“I painted him as a monument”: Public Art as Protest in Detroit
This essay is my submission for Festival CHAT 2020. I’m very grateful to the CHAT organizers for hosting this phenomenal virtual event and giving us a way to…
Author: Kaeleigh Herstad
A ‘Non-plush Frog Emporium’: Historical Foodways and Culinary Tourism in Detroit
I recently noticed a ghost sign for Nuenfeldt Frog Legs in Detroit for the first time. Knowing that frog legs were once a big part of Detroit’s food…
Our special series, ‘Postindustrial landscapes, communities, and heritages’ has been published!
Read the editorial here.
Our special series has been published!
Our special series in the Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage has been published! Read our guest editorial here.
Gentrification and the Grand River Creative Corridor
Last week, Bridge Magazine published an article about an artist community in the Grand River Creative Corridor that is being evicted by Allied Media Projects (AMP), a nonprofit organization dedicated…
“The Workingmen’s Colony”: Labor Conflict and Historic Preservation in Campbell, Ohio
In August, I visited the town of Campbell, a former hub of Ohio’s steel industry. Youngstown Sheet & Tube Company established operations there in 1902, on the banks…
Postindustrial Landscapes, Communities, and Heritage
I’m excited to be in New Orleans this week for the annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. Dan Trepal and I are chairing a session entitled,…
Misplaced Memorials
I recently found a mysterious, out-of-place grave marker on a vacant lot in Detroit, and I went down a research rabbit hole trying to figure out how it…
The Rhetoric of Foreclosure and Eviction in Detroit
Analyzing the rhetoric around blight, foreclosure, and eviction in Detroit reveals a lot about local attitudes towards/concepts of ownership, poverty, race, and social justice. Over the last two…
Marktown: Industrial Heritage at Risk
I finally got to visit the planned worker community of Marktown in East Chicago this weekend. In 1917, industrialist Clayton Mark hired famed architect Howard Van Doren Shaw…
‘This House Is Occupied’: Demolition Politics in the Belgian ‘spookstad’ of Doel
Last week I visited the small ghost town (“spookstad” in Dutch) of Doel in northwest Belgium. Doel has been at the center of an international controversy for the…
Squatting and Concepts of Property Ownership in the Netherlands
Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in Rotterdam with a friend, local, and part-time Detroiter, and I learned a lot about housing policy and the long, complex history of…
Help a researcher out by taking this short survey on neighborhood blight in Detroit!
My dissertation research involves interviewing Detroit residents city to learn more about how blight affects peoples’ daily lives. I’ve created a very brief questionnaire as an extension o…
Are Urban Explorers Heritage Activists?: The ‘Eternal Drabness’ of DeHoCo
“[Urban exploration] is a community of people who by their inherent nature break rules and expectations. Expecting them to then follow the rules of a community is patently…
Awakening to Ruins
I’m reading through Robert Ginsberg’s The Aesthetics of Ruin (2004) again and came across this wonderful poem he wrote about the different options for a ruin (120): Awakening to ruins…
Archaeologies of Displacement and Urban Renewal in Detroit
Last week I attended the “Archaeology and Revitalization in Detroit” sessions at the Michigan Historic Preservation Network‘s annual meeting in Detroit, on the campus of Wayne State …
Urbex in Baltimore
Reporter Jessica Anderson recently interviewed me for this fascinating piece about urban exploration in Baltimore. I enjoyed talking with her about the allure of abandoned/vacant spaces and learning m…
Deconstructing Detroit: The Politics of ‘Reclamation’
I attended the Society for Historical Archaeology’s annual meeting in Washington DC in January and presented in the excellent, day-long session, “Contemporary and Historical Archaeologies …
The ‘Maya Temples’ of Highland Park
The excellent Telling the Stories of Detroit’s Parks blog recently posted a piece about a Modernist adventure playground in Highland Park, a city within the city of Detroit. It…
Saying Nice Things About Detroit
UPDATE: Please read Andre Ventura’s response to this post for more information about the signs Last week a friend took me on a drive down 8 Mile Road, which…
Curated Ruins and Un-Memorials: The Afterlife of Detroit’s Michigan Theater
I came across Gabriel Moshenska’s Curated Ruins and the Endurance of Conflict Heritage (2015) via Twitter last week, which happily coincided with my first visit to Detroit’s former Michiga…
Getting to Know Gratiot
Gratiot Avenue is one of Detroit’s 5 original main avenues (along with Woodward, Michigan, Jefferson, and Grand River) that branch out from downtown like the spokes of a…
Lincoln Street Art Park: ‘Teaching Reuse Through Art’
I visited the Lincoln Street Art Park south of New Center in Detroit a few times in the last week (as I researched it, I kept realizing I must’ve…