“The Rise and Fall of Flint” mini-documentary by Kobe Champion

UM-Flint CAS students are studying in many more settings than socially-distanced classrooms or in front of computer screens at home. In the course “Finding Your Way: the Literature and Practice of Walking,” students explore their community first-hand.

One student, undecided major Kobe Champion, used this course as an opportunity to document the changing realities of the community over time. In “The Fall and Rise of Flint,” Kobe shows how the declining auto industry impacted the demographics of what was once Michigan’s second-largest city.

He goes on to showcase the numerous ways Flint has battled back against this decline, highlighting museums and educational centers, public parks, and other community investment projects.

Kobe makes particular note of the murals created as part of the Flint Public Art Murals Project.

“Flint has many different artists, from all over the world, coming here to paint … People like to show off their feelings, their emotions, their pasts and futures, through different pieces of art like this,” Kobe says. “That’s one thing that makes Flint very special, in my heart and so many other people’s hearts.”