By: Kathryn Pentiuk | C&G Newspapers | Published December 18, 2024
DETROIT — The nonprofit Williams Park Alliance Inc. will host the second Brightmoor Lights Holiday Festival from Dec. 18 to Jan. 3, featuring life-sized illuminated holiday displays, including symbols of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas and more.
Darcy Street and the Etheldra Mae Williams Park will be transformed into a winter wonderland drive-thru experience, with holiday movies on a 21-foot screen, songs by carolers and a “Living Nativity” of residents volunteering as the inhabitants of Bethlehem. The event is free and open to the public. Cars may enter at 12191 West Outer Drive.
“We wanted to continue to add on to it,” said Williams Park Alliance parks manager Michael Williams. “So last year when we did this, we had a large fireplace that we created. We had, like, a 16-foot menorah. We had a 20-foot-wide (Kwanzaa) kinara. We had a star of Bethlehem, that was about maybe 10 to 12 feet tall. So we made these large ornaments to go into this light festival, and we wanted to add on each year. And this year, we were looking to come up with something that was large and creative. And myself and one of the artists, Chris, we came up with the idea of the Nutcracker, and these tubes that we have were perfect to actually make these creations.”
Twenty 12-foot-tall nutcrackers made by local artists from recycled materials will be on display and auctioned off starting at $500 to raise funds for the nonprofit’s mission of revitalizing blighted properties in Detroit. Williams explained that the first-place winner would win $500, the second-place winner would win $250, and the third-place winner would take home $100.
With total creative freedom, artists aged 23 to 73 years old have been working hard for the last two weeks to create unique masterpieces — from Naomi Sharp’s Plum Fairy Nutcracker made from purple carpet, silver duct tape and painted chicken wire to Dione Tripp’s “Mama Jwuanna,” which Williams described as a “whimsical mixture of Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock.”
Using vinyl, PVC pipes and pet food bags, Southfield artist Malia Alford drew inspiration from her childhood favorite board game, Candy Land, and the king of hearts card to create King Choco.
“His name is King Choco, and he’s the gigantic chocolate king of hearts,” she said. “And there’s actually a little storyline that I’m still working on, but it will be debuted at the show.”
Alford mentioned that the storyline will focus on promoting themes of love and kindness.
Another participating nutcracker artist is Amanda Koss, from Macomb Township.
“A lot of this piece has found objects from Macomb County,” Koss said. “It’s like a Buy Nothing group. So I source specific objects from them to kind of infuse that part of Macomb County into this project.”
Koss added that she is all about using found items that would normally be discarded to create works of art. To create her nutcracker, she cut up an 8-by-10-foot shag rug that she obtained from a Buy Nothing group, a drum she found in a pile of her kids’ stuff in the basement, and woodchips used for a barbecue smoker.
“Everything has a story and I just thought I’d bring Macomb Township to Detroit to Brightmoor,” she said.
Sister duo Gail Parks Alexander, of Farmington Hills, and Karen Robinson, of Detroit, teamed up to create a nutcracker adorned in pink and green inspired by Robinson’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha.
Robinson explained that she and Williams go way back; the two have known each other since they were 11 years old and graduated from Mumford High School together. She added that her sister was Williams’ elementary school teacher.
While Robinson typically does acrylic pours and incense bottles, when her lifelong friend approached her with the 12-foot nutcracker design, she couldn’t say no, so she enlisted the help of her sister and got to work.
Parks Alexander said that she’s all about the details.
“I helped my dear sister with my opinions,” she said.
Of collaborating with her sister, Robinson said, “I was happy she was able to because her little critiques, I must admit, worked well, but don’t tell her.”
Robinson added about Williams, “We’ve been out of school 45 years, but he always keeps in touch to let me know the things that are going on in Brightmoor, and I try to support him because I think it’s a really, really fantastic job what he’s doing for Detroit, and making sure that it’s not ignored.
“It’s a little spot that has been ignored for too long, and he’s bringing the light back to it, and the community is so receptive,” Robinson said.
Williams explained that since the founding of Williams Park Alliance Inc. in 2019, its mission has been to breathe new life into deteriorated properties by repurposing them.
The first property they repurposed is now Etheldra Mae Williams Park, named after his late mother.
“There’s a lot of properties throughout Detroit that the city were selling as side lots, and we through Wayne County Auction through the Detroit Land Bank, the Michigan Land Bank, and some through the city of Detroit were able to acquire quite a few lots,” he said, “And we’re doing what we can to repurpose those lots and to get those lots back in into shape and make them into something that’s useful, as opposed to something that’s not useful.”
He added that in addition to the nonprofit’s work in the community, outreach events like the Brightmoor Lights Holiday Festival are just one of the many free community outreach offerings meant to unite people.
“We do a minimum of eight free concerts throughout the summer,” he said.
“Every Tuesday, we have a free concert, live music, and we showcase local talent. We have two classic car shows, one in the spring and one in the fall. We have a food festival. We have a senior activities event, and we do health festivals, and then we partner with other nonprofits. We do things for children and youth.”
To learn more about the Williams Park Alliance Inc. or to donate, visit www.williamspark.org.