My name is Larry Gabriel. I'm a journalist and musician. I was born and raised in Detroit. I started out in 1953 and so in the intervening 65 years, I've made it, I don't know, about four miles away from where I started out. I'm a fourth generation New Orleans musician, my great grandfather, he came to New Orleans from Santo Domingo in about 1856. We've had musicians in my family. My great grandfather was a musician. My grandfather was a musician in New Orleans. My father was a musician in New Orleans. And he and my mother, they came to Detroit in 1951. I was the first person born in my family in Detroit. We had a whole contingent of New Orleans that came to Detroit in the 1940s and early 1950s. At one point in the 1950s, there were 150 Gabriels, you know, cousins of Gabriels, inlaws of Gabriels, all living within a two mile square area of Detroit. So I came from a small New Orleans village within the village of Detroit. So if you had asked me when I was a little kid, I would have told you, I was from New Orleans, even though I was living in Detroit. 

I'm committed to this place, all my siblings have moved away to other places. You know, I used to refer to myself as a city rat. This is where I live. These are all the places I slip in and out of. And, you know, the Cass Corridor is pretty much my scene... my favorite restaurant in the city right now is a half a block over there, La Feria... The Fair. It's a tapas joint. My favorite bookstore is the Source over there. You know, my favorite bakery is right here. And even though I live several miles North of here, when I think of coming into the city, this is what I think of going to.