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Artists love the location
so much, says Mausi, that several have told her they perform
better at Chene Park. “Aretha once stayed and kept playing
until 12:30 a.m.,” she says of Aretha Franklin, the great
Queen of Soul, who passed away the day after this
conversation. Franklin is part of a legion of artists who
have played at Chene Park during Mausi’s tenure.
Mausi has managed Chene
Park for 15 years but her connection with the Detroit music
scene goes back many more years than that.
Mausi began her career
holding musical events in college and, shortly after
college, became a Mayor Coleman Young appointee as director
of the Detroit Council of Arts. During her years in that
position, the Recreation Department built Chene Park, and
Mausi grabbed the opportunity to do the first three years of
programming in the newly built facility. She started the
Wednesday night jazz concert series 32 years ago and that
series is still going strong, ending the 2018 season with
next week’s Rachelle Ferrell appearance.
Mausi, however, spent the
years in a variety of positions in the Detroit entertainment
scene. The University of Detroit graduate served on the
Council of Arts for 10 years; she spent five years hosting
and producing Detroit Creates on WJZZ-FM; she served for
three years as the executive director of the Metropolitan
Detroit YWCA and produced programming for the Detroit Public
Library system. In 1998 she won a contract to provide
entertainment services for the MGM Grand Casino, before
returning to Chene Park 15 years ago when she earned that
contract. The Park has obviously flourished under her
stewardship increasing events and attendance annually and
the 2018 season has been no exception.
“It’s been a wonderful
year thus far,” she says. “The weather [in spring] turned
from frigid to pleasant, the artists and the audiences have
been wonderful.” The most pleasant surprise of the season
has been the excellent attendance for the Wednesday night
performances, most particularly the sold out Boney James
show on July 18, she notes. As we spoke in mid-August, Mausi
was looking forward eagerly to the remaining events of the
summer, while regretting that Earth, Wind and Fire would
only be performing for one evening, on August 18, since the
ticket demand had been so great. Among this summer’s many
standouts were Erykah Badu, Patti LaBelle and Kem, to name a
few.
The Labor Day weekend
features the Return of the Legend: Hip Hop and the Return of
the Legends: R & B on September 1 and 2, respectively.
And Bollywood, a spectacle
Mausi is eager to see on the stage for the first time,
closes out the season in September.
Then preparations for the
2019 season start since tickets for the Wednesday night
series go on sale on Black Friday.
As lengthy as Mausi’s
involvement with the entertainment scene in the Motor City
has been, it pales in comparison to her family’s history in
the city itself. Mausi’s great grandmother, Mary Felicia
Chavous Griffin, arrived in Detroit in 1918 from Aiken, S.C.
with her three small children and kept the family afloat
over the years as a cook, a seamstress and a housekeeper.
Her grandmother, Mary
Elise Fleming, owned a restaurant on the corner of Buena
Vista and Linwood named “Sweetie’s” and her grandfather Bill
Fleming owned a haberdashery next door to the restaurant.
Her mother, Joyce F.
Garrett, was a Smith College graduate who earned a masters
degree from Wayne State University and became deputy
director of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission in 1967.
She also had a passion for the arts and was active with
cultural institutions in the City of Detroit.
As rich as Mausi’s family
history is in its involvement with Detroit, the present and
future are, and will be, no less bountiful. All four of
Mausi’s sons – Dorian, Sulaiman, Rashid and Malik – are part
of The Right Productions, Inc and the operation of Chene
Park.
As wonderful as the 2018
season has been, Mausi is already excited about what 2019
will offer the Chene Park audiences. “It’s going to be a
very dynamic year,” she says. While so much of the season is
yet to be booked, she does have a little tease for the
faithful. “Look for one very special weekend, we are working
on a big special weekend and it will be right down the alley
of people who love great R & B.”
Clearly there’s a lot more
exciting entertainment for the rest of this season and next.
The box office opens for all sales on Good Friday so that
the music can continue.
“Live music is essential,”
says Mausi. “There is nothing like the feel of the crowd,
the interaction between artist and audience. It’s an
experience!” |
