I’ve written a lot of love letters to Detroit, even when it frustrates me. And if there are things that don’t frustrate you about Detroit, I’d argue that you may not be living anywhere near it.
It’s a difficult place, even at its best. As in any fight with a loved one, however, I always end up saying, “We can make this work, even with all the imperfections.”
Many of my columns for Hour Detroit have been just that. Dreams of Detroit dreaming bigger, of being better — things you’d want for any partner. I’m writing for the people who give it their all — in business or in life or in leisure or whatever. It may not be the way I’d do it, but I’m glad you’re doing it at all.
And that’s the thing. It often ends up with my realizing that the people who call Detroit home are the biggest reason I love it.
For Valentine’s Day, this is a love letter to some of those folks.
Like Detroit photographer and filmmaker Stephen McGee, who poured a cool 20 years into making a documentary about Detroit called Resurgo: The Rise from Within. It’s far from the talking head vanity narrative that so many docs have been withered down to in the streaming era.
“I didn’t want to make a movie about Detroit,” says McGee. “I wanted to make a movie that was Detroit … a visual symphony.”
Resurgo is a beautifully shot fever dream dedication that bounces between McGee’s own experiences here as a resident and former Detroit Free Press photographer. And I can’t really overstate how gorgeous this doc is. The visuals do a lot of the heavy work while the narrative floats, bouncing from here to there and sometimes struggling to find its footing or true message.
But that’s the beauty of it. I’ve always felt we’re a little too rigid about telling Detroit’s story because there are simply too many stories to whittle down into a convenient narrative. Resurgo is at its best by accepting this reality. Kudos to McGee for understanding this concept.
And for bringing Detroit’s poet laureate jessica Care moore along for the ride. There’s no better voice to be sitting shotgun. She’s a producer on the film and lends her writing and voice to the doc, too.
For years, I admired moore’s work from a distance before our lives crashed together following the death of a mutual friend, Kwame “Q” Beard, in 2019. Moore wrote a poem — a love letter — to what Q had represented to the city as an unsung artist and all-around character in the Cass Corridor, which often gets rebranded and sold as “Midtown” today.
“He represents a metaphor for what Detroit is and what we need to hold onto,” moore told me during an interview at that time. “We cannot let those kinds of energies be swept under the rug or let them pass away and not call his name and talk about him. That’s what makes Detroit great is that we have people like Q.”
And in my love letter to Detroit, it’s great that we have people like McGee and moore finding ways to tell the story of what matters most in this city: the people who call it home.
Upcoming Screenings of Resurgo: The Rise from Within
Jan. 30
Feb. 19, March 5, 12, 26, April 16
March 7
Farmington Hills Film Festival
May 2
Fresh Coast Film Festival: Traverse City
Ryan Patrick Hooper is the host of In the Groove on 101.9 WDET Detroit Public Radio (weekdays from noon to 3 p.m.).
This story originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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