City celebrates 5th anniversary of Office of Arts, Culture and Entrepreneurship

MARION HAYDEN is one of the nation’s finest proponents of the acoustic bass. The Detroit native, who was mentored by master trumpeter Marcus Belgrave, began performing jazz at age 15. She has performed with such diverse luminaries as Bobby McFerrin, Nancy Wilson, Regina Carter, David Allen Grier, James Carter, Dorothy Donegan and Joe Williams. She is a co-founder of the touring jazz ensemble Straight Ahead- the first all-woman jazz ensemble signed to Atlantic Records. She is a member of the Detroit International Jazz Festival All-Star Ambassadors touring ensemble. Widely recognized as a standard bearer of culture and artistic history, Marion received a 2019 Art X Grant and a Creators of Culture Grant for original musical works. She was Artistic Director for a 2018 Knight Arts Foundation Grant and was honored in 2016 for her work as a performer and educator with the prestigious Kresge Artist Fellowship - a one-year award given to an elite group of creative artists. She also was the recipient of a 2016 Jazz Hero Award, a national honored bestowed by the Jazz Journalists Association that recognizes people who have made a significant contribution through their artistry and community engagement. “I love my city. I’m a hometown girl. I represent Detroit, literally, wherever I tour, and I talk about our beautiful city and our beautiful people and especially our artists, through my music. Detroit is a constant source of muse for me in my creative career.”

HUBERT MASSEY's bold, vibrant images can be spotted throughout the Detroit metropolitan region and across the state of Michigan. If you’ve visited Mexicantown, Greektown, the Cultural Center, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Athletic Club, you’ve encountered the remarkable work of a master artist who is the only commissioned African American fresco artist in the United States. Among his masterpieces are the 30-foot high Hellenic mural at the Atheneum Hotel, the 18-foot high frescoes at the Detroit Athletic Club, and Genealogy, a 72-foot diameter terrazzo at the entrance to the Wright. One of his most famous and powerful pieces is the 30’ x 30’ permanent fresco, “Detroit: Crossroad of Innovation’’ at the Huntington Place convention center that vibrantly celebrates the city’s diverse industrial and cultural heritage. He said the buon fresco technique to accomplish the mural was perfect for the mural because “it’s colors are strong and it’s built to last for years, just like Detroit. Visitors from all over the world will now really understand the contributions we have made as a city.” An award-winning 2011 Kresge Fine Arts Fellow, Dr. Massey is more than artist. He is an art teacher, working with thousands of students over the years to help the find and hone their passions. His most recent project was the repainting of the Power to the People street mural on Lower Woodward, first completed with students in 2020 and redone on Juneteenth in 2021 and Juneteenth in 2024. He was stunned to learn that one of his helpers who a student when she painted with him in 2020 is now an art teacher. He said: “Public art begins with the community it will serve. In fact, after nearly decades of creating large-scale public works of art for various cities, communities and neighborhoods throughout the Midwest, it is my belief that public art should be, first and foremost, meaningful to those who surround it.”

GEORGE N'NAMDI is more than an art dealer, gallery owner and renowned curator and collector. He is an educator both professionally and personally, guiding audiences and visitors to his popular Detroit gallery to a better understanding of art. N’Namdi graduated from Ohio State University in 1970; he earned his master’s degree in education and another in psychology before obtaining his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974. When he moved to Ann Arbor to work on his graduate degrees in psychology, N’Namdi became involved with the Black Student Psychological Association and cultural thinkers such as Geneva Smitherman and Niara Sudarkasa. During this period, N’Namdi and his wife changed their surnames to N’Namdi, which means “father’s name lives on” in the Ibo language of Eastern Nigeria. In the mid-seventies, N’Namdi served as a therapist at Milan Federal Prison and taught courses at the University of Michigan. In 1978, N’Namdi and his wife Carmen founded the Nataki Talibah School House. The Detroit-based, independent grade school, named for their late daughter, consistently outperformed local and state schools while teaching transcendental meditation and emphasizing the arts. N’Namdi began collecting art in 1968; with a partner, in 1981, he opened Jazzonia Gallery. In 1982, he launched his family based G.R. N’Namdi Gallery; he later expanded his holdings to include galleries in Chicago and in New York City. N’Namdi’s son, Jumaane, manages the Chicago gallery and his daughter, Kemba, helps with the Detroit site. While exhibiting the works of artists Hughie Lee Smith, James Van Der Zee, Allie McGhee and Barbara Chase Riboud, N’Namdi is co- creating a $3 million dollar complex in Detroit’s Cultural Center arts district.  “Art has been an integral part of my life, and it’s so important for us here in Detroit because it is one of the things that binds us to each other and to our varied communities no matter what obstacles arise. I started the gallery to create a sense of community through art. Forty years ago, it was what all philanthropic communities were doing, spreading art into neighborhoods, giving people where they lived a sense of the importance of art.  That was my mission 40 years ago, too.”

MADELYN PORTER has worked in professional theatre for over 45 years as an actress, storyteller, comedian and creator of several one-woman shows. She is Connectivity and Engagement Manager for Detroit Public Theatre (DPT) and is a member of Actor’s Equity Association.  She was recently seen in Plowshares Theatre Company’s – A HOUSE THAT WILL NOT STAND. She was winner of the Wilde Award for Best Actress in a lead role in Detroit Repertory Theatre’s GEM OF THE OCEAN and Flint Repertory Theatre’s WRONG RIVER, where she is an Artist Associate.  Porter recently received a Recognition in the Arts Award from First Congregational Church of Detroit.  She is a recipient of the 2019 Kresge Arts in Detroit Creative Non-Fiction Literary Arts Award, a YWCA Women of Achievement in the Arts Award and a National Organization of Women Special Achievement Award in the Arts. She is founder of Mad’s World, LLC and Street Life Theatre Company.  Porter also leads a Drama Workshop at the Hannan Center.  She has worked as Hamtramck Public School District as Program Director of Cultural Awareness Through the Arts and was Director of Michigan Opera Theatre’s Create & Perform Summer Youth Program. Porter performs historical reenactments and StoryLiving at the Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit Institute of the Arts, The Henry Ford/Greenfield Village and Troy Historical Village. Her mantra: “What we need is quality theatre by any means necessary.”

ALVIN WADDLES has delighted audiences for decades in over a dozen countries as a pianist, singer, composer and director, combining dazzling technique, fluid versatility and a unique musical style. But the Detroit native is also beloved for his work in his hometown. Alvin began studying the piano at age eight continued his studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the University of Michigan School of Music and began working as an educator, serving at various times in the Detroit, Ann Arbor and Mount Vernon, N.Y. public schools.  He has also served as head of Music Ministries at the historic New Bethel Baptist Church, Hartford Memorial Baptist and Hope United Methodist in Southfield, Michigan where he has served as the Director of Music since 1995. He has been musical director and/or pianist for numerous theatrical productions including: THE WIZ, THE, THE COLOR PURPLE, DREAMGIRLS, A CHORUS LINE, WEST SIDE STORY and SOPHISTICATED LADIES. He served for a decade as Musical Director for The Three Mo’ Tenors, and their touring productions and recordings. He received rave reviews as a featured performer in the Detroit Music Hall's long-running production of AIN’T MISBEHAVIN. Mr. Waddles' engagements as a soloist and featured artist have taken him to a variety of destinations including Barbados, Beijing, Paris, Barcelona and Ghana, West Africa. He has been blessed to work with some of the world's finest musicians including Robert Shaw, Margaret Hillis, Brazeal Dennard, Minister Thomas Whitfield, Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Placido Domingo, George Shirley, Marcus Belgrave and Stephanie Mills. He also wows audiences as the featured pianist/accompanist on “Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah,” a buoyant re-conception of Handel’s oratorio “The Messiah.” “I was blessed to realize at a young age that music was where my passion lay. I never approached art as a competitive endeavor, but rather a journey to find the most authentic expression of my heart. I hope that my work has brightened the world around me and encouraged others to live into their gifts without fear of judgment.”