Joyce Garrett

JOYCE GARRETT

Bicentennial Director

Detroit's Bicentennial Commission, headed by Joyce Garrett, is well on its way to turning the nation's 200th birthday into an occasion for a uniquely exciting portrayal of the peoples and cultures that make up the city.

Garrett's present plans go beyond patriotic hype to a whole new level. Several major musical and other events will spotlight Detroit's outstanding contributions to American culture, especially black culture. Commitments are not yet finalized, but the word is that the musical portion of the Bicentennial festivals will be bringing home many monster Motor City entertainers who have become world-famous after making their start here. It promises to be the kind of show that will draw music lovers from all points of the compass--an eventuality which would no doubt delight Ms. Garrett's team, which has been working to bring it off for the past two years.

Ms. Garrett, 44, the partner of Mayor Coleman Young (her "loving friend" as she calls him), was born in Detroit and raised in Cleveland. After getting her degree from Smith, Joyce became the first black woman in the U.S. State Department's foreign service, spending some time in Venezuela. After returning to her original hometown, she worked as assistant director of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission -- where she met then-State Senator Young -- and director of the Wayne County Office of Human Relations. Joyce twice ran unsuccessfully for Wayne County Commissioner before getting the call to coordinate the city's Bicentennial observances.

Ms. Garrett sees the Detroit celebration as a very special opportunity for the people of the city to get in touch with their ethnic and cultural roots, to begin to appreciate their own collective contributions to the building of the city, and to find new ways to play a key role not only in the Bicentennial itself, but in the whole rebirth process now getting underway in the Motor City. It sounds like she and her staff will be throwing the most incredible party Detroit has seen in quite some time.