Contributors: April 2009

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James Gulliver Hancock

After working and living in Indonesia, Austria, France, and the United Kingdom, Hancock now makes Los Angeles the home base for his illustration career. He was trained in visual communications in Sydney, Australia. Hancock’s work is varied and includes editorial illustration, art commissions from musical groups, and animation. Of his work in this issue (page 28), he says he wanted to “inject a bit of humor” into the topic of Michigan’s aging population by depicting production-line robots knitting a scarf instead of making cars. His work has appeared in The Times (London), The Telegraph (Australia), ESPN Magazine, and Marie Claire.

Jim Dulzo

A Detroit native, Dulzo studied journalism and music literature at the University of Michigan before working as a rock and jazz DJ, jazz columnist for The Detroit News, and director of Ypsilanti’s Frog Island Music and Montreux-Detroit Jazz festivals. He then pointed his pen toward environmental issues, and even wrote a few green articles for Hour Detroit before moving to Beulah, Mich., and a job with the Michigan Land Use Institute. Dulzo is managing editor of the Institute’s Web site, publishing in-depth news about bolstering local food and farming, stopping coal plants, encouraging renewable energy, and protecting Great Lakes water. “It was fun to talk to Gerald Cleaver (page 31) and get back in touch with my former life among Detroit’s blues and jazz giants,” he says.

Alexa Stanard

A freelance journalist and frequent Hour Detroit contributor, Stanard never went to summer camp while growing up in Port Huron. But reporting her story on camps for children with special medical needs (page 38) inspired her to consider trying the experience as an adult. “The camp director for Special Days Camp, which helps children with cancer and their siblings, was so passionate and enthusiastic that, by the end of our interview, she had talked me into volunteering at this year’s camp,” Stanard says. “She also told me I should go back to nursing school. (I was pre-nursing, once upon a time.) For now, we’ll just start with the camp.”

Joe Vaughn

Photographing seven sports figures in fairly rapid-fire succession has its stresses. For the photo feature on page 62, Vaughn typically had two hours of set-up time and a mere seven to 10 minutes per subject. But the brief interactions had their rewards. “Shooting Tom Izzo was very cool — he’s a really nice and funny guy,” says Vaughn, a regular Hour Detroit contributor. “At the time, he was coming off a loss to Purdue and I thought his mood would be pretty sour, but he was in really good spirits.” For his “mouth close-up,” Vaughn asked the Michigan State basketball coach to say what he might utter to players during a game. “Are you crazy?” Izzo said. “There are ladies in the room.”