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Thursday, February 1, 2018

Ann Arbor, Michigan

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ADMINISTRATION

Engler met with protest as new MSU interim head HALEY MCLAUGHLIN/Daily

Former Republican governor selected unanimously amid calls for transparency

Based on several incidents of police brutality and concerns of transparency within the Ann Arbor police department, the Human Rights Commission is assembling a task force to draw a charter for a police review board.

Debate surrounds placement of city staff on police review board

Citizen groups argue police positions on new commission will be conflict of interest ALEX COTT

Daily Staff Reporter

Based on several incidents of police brutality and concerns of transparency within the Ann Arbor police department, the Human Rights Commission is assembling a task force to draw a

charter for a police review board. Though City Council, HRC and local community groups agree on the need for the commission, they disagree on whether City Council members, City staff and the deputy police chief should sit on the board. The purpose of the police review board, currently referred

to as the Co-Produced Policing Commission, is to train and educate the police and general public, review community complaints and police interactions, improve community policing outcomes and foster positive relationships between Ann Arbor residents and the police force. As a first step, HRC

is forming a temporary task force made up of community members who will design a charter for the Council to vote on. The charter will include bylaws and a general framework for the communitybased commission. The HRC is accepting applications for the task force See REVIEW, Page 3A

CARLY RYAN

Daily News Editor

Former Michigan Governor John Engler has been chosen for the interim president of Michigan State University Wednesday morning morning, following the Larry Nassar scandal that prompted the resignation of university president, Lou Anna Simons. Students and faculty protested the decision in droves at the university board of trustees meeting that same day. Engler is a Republican and Michigan State University alumni who graduated in 1971 with a degree in agricultural economics. He served as Michigan’s governor from 1991 to 2002.

He was voted into the position by MSU’s Board of Trustees, which consists of four Democrats and four Republicans, unanimously. “We owe it to them to fix the problems and to change the culture so that a better MSU will be their legacy, and that they know something positive came out of their suffering,” he said in a public statement Wednesday afternoon. Despite the unanimous vote, many students and faculty at the University have criticized his selection. Students came to voice their concerns at the Board of Trustees meeting later that day in a “flood” of protest. One of these concerns, felt by faculty members See INTERIM, Page 3A

Award-winning journalist talks stories This year’s LSA gov. flu strain of immigration from personal lens welcomes

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especially dangerous

Jarvis, Lin highlight human repercussions after Trump crackdown on policy

‘U’ researchers point to weather, student living conditions, vaccination

Award-winning journalist Brooke Jarvis and awardwinning anthropologist Jason De León, an associate professor at the University of Michigan, participated in a discussion Wednesday afternoon about the stories and findings behind immigration statistics. A day after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union focusing on more stringent immigration policy, both panelists explored the ripple effects of immigration policy on individuals and families, and the intersections therein, moderated by Ann Lin, an associate professor of public policy. The discussion, which was part of the Livingston Lectures hosted by Wallace House and sponsored by the Ford School of Public Policy, began with Jarvis summarizing her article “Unclaimed”, published in The California Sunday Magazine. The article is about a unidentified man in a comatose state who spent 16 years in the hospital. He was suspected to be a migrant, but there was not much to his story. “His story was so short, it was just a shadow of a story,” Jarvis said. Over those 16 years, many

MOLLY NORRIS Daily Staff Reporter

This flu season is shaping up to the most severe since the 2009 swine flu pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu season typically peaks between December and February the United States. As we near the height of the season, University of Michigan students have flooded into University Health Service. Researchers have said cold weather and a less effective flu vaccination has enabled the efficacy of the virus this season. Additionally, a particularly hardhitting strain of the virus, H3N2, make up 80 percent of flu cases this year. According to UHS, the flu vaccination is 70 percent effective in preventing the illness in healthy patients. Arnold Monto, a professor at the School of Public Health, said this year’s vaccination is less effective than usual due to a “triple whammy.” “We’ve got big outbreaks, we’ve got the virus that is causing the outbreaks being the See FLU, Page 3A

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people contacted the hospital thinking that the man was their loved one. Jarvis was struck by number of families that endured the loss of a loved one attempting to cross the border. “The point of the story was to learn more about all these families and what their experience was like,” Jarvis said. Jarvis and De León—a

recent MacArthur Genius honoree — both talked about Facebook and other online groups that have been created for the sole purpose of sharing stories about and looking for loved ones that have been lost crossing the border. “It’s this whole world of people sharing stories and sharing pictures, either of someone they’ve lost or of someone whose been found,”

Jarvis said. The discussion then moved to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric and his plans to build a wall, and then moved to immigration laws in general. Trump vowed to tighten restrictions on immigrants during the State of the Union Tuesday evening, blasting terror attacks he claimed were enabled by the See JOURNALIST, Page 3A

MICHAEL BARSKY/Daily

Brooke Jarvis, a contributing writer to The New York Times, speaks on the panel Beyond The Wall: The Human Toll of Border Crossings at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Tuesday.

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INDEX

incoming members

Representatives propose zero-waste initiatives, acting on MSU scandal ALICE TRACEY For the Daily

At its weekly meeting Wednesday evening, the University of Michigan’s LSA Student Government confirmed six appointed representatives and officially added ten members to the Budget Allocations Committee. Appointments Committee Chair Kevan Casson, an LSA sophomore, welcomed the new members and urged them to reach out with questions. “I really want to be a resource for you,” Casson said. Casson also said going forward, the Appointment Committee plans to “taper down” its recruitment of new representatives. Two new resolutions were passed during the meeting. The first, sponsored by Counsel Nathan Wilson, an LSA junior, passed 29 to 0 with no abstentions. The bill is an amendment to the ninth, 18th and 19th chapters of LSA SG bylaws and redefines the responsibilities of the election director. The resolution also See LSA SG, Page 3A

NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................1B

SUDOKU.....................2 CLASSIFIEDS...............6 SPORTS....................5

News

2A — Thursday, February 1, 2018

MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers

TUESDAY: By Design

WEDNESDAY: This Week in History

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According to activist Cherie Brown, the first JewishAmerican Princess didn’t have a Canada Goose jacket or a Love Your Melon beanie — she was a woman named Marjorie Morningstar, from a book published more than half a century ago. “It was during a period in the 50s after the Holocaust, where Jews had had a third of their people decimated,” Brown said. “There was a feeling that upward mobility could Sudoku be Syndication a vehicle for security. The

JAP stereotype is the blaming of Jewish women for the upward mobility of the Jewish community in the attempt to try to escape anti-Semitism.” Brown, founder and CEO of National Coalition Building Institute – an organization that promotes social change and offers training in diversity, equity and inclusion – hosted a workshop titled “What is Anti-Semitism and Why is it Everyone’s Concern?” with a group of about 20 students Wednesday at the Michigan Union. Student Life and Michigan Hillel co-sponsored the event.

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Brown discussed three November. primary signifiers of antiCSG representative Izzy Semitism. The first, she said, Baer, an LSA sophomore, said was the unfair targeting and she authored the resolution for blaming of Jewish people. Brown to speak to CSG after “All kinds of things are going the vote. on – all kinds of issues – but “I was an outspoken you’re singling out the Jewish student during the divestment people, saying, ‘It’s your fault.’ resolution, more on the side of The history of anti-Semitism I don’t think that this should is Jews being singled out for be in the hands of CSG because blame,” she said. we’re students and we’re The second was a strategy not experts on the Israeliof division, what Brown called Palestinian conflict overall,” “diverting the attention of Baer said. “I think a lot of people from the oppression Jewish students talked about around them” to focusing and how they felt targeted from fixating on Jewish people. The this because they felt it was http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/ third signifier was isolation. direct target on the state of “Jews were ghettoized Israel. There’s so much nuance and not allowed to to anti-Semitism as a form participate in the rest of of oppression and it’s really society,” Brown said. “Any complicated and it’s not really time Jews get isolated out, talked about.” that is anti-Semitism.” LSA senior Joe Goldberg Brown also illustrated also attended the workshop. what she called the hook, a Goldberg serves as chief of self-fulfilling cycle of anti- staff to CSG president Anushka Semitism and racism. In Sarkar, and was the center of her diagram, a fear of anti- controversy during #UMDivest Semitism makes Jewish for alleged ethics violations. communities “scared Goldberg previously served active.” as Hillel’s External Relations “The fear propels us to chair. action,” Brown said. “We “Contemporary antimight interrupt things, we Semitism I think is a very might try to take charge interesting topic for a lot of of things. You do that reasons, mostly because it’s so particularly around people ambiguous,” he said. “There of color and what’s it called? isn’t really a defined answer of That’s racism. It’s a hook. what it is. As a senior, I started It’s the intersection of to feel it for the first time on racism and anti-Semitism. campus, and when I look back It’s a dynamic.” at my time at Michigan and Conversation turned my time in internships and to the Central Student communal activities, I realize Government resolution I’ve experienced much more to divest from companies than I’ve ever given myself that operate in Israel. credit for.” The resolution passed for the first time in the Read more at MichiganDaily.com University’s history last

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Thursday, February 1, 2018 — 3A

M AT I S S E ’ S M O D E R N D R AW I N G S LSA SG From Page 1A

SARAH KUNKEL/Daily “Matisse Drawings: Curated by Ellsworth Kelly,” an exhibit in the UMMA, displays many of Henry Matisse’s modern drawings.

iNTERIM From Page 1A and students alike, is Engler’s lack of academic credentials. Students also worry Engler’s politician status will cause conflict on MSU’s already divided campus. At this meeting, Ashley Fuente, the president of the MSU Council of Graduate Studies, expressed this fear. “The damage that can be caused by appointing a politician on an already polarized campus is catastrophic,” she said to Fox News. “Engler has passed legislation in the past that are in direct conflict with our core

REVIEW From Page 1A through Feb. 5 and the resolution will be voted on at the upcoming City Council meeting Monday. HRC member Leslie Stambaugh emphasized the City’s work toward recruiting a diverse group of candidates for the task force. “We put this out very broadly – we didn’t want to pre-judge,” Stambaugh said. “We know we wanted broad diversity in this group, we want broad perspectives and background in this group, but we did not say we wanted people who are knowledgeable about police, for example, and did not say we wanted any specific characteristics. But the people who are applying this have those characteristics – some of them are knowledgeable about police, some are social workers, people involved in education, some involved in police oversight. We have a really good group of people.” Though a majority of the community agrees on the purpose of the board, disputes over who will serve on the commission divide the Council and some residents. Transforming Justice Washtenaw, a group that advocates for restorative alternatives to policing and incarceration, strongly opposes members of Council and the police from being included in the commission. Rather, members Lori Saginaw and Julie Quiroz believe the board should function independently as a Civilian Police Review Board — comprised of Ann Arbor community members — and involve the deputy police chief and assistant city attorney solely as advisers. “We are emphasizing that it is crucially important that it be independent, be transparent, be representative and wellfunded,” Quiroz said. “The key features are no City staff; the HRC selects the candidates from the original applicant pool, and we see representation on that task force of the HRC and of residents that are most impacted by policing.” Quiroz highlighted the fact this independence would avoid the police from policing themselves. The CPRB would be able to review complaints and allow community members to have a say in investigations but would not take away from the responsibilities of the police force. “We don’t want to babysit the police but we want to represent the community,” Quiroz said. “The police are paid by the

values of inclusion.” Dan Martel, president of the MSU Democrats, feels similarly, taking issue especially with Engler’s conservative views. “For the rest of my life I will carry a diploma from Larry Nassar University, and it will be signed by somebody who is so conservative that they have been handpicked to chair the national education assessment board by Betsy DeVos,” Martel said to Michigan Radio. Different departments of majors at MSU are coming together to hold town hall meetings in order to discuss apprehensions and ways to

progress during this tumultuous time. In an email obtained by The Daily from Interim Dean of the Natural Science department Cheryl Sisk to her department, she describes the purpose of the town hall and encourages students to come together. “The Town Hall will provide the opportunity for me to hear from you, the NatSci student body, about how you are feeling and what you are experiencing, as well as to provide updates on conversations and activities taking place at the college and university levels, and to get your thoughts and ideas on meaningful and effective ways to move forward,” she wrote.

community, their salaries come from our tax dollars and the City’s budget and it’s not a radical idea to have oversight and it’s not about punishing the police or about taking away their independence or professionalism.” Members of TJW support the HRC’s 2014 commission proposal, which emphasized an independent, all-volunteer civilian police review board. However, Hillard Heintze LLC — the Chicago-based security firm HRC hired to review the Ann Arbor police force — released a report with conflicting recommendations to form a commission based on the data collected. The suggested board, CPPC, included members of City Council in addition to community members. City Administrator Howard Lazarus intends to include members of the City staff and police on the commission, such as the city attorney and deputy police chief. “I have to have support from the city attorney’s office because there are limits under the state law as to what we can do, and it’s important to be inclusive of the police department,” Lazarus said. “I view this task force as a collaborative process to get something before Council that’s reflective of the goals that Council has established.” Though the City and community groups like TJW disagree on the City staff and police involvement on the board, Lazarus emphasized the community is looking for the same overall vision. “I don’t think there’s much difference in intent or desire between the groups speaking forcefully at HRC meetings and what the council’s intent is, which is to have a group of citizens from diverse backgrounds and parts of the community evaluate the ways in which the Ann Arbor police department interacts with its residents,” Lazarus said. “I think what everyone desires in the end is having an exceptionally well trained tactical police department to also be on the leading edge of community policing in the engagement of all members of our community so that everyone feels safe.” Councilmember Graydon Krapohl, D-Ward 4, a liaison to the HRC, highlighted the need for compromise from both sides to reach a conclusion. “Nobody’s trying to pull the wool over anyone’s eyes, our intention is to keep it transparent and open and that all parties involved listen and that everyone gives a little bit in order to move forward,” Krapohl said.

However, Stambaugh emphasized the need for distance between the board and the police force. “I would like this group to interview the police and to get the information they need but not to have the police to be in the group,” Stambaugh said. “You don’t want (the police) constraining the discussion if you can help it…But you don’t want (the police) closed out.” Quiroz supports the HRC’s initial proposal and agrees the board should be centralized on a resident-based perspective. “As a resident, how would you feel and how freely do you think you could speak if the group you were a part of was dominated by those very powerful three individuals?” Quiroz asked. “It’s not going to create the most open exchange of ideas. So what we’re asking is for it to be community centered and that we’d be able to rely on those staff members for advice and support – it’s not that we don’t value their input, it’s just that we don’t think they should be on it and running it. And if they’re on it, it’s pretty hard for their voices to not carry a lot of weight.” Stambaugh emphasized the need to include all parties involved but create a restriction on the voting rights of City staff and police members if they are placed on the board. “I think you’re going to find that the police and the city administrator are not going to have any voting rights, this is where we are negotiating to how much the police and the city administrator will be a part of it,” Stambaugh said. “If you want buy-in, you have to include all of the people who are going to be affected by it, but you do want the community to design this and for it to be designed well enough that the Council votes on it. We would like it to be community generated.” Overall, Krapohl focused on the board’s purpose to build trust between the police force and the community of Ann Arbor in order for residents to be treated equally in investigations. “I think that’s the most important thing to come out of this – to develop greater trust. Any person that has an interaction with the police or law enforcement be treated fairly and like everyone else,” Krapohl said. “Forming this commission is one of the most important things this Council will do over the next few years because I think it’s important that all of our residents feel they have an equal say and are treated fairly and equally across the board.”

establishes a payment plan for the election director, stating “monetary incentives can be effective in encouraging the election director to go above and beyond their basic obligations.” The second resolution, an amendment to make all events hosted by LSA SG zerowaste, passed 30 to 0 with no abstentions. Sponsor Josie Gilmore, an LSA sophomore, who serves on the Taking Responsibility for the Earth and Environment Subcommittee, said the resolution is meant to “inspire people to make… all their events zero-waste.” “If you hold an event that could be zero-waste, but is not zero-waste, you’re not guaranteed to get refunded for it,” Gilmore said. LSA SG members also discussed current initiatives.

LSA SG President Nicholas Fadanelli, an LSA senior, updated the assembly on the progress of two major resolutions: One outlining the 2020-2021 academic calendar and another establishing Election Day as an academic holiday. Fadanelli noted the resolutions still need approval from University administration. LSA SG Vice President Ryan Gillcrist, an LSA senior, encouraged other LSA SG representatives to get involved with the al-Kitaab project, an initiative to replace an Arabic textbook used by the University that some students consider insensitive and colonialist. Gillcrist made a particular appeal to representatives with experience in Arabic studies. The LSA SG committees, subcommittees and task forces provided other updates and announcements. No guest speakers presented at this week’s meeting.

JOURNALIST From Page 1A visa lottery system and chain migration. “We’ve conf lated the war on terrorism with southern border security ... it’s a way to generate lots of fear, it’s a way to generate lots of spending,” De León said. Jarvis talked about the ways current immigration policy can impact families, especially young children. Though having an adult child in the United States is a way to obtain a visa, having an underage child is not. Because of this, many kids are left without one or both parent due to deportation. “There are lots of people who are deported, leaving behind American children, which opens a question of what’s best of these children whose lives are bound up in the future of our country,” she said. In the question and answer session that followed the discussion, some of the questions were about

FLU From Page 1A one that is most likely to cause the complications, and (the virus is) the one that our vaccine is least effective against,” he said. In order to create the vaccination, scientists look at data from countries in the southern hemisphere to predict which flu variants will be common during our flu season. This year, those predictions were less accurate, making for a less effective vaccination. Still, Howard Saulles, interim executive director of UHS, explained it is still important to get vaccinated, especially for students, who tend to be at a higher risk for the virus. “Students tend to live in fairly close confines, which puts people

Before the meeting adjourned, Wilson reminded the assembled representatives to stay informed about Michigan State University’s administrative upheaval. Former MSU President Lou Anna Simon, who resigned Jan. 24 after being accused of enabling sexual abuser Larry Nassar, was recently replaced by interim president John Engler. According to Wilson, Engler was “one of the first governors in Michigan to decrease higher education state appropriations … a lot of people are upset about it.” Wilson asked LSA SG to pay attention to the controversy. “I’m sure a lot of you know people that go to Michigan State,” Wilson said. “So … I think it’s good if we all keep up to date and if we can help to inform our fellow students about what’s going on at other Big Ten universities.”

intersectionality, especially with feminist movements such as the#MeToo movement. Both speakers, as well as Lin agreed immigration issues and feminist issues are interrelated. “One of the fears that women face that men face less is the fear of sexual violence and that is often a feature of the

experience, particularly when men are trusting smugglers to take them across the border,” Lin said. De León expanded on Lin’s sentiment, pointing out women face more issues than men throughout the entire immigration process. “It’s not just at the border, it’s during the entire route that gender and issues of sexuality come up,” he said. The discussion concluded with the speaker’s’ thoughts about what immigration policy should look like going forward. The speakers agreed that the policy should be rooted in understanding these traumatic experiences going forward. “There is no give in our policies for people from countries where we are a large part of the reason they are migrating,” Lin said. Lin stressed a country’s immigration policies ref lect a lot about its ideals. “It’s really about what we think this country stands for and how we think it’s going to grow and f lourish,” she said.

at greater risks because it’s easier to spread germs and viruses, so students need to take a little bit better care of themselves than the general population,” Saulles said. “They really should be getting vaccinated for the flu, even though it may not be the best match of the vaccine.” In order to avoid contracting the flu, Saulles encourages students to live healthy lifestyles in addition to getting vaccinated. “Getting as much sleep as you can, eating properly, these are all things that can help the body’s immune system fight off these viruses,” he said. Kinesiology junior Kayla Keane said she did not receive her flu shot this year. “I do not plan on getting the flu shot, because I heard it wasn’t very effective this year,” she said. “It’s just not one of my priorities.” Perhaps as a result, Keane

said she contracted the flu several weeks ago. She has since recovered, and suspects she contracted the flu spending time in the University’s crowded public spaces. “I’ve always been pretty good about washing my hands and everything, I just feel like it’s really hard when you’re in public places all the time,” she said. “Like if you go to the UGLi, people are just pretty nasty. Monto’s vision for the future entails creating a new vaccination. This would potentially involve creating a vaccine that does not need to be updated when the strain of the flu virus changes. “The long-range goal would be to make what they call a universal vaccine, something that works forever, and takes some parts of the virus that don’t change and make those the target of the vaccine,” he said.

“We’ve conflated the war on terrorism with southern border security”

Opinion

4A — Thursday, February 1, 2018

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BRETT GRAHAM| COLUMN

Aging Democratic field for 2020

ormer Secretary of State John Kerry surprised a lot of people last week, starting with his translator in a conversation with a highranking Palestinian official. Despite his absence on the national political stage for the past year, he readily admitted “he was seriously considering running for president in 2020.” On paper, not many other Democratic hopefuls could hold a candle to this multi-term senator, former secretary of state and decorated war hero with three Purple Hearts who almost ousted George W. Bush in the 2004 election. Not many who reported this news took that angle, though. Most focused on the fact that John Kerry is 74, and his entrance into the race would push the average age in the Democratic field even higher. While this is something that should be taken into consideration, the discussion on age currently dominating columns and 2020 speculation needs to be toned way down in the search for a challenger to President Donald Trump. It does not take long to recognize the common denominator between these Democratic candidates. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would be 79 should he assume the presidency, and former Vice President Joe Biden would be 77. By comparison, Kerry would be a spry 76 and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, the kid of the group, would be 71. This is all in comparison to Trump, who would be 74. At first glance, one wonders why the party of progress would struggle to recruit a candidate who was born more recently than the Eisenhower

administration. What happened to the youthful energy of Obama ‘08 and even Clinton ‘92? Both campaigned and assumed office in their late 40s. These concerns are understandable, given the questions about our current commander in chief’s health, from heart fitness to dementia to poor dieting. Everyone has seen those comparisons of presidents before and after their eight years in office: grayer, tired, worn down. For some, the legacy of former President Ronald Reagan is that of an elder statesman with Alzheimer’s disease, having trouble getting through meetings and using jelly beans to quit smoking. Applying for arguably the most stressful job in the world warrants a level of scrutiny as to whether or not one can handle it physically and mentally. Age certainly plays a part in this. But it’s not the whole story. For one, I know 70- and 80-year-olds who are more sound of mind and have better blood pressure than certain 30- and 40-year-olds. My grandfather could give you the address of the dealership where he bought his first car and who played left field for the 1962 New York Yankees. I am struggling to remember what I ate for dinner two days ago. These things are not linear. Not every presidential candidate operates with “McDonald’s, KFC, pizza and Diet Coke” as their major food groups. Not everyone above 70 has delusions of grandeur, and many of these articles come dangerously close to implying some of these 1-to-1 connections. The first question that every party donor, reporter, Democratic primary voter and potential candidate should

MICHELLE SHENG | CONTACT AT SHENGMI@UMICH.EDU

be asking is whether or not that person could successfully articulate an argument. Can their message resonate with the people? Are they in tune with our society? Can they win? Then ask the questions about age and hair color and Twitter presence. Liberals played into enough of this nonsense in 2016, asking Hillary Clinton to dab on Ellen and then laughing at her for being awkward when she did. Democrats need to stop caring about this nonsense. An octogenarian statesman and a middle-aged insurgent challenger are ultimately held to the same standard in terms of their ideas and their policies. Sanders may be, and probably is, more able to energize younger voters than Cory Booker. Perhaps this early polling speaks to what the Democratic party needs right now — experience, gravitas. The ideal candidate might be Warren or Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., or it might be “Grandpa Joe” — there is no age limit on the ability to have good ideas or serve the public well. 84-yearold Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her daily workout routine should be enough evidence of this. Democrats, stop disqualifying candidates. Take a breath. Forgive the irony, but stop eating your young. Decide on a message, a feeling, what you want out of a candidate before you narrow the field. Furthermore, realize that if you ask candidates who are above the age of 60 to start jockeying for position as the most “vibrant” or “youthful,” you are asking to be deceived.

Brett Graham can be reached at btgraham@umich.edu

When companies support women

y goal is not to meet the love of my life until I am at least 26. That will give me two years after I complete my undergraduate degree to work somewhere abroad, building my resume and establishing connections. After that, I will still have two years to come back to the United States and complete my master’s degree. Then my future husband can come into the picture, though he will have to wait at least five years after that before having kids, to give me time to establish my career. This is a common dinner table conversation among my four female roommates and me. We all hope to have families someday — I, in particular, grew up in a family with four kids and have always wanted to have at least that many myself. But my roommates and I stay at the library until the early hours of the morning multiple times a week and run ourselves dry with extracurriculars in hopes that the additions to our LinkedIn profiles will be the deciding factor for our future employers. So, though our bodies crave the idea of falling in love and raising a family, the idea terrifies us more than it excites us. We don’t want to give up the prospect of the careers we’re working so hard for, but we also don’t want to be that stereotypical working mom who leaves her kids in a nursery all day. We are aware that there will come a day when we have to choose between the joy of motherhood and the satisfaction of moving up in the workplace. In these conversations, my roommates and I overlook two critical points. The first is that the only reason we face this dilemma is our gender. Our male friends have yet to consider at what age they want to get married and have kids. For women, this is a natural part of the conversation in college because it pertains directly to their future careers. For men, however, the potential of fatherhood is distinctly unrelated to the workplace. We live in a culture in which men can safely assume that being a “good father” will in no way conflict with their career goals. There are ways that companies can mitigate the sexism that keeps mothers and future mothers from pursuing careers. Her Campus Media, one of the top media brands targeted at college women, recently took a public

stance on its support for female employees by announcing that it is a Business for Birth Control. This means that, despite recent White House regulations that allow any employer to deny its employees birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act, Her Campus Media will continue to cover birth control for its employees. “As a company whose every cell is about supporting, empowering, and lifting up women, we knew that making this kind of commitment to our employees was a no-brainer,” Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, CEO and Editor in Chief of Her Campus, wrote me in an email. Lewis notes that providing access to birth control is not the only way a company can foster a more gender-equitable office culture. “We offer our team members exceptional flexibility in their schedules as well as the ability to work from home some or all of the time, depending on the role...We also offer unlimited personal, sick and vacation days,” she said. These policies reduce the necessity for a woman to choose between work and motherhood, as she knows that she can make family a top priority while continuing to move up in her career. This leads into the second point that my roommates and I overlooked during our dinner table conversations: We are not the only ones who would suffer if our desires for motherhood were to force us out of the workplace. We are all intelligent, savvy women with strong work ethics and unique perspectives that would provide innumerable benefits to any company where we choose to work. If a company’s office culture leaves us feeling that we are unwanted because of our desires to raise families someday, then that company is missing out not only on my roommates and me, but on the millions of young women across the country who want to both work and raise a family. The founders of Her Campus Media (Lewis, along with former Harvard classmates Annie Wang and Windsor Hanger Western), were recently named to Forbes 40 Under 40. To me, it comes as no surprise that a company with a commitment to gender equity would see such success. As Lewis states, “We have a number of employees who are moms of young

children and left their former employers to come work at Her Campus because they saw that our flexible policies enable them to fulfill their career ambitions while also accommodating and encouraging their family ambitions at the same time.” She elaborates on this, explaining, “Having policies that support women and families enable us to hire the very best talent, regardless of where they live or what their personal time constraints may be, and this is talent that employers with stricter policies are missing out on or even pushing out.” As a University of Michigan student, this makes perfect sense to me. College is one place in our culture in which women consistently outperform men, even though men tend to do better as soon as we enter the workplace. Every day I’m able to see the valuable contributions that women bring to every aspect of the University: class discussions, leadership roles, group projects. The men here are all thoughtful and intelligent, too, of course, but I can’t even imagine how much this University would suffer if it were to lose the perspective and hard work of women. Yet, that’s just what much of the corporate sector of the United States is: a lot of intelligent, thoughtful people, but devoid of women. My roommates and I will be assets to any company where we choose to work, so why is it so rare to find a company that recognizes this the way Her Campus Media does? There are several years before I enter the workforce. Perhaps Her Campus Media’s policies are foreshadowing those that will be the norm in just a few years. Perhaps I can hold out hope that by the time I graduate, companies will promote a gender-equitable workplace environment in which motherhood is seen as just as unrelated to career success as fatherhood is. If so, both the company I work for and I will benefit. If not, the workplace is missing out on countless hardworking, intelligent women — and that loss is to everybody’s detriment.

Hannah Harshe can be reached at hharshe@umich.edu

JOEL DANILEWITZ | COLUMN

Men have to listen to #MeToo

oes sexual harassment truly merit professional decapitation? That’s what NYTimes columnist Bret Stephens wants to know. As does Matt Damon. And apparently, according to New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino, it’s besieging her own medial specialist’s conscience. I wonder what skeletons he’s got in his closet. From the moment the Harvey Weinstein effect took its full force, the #MeToo movement has become subject to scrutiny that feels almost as significant as the campaign against sexual misconduct itself. Critics of the movement have targeted the perceived inability to discern between varying degrees of assault as the crux of aspects that are wrong with the fewer than five-month-old crusade to resolve the dismal state of sexual attitudes. A force for change that is barely in its infancy has already managed to draw detractors, especially as assailants, mostly men, continue to face this reckoning. Why are people, specifically but not solely men, unable to thoughtfully participate in the conversation? When women leave a sexual experience feeling violated, assaulted or just simply in tears — even if the sex itself may seem to have been within a grey area of consent — isn’t the conversation important to have? When Babe.net published the piece “I went on a date with Aziz Ansari. It was the worst night of my life,” a back and forth erupted over the sexual encounter and whether it exhibited aspects of assault or if Ansari was just the target of angry women (because weaponizing a woman’s anger is significantly easier than actually engaging it). Reading the Babe article alongside the articles that inevitably came with it felt like

taking a masterclass on how to misconstrue a movement. It was an immediate attempt to disengage with the concerns of millennial women without properly shedding light on such embedded dynamics. The strongest criticism of “Grace,” the victim of Ansari’s sexual misconduct, was that she was unable to assume agency within the situation. Why didn’t she just get up and leave? The lesson of #MeToo, from the perspective of a cisgendered man, is a commitment to listening to each story of sexual misconduct. Grey areas that have been emerging shouldn’t be bleached out by men who claim to understand them just as well as the women who experience them. Men such as Damon are being horrible listeners at a time when listening is crucial. It would do critics well not to dismiss claims of harassment by asking “Has #MeToo gone too far?” especially when the movement itself still has not exhibited whether the ramifications of harassment (especially those acts in the grey area) will actually last. In recent months, the conversation has grown along with the chorus of critics. In December, the New Yorker published Kristen Roupenian’s short fiction piece “Cat Person,” a story that drew on the worst date imaginable — and, more disconcertingly, a date that many women go on over and over again. One of the most cited scenes is the one in which the two characters, at the end of their dismally awkward date, have a sexual encounter that lacks affirmative consent and, in some capacity, fringes on assault. Many women have described this scene as harrowingly familiar, while men (though not all men) have decried it an innocuous,

consensual encounter. I would describe the experience of reading such a skin-crawling, unrelentingly horrific story, but doing so would detract from the voices of women who know such gruesomeness on a personal level. How do men feel, then, that they can provide salient feedback on an experience that is completely out of their realm? This is not to say that Roupenian’s story shouldn’t yield criticism from a literary standpoint, but most of the male objection doesn’t come from such an earnest place. With the laudatory reception from women came a swift and blunt backlash from men who defended the actions of the man in the story, Robert, and indicted those of the woman, Margot. Of course, the warped conventions of sexual encounters have become so normalized that any conversation saying otherwise is a target for resentment by those who perpetuate such lopsided dynamics. Thus, the criticism veers into a territory that begins eliminating the conversation of sexual politics. This infringes on one’s right to express discontent with this wholly unbalanced dynamic. Dismissing a movement still somewhat in its inception by weaponizing the voices of its heralders does nothing to add to the conversation. Women likely understand the difference between sexual harassment and assault, especially considering how many have withstood both. Discourse that actually promotes enriching discussion rather than positing women as “agentless” could yield a culture that balances the skewed nature of sexual politics. Joel Danilewitz can be reached at joeldan@umich.edu

Sports

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Marody, ‘M’ headed for climactic ending

Thursday, February 1, 2018 — 5A

Michigan carries on tradition of Pink Game SARAH HURST

Daily Sports Writer

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Junior forward Cooper Marody and the Michigan hockey team were swept by No. 6 Ohio State this past weekend.

ROBERT HEFTER Daily Sports Editor

The year was 1994, and the New York Rangers unexpectedly trailed their rival New Jersey Devils in the NHL’s Eastern Conference Finals, 3-2. Legendary center Mark Messier netted three goals in the third period to send the series to a Game 7, and later to a Stanley Cup victory. What does this have to do with Michigan hockey, you ask? The Rangers were favored to win that series after an incredible regular season that saw them streaking to the playoffs, yet found themselves in dire straits with the entire year in jeopardy. The No. 20 Michigan hockey team (7-9-2 Big Ten, 12-12-2 overall) aren’t in such a dissimilar spot. After two consecutive weekend sweeps against now-No.12 Minnesota and No. 17 Penn State, it seemed the only way for the Wolverines to go was up. Michigan finally found its starting goalkeeper in sophomore Hayden Lavigne, who was putting up monstrous numbers in front of the net, and it appeared that the front and back lines had finally clicked as a cohesive unit on both sides of the puck. But the storyline has changed following two straight losses to then-No. 6 Ohio State, in which the Wolverines were systematically

shut down. Michigan experienced an abysmal weekend due to a lackluster power play, a defensive effort that simply wasn’t good enough and offensive stagnation. “It’s obviously a bad feeling when you get swept,” said junior forward Cooper Marody. “I think there some things that we liked over the weekend, but Ohio State’s an incredible team and if you make one turnover, it’s gonna end up in the back of your net. So I think it was good for us to have that wakeup call.” But if Messier’s miracle can tell us anything, it’s that anything can happen, a fact the Wolverines are well aware of. “We still control our own destiny,” said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. He added: “Never get too high when you’re winning and you’re on a roll, and never too low when things don’t go your way. (And) you need to because you don’t have much time, we have to move on and prepare for Wisconsin.” In the Wolverines’ rout of the Nittany Lions on Jan. 19, freshman forward Jack Becker scored twice, and junior forward Brendan Warren added a tally as well. Standout freshman forward Josh Norris also added onto the offensive effort with a goal. The early Michigan offense revolved around Marody and seniors Tony Calderone and Dexter

Dancs. While the trio continues to dominate statistically, the burden now lies on the rest of the players on the ice. “It’s tough when people rely on people to score goals and it’s easy to think ‘Oh, they’re not playing well because they’re not scoring,’ ” Marody said. “But sometimes the puck doesn’t go in the net and you’ll have a game where you might not earn the goals that you get, but you have three points at the end of the night. “And some games you really think you earned it and you worked your butt off and had one of the best games, but you had no points. So that’s just how the game works.” The Wolverines are clearly at the crux of their season. As Marody mentioned, all of Michigan’s lines are grinding on the ice for goals. Sophomore defenseman Luke Martin, sophomore forward Jake Slaker and freshman forward Michael Pastujov all have the potential to be strong pointgenerators. In Happy Valley, Michigan saw what could happen when the whole team-offense mentality comes alive. After the Buckeyes, there now just seems to be a missing factor that will help the Wolverines mine those extra points from their non-headliner players. And if they do strike gold, they just might have their Messier moment.

On Thursday, the No. 13 Michigan women’s basketball team will host Purdue in the program’s annual “Pink Game.” The Wolverines will wear white jerseys with pink trim, and the players and coaching staff will sport pink shoes as well. This annual tradition was created to raise awareness for breast cancer and celebrate breast cancer survivors. “That was something that our marketing team, in conjunction with our coaching staff, implemented when I first got here six years ago,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico to WTKA. “It’s a wonderful, wonderful event.” On Jan. 21, the Wolverines met and had dinner with a group of breast cancer survivors to discuss the importance of self-care and of being a health advocate. “We actually have about five or six breast survivors every year come in and meet with our team and have dinner with our team,” Barnes Arico said. “We break up into groups and we get to know them and we get to hear

their stories. I think that it’s a great reminder to our players, and to our staff and everyone involved in our program, how fortunate we are and how truly blessed we are, but also that this can happen to anyone.” Michigan (8-2 Big Ten, 19-4 overall) is coming off a win on Sunday against Northwestern, and is in the midst of a six-game winning streak. The victory marked the third-longest winning streak in program history and Barnes Arico’s 400th career win. Barnes Arico attributes the Wolverines’ great success this season to the leadership of their upperclassmen. “I think it’s our senior leadership and our junior class. Their maturity and their experience is really shining through and that’s Jillian Dunston and Katelynn Flaherty but also Hallie Thome and Nicole Munger,” Barnes Arico said. “They are really on a mission and they seem to play for Michigan every game and they don’t get caught up in the opponent. “We obviously are prepared and we do our scouting and we are ready for the opponent, but

it’s not about Northwestern or Purdue or Michigan State, they want to play the best Michigan basketball that they can play.” Purdue (5-3, 14-8) is coming off a 88-73 win over Penn State on Sunday. While the Boilermakers boast three double-digit scoring players in Andreona Keys (13.8 ppg), Ae’Rianna Harris (13.0) and Dominique Oden (11.8), this trio of talented scorers will have to deal with the Wolverines’ stingy defense, ranked as the conference’s second-best scoring defense. Of course, Purdue isn’t so shabby either, boasting the Big Ten’s thirdbest scoring defense — possibly hinting at a low-scoring slugfest. “Purdue is a great program,” Barnes Arico said. “They’re a team that is year in and year out a NCAA tournament team, they have some great tradition and some great history. They’re a team that is improving as well. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence, they’re going to come in here just a game behind us in the standings. They will be fired up, they will be excited for the opportunity to come in here and play us. It’s going to be a great game on Thursday night.”

CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily

Michigan coach KIm Barnes Arico and Michigan will play in the program’s annual Pink Game.

Knight, Wolverines split weekend contests at ITA kick-off ADAM RICH For the Daily

The Michigan men’s tennis team failed to qualify for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, despite a stellar performance from their knight in shining armor. Senior Alex Knight that is, with his shining armor being the Michigan tennis gear he donned in Chapel Hill, NC Saturday and Sunday, where he upset North Carolina’s No. 3-ranked William Blumberg in a three set thriller, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. But his efforts proved to be insufficient against No. 3 North Carolina. The No. 17 Wolverines (3-1) split their ITA kick-off duals this weekend, sweeping No. 20 South Carolina (5-1), 4-0, Saturday morning, before falling to the host Tar Heels (5-0), 4-2, the following afternoon. Although the team failed to reach their goal of qualifying for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship, they found a silver lining in their performance. “We got a win over a great South Carolina team, and that’s a win we definitely needed,” Knight said. Against the Gamecocks, Michigan dictated the pace of play, won with ease, and advanced into the tournament’s finals. As expected though, the next dual against the Tar Heels proved to be

more difficult. “We had an opportunity to knock off the No. 3-ranked team in the country and we came close,” Knight said. “We beat a guy who was up a break in the third and we had a few other guys who had some close matches so we built some confidence and it showed that we can play with anyone in the country.” And Knight showcased that confidence Sunday against Blumberg. After playing each other neck-and-neck the first two sets, Knight pulled away in the final set by staying resilient and sticking to his gameplan. “I just kept playing my game and looking for it,” Knight said. “I had opportunities in the second and I knew that if I kept on it I’d have chances to win.” Unfortunately for the Wolverines, their other singles players didn’t fare as well, exemplified by senior No. 20 Runhao Hua falling to the unranked Benjamin Sigouin of North Carolina. Aside from Knight, no other Michigan player won a singles match. A bright spot for the Wolverines was their doubles play — thanks again in part to Knight. He and his partner, Hua, rolled to a 6-4 set victory on Sunday, and were on the path to winning Saturday before their match was cut short, as their teammates had already secured a doubles victory.

FILE PHOTO

Senior Alex Knight had a good weekend as Michigan split its ITA kick-off duals.

Michigan’s chemistry was evident all weekend, as the squad took the doubles point in both duals. For the team, its camaraderie is a result of its

behind the scenes work in the preseason. “This team has worked harder than any team I’ve been on in my five years here at Michigan, and

all the work we put in is showing,” Knight said. “But we’re not there yet. And the good thing is we know that.” And following the singles

Classifieds RELEASE DATE– Thursday, February 1, 2018

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Sports

6A — Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Bunting decides to take grad transfer Former coach Berenson wins award BENJAMIN KATZ Daily Sports Writer

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Fifth-year senior tight end Ian Bunting finishes his career at Michigan with 11 catches for 124 yards.

ORION SANG

Managing Sports Editor

Ian Bunting announced Tuesday night that he is pursuing a grad transfer. The fifth-year senior tight end was once seen as the heir apparent to Jake Butt. Now, he’ll finish his college career elsewhere. “This has been a very difficult decision, but I have decided to forgo my 5th year at the University of Michigan in order to play football and earn a graduate degree elsewhere,” Bunting wrote on Instagram. “I have obtained my release. … This place will always be a special one for me and it has been the opportunity of a lifetime.” As a graduate transfer, Bunting will be immediately eligible for whichever program he joins. He ends his four-year career at Michigan with 11 catches for 124 yards. The 6-foot-7, 252-pounder isn’t the first member of his class to leave the program. Quarterback Wilton Speight and receivers Drake Harris and

Moe Ways will also play their final year elsewhere, having announced their intentions to do so earlier this offseason. The Wolverines have also brought in a grad transfer of their own in former Utah cornerback Casey Hughes. A highly-touted four-star recruit with offers from Florida State, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma, among others, Bunting never completely developed into the weapon many originally envisioned him as. After redshirting his freshman year, he found the field as a backup tight end during Jim Harbaugh’s first season in Ann Arbor. In the first four games, Bunting caught four passes for 55 yards. But he didn’t record a catch over the following eight games. With the return of Butt, an All-American in 2015, Bunting once again saw limited time as a redshirt sophomore during the 2016-17 season. Through the first 12 games of the season, he recorded just two catches for six yards. Yet when Butt suffered a torn

right ACL in the second quarter of the Orange Bowl, it was the seldom-used Bunting who stepped into the Mackey Award winner’s absence. He would finish the game with three catches for 40 yards, including a 21-yard reception on a crucial fourth down in the second half. Bunting’s breakout performance in the bowl game was seen as a harbinger of future success. He entered 2017 as the most experienced and most productive tight end on Michigan’s roster. But Bunting couldn’t hold off younger players such as redshirt freshman Sean McKeon and redshirt sophomore Zach Gentry. The pair surged ahead of Bunting on the depth chart, finishing the season with a combined 48 catches for 604 yards and five touchdowns. Bunting, meanwhile, had one catch for six yards. Bunting’s transfer leaves the Wolverines with four scholarship tight ends on the roster. Four-star Mustapha Muhammad and three-star Luke Schoonmaker are set to enroll this summer.

The accolades keep coming for Red Berenson. After being honored with a formal rink dedication of the “Red Berenson Rink” at Yost Ice Arena earlier this month, the legendary former Michigan hockey coach — who retired at the end of last season — was named the 2018 Hobey Baker Legends of College Hockey Award recipient Tuesday. The annual award is presented by the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Committee to honor “one of the all-time great contributors to the game of college hockey.” And after three years as a Michigan varsity letterwinner and another 33 behind the Wolverines’ bench, Berenson’s accomplishments in Ann Arbor cemented him as one of those contributors. The ultimate “Michigan man” since 1959, Berenson came from Regina, Saskatchewan and

played four years of hockey for the Wolverines. The Canadian was named All-American twice, the 1962 WCHA Most Valuable Player and a team captain his senior season. Berenson would go on to play 17 years in the NHL as a member of the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens — with which he won two Stanley Cups — and coached in the NHL until 1984. He then returned to his alma mater as head coach and immediately rebuilt the Michigan hockey program into the storied one it is today. With Berenson at the helm, the Wolverines captured 21 conference championships and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 23 of his last 27 seasons. From 1991 to 2012,

Michigan made 22 straight tournaments, an NCAA record that still stands. Berenson led the Wolverines to 11 Frozen Fours and two national championships, in 1996 and 1998. Berenson retired with the fourth-most wins in NCAA hockey history with an 848426-92 career record. He also groomed two Hobey Baker Memorial Award winners, 73 NHL players and 140 Academic All-Big Ten selections. Berenson will be honored on May 28 in St. Paul, Minn., at the annual Hobey Baker Award Banquet. He becomes the third Michigan coach to be named an honoree, following Vic Heyliger and Al Renfrew, who were inductees in 1982 and 1990, respectively.

Berenson will be honored on May 28 in St. Paul, Minn.

FILE PHOTO

Former Michigan coach Red Berenson was named the recipient of the 2018 Hobey Baker Legends Award.

With his play, ‘The Microwave’ Poole seeking to expand role MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor

Jordan Poole is comfortable in his role. He calls himself — and insists others in the locker room also call him — “The Microwave.” As such, Poole serves as an offensive sparkplug off the bench. When the offense needs creativity, assertion or sure shooting, Poole can provide just that. It’s a role that suits his game as much as his gregarious personality. “People go to me for the ‘hype guy,’ ” Poole said. “Me personally, I feel like if I hit one, I’m hot.” At Mackey Arena last Thursday, with an explosive Purdue offense beginning to impose its will while Michigan’s passive offense sputtered everso-slightly, the Wolverines needed a spark. In a game that would eventually produce 180 points, any offensive lull could be a death blow.

As Purdue regained the lead, 14-12, with a quick 6-0 spurt, Michigan coach John Beilein inserted the freshman guard. On his first possession, Poole received the ball on a simple handoff, took three dribbles to his right, stepped back to gain separation and elevated for a mid-range jumper to tie the game up. On the defensive end, Poole attacked the weak dribble of forward Grady Eifert, diving on the floor to force a turnover. He got up, darted for the corner and drained a transition 3-pointer. In less time than it takes to pop a bag of popcorn, Poole had blitzed the Boilermakers and snagged the lead back. Microwave on. Mackey silenced. He did it against Indiana, notching 19 points and taking almost as many shots (10) as he had in the season to date (14). He

did it against Illinois, draining consecutive threes to stretch the second half lead and totaling 11 points in an ugly game Michigan had to grind out. He did it against Maryland, sparking a furious comeback with three 3-pointers in a two minute span in the second half, and inciting the loudest eruption at Crisler Center all season. This has been Poole’s role not only the majority of this season, but even dating back to his senior year of high school, when Poole was the sixth man for his prep school at La Lumiere. That role helped ease the transition to college, where he knew playing time would be hard to come by at first. “I’m glad it happened last year,” Poole said. “If I was starting all four years — or three years in a row — in high school, then came here and not started, it could have been a confidence

breaker.” Poole, of course, isn’t devoid of confidence. This season, he has clearly identified a niche as a bench scorer, and has evolved into a valuable one at that. He scores .58 points per minute, the best on the team. Despite that, Poole plays just 11.0 minutes per game, ninth on the team. “I’m more of a, ‘Try to come in and make an impact and win the game.’ That’s how I am,” Poole said Monday regarding his role. “Obviously, I want the best for the team.” But while Poole has thrived in his role so far, this team needs him to be more. What was best for the team in November — when Poole was collecting DNPs — may no longer be what’s

best now and into March. Much of what held him back early in the season revolved around his defensive consistency and shot selection, skills that Beilein now considers to be much improved. “Jordan Poole’s defense, right now — and it was not good in October, November — it is really coming on,” Beilein said Monday night. “He’s a pretty bright kid, and he gets that. And he also understands, ‘I’m going to play defense and I’m going to take care of the ball or I’m not going to play.’ ” Finding minutes for the freshman can be a tricky predicament. Senior Muhammad-Ali AbdurRahkman and redshirt

“Me personally, I feel like if I hit one, I’m hot.”

sophomore Charles Matthews are firmly entrenched in the starting wing spots, the two positions Poole can play offensively. There have been brief attempts to play AbdurRahkman at point guard and slide Poole next to him. There may even be opportunities — in certain matchups — to play Matthews at forward next to junior center Moritz Wagner, slotting Poole into the other wing position. That Beilein is even willing to maneuver the rotation to account for Poole’s emergence, though, signals the importance of his skillset. For a team lacking offensive assertion — one that has scored 62 points or fewer in three of its last four games and is on pace for its second worst adjusted offensive efficiency since 2010 — Poole can be a difference-maker. “You can see,” Beilein said, “he just does things that you can’t teach.”

EVAN AARON/Daily

Freshman wing Jordan Poole leads the team with an average of 0.58 points per minute played.

The Michigan Daily | michigandaily.com | Thursday, February 1, 2018

The

International Issue

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2B —Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Elizabeth James: At the corner of culture and story ELI RALLO

Daily Arts Writer

Every time Elizabeth James takes a breath to speak, you can see a story forming in her head. It builds until it’s right behind her teeth, and then she opens her mouth to create a world in the space around you with her words. For me, this is her office building, up in the University’s Haven Hall, tucked away in the kindest room I’ve ever seen — an entire wall covered with warm, loving photographs and artifacts that reflect her passion for culture and history lining every surface. The room has an inviting, colorful vibe — and there’s no better way to describe James. Her voice is soothing and relaxed, taking you with her into each story and piece of advice she has to offer. In her years as a storyteller, a friend and a mentor, she has touched and affected many peers, students, fellow staff members and more with her narratives. A woman of many incredible experiences, James currently holds the position of outreach coordinator with the University’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. In 2014, James became a Harold R. Johnson’s Diversity Service Award recipient, as well as the Office of Student Affairs’s Advisor of the Year. She has additionally been awarded the Cornerstone Award from the Black Celebratory among countless other honors for her dedication to DAAS and the student community. In addition to scheduling and coordinating events and publicizing on campus, James holds a rather crucial and important position in the hearts of alumni, staff and students alike — many would call her the University’s own resident storyteller. When asked to simply describe what this position and her work at the University surrounding storytelling entails, she took a moment to form her words — something she does often before she speaks — which lends to her acumen and astute voice. “Storytelling is … ” She pauses, thinking of something, her grandmother perhaps, or a story previously told. “It is the healing yet gentle way to open the door to talk about experiences.” In what could best be described as growing from her roots, James began her journey of telling stories when she was a young girl and her grandmother would tell stories around the dinner table and in her living room. This sparked her love for the art of storytelling and put her on the road to becoming a wellknown storyteller herself. As an observant young girl, James was infatuated with the idea of stories, and especially loved the ways in which they could transcend different cultures, teach lessons and bridge gaps between those with different backgrounds. “My grandmother was an informal storyteller, she told stories as life lessons to heal people. You know, people didn’t talk about issues back then like they do now. So this was a way they could handle their grief,” she said. From then on, she was hooked. As she grew up, her mother also took on storytelling, going on to have her stories recorded and broadcasted on WDET-FM radio station. James went on to study History of Art and Communications, then received a master’s degree in Journalism and Library Science. Despite varied interests, she always knew her path would trail back to storytelling at the end of the day. The stories and moments of her childhood were passed down from the hands of James’s grandmother to her mother, and have now landed in her palms. She has taken this foundation, shaped and molded and built it into something much greater than she ever imagined. “To me, after I realized what storytelling meant to me and could mean to others, I began to explore myself and my background through stories. Now I use them to convey deeper emotions and metaphors,” she said. “I often think of writing a book with all of my

grandmother’s stories in it. I just feel that in the future, I’d like to put those stories to paper.” What James means by exploring her background through stories is exploring the intersection between culture and storytelling and what that means to her, the Mich. community and society as a whole. Her work consists of the importance of cultural storytelling and figuring out what this means to audiences, society and herself. “The heartbeat of culture is storytelling. It captures all of our

Stories are just human beings trying to convey to ourselves and to others that we will go on

souls. We’re all storytellers,” she said. This is the mantra behind the community of cultural storytellers she has created here at the University. What began with an informal conversation with the director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity has become one of the most important and fulfilling projects on which James has ever worked. For the bicentennial event at the University, James really wanted to explore and tell stories that aren’t being told on this campus. Whether it comes from students, alumni or staff, James had a sudden itch to lift up the voices of people who feel marginalized on this campus and celebrate them for their individuality. “I saw a need to make the narrative of U of M richer and fuller because there are so many other stories than the ones that we hear on this campus every day,” she said. And with that spark of an idea, she got to work. She began to reminisce about the past while looking at the present and the future, and she started to think about how the climate at the University could be supplemented and advanced by cultural storytelling. Out of this brainstorming came “MVisible Voices” — a podcast series dedicated to telling the types of stories this campus has stifled and left untold. The podcast series is intergenerational, sharing stories from alumni, students and faculty. James explains it as having a triangular style, split up between the three groups. However, after exploring different people’s stories, they began to realize that many had more connections than they originally imagined. They were able to make connections between the current members and creators, who have since graduated, of specific student groups on campus — students from years past who have had identical experiences to present students and watched as faculty related to and connected with students. The series allows listeners to discover the lost narratives of so many on this campus, and it seeks to demonstrate the struggle for change in society and the world. On the series’s website, in addition to listening to the podcast, you can learn about the history that puts the stories in a larger, national context. “What’s so interesting is the intersectionality between cultures,” James said. “There are so many similarities between different cultures that we can explore through storytelling. Just starting from the base of it — every culture has some sort of creation myth or story … it defines human beings, being curious about why we’re here, and it builds from there.” She moves from this to talk about how all basic questions have their roots in stories, which is why storytelling is such a universal art form: Stories are inherently relatable. This is why

“MVisible Voices” is so relatable and intriguing — each person who listens can pull out different elements of the story with which they relate. This ties people closer together, regardless of their background, and proves that, at the very simplest point, we are all human beings who can share some inherent experience one way or another. “Each culture has their mystery stories, their fiction stories, their sun stories, their water stories. Stories are just human beings trying to convey to ourselves and to others that we will go on. That we will make it. All stories deal with things that are greater than ourselves,” James said. Right now on the website, you can explore a piece on the culturally-rooted Greek life organizations on campus, which discusses the stifled Latin, African American and Asian American Greek life organizations that are talked about so little. With just one click, you can learn about and listen to how students of historically marginalized identities live, learn and grow together. With another, you can explore campus movements at the University. This podcast is not just for those marginalized voices to feel heard, but to educate those with the privilege to have their stories and voices lifted up and heard every day on this campus. In one podcast, titled “Days of Future Past,” former Black Student Union President Sherise Steele, Business sophomore Kyle Trocard and James have a conversation about the connection between technology and social change at the University. Steele speaks on the way in which the Black Student Union and other organizations used to have to get the word out about their meetings and events without technology. “We communicated with mass meetings — but if we had to get the word out, we had to do handto-hand combat. So someone went to every residence hall and posted fliers, did party invites, meeting invites and then word of mouth. So there was no other way other than to go to Markley; so whoever lived on the Hill had to take care of all the Hill residence halls. If you worked someplace where students ate — maybe you worked at the League or the Union and put the fliers there. That’s how we’d have to get the word out about protesting,” said Steele, who was also a first-generation graduate from the University.

The series allows listeners to discover the lost narratives of so many on this campus In this podcast, she is put into conversation with Trocard, who is currently involved with the Black Student Union. “I feel like we know our place when it comes to handling things, and people have accused us of playing politics. But sometimes you have to do things in the way that the University will be willing to listen to you and so you know ... speaking the language that they understand so that when you need something done, you can get it done. We find it hard to protest constantly — we can make a phone call, we can talk to the administration. When the time comes to protest though, we’re there,” Trocard said about the way the Black Student Union operates today. The University is a hotbed for narrative negotiations and struggles as people come together from all different experiences and backgrounds to share in this creative learning environment. Not everyone gets to experience this University as a welcoming environment with

National Center for Institutional Diversity

the same sense of belonging as others. A lot of the consternation that this campus has seen surrounding race, gender and identity in recent months has led many students to grapple with their identities in ways they never have before. “MVisible Voices” is about taking these experiences and these identity conflicts and moving them to the very center of the conversation instead of pushing them to the periphery. These stories are just as much a part of the history of this University as the narratives that we hear more often. Through her work, James explores being a minority on this campus and how as a community we can welcome all people into the broader conversation about what it means to be a Wolverine, and in a bigger sense, what it means to be human. James hopes to take the podcast further than just a bicentennial event, as it has seen much success. She laid out a plan for Season Two of the podcast. She hopes to take it a step further, explore new issues and open it up to more minorities who were not explored in the first podcast. She says she’d like to further explore the Native American culture and identity on the campus, as well as the issues surrounding gender and sexuality. “There are continuously going to be untold stories that we can discover and lift up,” she said. In addition to the podcast, James has brought the “Value the Voice” event to the University campus. In junction with the Comprehensive Studies Program, James helped to create a live storytelling series. It is described as a more casual and off-the-cuff TED Talk, with an emphasis on culture and the learned life lessons. The series has had three installments thus far (in Sept., Nov. and Jan.), with a final one coming in March. James describes it as a sacred space, and spoke to the wide spectrum of stories that were told at the most recent of the three events held so far. “One girl told the story of her mother and sister dying in a house fire, someone else told the story of nobody knowing they have MS (multiple sclerosis), another of her experiences abroad,” she explained. James herself told the story of the first time she saw a naked man, which was in a West Quad Residence Hall girl’s bathroom during her undergraduate years, when a man had stumbled in there drunk and passed out naked. “That story is real, and it’s relatable,” she said with a laugh. She has also been recently exploring the way storytelling is evolving and changing with the times. When she began, storytelling was all done live and not written. In her early storytelling career, many people began transcribing and posting stories; however, now most storytellers have reverted back to the old ways of storytelling — simple and spoken. Additionally, James speaks on the world of social media, and how that has played a role in the world of storytelling. “It’s funny actually. I had a student download Snapchat on my phone because I wanted to have my own Snapchat story — it’s a new way of telling stories,” she said. “Storytelling is changing.”

James does not seem fazed or nervous about these changes in storytelling that come with the times. Rather, she is excited and motivated for where this could potentially take her as a storyteller. At the base of all of the organizing she has done to bring cultural storytelling to this campus is her original passion: storytelling. James has become a wellknown storyteller both in Mich and beyond. Besides her mother and grandmother, who are both her biggest mentors

Stories are so much about the past, but we can always take them to the future

when it comes to storytelling, we spoke a lot about two other people who have really shaped her perception of storytelling and how it ties into culture. The first, mythology writer Joseph Campbell, has really shaped her perception of the foundation of storytelling. His work speaks on human experiences and religion. He also introduced James into the idea of the “Hero’s Journey.” The “Hero’s Journey” is the template of a tale in which a hero embarks on a journey, and, after some form of crisis, wins a victory and then returns transformed in some way. “I use the Hero’s Journey as a guideline so often in my life, especially when I’m just speaking with students,” James said. “I always explain it’s sort of like the freshman/senior narrative, and how you change so much just in your four years of school here.” The second of her two mentors is Jackie Torrence, who is otherwise known as the Story Lady. Torrence has told wonderful stories of the South for many years, with extremely animated facial expressions — something that James often tries to tie into her own storytelling, especially when speaking with kids. These two mentors, along with her family, have been the people James has looked to for guidance throughout her storytelling journey. In addition to all her work here, James has told stories around the country and will continue to do so going forward. She is infatuated with the idea of storytelling for youth audiences. When asking James about why she is drawn to young audiences when telling stories, she tells of the magic in telling children stories and watching them want to pass them on. “When I tell stories to young children, I can change my voice to highlight different characters, and they go crazy for it,” she said. “When I’m ready to leave, I’ll hear them talking to one another using the voices I just performed with, and it’s such a positive way to give to that generation and hope they become hooked on storytelling

too.” She has also gave a TED talk in Dec. at the University of Maryland, where she was invited to speak. Being one who did not much believe in storytelling that is recorded or rehearsed, she originally wanted to refuse the offer. However, after speaking with the TED team in Maryland and realizing what an honor it would be to speak there, she could not turn it down. In the TED talk, titled “What’s your Story?,” James talks about how to use storytelling to achieve one’s life goals and destiny. “I ended up really enjoying that experience,” she said. “At the end of it all, in any form, storytelling is me and you, and we’re having this moment and sharing it with each other.” In addition to this, she is currently working on a story she will be telling at Indiana University. It is an updated story from the Yoruba people of Nigeria, which speaks of the Goddess of Fresh Water. However, she has worked to update it to talk about the Flint water crisis and the Native American oil spill — constantly joining past narratives with the present day. “This isn’t gone, you know? This story has so much history, but it’s still here with us,” she said. “Stories are so much about the past, but we can always take them to the future.” The piece will be set to a dance, which incorporates other mediums of art, such as music and visual elements. She will be performing the piece with jazz artists, and the dance ensemble is comprised entirely of white performers who have been working to learn traditional Yoruba movement. “Black dancers have always had to learn ballet — so why shouldn’t these white dancers have to step out of their comfort zone and learn about (a) different culture’s dancing styles?” she said. She is also looking forward to the traditional Nigerian garb the staff at Indiana University has had made for her, which includes a beautiful headpiece and intricate decorations. The ability of storytelling to take the form of an entire performance is both exciting and innovating, and she hopes it will captivate audiences as much as it has already captivated her. James’s storytelling experience has been unique and not without struggle. At the end of the day though, she would not change a thing. She has grown and changed in her years as a storyteller and hopes to continue to inspire, teach and grow as she continues to tell stories. As a storyteller, she is constantly brought back to her roots — the ones that began to grow from her kitchen with her grandmother, telling stories about their family’s culture and heritage. From there she has been able to celebrate and commemorate her culture through telling stories, and hopes to inspire many to do the same. “At our essence, people are good and we want to be happy,” she said. She paused, letting her words settle around me. “At the center of it all, we’re all just made for goodness. And that’s what I hope to convey when I tell stories.”

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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Thursday, February 1, 2018 — 3B

Ten Thousand Villages brings art from around the world to Ann Arbor In the heart of downtown, a shop with art from all over the world JACK BRANDON Daily Film Editor

Nestled on Main Street, between Shinola and Da Vinci’s Salon & Gallery lies Ten Thousand Villages. Carol Grafton, event coordinator and visual merchandiser for the shop, tells me she loves the location: in the heart of downtown, next to plenty of restaurants, bars and venues that

Thousand Villages is covered, ceiling to floor, with works of art for sale from around the world. Some of them are more marketable than others, of course, but it’s just enough to get the cogs of the mind turning. Maybe we could put this in the kitchen? This would look great in your bathroom. Move in with me. Er, sorry, I’m getting distracted. When I walk into the store, however, it’s a rainy Tuesday morning and I’m alone. A sweet

tells me that the discs are made from the tagua nut, which comes from a South American palm tree species. I turn the smooth, sturdy sections of the necklace in my hand — it feels high quality. As Grafton takes the lead from Bonnie and guides me throughout the rest of the store, she gives me the lowdown on Ten Thousand Villages. “We’re the oldest fair-trade store [in the world], started by one little woman: Edna Ruth

TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES ANN ARBOR

can get crowded during peak hours. Grafton smiles when she calls Ten Thousand Villages a good date store, one that catches the eyes of stumblers waiting for open doors or a table. It’s easy to see why she thinks so — the interior of Ten

salesperson named Bonnie greets me, telling me about Ten Thousand Villages’s mission and variety of artwork. We begin at the middle of the store, perusing some jewelry made of thick shelllike discs and strung together by a rustic cotton cord. Bonnie

Byler,” she said. When Byler visited Puerto Rico in 1946 with her family, she was amazed at the diligence and work ethic of the women there. Struck by the quality and uniqueness of their textiles, Byler bought their needlework and brought it to the

COMMUNITY CULTURE NOTEBOOK

The art of Indian cooking TRINA PAL

Daily Arts Writer

My grandmother’s biryani, a rice dish usually served with rich meats and yogurt sauce, is famous among my family and friends. If anyone ever pays a visit to Kolkata, a city in the East Indian state of West Bengal, they make sure to stop by her apartment. And any visit to my grandmother’s apartment warrants a feast. Once, when there was a gathering at her apartment, I saw her wake up at the crack of dawn to start cooking. By lunchtime, colossal dishes of biryani were taken out from the kitchen, along with equally large quantities of chicken and goat meat. I watched 30 relatives squeeze into the small space, happy to see each other but just as happy to eat the food in front of them. I’ve always been surrounded by traditional Indian cooking — specifically Bengali cooking. I’m used to accidentally eating a whole chilli pepper at least once a week, and I know the best remedies for this situation (cold yogurt and sweet fruits, but never water). I very rarely eat dishes without two or three different types of spices. Often, one dish is so spicy that the lingering taste makes the rest spicy, too. My grandparents always ask me if I can “take the spice” in their cooking, as if it’s a competition. Spice is embraced in Indian cooking, and I’m accustomed to my eyes watering from the food I eat. However, I’ve also grown up in America my whole life. I’ve eaten my fair share of B-Dubs and Jimmy Johns, especially since coming to college. But when I’m eating these foods, there seems to be something missing from the mix. I love my boneless wings as much as anyone, but somehow it doesn’t feel the same, even if I’m eating with my family. After being a college freshman for a semester,

I believe I understand why. Indian cooking is integrally different from American cooking. The approach to cooking, the way it’s done, how it’s eaten and so much more factor into Indian dishes. But I think the biggest component to Indian cooking is the people surrounding it. The social aspect of buying the ingredients, cooking and spending time together make Indian food more of an experience than an end product. To explain what I mean, I’ll revisit my grandmother. Early in the morning, my grandfather stops by the outdoor market on his daily walk through Kolkata. When I walked through one of these markets, I was struck at the sheer amount of noise there was. Merchants yell out prices, live animals squawk and rickshaws blare their horns in the streets. I remember seeing multiple chickens running on the loose through the market plaza. My grandfather always barters for the prices until he’s satisfied. He brings home fresh vegetables and meat from animals butchered that day. Every single day. Once the food is prepared, which usually takes two or three hours, we always eat together. We use a central carb, like rice or roti (a type of flatbread), to eat all the other dishes. The other dishes are usually gravy based, with a mixture of many cooked vegetables, or meat curry. No meal is complete without dal (similar to lentil soup). Dal never gets old — there are so many types that I’ve barely learned what they’re all called. We eat together for lunch and dinner. The times that we eat are naturally correlated with when we talk, tell stories and laugh. The dinner table has always been a lively place for me — even after eating we linger at the table for hours. If guests come over, the whole evening is

spent around the table eating endless food and chatting. We tend to have one extra meal for “tea time.” At five in the afternoon, everyone sits together to have tea and samosas (a triangular folded pastry with vegetable filling). If we want to call guests over in the afternoon, we ask them to come have tea with us. If this happens, “tea time” can last for hours. If we call guests over during meal times, three or four new dishes are prepared. It’s not uncommon for guests to come over and even participate in the cooking that the host started. It’s the cooking process and the interaction that comes with it that makes it special — not so much the end product. Thus, everyone’s life practically revolves around the food they eat. If anyone stops by for a visit, they have to be given food first. It can be as small as some sweets or a whole dinner, but most times the first question asked is, “Will you eat?” The answer is always yes. If I’m at home, I know what each meal of the day will consist of before I even eat breakfast. The house perpetually smells like spices, but most times I don’t realize it until I leave the house and am greeted by the smell when I come back inside. When I open my bedroom door, I know what’s being cooked because the whole house is filled with the aroma. Indian food cooked at home brings a togetherness that I just can’t seem to replicate anywhere else. Stepping inside my grandmother’s home in Kolkata, or even my home in MI, means that I’m immersed in the art of Indian cooking and the social bonds that come with it. My grandmother offers me a thousand different foods when I walk through the door. Feeding me is her priority because she takes immense delight in sharing her food with others. And I wouldn’t want to have it any other way.

TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES ANN ARBOR

United States to sell. Grafton also mentioned, “We started the fair-trade federation.” Since 1946, Ten Thousand Villages has expanded immensely. There are currently 52 locations across the United States that carry more than just Puerto Rican textiles. On my way through the store, I see necklaces made from repurposed bomb casings in Cambodia, coasters made from newspapers in Vietnam and wall décor made from oil drums in Haiti. The necklaces are stylish and fashion-conscious, like something you might see at Urban Outfitters, while the coasters and wall décor are more clearly designed with an ecofriendly aesthetic and mind. “Ten Thousand Villages encourages recycling and sustainable products,” Grafton mentioned. “We try to stay with the trends,” she added. Grafton shared that Ten Thousand Villages works on a more personal level with their artisans from around the world. “We work and cobble together,” she continued. “It’s a partnership. We have to make sure it’s going to sell. It has to be readily available, unique products that you wouldn’t find in other stores. Something a part of their tradition and part of their culture.” As Bonnie leads me throughout the rest of the store, I see a good deal of other products that resemble what you could see at a Hallmark or a Home Goods. Some of the seasonal goods are very clearly commissioned with a clear aesthetic in mind, and marked down because it’s past the holidays. I point some of these out, wondering how much the artisans are paid after the markdown. Grafton is nonplussed, and said, “When we mark it down, people will come

in and ask, well, how much did the artisans actually get paid? We pay them half at the start of the job, and half once it makes it through customs, so the artisans are paid in full before it even sells here.” I look around some more, noticing that not all of the products seem so idiosycratic. At the back, on a wide table that takes a good deal of floorspace, are beautiful blown-glass goblets, decanters, pitchers and carafes from the West Bank. Each of them has the faint opacity and texture of sea glass, but with wavy and intricate patterns. The most arresting works of art in the store are those that are tied most closely to a region’s heritage, like the baskets from Bangladesh and Uganda or the singing bowls from Nepal. Ten Thousand Villages usually finds their artisans through co-op houses around the world. “A lot of our artisans are out in the country,” Grafton said. “We provide health care and make sure the tenets of fair trade are being met. We’re very vendor focused. We ask them what they need to make a living and stick with our artisans for 20 years.” Unlike some other retail chains, Ten Thousand Villages is devoted to strengthening the communities from which they are sourced. From the beginning, Ten Thousand Villages focused on supporting the work of women — a goal that they continue to strive to meet. Women from around the world are given the work skills they need to be independent and productive members of their society. Ten Thousand Villages also relies on its rich history of fair trade and international art work with which the average customer may not be so familiar. “Ann Arbor is a very educated

community, but I don’t think that was the case a couple years ago,” Grafton said. She goes on to explain that much of their training deals with teaching workers and volunteers about the tenets of fair trade. I think back to when I stepped into the store, and Bonnie immediately opened up to me about the principles of Ten Thousand Villages. Since Ten Thousand Villages follows a non-traditional retail model, many of their workers are volunteers. “I had been asked to be on the start-up team,” Grafton said. “I started as a volunteer for about a year, and then I started doing some visual merchandising parttime.” She has worked with the downtown location since it opened 13 and a half years ago. Both her lengthy tenure and the quantity of volunteers leads me to think that those who work at Ten Thousand Villages really believe in their message. While Ten Thousand Villages has found a home on Main Street, they still struggle to connect with the University and student organizations. Grafton makes a point of saying that “it takes eight hours a month to be a volunteer, and we’re always looking for more, especially students.” Because of this, Ten Thousand Villages has had to reach out to the University, and on Feb. 6, they will be hosting a book discussion on Yaa Gyasi’s “Homegoing” with Brenda McGadneyDouglass, a social work professor from the University of Toledo. For those that can make it, the store promises a bounty of fair-trade coffee and chocolate sampling. But for others, Ten Thousand Villages will remain cozy on Main Street, waiting for a fortunate wanderer to come in and seek shelter from the rain.

SINGLE REVIEW: ‘HOW SIMPLE’

Saddle Creek

On “How Simple,” Phillybased indie rock band Hop Along combines more instruments on a single track than they ever have before. The single arrives ahead of the group’s third album, Bark Your Head Off, Dog. Scheduled to release in just over two months on Apr. 6, the album is their first since 2015’s Painted Shut (though their 2012 debut, Get Disowned, was reissued in 2016). The track signals not a shift in the quartet’s style, but an elaboration upon the impeccable style they already possess. “How Simple” opens with acoustic strumming, Frances Quinlan’s singular voice jumping in immedi-

ately, almost as if she’d been waiting this entire time. Soon after, electric gui-

“How Simple” Hop Along Saddle Creek tar, percussion and then synthesizer enter the mix. While Mark Quinlan’s drumming propels the piece forward for the majority of its duration, other instruments dip in for short bouts, rarely remaining for more than 25 seconds. The song is just under four minutes, but feels epic as it moves through countless overlapping but distinct motifs — there’s even what sounds

like a hand-clap sample at one point. “How Simple” is a journey through various stages of unrest, anxiety and fear, though Quinlan’s voice never quite cracks as we’ve heard it do before. Nonetheless, her performance is emotive as ever. “How simple my heart can be / Frightens me,” she sings during a section that most closely resembles a chorus. As the song draws to a close, we’re treated to a calming violin melody, which pairs quite nicely with Quinlan’s voice as the two reach a disarmingly content conclusion. – Sean Lang, Daily Arts Writer

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4B —Thursday, February 1, 2018

STYLE

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

of couturier, along with which designers should be chosen as “guest members” for a given season. Outside of tangible requirements, couture designs tend to be more outrageous than their commercially-sold counterparts. Couture Week Spring-Summer 2018 just wrapped up, and featured a refreshing quantity of textures, colors and voluminous feather headpieces. Standout pieces were seen at Dior, where newly-minted creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri at last seemed to find her footing, within Giambattista Valli’s tulle-laden paradise and at Giorgio Armani Privé, where watercolor reigned supreme. Guest members like Guo Pei and Iris Van Herpen breathed new life into the institution’s deeply

homogenous framework.

Greater diversity in member brands’ leadership is making Haute Couture more exciting than ever

Greater diversity in member brands’ leadership is making

Haute Couture more exciting than ever. This season saw the rise of the female creative director — namely, Grazia Chiuri at Dior and Guo and Van Herpen at their eponymous labels — along with non-European brands, like American expat Proenza Schouler and Lebanese fan favorite Elie Saab. Fashion has a long, long way to go, but to see its most discriminatory subgroup making progress is exciting, no doubt. Let’s circle back to that Juicy tracksuit you wore every week in middle school. It was special, yes, a fundamental ingredient to the anxietyfilled casserole that was your formative years. But make no mistake: There’s no way a legacy upholstered in velour could make the Haute Couture cut.

NowFashion.com

So you say you want to Books that Built Us: J.D. be a couturier, do you? Salinger’s ‘Nine Stories’ BOOKS

TESS GARCIA

Daily Style Editor

I’d like to begin with an unfortunate disclaimer: Juicy Couture is not real couture. The phrase Haute Couture is French for “high sewing.” Its implications developed out of a 1945 decision made by France’s Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, which determined that “Haute Couture” should become a legal designation for fashion houses who qualify to become members of the Chambre Syndicale. Today, just over 150 designers in the world boast the auspicious designation. Why, you might ask, did any of this hierarchical legal

I’d like to begin with an unfortunate disclaimer: Juicy Couture is not real couture

action begin in the first place? And in response, dear reader, I will remind you that “high”

fashion’s origins lie within a hotbed of European elitism. The Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture was started upon such a foundation in 1868, when a group of Parisian dressmakers, couturiers, came together in hopes of regulating one another with regards to counterfeiting, collection release dates, number of models per fashion show, proper relations with the press and issues of fashion-related laws and taxes. Today, the Chambre Syndicale exists within the jurisdiction of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, whose mission is to “promote French fashion culture, where Haute Couture and creation have a major impact by combining traditional know how and contemporary technology at all times,” according to their website. The Fédération is responsible for maintaining virtually every aspect of Parisian high fashion, but perhaps most integral to the city’s reputation as the world’s fashion capital is the Chambre Syndicale’s highlycurated list of members, who have the opportunity to show collections as part of the prestigious semi-annual Couture Fashion Week. There are many key differences between ordinary Fashion Week collections, often referred to as readyto-wear, and couture. I’ll scratch the surface: Readyto-wear garments are factory-

made in standard sizes, and are available to most anyone willing to shell out the cash for a 900-dollar t-shirt. The same can’t be said for couture collections, which boast oneof-a-kind, handmade pieces made to measure for fashion’s uppermost echelon of clientele (i.e. royalty and Julianne

I will remind you that “high” fashion’s origins lie within a hotbed of European elitism

Moore). Other notable criteria for Haute Couture status include ownership of a workshop, or atelier, in Paris that employs at least 15 fulltime staff members and 20 full-time technical employees, and the presentation of at least 50 original designs to the public every season, in Jan. and Jul.. It is ultimately up to Fédération executives to determine who earns the title

A young woman’s discovery of author J.D. Salinger’s lesser-known works, his characters and a universal story NATALIE ZAK Daily Arts Writer

The first time I came across “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” it was in the form of 10 printed pages delivered by my sister as she stumbled off a train from Mich. Her friend had written a dissertation on it in high school, and on her recommendation my sister printed it off for the trip from Mich. to Chicago. “You should read it if you liked ‘Catcher in the Rye’,” Mimi told me as she placed the pages before me on the kitchen counter. Liked “Catcher”? I didn’t just like “Catcher,” I thought incredulously. Along with every other unbearably angsty 15-year-old, I worshipped it and treasured the voice of Holden Caulfield, his weariness towards life and bemoaning over phonies everywhere. “It perfectly captures the listlessness of youth,” I would tell anyone who asked, but mostly those who didn’t. Were I being honest with myself, I would have been able to admit the book didn’t do much for me. My dedication to the book at 15 was entirely guided by a pursuit of social capital. I was a teenage girl with a bunch of friends who

MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW I just couldn’t figure out what the big deal with Salinger was all about

“JOYFUL” X Ambassadors KIDinaKORDNER/ Interscope Records At the beginning of the new music video for X Ambassadors’s “JOYFUL,” band members move around the inside of an extravagant concert hall. They climb the stage, tap on drums and get ready. Then, all outside noise fades, and the song begins … and they just kind of stay there. The entire video takes place on the stage of the concert hall, panning between lead singer Sam Harris at the microphone, fellow band members Casey Harris and Adam Levin on keyboard and drums and a backup choir that emerges around halfway through. Things pick up a little with the introduction of the choir, less due to the music video than to the building tension and excitement in the music itself. It’s not that “JOYFUL” is a bad music video; it’s just that it doesn’t really seem to add anything to the song. X Ambassadors deliver a crisp performance, not unenjoy-

INTERSCOPE RECORDS

able to watch, but also not particularly noteworthy. At its best, a music video shouldn’t just be a wellcaptured performance of a quality song; it should be a way to take what you’re already saying with the song and accentuate it using film, to be more creative with it, to give it dimension. It doesn’t really feel like X Ambassadors accomplished that with “JOYFUL.” That being said, the video does at least fit nicely alongside the song. The song has a very simple message, and the video delivers it plainly — when Harris sings that he wants to be “joyful and happy, just being alive,” it seems like the video is trying to deliver itself with the same unembellished

approach as the song. The straightforward nature of the video underscores this, as it seems to beckon the viewer to immerse themselves in the performance; at the very end, the camera even lifts high above the city, eventually leaving the word “JOYFUL” all by itself in a bright blue sky. There aren’t any glaring problems with the video for “JOYFUL,” and in many ways it does embody a lot of what the song is already saying. It doesn’t reach very far beyond embodying, though, and this restraint is what unfortunately holds it back from being a standout music video. – Laura Dzubay, Daily Arts Writer

were obsessed with the book and the faux-academic air it allowed us to presume. It’s not that I hated the book or anything; I just couldn’t figure out what the big deal with Salinger was all about. But then I met Seymour Glass, and in 10 pages, I fell in love. It’s Salinger’s sickly sweet cruelty that drew me in. Forget Holden and his droning thoughts, here I had Muriel and Sybil and Seymour. Here I had a woman who “for a ringing phone dropped exactly nothing” and bananafish that contract banana fever from uncontrollable eating. Here I had Seymour, holding onto the edge of a little girl’s foot as waves of the ocean carried her, before later putting a pistol to his head. Maybe it was the precision with which Salinger describes Muriel applying lacquer to her nails or the slicing sound of young Sybil yelling after

“see more glass.” Maybe it was that I never anticipated the ending. “Nine Stories” has carried me through the last five years of my life. I find myself revisiting the hazy, cigarette smoke-filled living room of “Uncle Wiggley in Connecticut” with its two women lying on their backs, scotch glasses on their chests, reliving their college days and lost loves. I find myself thinking of the missing wife in “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes” and her desperate husband who doesn’t suspect that she might be found in the hotel room of a friend. I think about how I want to talk, write, be like the characters he crafts. On another day in another life, I’d be a Salinger character, built from the ground up by his pen. I want to exist in the mind of a writer whose descriptions and dialogue are laden with humor and sadness. These stories are undercut by small and heavy tragedies, filled with characters simply trying to figure out how to live in a world overwrought with unexplainable peculiarities and sorrows. Philip Roth, in his 1961 essay “Writing American Fiction,” writes that the only solution Salinger gives us for how to live in this world, between The Glass Family and Holden, is “to be charming on the way to the loony bin.” But I disagree. In the wake of Salinger’s specialty sadness, something persists. At the end of each story, when the words on the page shake you to your core and leave you hollow, something else drags you on. It’s why placing “Bananafish” as the first of nine stories doesn’t immediately halt the collection. We are human, and because of this our fascination for the uncanny and devotion to reading another’s sadness all stems from an effort to figure out our own. The spring of my freshman year of college a friend from back home came to visit. He had recently lost a brother and I, a friend. In an effort to escape the shadow of this loss I threw myself into making the weekend fun for him, filled with exuberant distractions like karaoke and blistering hangovers. And while it was fun, something about him, our relationship, had shifted in the months since death visited our doorstep. His signature pessimism had become darker, more sinister. I was drained by the end of his visit, the inevitability of our changing relationship leaving me limp and exhausted. My sister came to meet me in the Diag the day after I dropped him off at the bus station. My body was hungover and heavy with weariness, so we simply laid

back into the warm sun of a late Apr. day and talked, sharing a sandwich. Months earlier, on the night the news of Danny’s death had reached me, I was lying next to her in her bed overcome with grief. Now I lay next to her in the sun overcome with something close to grief, but not quite. She read “For Esme — with Love and Squalor” aloud for me that day. From start to finish her voice told the story that had been my favorite since I read the collection all those years ago. I fell in love once again with the soldier and his lovely affection for

I clutch to Salinger, his words and his characters who don’t presume to know anything about living in the world, but who simply subsist and push on from one story to the next Esme, the little girl with an arrogant wit in whom I saw a little too much of myself. I fell in love once again with its strange structure, its self-ref lexivity that seems to stretch farther into J.D. Salinger’s own life than any other of the nine. I fell in love once again with all its nuances and all of its fac—f-ac-u-l-t-i-e-s. I often return to those hours Mimi and I spent lying in the Diag, just as I return to these stories. In reading them, I’m able to read myself in different places, at different times in my life. And every late Jan., when the cold creeps around the corner and the excitement of the new year slowly turns to dust, I yearn for the warmth of the sun, not the cold of dim memories. I yearn for the sunburn that slowly stretched across my face as Mimi and I read stories filled with love and squalor and humor and grief. I clutch to Salinger, his words and his characters who don’t presume to know anything about living in the world, but who simply subsist and push on from one story to the next.

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ARTIST

PROFILE

NETFLIX

British sitcoms need love SAM ROSENBERG Senior Arts Editor

Here’s a piping hot take: British sitcoms are funnier and far more refined than American sitcoms. Just hear me out. It’s not that I don’t like American sitcoms — some of my favorite TV shows include “Parks & Recreation,” “30 Rock,” “Scrubs,” “Broad City” and currently, “The Good Place.” But ever since freshman year of college, I have found myself gravitating more toward watching contemporary British sitcoms. There’s something about British humor that I find much more appealing, more refreshing and more soulcrushingly real than the average American TV comedy. That may seem a bit hyperbolic, but British sitcoms — with their lovable yet wildly chaotic characters, brisk pacing, progressive themes and heartwarming humor — are still worthy of merit, especially in this age of binge-watching and streaming services. Earlier this semester, I spent a good deal talking about “Lovesick,” the sharp, tantalizing rom-com from the mind of writer/producer Tom Edge (“The Crown”) that reads as a British hybrid of “How I Met Your Mother,” “Friends” and “You’re The Worst.” Rather than simply borrowing the themes and the energetic, youthful casts from each of those shows, “Lovesick” does something entirely different; it transcends classic sitcom tropes by taking major dramatic risks. Each episode pokes fun at the characters, but does so without sacrificing the more human complexities underlying their motivations and actions. “Lovesick” isn’t just a story about a single hopeless romantic; it’s a multifaceted tale of every young person’s fear of rejection and commitment. “Lovesick” trusts its audience enough to neatly balance comedy with drama, which is why it primarily succeeds better than

American sitcoms and even other British sitcoms ever could. It’s also just a breezy watch — the first season contains six episodes and the second and third contain eight. British sitcoms also benefit from the versatility and autonomy of their creators. Three shows that come to mind are “Crashing,” “Fleabag” and “Chewing Gum.” The first two were created, written by and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge (“Goodbye Christopher Robin”), who won the 2017 BAFTA for Best Female Performance in a Comedy for “Fleabag.” The latter was created, written by and stars Michaela Coel (“Black Mirror”), who won the 2016 BAFTA Breakthrough Talent award for her work on “Chewing Gum.” Each of these shows, while varying in aesthetic and tone, share a singular style of devilishly ribald humor. “Crashing,” in particular, has a kooky concept: It follows the lives of six working-class friends, led by Waller-Bridge herself as the infectious Lucy, living in an abandoned hospital that poses as a sort of makeshift co-op. In just six hysterical half-hour episodes, Waller-Bridge breaks down every possible sitcom trope — the awkwardness of dinner parties, the tensions between friendships and sexual relationships, the endless existential dread of being in your 20s — with keen, almost effortless efficiency. Waller-Bridge continues to expand upon traditional sitcom setups in her much darker and bolder follow-up “Fleabag,” where she plays a nameless Londonite attempting to navigate her life after the death of her best friend. Though each episode shows her breaking the fourth wall — a typical framing device used in TV comedies like “The Office” — Waller-Bridge skillfully uses her character’s interactions with the audience as a defense mechanism for the secrets she hides from those around her. It definitely works in eliciting laughs, but it plays just as effectively when heightening the

drama of a scene. Much like “Fleabag,” “Chewing Gum” incorporates a fourth-wallbreaking structure, but to a much more absurd degree. A friend of mine once described this show as a cross between “Jane the Virgin,” “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Insecure,” which, to be fair, isn’t completely wrong. The show tells the story of Tracey (Coel), a horny, Beyoncé-obsessed 24-yearold virgin residing with her uberreligious mother in the low-income neighborhood of Tower Hamlets, London. As an exercise in cringe comedy, “Chewing Gum” (mostly) works: The characters are wacky but not totally insufferable, the dialogue is raunchy but not too gross and the visual gags, most of which revolve around sex, are, well, not very sexy, but still entertain. What differentiates “Chewing Gum” from other sitcoms, however, is the strong personal voice behind Coel’s writing and characters. Her subtle social commentary about religion, sex, money and young adulthood feels earned in the way Coel transposes them in an obscene, albeit unabashedly personal, setting. It’s no wonder, then, that “Chewing Gum” is based on a semi-autobiographical play Coel wrote in 2012, which inevitably helped give an elasticity to the show’s comedic flair. Sure, British sitcoms may not appeal to everyone in the States (or elsewhere, for that matter). The stuffiness of the dialogue and the characters may come off as too esoteric for some — even The Guardian writer Ben Elton thinks snobbery and “lazy contempt” are killing the British sitcom. British sitcoms also have a known history of perpetuating xenophobic and racist humor (though American sitcoms have been guilty of reinforcing harmful stereotypes as well). But it is worth noting the value British sitcoms add to the overall scope of modern international entertainment and comedic storytelling.

Bonding and Bollywood SAYAN GHOSH Daily Arts Writer

Nestled behind a Lucky’s grocery store and a Walgreens in an unassuming strip mall in my hometown of Fremont, CA was a movie theater called Naz 8. However, this wasn’t your typical shining, flashy Century or AMC. Instead of the scent of buttered popcorn, you’d be greeted with (or rather, overwhelmed by) the aroma of samosas, curry, spices and similar items being sold as concessions. The place was poorly lit and grimy, the seats were centuries old; at every screening, you could guarantee people would be talking or a baby would be bawling. Yet despite all its flaws, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people — mostly Indian immigrants like my family — would flock to Naz 8 Cinemas for a taste of home. Everyone, from the recent arrivals hoping to make it big in Silicon Valley to the established, newly minted American citizens, would marvel at the spectacles of melodrama, song and dance known as Bollywood films. We would gasp at Salman Khan breaking the laws of physics and shed tears of laughter and sadness as Amir Khan satirized the education system. My mom would shield my eyes with her sweater in horror during a sex

scene, angrily cursing the fact she believed the box office attendant when he said, “Of course you can watch it with your 10-year-old.” While in retrospect those same movies seem ridiculously corny and overwrought, I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t see them again any time you ask me to. As shown in shows such as “Master of None” and several other works, it’s often difficult for children of immigrants (such as me) to relate to the society and environment that our parents grew up in. Although we grew up eating Indian food, and some of us speak Bengali, Hindi, Tamil or some other Indian language at home, the connection beyond that with our family’s country becomes tenuous. It is beautiful to learn so much about my family by simply going to the movies. Even now, and especially for a 10-year-old, the simultaneously adrenalinefueled, romance-filled stories of good and evil were solid sources of entertainment. Yet one common element was that they were not set in Middle Earth or outer space, but actually in India. Our parents could point out the neighborhoods that were similar to where they grew up, the school uniforms they had to wear and the foods they used to eat off the street stalls. Parents who were engineers could point out elements of their college

experience in “3 Idiots.” They could even take advantage of the historical flicks such as “Jodha Akbar” to teach us what they learned in their history classes. Through these tiny moments, we could strengthen the bonds between ourselves and our parents. We could understand the world they came from as well as the small societal differences that end up causing friction in the present-day. For me, it gives a failsafe conversation starter when I travel to meet my relatives. Even if the person I just met is my third cousin once removed with a completely different set of life experiences, at least we have one thing in common. By knowing and watching the same movies that my parents watched before I was born, and listening to the songs they listened to, I can feel that much closer to them. I also learned that my habit of waxing (overly) poetic about works that I love is an inherited one. Naz closed recently, ever since many large American theaters started playing Bollywood films (except with better amenities and comfortable seats). Although I can’t say I miss Naz and its general seediness, I can’t deny that I always feel a tinge of nostalgia whenever I reminisce about it, as well as a feeling that, ultimately, it impacted my life in a profound way.

MAIZE MIRCHI

Artist Profile: A capella Maize Mirchi storytells SAM LU

Daily Arts Writer

While it’s pretty much impossible to talk about collegiate a cappella without at least some mention of 2012’s “Pitch Perfect” and the subsequent series that ensued, real-world competitive a cappella requires hours of meticulous rehearsal and thought — not just a miraculous cut from one scene to the next. The competition featured in “Pitch Perfect” — The International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) — was first founded in 1996, and currently has around 450 groups competing in nine regions all over the country. The ICCA operates in a bracket-style setup, with competitors progressing through quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. What can you do in a 12-minute performance? In a trend that’s gradually growing in the a cappella sphere, South Asian inspired campus group Maize Mirchi goes further than mere coordinated dance moves; they tell stories. Mirchi’s South Asian twist takes shape in their performances through a repertoire of several languages — including, but not limited to, Hindi. Their overarching goal is to fuse South Asian culture with pop music, creating a new style of sounds that people may not have heard before. Onstage, the 15-person group harnesses the delicately blended magic of their voices along with expressive face and body motions for truly chilling, magnetic performances. “When you’ve got 16 people on a stage doing them all at the same time and trying to show the audience a specific emotion or a specific part of a story that’s occurring, then it has a pretty big impact,” said LSA Sophomore Swathi Sampath, one of Mirchi’s performance directors, in an interview with The Daily. The group’s most recent performance storyline from last year’s competition cycle — which, for Mirchi, meant competing not only at the ICCAs but also at Awaazein (a competition similar to the ICCAs, except half of the 12 minute performance must be South Asian, and performers must portray a story) — conveyed two separate stories of two characters, one who was facing inner demons and one dealing with outer conflict from an abusive relationship. However, the narratives in each set change depending on what songs Mirchi decides on and what the members feel come out of the music. Sampath is responsible for everything, from figuring out what to wear to events to choreographing the 12-minute set — including the movements, facial expressions and emotions the group conveys during performances. Her experience with music goes back 13 years, when she was five years old and first started singing the Indian classical genre. “I came here and knew I wanted to try a cappella as a

different type of music that I hadn’t done before,” Sampath said. “I’m really into Indian music, since that’s a lot of my background, but also Western music as well, and when I found a group that did both of them together I realized that was the only one I really wanted to do.” Mirchi’s members come from all different experience levels. Engineering Sophomore Prakash Kumar, one of the group’s music directors, had plenty of classical training in piano and trumpet, but only really started singing his senior year of high school. “In high school, I started a band,” Kumar said. “We performed at our high school talent show, and we ended up winning by playing sort of a mashup of songs by Coldplay — that was the first time I’d actually sang in front of people in my life. I was terrified. But it went well! And so I was like, ‘Hey, I can maybe sing!’” Since the group first formed 11 years ago, Maize Mirchi has

What Mirchi’s members love most is the harmony that grows out of time, effort and a shared appreciation for the art

released two full studio albums and two EPs. Silent Call, the group’s most recent release, was actually recorded in a member’s basement with the help of Liquid 5th — a North Carolinabased production company that specializes in a range of services for a cappella singing, including producing albums, mastering tracks, running live performances or merely giving constructive criticism for a group. “What we do is set up these mics and we have an air horn and we have to make everything super quiet. If there are any birds outside, we take the air horn and scare them away because otherwise, you’ll hear the birds in the recording,” Kumar said. Recording is a seemingly straightforward process, but a cappella recording is far more complex than it lets on. Unlike choral recordings, a cappella recordings must be done individually, and usually more than once so that there’s a backup of every part. What’s more, mixing a cappella requires both precision and balance, due to the natural variations of voices and how different vocal parts go together. If not blended

perfectly, the piece won’t sound right. “You have a bass and you have someone doing vocal percussion, and those things will be equalized differently than the rest of the group, so you need to have those on their separate mics,” Kumar said. “And then sometimes you’ll have these weird moving parts in a song or an arrangement that you’ll want to bring out more — if you have just one mic sitting there, you can’t say ‘Bring out the altos!’ because they’re in the mix, they’re in the whole song.” Liquid 5th’s clients are often award-winning groups, and Maize Mirchi is no exception. The group won last year’s ICCA quarterfinals and ended up competing at semifinals in Chicago. This year, Mirchi isn’t competing at the ICCA because they’ll be hosting the competition on Feb. 10th at the Power Center. However, they are still training to compete in Awaazein and currently hold three two-hour long rehearsals per week. “Closer to competition, we increase that, and sometimes we even have a rehearsal that lasts forever until we feel satisfied. It’s named the ‘Infinity’ rehearsal, and it usually happens closer to the actual day where we need to be performing it,” Kumar said. “It’s hard because you have to remember not only your notes but also your choreography and to sing well while you’re doing it, which is a lot harder because you have to breathe.” Maize Mirchi is one of 16 a cappella groups affiliated with the Michigan A Cappella Council, which, according to their website, means that the University is home to the largest a cappella community in the entire country. But as the University’s only South Asian themed group, Maize Mirchi is faced with a unique challenge when it comes to fitting into the University’s greater culture. “It’s always been a problem for us, actually, because as a group that is a South Asian inspired a cappella group that actually does a lot of other stuff, it’s kind of hard to find an audience that is into all of that, that we do,” Kumar said. “For us, we really fit in by going to a lot of cultural gigs, but we also get to perform on stages like the ICCAs, and as of late we’ve been doing well enough to be recognized by at least the other a cappella groups on campus.” In the end, what Mirchi’s members love most is the harmony that grows out of time, effort and a shared appreciation for the art. “It’s great to be surrounded by people who share the same passion for creating the type of music you want to create, and with Mirchi’s specialty — which I think is the emotional connection to what we do — it becomes a lot of fun,” Sampath said. “It’s just something you do because you love it and you love the people you’re doing it with.”

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Folk Fest night two brings out Ann Arbor’s soul CLARA SCOTT Daily Arts Writer

We live in an age where it’s hard to find the soul of America. Much of American society is disheartened by the current administration, and if not that, the general state of the world as it is. There seems to be a new headline every day that could easily make one lose faith in his or her country — but even with all this, its heart is still there, hidden beneath layers of history and tradition. That deep American tradition

seamlessly, playing his own songs acoustically to string one act to the next in a smooth line of guitar and harmonica. The first act, Michigan-based blues duo The War and Treaty, brought the house down with songs including “Hi Ho” and “Til the Morning,” Tanya Blount and Michael Trotter Jr.’s voices blending into each other as if they were always meant to do so. The level of vocal skill and soul in their music is seemingly endless, as each line of harmony ducks into the other and back, a woven textile of grit and beauty

who travel the country playing music with their daughter Ida in tow. This familial spirit made its mark on Hill, with the first half of haunting ballad “Barley” sung a cappella into the auditorium by Russell, making the musical kickin even more powerful. The combined efforts of Nero and his wife spun a rich American tradition of storytelling together with modern themes, bringing folk into the new age with tunes like “American Flowers,” which emphasize classic song structure while beautifully sending a message

The Cactus Blossoms perform at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival.

Birds of Chicago perform at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival.

can be easily found where folk music plays, these layers peel back to show the core which lies beneath. On night two of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival, hosted by local folk venue The Ark in Hill Auditorium, this core was celebrated by a sold-out crowd of folk lovers and music aficionados alike. Saturday

that could make anyone feel limitless. The War and Treaty finished their set to a standing ovation of whoops and hollers, and for good reason. Next to grace Hill’s stage were brothers Page Burkum and Jack Torrey of The Cactus Blossoms and their band. Similar to The War and Treaty, Burkum and Torrey’s voices

Alexis Rankin / Daily

of togetherness. In the words of Nero, “I’ve found traveling the country that most people are good people; that common decency should be a jumping off point for arguing.” Mountain Heart took the stage after Birds of Chicago, immediately beginning an extensive instrumental intro that showed off the crazy

Succeeding Mountain Heart was a secondary headliner and rock mainstay Aimee Mann, who played songs off her new record Mental Illness, in addition to old favorites “Save Me” and “Labrador.” Though different than many of the night’s acts, Mann’s stage presence as a performer and folk-inspired acoustic songs made her an unignorable force. The singer’s trademark voice rang clear into the venue song after song, creating a round, warm sound with the help of a skilled, small band. Mann brought collaborator and performer in his own right Jonathan Coulton on for a few songs off of Mental Illness, of which he co-wrote several songs with the performer, and they brought the show back to its roots, singing slow, acoustic tunes inspired by classic folk. To quote Mann, “I wanted it to sound like John Denver, but a little less edgy.” The bellowing warmth of bass and dreadnought guitar closed her set with power, the audience

erupting into applause as she jaunted off stage.

America’s soul was in Hill Saturday night, the sound of voices joined in joyful noise Though the talent and emotional poignancy of all of the festival’s performers made a strong mark on the night, no one can do folk quite like headliner and legendary songwriter John Prine. At the ripe age of 71, Prine still performs like a young man, cracking jokes in between lyrics woven into acoustic and electric guitar. Accompanied

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by a band of incredibly skilled musicians, the sounds of the lap steel and upright bass supported Prine’s masterful storytelling on classic songs like “Sam Stone” and “Angel From Montgomery.” As folk reverberated against the ornate auditorium’s walls, the songwriter brought thousands of people together to celebrate the music that raised, saved or even just found them accidentally. In Prine’s experience, he said, “Being loved is much better than the other thing — let’s do more of that.” The songwriter closed the festival on a note of hope and unity with folk standard “Paradise,” bringing all of the show’s performers on stage for a triumphant finish that inspired a feeling of hope and happiness in the audience. No matter what your background or musical taste, it was clear what a community folk has built in Ann Arbor — America’s soul was in Hill Saturday night, the sound of voices joined in joyful noise.

COMMUNITY CULTURE

The sounds of my Latin childhood are speaking ISABELLE HASSLUND Daily Arts Writer

Aimee Mann performs at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival.

night’s host of acts fused the traditions of blues, country and rock into one massive celebration of music itself, of community and the act of singing with friends and family late into the night. Headlined by the legendary folk songwriter John Prine, the show was a masterful set of acts that varied in inf luence and genre, but all had one thing in common — a whole lotta soul. The Festival’s emcee, Joe Pug, brought it all together

merged into one for their set of traditional countryinspired songs, one of which, “Mississippi,” was featured on last year’s reboot of David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks.” The group switched easily between high-tempo and slow songs, both brothers playing guitar to create a big sound, in volume and emotional effect. After The Cactus Blossoms was folk group Birds of Chicago, based out of — you guessed it — Chicago, fronted by couple JT Nero and Allison Russell,

The War and Treaty performs at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival.

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technical skill of each member of the folk group. With several of Heart’s musicians playing more than one instrument, the electric energy of their set was unmistakable, a truly polished example of bluegrass and folk music that brought the audience to their feet. The sounds of mandolin, double bass and the smooth voice of singer Josh Shilling echoed into Hill with joy and harmony; their set was a huge success, ending in a standing ovation.

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When most people are asked about their childhoods, they envision good times filled with family and friends, the first time they rode their bike or that important soccer game that they won. Instead of daydreaming of memories when asked about my childhood, the sound of Latin music fills my mind. Growing up in a Dominican household, every moment in our house was filled with the sound of Latin rhythms. Latin music itself ref lects the history of the people that it comes from. It is a mix of smooth and syncopated African rhythms, combined with the sounds of the native people and the European inf luences that invaded their land. Our music has traveled far and wide, immigrating to find new inspiration from different places around the globe. We learned from these places and cultures, and we picked up new sounds along the way, incorporating them into our own. It is complex, and it refuses to be put into boxes of African beats or Spanish melodies. Instead, it combines these elements and more to create a sound that is unique and distinct among other types of music. Latin music, no matter if it’s reggaeton or salsa, has many different origins and f lavors that are united into one beautiful soundscape that has helped to shape the Latin cultures that exist today. Music is a way that we stay in touch with our roots, despite our tendencies to drift away from our homelands.

Neighborhoods filled with Latinx immigrants are marked by radios blasting sounds of distant lands. It unites us as a community when we are far away from our home countries. I remember sleepovers at my abuela’s apartment in

When I think of my childhood, I think of not only the sounds that surrounded me everywhere I went, but the lessons that these sounds have taught me

the Washington Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, falling asleep to the sound of the deep Conga drums blasting from a radio across the alley — a lullaby gifted to me by my African ancestors. The music reminds us that we are poetic and intelligent people. Spanish sounds, the purring of a rolled “r,” the softness of the vowels — they enhance the beauty of the poetry behind the lyrics. I remember my father gently

stroking his Spanish guitar in our living room, while I stared in awe at the romance that the sound produced — riffs that were brought to me by my Spanish roots — his thick, dark eyebrows gently narrowing over his green eyes as he gently improvised Spanish lyrics. On the windowsill in our living room sat a bumpy tin column and next to it a tin instrument that resembled a hair pick with a wooden handle. This instrument, called a güiro, was my favorite growing up. I would dance around my apartment to the rhythms I scraped on the güiro, an instrument whose harsh metallic sounds entertained me for hours. My Taino ancestors communicated their lost culture with me through the sounds of the güiro. Nothing will amount to those nights when my family would reunite and the celebratory sounds of bachata, salsa and merengue inspired us to let go of all our stresses and enjoy each other’s company to the rhythm of the clave. The music controlled our bodies, moving our hips and feet in a way that Latinx are most known for. It is our music that reminded us that we are family, whether we are related by blood or not, and that when our differences come together, we form a sound that is unmatched by any other in history. A sound of family, multiple origins, poetry and unity. When I think of my childhood, I think of not only the sounds that surrounded me everywhere I went, but the lessons that these sounds have taught me in creating their own remarkable identity that ref lects the Latinx community from which they come.