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Thursday, October 12, 2017
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Rackham student Bryan Remson takes the microphone from Charles Murray during his speech at the Palmer Commons on Wednesday.
PRASHANTH PANICKER/Daily
Troopers Walker and Mahaffie keep watch at the protest against Charles Murray speech in Palmer Commons on Wednesday.
Students take over Charles Murray speech in protest against racism, Palmer put on lockdown
Bell Curve author speaks on invitation from GOP groups calling for ‘free speech’ MORGAN SHOWEN Daily Staff Reporter
Palmer Commons was rocked Wednesday night by the presence and subsequent protests of Charles Murray, a controversial social scientist known for a correlation of race
and IQ, a theory debunked widely over the years. His co-authorship of the 1994 book “The Bell Curve” draws connections between race, intelligence and socioeconomic status. Murray was invited to speak by the University of Michigan’s chapter of College Republicans and the American
Enterprise Institute University of Michigan Executive Council. A week ago, posters with statistics inspired by Murray’s book were hung near Stockwell Residence Hall. Despite this, College Republicans still held the event as planned. Prior to the speech, Palmer Commons was placed on
lockdown by the Division of Public Safety and Security and the Ann Arbor police to ensure any protests that occurred would stay under control. Only the first 200 students and faculty of the University with valid Mcards were permitted into the event. People See MURRAY, Page 2A
Event capacity limited to 200 attendees ANDREW HIYAMA Daily Staff Reporter
About 100 University of Michigan students, faculty and staff gathered Wednesday afternoon on the Diag to protest a speech to be given
on campus later that night by Charles Murray, author of “The Bell Curve,” a book widely criticized for its attribution of intelligence and other genetic traits with race.
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Data science symposium showcases ‘Genius’ Company profs. win innovation in analytics, management owner talks
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MacArthur 2017 grants
Michigan Institute for Data Science hosts faculty, students for daylong event
History and Anthropology professors awarded the $625,000 fellowships
Big data, data science and analytics were among the main topics discussed at the third annual Michigan Institute for Data Science daylong research symposium Wednesday at Rackham Auditorium and the Michigan League. MIDAS is a product of the University of Michigan’s Data Science Initiative, an effort launched in 2015 to invest $100 million in data science research and education across campus. Three years later, the symposium offered a chance for MIDAS to welcome leaders in data science research and showcase the work of University students and faculty. The daylong event featured a lineup of speakers whose research in data science represented fields ranging from psychology to biostatistics. Alfred Hero, co-director of MIDAS and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, spoke about how this diverse set of speakers aligns with the theme of the symposium, “A Data-Driven World: Potentials and Pitfalls.” “This is the first time we have a theme that is really focused on a very broad basis of the future impact of data enabled scientific inquiry, data enabled commercial and lending practices and data in society in general,” Hero said. Hero explained how the
ANDREW HIYAMA Daily Staff Reporter
Two University of Michigan professors are included in this year’s class of MacArthur Fellows, which in total comprises 24 artists, writers, researchers and community leaders. The MacArthur Fellowships, also known as “genius grants,” are awarded to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction,” according to the MacArthur Foundation website. The $625,000 grants come with no strings attached, and are given simply “as an investment” in the potential of their recipients. Potential recipients are nominated by a pool of experts in various fields, and then a committee of a dozen chooses awardees. In a statement, University President Mark Schlissel said the two researchers did important work to illuminate commonly overlooked areas of scholarship.
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SHANNON ORS For the Daily
application of big data –– from transportation to the health sciences –– presents a similar challenge. “Data is being collected about you and other people that is being used for purposes that nobody can predict,” he said. These challenges were the focal point of the event as the five speakers, including the keynote speaker, data scientist Cathy O’Neil, grappled with the
outlook for big data research applications and the potential difficulties that may arise. Among the speakers was James Pennebaker, a University of Texas at Austin psychology professor, who discussed the integration of data analysis into his social psychology research of words. Pennebaker’s research applies data analysis of pronouns, articles and prepositions to environments such as trauma
writing therapy, AOL chat rooms, college admissions essays and email correspondences. Pennebaker’s experience blending data science with social science research allowed him to gain insight into the dynamic between the two fields and how the future of data science is being shaped by collaboration. “I think the best social psychology is now frankly See DATA, Page 2A
JOHN YAEGER/Daily
Carol Flannagan participates in the MIDAS Research Initiatives Panel at the 2017 MIDAS Symposium at Rackham on Wednesday.
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 9 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
success in businesses
AOL founder Steve Case highlighted startup culture growing in Rustbelt states CORY ZAYANCE Daily Staff Reporter
AOL founder Steve Case took his nationwide tour “Rise of the Rest” to Ann Arbor Wednesday to bring new attention to startup businesses originating in non-coastal areas of the United States. Rise of the Rest, an initiative made possible by Case’s company Revolution, is a nationwide tour seeking to work alongside entrepreneurs championing businesses in “startup ecosystems.” During its time in a city, the tour visits innovative startups, talks with business leaders and celebrates entrepreneurs within the community. A pitch competition is thrown at the end of the day, where eight companies compete for a $100,000 investment from Case. According to Case, approximately 50 percent of all U.S. venture capitalist investment is allocated to California, home of Silicon Valley, while Michigan only receives 1 percent of investment. More than half of this 1 percent goes directly to Ann Arbor. “Don’t feel like you need to be in Silicon Valley, there’s great things See ENTREPRENEUR, Page 2A
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2A — Thursday, October 12, 2017
DATA From Page 1A being led by Facebook, Google and Microsoft,” Pennebaker said. “What is beginning to happen now is we are getting these two groups of people who are now at this point where we are able to start talking to each other and take advantage of generations of really solid social science that has not been informed by giant data.” Information graduate student Kristen McGarry was in attendance and echoed Pennebaker’s sentiment specifically with the collaboration between the research and corporate spheres. McGarry noted how the corporate sponsors of the symposium such as TD Ameritrade and Mercury Fund demonstrate the corporate interest in data science. “Data is growing so much, you kind of need both people to join together to continue progressing,” McGarry said. Rackham student Jeff Lockhart, assistant organizer of the symposium, expressed how this interdisciplinary future of data science is a central mission of MIDAS and the symposium. “MIDAS has twin goals of getting researchers together in the same room from different disciplines and … it funds a lot of projects,” Lockhart said. Lockhart described how MIDAS has been successful in bringing people together and funding projects in its short
existence. A poster showcase at the event featuring more than 50 research projects across the University relating to data science emphasized the scope of the symposium. The MIDAS Initiatives Panel featuring leaders within MIDAS’s research initiatives continued the symposium’s interdisciplinary focus. Carol Flannagan, the principal investigator of MIDAS’s Transportation Challenge Project, spoke during the panel about how it has helped her research on transportation safety to include perspectives from the social sciences, statistics and engineering. “One of the very cool things about what MIDAS is supporting and encouraging is these very large multidisciplinary teams,” Flannagan said. “I am working with people from all over campus, from different schools and colleges and people I have not worked with previously.” MIDAS members are excited for the future of the institute as the symposium came to a close at the institute’s new space in Weiser Hall. While Hero accounted for the weather being a key reason attendance was lower than expected, he also expressed excitement for the global audience of more than 4,000 viewers the symposium attracted via livestream. A sign, he believes, of the growing number of people interested in the work of MIDAS and the future of data science.
ENTREPRENEUR From Page 1A happening here,” Case said. “Part of this is how to turn what some call the Rustbelt into much more of a startup-belt.” Business graduate student Connor Burleigh thought the amount of venture capital Ann Arbor received was significant. “Ann Arbor gets half of the venture of the state; that’s huge,” Burleigh said. “Communities can’t be separate, it has to be Southeast Michigan as a single ecosystem.” Gov. Rick Snyder agreed with Case, and discussed Michigan’s ingenuity and leadership in combining the IT field and automotive industry. “We have that Midwestern humility, but we need to be louder and prouder,” Snyder said. “We need ambassadors for our city and state to speak up and tell our story.” After an introductory breakfast, tour members of Rise of the Rest set out to begin a string of visits with Ann Arbor startups. They spent time at Mcity, Duo Security, A2 Engage, FarmLogs, NutShell, CaHoots and TechArb. In Case’s opinion, one the most important methods to propel a startup community to higher levels of success is telling the community’s story. “Not only do most people in the community not know what the success stories are, but the vast majority of people outside of those communities don’t know what
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those stories are,” Case said. “Ann Arbor is doing really, really well and most people in other parts of the country don’t know how well it’s doing.” Later in the day, Case and a panel of business experts held a “fireside chat” to discuss in more detail the importance of startup communities and the challenges they face in expanding and developing. Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans Inc., and J.D. Vance, best-selling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” joined Case on the panel. Mary Grove, director of Google for Entrepreneurs, was another panel member. One key topic of discussion was the relationship between Ann Arbor and Detroit. Panelists noted innovation, while one of the main focuses within each city, has not managed to bring the two together. They commented on the importance of bridging the gap between Ann Arbor and Detroit and how this coalition can bring prosperity to the region. Business graduate student Tobi Ogundipe agreed with the panelists and believes this connection is important to draw in investors. “My biggest takeaway was Dan Gilbert honing in on the threads of connection between Ann Arbor and Detroit,” Ogundipe said. “The talent is here and the companies are coming to Ann Arbor and Detroit; it makes sense to combine these together.”
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CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES Leaders and Culture Workshop WHAT: A workshop for supervisors and managers to motivate and empower their team members with University resources. Registration required. WHO: Engineering Human Resources WHEN: 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. WHERE: Lurie Engineering Center, Johnson Rooms A, B and C
MURRAY From Page 1A attending the speech had to have their bags and belongings searched prior to entering Palmer Commons, and they were once again searched before entering the room where the speech would be held. LSA senior Ben Decatur, co-chair of the AEI Executive Council at the University, introduced Murray and spoke on the right of free speech and the importance of that right. He went on to discuss the potential for protest and invited any protesters to engage with the speaker instead of attempting to prevent Murray from speaking. “If the hosts of tonight’s program, in collaboration with University representatives, believe that the protesters are interfering unduly with the speaker’s freedom of expression, those protesters will be warned by a University administrator,” Decatur said. “If warnings are not heeded and interference continues, the
Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables WHAT: Attendees will learn about Excel as a management platform, as well as sorting skills, filtering and data validation. WHO: Engineering Human Resources WHEN: 9 a.m. to noon WHERE: Duderstadt Cemter, Advanced Training Lab 2
individuals responsible may be removed from the building.” Decatur turned the podium over to Murray, who was met with a mixture of cheers and boos. As Murray began to speak, a student in the audience began playing the theme song for the introduction of Darth Vader in the Star Wars movies. The audience raised signs accusing Murray of being a white supremacist and a racist. Students in the back of the audience began to set off alarms on their phones to drown out the words of Murray. After only 10 minutes, the speech was brought to a grinding halt, as the protesters turned off the lights and projected the words “White Supremacist” behind Murray as they chanted “Racist, Sexist, KKK, Charles Murray go away.” Students began taking turns to scramble up to the front of the room to interrupt Murray and read pre-written speeches of their own. After the first protester read off their speech accusing Murray of wanting the protester dead because of
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Immigration Symposium
WHAT: Three University professors will present on the historical experiences of, and discrimination against, immigrants in the United States. WHO: LSA Bicentennial Theme Semester WHEN: 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: Angel Hall, Room 3222
his Iranian heritage, LSA senior Farid Alsabeh confronted the protesters for denying him the right to listen to what Murray had to say. When the event had concluded, Alsabeh spoke on why he felt the need to speak out. “When I saw that people’s first instinct was to infringe on my right to listen to a public intellectual at a public institution I felt like I just had to say: ‘Listen, you’re making it too much about yourself. Can we please think about the other people who are just here to listen to ideas?’” he said. In an interview prior to the speech, Murray pushed back on what he thinks are misunderstandings and mischaracterizations of his work and his beliefs. “The characterization of me as a white supremacist or a white nationalist or any of the various other things is unaccompanied by any direct evidence that I believe any of that stuff,” Murray said. Murray said the reason college campuses have become hostile to speakers, such as himself, can be attributed to the anger that has arisen from the election of President Trump. Murray also stated college students have become more sensitive over the past decade and he believes this is primarily due to the rise of identity politics. Murray spent the next portion of the event debating with a student of color at the podium over whether “The Bell Curve” supports the idea that Blacks are less intelligent than whites. After the student left the podium, the audience turned to a different tactic to attempt to disrupt Murray’s speech. Instead of chanting, the audience instead tried to completely ignore Murray by putting in earbuds, reading books and opening copies of newspapers in front of their faces.
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Let’s (not) Talk About Sex, Habibi
guess we spooky now @khariaintshit
WHAT: The first Chai Circle of the year will cover sex and relationships in the Middle Eastern and North African diaspora. WHO: Middle East and Arab Network WHEN: 7 to 9 p.m. WHERE: Sophia B. Jones Room
walked into class late in the middle of a speech about being late for class
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Michigan in Color
Thursday, October 12, 2017— 3A
Torch Bearers YOUNG LEE
MiC Columnist
I’ve been running for a long time, both literally and figuratively. I’ve been an active runner for seven years now. First as a cross-country runner in high school, running has become my biggest means of stress relief. Figuratively, I’ve always thought of life as a marathon, but this past summer it was put to me in a different way. Life can be thought of as more of a relay race. Generation to generation, the torch is passed down to continue the work of those who came before us. This fuels the altruistic thought process: “I may suffer, but I have great hope and promise that my descendants will not.” My leg of the relay started almost at the onset of my birth. I am the son of one of the few people I legitimately know who has carried out the American Dream; the promise to anyone in America that if you work hard enough despite your background you’ll be able to achieve your goals. My father, born in the destitute farm lands of Korea, worked his way to a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. An epic in and of itself, I am often inspired by his hard work. Today, that dedication is channeled into his children, never treating himself. Currently, many individuals in this country also aspire to similar dreams. However, the reality is often different. In an era of increasing wage gaps and sky-high college costs, it has become all but impossible for most people to find the right help and resources to overcome social stratification and move up in class. The “Dream” that many people all aspire to — one of true meritocracy — is instead biased, based on the resources and opportunities you are born into. It is no longer just as simple as just going to college, let alone being able to even get in. It begs the question: would someone like my father be able to exist today? When people ask me about the American Dream, I have vivid images that immediately pop into my head. Ann Arbor, 2004. I was with my dad and sisters at my mother’s graduation. After years of studying, my mom had finally
graduated with an associate’s degree in nursing from Washtenaw Community College. I ran up to hug her as I saw her leave the crowded auditorium, approaching us in her black graduation robes. I squeezed her waist and smiled at her. It was an interesting moment, filled with so much innocence of a child’s love for his mother, but at the same time, an extraordinary amount of ignorance and bliss. At the time, I did not appreciate the amount of sacrifice my mother had just made for our family. At my father’s urging, she had given up her master’s degree and career in art to become a nurse for a more stable career to help my family. I struggle with pre-med courses these days even though I’ve grown up speaking English from the age of three; I cannot imagine what it must have been like for my mother, who was just picking it up. As I continued squeezing my mother with all the power a firstgrader could muster, I suddenly felt something wet hit my hair. I looked up, and from my mother’s eyes came tears, dripping onto my head. “Umma (mother in Korean), why are you crying?” I asked. My dad pulled out tissues from his pocket. How little did I understand what those tears meant to her. Those sacrifices did not come easy. What I can look back on now — but did not recognize at the time — are the many summers I was babysat by various relatives and family friends in exchange for housing. I did not know about the times my mother struggled to even understand sentence structure, let alone the more nuanced biochemical principle of glycolysis. The times she went to our next-door neighbor, a University Biomedical Engineering professor, to ask questions, sitting for hours to understand only a fraction of the words coming out of his mouth. The time she failed her first nursing license exam, felt dejected and almost gave up entirely on becoming a nurse. The time she studied even harder and finished the same NCLEX in record time. The many times my sisters and I would fall asleep at her feet as she stayed up late night listening to audio recordings of lectures on cassette tapes, highlighting textbooks and making flashcards. The time she started working as a
nurse at the hospital and struggled communicating with others. The times she still made sure my sisters and I were being fed and taken to school. Through all these obstacles, she overcame and did the biggest favor she could for me; feigning ignorance. Ignorance of the struggles and hardships behind her warm smiles and delicately prepared rice and side dishes. Incheon, South Korea, 2006. I had just spent my first weeks in Korea after my family had moved to the United States. But the trip was now over, and it was time for me to go home. My grandmother had accompanied my mother, my sisters and me to the airport. As we waited in the cavernous terminal for our flight to depart, I sat in those black cloth seats, feet dangling, unable to put them on the ground. My grandmother reached over and patted my head. She handed me my favorite Korean snacks as I looked into her eyes and smiled warmly. My younger sisters were getting restless, unused to having to wait for long periods of time. Eventually, my mother and grandmother exchanged some words and my mom started grabbing my hand and packing all the bags around me. We started heading toward the security check as my mother gently guided me through the airport. I stared as the linoleum floors passed by. I turned around to see my grandmother’s beaming eyes and warm smile one last time. As a kid, I had no conception of time. I did not realize it would be years before I saw her again. With one hand still clasped in my mother’s
hand and my feet working overtime to keep along, I waved back to my grandmother with my other hand as we boarded the plane. Soon, we safely found our way to the right seats in the airplane. As we got ready for takeoff, something felt off. I looked over and my mom’s body was slowly moving up and down, and when she took off her glasses I saw those tears she’d been holding in for so long. Perhaps if the stress of taking care of three kids for two weeks wasn’t hard enough, I knew it was harder for her to say goodbye to her parents once again. “Umma, don’t cry!” I begged as she pulled out some tissues from her purse. Though I was small at the time, my heart ached. What could a little boy do? My incessant pleas fell on empty ears; the tears kept falling and falling. Years have passed since these moments, and I am working my way toward my goals. Though my surroundings, friends and experiences have changed, one thing remains: a burning
passion to work hard. Friends, mentors and advisors alike have told me to take a break and to relax, that I don’t know how to enjoy myself. My calendar is always filled with varying shades of colors and deadlines and responsibilities. There are many days when I almost come to the end of myself, but it’s the only way I can make peace with myself. I’ve often heard advice from others that they don’t owe their parents anything, as it’s not like they chose their parents. While I can agree with this sentiment on some level, as you don’t want to spend the rest of your life living out someone’s vicarious dream, it makes it sound easy. To just not care. Maybe it’s just my personality. Maybe it’s a lot of other things. Maybe it is the best thing to do, but damn is it hard. To my parents, for the many times I have blown up at you, I hope you can forgive me. I was just scared, scared that I wouldn’t be able to live up to your sacrifices. Scared that I wouldn’t be able to look you in the eyes as an adult and say your sacrifices were not for waste. Scared I wouldn’t be able to provide you a financially comfortable life as you both got older. That my
grandparents didn’t send their eldest children to a foreign country for no good reason. I didn’t want to take on the torch; I wasn’t asked to run. It was never really about the shame or you scolding me. I’m sorry about that. I just couldn’t bear the weight. To be honest, I will always be the young kid in the airplane, unable to stretch his hands fully to wipe his mother’s tears and say the right comforting words. Alone in America with only my parents and sisters. When I see myself in the mirror, I’m the little boy standing in the airport, waving back to my grandmother who I’m not sure when I’ll ever see again. I’m the boy who goes back to Korea inches taller only to see my aging grandparents. I see my father unsure of his future on the farmlands of Korea, and I see my mother missing her family and struggling to understand her professor and coworkers because of the language barrier. I see their sacrifices in me. I know it’s not just me. I have had the honor and privilege of meeting folks at the University of Michigan who strive just as hard, if not harder, to make a name for themselves and not waste the opportunities presented to them by those before. You know who you are. Here’s to immigrants and all the other runners in the world who are bearing the torch and striving for a better future. Fight on. PHOTOS COURTESY OF YOUNG LEE
The neutral white population CYDNEY GARDNER-BROWN MiC Columnist
Following the Black Lives Matter protests and demonstrations of the past few weeks, my African American studies professor gave students the platform to have a discussion in class about how the racial tension on campus has been affecting our lives. After many of the Black students bravely shared their stories aloud, shed tears and expressed how dehumanizing and degrading being called a racial slur can make a person, better yet, a community feel, a white female student decided to speak up. She said (roughly quoting): “It breaks my heart to hear that when stuff like this happens it can remain on the backs of the Black students for the remainder of their day or week or even for years. It breaks my heart because I know that even though I am sad about it, I can leave today and remain totally unaffected and continue with my day. That is due in part to the privilege that I have as a white person. It allows me to remain unaffected and ignorant to what is going on with other people in my own community.” Her statement shook me to the core. For the first time since I have been on campus, I heard a white person admit to the privilege of indifference. The privilege of neutrality in times of racial crisis. This mindset of neutrality is one that privileged whites tend to have in the United
States (and on this campus) regarding race. White people who choose not to be a part of the conversation of racial tension and who would rather “not take a side” perpetuate an endless cycle of aggression and attack.
I have found that the issues we as people of color face are in fact being seen by white students on campus but it seems that they are only seeing us through a TV screen
From a distance, it may seem as if most of the white students do not see what is happening on campus. It seems that they are totally oblivious to our struggle. However, I have found that the issues we as people of color face are in fact being seen by white students on campus but it seems that they are only seeing us through a TV screen — as if these racial attacks are
a natural disaster occurring in some foreign land leaving them totally unaffected. Black students feel as if they are isolated on an island experiencing a calamity and all the complacent white students act as if all they can do is watch. They are not seeing our anguish through their own eyes, in their own halls, buildings and front lawns. They are not feeling our pain in their own bodies because even hundreds of years after being brought to this land, Black people still are only seen as visitors. As the girl in my class said, many white people don’t feel personally affected or attacked when a Black man is called “n*****” because they do not view said Black man as a member of their community but another community completely separate. We as Black people are only tolerated as guests on a campus we have worked equally as hard to reside upon. Therefore, when something happens to us, the urgency of the matter is only our issue and no one else’s. It is not that these white people are evil or would ever themselves attempt to dehumanize a person of color, it is that they choose to remain ignorant to the issues affecting people of color and therefore choose to remain neutral to any remedies. The only way we can fix what is going on here is if we somehow make the complacent white students, who have no inclination toward either side, feel obligated to defend the identities of students of color. They have to know that what is happening is not fiction. It’s
not alien. It’s not happening on a TV screen! It’s occurring right here and right now. The neutral white students have to feel personally affected when their Black neighbors are being attacked and they have to view an attack on a person of color in this community as an attack on everyone. We can only move forward if they know their participation is integral to our movement for positive social change on campus.
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Opinion
4A — Thursday, October 12, 2017
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ELLERY ROSENZWEIG | COLUMN
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EMILY HUHMAN | COLUMN
Homelessness: A tale of two cities
I
grew up in Traverse City. Ask Arbor and Washtenaw County any University of Michigan have implemented governmental student from Traverse City programs to curb homelessness about their hometown, and they in their communities. In 2015, will describe the Washtenaw County beautiful beaches, implemented the bustling downtown Zero:2016 program, and Moomer’s, our now called Built for town’s treasure (it’s Zero. This is a national the best ice cream in program that aims the United States). to help communities While these are develop and utilize all a part of what existing resources makes Traverse City to help those on the what it is, one thing streets. The program EMILY is often left out in has seen a lot of HUHMAN success in Ann Arbor the conversation surrounding the city: — 172 homeless veterans and homelessness. 158 of the chronically homeless Homelessness is an issue that were able to get off the streets. is prevalent in Traverse City If Traverse City’s government and Ann Arbor, but the issue is implemented this type of relatively invisible to those who program, it could likely reduce are unaffected by it. homelessness. Out of the 15,479 people who In addition, a lack of live in Traverse City, about 94 affordable housing in Traverse people experience homelessness. City contributes to housing Traverse City is not considered a insecurity and homelessness. hub for the homeless; therefore, As wealthy retirees have begun the city is not given funding from to settle in Traverse City, the state and federal government housing prices have increased to help deal with the homelessness substantially. Some downtown problem. As a result, it has been apartments and condominiums up to nonprofits to try to care for are on the market for more the homeless in the city. than $1 million. These prices I began to volunteer at Safe are outrageous; middle-class Harbor, one of the nonprofits citizens cannot afford these serving the community’s apartments, let alone the homeless. There, I learned working homeless. As a result, about the problems facing my homeless people in the area are hometown’s homeless population. often in danger, either because As the main organization working of cold winters or vicious to serve the homeless, Safe beatings by other homeless Harbor is a collection of churches people or local teenagers. that makes meals and provides Many attempts have been “bed-nights,” or overnights in one made to build affordable housing of its participating churches. units in Traverse City, but these In the winters of 2011 and projects have faced considerable 2012, Safe Harbor provided pushback from some portions of 5,540 bed-nights and more than the community. In 2016, Traverse 11,000 meals to 158 different City’s city commission sold an homeless folks. Though Safe unused government building to Harbor provides much help and Safe Harbor for $50,000 after services to the homeless, the help two years of debate. This building is only temporary — nothing they will be turned into a permanent provide is permanent. Rather, home for Safe Harbor and open as federal and state funding is a shelter in 2018. necessary to provide permanent Critics wondered if building a solutions to Traverse City’s homeless shelter was the best use homelessness issue. of the land. Others worry that the Of the 364,709 people living increase in services will lead to in Washtenaw County, 342 more homeless people moving into of those people experienced the area. However, statistics show homelessness on a given day in this has not happened. In Traverse January 2016. Unlike Traverse City, 74 percent of the homeless City, Washtenaw County has are from Grand Traverse County taken a much more active role in and 93 percent are from Michigan. reducing homelessness. While As a result, in the deal with Safe Traverse City relies almost Harbor, city commissioners solely on private nonprofits, Ann stipulated that if a housing
proposal comes along within 10 years, part of the property will be used for housing the homeless. Ann Arbor has faced a similar problem with affordable housing. Listing prices have increased 10.6 percent from April 2016. Now, the average listing price in Ann Arbor is $320,335, a price that is impossible for low-income individuals to afford. Officials in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have said they plan to add 3,137 affordable renting units. While this is a great step, it can still be difficult for extremely lowincome people to afford these units. Additionally, funding cuts have forced a shelter to cut 27 beds. More affordable housing and homeless shelters are needed to further reduce homelessness in Ann Arbor. The homeless in the Traverse City area have also been working to become more visible. In 2011, the first issue of “Speak Up Magazine,” a magazine written by homeless folks about issues affecting them, was released in Traverse City. People can submit articles, short stories, poems or artwork to the magazine. Once published, the homeless can become vendors after going through an interview. The vendors can keep any profits they receive. Though “Speak Up Magazine” does not solve the systematic problems of homelessness, it has provided a look into the lives of Traverse City’s homeless population and given them a voice. Ann Arbor’s “Groundcover News” is a comparable publication. You might see these vendors in yellow vests around Ann Arbor — feel free to stop by and pick up a copy. I am so grateful to have grown up in Traverse City. However, the city can do a lot more to help the homeless people in the area. While visibility for the homeless in Traverse City may be increasing with “Speak Up Magazine,” more can be done by local leaders to help those in need. Ann Arbor has been able to implement some governmental solutions. Traverse City can take a cue from Ann Arbor and implement more city-wide programs and actively look for affordable housing solutions. Emily Huhman can be reached at huhmanem@umich.edu.
ERIN WAKELAND | ERIN CAN BE REACHED AT ERINRAY@UMICH.EDU
A
Lettuce eat plants
fter trial and error with plant-based eating over the course of this year, I finally decided to ditch the dairy products I relied on and be a “real vegan.” I always imagined when I changed my diet I would have some challenges with cravings for my favorite comfort foods. Surprisingly, the challenges I experience have instead been from the stigma associated with being a vegan. Last week, standing in the buffet line at my friends’ potluck, I soon realized that there were not many dishes I could eat. Limited by my options, I reached the end of the line where two loaves of garlic bread laid side by side. The first one was labeled “no cheese,” and the other had cheese on top. I grabbed a piece of the one with no cheese, assuming it had to be vegan, and sat down at a table with friends to eat and catch up. I took a few bites of the bread and it tasted pretty great. The flavor was familiar, and after I finished the piece, I guessed there had to be butter in it. I could feel the heat flushing into my cheeks as I asked around the table to see who made the bread and if there were any other animals products in it. When they answered there was, in fact, milk and butter in the bread, I was mad and embarrassed that I allowed myself to eat this bread without asking before. I know it was just one piece of bread and there is no way it could hurt me, but I was pissed at myself. Why was I so embarrassed to ask what was in the food? Why is this something that I always find myself trying to avoid in social settings? Did I secretly hope the bread was
vegan so I could just enjoy some damn good garlic bread like everyone else? I find myself in this situation whenever I go to events and parties where there are catered or homemade foods. Realistically, I know I can easily ask the people who cooked the food what ingredients are in their dishes. But asking these simple questions about food brings negative attention that makes me feel as if I am being difficult, annoying or making an issue for everyone else. Before I stopped eating meat, I felt as if the vegetarians and vegans in my life were always talking about their diets, and I found it annoying. When I would go out to eat with them I was nervous they would make me feel uncomfortable about my food choices or try to push their “agenda” on me. Therefore, since I stopped eating meat, I always had these opinions lingering in the back of my mind, and I have been actively trying to distance myself from this negative stereotype. In the beginning, I did not even want to associate myself with the label “vegetarian.” If someone asked me about it, I would casually answer, “I just don’t eat meat,” because I didn’t want the label to give others the power to make assumptions about kind of person I was as a vegetarian. But as time went on, and I continued to cut more and more animal products from my diet, I knew that I would need to start using a form of this label. Now, when my veganism comes up in conversation, as I expected, I see people processing their own preconceived opinions about my lifestyle. I wish I didn’t
care what people thought, but even as I am writing this column, I feel nervous that readers will think I am being That Annoying Vegan, that I am just using this space to push my plant-based agenda on my readers. And it is hard not to think this with all of the anti-vegan jokes and memes I see online. Though I still find them funny, I wish there were a way people could see veganism the way I do. I chose my vegan lifestyle because I found this was the best for my body and mind. In addition, I want to do less harm to living creatures and the planet we share. It is a choice, and I want to acknowledge I’m aware there is a privilege in being able to eat this way. This diet or lifestyle is not accessible to everyone, and it is not my place to tell another what they should put in their body. In fact, I believe it is everyone’s right to choose what feels best and truly satisfies their body’s needs. This is the only body I will ever have. I know I should not feel sorry or shameful for being autonomous over my diet, body and impact on this world. I am not going to let the negative stereotypes about veganism affect the way I live my life. The values I hold and the lifestyle I live do not make me any better than the next person. They only allow me to have control in a system where I feel powerless. No one should ever feel shame in asking questions, because staying true to your values and standing up for justice over your body, the living beings around you and the planet is never inconvenient. Ellery Rosenzweig can be reached at erosenz@umich.edu.
SUBMIT TO SURVIVORS SPEAK
The Opinion section has created a space in The Michigan Daily for first-person accounts of sexual assault and its corresponding personal, academic and legal implications. Submission information can be found at https://tinyurl.com/survivespeak. BRETT GRAHAM | COLUMN
On recognizing privilege and trust
“A
s a straight, white, Maybe this interaction stood cisgender man out to me because a few months of relatively high earlier I had seen a similar socioeconomic status and dialogue go horribly wrong. having been raised Another friend of in the Catholic mine and I were Church …” spending some time That’s how I together and, over started my sentence. the course of several It was a muggy days, all we did was July evening disagree — on topics in New Jersey, ranging from how with mosquitoes to define cultural everywhere and the appropriation to temperature easily whether trap music BRETT over 80 degrees still an inherently GRAHAM was after dark. I was depressing genre spinning around on an old made by sad people trapped in deck chair in my backyard. A a vortex of hypermasculinity close friend of mine from high (it was a long week). This all school had come over to catch culminated in her screaming at up — we hadn’t seen each other me — in a very public setting — in months — and somewhere that I needed to come around along the way, between talk to her point of view and spend of last semester and our more time reading what she plans, we started discussing had read or risk “being just religion. I was fascinated with another dumb white guy who’s Hinduism at the time, and literally destroying the world.” I was asking this friend, an The real quote had more Indian American, how I might expletives than this or any approach that interest in a other newspaper would allow. respectful, non-appropriative So what made the way. But she cut me off. difference between these She raised her hand, signaling two interactions? Something that I should stop, and smiled, was profoundly absent in the saying, “Brett, just say what latter, and the only word I you’re about to say, I already can think of to describe it is know all of these things about trust. Trust that I was at least you.” She told me that I didn’t somewhat informed, somewhat need to qualify every statement empathetic, somewhat engaged every time I opened my mouth. — that I was trying to put aside It took a second for me to my privilege and understand process, but then we moved on another point of view. That’s with our conversation. what made the discussion This may seem like a small about Hinduism work; my moment, an obvious way to friend trusted me to make my streamline our conversation best effort to honestly listen. and make it so that I didn’t Meanwhile, the lack of that have to repeat the paragraph kind of trust led to me being of my privilege I’ve grown branded as an active member accustomed to another five of a race intent on destroying times. A timesaver, more or the world. less. Months later, though, To be clear, I by no means as I ref lect on it, I think this think I have a free pass from moment speaks volumes about now on, with her or anyone the way dialogues can work. else. I had to work to earn that
trust, and that’s the way it should be. I’ll continue to work to earn the trust of others, all the while expecting nothing. The reality is that as a straight, white, cisgender man of decent socioeconomic status on this campus, I’m accustomed to recognizing my privilege before I speak in most groups. It only takes a second or two. I’ve learned how my identity tends to dominate a conversation and take up space, and I’m consistently doing my best to break that mold and listen instead. But this one time, I got a pass. And it felt great. The role of a straight, white, cis — well, you get it by now. The role of guys like me within our socio-cultural-political cohort is often difficult to navigate. Sometimes, the right thing to do is to speak out, to use your privilege to point out and correct injustice. Sometimes, the right thing to do is to sit back and listen and empathize. Distinguishing between the two is almost always challenging. Liberal white men don’t need sympathy, though, nor do they need safe spaces of their own to figure it out. And it’s no one’s job to give us a pat on the back when we happen to do something right. But it’s helpful, in all dialogues between friends, to be conscious of that sense of trust. Knowing when you still have to work to earn it helps you capture the right tone, to temper your statements. Conversely, for those who are in a position to show that trust, knowing when to take down a barrier, however small, can bring these dialogues to another level of depth.
Brett Graham can be reached at btgraham@umich.edu.
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 12, 2017 — 5A
Defensive line steps into driver’s seat for top-ranked unit Against Michigan State, the Wolverines’ front three made their claim for the best position group BETELHEM ASHAME Managing Sports Editor
In order to replace all but one starter from last year’s defensive unit, the No. 17 Michigan football team went through a heated competition at nearly every position. As the Wolverines’ 2017 season now approaches its sixth week, that competition is still in full swing. But rather than at each specific position, the competition has moved between the position groups. The defensive line, linebackers and secondary have all played a role in Michigan becoming the No. 1 overall defense in the country in their own unique ways. From putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks to stopping power run games to neutralizing f luid pass attacks, each specific unit has come into its own despite replacing so many components of last year’s team. Up until the Michigan State game, the linebacker core had a pretty tight hold on the top spot. Fifth-year senior Mike McCray, the sole returning starter, has led the unit to even greater heights in his final season as a Wolverine. He recorded a career-high 11 tackles as well as two tacklesfor-loss against Air Force en route to a spot in the Big Ten Defensive Team of the Week. McCray has partnered with sophomore Devin Bush Jr., who has emerged as a consistent threat against both opposing running and passing games. He has racked up 41 tackles, six tackles-for-loss, five sacks and four pass breakups in just five games this season. Last week, Bush was added to the Chuck Bednarik Award watch
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Fifth-year senior defensive tackle Maurice Hurst shined on the defensive line against the Spartans, along with linemates Chase Winovich and Rashan Gary.
list, which honors the best defensive player in the nation. The unit has also received standout contributions from sophomore Khaleke Hudson, who now occupies the VIPER role made famous by former Wolverine Jabrill Peppers. Hudson made his first career interception against Air Force, along with five tackles and a career-high three pass breakups. Just two other Michigan players have a pick to their names.
The defensive line has given the linebackers a run for their money, though. And against the Spartans, the D-line made its strongest case yet. The trio of fifth-year tackle Maurice Hurst, redshirt junior end Chase Winovich and sophomore end Rashan Gary had arguably their best performance of the season individually and collectively despite the loss. Defensive line coach Greg Mattison took the time Wednesday to praise each of
You want guys like that to have the reward of playing like that
the three for their respective performances on Saturday. In his breakout game of the year, Hurst tallied 10 tackles with a whopping 3.5 for loss in the middle. “(He) had a really good ball game,” Mattison said. “(He) has done some really, really good things. Obviously, as a senior, in big games, you want to play your best. He’s been practicing that way to do it, and I was happy for him. “He’s capable of doing
that a lot this year. He’s very explosive. The thing I’m proud of is that he’s been a good leader and he’s worked very, very hard. And the guys look up to him and you want guys like that to have the reward of playing like that.” Winovich, who was another midseason addition to the Bednarik Award watch list after earning Walter Camp Defensive Player of the Week honors, made nine tackles and notched one quarterback hit from the
It’s just (his) burning desire to be the best he can be
outside. “There was a play in that Michigan State game — when he broke the run,” Mattison said. “(He) ran around the entire defense and ended up making the tackle 50 yards downfield. And there were secondary guys running as hard as they could. “It’s just Chase’s burning desire to be the best he can be.” Gary, who — along with Hurst — had already been named to the Bednarik Award watch list, recorded eight tackles and another quarterback hit from the edge. “I’m very proud of Rashan because he continues to try to work on his technique and continues to try to do what the defense asks him to do,” Mattison said. “And great things are going to happen because of that. “He’s right down the middle of a tight end, whereas you see (Hurst) is shaded on a guard, you see the nose is shaded on a guard and (Winovich) is shaded on a tackle, so you already have the edge. … Some guys at some programs would complain about that. He doesn’t. He just plays the defense like it’s supposed to be played.” While Mattison lauded his unit, linebackers coach Chris Partridge expressed less enthusiasm about his. “We were okay — not our best performance — but again, (we) didn’t do things to win the game.” Almost halfway through the 2017 season, the two position groups are still battling it out on a weekly basis. Though the defensive line has now stepped into the driver’s seat, the ongoing competition has ultimately helped lead the defense to the top spot overall.
Big Ten Breakdown: Four teams left undefeated in conference play TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
No. 9 Ohio State Last result: W, 62-14 versus Maryland Top performer: Quarterback J.T. Barrett — 261 yards, three touchdowns Next opponent: At Nebraska No. 3 Penn State Last result: W, 31-7 at Northwestern Top performer: Running back Saquon Barkley — 16 carries, 75 yards, two touchdowns Next opponent: BYE No. 21 Michigan State Last result: W, 14-10 at Michigan Top performer: Quarterback Brian Lewerke — 94 passing yards, one touchdown, 61 rushing yards, one touchdown Next opponent: At Minnesota No. 17 Michigan Last result: L, 14-10 versus
Michigan State Top performer: Defensive tackle Maurice Hurst — 10 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss Next opponent: At Indiana Maryland Last result: L, 62-14 at Ohio State Top performer: Running back Ty Johnson — six kick returns for 189 yards and a touchdown Next opponent: Northwestern Rutgers Last result: L, 56-0 at Ohio State (Sept. 30) Top performer: Punter Ryan Anderson — nine punts, 46.7 yards per punt Next opponent: Illinois Indiana Last result: W, 27-0 versus Charleston Southern Top performer: Wide Receiver Taysir Mack — seven catches, 111 yards, two touchdowns Next opponent: No. 17 Michigan
No. 7 Wisconsin Last result: W, 38-17 at Nebraska Top performer: Running back Jonathan Taylor — 249 rushing yards, two touchdowns Next opponent: Purdue Nebraska Last result: L, 38-17 versus Wisconsin Top performer: Wide receiver Stanley Morgan Jr. — four receptions, 115 yards, one touchdown Next opponent: Ohio State Purdue Last result: W, 31-17 versus Minnesota Top performer: Quarterback Elijah Sindelar — 248 yards, one touchdown Next opponent: at No. 7 Wisconsin Iowa Last result: W, 45-16 versus Illinois
Top performer: Quarterback Nathan Stanley — 247 yards, three touchdowns, one interception Next opponent: BYE Minnesota Last result: L, 31-17 at Purdue Top performer: Linebacker Thomas Barber — ten total tackles, eight solo, 0.5 sacks and 1.5 tackles for loss Next opponent: Michigan State Northwestern Last result: L, 31-7 versus Penn State Top performer: Quarterback Matt Alviti — three carries, 20 yards, one touchdown Next opponent:
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
The Michigan football team is fourth in the Big Ten East after this weekend, trailing Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State in the standings.
At Maryland Illinois Last result: L, 16-45 at Iowa
Top performer: Running back Mike Epstein — seven catches for 83 yards Next opponent: Rutgers
RELEASE DATE– Thursday, October 12, 2017
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Part of BYOB and MYOB 4 Band name with a lightning bolt slash 8 Unlike a couch potato 14 T’ai __ 15 Afrikaans speaker 16 9Lives mascot 17 *What may put a fire in the belly? 19 Makes room on, as a schedule 20 Window part 21 Mother of Pollux 23 She plays Crawford in FX’s “Feud” 24 *Commuter entertainment source 27 Regards with surprise 30 Sped 31 Botch 32 Miracle-__ 33 One teaspoon, e.g. 37 Sponsor’s array 38 *Slick trick 42 Pampering place 43 Lets hit them 45 Pi follower 46 Heroism 48 In-land link? 50 Leopardlike cats 52 *Pre-release programs 56 Not right 57 Commuter’s expense 58 Staff symbol 62 Metaphorical state of agitation 64 What young people may sow ... and what’s literally hidden in the answers to starred clues 66 Like most Chaplin films 67 “Uh-huh” 68 By way of 69 Gives a heads-up 70 Drag racing gp. 71 Prompt a correction DOWN 1 “Draft Dodger Rag” folk singer
2 Stop on the trail 3 Quibbles 4 “Defending Liberty, Pursuing Justice” org. 5 Might’ve 6 Con man’s forte 7 Set of beliefs 8 “The Walking Dead” channel 9 Nab 10 Pressure-__ 11 Like two-time Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi 12 Late summer sign 13 Steel city near Cologne 18 Bit 22 Orbit City pooch 25 Starting 26 One in a cel block 27 FBI guy 28 Assistant 29 “Wanna hear a secret?” 32 ’60s-’70s Pontiac 34 City that hosts an annual Norwegian Wood music festival
35 Blind __ 36 Elephant flappers 39 Singer Guthrie 40 Golf club part 41 Even once 44 Cutting-edge horror film? 47 Olds compact 49 Approval 50 Wide-eyed and wise-looking 51 Telemarketer
52 Light wood 53 It’s often distributed in cc’s 54 Sir or sri 55 Haul to the shop 59 Nesting site 60 Ado 61 Nicholas II was the last one 63 Some NFL blockers 65 Raiders’ org.?
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
xwordeditor@aol.com
By J. Michael McHugh ©2017 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
10/12/17
10/12/17
Sports
6A — Thursday, October 12, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Grading Michigan’s special teams unit through five games TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
New punters. New kickers. New returners. New everything. Special teams coordinator Chris Partridge has had a lot on his plate this year, which has been a big change from last season when just two players handled all of the responsibilities. Former Wolverine Kenny Allen used to command all three kicking duties (kickoffs, punts and field goals), and former linebacker and Heisman finalist Jabrill Peppers used to line up for every punt and kick return. But Allen and Peppers have left Ann Arbor, and new players had to step in. Partridge had to modify and rework the starters in the first few games, but it seems like the depth chart is now finalized. With midterm season in full swing at the University, here are our grades for Michigan football’s different special teams groups.
high and giving our kickoff team a nice advantage there.” Partridge noted that Foug worked all summer to give his kicks a longer hang time. It’s paying off. Grade: A Punting The punter position hasn’t been as steady for Michigan. Redshirt freshman Will Hart punted in the first three games against Florida, Cincinnati and Air Force, averaging 37.9 yards per punt. To put that in perspective, Allen averaged 43.3 yards per punt last year. Hart was subbed out for freshman Brad Robbins at the start of the Big Ten season, and so Robbins seems to have the upper hand so far. Robbins’ punts average 42.6 yards — just shorter than Allen’s. He also displayed his good catching ability in the rainy game against Michigan State, a rivalry game that has a recent history of punters making crucial mistakes. Partridge said that the “sky is the limit” for Robbins and that the true freshman has done everything they’ve asked of him so far. While both Hart and Robbins have seen a few whiffed punts skim off the side of their foot, there have been no major miscues. Grade: B
You haven’t seen the last of (Peoples-Jones) in the end zone.
Kickoffs Redshirt junior kicker James Foug owns this spot. Now in his fourth year on the team, Foug has solidified his role as Michigan’s starting kicker. He’s got a strong leg — about twothirds of his kickoffs go for touchbacks — and Partridge has taken notice. “He’s developed tremendously,” Partridge said. “He’s a guy who last year was just behind Kenny (Allen). It was close, but we had the experience of Kenny so we went with him. “But James had a great year this year, and he’s doing a great job of putting the ball up there
Field goal The field goal unit has been spot on. Redshirt freshman kicker Quinn Nordin has converted 86 percent of his field goals, and his only two misses came in the season opener against Florida. The group consists of Nordin, fifth-year senior
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Redshirt freshman kicker Quinn Nordin continues to excel for the Wolverines, as he has now converted on 12 of his 14 field goal attempts through five games.
holder Garrett Moores and redshirt freshman long snapper Cameron Cheeseman. The trio played a big part in getting the Wolverines through games early in the season and may be called upon again. Grade: A+ Punt return Freshman receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones is gutsy, and it almost cost him the starting punt returner job. Since a few questionable fair-catch decisions against Cincinnati, Peoples-Jones has been solid. He returned a punt for a touchdown against Air Force, and the coaches continue to express their faith in his ability. “You haven’t seen the last of (Peoples-Jones) in the end
zone,” Partridge said. “He’s getting really comfortable back there. I think we’ll have some big plays out of him coming forward.” As a returner, Peoples-Jones is fearless. Partridge said that he has a great ability to track the ball, catch it and then make one or two defenders miss. “And he’s big, so he can run through those tackles,” Partridge said. “He’s fast, so he can break open when he makes them miss.” Grade: B+ Kick return Sophomore receiver Kekoa Crawford started the season as Michigan’s lead kick returner, but freshman defensive back Ambry Thomas took over for Crawford against Michigan
State last weekend. Thomas returned one kick for 30 yards against the Spartans, almost breaking loose for a bigger gain. “Ambry’s ready,” Partridge said. “He’s ready to go back there now. He’s explosive, he’s fast, he’s fearless. Really excited about him.” The kickoff return blocking is one area Partridge thinks needs to improve. Even if only one player misses his block, opponents can make the tackle. That’s the difference between a 30-yard kick return and a touchdown. If the blocking improves, Partridge expects Thomas — or whoever returns the kicks — to break one through for a touchdown soon. Grade: B-
BY THE NUMBERS Michigan’s special teams
42.6
Yards per punt for freshman Brad Robbins through the last two games.
86
Percent of field goals converted by redshirt freshman kicker Quinn Nordin.
33.6
Punt-return yards per game for freshman Donovan Peoples-Jones.
B
The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, October 12, 2017
Arts
2B —Thursday, October 12, 2017
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
B-SIDE LEAD
COURTESY OF SAHANA
COURTESY OF SAHANA
Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kuchipudi: Preserving a tradition on a college campus through dancing YOSHIKO IWAI
Deputy Statement Editor
As global citizens in this day, interdisciplinary thinking has become more important than ever, and places that bring together multiple disciplines are crucial. At the University of Michigan, the Michigan Sahana has combined culture and performance art of classical Indian origin to create a unique collaborative space. Michigan Sahana is a student organization founded in 2003. Originally formed as the Indian Classical Dance and Music group on campus, the focal point has been on classical art forms of India. The members work throughout the school year to showcase student talent, educate members of their own culture and spread awareness of the diversity of classical Indian music and dance forms. Styles presented by Michigan Sahana include Hindustani and Carnatic music, as well as dance forms like Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Kuchipudi. Michigan Sahana has three pillars that drive its mission of cultural and community enrichment: cultivating talent, mounting performance concerts and creating a safe space for people to come together. LSA senior Shalini Rao is the current president of Michigan Sahana. She said the organization has a breadth of resources available to its members, which is a strong point of the group. “It really does allow you to cater to your own interests and prioritize whatever aspects of Sahana you want to prioritize — whether it’s bonding, performance or a little bit of everything,” Rao said. “It does fulfill a cultural role for me and it also fulfills an arts role. … One of the ways I can stay in touch with my culture is through practicing and learning more about this art that I’ve been doing since I was 4 years old.” As the president of Michigan Sahana, Rao emphasized her goal to provide these resources and networks for other members. Since January, she has worked to maintain and broaden the scope of this support system. “Whether that means giving them particular performance opportunities or connecting them with local teachers, if they’re here for that purpose of improving their performance and their art form, we want to be able to fulfill that,” she said. “There are people that are really passionate about spreading awareness — I want to make sure that Michigan Sahana can grow its campus presence.” Along with the wealth of resources, the organization is unique in its approach to the performing arts. Business junior Manasvini Rao is the treasurer for Michigan Sahana, and a longtime Carnatic violin player. She spoke about
the group’s commitment to the traditional performance form, something that sets Michigan Sahana apart from other cultural groups on campus. “I think we’re one of the few organizations that stays really pure in terms of the arts — we don’t do any Bollyfusion, we don’t combine with any modern interpretations, we try to stay true to our roots,” she said. Manasvini’s years of experience in and appreciation for classical Indian performance art is not uncommon for members of Michigan Sahana. In fact, many members carry more than a decade of training before even starting college, such as LSA senior Naveena Thota.. “I’d always liked dancing along to music. When I was little, my parents noticed that I really enjoyed dancing on my own,” Thota said. Subsequently, Thota’s parents put her in classical dance classes to learn a popular style among the diaspora. “I feel like a lot of parents feel like it’ll bring their kids closer to their roots,” she said. Thota spoke about her lifelong commitment to classical Indian dance until college. Her story aligned with other members who also traveled far and dedicated extensive hours to rigorous training. However, Thota mentioned her dedication faltered in college with the busy lifestyle. “It’s been a struggle trying to keep it up, but again, because I’m passionate about it, I’ve kept it up as much as possible,” she said. “I think what’s more important to me is being associated with arts and the art form in general — understanding that even if I can’t be dancing all the time, I’m understanding other things about classical dances and classical music and I’m learning about the history and significance.” Manasvini also finds ease in maintaining her Carnatic violin practice with Michigan Sahana. She explained her family’s rich history with classical arts, ranging from singing and dancing to visual arts. “I wasn’t sure about my skills and if it would be up to par with what Michigan Sahana produces in concerts, but I found such a supportive group of people who were willing to put me in,” Rao said. “I think because I kept playing, I had my one artistic outlet in college. Honestly,
I would probably go insane without it.” As a student in the Business School, Manasvini spoke about her everyday life being immersed in quantitative or qualitative work, rather than the humanities or arts. For her, Michigan Sahana is a break from the regular obligations of school, but she is not alone in finding freedom in Sahana. Engineering senior Raghav Muralidharan was also exposed to Indian classical music at a young age and joined Michigan Sahana, following his older brother. Even before college, he knew he too wanted to be a part of the community of friends the organization provides. Now in his final year, he finds in joy in mentoring newer members and helping them find their roots in the Sahana family. “Arts in general, musical expression, is a rest from school,” Muralidharan said. “They complement each other in a way. In music, there’s a lot creativity and improvisation, a lot of working with other people. While the feelings and actual expression is different, a lot of what I do in engineering is similar in those themes. I feel like it has made me think better as an engineer.” The interdisciplinary nature of Michigan Sahana doesn’t end there. The organization is an active collaborator with other cultural groups on campus, performing in at least one large colloaborative production every year. “Even though this title as being an Indian classical organization, we do welcome and accommodate a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds. I think that’s something we can all take away as a lesson from Sahana, that
being inclusive is always a good thing,” Thota said. “You can only learn from being inclusive and getting to know other people.” Given the current political climate and recent racist incidents on campus, this inclusivity is perhaps more important than ever. Michigan Sahana’s president, Shalini Rao, reiterated this openness and acceptance as a start to dissolving tensions on campus and healing the afflicted. “Personally, it is very important because we are a student organization primarily composed of minority students,” Rao said. “We want to make sure that not only our students, but every student who may be experiencing similar challenges on this campus, know that Sahana is at least one place they can find that solidarity with fellow community members — whether or not they look like us, dance like us, sing like us. We are that space.” Krithika Balakrishnan, Shalini’s collaborator and vice president of Michigan Sahana, echoed these sentiments on the group’s unique campus presence. She said Michigan Sahana’s dual role as an arts and culture group allows it to facilitate dialogue on campus through music and dance. “Even though different types of performance arts from different countries or cultures are vastly different in how they appear on stage, there’s still commonalities within the music or movements,” Balakrishnan said. “It’s this common medium where people don’t necessarily need language to relate to each other. Because it conveys emotions and feelings, something that’s universal across so many cultures and so many people, it’s a unique way to
bring people together.” Balakrishnan also spoke about her own goals as vice president. Although Michigan Sahana already emphasizes diversity, she is constantly working to bridge the gap between different cultural groups on campus. “I want to do a lot more collage with other organizations and bring about more discussions about diversity on campus,” she said. Even though the organization’s work on expanding its campus identity is ongoing, the unwavering bonds within Michigan Sahana are apparent from the continued emphasis on a sense of family. “As a person of color, the social climate and campus climate has been disconcerting. I’m glad that I have a community and I’m glad for others to express what they need to express,” Muralitharan said. However, the profoundly deep effects of Michigan Sahana go beyond the University campus and local community. Michigan Sahana members share an interest in classical Indian performance art, but their exposure and experiences with it vary significantly. There are Indian-American members who have been raised exclusively in America, international students from India itself, those who don’t have any prior exposure to Indian culture and everything in between. “With globalization and having immigrated and assimilated into new cultures, I think it’s really important that cultures don’t get lost somewhere in the mix,” Thota said. “Just because everything is globalizing and everyone’s getting to know other cultures doesn’t mean that we need to become one big mainstream culture.” Despite this diversity within its members, a common theme in their stories is a deep appreciation for their roots. “Growing up, it was really important to my parents and to me that I didn’t lose any aspect of our culture, because it really is who I am,” Manasvini Rao said. She described her life speaking her mother tongue while growing up, eating Indian food, dressing in traditional clothing and celebrating national holidays. However, Rao said music was the easiest medium for her to talk about with relatives, especially her COURTESY OF SAHANA grandparents in
India. “For me the reason why roots are so important to stay connected with through Indian classical music and Michigan Sahana is because it’s the best way for me to keep a part of myself intact and not lose it in the business and craziness of school,” Rao said. Balakrishnan echoed these sentiments of finding deeper connections with distant relatives through performance art. Balakrishnan’s grandparents played classical Indian instruments and sang as well. “That is something I remember a lot from my childhood. Every weekend I would call up my grandma and sing a song for her,” she said. “I’m Indian and we talk and have friends who are Indian, but at the same time, looking back at my culture, Indian classical music helped me do that because I don’t live in India and I don’t see the rest of my family,” she said. There is something unifying and special about the medium of performance that allows for deeper connections to form — even with those who are not physically present to watch, like many of the members’ relatives still residing India. There is something in practicing an art form to achieve a perfection that doesn’t exist, and passing down this work ethic that seems to strengthen the bond within families. “When talking about today’s climate, when so many people aren’t open to diversity and are saying things about illegal immigrants, I think a lot of that fostered by a lack of understanding of culture and people. By using the arts or poetry, I think we foster an emotional connection that’s deeper,” Manasvini said. “There’s more of an emotional connection, which is why I think organizations like ours can get such a multicultural audience to come to our shows because so many people can enjoy it, whether they understand it or not.” And beyond the pure joy that is elicited from live performance, it becomes clear that Michigan Sahana cultivates a profound empathy — from encouraging its artists to look back to their own heritage and simultaneously looking to their present and future community. LSA sophomore Sunanda Adibhatla, a Sahana member, said connecting to her culture is important because it helps her stand out. “Staying with your roots helps you explore other people’s roots and understand other cultures as well. It’s important to me because it’s something that makes me different,” she said. “Learning about my culture and my roots is a way for me to know more and also be able to teach more to other people if they’re interested and spread the beauty of Indian music.”
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Arts
Thursday, October 12, 2017 — 3B
us to be together, even when we’re not. My grandmother’s cooking has become such a routine; it’s always there for us, whether that be in the form of dinner every night or the tea she brews at 3 p.m., every day. When something is so familiar, so normal, it’s easy to lose sight of what a blessing it is. I’ve lived 10 minutes away from my grandparents since I was 8, and now that I don’t anymore, I miss it. I miss them. So, I put on a pot of rice every now and then. I drink a cup of tea each afternoon. Food has this incredible capacity to just let you be there, wherever “there” is for you. Eating is such a habitual practice. Eventually, concrete images and specific moments start attaching themselves to each meal. Every time I’m on my bed, curled up with a cup of Darjeeling, or I order a chai
B-SIDE SECONDARY
STOCK/ DAILY Good eating
from Espresso, I’m with Nani, watching her do cryptograms and dip biscotti into her steaming mug. I’m helping my mom grate fresh ginger into the boiling milk on the stove. I’m 532 miles away, but I’m there. No matter where I am or what I’m eating, food always, always, always makes me think of my family. I think of what Nani cultivated for us in all her whizzing around the kitchen. Without her cardamom or chili peppers or whatever it is she does that makes everything taste so good, I don’t know what our relationships would be like. I don’t want to know. I can’t tell Nani I’ve gone to a South Indian restaurant without her coyly asking, “You know mine is better, isn’t it?” I always say yes, and it’s always true. I have a hunch that everyone in the family would agree because we’re always getting more than just a
meal with Nani. We’re finding vignettes of her life in India and creating traditions and plunging into this feeling of home being able to exist inside of everyone. If there’s one snapshot I’ll hold in my heart until the world stops spinning, it’s sitting around the wobbly wooden table in my mom’s sunroom, the morning after one of Nani’s feasts, and eating ambrosia cake for breakfast. It’s a scene we’ve set multiple times now, and it never gets old. We pull up extra chairs from the kitchen and dining room. There’s a pot of coffee brewing, which has already been emptied and restarted two or three times that morning. A dozen donuts from Dunkin’ are sitting on the kitchen table, because we obviously haven’t had enough sugar. In all its hectic glory, it’s warm and peaceful and dependable. It’s home.
FILM NOTEBOOK
Pass the Cake: A look at food, family and being together when you’re not Arts writer Arya Naidu reflects on her cultural & familial attachment to food and her family’s incomparable cooking ARYA NAIDU
Daily Arts Writer
Sometime about 2006, my family started doing these semi-huge reunions. I say semi-huge because we’re kind of an overwhelming bunch. What we lack in number (and there are quite a few of us), we make up for in noise and pure dimension. I always think I’m tall until I get a crick in my neck from hugging my cousins. We’d pick the Fourth of July or Memorial Day — some extended weekend — and get together almost every year. As it’s the middle of Middle America, a regional identity I’ve come to take a lot of pride in, my hometown of St. Louis was always our hub. The kids would stay in my parents’ house, and the wiser folks
My family is tethered together by this event, this sensation, this food
would be 10 minutes away at my grandparents’. As time passed, the location sometimes changed, but St. Louis has always been our center. My grandparents have been there for 30-plus years, moving there from Detroit shortly after immigrating from India. It was, and is, without fail, my favorite weekend of the year. All my cousins set up camp in my room; the halfdozen of us stumbling over one another whenever someone did so much as try to stand up. Every inch of the f loor was covered in makeshift beds and old blankets. Our guest room was empty, but it didn’t really matter. This one moved across the world and that one changed professions and the other two found a place in Texas — so, it didn’t matter. Right now, we were all home, here, and we wanted nothing more than to kick one another in our sleep and trip when we walked to the bathroom. And, of course, eat. The only time we move as a unit is when food beckons. Loading into my mom’s car (I’m in the trunk. Again.),
we make the trek to Nani’s kitchen. I’ve been calling my grandma “Nani” since I was a tyke, and, eventually, everyone else started calling her “Nani,” too. There’s power in being short, chubby and wild. We smell the food before we get out of the car. The turmeric and homemade ginger-garlic paste wafts out to the driveway, and I see Nani around the side of the garage, picking curry leaves from her karivepaku plant in the garden. It’s the same scene, every year. Heck, she finds something to do with that plant every day. Leaving our shoes outside the back door, we follow her into the house. My grandpa’s in the sunroom, munching on chakralu and reading the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Nani’s already adding her leaves to the chicken. We disperse around the various kitchen cookie jars, most of them holding boondi and decadeold caramel calcium chews. My uncle is peer-pressuring us to eat the papaya he just cut. Last year, it was jackfruit. It’s chaotic, and there’s pomegranate in my hair and it’s home. My family is tethered together by this event, this sensation, this food. There are some cousins I’m not involved with for months at a time, too busy with our own schedules to keep up regular contact. But, always, in the weeks leading up to these f leeting holiday weekends, we’re all talking endlessly. About the chili chicken from last summer and the lamb Nani kept telling us was tofu and the mess we consistently make trying to help with the chapatis. About the fifth year we all got together, we were celebrating Nani’s birthday, and we got a full sheet of ambrosia cake from Dierberg’s (a St. Louis grocery store). It’s a vanilla base, topped with fresh pineapples and kiwis and magic. My cousins and I have tried to find an ambrosia cake as good as the one at Dierberg’s, but it just doesn’t exist. This is a fact. The evening of the big birthday dinner, we walked into the kitchen after dessert, and we see this leftover cake being dumped into giant Tupperware containers. My aunt, my mom, Nani — they’re taking spatulas to the slab, shoveling it into random bins. I repeat: spatulas. That is, and always will be, the most I have ever laughed. Here we were: A bunch of entitled, oblivious, blissfully
stuffed cousins, watching the best thing that has ever happened to us being dumped into vats. Something about the act was so bizarre yet felt oddly normal. As a first-generation child, I’ve grown up with a little (a lot of ) spice in my life. Seeing the Dierberg’s masterpiece turned into mushy mountains was the first time I think I realized just how much I took my culture for granted. This brazenness and warmth are pieces of my everyday life because they’re entwined with my vibrant, brash, South Indian family. This was almost four years ago, and we’re still giggling about it. My family. They’re my favorite people in the world, and I say that without hesitation. That night with
WARNER BROS.
Me, Myself & Mel Brooks A personal reflection on the significance of not just Mel but most Jewish cinema and actors in a Jewish girl’s life BECKY PORTMAN Daily Arts Writer
That night with the cake, we stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m., just gossiping and belly-laughing out of our food comas
the cake, we stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m., just gossiping and belly-laughing out of our food comas. And when we woke up, we went straight for our tubs of ambrosia. We’ve made the cake a staple at each gettogether since. Almost every year turned into almost every other year, which turned into family weddings, or as often as we could. But I know that if, right now, at 11:29 p.m. on this rainy weekend night, I needed someone, anyone, from my family, they would get here as fast as they could. Even the ones a plane ride away. We’re not just a bunch of hungry relatives. I mean, we are, but food is a currency of love for us. It’s what we’ve used to bring us back to one another. When words aren’t enough or time gaps get too big or some trivial kinfolk drama clouds our judgment, the food roots us. We share it with one another and create it for one another because it’s a way for
I am like, really Jewish. At least that is what my friends tell me. I don’t know if it is my sizably Semitic nose or my affinity for bagels and lox or maybe just the everything about me. Setting stereotypical truths aside for now, my Jewishness has been endlessly present in my life. I have constantly been the resident Jew on matters regarding everything from the IsraeliPalestinian conf lict to Woody Allen’s credibility. Every summer, for as long as I can remember, I went to my grandma’s little, ranchstyle house in Dayton, Ohio. On those sweltering August days, once we had gone to the Air Force museum one too many times or played all the Nintendo 64 our little thumbs could handle, we were left with limited options in terms of entertainment. Sitting on that shag orange carpet stained with memories and coffee, I was transported to a world where cowboys farted and Schwartz was not my best friend’s last name, but an all-powerful force. From “Spaceballs” to “Blazing Saddles” summers with Grandma proved to be a comedic adventure into the hilarious, Jewish world of Mel Brooks. Even before I knew what “Star Wars” was, I was watching my brothers watch that guy from “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” wearing a humorously large helmet and a small golden guru named Yogurt caring a whole awful lot about merchandising. When we got sick of rewinding “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and completed our
own renditions of the selfaware masterpiece, we set our sights on the pantheon of Jewish film, the holy grail of Semitic Cinema, the one, the only “The Frisco Kid.” If you haven’t seen it, you’re tacky and I hate you. For reference, the film stars Han Solo as a rough and tough cowboy and Willy Wonka as a Yiddishspeaking Rabbi on a Western
I have constantly been the resident Jew on matters regarding everything from the IsraeliPalestinian conflict to Woody Allen’s credibility
adventure of Clint Eastwood proportions; it doesn’t get any better than that. The film approached complex themes of the fish out of water and immigrant experience while creating dynamic character relationships with the perfect dose of good, old Jewish humor. When I think of “The Frisco Kid,” I think of my childhood, of those long, summer days at
Grandma’s house and watching those classic movies on an ancient television screen while eating Spaghetti-O’s. I am like, really Jewish. If that means I get excited about Yiddish-isms in “Seinfeld” or references to Jewish law in “Transparent” or the simple utterance of an “oy” from an exasperated goy, so be it. Sometimes it was little things, like when John Goodman’s Walter Sobchak in “The Big Lebowski” claims he doesn’t role on Shabbos or anytime a Yiddish phrase was uttered in “A Serious Man” (pretty much anything the Coen brothers do thrills me). But it was more than understanding what the filmmakers were trying to communicate about their own stories, but seeing my personal narrative within it. I think I was six the first time I saw Tommy Pickles put on a yarmulke. Granted, it was the “Rugrats” Hanukkah special, but still, something about it made me see myself in that wise baby. I saw him as an extension of my life, my family, my experience. Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to Jewish film, it reminds me that I am not alone. If there was Jewish content projected onto the movie screen, there was no reason for me to be ashamed or embarrassed. It was almost like I was in on some inside joke that no one else understood. As if the filmmakers were telling a joke just to me in a secret kind of Jewish code. Now I know why Jewish film is so important to me. That feeling of belonging I felt watching Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder and Barbara Streisand is no longer a mystery. It reminds me why I am proud of my identity, my heritage, my tradition, my Jewishness.
Arts
4B —Thursday, October 12, 2017
Composer Gabriela Lena Frank at work
COURTESY OF GABRIELA LENA FRANK
ARTIST
IN
PROFILE
Life outside a golden cage with Gabriela Lena Frank Acclaimed composer draws on her family’s rich, Peruvian heritage with a compelling personal compositional voice DAYTON HARE Senior Arts Editor
To a certain extent, creation is, at its very core, a synthetic act. Not synthetic in the sense of artificiality or fakeness, but rather in the sense that the product of creation is nearly always one of synthesis, the coming together of disparate elements to form some greater, compounded whole. Artists, like all of us, wander through life picking up the scattered pieces of the things that come to form their identities, borrowing influences and welding ideas together in endless cycles of combination and fusion. In many artists, this manifests itself subtly, but for others it can take on a more overt appearance. For some, it’s as if they take up the mantle of synthesis as a kind of mission. More than most, perhaps, the composer Gabriela Lena Frank personifies this particular ethic. Born in 1972 in Berkeley, California, Frank came into being in a country (and city) that was flooded with the tumult surrounding the Vietnam War protest movement and humming with the residual energy of the ’60s. In a certain sense, she is the daughter of both immigrants and the optimism of that decade. “My father was a graduate student at Cal, that’s why he went to Berkeley,” Frank said in an interview with the Daily. “He had just finished a stint in the Peace Corps, where he was stationed in Peru, where he met my mom.” Frank’s father is a scholar of Mark Twain, her mother a stained glass artist and a Peruvian women of Chinese descent. The maternal facet of Frank’s heritage has had a profound influence on her musical work; however, the road to the complete blossoming of this cultural influence in her music was long and circuitous. Initially — though surrounded by culture and the arts through her family — Frank wasn’t even aware that she wanted to be a composer at all. “I didn’t think I was going to be a professional musician. I didn’t think that was possible,” Frank said. “I thought music was something that you did for fun, and I didn’t know any professional musicians. The most professional musician I knew was my piano teacher, and she’s a wonderful lady, she’s in her 80s, she still teaches, but she’s a neighborhood piano teacher, she’s not concertizing on the road or doing something like that.” But Frank’s early artistic and cultural influences ran deep, and started early.
Unaware though she was of the professional music world, the roots of her future began to expand even during her childhood. “We were always a creative family, one that was invested in reading literature, [consuming] art, and so that was a powerful influence,” Frank said. “My father had the presence of mind to get me started on a music instrument when I was quite young: I wasn’t quite five, but I was already drawn to the little spinet piano that was in the house. This despite the fact that I … was born with a moderate to profound hearing loss.” Reduced hearing notwithstanding, Frank’s early affinity for music manifested itself in ways that were indicative of a curious and creative mind. Though still without an inkling that professional music making was a viable option, already in her youth Frank was practicing some of the same modes of creation that would later form the foundation of her career. Taking influence from the traditional music of South America that she heard during her youth, Frank would include folk music and Andean elements when improvising at the piano. “Though I was playing what my piano teacher gave me, the usual diet of Clementi and Haydn, she also encouraged my experiments with mixing styles, just improvising on my own, making up my little songs,” Frank said. “I didn’t write anything down on paper, but I was already doing some semblance of what I do now professionally.” Despite this, Frank’s knowledge of this aspect of her heritage was primarily secondhand, and what interactions she had with Peruvian music came mostly from recordings. This period of Frank’s life was also concurrent with Andean music’s increase in popularity in the United States and Europe, as the Canto nuevo and Nueva cancíon movements began to take hold internationally. Partly as a result of this, Frank began to see musicians who “looked a lot like (her) mom.” “My awareness of Peruvian culture was from a distance, because we did not ever go to visit Peru,” Frank explained. “[Peru] was really in troubled times, particularly during the ’80s, when Sendero Luminoso, the Shining Path, it was known as — a terrorist group inspired by Maoist philosophy — was really tearing the country apart. So we stayed away.” As Frank grew up, receiving good grades in high school and “with an eye towards
Russian studies” (as a result of the intense interest generated by Gorbachev’s perestroika and glasnost reforms, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the slow disintegration of the Iron Curtain during the ’80s), the course of her life was permanently altered by a summer experience. “I took a music program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music over the summer before my last year in high school, and it changed my life, because I was exposed to this whole music world I didn’t know existed,” Frank said. “This idea of becoming a composer came to me right away. I didn’t know what that meant, or what it was like, but I had written my first piece down on paper, and heard it come to life at the hands of other kids my age and younger, and I was hooked, instantly. Instantly.” Not long after, Frank was accepted to the music composition program at Rice University — a turn of events which Frank describes as “very lucky” — and began studying composition formally, a course of study that later brought her to the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, where she received her doctorate in 2001. While at Michigan, she studied with current faculty member Michael Daugherty and former faculty members and Pulitzer prize-winning composers William Bolcom and Leslie Bassett. Frank, who in addition to composing is also a prodigious and Grammynominated pianist, later went on to record the complete piano music of Bassett (who sadly died last year). While working on her doctorate, Frank began to remember her love for South American folk music, and inspired by composers like the Hungarian Béla Bartók and the Argentinian Alberto Ginastera — who did similarly with their own cultures — started to combine elements of Andean music with her classical training, like she did as a child. “I realized that I had found my mission,” Frank explained. “I wanted to, in a very general way, be as mestiza in my music as I was in my person: I’m multiracial, I’m multicultural, and I think that that’s something deeply American. I love my country, and I’m
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
surrounded by daughters and sons of immigrants that contribute and work hard — that was uppermost in my mind then, and in the course of recent events in our country it’s uppermost in my mind now. It’s something that has become more urgent in my work as a musician, not less so.” According to Frank, the intervening years of study lacked some of the earlier and later Peruvian influence largely because she needed to build up her musical fundamentals. But following her exposure to the music of people like Bartók and Ginastera, she started to think about it again. “I had so much to do before I even began to blend styles … Bartók and Ginastera are still heroes to me,” Frank said. “And I studied with another [composer who blended styles], William Bolcom at Michigan, who welded turn of the century American song and cabaret with ragtime and dixie and his own personal style. So it was a natural reawakening — I’m not even sure that awakening is quite the right term, it’s more that I had to focus on getting tools.” During her doctoral studies and after deciding on her path, Frank began to delve deeper into her cultural roots, seeking out the musical traditions of Peru with vigor. At this time she started to travel to the South American country, bringing along her mother and getting to know a branch of her family that resides on the other side of the Earth’s curve. “While I was at Michigan I found grants — because nobody goes to Latin America for classical music,” Frank explained. “Everybody goes to Europe, you go to Austria, Vienna, Paris — you don’t go to Ayacucho, you don’t go to Arequipa, you don’t go to Lima or these places in the Andes.” Frank and her mother went to visit their Peruvian family, and through them Frank learned a tremendous amount about the traditions and repertoire of Andean music. Frank’s mother comes from a family of around 14 children, many of whom, of course, have children of their own. These aunts, uncles and cousins are the ones who helped Frank in her effort to reconnect to her familial past. “My family likes to joke that in any town you’ll find someone we’re related to,” Frank related. “And that was really important to me, and it’s been really moving to hear their stories and to know their experiences, and to realize that I’m the outlier, I’m the wing of the family that went north to the United States, that’s half Jewish, and I’m a symphonic composer.” During her trips, Frank would bus around the country with her cousins, going to festivals, concerts and dances. Her mother would come with her, and
The final destination of all of Frank’s efforts remains to be seen, but the road to it runs through her roots
together she and Frank would see parts of the country that she had been too poor to see during the years before she immigrated to the United States. “All my trips are a little bit of ethnomusicology, I guess, but it’s actually more personal and more creative and I get inspiration by the music I hear,” Frank said. “I often will suddenly recognize [something] even though I’ve never seen it before in Peru, and I know that I must have heard it when I was growing up, either on the LPs that my dad had that he brought over from Peru, or in a concert that musicians were giving, who were traveling from Peru or Bolivia and Ecuador.” This aspect of her identity has become one of the foremost features of Frank’s music, a quality which she has consciously embraced: “My music often is like a travelogue.” “When I realized, ‘Hey, this is something that I can do,’ it came as a very conscious choice on my part,” Frank said. “I thought it meant I would not have much of a career, to be honest … I thought that I would be maybe a wellloved teacher somewhere.” Now in the middle of a prosperous career, Frank has started to branch out into teaching, something which she had set aside for many years. Last year she founded an academy of music at her home, where she gathers together emerging composers for a summer of study. No longer living in Berkeley, Frank and her academy are located in the small town of Boonville, about two hours north of the San Francisco Bay area, where she hopes to foster a healthy artistic environment that will simultaneously enrich the musicians and the local community. “It’s a very diverse crew, and my hope is to make each and every one of my composers strengthen their individual voices and their individual stories and to be able to craft a real income and a living from what they do,” Frank said. “[I also want] to try and have them become aware of, yes, working on their national and international profile and getting these great performances … but then also focusing on something extremely local, and trying to volunteer at the high school, with music, maybe an after school program, or any way that they can, because we’re not meant to be just stuck in a golden cage, we’re suppose to be out in the community, and it doesn’t mean that we’re less of a thinker or less of an artist for doing that.” In its first year of existence, Frank’s academy drew composers from a variety of diverse backgrounds. On the academy’s first concert of premieres by the student composers, there was music by a Mexican-American composer, by a Polish and Chinese composer, an Irish composer and a Hawaiian composer, among others. To Frank, this element of diversity is extremely important. “It was beautiful, really beautiful to see the different distinct American voices we have,” Frank said. “And they all had premieres, in this tiny little community, to a standing ovation in a packed house. It was really magical.” Part of the uniqueness
of Frank’s new academy is the extent of her personal involvement. Unlike many of summer festivals scattered across the globe, Frank’s festival opens up her own home to the students, and she is deeply involved in every aspect of the summer. Because of this, in its first year the academy was somewhat of an “under-theradar” affair, quite intentionally. “First of all I was thinking, ‘God, I don’t want to make this big announcement: What if I hate it, what if it takes too much time and I can’t make my deadlines?’ But you know, after the first session I was hooked,” Frank explained. Each of the composers selected to participate in the academy was carefully selected, people who Frank had come across and been impressed by personally in some way. “I hand picked everybody. There was no open call for scores,” Frank elaborated. “These were all composers that I had at least known something of, who I might have met briefly at one of my guest visits to their school, maybe heard just one piece of theirs. And I quietly just asked about them, were they of good character, were they going to work hard — after all, when it comes to Boonville, they’re coming to my house, I’m opening my home and opening my life to people, so I wanted to be careful about that.” Moving into the future, the academy now has a website and is taking applications for its second year. Frank is interested in a broad variety of students, not just in terms of cultural background, but even diversity of age. “[The program is for] anybody that considers themselves emerging,” Frank said. “You have a lot of people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, who started composing not too long ago, and are just as much in need of a boost as those in their 20s. So I’m very open. I just need to see talent, a work ethic, good character… I think it’s a myth that you need to group together artists by different levels.” Through it all, Frank’s hope is to foster strong and compelling compositional voices from each of her students. The final destination of all of Frank’s efforts remains to be seen, but the road to it runs through her roots. Her own unique compositional voice is essential to who she is today, a composer recognized internationally for her abilities and one of the leading voices for multiculturalism in music. She is a living example of how something old can go into the creation of the new: Despite the importance that her heritage and traditional Peruvian music plays in her work, each piece she writes is uniquely her own, reshaped and informed by the past but independent from it. “[The Andean influence] changes just because it has to mix and blend with my psyche, which was formed here, was formed in the United States,” Frank said. “I’ve spent most of my time here, in my home country. For me, again, I feel like that’s very American. We bring in a lot of cultures, eat it up and make it into something new. We’ve been doing that for centuries.”
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW Aaron West has had an incredibly shitty time since the beginning of his fictional story. Between the loss of his father and a newborn daughter and the subsequent divorce that sent him into a tailspin, he’s all too familiar with crippling heartbreak. The story of Aaron West — a character breathed into life with 2014’s We Don’t Have Each Other — is the brainchild of master songwriter Dan Campbell of The Wonder Years, who personifies the character in performance. On his newest single, “Orchard Park,” we find West and his mother spreading his father’s ashes at the title’s location. We see him at his most somber, speaking directly to the memory of his father, trading in his characteristic desperation with a sense of closure. Over his quietly
reflective tune, West contemplates on the love of the Buffalo Bills he shares with his father, a common motif throughout his story. He sings in the chorus,
“Orchard Park” Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties Loneliest Place On Earth “Come November when I’m screaming at my TV in the dark / You’re screaming with me from Orchard Park.” It’s heartbreaking in characteristic West fashion, but uncharacteristically comforting in the context of his story.
With “Orchard Park,” West breaks his typically linear timeline, taking us back to the aftermath of his father’s death before his own breakdown. The song expertly relays West’s emotional state, with soft, steady guitar harmonies accompanied with violin provided by Yellowcard’s Sean Mackin. It’s melancholy and longing, but that’s in direct contrast to his usual helplessness, or even his steady rebuilding on his most recent EP, Bittersweet. As beautifully composed as “Orchard Park” is, it serves only to fill a small gap in West’s story. For now, we’ll be left a little more knowledgeable about West’s past, but in eager anticipation for him to pick up the story where he left off. — DOMINIC POLSINELLI
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 12, 2017 — 5B
baked.buzzed.bored.
COMMUNITY CULTURE PROFILE
in this series, three daily arts writers in varying states of mind visit the same place and write about their experiences. this week’s destination:
Herzog’s ‘Bells from the Deep’
COURTESY OF CENTER FOR PERFORMANCE STUDIES
CWPS: Travel, art and the shaping of an identity The Center for World Performance Studies provides a space to delve into rich performance traditions globally NITYA GUPTA Daily Arts Writer
Sometimes, you have to travel far to understand. The Center for World Performance Studies is a multidisciplinary program that offers a certificate to graduate students. CWPS collaborates with the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, Rackham Graduate School and other schools within the University. It teaches its students how to engage in theoretical and aesthetic issues that stem beyond the performing arts. As part of the certificate, students receive funding to travel abroad to do their projects. For graduate dance student Fabiola Torralba, the program allowed her to reconnect with her culture when she traveled back to Mexico. She went last summer to the region known
From there, she was able to gain a sense of selfidentity that was lacking earlier
as the Costa Chica, which encompasses Oaxaca and Guerrero. Not only did she visit her family, but she gained the opportunity to question more about her heritage. During this trip, she asked her grandmother, “What are we?” She remembered her grandmother saying, “We’re mestizos,” meaning of mixed race. After that, her grandmother was unsure of what to say. “I do remember was what wasn’t said,” Torralba said. “I wondered, ‘What about my aunts and cousins who look black?’ — not knowing that there was a name or a way to identify that. There was no word that I knew of.” Torralba later found out that there were articles and photographs covering the people in these communities of the coastal region of Mexico. From here, she was able to gain a sense of selfidentity that was lacking earlier. “I think that as an undocumented immigrant growing up in the U.S., I didn’t have many models or many people to talk to about my experiences, and this was during the time before there was immigration reform,
before it was a popular issue on a national level, before there was the word Dreamers,” Torralba said. “People didn’t really talk about immigrants in the years that I was growing up, so I looked to the stories of African-American experiences and slavery and colonialism. They anchored me in some way, and gave me something to familiarize myself with.” Not only has this experience allowed Torralba to explore her culture, it allowed her to connect with other family members and teach them more about the heritage. When Torralba went to Mexico in the summer, her cousin, who is also a dance student, joined her. “When my cousin first got off the bus ... she was stunned because it was the first time she saw so many people that were like her,” Torralba said. The first time Torralba’s cousin heard the term “AfroMexican” was through dance itself. By learning about the story of Afro Mexican dancing, her cousin was able to learn more about herself, Torralba said. This recognition of cultural diversity within art is what has been lacking in education. “To me this is new information, but this community has been organizing for 30 years, and that kind of shows how out of touch or disconnected I have been, and we have been, in academia, and maybe in the US in general,” Torralba said. Another important discovery Torralba made was the injustice the community has been facing. She realized they have been hiding their research, because outside artists have come, imposed their gains and left without ever coming back. She hopes to give back to the community, as a researcher, a dancer and as a someone that is highly committed to social justice. Torralba believes that she should use her resources at the CWPS and the University, as well as her medium of art, as a way to develop relationships with these communities and raise awareness about the existence of these communities. While the program allows students to travel back to places of their heritage, it also allows American students to explore other cultures. This can be an invaluable experience to students for their artwork and understanding of others. “We try to foster a sense of finding roots,” said Michael Gould, Director of CWPS. “For example, it might not be a place of direct cultural connection, but if you have a connection to another culture, we give the opportunity for people to have a deeper experience in another culture.”
Gould himself lived in Japan for three years while playing for a band. The experience informed his art making, and he wants his students to be able to see the richness in art abroad we don’t always have in the U.S. But sometimes, the complete opposite can happen too. Professor Anita Gonzalez teaches classes in CWPS and heads the Global Theatre and Ethnic Studies minor. Through these programs, she has taken many students abroad. “What I’ve learned from my international experiences is that when American students travel over to other places they learn more about their own cultural roots,” Gonzalez said. “Often they’ve been just caught up in their own lifestyles, and when they travel away, or go into another
“Sometimes going back and finding your roots can be a life-changing experience, as it helps you see where you came from”
cultural community, they suddenly realize more about who they are and where they came from and how they’re connected to either race or geographical space, or even to a type of family.” When Gonzalez wants to connect back to the Cuban grandfather she never met, she turns to writing. Eventually, she made her first trip to Cuba, which allowed her to finally see the place she has so often thought about. “Sometimes going back and finding your roots can be a life-changing experience, as it helps you see where you came from,” Gonzalez said. “And sometimes it’s a frightening experience, because you see that you’ve already been living in another place for a while, so you don’t have the connection that you would like to have.” The intersections of art and culture are fundamental for many in understanding and reconnecting to their cultural heritages. Just as we learn about others and their backgrounds in their artwork, we often also learn about ourselves.
Editor’s Note: Werner Herzog’s documentary, “Bells from the Deep: Faith and Superstition in Russia,” is a gripping documentary investigation of Russian mysticism, spanning all corners of the vast country. In it, Herzog explores self-proclaimed messiahs, centuries-old occultism and more — making for a rather memorable experience for our participating staffers, inebriated or otherwise. Enjoy. Honestly, what the fuck is this? I was the one who had the gall to suggest this and all I wanna do is slap the shit out of myself. I take a swig of Buzzed’s gin because I don’t think one substance is enough to keep me at bay right now. At times you have to admire Herzog’s inability to give very little shits about the content he creates. He’s just piecing together vignettes of people throat-singing and throwing water at each other while singing hymns. There’s no narrative here. It’s just as if he’s trying to grab you, the viewer, by your lapels while forcibly peeling open your eyes so you can witness the fuckery, good or bad (or anything in between), he happens to find on his global travails. Fuck you, Werner. I wish Klaus Kinski was here to bash your head in with a bottle. This guy on the screen thinks he’s Jesus. He sort of looks like him too. Maybe if Christ turned water into meth instead, more accurately. There’s a screaming baby being violently baptized. There’s a screaming woman being exorcised. There’s more throat singing. I’m too high for this shit. Goodnight. —DAILY ARTS WRITER
Well, this is off to a promising start. There’s Mongolian throat singing, for one. But I really wish this had closed captions. I can’t even identify the language they’re speaking, let alone understand it. Oh wait, good ol’ Werner is translating for us now. That’s good. Man this singing is really fucking cool. I want to be able to do that. Those overtones, man. Also there’s like this banjo or something similar. That’s neat too. This lady in a white coat (not medical) is going on about like the earth and the foolishness of humanity. Something about a redeemer. I’m not really catching it all tbh. Oh my god, baked has churro ice cream. Update: it’s delicious. “He thinks he’s jesus,” says baked. This redeemer guy has some interesting things to say. Love thy neighbor, and all that, which honestly i can get behind. “I am the blood of the father, and I and the father are one.” That’s a bit more dubious. This all reminds me of the 19th century slavophile conception of the russian people as being uniquely religious, the true heirs of orthodoxy. This baptism honestly looks like child abuse to me. I think I like gin less than i used to. Huh. God, this choir is great. This is really cool. They’re just like a regular congregation tho. And they’re good. That’s neat. This guy Yuri is introduced as a sorcerer and exorcist. That’s hardcore. This exorcism is really intense tho. Like, the screaming is kind of freaking me out. I think i’ll just watch for a bit. There’s a bell ringer and I like it. Him. Man. Whatever. His parents probably were killed in the war or Stalin’s purges, he says. I suppose it makes sense that he has found a form of solace in the ringing of the bells. Russian religious music is really nice. I think that’s the big take away. —DAILY ARTS WRITER
So far I’ve seen two men crawl over a frozen lake and a man throat singing, what is going on? Now we’re in a home and are witnessing an elaborate blessing of some sort over food. The person performing the blessing is a shaman. The family asked him to come so that they could ask which way to take their herd of cattle. More throat singing by a frozen lake, this time with a banjo? This is fucking wild. I should be high for this. There’s this man named The Redeemer who thinks he is some sort of Russian Jesus. “Mankind is headed straight towards the abyss” he says. “I am the word of the father, and the word of the father is one.” This dude really does think he’s Jesus. A Russian Orthodox priest is cannonballing a baby into a pool of water. Child abuse? There is an entire audience for an exorcism, and the women being performed on are screaming, how are people watching this for entertainment? Do they not Game of Thrones? Yuri Yuri Yuri rings the bells. I think Kanye should sample this, the boys got rhythm. It’s interesting that almost all of this mysticism in Russia takes place within Christianity. These traditions would seem so strange in any Western Christian community. A woman just asked a stump to give her bones and muscles strength, I hope it works out for her. I’m now much more motivated to visit Russia, almost exclusively so I can witness the throat singing in person. I would definitely recommend watching “Bells from the Deep,” one of the strangest films I’ve seen in years. —JOSEPH FRALEY
Arts
6B — Thursday, October 12, 2017
MUSIC PROFILE
COURTESY OF THE LOTUS FESTIVAL
Lotus Festival shows what we gain from world music International musicians and artists gathered in Bloomington for three days to share in individual culture and personal performance LAURA DZUBAY Daily Arts Writer
In an ideal world, people would see something “like nothing they’ve ever seen before” on a regular basis. Some lucky people do. Sometimes the phenomenon is scheduled; sometimes it’s completely spontaneous. In Bloomington, Ind., that awe is guaranteed at least once every year, one weekend in September. This experience is the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival: a yearly tradition in Bloomington that brings in artists from all over the world and of all different genres for a spectacular weekendlong experience. Lotus is well known for its variety. One of the popular acts this year was Making Movies, an Afro-Latin band that mixes the persistent, energetic beat of alt-rock with the rhythm of zapateado huasteco, a traditional dance form from Mexico. Performing at the same time as Making Movies was the Raya Brass Band, which specializes in — according to the festival schedule — “Balkan brass with an urban edge.” Earlier in the evening was Lo’Jo (“genre-bending French-North African-Gypsy mix”), and listed later on the program was Trio da Kali (“soulful Malian Mandé griot traditions”). Lotus was established in 1994, which makes it one of the oldest world music festivals in the country. Every year, more than 12,000 people congregate in Bloomington, where the festival is set up in the streets downtown. It’s situated primarily around the courthouse square: the intersections of Kirkwood, Walnut, College and 6th Street, blocking in the city courthouse. This square is the center of downtown and the heart of Bloomington, which is the college town home to Indiana University. “I was excited to perform for a new audience that never saw me before,” CanadianCuban singer-songwriter Alex Cuba said of Lotus in an email interview. “I look forward to [lifting] people’s spirits up ... and [making] them connect with beauty and happiness through the positive vibes of my songs.” Cuba played Friday evening in First United Methodist Church, one of seven venues set up throughout downtown. All told, there were three churches, one historic theater, one club
and two giant tents. The tents were set up on blocked-off streets, and had food, soda and locally brewed beer sold at their entrances. “As a Cuban musician, it is possible that some of the Caribbean flavors are in my music,” Cuba said. “I don’t think of genres or styles when I do music. I just write the songs in whatever style they come to me and that’s how I record them. Music for me is above everything else freedom of expression.” This was a sentiment that nearly everyone at Lotus seemed to share. The artists differed widely not only in terms of origin and genre, but also the energy level of their music. Some of the performances were high-energy and fast-paced, and some were slower and gentler, but equally invested with depth and emotion. This investment was the common thread between them — the profound care for the music and the passion of wanting to share it. One band further on the high-energy side was De Temps Antan, a Canadian group that specializes in traditional Québécois folk. “Fiddle music in Quebec is really lively music, full of joie de vivre,” said vocalist and fiddle player André Brunet. “We sing call-and-response songs, so it’s a lot of energy on stage, especially with the tapping we’re doing with our
“Music for me is above everything else freedom of expression”
feet.” The energy that Brunet and his two bandmates, Éric Beaudry and Pierre-Luc Dupuis, bring to the stage is nothing new to them. Growing up in Quebec, the three were long exposed to the roots of this “kitchen music,” which Brunet describes as “the sound of the kitchen, you know, the spirit of everyone.” “The traditional music was there, so anytime of the year was a time to sing a song, to tap the feet, to take out the fiddle, the guitar, and sing,” Brunet said. “So we grew up there with the music and with the bands. I want to say the music is still a big part of us being here... It’s really a kitchen party where everyone is dancing and being part of the same big party. So this is what we create live on stage with different arrangements of traditional music.” And he was right: everyone was dancing. This was a commonality that could be traced through the entire festival, but most particularly with the bands like De Temps Antan that played in the tents on the streets around the courthouse square. The audiences were made up of people of all ages, from children with their parents to high school and college students to older adults, and all of them
were smiling and dancing to the music. They weren’t dancing in the same way, but that hardly even mattered — to look at them, they were all dancing. “Everywhere we’ve been on the planet, everyone has the same reaction,” Brunet said. “Because we sing in French, so they’re like, ‘Okay, what is that language? It’s French, but it’s not from France, it’s not from Louisiana — oh, it’s from Quebec, okay.’ After a while, they understand that ... all of the words that we say go with the rhythm of the music.” This could have been some sort of an illusion, but at Lotus, it really did come across like everybody was on the same page. During the half-hour-long breaks between shows, people got food and drinks, they checked out the arts tables set up on 6th Street and stopped to catch the enlivened performances of Indiana University’s Breakdance Club. Then they filed back into the tents, churches and other venues to see the artists, and even if they had never heard of or seen those artists before, they were still perfectly excited to be there and ready to dance. “It’s really fun when we see those reactions,” Brunet said. “Some people would say to us, ‘Wow, I just forgot all my problems for an hour and a half during your show!’ So it makes us really happy, because it’s exactly the purpose of our music in Quebec — well, traditional music from every country on the planet. The main idea is to get everyone involved and play all together, and forget about what’s going on and just have a nice hour or two of fun. So it’s really nice to see the differences, but it’s more or less the same thing from place to place.” Lotus is a great yearly experience for Bloomington, offering a weekend of fun and togetherness for the students and faculty of IU and for the rest of the city. However, it’s also a communal experience within a broader, international context. It’s the act of seeing people connect so genuinely to music that comes from so far away from them, whether that’s Chilean folk fusion, Tuvan throat-singing or Chinese guzheng. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, and arguably nothing that you could encounter anywhere else. It’s an experience that makes the word “community” momentarily mean something bigger, something that goes beyond the city itself: something all-encompassing and belonging to nothing smaller than the world.
It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, and arguably nothing that you could encounter anywhere else
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
BRING BACK THESE TRENDS: GAUCHOS PONCHOS PLATFORM FLIP FLOPS HORSE T-SHIRTS LIVE STRONG WRIST BANDS PUCCA SHELL NECKLACES FEATHER EXTENSIONS HEELIES GET RID OF THESE TRENDS: NON-PRESCRIPTION H&M GLASSES JOIN STYLE JOIN THE REVOLUTION
E-mail join.arts@umich.edu for information on applying.
Department of Musical Theatre 2017-2018 Season
A new jukebox musical about love, rock ‘n’ roll, and second chances featuring pop hits from the 80s to today
Book by Jeremy Desmon Additional songs by Jeff Thomson & Jeremy Desmon Arrangements and Orchestrations by Jesse Vargas Oct. 12 & 19 at 7:30PM • Oct. 13, 14, 20 & 21 at 8 PM Oct. 15 & 22 at 2 PM • Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre Reserved seating $30 & $24 • Students $12 w/ID League Ticket Office • tickets.smtd.umich.edu
The RC congratulates its awardwinning faculty and students! Heather Thompson (2017) and David Turnley (1990), winners of the Pulitzer Prize Laura Kasischke, long-listed for the National Book Award (2017) 32 students have recently won the prestigious UM Hopwood Awards! Find our schedule of events at lsa.umich.edu/rc/alumni-friends/the-residential-college-50th-anniversary-celebration
By Bertolt Brecht, translated by Ralph Manheim Directed by Malcolm Tulip Department of Theatre & Drama Oct. 5 & 12 at 7:30 PM Oct. 6, 7, 13, & 14 at 8 PM Oct. 8 & 15 at 2 PM Arthur Miller Theatre League Ticket Office 734-764-2538 tickets.smtd.umich.edu umichsmtd