The Metro: Detroit Sound Conservancy awarded $1.9M grant to restore historic Blue Bird Inn
DSC Director Michelle Jahra McKinney and DSC Director of Operations Jonah Raduns-Silverstein joined the show to discuss the restoration efforts.
The nonprofit Detroit Sound Conservancy received a $1.9 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to restore the historic Blue Bird Inn on Detroit's old west side.
The nonprofit Detroit Sound Conservancy announced this week that it received a $1.9 million grant supporting the organization’s rehabilitation of Detroit’s historic Blue Bird Inn.
Music was first performed at the former jazz club on Tireman Avenue on Detroit’s Old West Side in the 1930s, and over the years became a premier curator of modern jazz in the city. John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Elvin Jones and many more legendary musicians performed at the Blue Bird Inn.
The “transformational” grant from the Mellon Foundation will help the DSC inch closer to returning music and community events to the space.
DSC Director Michelle Jahra McKinney and DSC Director of Operations Jonah Raduns-Silverstein joined The Metro on Wednesday to talk about the new funding and the next chapter of the Blue Bird Inn’s restoration.
“We’re bringing back the venue space, the bar space, to kind of reinstall the historic stage that we had salvaged a number of years ago and as toured around the city,” Raduns-Silverstein said. “And in the back of that building will be an archival space. So it’s kind of going to be a hybrid modular space that really will be dedicated to Detroit music and Detroit’s cultural history, vis-a-vis cultural programming and community engagement.”
McKinney is most excited to have a physical space where people can ask for and give collections in the archive.
“We’ll have an online presence where people can see what we have, and they can actually come in and access it,” McKinney said. “And I’m calling you all right now that I expect that you will bring your collections in there, so that 100 years from now people will know you and see what you have done.”
DSC hopes to complete the Blue Bird Inn renovations in fall of 2025, but a set opening date is not yet concrete.
To stay up-to-date on the DSC’s restoration efforts of the Blue Bird Inn, visit detroitsound.org.
Use the media player above to hear the full interview with Jahra McKinney and Raduns-Silverstein.
More headlines from The Metro on July 3, 2024:
- After nearly half a century operating in Sterling Heights, Lakeside Mall is closing its doors for good. In its heyday, Lakeside Mall was bustling with shoppers, and its parking lot overflowed during the Christmas season. However, like many malls across the country, Lakeside faced challenges in recent years. To reflect on the legacy of Lakeside Mall, as well as the future of the site, JC Reindl, business reporter for the Detroit Free Press, joined The Metro.
- Taco enthusiasts can ring in this Fourth of July with music, lucha libre wrestling, and of course tacos at this year’s Royal Oak Taco Fest, running July 4-7 in downtown Royal Oak. The event’s producer Jon Witz joined The Metro to share more details.
- Sixty years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. Its passage came slightly more than a year after Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and was the vital tool in the fight to end segregation. Professor Jalila Jefferson-Bullock, an associate professor of law at the Wayne State University Law School, joined the show to discuss the significance of this important legislation.
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