Detroit Free Press August 13, 2017
Summary
Appointed earlier in 2017 by Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, former journalist Aaron Foley is Detroit’s first chief storyteller. He has edited a new book, The Detroit Neighborhood Guidebook, a collection of poems, essays and a short story written by past and present Detroiters. Its goal is to introduce readers to many neighborhoods in the city, and what those neighborhoods mean to the people who live there.
Foley said, “It was important for me, especially, to have diverse and inclusive voices. I think southwest is full of stories, but you don’t always hear a Latina voice. … You don’t always hear the black voice from the east side. Then you also have narratives coming form an Arab-American perspective, a Polish perspective, a Catholic perspective … All these different experiences, be it by ethnicity, be it by religion, whatever, that’s really what Detroit is and that’s really what Detroit has always been.”