FLINT, MI - Looking for fun in downtown Flint this weekend? Flint’s Downtown Development Authority has planned a series of artistic events, including a day of outdoor music and personalized poetry.
The What’s Up Downtown Project’s slate of events begin Thursday night at 6 p.m. with “Soul Stroll,” in which blues musicians The Frenchtown Playboys will stroll down Saginaw Street and play. Another Soul Stroll featuring Jeff Warner and Kedree Young is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday. The stroll’s goal is to introduce busking into downtown and get residents used to tossing street musicians a donation, said Kady Yellow, the project’s director of placemaking.
“We have a really cool, socially-distanced weekend planned for folks here in Flint," Yellow said. “It’s safe, and it’s healthy, and it’s highly rewarding.”
A pop-up “Poet for Hire” event will also begin 6 p.m. Friday at Churchill’s Food and Spirits, located at 340 Saginaw St. Five local poets will sit at tables with vintage typewriters, inviting passersby to sit with them and take away a custom poem after a conversation, Yellow said.
“The idea is to reintroduce chance encounters during the pandemic,” Yellow said. “We’ve had this element of magic and socialization removed. Even if you run into someone, we’re nervous to even stop and talk. It gives an excuse and it’s contact-less, you’re not touching, you’re 6 feet from the poet, everything is pandemic-kosher.”
On Saturday, 12 hours of live outdoor music will kick off 9 a.m. at Cafe Rhema, located at 432 S Saginaw St. The event continues into midday with two porch concerts at Whaley Historic House Museum, located at 624 E Kearsley St., and ends at Blackstone’s Smokehouse later that night with a performance by Eclipse Band. A $15 ticket to one of the porch concerts will net free entry to the concerts at the other two venues, and also comes with a free cup of drip coffee at Cafe Rhema and a free drink at Blackstone’s, located at 531 Saginaw St.
For more details on this weekend’s events, visit What’s Up Downtown’s Facebook page or view its event calendar here.
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