- [Will] Coming up on a holiday edition of "One Detroit."

We're taking a look at some of our favorite stories of 2024, from reports on the amazing renovation of Michigan Central Station and the giant Christmas tree in downtown, to a look at Michigan's independent movie theaters and much more.

We'll have highlights of the stories that stood out for our "One Detroit" staff, - But we still need more.

- Plus, we'll have some ideas on how you can spend the holiday weekend in Metro Detroit.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Narrator 1] 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.

- [Narrator 2] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 3] 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.

- [Narrator 2] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(gentle music) - [Will] Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and happy Kwanzaa, all of us at "One Detroit" hope you're enjoying the holidays with family and friends.

Before we took some time off, we put together this special episode featuring clips from some of our favorite stories this year.

Plus, we'll check in with Haley Taylor at 90.9 WRCJ to see what's going on around town this weekend.

So sit back, relax and enjoy our look back at 2024.

(gentle music) - Hi, my name is Zosette Guir and I'm the manager of content ops and production for "One Detroit" and "American Black Journal."

One of my favorite stories from this past year is all about music.

As a musician myself, I love it when artists talk about what inspires them and also share their personal stories.

BridgeDetroit reporter, Micah Walker, recently sat down with two prominent women in the Detroit techno scene, DJ Minx and DJ Holographic.

They had a great conversation about what inspires them, their favorite music, their friendship, their personal coming out journeys, and what lies ahead for the both of them.

Let's take a look at part of their conversation.

- [Micah] DJ Minx and DJ Holographic, share their coming out journeys as queer artists as well.

In 2021, Minx came out publicly on Instagram saying in the post, "So here I am.

Minx, DJ, producer, Momma, partner, lesbian, friend."

- I've got friends that thought it was a bad idea for me to come out.

I've had a husband, I have daughters and I look like the, I guess homebody that people wanted to see out there DJing.

But just constantly hearing that it wasn't a good idea to let people know that, you know, I lived the way I lived, so I had to get over that finally and just let it go.

When I actually did come out, the phone calls that I got, like, at that moment, like the posts went up, I'd sat and my managers were all like, we're gonna be up.

But people that read the posts were calling me.

Holy smokes, I cannot believe it.

I love you so much, thank you for doing this.

One person said, you know, you just helped me.

I just came out, you let it be known that it can be done.

And like an entire world opened up.

- Even with my family, like, I came out in a weird way of being bi.

And people are also, even the community, in our community are not the nicest to bis.

But it was still that moment of when I told my family this, this is where it got kind of weird 'cause I expressed it to my mother.

It was a whole nother topic that we were having and then it came up slightly to this topic of being, okay, this is where I'm gonna be vulnerable with you.

We're talking about something else, but I'm gonna be vulnerable with the honesty about me liking this girl at school.

But I don't know if she fully understood or, like, was willing to make the next move because I don't know, it was a book on the conversation, but she was listening and then of course she told her mom, which is my grandmother and my grandmother just said, which just really made me very happy, that she said, like, as long as you meet someone that respects you.

- Mmm.

- And that was really nice.

'cause that means I got, like, reinforcement there.

I played a majority only queer places in my first five years of DJing.

So there was not a conversation of, like, coming out.

I'm like, I'm here.

(Ariel laughing) Like, I'm here, I'm here and queer.

- Hi, I'm Will Glover, "One Detroit" producer and "The Future of Work" host.

And my favorite segment from this year has to be Michigan Central Station.

Not only because myself and editor, Chris Jordan, got to cover the original story of the Fords purchasing the building, but we also had a full circle moment where we got to go and see a sneak peek of all the work that has gone into it.

And not only is it a beautiful building and a marvel to look at, but it's emblematic of the journey that the city of Detroit has gone through in and of itself.

Enjoy.

For three decades, the Michigan Central Train Station, sat vacant in Detroit, falling into deep decay.

Then in 2018 Ford Motor Company purchased the station.

Ford invited "One Detroit" to Corktown to see the transformation Michigan Central Station has undergone.

- Everything has been restored to, as best possible, to what its original condition is.

Often talk now the building is in some ways in its most pristine condition, in some ways ever.

- We took out 3.5 million gallons of water from the station over the first 18 months.

Most of that water was in the basement, but some of it just ran inside into various rooms and over the columns like this that led to this sort of wonderful grooved feeling.

- [Will] That feeling captures the station's history spanning more than a century.

- The station was originally designed by the same architects who did New York's Grand Central Station.

- Building started occupancy in 1913, the station last passenger rail stopped in 1988.

Then you know sat vacant for 36 years.

- [Will] The clock position between the Grand Hall and the South concourse is a prime example of how the restoration aims to merge the past and present.

- This historic clock was able to be reproduced because we had original components from the clock itself, not the entirety of it, but components of it.

And then working with those historic wood pieces, plus the original drawings, we were able to recreate the beautiful clock that will keep us on track as we move forward into the next century.

- This portion of the arcade here will be activated with experiential retail, food and beverage, things like that will start in the fall, with activity like that happening in the building.

- [Will] When you approach the station from the park and make your way through the main entry doors, you'll be greeted by the Grand Hall.

- [Josh] Grand Hall is obviously, not just probably the most spectacular space here in Detroit, but certainly one of them in the country, if not the world.

- Hey there, I am Sarah Zientarski, a contributing producer for "One Detroit."

I am honored to share with you one of my favorite segments from 2024.

It's highlighting the updated Zeckelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills.

The center is a place to learn about survivors and victims of the Holocaust through their own words.

Walking through the halls, you see how malicious thoughts and ideas grew and led to the destruction of so many innocent people's lives.

Another powerful aspect of the segment is a peek into a Sunday survivor talk where we listen to Holocaust survivor Irene Miller's harrowing story.

The reason this is my favorite segment from the past year is because of the lessons we could all continue to learn in regards to how powerful our words are and to use them for good.

The Holocaust Center not only honors the lives of the victims and survivors, but it shows how we need to continue to learn from our past to never allow such evil to happen again.

- Our Sunday survivor talks are Sundays at noon.

Anyone can come.

They are open to the public.

And following the survivor talk, we also have a public tour, which is available to anyone who would like to join.

- People were extremely hungry.

Many were getting sick, and everyone scared and anxious, not knowing or understanding why the soldiers picked us up, where they're taking us and what they would do with us.

- It's hard to know what to say, you know.

When survivor gives their talk, in many ways they're reliving their experience every time.

And so what else can we say, but thank them profusely for their willingness to do that and impart their memory to us.

- I do think that the people who have chosen to speak and speak on a regular basis are doing so because they really do believe that they can make a difference.

And they really believe that by telling their story, they can help the next generation work to make the world a better place.

And I think that belief in the future and the possibility of humanity, and not having given up on humanity, that really comes through in their talks.

- But as you can see, I survived.

I don't want anyone to think and feel, here is this poor woman who had such a tough life because I don't think of myself that way.

Not only am I fortunate that I survive, but I am more fortunate that I was able to create a very meaningful life and significantly contribute to my community.

- How does the viewer hearing these stories help to remember the past, and again, to hopefully make it so that this doesn't happen in the future?

- Well, I think that it becomes our obligation to then continue to tell the stories, and continue to teach and not just feel, oh, the past is in the past because it isn't.

And we know that hate exists today, and we have to stand up and do something.

And how you can take those lessons and think about the choices that we can all make in our lives and how we can get involved in whatever way is meaningful for us to make our communities better, stronger, safer for everyone.

- Hi, I'm Marty Fischhoff.

I'm the director of community engagement at Detroit PBS.

60 Venezuelan refugees show up unexpectedly at a church on the east side of Detroit.

Looking for a place to pray, they find a congregation that not only welcomes them, but provides them with food, clothing, and other necessities.

How did we know about these people?

How did we know about their story?

Because "One Detroit" journalists are out in the community every day talking to those people and learning about the authentic stories that make up life in our city.

Here's one of those stories.

- My name is Caroline Salazar.

- My name is Andrew Davila.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Reporter] Some new parishioners at the Church of the Messiah on Detroit's east side, a March Sunday.

- But I am ready to bring it.

God is in the house.

- [Reporter] Pastor Barry Randolph presiding.

- We noticed an influx of Latinos in the community.

Everybody in the community told them to come to the church.

They came to the church, and of course, because they were immigrants, they were shipped here, it is believed from Texas.

It was kind of crazy.

So we immediately jumped into action, making sure that they had the necessities of life.

- A lot of them didn't have shoes when they came.

It was dead winter.

They didn't have boots, they didn't have socks.

They would walk around in flip flops, no coats.

So we got right on that and started getting donations.

I even got stuff from my home and reached out to a lot of other people to get stuff from their home to just bring it so they could have something that day.

- [Reporter] Jennine Spencer Gilbert leads the church program.

She said more than 60 migrants, originally from Venezuela, have arrived since December.

They've been placed in a shelter just down the street.

- It's so funny, you always hear of Chicago, New York, you hear of these different places and you don't necessarily think Detroit.

And then lo and behold, it's Detroit.

- At Church of Messiah, we made a pantry for not just for the immigrants, but for people that are in total need.

- [Reporter] The church's computer labs turned into a distribution center for other organizations that need help too.

- Churches from all over, religious organizations, political leaders, activists, all got involved.

So it's not just Church of the Messiah, it's a lot of groups who are really helping to make this happen.

- Hi, I'm Chris Jordan, editor, cameraman and producer for "One Detroit."

My favorite story from this past year came from our Halloween episode when I got to spend my favorite holiday bringing our documentary style to some real life Detroit area ghost stories.

One of the places we went was the Orson Starr House, a hidden gem of Metro Detroit history on Main Street in Royal Oak.

Our "One Detroit" crew spent a very memorable and pretty spooky evening there, with the chair of the Royal Oak Historical Commission and a team of paranormal investigators.

Take a look.

- Orson Starr, him and his wife, Rhoda, came from upper state New York in 1831 and they were looking for land and to continue manufacturing cowbells.

Five generations in all lived here.

- Oh wow.

- And then the family line decided to sell it and the city took over, and made it into museum.

- What do we know as far as the historical record goes about who died here?

- Right.

- Who these ghosts are thought to be?

- Right.

So the family had 10 children in all and only five made it to adulthood.

So you had five children passing away.

Like, I said, three in one week.

Mr. Starr dying and it was presumably in his house.

- So when you do a tour here, what do you do?

- I try to interact with spirits before we start any, using any kind of devices.

I want to try to get interaction as far as feeling what kind of energy is in the room.

Are you coming to see what we're doing in here?

- [David] Well, maybe find a good spot.

- You can join us.

- Feel free.

- Yeah, come say hi.

- Come join our circle.

- We'll do like a baseline K2 reading or EMF reading and we'll set up a RemPod, - [Chris] EMF, electromagnetic field, which spirits are said to give off and which the devices used in this investigation, measure in different ways.

- Get it off green.

Help me out here.

- We've got new friends, yep.

(bell dings) We've got new friends here.

And we ask spirit for communication.

If there's any way that you can let us know that you're here.

Give us an indication, give us a sign, and you know, questions and basically, games.

Can you play with us?

Is there anything that you can do for us?

And you know, we get hits on our devices and whatnot.

- This way.

Can you push it just a little bit my way?

- [Chris] We got quite a bit of device activity in the children's bedroom.

- I'd really like the ball back.

- [Chris] Where the legends of the house say, the spirits of the star family children, who died on the property might reside.

- Yeah.

- Hey, hey.

- [John] That's what I'm talking about.

- Can whoever's in here say their name?

- Connected to your- (bell dings) - [David] what did you just ask?

- The name.

- One of them is Larissa.

- Yeah.

- Ethan.

Lydia.

- Is Larissa here?

Is Ethan here?

- [David] Hey, John.

I'm about to run that Necro for a minute.

- Yeah, go ahead.

- Get a little sense of what that sounds like.

- Whoa, was that?

- Was that Ethan?

Ethan, if you're there, make the bell go off again or you can say something to our friends out there.

- Yeah, say something to this device.

Make it go off.

(bell dings) Oh, that was quick.

- Ethan?

- Hi, I'm Bill Kubota, senior producer at "One Detroit."

My favorite piece this year was about independent movie theaters.

It's got a few things I really like.

It's got a bit of history, it had some interesting facts and ideas that you might not know about the movies, and it was brought to you by our resident cinema expert, editor, producer, Chris Jordan.

Take a look at just a little bit of it.

- [Chris] The Redford, one of the few independent movie theaters in southeast Michigan, is also owned by a nonprofit, and has been since the late 1970s.

Here, I'm meeting film writer and theater volunteer, John Monaghan.

The fight always seems to be, like, how do you get people to come to a theater instead of staying at home and watching Netflix and.

- That's been a challenge, you know, about what to show.

- Hmm.

- And certainly, our content has changed quite a bit in the last 20 years as our audiences kind of aged out.

- Thank you.

- Nobody is paid at the Redford Theater.

We're all volunteers.

It is a good business model.

The nonprofit business model is very good for a theater like ours 'cause it's hard to make money in the theater business.

So it takes a lot of pressure off certainly when you don't have a big payroll.

We really do try to create an experience here as much as as we can, going to the movies, like you would've in the 1940s or '50s.

And part of that for a lot of us is the ability to show actual film on film, which we do quite regularly on our old late 1950s Norelco projectors that project both 70 millimeter and 35 millimeter with carbon rods that make a spark between them like they would've used back in the day.

There's only a finite amount of those around and we're always trying to find somebody who's got a stash of them.

- [Radio Host] This is Radio KSIK.

You've been listening to music for old (indistinct) - And one of the reasons why this theater is iconic to a lot of horror fans is this is, of course where "The Evil Dead" premiered.

- Yeah, we're really proud of that, yeah.

The fact that both the first two Evil Deads and the short film that, you know, was that they got seed money to make the feature with - Yeah.

- also premiered here.

- Right there.

- And we're also really proud that the more recent horror classic, "It Follows," you know, has its opening sequence that was filmed right here in the theater too.

And we're showing that this year for its 10th anniversary.

- What do you hear from other people who run independent theaters in the state?

Do you talk much with other theater owners?

- I have great interest in the other theaters that are doing similar to what we're doing.

Certainly the Detroit Film Theater, which is still just so wonderful and the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor.

- [Chris] Then there's the Senate Theater operating in southwest Detroit, complete with an original organ that accompanied silent films just like the Redford.

- Hi, my name is Elisha Anderson, I'm managing editor of journalism.

For years, I've seen that big Christmas tree decorated at Campus Martius Park and wondered what went into getting the Christmas tree here and selecting it.

So this year, we took our cameras up north to show viewers how it's done.

I hope you enjoy the piece.

- [Reporter] That tree, "One Detroit" has got the story about how it got here.

It starts 220 miles to the north, Manon, Michigan near Cadillac, home of the Dutchman Tree Farms where we meet Martin Emery.

- When I was 12 years old, I grew up across the street from this farm.

I started helping out after school, and it stuck and I never left.

- [Reporter] Emery does a bit of everything and he's in charge of finding the perfect Campus Martius Christmas tree every year, a search that takes him far and wide, but this year he found one right next to the Dutchman Farms at the home of Tiffany Kenyon, Devin Collins and their son also named Devin.

- You know, t's a 60-year-old tree.

- [Reporter] Trees like this grow about a foot a year.

The tree top had already been wrapped for transit when we arrived.

- I drove by it for years and you know, watching it grow obviously.

- Already stopped by this summer here and he just said he noticed it from the roadside.

I guess he was out and about looking for Norway spruce.

And so he pulled in the driveway, we happened to be outside, and he asked us if we'd be interested in selling it.

- We worked out a deal, yeah, yeah.

- I can let it go for the right price, I guess.

I don't know.

- [Reporter] The three leading states growing Christmas trees, Oregon, North Carolina, and Michigan.

Part of agricultural history in Missaukee and Wexford County, but why here?

- The climate for one thing, you know, the hilly terrain and sandy soil is very good for growing Christmas trees.

- [Reporter] A drizzly November 5th, crane on site.

First, a ride up top to lasso the beast, some ceremonial chops, then onto business.

Today's harvest, that one big tree.

Destination, Detroit.

(bright music) Late November, the festivities commence.

Despite peak season up north, for the first time, Martin Emery has gotten away to see what's become of what he started.

- It is like Times Square here, you know?

It's a big thing.

- 3, 2, 1.

(crowd cheering) (upbeat music) - [Will] And you can see all these stories in their entirety at onedetroitpbs.org.

Let's turn now, to what's happening in Metro Detroit this weekend and beyond as we get ready to usher in a new year.

Here's Haley Taylor of 90.9 WRCJ with today's One Detroit Weekend.

- Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa everyone.

I'm Haley Taylor with 90.9 WRCJ, here to help guide you in your arts and culture plans this holiday weekend, leading into the new year.

Now through January 5th, A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical, is at the Fisher Theater.

And to celebrate the second day of Kwanzaa, head to the Garden Bowl for Kwanzaa and Culture Community Bowling Day, where there will be music and food, along with two hours of bowling and a lot of fun.

On Saturday, December 28th, Trans-Siberian Orchestra's, The Lost Christmas Eve tour is at Little Caesars Arena.

Go see the magic as the lights, the pyrotechnics and of course, the music enchant you.

On Tuesday, December 31st, the Detroit Circus takes the stage at Village Theater.

The show features high flying aerial artists, trapeze, acrobatics, fire dancing, and so much more.

And we know the Lions are making a run for it this season.

Look back at season's past with the Detroit Lions Gridiron Heroes exhibition that runs through August 24th.

The exhibition is a culmination of all of the highlights from the team since 1934.

And there's so much more happening so stay tuned for a few more options.

Have a great weekend.

(gentle music) - [Will] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thanks for watching.

Head to the "One Detroit" website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

- [Narrator 1] 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.

- [Narrator 2] Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator 3] 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.

- [Narrator 2] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (bright music)