Marsha Battle Philpot, known professionally as Marsha Music, is a writer, performing artist,

former labor activist, and self-described “Detroitist” who has been researching and writing

about Detroit and its music legacy for more than 30 years. She is the daughter of pre-

Motown record producer, the late Joe Von Battle, whose story is centered in Hastings Street

Blues. A 2012 Detroit Kresge Literary Arts Fellow, she is author of the 2019 volume The

Detroitist: An Anthology About Detroit and also publishes the blog Marsha Music – A Grown

Woman’s Tales of Detroit. She has contributed to numerous oral histories and over a dozen

literary anthologies, as well as documentary films – including movies on HBO, PBS, Amazon

Prime and the History Channel. She has also performed her poetry and prose with the

Detroit Symphony Orchestra and at the Detroit Opera House. She brings her father’s story,

his music, family archives, and her reflections on the city- ts people and its music-to the

project.