Meet the Locals: Georgia from Detroit
Head to Milwaukee Junction to see inside crochet artist Georgia Diamantopoulos’s unique industrial loft and discover the thriving art scene that surrounds and sustains her.
Photography by Tara Rice
The Local
Georgia Diamantopoulos is a crochet artist and dyslexia specialist who grew up in the suburbs of Detroit. After traveling abroad, she returned to her hometown, renting out a loft in a 1920s automotive factory in the Milwaukee Junction neighborhood of Detroit, an area where many local artists are putting down roots. She was inspired to rent her loft out on Airbnb after an experience she had post-college, where she worked in a hostel in Crete, greeting guests and giving them advice about where to go. It was a role where she felt “one hundred percent myself.” Now she models that same kind of hospitality in her own home. The loft has no television and Georgia hopes her guests unplug and connect with one another by playing board games, listening to music, or having good old-fashioned conversation.
Her Home
Georgia’s building — Milwaukee Park Lofts — is a space she feels is “really representative of what Detroit is—taking an abandoned space and re-creating it. It represents this whole upcycling culture that exists in the city.” A former industrial warehouse for automotive parts, the building has been transformed into loft units. Georgia’s loft is a mix of factory bones and bohemian touches; wood floors and steel pipes meet exposed brick and tall windows to give the space a sense of industrial warmth.
She spray painted one of her walls gold and hung a beaded curtain on it to represent the fact that it used to be a hallway once. “It’s patched in with drywall, and I put the curtain there because it’s kind of symbolic. This used to be an entryway.”
Georgia’s aesthetic is self-described “Mediterranean boho.” She collects things from thrift stores and also appoints it with her own crochet work, a craft she learned from her mother.
Her Neighborhood
Milwaukee Junction is named after the train junction nearby. Behind her building is what she describes as a “patch of nature where coyotes and pheasants live.” Sometimes she goes back there to photograph her crochet work or drink coffee in the morning “because it’s peaceful. It’s a little piece of wildlife in Detroit”
Nearby is the Lincoln Street Art Park, which is situated next to a recycling center. The park hosts outdoor parties and events, and much of the artwork featured is made from recycled materials. As part of an exhibit at the park, Georgia turned a bunch of plastic bags into yarn, and “yarn-bombed” a fence, a practice she describes as being like “crochet graffiti.”
Georgia’s Detroit Picks
Dabls MBAD African Bead Museum: “Dabls African Bead Museum is not only a storefront featuring a gorgeous African bead collection; it’s also an outdoor sculpture garden with eighteen installations made from recycled materials.”
John King Books: “This four-story bookstore is a great spot for bookworms looking to get lost among shelves and small corridors.”
Lincoln Street Art Park: “This outdoor sculpture garden is a vital community space that’s filled with murals, sculptures made from recycled materials, and a bonfire pit.”
Belle Isle: “This little island can be reached by way of a bridge. It’s a great place to take a bike ride, swim, picnic, and visit the gorgeous greenhouse conservatory and aquarium.”
Cafe D’Mongo’s Speakeasy: “D’Mongo’s is a great spot to get a drink and listen to live jazz on the weekends. It feels like you’ve taken a step back in time as soon as you walk in.”
As Detroit has changed over the years, Georgia reflects on her hometown. “I’ve definitely seen quite a transformation and I think it started because a lot of these artists and people who dared to live here created something because there was the space to do so and it was cheap to do so. It literally went from a place where you didn’t see anyone walking around downtown and now there’s all these beautiful installations and people coming from the suburbs. Seeing the transformation is really awesome.”
For Georgia, Detroit is a perfect place for artists to make their home. “I think Detroit is a place where you can create. There are a lot of opportunities to create something of your own. It’s definitely cheap — whether it’s housing or even buying spaces to create your own shop or restaurant. And there’s a demand for it. With all this influx of people, they need more places to go and things to do.”
About the author: Anisse Gross is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times, TheNewYorker.com, The Guardian, Quartz, Lucky Peach, The Believer, BuzzFeed, and The San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications.
About the photographer: Tara Rice is a Brooklyn-based photographer focusing on projects related to education, gender equality, community service, and environmental conservation.
