Select events happening in metro Detroit this week. Submit your events to metrotimes.com/calendar.
JR presents Inside Out 11M
Thursday, 9/2: Putting the "unity" in community is award-winning artist JR, who has turned his artistic lens to Detroit's immigration advocates and community members for a nationwide participatory art initiative as a way to communicate to Congress the importance of enacting legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for millions of American immigrants.
Library Street Collective is hosting an interaction of JR's Inside Out 11M as part of the artist's 16-city tour across the U.S. in which he will take photographic portraits of advocates, leaders, immigrants, and descendants of immigrants, all of whom will join thousands of others who have helped JR use "art as an expression of standing in solidarity with millions of immigrants." Those photos are then pasted to large canvas and/or are wheatpasted and displayed throughout community spaces as a means to humanize our neighbors and create conversations about equality and social justice.
Since launching the Inside Out Project in 2011 following his TED Prize win for his TED Talk, JR has taken more than 415,000 portraits across 138 countries, resulting in more than 2,000community activations of public spaces. —Jerilyn Jordan
Event is from 10 a.m.-4 p.m at the Belt behind Library Street Collective, 1274 Library St., Detroit; 313-600-7443; lscgallery.com. Admission is free.
Loudon Wainwright III
Friday, 9/3: Loudon Wainwright III, the contentious patriarch of the Wainwright-McGarrigle folk dynasty, is best known for not holding back — even if that means exposing very personal relationships, familial dynamics, and experiences. If you need the CliffsNotes on the 74-year-old artist's career and backstory, listen to "Meet The Wainwrights," where he calls out his famous baroque-folk children by name — that's Martha, Rufus, and Lucy — and lists the many discretions that have been aired out for decades across stages and records. Made famous by his 1972 novelty hit, "Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road)," LW3 is also known for his frequent cameos in Judd Apatow films, including a role as a quirky divorced dad on Apatow's short-lived cult TV comedy, Undeclared. —Jerilyn Jordan
Doors open at 7:30 p.m. at The Ark; 316 S. Main St., Ann Arbor; 734-761-1818; theark.org. Tickets are $25.
The Myspace Prom with Taking Back Emo
Saturday, 9/4: The year is 2003 and you just removed your BFF from your Top Eight because they allegedly made out with your ex of three days at a screening of Jeepers Creepers 2. You're feeling your feelings so you decide to let the poetry flow on a bulletin post in which you just copy and paste lyrics from Brand New's "Play Crack the Sky" and you decide to change your profile pic to something a bit more representative of your entire world collapsing so you snap what they recently dubbed a "selfie" your hair swooped over one eye like a sad and stiff waterfall, the other eye caked in black eyeliner, not a drop of joy to be found on your tormented duck face.
For some of us, it's a goddamn blessing that Myspace accidentally deleted years' worth of old photos and content, which is what happened in 2019. For others, it marked the official end of an era, one in which the word "rawr" was both a come on and a warning and one in which your duct-taped Vans carried the weight of your precious world from hardcore show to harcore show with very neccessary pitstops at Hot Topic.
Well, good news scene kids and emo adults — Myspace Emo Prom offers a chance to relive the days of thrashing and crying and AIM away messages that were absolutely targeting a specific person. Emo revivalists Taking Back Emo will serve up favorites from acts like AFI, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Dashboard Confessional, and more. —Jerilyn Jordan
Doors open at 8 p.m. at the Magic Bag; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-544-1989; themagicbag.com. Tickets are $15.
Waxahatchee
Tuesday, 9/7: Just as the world was set ablaze by the pandemic, Alabama singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, who performs as Waxahatchee, had released her fifth album and the first since becoming sober in 2018. Saint Cloud topped many a year-end list thanks to her sharpened observational lyrics and her heightened ability to make the healing process a joyful one, albeit turbulent.
"I have a gift, I've been told, for seeing what's there," Crutchfield sings on "The Eye." "And I will chase all the rain, put it down, call it paint/ To possess something arcane, oh it's a heavy weight." Saint Cloud is proof that you can cross bridges, not burn them, and still have a lot of great shit to make music uplifting and layered music about. "I feel like I can still do this and have it be meaningful and have it be something people can relate to, and still make it dark and sad without making myself the victim," Crutchfield told Metro Times last year.
Crutchfield was set to kick off her tour in support of Saint Cloud last year in Detroit with what would have been a homecoming show of sorts, as the record and Crutchfield's touring band features members of the Detroit-based band Bonny Doon. Thankfully Crutchfield and company made good on their postponed promise. Waxahatchee will be joined by Katy Kirby. —Jerilyn Jordan
Doors open at 7 p.m. at the Majestic;4120 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700; majesticdetroit.com. Tickets are $23-$26.
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