Lunch & Learn: White Waters, Black Wonderlands

White Waters, Black Wonderlands: Escaping Race, Radicalizing Space, and Creating Place on the Water

Boats, beaches, bare bodies, and the “Water Wonderland” that Michigan had to offer were all facets of recreation that both white and Black Michiganders and Detroiters hoped to access, yet, with white people holding social, political, economic, and police power in the state, they possessed more agency in staking claims to the spaces where such recreation could take place, cultivating a white identity for Michigan along the Detroit River and on the shores of Lake Michigan. This pushed Black Michiganders to engage in their own resistant acts of placemaking in spaces both in and outside Detroit; beachy spaces that were more than fit for bare bodies, but which came to mean more than just a day out on the boat. White Water Wonderland and Black Water Wonderland were two very different things. These contested recreational sites include Belle Isle, Sugar Island, Woodland Park, Idlewild, the Black Bottom of Detroit, Muskegon, Traverse City, Holland, and Mackinac Island. Join University of Michigan students, part of the Detroit River Story Lab, as they discuss their research on the racialization of water recreation in Michigan.

This lecture is presented by University of Michigan part of the Detroit River Story Lab:

Edie Adams– A recent graduate from the University of Michigan with a degree in History and Linguistics and a minor in Sociology of Law, Justice and Social Change. While enrolled in the Detroit River Story Lab course, she had the chance to research race relationships and their associations with place, furthering her interest in developing representative teaching tools.

David Mori– A current Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, his work focuses on the history of the twentieth century in the United States, and focuses on Asian Americans, activism, and incarceration. Last year he had a chance to work on a project that examined the relationship between recreation, space, and race in Michigan while participating in a lab course with the Detroit River Story Lab.

Samantha L. Adams– A current Ph.D. candidate in English & Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, her dissertation research focuses on relationships between Black Americans and bodies of water beyond the Atlantic Ocean in African American literature and history. She is a proud former Intern and Research Assistant at the Detroit River Story Lab, where she discovered a passion for place-based education

This lecture is part of our year-long programmatic series Whispers Across the Water that showcases and celebrates the invaluable contributions of minority communities to Great Lakes maritime history and heritage.