Room Project will be closing its doors in November, in a blow to Detroit’s literary community.
The co-working space located at 6513 Woodward Ave. announced the closing in a social media post on Monday morning.
Room Project opened as a nonprofit in 2018 to give women, nonbinary, and trans writers and artists a safe space to write, create, commune, and rest. It has since held hundreds of poetry readings, film screenings, music performances, workshops, book release parties, and more.
“We did all of this without full time staff, without corporate grants or endowments,” the social media post reads. “Hundreds of members paid their member dues, volunteered to put up flyers and set out the chairs. Friends donated their money and talents. Room Project grew and grew, and that success belongs to all of you. We are grieving this loss and we know you are too.”
The space Room Project has been renting is owned by Midtown Detroit Inc. Metro Times has reached out to Midtown Detroit Inc. for comment.
Many a Metro Times story has been penned at Room (this writer is a member). It was opened by Christin Lee, who moved to Detroit from Los Angeles after finishing grad school in Ann Arbor. Lee stepped away from the space last year, leaving Flint-born writer Kelsey Ronan at the helm.
Room released its first anthology of metro Detroit writers called Room Object earlier this year featuring work by Ronan, Liana Imam, Brittany Rogers, Rochelle Marrett, Franny Choi, and more. The book was a 2019 Knights Arts Challenge winner.
MARS Marshall, a 2021 Kresge Artist Fellow who co-edited Room Object, says Room has been one of the most important community spaces for Detroit’s literary artists over the past five years.
“It’s given me the critical space I needed to grow as a poet/writer, from expanding my literary community in this space to deepening my writing practice,” Marshall tells Metro Times. “Room Project has been more than a home to me and my work — it’s been my literary family.”
Another member and poet Katelyn Rivas calls Room “the light that got left on” for her to continue exploring her writing.
“Room Project is where I made incredible friends, launched my chapbook, and shared my thesis work for radical self-care for Black femmes. It’s where I had big conversations and big healing laughter,” she says. “The work of Room Project doesn’t end just because the doors are closing. Somewhere another light is on, and space is being carved for the brilliance that we cultivated to live on.”
Michaela Ayers, who hosts the Black Her Stories podcast, adds that Room has been an essential place for Detroit-based writers to connect.
“As an emerging artist and fairly new Detroiter, I have benefited greatly from having access to such a welcoming community,” Ayers, who moved to Detroit from Seattle in 2021, says. “The creative energy of this important third-place will be sorely missed.”
Room Project will still be open for members and a slew of public events until November.
We’ve had the privilege of witnessing what Room has meant to this community of women, trans + nonbinary writers + artists,” the announcement reads. “Room has been your place to reconnect with a lost creative practice. Your place to rest. Your place where you are only asked to be you. We ask that you enjoy this room of our own while we have it. Come to an event & celebrate each other. Join a meetup and tell us what you’re working on. Share your Room memories & tag us. There’s a whole season left, and it’s the harvest season. Let’s celebrate our abundance.”
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