In electronic music, Movement is the ultimate destination festival. The annual Hart Plaza event, which started as Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000, immerses attendees in the birthplace of Techno. For lovers of cultural experiences that reveal as much about the people as the music they create, few are on par with Movement.

The setting is downtown, right in the heart of the city. Most of what’s needed can be found on the festival grounds. For those adventurous enough to venture out, there are plenty of nearby food, lodging and adjacent festivities in the form of after-parties to fully experience the moment.

Get prepped

Before you go, I suggest dressing for the occasion in some comfy, supportive kicks. Don’t compromise; your feet will thank you. Bring a small bag or a hip sack for essentials. Wear layers (because hail and extreme sunshine can happen all in one day), be sure to hydrate (you’re allowed to bring in an empty water bottle for filling at water stations), and make sure you’re getting some nutrition along the way. Earplugs are a great idea, especially if you find yourself in the cavernous Underground Stage. A sun/rain hat and sunscreen will get you bonus points.

That’s a lot of work to hear music. Once you step onto the festival grounds, you’ll find that all your effort was worth it.

Start at the beginning

If you’re new to the sound of Movement, you’ll probably want to head straight to the reason for the season, which is basically anywhere you can find Carl Craig. He represents the gold standard of the Detroit sound, and Movement (as we know it today) simply wouldn’t exist without him. This year’s annual appearances happen first on Saturday (9:35 p.m. on Star Gate), back-to-back with Chicago’s Cajmere (an alias of Green Velvet). It’s a promising mix of Techno and Chicago House that makes you realize why those comfy shoes were so important. If you miss that set, Craig performs under his legendary alias 69 (said six-nine) on Monday (8:25 p.m. on Movement Main Stage). Throw in a dash of Rebecca Goldberg (5:00 p.m. on Detroit Stage) to get a taste of some of the relatively newer sounds coming out of the city.

Branch out

If you’re looking to branch out, take in what’s sure to be electro-fied and upbeat (even pop) set from Montreal’s Tiga (5:00 p.m. on Star Gate) on Monday. Get a warm-up with a stop to hear some downbeat grooves from Detroit producer Meftah (3:00 p.m. on Detroit Stage), then bump it up a bit with a soul-infused set from Baltimore’s Life On Planets. If you’re still feeling like taking in discoveries, slide on over to the Movement Stage to hear Detroit poet Jessica Care Moore (8:20 p.m.).

Follow the sound

As for me, it’ll be a dizzying game of hopscotch on Saturday. You’ll find my comfy shoes racing to catch the latest from Matthew Dear’s Audion project (4:00 p.m. on Movement Stage). I’ll run over to see what’s been going on with Colette b2b DJ Heather, who grew up in Chicago (4:30 p.m. on Pyramid Stage). I’ll then firmly plant myself for the calm of Italy’s Voices From the Lake (5:00 p.m. on Movement Stage) followed by Borderland, an almost jazzy collaboration between Detroit’s legendary Juan Atkins and Berlin’s Moritz Von Oswald of Basic Channel fame (6:30 p.m. on Movement Stage). I’ll take intermissions to catch more sounds from Detroit, including the textured sounds of Terrence Dixon (5:00 p.m. on Underground Stage) and House Music legend DJ Stacy Hotwaxx Hale (6:30 p.m. on Star Gate). I wouldn’t dare miss Ann Arbor’s Tadd Mullinix as X-Altera (8:00 p.m. on Waterfront Stage) before being sweetly reunited with the cosmic electricity of Detroit’s Dopplereffekt (9:20 p.m. on Waterfront Stage).

Keep it moving

With this kind of routine, I’m not sure I’ll even get to check out any of the afterparties. But if I can make it happen, I’ll head straight over to House Party on Saturday night. It takes place at Spot Lite, which has one of the best dance floors in Detroit, and features J House, Masquenada, WDET host Waajeed, Gene Hunt, Whodat, Blaaqgold, and Aboudi Issa.

Come together

One of the things I love about dance music is that it brings so many people together that might not otherwise have the chance to meet. It’s an expression of culture that builds a greater community, and that community finds a singular groove, even if just for one weekend of the year.

Get the party started

Four years in, the war in Sudan has produced the largest displacement crisis in the world. Nearly 14 million people have been forced from their homes. Both the United States government and a United Nations fact-finding mission have called the violence a genocide, citing a coordinated campaign by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces against the Zaghawa and Fur communities of Darfur.

In the United States, the response has been quiet.

Khadega Mohammed has spent much of her life trying to say something about that silence — through poetry, community organizing, and her work at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, where she is the only Sudanese person and the only Black person on staff.

Born in Sudan, raised in Saudi Arabia, and resettled in the United States with her family in 2007, Mohammed is a spoken word artist whose signature poem, “Between,” opens the PBS AfroPoP documentary “Revolution from Afar.”

She joined Robyn Vincent on The Metro to talk about the Sudan she remembers, the America she lives in, and the in-between where her poetry was born.

Hear the full conversation using the media player above.

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