The Metro: Artist and educator Sabrina Nelson shares love for Detroit on 313 Day
Nelson returned to The Metro to help celebrate the city and encourage listeners to support WDET during the station’s Spring Fundraiser.
Detroit artist and educator Sabrina Nelson at WDET Studios on 313 Day, March 13, 2025.
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Detroiters celebrated 313 Day on Thursday — a time to reflect on the beauty of Detroit and to celebrate the past, present and future of a city so many of us love.
Artist and educator Sabrina Nelson returned to The Metro to help celebrate the city and encourage listeners to support WDET during the station’s Spring Fundraiser.
Nelson, a native Detroiter born in the wake of the 1967 Rebellion, is a studio art teacher at the Detroit Institute of Arts and on staff at the College for Creative Studies. During her conversation with The Metro hosts Tia Graham and Robyn Vincent on 313 Day, Nelson shared her inspirations behind her work and why she loves Detroit and WDET so much.
Living in Detroit in the ’80s, Nelson has memories riding the “Iron Horse” — the Detroit Department of Transportation Grand River Bus — and listening to Ed Love on WDET.
“When I went to CCS, that’s all I listened to,” Nelson said. “Actually, WDET is the first station I heard Me’shell NdegéOcello’s ‘Plantation Lullabies,’ and that was when [former WDET host] Nkenge Zola was here.”
Detroit touches every part of the world and Nelson is always connecting with people from the city while traveling, she said.
“Detroit is my home. It is my anchor,” Nelson said. “I fly and yo-yo myself out to Zimbabwe, to Paris. I always come back, because this is home.”
Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.
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