LaToya Cross

Music is an archive of human existence and experience.

And it is through music, as a Grammy-award winning violinist and composer, that Jessie Montgomery creates narratives that ignite thought, rush you with playfulness, and invite you to imagine.

The DSO lifts Montgomery’s contributions to the evolution of classical music as a 2025 Classical Roots artistic honoree.

Senior centers are expanding and evolving. Active aging — think line dancing, speed dating and pickleball––is at the forefront of creating spaces for new generations of older adults with a range of interests. The priority: growing older with dignity and creativity.

At the intersection of art and social impact, Sarah Jones’ current work-in-progress, “The Cost of Not Caring” is witty and intriguing, and brings to the stage a conversation that spotlights how we all pay the cost in dollars and human suffering when care is not prioritized.

Through a collaborative relationship with the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance (SMTD), high-school students from Crescendo Detroit and Detroit Harmony joined the U-M Concert Band for a one-night only collegiate-level concert at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor.

2023 Kresge Arts Detroit Artist Fellowship
Claire Gasamagera is a multilingual activist and writer reporting on health, racial justice, and human rights. She was born with HIV in 1983 in Rwanda and survived the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Gasamagera’s writing passion is inspired by her grandfather, Saverio Nayigiziki, an award winning multilingual writer.

Role: Story Producer with misFitted, LLC

World-renowned poet, playwright, and cultural arts curator jessica Care moore, is the DSO 2024 Marlowe Stoudamire Award for Innovation and Community Collaboration Recipient.

Interview + Story: LaToya Cross

WE WON BRONZE!

LISTEN TO WINNERS – VIA APPLE LISTEN TO THE WINNERS – VIA SPOTIFY Gallery 2024

SOCIALS

Intersections: Detroit is nominated for a British Podcast Award for Arts & Culture!

Listen to the podcast and check out the other nominees.

Role: Story Producer, Intersections: Detroit; Narrated by jessica Care moore

Care Can't Wait coalition launched a multi-state tour to highlight the high cost of child care, aging and disability care, and lack of paid leave in this country. The coalition held a rally in Detroit, Michigan that highlighted stories from state representatives, family caregivers, care workers, and those who need care.

Patricia Lay-Dorsey documents her caregivers to celebrate them and bring people into the world of in-home caregiving.

To enter the photography of Ricky Weaver, first, take a breath. Hold it. Feel it. Float with it. Exhale.

There’s a mysterious but exciting energy in the images created by Precious Johnson-Arabitg, known artistically as VODKASERENGETI. Her performance-based compositions have a strong and fearless nature that arrest the eyes at a glance and draw the observer into the scene.

It’s the morning of Juneteenth 2024 and this conversation with theatre-makers Prentiss Matthews and Asia Marks dives into ‘The Golden Loc’ and the glory in taking up space in the arts to tell stories that offer a reimagined present and possible future.

The Detroit Obsidian Theatre Festival sets the stage for Black creatives to dream out loud with productions and conversations that explore multi-faceted Black, human stories through artistic expression including theater, music, and dance.

In June, the New York & Michigan Solutions Journalism collaborative partnered with the Race and Justice Reporting Initiative from the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University Law School, establishing a small cohort of emerging journalists to cover caregiving. Our goal is to strengthen the pipeline of reporters covering caregivers, a critical community long overlooked by mainstream media.

Coming from misFitted, LLC––a multimedia production company and creative art house rooted in Detroit––writer/director Zachary Cunningham, cinematographer Charles Kennedy Jr., and an ensemble cast starring Don Snipes, 'I Wish I Could See Heaven' takes viewers on a psychological trip where fate and redemption are brought into question.