Brandon Colvin is the co-organizer for the Detroit Diaspora Day Party that’s taking place on May 26 from noon to 10 p.m. in the city. The party is set to have amazing music, DJs, vendors, and food for people to come out and enjoy.
Colvin spoke with rolling out about the day party, what to expect, and how to get tickets.
As the co-organizer, what is the vision for the Detroit Diaspora Day Party?
The big vision is to really illustrate and to show and share with people the idea that Detroit is really diasporic, just like the rest of our community. There’s so many different sides, there’s so many different shades, there’s so many different aspects, there’s so many different slices of culture. There’s a difference between the east side of Detroit and the west side of Detroit, so even within the city itself, there’s this diasporic sort of blend. In terms of our vision, we want to centralize all of these aspects of the city, all of these aspects of Black culture, all of these aspects of the larger diaspora in one single place, and this is something that we’ve been doing every year. That’s the main idea behind it.
Anybody who knows anything about Detroit knows that it is a center and Mecca of Black creativity. This is an opportunity to bring those people who are part of that pool together to interact and … collaborate, to potentially create, and to also enjoy and appreciate culture. We want people who are part of this pool of genius to come in and have these organic social collisions with one another, while also having an opportunity to engage, listen to great music, buy great clothing, and witness great art.
How important was Amp Fiddler to Detroit culture?
Amp Fiddler really touched so many people creatively and culturally. As far as I’m concerned, he is an icon not just in the Detroit community, but in the larger music community and the global music community. We also will be honoring Amp. In fact, just the other day, the 16th of May was announced as Amp Fiddler Day in Detroit. The Detroit City Council just passed the resolution. Amp is an amazing force even to this day. We will most certainly be channeling his energy, playing his music, of course, and honoring him at this Detroit Diaspora Day.
The last thing I’ll say on that is you hear a lot of stories of Amp in the community, and I’ll just briefly share my own. One of Amp’s mentees is a great brother and a great talent. He’s a DJ, artist, and creative photographer named Donovan Glover. He and I have worked together and collaborated a lot, and he was actually at Amp’s place a lot, so I would often meet Donovan there. Every time I would pull up, Amp was always so gracious, always offering to allow me to use any equipment he had down in the basement, and he was just the type of brother that you can pull up on in that way. Our community, the Detroit community, and the global music community for sure, is suffering a great loss with his ascension, but we’re thankful to have had that brother.
