Twentysomethings from Southeastern Michigan can be split into two distinct categories: those who fear Detroit, and those who leave the affluent suburbs of their youth to live along the Cass Corridor. I definitely belong to the former group, but after a summer internship in the Motor City required me to drive there several times a week, I became a little less wary of the place. Which is a good thing, because it means I no longer miss out on events like this weekend’s 4^th Annual People’s Art Fair.

As usual, the People’s Art Festival was held at the Russell Industrial Center, an expansive, repurposed factory complex that alone is worth checking out. If I hadn’t seen hordes of white people milling about, I would have thought I was in the wrong place: It’s smack dab in an industrial ghost town, many of the windows are busted out, and it generally looks like the kind of warehouse the Mob would go to for the finalization of a drug deal with the Chinese Mafia.

In reality, the Russell is home to artists’ studio spaces,  small businesses, workshops, a weekend bazaar, as well as many workshops and special events. It was a perfect setting for the People’s Art Festival, with plenty of space outside for artists’ booths, a food court and two large stages for musicians. Unlike the Ann Arbor Art Fair and the Shadow Art Fair, it was easy to wander around and explore the artists’ work without getting stuck in crowds of septuagenarians donning fannypacks. Inside were film screenings and a runway for a mini fashion-show put on by SHEI magazine (that’s right – us!).

All kinds of artists had their work on display, from painters to jewelry-makers. My favorites (and the crowd favorites, as evidenced by the popularity of their booths), were Audrey Pongracz and Marcy Davy. Pongracz, who won a Real Detroit Weekly Award for Best Local Artist in 2009, creates surrealist and pop art paintings and toys. Her work is goth-kitsch, featuring beautiful but melancholy women and cute, but slightly creepy, kids’ toys. Marcy Davy’s handpulled prints are completely different. Her nature-inspired work  features birds, flowers and trees as common themes, and the colors are appropriately earthy.

Not only was the art diverse, the crowd was too. I saw families, cute rockabilly couples, plaid-shirted hipsters, patchouli-loving hippie lesbians, and the obligatory short-haired girl with a hula hoop. It really seemed like all of Detroit’s art-loving citizens had come out to enjoy the festival.

While the art and the people-watching was fantastic, the best part of the festival was when a three-piece called Shock Wave took the main stage. At first, when I noticed that they had to all be about twelve years old and that the drummer had a microphone, I was highly skeptical. But then they started playing and blew the whole crowd away. Even though the drummer’s voice hadn’t dropped, he still managed to shriek like Gene Simmons of KISS, and the similarly fresh-faced guitarist shredded better than any local axe-wielder I’ve ever heard. If three twelve year olds can rock out that hard, I have a lot of hope for the next generation. Thank you, People’s Art Festival.

Words: Rhiannon Haller

Photos: Chelsea Brown