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Shawn

Author

Shawn

Editor

Shawn is the editor of Strait Journal and a working writer on the masthead. Beats: Detroit electronic music and its archive, neighborhood and place writing, the long-form profile, occasional civic and Hart Plaza pieces. Has covered Movement Festival across the 2024 and 2025 editions.

Started writing about Detroit in 2024 across scattered Substacks and group chats and one-off bylines, and consolidated the work as Strait Journal in 2026 under Strait Media Group. Files most often on the city's music history — Submerge, Planet E, the Belleville lineage — and on the rooms that have outlasted the trends that passed through them.

Born in Metro Detroit. Lived elsewhere for a while. Came back. Spends most weekends walking neighborhoods, mostly Mexicantown and Eastern Market lately. Drinks espresso in the morning and matcha most afternoons. Learning Spanish, slowly. Keeps a lot of house plants.

Started Strait Journal because the writing about Detroit was scattered across too many places, and the city deserves a publication that reads like it was made by someone who lives here.

Quick hits
Favorite room:
Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory, Belle Isle
Favorite restaurant:
Leila
One Detroit artist to put on first:
Matthew Dear

[email protected]

Recent work

Reverse chronological
Detroit showed up: a thousand fans pack Campus Martius for USA's World Cup opener
CommunityNews
Detroit showed up: a thousand fans pack Campus Martius for USA's World Cup openerRoughly a thousand Detroit soccer fans filled Campus Martius on Friday night to watch the United States open the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a 4-1 win over Paraguay at a watch party hosted by Detroit City FC, with more watch parties still to come this summer.By Shawn · Jun 13, 2026 Baker's Keyboard Lounge closes for renovations, plans June return under new management
MusicNews
Baker's Keyboard Lounge closes for renovations, plans June return under new managementThe world's oldest operating jazz club is getting new bathrooms, a refreshed stage, and a new management team before reopening on Livernois.By Shawn · May 30, 2026 A more walkable Greektown is set to open in mid-June
CommunityNews
A more walkable Greektown is set to open in mid-JuneThe 500 block of Monroe Street is set to open in mid-June, the first finished stretch of a streetscape project.By Shawn · May 28, 2026 Monday at Movement 2026: DJ Minx and Dom Dolla close a packed Hart Plaza
MusicReview
Monday at Movement 2026: DJ Minx and Dom Dolla close a packed Hart PlazaPaxahau's twentieth Movement closed Memorial Day with a full Hart Plaza. DJ Minx at the Pyramid, Dom Dolla at the Movement Stage, Sillygirlcarmen on the Detroit Stage, and the day-three crowd that Hart Plaza counts on every year.By Shawn · May 26, 2026 Movement 2026 opens at Hart Plaza with rain, techno, and tens of thousands
MusicNews
Movement 2026 opens at Hart Plaza with rain, techno, and tens of thousandsThe annual Memorial Day weekend techno festival kicked off Saturday at Hart Plaza with Dom Dolla, Carl Cox, and Sara Landry headlining. Rain was present. The crowds were not deterred.By Shawn · May 24, 2026 Spirit Plaza reopens on Woodward, hours before Movement starts
CityNews
Spirit Plaza reopens on Woodward, hours before Movement startsThe city reopens Spirit Plaza on Saturday morning, a few hours and a block away from Movement's opening gates at Hart Plaza.By Shawn · May 23, 2026 Detroit's skyline runs blue and green all month for NF Awareness
CommunityNews
Detroit's skyline runs blue and green all month for NF AwarenessMay is National Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month, and the Gilbert family's NFX campaign has lit up landmarks across downtown in the disorder's signature colors.By Shawn · May 22, 2026 Belle Isle is getting a new cycle track and a road reversal before Memorial Day
CityNews
Belle Isle is getting a new cycle track and a road reversal before Memorial DayThe DNR is rolling out road markings, a redesigned cycle track, and a direction flip on Central Avenue — all before the holiday weekend.By Shawn · May 21, 2026 Detroit Techno Week is official, timed to Movement's return to Hart Plaza
MusicNews
Detroit Techno Week is official, timed to Movement's return to Hart PlazaMayor Mary Sheffield signed a proclamation designating the Memorial Day stretch as Detroit Techno Week, honoring Paxahau's two decades producing Movement.By Shawn · May 20, 2026 Detroit's population grows for third straight year, adding over 5,000 residents
CityNews
Detroit's population grows for third straight year, adding over 5,000 residentsNew census estimates show Detroit added more than 5,000 residents over the past year, the third consecutive year of population growth for a city that spent most of the past half-century losing people.By Shawn · May 15, 2026 Vinyl lounge and cafe coming to Southwest Detroit
MusicPreview
Vinyl lounge and cafe coming to Southwest DetroitTigris Hi-Fi, a vinyl listening lounge and cafe, is opening this summer at 2545 Bagley St. in Southwest Detroit.By Shawn · May 14, 2026 Detroit lands a PWHL franchise
CityNews
Detroit lands a PWHL franchiseDetroit enters the PWHL as the ninth team for the 2026-27 season, backed by more than 4,500 season-ticket deposits and years of neutral-site momentum.By Shawn · May 12, 2026 Editor's note: ahead of Movement 2026
MusicSpotlight
Editor's note: ahead of Movement 2026Hart Plaza in May, before the stages go up. The river is still doing what the river does. The festival isn't here yet. We're getting ready to cover it.By Shawn · May 7, 2026 Metro Detroit logged 17 restaurant openings in April, plus two closings
EatsNews
Metro Detroit logged 17 restaurant openings in April, plus two closingsThe Detroit News tracked 17 bar, restaurant, and cafe openings across Metro Detroit in April 2026 alongside two closings, with Middle Eastern bowl concepts and bookstore-cafes making parallel debuts in Detroit and Ferndale.By Shawn · May 2, 2026 People Mover agency takes lead on Michigan Central transit hub
CityNews
People Mover agency takes lead on Michigan Central transit hubThe Detroit Transportation Corporation, which runs the People Mover, is now leading the planning for a new multimodal transit hub at Michigan Central, with a request for proposals for engineering studies due this summer and roughly $40 million identified in funding.By Shawn · May 2, 2026 Movement 2026 returns Memorial Day weekend: what to know
MusicPreview
Movement 2026 returns Memorial Day weekend: what to knowMovement Music Festival returns to Hart Plaza on Memorial Day weekend, May 23 through 25, 2026. Three days, six stages, Paxahau's twentieth at the helm.By Shawn · May 2, 2026 West Vernor shuts down for Detroit's Cinco de Mayo parade this Sunday
CommunityPreview
West Vernor shuts down for Detroit's Cinco de Mayo parade this SundayThe Mexican Patriotic Committee of Metro Detroit hosts the 61st annual Cinco de Mayo parade Sunday along West Vernor, with the theme Estamos Unidos.By Shawn · Apr 30, 2026 Detroit Youth Poetry Slam brings 15 teen poets to the Wright Museum on May 7
ArtsPreview
Detroit Youth Poetry Slam brings 15 teen poets to the Wright Museum on May 7InsideOut Literary Arts holds its annual youth poetry slam at the Charles H. Wright Museum on May 7, where 15 teens from the Citywide Poets program compete for a spot on the 2026 Detroit Youth Performance Troupe. By Shawn · Apr 30, 2026 Plans for 600-room Detroit hotel would require demolishing a 16-story building
CityNews
Plans for 600-room Detroit hotel would require demolishing a 16-story buildingDevelopers unveiled plans Wednesday for a 600-room hotel connected to Huntington Place, but building it means demolishing at least two downtown buildings including a 16-story tower. Construction would start in early 2027.By Shawn · Apr 30, 2026 We started a journal
CityNews
We started a journalI started writing about Detroit in 2024. So did several other people, in their own places: Substacks, group chats, pieces published in places that don't exist anymore.By Shawn · Apr 25, 2026 Carole Harris comes back to where she started
ArtsProfile
Carole Harris comes back to where she startedThe first solo show Carole Harris ever had was at Gallery 7, the Detroit space Charles McGee ran from 1969 to 1979 to give Black Detroit artists somewhere to exhibit.By Shawn · Apr 25, 2026 Inside the North End record shop keeping Detroit techno's vinyl archive alive
MusicProfile
Inside the North End record shop keeping Detroit techno's vinyl archive aliveSomewhere in Detroit, the retail counter inside the Submerge building, has run on appointments and word of mouth for two decades. The crates are the city's vinyl spine.By Shawn · Apr 20, 2025 Planet E Communications: Carl Craig's Detroit institution
MusicProfile
Planet E Communications: Carl Craig's Detroit institutionCarl Craig founded Planet E Communications in 1991. The label has run continuously since, which in Detroit techno is its own kind of accomplishment.By Shawn · Nov 22, 2024 Submerge: Underground Resistance's headquarters and Detroit's techno archive
MusicProfile
Submerge: Underground Resistance's headquarters and Detroit's techno archiveMike Banks established Submerge in 1992 as a distribution hub for Detroit's independent dance labels. The building at 3000 East Grand Boulevard now holds the closest thing the city has to a living techno archive.By Shawn · Oct 5, 2024 Detroit's record store map: Submerge, People's, Hello, and what's left
CommunityProfile
Detroit's record store map: Submerge, People's, Hello, and what's leftDetroit lost most of its record stores in the 2000s. The handful that survived run the city's vinyl economy and the techno-pilgrimage circuit at the same time.By Shawn · Aug 25, 2024 Looking back: how Movement survived on Hart Plaza
CitySpotlight
Looking back: how Movement survived on Hart PlazaMovement returns to Hart Plaza Memorial Day weekend for its 24th edition. The festival has changed names, owners, and economic models since 2000. The location has not.By Shawn · May 21, 2024