Contributing Writer
Priya is a Contributing Writer at Strait Journal. Reports on culture, community, immigrant Detroit, civic organizing, and the slow work that holds neighborhoods together.
Also covers music and the arts when the story is about people more than performance.
Cooks at home most nights. Goes to community board meetings on purpose. Knows where to find the best biryani in the city and will not tell you, but will write about the place that made it. Has a rescue dog named Wilson.
Has been writing for the Journal since 2024. Tends to file the pieces that take longest to report and read fastest.
Governor Whitmer announced on March 3 that Hamtramck has been selected by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation for the Select Level of the Michigan Main Street program.
DJ Minx signed to Rekids in early 2026 and released the Energy EP in February. The title track features Kendra Foster.
Rahha translates loosely from Arabic as comfort, peace of mind, the feeling of finally putting something down. The five founders chose it deliberately.
Ping Ho opened Marrow in the Market on November 13, 2025, in the former Capital Poultry building at 2442 Riopelle Street in Eastern Market. The space is 14,000 square feet across two floors.
Hamissi Mamba's mother sold chapati and brochettes in the markets of Bujumbura, Burundi, when he was a kid.
Dally in the Alley filled the streets between Forest, Hancock, Second, and Third on Saturday, September 6, 2025, for its 46th year. Magazine Free admission.
Eddie Vargas grew up around Vernor Highway. He spent the past several years cooking other people's restaurants for them.
Haraz Coffee opened its second Detroit store on Wednesday, June 11, on the ground floor of The Brooke on Bagley at 1501 Church Street. Mayor Mike Duggan cut the ribbon.
Underground Music Academy took over the Detroit Stage at Movement 2025 on Sunday. It was UMA's first festival showcase.
Father Dukes played a Movement 2025 stage on May 24. She came out of Seraphine Collective's beatmatch brunches two years earlier.
The 58th annual Flower Day ran from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at Eastern Market. Mix 92.3 Free.
Public Thrift closed its doors on Joseph Campau in Hamtramck in May 2025, after almost three years in its brick-and-mortar location. The store ran a final $5 Fill A Bag sale on May 9 and 10.
The 60th annual Cinco de Mayo Parade ran 2.4 miles down West Vernor Highway on Sunday, May 4, 2025. Organizers put the turnout around 8,000.
Robert Encarnación was a Bank of America small-business banker in Miami before he moved to Detroit. He came up for a weekend in April 2019. By the end of June he had moved.
About 10,000 people showed up in Cass Corridor on Sunday, March 23, 2025, for the annual Marche du Nain Rouge CBS News, the costume parade that exists to chase a small red imp out of Detroit.
DJ Minx played the Detroit Pistons halftime show in March 2025. It was her second halftime booking at Little Caesars Arena.
A benefit for Anthony Shake Shakir happened at Tangent Gallery on March 1, 2025. The room was packed.
Robert Encarnacion opened La Fonda Street in June 2024 and the Encarnacion coffee shop next to it as a soft opening that November.
Jonathan Peregrino spent fifteen years in corporate America before quitting to bake.
Five life-size animal sculptures went up along Bagley Street on Friday.
David Lew, the L.A. artist who goes by Shark Toof, sold the High Dive in September 2024.
Martell Mason got into coffee through trade dynamics, not espresso.
Detroit has a new techno venue. It used to make cars. Dreamtroit opened in September 2024 inside the former Lincoln Motor Factory.
The 44th annual Hamtramck Labor Day Festival ran August 31 through September 2, 2024. Joseph Campau Avenue from Caniff to Carpenter. Free admission.
The last brewery in Hamtramck closed in 1941. Auto City Brewing Company, gone since the early 1940s.
Collect spent six years on the second floor of a Gratiot building in Eastern Market, above what used to be Gather. In June 2024 the lease ran out.
Concert of Colors ran for the 33rd time from July 16 to 21, 2024, with most stages at the Detroit Institute of Arts and additional programming across the Detroit Historical Museum, the Charles H.
The second Mighty Real/Queer Detroit biennial opened tonight and runs through June 30.
Michigan Public's Stateside podcast spent its May 29 episode at Hamtramck Disneyland, a backyard sculpture installation atop two side-by-side garages at 12087 Klinger Street.
Tiffany Cartwright was the first finalist to take the stage on May 9 at the Wayne State University Industry Innovation Center.
Nine years after Metro Times stopped producing it, the Hamtramck Blowout came back.