April McGee Flournoy Explores the Circles of Artists Who Carried on Inspirations from the Energy of Charles McGee.
Who Will Build the Charles McGee Vegan Kitchen on McNichols?
Sunday, May 7th, 2023 at 8:44 PM
Yorkshire Woods
Detroit Michigan
I’m relieved to see what Marygrove College has become in the care of the Marygrove Conservancy. The conservancy has dedicated itself to the vision of K-20. It’s the idea that the kindergartener will be prepared in twenty years to move to the front of knowledge, gathering strength from twelve years in school and eight years in college. The campus also houses the elderly with care and protects families as mothers and children find their way off the streets. The Detroit Public Schools Community District welcomes students from all over Detroit to study at the School at Marygrove.
The legacy of Charles McGee connects the conservancy to the Bagley neighborhood. The stretch of McNichols from the corner of Wyoming and Six Mile will always belong to the memory of McGee and his work across the street from Marygrove. I paid a visit to a success in placemaking, the Charles McGee Community Commons. I passed by that corner almost daily in 1988, and I’m glad that the gathering place, made special by a McGee work of art, came to fruit. The place betokens good progress coming soon to what was once a “wild west” street of Detroit.
I walked over to Design Studio 6, enjoying a fresh sign claiming the area for the Bagley Community. I made a picture and a video of that sign because it glowed in the late afternoon sun. A mural on the side of a day care offered me a well-wish. “I Wish You Money As Long as Six Mile.” Six Mile, also McNichols, crosses the City of Detroit, so that’s long. I wish you money as long as Charles McGee’s legacy because Design Studio 6 and April McGee Flournoy has drawn up a design and now follows the design to the letter. Flournoy carries on the legacy of her father Charles.
I love attending shows at Simone DeSousa Gallery, found at Cass and Willis. DeSousa has dedicated many of her shows to the masterworks of artists who brought their youth to the Cass Cooridor Art Movement. Brenda Goodman: Back on Willis Street runs through June 10th, 2023. Goodman, now in her eighties, attended the opening. A few chairs set out for Goodman’s comfort await her in the front gallery. A similar process takes place at Design Studio 6. Michael Horner Then and Now provided a gateway for the exploration of all the artists awakened by McGee’s talent. Horner traces his quickening as an artist to McGee, who mentored him.
Like a ripple in a lake, the influence of McGee has passed through at least four generations and continues. You see, the party was so cool, an emcee dressed in stunning attire served as our guide. I’m hoping Flournoy corrects the art history because McGee’s daughter knows this history better than I do. I believe we were paid a visit by Marsha Music, also known as Marsha Philpot. A poet and community leader from a talent family, she called Horner front and center to pay him a thank you with an objet d’art without price.
As Philpot mourns the loss of her husband, the painter and sculptor, David Philpot, she has taken to bestowing art in the collection of the family to the deserving. Horner, wearing an evening jacket and a red poplin shirt to match his sister, had discovered David Philpot as a young artist. The conversation deserves to be a play down at Detroit Public Theater. I was listening, so this is what I got. Horner urged Philpot to take the art career seriously, and I even believe I heard that Philpot found shelter and support in Canada, following Horner’s advice. As best as I can describe it, Marsha Philpot bestowed a walking stick, hand carved and unfinished, that reminded me of an upside down pyramid, fit for a pharaoh.
Right before that magic moment, an artist sat down by my side. A photographer leaped into action to take a picture of the two of us together. He didn’t carry a card, but he introduced himself as Futrell. Futrell taught for McGee at a gallery project in the past. Futrell graduated from Central High School and went immediately to study at the Detroit Society for Arts and Crafts, the name of the College for Creative Studies until 1975. And he invited me to see his furniture on display next weekend at the CCS Alumni Exhibition 2023, curated by Sabrina Nelson. I couldn’t pass on such a kind invitation, could I?
“You’re building furniture in your eighties? And banking ten grand a chair? What’s your secret?”
“Oh, I went vegan around the same time Charles did. I rarely eat any food with a face. Maybe a fish. I’m as strong as an artist of thirty.”
I see a Charles McGee vegan cookbook and a kitchen on McNichols in the future.
Everyone wanted to talk to Futrell because Futrell belonged to the circle of McGee. I checked in with another griot, photographer Glenn Kujansuu, who made sure he had coverage of the event. Kujansuu looked great for a man in his eighties, and maybe he was thriving on the McGee diet too. I understand a number of photographers never miss the openings at Design Studio 6, including Jeff Cancelosi. We all know that we are enjoying a front row seat on art history as it reveals itself, show after show.
