- Welcome to "American Black Journal", I'm your host Stephen Henderson.

It's almost time for the Annual Movement Festival at Detroit's Hart Plaza.

More than 115 electronic music artists are gonna take over the stage on Memorial Day weekend.

Meanwhile, plans are underway for the creation of a museum that will preserve and celebrate Detroit's really important legacy as the birthplace of techno and hip-hop culture.

It's called the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music.

Joining me now is the museum's Founder and Executive Director, Adriel Thornton.

Welcome back to "American Black Journal".

- Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me.

- Yeah, so we are getting ready for Movement.

We were talking before about just how this is not an event like other events in the city where it happens in a place and you gotta go to that place to be part of it.

Movement now takes over the city and almost the region in terms of where people are, and what they're doing, and who's hosting what, and what you can do.

I mean, it's four or five days now of- - Yeah.

- Of just fun.

- Yeah, I mean, it really starts the week of, you know?

- Yeah.

- You know, Movement is the Memorial weekend, you know, that Friday, Saturday... Saturday, Sunday, Monday, but it is definitely, you know, starting way before that, you know, with the events, and showcases, and parties, you know, from basically Monday through, you know, from that Monday, the week before.

- The next Monday, right?

- Yeah.

You can't, really, you can't book a place.

- Yeah.

- You know, I mean, there's programming all over the city, so it is actually really quite incredible.

- Yeah, yeah.

When you think about the origins of Movement, of course, I think you have to think about the origins of techno.

They kind of moved together through our history here.

But in 2026, I'm always curious sort of what people think about what that means now and maybe how it's different than it was when you and I were young men.

(both laugh) Was starting.

It does feel different in many ways.

- Yeah, you know, I think that one of the things is, you know, when you really look back down at the sort of origins of it.

You know, I was a kid, and my older cousins and brothers and stuff, we're really that group of young black high school kids who were really the ones who really adopted this first.

- Yeah.

- And who were listening to it.

And, you know, I remember hearing my, like I said, my older cousins listening to this... What was called progressive at the time.

- Yeah, right, right.

- And also on the radio, you know, you had The Electrifying Mojo and then later on The Wizard AKA Jeff Mills.

- Yeah.

- Who were starting to play this stuff, but also on the scene.

- Right, right.

- On WGPR, and then later "The New Dance Show".

But then it was... That was really inner city black music.

- Yes.

- And, you know, that's what you heard at backyard barbecues or someone's basement party, you know?

And again, it wasn't really necessarily defined as techno at that point, but it was just some get down.

- Yeah, right.

- Music.

But you really think about it is really odd in a sense that like this music that was, you know, inspired by like Kraftwerk, and George Clinton, and the whole Parliament-Funkadelic thing, and Prince was, really, was shouldn't avoid tear, really did.

- Yeah.

- You know?

I'm actually happened to be friends with Ralph Hooter from Kraftwerk, and he actually told me, he's like, "We did not set out to make dance music."

- Yeah.

- They were just playing with synthesizers and drum machines.

- Just noise.

- Yeah, they were just making noise, and they were like shocked when, you know, Mojo started playing it.

And then there was this city in the US who was like, just all about it and like dancing to it and making it happen.

And that was Detroit.

- Yeah.

- You know, so it was kind of an anomaly, but thank God, right?

- Yeah, yeah.

And those roots, because now, it's so much bigger, right?

It's everywhere, it literally is all over the world, but those roots are important.

And that's what you're trying to, I think, really celebrate and commemorate in the idea of this museum.

And that's really important to us here.

- Exactly, so, you know, the idea that this musical genre that was created here by African-American teenagers has impacted the world in ways that we still are trying to process.

- Yeah, right.

- You go other places in the world and Detroit is literally a genre, Detroit techno was a genre of music.

- Right, right.

- You go in a record store, there's a Detroit techno section.

And we are now, you know, 40 years later recognizing that we need to capture stories.

We need to highlight folks.

We need to make sure that we, as a city, are protecting that legacy.

- Yeah.

- While paying, you know, Amish to what's happening now, and they're preparing for the future, right?

So the Museum of Detroit Electronic Music, AKA MODEM, seeks to do all of that.

- Yeah.

- Right?

We want to make sure that we honor and preserve the history.

There's a lot of people still in this city who don't necessarily know that Detroit was created here.

- That we did all of that.

- Or that techno was created.

- Yeah.

- And that the branches of that, of those roots have seeped through all the electronic music.

So, you know, our impact on hip-hop event.

- Yeah.

- You know, when you talk about a producer like J Dilla.

- Yeah, right.

- One of his electronic music songs, what of his techno songs called "Plastic Dreams" was like huge around the... Like one of the biggest songs ever, right?

But he was also one of the most revered hip-hop producers- - Yes.

- On the planet.

- Yes.

- His mentor and the person who taught him what to do was Amp Fiddler.

- Yeah, right.

- Who also crossed those lines, right?

So that's why for me, it was important to say that it was electronic music so that we could cover all of that.

- We could get everything.

- We could get everything.

- Yeah.

- And so it really, really is important, I think, to have a physical institution, a physical place where DPS students can come and see pictures and learn history and say, "Oh, my God, those people look like me."

- Yeah, right.

- Yeah.

- Right.

This happened where I'm growing up.

- Yeah, and it happened... This guy was from my neighborhood.

- Yeah, right.

- And so I could potentially do that too, you know?

Certainly, folks like, you know, Warren Atkins, Rick Davis, you know, when they created Cybotron, were not doing it to have a legacy 40 years later.

- Right, right.

- You know?

They were just being- - You never think about that.

You're just thinking about, "Hey, this sounds interesting.

- Yes, yes.

- And it was a creative outlet.

I can make this noise go with this other noise.

- Exactly.

- Now I gotta be, and- - [Adriel] Exactly.

- I mean, it's an incredible sort of genre in terms of the creative force behind it, right?

- 100%, And, you know, these cats were... Quite a few, at least at the beginning, were actually really trained musicians.

- Yes.

- You know, playing bass, or guitar, or drums.

And when this new technology came out, this was like, oh, wait, let's play around with this.

They still had the musical knowhow.

- Yeah.

- But really wanted to try interpret it a little differently.

So they really weren't experimenting.

- Yeah.

- And creating something that really they didn't have a basis for, right?

This wasn't like they wanted to sound like.

- Right.

- Somebody else.

- Right.

- They were creating something that was really different and new, but that happened to be something that people, especially in their generation, resonated.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Right?

It resonated with them.

- Yeah.

- And so, I mean, again, when you think about, not a happy accident, I don't wanna say it was an accident, but when you really think about like what really happened back then, it was super creative.

- Yes.

- It was underground, and it was something that, again, I think spoke to the African-American youth in the city of Detroit.

- Yeah.

- In a way that other stuff was not.

- Yeah, yeah.

So we're still looking for a place for the museum, but we've got about a minute left, talk about timeline.

- Yeah, so, you know, starting June, we're probably gonna start our front-facing fundraising campaign online, crowdsource it.

We are actively looking for sponsors and foundational support.

- Yeah.

- Actually hoping that the city will support it in ways, but we are having to... We are looking for a new location.

We were part of a project that got canceled.

- Yeah, right.

- Or pause.

- Yeah.

- And so we are looking for perhaps a place that is more central that maybe makes a bit more sense, right?

- Shouldn't we be with the other museums in town?

- Yeah, you know, I- - I mean, that's not a- - That's not a bad idea.

(both laugh) - Yeah, right.

Adriel, it's always good to catch up with you.

Thanks for being here.

- Likewise, thank you so much for having me.

- Absolutely.