From Switzerland to Detroit: A Summer of Inspiration & Service - Part Two

by Gareth Dicker, Emerson Waldorf High School Physics & Math Teacher

Upon my return from Switzerland, I road-tripped directly to the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit, in the heart of the USA. 

In some ways, Brightmoor could not be more different from Dornach, Switzerland, and the neighborhood surrounding the Goetheanum. Whereas in Switzerland, every square inch of land looks tended to and accounted for, the Brightmoor neighborhood has been largely neglected and vacant for some decades. Some streets are overgrown with trees and shrubs that seem to be reclaiming lawns and street corners with their own wild ideas of what cities should look like. 

In the early 1900s, the car manufacturing assembly line brought many poor working families to Detroit for five dollars a day, no matter if they were black, white, or brown. This was the time of the great migration of mostly black families from the south. Ford and other companies constructed cookie cutter houses on chunks of cement, side by side, on 70-foot by 140-foot plots of land in a city-wide grid of long rectangles.

“Nestled in the northwest corner of the city, Brightmoor was a poor but stable working-class community throughout much of the 20th century. After 1967, however, much of the neighborhood’s white, working-class core staged a quick exodus to the suburbs.” (WDET, 2017)

However, in the last ten years or so, the Brightmoor neighborhood - from what I witnessed and learned - has been gradually claiming a new identity of community solidarity. More community gardens are popping up, community centers are being revitalized, radio stations are airing new messages, and music is sung for a future worth inhabiting.

I happened to be there because I was co-organizing a gathering for the North American Youth Section to attend a conference with the World Social Initiative forum and Elderberries Threefold Cafe. These are both anthroposophical grassroots initiatives that have gone, shall we say, off the beaten path of “conventional anthroposophy.” The World Social Initiative Forum was initiated by the work of Ute Cramer (and others), who founded Associação Comunitária Monte Azul in San Paolo, Brazil. Their work is deeply rooted in anthroposophy while remaining totally responsive and responsible for the realities of cultural contexts very different from what you or I may have inherited. Elderberries Threefold Cafe is similarly radical - without daring to summarize their work, please visit their page on the WSIF website.

You might be wondering: why did the World Social Initiative Forum and Elderberries Threefold Cafe decide to host a conference in Brightmoor, Detroit?

I’m glad to say that the reason for hosting it there arose from growing relationships and collaborations with community members and, in particular, a high school with a program called the Brightmoor Makers, founded by Bart Eddy. (Bart, I want to shout out, is like a Ute Cramer in Detroit. He has a huge heart and, even as a white guy, is seen as a community leader both by the black and non-black community in Brightmoor.) 

The Brightmoor Makers are currently a cohort of about 40 high school students who engage in carpentry, bicycle repair, sign making, water purification, robotics, clothing design, art, and other crafting activities throughout the school year and intensively in the summertime. They are paid a small amount to show up and engage in the work, some of which directly benefits their community - such as making signs for the neighborhood businesses - and some more for their own learning, skill-building, and growth as individuals. 

The Brightmoor Makers allowed us into their warehouse spaces to host the conference, and we got to engage with them to some degree throughout our time there, with hands-on crafts activities, poetry sharing, and some social moments biking together through the neighborhood. 

We were also graced by the presence of Orland Bishop - a West and South African gnostic and wise mentor to many both in and out of the anthroposophical world - who provided us with profound lectures and conversations. The anthroposophical youth section camped on Bart’s land and stayed in a local hostel. We showed up for each other around the theme of the ‘hearth’ and worked through a huge number of courageous questions both individually and collectively. It was a rollercoaster ride emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually, as most life-changing experiences are. 

I could say much more about my personal experiences over ten days there. I intend to return this summer to continue building relationships with the folks there. But I have classes to prepare for and will end with just a few brief comments on my experiences of Brightmoor and Dornach.

These two experiences in July each inspired me in different ways. On the one hand, the Goetheanum filled me with a feeling of spiritual creativity and vitality that is totally unique to that place’s intentions in those realms. At the same time, it felt “set apart” from the world, like a temple or monastery to some degree, where everything was in perfect condition for peace and quiet, contemplation, and creativity emerging from a deep silence.

On the other hand, “out of the rubble,” so to speak, the Brightmoor Makers and community leaders I met are working with virtually no financial support to create futures that are revitalizing community and creativity. The literal humming and vrooming of motor cars penetrating Detroit's aura is the backdrop to a different kind of creativity than the one I witnessed in Dornach. Creativity there looks much more like getting your hands dirty in bicycle or motorbike grease, gorilla-style vine-whacking, and simply getting things - like clean water - to run, period. 

The particular group of young people I gathered with in Detroit was all loosely interested in what anthroposophy is and could become. They all had deeply spiritual questions. At the same time, their questions were entirely practical: how will we reconcile the atrocities of our racialized histories to become good neighbors in the future? How are we going to actually heal our earth and integrate new stories about interbeing into our emerging cultural narratives? While Dornach felt to me able to answer many of my spiritual questions, Detroit feels like my primary teacher for many of my social questions. I am - we are? -  longing for a realized unity of both realms. 

I wonder, how can young people from all over the earth find the opportunity to connect with inspiring people and places like the ones I’ve just visited? How can we, at Emerson, become ever more an inspiring place ourselves? What futures are we consciously creating as a school community, with all our wealth and resources? Where are we too comfortable and passive? What future are young people holding in their (our) hearts that we could choose to make more space for in our teaching and life choices? These are some of my questions. 

Thank you for allowing me to share a glance into these experiences.