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If you\u2019re a consumer of local music \u2014 whether that means attending local shows or flipping through the local music section at your nearest record store \u2014 there\u2019s a chance that in the past 20 years, you\u2019ve had the intimate experience of listening to an Audra Kubat song.<\/p>\n
With an ethereal voice, steady fingerpicking, and production that often puts her poetry front and center, the Rosedale Park native is a classic songwriter, in the tradition of folk and Americana artists like Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Ani DiFranco, and Dar Williams.<\/p>\n
When she\u2019s not writing and performing, Kubat helps younger generations hone their craft. She\u2019s taught songwriting and facilitated musical programming for numerous local organizations over the years, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, InsideOut Literary Arts Project, Living Arts, and Detroit Wolf Trap.<\/p>\n
For Kubat, a self-taught guitar player, her entry to becoming a music educator was an informal one. After briefly living at the Trumbullplex \u2014 an anarchist housing collective in Detroit\u2019s Woodbridge neighborhood \u2014 she moved into the house behind it. There, she would sit on the porch with her guitar, and kids from the neighborhood would come by to listen. Soon, she began teaching them music lessons.<\/p>\n
One day, while out on the porch, she received a visit from a notable folk singer, who lived just a few blocks away. It was Sixto Rodriguez, and this was years before he was the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d seen him around, but I didn\u2019t really know him; he was this mysterious artist,\u201d she says. \u201cI played him some songs. He ended up staying for a long time and smoking some weed. I kept saying, \u2018Will you play something?\u2019 And he\u2019s like, \u2018No, I want to hear your songs.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019d later open for Rodriguez and John Sinclair at the since-closed Amsterdam Espresso in Detroit\u2019s Cass Corridor.<\/p>\n Kubat, who now lives in home she calls A Detroit House of Music, has recorded seven albums since 2000. But it\u2019s been a while since she has put out music. Her last official single, released in 2021, was \u201cGray Glory Parade,\u201d a scathing critique of what she calls \u201cmisplaced Southern pride,\u201d co-authored with Detroit\u2019s poet laureate, jessica Care moore. She also scored America, You Kill Me<\/em> (2022), a documentary about the late LGBTQ rights activist Jeffrey Montgomery, which was directed by her partner Daniel Land.<\/p>\n \u201cAt 52 years old, I go back and forth between, like, man, there\u2019s so much I\u2019m good at, and I can do this \u2014 I don\u2019t need permission anymore,\u201d she says. \u201cThen, there\u2019s this other voice that is like, \u2018No, you can\u2019t. No, that\u2019s not gonna work.\u2019 \u2026 I just want to look toward quieting that voice more.\u201d<\/p>\n But on March 6, she\u2019s planning on a new release. Kubat has been in the studio with an old friend: Joel Martin, owner of 54 Sound. Martin is something of a local recording legend \u2014 he\u2019s worked with everyone from Eminem to The Romantics to Funkadelic. And she\u2019s excited.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some of the best stuff I\u2019ve written, I\u2019ve written in the last, like, couple of years,\u201d Kubat says. \u201cMy goal with music is to sort of throw it on its head. Being vulnerable is powerful. It\u2019s sexy. It\u2019s important. And it helps other people thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n On the same day as her release, Kubat plans to perform at the Detroit Institute of Arts for its Friday Night Live series. She will be joined in the Rivera Court by special guests including Emily Rose and Ozzie Andrews. For more information, visit dia.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n T<\/strong>his story originally appeared in the February 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine<\/a>. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our\u00a0<\/b>digital edition<\/b><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n