A Message to Saginaw

This keynote was given at the Pride in Saginaw Downtown annual meeting on March 7th, 2024.

The story of Saginaw is a story about being misunderstood.

Four years ago, after one of my first interviews for Riverfront Saginaw, the business owner I was talking to asked if she could tell me just one more story.

“A woman from Traverse City called me last week,” she said, “saying she was going to stop by the shop and wanted to make sure I was open, and I told her I was.

About an hour later, she called me again.

'I’m here,' she said, saying she was parked right in front of the store, on the other side of the sidewalk, and a little bit confused, I told her to come inside.

'But I’ve heard about Saginaw,' the woman said, and then asked me to come out and escort her across the sidewalk to make sure she was safe.

A woman on a phone sitting in her car believes Saginaw to be a city so dangerous she can’t even walk on the sidewalk.

Now, we know that even with our challenges, that isn’t Saginaw. That isn’t the truth. Like so many, whether it’s through ignorance, bias, or simply believing something someone said, she misunderstood what Saginaw is, in the same way still so many misunderstand.

But before we go pointing fingers at folks from Traverse City, what do WE think Saginaw is? Is it possible that we might misunderstand something about a community we think we know so well?

It’s an important question to ask. After all, one of the city’s taglines goes, “This is Saginaw.”

But what is “this”?

What *is* Saginaw?

Is Saginaw Downtown or is Saginaw Old Town? Is it the West Side? Is it the East Side? Is Saginaw Black or white or Brown? Is your Saginaw “rich” Saginaw or “poor” Saginaw? Is it Saginaw’s past or Saginaw’s future? Is it the City or is it the Township?

And as long as we’re asking bold questions, I’m going to ask one more, just to prove my point, and this time I’m going to ask you to be bold along with me by raising your hand and casting a vote.

Do you think that Saginaw is “Saginawesome”, or do you think Saginaw is “Sagnasty”?

Raise your hand if you believe that Saginaw is Saginawesome.

Raise your hand if you believe that Saginaw is Sagnasty.

In 1989, the Detroit Pistons won their first national title with an approach to the game of basketball inspired by the city that bears its name: tough, gritty, and willing to fight, against all odds and against everyone who believed they couldn’t do it, to win.

It was because of this style of play that they earned the nickname, “The Bad Boys”, and just in case you need a refresher on your early 90’s slang, the word “bad” meant “very, VERY, good.”

And The Bad Boys kept being bad: they won their second championship the very next year, and then again in 2004.

At the same time, the Saginaw High Trojans were winning championships, too, specifically in 1996, 2007, and 2008.

Two cities, two teams, both of them winning back-to-back championships because of a strategy that is just as much about winning a basketball game as it is about winning in life: be tough, be gritty, be willing to fight, against all odds and against everyone who believes you can’t do it, to win.

Leading the Trojan’s 2007 championship team was Draymond Green, currently playing in the NBA for the Golden State Warriors. Annett Babers, Green’s aunt, a basketball standout herself at the High and then at MSU, recalled first hearing the word “Sagnasty” during a pickup game in the city.

“An old guy made a great dunk,” Babers said in an interview last year with The Saginaw News, “and someone in the crowd yelled ‘Oh, that was nasty!’ Hearing that, someone else said, ‘Only someone from Saginaw could do something like that; that was Sagnasty!’”

Babers loved it.

“I love the word ‘Sagnasty,’” she said. “Some people, when they hear that word, they think of ‘nasty’ as a bad word. But it’s like when you say someone is looking ‘sharp.’ That doesn’t mean that person cut somebody; it just means they look good. Saying something is ‘nasty’ is just another way of saying it’s good.”

And, just like cheering the Pistons onto their championships by calling them The Bad Boys, the word “Sagnasty” sprouted out of a crack in the cement on a basketball court into a homegrown way to support a home team that was winning, a word declaring to the world that “we are doing something only people from Saginaw can do.”

The bad boy Pistons and the nasty Trojans: two teams from two cities, both of them tough, both of them gritty, both of them willing to fight, against all odds and against everyone who believed they couldn’t do it, to win.

But we know the rest of the story.

A word birthed out of pride became a word misunderstood, understanding became lost as it was lost in translation, and then was weaponized by some to reinforce their misunderstandings about what Saginaw is.

Today, the word is divisive. Whether it’s due to ignorance or bias or simply believing something that was said, some use the word to sum up everything they think is wrong with this community, while some use the word to sum up everything they think is right.

A city misunderstood and a word misunderstood by a city—a word that until recently, I thought I understood, too.

But after four years and thousands of stories, Saginaw changed my mind, and along the way, it changed my life.

In 2017, I was living and working in the City…and then I went broke.

At the same time I ran out of money, I was also dealing with something else: debilitating social anxiety. If you weren’t a family member or my girlfriend, I was terrified of talking to you, and over the last few months, I had felt my anxiety grow worse and worse, and it was to the point where I knew that if I didn’t do something about it, I’d never meet a new person, gain a new connection, or make a new friend.

So I decided to try and tackle both of these challenges at the same time. Photography could be a way to make some money, and to build a portfolio, I’d randomly walk into businesses, offering them 60 minutes of free photos. Not only would I get the photos I needed for a portfolio, but those 60 minutes would give me a chance to practice the thing I was so terrified of doing: talking to strangers.

It took me six weeks or driving around the city after work to finally get enough courage to walk into Mr. Van's Shoe Repair in Old Town.

How did you come up with the name of your business?

What do you love about fixing shoes?

What’s the greatest challenge you’ve had to overcome?

I started posting those pictures on social media, including quotes from our conversations in the captions, believing that other people might want to know these stories, too.

It was the birth of Storyville, and the moment Saginaw changed my life.

Without Saginaw, I would have never picked up a camera, I would have never looked at it as a to buy food, I would have never used it as a tool to overcome my anxiety, the 3000 interviews I have done in communities across this country never would have happened, and I wouldn’t be here, doing this, something I love: talking to strangers.

So, what is it about Saginaw that changed my life? What is it about Saginaw that has changed all of our lives?

Well, after these last four years and all of the stories, I can tell you where to look to find the answer:

Look at Bert Herrera who once was homeless, now building a home for the homeless

Look at Sandra, Michael, and Kevin running a 162-year-old pharmacy

Look at Robert, the heavyweight Champion of the world.

Look at students at SCC winning medals and being the best in the nation.

Look at at Cynthia reading to kids, Angelia helping them be healthier, and Ramont giving them a brighter future.

Look at Kevin painting the tallest mural in the region to encourage those recovering from addiction

Look at Jack, fixing the teeth of the people who otherwise couldn’t afford it.

Look at Linda, Bill, and Cathy filling the Saginaw Club with music.

Look at Paul and Pam hiding 24,000 Easter eggs

Look at JoAnn and 32 years of Saginaw's future.

Look at Anesha and Ron losing four children to miscarriages then founding a nonprofit to help other families through the same kind of loss.

Look at Tamara who lost her daughter to violence, answering text messages at 2 in the morning from other mothers who have lost their sons and daughters, too.

Look at Jonathan and Tom preserving Saginaw’s history IN. A. CASTLE.

Look at C.A. Greene standing guard at the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza.

Look at the brothers Marcus, Travell, and Marcelino, the Three Amigos, starting a lawn care business.

Look at Jeremiah and his sporanos, altos, tenors, and basses

Look at Fouad who could conduct anywhere in the world, but he wants to do it here.

Look at Larry leading the Civica.

Look at the crew working 24 hours a day to make sure that we have the best water in the state of Michigan.

Look at Leona moving mountains with a mustard seed to do more than just give women experiencing homelessness a home, but to give them a family.

Look at Ken and Pharrington teaching the city how to play - and how to love tennis.

Look at Amy loving Saginaw so much she got Riverfront’s logo tattooed on her ankle.

Look at Janel making the best gumbo north of Lousiana.

Look at Jamie organizing, connecting, and cheering us on.

Look at Bob Johnson growing up in a gang into a man keeping kids out of gangs and then into the editor of the Saginaw News.

Look at Glenn figuring out new ways to get people where they need to go.

Look at Mark and Andrea running such an incredible funeral home that I already know where I want my body to go when I die.

Look at David and Meg bringing us the news.

Look at Beth starting out as a nurse at Covenant 35 years ago to being the CEO of Covenant today.

Look at RushDee writing raps in his basement to winning a Grammy and working with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj.

Look at Jimmy handing hundreds of happy meal gift cards to kids during a pandemic just to make them happy.

Look at Shortorah and Nehemiah making sure every kind of kid feels love.

Look at Elisa L Urtiaga-Medina using yoga to help people through trauma

Look at these kids having the time of their lives during Jazz on Jefferson.

Look at Craig, the spirit of Saginaw himself.

Look at 300 people meeting every Monday just to ride their bikes together at Counter Cruise.

Look at President Biden eating French Toast at Fuzzy’s.

Look at Yoko bringing Japan to us so we don’t have to Japan

Look at Thor bringing the WORLD into our Downtown.

Look at Dante' leaving his job at SpaceX and Tesla to move back to Saginaw to teach our kids how to build their OWN rockets.

Look at Alex loving our old buildings more than anyone’s ever loved anything.

Look at Linda and Lisa building a longer table instead of a higher fence.

Look at Sal, BABY! (Salloum)

Look at Lonnie handing out bowls of warm soup after Holidays in the Heart of the City.

Look at Brian Keenan-Lechel, our very own Grizzly Adams, giving me a fist bump.

Look at Chuckie getting a thousand people together for a kickball game at Hoyt Park just to show all the haters that Saginaw isn’t what they think it is.

Look at Diane and her team serving almost 1000 meals in 60 minutes every single day to people in need.

Look at John and DeVaughn and Kayla painting a 60 foot tall mural reminding us to love our mothers.

Look at Kevin Jones build his own museum.

Look at Brian Pruitt showing us the Power of a Dad.

Look at Brenda go from kicking down doors in her boots as a bounty hunter to becoming the Mayor.

Look at Jeanne and her 28 years of serving Positive Results Downtown Saginaw.

Look at all of these people, look at all of you, and so many more who are caring, striving, working and fighting for this place and showing us that the answer to “What is Saginaw?” is an answer we can only find in each other:

We. Are. Saginaw.

Saginaw is a city defined by people caring and loving and working and striving and fighting for this place. A place of community and culture, of purpose and pride, of goodness and grit. A place of selfless stubbornness and resolve. A place that cares enough to fight over itself.

The story of Saginaw is a story about being misunderstood.

But lucky for us, that isn’t the only story it has to tell. Take this place and melt it down in a giant cauldron of molten and malleable iron, and after all the impurities have been burned away, we are left with one more word that defines this city:

Pride.

Pride is the product of hard work and what keeps us working hard. Pride is love supported by proof. Pride is the relentless belief that we can do impossible things. Pride is knowing that we’ve gone through it before so we can go through it again. Pride is knowing, and then achieving, our potential.

So, as we celebrate this past year of PRIDE and look forward to the next, let’s always keep in mind that it’s our people that make Saginaw, Saginaw. Let’s keep in mind that the only way to understand what Saginaw is, is by understanding each other. Let’s work hard together, have fun together, meet our challenges together, listen and tell stories together, and let’s do things that only people from Saginaw can do.

Let’s be tough, let’s be gritty, let’s be awesome—and a little bit nasty, and be willing to fight, against all odds and everyone who believes we can’t do it, to win.