Thirty-five years ago, just two years after transforming his beloved but impoverished and refuse-laden neighborhood into a full-blown outdoor installation of ‘found’ art, Tyree Guyton and his guerrilla movement of urban enthusiasts, artists, and art lovers made it official by turning his passion project into a not-for-profit corporation and educational foundation, a process that led to The Heidelberg Street Project becoming one of Detroit’s most famous go-to attractions and tourist destinations.

I remember Tyree’s journey well and had the good fortune of documenting it in THE VOODOO MAN OF HEIDELBERG STREET, a prime-time doc I directed with my producing partners, Local 4 – WDIV and DETROIT PUBLIC TV.

Other films may have since been produced about Tyree’s work, but “Voodoo Man” was the first and, as far as I know, the only one that included a rare interview with Tyree’s mentor and biggest fan, his grandfather and fellow artist, Sam Mackey.

“People wouldn’t come through the street here; it was so bad,” Grandpa told me. “But now it’s clean, people coming through here who never been here before, who didn’t know there was a short street named Heidelberg.”

Proving once again Bette Midler had it right. When she played Detroit in the early seventies, the Devine Miss M told her adoring audience how impressed she was with the city because she never met so many people who, in her words, “knew how to make the best of such an impossible situation.”