Model D Speaker Series: Rolling out the welcome mat: Detroit as a global community
Take a stroll around Hamtramck and see the vibrancy of urban life everywhere. Much of it is generated by wave after wave of immigrant communities who’ve settled there to live, raise families, open businesses. This month’s speaker series looks at what the city within the city of Detroit can show us about welcoming newcomers to the 313.
In the wake of the new Census figures, the city has been humming with analysis of Detroit’s population and demographic shifts. Many have called it a “clarion call” to recognize and reinvest in our assets.
One of these assets is our multicultural immigrant population — the second largest of any Great Lakes regional metropolitan area. “Nothing is more powerful for remaking Detroit as a center of innovation, entrepreneurship and population growth,” says Steve Tobocman, author of the 2010 Global Detroit study, “than embracing and increasing immigrant populations and the entrepreneurial culture and global connections that they bring.”
If new immigrants are key to Detroit’s resurgence, how are we faring as a “welcoming” city? Is Detroit a place that values multiculturalism and diversity? What are we doing to attract and serve new populations?
Join us in Hamtramck, one of the 313’s most diverse and walkable communities, for a frank conversation about our strengths and opportunities moderated by Martina Guzman of WDET 101.9 FM.
The event is Tuesday, April 26. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., program begins at 6 p.m. at the Polish Legion of American Veterans Hall (site of future Hamtramck Historical Museum), 3105 Holbrook, Hamtramck.
Panelists include:
Steve Tobocman, Global Detroit; Maria Elena Rodriguez, Entrepreneur and Community Activist in Southwest Detroit; Dawud Walid, Council on American-Islamic Relations; and Hayg Oshagan, Director of New Michigan Media, Wayne State University.
This Model D Speaker Series is presented by Model D, WDET, Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) and the City of Hamtramck DDA.
The event is free and open to the public. Please register below:
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