Five projects will receive funding in the latest round of Pressing Matters grants, a research incentive funding program that supports research advancing the state of practice in Taubman College’s various disciplines and forges new interdisciplinary opportunities. The projects include one that aims to reconstruct Black Bottom, a thriving Afro-American community sacrificed for urban renewal projects in the 1950s and 1960s.

The data is alarming: Black and low-income people are two to five times more likely to die in childbirth or experience severe maternal morbidity than those who are white. But one important voice has largely been missing from the conversation: the patients themselves.

“A lot of people come to Detroit with expectations of making big changes fast. I was probably one of those people. What we’ve learned is that change is happening here, but it’s got a pace of its own. I’ve learned a lot by being a part of this city.” 

~Justin Mast, founder of Bloomscape.

An interdisciplinary team of 20 master’s students from SEAS, as well as the Ross School of Business, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and the School of Social Work, worked throughout the semester alongside Paige and others at Bailey Park to advance sustainability knowledge through various community engaged projects.

The team wants to uncover how Asian communities responded to racial violence, the complex interactions between Asians and other communities of color, and how certain violent events might have prompted Asians to move out of Detroit neighborhoods to form new ethnoburbs.

Dana Thompson, clinical professor of law and director of the Community Enterprise Clinic, said the food security network’s values, importance to Detroit, and wide range of legal needs has resulted in a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

“One thing I found very beneficial was the exposure our young people received in the communications training and the opportunity for them to have something they crafted come to life. With the young people we serve, many of them have said they don’t feel that their voices are heard. Being able to have a platform to elevate their voices and their brilliance has been immeasurable.”
~ Courtney Smith, founder and CEO of the Detroit Phoenix Center

“Hazen Pingree was mayor of Detroit around the turn of the (20th) century and one way he addressed hunger in the city was to encourage people to grow potatoes in their back yards and in community plots the city set out. They were called ‘Pingree’s potato patches.'”
~ Jason Hawes, U-M PhD candidate

As a child, Annica Cuppetelli watched her grandmother sew, and it inspired her to pursue an undergraduate program in fiber and textiles.