Foundations, corporations, and religious organizations donated about $3 million to build the tiny home community for people who most need housing. Brown’s baseless allegations, Fowler says, have also made residents and nonprofit employees uncomfortable. In April 21, Brown wrote a newsletter for residents that accused a neighbor and employee of sni ng cocaine and labeled her a “samba” and “picaninny.” CCSS decided to sue Brown when she began accusing the nonprofit of breaking the law. “When she started saying ‘charity fraud,’ you can’t do that,” Fowler says. First o , you don’t have any evidence. We are squeaky clean.” Fowler takes some of the claims personally. A longtime pastor at the Cass Community United Methodist Church, she has spent many years helping Detroiters secure housing and jobs. Detroit has the highest poverty rate among big cities and a chronic level of homelessness. The tiny homes are one step toward addressing poverty and racial discrimination in mortgages, Fowler says. Of the 21 residents living in the tiny homes, 20 are Black. In two years, the first wave of tenants will become homeowners, Fowler says. “People often move in with nothing, and in seven years their house is going to be worth $70,000,” Fowler says. “It truly is a springboard for a better life.” Fowler says the Detroit Eviction Defense has never reached out to her and that she was going to agree to mediation to work out the problems with Brown. “She asked for mediation, and we said ‘yes’ to it, and then she asked for a lot of money, and that didn’t feel right to me,” Fowler says. What happens next may turn ugly. If the court evicts Brown, she says she’s not leaving, and volunteers with the Detroit Eviction Defense have pledged to create a barricade to prevent eviction. “We’ve done it quite a bit in the past,” Day says. For now, rown remains defiant. “I’m not going to move even if the court evicts me,” Brown says. “It’s a chance I have to take.” With an eviction on her record, it would be almost impossible to find a new apartment. That leaves CCSS with a tough decision to make. “Then what do I do?” Fowler asks. “Let her live there and not let someone else move in?” The next court hearing is set for June 1.
8 May 25-31, 2022 | metrotimes.com
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Russian DJ Nina Kraviz is no longer performing at Detroit’s Movement Festival B y L ee D eV ito
Russian DJ Nina Kraviz is no longer performing at Detroit’s Movement Festival, according to a tweet by the event’s organizers. No reason was given. “Nina Kraviz is unable to play Movement this year,” the festival tweeted last week. “Stay tuned for updated lineup and set times.” Kraviz had faced calls for her boycott due to past social media posts that her critics interpreted as in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as her silence on the recent invasion of Ukraine. Kraviz broke her silence to release a statement on her Instagram account, saying, “It’s appalling what my country’s relations with Ukraine have become,” and “I am praying for peace.” Following Kraviz’s post, a group called the Ukrainian-American Crisis Response Committee of Michigan released its own statement, continuing to call for her removal from the festival. “Kraviz’s statement fails to address what have clearly been her pro-Putin attitudes,” the group said. “Her refusal to acknowledge that Russia has launched an unprovoked war against Ukraine and her characterization of the Russian invasion as “her country’s relations with Ukraine” is unsatisfactory. This is the same doublespeak used by Russian state representatives like Dmitri Peskov to attempt to justify this war. Kraviz avoids engaging with these issues by claiming that she does not engage in politics — however, this is not a matter of politics, but a matter of justice.” Kraviz’s alleged “pro-Putin” posts include a 2014 photo of her posing with a cardboard cutout of the Russian president, taken at the Coachella festival, as well as a 2016 tweet of a meme depicting Putin at a rave. Her publicist told M etro Times the posts were taken out of context. Kraviz is the third artist in recent weeks to suddenly drop out of the
Movement festival, which returns to Detroit’s art la a for the first time since 2019. Last week, the popular dubstep artist Skrillex announced he was pulling out to focus on his new music. “I hope you understand that this was a very di cult decision for me to make but I’ll be back soon with the show you all deserve,” he wrote on Instagram. The festival announced he would be replaced with local artist GRiZ. Then, a little more than a week before the festival, Los Angeles-based artist Flying Lotus announced he was pulling out to attend his sister’s wedding. “My lil sister is getting married and there’s no way I can miss that. Hope you’ll forgive meeeee,” he tweeted. Last week, the festival announced that Flying Lotus would be performing at Movement after all, rescheduling his set for Monday. He is replacing Kraviz’s spot on the schedule.
White supremacists are convicted of training for a civil war in Michigan
Three members of a militant white supremacist group were the first in Michigan to be convicted of conspiring to train with firearms for a civil war, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced last week. The men belong to The Base, a proHitler movement that advocates a race war against non-white people with the goal of using violence “to overthrow the existing social and political order,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. Justen Watkins, Thomas Denton, and Tristan Webb were charged in August 2021 with larceny in a building, gang membership, felony possession of a firearm, and conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil war. They were accused of breaking into the vacant Michigan Department of Corrections Camp Tuscola annex and Tuscola Residential ReEntry Program in Caro in October 2020 and stealing state-issued clothing from one of the jails. Prosecutors allege they were scoping the site as potential training grounds for “hate camps,” which is the name the group gave its paramilitary firearms training exercises. “Securing these convictions on the conspiracy to train for civil disorder holds significance for many reasons, Nessel said in a statement. “They reiterate this o ce’s commitment to protecting Michigan residents, they create a historic precedent in our state’s court system, and they convey the real danger domestic terrorism
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poses here and around the country. I appreciate the thorough work done by our team and partner agencies to secure these convictions. Let them send the message that in Michigan, we will not hesitate to prosecute those who commit crimes in the name of overthrowing our government or perpetuating racist ideologies.” Webb pleaded no contest Monday to gang membership, conspiracy to train with firearms for a civil disorder, and felony possession of a firearm. His sentencing hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet. Watkins pleaded guilty to the same charges in April and will be sentenced on June 12. Denton was sentenced to up to four years in prison on the same charges. The case was investigated by the FBI. “The pleas serve as an example of the FBI’s continued commitment to work alongside its law enforcement partners at every level to protect the security of our nation —even when Federal criminal statutes may not be available,” said James A. Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit Field ce, in a statement. A fourth member of the group, Alfred Gorman, pleaded guilty to gang membership and was sentenced to four years of probation on Feb. 28 in connection with another incident. Gorman and Watkins were charged in October 2020 for terrorizing a family in Dexter. The men were accused of targeting what they mistakenly believed was a home owned by Daniel Harper, a podcaster who combats white nationalism on “I Don’t Speak German.” The home was owned by a man with the same name, but not the podcaster. In September 2019, a U.S. Army soldier in Kansas was arrested on accusations of providing instructions online about how to build bombs to burn down Harper’s house. —Steve Neavling
