Alter Road

Alter Road explores the Dynamic between Detroit–the blackest city in America–and Grosse Pointe, the 77% white suburb just outside of Detroit. 

Alter road, the street dividing the two cities, is 3.5 miles long, and is part of a collection of streets used to divide the two cities. This division is not just geographical but deeply rooted in history, economics, race, and class. 

In an effort to come to terms with my own experiences in Detroit and Grosse Pointe and to understand the ways white supremacy is birthed, this piece studies seven key events or sets of data through Data Portraits, annotations, and repetition. Each portrait serves as an exploration of horrific events, personal memories, and defining statistics that shape the relationship between the two cities. By using repetition, I invite the viewer to reflect on the cyclical nature of these events, suggesting that history is not a series of isolated events but a continuous pattern that shapes our present and the people around us.