密歇根新闻广播 修复标志性的底特律酒吧

 

Some of jazz's most iconic musicians have graced the stage at the Blue Bird Inn on Detroit's West Side. But the once popular bar at 5021 Tireman has stood empty for more than a decade. Now, there's an effort to restore the historic venue¹ for a new era.

The Detroit Sound Conservancy is a nonprofit focused on music preservation² in the city of Detroit. Carleton Gholz is its executive director. Gholz says the building will eventually serve as a home to the nonprofit, a depository for its archives of Detroit music history, as well as a live music venue.

But that is going to take some major work.

You know the building has just gone through a lot. There's a lot of waterlogged stuff…You can see the light coming through the roof. You know, the tin ceiling has sort of falling in, Gholz said.

A few weeks ago, more than a dozen volunteers met up at the Blue Bird on a Saturday to get that work started. They shoveled³ dirt and debris⁴ into heavy duty garbage bags, pulled up weeds from the sidewalk out front, and cut down the overgrown backyard.

There is not much left in the interior of the building aside from support poles, a few of which feature small mirrored tiles. Gholz said many of the artifacts from the Blue Bird, things like photos, artwork, and chairs, were stolen after the bar's then-owner passed away in 2003. The Detroit Sound Conservancy did manage to salvage⁵ and restore the stage from the Blue Bird several years ago.

Some of jazz's most iconic names, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, were just a few of the musicians to step foot on the small stage over the years. There was also a local band, and musicians who played on Motown and United Sound System tracks.

They all learned how to play music on this stage and in this audience, said Gholz.

The Blue Bird Inn was also a community gathering⁶ space for the West Side.

Oh we had church members that we said came from the Blue Bird to church on Sunday. They were here Saturday, and they went from here to church, said lifelong West Side resident LaVeta Browne.

As the Blue Bird became a go-to spot for bebop and jazz in the city during the late 1940s, the surrounding neighborhood was also going through massive change.

I don't know how many people realize, but Tireman was the division line for segregation⁷ in Detroit, explained Browne. It was a covenant⁸ that blacks lived on the south side of Tireman and whites lived on the north side of Tireman.

Just a couple of blocks away from the Blue Bird Inn, there's a historical marker commemorating⁹ Orsel and Minnie McGhee. They were the black Detroit family who moved into the all-white neighborhood north of Tireman in 1944. After neighbors attempted to enforce a racist¹⁰ housing covenant that forbade selling the property to non-white owners, the McGhees took their case all the way to the U.S. Supreme¹¹ Court. In 1948, the Court struck down racist housing covenants¹² in Detroit and St. Louis, opening up the neighborhood north of Tireman to more black families.

Sheila Allen-Frazier, another lifelong West Sider, lives on the same block as the McGhee house. Allen-Frazier says that growing up, no one in the neighborhood really thought of the Blue Bird Inn as being a historic site.

It was just a neighborhood bar, just a neighborhood bar where everybody knew your name, she said with a laugh.

Allen-Frazier said the Blue Bird holds special memories for a lot of people in the neighborhood. She said it was a tradition amongst her friends that when they turned 18, they came to the Blue Bird and had Clarence, the bartender, serve them their first legal drink.

It was a wonderful place to be. You know this area was a wonderful place. And I'm hoping we can get it back to where it once was, she said.

Support for arts and culture coverage¹³ comes in part from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.

1 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

2 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

3 shoveled   

vt.铲，铲出（shovel的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The hungry man greedily shoveled the food into his mouth. 那个饥饿的人贪婪地、大口大口地吃。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• They shoveled a path through the snow. 他们在雪中铲出一条小路。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

5 salvage   

v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救

参考例句：

• All attempts to salvage the wrecked ship failed.抢救失事船只的一切努力都失败了。
• The salvage was piled upon the pier.抢救出的财产被堆放在码头上。

6 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

7 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

8 covenant   

n.盟约，契约；v.订盟约

参考例句：

• They refused to covenant with my father for the property.他们不愿与我父亲订立财产契约。
• The money was given to us by deed of covenant.这笔钱是根据契约书付给我们的。

9 commemorating   

v.纪念，庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was presented with a scroll commemorating his achievements. 他被授予一幅卷轴，以表彰其所做出的成就。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The post office issued a series commemorating famous American entertainers. 邮局发行了一个纪念美国著名演艺人员的系列邮票。 来自互联网

10 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

11 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

12 covenants   

n.（有法律约束的）协议( covenant的名词复数 )；盟约；公约；（向慈善事业、信托基金会等定期捐款的）契约书

参考例句：

• Do I need to review the Deed of mutual Covenants (DMC)? 我是否需要覆核公共契约(DMC)吗？ 来自互联网
• Many listed and unlisted companies need to sell to address covenants. 许多上市公司和非上市公司需要出售手中资产，以满足借贷契约的要求。 来自互联网

13 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。