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Stories of Detroit’s Crown Jewel: Different Facets of Being Human at Belle Isle Park

Date: April 24, 2025
Organizers: Wayne State University Humanities Center, Belle Isle Conservancy, and Wayne State University Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Being Human Festival (US)

In blending the cultural and natural, Belle Isle is an important landmark for what it means to be human. This event’s guided tour of Belle Isle doubles as a community storytelling venture, eliciting the multifaceted history of this landmark from local scholars and residents alike.
“As a first event of this type, and the [Wayne State University] Humanities Center’s third public program ever, this event can be considered both a success and a fruitful step toward our increased focus on public humanities programming. We are grateful to the NHC for allowing us to be part of the 2025 Being Human Festival (US).”
—Victoria Stewart, Festival event organizer
This event entailed a five-hour long tour of Belle Isle Park, a public park of the City of Detroit which has been managed under a cooperative arrangement with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as a state park since Detroit’s bankruptcy in 2014. The event included a guided coach bus tour with multiple stops as well as a catered lunch. On-bus commentary was provided by Ossie White from the Belle Isle Conservancy and Professor Patrick Cooper-McCann from Wayne State University, and site exploration was facilitated by four docents who were selected for their personal insights into specific stops on the tour.
This event was designed for participation by residents of neighborhoods adjacent to the park, and was promoted primarily in collaboration with the Church of the Messiah, which provides not only traditional religious services to parishioners, but also numerous social services and cultural programs to the broader community.