Our Programs
Three Paths to Reconnection
Every program begins with the same question: what would it take for you to believe your participation matters? The answers shape everything we build at 1320 Wilkins Street and across every Detroit neighborhood we serve.
Pillar One
Perspective Dinners
Some of the most important conversations in civic life never happen in council chambers or town halls. They happen around kitchen tables, in barbershops, over plates of food that remind you of home. That is where real understanding begins.
Perspective Dinners are invite-only gatherings designed to recreate that intimacy at scale. Eight to twelve people sit together — community leaders, artists, small business owners, educators, young professionals — and explore a single question about civic life in Detroit. The room is intentionally curated for diversity of experience, not uniformity of opinion.
There are no keynote speakers. No panel moderators with pre-written questions. Just a shared meal sourced from Detroit-area kitchens, a thoughtful prompt chosen for depth, and the radical act of listening to someone whose lived experience is different from your own. What emerges is not consensus but understanding — and understanding is the foundation of every meaningful civic act.
The Format
- •8-12 guests per dinner, curated for diverse perspectives
- •Locally sourced meals from Detroit-area restaurants and caterers
- •One guiding question per evening, chosen for depth not controversy
- •Chatham House Rule: insights can be shared, attribution cannot
How to Get Invited
Perspective Dinners are by invitation only, but nominations are welcome. We look for people who bring lived experience, professional insight, or community connection — not titles. If you know someone who should be at our table, reach out through our contact page.
Pillar Two
Cultural Events
Civic awareness doesn't have to feel like homework. The most powerful moments of collective understanding happen through art, music, film, and shared cultural experience — the moments when a room full of strangers suddenly feels like a community.
Our cultural events are designed to meet people where they already are — in the venues, galleries, and gathering spaces they choose freely — and weave in moments of civic reflection without the weight of traditional advocacy. No one is being lectured. Everyone is being invited.
Picture a documentary screening in an Eastern Market warehouse followed by raw, unscripted conversation with the filmmaker and the community members who lived the story. Imagine live music at a Corktown venue where spoken word about resilience hits differently because everyone in the room knows what it means to rebuild. Art installations that transform census data into something you can feel. We create experiences people genuinely want to attend, and let the perspective shift happen naturally.
Film & Documentary Screenings
Curated screenings of work exploring civic themes, followed by facilitated discussion with filmmakers and community voices.
Live Music & Spoken Word
Events featuring Detroit artists whose work speaks to themes of identity, community, and civic life.
Art & Installation
Collaborative art experiences that transform civic data and community stories into immersive, shareable moments.
Seasonal Gatherings
Quarterly community events that mark the rhythm of civic life while celebrating Detroit culture.
Pillar Three
Community Media
The stories that shape public understanding of communities are almost always told by people outside of them. Community Media flips that dynamic entirely. We put the camera, the microphone, and the editorial lens in the hands of the people whose lives are the story — because the most honest civic journalism comes from the ground, not from a helicopter.
Our media work spans documentary filmmaking, digital storytelling, podcast conversations, and social-first video content. Every project starts with the same commitment: nothing about a community without that community's voice leading the narrative. The result is media that doesn't just inform — it resonates, because the people watching can see themselves reflected in the story being told.
Based out of 1320 Wilkins Street in Detroit, our media team works directly with residents, organizers, and artists to capture the authentic civic pulse of neighborhoods across the city.
Documentary Work
Short and feature-length documentary projects exploring the intersection of civic life, culture, and community identity in Detroit and beyond.
Audio & Podcast
Long-form audio conversations and serialized storytelling that bring the depth of our dinner conversations to a wider audience.
Digital Content
Social-first video and editorial content designed to spark civic curiosity and make complex issues feel personal and accessible.