"Empowering Ruins: An Archaeology of Two Activist Spaces in Detroit, Gordon Park and the Grande Ballroom"

The Tulane University Center for Archaeology presents an archaeology brownbag lunch talk.

"Empowering Ruins: An Archaeology of Two Activist Spaces in Detroit, Gordon Park and the Grande Ballroom"

Krysta Ryzewski, Associate Professor, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan

Friday, 2/28/2020, 12:00PM, Dinwiddie Hall Room 305

This presentation considers the Grande Ballroom and Gordon Park, two activist spaces in Detroit, as empowered ruins – places whose histories remain relevant, impactful, and evocative for present-day and future communities. The Grande Ballroom was the center of Detroit’s musical and political counterculture movement between 1966 and 1972. Gordon Park was built on top of the ruins of the flashpoint for the 1967 uprising, the most violent civic unrest in the United States at the time. The two sites, located three kilometers apart, are anchored by a common point of time, shared social justice agendas, as well as a history of civic neglect versus grassroots preservation.

The Tulane University Center for Archaeology hosts periodic brownbag lunch talks about diverse topics in archaeology, of interest to scholars, students, and staff members in several schools, departments, and institutes at Tulane.

Anthropology Department

For more information contact: Chris Rodning via email to crodning@tulane.edu or by phone at (504)862-3051.