Detroit News reporter Louis Aguilar showcased as Kresge artist fellow
Aguilar, an award-winning reporter and author, has built a career chronicling Detroit and Latino culture through journalism.
Louis Aguilar, a reporter for The Detroit News who covers the City of Detroit, was selected among 25 visual and literary artists from Metro Detroit to receive recognition through the 2025 Kresge Artist Fellowships and Gilda Snowden Emerging Artist Awards. The awards recognize artists across multiple disciplines with unrestricted “no strings attached” prizes intended to support their creative work.
Aguilar, an award-winning reporter and author, has built a career chronicling Detroit and Latino culture through journalism. Before returning to Detroit reporting in 2004, Aguilar briefly ran the Cruzando Fronteras film festival in Washington, D.C., and curated Latino programming for the Smithsonian Institution. Since then, he has reported on the city’s politics, culture and transformation for various media outlets, mainly with The News.
Aguilar’s career and life story reflect a rebellious streak that has shaped much of his work. At age 16, he was declared “incorrigible” by the nuns at St. Hedwig High School, a label he has long embraced. Family lore also holds that his abuelo, or grandfather, appears prominently in Detroit Industry Murals, the famed murals painted by Diego Rivera at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
