Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges: Detroit
The Belt Alley
Downtown Detroit
January 20, 2026
In downtown Detroit, the Belt has become a major tourist attraction. It’s a reimagined alley, lined with bars, restaurants and the art gallery Library Street Collective. Each year, Library Street Collective’s “Public Matter” project brings new works of art to the Belt, adding an artistic element to an alley that’s already layered with murals.
The current exhibition is “Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges: Detroit,” which Library Street commissioned from photographer L. Kasimu Harris. It’s a locally focused version of his ongoing “Vanishing Black Bars” series. The photo project was born in his hometown of New Orleans and documents the disappearance of Black-owned bars across the country.
Detroit proves a perfect landing spot for Harris’ project and, as he tells it, it’s been a focus of his for a while.
“Detroit has always been a mythical city to me,” Harris wrote in a press release. “Detroit reminds me of my home, New Orleans — unapologetically Black and ever changing — both places where too many of our stories were never told. As I traveled throughout the African Diaspora and learned stories of Black bars, I knew the narrative would be incomplete without Detroit.”
One of my favorites (to drink at and to look at) is Jolly Old Timers, billed as one of the oldest Black social clubs in the country. It operates outside of an old house in the Cass Corridor, not far from this exhibit downtown.
The facade of Cutter’s Bar & Grill made Harris’ exhibit, too (the best mushroom swiss burger I’ve ever had in my life). Again, it’s just up the road from where this exhibit lives downtown. Zell’s Corner on the westside is here, too.
There’s something a little off about photos of these bars on a strip of other bars, restaurants and an art gallery that are not Black-owned and shill expensive cocktails and food that undoubtedly outpace your bar tab at Zell’s, Cutter’s or Jolly Old Timers (the best catfish sandwich I’ve ever had in my life).
The photos themselves, however, are lovely. They add depth to an already heavily stimulating alley, which is one of the most important things I look for with public art. Is it more dynamic than paint on the wall? Does it add to the scenery, or become static in an already noisy visual environment? Harris’ exhibit is a positive for the Belt.
Will the ethos behind Harris’ “Vanishing Black Bars & Lounges: Detroit” connect with people randomly strolling or drinking their way through the Belt? Not sure, but it’s got plenty of time as it's on display until this summer.
But hopefully, a few will notice and take some of their dollars from downtown to the Black-owned bars that are honored on the walls of the Belt.
