Moonwalker: As poet David Blair takes orbit, Detroit’s arts community remembers

During a rollicking New Orleans-style funeral procession down Cass Avenue, hundreds of Detroiters paid their respects on Sunday to poet and musician David Blair, who passed away unexpectedly and much, much too soon July 23.

Blair, who published his first collection, Moonwalking, last year, was a National Poetry Slam champion, a Detroit Public School teacher, a wordsmith who traveled around the world to perform. And when he returned home to Detroit, this former blue-collar factory man was beloved by local artists, musicians and intellectuals.

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The creative community Blair built around himself will be his lasting Detroit legacy, Kubat said.”All
of these great people were able to meet and become close,” she said.
“He brought us all together, and he left us all together, so we could
all be what we were supposed to be.”

Read the Freep’s tribute to Blair here. Find out more about David Blair, or chip in to help pay for his funeral service, at dblair.org. And click here to check out photographs of David Blair from Metromode managing photographer Dave Lewinski.