The Detroit Jazz Fest sets itself apart by being the largest free jazz festival in the world.

It’s not easy or cheap for a cultural institution to be able to give it all away for free. Getting rid of any barrier of entry, however, ensures that this festival actually looks and feels like Detroit. That’s a big issue in a majority Black city that often struggles to represent itself via arts, culture and media.

The 2025 edition of the festival will feature major names performing like Keyon Harrold, Kenny Barron, Endea Owens, Chucho Valdes, Branford Marsalis, John Scofield and many more.

This year’s artist-in-residence is a big deal, too. That’s Jason Moran, an accomplished pianist, educator and composer who currently serves as the artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center. He’s racked up 18 solo releases via jazz stalwart labels like Blue Note.

During his residency with the fest, he’ll perform three varied sets over Labor Day weekend, including a tribute for Duke Ellington’s 125th birthday, an opening night set with techno pioneer Jeff Mills and Detroit poet Jessica Care Moore, and more. You can see the full schedule here.

Earlier this year, Jason Moran joined In The Groove to chat about the Detroit Jazz Festival, his influences (including the late great Detroit pianist Geri Allen) and more. 

Click the audio above to hear that full interview.

The Shifa Institute hosts Islamic psychoeducation workshops across community centers and college campuses as students return to school.

At a recent Institute for Muslim Mental Health networking event, Shifa founder Salman Pervez shared how this initiative is creating mental health safe spaces across the state. 

“It’s it started at MSU as a school chapter, and then now we’ve branched out into the community… we have chapters starting at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan and University of Detroit Mercy this fall,” he says. 

Shifa means healing in Arabic. 

Pervez says the group uses creative outlets to introduce students to wellness, “like Golden Age ideas of Islam, like astronomy or art or, or like, engagement with nature and sort of like being in awe of it.”

The workshops usually consist of professional speakers engaging people about mental health related topics in third spaces by “informing people, translating mental health research, and sharing it with college students in a way that’s relatable, applicable to them,” he says. 

“We found that that’s very effective in getting students to engage with this sort of work and into the field as well education,” says Pervez.

The group also works with campus Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), which provides free therapy to full-time students. 

Pervez says he works with college students to help them become aware of resources and even potentially go into psychology as a field. He says Gen Z is a lot more open to talk about mental health.

“I think it’s overall, it’s really nice that they’re they’re more casual about it, and that they want to do something about it,” he says.