In 2015, looking for a platform to discuss his ideas for his new album “If Detroit Were Heaven,” hip-hop artist Khary Wae Frazier ventured into the world of podcasts to express his love of Detroit culture and give artists a platform to express their art.
Frazier wanted to bring the separate worlds that exist in Detroit together, and to celebrate how different this city really is.
So “Detroit is Different,” an online magazine and podcast, was born in his grandparents’ home on Detroit’s west side.
“Like everything that I do, I believe the best creativity comes about from collaboration,” Frazier says.
The goal of “Detroit is Different” is to bring community together around collective concepts of creativity, and it has led to the creation of events like the Collard Green Cook-Off, the “I’m Scared of Detroit Comedy Show” — and the My Natural Hair Show, held last weekend at Andy Arts Center in Detroit.
My Natural Hair Show is an homage to Detroit’s famous Hair Wars, but unlike Hair Wars, founded by Detroiter David Humphries aka Hump the Grinder, My Natural Hair Show is not a competition but a celebration of Black hair.
Lauren Whitfield, a natural hairstylist at Naked Stylez, says she wanted to be a part of the show because she wanted her talent to be seen. She chose the theme “God’s Promises.” Whitfield sees the hair show as an opportunity to bring everyone together from different lives and different areas of Detroit. “Everybody loves to look beautiful … embracing your natural hair, the beauty that we have in being Black: our coils, our curls, our textures.”
This summer, Frazier interviewed Humphries, and heard stories of how Hair Wars started because stylists exhausted from doing hair on the weekends were just looking for a night they could party.
“So then they start their stylist nights on Monday nights. That movement grows so big to eventually create what becomes Hair Wars,” Frazier says. “And him telling me those stories and working and collaborating as not being a person of an industry but uplifting an industry has been helpful.”
Endia Cloud, of Endia Soniae Hair, is a braider who did not grow up loving her natural curl pattern. “Seeing a show where I see stylists do only natural hair … it helps me to see that people do actually love their hair, and shows like this help me to love myself and love my hair.” Cloud’s theme for the show was Black Excellence. “I was inspired by a lot of the stylists around me,” she says. “I’ve seen so much creativity in the hairstyles and attention to detail.”
“I’m a Aisha Shule kid” — the now-closed Aisha Shule/WEB Dubois Preparatory Academy School on Detroit’s west side — “so I come from African-centered schools.” Frazier’s childhood is rooted in Black revolution, and his heart is captured by hip-hop, a platform where he saw young Black men able to say and do whatever they wanted to do.
Frazier says his vision for the show is to bring in the community to experience Blackness that makes them feel welcome, “an experience where they’re going to feel our culture is uplifted,” unique and enjoyable.
(The headline was updated in this story.)
