DETROIT: PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS POLKA-DOTTER

IN DETROIT, ONE NEIGHBORHOOD IS GETTING MIGHTY ORNERY ABOUT ART

The neighbors weren't thrilled when Tyree Guyton began hanging hundreds of old shoes in the big tree on Heidelberg Street on Detroit's east side back in 1986. A few complained to him but were calmed by Guyton's passionate explanation that the dangling shoes celebrated their black ancestors lynched in the South. Residents probably should have asked Guyton whether Soles of the Most High completed his artistic vision for their block. It didn't. Eleven years later, thousands of used shoes are piled by the sidewalk and hanging in the trees--along with rusty car hoods and tires strewn across a vacant lot and...

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