February 26, 2020
DEARBORN – The third annual “March On! Blues Collar Poetry and Music Fest” honors the 88th anniversary of the Ford Hunger March and benefits the Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park now under construction in southwest Detroit. The event takes place Saturday, March 7 from 6 – 9 p.m. at UAW Local 600, 10550 Dix in Dearborn.
The cover charge is $10, payable in cash at the door or in advance through Eventbrite.
Bloodshot Records recording artist Jon Langford, founding member of legendary punk rockers The Mekons -- as well as various other musical outfits including The Waco Brothers, the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, Skull Orchard, and Four Lost Souls -- will be making the journey from his adopted hometown of Chicago to perform, along with guitarist John Szymanski. Langford is a dynamic live performer, as well as a talented visual artist and engaging storyteller.
Dearborn natives Tony Paris & the Sugarburn are also on the bill, with musician Ian Tran. The event will feature a silent auction, various spoken word performers, and a sneak preview of composer Andy Kirshner’s film-in-progress, entitled “Ten Questions for Henry Ford.”
For almost ten years, a group of community, nonprofit and industry stakeholders calling themselves the Fort-Rouge Gateway (or FRoG) Partnership have been meeting every month to plan and find funding for a new park at the junction of Fort Street Bridge and Oakwood in southwest Detroit. Ground was broken in October, and the Fort Street Bridge Interpretive Park is scheduled to open this spring. In addition to expanding access to quality public green space in a heavily industrialized section of the city, the park will commemorate the legacy of the March 1932 Ford Hunger March, educate visitors on the social, economic and environmental history of the Rouge River, and provide a needed point of connection between the Iron Belle Trail, the Joe Louis Greenway, the Downriver Linked Greenways, and the Rouge Water Trail.
The event is being organized by the Fort-Rouge Gateway (FRoG) Partnership, Downriver Delta CDC, Friends of the Rouge, MotorCities National Heritage Area, Sugar Law Center and UAW Local 600.