(light upbeat music) - I first just want to get your reaction to the announcement and the honor.

- Well, I would say to you, life is full of surprise, surprises.

- You couldn't have been that surprised.

I mean, maybe a little.

- Well, yes and no that, I didn't expect it.

And that day, I was in a cloud.

I couldn't believe that it was me, but why not me?

- (laugh) Right?

- Why not me?

- So, I'm somebody who grew up here in the '70s and '80s, and I remember distinctly when you started the work over at the Heidelberg Project, and it has been part of the narrative here in the city since then.

Let's go back though to that beginning and talk just a little about what you aimed to be saying with what you were doing and what impact you thought it would or could have on that part of the city and on the city as a whole.

- Well, that's a lot.

I wanna see if I can answer some of those questions.

First of all, I believe, for me, I found my purpose, I found my calling.

I believe that everything in this world happens at the right time.

In 1986, that beautiful day, the sun was shining.

I was standing in the doorway looking out at that neighborhood.

I had this epiphany and oh my goodness, I went out there and the first thing I did, I started to clean up that community, the neighborhood.

As I sat here, we have had 144 countries to come and visit us.

Jenenne and I, we have traveled around the world and I just knew in my soul that it was going to do something for the city and the world, and it's happening.

- Yeah.

- I'm living my dream.

- Jenenne, I wanna bring you into the conversation here and have you talk also about this honor and the work, but also about this other kind of milestone that's being reached, which is that the Reuther Library at Wayne State is going to archive and catalog all of what's happened at the Heidelberg Project.

- Yeah, that's exciting because this is our 40th anniversary and we have collected and held onto all of the different organizations, the different papers, the different court cases, you know, the accolades, all of that we've just been collecting and holding onto because we knew that it would be important because it is such a Detroit story like you talked about.

So, being able to assemble these documents, having Wayne State to play a big part in organizing them and preparing them so that people, Wayne State University is also a research institution known internationally, and the Heidelberg Project is known internationally, so it's a perfect marriage and it is, as you say, a very important Detroit story.

- Yeah, yeah.

Tyree, in the next year, as you are the eminent artist, I mean, you'll have opportunities to send this message into, I guess, maybe a different space than it has been.

I wonder if you've given a lot of thought yet to what you want to do in that space, in that year.

What message you want to project from all of this work over 40 years?

- Well, 40 years, if I sit here listening to your question, I decided I was gonna just take a break.

(Stephen laughs) I've been busy.

I've been busy for 40 years.

- Yeah.

- I think there comes a time where you have to take a break and regroup, and that's what's happening.

- Yeah.

- It's also time to slow down.

It's time to just make some time for Tyree.

That's what I want.

- Wow.

Wow.

So, and then, in that time, what are you discovering?

What are you feeling, I guess, and what is that doing for you?

- Well, it's doing, golly, so much.

I mean, it's, well, first of all, the award came at the right time, and I'm gonna repeat that, the right time, it's been a big help.

I'm finding myself, I am rediscovering who I am for Tyree and I'm so excited about that.