turning “The D” into a song, a music video and a featurelength documentary. Allee, 65, says she’s been waiting her whole life for a project like this. “I never got to do what it is that I think I’m best at doing,” she says. “I’ve had achievements in a lot of separate fields, but I always, from the very beginning, saw myself as a multimedia artist in the true sense of the word.” She’d been looking for a “big idea” that allowed her to combine all her talents. “It’s always been a bit frustrating for me,” says Allee. “But I just kept pushing until someone gave me a chance to finally do it on the scale that I know I’m capable of doing it. And I guess that’s what this Detroit project was.” Allee had grown tired of what she considered to be the “excessively undeserved” bad rap with which her hometown had been saddled. Plus, she adds, she saw a lot of similarities between her own life story and that of Detroit. Says Allee: “I think it’s potentially a model city for this century, the same way it was for the last, because it’s really dealing with the realities of what happens when you lose everything. And as a self-funded artist, I know what that’s like.” She’s already witnessed “The D” project bringing a renewed sense of pride to Detroiters. And she hopes it tells
Mumford High School in northwest Detroit was one of many locations where throngs gathered to sing along to “The D,” a song celebrating the Motor City. Proceeds from the song, video and documentary will benefit local arts organizations. the real story of the Motor City to the outside world. “Whenever I would go home, I wouldn’t see this city that everyone else was seeing falling apart,” Allee says. “You have to really drive in Detroit to find those buildings with those blown-out windows. Otherwise, it’s gorgeous and it’s filled with the most soulful people in the world who just don’t give up.” This isn’t Allee’s first time experimenting with a massive collaboration. “I started developing a social network on the Internet in 1992, which was excessively early for something like that,” she notes. “I was always interested in, ‘What’s a song if a trillion people are collaborating on it, not just two?’ With Detroit, it’s almost like I’ve got that collaboration with a live city.” Allee is living proof that the only person putting limits on your potential is yourself. “I don’t know how to read, write or play music,” she says. “I don’t really know how to do anything I do. I just always want to do it so bad I would figure out some way to do it. Luckily enough, I was able to knock a few of them out of the park, so
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