WhatUpDoe Fest

WhatUpDoe Fest™ highlights Detroit’s unique musical and artistic culture with a daylong event featuring local DJs and installations by Detroit artists. Inspired by Tiff Massey’s engagement with the Fitzgerald neighborhood, which began with her purchase of a former bank building, Whatupdoe Fest was conceived as an opportunity to connect and engage with the Fitzgerald community by creating a welcoming space for neighbors across the city to gather. Recognizing a lack of local community spaces and fine art engagement outside of Detroit’s midtown and downtown areas, the vision is a free, family-oriented social event that celebrates the vibrancy of Detroit’s creative culture.   Opening with a community yoga session followed by a daylong progression of performances by area DJs, WhatupDoe Fest presents the opportunity to experience both established and emerging artists in a space that reflects the individuality of their unique practices. The festival aims to uplift all aspects of the city’s rich creative history, exploring avenues of culture that have led to the city’s aesthetic influence on a worldwide scale.   

Event Details

September 1 

10 am - 10 pm 

15911 Wyoming Detroit Michigan  

About Tiff Massey

Massey is a Detroit artist whose practice centers around adornment and community. Massey creates jewelry, sculpture, performance, video, and music, as well as immersive art environments. Massey was the first Black woman to earn an MFA in metal smithing from the Cranbrook Academy of Art. She draws on 1980s hip-hop culture and her experiences as a Detroit native to examine the concept of adornment as an examination of the African diaspora and contemporary issues of race, class, and popular culture. Inspired by the jewelry she crafts for herself and others, these sculptural works address notions of self-identity, community, and of being a part of a place and group.