Before Dan Gilbert
before ruin porn
before Coleman Young
before Motown
before the Rebellion
before the Tigers won the World Series
before Hudson’s
before Ford Motor Company
before Belle Isle
before Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.
Before it all.

Before it all, Detroit was built by a collective imagination, at war with and in love with itself simultaneously. 
A perverse thing of beauty and of horror, it has always been a city defined by dueling passions.
Detroit Stories is our attempt to expose that beauty and that horror—
That white hot friction which gave birth to an idea that some have mistaken for an illusion. 
But our city is no illusion—you just have to know what you’re looking at. 
Otherwise, you just might go blind, or find yourself staring back at yourself 
Through an empty funhouse mirror.
So here—try these stories on for size. 
Now, take another look. 
There. 
Now can you see it?
Thought so...

—Keith A. Owens