Banglatown


The Truth Booth tour of the Detroit Metro Area and Flint, Michigan was extremely interesting as it was the first time that I was able to see Detroit, a city that I had read so much about prior to visiting. Up until this point, my first associations of Detroit were ones of ruin porn that I had seen in one of Anthony Bourdain’s episodes on CNN. The tour allowed me to see a different side of Detroit, one that was a vibrant community of people who really loved living in Detroit despite the many problems it faced. One of the most memorable locations that we set up the Truth Booth was in the Banglatown neighborhood of Detroit a section of the city known for its high population of Bangladeshi immigrants. After the setup, we had the honor of having a family from the community prepare a traditional Bangladeshi meal for the Truth Booth and Cranbrook Art Museum. Keeping with the trend of urban farms in Detroit, the meal was prepared with vegetables from the garden behind their house.

Photos courtesy of Emann Odufu