Last August, we moved to Lafayette Park in Detroit, and we are very fortunate to live in one of the houses designed by the German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the late 1950s. Our Mies unit is very similar to the kinds of European city apartments in which I grew up in Madrid, small rooms--very simple and austere spaces, narrow kitchen, eight-foot-high ceilings, and the sounds of your neighbors' voices through the shared walls. These Mies homes are special because their external walls are made of glass, allowing plenty of light to come through, warming our daily life.

On a recent sunny Sunday, a bright energy is tangible in the house. I just finished reading the labels of an upcoming show, Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement, which we have developed with the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. This exhibition will open on July 23, and it is part of the citywide effort to commemorate the events of 1967 in Detroit and across the country, powered by the Civil Rights movement. On the same date, the Wright museum will be opening Say It Loud: Art, History and Rebellion, an exhibition that complements the DIA's and vice versa. The Wright and DIA teams have developed both shows together, consulting community members through focus groups, advisory panels, and teams of young metro Detroiters.

It is the first time that the DIA and the Wright have collaborated so closely on an ambitious project. I am proud of the process and the results. The working experience has been remarkable and the July 23 openings will be a unique moment for both institutions. The DIA will be displaying an extraordinary group of works by artists of different backgrounds, who rendered with forceful and expressive language the social unrest of the time. Thanks to a fresh perspective and a sense of beauty, these artists created works that shed light on tough historical moments with a hopeful spirit and positive approach.

As I visualized these shows, I could hear my next door neighbors come back home and imagined the sounds of this place in 1967. I recently read that Dr. Martin Luther King used to sip Pepsi in the basement of what is now my home whenever he visited Detroit and that a number of Civil Rights initiatives were first discussed within these walls. At the time, this Mies unit belonged to his friend Judge George W. Crockett, Jr., once described in Ebony magazine as "Detroit's rebel and champion for justice for blacks." Dr. King and Judge Crockett envisioned a better world in the same place where I am writing. As the warm light keeps coming in, I feel honored to live here. I wish they could be with us on July 23.

For students with art work in the eightieth iteration of the Detroit public schools exhibition, inclusion in the show can have a lifelong impact. Having a piece in "a world-recognized institution is a moment to cherish and put on the resume," Willie McAllister, Jr, director of the Office of Fine Arts and Education for the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), told a group of young artists.

Interim DPSCD Superintendent Alycia Meriweather can attest to that. She says she'll "remember having art in the DIA for the rest of my life." In fact, she still has the two works that were exhibited years ago: a papier-maché puppet from when she was in fourth grade and a photograph taken in high school, both of which she brought to an opening event.

Some students whose works have been featured in the exhibition have gone on to pursue successful careers in the arts, including, among others, Tracy Reese, a New York-based fashion designer who has dressed the likes of former First Lady Michelle Obama, and Mario Moore, a New York-based contemporary painter whose works have been shown in exhibitions around the country.

This year, the exhibition includes nearly 400 objects, including ceramics, collages, drawings, videos, textiles, jewelry, paintings, photography, prints, and sculpture, submitted by students in grades K-12 from eighteen Detroit schools.

The partnership between the DIA and the Detroit schools is the longest standing continuous relationship the museum has with an educational organization.

May is circus time at the DIA. On Sunday, May 14, Formosa Circus Art presents an afternoon of acrobatics, street dance, juggling, drumming, martial arts, and extreme endurance. The following weekend, Saturday and Sunday, May 20 and 21, it's the puppet performance of Whatforward Circus out on the museum's North Lawn.

Formosa Circus Art breaks through the limitations of traditional circus forms, combining acrobatic stunts with modern dance and live theater. After the performance,Formosa artists will invite  audience members to participate in a short circus-art workshop.

Bring blankets or chairs and enjoy an afternoon on our lawn for an outdoor spectaclar with Bread and Puppet Theater. Complete with Mongolian hordes, singing toilets, and stilted flying businessmen, Whatforward Circus features a group of stone-age technology puppeteers, brass players, and percussionists fighting the monster Big Fat Wrong.The whole family is invited to dance and sing along.

Every DIA Awesome weekend includes family-friendly guided tours, art-making workshops, gallery art games, and, on Sundays, drawing in the galleries. Activities are free with museum admission, except for the Animation Club screenings, which are free for members and $5 for the general public.

Two lectures in the Arts and Minds series, an author talk by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and a discussion about fashion are on the schedule for May.

The jazz age, art deco, Paris, and Detroit come together in "The Jazz Age: Paris and Its Influence on Art Deco Design of the 1920s and '30s," a talk on Saturday, May 13 by the curator of product design and decorative arts at the Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum in New York. Sarah Coffin explores how jazz and art deco style profoundly changed American taste following the tour of 400 objects, selected from a Paris exhibition, to eight American museums, including the DIA, in 1926.

Contemporary African art is the subject of "From the Village to the Academy: Experiments with Uli Art in Eastern Nigeria," an artist talk by Tayo Adenaike on Sunday, May 21. The African Uli graphic symbols painted on Igbo women's bodies and decorating walls of houses and compounds in Eastern Nigeria offer a rich vein for artistic experimentation among the mostly male artists at Nsukka, Nigeria. Artist Adenaike shares the Uli story and his work from the vantage point of an insider.

Detroit-born, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Maraniss comes to the DIA on Tuesday, May 23 to talk about his newest book, Once in a Great City: A Detroit Story, a snapshot of the people, culture, and politics of Detroit at the height of its prosperity in the early 1960s. Maraniss also discusses his experiences as a writer. A book signing follows the lecture, which is a part of " Everyone's Reading," a community-wide program sponsored by metro Detroit public libraries in Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties. This event is free with museum admission, but advanced registration is required.

Influential fashion expert Andre Leon Talley holds a conversation with Cuban American fashion designer Isabel Toledo and her husband, artist Ruben Toledo, on Wednesday, May 24. Talley, known informally as Monsieur Vogue for his years as an editor at the magazine, has been a front-row regular at fashion shows in New York, Paris, London, and Milan for more than twenty-five years.

It's Members' Double Discount Days in the shop from Friday, May 13 through Sunday, May 21, with a special evening event to kick things off. Members get the first look at spring merchandise a chance to meet local artisans Tom Michael (Odyssey Glass), Carla Piper (Siesta Fordite Jewelry) and Sean Berner (I Like Paper). So we know how many people to expect and how much complimentary light snacks to have on hand, please reserve a time spot.

Mother's Day is May 14 and the shop has a selection of gifts for moms of all types: desk accessories for the organized, floral themed gifts for gardeners, books and art supplies for the crafters, and a range of home items for those who love to entertain. Shop in-store or online using our gift center for easy shopping.

You can now recycle at the DIA with bins and containers placed strategically around the museum. In CaféDIA and Kresge Court look for single stream containers that are for paper, bottles, cans, and plastics. There is no need to sort the materials, but keep in mind that we can't take plastic bags, styrofoam, or napkins. In the Woodward, Farnsworth, and John R lobbies, you can leave behind maps and other printed materials you may have picked up in containers for collecting paper only. We're recycling behind the scenes too, in the offices and the kitchen. Please help us help the planet.