Acclaimed cultural critics of our time – those whose goosebump-worthy words can both offer recommendations on, say, the best places to eat and change ways of thinking, offering a lens through which to understand art and politics ‒ are descending on Detroit’s Michigan Central next week.
The office of the Pulitzer Prizes will bring winners and finalists of perhaps the most coveted award in journalism to the city’s newly refurbished Michigan Central Station on March 26 for a panel discussion on cultural criticism. The event is part of the award organization’s Pulitzer on the Road series and will feature four experts in the field, including Free Press dining and restaurant critic Lyndsay C. Green.
Green was a 2023 Pulitzer finalist. The Free Press is a media sponsor of the event, which also is being put on by the Knight Foundation.
Works celebrated by the Pulitzer Prizes can, in a way, die after their win, said Marjorie Miller, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. Events like the one in Detroit are meant, in part, to give them new life.
It’s also a chance to share what it takes to create these works, Miller said. On the topic of cultural criticism, she expects panelists will delve into how opinion pieces differ from other journalistic works and said she hopes the writers will touch on how the genre has changed in recent years due to the prominence of social media.
“On social media, everybody’s a critic, right?” Miller said, adding there’s evidence people trust friends’ opinions more than professional ones.
“So I’m interested in hearing them talk about how they address that, how they try to counter. … Why should I read them instead of my brother-in-law? Or in addition to?”
There’s been a lot of talk about the “booming cultural work” in Detroit, Miller said. That and the presence of Green on the ground were draws for the program to make a stop.
Green will be joined by film critic Justin Chang of The New Yorker and film and popular culture critic Wesley Morris of The New York Times. The group will also be led by Jelani Cobb, a Pulitzer Prize Board member and dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
Chang won in 2024 for his criticism at the Los Angeles Times with pieces that explored both the idea of erasure raised around the blockbuster “Oppenheimer” and how he saw the representationally significant “Everything Everywhere All at Once” as still par for the Oscars’ course. Morris won in both 2021 and 2012. Among his winning pieces on the intersection of race and culture in America was one that grippingly explored the most important filmmakers of the moment as Black people with camera phones. Cobb was recognized for his skillful commentary, particularly on race, during the first Trump administration.
Green got her nod “for rigorously reported coverage of restaurant openings and recommended dishes that also serve as an immersive cultural portrait of a vital American city,” according to her page on the official Pulitzer website.
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Green said it’s especially important in the predominantly Black city of Detroit that the entire panel is Pulitzer Prize-recognized journalists who are people of color.
The panel being all journalists of color wasn’t necessarily a conscious choice, but more of a happy outcome as they searched for great critics and board members to speak, by Miller’s description.
There’s an element of “I can do it, too” that is conveyed by the panel, said Green.
Once upon a time, criticism was a field without much diversity, said Nicole Avery Nichols, Detroit Free Press editor and vice president. It’s part of what has made Green’s award recognitions so meaningful.
“We’re standing on so many shoulders in that regard,” Avery Nichols said.
Criticism is also a shrinking field, she said. Yet the Free Press has been able to sustain.
It also has sustained its legacy as a Pulitzer-recognized newspaper and one that readers trust for entertainment and practical direction when it comes to restaurants, Avery Nichols said.
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She expressed particular excitement at the event being a chance to connect with readers. Green highlighted the chance to talk with other panelists about that important connection, too.
“In the same way that we’re bringing ourselves to the work (in criticism) … if we’re going to talk about culture, I don’t want to be talking to myself,” Green said. “I want to have that dialogue.”
Along those lines, some of the panelists will speak with Wayne State University and Henry Ford College students in journalism, media, film and writing programs earlier in the day, according to a news release.
And the Free Press is giving away tickets to subscribers for the main event. It kicks off at 6 p.m. at the former train station on the Michigan Central campus, specifically at the South Concourse at 2001 15th Street. The panel discussion will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., with a reception to follow.
The event is free but registration is required through the Michigan Central website. Event organizers already opened up more spots once after the initial registration roster filled up earlier this month.
The Free Press will be giving out 12 pairs of tickets from Wednesday until the eve of the event to subscribers who register through an online form.
At one point, cultural criticism may have been seen as lofty, high-brow and academic, but “it’s important for us to unpack where we are as a society, as communities, as culture” and recognize how arts, politics and more are impacting how we live, said Avery Nichols.
“On the lighter side, who doesn’t want to talk about books and film and performances and meals and sports and things like that,” she said.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pulitzer Prize-recognized dining, film critics to talk shop in Detroit
