So, look. Noel Night is a Detroit tradition. We don’t even know when it started, but if you’re anywhere in Metro Detroit, you know about it. Noel Night is produced by Midtown Detroit, Inc., a non-profit community development organization that supports economic growth in Detroit’s Midtown district.
The original major attraction to Noel Night was free admission to the museums which normally charge for entry, such as the Michigan Science Center, or the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) only charges people who are not residents of Wayne, Macomb, or Oakland counties; But it’s still a big attraction, free or not. This year, 2018, things changed significantly. Midtown Detroit, Inc. decided to break up Noel Night into two halves, to increase safety and encourage more patronization of smaller midtown businesses, rather than the museums stealing the show every year.
This year the first half of the event was from 11AM-5PM and focused on the Cultural Center of Detroit; That is where all the museums are. Then the second half of the event spanned from 5PM until 10PM, and was essentially for everyone else. Black Young Professionals of Metro Detroit organized a “Noel Night Crawl” for the second half of Noel Night, visiting several local businesses in the midtown area. Check out our pictures below.
With close to thirty people braving the cold, rainy weather, everyone in attendance was elated by our discoveries. We were able to connect people with new businesses and discover existing ones they hadn’t known about. We were very grateful to all those business owners and representatives who accommodated our large group and engaged us on the mission and values of their businesses. To that end, we’d like to send a special thank you to these places in particular, all of which are Black-owned and operated:
Check out all these wonderful businesses, and check out our pictures below!
