About
In Transit Detroit is a monthly world music concert series produced by Sean Blackman at the magnificent Garden Theater in Midtown Detroit on the last Thursday of every month. It’s all set in the spirit and celebration of our diverse Detroit and how we can shine a light on inclusion through the performing arts. We do this by integrating Detroit’s best diverse talent with Detroit’s funkiest, jazziest, Soulful rhythm section collectively on one stage. "This city is filled with virtuosic talent that the general public does not experience unless invited to a private cultural event," states Sean. In Transit Detroit is here to pull back the curtains on cultural treasures that are living among us. International performers residing in Metro Detroit now have a public platform to showcase their talents. They come together from China, India, the Middle East, Spain, Senegal, Argentina, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Native America and more, allowing the audience to experience how different parts of the world perform in collaboration. The show includes an elaborate production of music, dance, artisans and cuisine. Our diverse audiences, reached through cross-cultural marketing, fill the theater with dancing, laughter, and positive vibrations.
CONCEPT
In Transit Detroit is filling a cultural void in Detroit’s local performing arts scene by creating a public platform for Detroit’s best talent from different cultures. Each month is made unique by highlighting a different culture’s music, food, art & fashion and blending it with a Detroit flair. The In Transit Detroit world music concert series began February 2016, when it took it’s mixed-culture audience of close to 300 people on a journey to Argentina and Spain without leaving their seats. In the following months, In Transit Detroit highlighted West Africa and Brazil, then Puerto Rico, followed by France and then Armenia. we celebrated Latin America, India., and the Arab World. This monthly world music concert series is prepared to continue for years to come and hopes to inspire other Detroit venues to expand their cultural outreach through the performing arts.
RECOGNITION
In April 2016, In Transit Detroit was honored by the City Council of Detroit and Sean was awarded The Spirit of Detroit Award as a cultural leader. In Transit Detroit has also received a full page feature in the October 2016 issue of Hour Detroit magazine as well as features and interviews in local television, radio and print. It has also garnered a great deal of support from local globally conscious organizations such as Global Detroit and the International Visitor’s Council.
Sean is known to scour the world in search of its finest performers. He then connects them on one stage, blending cultures with his belief that harmony between people and groups can be achieved through music and the performing arts.
THE PRODUCER
Sean Blackman’s career is dedicated to bringing performers of different cultures together for multicultural and multi-media performances, world music lectures, school assemblies, composition & in-studio recordings. He is honored with many Detroit Music Awards, has launched and directed World Music Festivals and worked as creative director of entertainment for corporate events for Red Bull, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and the grand opening of the McNamara Terminal at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. As an established world-music artist, Blackman continues to compose and produce new material that links different genres of music with dance and theatrical performance. In Transit Detroit is Sean Blackman’s latest collaborative platform dedicated to creating the highest quality, most entertaining, educational and enlightening experiences with the goal of expanding the viewer’s knowledge and interest in international music and culture while exposing Detroit’s most virtuosic cultural and mainstream talent. Creating these multicultural ensembles weaves a common thread through musical history that has influenced one another over time. This then raises global awareness and brings us all closer together.