - At the time, I was in a low spot, at low point in my life facing homelessness in my life and you know, the city of Detroit seemed synonymous as far as being in a low state.

I was very heartbroken about my circumstances at the time and I needed a mantra.

I started saying, "I'm on my Detroit everything," meaning, okay, don't cry for too long.

Don't stay stagnant.

Keep moving because you gotta be on your Detroit everything.

Pull from that grit.

Pull from those experiences that were uncomfortable.

♪ If you can't hear Wayne probably taught you ♪ ♪ Some tie-dyed tapestry, tongue-tied apathy ♪ ♪ Flex dexterity, flows avoid atrophy ♪ ♪ Run into my flows in whoever goes after me ♪ ♪ Travesty, going under rapids so rapidly ♪ ♪ Apathy, careful, never live haphazardly ♪ - You had some of the best lyricists ever with Biz Markie and Doug E. Fresh and they gave you limited lyrical prowess because the chants were so powerful they didn't need to say much.

They gotta the (voice flutters), What?

You ain't gonna drop us no bars, Biz?

And he was like, "Nah, I don't have to."

♪ Let me clear my throat.

DJ Kool.

All he did was yell and get 'em hype.

And it's a hit.

So this is what I mean by letting your call and response to your chants carry you if need be.

I mean, it's powerful.

(mellow music) Going through my circumstances of homelessness, I said I had better develop something that's gonna show that I was productive during the dark period and show that I got over it.

We men and women of strong stock whose roots run deep into American soil like oak trees and orchids, countering the narrative of dope feeding and orphan.

I am not just that.

I push back.

- Hi, this is Deidre D.S.Sense Smith here with My Detroit Everything and I'm here with the Motown legend, Miss Martha Reeves.

Thank you so much.

- I'm Martha Reeves.

I'm on My Detroit Everything.

- Hey, you heard it here first.

- I'm hooked.

- One of the greatest.

- If you have the right intentions and the right mindset, you'll have a dynasty and a legacy that will be unmatched.

And that's what I'm hoping for.

(dramatic music) ♪ What up, doe?

♪ Ow ♪ Yeah ♪ Welcome to Detroit, talk to 'em ♪ ♪ I'm on my Detroit everything ♪ Been on my Detroit everything ♪ ♪ Get on your Detroit everything ♪ (footsteps shuffling) (upbeat music - base drum kick) (upbeat music continues - synth notes added) (upbeat music continues - more sounds added) (upbeat music continues - bassline added) (upbeat music continues - more synth notes) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Get up, get down ♪ Why are you still standing around ♪ ♪ I said get up, get down ♪ Why are you still standing around ♪ ♪ It's only gonna be you, right here, right now ♪ (hi-hat added) (upbeat music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ Oh (drum track muted) ♪ Oh (upbeat music continues) (music fades out)