Stateside: One family’s vaccine story; Detroit’s cultural past and future; MI GOP and militias

If you live in a part of Michigan that has COVID vaccine doses, and you’re in a priority group, you might be trying to make a decision right now: Is it time to get the shots?

But if you’re someone who’s had a complicated relationship with establishment health care, it may not be so simple. Donna Allen-Brown checks all those boxes.

The Michigan Opera Theatre has a new artistic director: renowned opera director and MacArthur Fellowship recipient Yuval Sharon. He’s bringing his experimental approach to Detroit right from the start: his first project at the helm of the organization will be a condensed, drive-in staging of Richard Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods, set in a parking structure. Stateside spoke with Sharon, who is succeeding the theatre’s late founder David DiChiera, about his work and his hopes for how opera can evolve in the years to come.

Detroit is well known for its pivotal role in shaping soul music during the 1950s and 1960s. What’s lesser known is that in the 1970s, the city’s slew of small bars also played a major role in forming the punk scene. Detroit writer and radio journalist Rob St. Mary just finished producing a new 2-LP album called The End of the Night (1967 to 1983). He pulled the music from the Detroit Punk Archive, a website that he created and maintains, as well as some previously unpublished recordings and stories. 

Last night, Governor Gretchen Whitmer delivered her third State of the State speech. Instead of speaking before a full room at the Capitol, Whitmer gave a virtual address from her formal office. The governor’s message last night may have been one of unity and bipartisanship, but her relationship with Republicans in the state Legislature — especially during the pandemic  — has been fraught.

Today on Stateside, we talk with the former head of Michigan’s Republican Party about the rioters that stormed the Capitol yesterday. Plus, we discuss security at the Capitol building in Lansing with State Representative Sarah Anthony.