The Afro-Latina experience of 90’s Detroit & Puerto Rico has shaped Angela Lugo-Thomas’ World

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The 1990s welcomed the talking points of melting point, the Browning of America, and English as a Second Language programming. Today these concepts are seen as insensitive at worse and antiquated at best. For Angela Lugo-Thomas, the dual reality of living in Detroit and Puerto Rico impacted her deeply. Metro-Detroit is home to many cultures of the Arab world, Asian world, and a huge Mexican population. The ways other Latino cultures have a presence in Detroit are similar to the Caribbean cultures here. Living as a proud Boriqua (Puerto Rican Woman) left an impression on Angela to love culture and understand the value of identity. As a wife and mother, this has strengthened her journey of connecting with Highland Park’s social & political landscape. Today Angela has raised a family in Highland Park and poured love, commitment, and understanding into the city initiative. Our interview discusses the relationship between Highland Park & Detroit & Michigan. Surprisingly this also has similarities to Puerto Rico and America. Check out this Detroit is Different feature with one of the anchors of Detroit’s Black Land Farmer Fund. 

What began as a journey engaging hip-hop audiences, has grown into a career as a marketing consultant. As business people have seen my work, I was propositioned many times to provide graphic design, photography, videography, event planning, website development, and social media campaigning. These initial business contracts inspired me to build Creative Differences Marketing. I’ve balanced my entrepreneurial experience with formal education from Walsh College of Business and Accountancy. My degree in Marketing serves me well in understanding many of the formal, universal, and theoretical marketing approaches used in corporate environments.Formulating this business model has been anchored by the success of my BLOG ‘Detroit is Different.’ I create all content for Detroit is Different. This serves as a prototype of the ways I can design events, websites, graphics, music, podcasts, social media campaigns, and e-mail campaigns. ‘Detroit is Different’ focuses on the people and places of Detroit that add to the culture. Through these people and places, themes are driven. These themes will partner with, sponsor, and advertise for businesses and organizations using this innovative multilevel marketing approach.