- Coming up on "American Black Journal," the Grow Detroit's Young Talent Program is looking for young people who wanna work this summer and employers who will put them to work.

We'll have all the details.

Plus, we'll visit the Avenue of Fashion to see how that historic Detroit business district has rebounded, don't go anywhere.

"American Black Journal" starts right now - [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Behr paint.

Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Stephen] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation And viewers like you, thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm your host, Stephen Henderson.

Applications are being accepted through May 16th for the City of Detroit's annual summer jobs program for teens and young adults.

It's called Grow Detroit's Young Talent, and the city's hoping to match 8,000 young Detroiters, ages 14 to 24 with employers.

The goal is to provide work experiences that'll lead to future career opportunities.

Joining me now is Dana Williams.

She is the President and CEO of Detroit Employment Solutions Corporation, which manages the program, along with Joseph Holley, a past participant in Grow Detroit's Young Talent.

Welcome both of you to "American Black Journal."

- Pleasure to be here.

- Thanks so much.

- So how long have we been doing, it seems like we're close, at least, to a nice round number.

Is that right?

- Indeed, about 10 years.

- 10.

- 2015 was the first year.

- Yeah, and the importance of this, of course is, having opportunities for young people in the city to do something productive during the summer, but also connecting them with future opportunity, things that might change their lives later.

- Absolutely.

And so in 2015, we had a mere 5,000 people that we connected with opportunities and now, we're up to 8,000 young people a year between the ages of 14 and 24.

And of course, those experiences have gotten more and more complex over the years.

We began, of course, a 14-year-old with a different kind of experience than someone who's 21 or 22, right.

(laughs) - [Stephen] Yeah, I would expect that.

- So earlier in someone's experiences, they're really just learning how to go to work, right?

So those might be more community-based projects, working with our police and fire department, other neighborhood based organizations and as folks grow up in the program, 'cause they quite literally do that.

They begin to have experiences with some of our larger employers in an area that they might even have interest in long term, 'cause that is ultimately the goal that at least some of our young people end up with a full-time job opportunity at the end of that last summer.

- Yeah.

Let's go back to the beginning when you started this.

How do you start, I mean, this is an ambitious program, not just in terms of the number, but the nature of it.

How do you convince even community groups or businesses that hey, you should have a young person there over the summer?

- Well, I gotta say it's much easier to do now than it was then.

- Yeah, I'll bet.

- 'Cause people have now seen the program.

- They see that it works.

- They know the wraparound services that the young people are gonna get, so that they can show up and show up the right way.

At the very beginning, it was actually building on what was already a pretty strong foundation of youth employment in the city.

The public high school system had co-ops and internships.

Right, so some businesses were used to it, at least a little bit.

And there were some summer programs already operating.

And so we used that as a foundation to start.

And from there, you know, Detroit is a word of mouth town.

And so that is exactly what happened.

- Now everybody wants to be part of it.

- That's it.

That's it.

- Tell me about your experiences with Grow Detroit's Young Talent.

What year were you?

- I started in, I believe, 2020.

During the COVID period.

It was a rough year.

I've been with Micro Work Studios throughout that entire period.

Beautiful program that focuses on e-commerce and marketing through digital means.

It's a very interesting thing, watching kids come through and wanna learn more about marketing.

I kind of found my voice through the program and this is how I got the courage to be here today.

It's through finding my voice through Micro Work Studios and it's a beautiful thing.

- Yeah, take me back to the first day that you did this.

- I was a very nervous person.

- Okay, you were?

(laughs) - Like, I was kind of nervous now, but day one I was very nervous.

I wanted to make a good first impression, but I was worried that what I wanted to do at the time wouldn't fit the mold of what they wanted to teach us.

And then going through the program, I began to learn more and more that what I wanted to do, which was writing, and to eventually publish books and sell books and sell stories.

I felt that that really fit with marketing and my writing ability has really shown through, especially with the talents that I've learned through MicroWorks and through GDYT.

- Yeah, and your work now is permanently- - With MicroWorks, right.

- Yeah, yeah.

At what point did you decide, okay, this is the right fit for me.

- It was two years ago, but I was still a bit in my own shell.

So I feel like I got in my own way as far as like, as much as outreach and how much I could have done with MicroWorks.

But last year I came in ready to make an impact and I wanted to show that I was not only ready to work, that I was capable of doing things for the program and helping them out in as many ways as possible.

- Yeah, yeah.

So when listening to Joseph talk about these experiences, I hear a number of different things.

But one of 'em is the development of what they would call, I guess, soft skills.

The ability to walk into an environment and, you know, start work and to manage all of the relationships and the things that come in the workplace.

I mean, he's found a career, but he's also found the ability to kind of settle into it.

- Yes, and that's what we hope is everyone's story, 'cause it's really about finding purpose.

- Yeah.

- Right?

A career and a job is about maximizing your own individual talents in a way that you feel like serves the world.

- Yeah.

- And that's really what we're hoping that young people find and what we call them are essential skills, or foundational skills, 'cause that's really at the core of everything.

If you've got some confidence, and especially if you can communicate, you're more than halfway there.

- Right, right.

You mentioned the wraparound services before, as a selling point for employers.

Talk a little more about what that looks like.

- Yeah.

We do quite a bit of readiness training, is what we call it.

Right, so all kinds of things.

One is certainly financial literacy.

So for some young people, this is the first time that they're getting a paycheck.

So we wanna make sure they know what to do with it.

- [Stephen] What to do with that, right.

- So we have relationships with banking institutions and with a credit union primarily to come in and help introduce people to that.

'Cause think about it, I don't know about you, but you know, my parents did take me to a bank for the first time.

- Sure.

- Teach me how to fill out the piece of paper.

And not everybody has that.

- Right, sure.

- Especially in the digital age.

We're a lot different, so that's certainly one of them.

But we also provide things like connections to resources for anybody that might have food or housing insecurity.

Of any kind, and then also as an expansion, really in just the last two years, it's around mental health.

We're finding our young people are dealing with a lot.

And so we also have behavioral health specialists and things that work with us to make sure that that young person is a whole person.

- Yeah.

When you think about the 10 years that you've been doing this and how it's grown, it seems to me that it's not just that you're changing life for young people.

I mean, this is changing the city in some ways, because it's creating a whole (indistinct) of young people who become adults who've had this incredible experience.

- Absolutely.

We want them to feel that they have a place here, as an adult.

I admit I was one of those young people who left and came back, even though I'm a native Detroiter.

But I'm so glad that I did and I want other people to feel like they don't have to leave to grow, to get a cool job.

To live a full life, right?

We've got so much else happening in our city, lots of fun events and restaurants and other entertainment that's happening.

We wanna make sure that people feel like they've got purpose and a way to fuel that.

- And they're part of it.

Yeah.

So Joseph, what's next for you?

- I would love to continue to do the work that I do with MicroWorks, but I do have ambitions of eventually like starting my own business, rather it be through digital means or selling things in person through like stores and such, I would love to do that.

I would also just love to eventually get into television because I do feel like I have- - Well, come sit here and interview us.

- Maybe one day.

- There you go.

- Maybe one day.

- Yeah.

So when you talk about starting your own business, like where does that come from, do you think?

- I feel like learning that you can sell yourself.

When it comes to marketing, the number one thing that you're selling to people is a story and you're selling your story.

And it's important to be able to connect to people on a personal level when it comes to selling products, and I feel like I've learned how to do that really well through my experiences through GDYT.

And I think that's something that I want to work on more and I want to learn.

To eventually like sell that myself.

- Yeah, okay.

Well, Joseph, congratulations.

Thank you so much.

- To you and Dana, congratulations on a decade of GDYT.

- A decade and going strong.

- That's amazing.

Thanks for being here on "American Black Journal."

- Thank you.

- Our pleasure.

- Up next, we're gonna check in on the businesses along Detroit's Avenue of Fashion.

But first, here's a clip from a 1992 Detroit Black Journal episode hosted by Cliff Russell about summer activities for minority youth.

- Minorities have been, and Blacks have been involved in golf for many, many years.

We're talking hundreds of years, going back to the invention of the golf tee.

That was invented by Dr. George Grant.

And he's a doctor, but at that particular time, he was a young caddy and caddies were very instrumental in the early part of the golf game here in this country.

Now, from one segment you could have thought of them as the beast of burden, but when you really understand golf and understand that's a science and it's a lot involved, the caddies play 70% of the major footwork and direction and so forth of a lot of golfers.

- And that's telling the golfers what club to play, what slant the green may have, what the terrain is.

- What the direction of the wind, et cetera.

So it's very important that you have someone there as a calming effect also.

But golf here, we played a very instrumental role here in this country from inventing different artifacts to the game.

And we can go back as far as who designed some of the golf courses.

But I do and will be addressing some other problems that because of lack of exposure and lack of opportunities for minorities to start out at an early age in golf, we do not get the involvement of the community or the awareness of their parents.

- I'm afraid a lot of people don't even associate golf with young African-Americans.

Kelvin Wise, I would imagine some of the similar situations exist in tennis.

- It does, cliff.

Many times we find that if we can get a child to become exposed to the game, they will pick it up and continue on playing with it.

But many times kids are apprehensive, because it is not a game that they're very familiar with.

It's not a game that they've seen maybe an older brother or parent even playing.

So they see people playing sometimes on neighborhood courts, but they won't even venture over, because of their unfamiliarity with the sport.

- Is that the fault of the educational system or are we, because there have been Black tennis champions for quite a long time.

What about it that never caught on with a mass popularity with young people?

- Well, tennis has caught on, but it's caught in spurts.

When Arthur Ash was very big, when Althea Gibson was very big and very popular.

There were a large number of Blacks playing then.

And then it kind of died off.

And now we're seeing resurgence again.

There's Xena Garrison, Laurie McNeil, there's Melva Washington from Michigan.

And we're beginning to see another resurgence there because we're seeing now the kids have Black role models that they can identify with.

- Now we've got a truly Detroit story for you about the historic business district known as the Avenue of Fashion.

Now this stretch of Livernois between Seven and Eight Mile Roads was a bustling hub for exclusive clothing stores during the 1950s and '60s.

It declined after the arrival of shopping malls.

But now the avenue of fashion has rebounded with high-end retailers, many of whom are African-American owned.

One Detroit's Bill Kubota has the story.

- Livernois.

Everybody that I know always called Livernois.

- [Bill] Livernois might be called Livernois the further north you go, but here around Seven Mile Road on Detroit's west side, it's the Avenue of Fashion.

A shopping destination once again.

Not just retail, there's fine dining too.

- The restaurants really create the foot traffic.

For each restaurant, you might have two, 300 people come through a day and they just walk up and down the street.

- [Bill] Six, seven decades ago, the Avenue of Fashion then, B. Siegel, a major Detroit retailer known for its women's wear with an outlet here and more dress shops at a strip of stores called Williamsburg Row.

The 1967 rebellion led to the Avenue's long slide.

But in recent decades, clothiers have come back, like the Times Square men's store, helping hold down Williamsburg Row on Livernois since 2010.

What was it like down here?

- It was..

It was a struggle.

A lot of, you know, buildings have not yet been occupied yet.

- [Bill] Far more recent challenges, a major street scape project in 2019 that reduced customer traffic and sales.

Then came COVID, then the bounce back.

The streetscape appears to be paying off for proprietors like Algernon Bartell, a staunch Detroiter through and through.

Bartell tells us how his Times Square store came to be.

- I used to hate New York.

Until I went to New York.

I don't know if you remember, Stevie Wonder had that song "Living for the City" when he was blind and he'd hear the sounds of New York and that's just how it was.

♪ Living just enough for the city ♪ Mm.

And then I was like, wow, this city just blew me back.

- [Bill] Some of the merchandise sold off the rack, but Bartell specializes in custom tailoring.

- Custom name, Algernon Bartell.

Then the shirt, Algernon Bartell.

Some of the things I like in that little plaid, it's the older suit, but it still looks good on me.

My story is so unique, 'cause I started from a raggedy van.

The clothing business, someone was going outta business and asked me could I sell a suit?

I'm like, "Sell no suit."

So I tried it.

I would go to barber shops, go to churches, go to people that I knew, and sold clothes outta my van.

- [Bill] To get outfitted by Bartell, it starts in black.

- Black suit.

Then you need this blue suit.

We call this the Obama blue suit, my number one selling suit.

A tan.

Everyone need a tan.

You need a tanned suit.

Summer.

This is a nine month year suit.

Can't wear it in December to April, but you need a tan suit.

It's a nice suit.

Gray.

Always need a gray.

You could never go wrong with a nice, clean gray suit.

- [Bill] Bartell's friends and customers, a who's who of lawyers, politicians, celebrities on the Times Square wall of fame.

Along with the suits, the ties, the shoes, he's dressing young men for the prom.

Well this is Detroit, the Avenue of Fashion, which offers what you might call Detroit swag.

- You can go anywhere in the country, it'll come up.

"Where you from?"

"I'm from Detroit."

"Yeah, we can tell."

So yeah, we do have a swag about us.

- [Bill] The kind of swag acclaimed collage artist Judy Bowman captures in her work.

A swag she recalls growing up on the East side many years back.

- I show what I see and I got this thing for the swag and a swag and a style and a presence and an attitude that Detroit has.

If you wanna make something outta yourself, you can do it in Detroit.

- [Bill] Here on the Avenue of Fashion, you might get that something from the Bartell family.

- Out of our family, we have about 15 businesses over.

- [Bill] While Times Square has shoes, the Bartell owned Shoebox, a few doors down Williamsburg Row has more.

- This is the shoe that you need in your wardrobe.

You need, absolutely, without a doubt.

- Algernon Bartell's nephew, Aaron, runs the Shoebox.

- This is our most famous popular shoe that we sell.

- [Bill] Highly recommended, the LeBron, because like, it's the best, comes in many colors.

- So this shoe is basically like made for that guy who has everything, but just wants to add a little more.

- I love hats.

I'm never gonna stop wearing them.

- [Bill] Another Bartell outlet, the Mad Hatter on Williamsburg Row too.

- They used to say, oh, hats were for old men.

But I think the young ladies now starting to look at the older men dress.

So they want their boyfriends to start dressing like a mature man.

What's real popular is the hats with the red bottoms.

Those took off.

Young guys love those.

Some women like 'em also.

- [Bill] Outside the Bartell orbit, there's African fabric and fashion.

Moustapha Gaye does the tailoring, importing his fabrics from Western Africa.

- I bring them from everywhere from Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana.

- [Bill] Gaye said his customers come from across the state for his garments for both men and women.

The store's been here since 2008.

- Yeah, but I need this color.

- You need that color.

That's what that color.

African colors, that's his, you know, culture of Africa.

We like colors.

(laughs) Especially our women, they like colors.

They like nice fabrics, nice pieces.

- [Bill] On the other side of Livernois, a new addition to the Avenue of Fashion, a bridal shop.

- My great aunt used to own a lounge in Milwaukee that was called Pink Poodle Lounge.

- [Bill] Raeshawn Bumpners opened her first Pink Poodle Bridal store in Jefferson Chalmers on the East side in 2017, thanks to a grant from Motor City Match, a city program boosting homegrown businesses.

- Pink Poodle, to me, it's more of vintage, you know, it gives that vintage vibe and elegance.

- [Bill] Bumpners got another Motor City Match to start her second store, which opened here this spring.

She worked in the automotive and education industries for two decades before she started Pink Poodle.

- So I knew that it was a strong possibility that I was gonna get laid off of work.

So I started planning a business, but I started planning this business around what I was passionate in.

My story is connecting with young girls and women at the most happiest time in their lives.

We saying yes to the dress?

- Yes!

- we are just grabbing that baton and pushing the Avenue of Fashion forward, with the helps of the businesses that's been here, that's been here a long time.

And we're very appreciated of it.

- If you want a beautiful lion's Honolulu blue mink, there's no place but the Avenue of Fashion on Livernois to come and get it.

Gold lions.

Super Bowl, baby.

- [Bill] C. Granston Bullard, clothing designer and entrepreneur, another highlight on the Avenue.

- There's ready to wear garments that we have in this location, but I would say about at least 60% of the garments here are samples that you order from.

- [Bill] This is, Bullard says, haute couture.

Custom made clothing, the kind more easily seen in magazines.

You can come by his shop, but by appointment only.

- This is a one of a kind sheared beaver and rainbow fox intarsia.

Of course, you know this fur has been dyed.

If you see an animal this color, run for your life.

- [Bill] Bullard trained as a furrier in Chicago many years ago.

- That each one of these has been sewn in.

- He learned this trade in which few are versed in these days.

- All these are hands sewn in.

This garment retails for about 14, about $14,000.

My mother was a dressmaker on Livernois and fashion was always in my household.

My mom made all our clothes.

So I basically was dressed like a prince when I was a kid.

- [Bill] Bullard started out making leather neck ties right out of high school.

Some from Napa lamb and python, sold by the likes of Hughes & Hatcher, a downtown Detroit clothing store gone long ago.

With his furs and other high-end fashion accessories, he's built connections with apparel distributors around the world.

- These garments are engineered and they have the latest in technology.

The latest in technology in tanning, which has changed dramatically over the last 30 or 40 years.

Natural fibers are making a big comeback in leather, lambskin, wool.

They are making comeback with people that wanna buy things that last.

They're starting kind of getting tired of buying disposable clothing.

- [Bill] Bullard's expanding with a bigger showroom next door to be open to walk-ins.

And he's looking to build more Granston stores around the Midwest.

In this online world where so many bricks and mortar stores have been lost, the survival of these stores on the Avenue relies on that old fashioned approach.

- You're a Pink Poodle bride!

- [Bill] Personal service.

- You got an online presence, but that's not my customer.

My customers see, touch, feel.

- [Bill] Still room for redevelopment and growth on the Avenue, the specialty shops, boutiques, restaurants keep coming.

And maybe a multi-use project including residential, amping it up here on Livernois.

- We're looking for big things.

It's getting bigger and better.

- The avenue fastest is it now.

This is it.

We are the ones.

- That's gonna do it for us this week.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org and you can connect with us anytime on social media.

Take care and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] From Delta faucets to Behr paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

- [Stephen] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Announcer] DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Stephen] Also brought to you by Nissan Foundation.

And viewers like you, thank you.

(dramatic music)