This week’s series is short: it’s simply a photo series from my first week on campus. Not every photograph here is my favorite and they do differ in subject and style, but I thought it would be interesting to show what I see when I just walk around without really looking for any specific subject.
I apologize for a late-night post! Stay tuned for next week’s dose of photography
-Tola
you know where to find me:
akilian@umich.edy & IG @akilian.jpg
Hal had to attend to some business in Ann Arbor, so he made the trip over the weekend! He hasn’t been on campus since last January. When he got there, he was shocked by how quiet it was… Maybe it’s the pandemic, maybe it’s because it was a cold Saturday morning in the midst finals season. Whatever the reason, the lack of activity took Hal by surprise.
It seems like a lot of little things have shifted over the past year. It makes sense that campus activity patterns would change like anything else. Still, Hal and I both look forward to the day when north campus, the diag, and the UMMA can be full of people again.
If this is your first time here, welcome! Hal is a graduating senior at U-M, and he’s been studying from home all year. We post updates on Tuesdays, but if you’re itching for more content, check out the backlog on the Study Hal tag!
Happy Friday, everyone!
I hope you’ve enjoyed a relaxing couple of weeks off. I’m taking the time to soak up this last week with my roommates before the semester starts.
I arrived back in Ann Arbor a couple of days ago and I have to say it feels like a different place than when I moved here three and a half years ago. Businesses have closed down, the movie theaters are still dark, restaurants and bars are limited to take-out-only. When I walk down Main Street, I no longer see lines for concerts at The Ark or jazz at the Blue Llama. And while I would love to sit in Hill Auditorium and see a Gerswhin show, I know that all of this is to protect our community.
The past semester felt dark, at times, especially being so rooted in performing arts, but this blog has been a shining light. It has allowed me to speak with some incredible people and hear hopeful stories of how the arts are surviving on campus. I’ve been in awe over the creative ways that academic departments, student organizations, and campus resources have adapted to the challenges this year has presented. They have not only found a way to continue their missions amid a global pandemic, but many have addressed students’ mental health and wellbeing as well as critical social justice issues. We have shown up for one another, and that is a beautiful thing.
This blog is all about looking towards the future, and the new year is all about that prospect. Of course, we know that 2021 is not a fresh start that will magically solve all the world’s problems, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot also recognize the hope that this year brings. So let us hope that 2021 brings us more community, more creativity, and more compassion. I am so looking forward to having new conversations with resources and organizations on campus, and to hearing how students are “looking forward” this year.
Til’ next week,
Lucy
P.S. If you have any suggestions for organizations/people I should interview – please leave me a comment below!
Like the Statue of Liberty, the library called,
“Give me your tired, give me your weary”
A lighthouse, it gleamed in the distance.
It was a sanctuary,
Their sanctuary,
Home to chairs that were
Uncomfortable but they had stopped minding
Various Tupperware containers being opened
Different cuisines fusing into one,
At the same time.
It was a good fusion.
Studying, they tried, eventually, the subjects would
Merge into one, math and english and science,
And so many others, the majors were endless,
At this point, though, they were one and all the same.
They tried to force themselves awake,
Taking breaks, they
Watched the football on the television,
But they had watched a hundred games like this one,
And it had yet to become different.
Besides, their mind had entered a dream-like state,
Half-asleep, they ate their dinner.
It was impersonal, cooked by someone they didn’t know,
Not to say it wasn’t good,
Because it was,
But they missed home, a little bit.
Eventually, they couldn’t resist the pull of gravity,
They laid their heads on their books
And their eyes begin to flutter
Still, they tried to keep awake, realizing that they had been tricked
The library was courteous, a gentleman,
It tiptoed around them
Cast sparkling shadows from the sunset
Onto their faces,
And lulled them to sleep.
the rain comes on suddenly,
too sudden.
they are unprepared, their hoods from their hoodies
are all they have, their
umbrellas are forgotten at home, they are
unfamiliar with michigan weather,
where the saying goes
“if you don’t like the weather,
wait ten minutes.”
they realize this soon but
not soon enough.
the water that the drain rejected has seeped
into their converse, their nike air force ones, their checkered vans,
cleaning the once-white soles but
leaving them damp,
uncomfortable.
their solution for this is coffee
like it is for many of their problems,
cold, iced tea, contrasting with the weather,
whisked in their hands, flurrying away.
the sidewalks get their dose of cleaning, from
shoes that walk miles upon it every day,
the leaves lose their crunch, and instead
shine brightly on the pavement,
like walking on rainbow road
from mario kart.
a topic of conversation,
rain is.
all day long,
coats are thrown off, umbrellas shaken at doorsteps,
they say “it’s pouring out there!”
and they have this same conversation every time it rains,
their shoes always get wet,
they always get coffee,
they always walk on rainbow road,
they go through this every time it rains,
and yet their love for it
never wavers.
