A Dearborn park will be the home of a new visual art project depicting the children of Gaza. The City of Dearborn, Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit, the U.S. Palestinian Community Network, and ACCESS present this “Wall of Tears” artwork to the community.

Artist Phil Buehler created the 100 foot long, 7.5 ft tall outdoor mural that includes the names, ages and stories of over 18,000 children who were killed in Gaza since October 2023. An opening night event will be held for the exhibition on Thursday, June 11 at the Dearborn PEACE Park East from 5-7 p.m. 

The Wall of Tears has previously been displayed in cities around the world, including New York and San Francisco. New murals will also be built in Mexico City, Dallas and Portland. 

Another installation called “Gaza City” will be displayed at the Henry Ford Centennial Library on Saturday, June 13 at 2 p.m. That installation will also be presented by Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit and the U.S. Palestinian Community Network.

The event will feature a screening of “The Voice of Hind Rajab ” and speakers including Huwaida Arraf, a civil rights lawyer who recently joined the Freedom Flotilla. This installation is a collaboration between Phil Buehler and Palestinian photojournalist Shroug Alaiya. 

Additional headlines for Monday, June 8, 2026  

State lawmakers vote to reinstate reading requirement

The Michigan House voted last week to revive the requirement that kids learn to read within one grade level by third grade or risk repeating a year in school. 

Republican supporters argue its necessary to address the state’s lagging reading scores. Many educators counter that holding kids back a grade does nothing to improve their reading.

Democratic Representative John Fitzgerald says teachers need more resources to improve literacy. “We want to give educators and those around kids the tools that they need to give students the best opportunity for success, and just telling kids you have to read at third grade reading is not going to do it. It’s the resources and we want the result of that policy.”  

State lawmakers repealed Michigan’s third-grade reading law a couple of years ago when Democrats controlled the Legislature. 

-Reporting by Colin Jackson 

Huron Valley inmate dies

The state corrections department says an inmate at the Huron Valley women’s prison died Saturday morning. The Detroit Free Press reports that Ashley Hoath fell ill and was taken to an emergency room, where her condition worsened, and life-saving measures failed. Hoath was serving time for killing her boyfriend in 2017. 

She’s the third Huron Valley inmate to die in less than a month. The state is investigating the other two deaths.  

-Reporting Pat Batcheller 

Hamtramck Town Hall

The City of Hamtramck is hosting a town hall meeting today. The meeting is to help residents understand their water bill structure. City representatives will discuss changes that are taking place. Arabic and Bangla translators will be available.

The town hall is scheduled for June 8 at 7 p.m. People can also watch the meeting at the City of Hamtramck YouTube page.

Listen to the latest episode of the “Detroit Evening Report” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

On this week’s episode of Acoustic Café,  Iron & Wine (Sam Beam) returns to the show for his eighth visit! We recorded with Sam at The Leon Loft in Ann Arbor before his show in May at The Michigan Theater.

Also, archives from another SongWriter podcast preview, past in-studio archives from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings, The Head & The Heart with a 15 year old classic and much more.

See the playlist below and listen to the episodes on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

Acoustic Café Playlist for June 7, 2026

• “Million Dollar Intro” – Ani DiFranco
• “Holes To Heaven” – Jack Johnson
• “Giving Ghosts” – Ben Harper
• “In A Dream” – Arny Margret
• “Turning Away” – Anjimile
• “Rivers & Roads” – The Head & The Heart (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Can’t Be Wrong” – Low Cut Connie (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “In Your Ocean” – Iron & Wine (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “All In Good Time” – Iron & Wine (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “Yellow House” – Satya
• “No Place To Be” – Shakey Graves
• “You Can’t Have It All” – Neil Diamond
• “Eldorado” – Donovan (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Near Eureka” – Rhett Miller (SongWriter podcast)
• “All Over Again” – Rhett Miller (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Venus In The Zinnia” – Aldous Harding
• “Look At Miss Ohio” – Ken Pomeroy
• “Pass You By” – Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Any Day Now” – Brother Wallace
• “I Ride Passenger” – Kevin Morby
• “Grace Notes” – Iron & Wine (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “Singing Saw” – Iron & Wine (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “Dates & Dead People” – Iron & Wine (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)

Listen to Acoustic Café with host Rob Reinhart every Sunday from 1-3 p.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand at wdet.org

The city of Detroit is connected to larger cultural movements throughout its history. Yet, most people don’t realize the first free national public art museum has its roots in Detroit. 

Charles Lang Freer wasn’t born in the city, but moved here for opportunity and economic growth. He turned his Ferry street home into a living gallery, collecting thousands of American, Asian and Middle Eastern art works. 

He arrived in Detroit in 1880, when the city was on the brink of a cultural boom. The Detroit Institute of Arts opened in 1885. Pewabic Pottery opened in 1903. The Scarab Club began in 1907. The College for Creative Studies traces its roots to 1906 as the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts.

Following the success of his railroad car business, Freer retired at the age of 47. He became a student of art, collecting, traveling and amassing an impressive collection. The collection went on to form the country’s first national museum and Asian art museum in Washington DC. 

Dr. Chase F. Robinson is the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art.  He and his team worked closely with the Freer House in Detroit to curate a new exhibition in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary. He tells The Metro more about the history behind the Freer House.

A Museum in the Making will be on display June 27 through August 8 at the National Museum of Asian Art in the Freer Gallery of Art. 

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

More stories from The Metro

Over in the Rosedale Park neighborhood on Grand River is an art gallery for children. It’s a space where some of the city’s youngest artists can create and display their work. 

The RED: Children’s Art Museum and Gallery nurtures and displays the work of kids who want to exercise their creative skills. 

Yvette Rock is the founder and executive director of the gallery. She has been working with young artists for decades, encouraging them to develop their skills and exposing them to career artists right here in Detroit. 

The museum re-opened in March in time for the summer season, so Rock joined the show to talk about the museum’s work and how she develops young artists.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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On this week’s episode of Acoustic Café,  a long time favorite of ours, Mark Erelli, plays songs from his new album “Spring Green.” Mark collaborates with many artists and has become one of the most respected songwriters in the Boston scene.

Also, archives from Emmylou Harris in 1996, Ye Vagabonds from earlier this year and much more.

See the playlist below and listen to the episodes on-demand for two weeks after it airs using the media player above.

Acoustic Café Playlist for May 31, 2026

• “Million Dollar Intro” – Ani DiFranco
• “Stay With Me” – Barnstar!
• “Heavy Foot” – Mon Rovia
• “Passage West” – Dervish ft. Indigo Girls
• “Martyrs” – Jack Barksdale ft. Sarah Jarosz
• “Over The Edge” – Sarah Jarosz (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Rodeo Clowns (4-track)” – Jack Johnson
• “King Of Nothing” – Mark Erelli (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “Harder Than It Has To Be” – Mark Erelli (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “Do It For The Love” – Kate Shutt/Steve Seskin
• “Make It To Paradise” – Ziggy Marley
• “Wish You Were Here” – Jake Shimabukuro (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Citizen” – Crys Matthews
• “It Won’t Be Me” – Joe Pernice ft. Rodney Crowell
• “Big Sky” – Hrishikesh Hirway
• “It’s Yr World” – Son Little
• “Orphan Girl” – Emmylou Harris (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Lost In My Mind (demo)” – The Head & The Heart
• “Deep In The Plans We Made” – The Paper Kites
• “Pinup Girl” – Blessing Jolie
• :Sitric Road” – Ye Vagabonds (Acoustic Cafe performance)
• “Alright” – Hiss Golden Messenger
• “While You Were Sleeping” – Mark Erelli (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)
• “Walk Beside Me” – Mark Erelli (Acoustic Cafe in-studio guest)

Listen to Acoustic Café with host Rob Reinhart every Sunday from 1-3 p.m. ET on Detroit Public Radio 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand at wdet.org

Liberation work doesn’t look one way. For multidisciplinary artist Darryl DeAngelo Terrell, it looks like photography, videography, and sound working in concert to create a world free of race and gender constructs.

Rooted in their lived experience growing up Black and gay in Detroit, Terrell’s work questions our conventional understanding of desire, beauty and home then forces those who experience the work to confront how limited our portraits of Blackness within those themes actually are.

Terrell joined the show to explain how their art, in all its forms, serves as a tool to realize a world free of those limitations.

279º W 42º21’39” N 83º2’20″W Detroit, MI by Darryl DeAngelo Terrell

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

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When political tensions are high, artists and creatives use their work to weigh in. In 1960’s Detroit, a poet and a painter, built a place for that work to live and be shared across the country and the world. 

In 1969, Ann and Ken Mikolowski taught themselves how to operate a printing press, and launched The Alternative Press in the Cass Corridor. For 30 years, the periodical published writings and poetry from their contemporaries that spoke to the political and cultural moment. 

Rebecca Kosick, an associate professor of comparative poetry and poetics at the University of Bristol, is recognizing those efforts in her new book “Dispatches from the Avant-Garage.” In it she details the Mikolowski’s story and their efforts launching The Alternate Press. Kosick joined the show to discuss the publication’s lasting impact.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Detroit is a city where culture doesn’t just live, it moves like the river that shares a name. And this weekend, that energy comes together in a powerful way in Waawiyaatanong.

The Curved Shores Concert: A Native Artists Showcase takes over Spot Lite Detroit on Saturday, bringing together a unique lineup of Native American artists and storytellers.

It’s part of the larger Concert of Colors Neighborhood Programs, an effort to bring global sounds and meaningful conversations directly into Detroit’s neighborhoods. 

SouFy is a Southwest Detroit native and Native American hip-hop artist. When he’s not on stage performing, he’ll be helping bring this entire experience to life as co-founder of Vibes With The Tribes, the producers of the showcase.  

Charles Ezra Ferrell, the director of neighborhood programs for Concert of Colors and SouFy, joined The Metro to talk more about the event and its importance to Detroit’s diverse Native community.

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on demand.

More stories from The Metro