Framed by WDET: From LA to Detroit
“Running around with a Good Times plaque on the back…that meant that the birthplace of lowriding gave you an OK.” – Victor Villalobos
Framed by WDET is an audio-visual experience produced in partnership with 18 artists, who tell the story of moments and spaces where people come together and find belonging in and around Detroit.
In the Framed by feature, Rolling Canvases, producer Martina Guzman and photographer Erik Paul Howard present in scenes and sounds the evolution of lowrider culture in Detroit.
From the internationally known Good Times Car Club to a local teenager’s quinceañera, Rolling Canvases details the music, design, and relationships present in Detroit’s lowrider scene, thriving at the intersection of family, creativity and pride. In the story, LA to Detroit, Guzman speaks with Abel Perez-Flores, who moved to the Motor City in the 90s and brought lowrider life with him.
“I was here in 1999, and there was barely a few,” says Perez Flores about lowriders in Detroit. “And now there’s a lot. A lllllllllot.”
She also speaks with Victor Villalobos, Southwest Detroit’s lowrider ambassador who was also pivotal in brining the Good Times Car Club to the city.
“Running around with a Good Times plaque on the back,” he says, “that meant something. That meant that the birthplace of lowriding gave you an OK.”
To hear more about lowrider culture in the Motor City, click the audio player above.
Framed by WDET continues to evolve, and this year we’re partnering with Grand Circus Magazine to bring this series of stories and photographs to life in a photo book and gallery exhibition. Learn how you can support WDET and back this project at wdet.org/kickstarter.
