City Wild
Ian Solomon on the illusions of distance + returning home
Ru: So who are you and how do you show up in the world?
Ian: My name is Ian John Solomon. I am an artist, journalist, and organizer and I try my best to show up as myself everywhere. I try to show up honest, authentic, and excited everywhere – and outside; all those things outside.
I show up in so many different ways and exist in so many different spaces, so many people see me with different hats on. The only thing I can say that is consistent is that I try to be myself, because a lot of different spaces ask a lot of different things from me.
Ru: So tell me about City Wild; it was your first exhibition! Let's talk about that and your inspiration behind it?
Ian: I think I've had the show idea in my head for some years now. I always knew I wanted to put on a show that somehow just connected Detroit to the broader natural spaces around it. I think over time that idea got a lot more focus as my practice got a lot more focused.
I think there was this broader idea of nature and Detroit, but as it got closer, I had gotten more focused on what I wanted to talk about, which was more environmental justice.
Check out this post from AltNubian on Ian’s exhibition
I got more specific on even the space, not just displaying Detroit in general, but more of what I think of home and Detroit, which is my grandparents house and their neighborhood. I think of home as the place we return to and throughout my life, I've lived in so many places and so much of my family has lived in so many places. My maternal grandparents' home is the only place I've been able to return to from the jump. So that's why it really became my focus in my practice.
It's also on the east side of Detroit, and that is a space that really inspires me, especially in wanting to connect this idea of natural space to urban space, just because of the nature in that area; there is so much nature there.
You can go blocks and not see actual infrastructure and just see trees and greenery, and there is a very infuriating reason behind that, but it also makes it a really unique space that I find beautiful. So it was already a space of inspiration and then it's on top of that just home. So that brought me to a show that really focused on some environmental justice themes that apply to it.
And I really just wanted to show overall that idea of returning, which is something that I've experienced over these past years of doing so much traveling from Detroit to the Upper Peninsula (UP). Space has really collapsed for me. It's hard for me to really think of Detroit and the UP as different spaces anymore. They don't have that same separation and so the show for me was trying to bring that perspective out for people.
I was collaging these homes and these waterfalls and showing how I'm experiencing space. Understanding that distance – isn’t made up – but it’s almost a complete perspective of distance, if that makes sense. It's the idea that it’s only as far as you make it. And now because I’ve driven it so many times, just like going to Royal Oak or going to down the street in the neighborhood at this point.
That's what I would say has brought me to this City Wild because that's just how I look at my life. It feels like this constant space of the east side of Detroit and also the middle of the woods.
Ru: I love the idea of juxtaposition turning into submerge. But I guess another thing that I think about is our disconnection to nature.
During your artist talk, you mentioned harm imposed on Detroit and other industrialized cities. You went on about how we’ve been subjected to harm from the built environment, but given today’s climate, we’re needing to unpack Michigan being seen as a climate haven because, our struggles within that crisis are the infrastructural issues.
So what are some baby steps to healing that connection to earth and land?
Ian: It’s literally just: get outside – the first step is building a practice of getting outside. I think a lot of times there's this love for nature that gets projected onto me that says, ‘I will love anything at any time, and there is nothing that will upset me about the outdoors.’ But no, my relationship with land is like a relationship with a person.
It's a discipline that I have with it. I understand that that relationship is important to me, and it helps me grow. And so, even when I don't feel like going outside, even when the conditions aren't amazing, even when XY and Z happens, I understand that that's a relationship that I have to maintain.
So going outside and in accepting that it should be something that you have to do – like an obligation – you are in partnership with the land that you live on. And so I think that's the first step; getting to that space.
And you get to that space through joy, honestly. You get through that space through enjoyment, through peace, through mindfulness.
I think what's typical about environmental justice is that, especially as it pertains to Black communities or communities that have been denied access to natural spaces, is that you're asking someone to love and protect something that they haven't had access to so it's like yes, I can yell at you to care about this, but I'm asking you to care for something you don't have access to.
So it’s one of those things where I had to start with recreation. It didn't make sense to me to start demanding that people shift their lives or something that's been systemically denied to them this entire time.
In the beginning of AmplifyOutside, there were people who reached out to collaborate for cleanups. And I was like, ‘I'm not asking people to come to this beach to clean it up that have never been here before. This isn't their trash. And I like that you're you're able to clean this space up because you had the ability to love it your entire life.’ But, we have to start from that foundation of understanding.
So AmplifiedOutside’s tag is ‘Recreation to Liberation’, because I look at recreation and enjoyment outside as the access point to get to this critical connection we need to survive in our communities.
Learn more about AmplifyOutside
Ru: Earlier you mentioned how, especially on the east side, there are blocks where there's just a plethora of land and just talks of perspective on how we see land.
But I’m thinking about that trauma had from erasure how a lot of us never had access to land more broadly or healthily. So thinking about AmplifyOutside, and other adjacent groups, how are these groups helping folks understand healing to and through the land?
Ian: I think that outdoor recreational opportunities help people to approach open space differently. I think one of the most common questions I get about camping or if I'm going up to the middle of the woods for days is ‘what are you doing?’
And when you bring people up there who have never camped before they realize their days are filled, like they're never bored. I think that makes people approach open space in a completely different way, because suddenly instead of seeing this thing as nothing being there, it's now this thing that just presents an opportunity to do anything.
An interview with Imani Mixon by Ian on her Land Story with the water
So a lot of these different organizations, from recreational opportunities to environmental justice, really take advantage of building community through taking advantage of open spaces. And I think just that act alone helps people to approach the idea of land differently, especially when you talk about organizations that are growing food on the land when people go to a once vacant lot that is now sustaining a community – that completely shifts your perspective.
One of my favorite things about camping is showing up with a group of people and building a sustainable place to live, from nothing. In a matter of five hours you're building housing, you're building food, you're building a water situation, you figure out where you're going to the bathroom – you are literally building community infrastructure from the ground up. Then you take it down later and it's such a practice and that’s allowed me to look at spaces like ‘oh my God, if only I could have two acres.’
I know what could happen in two acres and frankly, so do all these rich white people which is why they're buying it all up. Now the city is now using it for solar fields to extract energy from the space.
I think these organizations in this work really take advantage of something really simple, which is open space and community.
When people experience community and open space and what can be built through that, I think that there's something that opens their eyes and they can't close them again.
Ru: Let’s say you get your two acres, what are you building on them? What’s your dream?
Ian: In my dream there are two open spaces; one on the east side and one probably the UP.
These spaces work as hubs for Black people in this community to know they can come here and experience open space safely – they can come here and experience open space and community. They can learn in this space and they know they’d have rights to the space. They’d feel like they belong here.
I think infrastructure is important because infrastructure allows you to say you were there. It's almost like putting a flag in the ground. You gotta be careful around the conversations around ownership and land because that's a very nuanced conversation. However, in the case of colonialism, the first thing they do is take down the infrastructure because that erases your presence.
So I do think of getting pieces of land and putting up infrastructure that can sustain and support and educate people on how to better connect with their spaces and how to survive their spaces.
We're in some critical times and I think we have some critical education that's needed, so where can people feel safe and connect?
It's easy for me to say, ‘you have to go connect to these spaces’. But there's nothing AmplifyOutside or any other organization could do about the reality of being Black in spaces that are predominantly white. So how do we create safe spaces to connect in sustainable ways is really my dream and vision.
Ru: Wondering if there is more you wanna say about how you define home and also wondering does this definition change over time for you?
Ian: I defined home as the places you make a choice to return to. My definition has changed over time because it's gotten more specific for me and also expanded. So before, home was just vaguely Detroit, and even metro Detroit because I lived in every county around here. As I was moving around the country and came back home, I realized I don't really feel a connection to anything outside of Detroit. And that connection is even more specific to the east side of Detroit.
But also, the area around my grandparents neighborhood; it feels like that is just the closest to home I'll ever get. And it feels like something not just mentally I'm thinking it, but it feels like I'm in that space and the air feels different; the air feels familiar. I grew up around there the first couple years of my life and one of my earliest memories was being at home, hearing one of those trains on the east side. Hearing I-94; there was a train, the sound of 94, and the air. That is like the only thing I know and every time I'm on the east side in that area, it feels like I'm connected to the earliest parts of myself.
That has expanded over the past couple years. I have gotten used to traveling 7-10 hours away in Michigan. I'm in the UP now and people know me there. I'll run into somebody working at a fast food restaurant and they're like ‘hey what's up, nice to see you again.’ I started to build there and recognize places there and so I'm like this is starting to feel like an extension of home as well, because I do keep choosing to return to this space – this specific rock I have now been to 20 freaking times. And yes, it is hours away from where I pay rent, but I keep coming back. So I think it's morphing for me. I think I got really specific on where it was and from that specificity, it's expanding outwards again, in more intentional ways.
Ru: It almost sounds like the body keeps the score. It sounds like over time as you introduce these spaces it grows this familiarity or this desire from within to long for those places that feels good for the nervous system or something.
Ian: I was just about to say nervous system, because that's exactly how it feels. It feels like an inhale and you exhaled it like you're just there. That's where it feels like that definition of home is changing for me. Like, where does my body feel at home? I see that as home.
Ru: So one last question that I have, I'm wondering if you know of any resources or organizations that are helping bridge that gap by bringing the resources to people to build curiosity and connection to land.
Ian: Absolutely – great question. There's Detroit Outdoors which isn't specifically for Black Detroiters, but does have a lot of Black specific events and resources. They have a huge den on Seven Mile off Woodward, but they have tons and tons and tons of camping equipment you could rent for free. They host so many events and excursions and if you want camping equipment and you're a Detroiter, you have access to it through Detroit Outdoors; and a lot of people don't know that.
But also, Black to the Land Coalition; a dozen camping excursions. AmplifyOutside actually is planning one right now for late May - early June, so there is a lot out there. I would say the best way to do it is sign up for emails or follow on social media. Those are the two that that really do the most connecting.
Ru: I don't think I have any more questions and I feel like you provided so many good things that people can think about as they may wanna dip their toe to into more outdoor space toward seeing these spaces as home, and finding ourselves within that. But is there anything else you wanna add?
Ian: I guess on the on the topic of home it is critical for Detroiters to tackle the narrative that there's Detroit and that there's Michigan. That's something that as Detroiters, is a narrative we push out of pride and it makes so much sense but it's not doing us any justice to separate ourselves from this broader space that has so many resources and other communities that we need to connect with.
So, Detroit is home, but I hope that Detroiters also start thinking of the broader region as home and start taking stake in those spaces as if it were their home. Because everything that happens there is gonna affect us. Things that happen here affects them, and it's just better for everyone to feel that they have a responsibility over protecting that space and connecting to that space.