Celebrating Earth Day ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
earth day on the east side
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This Earth Day, the eugenie team joined About Face Detroit for a day of empowered environmentalism. Rooted just a few blocks from our shop, About Face Detroit is a women-led nonprofit on the east side of the city. Through sustained efforts like group clean-ups, neighborhood home renovations, and community landscaping, the organization cultivates attention into collective action.
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In our day-long collaboration, we cleared debris and disposed of over 32 bags of trash around our neighborhood. Weaving between bustling residential streets and empty, overgrown lots on the east side of Detroit, we felt a rhythm of attention emerge. It drew us into a thicket of local stories and histories, and into a deeper sense of our own agency within them.
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The east side of Detroit is a living archive of stories, many of which have emerged over time through residents cooperatively investing in their neighborhoods. Despite a history of ruinous structural forces imposed upon the community, seeds of resilience have burrowed into the soil, families have rooted in place, and stories have woven themselves into an evolving local landscape. In many ways, this story evokes a sense of care and responsibility from each and every one of us.
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Fellow east sider, author and activist Grace Lee Boggs, reminds us, “you cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it.” Change begins when we see ourselves as belonging to one another, when we take responsibility for our streets, our homes, and the life around us.
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“If it takes a village, be a villager.”
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Alice James
Founder, About Face Detroit
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But importantly, we are never alone in that pursuit of transformation. The streets hum with passersby, pollinators move from yard to yard, and seeds catch the wind into neighboring soil. Every small act—watering a wildflower, rolling out an elderly neighbor’s trash can, picking up the plastic bag caught in the fence—threads us together.
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“If it takes a village,” says founder Alice James, “be a villager.” This Earth Day and every day, we’re proud to be villagers alongside About Face Detroit and our neighbors on Agnes who call this city home.
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For those who crave a continued commitment to place, About Face Detroit hosts an “Adopt-a-Block” program, where you can sign up to make a weekly, meaningful difference in your neighborhood. Read more about the program and the organization behind it, below.
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Visit us at 1400 Van Dyke, Detroit, MI
Monday – Saturday, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Sunday, 11 am – 5:00 pm
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