Levine, Rodriguez and Detroit as a Cultural Metropole

The selection of Detroit native Philip Levine as poet laureate several years ago and last night's Oscar award to Malik Bendjelloul for his movie about Detroit resident Sixto Rodriquez suggest that Detroit has been very productive with regard to the arts despite great changes. Both Levine and Rodriguez shared something of the city's blue collar history and both graduated from Wayne.
A number of impressive books have recently been published by
people raised or educated in or near Detroit including Kevin Boyle's book about the Dr. Ossian Sweet violence, Arc of Justice, that won a national book award in 2005. More recently, Detroit resident Paul Clemens published his interesting: Punching Out: One Year in a Closing Auto Plant. Mark Binelli's new book, Detroit City is the Place to Be is a very good read. Charlie LeDuff's Detroit: An American Autopsy has gotten favorable reviews in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
In a different genre, I think George Galster's Driving Detroit is an excellent new book describing how Detroit got to be what it is today. He is a Detroit resident. Indeed, his family surname is the origin of the name for Galster Street on the east side.
Whatever the current troubles of the city of Detroit, they have apparently not slowed down literary and musical contributions from the city's residents. Thank goodness, there is much more to Detroit literature than just ruin porn.