Six Words

One way we like to think of Detroit Ho! is as a "resignification" project. Remember all those Henry Louis Gates Jr. articles about the signifyin' monkey from your undergrad thesis research? Don't worry, we won't get into all that theory.

But...

We want to plumb the subconscious minds of everyone we can and take some samples, maybe leave behind some experimental treatments. What are the synapses in your brain that are touching the word "Detroit" connected to? Poverty? Gardens? Peacocks? Greek food? We want to know. We also hope, with every intention of being manipulative, to get down in there and add "photography" and "sculpture" and "literary reading" to the web of associations. The power of impression is strong, and if the whole country-- nay, world!-- started to feel creatively inspired when they thought of Detroit (instead of using it as a punchline for cynical jokes) who knows what kind of innovative energy could waft Detroit-ward?

As a part of our not-so-technical research process, we've found that most of the associations that people currently have with Detroit are pretty apocalyptic. Even if they are beautifully so. For example, at a panel on "Writing Other People's Stories" at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference (AWP) in Denver last month, Jo Ann Beard spoke about the two essays she's written since The Boys of My Youth. One is "Werner" (read it!) and the other "Undertaker Please Drive Slow." Beard said: "Cheri T drove her mother to Detroit to Jack Kevorkian and he euthanized her. This is another kind of mother/daughter story. Take your mother to the arms of death and drive away."

The presence of Detroit in this narrative isn't negligible. It helps create the sense of despair that makes the story so inexcusably painful. It would sound different if Cheri T had driven her mother to Brooklyn or Los Angeles or Tucson to die. Wouldn't it? Detroit has become a kind of metaphor for the shoreline of the river Styx.

At our recent auction, we asked people to write a "six word short story" that takes place Detroit and put it in a jar. This is somewhat inspired by all that NPR reportage on the six word memoir, and by the Ernest Hemingway story: "For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn." And by magnetic poetry and collage and whatever else. Pablo Picasso.

It turns out that people's associations, while the dominant mood of them may be grim, have novels-worth of feeling behind them. For example:

• Anguish. Passion. Growing up in mud.
• Tiger's game. Parking. Wisest little brother.
• Newstory: a missing girl. Dogtown, Quarry.
• My mom in dumpsters, retainer found.

Want to add one? Comment to this post! Even if you don't leave your name, please say where you are from. Help us create a map or catalog of associations, to chart the city's resonance in the collective unconsciousness. And perhaps, slowly, resignify.